This morning I clicked on our new upper-left graphic which imparts info about protesting the state democratic convention. What I discovered was page after page of terms to meet and rules to obey, laid out neatly by the powers-that-be, so that would-be activists can protest the most egregious war and power-hungry administration in our country’s history. Happily chirping about meetings with policemen and attorneys, the activists invite us to join them in defining the terms of their oppression.
I’m sorry, I know these people are wannabe do-gooders, but this bullshit is akin to meeting with a gang of rapists to consent to the terms of one’s degradation. Oh yes, please! Just use lubricant and let me lie in a comfortable bed!
It’s pathetic that our passionate anti-war activists have so little vision, so little faith in human history, such a lack of conviction and temerity that they can be contented to hand out fliers and maps, cower in a cage gilded especially for them, and be completely marginalized by the system they profess to oppose.
Here’s my idea. Do not legitimize the trampling of your civil liberties and the silencing of your voices by compliantly meeting with police officers and attorneys. Instead tell them that you’ll see them on Venetucci Boulevard with a thousand of your closest friends. You’ll have drums and cowbells and bullhorns and offensive banners and whatever fuck else you feel like bringing. Tell them you’ll sing and shout and march and cross every boundary they put up to keep you on the fringe. Tell them you’ll do whatever the fuck you want to in order to make your voices heard.
What the hell? The vast majority of Americans oppose this war and despise this administration. Why aren’t they out on the streets? Do you really believe they’ll join you there as soon as they are enlightened by Amy Goodman? No! They aren’t out on the streets because they are sheep waiting for a shepherd. So where are the shepherds, our visionary and inspiring leaders? Where are the men with balls, bravely putting their necks on the line in the name of peace and justice? Where are the courageous vaginas, fresh from their New Orleans beaver fest, newly empowered to fight violence against women all over the globe? The anti-war movement in Colorado Springs does not have a single leader. It has a few worker bees — banner painters and flier makers — who don’t have a clue about what it’s going to take to stop the machine.
If you are like me you are saying “Well, Marie, why aren’t you out there making a difference?” I’ll tell you why. I am the system’s bitch. I have assets that can be frozen by the IRS. I have children in the public school system. I have dough invested in Social Security. I am tied by law to an ex-husband which precludes me from moving my family to another neighborhood, let alone another country. I am a cog in the machine. And in the scheme of things, nothing more.
I am, by position and ultimately by choice, powerless. But at least I don’t pretend to be anything more.
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Here are some pictures from the protest I was inadvertently caught up in in Buenos Aires. Maybe because Argentinians recently lived under a military government, one that silenced dissenters by kidnapping them and dropping them into the ocean, they appreciate their regained freedoms enough to band together and make their voices heard.
POLICE AND MEDIA! ON THE FRINGE! BEHIND THE BARRIER!
Marie, you need to get your temper under control. What is this rant about the lack of antiwar male leaders ‘with balls’ all about?
You think that the problem of mobilizing the American people can be reduced down to such sex-biased nonsense? I could respond with the problem being that too many vaginas are actually misleading people here. The Vaginas all want another Slick or Slick’s wife in the Office, and so on. Good grief! Bitches are ruining America and so on….
lol…. Hey, I kind of like that rant. Damn Bitches!
Tony, I don’t think it’s my temper that is getting the better of me. It is my hatred for authority-run-amok and the people who play nice with them. I mean geez. If protestors want to be seen as radical anti-war activists, should they really be meeting with cops and attorneys to figure out the parameters of their playpens?
And, Tony, I think that the same 20 people standing cooperatively on the out-of-the-way turf to which they’ve been assigned not only doesn’t help the cause, it actually hurts it. The message is We are the only ones who care, and we don’t really care all that much either.
The sexist characterizations are simply drawn from pop culture vernacular, where anyone — man or woman actually — who is gutsy is seen as having BALLS. The vagina references were just timely kudos to V-day, an organization that has made a name for itself by reducing women to their naughty bits.
Let me rephrase. Pussies are ruining America! That should cover everyone.
I certainly agree with you that the liberal Left ‘leaders’ lack any real imagination on how to protest war. They have reduced much of what they do into a stylized ritual of sorts and seem to have given up on actually getting people out to do anything at all.
Many of the liberals actually say that demonstrations beyond their same own few people are not effective, and that only voting for supposedly good Democrats accomplishes anything! That’s a joke. What is necessary is to get hundreds of thousands out into the streets, if not millions.
Plus, these same people have to get angry enough to dump the 2 party Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum routine, instead of falling for it time after time after time. That would take some real effort, and it is effort even harder than just building large demos would be, if the liberal leaders were ever to set that as a goal? That’s a big IF, too.
The US needs some new radicals, and that radicalism can only come from young people.
One huge issue, we’re running close to the point of violent revolution, in order to stop another violent act.
Ok, to stop Lots of other violent acts.
Imprisoning somebody is a HUGE act of violence. If you or I were to restrain somebody, just hold his arms or something similar, and move him from one place to another (no joke, I know people who have been imprisoned on this charge) it’s called Kidnapping.
Have somebody help you do it and it’s Aggravated Kidnapping. You could get a life sentence for that. If the person resists “arrest” and dies in your “custody” you get the death penalty.
Not so with the Gang of Uniformed THUGS doing essentially the same thing.
(this sounds kind of off topic, but it really isn’t)
Somebody dies in the act of THEM committing Aggravated Kidnapping, or if the person is acquitted of any charges, the fuckin’ pigs don’t pay a dime.
You’re supposed to be ever so grateful to a system that released you and “cleared” your name after putting you through abuse, sometimes for years.
Kind of like we’re supposed to be GRATEFUL for the opportunity to speak, just not in a place or a manner where we would be actually heard.
That’s the Rudy/George/John definition of “freedom” — We’re “free” to do what we’re told when we’re told.
And then we’re supposed to walk up to “the troops” and other pigs and thank them for fighting for such wonderful freedom.
People, not uniformed. Kids, not bombs! Healthcare, not warfare. Give peace a chance, instead of funding all the killing.
If all our neighbors weren’t such dimwits, then maybe they would de-authorize all the money going to these uniformed thugs running all over the place like so many killer ants, Jonah? Instead, we have too many in the J&P hugging these guys and going to meetings called by the pig universe to give them ‘Peaceniks’ out orders and such. What do they think that they are getting out of doing this?
Wow! Such neg vibes, dudes & dueit,
Your sort of protest is VIOLENCE only. What happen to non-violen view. Protest with reason. What happen to Peace word? Pigs, uniformed thugs & such. You 3 need to go “chill out”, get rid of the neg vibes and work within the system. Not great but best there is. Party rule, Tony? Did not work with out violence, with out those with guns. There were no right, only party rule (good nuff if you were in the part) – protest – not allowed ever. This freedom to do as you are doing right now is something you should be happy about. PPJPC are doing it the Kings way, peaceful and with reason. Violence begets violence – that what you 3 want? Just because you do not get your way – violence next. Sounds like a 2 or 3 year old to me, not adults. Chill out people. Stop & think, use reason not BS. Kids nasty talk adults resond. Try it, huh.
George
yourfavoright neocon, retired army combat vet & Texican