What are You Prepared to Do?
Iraq’s a mess, we all know it. The Downing Street documents (not just the minutes from Blair’s July 2002 meeting — see the transcript of the BBC show here which details all the evidence that came out) demonstrate that we, the American Public was lied to all along.
There never was any desire to let diplomacy work, or to give the UN inspectors enough time to do their job. Nor was there any inclination to believe evidence that contradicted the stated reasons for invading Iraq. They fixed the evidence so that it would support the only justification for war they could sell to buy our support: the fear of Islamic mushroom clouds blossoming over America.
But so what?
(more after the fold)
The US media isn’t going to cover it. To them it’s old news. “Everybody knows Georgie boy cooked the books on Iraq,” they say. “No one cares. Americans had their accountability moment last November. Time to move on. Politics is boring. We’d rather cover car chases, runaway brides and Michael Jackson, anyway.”
The US Congress isn’t going to do anything about it. All the Congressional Committees that could start an independent investigation of the Bush Administration are controlled by the GOP. And if we know one thing about that party, we know they ain’t gonna turn on Bushco, not after two electoral victories (dubious or not) have given them unfettered control of the reins of federal power, something no party has had since the early days of Roosevelt’s New Deal.
So that brings me (finally) to the question I used as a title for this diary. Because the only way anything is going to get done is through collective action by those of us who are outraged at this deception, and who do think that those in high office who abuse our trust, who kill thousands of innocents, Americans and Iraqis alike, based on a lie, deserve to be punished.
So what are YOU prepared to do?
And I don’t mean sign an online petition calling for impeachment, or calling (or emailing) your representative’s DC office requesting the he or she propose legislation to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the White House. And I don’t mean writing diaries at DKos, or commenting on other people’s diaries, or writing another blog entry, or letter to the editor. Those are all nice things to do, they make us feel good, sure, but Ladies and Gentlemen, they don’t get results.
I can’t tell you how many petitions I’ve signed, how many letters to the editor I’ve written (I’ve even had a couple of them published), or how many diaries and comments I’ve posted over the course of the last few years, how much scratch I’ve sent to MoveOn or the DNC or Kerry/Edwards or Senator Boxer.
Last Fall, I wrote complaint letters to the FCC regarding my local Sinclair station and made calls to its local advertisers. I campaigned for Kerry in Ohio, and spent election day in Cleveland manning the phones at one of Election Protection’s field offices. All good things to pat myself on the back for, yeah, but ultimately I have to say it hasn’t got the job done. For all the time and effort and money I’ve contributed so far its all added up to only a few miniscule successes, and mostly a lot of failure.
The plain simple truth is that everything I’ve done, and likely you’ve done too, hasn’t made a difference. So I ask again: What are YOU prepared to do?
Because we are in a fight for our country boys and girls. And we’re losing it. We keep bringing knives to GOP gunfights. People are dying in Iraq. We are the poster child for war crimes and torture worldwide. Our economy is sinking under the weight of massive government and trade deficits. Real people are hurting. Children and their parents without medical insurance. Soldiers returning home with shattered bodies and shattered minds. Real incomes falling even as corporate profits (especially oil company profits rise).
We need to do more. We need a movement as powerful and as willing to take risks as the Civil Rights Movement was during the 50’s and 60’s. We need to hold nationwide marches, boycotts and strikes. We need massive and coordinated civil disobedience. We need images on network and cable news as powerful as the fire hoses and attack dogs that were set upon little African American children in Birmingham, Alabama.
We need to capture America’s attention and let the world know that we do give a flying fuck about these lies and these murders being propagated in our country’s name. We need to let the msm elites know that this isn’t old news to us, that it’s as PERSONAL as it gets.
So what are YOU prepared to do?
Been writing many, many letters to the editor, been organizing locally and been writing an email Progressive Democrat Newsletter (available to anyone who wants to subscribe). Mostly focusing on Domestic issues, but also including foreign policy issues.
If what you are “willing to do” could be construed as opposition or resistance to US policies, the next step is to make sure that none of your online personas or activities are connectible in any way to any real life human being.
Americans have been warned twice now to watch what they say and do.
It is good advice!
Read over the Patriot Acts again.
Writing letters to politicians and newspapers is at the time of this writing, not a high-risk activity, but it would be prudent to watch what you say.
This is a sensitive issue because everyone has their own psychology, and finding a balance between unpleasant realities and healthy self-defense mechanisms can be tricky.
If writing letters makes you feel better, don’t let anyone tell you it is ineffective. Feeling better is a valid effectiveness.
If at any time you feel stirrings of wishing to go beyond letter-writing, get out those reading glasses, fix a snack, and read over those Patriot Acts again.
The US is a place where anyone can be seized and exterminated or locked up incomunicado indefinitely, at any time, without judicial process or benefit of counsel. That may not be pleasing to think about, but especially if there are others who depend on you, it is something that you should think long and hard about.
Progress begins by acknowledging where you are, and if where you are now involves opposition to US policies, you are part of a very small and very at-risk minority.
It is encouraging to discover that there are others who share your views, but it is important to keep your feet fully reality-based. An impressive turnout at a neighborhood meeting is not a massive grass roots uprising. It does mean that you are not completely alone, and mutual support and companionship is no small thing, and will become increasingly precious as events unfold.
Notice to lurkers: nothing in this post should be interpreted, nor is it intended, as exhortation, incitement, or advocacy that any individual should commit any act which could be interpreted as a violation of any provision of any Patriot Act or other law or statute in the United States.
Well put DF….and despite assertions of tin-foil hattery…I agree 100%.
Everyone I know is carefully choosing their words, watching what they write and say. FBI files are more real now than in the 1960’s – the data mining and tracking is so much easier.
Text of Patriot Act from ACLU site
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=12251&c=207
Tin foil hat is firmly attached…
were not trampled by tinfoil hats.
Formerly employed mostly with regard to tales of alien abductions and crop circles, the ‘tinfoil hat’ dismissive is now used to characterize any point of view that is at variance with the US information office press release on the subject.
In some cases, it can be a useful mental health defense mechanism, for example, if an individual cannot bear to contemplate that people they think of as leaders and protectors and public servants have done things that could harm those they are supposed to lead and protect and serve, and there is no realistic possibility that any Chavez or Saladin is going to come riding up and rescue them, saying it ain’t so Joe can be compared to pain medication for an incurable illness.
Federal laws, however, are neither crop circles, points of view, nor theories, conspiracy or otherwise, and neither are the consequences of being found in violation of them.
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To continue discussion last night on a protest movement with orange ribbons, what to you think of a weekly TOP 5 Orange Ribbon Award? – no abbreviations please –
Nominees for this week —
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
To the Washington Post for printing this morning the article of Swedish documents about illegal rendition of two “terrorists” out of their country. The shit is starting to hit the fan and I like it!!!!
AND I am willing to take our country back. Where will the Revolution start. Sick of writing letters, signing petitions, emailing, phoning, LTEs, to no avail. I have even written the president. Got one of those automated responses. Yeah right.
You are absolutely right when you say that this will not be like the 60’s protests…Houston is proof enough of that. The police state has already started. We need to cover our asses at every turn and carry cameras to cover whatever we do as the media will never cover it for us. Like they say in Texas Hold ‘Em….ALL IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oui…quick question. Do you ever sleep? lol