I'm starting to see the bricks

The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, pull back the curtains, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.

- Frank Zappa

When did our government decide that we citizens are the 'enemy?' Or has it always been this way? Appears Zappa was right after all. I'm beginning to see the bricks.

During the Clinton administration, I had this weird idea that we Americans were one nation. Oh, and that 'liberty and justice for all' bit still held true; or so it appeared. Perhaps we were all still asleep. These days, Clinton is golfing with Bush Sr. Makes you wonder.

Police break up anti-war meeting in Washington

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Mounted police charged in to break up an outdoor press conference and demonstration against the Iraq war in Washington on Thursday, arresting three people, organizers and an AFP reporter said.

"The police suppressed the press conference. In the middle of the speeches, they grabbed the podium" erected in a park in front of the White House for the small gathering, Brian Becker, national organizer of the ANSWER anti-war coalition, told AFP.

"Then, mounted police charged the media present to disperse them," Becker said.

The charge caused a peaceful crowd of some 20 journalists and four or five protestors to scatter in terror, an AFP correspondent at the event in Lafayette Square said. No one appeared to have been hurt.

Three people -- Tina Richards, the mother of a marine who did two tours of duty in Iraq; Adam Kokesh, a leader of the Iraq Veterans Against the War group; and lawyer Ian Thompson, who is an organizer for ANSWER in Los Angeles -- were arrested, Becker said.

I'm reading 'Presidential Courage' by Michael Beschloss. Fascinating book.

One of the things that has really stood out in the initial chapters (about George Washington and John Adams) is how... wonderfully unruly and free these early Americans were, to speak their minds and to get involved in their government. As I read, I see what real freedom looks like. And boy - we have lost it. I fear any semblance of free speech is hanging by a thread.

Perhaps that is why I test it so often out here on this blog. This is my wind sock.

These early patriots were in the streets demonstrating all the time; and their voices were heard. We really were a 'government by the people.'

This of course was before the banks and the corporations took over. The difference is painfully obvious - and I stress 'painfully,' because I am realizing more every day how much we have become like the old Soviet Bloc... how much we have lost of our wonderfully unruly democracy.

The frog in the pot is boiling now. Bush just tosses aside the laws he doesn't like and makes new ones to suit his and his corporate cronies' interests. The Constitution... to him, is just a 'damned piece of paper.'

We are definitely not the country we were. Lincoln used to welcome the widows and mothers of soldiers into his home; he didn't have them arrested.

But then... surely Bush is no Lincoln.

They shouldn't be walking alone!

From the Chicago Tribune:

Ashley Casale, 19, and Michael Israel, 18, are walking 3,000 miles from San Francisco to Washington in a trek they once had hoped would rally the nation and lead thousands to join them in their epic March for Peace. But, nearly halfway through their trip, the teens remain alone, wandering the vast landscape of America, where few have paid them any attention.

I just read this story about these 'peace marchers' in Common Dreams (originally in the Chicago Tribune) and could hardly believe that this is the first I've heard about their trek.

Then again... maybe I do. Until the Tribune picked this up, who in our national media would have bothered with two kids walking across the entire country to draw attention to this endless war? Not the commercial media I know.

Is there any reason we can't meet up with these 'Peace Marchers' as they enter our states - even for a day here, or a few hours there - and walk with them?

I'm frankly embarrassed that they are still doing this by themselves, entirely on their own... and mortified that they think nobody cares. The reality is that nobody knew. Now that we know... we could help them turn this into the massive march they envisioned, simply by joining them as they come by.

“It seems like the country is asleep,” said Israel, a rail-thin young man with deep-set blue eyes, walking the roadside on a recent morning, his voice sometimes drowned out by the roar of huge trucks zooming past. “A lot of people we meet are against the war. But it doesn’t seem like many people are doing anything about it.”

I actually wanted to do something like this after Katrina.

I was so angry that I first wanted to walk to Washington D.C.; then to New Orleans. Of course, reality set in (as it often does.) I'm not as young as I once was, and my inner indignation often out-paces my physical strength and stamina these days. Going entirely alone seemed crazy - and likely dangerous. I couldn't find anyone with the time to join me, so I started writing out my frustration instead.

I still think about walking... all the time.

They set off from San Francisco on May 21, carrying 40-pound packs. By the end of the first week, the third marcher dropped out. Another activist told them they would never make it to Washington by their target date, Sept. 11. But they pressed on, crossing into Nevada and making their way across the desert in two weeks. Then on to Utah and Colorado.

Their determination has endeared them to many. After seeing the holes in Casale’s shoes, a man in Sacramento bought her a new pair of sandals. An elderly man in Colorado drove their packs ahead for two days and called his friends who lived along the route to arrange for shelter.

“I read about them in the paper yesterday and thought, ‘Oh my God, we have to help them,’” said Bobbi Benson, 48, of Boulder, who helped drive the packs forward through Colorado. “They just have such courage.”

‘This is the whole point’

After reading this story, it occurred to me that I could walk... for a few hours at least, as they make their way across Indiana. And I know many others - in our state alone - who have for years taken long bus rides across the country to take part in distant, national marches.

We could easily join up with these two walkers as they make their way across Indiana; even if we can only give a day here, or a few hours there. And maybe, just maybe, we could tow some media along.

I'm in. They should hit Indiana sometime in late July, maybe August. And they will be crossing right through the middle of our state. Maybe we can still make their dream of an epic 'Peace March' come true, simply by joining up when and where we can, for as long as we can.

Here is a link to their website: March for Peace, Summer 2007

UPDATE Projected dates of march across Indiana:

INDIANA

Romine Corner, IN
Covington, IN
Layton, IN
Veedersburg, IN (August 4)
Waynetown, IN
Crawfordsville, IN (August 5)
New Ross, IN
Jamestown, IN
Pittsboro, IN
Brownsburg, IN (August 6)
Speedway, IN
Indianapolis, IN
Cumberland, IN
Greenfield, IN (August 7)
Knightstown, IN
Lewisville, IN
Straughn, IN
Dublin, IN
Mount Auburn, IN
Cambridge City, IN (August 8)
Richmond, IN (August 9)

(They must really be walking quickly!)

Memorial Day 2007

Ralph lectures the Peace Movement

Oh my God… its Ralph!

Welcome back... from wherever the hell you've been the last five years.

So you're here to lecture the peace movement, is that right? You just pop up - out of nowhere - and coincidently, just when an election is getting into full swing. Because you love elections, don't you Ralph?

Here you are... talking about the Bush administration and the war. Five years have gone by and you suddenly have an opinion? The peace movement isn't working (shocker) and you have suggestions?

Well, I suppose you would know. You're one of the architects of this disaster. Apparently Al Gore wasn’t so lousy after all, eh? By comparison? Eh Ralph?

Oh I'm not blaming the entire disaster on you, of course - you didn't flip the Diebold bits and bytes that swung the election results in Bush's favor. You simply allowed the GOP to use you. They worked tirelessly to get your name onto the ballot in sensitive states, and then you relentlessly attacked... Al Gore, a fellow environmentalist. You split the ticket, and you let the GOP help you in any way that they could.

Yes, Al Gore the life long environmentalist wasn't green enough for you.

I hear you even plan to run again, if Hillary happens to win the Democratic primary. How oddly convenient for the GOP. By the way, I'm no great fan of Hillary Clinton myself - would never vote for her. Its just that this is... so interesting. GOP paying your way again?

Benedict Nader - what the hell are you doing here? And why the hell would we listen to you now?

By the way Ralph, I’ve been meaning to thank you. If Gore had been elected President in 2000, he never would have made “An Inconvenient Truth,” which has done more to jump-start efforts to curb global warming WORLD WIDE than just about anything else. Certainly more than anything you’ve ever done - ‘Mr Green’.

Gore turned out to be a ‘maker’. You proved to be the ultimate ‘breaker.’

Granted, this Bush administration has been horrific. Hopefully we’ll survive it. But if we do, we’ll certainly have learned something. It appears that in this country, we only learn by getting our teeth knocked out. One lesson we've learned, etched in blood, is that everyone - everyone - is willing to use us, lie to us, manipulate us.

Its a shame so many had to die in Iraq, but hey… you made your point. You knew you’d never get elected, but you threw the entire nation under the neocon bus, and you made your point. Yes, Ralph: democracy is broken. You win.

And then, when the election fiasco was over and we began our five year descent into darkness - you disappeared! Where’d ya go? I was beginning to think the GOP had paid you off; that you were on an extended vacation in the Bahamas. Once the Bush administration proved beyond a shadow of a doubt (as you no doubt knew they would) that we desperately need a third party option - where were you? Why weren't you out there, educating the people and building that party? Because we could really use it now. Instead, you vanished.

You’re a little late to this party. Welcome to the peace movement, already in progress. Oh - you have something to say?