FROM THE BARRICADES FOR 3/28/09

Posted by Jon Pike Mar 28, 2009

I was fully intending to give more coverage to the “fetal rights” or “personhood” political movement in North Dakota this week, but the flood in the eastern part of the state and a surgery that I had to get done put the kibosh on that. The surgery is done and I’m recovering well, and North Dakota will probably be a little out of the woods soon, so we may be able to get back to that.

This week I started posting about the protests surrounding the upcoming G-20 summit. I expect to be writing about this next week. British police have a way of being very heavy-handed with protest events. I expect there will be some activities to report on in my weekly postings, or at least, this blog.

Other forms of political activism and events that look like they may have promise for weekly postings would include the oddly continuing struggle to get Intelligent Design recognized in state school curricula around the country. Anti I-D advocates seem just as determined that they fail.

I’m continuing to be on the outlook for campus-based activism. Being a college educator, this is an ongoing interest of mine. I’m not expecting the issues surrounding school newspapers and college administrators to die anytime soon.

Here in Utah, I’m continuing to see pro-coal and anti-coal ads on TV. I have a hunch that when I return to the Dakotas, I’ll continue to see them there. The continuous spotlight on clean energy seems to keep these movements in the spotlight.

I’m not sure what’s going to be happening with the anti-war movement and it certainly bears watching. I think the left genuinely wants Obama to succeed, but he was hardly the most strident anti-war candidate available in the last election. The most anti-war candidates were Kucinich and Edwards. Obama then became the most “electable” candidate, whatever that means. Obama appears to want to send more troops to Afghanistan, forgetting that neither the Brits, nor the Soviets could pacify that country. I’m really afraid that Afghanistan may derail Obama’s ambitious domestic agenda in the way that Vietnam derailed Johnson. Will there be an anti-Obama left in this country nurtured by a continuous presence in Afghanistan? It’s really hard to tell at this point. Obama seems bound and determined to not be the president who “loses” Afghanistan. I’m just fearing for what I think are some initiatives on the home front.