Patriot or Terrorist: You Decide

Yesterday we wrote about Desiree Farooz and Code Pink, an organization dedicated to restoring sanity in our Nation's Capitol.

These courageous women continue to stage outrageous protests in the halls of Congress, interrupting hearings and speeches, pulling the masks off of false patriots and tearing down the "decorations" of democracy.

Recently, a commenter on one of our blogs wrote this about Farooz confronting Secretary Rice:

"In our society, people like Desiree Farooz are not helping to get the appropriate messages across. People tend to look as people like that "crazy" or "deranged" and will dismiss it. There are more appropriate and assertive ways to get her message across. I do not think her actions were courageous at all but more inappropriate and already forgotten. She did not get her message across effectively to everyone sitting in that room. The other people in the video are not appropriate either. I work with families and children in expressing themselves in effective manners so they can make a difference. These videos show people who are out of control and unable to stand up and REALLY fight for what they want. To me, that is truly disheartening."

An article in today's RainbowZine reminds us that:

"The true patriots are not defined by their enthusiasm for the victories of American militarists, but by their devotion to those principles for which –as we declare every Memorial Day– so many Americans have laid down their lives: principles of limited government, human rights, and the rule of law.

The true patriots are not those who wrap themselves in the banner descended from what Betsy Ross sewed, but those who carry forth that “Spirit of ‘76″ enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the spirit that made our forebears willing –in the name of liberty and of the proposition that governments are instituted to serve the people and derive their just powers from the people’s consent–to put their lives on the line."

Have modern Americans come to believe the American Revolutionaries (aka our founding "fathers") were nothing more than quaint, polite old men in white wigs who practiced non-violence and used Roberts Rules of Order to debate control of the American Colonies from the British?

After a little more than two hundred years, Americans have become so complacent that we simply cannot see the fascism that is brewing right under our noses.

Is the necessary result of all of these years of "freedom" and "democracy" (the quotes are a reminder that although we have had the dream, the ideals have not yet come to pass) have created a country full of people who no longer recognize their duty as citizens to hold elected officials to account?

These radical times call for radical action and most American's are either blind, ignorant or brainwashed about the history of this country and the sacrifices that were made to get and keep it.

In the words (again) of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr:

"Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling, for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood."

The decision to participate or not in the General Strike scheduled for November 6, 2007, is each of ours to make.

For us, it all comes down to the old adage, "one person's terrorist is another person's patriot."

We happen to believe Farooz and the women of Code Pink are patriots and we only hope to be as courageous as they have been.

ARE YOU READY TO DO SOMETHING??

Disheartened...

Thats how we feel about the response we received from yesterday's post about a General Strike on November 6, 2007.

Each day we cross-post our article on our MySpace blog and yesterday, someone commented on the post by asking what good a one-day strike would do?

Not only is the comment disheartening, it is SO sad!

It just proves how demoralized and hopeless we all feel to do anything to stop the forces that are destroying our country, our economy, and our environment.

In today's news and on the web there is a video being circulated that shows Desiree Farooz, a Code Pink protestor, who was able to confront Condaleezza Rice up close and personal, while holding up “blood-stained” hands. She yelled that Rice is a “war criminal” who should be tried at the Hague as she was literally dragged out of the hearing room. Watch:



Not everyone has the ovaries to take such courageous in-your-face kind action. We admire and appreciate Farooz and Code Pink for their willingness to actually do something.

Instead of sending money to the Democratic Party or to an individual candidate running for office, we are going to send a few bucks to Code Pink for their tenacity and willingness to do our dirty work.

Clearly they are putting themselves on the line. They no doubt need all the help they can get for bail and possibly medical treatment after getting wrestled to the ground and arrested over and over again.

The least we can do to add fuel to their fire is to join in the general strike planned for November 6!

Here is a short video to help remind us about why -- as citizens -- we need to DO something!

A CALL FOR A GENERAL STRIKE ON NOVEMBER 6TH, 2007!

Are you horrified -- even outraged -- about what is happening in America and around the world today?

Are you frustrated that your elected officials -- even the Democrats -- are unable or unwilling to do anything real to:

• Stop the war;
• Reduce greenhouse gases;
• Extend health care to all;
• Improve education;
• Protect jobs;
• Prevent monopoly control over the media;
• Protect citizens -- especially children -- from tainted food and other products;
• Prevent the ever-widening income gap between the haves and have-nots;
• Stop State-sanctioned gay-bashing?
  

Are you sick of the lies, the torture, the illegal spying, the extraordinary rendition, the ineptitude and the Corporate control over American policy and law?

Do you feel like there is NOTHING you can do about it?

Well, then, why not DO NOTHING for ONE DAY?

Will you participate in a GENERAL STRIKE on November 6th, 2007?

On this day:

• Do not go to work;
• Do not go to school;
• Do not shop;
• Do not drive.

There is only one thing we hope you will do in the days leading up to the strike: call or write to your representatives in Congress and your local media -- newspaper, radio and TV stations to tell them of your participation and why. Make sure you are COUNTED!

The general strike is the brainchild of Garret Keizer who got the idea:

"because for the past six and a half years I have heard the people I love best—family members, friends, former students and parishioners—saying, “I’m sick over what’s happening to our country, but I just don’t know what to do.” Might I be pardoned if, fearing civil disorder less than I fear civil despair, I said, “Well, we could do this.” It has been done before and we could do this. And I do believe we could. If anyone has a better idea, I’m keen to hear it. Only don’t tell me what some presidential hopeful ought to do someday. Tell me what the people who have nearly lost their hope can do right now."

If you really want to do something, then please participate in this (in)action and spread the word!

Not the Be All And ENDAll, But Better Than Nothing

Today -- or at the latest, tomorrow -- the full House of Representatives will vote on whether or not to extend protections from employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The bill, known as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007 (ENDA), prohibits employment discrimination against an individual on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation by employers, employment agencies, labor organizations, or joint labor-management committees.

Contrary to the lies being spread by anti-equality wing-nuts, the Bill does NOT extend preferential treatment to LGB employees. In other words, there are no "special rights."

And, despite what they are saying otherwise, religious organizations and the US military are free to go on discriminating against us with abandon!

If you ever said to yourself, "I want to make a difference" -- now is your BIG opportunity!

There is a good chance this legislation will pass but first we must overcome the objections raised by the hundreds of thousands of bigoted sheeple who will also -- upon orders from their leaders -- be writing and calling to attempt to defeat this legislation.

ENDA may not be the be all and ENDAll but it is just one more rail on the track to equal rights.

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE RIGHT NOW!

It's so easy, even a caveman can do it!

Gay Bashing: It's All the Rage

On Saturday, we wrote about the wing-nut, bi-coastal hate-fest where hundreds of homophobes were gathering to show their unity and determination to keep you and your family from enjoying the same legal rights and protections that are granted to heterosexual citizens.

We wouldn’t need give these numbskulls an ounce of our energy if they were not successful luring all Republican -- and many Democratic -- presidential candidates to their side of the marriage equality issue.

And what exactly is their side? According to Scott Lively, co-founder of the group Watchmen on the Walls:

“We view homosexuals like we view alcoholics: unfortunate people trapped in a bad lifestyle. Like alcoholics, they should have the right, if they reject therapy, to enjoy privacy in their own homes. But they should not be allowed to publicly recruit others to their lifestyle. Pubic advocacy of homosexuality should be, like public drunkenness, culturally discouraged to minimize its impact on society.”

Crazy as it sounds, these hate-based fringe groups continue to hold sway over what lawmakers do and say.

Just yesterday, Tony Perkins, who heads up the anti-gay group American Family Association (AFA), announced that he had a private meeting with Rudy Giuliani who promised – as president -- he would support an amendment to the US Constitution to ban equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.

And recently, Barack Obama revealed that he would be touring South Carolina with the “notorious gay basher, gospel singer Donnie McClurkin.”

According to author and political analyst, Earl Ofari Hutchenson:

“The Grammy winning black gospel singer's last effort on the political scene was his song and shill for Bush's reelection at the Republican National Convention in 2004. Obama has hitched his string to McClurkin's high flying gay bash kite in part out of religious belief (he purports to be somewhat of an evangelical), in bigger part because he's falling further and further behind Hillary Clinton with the black vote in South Carolina and everywhere else, and in the biggest part of all because he hopes that what worked for Bush's reelection will work for him.”

Everyone knows that gay-bashing is the easiest way to score points with bigots of every color. Opposing rights for LGBTQ families is a cheap shot. Maintaining a system of separate and unequal access to civil rights hurts the whole society.

This group of wing-nuts is actually made up of many smaller, separate groups of political and religious intolerance. While they are able to coalesce around their shared hatred for you and me, if given the slightest chance to turn on each other for their differences, rest assured, they will!

That is why all of us, the gay, the lesbian, the bisexual, the transgendered, the transsexual, queer, questioning and our allies, must stand together for the rights of each other instead of letting lawmakers give rights to some, but not all of us – as in the recent draft of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which excludes transgendered people from its umbrella of protection.