I watched in horror this morning as I heard Jim Gilchrist, Founder of the Minutemen, who had been invited by Amy Goodman to debate his encounter at Columbia University with Karina Garcia and the group of protesters led by her, twist the purpose of the protest by Garcia and her group, the Chicano Caucus, and claim that the Chicano group wanted, and tried, to take his Freedom of Speech away from him.
I watched in further horror when, following Garcia's courageous assertion that the group was not trying to take Gilchrist's or the Minutemen's freedom of speech away but, that they were merely presenting (or trying to present) an opposing view to Gilchrist's Supremacist views, she was informed right then on national television by Minuteman Founder Jim Gilchrist, before he cowardly stormed off the televised debate between himself and Karina Garcia, that he could not continue the interview with Amy Goodman and Karina Garcia, adding, to Amy Goodman's shock, that on advise of counsel, she, Karina Garcia would be hearing from the legal firm representing him and the Minutemen which would bring suit against her.
To Amy Goodman's shocked question to Gilchrist as to whether he had been seated next legal counsel during this interlude between himself and Garcia in what was supposed to be a debate (an airing of two opposing views) between the two, he simply chose not to answer Goodman's question and stormed off the set.
For speaking the truth and expressing opposition to the Bushes, people are being tasered by the police, as it happened to a young man protesting Jeb Bush's appearance in Pittsburg where Jeb Bush went to attend a fundraiser for Rick Santorum.
For speaking the truth and expressing their opposition to Bush and his war, people are being arrested on harassment charges, as it happened to Steve Howard, a Colorado man who came unexpectedly face to face with Dick Cheney and used the opportunity to make use his freedom of speech right and voice his opposition to the war, only to find himself in handcuffs, and being arrested by the police on harassment charges.
Yes ...Apprehension, dread and anxiety are becoming more and more a part of George Bush's, America's Daily Bread.
As we slowly but surely all get caught up in the swell of anxiety in the Bush landscape of fear, fear-planting, intimidation, repression, lies and manipulation, it is all trying to pierce our awareness, making itself manifest in nightmares, or sudden bursts of anger at situations that may, or may not be, connected directly to Bush but which, to the individual, seem to be unfair, unbalanced, tilted, or ever so prying into our own privacy.
As this degree of National Anxiety goes up and we become anxiety's pawn in a nation governed by the emotional state of a reactive, non-thinking leader, we become more and more prone to express our anxieties in the middle of crowded hospital emergency rooms where workers want more information on us than any hospital ever needs, or in the middle of the street when, unexpectedly, coming face to face with any of the Bushes, any of the members of his Cabinet, or any bee whose sting has the Bush smell or sting to it, we begin to yell GO HOME. YOU LIED. PEOPLE DIED.
The anxiety, the outbursts, the nightmares, they are all a compass telling us that something is wrong, very wrong. Except that, it is not that so much is wrong with us as it is that there is much that is wrong with Bush and with what he is doing to our country and consequently to each of us.
It is time to stop listening to Bush and start listening to our intuition, to facts, and to our symptoms of anger and anxiety. They are pointing to the fact that something has gone dreadfully wrong with this Bush take-over of our Democracy.
They also point to the fact that we are at a crossroad.
Listening to our own intuition of what is right and what is wrong, what is fair and what is not, what is constitutional and what is not, what is repressive and what is not, might, it just might, lead all of us into a path for the return to democracy.
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