It is so much more than "if it happened to him it could happen to us".
It is happening to us! Each day that Bradley Manning remains alone and isolated in his torture cell is another day our fundamental human rights are eroded. Freedom remains just another jingoistic sound bite as long as Bradley Manning remains a prisoner while war criminals continue to profit from the wars and run the country.
There are hundreds of millions of Americans living like Bradley Manning.
Living alone and isolated, fearfully suffering the abuses and humiliation dished out by the super rich elites and their political shills. Millions of people are afraid to let themselves care about the brutal wars that our country is waging, afraid to speak out against the human rights abuses and crimes and afraid to resist. Bradley Manning is more free than these hundreds of millions of Americans because he is not afraid to resist and knows that there are people who will risk their freedom until he is free. But too many Americans still believe that the Democrats or President Obama will somehow be the change they so cynically hyped when they wanted our votes. For any who have any doubt about whose side they are on, listen to the words of our ignoble Commander-in-Chief when told of Bradley Manning's torture, "I've actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures . . . are appropriate. They assured me they are."
The arrests in support of Bradley Manning teach us another key to effective resistance -- solidarity. There is an old saw that illustrates how the power brokers that run our country think, "if you want a friend in Washington get a dog." Well, this may be true for the predatory elites and their political lackeys but for those who live by the values of nonviolence, empathy, compassion and solidarity it is just one more of their lies. If you truly want a friend in Washington you will not find it in Congress or the White House but on the street. All those that participated in the march, and most especially those arrested, experienced what solidarity is really about. More than just friends, they found comrades and kindred spirits -- the kind of people that would never leave you alone rotting in a military prison. Solidarity is knowing that you are not alone and that no one is free until all are free.
Another striking thing about the rally, march and especially about those who were arrested was their age. Although there were many students and younger people in the large crowd, there was an extraordinary amount of grey hair to be seen that day. Overall, most of the crowd seemed to be older, a stark contrast to the Vietnam era protests that were dominated by students and other young people. Among those who were arrested, the ages seemed to skew even higher with most appearing to be well over 40. It was pretty clear that many of these "old timers" had been resisting U.S. wars and militarism for some 40 years. There was at least one resistor who had not been arrested in 40 years -- since May Day, 1971 -- but because of what is now happening is once again back on the street.
These are the kinds of people who did not and do not quit. They are the kinds of people who have remained always faithful to their values and to the American people in spite of decades of betrayal by their elected "leaders", in spite of all the lies, in spite of all the indignities, abominations and obstacles. This kind of steadfast perseverance is exactly what is needed for the awakening to become a real uprising. The elders of the anti-war/peace movement bring an experience and wisdom that comes only from having endured and experienced much over many years. For these elders, resistance is not a spring fling, a temporary infatuation or a new thrill. It is a life stance, a commitment to getting up and standing up for what you know to be right, for your family, for your community, for your country, for all good and decent people everywhere, for the entire web of life.
Another important lesson of the anti-war resistance action was the vital importance of having women in key leadership roles. A significant number of speakers, including the war veterans, were women. Besides the war veterans, Code Pink Women For Peace, as well women organizers from the other sponsoring groups such as ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), played prominent roles in the rally, march and especially the civil resistance. Among the 113 people arrested that day, roughly half were women. Some would say that the root cause of the corruption rotting America is the extreme dominance of patriarchal values and subservient obedience to male authority. As Howard Zinn once said, the problem isn't civil "disobedience" but "obedience" to corrupt and unlawful authority. And like veterans know war, who better than women know what the rule of the "great father in Washington" has done to our children, our families and our communities.
Another key to the effectiveness of the March 19th resistance action was the focus, clarity and truth of the messaging. Against the powerful propaganda, misinformation and lies of the mainstream media and our so-called political leaders, against their messaging of fear and loathing, there is only one effective form of resistance -- speaking truth to power. Both the demands and the messaging of the action were clear and unequivocal. Stop the War! Expose the lies! Free Bradley Manning!
The antiwar/peace movement empowers people because it calls people, governments and their actions by their true names. Speaking truth to power is one of the most powerful things any person or social movement can do. After WWII, the International War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremburg, found Nazis guilty and hanged them for conducting the same kind of wars of aggression that the U.S. is waging. As Ralph Nader said, "Innocents are being slaughtered. Why don't we say what's on the minds of many legal experts? That the Obama administration is committing war crimes. And if Bush should have been impeached, Obama should be impeached."
Like the veterans, the other speakers at the rally exposed the lies by telling the truth about how the imperial wars abroad are just the other side of the devastating wars on the middle class and working poor at home. The message of Medea Benjamin and Code Pink "Bring our War $$ Home" exposed that most cynical and hypocritical of lies -- that our spending on war will somehow make us more secure when, in fact, they are destroying our communities just like they have destroyed those of Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of the speakers focused on how the $1.2 TRILLION dollars in annual spending on the Department of Defense and Homeland Security is just part of an economic shock doctrine directed against the middle class and working poor. While the Obama Democrats and T-bagger Republicans quibble over how much to cut from spending to help the middle class and working poor, cuts to the immoral, obscene war machine are not even on the table
The military/security complex and its political lackeys use the $14 Trillion national debt as a convenient excuse for attacks on American families even though over 92% of that debt is due to war and militarism.
Connecting the struggles of people all over the world was a big part of the message that Caneisha Mills of ANSWER delivered. In strong yet measured words, she made the connections among the wars, the oppression that people all over the world experience and the extreme inequality that exists in the U.S. Our country can spend billions to bomb Libya on behalf of the multinational oil corporations, yet there is no money in the budget to help subsidize heating oil for the working poor. While Congress turns a cold heart toward our own working poor, it is our "enemy", Hugo Chavez and Venezuela, that provides heating oil for them. One of the most insidious of the lies is that all those resisting U.S. imperialism are our enemies. To effectively resist, we must learn who our real enemies are and realize that our resistance is part of a world-wide struggle against racism and inequality, oppression and domination. The nonviolent antiwar resistance teaches us perhaps the most valuable of lessons on how to end war and bring peace to all people -- to stop terrorism, we must first stop our terror!
The coming of age of the antiwar/peace movement was most evident in the messages of two of our wisest elders, Daniel Ellsberg and Ralph Nader.
Like Bradley Manning, Daniel Ellsberg knows better than anyone that exposing the lies is the greatest threat to the war machine and also the most effective form of resistance. Why else would Bradley Manning be tortured and face the death sentence for exposing the lies while war criminals like Cheney-Bush, and now war enablers like Obama continue to run the country? For decades and decades, Ralph Nader has worked tirelessly to expose another lie, that the big corporations care about anything other than their profits. War is about money and it is money that drives our political leaders in their support of war, occupation and oppression, whether they be our own or those of our surrogates like Israel .
It is tragic when people must fight and die for what they believe in, but it is a moral abomination to callously destroy the lives of so many others just for profit and personal gain.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
1
