THANK YOU
Dear Friends,
February 1 marks one year since Ralph died. It does not seem possible that he has been gone so long, as the pain is still so fresh.
I would like to thank all of you for your outpouring of love and help. Your visits, calls, letters, articles, and wonderful remembrances on the Internet and in the New York Times gues book have meant so much to us. These gestures almost seem to bring Ralph back to life.
To those of you were were able to attend his memorial service, special thanks. My apologies to everyone with whom I did not have a chance to speak. I hope to in the near future.
Several years ago we created the Ralph DiGia Fund for Peace and Justice. Through the fund we will keep his light and smile shining and carry on some of his work in various ways. I hope that you bring your voice to these projects. We are also creating an archive and would greatly appreciate memories of Ralph, photos, and other memorabilia you can share.
Please contact us using the information below and remain present in this new form of life. We look forward to hearing from you.
With love and gratitude,
Karin DiGia
532 LaGuardia Place #117
New York, NY 10012
Tel. (212 334-2292, Fax (212) 334-4166
kdigia [at] aol.com
www.ralphdigiafund.org
NEED ANOTHER BOAT
I received and read the fall 2008 WIN Magazine. Always a good read... You're right: the election was/is very symbolic. Also shambolic and superficial.
Any car driver knows that there are only a limited number of times you can overhaul an engine. After once or twice you replace it entirely. That time has come for the American economic and legal system, which don't work anymore... If you get in a boat and immediately someone hands you a bucket and says "bailout," you need to get to another boat. Quickly. You are right: any meaningful, positive, lasting change will come, if it does, from the bottom up. Ralph DiGia was exactly right, too. It is a matter of continually hitting a couple of flints together until you get a spark significant enough to ignite tinder. In this war-obsessed country, an antiwar movement is always a possible/potential vehicle for bona fide, deep change.
Robert J. Zani
Texas Colony, Texas
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
Perhaps by now you've seen the video clips or in another way heard about the killing of 21-year-old Oscar Grant III, an African-American, by a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) cop on New Year's Day in Oakland, California. He was handcuffed and flat on his stomach when he was shot in the back.
Neither AFSC nor WRL West released any kind of statement. The antiwar movement, except for ANSWER carpet-bagging on the issue by linking it at the last minute to a Gaza rally, has been invisible. That also grieves me. Why is there this silence from the lambs?
Groups now are putting forth concrete goals to channel the sentiments triggered by the killing. One of the demands is that BART cops be disarmed. Those guns are paid for with Homeland Security money, as are the BART training exercises and videos on combating domestic terrorists. Oscar Grant was "practice," as were the demonstrators at the Republican National Convention in July.
In WIN Spring/Summer 2008 "Where To From Here?" one section was "How do we link peace and justice issues and build alliances?" No one offered any concrete handle. One might think that pacifists have lost the ability to think concretely after 40 years of symbolic protests under the big tent of "Stop the War," whichever one is going on.
James Baldwin once said, "The revolution always comes from an unexpected quarter." That quarter isn't the labor movement. It just might be organized inner-city youth groups, prison abolitionists, political art collectives, and hip-hop record producers. No guns on transit police might be reformist, but so is "Stop the War." This small goal, disarming transit cops, is one goal for pacifist organizations to consider getting behind in the march toward a nonviolent society.
Maris Arnold
Berkeley, California
