Citizen’s Arrest

Citizen’s Arrest – Andy Griffith Show

Arrest Warrant for Bush/Cheney

What do ya Say Folks, Defend The Constitution, Or Stay In The Gutter, goin down the storm drain, They Placed Our Country and Citizens!!

True Majority

Next week, the eyes of the world will be on Pennsylvania as the Democratic and Republican primaries approach and the candidates debate. This is our chance to bring our campaign to the attention of the political establishment. Next week we will launch an advertising campaign in Pennsylvania with one simple message– Condi Rice must resign as Secretary of State.

“Given new revelations that Condoleezza Rice chaired the meetings approving specific torture techniques, she can not continue as Secretary of State.” Secretary of State Rice Must Resign”

Hillary’s Support Is Sliding

from the very beginning Hillary has had the women’s vote and it has been her staunchest supports.  But wait! She seems to be losing that part of the electorate, at least in Pennsylvania. Clinton’s strongest core of support – white women – is beginning to erode in Pennsylvania, the site of the critical April 22 Democratic presidential primary, and a loss here could effectively end her White House run.

A Quinnipiac University survey taken April 3-6 in Pennsylvania found that Clinton’s support fell 6 percentage points in a week among white women. Nationally, a Lifetime Networks poll of women found that 26 percent said they liked Clinton less now than in January, while only 15 percent said they liked her more.

But why would she be losing their support?  It is best summed up by a 50 something voter from Pennsylvania, “I do not like the way Hillary Clinton has run her campaign”.  Thjis has got to be a concern to the campaign.  She entered into Pennsylvania with a 17 pt lead over Obama and now she has only a 6 pt or so lead.

I realize that polls are like anuses (?) everyone has one.  But, IMO, if she does not win big in Pennsylvania, then North Carolina and Indiana become make or break.  I really do not see her making it past those, no matter how much bravado she exhibits.

Obama convinced me today

sort of cross posting from the GOS ..

Barack’s statement today about the anger of the people who are not even in his base of support, and more importantly his response to the fawning McCain and Clinton campaigns as they spun to the PA electorate convinced me.

Obama’s ready to stand and fight for what he believes in.

I might not always agree with exactly what it is, that which Barack Obama believes in, but I am sick to death of leaders who will not stand up for what they believe, especially Democrats. What I saw today shows me without a doubt this man has the self determination and pride to stand for what he thinks is right.

I’ve seen enough of the guy to realize he does offer a set of viewpoints that are closer to mine than John McCain’s, easily and he has eclipsed Hillary Clinton because he has cut through the BS, and has let truth speak.

I may not always agree with his viewpoints, it would be too much to ask. But as time has progressed, I have seen the candidate take on challenges and do so directly, and honestly. That’s a mark of a leader, a person who can be trusted to stay true to himself. There’s some sort of personal integrity aspect to Barack Obama I am beginning to like, more and more.

As I told our fellow rabble rousers over in Orangeville, that doesn’t mean I’m hopping on the Bash Hillary and Bill bus.  

Action: Democracy for Zimbabwe

If you are not a member of Avaaz.org you should be. There are on the forefront of the global fight for justice and make it easy to help out in big or small ways.

There latest campaign is about one of the most pressing issues in the world right now. The situation in Zimbabwe. Generally the people on this site are well informed so I will assume you are up to date with what has been happening. Essentially Robert Mugabe’s government has withheld the results of the national elections–and threatens to use violence and fraud to hold on to power. They want immunity for there criminal acts before they hand over power (sound familiar?) but if they don’t get it they are willing to go on with their repressive regime that is crippling the people of Zimbabwe.

Mugabe has resisted international pressure so far–but South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki, who is a close freind of Mugabe’s, might listen. A global outcry is needed to ensure that Mbeki knows his status as a global and regional leader is on the line: the world is turning to him to help bring justice for the people of Zimbabwe.

So Avaaz has launched a petition that reads as follows:

Petition to Robert Mugabe, Thabo Mbeki, and world leaders:

We sign to support the democratic and human rights of the people of Zimbabwe. Election results must be released immediately, verified independently, and–if approved as legitimate–accepted by all parties. If a run-off is required, it should be monitored by international observers and be kept free of violence, fraud, and intimidation. World leaders, including South African President Thabo Mbeki, should do all they can to ensure a just result.

We must stand with the people of Zimbabwe. We must take action. So far 88,234 people have signed and they are trying to get to 100,000 or even more. Every voice counts.

Take a stand for justice. Take action.

Peace.

Through the Darkest of Nights: Testament VI

 Every few days over the next several months I will be posting installments of a novel about life, death, war and politics in America since 9/11.  Through the Darkest of Nights is a story of hope, reflection, determination, and redemption.  It is a testament to the progressive values we all believe in, have always defended, and always will defend no matter how long this darkness lasts.          

All installments are available for reading here on my page, and also here on Docudharma’s Fiction Page, where refuge from politicians, blogging overload, and one BushCo outrage after another can always be found.

   

Through the Darkest of Nights

Betrayal

    The tragedy of war haunts me as I walk beside the graves dug into this Northern Virginia hillside.  Across the river, the clamoring of politicians for war with Iraq has begun, but there is no clamoring for war here, there is only the silence of the dead.  Across that river, the drumbeat for war never ceases. It is being broadcast every day into every American home.  There is no escape from it, there is no way to silence it, for that drumbeat is the drumbeat of corporate power, the drumbeat of corporate profit, the drumbeat of a resurgent Manifest Destiny repackaged by corporate America’s bought and paid for politicians as the War on Terror.  It is the drumbeat of strident drummers who will never stop drumming, never stop lying, never stop exploiting until there is nothing left to exploit.    

    Those drums cannot be silenced, but the young men buried here in Arlington National Cemetery have been. They were silenced forever by the lies of politicians, the weaponry of war profiteers, and the blunders of generals. Before too long, sons and grandsons of these men will also be silenced. Politicians, war profiteers, and generals will see to that.  They are busy making all the arrangements, in the corridors of the Pentagon, in the West Wing of the White House, and in House and Senate offices where paying homage to the corporate masters of this country is the only agenda.

    I watch the last tour bus pull away along the Arlington Cemetery frontage road.  Filled with chattering tourists, it rolls along towards the next stop on the schedule, where they’ll get off the bus again, look around again, and take a few pictures of each other again, to put in the family album alongside the pictures they took of themselves at Disney World, the Mall of America, and Las Vegas.

    Disgusted with Americans whose superficial knowledge of their country’s history and political system is limited to the names of a few presidents and a vague awareness that we have something called a Constitution, I turn away and walk beside the graves, reading the names on the headstones.   What were the final thoughts of these men as death claimed them?  Were they terrified?   Did they long for another chance at life, did they hope that somehow, someway, they would survive, even as their last seconds of consciousness faded?  Some were killed instantly, others endured hours of agony before the end came. Is a quick death merciful or cruel?  Is death itself merciful or cruel?  I do not know.  I cannot say.

     I walk to John F. Kennedy’s grave, where an Eternal Flame burns in memory of what might have been.  I walk to Bobby Kennedy’s grave, where a solitary cross marks the final resting place of a seeker of peace.  I walk away in tears.  My father told me a man who has no tears has no heart, and as long as my heart beats, I will not be ashamed to shed a tear for the fallen defenders of peace and justice.    

    I have not endured solitude on the first miles of this journey, I have welcomed it.  Solitude brings me what peace I can find.  There are times for solitude, and there are times for companionship. There are times for quiet contemplation and there are times for communion with others.  There are times to speak and times to listen.  There are times to tolerate what cannot be changed, and times to change what can no longer be tolerated.  That time is coming, it will come when enough Americans finally notice the stench of fascism pervading this city, and become the change this suffering nation will need if it is to have any hope of surviving.

    Until then, I cannot accept what I’ve seen.  I will not accept it.  I’ve seen Republicans perpetuate a vicious cycle of deceit that has turned their political party into a cult.   I’ve seen them forge the most noble of human emotions into weapons of menace.  I’ve seen them corrupt patriotism into the opposite of patriotism.  I’ve seen them corrupt Christianity into the opposite of Christianity.  I’ve seen them corrupt everything in sight until there’s nothing left to see but coast to coast corruption.  

    I drive across the 14th Street Bridge, past the Lincoln Memorial, and find a parking spot near the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial.  Etched somewhere on the black marble of The Wall is Sarah’s father’s name.  She was three years old when he hugged her one last time, boarded a 707 bound for Vietnam, and never came back.   He was killed at the siege of Khe Sanh in 1968.   There was nothing left of him to send home, an NVA artillery shell erased him from this world.  

    There have been too many fathers erased from this world, on too many battlefields, in too many wars, in too many ways too horrible to think about.  Too much love has been erased by hate, too much truth has been erased by lies, too much kindness has been erased by cruelty, too much dignity has been lost, never to be found again.    

    I drive past the White House, where George W. Bush betrays America when he’s not busy betraying America somewhere else.  I drive past the Supreme Court, where four old men and an old woman erased the Florida recount so they could hand the power of the presidency to that pathological liar.  I drive past the RNC, where reality is being erased by the operatives of an ideology degenerating into fascism.    

    Fascism.  It has returned from out of the darkness of the past to claim new victims.  Americans have forgotten the past, but the past has not forgotten them. It is stalking them, but they do not hear its footsteps.  They only hear what the corporate masters of this country want them to hear, so death and destruction will erupt across Iraq, just as death and destruction erupted across Vietnam.    

    Meet the new war, same as the old war.

    I feel no pride in America any more, I feel only shame.  Nauseating spectacles like this depraved city of hypocrites reminds me why.  I feel like a stranger here.  Who are these people?  What is the matter with them? How much longer are their deceit and corruption and betrayal going to be tolerated?

    Getting out of my car near the National Archives, I hear a helicopter, and shield my eyes against the setting sun as I watch it approach over the Potomac.  As it passes by overhead I see The United States of America emblazoned on its fuselage.  Marine One.   Heading back to the White House from the Pentagon.  It hovers above the South Lawn, then descends until it is hidden from view by the trees.

    Most Americans support the alcoholic aboard that helicopter.  They tell each other he’s a strong leader.  They tell each other he’s a Christian.  They seek refuge in the belief he’s protecting America from her enemies and their weapons of mass destruction.  But he’s not protecting America, he’s betraying America.  He is the weapon of mass destruction they need to worry about.  

    It’s dark by the time I get back to my hotel. I’m tired but too restless to sleep.  I turn on my laptop, skim through the “news” on CNN’s and MSNBC’s websites to see what they’ve filtered out, and then check my e-mail. There’s only one message, but it’s one I’ve been waiting for . . .

Hello Jericho,

We need to talk.

Can you meet me at noon tomorrow at the Lincoln Memorial?

Shannon



   

Funkalicious Friday: El-l-l-l-l-VI!!!

Elvis has NOT left the building!

In fact the place is fairly crawling with them!

What exactly was behind Obama’s purge of delegates in California?

Stop me if you’ve heard this one.  Yesterday MyDD reported that the Obama campaign had wiped over nine hundred delegates in California from its list of chosen representatives for the national convention in August.  Ostensibly, this was done to ensure only Obama loyalists would represent the senator from Illinois at the Democratic National Convention.  No big deal, right?  After all, Hillary Clinton’s campaign did a similar purge.

The problem is this: while Clinton trimmed only fifty or so delegates, down from an initial 950, Obama wiped roughly half of 1,700.  Furthermore, whereas Clinton appears to have carefully screened the delegates to be excluded, Obama’s purge list appeared random — activists with solid credentials and who worked tirelessly to campaign for their candidate were eliminated, while those who did little or nothing got to stay on the list to go to Denver.

But here’s where things get more ominous.  As MyDD points out, Obama campaigner Marcy Winograd — a woman with more than a few political credentials to her own name — seems to think the main targets were anti-war progressives.

By dusk on Wednesday, the California Obama campaign had purged almost all progressive anti-war activists from its delegate candidate lists. Names of candidates, people who had filed to run to represent Obama at the August Democratic Party National Convention, disappeared, not one by one, but hundreds at a time, from the Party web site listing the eligibles. The list of Obama delegate hopefuls in one northern California congressional district went from a robust 100 to an anemic 23, while in southern California, the list in Congressman Waxman’s district almost slipped out of sight, plunging from a high of 91 candidates to 17. Gone were strong women with independent political bases.

And the Huffington Post’s Nathaniel Bach wrote:

After completing the application process and finding my name on the official list of registered candidates, I received an email from the California Democratic Party today (Wednesday) at 4:48 p.m. informing me that the final approved lists of delegate candidates had been posted and that I should check the website. (I assume the same email went out to all the delegate candidates.) I clicked over to the website and found that, lo and behold, what had been a list of 90 candidates had been eviscerated down to only 17, and that my name was gone. I immediately checked the Obama candidate list for the 33rd District, where a friend and fellow Obama die-hard was also running for a delegate spot. His name was gone, too, and a list that formerly contained 83 names was down to a mere 20.

The ostensible rationale for the cutting of delegate candidates is to prevent “Trojan horse” delegates from making their way to the Convention floor and then switching allegiances. The vetting and removal of delegate candidates is expressly allowed by party rules. But could the 30th District really have had 73 such turncoats, and was I really one of them? I was a Precinct Captain for the Obama campaign for the California primary; I’ve donated several hundred dollars to Senator Obama’s campaign (the first politician I’ve ever supported financially); and I’ve boosted the campaign in numerous posts on this website…

It’s hard not to be cynical. Remaining on the list of approved candidates is the slate of candidates (longtime campaign volunteers) that the Obama campaign has officially endorsed, as well as several names recognizable from local politics. These delegate candidates aren’t to be faulted for being longtime political activists, but the cynic in me wonders why those names remained while the “nobodies” on the list disappeared. The Obama campaign owes those of us who were cut a fuller explanation of the decision process.

MyDD’s ‘campskunk’ clearly believes that this is not accidental, that the Obama campaign wants “people who will go to the convention and vote for Obama, no matter what.  It’s not about the issues, it’s about the candidate.  If these delegates have strong dedication to particular causes they might be persuadable, so none of those types are allowed.”

But the purge of California delegates, and the fear that anti-war activists among those sent to represent Obama in Denver come August might defect, may run even deeper than anyone suspects.  According to the New York Sun, Obama’s phony anti-occupation position stands a good chance of being exposed for the sham it is.

A key adviser to Senator Obama’s campaign is recommending in a confidential paper that America keep between 60,000 and 80,000 troops in Iraq as of late 2010, a plan at odds with the public pledge of the Illinois senator to withdraw combat forces from Iraq within 16 months of taking office.

The paper, obtained by The New York Sun, was written by Colin Kahl for the center-left Center for a New American Security*. In “Stay on Success: A Policy of Conditional Engagement,” Mr. Kahl writes that through negotiations with the Iraqi government “the U.S. should aim to transition to a sustainable over-watch posture (of perhaps 60,000-80,000 forces) by the end of 2010 (although the specific timelines should be the byproduct of negotiations and conditions on the ground).”

Mr. Kahl is the day-to-day coordinator of the Obama campaign’s working group on Iraq. A shorter and less detailed version of this paper appeared on the center’s Web site as a policy brief.

If this is true, if Obama plans to back off from any and all public pledges to withdraw from the quagmire in Iraq by the end of his first term (assuming he gets a first term), then this cynical lack of faith in his own supporters exposes a far more serious crisis.  The senator from Illinois, in spite of his alleged initial opposition to the invasion of Iraq, really does support the policy of American imperialism.  And if he’s worried enough about his true position becoming widely known that it has driven him to purge half his California delegates — thus making the prospect of a brokered convention likelier, what does that say about the worth assigned to the anti-war movement by the Democratic Party?  Not much, apparently.

Fortunately, this latest outrage by the Obama campaign has a somewhat happy ending; all of the delegates purged from California’s bloc seem to have been reinstated.  But if Obama thought these devoted supporters might have harbored plans to defect to Hillary Clinton’s camp, he may have pushed his fear one step closer to realization.

*: Is it me, or does this organization’s name sound ominously similar to Project for the New American Century?

Friday Night at 8: Confusion!

I got nothing.

Tank is empty.

But of course, that has never stopped me from writing scads of words before.  Heh.

Ahem.

Ahem.

The bad news is relentless and the good news is overwhelming.  Seeing so many smart and creative people writing such illuminating essays in the midst of such pain and suffering and injustice, wowsville.

Gives me a bit of cognitive dissonance, it does.

I am in a state of confusion when it comes to politics.  And that’s just fine with me.

I won’t fight confusion, just makes it stronger and somewhat painful!

I surf it like a big wave in the ocean, let it lift me right up out of it and end up going with the flow.

It’s these times, times of confusion, that new views and new ideas are formed.

So I’m thinking of the Chinese I-Ching hexagram, 28, “Preponderance of the Great.”  Talks about too much weight in the middle and too weak at the ends and thus the danger of a collapse.

The strength is we have an amazing amount of knowledge that very few people possess.  I think sometimes I take that for granted a little and then get figuratively socked in the jaw when I speak with folks who are often much smarter than me and even of better character, and they are completely clueless about the state of our nation.

The weakness is the feeling I get that we have this vast treasure yet do not know how to spend it.

The confusion is over how I can bear to let even a bit of this treasure touch the cesspool that is politics today in America.  For even though I have seen inspiring and wonderful people speak out during the political process these past few months, the backdrop of crime, murder, theft and just general ghastliness of character brings to my mind the old Biblical cliche of throwing pearls before swine, in the snobbiest sense.

So to me it’s too much accumulation and not enough dispersion.  Thus the I-Ching reference.

Well I’m an individual and I am living in New York City, so there’s plenty of opportunity for me to start throwing them pearls, hell even though I’m mad as hell at most of my fellow Americans, I just can’t quit them.  Most of them are far better than me in almost all ways.  So as much as I love pearls, I’m gonna throw them everywhere I can and no longer concern myself with where they end up or bemoan their loss.

I’ve seen here at Docudharma alone a neverending supply if I’m so inclined to partake and admire.

It’s spring.  I’m going to start scattering seeds.  Perhaps a little chaos and confusion are downright appropriate for that task.

Yeah, fuck it.  I am hereby embracing my confusion.  Doesn’t feel near as bad as I thought it would.

All Praise Friday!  Hope everyone has a glorious and grand and beautiful weekend (with a special shout-out to all my fellow wageslaves).

Answering the Question — “Will They Get Away with It?”

Buhdydharma, the intrepid web proprietor of Docudharma, has posted an article today asking if, after the revelations by ABC news that basically the entire top administration hierarchy has been implicated in the oversight and implementation of a secret torture program, right out of the White House, if after such a massive revelation Bush, Cheney, Rice, et al. “will they get away with it?”

It has become obvious that left to her own devices Nancy Pelosi WILL let them get away with it….no matter what they do or how horrendous “it” is. She is the only one with the real authority to stop them. And she, apparently, will not. The answer then, seems to be: Yes, they will. And a new administration is not the answer either.

The implications here are truly chilling. If the Democrats won’t pursue prosecution….We are faced with a government with NO internal or external checks. A government not subject to the law. A government which can wage aggressive war and torture with complete impunity. That is NOT hyperbole, it is where we stand at this very moment in time.

My colleague at Docudharma describes the situation accurately. He also notes that the inaction of a pivotal figure in this drama — the ostensibly liberal Democrat Nancy Pelosi — marks her as a member of this same conspiracy, not least because “she was… partially informed that it was occurring.” I made much the same point in an essay last December (also published at Docudharma and Daily Kos, with a vibrant discussion at each). Let’s revisit what Pelosi had to say about her “briefings” in the light of today’s knowledge:

“On one occasion, in the fall of 2002, I was briefed on interrogation techniques the Administration was considering using in the future. The Administration advised that legal counsel for the both the CIA and the Department of Justice had concluded that the techniques were legal.

“I had no further briefings on the techniques. Several months later, my successor as Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman, was briefed more extensively and advised the techniques had in fact been employed. It was my understanding at that time that Congresswoman Harman filed a letter in early 2003 to the CIA to protest the use of such techniques, a protest with which I concurred.”

It may be time to ask both Pelosi and Harman what they knew and when they knew it. But I think we already know the answer to those questions, and it’s not a comforting one. The ABC revelations — that the U.S. leadership, including the president, vice-president, national security officers and secretaries of defense and state, the attorney general and the head of the CIA are all implicated in the specific instructions given to torturers, and not only approving but directing such torture — represent as stark a confrontation with the truth of the complete corruption and evil that lies at the heart of our government as any we will get. What I wrote back last December seems almost quaint in its naivete in describing a political path out of the wilderness:

Let not those who profess progressive politics and really want to change this country sit back in silence or disbelief and let this kind of betrayal stand. Now is the time to change things. Not tomorrow. Not in November 2008. Not in some other lifetime. If we fail to speak out now, our acquiescence weakens the entire progressive cause, and all the elections in the world will not make such a stain any cleaner, or go away.

We could start by asking for the resignation from the Speakership of Nancy Pelosi, and the resignation from the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairmanship of John D. Rockefeller.

Now I can see that even such elementary statements of justice are insufficient to address the crisis at hand, even when joined with slogans shouting for impeachment of the execrable criminals Bush and Cheney.

(By the way, I called Pelosi’s office today, asking for the Speaker’s reaction or any statement on the ABC newsstory revelations. I spoke to a couple of staffers in her San Francisco office, and each time was told, after hearing my question, that the person I wished to talk to “was not in right now.” This comic episode reminded me of the title of Franz Kafka’s first novel, Der Verschollene (The Man Who Disappeared, published, however as Amerika).)

Reading buhdydharma’s latest plaintive post about the torture plotters in the White House, and their assault against elementary decency and political sanity, I realized the answer to his question could only be made with some advert to history, and the perspective the latter brings.

Answering the Question

So, will they get away with it?

Answer: in the short-term, yes. If there is no accountability or price the Bush team suffers for their crimes, there is no accountability or price the Democratic leadership suffers for their culpability or failure to act.

In the long-term, we will all pay. But the total bankruptcy — political, moral, economic — of the society will leave this entire crew, all the leadership of this society, including the full intelligentsia, inclusive of the blogosphere, as bankrupt. Bankrupt and ignorant of the lessons of history, lessons that were staring them in the face all the time, but they refused to acknowledge, drunk on the belief in their own omnipotency (in the case of the powerful) or in their own essential rightness (the case of the rest of us).

There is a straight line from the American and French revolutions, through the 1848 revolutions, the Paris Commune, the 1905 and 1917 Russian revolutions, the rise of fascism, the slaughters of World Wars I and II, the national liberation movements, the Cold War, the collapse of Soviet Stalinism, to the triumphalism of the “American Century”… this line steers and staggers between its central understandable component: the reality of the division of the world into classes of exploited and exploiter, and the struggles of the former, often blind and contradictory, and poorly led, to throw off the shackles of the latter.

The smug and oh-so-powerful leadership of this country is overreaching, much as Hitler overreached, and a similar catastrophe awaits all of us… unless… unless we can come together, throw off the weight of the bought-off Democratic Party, and make a real struggle for power against those who seek to control the entire world. I, frankly, don’t see this happening. And I do not advocate adventurist forays to smash one’s head up against a repressive governmental apparatus. All one can do is wait, patiently explain, and hope the lessons are learned before they are foisted upon us in the form of a total collapse of the society, or what is just as likely, another world war.

The real question to ask is: Will YOU (or WE) let them get away with it?

History Lessons (on Bush and McCain’s Wars)

This is (a small part of a) cross-post (excerpted by permission) by THE ENVIRONMENTALIST‘s Managing Editor:

In her recent speech at the Conference on World Affairs, Rachel Maddow cited James Madison’s warning about the unitary executive, the propensity of an unchecked executive branch to lean toward war, whereas the legislature would be more likely to debate the issue before moving toward conflict.

Maddow’s supposition, that the Bush administration’s seeming incompetence, its torture memos, its rush to war, was by design — Bush and Cheney’s direct effort to shift power to the executive and, thereby, to shift the entire country to a more warlike stance — does have historical precedence.

I’m not referring to Madison, though he did warn of this, or Jefferson, who raised prescient concern about undue influence, but earlier in history to the systems that Madison and Jefferson used as the inspiration for their grand experiment: The Roman Republic of Caesar’s time and the Greek democracy of Solon.

This is not to say that George W. Bush is Julius Caesar or that any of his lawgivers (like the ones who approved that torture memo) are Solon. But there are interesting parallels to the way Caesar and his contemporaries used war to further their wealth and political ambitions, as well as to the actions that Solon’s contemporaries took to undermine codified law…

Highly recommend you link to link to the whole essay for the point it makes about Bush and McCain’s wars.

Illuminating and frightening.  

5 Years in the Life of a Child – Global Day for Darfur Sunday 4/13

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

This Sunday, April 13, from 12 noon to 4 pm on the National Mall in Washington, DC, Americans will have the opportunity to learn first hand what the past 5 years have been like for the children of the Darfur region of Sudan.

Sponsored by Amnesty International, STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, the Genocide Intervention Network, and the Save Darfur Coalition, this is a unique opportunity for people to gain an understanding of the complex yet devastating nature of the conflict giving rise to the ongoing genocide in Darfur.

When Anna Schmitt of Waging Peace traveled to eastern Chad bordering Darfur in 2007 to conduct research on the humanitarian, human rights, and security situation in the region, she was told “If you really want to know the truth, speak to the children.” She collected over 500 drawings by children in the camps. You can see some of them at the Save Darfur Coalition website here, or read more about them at the Darfur section of the Waging Peace website. These drawings can break your heart.

For a million Darfuri children, they have lived their entire lives now running from the janjaweed, traveling from camp to camp, never knowing the meaning of the words “safe” or “home” — these are concepts they have never experienced.  Five years is a lifetime to a child.

Sunday’s event has two purposes: to help us all understand what is happening to the Darfuri people, and to remind President Bush that UN peacekeepers are needed now so that the children of Darfur – and the millions of civilians affected by five years of brutal violence – can live in peace.

Laid out on the green lawn of our Nation’s Capitol, you will be able to walk through Displaced, Amnesty International USA’s human rights exhibition on the everyday lives and rights of 2.6 million displaced Darfuris; visit a children’s art center; hear from Darfuri activists and human rights advocates; and take action to stop the violence in Darfur. For me, the most difficult part will be listening to some of the survivors — though I have heard a number of them speak and am always amazed at their determination to return to their homes and rebuild their lives.

Right now, by all accounts, the Darfur peace effort is a wreck.  The Sudanese government continues to fund armed militias while rebel groups are fighting among themselves.  The international community continues to do little in the way of a sustained serious effort, and even the fragile North-South peace achieved after 25 years of civil war in Sudan is in danger of unraveling.

And all the while, the children are trapped in what must seem like the living equivalent of hell.

Last July, the United Nations finally authorized a hybrid UN/African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur. To date, the force remains understaffed, underequipped, and underfunded. The United States is one of the nations that committed funds but has not fully delivered. We must convince the White House and the Congress to release the needed funds immediately.

Just as the friends and people of Tibet are hoping to use the Beijing Olympics as a way to raise the visibility of their cause and to pressure the Chinese government, friends of Darfur are applying their own pressure on China to use their considerable influence over the Khartoum government.  Right now, over 270 athletes from around the world have signed on to Team Darfur to raise awareness. Dream for Darfur is organizing a series of efforts to make it clear to the Chinese government and the world that the Chinese can and must use their influence to persuade the Sudanese government to allow a full and robust civilian protection force into Darfur.  During the opening week of the Olympics, Mia Farrow will broadcast from the refugee camps to ensure that what is happening in Darfur is not lost in the corporate-sponsored pr orchestrated image of the Olympics.

But with all of the efforts of millions of people around the world to bring some relief to the children of Darfur, the crisis remains — and with the rainy season rapidly approaching, the now 5-year-old crisis will once again go from bad to worse.

I know many of you can’t be in Washington this weekend, and I will report back from the event as soon as I can.  But there are many actions you can take to help.  Here are links to a number of different groups that have action items for you to consider:

Africa Action

American Jewish World Service

Amnesty International USA

Genocide Intervention Network

Human Rights First

Human Rights Watch

Investors Against Genocide

STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition

Sudan Divestment Task Force

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Do something, anything.  Make sure that you have an answer to the question posed in a full-page NYT ad almost 2 years ago:

When your grandchildren ask

what did you do to stop the genocide in Darfur,

what will you say?


(cross-posted from EENR blog)

Friday Philosophy: Traveling Light

I have traveled light through this world.  I intend to depart it lightly as well.

I have few things.

What stuff would that be?  And who of my family do people imagine are going to fight over what I have?  Other than my books, my clothes and my record collection…which fits in an orange crate…all my “stuff” fits in the shelves and drawers of one desk (or, as has been done before, the back seat of the car I used to have, including the records).

And most of the stuff I have has no intrinsic value.  Bits of blown glass, a few shells, a couple of rocks, some carved wood, a couple of kaleidoscopes…

I’ve gone through my life with few things.  What more do I need than what I need to get me through the day?  This day.  Maybe tomorrow.  Next month seems a world away.  

I have the words that I have read in my head if I need them.  Elephantinely, I never forget.  But I have some of those books, to focus that memory if I want.

I used to be the co-owner of a complete collection of matching Agatha Christie writings.  After the divorce, it became a burden and was sold off to finance my attempted move to Seattle.  So was everything else that I owned.  Down to the point that, except for those books, which I mailed book rate, everything I possessed, from the clothes on my back, through my record collection and stereo, and arriving at a few trinkets, fit in my car.

I possessed the car as an aid to combating loneliness.  I was not a driver  until after I transitioned.  When my ex decided she didn’t want to drive me to my therapist in Little Rock, I had to rely on friends to drive me there and bring me back.  Friends were few.  And friends weren’t going to take me to Dallas to meet friends from my online lesbian community.  So I bought a car, accumulating more debt than I ever could have imagined before.

Here we are almost 13 years later and I finally have gotten rid of that car.  I lived the hell out of that car.

It’s also almost 14 years since I paid for my surgery.  Ten grand.  Try to get that if you have never usually even had $1000 at any one time.  And good luck trying to borrow money being a transwoman in Arkansas, no matter how long you’ve been teaching at the local university.  Or, like any woman recently divorced in that state, I had no independent credit history.

Fortunately, a dumb-ass credit card company sent me a guaranteed credit card because they thought I was a safe bet.  Talk about stupid.  I still have that card.  AT & T paid for 20% of my surgery.  Stupidly, they also raised my limit because of my increased debt, so could use that card to borrow money to pay off my AT & T bill every month when I was in Seattle.

I raised the other 80% of the cost myself.  Who needs to eat?  Rent was cheap.  I’d learned to be homeless in the Haight and I could learn to live on next to nothing again.  So I did.  When one needs something, one does what is necessary in order to get it.  Not “wants”…”needs.”  One cuts out the “wants.”

Don’t even get me started about insurance companies who won’t pay for needed treatment.  

I paid off all that debt after I returned to Conway.  I found a better place to live…so that I could have room to help other people in need.  I bought a big water bed.  It no longer is a water bed and is slowly disintegrating, but I still own it.  I don’t need it, but it serves a purpose.  A few chairs, a futon, a television.

And I own a computer now.  The one I had before this ran Windows 95.  Currently I have a Compaq Presario, running at 1.53 GHz, but with only 480 MB memory and 55.8 GB hard drive.  It constantly tells me that it could operate faster if it were a better computer.  And its color is off, leading to frequent surprises about what my art really looks like.

But I don’t currently need something better, so I haven’t gotten it.  I’m getting a new computer chair that will be better for my back that is supposed to arrive on Tuesday.  It’s a birthday present from Debbie.  I insist she get one for herself as well and also that I pay for them…because I also need Debbie to be happy.

Debbie has more stuff than I.  She was closer to her family and has control of more of the family memorabilia.  Most of the stuff we moved here from Conway belong to Debbie or Alicia.  I look around the room I’m in and I see my trinkets confined to the computer desk I got for Xmas one year.  It’s made of pressed wood and came from Staples.  One of the “assemble it yourself” deals.  It tilts a bit.

I have always rented.  I suppose I’m still eligible for the home loan I was assured of getting when I served in the military.  But I’ve lost track of that and have never really found the need to own a dwelling.  And I can’t currently prove that I served in the military, since someone once stole the briefcase that contained my discharge papers.  And my presidential commendation.  I haven’t needed to replace those things.

Debbie owns a condo in Los Angeles with her brother.  They inherited it from their mother.

One thing I’ve regained is debt, from moving here and working here even though we can’t afford it really.  And from an eye surgery that was required when I wasn’t insured.

One thing I do have is pounds upon pounds of portable storage, containing the words I have written.  Document everything, I was counseled.  I have.  So I also have boxes of printed memorabilia, some which has never been transcribed and some that are hard copies of the chapters of a manuscript or two yet to come.  All they require is someone who wants to print them.

Ah, but nobody knows it exists?  Sure they do.  At least some do.  They are the words I leave as footsteps as I travel lightly through this life.  We place hope in the butterfly effect.  What else do we have?  What else do we need?


Searching for Fertile Ground

Leaving Nothing but Footsteps

I tread

lightly

though life

Soft footsteps

shaped like words

sown

like apple seeds

along the years

Applying color

like a butterfly’s wings

to attract the prey

Don’t be concerned

I will not harm you

I need only what allows

the next moment

and the hope that ideas

germinate

after I have passed

I have tread lightly

through life

and intend

to leave it lightly

as well

And maybe just

a little better

for my having

been here

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–April 11, 2008

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