The Politices of Real Hope
04:30 PM Feb 29, 2008
"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." --Thomas Jefferson

I am not going to engage in the politics of division in this essay---there is enough of that going around these days to last a political lifetime and I believe my opposition to the "two" party duopoly is well known and understood. As many have predicted (and somewhat feared), we are down to a few corporatist candidates vying for the right wings of different (but too eerily the same) party’s nominations. We can argue all day about which of the candidates are slightly less beholden to special interests, but then we would be wasting precious time on nuance.

Whether one of the candidates is right or left wing is apparently in the eye of the beholder because various media talking heads excoriate candidates whom I would describe as somewhere right of John Birch as “liberal.” Candidates that some see as extremely conservative have very progressive views re: US imperialism and militarism.

Eliminating such aberrations such as BushCo from the equation due to their utter lack of integrity and their success in turning everything they have touched from the environment to education and the economy to the Middle East to steaming piles of garbage, we are going to definitely have the corporation’s choice in the Oval Office come January 2009. It’s a fact, let’s face it and move on and towards a new reality in America. Rather than throw out the bath water and the baby...what can we do to change course?

One thing the nightmare of the last 7+ years should have taught us is that we can not leave important decisions regarding our lives up to people that WE put in high places that have gone so far above regular America that they have no idea what it is like here on the ground. The issue that pre-emptive war and torture have been made public policy in the USA might not shock or have the knee-jerk reaction of horror to every American, but the fact that the so-called ruling class’ war economy has bankrupt our country and endangered every aspect of our children’s future should.

So, the reality is that the scary dark night of BushCo is almost over and a new era will begin---I hope it is an era where whoever is the President will realize that he/she will have to work with a Congress who creates the appropriate atmosphere of tensions that will restore the balance that the crimes of BushCo have knocked crazily out of whack. And I hope that the people will never again elect a person to send off to DC that will forget who he/she represents.

2009 will be a pivotal years in the history of our nation and the world. The question is: will it pivot back to a true Representative Republic, or will it continue to spiral into a virtual, if not literal, corporate dictatorship? The choice is up to each and every one of us.

Many of us were awakened to this nightmare world of corporate/military fascism because of the abuses of BushCo. Many of us had our ideologies reinforced and confirmed during BushCo. However, many of us continue to languish in the false comfort of militarism and jingoistic illogic.

Those of us who are wide awake must not be lulled back into a false security based on a fairy tale of hope or change. True change will not happen until the clauses that were written into our Constitution about accountability are respected and put back on the table and the executive branch feels appropriately constrained by the other two branches; and vice-versa.

One person is not my hope. 500 people are not my hope.

The one hundred million people that make up this country are my hope. We have the resources to change our history and the trajectory of humanity.

We cannot let our future down.

How do we insure that true representative democracy can work to the people’s advantage again?

These are some relatively painless steps:

First of all: stay informed and be a persistent and skeptical consumer of news. Always know the “slant” of all news sources, and know all news sources have a slant.

Secondly, familiarize yourself with the local and national staffs of your elected officials. Call the offices on a daily basis and remind the staff and their boss that you are the boss of them all. Continue the admirable practice of holding sit-ins and/or campouts in their milieu---if they won’t come to yours. If your employee does something that agrees with his/her promises, or resonates with your personal mission statement, then also call the office to complement: our interactions do not necessarily always have to be adversarial in nature.

Finally, and probably the most important factor in being a true human-American: don’t buy into the false and dangerous concept that one person cannot make a difference. I tragically believed that before my son Casey was killed in Iraq and I think I have proven myself wrong. We all have a unique voice and talent that was given to us to share with the world, not jealously hoard, but to use for the betterment of humanity.

Go and make the world a better place.

Si se puede!

THE CONSTITUTION
— 12:25 AM Feb 10, 2008DEAR CINDY. I HAVE KNOW ABOUT THE NEWS HISTORY FOR A LONG TIME NOW LONG BEFOR THE INTERNET LETS JUST SAY' THEY WILL CHANGE SOON FOR THE BETER OR BE FORCED TO BY THE PEOPLE.

Thank you!
— 03:17 PM Feb 10, 2008Keep on keeping on and writing. We sorely need viable inspiration especially these days! -Arcata,Ca

American families in peril
— 08:57 AM Feb 12, 2008Corporations are shadowing the government by waging individual wars across America to steal from the weaker and unsuspecting members of society. My family is a victim of a vicious scheme in Vermont, where my 87 year-old mother, Sara, continues to be imprisoned, now for 52 days, inside a large instiution run by a huge corportate giant that operates nursing homes in New York State, Vermont, and Florida. Neglected, drugged, abused and badly injured, she remains a prisoner there, cut off from all contact with her family. The institution, empowered by a collusion with state officials as high up as the governor, has officially cut the family from having all ties with my mother who lives in NYC but was brought to Vermont to recuperate briefly in a rural setting. Here, money, not oil, is the incentive. I believe that every American family is presently in danger of becoming victimized by the evil hand of fascism, destroying our civil liberties and the protection afforded to us by the Constitution of the United States. Familes, except those of the empowered few, are all at risk, for fascism has infiltrated every aspect of American society.

I agree totally with Ms. Cindy Sheehan
— 01:06 PM Feb 23, 2008Hello my friend: I wish more people in this great country would wake up. I wish all americans and all non-americans who live in this great land full of opportunities, and good people would wake up like you are and support people like you. USA needs a united socialist democratic party, which would serve as a vanguard party to fight the oppressive dictatorship of the corporate democrats and republicans