BuzzFlash
presents Southern Style
by Rebecca Knight
October 7, 2002
The Calm Before The Storm
Southern
Style
by Rebecca Knight
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running and robbing the country. That's our problem."
-- Howard Zinn
Here we are just a few short weeks from perhaps the most critical midterm elections in our history and the "war chickenhawks" continue to push their demands. Their portfolio on international diplomacy is quite lacking in substance and so is their evidence against Iraq. They cannot find a foreign nation to back their war, except for Great Britain, without some type of bribery, whether monetary or weapons. Still they demand that Congress debate and pass resolutions of historical importance allowing Bush a free hand to use military force.
Why? Why now? We know the answer is to distract from concerns more relevant to the American people in order to sway votes in the upcoming elections. We also know the answer is to achieve American dominance over the world, especially in the oil rich Middle East. Their motives are extremely transparent, selfish, and morally wrong.
Bush has found the perfect vehicle for perpetually high approval ratings. Sure, he learned the lesson of his father whose approval ratings dropped like a lead balloon when the Gulf War ended and the American people awoke to find they did not like his domestic policies after all.
Perpetual war equals perpetually high approval ratings. This tactic may work under present circumstances because the "evil doers" are not easily identified and the success of war against such vague enemies is not easy to gauge. It is a simple political equation, but it is blatantly immoral and unethical. It is callous beyond belief. It is the true "evil."
Bush will address the nation today regarding the case against Iraq and Congress is set to okay a war resolution. Meanwhile, global economic crisis fears are mounting. The economic problems of the United States are urgently in need of attention. Yet, the Bush administration has no plan to address this crisis. No, weeks before an election we must rush to war!
Al Gore made a speech on the urgent nature of the economic situation, which was dismissed by the mainstream media as political posturing. Of course they dismiss it. Of course they attack the messenger, rather than address the message. It is a game of political posturing, but Al Gore is not the guilty party. George W. Bush is the guilty party and the mainstream media is his support system.
Read Al Gore's speech here: http://www.algore04.com/news/gnn/EpFFVlpkVFUcrOLFuk.shtml
As this piece is being written, a poll is available on the CNN web site. At this moment nearly 20,000 people have participated and the results indicate that 62% think the economy is the most important campaign issue. 15% think Iraq is most important and 23% think the war on terror is the top priority. While hardly a scientific poll, this is indicative that the American people are not being fooled.
So, what can we, the average American citizen, do about this situation? Can we make a difference? Only time will tell, but one thing is certain. We must speak out loudly and forcefully against what is taking place in our country and what will eventually take place in our name throughout the world. Now is the time for us to mobilize and become activists as never before. We can stand up for what we believe in and prove that we still have a voice in this country!
Yesterday, thousands peacefully protested against the Bush war in cities all across our nation. Women in high heels and designer jeans, men in business suits and ties stood against war with students in t-shirts and Birkenstocks. People of all ages, all socioeconomic groups, all faiths, and all races stood unified as one. This is what must happen.
We must use whatever tools at our disposal, our Internet access, our keyboards, our telephones, our legs, our feet, and most of all our voices to stand up against what we know to be wrong. Stand up FOR what we know to be right.
Early last week it was reported that phone calls to Congress were heavily opposed to the war on Iraq. Of twenty-six Congressional offices of both parties contacted, twenty-two responded that calls were 90% against the war. Will they listen? We must make them!
Call Congress toll free at this number: 1-800-839-5276. Call in support of a filibuster against Bush's war in Iraq. Because Gephardt agreed with the President recently, George W. Bush may get a blank check for war with Iraq.
Call with your opinions. Call your Congressperson and your Senators. Call Congressional leaders such as Daschle, Gephardt, Byrd, Lieberman, Kennedy, etc.
Ask them to support any effort to delay a vote until after the November elections. Tell them if they plan to vote for any of the resolutions being debated, please vote for Senator Levin's Resolution, which will rule out a pre-emptive strike without the support of the United Nations.
E-mail
Senator Robert Byrd with your support for his efforts against the Bush
rush to war with Iraq. senator_byrd@byrd.senate.gov
E-mail, fax, or write your elected officials. Find their contact addresses here: http://www.capwiz.com/lwv/dbq/officials/
or here: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
or here: http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm
or here: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
or here: http://www.yourcongress.com/
Check here for scheduled anti-war protests: http://www.votermarch.org/events.htm
More activist web sites:
World Wide Peace Events
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/No War With Iraq
http://thenation.com/directory/view.mhtml?t=040307Citizens for Tax Justice
http://www.ctj.org/Moving Ideas
http://www.movingideas.org/National Priorities Project
http://www.natprior.org/The Public Eye
http://www.publiceye.org/index.htmCommon Cause
http://www.commoncause.org/League of Women Voters
http://www.lwv.org/Not In Our Name
http://www.notinourname.net/
Little by little life is changing in America and we would do well to heed the following words regarding the incremental fascism that led to Nazi Germany:
"Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about...and kept us so busy with continuous changes and crises and so fascinated...by the machinations of the national enemies, without and within, that we had no time to think about those dreadful things that were growing, little by little all around us...Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, regretted, that...unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these little measures...must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing than a farmer in his field sees corn growing...Each act...is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow. You don't want to act, or even talk, alone; you don't want to go out of your way to make trouble...And it is not just fear...that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty...And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can't prove it...But the one great shocking occasion when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That's the difficulty...The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed...You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things your father...could never have imagined."
- Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free; The Germans, 1938-45
Ladies and gentlemen it is time. It is time that we wake up and rise up. Do not go silently. Do not go gently. Do not go along with the uninformed, brainwashed masses. Do not wait for someone else to take your stand. Take it for yourself! Take it for your children! Take it for your grandchildren! Take it for generation after generation to come! Take it as your forefathers took it for you! For if we fail in this hour, in this fight, future generations may not know the America that we have known and loved.
Right now things appear to be relatively calm, but we know a storm is coming!
* * *
Rebecca Knight is a native Tennessean, who grew up in Nashville, and currently resides in a small town near Nashville. Ms. Knight's political awareness evolved through the civil rights movement, the Vietnam era, the Watergate era, and the cold war. The debacle of the 2000 election increased her sense of responsibility for political activism. You may contact Rebecca Knight via e-mail at tennessee_gal655@yahoo.com.
© 2002 by Rebecca Knight
