Sowing fear and panic is exactly what the terrorists on 9/11/01 wanted to do. But it’s been four years now and there’s no longer an excuse to continue to be their victims. When you get hurt you bury the dead and then you rise up above it and continue to live your lives without fear – otherwise the terrorists won. The people of Madrid and London and Beslan have all done this, so why can’t my fellow Americans? Why are we quaking in our boots? Why are we letting fear run our lives? Why do we continue to support a government which has failed to yet admit to a single failure for anything? Every single government and leader makes mistakes, even the ones whom I’ve admired and liked the most. When the leaders fail in a democracy, it’s the people’s job to reprimand them and hold them accountable so that future mistakes aren’t made under a shield of impunity. Yet that’s just what happened and it sickens me to think that millions of my fellow Americans have turned into craven cowards because they refuse to stop letting fear rule their hearts.
I for one hold the government of my country responsible, but far more than that I hold the people of the United States responsible. The people are ultimate head of state and it’s up to them to hold their government accountable. It’s up to them to stand up for what’s right and not let people get away with failing to protect them. Obviously many of my fellow Americans have stood up, like my hero Rosa Parks, and said “this is not right”. But there are so many more who haven’t, and it brings tears to my eyes that so many haven’t. Where are the patriots? Have they all disappeared in the sands of history? Are there no more people brave enough to refuse to let the terrorists move them to the back of the bus?
Read the whole thing. You won’t regret it.
I don’t think many of us here are afraid. Terrorist attacks rank way, way, way down on my list of things to worry about. Fair and affordable housing, decent wages, care for those who can’t work, etc., etc. rank far higher…. and Katrina may help us make some baby steps towards building a social safety net.
But, I will say that a lot of ordinary citizens are. My daughter and her boss needed to use our car to go to Seattle, on the same day I had a local doctor appt., so her boss gave me the money for a cab ride to/from.
I chatted with the cab driver who told me how good the local cops were about warning them if someone had just escaped from a nearby prison, so they could be on the lookout, and not pick them up.
But, she said, her biggest fear was picking up a terrorist someday.
And I said, gently, that I didn’t think that that was probably likely to happen to her.
But it’s illustrative of how the media and government have succeeded in building up a sense of fear of terrorists to ridiculous proportions.
But it’s always been so.
When I was a young girl, my rather uneducated grandmother — a lovely but simple woman who lived for the Lawrence Welk show on TV — said that the biggest threat to the world was — as her eyes got BIG and her voice LOUDER — drum roll —
Khrushchev
These days, most people would say, “Who’s that?” And laugh when his identity was told to them.
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part 2. I must disagree with this statement: “The people are ultimate head of state and it’s up to them to hold their government accountable. “
Perhaps that was once true. I’m not sure. But it isn’t so now. Corporations run our government and run the world.
And I’ve pretty much decided that we’re nearly powerless to stop that, or turn the tables.
I’m with Soj on this. In the sense that corporations rule us, they do so by manipulating our opinion and by making sure politicians represent their interests before they interest regular folk’s interests.
But, politicians still are slaves to polls. And when the people fail to demand accountability the politicians have no fear of corrupt practices.
The Bush administration is essentially a looting operation. The American people don’t care enough to make them stop. Corporations (media) are largely responsible for that, but not wholly. It’s up to us to turn the tide.
I agree with Soj, Susan and you Booman. Corporate interests are running the government and much of the world; they do so by brute economic force, bribery, extortion, propaganda and war; and that it’s up to us to stop them from destroying everything and setting civilization back several millennia.
The problem is with the “us”. How many of “us” need to be aligned with each other to stop this looting and warmaking juggernaut? How big of a majority do we need to throw these buggers out?
I don’t think it’s a matter of the American people not caring enough. It’s that the American people have been set against each other by the “divide and conquer” strategies of the wingnut dogma, and consequently, there are not yet enough of “us” who are fully able to acknowledge openly that the Bush regime is the single most destructive entity on the planet.
The unfortunate tendency of people to be reluctant to admit they’ve been swindled or conned has helped this psychopathic regime quite a bit. Many people are ashamed to admit they’ve been duped, and so they vigorously defend their mistaken support of their abusers simply in order to avoid the truth. Many are simply unwilling to admit the possibility that the government they helped put into office is truly as dangerous and destructive as it is. They refuse to admit that the creature they elected to the presidency is as stupid, self-centered and emotionally disturbed as he really is. They refuse to admit it’s possible these lunatics can be so rotten, in the same way that many parents refused for so long to believe their parish priest really was molesting their children.
Public denial, and the reluctance to admit real revolution might be necessary are two of the main restraints on our ability to bring about change for the better. I fear there is a lot more pain on the way from this regime until we reach a true turnng point in the public psyche.
Thanks Boo for bringing this work to our attention. I did read the whole thing. What a magnificent writer and truthteller. I keep waiting for the rising up. I keep waiting for someone to respond to my posts that there is also a march here in San Diego on the 24th. When and what will be enough.
We are living in a world where it is politically incorrect to wear a certain t shirt because the neighbors might not like it or allow their children to play with your child. Fear has paralized this nation, it’s people, it’s representatives. This is where my frustration lies. I know even I need to do more, say more, be the change I want but “life” interfers so I do believe we get the government we deserve. The people of this once great nation had the opportunity to kick these criminals out a year ago but almost half the eligible voters did not exercise that right.
I am starting to believe too that it is a roya; waste of time to write or call the reps now too. They hardly eveer respond anymore so what are we suppose to do to get our country back? I ask because I sure as crapola do not know.
Soj is a regular contributor at EuroTrib.
Guess I will have to go over there more often. Soj also wrote over at Dkos and always enjoyed her diaries there too.
There are plenty of real patriots right here.As opposed to the plastic patriots with their plastic dogtags supporting the plastic president.
I believe the election was a cheat. And it will always be that way the rest of America wakes up and starts demanding a better America and working towards that.
This government is nothing but a Regime. We need to take our country back. Sometimes I think it will have to be done by force.
I get into deep, dark funks of the mind when I feel so much dispair – but I just have to keep “feeding the good wolf” and keep trying to stay awake and wake up others.
I had someone this weekend tell my “why bother?” and called me an “idealist” These were the Jehovah Witnesses that came to my damn door and then started to judge me… I gave them hell… 🙂 But they don’t vote I found out. I told them Jesus was an idealist and that if they aren’t part of the solution – they are part of the problem.
Apathy should be called Unamerican -not dissent.
Soj, there are several of us here who make calls every damn day, write letters every damn day, fight the fight the best they can ever damn day.
I can only hope as many can go and march wherever they are Sept 24th – and CONTINUE to protest every day from then on till these bastards are brought up on war crimes and ousted from office and all sent to prison.
I want my country back, damnit. I want decency, compassion, freedom back for all on this planet.