Drones Fly In Rockefeller Center

Assassination

As this sign states, assassination is assassination, regardless of how it is done.  However, assassination done remotely from the air with Hellfire missiles is an extremely crude tool in comparison, say, to a stiletto.  Its perpetrator is safe from any physical harm, or even any blood spatter, but he inevitably causes massive “collateral damage.”Experts quibble about how many innocent civilians are killed through our drone attacks, but these can’t be justified whether the number is ten civilians for every al Qaeda or Taliban leader (Brookings Institution) or merely 20% of the total killed (New America Foundation).

Would we tolerate such acts on our soil? Just consider our own response to the 9/11 attacks. What we are doing in these countries (none of which are our declared enemies) is hardly different than what was done to us on that September day of 2001.

At the bottom of this sign is the reference, worldcantwait.net, an American group dedicated to resisting what it refers to as crimes committed by the US government.

WorldCan’tWait may lack visibility among most Americans, thus enabling them to dismiss it.  Someone like Desmond Tutu, however, is known by all, and here is his comment about our drone program in a recent letter to the New York Times:

“Do the United States and its people really want to tell those of us who live in the rest of the world that our lives are not of the same value as yours? That President Obama can sign off on a decision to kill us with less worry about judicial scrutiny than if the target is an American? Would your Supreme Court really want to tell humankind that we, like the slave Dred Scott in the 19th century, are not as human as you are? I cannot believe it.”

Desmond Tutu concluded his letter with these words: “Your response as a society to Osama bin Laden and his followers threatens to undermine your moral standards and your humanity.”   We need to take his words seriously.

Predator-in-Chief

I have marvelled at what Barack Obama has been able to accomplish in his first four years as President, especially given an opposition party totally committed to making him fail.  For this reason, I feel conflicted when I encounter progressive demonstrators openly condemning him.  On the other hand, as a Democrat, I understand and embrace the importance of holding all of our politicians responsible and condemning bad policy, no matter which party proposes it.So, the photograph above shows a sculptural assemblage in paper of many drones, the nose cone of each being a photograph of Obama’s head. More than one pundit, since 2011, has taken to calling our new President, “Predator-in-Chief.”

This nickname must be a difficult pill to swallow for Obama–someone who had the foresight to vote against waging war on Iraq as a Senator,  who subsequently was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize (2009),  and who now finds his new policies supported by none other than John Yoo, the despised author of Bush legal memos which justified “enhanced interrogation techniques” [a.k.a., torture].

Mother of the Grannies

This is Joan Wile, 81 years old and as engaged in life as, I suspect, she always was.  Joan organized last Wednesday’s drone protest. More importantly, she is the founder of the activist group, Grandmothers Against the War.  They organized in 2003 to protest the war in Iraq and, for nine years, met every Wednesday afternoon in this spot to bring their protest to the people of Manhattan.Before turning to activism in 2003, Joan focused her energies more on music.  She came to Manhattan at the age of 22, intent upon becoming a jazz singer. She formed her own trio, wrote songs, and even wrote eight musicals.  In this YouTube video, we can glimpse her both as musician and as activist, working on a composition that she titled I Am Just a 99.

Apparently, Joan intended to leave political activism and concentrate again on music. But she couldn’t ignore the increasing frequency of American drone strikes.  As she explained it, “I just found the whole thing so immoral….In this country, you’re presumed innocent until you’re found guilty. And here we were acting as judge, as jury, and executioner, without a trial.”

Granny Peace Brigade

Rockefeller Center is not a place for protests, and those few that occurred here had a functional connection to this place: a demonstration for the neglected poor and homeless during the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, or the protesting of a media event like a controversial movie or the dropping of a popular NBC television program.But the Grannies have gathered here regularly, although they barely ever cross that invisible line between the public sidewalk of 5th Avenue and the “private” pavement of the Center’s Promenade. Here, too, we see the police at the ready to insure that they encroach no further. But hey, the 70-story RCA Building (re-named the GE Building in 1988) provides them with a spectacular backdrop.

Rockefeller Center, originally a complex of fourteen commercial buildings covering twenty-two acres, was the largest private building project ever undertaken. Raymond Hood was its chief designer, and he and a team of major architects designed it and supervised its construction between 1930-1939. We ought to look back with envy to this more sensible time when the private sector and politicians from both sides supported a vast building project and understood the importance of focusing on jobs and infrastructure as a way to get out of the Depression.

The GE Building (I can’t tell you how hard it is for an old architectural historian to not call it the RCA Building) is the fulcrum of the entire complex.  Its address is 30 Rockefeller Plaza; among its nicknames were “The Slab” and “30 Rock,” thus the name for the TV sitcom of its most important, long-time occupant, NBC.

The Granny Peace Brigade is a gathering of several separate groups, among them Grandmothers Against the War, Code Pink, The Raging Grannies, Gray Panthers, and Peace Action.As their Mission Statement explains, they stand for peace, human rights and justice:  “We oppose war, occupation, rendition and torture, and the violence of poverty and racism. We are committed to the struggle to make a safe and peaceful world for all children and grandchildren, ours and everyone’s.”

How could it be that anyone wouldn’t endorse these goals?

In this lowest photograph, we find the Grannies leading a responsive reading, applying some of the principles of participatory democracy that have also been widely adopted by Occupy Wall Street to insure that all participants and onlookers hear and comprehend what has been said.  The reading provided essential data and information on drones, informed people of future meetings, and then read some poems, sang songs and chanted (ex., “drones fly, children die”).

Veterans for Peace

Veterans for Peace was founded in 1985 by six veterans, all living in Maine and quickly grew into a national, non-profit organization. Five years later, it was recognized as a United Nations non-governmental organization.  Its stated goal is to “raise public awareness of the true costs and consequences of militarism and war–and to seek peaceful, effective alternatives.”Their sign pictures the silhouette of a drone casting its shadow over all five continents.  It is accompanied by the words, “No Killer-Spy Drones in Our Skies or Any Skies!”

And drones are being proposed for our skies and, in some cases, have made an appearance. We have active legislation for drone use in thirty states right now, including New York, and the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, says that police surveillance drones are inevitable. Then, that loose-talking Republican Governor from Texas, Rick Perry, wants predator drones to patrol our border with Mexico.On the other hand, the city of Charlottesville, Virginia banned government spy drones in February, and Seattle, Washington followed suit the next day and grounded its police drone program (to be clear, these are drones that can fit into the back of a police car, not M-9 Reapers).Two New York City Assemblymen have just introduced bills to limit the use of drones in the city, and participants at last Wednesday’s demonstration were passing out flyers urging all to ask city council representatives to make New York City drone-free.

M-9 Reaper

The Gray Panthers

Joan (pictured above) attended the protest as a member of the Gray Panthers, an organization founded in 1970 by Maggie Kuhn and originally calling itself the Consultation of Older and Younger Adults for Social Change.  A New York talk show producer gave it its new and much more memorable name in 1972.Its earliest goals were to challenge mandatory retirement ages and end the Vietnam War. Today, however, its goals have expanded and can be most generally described as striving to create a society “that puts the needs of people over profits, responsibility over power, and democracy over institutions.”

Joan’s sign alludes to the secrecy behind our drone program, and because the bulk of it is run through the CIA, whose involvement is not formally acknowledged by the Obama administration, information remains classified.  Hoped-for transparency for the drone program remains elusive, as today’s New York Times editorial, “The Trouble with Drones,” (April 8, 2013) reveals.

Portraits of a Protest

Joe, from New Jersey, is another member of Veterans for Peace. His sign identifying drones as “The War Tool of the 1%,” (in other words, America’s wealthiest), might be open to challenge. However, a drone does not come cheap.  Joe’s sign notes that the cost of our drone program is $11.8 billion.  Moreover, we are planning to augment our fleet of 8,000 drones over the next eight years by 35% at a cost of another $36.9 billion. These are figures that only a member of the 1% understands.

This elderly couple took their position early and remained for the duration of the protest.  Their sign takes into account most of the backers of the drone program: Obama, CIA, Drone Manufacturers, Lobbyists, Politicians–particularly the Senate Armed Services Committee, Homeland Security, and City Police Departments.Their concern that drones will be used domestically to spy on Americans on American soil might be premature, given the scale of our actions abroad. So argues an attorney with Human Rights First.  But then, Attorney General Eric Holder has stated that a drone strike could take place within our borders against an American citizen in an “extraordinary circumstance.”  Take your pick.

Eileen and Mike came in from Staten Island, representing the group, Peace Action of Staten Island. This is a strong and active affiliate of Peace Action, which calls itself “the largest grassroots peace organization in the country.”As stated in its site, Peace Action “is dedicated to promoting the non-violent resolution of conflict, the abolition of nuclear weapons, halting the global spread of conventional arms, building a human rights culture and supporting human needs instead of militarism.”

Drones As Toys

Then, on a very different level, we have the “need” for unnecessary goods created by manufacturers.  For example, one can buy small drones for under $300.00 as toys, as well as slightly more expensive ones for hobbyists.  Toys R Us sells a toy drone quadricopter for $298.99, as does Brookstone.  And in February, Amazon sold out of its Predator Drone Toy made by Maisto International ($49.99) after parody reviews focused on it as a “silent, faceless killing machine.”  This run on the toy is not unlike what happens in America with every new mass gun killing, as our gun fanatics rush to load up on bullets, large magazines and more assault rifles.

This, of course, is the false “need” created by advertising, one for which I have no defense.  But the product exists, and people have the right to purchase it.  If our country is awash in toy drones being operated by 6-year-olds, some of which are modeled after the Predator or the MQ-9 Reaper, it may be that Mayor Bloomberg is right: drones are inevitable–“Get used to it!”

I hope not, and so do all of these fine people that I had the privilege of photographing last Wednesday afternoon.

In Conclusion–Art & Activism

Let me end with this last photograph of Regina (above).  Her name is Regina Silvers.  Besides being part of the Granny Peace Brigade, Regina is a visual artist, a painter. This site offers access to some of her art as well as a two-minute video, “Art meets Activism,” in which she talks about her art.

An exhibition of Regina’s recent paintings and drawings will open on May 8 (2013) and close on June 20.  The show is titled The Granny Peace Brigade, and is a visual documentation of these public protests and its protesters.  The exhibit will be at the Living Room Gallery, Saint Peter’s Church (in the Citicorp Center), 619 Lexington Avenue (at 54th Street).

There will be a reception on May 10 from 6:00-8:00 pm. I look forward to attending and I hope I will see some of you, my more local readers, there as well.