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Dear Progressive Reader,
Even the organizers of last week’s “Listen to Michigan” campaign were surprised by the numbers. In the state’s Democratic Primary on February 27, the ballot line ([link removed]) “uncommitted” came in second, with more than ([link removed]) 100,000 votes (13 percent), and garnering two delegates ([link removed]) to the Democratic National Convention. Compared with the “uncommitted” vote totals in 2016 and 2020 (both around 20,000 ([link removed].) ), it was a five-fold increase and a resounding
message to the Biden campaign. Several other states, including Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Washington, are now exploring similar campaigns ([link removed]) . Meanwhile, as Samer Badawi reports from East Palestine, Ohio, Biden’s appearances are regularly confronted with protests from activists opposed to U.S. policy in support of Israel’s continuing war in Gaza. “The President’s disastrous policies in the Middle East may be the defining factor in this November’s vote,” Badawi writes ([link removed]) . The impact on Biden’s candidacy is beginning to echo the place in which Lyndon Johnson found himself in late March of 1968, when growing opposition to the U.S. war in Vietnam ultimately caused him to announce ([link removed]) on March 31,
“What we won when all of our people united must not now be lost in suspicion, and distrust, and selfishness, and politics among any of our people. . . . I have concluded that I should not permit the presidency to become involved in the partisan divisions that are developing in this political year . . . . Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”
In another echo of the years of opposition to the war in Vietnam, this past week, on February 25, a twenty-five-year-old senior airman ([link removed]) in the United States Air Force named Aaron Bushnell lit himself on fire, in uniform, in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. He later died. In a final message on his Facebook page, Bushnell wrote ([link removed]) : “Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you're doing it. Right now.” In early December 2023, a woman in Atlanta, Georgia, took a similar action ([link removed]) outside the Israeli consulate; she was hospitalized in critical condition. Almost sixty years
earlier, on November 2, 1965, Quaker activist Norman Morrison took his life ([link removed]) in front of the Pentagon by dousing himself in kerosene and striking a match. Morrison’s action was in part inspired by Vietnamese Buddhist monks such as Thích Quảng Đức, who immolated themselves in protest against injustice in Saigon in 1963, and about which President John F. Kennedy said ([link removed]) , “No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one.” Morrison’s action for peace made headlines around the world, and was honored by the government of North Vietnam in a postage stamp ([link removed]) . But extreme personal sacrifices like these need not be made. We have in our hands the tools to end these wars. Our political leadership needs only to take bold action
and make it happen. And to pressure our political leaders, people need to stand up and demand an end to the funding and support for conflicts that are killing innocent civilians in the thousands.
In a positive follow-up to a story we published 2022, the Biden Administration this week announced ([link removed]) new proposed rules to govern the way airlines treat people who use wheelchairs. Exactly one year ago, Mike Ervin wrote ([link removed]) , “Just about every wheelchair user who has flown even occasionally has an airline horror story.” In my own experience, I remember traveling to Brazil in 2003 to cover the World Social Forum with friend and colleague Roger Burbach, only to discover on arrival that the airline had forgotten his wheelchair on the tarmac, nineteen hours and 6,500 miles away in the United States. We had to scramble to find a replacement chair for him to use during the week. Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin has been key in pushing for this legislation. In a press release this week she stated
([link removed]) , “Every American deserves to feel safe when they are traveling, no matter their age or ability. For too long, the current air travel regulations have not fully considered passengers with disabilities, endangering their wellbeing and those around them.”
On our website this week, Joe George reviews the new film Dune: Part Two, which opened yesterday. “It recalls the pursuit of power in the real world, on display in U.S. actions in Yemen or in support of Israeli attacks on Palestine,” he writes ([link removed]) . “Through Arrakis we understand the United States in all its self-mythologizing glory, reaching for power and calling it salvation.” Also, Patricia Schwartz and Gabbriel Schivone look at ([link removed]) the free speech issues portrayed in the new film As We Speak; Jeff Bryant, lead fellow for our Public Schools Advocate project, examines ([link removed]) the right’s long game to end public education; Alejandro Ruizesparza opines
([link removed]) on concerns over surveillance technologies in Chicago; and Mike Ervin looks at ([link removed]) an obscure case regarding a violation of the ADA by Dunkin’ Donuts. Plus, Stephen Zunes writes on ([link removed]) the U.S. government’s support for Israel; and Esty Dinur, a dual Israeli-U.S. citizen and the child of a holocaust survivor, pens a powerful op-ed ([link removed]) on why she cannot look away as the United States supports a genocide unfolding in front of us.
Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
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P.P.S. – Don’t miss a minute of the “hidden history” of 2024 – you can still order The Progressive’s new Hidden History of the United States calendar for the coming year. Just go to indiepublishers.shop ([link removed]) , and while you are there, check out some of our other great offerings as well.
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