John Judge has died

[Peter Lemkin]

Continuing John Judge's Legacy

Dear Friends ~
Four years ago today, on April 15, 2014, John Judge died ~ or (ashe would say) embarked on a new adventure.
I miss him, as I'm sure you do, too. I have becomeresigned to his absence, but I still crave his wise perspective. Each time I am reminded of the ever-increasing chaos in ourcountry and around the world, I think of what John would say. Iremember him telling me that the history of the world was ahistory of "competing conspiracies." Every day, thatobservation seems more true.
The corruption John railed against ~ the corruption that onceoperated surreptitiously in the shadows ~ is now overt andshamelessly brazen. Oligarchs use their fortunes to influencepolicies. We see back-room deals, influence peddling, distortions of the truth, nepotism, blackmail and payoffs and the ever-increasing drumbeats for More War. None of this would have been a surprise to John. He saw it all coming ~ the "final stage of monopoly capitalism," he called it, and "human beings reduced to commodities."
But all is not darkness. On March 24, we all watched as 800,000people converged on Washington, DC, to demand change. Countlessothers gathered in cities around the world. Grief permeated thatday, but so did the triumphant sense of unity that was so much apart of John's vision. I heard words like, "Darknesscannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that" and"Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that."I watched and wept as the granddaughter of Dr. Martin LutherKing, Jr., repeated her grandfather's words.
You and I both know that John would have been right in the middleof that March for our Lives! He would have had a house full ofdemonstrators the night before, ordering pizza and sleeping onhis floor. He would have driven folks around by the carload. Andthen, he would have been on the street himself, his booming voicecrying out, "Never again!" He would have loved themassive outpouring of community, passion and hope.
A short time before John passed, I watched him working in a DCpark during "Occupy Wall Street," telling everyonewho would listen about economic injustice and about the wayviolence and war threaten human progress. John understood sowell that the system was like a rusted car ~ appearingcosmetically sound, but corrupt beneath the surface, barelyholding together, and subject to collapse at the slightest impact.
John was indeed a visionary. He saw that the only answers werepeace and justice. I miss him so much. That is why, day afterday, I work to preserve his collection of books and papers, toassure that his message continues to thrive and triumph.

We are making great progress at the Hidden History Center. Danielle and Maya, our interns from York College, have beenworking diligently with me to organize our collection. Ican't say enough about their dedication and commitment.
So far, we have worked our way through the 16 boxes of the PennJones Collection, creating a list of all the file folders inthose boxes. (For those who don't know, Penn Jones was areporter on the scene the day JFK was assassinated.)
Right now, we are organizing the 7 boxes in our JonestownCollection. Next on our agenda will probably be our collections of Psychological Operations / MKULTRA / Mind Controland GI Resistance / Counter-Recruitment / Draft Counseling. Portions of these 2 collections are spread amongst 38 boxes in the HHC Archive including a recently donated box from Doug Valentineon MKULTRA for which we are deeply grateful.
We need many supplies for this work, including file folders,binders, plastic page protectors, filing cabinets andbookshelves. We also need to meet our basic operating expenses,such as website development, rent and utilities.
Regarding our web presence, the redesign and upgrade of hiddenhistorycenter.org is nearing completion and will golive by the end of May if not sooner. Organization of content will be presented in the following five top-level categories (with 50 second-tier subject groups):

1. US Colonial-to-Corporate Terrorism
   
2. Impacts of Technology On Evolution
   
3. Beyond 1984
   
4. Military Intelligence Dominance
   
5. One does not sell the Earth
   

Please help us preserve John Judge's legacy. Don'tlet this anniversary go by without remembering John in a tangibleway. Send a contribution to support the Hidden History Center. No gift is too small to help us pay for supplies. Please. Contribute online by using the DONATE buttonon our website, orsend a check, payable to the Museum of Hidden History, to 2915North George Street, Suite 2, York, PA 17406.
Thank you so much for whatever you can do to honor JJ'sirrepressible spirit.
Wishing you peace ~

Marilyn Tenenoff, Executive Director
Museum of Hidden History
Hidden History Center

John Judge speaking at Univ of Washington, Seattle, 16 Feb 2002:

Privilege is the first and most basic violence asserted in asociety. It kills the human spirit. It creates the ragethat leads to all the other violence, historically. So if you endthat privilege, if you restore justice, then you restore hope. Andyou know that from a family argument. I don't have to go toan international argument with you. You don't resolve it byfighting back, you don't get even with somebody. All thatdoes is create a feud and it makes the violence cycle into yetanother generation. The Paris attack bombings were done in partby young kids whose parents had been murdered by the French andthe Algerian freedom fighting wars from 20 years before....
It's obvious to anybody that thinks about it that you have togo the other direction. That the way you end what you'recalling terrorism is to restore justice, is to restore hope andthen the sanction and the support for violence in thosecommunities diminishes and it goes away. Because instead you havethe sort of natural, civil and community structure that all of uswould have were it not for the fact that we live under thedemands of capital and its accumulation. We live under asituation that mis-educates and under-educates us. A situationwhere it's hard for us to find out what the truth is aboutour society or our world. And a situation that values us the sameway that miners in the 1930s were told that when the mine beginsto collapse you push the mules out first because it costs moneyto replace a mule.
That's the position we're in inrelation to the people that hold the wealth in this world. We areexpendable and they're going to escalate that expendability.The choice and the power is there. But the choice to recognizethat power, and take responsibility for it, and make this into aworld where all of us can live, sits right here.