One Evil Empire Down, One To Go

Lede picture:

Subhead:

On 1/31/08, 1:45 p.m., an activist named Steve Chase e-mailed me the following ...

"Some feel we may not even have 'elections' at all. Bush will declare himself king with Cheney as court regent. What do you think? How can we cope?

Body:

... well, once I wrote Chase back, it occured to me that my response to him should be shared with the masses, so here goes:

Professor Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, said it best, "The ultimate solution is not with the people on top. The ultimate solution is for people in the streets to create an atmosphere for people on top to be accountable." In other words, everything from Uncle Tom's Cabin to Animal Farm; from the Boston Tea Party to the Battle of Seattle are CONSTANT forms of democracy that can AND SHOULD occur AT ANY GIVEN TIME. So you cope by fighting back with everything you've got! The dream of every samurai is to die a heroic death, which is why I envy Fred Hampton and Archbishop Óscar Romero, for what is a hero but a martyr that lives?

Elections are only OCCASIONAL forms of democracy, which are highly overrated. And speaking of overrated, I'm more afraid of Obama winning, actually. The last thing I need is for white folks to get it in their heads that him winning the White House is an indication that any black man can make it, no matter how deprived of funding he is. "We don't need to tax the rich and cut the military budget to create jobs, all we need to do is point out how Obama rose to the top -- that'll magically/instantly take care of black unemployment!"

Every time I see Obama and Hillary I'm reminded of two other imperialists -- Colin Powell and Margaret Thatcher (ask them about Iran and Pakistan if you think I'm being too harsh), and their imperialism accounts for why a woman and someone black are currently frontrunners. Meanwhile, white men like Kucinich and Edwards are paradoxically considered "unelectable." This doesn't mean we're living in a colorblind utopia, it simply means the color that matters most is green -- as in the greenbacks of defense contractors -- because Kucinich and Edwards would've taxed the rich and cut the military budget!

The price of liberty is ETERNAL vigilance, and when you forget history, it repeats itself. Therefore, hibernating like bears (playing video games, worrying about Britney Spears, same thing) for three and a half years, voting for the lesser-of-two-evils and then repeating the cycle ad nauseam is NOT democracy and it sure as Hell doesN'T give you the right to pat yourself on the back while smugly claiming, "Well, at least I don't live in Cuba!" Sure, Castro's a dictator, but at least the Cubans get free colleges and free, universal health care. What do WE get out of OUR dictatorship?

The ideal, of course, is Amsterdam, but depending on who you're talking to, trying to explain that you can have BOTH free speech AND free health care SIMULTANEOUSLY can be as difficult as explaining that a white woman can marry a black man without the world coming to an end ...

If Emperor Cheney makes it official and uses another 9-11 as a rationale for staying in power, no one will be happier than moi, because it'll unite the planet just as sure as First Contact with extraterrestrials would. On February 15th, 2003, global demonstrations took place against the impending invasion of Iraq. These involved between six and thirty million people and were listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as including the largest anti-war rally in history. In reaction, New York Times writer Patrick Tyler wrote in a February 17th article that: "The huge anti-war demonstrations around the world this weekend are reminders that there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion."

Sure, it'd suck being under martial law, but think of it this way, sometimes addicts have to hit rock bottom before realizing they need help. And Dubya himself admitted during the 2006 State of the Union address that, "America is addicted to oil."

Besides, the C.I.A. has violently replaced legitimate, democratically elected presidents with genocidal corporate puppets for decades. Iran, Guatemala, the Congo, Indonesia, Chile, the list goes on and on. So maybe this is karma; maybe it's OUR turn to live under an iron thumb.

It's like Michael Moore said at the end of the Cold War, and at the end of his documentary, The Big One, "One evil empire down, one to go."

... THERE'S A STALKER ALERT IN EFFECT ...

http://www.saablofton.org/announcement.html

... I REPEAT, THERE'S A STALKER ALERT IN EFFECT ...

Affiliate:

COA Contributor [0]

teaser:

... well, once I wrote Chase back, it occured to me that my response to him should be shared with the masses, so here goes: Professor Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, said it best, "The ultimate solution is not with the people on top. The ultimate solution is for people in the streets to create an atmosphere for people on top to be accountable." In other words, everything from Uncle Tom's Cabin to Animal Farm; from the Boston Tea Party to the Battle of Seattle are CONSTANT forms of democracy that can AND SHOULD occur AT ANY GIVEN TIME. So you cope by fighting back with everything you've got! The dream of every samurai is to die a heroic death, which is why I envy Fred Hampton and Archbishop Óscar Romero, for what is a hero but a martyr that lives?