In a letter to the editor in Tuesday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel someone wrote that the “Stop the War” yard signs have disappeared from his neighborhood lawns over the past year and a half. He points out that the war in Afghanistan has been escalated and the war in Iraq continues.

This week ten thousand activists are getting together in Detroit for the US Social Forum. One wonders how much stopping the wars will play in their deliberation and action plans they take home. My fear is that many issues and concerns will be talked about but no one or two priority issues to act on will be chosen.

Reading more of Dr. Luther King Jr. it is interesting to note how two issues, civil rights and stopping the war in Vietnam, held the focus of activists of the 60’s. Specific steps on these two issues, like the Montgomery Bus boycott or the March on Washington, is where the energy of organizing took place. There were many other issues at the time but social activists seemed to sense that working together in a focused way on one or two issues was the best way to get things done.

In this day and age of lots of energy on lots of issues going in many directions, it is good to read the signs of the times and ask: Where have all the signs gone?

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