A New Year’s resolution: To do what I can to end the Iraq war and occupation.
To do something, even if it’s something small, to try to accomplish something big.
It takes a leap of faith, in 2008, to believe that anything you do can make a difference. After nearly five years of being ignored by the Bush administration and the Congress, many are disillusioned and/or cynical.
But, for the most part, they are still planning to vote.
If you believe that your one vote will make a difference in this country’s direction, why wouldn’t you believe that your one voice against the war can also make a difference?
When I wrote recently about the Iraq Moratorium , some readers responded that protests are meaningless or even counterproductive.
Protests not your thing? Fine. Do something else. Contact a member of Congress. Help an antiwar candidate. Wear a button. Whatever. Let a million ideas and individual actions bloom. But do something.
That’s what’s attractive about the Iraq Moratorium, a national umbrella uniting people and groups who want to bring the troops home. There is no “one size fits all” philosophy. There are no rules. People are encouraged to do their own thing. But they are encouraged to do something, and, whatever it is, to do it on the Third Friday of every month.
The Iraq Moratorium website collects information about past and future actions across the country and makes it accessible so people can share ideas and tactics and support and inspire one another.
Since Moratorium #1 in September, there have been several hundred actions in about 30 states, ranging from simple vigils to rallies and marches challenging war profiteers. The next round is scheduled on Friday, Jan. 18, and organizers are beginning now to list their plans on the website.
But group actions are just a part of the Iraq Moratorium. Individuals can take part, too, by doing something on the Third Friday of every month, whether it’s wearing a button or armband to work or school, putting up a sign, writing a letter to the editor, or dozens of other possibilities.
It would be nice if folks would sign the simple pledge on the website:
I hereby make a commitment that on the Third Friday of each and every month, I will break my daily routine and take some action, by myself or with others, to end the War in Iraq.
But even that formality isn’t necessary.
All you need to do is do something, once a month.
The Pentagon and the war machine will operates 24/7/366 this Leap Year.
How about resolving to spend a small amount of time, once a month, to try to make a difference?
Happy New Year.
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It should have hundreds of thousands of people if not millions involved on the third Friday of each month. After all, is there any single issue more important than ending the insane war in Iraq? And don’t the US people agree that the war should be ended by a large majority? But, unfortunately, the IM movement isn’t big. It is hardly noticed by the traditional media. It’s not going, I’m afraid, to end the war all by itself.
Something is seriously wrong that the war is permitted to continue, to be re-funded without timelines, to kill thousands and maim tens of thousands of others. And something is seriously wrong that there is no huge, passionate mass movement throwing itself into the cogs of the war machine.
I’m resolving to do what I can. I hope Dharmaniacs will join me.
I read that Gen. Patraeus is planning to start reducing troops in 2008.
Priorities, you know!
Sickening, sickening stuff we’ve had rammed down our throats. Even with all the revelations of all the false premises for going to war, it continues on and is still funded, as davidseth has said. Looks like they (the gov.) are all on the same page, except for those like Kucinich (and signators to his Impeachment resolution), Wexler, Feingold, and Durbin.
Keeping up the voices loud and clear helps to keep the pressure on the people in D.C., so we’ve all got to do as much as we can in any way that we can.
Thanks, Xofferson.
Happy New Year to you!
and completely agree with your assessment of the potential of protesting. We can’t know what impact each protest will have. Unforseeable things occur and sometimes the point being made is too large to ignore, like if they convict Watada and the vet groups shut down all the gates to that base in Washington like they are going to do if Watada is ever convicted…..now that is power in protesting and don’t think the people claiming to be in charge don’t understand this shit 😉 It isn’t going to be one thing that ends the Iraq occupation, man if it was that easy I would have found that one thing by now and done it half a million times. It is much like rehabbing New Orleans is….it isn’t going to be one thing – it’s lots of things and you doing that thing while I do this thing while we share a common goal and common dreams and common idealogy. Iraq is already done too in my opinion just like Katrina already destroyed a great deal of NOLA. All we can do now is repair and it’s lots of repairs and we can learn and the difficulty required does mean a deeper learning none of us is ever going to forget from this point to our graves about not filling in our coastal marshlands so people can build strip malls and not letting assholes from hell lie us into make believe wars no matter how traumatized we are. We were afraid of the boogieman and he really was out there, sitting in the White House with many many friends.
10,000 paper cuts later. Shutting up is not an option.
Thanks, xofferson, for reminding, reminding, reminding.