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Ridding America (And The World) Of The
Warmongers
By Sherwood Ross ~ January 01, 2010
Information Clearing House
Disgusted Americans who vote for
politicians that talk peace yet, once elected, support wars,
need to get active in between elections. Just voting
every four years won't hack it.
As MIT activist philosopher Noam Chomsky points out in his book
'Failed States' (Metropolitan): "Opportunities for education and
organizing abound. As in the past, rights are not likely to be
granted by benevolent authorities, or won by intermittent
actions - attending a few demonstrations or pushing a lever in
the personalized quadrennial extravaganzas that are depicted as
‘democratic politics’… These tasks require dedicated
day-by-day engagement." Failure to grasp these opportunities
"is likely to have ominous repercussions: for the country, for
the world, and for future generations."
The major goal, as Chalmers Johnson writes in 'The Sorrows of
Empire' (Henry Holt), is for Americans to "retake control of
Congress, reform it along with the corrupted election laws that
have made it into a forum for special interests, turn it into a
genuine assembly of democratic representatives, and cut off the
supply of money to the Pentagon and the secret intelligence
agencies."
He's right, of course America today is a warfare state, the most
powerful ever, and its leaders lie when they claim that small
countries half way around the world with $5 billion annual
military budgets represent a threat to Washington, which spends
roughly $800 billion a year for war. That's more, by the way,
than the $780 billion all 50 state governments combined
collected in 2008 to run the country. In his book, 'House of
War' (Houghton Mifflin), James Carroll points out the
Pentagon "... has mutated into the great white whale of anarchy
and destruction."
One way to reform Congress is to stop elected officials from
accepting donations (i.e., bribes), and instead to conduct their
business exclusively with public funds. In 'Free Lunch'
(Portfolio), Pulitzer Prize-winner David Cay Johnston writes,
"Let each member of Congress spend however much he or she deems
necessary to do his or her job. If we can imbue representatives
and senators with the power to make laws, surely we can give
them the authority to manage their own expense accounts."
Johnston explains, "This would come at a price: No more free
trips, no more free meals, and no more gifts. Senator, if you
need to inspect the cleanliness of the sink behind the bar at a
resort in Tahiti, go right ahead, just give us the receipts with
an explanation of the costs. We will collect the receipts from
every elected representative monthly and post it all on the
Internet in a format that makes for easy analysis."
Johnston urges, "Every dollar, and every meeting, must be
disclosed. And we will pay for it all, subject only to the usual
penalties for embezzling, the punishments accorded by the full
House or Senate because of their exclusive right to judge the
fitness of members, or the decision by voters to oust a
spendthrift."
"The time for preventive action is now", writes Francis
Boyle in 'Protesting Power' (Rowan & Littlefield). Civil
resistance is one important strategy. People power can
overcome power politics. Popular movements have succeeded in
toppling tyrannical, dictatorial, and authoritarian regimes in
former Communist countries throughout Eastern Europe as well as
in Asia, Latin America, and recently in the Middle East. It is
time for Americans to exercise people power here in the
United States."
Boyle explains that under the First Amendment, civil-resistance
protesters are exercising their right "peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances". He
writes that amendment "does not require their assembly to be
'lawful' in a positivist technical sense, only that it be
peaceable. Certainly ongoing criminal activity committed by
officials of the U.S. government itself is the type of
grievance the American people should have a right to petition
for the redress of by means of civil resistance."
David Swanson, author of 'Daybreak' (Seven Stories) suggests, "Work
on what moves you, what would make a difference in your life and
your family's life. Mobilize your community, your school, your
clubs and organizations". Hundreds of peace-seeking
organizations, he says, are listed at
http://afterdowningstreet.org/coalition.
He warns, "As the Obama presidency advances, and the ones after
it as well, we will see each abuse and distortion of power that
has gone uncorrected further entrenched and established and
quite possibly abused and expanded upon, unless we act."
Chomsky in 'Imperial Ambitions' (Metropolitan) writes that labor
unions "are one of the few mechanisms by which ordinary people
can get together and compensate for the concentration of capital
and power. That's why the United States has a very violent labor
history, with repeated efforts to destroy unions anytime they
make any progress". Action required? Organize, for better
wages and for peace.
Another way to strengthen 'people power' is to re-enfranchise
the 5.3 million citizens "still barred from the polling stations
because of some prior conviction", writes Greg Palast in 'Armed
Madhouse' (Plume). "The Right to Vote campaign is
fighting this Soviet-style loss of citizenship. Notably,
lifetime loss of citizenship is imposed by only seven states of
the Old Confederacy under laws originally created at the behest
of the Ku Klux Klan."
Palast also urges citizens to check their voter registration.
"Check online with your Secretary of State's office or call your
County Board of Elections. Then register your girlfriend, your
wife, your mailman, and your mommy. Contact Operation PUSH, the
League of Women Voters, and your local party organization, and
commit to a couple of days of door-to-door registration,
especially in minority neighborhoods or at social service agency
offices."
~~ Sherwood Ross formerly reported
for major dailies and wire services.
To contact him or contribute to his
Anti-War News Service:
sherwoodr1 @ yahoo.com
This article is at:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24301.htm
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