And Then What Are You Prepared to Do – Thoughts On November 8
If this election is stolen, what are you prepared to do?
If control of our government is usurped by those that have no true belief in constitutional democracy, what are you prepared to do?
Will you be ready, willing and able to join a general strike by Monday, November 13?
We have watched as two national presidential elections were stolen – and the people did nothing.
We have watched as the benefactors of those thefts took control of our government, and then watched as these usurpers steered us into war, coerced us into giving up our rights, and frightened us into submission with the boogie men of ‘terrorists’ and ‘illegals’.
We have watched as the consequences of those elections played out on the television, in our neighborhoods and on our families.
We have watched as the corporate media carefully managed our intake of information through what they refer to as “news” and kept us just agitated enough to keep on watching but not too agitated to stop our reckless consumption of our future.
So now, we face yet another “key” election. The money is flowing as thick and as heavy as oil into our televisions and our daily mail – using tried and true methods of governing through fear and hate of the “other”.
The lies are flying dark and fast – so much so that amidst the clutter, truth is rarely visible unless you can reach out and touch it with your own two hands. There is a chance we may this time beat the margin. There is a chance that even thieves as bold as these will find the gap between victory and garbage numbers too great to span without showing their hands.
But with the amount of power – the amount of money -at stake can we doubt that they will still try to pull one more stuffed ballot out of the hat to keep their power and maintain the tidal gravy train?
We are a democracy. We are America. But neither of these facts grants us immunity from the dark urges of the human soul or from the lessons of history that tell us that in every time and in every nation there are those that believe they are uniquely, exclusively, suited to govern – to rule.
So between now and November 7, we will work with all that we have and all that we are to achieve change through our system. But we will also prepare.
Because in looking forward to November 8, if the election is stolen yet again, if control of our government is usurped by those that truly oppose constitutional democracy, we will not again go silently into that dark night.
Warnings that we must respect the process and let the system work will have shown themselves to be both futile and false. Warnings that refusing to let it go will bring harm greater than allowing it have already proved a betrayal not just of us as a people but of the constitutional democracy preserved for us and handed to us by our mothers and fathers – and their mothers and fathers before them.
If our government is usurped on November 7, 2006, we must be on the streets on November 8. We must be ready this time – so that by Monday November 13, a general strike can be joined by all people still true to our country.
I say this as dispassionately as I can. This is no joke. This is no rant. This is the business of preserving our democracy.
We have been given something precious and unique and we have mishandled it, neglected it and allowed it to be abused by those that value it only as it can be used for their own vile and selfish pursuits. This cannot continue.
On November 8, we must be willing to say ‘this far and no further’ or we risk losing all that we have fought for and all by which we can ever hope to “keep this Nation great – to make this Nation greater in a better world”. (FDR)
So now, before we are surprised and caught flat-footed again. We need to watch for it. Is it one if by sea and two if by land?
We need to talk about it. I have retired “inconceivable” from my vocabulary and am steady in my belief that if they have done what I already know – they may do almost anything when cornered.
And we need to prepare. Because on November 8, we may be asked, “Now What Are You Prepared to Do?”
What will you be willing to do?
What will you be ready to do?
What will you be able to do?
What will you have made plans to do?
On November 8 we must begin to hold the line.
“As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air – however slight – lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.”
Judge William O. Douglas (1898-1980)
There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter upon this country – if the people lose their confidence in themselves – and lose their roughness and spirit of defiance.- Walt Whitman
“One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence.””
Charles A. Beard, historian (1874-1948)
