11/14: Yoo Protest at JCC in Berkeley

> This information via the Wellstone group:
> Prof. John Yoo is scheduled to speak at an event sponsored by Black Oak
> Books on Monday, November 14, at 7:30 p.m., at the Berkeley-Richmond
> Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut Street, between Rose and Vine in
> Berkeley. The event has
> received little publicity. So far as I know, it has been announced
> only in the bookstore's monthly list of book readings. The debate may
> focus on Prof. Yoo's new book, The Powers of War and Peace: The
> Constitution and Foreign Affairs After 9/11 (Univ. of Chicago Press,
> 2005).
>
> Also on the panel will be Prof. Gordon Silverstein (UC Berkeley) and
> Prof. Jeremy Irons (UC San Diego).
>
> CNN will record the event for broadcast on national televison.
>
> I hope you will join me in a visible protest against torture. If there
> is no protest, the pro-torture Cheney-Rumsfeld-Bush position will have
> won. It will have won because this sort of event is not scored in
> logic points. It is scored in political points, and the political
> point, from the Cheney-Rumsfeld-Bush perspective, is that the American
> public will be passive in the face of torture. A passive audience in
> Berkeley will show the national audience that torture is merely one
> among many issues, like school bonds, mass transit, and many others:
> complicated, multi-sided, ultimately boring. Soon torture will be "old
> news," then no news. And then it may proceed unimpeded.
>
> I propose that we distribute leaflets before the event and that we
> stand along the sides of the seating area holding signs: "NO TORTURE"
> and "SHAME ON YOO." Will you join in such a demonstration of
> determination to resist the routinization and legalization of torture?
> If so, please telephone 510-524-6858 to make arrangements. Just
> showing up at the event won't be enough. If we are going to have
> leaflets and signs, we need to make advance arrangements.
>
> Please forward this e-mail to your friends who may want to participate.