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I suppose that I initiallyacquired activist status when I wrote hard-copy letters to Democrat senators in 2002, urging them to vote against the proposed Bush war powers. Well, we know how that turned out, with the Democrat-majority Senate falling over each other to gift our history's most wretched president the sword of commander-in-chief.
Then came the invasion of Afghanistan, followed by the diversion to Iraq to find the "weapons of mass destruction" and to slaughter any and all who stood between those"terror" weapons as well as chemical and biological agents -- and "our troops," as we endearingly re-christenedthe armed forces. This promptedthe sidewalk protests with the signs bearing snazzy slogans,but apparently was key to re-electing the our history's most wretched president in 2004, as aided and abettedby rigging the votein Ohio, his partisan apparatchiks not daring to again use Florida for their purposes as in 2000.
Four more years ofzippier slogans on larger signs for the sidewalk protests followed, which hindered the forces of evil (i.e. our very own republic's) not one whit, except perhaps to urge the treacherous on to the "surge" of yet more of "our troops" in Iraq, some being sent on their fifth rotation, after 5,000 others were sent to their graves.
Then emerged the Messiah, just in time for the election of 2008, and bearing the banner of "Change!" The electorate went for it. The Messiah was anointed. The republic was to be saved from the hawkish McCain and the really quite silly but potentially dangerous Caribou Sarah.But then -- nothing changed. The War of Lies continues for now a year unabated,in fact is expanded into Pakistan, and now ther eare negotiations between the Messiah and his generals on how large son-of-surge is to be.
And what now of our peace movement, our activism?Just dead, or at least it seems permanently submerged. And what of the gaping mouths and wide eyes ofthe adoring young women looking up at campaigner Messiah's posturing? Many now grimly shut.
Have you not noticed the decline in the measure of the weekly confrontations at the local courthouse, peaceniks vs the duh-lyinsistent patriotic war boosters? No more big news of trouble makers on the Mall. No more evictions from congressional hearings. Well, after eight years of feckless protest with zero effect, and the seduction by an imposter opposition candidate, the peace movement, or whatever it was has evaporated.
The other guys have won: the war mongers, the greed masters and their suckers, and the solid-brained support-our-troops imbeciles.
Sure, there are some traces. A few sloganeering sign bearers will still hit the streets, having nothing more productive to do. And there will still be the contest between the right wingnuts and the "radical left" on TV and the web, each boosting their own propositions and celebrity at the cost of any real progress toward peace and the benefit of humanity. There will still be the posturing Messiah, sort of holding out another promise without offending the treacherous or the wealthy, for goodness sakes, and then, of course, the Congress pontificating and posturing as no one else can, while at the same time sucking up those campaign contributions and favors.
Butnow there is now no real opposition in America to the treachery. Our Congress plays out its game, its individual members performing to the demands of their sponsoring contributors, ladling out the taxpayers' contribution to the weapons makers, banksters, oil interests, big pharma and the like. While at the same time the right-wing media spew out their malicious doctrine to an insensate electorate who sop up the greed message in the name of god and country, while the media from the left counters with their contrived sophistry and bizarre counter offenses including such propositions as penile superiority.
America has lost the battle against itself inside its own borders. Our politicians have betrayed us. The activists were not active enough. The peace organizations sold us out in a competition between themselves and the determination to perpetuate their existence,their organizational identities and the glorification of their officers. The media have sold out to their moneyed masters. And the so-called peace movement is stripped down to a fraction of its former impotent self, now more scarcely parading out of habit and nothing better to do.
The peace and the decency have lost. Their advocates were less than heroic, actually inadequate. It's over; the bad guys are in control, at least until some future generation picks up the banner of integrity, courage, intelligence and goodwill and drives its flagstaff through their corrupt minds and outsourced hearts.
It's over, except perhaps for a few like me, who will helplessly continue to stir up as much noise as we can, not from a greater resource of virtue and courage, but simply because -- despite our best efforts -- our outrage is beyond our capacity to harness it.
