54, as I zipped by I nearly missed your post. I have been poking at this subject for some time.

Just after World War 2 our nation began to trans-form, not only had we liberated the world from a Monstrous machine, and became hero’s we also brought ideas of new freedom with us. One idea that helped the transformation along was a small French movement /philosophy, which started to spread in America. Taught to those GI’s as they feared death every night, giving them something to believe in. The movements(s) were based on the idea that a “question” could change the world, and it did. One of the Questions was what is “Freedom“, to this the answer was “ choose.” So started the evolution of the family in America.

With WW2 our man and woman came home with new ideas not known to the masses, soon our Democratic nation seems more the oppressor then many so-called Communistic/Materialistic Countries we had in our war sights. As new Western ideals mixed with Eastern philosophies America started a new miles stone not seen since Thomas Paine’s day. Soon people begin to question everything, placing new worth to all causes, unlike the great depression, when the masses just waited for direction. This time America stood up and demanded to be counted like never before. like Woman wondering why they were a “lesser“, as did Former slaves and their families. Questions like “is there a god?” and” isn’t this my body? “, crept into daily life. As these “new” ideas spread from Collage campus to small town porches “Old school” influence began to weaken. As the nation tried to come to grips with dissention in its ranks another cause jumped the “front lines” Equal rights. A powerful movement that used the force of the philosophical movement as a part of their ideals, setting focus on race rather then free will. Soon the nation was not only fighting for Equality among races and gender they were also fighting for freedom of knowledge as humans.

From Berkley to New York the youth came out in number demanding Education they needed not education someone else wants, demanding freedom from oppression- a free will. As the government tries to keep control a new war started with no sight of an end. So the dissenters where either pulled to duty or stayed behind and lost loved ones. It drove in deeper the ideas of the students and the protesters, that they have no real rights. Furious battles entailed -drugs and deception clouded the mission pushing it all aside for peaceful anarchy as the” new” ideals of 20 years began to lose its meaning and soon free will and equal rights gave way to materialistic achievement. Still some movements keep head way. But as due ground was rewarded nothing “new” was replaced as the next demand and somewhere the message got crossed.

The Nation turned from fighters to inverts losing their energy and just giving up. Social relations paid the heaviest price, as we became less like our families less like our friends we withdrew from society . Every civic group church and governed function seen a decline in memberships, in just 20 years thousands of groups and clubs disappeared, some running for more then 200 years. A time of “I‘m right your wrong” began, once comrades in moral combat we instead turned to the mighty dollar as reward for our fight, own friend and only confidant . A suit and tie replaced the flower and we stepped right into being consumers. Soon those that fought for equal rights and free will had children, children of a different “color.” These children were mixed as much by races as by morals. The Grandparents who had lived a life of absolute determinism gave to the Grandchildren their view and history and so did their children( the dissenters) giving to their children their view and ideas.

A new breed was born, a breed of American like no other, a Breed of American that our forefathers would be proud of. A mix between a generation of faithfully loyal followers and a generation of free thinkers. A new generation that saw variety in all, - BUT no direction from our guides. Our parents the deccenters forgot to pass on the lessons learned, instead they focused on their new found rights and lived their life’s void of everyone’s feelings. Hard at work they went ,trying out all their “ifs/then” giving us freedom without boundaries. They left us to immediate response as our mentor not wanting to crush our spirit. We were taught that money is absolute and government can’t be trusted but let them un chained non the less.

Now we have grown, we have learned the lessons given by our Fathers we have learned the lessons of our Grandparents and have come of age individuals. Many of us got lost just as did our fathers, thinking that money soothes all wounds and morals are something the church deals in. Consumerism took over the world and this nation slowly fell into a trap of monetary power over moral & civic pride. The line between right and wrong became twisted as we got desensitized to pain and sorrow. We departmentalized everything giving all things a name and mathematic equation, but forgot about our free will. We fell back into trusting others for the answers that are most important, but are unwilling to make a stand for ideals we see going wayward. Many of us have had our own children, and are just realizing the mistakes we have done. Money has pulled us to our knees and free will isn’t as pretty to some as they once thought.

Have we learned from our past ? As the children of dissenters will we pick up the fight for freedom or will we handle it like our Great Grandparents sitting- starving by a pile of oranges ? Are we confident enough to face the decisions we’ve made . Can we stand proudly and fight for our children’s freedom or will we hide and hope it will all get better? Are we over doing just to cover all bases ? Are we over reaching and misunderstanding our children’s needs or are we still only concerned with our own worth? I don’t know, I wish I could tell the future instead of just having the past, but I am hopeful that we will improve with time- learn as we go, and all else stay free.

So . . . yeah . . . what they said.

Thank you so much for kind words!

But I think I should clarify cpl things — I live in Sacramento, aka The Big Tomato, not SF — did live North Beach/Chinatown several yrs, also Haight A./Western Addition some, more brfly Inner Mission, 25 yrs ago. Forty plus yrs ago Berkeley/West Oakland, thirty yrs ago Russian River, cpl yrs Sonoma St. Oahu a year in there someplace.

As certified Senile Citizen, now avoid driving on freeways much as possible, same re night driving. So don’t get to Bay Area much anymore.

Thank you so much for your very kind invitation, and your email addy which I will put to use very soon. Alas, no chance my povertystruck ass will be going to E Coast unless some Philanthropist or the goddess Athena springs for it, & sends a car to pick me up;)

I agree, IVAW would seem to be one outfit not likely to be openly targetted by the thugocracy. However, before we get too comfortable, let’s not forget Gen MacArthur & the Bonus Marchers… or Jackson State… or Fred Hampton, Cointelpro…

When they busted the CPUSA honchos, mostly Truman era, before McCarthy — they had Herbert Aptheker in the slam quite a while, but he came off better than Henry Winston, who came out the joint blinded.

Thanks again, I’ll email you.

Best,

Dan

Earlier yesterday, I posted to this thread: I first learned about Lt. Ehren Watada’s heroism at IVAW’s website last fall. My present understanding is that support for the “Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan” public demonstration and testimony, which will occur in Washington DC in less than two weeks, is the most effective way to demonstrate support for the Lieutenant.

This will be a substantial antiwar protest.

And IVAW’s presence in Washington DC will be a reactive expression of military defense against precisely the rightwing street terrorists you describe, if such elements appear, at the well-publicized Winter Soldier event in less than two weeks.

I do not anticipate being able to get back East for the event (I also reside in the greater SF Bay area). But if you have or may make plans to travel East for the event with a group, please contact me at my email

lloydrowsey@sbcglobal.net

I may be able to accompany you.

To me, the appearance of these MAF fascistoids in broad public daylight constitutes an escalation demanding our close attention. As we re-assess the political situation & terrain following the Berkeley City Hall/Berkeley High confrontation, a pattern emerges, one not entirely de novo but one in which familiar features reveal themselves as combined in a newly threatening configuration.

We can now make out the jaws of a gigantic political/ideological pincer movement: straight ahead looms the collosal Obama swindle, while from the right we face all the familiar Bush/Lantos crap — but now reinforced by something more: MAF and allies.

When we note the presence at our Dec 16 Radisson Sacramento antiAIPAC protest of the self-described Zionist Street Warriors associated with “Stand With Us”, then add to the equation the upcoming event sponsored by Rev Hagee and his Christian Zionist CUFI fanatics, I think we can make out the shadowy figure of the Zionist Power Configuration somewhere in the background, perhaps joined by other shadowy figures but unmistakeably present.

To those disturbing phenomena we can add the appearance in public of Sacramento County Sheriff vehicles sporting Blackwater decals. We also know that DHS and the local Joint Terrorist Task Force/JTTF is prowling around in our area, from time to time jacking up local citizens guilty of looking too “Middle-Eastern”, or of parking in a familiar spot recently taken over by DHS. Pondering the above, we may recall our impressions during the Ministerial conference here of the overwhelming force deployed by the Security establishment, ostensibly because they were worried about another “Battle in Seattle”. Many will remember the faces, postures, and apparent psychological disposition of the flak-jacketed goons, their delight in the chance to display their hi-tech firepower and shiny boots.

Such “official” organs of repression, however upgraded, are a familiar aspect of the political equation; what’s relatively new is to see deployment of “civilian” MAF in such a highly Media-visible and potentially explosive context as the Berkeley City Council events. At which I myself was not present, so had no chance to personally observe what MAF and/or allied parties did or did not do that day. But here in Sacramento, antiwar activists have had some experience with MAF in the recent past.

I can testify from personal experience that MAF includes violent elements, the kind who think nothing of kicking/punching a seventy-year old white-haired Senile Citizen for daring to heckle a MAF speaker, while cleverly hiding the overt violence from bystanders and Media behind a forest of MAF picket signs.

All this evokes — in my fevered brain at least — visions of the early Weimar Republic, when Brownshirts were just beginning to challenge Labor/Leftist organizations’ customary use of public spaces to conduct orderly mass demonstrations. In my judgment, the only reason we haven’t seen more deployment of rightwing “unofficial” street terrorists is that recently there haven’t been that many substantial antiwar protests.

I’m trying to be objective, but adding up the facts, I don’t much care for the answer I get: there is some likelyhood now/near future of repression on a scale we haven’t seen much of in the US since lynching went out of style. Visions in my head: antiwar protests being literally overrun by fascist-manipulated mobs, of being run off the streets of the major cities where once we marched against Bush’s wars & occupations.

(Is it possible that even the mass outpourings demanding rights for recent immigrants could be confronted by gangs of trained/equipped/disciplined rightwing thugs? Seems farfetched — but how many would stand firm in the face of Zionist-organization-provided pepper spray, teargas, truncheons wielded by body-armored Minutemen operating with full cooperation of Law Enforcement? Oops, that’s just my overactive imagination running amok again, right? That is right, isn’t it? Isn’t it? Yes?)

Assuming that I’ve way overstated the danger, isn’t it still elementary that given the situation, all parts of the “Left” or/and “progressive” movements need to make an all out effort to come together, present a United Front?

Did seem like there was a lot of support of the CodePink-launched Berkeley action by a variety of forces, many often at odds in the past. What I didn’t see was the presence of Local 10 ILWU or the Muni Drivers or any mass Labor presence… Maybe they were there, just not caught on videotape?

So next on the agenda would be to make an assessment of how well all our Disparate Elements are doing at uniting in face of The Enemy? Consider some of the divisions/ divisive factors among current antiwar forces? Try to sort it out, ID any problems, static in the system?

Alas, yrs trly is not v. well positioned to attempt such a project.

A number of qualified writers & publications have been doing their best to deconstruct the Obama phenomenon, but seems to be less interest in the MAF/CUFI jaw of the pincer.

Hopefully, there’s a politically savvy Movement Journalist out there who’ll take it on?

–29.9–

I first learned about Lt. Ehren Watada’s heroism at IVAW’s website last fall. My present understanding is that support for the “Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan” public demonstration and testimony, which will occur in Washington DC in less than two weeks, is the most effective way to demonstrate support for the Lieutenant.

I would be most grateful for further information from Erroll at my email address - lloydrowsey@sbcglobal.net - regarding other ways and means to show our support for Ehren Watada.

Actually, the only thing missing in this administration is brown shirts and jack boots…I will be so glad when G.W. Dumbass is out of office and
Cheney gets put in jail before the lot of them get to escape our country to spend their money they stole from us in Dubai.

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=112

He also went on to quote a famous literary figure when he told the gathering of veterans that:

“Mark Twain once remarked, ‘Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an unqualified traitor, both to yourself and to your country..’ By this, each and every American soldier, marine, airman, and sailor is responsible for their choices and their actions. The freedom to chose is only one that we can deny ourselves.”

He went on to state that “Enlisting in the military does not relinquish one’s right to seek the truth-neither does it excuse one from rational thought nor the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. ‘I was only following orders’ is never an excuse.”

Mark Twain recognized and Watada now recognize that those in the military have not only a right but a duty and an obligation, based not only on the U.S. Constitution, but also on their deeply held personal beliefs, which should acknowledge when the United States has committed a grievous wrong against another sovereign country and its citizens. It is to the everlasting shame of this country that only one commissioned officer has spoken out against the illegal, immoral, and aggressive policies of this country and that he, unlike those retired high ranking officers who decided to criticize Bush’s actions, has spoken out and said NO to the war machine of the United States while still wearing the uniform of the U.S. military. I very rarely engage in hyperbole but I believe that Watada is one of the true heroes of this country who has taken an incredibly brave stance against the Iraq occupation and who has, unfortunately, been almost totally ignored by the mass media, including the supposedly liberal NPR, who trashed Watada about six months ago, by airing three voices critical of the stance that Watada has taken but allowing not one voice in support of the courageous stand that he has taken against this idiotic occupation in Iraq.

Which is to say, the 5% that I disagree with your voice in this most welcome, partly dissenting book review reminds me of the old 60’s saying (which I paraphrase): “Where you stand comes from where you sit.”

Nice job giving the flaws and merits of the work equal airtime.

I may have to thumb through this if I come across a copy.