When Will it Be Enough

All the time I was reading the comments about why we shouldn't use profanity because it might be offensive to others, we might be viewed by the media as "crazies" or we might not connect I kept thinking of the many movies by a filmmaker acclaimed to be one of the most thoughtful and incisive in American life, Spike Lee.
Now I tend to think Spike connects with a lot of people. I think he is able to cross racial barriers with his thinking and his images. I feel he's an important social voice of American culture.
Anybody who's seen a Spike Lee movie knows there's the use of the word we're so afraid of we use other symbols to disguise it....F*&^K. You, know....fuck.
Anybody who watches the more relevant comedians in our society knows the word fuck is just part of the routine...with emphasis on routine.
Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor all have used the word to bring emphasis and power to social comment they want to portray.
Slam poets that are so dynamic and articulate connect at many levels with not only the young but some of us older folks, too. They rage and rant with much profanity about the social condition.
I guess their rage is what I connect with because if we're not outraged what is wrong with us? I can't tell young people things are going to be all right if I'm not connected with the rage they feel.
I can't talk with young combat vets of Iraq telling them to tone things down and try to portray a "good" image for the press. I won't ask them to watch their language like I'm their father.
I'd ask why we pander to mainstream media that's owned by companies like GE and cronies of Bush and other politicians? Why do we place any trust in companies part of the military-industrial complex to portray us as we want to be portrayed?
Did you notice the top story on all three major stations tonight? They lingered on the snowstorm for ten minutes. Then they spend time with feel good or self promoting stories.
Do these stations or the newspapers we're supposed to change our behaviors for ever tell of the white phosphorous or napalm being used in Iraq and Afghanistan on children and innocent people?
What page was the story of today’s KIA's on in our newspapers? Where was the story of Palestinian kids being shot by armed Israeli soldiers because they threw rocks at the soldier?
Where are the stories of the displaced black families of New Orleans? Where are the reports about corporate farming abuse of undocumented workers trying to feed their families?
How many times have we seen black or brown peace activists shown in the media? How many activists of Asian or Arabic heritage do we see portrayed in our newspapers and on the television news?
Where does our pandering get us? The mainstream media gives us little crumbs for our scrapbooks taking our quotes and editing them until what we said has no resemblance to what they put in the news.
But somehow any press is good press. Look, I got my name in the paper. Fifteen minutes of fame, instant celebrity is part of our culture and by God we have to be part of it.
Who were the leaders of the movement during the Vietnam War.? Was Bobby Seale well behaved in Judge Hoffman's court? Was Abby contrite and cooperative?
Do we so easily forget the takeover of college offices by students? Do we forget the murder of students at Kent State and Jackson State?
Do we forget angry veterans throwing medals over a fence of the White House and taking the steps of the Supreme Court?
What happened after Martin Luther King was assassinated? Why did the Black Panthers scare the hell out of the white run establishment? Why was Malcom X such a powerful voice in the black community?
Do we forget the stand off between Corky and the DPD ? Do we forget Corky and the high school students standing up to DPS.
What happened at Wounded Knee? What happened at Angel's Island also known as Alcatraz?
Was the woman's movement loud and at times profane? Alice Paul and Lucy Burns certainly didn't tone it down. They couldn't and expect to win their struggle.
What happened here in Colorado at Ludlow? What happened at Haymarket? How did American labor win the right for collective bargaining?
History shows anything conceded to the oppressed didn't come by toning it down or worrying about image.
Folks say they don't want to come across as angry crazies. They say we should embrace the police in our civil disobedience. Martin Luther King is mentioned time and time again as the example of peaceful change.
Look again at the photos and film clips of the civil rights movement. Defiant men and women stood up to water hoses, dogs and billy- clubs. It's a safe wager the police weren't part of the planning for the civil disobedience.
Research the DPD record of brutality and the number of times an officer has been disciplined. Eleven times out of over 500 cases.
Expecting people to tone it down and to go by the rules established by peace and justice organizations without diversity is just the same old song of oppression.
Go to Palestine and tell those young people to stop throwing rocks. Go to New Orleans and tell the people of the 9th Ward to trust the government to help them out. Go to Iraq and see the burns of white phosphorous and napalm and see how the families of the victims like their democracy.
It's very noticeable one woman was mentioned over three times as being the instigator of the "we don't want your fucking war" chant last week. Who were those other hundred who loudly and enthusiastically joined in with that chant?
Do we blame the same woman for the middle finger salutes by so many that surrounded the press buses and greeted Bush as he left?
37 million Americans live under the level of poverty. Do they get the right to be outraged enough to swear and flip the bastard Bush off? 30 percent of Americans are without health benefits. When they can't get adequate care or their credit is ruined by greedy hospital systems charging them 7-10 times more than the insured as an out of pocket expense for the same procedures are we to put a limit on their outrage? Sorry folks ...think of what the press will report.
Where the hell was the press to report the daily episodes of neglect in mental health services, alcohol and drug abuse treatment and care for the elderly?
When some poor homeless man or woman freezes to death where is the press to ask hard questions about the reason a person in the world's richest country can freeze on the streets?
When will there be enough oppression and injustice to warrant angry outrage in the streets of our cities? Should we keep the short fuse of the oppressed simmering much longer? We need only look to France to see what will happen if we go about things as usual.
I just don't agree with the plan of staying the course with the movement. I don't agree an angry group of people will discredit the movement. The movement has done that already by its failure to reach the marginalized of the American culture.
Hurricane Katrina should have been a wake up call for us all to understand the conditions of our poorer citizens. It should have been the event telling us we missed something in all our planning. We're deluded if we think the government is now in control.
I say all this and haven't mentioned the veteran's issues that this country faces in the very near future. When will there be enough outrageous things to make us want to holler loud and clear?
Perhaps at the same time I wrote this article last night a homeless man in Denver died of hypothermia from exposure to the below zero weather. Authorities speculate he went into a hypothermic dementia and threw off his coat only a few feet from where he died.

Terry Leichner, RN
VVAW

A note: The Colorado Communities for Justice and Peace has been in disagreement about how members should present themselves at events such as rallies. On a visit by George Bush on November 29th the chant " we don't want your fucking war" was used by a young woman of an Iraqi father. She's visited Iraq one time after the war began to see her father's family. Her uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. She's in the process of going again.
Organizers felt she was inappropriate in her chanting. This was the second time in less than three weeks she was told to tone it down at an event of CCJP.
While I didn't join in the chant I was fine that it occurred. A female Iraq vet was also part of the group of about one hundred who did chant the "fucking war" chant. Other Iraq vets were with her.
The discussion has raged for the last week until finally one of the chief organizers stated she felt this behavior inappropriate and could be used in the press to discredit the movement.
Personal attacks by some took place during the discussion. Sadly all this occurs while Bush continues to slaughter innocents.
The Corky referred to is Corky Gonzales of La Rasa and the Brown Berets that had their beginning in North America here in Denver.
Peace