For all you anti-war freak/protesters out there, the war has already started, so your protesting isn't gonna do anything!!! You can't stop a war right in the middle. (Even though it's almost to the end.)
you are such a little ****ing *** hole, you think that the war is good and **** and that the good people like me who try to protest and make a difference in the world for a GOOD cause should just pack up our picket sighns and go home? well, newsflash, its ignorant war supporters that shoud just pack up thier weapons and go home (and possably come back out with peace sighns???).
The Fourth of July falls on a Friday this year, which is great news for the three-day weekend crowd that complains bitterly most other years about having to go to work the day after they "celebrate" the anniversary of the nation's birth.
In a country where just about every national symbol - from the flag to the presidential oath of office - has been bent to serve the interests of commerce and leisure, it is amazing that we still celebrate the Fourth of July on the Fourth.
As long as no one tells John Ashcroft or **** Cheney that this holiday honors revolutionaries who threw off the chains of colonialism, empire, monarchy and the state-sponsored religion that were - and remain - the primary threats to freedom and human advancement, the Fourth is probably safe from interference from our contemporary King George and his churlish courtiers.
But how should Americans who take seriously the promise of a revolution - "that all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with inalienable rights" and "that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among these men (and women), deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed" - go about celebrating this Fourth of July?
Should we raise the red-white-and-blue banner of the Republic? Well, of course. Though it has been dragged through the mud by so-called "patriots" who continue to engage in the sort of military adventurism that both Washington and Jefferson warned against in their farewell addresses to the nation, this remains the flag of the Wisconsinites who marched south to banish the crime of slavery from this country's soil. No flag has yet been associated with a nobler military endeavor than the Stars and Stripes when it flew above those who battled the Southern scoundrels who marched beneath the banner of human bondage.
Should we celebrate the founders themselves? Yes, within reason. It is true that many of the men who made this nation were flawed. The best of them admitted as much at the time. The worst were revealed in time. But no one who cherishes liberty should hesitate to raise a cheer for old Tom Paine, who wrote of Americans in 1776: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation similar to the present hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of the new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the events of a few months."
As America celebrates the 227th birthday of the new world, however, it is important to recall that Paine also reflected upon the prospect: "If you subvert the basis of the revolution, if you dispense with principles and substitute expedients, you will extinguish that enthusiasm and energy which have hitherto been the life and soul of the revolution; and you will substitute in its place nothing but a cold indifference and self-interest, which will again degenerate into intrigue, cunning and effeminacy."
Paine's warning anticipated this degenerate moment, in which Americans are awakening to the prospect that the president and his advisers intrigued the country into a foreign misadventure that stinks rather too much of the imperialism Americans once associated with the British crown their forebears revolted against.
Should we despair at the realization of Paine's worst fear for the land? Perhaps a bit. But Paine would surely warn against surrendering to that despair. These may, in fact, be the times that try men's souls. But as Tom Paine suggested in 1776, such times are where the false patriots are separated from the true: "The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."
George W. Bush and **** Cheney, as definitional a pair of summer soldiers as ever will be found, can lead their sunshine patriots in celebrations of imperialistic conquest and their allegiance with Tony Blair and what remains of the tattered British realm. The sons and daughters of Tom Paine will stand this Fourth of July and honor the revolutionary spirit that revolted against the corruptions of empire.
It's the Fourth of July. Independence Day. The flag flies on the front porch - maybe to support the troops, maybe just out of habit. We sit on the curb and watch the parade go by. Then we picnic.
Nowhere is there proper remembrance of what it's all for. Nowhere do Thomas Jefferson's words echo. You know, that rebellion is a good thing now and then, as necessary in the political world as storms are in the physical. God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. His words, not mine.
We seem to take for granted that we are the children of revolutionaries. Jefferson's spirit of rebellion is our inheritance. We squander that inheritance when we see the state of our democracy today and look the other way.
The public treasury is auctioned off as so many private perks to the highest bidders, and we offer little resistance. Top lawmakers face felony charges for extortion, money laundering, illegal campaign contributions and criminal misconduct in public office, and we muster no rebellion. We tolerate a court-appointed president. We accept elections where half of the officeholders face no opposition.
The flag flies. We parade. We picnic.
A big part of the problem is our own apathy, to be sure. But part of it is that we no longer have anything resembling a public square where the voices of rebellion can be heard. Every true democracy needs one. Ours has been privatized. The modern public square, for better or worse, is television. Sadly, that's where most people get most of their information about civic matters.
Thanks to corrupted elected officials, compromised appointed regulators and a citizenry asleep at the switch, the public square is now the private property of a handful of media monopolies.
Fox News Network doesn't air Jeffersonian rebellion. Neither do any of the other media conglomerates. Ted Turner, of all people, pointed out recently that anti-war sentiment has been branded extremist by the mainstream media and has been largely ignored. He notes that the pope opposes the war, and wonders how narrow-minded we've become when the views of the pope are considered too extreme for public consumption. Good question.
I won't get started on the Patriot Act. Suffice it to say this is a bleak moment in American democracy's history. But all is not lost. You know what they say about it being darkest before the dawn.
It turns out voices of rebellion abound. But it's not a rebel yell broadcast to the masses, rather it's more of a whisper transmitted through the new underground press - the Internet - and then passed along through countless e-mail networks and even by word of mouth.
The scope of this whisper campaign became evident when the Federal Communications Commission tried to sneak through sweeping changes in the rules regulating media ownership. The FCC received over 700,000 messages on the issue - all but one in 1,000 expressing opposition to further media consolidation - a response so large that it crashed the agency's e-mail and phone systems. How did so many people hear about the FCC's plans for more media monopolies? Fox didn't tell them, that's for sure.
The FCC - an agency duty bound to serve the public interest - turned a deaf ear to the public outcry, but many in Congress heard. The issue lives. So does the whisper rebellion.
If you listen carefully, over the din of the parade, you can hear the rebel whisper. It calls for a truly free and diverse press. It demands authentic elections and real choices at the ballot box. It condemns the commercialization of free speech and privatization of the public square. It pleads for real campaign finance reform that puts an end to the legalized bribery and extortion that has brought scandal to our State Capitol.
I stand corrected. Jefferson's words do echo still - in a soft, barely audible voice - signaling the start of the next American revolution.
Mike McCabe is executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonpartisan watchdog group that tracks money in state politics and advocates for campaign finance reform. View a searchable database of campaign contributors on its Web site at www.wisdc.org.
theres more to protesting than stopping or preventing a war. people need to know that there are others out there who know that it's wrong. without the protesters of vietnam, the adverage amican would not have been so aware of the carnage and geneocide that they were standing for. you don't just give up when war is declared, wtf...
You know, at one time I started following the neo-conservatives in their, "Stop protesting now" garbage.
And I did. I didn't say anything, I didn't write anything...but man, if I knew what Iraq would be like before it ended, and what we're seeing now, I would not have given up.
And it's just soooo easy for the neoconservative, war-fiends to go, "Well not one protester's right to protest was fought for by protesters."
The Revolution was fought WITH protesters, BY protesters of the Redcoats! And, not ONE freedom in this Country is being fought for OVERSEAS.
quote:...wore peace ribbons to show my wish for world peace.
...cute, but you're living in a pipe dream if you think "world peace" is going to happen. There is an exception, of course, but some of you might get "offended" if I say it, so we'll leave it at that.
Anyway, I'm not about to jump on the "No WMD in Iraq, ah-ha, LIES!" bandwagon just yet. If you remember, the same media idiots who bashed Bush also came up short in their commentary about how long the war would last, etc., etc.
I'm not beating the WMD thing - yet, anyway. But I am highly, highly concerned with the fact that the CIA is probably - and deliberately - putting those Saddamites in places so that they WILL attack our troops. Our guys are getting killed daily, yet it's okay, because "that's how wars are."
No, that's not how wars are. Wake up, people, this is our generation's Vietnam. Ooooh, I said it. I came out and said it.
hey what about Freedom of Speech, eh? Normal people who aren't all in the government and in power can't change things, but they can say how they feel- and if they don't want a war, they have every right to protest as long as they want.
I was in those protests so don't call me a freak.We were just trying to get our voices out there.So for you to call me a freak just makes you a freak to.
I am anti-war. I am Canadian, so my country did not even go to war in Iraq, but I still participated in a peace vigil (what you would call a "protest") and wore peace ribbons to show my wish for world peace. Please don't dis those who have different opinions from you. I could dis you for not being anti-war, but I choose not to. Please do the same for those of us who are anti-war. Thanx!
I'm sorry, maybe I should stick to avoiding all topics you make sense in, like you do me. Oh wait then I wouldn't be avoiding any of your topics...which I don't.
Wow, Billy. WOW. I can see that you have a point now. And the point is that there's nothing go on in your point, and you have no real points. Why can't you go do something that you actually contribute to?
Simply put, the attitude that protestors should stop because they can't change anything is FASCISM.
Fascism is a word that needs to be used a lot more. Fascism is growing around us, but none dare call it that.
FASCISM is the the general category that NAZISM falls under. Yes, the Nazis. They killed lots of Jews, ran a tight, conformist state back in ol' Germany during the middle of the twentieth century. Do you get it yet? HITLER.
So, protestors should stop because the war has already begun? Yes, and back in Nazi germany everyone should have stopped complaining about the mass slaughter of anyone Semitic (Read: Jewish) gay or disabled. I mean, President Hitler (Read: George W. Bush) says that the Jews (Read: Everyone Islamic) is the problem, and we'll just have a nice little war with Afghanistan (Read: Poland) and all our problems will be solved. Except that we might have to fight someone else too. (Read: Most of the rest of Europe.) George W Bush's trailer trash posse sitting in Washington DC are madmen, and everyone should thank protestors for getting out there and showing that not everyone has fallen to the state-controlled media in the form of FOX, CNN, etc.
[This message was edited by YNLissa on May 24, 2003 at 03:32 PM.]
no I'm just all over the place...I debate from many angles...for me the only way to understand anything is to understand it from every point of view...
i didn't mean to suggest that you supported such thoughts; i'm pointing out that your reasoning is being used to support such generalist notions. that's why i tend to automatically tune out people that rely upon opinions based on extremist minorities.
quote: by your reasoning we should hate all muslims because of the ones that commit terrorist acts; we should all hate policemen because of the rampart division or rodney king beating
this is not my reasoning, this is the reasoning of the people and you know this. If it wern't, why would we have to defend muslims or cops? Why because some of them did something bad, and most people are unable to process the data telling them it doesn't mean all are bad. When a handful of people do wrong, that is the only thing you will hear about.
Don't base my reasoning on reality...
quote: i just don't think that you'll get very far talking to intelligent people.
quote:when the world looks at you and says you cause trouble and destroy property... you have no one to blame but yourself.
well, i don't respect people that base their opinions on a select few examples. by your reasoning we should hate all muslims because of the ones that commit terrorist acts; we should all hate policemen because of the rampart division or rodney king beating -- we could extrapolate such extremes but the weaknesses in that argument become quickly apparent
you can accuse all protesters of having destructive tendencies based upon the unrestrained activity of a select few - you could argue that, since others of the "collective" failed to stop such activity, one could conclude that all supported such action. i just don't think that you'll get very far talking to intelligent people. furthermore, as cathaykid pointed out, the violence was largely condemned by the vast majority of those involved in the protests.
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