A debate is happening on Common Dreams about a peace festival in Portland, Maine on July 14 that made a huge peace sign with the bodies of those present.
Some are questioning the effectiveness of the action. As one person remarked, "It’s like pissing your pants in a dark suit; feels so good for a few seconds and no one notices certainly not the politicians. As [Alexander] Haig used to say, 'Let them march all they want to so long as they pay their taxes.' Getting together and holding hands ain’t a threat to anyone in DC."
The debate is a healthy one and for me the answer lies in the comment that everything we do is important. We should be making calls to Congress, writing letters to the editor, calling for impeachment, holding public rallies, and sitting in the offices of the politicians and going to jail if that is what it takes to get folks to wake up. We can't afford to half-step these days. Each of us must step forward and do more than we have in the past.
Ultimately for me it is about standing in resistance to the insanity now being perpetrated in our name.
Just this morning I sent around an article by Paul Craig Roberts to my email list called Impeach Now Or Face the End of Constitutional Democracy. In the article Roberts says, "Too much is going wrong for the Bush administration: the failure of its Middle East wars, Republican senators jumping ship, Turkish troops massed on northern Iraq's border poised for an invasion to deal with Kurds, and a majority of Americans favoring the impeachment of Cheney and a near-majority favoring Bush's impeachment. The Bush administration desperately needs dramatic events to scare the American people and the Congress back in line with the militarist-police state that Bush and Cheney have fostered."
Roberts fears that the Bush-Cheney pirate team will pull another 9-11 on us and declare martial law, suspend the constitution and even the 2008 elections. Full bore fascism right on our door step.
Roberts says, "Ask yourself: Would a government that has lied us into two wars and is working to lie us into an attack on Iran shrink from staging 'terrorist' attacks in order to remove opposition to its agenda?"
I think if we are honest with ourselves the answer to his question is a definite yes.
We've never quite been in such a moment in American history before. We are today right at the tipping point. It could go either way. What each of us does, or does not do, will be crucial in determining our future.
Let's not get stuck in a debate about which tactics are the "most" important. The most important thing we can do now is escalate our non-violent resistance to fascism in the USA.
Take a minute and think about the future. Think about what it would be like to live under martial law in the U.S. Then go out and do what you will have wished you had done while we still had time to prevent it from happening.
Our future depends on it.
http://www.space4peace.org
Bruce Gagnon is the Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
Between 1983–1998 Bruce was the State Coordinator of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice.
He was the organizer of the Cancel Cassini Campaign (launched 72 pounds of plutonium into space in 1997) that was featured on the TV program 60 Minutes.
Bruce has been featured by artist Robert Shetterly in his collection of portraits and quotes entitled Americans Who Tell The Truth.In 2006 he was the recipient of the Dr. Benjamin Spock Peacemaker Award.
In 2003 Bruce co-produced a popular video entitled Arsenal of Hypocrisy that spells out U.S. plans for space domination.His latest video, shot in 2006, is entitled The Necessity of the Conversion of the Military Industrial Complex.
In 1968 Bruce was Vice-chair of the Okaloosa County (Florida) Young Republican Club while working on the Nixon campaign for president.
Bruce is a Vietnam-era veteran and began his career by working for the United Farm Workers Union in Florida organizing fruit pickers.
Your are on the right side and I welcome your help, but...
Those suggestions will get us nowhere. They are tried and true failures. And what's worse is they are a waste of time, effort, and resources. I would give some logic to prove this, but unfortunately, it's been my experience that progressives cherish these tactics so much that they will not even consider their (modern-day) effectiveness/ineffectiveness or that there may be alternatives that are more effective. Alternatives which we should be concentrating our limited time, effort, and resources on. Sir, congress knows what the American people want - we have sent them that message, many, many times - they are not listening. It's time to find other more creative ways to influence them and especially to inform and to rally the public because "a tree does not make a sound when it falls in the forest when no one is there to hear it". If you get my point.
Peace.
by
RCG (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 352 comments)
on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 5:02:50 AM
