Frank will be sharing some of his ideas and thoughts on this page.

Frank Blair, 1968 and Today

1968:

Fran Blair was a Professor of Special ED at UWM but spent a lot of time with the Vietnam issue, participating in the School of Ed strike when Cambodia was invaded and gave support to the Milwaukee 14. His late wife did some research for the Milwaukee 14 trial.

Today:

Frank is now retired but still active. He writes two or three emails a week to friends about the war in Iraq, sharing thoughts and ideas for effective action. Here are some of his thoughts and ideas.

Is it Time to Strike?

“I have resisted the peace marches and rallies. I know there is not else much people can do to show their concerns but my feeling is that the traditional gathering which is intended to be protest does not get to the root of the problem. Rallies may have been appropriate thirty years ago during the Vietnam folly, but I have serious misgivings about their usefulness now. It may be because we have no draft now.

My idea has been to promote (?) and organize (?) a general shutdown of the country, similar to what has happened this winter when we had blizzards etc. which brought everything to a stop. Everything would be closed: governmental offices, stores and businesses of all kinds other than emergency needs. The trucking industry would be a good place to start since nearly all goods and groceries are delivered that way. That this would be hard to get going is understandable because incomes would be involved and would mean a serious sacrifice for all. Therefore, organizing a general strike, which is what I mean by this, would present some seemingly unsurmountable problems!

But the power struggle going on in the Middle East will continue unabated. A general strike would (perhaps) cause the powers that be to stop and LISTEN to the electorate for once. They certainly don’t abide by election results! There is too much going on behind the scenes and in secret that the public doesn’t know about; the current flap about the federal attorneys and the reluctance of the White House to have Rove and Gonzales “talk” under oath is just one instance.

I have “floated” my idea out to four websites, including Move On, but didn’t get so much as an acknowledgment from anyone. I guess I sounded like a kook but my feeling is that the troops are in a hell of a position, getting shot dead and being maimed for life and nobody in this great land is sacrificing anything; the war is too far away! But Iran is on the menu and so may be Syria. That’s what I mean by perpetual war to promote capitalism and the corporate mentality.”

(from an email from Frank Blain on March 22, 2007)