BuzzFlash Guest Contribution

CONTRIBUTOR ARCHIVES  

If The Ukraines Can Demonstrate in the Streets Over a Stolen Election, So Can We

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Rob Kall, www.OpEdNews.com

I've been feeling a bit of a disappointed malaise and dejection the last few days as the realization that the theft of the election is going pretty much unprotested has sunken in, that the 55 million Americans who voted for Kerry don’t have whatever it is that the Ukrainians DO have to go out on the streets and demonstrate. (Of course it could also be all that tryptophan from left over turkey meals.) No. It’s the election, not the tryptophan. I’m pretty disgusted with how things stand right now and I’m not ready to go silently into the night—the dark time that a bush second term promises.

I have, on my progressive website, along with a handful of other publishers of progressive websites, published articles and coverage of the murdering of democracy that has occurred in the form of vote corruption and fraud in Ohio, Florida, Oklahoma, Nevada, South Carolina and who knows how many other states.

In the mainstream media, Keith Obermann covered the election problems for a few days, then disappeared on vacation for a week. Aaron Brown covered if for an evening on CNN. But most mainstream media have attacked anyone who even discusses the possibility that the presidential election was stolen... again.

Colin Powell says he’s not happy with the Ukrainian election. European observers say the Ukrainian election did not meet democratic standards and make a big deal about it. Newspapers all over the world cover the election problems.

Ukrainian democracy gets help from the rest of the world. But not American democracy. After all, who helps the bully when he’s getting the crap kicked out of him? Who will stand up to help the playground that the bully rules? With Bush and his criminals in control of the US military, it would probably be foolish for even the most powerful nations to stand up to Bush. I say “probably” because maybe, just maybe it would be brilliant and courageous, even planet saving, if the leaders of the world’s other democracies joined together to challenge the questionable validity of the November 2nd presidential elections. Then again, why should the leaders of people of other nations try to rescue democracy in the US, if the 55 million “Sane” Americans who voted for Kerry, who watched the reality of the exit polls morph into the horror of the final counts, as tallied by central computers controlled by privately held corporations run and owned by republicans?

Of course, things are much healthier, democracy-wise in the Ukraine. Unlike the US, where the congress and supreme court are pretty much controlled by the republicans, it appears that the Ukraine has a real democracy, where the supreme court actually functions, and where their parliament is a healthily functioning democratic organization.

But there were 55 million Americans who voted against Bush (well, for Kerry, but, at this point, let’s be honest, we wanted to protect the USA and the planet, and humanity from another four years of worsening horror, four years of sliding towards a bastard hybrid of theocratic and corporate fascism. We do have power. We know that the blue states have the economic power, that we are being parasitized by the red states. We know that in the population centers, even in many of the red states, we held the majority.

I know that there were a lot of people who I worked side-by-side with, sometimes phone-banking, sometimes canvassing and sometimes marching and demonstrating, both for Kerry and against Bush. I know we had a lot of passion and we cared a lot, a real lot. And now, we wait, passively, for Bev Harris in Florida, Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman in Ohio and a handful of unknown people to overturn the election theft, with no clear word from the leadership of the democratic party what the hell is going on. This is not good enough for me. So I am going to take a step by myself, as one lone man, on Tuesday, and I will carry a sign in the center of town, that says:

Bush Not Elected
Nov 2 Election Crooked
Democracy is Endangered
Make Elections Honest

I’m picking Tuesday because, before the election, I walked with a “run against Bush” group that had up to 50 people show up. I’m hoping a few of them will join me. But I’m willing to do it alone. I’ll be bringing some flyers (Break the Media Blockade On Election-Theft-News With this Broadsheet Flyer) to hand out and I’ll be talking to anyone willing to listen. Then, I'm going to do it again on Wednesday. That evening there's a county democrats meeting at 7:30. I'll be out at the center of the county seat at 6:30.

It seems that after the election, some people knew the election results were dirty and they waited before doing anything. And some weren’t sure, and they waited. At this point, a lot more people who voted for Kerry are sure, or very suspicious that there were problems with the election. It seems they are all still waiting. I’ve been waiting. I’ve been waiting for talk of a protest of the election other than the talk of a counter-inaugural on January 20th. Well I’m done waiting. I’ll start on Tuesday and pray that some of the others I walked and ran with earlier in the year will also show up with signs. I saved a Kerry lawn sign. I’ll turn the paper inside out and paint the words on it, or paste a computer print out on it.

I’m hoping that when you read this you’ll decide you’ve waited long enough, that YOUR country deserves the same protest, the same raising of voices that the people of Ukraine felt their country deserved. I’m hoping you’ll decide it is time to take ACTION, to make a sign, to call the people you worked with during the election, to post a message, or a copy of this article to the listserves you subscribe to and then to go to a busy intersection with your sign, with the people you rounded up and get visible, since it is clear that your local newspaper and TV stations won’t do it for you.

Maybe you’ll be the only person. My fantasy is that I WILL be successful at getting other people out on the streets with me, and that it will be the first of many days of getting the word out, in spite of the failure of the media to do so. My fantasy is that people will start going to the streets in bigger and bigger numbers once they make their signs and see that they are not alone. I hope this fantasy becomes real, because my other fantasy is that IT CAN happen here, that the rising of fascism, as Sinclair Lewis described in his book, IT CAN”T HAPPEN HERE, will happen here, that it has already begun and will get worse and worse. My fantasy is that after a week or two of growing demonstrations, that millions will pick a day and show up on the streets of their local populations centers, that so many people will be pouring into the streets on that day, that so many people will call in, missing work that day, that business will come to a halt, that traffic will come to a halt, that the outrage will rise as a single shout by millions and the rest of the world will see that democracy in America IS worth supporting and rescuing.

I’m not at all convinced that the Democratic party will be a whole lot better than the Republicans in many ways, but I do feel that they will make a difference, and that, if there is any hope that democracy can be saved, it is with the democrats in power, at least in the White House. Irregardless of whether the Bush vote theft is cured, the USA must cure its ailing election system with verifiable voting. No vote should be allowed to be counted which cannot be recounted. And the obscene misuse of computers in counting, scanning and aggregating counts of votes must be banned, to be replaced by totally reliable, verifiable, trustworthy methods—so our democracy is restored and we will have a real, solid election technology that is so good that other countries import it.

See you on the streets.

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION

Rob Kall is editor of www.OpEdNews.com. Read over 150 of his articles at Rob Kall's article archive Read his blog at www.opednews.com/robsblog.htm Rob lives in Bucks County PA , which, went for John Kerry in the 2004 election.