We held the culminating event of the summer last night. I got there early and set up the sound equipment, that went perfectly despite the fact that Ive never set up a PA before. It's pretty easy when there's only one mic. Then it got close to the hour and people started filing in. We had no food and no music and we had a decent crowd, we were getting nervous. I was quite hot from lack of a/c and carrying heavy sound equipment so I walked down to the nearest store for a drink. When I got back the food was unloading and some kid was jammin' on the piano. So that all worked out. I was quite surprised at how full the place was, my guess is around 50-70 people were there. I got to see some old friends, like the folks from Democracy School, which was very nice.
After some music and food we sat down and our first three speakers who had actually pre-written things spoke. It was good, the crowd was getting into it fairly well. Then we opened the mic to anyone who wanted to talk and probably half the audiance came up at some point to speak their mind. I was one of the early ones. I fumbled a bit at the start, I'm not sure why I got nervous, I think I need more practice with public speaking. The person before me spoke of the apathy of her generation, I continued with that theme pointing out how odd it is that my generation is so sadly apathetic considering its people my age that are fighting and dying. I pointed out how I don't like the term "leaders" when talking about politicians, in a democracy the elected officials are not the bosses they are the servants of the people, we are the bosses and if we don't like the job they are doing then we should fire them. The next guy picked up that ball and ran with it with a great sound bite. He said, "if Kuhl won't meet with us now then we'll meet with him in November." Overall the speakers were great, one person who's a Vietnam vet and usually full of fire couldn't stop talking about Lee Iacocca's book. I thought it distracted from what he was trying to say by the repeated references but it did make me want to read the book. We had one conspiracy guy who wanted to tell us all about how bush planned 9/11, I'm all for a real independent investigation but lets avoid the conspiracy theories folks. One person genuinely pissed me off by bringing up religion and how bush manipulated it so much, which is true no anger there, then she said shes a woman of faith and that the opposite of faith is not doubt it is fear, and how we must not sucome to fear. It reminded me of Patrick Swayze in Donnie Darko. Well fuck you very much my lack of faith has nothing to do with fear, the opposite of faith is reason. But we were in a church, and I was surrounded by people from Pax Christie and other groups like that so I let it slide. Again I want to say again that this whole event was very good its just that I seem to be recalling the parts I disliked much better than the good. Probably because the good was exactly what you would have expected, anyway I'm now going to focus on the part that I simply hated.
From out of nowhere a guy who has been instrumental in this whole thing came up and led the group in some crappy as old worn out hippie song, it wasn't kumbaya but it was close. He asked everyone to stand, I was expecting him to lead a prayer, he is the chaplain at a local college, but no he wanted to sing... I stood up not knowing what I was getting into. I expected the heads to bow while I held mine high with eyes open. Thats an interesting metaphor right there, the religious close there eyes while the doubters look for truth, but thats unrelated. The chaplain tried to get me into the front circle but I sure as fuck wasn't down for that, then the person next to me grabbed my hand, luckily I was on the end, but there I was in a crowded room full of old people joined in circles singing hippie songs swaying back and forth. It was horrible. It made me instantly aware of why the general public can never take the peace movement seriously. The majority in this country are against the war but the vast majority is not involved in working towards peace, besides apathy which is the biggest reason, second has to be that peace activists are weird people. Normal Americans don't want to stand in a circle singing songs that could put you to sleep, its not cool. I wanted to kick my way to the mic and say heres one from my generation and start in with some Anti-Flag. Some will say that I'm making too big a deal out of this but I don't. I think those who engage in this type of activity in an environment where we are trying to reach out to a wider audience are doing very real harm to the movement. Shit I'm part of the movement and it made me uncomfortable. The video will be up at some point, I know I'm in it a bit, I'm the fat guy with chops standing still while everyone else sways not singing and trying not to look at the camera. I had earlier talked about trying to get young people out to events. If I had managed to get any of my friends to go I would have been humiliated, they sure as hell never would have come back, I would have been a laughing stock. That part is not an exaggeration which is why I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that this crap hurts the peace movement as a whole.
So to finish up the meeting went better than I expected, a good time was had by all, just don't ask me to sing, unless you've got a punk band.
Showing posts with label activism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label activism. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
Attempting Democracy
I'm in a local paper today. The-Leader ran the story, I'd provide a link but their website sucks and only includes two articles a day, I think its a decent paper I just don't like their website. I didn't get quoted which is fine by me, but I'm in the picture, the big guy to the left in stripes, thats Me!
We have grown tired of being ignored by our representative, a group of us left our info at his office several weeks ago and have heard nothing back. We have called, left messages, e-mails, one woman wrote an old school paper letter. One member did have a meeting scheduled for yesterday but it was canceled by Kuhl so we decided to go anyway. All we were planning to do was to formally invite him to a meeting we are holding as a part of the Take a Stand campaign.
I can't claim we were total innocents as we felt like throwing in a visual joke at Randys expense, we wanted to get bullet proof jackets in response to his flap about "packing" to defend himself from peace protesters. Unfortunately no one had one and when one person attempted to buy one they were warned that bullet proof vests are illegal in New York. So to try to make the joke anyway the purchased a couple of paint ball chest protectors, which always seem to have cheesy batman-esce muscles sculpted into them. It looked particularly stupid on a guy my size. Oh well.
Now on to what happened, we stood waiting around the corner from the office about a block away on the main street as our group gathered and a couple members of the press got ready. Then a police officer came around the corner and began by telling us he has not authorized a parade permit. At this point I need to explain the scene as I haven't been sent the photos yet and the couple I took on my phone don't feel like transferring to my computer at the moment. Its about 6-8 people standing on the sidewalk the only thing that makes us obvious is the silly vests and one guy carrying a white flag to go along with the joke. No one was carrying signs or anything that could be called a protest, we weren't yelling out, no music, nothing just oddly dressed citizens talking amongst themselves. Two of the guys immediately explained to the police officer that we had not filed for a permit because all we were doing was delivering an invitation to a meeting to Mr. Kuhl. We wanted to talk to him if it was possible then we would leave, if there was press around we would speak with them. We were not there to protest. He allowed us to do that, which is good because we were well within our rights and I'm sure some would have left in cuffs rather than be chased off by over reaching police. The officer then went back to his spot directly across from the office.
A few minutes later we had everyone, we had to wait as one person purchased a new memory card for their digital camera. We walked down the street and up to the door, which was locked as we knew it would be. The secretary we met the last time opened the door a few inches and asked us what we wanted, the pleasant persona we encountered the last time was gone. We explained that we simply wanted to invite him to an event, then explained how we have tried to set up meetings with him and have gotten no where. The secretary said she would pass on the invitation and she passed the blame saying she doesn't set the schedule without telling us who does. We talked for a minute, two at most then turned around. We then asked permission from the police officer if we could stick around just for a couple of pictures. At this point a couple men in suits came out of the office. Pictures were taken and I promise they will be up at some point, then we walked away, and as we did a second cop car with two officers showed up. Back-up for us unruly citizens. A woman from The Leader then asked us questions, we had her walk with us to the end of the block as to keep things kosher with the po-po. I was more than a little concerned about the angle when her first statement was about how we should have gotten a permit. A permit to talk to an elected official, Fuck That! She talked to a few of us and I think the article was ok, there was one "quote" that I don't recall in the least and I was standing next to the person quoted, hopefully it was my bad memory and not hers as it was a fairly volatile comment.
We then stood on the street and made some quick little videos of our reactions, I'm guessing mine is pretty lame, public speaking isn't really my thing, but the others like my finish. So that how I spent my thursday lunch break, how was yours?
We have grown tired of being ignored by our representative, a group of us left our info at his office several weeks ago and have heard nothing back. We have called, left messages, e-mails, one woman wrote an old school paper letter. One member did have a meeting scheduled for yesterday but it was canceled by Kuhl so we decided to go anyway. All we were planning to do was to formally invite him to a meeting we are holding as a part of the Take a Stand campaign.
I can't claim we were total innocents as we felt like throwing in a visual joke at Randys expense, we wanted to get bullet proof jackets in response to his flap about "packing" to defend himself from peace protesters. Unfortunately no one had one and when one person attempted to buy one they were warned that bullet proof vests are illegal in New York. So to try to make the joke anyway the purchased a couple of paint ball chest protectors, which always seem to have cheesy batman-esce muscles sculpted into them. It looked particularly stupid on a guy my size. Oh well.
Now on to what happened, we stood waiting around the corner from the office about a block away on the main street as our group gathered and a couple members of the press got ready. Then a police officer came around the corner and began by telling us he has not authorized a parade permit. At this point I need to explain the scene as I haven't been sent the photos yet and the couple I took on my phone don't feel like transferring to my computer at the moment. Its about 6-8 people standing on the sidewalk the only thing that makes us obvious is the silly vests and one guy carrying a white flag to go along with the joke. No one was carrying signs or anything that could be called a protest, we weren't yelling out, no music, nothing just oddly dressed citizens talking amongst themselves. Two of the guys immediately explained to the police officer that we had not filed for a permit because all we were doing was delivering an invitation to a meeting to Mr. Kuhl. We wanted to talk to him if it was possible then we would leave, if there was press around we would speak with them. We were not there to protest. He allowed us to do that, which is good because we were well within our rights and I'm sure some would have left in cuffs rather than be chased off by over reaching police. The officer then went back to his spot directly across from the office.
A few minutes later we had everyone, we had to wait as one person purchased a new memory card for their digital camera. We walked down the street and up to the door, which was locked as we knew it would be. The secretary we met the last time opened the door a few inches and asked us what we wanted, the pleasant persona we encountered the last time was gone. We explained that we simply wanted to invite him to an event, then explained how we have tried to set up meetings with him and have gotten no where. The secretary said she would pass on the invitation and she passed the blame saying she doesn't set the schedule without telling us who does. We talked for a minute, two at most then turned around. We then asked permission from the police officer if we could stick around just for a couple of pictures. At this point a couple men in suits came out of the office. Pictures were taken and I promise they will be up at some point, then we walked away, and as we did a second cop car with two officers showed up. Back-up for us unruly citizens. A woman from The Leader then asked us questions, we had her walk with us to the end of the block as to keep things kosher with the po-po. I was more than a little concerned about the angle when her first statement was about how we should have gotten a permit. A permit to talk to an elected official, Fuck That! She talked to a few of us and I think the article was ok, there was one "quote" that I don't recall in the least and I was standing next to the person quoted, hopefully it was my bad memory and not hers as it was a fairly volatile comment.
We then stood on the street and made some quick little videos of our reactions, I'm guessing mine is pretty lame, public speaking isn't really my thing, but the others like my finish. So that how I spent my thursday lunch break, how was yours?
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Freedom Vs. Freedom
Ok heres the situation as I understand it. My little town of Elmira, NY had a gay pride parade a little over a month ago. Now I'm all for equal marriage rights and just equal rights in general but as a straight guy I wasn't there, had some friend really wanted me to go I could have been talked into it but as things were I wasn't there so I really only have the same info as everyone else on this despite it happening in my town. Although I do have insight into the general attitude of the town. So there is a gay pride parade in the public park adjacent to the church I used to attend, not that it matter but the church considers itself "open and affirming" meaning they didn't care about sexual orientation or anything else like that and we definitely had at least one lesbian couple that regularly attended back in the day. Man I get side tracked easily.
Ok so gay pride celebration in the park and sadly the usual haters showed up to "pray for their sins" or some crap like that. Now the part I'm unsure about is if they tried to disrupt the celebration or simply stayed off to the side, and unfortunately thats a pretty important piece of the puzzle because these poor misinformed deranged folks absolutely had the right to counter protest. I should point out that the idea that they simply were off to the side praying for them comes from some uber-conservative news site, I had been looking for atheist/humanist organizations in town when I spotted this and it got me thinking. At first I laughed at the silly christian protesters that got arrested at the gay pride rally, but then I realized that as much as I enjoy reveling in the defeat of those I oppose, I can't celebrate the stepping on of the first amendment.
What matters is the exact actions that were taken, if these people did as the conservatives like to claim and stood on the other side of the street with signs and prayed, even if they did it loudly then fine, I disagree with them and had I been walking by I would have gone over and questioned them. But they have that right, without question they have that right, permit or no permit. On the other hand if they went into the park and were trying to disrupt the celebration then they deserve to get arrested and I hope the leader at least is fined accordingly, your rights end where mine begin, or the phrase I prefer, "your right to swing your arm ends where my nose begins. "
Unfortunately there is a large amount of gray area in between those two and thats when we are forced to rely on the police to make a judgment call on the spot and later for a judge to decide if the action was criminal or not. Personally I would prefer the police err on the side of freedom of speech but it seems that typically they would rather arrest an innocent person rather than risk something turning ugly then being blamed for not stopping it when they had the chance, AKA CYA (cover your ass). I can't be too upset with them because their job is to protect and serve, its the law makers job to protect our rights.
Oh here is how the Local News described the actual protest.
Ouch, thats still in the gray for me but its damn damn close to my being in agreement with the cops. It sounds like it was a quiet and non-violent protest which is why I'm not in total agreement, had they not done it right in front of the stage I would say they were ok, but I'm just not sure, I really would have had to been there to know for sure. Also by arresting them it has helped their cause considerably. Civil disobedience is still a great way to get your voice heard.
So this particular case, well I don't know, I wasn't there. But I think its good to look at cases like this, had it been the other way around my biases may sway me to say that the protesters absolutely had the right to be there but thats what makes these such a great tool for learning where your own boundaries lie. Unless of course you among the gay-bashers then its a pretty easy decision.
How often do you see the opposite? Have you ever seen "God loves gay" or "butt sex for jesus" protests in from of churches on sundays? I haven't, although I do know where you can get a Jesus is a Homo T-shirt, maybe it's because some people just have a little common decency, they know it would be rude to go out of their way to annoy those folks when they are trying to have a good time. If only the other side could agree to that then their would probably be a lot less trouble. Then again the other side thinks that the simple idea of having a gay pride rally is an attack on them, which its not. Then they claim that they don't have straight pride events, but these folks have never been a minority in their lives and don't realize that folks who are driven to the fringe by society like to get together to support each other, and they cna have a straight pride rally if they want, but I doubt many people would show up, and I bet it wouldn't be nearly as festive. Oh and if a group of gays came in with the previously mentioned shirts while reading from Gay Pride in the middle of it then they would probably be arrested too.
Hmm... I also just though about this description, "The protest leader, street pastor Julian Raven," street pastor. This sounds suspiciously similar to some christian protesters we had at a concert about a year ago. They refused to say what church they belonged to or even what denomination, by not having anything concrete as a group it makes it hard to fight them because they can always claim that, well that wasn't us "real" christians wouldn't do that, they can't be held accountable, except by judges.
Ok so gay pride celebration in the park and sadly the usual haters showed up to "pray for their sins" or some crap like that. Now the part I'm unsure about is if they tried to disrupt the celebration or simply stayed off to the side, and unfortunately thats a pretty important piece of the puzzle because these poor misinformed deranged folks absolutely had the right to counter protest. I should point out that the idea that they simply were off to the side praying for them comes from some uber-conservative news site, I had been looking for atheist/humanist organizations in town when I spotted this and it got me thinking. At first I laughed at the silly christian protesters that got arrested at the gay pride rally, but then I realized that as much as I enjoy reveling in the defeat of those I oppose, I can't celebrate the stepping on of the first amendment.
What matters is the exact actions that were taken, if these people did as the conservatives like to claim and stood on the other side of the street with signs and prayed, even if they did it loudly then fine, I disagree with them and had I been walking by I would have gone over and questioned them. But they have that right, without question they have that right, permit or no permit. On the other hand if they went into the park and were trying to disrupt the celebration then they deserve to get arrested and I hope the leader at least is fined accordingly, your rights end where mine begin, or the phrase I prefer, "your right to swing your arm ends where my nose begins. "
Unfortunately there is a large amount of gray area in between those two and thats when we are forced to rely on the police to make a judgment call on the spot and later for a judge to decide if the action was criminal or not. Personally I would prefer the police err on the side of freedom of speech but it seems that typically they would rather arrest an innocent person rather than risk something turning ugly then being blamed for not stopping it when they had the chance, AKA CYA (cover your ass). I can't be too upset with them because their job is to protect and serve, its the law makers job to protect our rights.
Oh here is how the Local News described the actual protest.
On June 23, the seven protesters, dressed in bright red T-shirts and carrying Bibles, walked through the crowd and to the front of the stage after Elmira Mayor John Tonello delivered a speech celebrating diversity.(Here is the News article but they archive stuff quick so it won't be there for much longer, sorry.)
Six of the protesters lay face-down in the grass and the seventh, Barry Keller, sat reading the Bible.
The T-shirts read "Liberated from Sin" on the front, around a white cross, and "By the Blood of Jesus" on the back.
Police officers in the park called for additional help and arrested the protesters.
Ouch, thats still in the gray for me but its damn damn close to my being in agreement with the cops. It sounds like it was a quiet and non-violent protest which is why I'm not in total agreement, had they not done it right in front of the stage I would say they were ok, but I'm just not sure, I really would have had to been there to know for sure. Also by arresting them it has helped their cause considerably. Civil disobedience is still a great way to get your voice heard.
So this particular case, well I don't know, I wasn't there. But I think its good to look at cases like this, had it been the other way around my biases may sway me to say that the protesters absolutely had the right to be there but thats what makes these such a great tool for learning where your own boundaries lie. Unless of course you among the gay-bashers then its a pretty easy decision.
How often do you see the opposite? Have you ever seen "God loves gay" or "butt sex for jesus" protests in from of churches on sundays? I haven't, although I do know where you can get a Jesus is a Homo T-shirt, maybe it's because some people just have a little common decency, they know it would be rude to go out of their way to annoy those folks when they are trying to have a good time. If only the other side could agree to that then their would probably be a lot less trouble. Then again the other side thinks that the simple idea of having a gay pride rally is an attack on them, which its not. Then they claim that they don't have straight pride events, but these folks have never been a minority in their lives and don't realize that folks who are driven to the fringe by society like to get together to support each other, and they cna have a straight pride rally if they want, but I doubt many people would show up, and I bet it wouldn't be nearly as festive. Oh and if a group of gays came in with the previously mentioned shirts while reading from Gay Pride in the middle of it then they would probably be arrested too.
Hmm... I also just though about this description, "The protest leader, street pastor Julian Raven," street pastor. This sounds suspiciously similar to some christian protesters we had at a concert about a year ago. They refused to say what church they belonged to or even what denomination, by not having anything concrete as a group it makes it hard to fight them because they can always claim that, well that wasn't us "real" christians wouldn't do that, they can't be held accountable, except by judges.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
More Protesting
I was leaving work late and passed the monday evening anti-war protesters. Normally I'm not on that road and I get out earlier so I rarely see them. But yesterday I saw them and even saw my former english teacher that I think very highly of so I said what the hell, I've got nothing going on. So I stopped and chatted for a few, then grabbed a sign. As I would have expected the vast majority were indifferent, but there were far more honks, waves, thumbs up and peace signs being thrown than I had expected. There was also more negative feedback than at the last event. Some we could simply laugh at like the guy who yelled, "watch the news, we're winning!" as he drove away. I turned to my former teacher and said, "you can no more win a war than you can win an avalanche." She liked it and I admitted it wasn't mine but could not recall who said it. I then realized that I think the quote was earthquake not avalanche but it doesn't really matter. And for the record it is earthquake and it was said by Jeannette Rankin, although I don't know who she is/was.
The only negative feedback that was tough was the guy who said his cousin had been killed in Iraq then sarcastically thanked us for supporting him.This is a view I simply can't wrap my head around. I know people want to think that their loved one died for a good cause but sadly thats not the case, allowing more people to die doesn't make the cause any greater it only makes the pain greater.
On a total side note I find great irony in the fact that when looking at quotes on war at the bottom it has the previous subject as Violence and the next subject as Wealth. It's only because of the order of the alphabet but its still disturbing how those go together, but not for the same people.
Call me Oblio 'cause I'm going back to the point, those who claim that leaving would be an insult to those who have died seem to miss the fact that the wrong doing is not those who struggle to prevent unnecessary war but those who send others to fight in war that was never justifiable. Your friend and relative was not killed by peace activists, nothing we do can change the sacrifice that they made, but we can prevent others from having to go through what you've been through.
One thing that always pisses me off but I understand why its done is how we always have to talk about the sacrifices of our troops first then if you want mention the Iraqi children killed. To be fully un-PC about it I care a whole lot more about the innocent people in Iraq being killed than the soldiers, I know its blasphemy to our nationalistic fervor to say that but its the truth. As a humanist I care about people I don't give a shit about granfalloons, so when an innocent child is killed I care, when a soldier is killed fighting in a war they chose to be a part of then I still care, but not as much. Some will argue that most of the soldiers did not chose to be there, well they joined the military, even if they did it during peace and only wanted the military to pay for college they still made a conscious decision and joined the military. It's sad that I know there are places where I would be threatened with violence for the mere suggestion of what I just said.
I'd catch hell for that last paragraph but.... Ah the joys of low readership, I can say whatever I want. In the words of Mitch Hedburgh, "They said you can swear on XM radio. No shit, ’cause nobody can hear it. You can swear in the woods, too."
The only negative feedback that was tough was the guy who said his cousin had been killed in Iraq then sarcastically thanked us for supporting him.This is a view I simply can't wrap my head around. I know people want to think that their loved one died for a good cause but sadly thats not the case, allowing more people to die doesn't make the cause any greater it only makes the pain greater.
On a total side note I find great irony in the fact that when looking at quotes on war at the bottom it has the previous subject as Violence and the next subject as Wealth. It's only because of the order of the alphabet but its still disturbing how those go together, but not for the same people.
Call me Oblio 'cause I'm going back to the point, those who claim that leaving would be an insult to those who have died seem to miss the fact that the wrong doing is not those who struggle to prevent unnecessary war but those who send others to fight in war that was never justifiable. Your friend and relative was not killed by peace activists, nothing we do can change the sacrifice that they made, but we can prevent others from having to go through what you've been through.
One thing that always pisses me off but I understand why its done is how we always have to talk about the sacrifices of our troops first then if you want mention the Iraqi children killed. To be fully un-PC about it I care a whole lot more about the innocent people in Iraq being killed than the soldiers, I know its blasphemy to our nationalistic fervor to say that but its the truth. As a humanist I care about people I don't give a shit about granfalloons, so when an innocent child is killed I care, when a soldier is killed fighting in a war they chose to be a part of then I still care, but not as much. Some will argue that most of the soldiers did not chose to be there, well they joined the military, even if they did it during peace and only wanted the military to pay for college they still made a conscious decision and joined the military. It's sad that I know there are places where I would be threatened with violence for the mere suggestion of what I just said.
I'd catch hell for that last paragraph but.... Ah the joys of low readership, I can say whatever I want. In the words of Mitch Hedburgh, "They said you can swear on XM radio. No shit, ’cause nobody can hear it. You can swear in the woods, too."
Friday, July 06, 2007
Where is our spirit? (this might be one of my better writings, let me know)
The American spirit that is. Why are we terrified or self-sacrifice? Why don't we take back the freedoms that we have given away, and it was given because we did not hold on to it. These thought come while reading an article ghost written by Captain Obvious about how America was fairly well respected and even liked for the most part around the world so little as 6 years ago and how the change in that perception is a direct result of our current foreign "policy."
So why don't we? Well because we are too comfortable. No matter how much you hate this war it probably isn't really hurting you, unless you or a loved one are in Iraq, directly. Chances are that if you have enough energy to really pay attention to the world then you don't have major stresses in your life. Probably have a decent job or still in school and really your life ain't too bad. Again I'm assuming based on the fact that you have time to screw around and read blogs then your probably not out in the street trying to figure out how your going to eat next, fair enough? So are you going to risk being arrested thrown in jail, sent to prison, beat by police, possibly killed to maybe help to stop something that you know is wrong but doesn't really affect you?
There are days when nothing would make me happier than to be in a mob of people rushing like crazed wildebeests towards a line of riot police, throwing my molotov cocktail at whatever seemed appropriate at the time. Crashing against the shield like so many Persians at Thermoplae (300) but while we know we will lose the battle, (because how can you win a riot?) it will turn the tides of the war. If people in this country became willing to risk their lives to defend our constitution and its principles then we the people could move ourselves in whatever direction we see fit. But we don't, and neither do I. Those feelings happen but they pass quickly, to riot alone is madness, and to build large enough support to do anything would get you caught and arrested before accomplishing anything. Plus as salt in the wounds if you did create a group with strength to be a threat and were caught then the government would use that as reason to remove even more civil liberties. But at the end of the day it's just easier to do nothing, or maybe read a little and get excited, join a peace group, shout a bit, sign things maybe go to a protest but all without risk. But nothing can be gained without risk.
Take this how ever you want, if you think I am a violent rebel then obviously you missed the part about me being a lazy bastard, and if you think I'm un-american for wanting to see the government over thrown then I suggest you read some Thomas Paine. If the original George W. was here he'd be whipping the shit out of our current George, or maybe he wouldn't. Maybe he'd be the real modern Washington, checking his portfolio on his phone while listening to a podcast about the war while getting a tan at the beach saying, man we should really do something about that asshole Bush.
In my own travels abroad, the attitude I always encountered was that while occasionally the US would elevate a truly despicable leader like Ronald Reagan or Bush the First to power, people made a distinction between “America” and Americans. That distinction is fading away. Increasingly the attitude I get from friends in other countries and readers outside the US is, “If you guys hate George Bush so much, why aren’t you doing anything about him? He flouts your laws, he has ordered the invasion of a nation who never attacked you, he has subverted human rights and dignity around the globe. Why aren’t you rioting in the streets? Where is your famous American bravery now?”Where is our bravery, why aren't we rioting in the streets? And I do mean rioting, not organized "protests" where people walk down a closed off street then listen to music after making sure that they have permits from the police I mean democracy, in the form of ten thousand people in the streets blocking traffic and getting right in everyones faces. Flying rocks, burning cars, police beating civilians, you know riots. Its easy to ignore a protest, but if you burned down K Street it'll make the news. We've tried the other options that may have worked in the past but clearly are now ineffective.
So why don't we? Well because we are too comfortable. No matter how much you hate this war it probably isn't really hurting you, unless you or a loved one are in Iraq, directly. Chances are that if you have enough energy to really pay attention to the world then you don't have major stresses in your life. Probably have a decent job or still in school and really your life ain't too bad. Again I'm assuming based on the fact that you have time to screw around and read blogs then your probably not out in the street trying to figure out how your going to eat next, fair enough? So are you going to risk being arrested thrown in jail, sent to prison, beat by police, possibly killed to maybe help to stop something that you know is wrong but doesn't really affect you?
There are days when nothing would make me happier than to be in a mob of people rushing like crazed wildebeests towards a line of riot police, throwing my molotov cocktail at whatever seemed appropriate at the time. Crashing against the shield like so many Persians at Thermoplae (300) but while we know we will lose the battle, (because how can you win a riot?) it will turn the tides of the war. If people in this country became willing to risk their lives to defend our constitution and its principles then we the people could move ourselves in whatever direction we see fit. But we don't, and neither do I. Those feelings happen but they pass quickly, to riot alone is madness, and to build large enough support to do anything would get you caught and arrested before accomplishing anything. Plus as salt in the wounds if you did create a group with strength to be a threat and were caught then the government would use that as reason to remove even more civil liberties. But at the end of the day it's just easier to do nothing, or maybe read a little and get excited, join a peace group, shout a bit, sign things maybe go to a protest but all without risk. But nothing can be gained without risk.
Take this how ever you want, if you think I am a violent rebel then obviously you missed the part about me being a lazy bastard, and if you think I'm un-american for wanting to see the government over thrown then I suggest you read some Thomas Paine. If the original George W. was here he'd be whipping the shit out of our current George, or maybe he wouldn't. Maybe he'd be the real modern Washington, checking his portfolio on his phone while listening to a podcast about the war while getting a tan at the beach saying, man we should really do something about that asshole Bush.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
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