Posted on 23 September 2007, by Anna
War Made Easy Showing
By Alice Chan and Anna Givens
Progressive Democrats Sonoma County hosted a sold-out, standing-room-only showing of Norman Solomon’s film, “War Made Easy,” on September 15th at New College in Santa Rosa. Norman Solomon himself was there to answer questions after the film. Michael Gillotti, local political, peace, and social justice singer/songwriter, provided music for the event, including a song that he had just written called “Making War Easy.”
Norman was in town for the Sonoma County Book Fair and spoke earlier in the day on a Book Fair panel with Reese Erlich; the topic, ‘War For Sale’. He arrived at New College, in the company of his good friend Steve Bhaerman, aka ‘The Swami’.
Steve wrote a powerful review of the movie a few days later for his newsletter, Notes from the Trail, in which he recommended that everyone do what he is planning to do: order the War Made Easy DVD and show it to …. everyone!
The film, seen on the Big-er Screen at New College is at once, devastating and … motivating.
The audience had many questions for Norman after seeing the movie; most of the questions related to their ongoing frustration with the apparent non-action of the current Democratic majority in the House and the Senate. Some questioned why they should continue to support Democrats in view of their seeming desire or inability to extricate the troops from Iraq.
Noting that there are Democrats and …... Democrats, Solomon referred to the fact that Lynn Woolsey continues, in collaboration with Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters, to speak out against ongoing funding of the occupation and to her co-sponsorship of H Res 333 calling for the impeachment of Dick Cheney.
Norman’s answers were familiar to PDA supporters who have heard him speak in conjunction with War Made Easy showings on several occasions. To paraphrase: Organize, Organize, Organize.
Solomon supports PDA’s Inside/Outside strategy, which includes working within the Democratic Party to make the changes that we all seek. Progressive Democrats Sonoma County will continue to do just that.
Many Thanks to Norman for joining us for the showing of War Made Easy and to all who contributed to making the event a successful one. We gave away all of our PDA Pledge for Peace flyers, got a number of signatures on Impeachment petitions and had the opportunity for dialogue with our community on how we can be involved to move the Democratic leadership to act to End the Occupation of Iraq.
