Response/Answer to WTF is Wrong With This Country

Sectarian Attack Is Worst in Baghdad Since Invasion(NYT November 24,06)






RE: [CCJP-discuss] WTF is Wrong With This Country???
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Good laundry list. And the list is getting longer. Yet I’m one who hopes, for an end of tyrants and better building of a culture that can socialize bullies before they become tyrants. I hope we don’t have to collapse and completely rebuild. But I always wonder when we, not just you but we, condemn the victims.

All that’s part of why I spent decades in education, only to get distracted with efficiency in education, which is more a tyrant’s agenda than peoples’. As things got worse or better, I would become or less involved, while also thinking about roots of our problems, like a good little scholar.

At the center of all these issues are the leaders who decide and how they deal with the people. Our early visits to Reps is one good idea. And at the center of leaders is how we elect them. How do we elect the thoughtful legislators that we always imagined, rather than the salesmen we have too many of? And not to say we don’t need some salesmen, always, or dynamic leaders at times. Churchill was right for his war, but not before or after. (I won’t dwell on the roots of that war, here.) Everyone, not just activists, wants to be heard, if not appreciated, when we have an idea. How can we do more to improve the dialog with our leaders, especially with our candidates?

And yes, bringing more people in, and connecting them with leaders and candidates is the center of Civic Satisfaction. But still only one of the many ideas we get to pursue as activists and citizens.

And when we have two parties with one voice, and major frustration on our part, do recall, that small step is in a better direction. And look at the progress of the last few hundred years. We have more rights, even without full rights to accusations and trial. Family violence is no longer normal, the mean of Shakespear and Dickens' day, but something we are rooting out. Most of the world hates our wars, but not us. I won’t produce another laundry list, as important as they are.

And remember Confucius and Greening of America: easy on the rate of change. Too much change, even good ideas, destabilize the whole and create it’s own chaos, which really sours people on a good idea. So too remember the ancient sages’ talk of the activity rest cycle. We need activity and rest. And we need different types of activity or rest. So video games in balance are fun and can be cathartic. Often, violent fantasies mean your muscles are calling for some exercise, or, "it’s a tricky day for you," not necessarily a social crisis.

So if the steps are small at the end of the pendulum swing, they are the steps the body politic can handle and somewhat in the right direction. And it’s a long journey. And as goals are merely the mean of life, we’ll always have great challenges.

And so use your anger and frustration to focus, but don’t forget to play whatever you do play, and to relax. And you know that anger and frustration are not good for your heart. So take heart, the American people are moving, growing, learning. But some ideas must be re-taught and rethought every generation.

Wgxxxxx

Answer:

Interesting points. My question would be which group we tell to expect slow progression of history to address their needs?

Certainly we've put the black community on hold for far too long. We seem to be regressing in the treatment and acceptance of the Latin@, Hispanic, Chicano and Mexican population.

I would have difficulty facing the mothers of Iraqi veterans on their second or third tour with the information the war needs time to wind down. Congress has already said that in their lack of urgency to address the withdrawal of troops.

The children and innocents of Darfur have already been waiting for a genocide too long. It's unconscionable to ask another generation to wait as the progress of history develops.

From the many reports about the state of the planet's environment it seems clear we've already passed the tipping point of irrevocably changing it. I have one enviromentalist friend who tells me we are on the brink of extinction in the near future. I hate to portray her as an alarmist given her long history in the environmental movement.

We face the threat of depleted uranium but given the half life we will have plenty of time to work on that one. The issue of combat PTSD and traumatic brain injury (TBI) for returning veterans can be put on hold since the budget won't allow for effective treatment anyway. And historically, the veterans have always been lied to about what they would receive on return from war. Why change the history at this point.

Many changes at once may be characterized as revolution by some even though Confucious may disagree. Some may say the government of this country only changes when the threat of revolution looms as the alternative.

While history may show the progress over the generations has been evolving with positive change, I'm not reassured by the history of social change. My children and grandchildren are living in the here and now.

The implications of nuclear weapons poised at full alert all throughout the Midwest of the U.S. certainly makes this a different period in history. The environmental changes wrought by the willful and criminal polluting of corporations focused on greed and power seem to indicate the "chickens will come home to roost" sooner rather than later.

We all have our own ways of coping with these possibilities. I choose to be outraged and angry by the insanity of the time. I guess it comes from my background as a combat vet. That experience outraged me.The continuation of such madness continues to do so.

Having said that, it would be presumptious to think outrage and anger can't be balanced with rest and enjoyable activity.

I've often joked with my non-activist friends the idea of humor or fun is difficult to express in any peace and justice organization. There is a decided lack of humor or willingness to have fun while immersed in the seriousness of the movement, unfortunately.

I do refuse to accept violent video games are a healthy catharsis for young children. One study I've read shows these games do help children in being prepared to operate the tools of war, however. Recruiters are encouraged by this study, I'm sure.

Sadly, the warning, television is a vast wasteland, is more than true. It's not only that but it's a tool for operant conditioning of the masses. The repetitive showings of violence has desensitized and normalized formative minds to violence. Since the late 1950's the level and frequency of violence on televison has increased to a point most children have witnessed hundreds or thousands of acts of violence by the time they reach adolescence.

The one time freedom of going out to play ball in an empty lot without a parent interfering is just an old-timer's memory for most kids today. In a country all about being number one, failing to win is not acceptable. For many kids not athletic enough to be on the team what does it leave them? Do they become the "losers" if they just happen to be mediocre in sports and academics?

There are many pockets of hope all over this nation. I've met young and old in the past few years who gave me great hope. I've seen the undying spirit of Katrina survivors. I've been blessed to be with Iraq vets who are speaking out with great passion and in greater numbers. I've listened to slam poets and hip hop artists that made my spine tingle with the messages they sent out to their audiences.

I've been blessed to meet Ardeth Platte, Jackie Hudson and Carol Gilbert. I've been blessed to see Kathy Kelly and have been inspired by her mission and her tenacity. I stumbled upon Cindy Sheehan while going to join veteran friends that asked me to come to Crawford. I've been honored to witness the quiet dignity and integrity of Abdul Henderson, my friend.

Locally there are so many heroic figures waging the good struggle against injustice and violence. Carolyn B, Mag and Ken S, Cheryl D, Claire R, Rich and Ellen A, Dahlia W, Kelly D, Jeff E, Joe H, Sarah B, Andy B, Sarah G, Erin D, Larry H, Shareef A, Nita G, Allen G, Paula B, Karen T, Hannah H, Kate G, Cynda C, Tom K, Frank B, Charles E, Mary Ellen and Paul G ....and so many more are the forgotten heroes who work tirelessly for change and expect it to happen.

And so do I.

William Terry Leichner, RN

USMC combat vet

Denver VVAW member

(Unfortunately due to spying by government agencies I didn't want to provide an neat list to them by using the last names of the locals mentioned. But you know who you are)

WTF is Wrong With This Country

Recent headlines and personal ruminations have led me to believe the United States is surely on the brink of social and cultural collapse much like the decline of the Roman Empire.


We have a government that makes little effort to conceal its disdain for the common man and woman. The elitists of Congress and even state legislatures make little effort to hide their prostitution to corporate interests, power mongers and foreign wealth.


Employment by companies expecting loyalty from employees is being shipped off shore faster than new service industry jobs paying less than a living wage are created. Unions are demonized and made villains by the disloyal and corrupted corporations and their governmental stooges.


Perpetual wars continue to consume much of the national budget with corporate interests reaping huge profits. Smedley Butler, the former Marine General turned whistle blower, wrote his War is A Racket essay back during the days of the Great Depression. Butler’s words and his look at major corporations reaping huge profits on the back of dead soldiers rings as true now as it did then.


Benefits for the poor child, the poor elderly and the poor family have been cut at record rates while more and more Americans foreclose on their “great American dream home” in unheard of numbers.


Benefits for the returning soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen from the battlefields of deception are being challenged and denied. Young men and women are enticed by the benefits to risk life and limbs for “patriotic” causes but quickly find the patriotism is a one-way street. They give and their government takes.


Unethical doctors treat the wounded with dangerous blood-clotting agents that keep the troops alive long enough to go to another doctor’s care but the risks of complications are so great the agent is not approved for treatment anywhere else.


Psychiatrists minimize and hypothesize about the mental state of the returned troops with little regard to their symptoms. They have an agenda to “expose” the troops as malingerers and “lay-abouts” to prevent soaring costs of treating the emotional trauma war brings.


The caretakers of humanity have become the whores of big government and big business just as Smedley Butler talked about. If further proof of this is truly needed; one need only glance at the American pharmaceutical companies in their testing new medicines for HIV/AIDS in Africa. They used impoverished and dying Africans to test toxic formulations of drugs to combat the disease but withdrew the medications that proved to have some efficacy in order to reap huge profits in the so-called civilized West.


The hopes of a continent devastated by AIDS were raised by the interest of big business in their plight only to have them dashed by the harsh reality of greed. It was another way of America endearing itself to the “third world”.


This laundry list of American imperialistic narcissism is long and grows worse as this nation grows older. The one-time beacon of freedom and democracy has really now become the beacon of consumerism, neglect of others and disregard of Mother Earth.


Americans can no longer say they are victims of their government when they have given away so many freedoms and human rights out of their own cowardice and self-centeredness. The only true victims in this nation remain the people of color and shameful poverty in the world’s richest country.


The dying middle class and white majority have only themselves to blame as they see their dreams of secure employment and retirement in the “great American dream home” become a nightmare of deceitful lies by the corrupt liars they elected to guard their government. They listened to 30 second sound bites of slick, quick talking, make up puppets of big business interests and failed to look beyond the façade.


If the foolish American proletariat did look beyond the façade, they generally took a helpless position of a coward by convincing themselves they were safe as long as they didn’t rock the boat. Now that boat has sprung more leaks than the Titanic.


In the face of all this the people of this country don’t rise up to demand their freedom back. Instead they stick their heads in the sands of consumerism, ignorance and fear.


Christmas season approaches and an already indebted serfdom continue to feel they must have more and more of the products of a failed society. Their children grow up entranced by 24/7 television and the newest forms of video gaming.


Sports and recreation are no longer allowed to be fun for children. They must win at all costs in all activities. Bludgeoning the opponent is the goal. Sportsmanship and respect of one another is for losers.


You may say this is overly harsh but reading and hearing the news of even mainstream sources confirms the facts.


Last week a new generation of video game went on the market at big retail stores across the world. Here in America the young men and women (and sometimes middle aged) camped out in front of stores to be first in line to buy the limited amounts of the game being sold. They camped out days and some even a week or more.


The day the video game went on sale there were reports of the crowds becoming hostile and violent. At some places gunfire broke out. There were other reports of the games being sold on the black market for huge profits by the people staying in line to buy at the retail stores.


It’s not as if the game won’t be available once the Christmas season is over. The corporate makers of the game deliberately short supply the mostly Western consumer to make even more profit. The young who typically would never turn out in such numbers to help stop a war are so addicted to being first with something mass marketed they can’t wait past Christmas. Instant gratification must be had.


This is the sad epitome of our culture. The young hardly recognize the world’s starving, the genocides, the wars or even their own countrymen dying and being maimed. They know every detail of a new video game, a new DVD or a new song on I-Tunes by a musician making billions from sales to the lemmings.


We know all about Tom Cruise getting married, OJ attempting to reenter our cultural morass, the upcoming Madonna concert on the tube and the ratings of Gray’s Anatomy. Ask the typical American to find Iraq on the world map and it will startle how many are unable to do so.


The young at least have the excuse of being young and ignorant but their parents don’t. The parents allowing their children to engage in games of graphic violence toward other humans that include rape, armed robbery, murder and war are abusing their children with a failure to set limits and teach them a value system cherishing lives of others as much as themselves.


Parents have taken over the sports and games of their children out of supposed love but in many cases they are living vicariously through their children’s achievements. They push their children often to the point of cursing and belittling them if they fail.


Parents are criminally neglectful of assuring their children don’t become tools of a culture of violence. They rush to schools in states of panic whenever acts of violence occur feigning to care about their children. Not much later in the lives or their children they allow them to pick up rifles for hunting other humans in illegal wars without much of challenge, if any.



Another sign of our country’s decline and collapse is the upside down view of heroism. Those that know me have heard me rail against making heroes of highly suggestible and ignorant men and women who go to war. I've long advocated we provide the necessary treatment and benefits to these troops but taking part in war is not heroic. It's brutality and survivalist insanity.


I’ve continually suggested a hero is someone willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their brothers and sisters without a personal gain other than self respect. I’ve constantly talked about three nuns, Ardeth Platte, Jackie Hudson and Carol Gilbert, as being my personal heroines. I also include Carl Kabat, a former priest, Ken and Mag Seaman, Kathy Kelly and all who have risked themselves for a greater cause.


The sisters and Carl are headed back to prison for entering nuclear sites to bring world attention to the presence of the missiles of total world destruction strewn throughout this country. Missiles that remain on full alert 24 hours of each day. Missiles ten times more powerful than the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.


This past weekend hundreds were jailed crossing into Fort Benning, GA to voice their opposition to the continued training of death squads at the “School of the Americas”. Most of them will be sentenced to federal prisons for their trespass.


And so it is that I ask what the fuck (wtf) is going on in this country when we honor the people who commit acts of war and we jail those who care enough to oppose genocide and torture? This question came up the other day in something I read and it’s been one in my head for the longest time.


Where are the moral and good people of America to stand beside these heroes? Where is the protest about children being killed for corporate greed and political corruption? Where is the outrage?


Sadly, I think it’s clear far too many of the American people are busy shopping and waiting in line for the new video game to give a damn about such matters. They will still be shopping and ignoring the poor when the last freedom has been stolen or a new revolution occurs.


Sadly, Americans with courage and integrity will be imprisoned or discredited by the masters of the new American Empire. Already new prisons fill with the disenfranchised and rebellious.


The American Gulag has been flourishing under the neglectful eyes of the American people. Blacks, Chicanos, Latin@s, Middle Eastern and indigenous peoples don’t make alarm bells of tyranny ring in deaf ears.


The once cheered and honored troops who fought senseless wars for corrupt reasons are often joining these groups in the gulag. Still the warning signs are not seen by the fearful and submissive proletariat. They seem to think the largest prison population in the world in the largest democracy is democracy rather than fascism.


The plan for a new century by Americans may last a while longer but the erosion of an empire has more than likely gone past the tipping point. The abuse of environment alone has reached a crisis state and the majority of Americans only care about gasoline prices going too high.


They don’t seem to care about the ozone levels going too high, the waste in waterways reaching dangerous levels or the climate changes that have already started us on the way to extinction. They fail to understand there is no inherent right for a nation the size of the U.S. to consume over one quarter of the world’s natural resources.


Peace and justice activists are aware of most of these issues but inexplicably hitch their horses to the Democratic Party as the answer to their concerns. They continue to think the electoral system will eventually save us all from the major payback that is about to come.


The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans and Gulf coast areas exposed the truth of America. There is another America full of struggling people that have been abandoned and disregarded. They are angry and tired of the Euro-centric rule of racists and imperialists. They’re not fooled by the flag waving appeals to their patriotism when they seem the only ones doing any sacrificing for the "cause".


Time is running out in the life of the American Empire mostly because the people of that Empire didn’t care enough to make it a true world power willing to share and work together with the rest of the world. The empire has been too much about U.S. and not enough about we, the people of the planet, Earth.


The American Empire will unfortunately be known as one of the bloodiest, most ruthless and most decadent in the history of the world.

Veterans Day 2006

Veterans Day 2006
I’m an eighteen year old in a fifty seven year old body. In 1968 on some island on some peninsula near Danang, Republic of Vietnam I became permanently 18.
Since that January 30th day of 1968 I’ve never left that island with the village burned to charcoal by napalm. I’ve never left the smell of the “crispy critters” once humans, once babies, once women, once men.
Since that day the sounds and smells of war have stayed with me. The video in my head comes on each night as I try to sleep. There it is again, the rice paddy, the firefight, the dead squad leader, the NVA overrunning us, the grenades, the flash, the screams, the cries, the green and red tracers, the night illumination, and the endless night.
The USMC was going to be my test of man-hood. It turned out to be the test of my will to live. It left me 18 forever like those names on the wall in Washington, D.C. How many times I think they were the lucky ones.
I look back and see nothing but a trail always filled with the booby traps of the jungle. Life always dictated by the past…by the time I was 18.
Tomorrow I will march with veterans for peace in a parade to “celebrate” Veterans Day. We will wear our uniform of the day with symbols of the groups we represent. I represent all those 18 year old Marines who will have their minds permanently impaired in strange places with foreign names.
I’ll represent the walking dead. Too stupid to die. Always there’s someone trying to pull me into the present time telling me things will get better but always the same old shit comes back.
I don’t want your fucking sympathy. I don’t want your fucking tears. I don’t want your fucking love. I don’t want any fucking thing you want to give me. Unless you can give me the death I should rightfully have had in 1968.
Don’t tell me all the things I mean to you. Don’t tell me I’ve done honorable things. Don’t tell me life like this is worth living. Fuck your version of life with never ending war killing the seemingly endless supply of young.
Fuck your version of life with the talk of working for peace and justice but thinking some dumb fucking politico elected to some dumb fucking office will make the difference.
My life is 18. Violence is the answer for me. Always has been. Violence against others. Violence against my soul. There’s nothing left. I’m still 18 and can’t move on.
Yeah let’s march with all the vets from all the wars and make believe we have some kind of fucking honor. The only thing we have is a deluded view of the world. Look at who marches in the parade tomorrow. Every generation’s eighteen year old Marines and soldiers. They have the bodies of the old but they’ve never escaped that past. They wouldn’t be marching if they’d moved on.
There’s no honor, no bravery and no respect for the fools who believed the lies. Fuck your flag and fuck your wars, America. Fuck your stupid fucking dream of greed and privilege. Fuck your democracy. Your legacy will be your fucking body count.
There’s no honor in your fucking uniforms. No fucking honor in your fucking medals. They give you a day to gimp around the streets while the rest of the city, the rest of the world ignores you. Just another day to spend and consume.
Fuck your version of freedom you asked me to spend my life on. Fuck the phony constitution you’ve managed to bastardize and revoke. Take your fucking bullets, your tanks, your planes, your bombs and rifles and blow yourself up.
Masters of war …that’s what Dylan called you. Thieves of my soul and the souls of the young are what you are. You take away the souls and leave us with a body that ages but our minds stay 18.
Mama’s don’t let your daughters marry us. Kids don’t let us take your soul because that’s what they taught us. We’re the killers of life; we take it one way or the other. We suck up valuable air and space while we destroy all that gets in our way.
Veterans Day …just a joke of a day to make fools of us. Don’t you see we’re a bunch of old bodies that have never aged in mind since the day of the first killing we took part in?
The video still runs in my head and I’m still 18. Fuck you, America!!

The Electoral Vortex

Denver voter told she can't vote because she entered line at 7:01 p.m.



The Democrats “swept” the mid-term elections yesterday and for many there’s celebration. Many will say this result is proof of an electoral system working in this nation. That remains to be seen. We have to assess who the Democrats were that won their elections yesterday.

We also have to look at the overt attempts to steal the election by some in the same places as they were stolen in the last few elections.

There were reports of computer problems and long lines in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. This is the same county where obvious vote fraud took place in 2004.

In Virginia there were reports of Democratic voters receiving calls directing them to the wrong address to cast their votes. There were also reports of calls to Democratic voters making threats of arrest if they attempted to vote. The calls stated there was information the voters were registered in other states and any attempt to vote in Virginia would result in a felony arrest.

In Colorado a “terrorist” squirrel was blamed for one loss of power. In many other places computer malfunctions and poor training of election officials caused long lines and long waits. At one voting center a friend of my wife reported an election judge telling the mostly black group of voters “you people should have already voted” when there were complaints about the wait.

The friend confronted the judge with his racist remarks and informed him it was Election Day, so no one was late except the election officials who couldn’t get it together.

Living in heavily Democratic populated Denver I had to wonder if any votes were being lost in any of these “outages”.

At 10 pm there were still lines at some Denver polling stations. Voters in line at 7 pm were the only ones allowed to vote that late. This morning we still don’t know the Denver count due to computer problems.


Yesterday after getting power back to the internet I came upon an article written November 6, 06 by Greg Palast about how yesterday’s elections could be stolen.

There will be those who will now swear democracy works as evidenced by the Democratic Party’s resounding “victory”.

Ah, now here’s the news flash for all who think the Democratic Party is the savior of the nation….new laws excluding voters without ID’s will account for 1.9 million votes being lost. Palast refers to these laws as the Jose Crow laws.


Next Palast says Republicans will have lists of voters predominately Democratic, black and liberal who will be challenged by poll watchers stationed in key precincts. Another million votes will be lost to this tactic.


Then there will be the votes lost to “spoilage”, again with the predominate demographics being the same. This will happen by voting machines failure to start up, to respond to touch and the intermittent crashes. Another million votes are projected lost to this not to count the long lines causing an unknown number of voters to give up in disgust with the whole system.


Another million will be lost to provisional ballots discarded and absentee ballots rejected. After it’s all over there will be approximately 4.5 million votes tossed and lost that would have gone against the Republicans, Palast says.

In order for Democrats to win they would have to overcome being 4.5 million votes behind before the first vote was cast.


And where were the Democrats? They were telling all the liberals and progressives to work against the voting machines themselves and failed to set up a network to oversee the challenges, the rejections and the discarding of votes.


The Democrats in Congress failed to mention the Jose Crow laws with any vigorous voice because like cowards they try to keep away from anything that would indicate support for the Hispanic movement or immigrant rights.

In many cases this election was won by the narrowest of margins by Democrats like James Webb in Virginia. Webb’s credentials include being Secretary of Navy under President Ronald Reagan.

Here in Colorado, former DA Bill Ritter was elected governor. Ritter took such liberal stances as opposing abortion except in very special cases. Ritter supports the death penalty. During his time in office as DA he never once prosecuted a Denver policeman for brutality.

Denver’s record of police shootings and beatings exceed places like New York City and Los Angeles.

Colorado continues to have two of the top ten worst congress people in Tom Tancredo and Marilyn Musgrave. The ratings in Rolling Stone magazine included members of Congress known to be least effective and most corrupt.

Across the nation the Democrats winning races to displace the outgoing Republican were not our father’s Democrat. Progressive and liberal ideals and beliefs were not what these Democrats ran on or stand for. Most are conservatives using the Democratic Party for their platform.

Democrats would like us to believe they are the party of the people. They want us to think they’ll stand up for peace and justice, economic equality and civil rights.

The truth is the money contributed to the Democratic Party in this election exceeded the amounts to the Republican Party. There are more millionaires and billionaires claiming to be Democrats than there are Republicans.

The demographics of the power structure in the Democratic Party make it doubtful the status quo in Washington will change on the watch of the new “congress”.

If we look at the leaders of this party we can find Zionists like Hillary Clinton who have no intention of ever challenging the genocidal policies of the Israeli government.

We must keep in mind these are the Democrats who have supported the war in Iraq with votes of continued funding that now exceeds 500 billion dollars. These are politicians who have failed the world for lack of courage.


Once again the time, the talent and the treasure of the progressives and liberals has gone to what Stan Goff calls the “vortex of electoralism” while social justice issues have rotted on the vine.


Once again trust in the corrupted and deceitful has duped the movement. Visits to congressional offices to get patronizing words and phony promises have taken up ungodly hours and accomplished little or nothing except lead folks to believe they were doing something worthwhile.


Politicians dupe the electorate to believe there’s representative government if “we the people” only exercise the “right” to vote. As my wife likes to say, “I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck”. We can exercise all we want but if we’re to change this country it will take a revolution.


Yes, I said revolution. Interestingly enough, a synonym of that word is insurgency. And good liberals and progressives will cringe and groan to even consider such an action. Most are convinced revolution means violence. Most still think we can be “nice” and regain our stolen nation.


Revolution doesn’t have to be violent but it must be action driven beyond anything the peace and justice movements of this nation have demonstrated. Going out to rallies, making speeches and marching in streets isn’t hacking it.


A disruption of business as usual is a form of revolution. With the Christmas season approaching, a rejection of the consumerism so blatantly called for by advertisers of big business would certainly disrupt business as usual. It also might leave time for families to spend quality time together.


Making the bastards of failed democracy pay in economic terms is necessary to effect revolution. Refusing to participate in the illegality of war and violence is necessary. Uniting with communities of color and marginalization will be necessary. Refusing to put time and money into the mainstream political parties is necessary.


The creative minds of the movement, now so embedded with the Democratic Party and the UFPJ front for the Democrats, are going to have to try something different and radical in taking back their nation.


When it becomes clear this nation is divided between the haves and the have-nots with the have-nots growing in number every minute, perhaps the need for action will become just as clear.


When the quickly vanishing white middle class awakens to the fact they are considered the have-nots maybe the love affair with the fake political system will end. Maybe then they’ll understand what Malcolm and others meant when they spoke of “any means necessary” to be free.

The new Congress will not restore the lost wages and lost jobs. They will not restore the lost pension funds. They will not force corporate America to provide living wages and health benefits for all.


Revolution is necessary but the will and the courage of Americans is questionable. It remains much easier to delude ourselves we won the election. We think we’ve taken back this stolen democracy. A year from now we’ll know it remains a hijacked government.

There will be a revolution whether white liberal and progressive Americans want it or not. Oppression and tyranny can only be tolerated so long before rebellion and revolution occurs. The question is where the peace and justice movements will be when it happens.

Will they still believe there’s a democracy and stand behind the police lines with the politicians or will they join the faces of color and poverty standing up for the basic freedoms the Constitution promises?


Do they truly believe all men (and women) are created equal with inalienable rights for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Do they believe all people have freedom of speech and assembly?


One thing is clear at this juncture of American history. The electoral vortex won’t make it happen.


REFERENCE LINKS:
Greg Palast - http://www.gregpalast.com/how-they-stole-the-mid-term-election

Stan Goff - http://www.bradblog.com/?p=1881


William T. Leichner
Denver, CO
VVAW member