CONFRONT THE FUNK, KNOCK ON A DOOR

Lots of reasons to be in a funk on Iraq.

Funk: Even on days when the Dow doesn’t drop 500 points, the war moves farther and farther off the front page until the only place you’ll find the word “Baghdad” is in a review of a book by Bob Woodward called “Stuff I Should Have Reported When It Was Actually Going Down.”

Confront: This Saturday, 25,000 volunteers from all 50 states will contact one million Americans and ask them to sign a petition urging the next Congress to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq within one year.

Funk: “Urging?” Congress just finished sitting on it’s hands – and that’s the most complimentary description of what Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and company were doing with their hands – for all two years of the  110th Congress.

Confront: The alternative? If you abandon the idea – to quote Margaret Mead – that “a small group of people can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has,” then where are you? To quote the Grateful Dead, you are “sittin and cryin’ at home.” 

And many Americans who oppose the war may be sittin’ in their own homes because they have never been directly invited to participate in an anti-war action. By finding the uninvited – using databases of new voters and of voters still on the rolls who have dropped out of the political process – Saturday will bring a million new voices together to be heard, now and in the future. Saturday will be the biggest mobilization of 2008.

Funk: “Mobilization?”  Tens of millions surged into the streets on the eve of Bush’s “Shock & Awe,” but the bombs fell anyway.

Confront: Who knows how much even worse off Iraq might be without those milions? But admittedly, for now, been there, done that. Saturday will not be about assembling in one place.  Volunteers will be splitting up one by one – or in twos, threes, fours, etc. Then volunteers will walk neighborhood precincts and knock on doors. If you are determined to sit at home, but not cryin’, there’s the option of calling the uninvited folks on the phone.

Funk: That our best hope, Barack Obama, is using phrases like “situation on the ground” and “residual forces,” does not inspire confidence. Then he goes on FOX and agrees with Bill O’Reilly that the surge has succeeded beyond our “wildest expectations” and he sounds positively Rumsfeld-esque about Afghanistan. Our worst fear, John “100 Years” McCain, - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFpL2N9K9  - despite wearing George Jr.’s cement shoes, manages to bob along just long enough to launch the Ss Palin, who likely believes the Iraq War began because of the tragic events at 7-Eleven.

Confront: Agreed, we will not rely on our best hope, – let alone our worst fear – to bring home the troops. To join up, the site is www.MillionDoorsforPeace.org  A few days after signing up, Million Doors will send each volunteer a list of those to contact and then after Saturday, volunteers send in their results.

Some doors will be politely closed in faces – some not so politely, some folks called will hang up the phone. But, sitting home watching “the most historic race in history” on the small screen, instead of remembering the big picture, is what CNN, FOX and MSNBC want us to do for all sorts of funk-inducing reasons. Instead – to quote the Dead one more time – better to “get goin'. Out of the door and down on the streets all alone” – or in this case, with 25,000 others.