Not So Brave New World

The only way to defeat terrorism is to not allow it to terrorize you. Now, sitting here in my office in Kaua`i, that's a pretty easy thing to say. So let me premise it by saying that I have travelled all over this beautiful planet and, seemingly, wars, revolutions, and conflicts follow me wherever I go. Thank goodness that hasn't happened here.

I was in Greece, during the height of the resistance, just after (US backed)Papadopoulos' brutal military dictatorship ended. I was in Israel/Palestine/Lebanon/Syria during the 2nd Lebanese invasion. I was in a town in Guatemala hours after they killed every man/boy in the town and dumped them in the volcano, (the women were still washing the blood off the street where the men were lined up and executed). I lived in south central Mexico, where the indigenous people of Chiapas weekly blew up the bridge that bordered Guatemala. In Indonesia, the East Timorese were being slaughtered by the military using coordinates supplied to them by the now current National Security Advisor, Gen. James L. Jones.

I'm from New York City and spent my adolescence in Washington D.C. when the mayor was busted for smoking crack with a whore in a motel in S.E. D.C.. At the time, Washington boasted the highest murder rate in the world, comparable only to Watts in the mid-sixties, when an 18 year old black man had a better chance of living to 19 in the Vietnam War, than he did at home. Also I have been an alternative agricultural specialist for over twenty years. Yes, the last twenty years that have been an openly declared war, in my own country, on me. Big helicopters, big guns, and all my friends constantly having the State come and take their children away because they were growing an herb. In my country.

I watched in horror with the rest of the world as the Israelis were killed in Munich. I watched what seemed like monthly hijacking of planes to Cuba, Libya, Somalia. I watched the French and Israelis storm planes, I watched the Basque Separatists blow up trains, the Georgians (Russians) blow up a school of children. I watched our own FBI, during a democratic presidency, burn 80 people to death in Waco, shoot a woman holding her infant son in Idaho.

As all of you alive today know, we have all seen some serious shit.

So why now are willing to throw away our rights to be more "safe"?

Why?

WHY?

We live in a world today where everything has the dubious task of being better, larger, faster, more horrific than anything else, ever, at any time. The best golfer ever. The best home run hitter ever. The worst tragedy in history. The hottest day on record. Worst recession ever.

What do our schools teach children today? Certainly it is not how to read a newspaper or to use proper discernment when coming across information. Knowing your source is a good start. Newspapers have to sell in order to stay in business. But if there is no breaking news that day, then they have nothing to sell. So they make things important so they have something to talk about. Something to sell you. So it has to be sensational in order to get you to buy their product. In order for them to stay in business.

To be an American, to me, has always meant; fuck what the rest of the world does, we are Americans and we will not be deterred in our willingness to live, and/or die, free. You can pry my civil liberties from my cold dead heart, but don't be surprised if I put up a fight even when I'm dead. There have always been factions of individuals and groups that resent what we have, and there always will be. And if they want to come over here and try and pick a fight with us, we will kick their ass back to the stone age.

And yet, the threat to our freedom, our way of life, our Uniquely American Spirit, isn't from the outside at all. It is coming from the inside, in the form of fear mongering, from our own government. Newspapers sell fear. TV sells fear. The government sells fear. Why? Because fear sells. Period. So, in order for you to feel 'safe', you are going to read every fear mongering newspaper and website to prove that you really need to give up all your rights in order to be truly free.

FORGET THAT. DON'T TREAD ON ME. NOT NOW. NOT EVER.

The War on Terror

After watching the brief testimonials,from the returning Iraq War veterans at the Winter Soldier hearings in D.C., it became obvious to me that even the name "War on Terror" is a clear use of newspeak. How does one win a war on terror? A war on poverty? A war on crime, homelessness, drugs, welfare? In short, a war on an idea, or feeling? While the intention may be a good one, the very notion that we can "win" a war on terror, by terrorizing people, is patently absurd. Nevertheless, we are in this so called war on terror,and are constantly being asked to pay for it. As if this war on a feeling could be won with more money,or more troops,or more fire power.

Terror is a matter of the heart. It is a choice we all make every day, all day long. We could be run over by a bus. Hit by lightening. Shot by a stray bullet. Our children could be abducted, die in their sleep, molested by their preacher. We have no job security, health care and our system is as corrupt as any I have witnessed on this planet. Now, or ever. It would be easy to walk around, living in fear of things that we cannot control. But we have all made a conscious choice to go on with our lives the best we can. Of course there are people all over the world that want to see the end of America. But how is that different than at any other time in our history?

I beg the American people to not buy into the notion of National Security. There is none. In the last year we have seen our own banks, corporations and politicians openly rob the bank. Openly. We are witnessing the completion of the corporate take over, not just of this country but the world. And they are using fear and the notion of National Security to advance their cause. Every time there is a so called terrorist action, I beg of every one of you to please, please, look a little deeper and see the smoke for the fire.

See Dick Burn. Burn, Dick. Burn.

Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney have been on the airwaves over the last couple of weeks, pulling out their best Orwell impersonation.


Let me make this as simple as possible, for all the sheeple out there;

Water boarding is torture.

Torture is illegal, both federally and internationally.

Dick has openly admitted he ordered the implementation of water boarding.

This makes Dick a criminal.

The reasons for why Dick broke the law are irrelevant.

Let me say that again:

The reasons for why Dick broke the law are irrelevant.

Dick broke the law.

Dick is a criminal.

Any other conversation about this is nothing else but doublespeak.

There is no conversation.

None.

Dick broke the law.

Dick is a criminal.

Dick will be easy to prosecute, and anyone who followed Dick's orders are equally culpable.

On both sides of war, torture has been prosecuted: Vietnam, Korea, Civil War, WWI, WWII, Iraq, to name just a few. There is precedent after precedent of the United States of America prosecuting those who were just following orders. The most recent example of this would be the 89 yr old death camp guard, John Demjanjuk. Here is a man who was just following orders.

NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and anyone else who allows these criminals on the airwaves to reinvent what has happened, makes them culpable as well. These major news corporations have been hammering away at us, allowing for these criminals to try and justify a crime. Not just any crime either, but crimes against humanity.

Let me try to make this even simpler:

I have no money.

I owe all kinds of money for school, homes, cars, etc. and cannot makes ends meet.

Hell they’re going to foreclose on my home, repo my car and take my kids, because I cant afford food.

So, I rob a bank.

Now, I can pay all my bills, my kids will be well fed and educated and I get to stay in my home and pay off my car.

I could continue to justify why I robbed the bank, but the reality is that no judge or jury would care for even a second as to the REASONS why I robbed the bank.

The bottom line;

I broke the law and will be going to jail.

Period.

Dick should be tried and easily convicted of war crimes.

Dick is a criminal.

Dick should go to jail in Spandau for the rest of Dick's miserable life.

And then some.