Chris Hedges writes:
On Dec. 16 I will join Daniel Ellsberg, Medea Benjamin, Ray McGovern and several military veteran activists outside the White House to protest the futile and endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of us will, after our rally in Lafayette Park, attempt to chain ourselves to the fence outside the White House. It is a pretty good bet we will all spend a night in jail. Hope, from now on, will look like this.
Hope is not trusting in the ultimate goodness of Barack Obama, who, like Herod of old, sold out his people. It is not having a positive attitude or pretending that happy thoughts and false optimism will make the world better. Hope is not about chanting packaged campaign slogans or trusting in the better nature of the Democratic Party. Hope does not mean that our protests will suddenly awaken the dead consciences, the atrophied souls, of the plutocrats running Halliburton, Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil or the government.
Hope does not mean we will halt the firing in Afghanistan of the next Hellfire missile, whose explosive blast sucks the oxygen out of the air and leaves the dead, including children, scattered like limp rag dolls on the ground. Hope does not mean we will reform Wall Street swindlers and speculators, or halt the pillaging of our economy as we print $600 billion in new money with the desperation of all collapsing states. Hope does not mean that the nation’s ministers and rabbis, who know the words of the great Hebrew prophets, will leave their houses of worship to practice the religious beliefs they preach. Most clerics like fine, abstract words about justice and full collection plates, but know little of real hope.
Hope knows that unless we physically defy government control we are complicit in the violence of the state. All who resist keep hope alive. All who succumb to fear, despair and apathy become enemies of hope.
Can’t remember when I’ve been so affected by words on a page. I shall read them as an inspirational opening at my weekly discussion group. These activists, plus Asange, do their utmost to save lives – unlike our leaders and too many followers.
Consider that the ranks of those without the safety net, is growing each day. Also each day, the government plots with private industry to erode the civil rights of all Americans. Interesting that there has been no uproar about all the Congressional people, the POTUS and the other underlings, to undergo the debasing inspections in order to fly the friendly skies, soon coming to a Bus, Train, perhaps even to a State Border where the T.S.A. will have stationed the minions to further abuse Male/Female/Children even Seniors, branding them as possible terrorists. The leaders of this country are either paranoid, see spooks in every corner, which makes them a threat to civilization as a whole, or else are participating in the biggest flimflam perpetrated in the history of mankind. Which ever way it is, it’s not healthy for the public well being. The Greed of power has engulfed the leaders in the country as well as the business community. The mantra seems to be; “Screw the people & steal as much & as fast as you can”. Hoping that things will change, is like believing that one morning one will wake up to seeing the whole lot of them have been transported to some alien planet on the other side of the Galaxy. Unless the protests grow exponentially, the quicker the better, we will all become slaves to the few.
Laurie – I share your opinion of Hedges. There are voices which cut through all the muck and clatter, speaking directly to our hearts and minds, and Hedges is one of them.
Excerpts of a speech he gave during the bombardment of Gaza nearly two years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQWUbPN4ooM