I was back on the street again today in Portland handing out leaflets about the upcoming Sept 25 rally and sit-in calling on our Congressman to support the impeachment resolution in the House of Representatives.
Today was better than two days ago. I had many more meaningful discussions with people during the time I was there. Over and over again I heard very sympathetic people tell me "the system is broken. There is nothing we can do. Neither party will listen to us."
I did have the usual business suit types fly by me in a huff telling me to get screwed or that they loved Bush. These kinds of folks are invested in the system. At some level they are making money these days as profits from the war and oil corporations are shared with them.
Several young people stopped to talk with me today. One young man who was turned down from joining the Coast Guard, because of a felony conviction, said the Army has waived his conviction and will take him. He only wants money for college. He said he is against the Iraq occupation and wished us success. I told him to be careful that the Army does not steal his soul. He took my hand, and my leaflet, as he left.
Another young guy, who is 18 years old, said he didn't care about all this stuff. "I'm having enough trouble just taking care of myself," he told me. I reminded him that we all need to take care of each other. He still blew me off. It was only when I told him that a British polling agency has determined that more than one million Iraqi citizens have died as a result of the Iraq war that he paused. I asked him how many more people should we let Bush kill?
I found that when I added the phrase "Bush wants to attack Iran next" people would take notice. Even those who did not want the leaflet would momentarily pause. In their hearts they can feel it coming and they know that the madness will only get worse.
After mentioning Iran I would ask them a simple question: "What does it say about us American people that we've killed one million Iraqi people and now we want to attack Iran?" Several people, at first cynical and negative, would linger and talk more with me and I could see life again in their eyes.
I am utterly convinced that many people are shutting down their hearts in order to not have to deal with all of this. Asking them about Iran today seemed to bring some of them back near to reality.
But then the question remains: The system is broken...what can we really do?
Capitalism lives and thrives on endless war and control and domination of resources and markets around the world. We can replace one politician with another but then how do we really change the system?
Impeachment is important, an important first step if we are to honor the Constitution. If we are to pretend we have a democracy then we must hold Bush-Cheney and their pirate crew accountable. But beyond that we have to change the system. That means acknowledging that capitalism is a death system - chewing up the planet, driving the Mother Earth to death.
How do we talk with the public about this? How do we talk about a sustainable culture that protects the future generations on this planet? How can we get folks to open their hearts again?
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.
The problem is that America is dictated by the media.
Every person bases their decisions on the information they have. Fox knows this and express that understanding in their phrase, "we report, you decide". The media simply provides the information necessary to control the majority of the vote. Democracy at this point is just an illusion of choice and a false sense of empowerment. We all know about "media bias" and have heard the term "propaganda", but there is more to it than labels. Propaganda is an art, a refined set of tools to manipulate the opinion of the massed, "Propaganda" was also a book written in 1928 by Edward Bernays for that purpose. This book is gathering new fame and recognition in the information era, and more and more people are beginning to understand where our democracy went wrong.
The age of corruption is coming to an end, the system is broke, but change is under way to correct it. Propaganda and the media's control of our democracy has enjoyed a nearly complete monopoly of the flow of information for generations. That monopoly began to fall in the early 1990's when the Internet started to take off. The MSM still controls the majority, but the Internet population and influence is growing fast. Every year about 4 million kids raised on the net reach voting age.
The significant difference that the Internet will make can be seen in the contrast between the main stream polls and Internet polls for the elections in 2008. The media polls show Clinton well in the lead and Kucinich at the bottom, but on the net, Kucinich is the favorite in many polls and Clinton is at the bottom. The people on the Internet are more informed because they can be, we have search engines and news archives, forums, blogs, Oped, friends networks and global communication. You also have to consider what people are talking about, the ideas that spread and gain recognition, for instance, "America is dictated by the media" and "In 1948, Israel wiped Palestine off the map".
by
James Hovland (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments)
on Sunday, September 30, 2007 at 2:11:39 AM
2 comments
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