The State Of The “Dis-Union Address” – 2010
Introduction:
From: Resistance, Rebellion And Death-Albert Camus-“Letters To A German Friend”; “The First Letter”.
You said to me: “The greatness of my country is beyond price. Anything is good that contributes to its greatness. And in a world where everything had lost its meaning, those who, like us young Germans, are lucky enough to find meaning in the destiny of our nation must sacrifice everything else.” I loved you then, but at that point we diverged. “No,” I told you, “I cannot believe that everything must be subordinated to a single end. There are means that cannot be excused. And I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. I don’t want just greatness for it, particularly a greatness born of blood and falsehood. I want to keep it alive by keeping justice alive”. You retorted” “Well, you don’t love your country.”
That was five years ago; we have been separated since then and I can say that not a single day has passed during those long years (so brief, so dazzlingly swift for you!) without my remembering your remark. “You don’t love your country”. When I think of your words today, I feel a choking sensation.
No, I didn’t love my country, if pointing out what is unjust in what we love amounts to not loving, if insisting that what we love should measure up to the finest image we have of her amounts to not loving. That was five years ago, and many men in France thought as I did. Some of them, however, have already been stood up against the wall facing the twelve little black eyes of German destiny. And these men, who in your opinion did not love their country, did more for it than you will ever do for yours, even if it were possible for you to give your life a hundred times.
For their heroism was that they had to conquer themselves first. …
… But this amounts to telling you what kind of courage we applaud, which is not your kind. For it is not much to be able to do violence when you have been simply preparing for it for years and when violence is more natural to you than thinking. It is a great deal, on the other hand, to face torture and death when you know for a fact that hatred and violence are empty things in themselves.
It is a great deal to fight while despising war, to accept losing everything while still preferring happiness, to face destruction while cherishing the idea of a higher civilization. …
The French novelist, essayist, and playwright Albert Camus (1913-1960) was obsessed with the philosophical problems of the meaning of life and of man's search for values in a world without God. His work is distinguished by lucidity, moderation, and tolerance. Albert Camus may be grouped with two slightly older French writers, André Malraux and Jean Paul Sartre, in marking a break with the traditional bourgeois novel. Like them, he is less interested in psychological analysis than in philosophical problems in his books. Camus developed a conception of the "absurd," which provides the theme for much of his earlier work: the "absurd" is the gulf between, on the one hand, man's desire for a world of happiness, governed by reason, justice, and order, a world which he can understand rationally and, on the other hand, the actual world, which is chaotic and irrational and inflicts suffering and a meaningless death on humanity. The second stage in Camus's thought developed from the first - man should not simply accept the "absurd" universe, but should "revolt" against it. This revolt is not political but in the name of the traditional humane values. During World War II Camus was member of the French resistance.
Essay On Our State of Dis-Union
There have been many who have made the observation that those who care enough, those who at least dare enough to speak out in muted attempts to influence the decisions of our government that we are merely listened to with polite indifference. The real powers that be can easily tolerate all the low-risk weekend political theater that hopeful, “would-be” patriotic agents of change can muster, and of late the message is more muffled than ever, the audience dwindles and once strident voices of cyber space now spew out timid, vacuous messages devoid of any impact or import as they pose no threat to those who hold and wield power.
Our office holders with rare exception simply nod their heads in agreement with what we have to say, commiserate with us as the problems are beyond their singular control and of someone else’s making. The big bank “Masters of Money”, the big businesses and manufacturers “The Masters of War” as Dylan Defined them in 1963, “The Masters of Commerce”, “The Masters of Influence” the lobby leeches of K Street and sycophant ego driven kiss ups hungry to be invited to be even seen with the prominent and powerful have nothing to fear as they are problem…our problem.
So much of the instrumentalities for change that we the people once commanded have been rendered impotent and devoured by the system and we have become a nation that dutifully consumes the opiates that pass for the nightly news that we are almost comatose in that sedation. The two political parties are of little value on the crucial issues of our times.
As surely as scouts gather and pile up kindling for a camp fire; we as a nation are amassing a mountain of kindling in the Middle East that with one mistaken spark can ignite a conflagration that will be known popularly as World War III. Oil burns and bombs and bullets ignite!
9/11 is not a justification for the lies that have embolden and fed the fanatic extremists of the region. We have permitted the hatreds of the region to be defined as a new Crusade, a Holy War against the infidels of the West. We had no business in invading Iraq other than to slake our oil thirst and to satisfy the agenda of Neocons with their vision of perpetuating a world vision long become a delusion. We have sought to endear ourselves to those in the Muslim world who are dissatisfied with elements, tenets, practices and traditions alien to western culture. In that simple act we have set ourselves in the cultural crosshairs of that world. Have we forgotten Woodrow Wilson’s principle of self-determination? Is it, for examples, our place to say burn your Burka, or should we allow the evolution and growth, the maturation of that culture to determine such things? The answer is obvious; Self-resolution yes, interference and imposition no!
We have provided time for the Afghanistan Theater to become well organized, not that we could have ever won a war on that turf anyway.
Iraq is now the in the province of the electoral time table of 2010 and Afghanistan, despite any denial to the contrary is a craps game slated for closure as the 2012 election cycle will require.
That is not cynical commentary; it is the horrid truth. President Obama has already had to state that he has no intention of sending troops into Yemen. That is, in and of itself, a dangerous commentary. What do Americans think they are doing or are capable of?
Are we to wage war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and even the Korean Peninsula? We have a finite number of bodies in our all volunteer armed forces, and they are being killed off daily. Our mercenaries dependence has be totally exposed for the licensed war criminals that they are.
What does that matter? No one is being held accountable for the war crimes of the Bush administration and those being committed under the Obama banner. We are above the law and not governed by the prohibitions of The Geneva Conventions or any other civilized international law or accords.
We are the great exempted exceptionalists. We could fulfill all the fantasies of the illiterate, ignorant flock following citizens of this nation led around by the nose ring of the Corporate Capitalist “Masters of War” and media whores by simply reinstating draft.
But that would be dangerous as folks like me would no longer stand in the minority and even the “Casper Milk Toast” Ghandi shouters and system co-opted “Progressives” would finally be faced the reality of the hell this nation faces. Currently it is so intellectualized and premised upon the notion that somehow, miraculously our American institutions will rise from their ashes like the fabled Phoenix and right every wrong, strike down every corruption of our law and in a new dawn the criminals who inhabit Washington DC will all be held to purist account.
That requires a level of naiveté that is astounding. We have been lied to, spied upon and our right to privacy has but been eclipsed. We have been regulated into impotence, castrated by our laws makers and herded by fear by our government and right wing extremists. We have diluted in our impact by the daily growth of problems and both financial and social collapse. The members of Congress have only one mission; that getting re-elected, and we are of no importance to them until it is time to open our check books, walk the streets and hammer down yard signs.
They will renew all their promises and vows to us, and then you know damn well what will happen, and it will be without Vaseline orKY Jelly!
Then there are those who hold out the hope for a viable third party movement in America and thought here and there a few candidates will succeed under that banner, usually the Green Banner, lower level positions that give rise to the hope that in the years ahead the march will continue to a revolution at the ballot box. The American system is too far gone to permit such a revolution, and if I were to put my money on anyone to rock the boat in this nation right no; it would be the tea baggers.
They hate government. They despise taxes and paying for anything. They don’t want to help anyone else. They are being led around as surely as the impotent left and center. The vitality in America is to be found at the extremes. That is not a healthy sign. Guns, God and the Flag pave a violent road. It is road of dictation, intolerance, bigotry and imposed values, all those things “that can’t happen here”.
This nation is mad as hell at Wall Street and the bonus checks being doled out this week as if nothing had happened and nothing need change. Mad doesn’t cut if that anger is not translated into actions that cannot be ignored. Complaining is useless; it is the folly-filled expression of wimps and cowards. If wimps and cowards we are then we deserve; we have earned the oppression falling upon us. The “Managed Depression” has saved the main street “Masters of Money”. Their summer homes and yachts are intact, their club fees are paid up and their private planes still fly.
To this point all we have witnessed is the restoration of the financial piranha, not its caging or re-regulation. They have plenty of foreclosed properties to unload in the next round of profit taking. Congress will, as a matter of political necessity, turn its attention to job creation and some scheme of re-employment. There is so much that can truly be done that we could have a revolutionary rebirth of this nation in job creation and the rebuilding of so much that gone neglected in the unwillingness of our people to pay to improve, or even fix anything.
The greening of America could be at hand, except that will be a battle but much is premised upon “Global Warming and Climate Change” and those very words will stand in the way politically, after all we still have those that believe that no matter what insult and assaults human beings have visited upon our planet that we have no impact..it is something else. I have screamed until I am blue in the face that we have the opportunity to control the automotive industry of the world. No I’m not nuts.
The first automotive producer that roads a vehicle that is fully electric, unplugged, self-recharging will own the world. We have sufficient creative engineering/scientific genius to build the on board recharging system. I don’t want fossil fuels being consumed in any automobile. I don’t want fossil fuels being consumed to produce electricity to recharge hybrids. I don’t want people swapping out batteries or fuel sells at the corner “Gas/whatever” station…in fact I want Gas Stations to disappear. Oh, Oh, the oil boys won’t like that idea…to bad!
We have an infrastructure that is a disgrace. We have educational needs that we will not address because it costs us taxes. People don’t realize that an educated populous is our only salvation. If we don’t provide it; corporate America won’t mind because they can employ foreign educated talent for the skilled positions and the rest of us can flip burgers at MacDonald or be greeters at Wal-Mart.
Just look at us right now. We have a healthcare screaming match going on that has divided this nation to the point where people who should know better and would benefit are howling for defeat. The legislation is going to pass. It will not be perfect. It will not be the ideal and it will have to be perfected over time because we could not raise up this nation in arms to demand that which really and fully should be done. Republicans are already talking about the day that they can return to power and repeal all it. Does that concern you? If it does what are you prepared to do if the 2010 electoral cycle affords Republicans that opportunity and they begin its pursuit?
The people of America are under siege by terrorists abroad and fear mongers within. Between the two would be advocates, change agents and people of good conscience feel compelled to attack our problems within the confines of our laws and institutions. The former does not serve either justice or change at the moment and the later have been rendered impotent in the service of the people. Corporate America is rising from the ashes of its own conflagration and incineration. The financial world is girding its loins to do battle over re-regulation.
America really besieged by a “Managed Depression” and that truth will someday be known; just not now as the truth is impossible to come by in today’s world of daily cover-ups and media manipulation. To all but the confirmed political fruitcakes and Fascist inclined right wing nuts FOX News is the media division of the right wing of the Republican Party. The new Book “Game Change” not only points out Harry Reid’s less than agile mind but confirms every truth we assumed about Sarah Palin. She is shallow, uninformed, cavalier of consequences of her actions as “obviously” God dictates all outcomes. And now the FOX Fables Network has hired her on as a political commentator.
The Network’s junkies will not be disappointed because you really can’t change someone that doesn’t feel the need to read a prepared script we can fully expect the Palin Gospel to continue as usual: “usually in error, never in doubt professing it’s all in God’s hands thus her ass is well covered”. For my money that’s a good thing.
Face it ladies and gentlemen TV news is entertainment not really meant for serious consumption. Any resemblance to the truth of the day is purely coincidental. Someone in the editorial room word smiths today's “once upon a time and the pretty people read off the teleprompter with even having to engage their brains. This is not world of Murrow and Cronkite; it the world of Goebbels, Limbaugh, Beck and Palin.
What we need to get at today’s realities is for Karl Rove to write a book entitled: “Beyond Machiavelli: Modern Manipulation of The Masses”. That’s not going to happen because too many people would go to prison…maybe.
Face it; we are no closer to bringing the Bush Administration War Criminals to justice than we were 4, 6, 8 years ago.
Millions of verbal bullets have been fired with the impact of a BB on Kevlar Armor; no one has been brought down.
Countless now are the weekend warriors of “The Resistance” political theater cast still performing the same old play held over by the same lame organizations to the same curious audience.
“Would Be” resistance leaders have copped out in low risk ventures and have entered the Capitalist mainstream with book offerings, often rehashes of years of previous writings and of little value except their own egos and wallets/pocket books. They are busy at their key boards and absent from true confrontational street action! Put your money where your mouth is and your feet at the front against the Blue line; then and then only will your integrity be restored in my eyes.
The issues of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Israel, Palestine and now Yemen continue to fuel the mechanisms of fear, the uncertainties of world-wide conflagration, provide fortunes for the weapons masters of war, drive the hysteria of an ever right-growing ideological world and eclipse at every turn the rights, freedoms, liberty, humanity and dignity of all humanity. We are being literally sucked into a self-destructive abyss by forces we have not the courage to resist with the same might being exerted upon us.
If you feel so damned hopeless and weak kneed that can think no further than sending off another letter, email or fax to your Congressperson; making yet another pleading office visitation, participating in spreading the word of discontent and yet another useless “Weekend/Saturday Patriot” Exercise; you cannot see yourself carrying a 3/8 inch thick plywood protest placard support that doubles as a shield when things get real; if you cannot see yourself with dampened scarf over your face and a gloved hand firing back tear gas canisters at the dark blue armored representatives of our oppressors as we did at Kent State; if you cannot see yourself wresting the batons of police brutality from those who flailed away on teachers in the historic Ravenna Teacher’s Strike only a few miles from the Kent State Campus; you are not living in the real world.
You are living in an antiseptic intellectualized world of what should be. That world is gone as surely as the Neocon vision of the world. If you cannot accept the possibility that your life may be forfeit in the pursuit of all you profess to believe in and desire to achieve; you are a hypocrite.
I have long held that the day of polite protest, the barrage of words, and the relentless petition signings would come to an end as this nation, like an alcoholic, hit the bottom.
The bottom of the bottle is in clear view. I know many do not like to be reminded that not every battle can be won with words and public protest gathering. Those who would resort me with the words of Ghandi, and plead for “peaceful protest” find in me now profound deafness. “The Pen is Mightier than The Sword” is nice altruistic expression that does not account for the reality of the human experience and human nature.
This nation was born in a Revolutionary War fashioned of “The Word and the Sword”! We were once a nation when the unity and solidarity of the voice of the people meant something because it was fortified by the willingness to ACT! When John L. Lewis said: STRIKE! ... The shovels were heard hitting the bottom of the mine pits and grim, determined faced American workers marched to the picket line and there was going to be hell to pay if someone confronted that line.
I dare say anyone reading this would have fool enough to do so to suggest to those workers that, they should be patient and passive. Sam Adams. “The Grand Incendiary”, Father of the Revolution was no pacifist, not Henry and not Jefferson who declared that:
“Every generation needs a new revolution”; “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.”
“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
“Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”,
“"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." --Declaration of Independence as originally written by Thomas Jefferson, 1776.”
“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
and “The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government”. "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." --Thomas Jefferson—
We are again at the point in our history where a paradigm shift is demanded to merely preserve the foundation of the nation, that is; we are on the verge of revolution, the only question remaining to be answered is whether it shall take the form of blood, fire and steel in the streets or massive upheaval in such a way as this government cannot continue to function in the corrupt fashion of the moment, a massive upheaval that demands that criminally guilty be driven from, resign from power and or to be prosecuted by every applicable law of this land and international law.
Let us assume that you wish the transformation to be accomplished without massive violence and conflagration. Your answer is a national strike of such proportions that this administration or any future administration cannot survive, nor its supporters and collaborators, an awakened and militant populous.
What is to be offered? Proposed for March 20, 2010is our really last relevant chance to realize such an action; and indeed only the first step to such an action; we are that far behind; that far gone. All other avenues have failed and while I will not suggest that anyone abandon their personal and local efforts it is time for a serious change in direction.
It is time to call together the leaders of all activist organizations: peace, impeachment and immigration, all American Labor Unions in Marshalling a comprehensive national strike on heretofore unheard of proportions. Failure to do so and to execute such an approach will leave no other course of action but that thought of a traditional revolutionary approach. Every time I mention those words red flags go up and I get a ton of peaceful change and Ghandi spouting emails and comments. I am sick of them. They have come to represent subservient system co-opted flock followers who might as well throw in with the right and be done with it!
The ports and harbors must be closed. Trucks must be parked, there rotors removed blocking thorough fares and bridges across the land. Railroad traffic must cease. Unions must strike and workers disbursed to other meaningful tasks of shutting the nation down. The streets must be filled with the masses so traffic and commerce cannot flow. Those who are now not working should surround the offices of every major media outlet in America so that cannot ignore the people. The management and workers of those “institutions” should have to attempt to wade through a sea of humanity to get to their desks and microphones, and they will try as they have the consciences of scabs and the integrity of Judas.
The police powers should be reminded that they are Americans first before they are the Blue Line of puppets, and if they insist on macho enforcement of silly proportions they can expect that they will never see another voter levy to support their salaries for the next twenty years at least. Yes, that is a call to leave their posts and join the masses!
Mall parking lots should be empty, stores, hotels and theaters empty and silent. The teachers of America, public private and collegiate should leave their classrooms and students should join with adults in the demand to restore this land to the people.
The Halls of the Senate and House should bulge with Americans swarming into elected leaders offices delivering a few simple messages. The message: “Shut up and bring our men and women home from the Middle East; plan and execute now…no more talk and excuses about staying another 20, 50 or 100 years until we are satisfied and they are pacified. That is an illusion, a delusion, a lie and a formula for raging terrorism and warfare that must end in a nuclear confrontation sooner or later, a formula for insanity.
They should get the message that if they are not going to abide by and uphold and enforce The Constitution and International Law by bring Bush, Cheney and all other guilty parties to justice, that they will never see another red cent in campaign contribution and will never enjoy your vote again because they will be removed from office. Say it; mean it; do it. Finish them off. Bring the work of the House and Senate to a stop until they are ready to Impeach, ready to send 75% of that administration to the Hague! Prosecute every one of them to the full extent of this land’s laws and then have them stand trial before the bar of International Justice. Do you have the stomach for it? Do you have the will to take that stand at the possible loss of your own life? If you do not you are a word warrior not worthy of serious consideration.
We have seen in that actions in DC which disrupt everyday business and traffic get attention, so swarm on DC and bring it to a standstill. Work to get every Metro employee in every major city to strike. Shut down the trains and buses. Enlist taxi drivers to strike. Get to the pilot’s union and airline employees union and get them to strike. Silence the air, silence the roads, silence the rail lines…shut it all down.
While you're not working swarm on the nearest defense contractor’s office and manufacturing sites; Blockade them. If you have a major store Wal-Mart, Penny’s, Sears. K Mart, Target, whatever… that attempts to stay open swarm pickets on and block the parking lots….shut them down.
We have yet many who need to be brought to justice from the Bush Administration, many corporate criminals who have crippled this land who need to be behind bars and wars that need to brought to conclusion; the war criminals of those wars need to stand before The Hague Bar Of Justice.
As Congress begins an investigation of the financial collapse of this nation it quite obvious to and angry do nothing America that we have practiced elite “Tourniquet Economics” in phase one of building anew the economic structure of this land. We moved quickly with the best fix America’s Tax dollars could buy, stemmed the massive hemorrhaging and saved Wall Street from its self-inflicted drunken suicidal Casino economic and healed them to the extent that their profits burgeon and the bonus binge table of plenty has fully reset. Things have all been put back to normal on Wall Street!
Alas we are being mind washed in accepting the terms like “the new normal” , “The New American Economy”, all of which means that millions of American dreams, hopes, aspirations and expectations have been trashed in an orchestrated remake of America where we are being sold on a recovery without re-employment, without job creation. The script is simple. Our expectations have lowered by decree so that improvements initiated on the job front in 2010 can be sold as brilliant government action. The numbers will be the selling point, not the quality of jobs and address of this nation’s real needs…numbers, numbers, numbers.
Mercy what a mess! We owe China a staggering amount of money and they are now the world’s leading industrial producer and exporting nation in the world having recently surpassed Germany who bragged in 2008 of their economic power and well being as being a product of “making stuff”. Brazil is rising to our south with the most sound economy in the western hemisphere firmly foundation on the most sane and commonsense government regulation of every aspect that can cause a sudden implosion.
Just think about it. Just what is our place in this world? What is our future to be like? If we do not change our lives will be diminished in quality as we become a second and third rate power. This nation will be almost wholly owned by foreign financial powers. We will be a debtor nation at the mercy of a mere margin call.
If the “tea baggers” have their way government will retreat from taxation and service providing and all of that will be left to states with failed budgets and local communities that won’t approve a tax issue for anything, not schools, not hospitals, not fire or police protection. America might just want to consider a name change from “The United States Of America” to The United States Of The New Appalachia”. These folks, simple of mind just want to dictate this nation’s morality and a no tax economy. They have everything they need; their big mouth, limited IQs, their bible, their gun, their flag, their pride-filled funeral attendance for dead soldiers, their own and their Palin-Like opinions and belief systems. God, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, help us!
One sickens at the notion that a nation so fond of reality TV is so far from grasping the reality of their own existence. Excuse this comment please. It is as if they have adopted as their philosophy of life that ugly bumper sticker: “Shit Happens”…and they can live with the manure dumped on them. We will rapidly become a nation living on Prozac, Valium, Beer and Martini’s devoid of any hopeful expectations for the future willing puppets of those living in palatial splendor guaranteed by a bought and paid for Government…a government of the rich and powerful, by the rich and powerful, and for the rich and powerful, a new class structure of the privileged and the beggars given only what we need to prevent revolution and to serve “The Order Of Masters”.
Our decent into darkness has been a long time in the making. Our Constitution came under assault the moment it was approved. Our problems are not systemic; they are personal. The evolution to render our governing document an altruistic statement of principles and irrelevant as a instrument of governance, the polished veneer appearance of America, set aside in every manner imaginable in the face of crises, never to be corrected later has provided a creep from any notion of Democracy steadily to a more American defined Fascism.
We have had leaders openly declare that both The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution are archaic vestigial appendages of the past; that they are no longer applicable or relevant to our times. If that position is adopted, allowed credence; then every principle we have been taught to believe in and revere is negated and we become a nation of hypocrites absent any moral compass and attachment to the concepts of liberty, justice, accountability, dignity and toleration. That leaves only two alternatives in the final analysis: dictatorship or anarchy.
I know that people don’t want to hear this but the placid opiated counter culture is rendered meaningless by its own reluctance, timidity and fears. The Anti-War Movement is a sham; The Peace Movement is a pest-like flea; The Accountability Movement is dead and any hope of reconstructing and America based of principles, an America that we can be rightfully proud of is in our hands. We must discard the tools and approaches that have failed time and time again. We must mean business and take the future of this nation into our own hands. The words that follow must become a commitment, a live or die campaign battle. The idea whose time has come is the control of this nation by its citizens.
Resistance, Rebellion, Revolt and .. There Is Nothing As Powerful As An Idea Whose Time Has Come.
We have one final, and I do mean final forum to launch a campaign of salvation. The National March On Washington on Saturday March 20, 2010 is the final vehicle. I would encourage your participation across this land, if and only if, you are willing to contact the leadership/organizers to expand the March to an Occupation of Washington DC and other State Capitals, massive occupations that serve as a precursor for a national strike initiative. It is time to came to DC with tents and back packs. It is time to press against the blue line. It is time to stand and move in the way that we cannot be ignored as a mere Saturday nuisance. I will provide full link access to that March Initiative. It is up to you to aid in broadening the scope of the endeavor. It is time for people to get off their chairs, away from their key boards and physically occupy the cities of American in demanding that this nation be restored in principle and be withdrawn from the role of this nation’s number one killer status. A new vision and new America is required; nothing less!
As I hold and will as long as I draw breath that The Declaration Of Independence is the first law, the highest law of this land; I cannot and will not accept the voices of corruption that have finally seized almost overwhelming control of this nation’s governance declaring in word and acting with impunity, immunity and escape from justice that every principle that nation is supposed to stand for can be perverted by fear and manipulating our populous into believing that they can act upon every dark, perverse and bigoted impulse of our species as their reward for accepting subservience to “The Masters”; I will not accept as fact that their victory is either inevitable or at hand.
The counter culture of this nation has not been totally anesthetized. The most extreme element remains momentarily in the shadows preparing for a spring emergence, finally. A new militancy of new voices approaches. They are reminiscent of the 60s and better prepared.
I will close my commentary with these final quotes of reminder of my American Creed, my position that the thoughts, understandings and perceptions of human nature then are as relevant today as when Sam Adams, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson uttered of penned them. They are not archaic and irrelevant; they never will be!
“"The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men." -Samuel Adams”
No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders. – Sam Adams
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen. – Sam Adams
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, "Peace! Peace!" -- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! -Patrick Henry - March 23, 1775
“"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." --Declaration of Independence as originally written by Thomas Jefferson, 1776.”
“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
and “The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government”. "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." --Thomas Jefferson—
National March on Washington on Saturday, March 20
The Promise, The Plan: The Last Real Hope
A new website - www.March20.org - has just been launched! Please check it out today. On the new website, you will find a tremendous amount of information on the March 20 National March on Washington.
Tens of thousands of people will be traveling to Washington, D.C., to participate in the March 20 National March on Washington to demand “U.S. Out of Afghanistan and Iraq Now!” Over 700 organizations and individuals have endorsed. Buses, vans, car caravans and peace trains are being organized to bring people from across the East Coast, Midwest and South to D.C. to be a part of this important event.
On Dec. 12, a large number of organizations joined us in forming a March 20th Planning Committee. In addition to the ANSWER Coalition, the meeting was attended by representatives of Dignity (co-founded and represented by Cynthia McKinney), World Can’t Wait, National Lawyers Guild, Muslim American Society Freedom, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, National Council of Arab Americans, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Alliance For Global Justice, Anti-War College, Goucher Alumni for People’s Solidarity, March Forward!, Muslim Alliance in North America, National Committee to Free the Cuban Five and Peace of the Action.
On the new website - www.March20.org - you can access everything you need to know about the National March on Washington.
You can view and print PDFs of flyers and posters on the Literature Page.
You can see a list of cities organizing buses to DC, and you can sign up to have your transportation plans listed on the Transportation Page.
You can read the list of initiators and sponsors, and you can endorse on the Endorsers' Page : click here: http://www.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=m20_endorse
Over 700 organizations and individuals have endorsed the March 20 National March on Washington.
The Initiators And Endorsers Include:
the ANSWER Coalition
Muslim American Society Freedom
National Council of Arab Americans
Cynthia McKinney
Malik Rahim, co-founder of Common Ground Collective
Ramsey Clark
Cindy Sheehan
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK
Debra Sweet, Director, World Can’t Wait
Mike Ferner, President, Veterans for Peace
National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations
U.S. Labor Against the War
Arab American Union Members Council
Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild
Ron Kovic, author of “Born on the 4th of July”
Juan Jose Gutierrez, Director, Latino Movement USA
Col. Ann Wright (ret.)
March Forward!
Partnership for Civil Justice
Palestinian American Women Association
MANA - Muslim Alliance in North America
Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines
Alliance for Global Justice
Claudia de la Cruz, Pastor, Iglesia San Romero de Las Americas-UCC
Phil Portluck, Social Justice Ministry, Covenant Baptist Church, D.C.
Blase & Theresa Bonpane, Office of the Americas
Coalition for Peace and Democracy in Honduras
Comite Pro-Democracia en Mexico
Frente Unido de los Pueblos Americanos
Comites de Base FMLN, Los Angeles
Free Palestine Alliance
GABRIELA Network
Justice for Filipino American Veterans
KmB Pro-People Youth
New York City Labor Against the War
Students Fight Back
Jim Lafferty, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild - LA Chapter
LEF Foundation
National Coalition to Free the Angola 3
Community Futures Collective
Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival
Companeros del Barrio
Barrio Unido for Full and Unconditional Amnesty
Michael Berg
Action Center for Justice - Charlotte, NC
Bay Area United Against War
Casa las Américas
Community Organizing Center, Columbus, Ohio
CT-SAW (Connecticut Students Against the War)
Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Pittsburgh
Women's International League for Peace & Freedom - Pittsburgh
Delaware Valley Veterans for America
Hawai'i Solidarity Committee
Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination
Texans for Peace
Mobilization Against War & Occupation (MAWO) Canada
United Native American, Inc.
& many more.
http://www.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=M20_flyers
DC version: front
Website version (no phone #): front
NYC version: front
Baltimore version: front
Boston version: front
Connecticut version: front
Philadelphia version: front
Transportation to March 20
Please note: If you are interested in transportation to the March 20th March on Washington, contact the transportation organizer nearest to you. If you have general inquiries about the event, please email info@answercoalition.org.
* Click here to sign up to be a transportation organizer *
CONNECTICUT
New Haven and New London, CT
Details: Buses will be organized from New Haven, New London and other cities in Connecticut; details TBD; contact for more info
Contact: ANSWER Connecticut at connecticut@march20.org or 203-606-0319
Get involved: Volunteer Activist Meetings in New Haven begin on Wednesday, January 13 at 7pm and continue on Jan. 27 and then each Wednesday in February & March at the United Church on the Green Parish House: 323 Temple St. (at the intersection of Temple and Wall St., one block from the New Haven Green; parking available behind building off Wall St.); Volunteer Activist Meetings in New London begin on Sunday, January 24 at 4 pm and continue every other Sunday at Bean & Leaf Coffee Shop: 13 Washington Street.
FLORIDA
Plans TBD. Contact florida@march20.org for more info.
ILLINOIS
Chicago, IL
Details: Buses will be organized from Chicago to DC; details TBD; contact for more info
Contact: ANSWER Chicago at chicago@march20.org or 773-463-0311
INDIANA
Bloomington, IN
Possible pick-ups in Indianapolis and Richmond
Details: 55 passenger chartered bus from Indiana to Washington, D.C. for March 20th march. Leave Bloomington, IN approximately 7 p.m. Friday, March 20th. Possible pickups in Indianapolis and Richmond, IN. Arrive back in Indiana on Sunday morning, March 21st. Roundtrip fee per person: $100 "Early Bird Special" until Feb. 10th; $85 For reserving a seat.
Contact: Bloomington Peace Action Coalition - Timothy Baer at bloomingtonin@march20.org or 812-988-1917
KENTUCKY
Louisville, KY
Details: Buses will be organized, possibly with multiple pick-ups; details TBD; contact for more info
Contact: louisvilleky@march20.org
MAINE
Portland and Bangor, ME
Contact: CODEPINK Maine - Lisa Savage and Mark Roman at portlandme@march20.org or 207-643-2356
Details: Buses will leave from Portland and Bangor on the evening of Friday, March 19 and return in the early morning on Sunday, March 21; cost will be $100 round trip; $50 deposit required to hold seat. To purchase tickets, contact Lisa Savage by telephone or by email subject line: "Mar20 Wash DC Bus."
MASSACHUSETTS
Boston, MA
Details: Buses will be organized, multiple departure locations; details TBD; contact for more info
Contact: ANSWER Boston at boston@march20.org or 857-334-5084
Get involved: Weekly organizing meetings, which include political discussion, organizing sessions and street outreach, begin Sunday, Jan. 24th, 1:00 PM, at 33 Harrison Ave. in Chinatown.
NEW YORK
New Paltz, NY
Details: Buses will be organized; details TBD; contact for more info
Contact: Peace and Social Progress Now at newpaltzny@march20.org or 845-255-5779
New York City, NY
Details: Buses will be organized, multiple departure locations in Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens; details TBD; contact for more info
Contact: ANSWER NYC at nyc@march20.org or 212-694-8720
Syracuse, NY
Details: Buses will be organized; details TBD; contact for more info
Contact: syracuse@march20.org or 315-491-6987
OHIO
Columbus, OH
Details: We have chartered two 57 passenger buses, round-trip is $60, leaving just after midnight on the March 20, 2010 (early Saturday) and arriving to DC by 9:00 a.m.; leaving DC around 8:00 p.m. and returning to Columbus, Ohio by 3:00 a.m. on March 21, 2010 (Sunday). To reserve a seat send a $60 check made out to CCAC c/o Mark D. Stansbery, 1192 1/2 Neil Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43201 USA [please enclose contact information for confirmations, such as emails.]
Contact: Columbus Campaign for Arms Control - Mark D. Stansbery at columbus@march20.org or 614-252-9255
PENNSYLVANIA
College Heights, PA
Details: Van rental, departs March 20 at 4:30am from College Heights, Pennsylvania
Contact: Amy Heichel at collegeheightspa@march20.org
Lancaster, PA
Details: The tentative plan is to depart at 8am from Downtown Lancaster (Clipper Stadium Lot). Tickets are $25 each roundtrip. Buses will depart DC at 5pm.
Contact: Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice - Paul at lancaster@march20.org
Philadelphia, PA
Details: Buses will be organized; details TBD; contact for more info
Contact: ANSWER Philadelphia at philadelphia@march20.org or 267-275-8008
Details: Buses will leave from northwest Philadelphia (exact address to be determined) on Saturday morning, March 20, 2010. Reservations will cost (exact amount to be determined).
Contact: Northwest Greens - Chris Robinson at nwphiladelphia@march20.org
Pittsburgh, PA
Details: Buses will be organized; details TBD; contact for more info
Contact: ANSWER Pittsburgh at pittsburgh@march20.org
Contact Us
**The following is a list of offices, not the list of transportation centers
to the March 20th March on Washington. For that list, click here.**
National Office in Washington DC
617 Florida Ave. NW, lower level, Washington, D.C. 20001
(202) 265-1948 · info@answercoalition.org
For media inquiries, call here.
New York City Office
2295 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., New York, NY 10030
(212) 694-8720 · nyc@internationalanswer.org
Western Regional Office in San Francisco
2489 Mission St., Room 24, San Francisco, CA 94110 · (415) 821-6545
answer@answersf.org · answersf.org
Los Angeles Office
137 N. Virgil Ave., #201, Los Angeles, CA 90004 (1 blk. S. of Beverly Blvd.)
(213) 251-1025 · answerla@answerla.org · www.answerla.org
Boston Office
857-334-5084 · boston@answercoalition.org
Chicago Office
3334 W. Lawrence #202, Chicago, IL 60625
(1 block E. of the Kimball stop on the Brown Line) · (773) 463-0311
answer@chicagoanswer.net · http://www.chicagoanswer.net/
Connecticut Office
203-606-0319 · Connecticut@answercoalition.org
Florida Office
954-707-0155 · answerflorida@gmail.com · http://www.answerfl.org/
Philadelphia Office
philly@answercoalition.org · 267-275-8008
Seattle Office
1122 E. Pike, #1211, Seattle, 98122 · 206-568-1661
answer@answerseattle.org · http://www.answerseattle.org/
The Conclusion:
America: It Is Time For A Reality Check!
Submitted by Bryan Buchan on 12-16-2009 – 6:34 pm
By Ed Dickau | PDA Blog Contributor
All right boys and girls; it¹s time to come clean. I don¹t care if you disagree with me and send nasty comments; I¹m used to that, but I expect you to engage in real serious and thoughtful dialog. The facts:
We have all labored within the system in calling for justice, accountability and the end of senseless killing, genocide, war, war crimes and war criminals that by necessity and human nature inevitably come into play. I am absolutely fed up with the cherry picked quotes and gross “romanticized/idealized” depictions of Ghandi and Martin Luther King. Both men were well aware of the fact that their actions and advocacy could and probably would lead to violence ultimately. In that regard they were finish line realists and idealist runners.
I have real trouble with folks whose truths are half-truths and who hide behind the niceties of the ideal when humanity is far from an idea species and the systematic affront to all we would have this nation be is so obvious and pervasive. I am sick and tired of excuses and meaningless rhetoric and Weekend Warrior Political Theater actors who will venture no further.
I cannot and will not accept any verbal lint argument that if we simply stay the course of prim and proper, politically correct non- violent expression, that somehow all of the petitions signed, emails sent, slogans chanted and songs sung, bumper stickers and buttons purchased, creative placards designed will somehow make the differences note I said make the difference; I am not going to say they cannot and will not in the end contribute to the change that will finally be realized in the inevitable upheaval this nation will experience. They will be a footnote.
We are a nation with a war mentality driven by perceived past glories clinging to an image from a bygone age, unwilling to repudiate our notions of superiority and exceptionalism; they are but failing illusions.
The perceptions of human nature offered by Jefferson still hold sway.
His words are not some historical drivel; they are words that emanated from a supremely gifted mind and intelligence.
Who among you that have chosen to be my critics and antagonists are of equal intellect?
Who among you that have chosen to be my critics and antagonists are of the moral fiber and determination of Sam Adams?
Who among you that have chosen to be my critics and antagonists are gifted with the insight and grasp of the moment of a Thomas Paine who knew when the pen could and should strike with precise tenor, tone and poignancy .The cause was not non-violent.
Who among you that have chosen to be my critics and antagonists are gifted with the will and wrath, the intellectual integrity of a Patrick Henry?
Who among you can accept that our President laid bare the truth of his philosophy and convictions, his perceptions of the real world he is confronted with as opposed to dismissing his words as a personal betrayal? To do so is a fundamental mistake.
Our world is not populated with many human beings embracing the altruism of a utopian existence. We are a species of animal that more often than not mouths ideals and quickly resorts to the extermination of whoever it is convenient at the moment, to provide some sick semblance of unity, drowning out the horrid nature of our humanity and the ice cold killer instincts of our most base animalism.
There is little room for intellect and reason when you have a gun in your hands, maybe the ringing in your ears of the words ‘Patriot’ , ‘Enemy’ or ‘Revolution’, all given to the same excess and moral perversions.
Religions have forged the cross to a sword point in every age; the pen has been filed to a sword point in every age; government have fashioned swords generation after generation and the price of human progress has been purchased from one killing field to another, from one gallows to another and we have not yet beaten the swords of war into the plow shares of an evolved humanity.
Those who fail to recognize that fact, choose to ignore that fact in the illusion and delusion of their own hoped for world view, become enablers of all violence because at some point those hands that brandish the sword will dictate the future, whether it be in the name of domination or man¹s freedom from oppression.
There is no benevolence that will fulfill of our dreams; their realities must be the work of our own hands, and yes, perhaps our own blood and lives. It has always been thus.
So long as war is accepted by some as a natural failing of our species and tolerated as a legitimate instrumentality of governments; we will not fashion peace on this planet with whimpering and words.
A century hence I suspect the same arguments will be still being heard and the divides will remain, because no action of man will put an end to the animalism of our species. The ultimate answer resides within us and not in words and agreements on paper; they serve only to mark the path to civility. So long as one’s flag, race or creed gives reason for hatred there will not be peace.
Man will change or one day in the last act of insanity we will consume this globe in the conflagration in last great hate rendering this Earth a burned out silent charcoal briquette traveling in the cold void of space.
Bob Dylan:
| Masters Of War Come you masters of war You that never done nothin' Like Judas of old You fasten the triggers You've thrown the worst fear How much do I know Let me ask you one question And I hope that you die |
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