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-- Other activist tools include the most fundamental one of all - communication. Hartmann explains without two simple forms of it, the American Revolution wouldn't have been possible. There were the two commonly used ones then - letters to editors of newspapers who published them and pamphlets like the kind Tom Paine wrote. Today the dominant media are corrupted by their corporate control that suppresses real information in favor of only what's friendly to the state and the corporate giants. Fortunately though, alternatives exist and must be used effectively.The internet may be the most important one as long as it remains free and open and not under the threat of corporate control which may happen if S. 2686/H.R.5252 known as the Advanced Telecommunications and Opportunities Reform Act passes that would along with other harmful provisions in it end so-called "network neutrality" meaning the internet freedom we now have. This bill, if passed, will be a major victory for the cable and telecom giants transforming them into gatekeepers of internet content and allowing them to charge varying rates to customers based on whatever set of rules they decide to establish. In a word, it will destroy the internet as it now is. As such, it's crucial every effort be made to prevent this from happening.
-- Don't ignore the obvious influence we can have by communicating with our elected leaders. They pay attention, and it guides their policy-making.
-- Finally Hartmann sends a message everyone should take to heart - never lose hope and never give up the fight. He ends his book by quoting what Winston Churchill said at a boy's school during Britain's darkest hour in WW II: "Never give in. Never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."
Today the enemy of all working people has overwhelming but not invulnerable might. Gandhi taught us that "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." And he inspired us saying "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." He did, and so can we. Thom Hartmann would agree that We the People can indeed win if we do enough even though it's never easy, and the cons will fight us every step of the way with every dirty trick they know. It's up to us to fight the better fight because we can't afford to lose. Take heart from Thomas Jefferson and what he once said: "Every generation needs a new Revolution." Today he'd likely say we never needed one more than now.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
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