( – promoted by buhdydharma )
Change we can believe in is on the march in America.
Security Guards Do Nothing as 15-Year-Old Girl Is Beaten . . .
The 15-year-old girl thought the three security guards in the Seattle bus tunnel would protect her from attack. She was wrong. The guards watched and did nothing as the girl was punched, thrown to the ground, kicked repeatedly in the face and then robbed. The Seattle Times published an editorial shortly after a video of the beating was released Wednesday condemning the inaction of the guards and questioning the multibillion-dollar contract the transit authority has with private security firms. The editorial asked, what are the taxpayers paying for?
Private security guards doing nothing, that’s what they’re paying for. Congressmen and Senators doing nothing, that’s what they’re paying for. A President doing nothing, that’s what they’re paying for. Middle class Americans thought their government would protect them, but for 30 years, they’ve been punched, thrown to the ground, kicked repeatedly in the face and then robbed.
It’s called the Two Party System.
It’s the sacred foundation of modern American “democracy” and demonstrates for all the world to see that except for the systemic failure of every institution in America, we live in the most stable and enlightened society on earth.
In Here There Be Monsters, William Rivers Pitt warns about the systemic failure of public school administrators to protect children from beatings and bullying in America’s public schools. . . .
A fact underscored by a recent story out of my home state of Massachusetts. A 15-year-old girl named Phoebe Prince was mercilessly bullied and tormented by her classmates, until she finally snapped and took her own life. Hundreds of angry parents, worried teachers and even terrorized kids are reporting ugly episodes of brutal bullying at schools across Massachusetts as the heart-wrenching case of Phoebe Prince continues to expose a painful nerve. It’s a toxic cauldron of abuse that parents fear could land their children in the same no-win corner as Phoebe Prince.
And, in a constant refrain, they all say nobody in power cares. “Nobody listens. It seems like you’re talking to the wall unless you have $1 million,” said a Cohasset dad who said his boy is picked on constantly. “Put that on the front page.”
NOBODY IN POWER CARES. That banner headline should be on the front page of every newspaper in America. It should be the lead story in every newscast, the only story in every newscast. NOBODY IN POWER CARES. That says it all, the rest is just gory details.
America’s schools are becoming a toxic cauldron of abuse. America’s political system is a toxic cauldron of abuse, America’s economic system is a toxic cauldron of abuse, this whole country is a toxic cauldron of abuse. But no one’s going to put that godawful truth on the front page of the New York Times or Washington Post, no one’s going to put that on the front page of any “newspaper” because the corporate thugs who do the abusing own them, they own the TV stations, they own the radio stations, they own the magazines, and all the scribblers who work for them scribble what they’re told to scribble and call it news.
Well they won’t be scribbling much longer. Old media is dying. New media is being born. A nationwide call for social justice is going to resonate across this country, the song of We the People is going to be heard. Everyone’s song is going to be heard. So dry your eyes and take your song out, it’s a newborn afternoon . . .
The song of We the People must be sung, it must be heard. Everywhere. Because there are too many Phoebe Princes, there are too many silenced victims, too many people with no chance, no hope, no one to defend them.
So progressives will. Because we believe what Bobby Kennedy believed . . .
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the
lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny
ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers
of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep
down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
Every progressive is center of energy and daring, a center of truth, a center of empowerment within the concentric circle of We the People. So from each center of that circle, to the midst of the waiting crowd . . .
Sing the song of We the People.
Sing the song of Empowerment.
Sing the Song of Social Justice.
Sing it like you know he’d want it.
Sing it long and sing it loud.
Here on Docudharma, at Antemedius, at The Wild, Wild Left, on every progressive blog. In the streets of Washington D.C., on every street in America, wherever it must be heard, wherever it must be sung.
Bobby showed us how. He taught us more about giving . . .
than we ever cared to know. But we’re here to find the secret, and we’ll never let it go.
And it’s more than being holy, though it’s less than being free.
Be the change you know is needed, be the change this world must see.
Sing the song of We the People.
Right through the lightning and the thunder,
To the dark side of the moon,
To that distant falling angel . . .
Who descended much too soon.
Dry your eyes and play it slowly, like you’re marching off to war. Because you are. You’re a soldier on a battlefield, fighting a war for America’s soul. So sing the song of We the People, sing it long and sing it loud, like we sang it once before.
12 comments
Skip to comment form
Author
Sing it from the center of the circle,
To the midst of the waiting crowd,
So it never is forgotten,
Sing it long and sing it loud.
What was their training for these situations? Who pays if they are injured while working?
All I’m saying is don’t automatically blame the guards, like Bill O’Reilly did last night.
They and the corporatists fear the “New Media” because they don’t control it. Yet. They pay for their propaganda because there is no other way for them to inculcate thought worms (memes) into the public mind.
What is awe inspiring is in every poll, in nearly every corner of the land, Republicans in government and their corporatist allies are deeply unpopular. The only refuge they have is the “old media” and the internet pockets they inhabit.
People describe themselves as conservatives, centrists, or liberals, but when you get to the issues, yes, the long neglected issues, an overwhelming majority of Americans want this kind of shit fixed. Not years from now, not in 2016, but soon — and they’re demanding that people fix it and be seen to be working to fix it.
And aside from the tiny screaming fringe right, no one cares if you serve your country while gay, and no one cares to make a woman getting an abortion to be the most pressing issue Americans face.
Solutions that work — that actually will do something to improve the lives of average everyday Americans — these are liberal solutions.
In Weimar America, there are two dangers. One is that of Nazi Germany — of a faux-populist corporate backed far right extremist movement getting power (aka “teabaggers”) – or the do-nothingism of the moribund, leading to Banana Republic America. Moribund Republicans, centrists or liberal Democrats — makes NO difference.
The third choice is the true populist, “radical” liberal choice. There are no other choices. I hope America makes the right one.
the optimism with which you ended your diary, but it just seems like we’ve all got front-row tickets for the collapse of a great empire. I’m going to do what I can to fight it, as I know you and many others here will, all in our own way, but I fear that there are far too few of us to right this country. I hope I’m wrong.
Almost anything can happen. People do know that their systems are breaking down — by now it is obvious. People are beginning to sense that they are a captive people rather than a free people — but it hasn’t quite formed into anything coherent. Is there enough cultural strength left to handle the biggest hurdle we’ve ever faced in our history?
We live in a time that is completely unprecedented — mankind has never faced what we face today.
My son is currently in a huge war with a developer. A form of his story actually made local and national news under the title of ‘man grafittis his own home’, (I don’t know how to link or I would!). He colored his world/house, (artists came and did some of the paintings), because of what the developer did to his property and no one in authority would help him. He wanted a reprieve so he made lemonade out of lemons.
Your words ‘NOBODY IN POWER CARES’ is what I have been saying in every email and letter I write that has to do with what happened to him. Your diary today was something I needed to see. I am so proud of my son, a David fighting Goliath. He is still facing lawsuits and jail time if he doesn’t join the Homeowners Association with rules that only the DHS would love.
Mary
The dumbing and numbing down of Americans!
Sorry, sorry state of affairs for our children — who are simply not safe to begin with, and now security guards are so desensitized that they don’t even react to a youth being beaten? No one in their right mind would simply watch such a spectacle and DO NOTHING about it!
Everything is inner-connected, in my view.
Bullyism was unleashed with Bush and it trickled down to just about every level of society. Torturing people is O.K. Police brutality! I could go on! Inaction of Principals in their schools — INACTION is another form of “brutality.” Or, of security guards, as we’ve seen here. Maybe, some of these people were even chosen for their jobs for being desensitized in the first place — yes, a kind of mercenary in our own country.
Failure to follow the laws, national and international and bring war criminals to the fore for their war criminality, as a nation of people continue to grieve the daily losses that once made up the American society.
A country that has become lawless, doing at it pleases. Examples set!
What happens to people when there are war crimes committed and nothing done to bring them face to face with the law? What happens to people when there are crimes committed by the likes of Wall Street and nothing is done to bring them face to face with the law? What happens to people when police commit brutality and get away with it? What happens to people when private prisons torture their inmates and get away with it? Well, you know — one could go on with endless examples.
Think back to our sense of hope for Impeachment, when we were finally “betrayed” and that hope dashed!
When there is NOTHING to correct the crimes of all these criminal behaviors and IT IS ALL GOTTEN AWAY WITH, it serves to cause a desensitization in people and that may be the intent. STFU and swallow it ALL! Like walking past a blind person begging daily and people finally become desensitized to his plight — it happens all the time. When people have screamed and screamed about all of these crimes to their representatives and nothing is done, and their voices muted — what happens to people? It is in this way that oppression of people is achieved, a “numbing” down, so to speak. And, then there are those who cannot be desensitized or numbed, but continue to be enraged, enraged at crimes committed and unhindered in the perseverance of their criminal behavior. Are there enough of those such people? We can only hope so!