Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Don’t mind us…we’re just keeping the world safe for democracy

Posted by Mickey Z on 11/06 at 07:23 AM

Morning Mick, well you outdid yourself this morning with this post. It cuts to the core…

I described a similar story in an email months before Iraqi Slaughter II. It had something to do with bulldozer plows attached to the fronts of tanks and humvees used to cover up the slaughter of 10,000 or so inscripted iraqi troops by US forces. They buried the evidence out in the desert.

I sent that email to about 100 people and I recevied maybe one or two kind responses from well-meaning aunts. Nothing from the rest but “icy” silence.

I mean, we are hearing all this garbage about the Admin’s faulty case for war and investigstions. I child of 7 years could have seen through their case for war, yet it is only now after over 100,000 iraqis have died that we see outrage. Not about those Iraqi deaths, however...no, outrage because they lied, and now we look like we are losing “over there.”

Mick, I sent an email out about your book the other day and I got one response. It was from an uncle of mine who said we don’t need to reclaim American Patriotism. He agreed that our government has f’ed a lot of things up, but things are exactly as they should be. That’s the response, the only response, I received. I had some back and forth with him on the subject, of course, but we eventually left the arguement with our views unchanged.

I don’t know where I’m going with all of this…

I think I have to go back and read Joe’s essay. I think you just keep talking to people...keep trying. If you have the opportunity to take a stand, like Thompson or Jackowski or Abdul R. Henderson then take it.

Posted by JOS on from Calle Colón 11/06 at 08:21 AM

Wow, Thanks for this today, Mickey. Mornin’ JOS. Right now I have the images here at Mickey’s on my screen and Seymore Hersh and Scott Ritter on C-span in the background. The war crimes that the US has been committing in Iraq since 1991 (and before) are so well documented no citizen can claim exoneration because of ignorance. I don’t know what the answer is but JOS, I agree with you. Everyone has to take a stand in any way that they can. Yesterday while I was at the protest, one of those who had been arrested with me told me of his current actions. His name is Andy. He is a 70+ retired Naval Officer. (Of the Bennington 12, I was the only one to go to trial. The other 11 took a plea agreement. I believe that Andy NOW sees some value in continuing to defy the system.) Recently he was one of the hundreds who was arrested in Washington, along with Cindy Sheehan. The Charge was Demonstrating without a permit. I believe that that Charge is so minor that no jail time is attached to it; however,the government is rigorously pursuing the charges. Andy will travel from Vermont to Washington for the arraignment. I asked him how far some of the others will travel back to Washington to be arraigned. He told me that some will be coming from Alaska. One might ask, what good all of this accomplishes. I am not sure but maybe when the numbers of those who are willing to defy the government grows...maybe, just maybe, it will make a difference. BTW, the government is so hell bent on silencing dissent that in the case of the St. Pat’s 4, the gov upped the Charge to Conspiracy AFTER a mistrial. ........Good news from the site of yesterday’s protest. I was asked by some of the younger ones there to help with a protest that they are planning for Veterans’ Day. That is encouraging because here, where there are 3 colleges in this small town, the students have been silent, disengaged, almost sleeping. During the protests in 1991 the colleges were active. Hopefully they will be brought back to life.

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/06 at 09:09 AM

Thanks, JOS. I had so much material about the Gulf War I wanted to post today. Maybe I’ll present it in the comments as the day goes on...or just make another Jarhead-related post later this week.

Also, thanks for spreading the word. Much appreciated...no matter what the response was/is. It’s rather depressing to witness the apathy...especially from folks we know and love. I honestly don’t know what it’ll take to provoke even a little curiosity...but I’m at my wit’s end.

Captcha word: trial.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/06 at 09:10 AM

HI RMJ. As I was typing out my self-pitying comment, you were typing something far more useful and powerful. Thanks for all you do. I’m very excited that you’ve been asked to help with the protest. If there’s anything we can do here...just ask.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/06 at 09:12 AM

Thanks Mickey...just keep doing what you already are doing, especially showing the Fisk photos. They have a big impact on those who just happen to come upon this site. Don’t underestimate the important impact that you are having. There are not many/any other sites quite like this one on the Internet. Maybe Wednesday or Thursday everyone should be reminded that Friday is Antiwar Veterans Day and the best way to “honor” all vets is to work for peace. Also a reminder, Veterans for Peace is probably the most anti-war of all of the vets organizations and you do NOT have to be a vet to be a member. I am told that Ward Churchill and Howard Zinn are members, also Ralph Nader.

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/06 at 09:32 AM

Will do, RMJ...and thanks for the encouragement. Today is one of those days when I could use it.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/06 at 11:01 AM

Hang in there Mickey. I am spreading the word about the site, even as we speak. As I said, don’t underestimate the impact of what you are doing.

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/06 at 11:07 AM

Also, I forgot to say to anyone who doubts the power of Mickey’s site, I have received support from around the world recently and 95% of it came because of this site. I think that things are slow here today because it is a sunny Sunday. Everybody is probably out playing in the autumn leaves.

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/06 at 01:46 PM

Hello all…

RMJ, “playing in the autumn leaves” is but a fantasy when it’s heading for 87F and my a/c is crankin’ to keep up, even set at 80F interior temp. I agree about MZ’s role, and I keep sending the link to posts like this to all my address book. Several Hitler-was-too-timid believein’ cousins have asked to be removed from my mailing list, which I have done with some mixed feelings...their beliefs repulse me, but at least I was getting SOME opposing viewpoints in front of ‘em...but in the end, it’s the silent ones I aim for anyway. There are, quite obviously,a lot of lurkers around here who don’t post for whatever good reasons of their own. I regard the silent recipients in the same light as I do lurkers...at least you’re not running away.

MZ, as a card-carrying pessimist, I feel funny about saying this, but...cheer up, you make a far larger difference than you know. You know the story of the hundredth monkey...think of yourself as #90, and counting. PS: you are entitled to your feelings, you know, and when others blow sunshine up your nose, just take it as our way of saying “thanks” for everything you do for us.

JOS, how’s your morning gone? Up to 20,000 words yet?

“Family” how appropriate!!

Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 11/06 at 02:01 PM

Hi Mudge....today is a bonus day up here...sunshine, temps about 70...some geraniums still in bloom. I know. You don’t like flowers but they like you. Come on up here. Frolicking in the autumn leaves would be good for your soul.

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/06 at 02:11 PM

RMJ, from last night, labor pains are among the reasons I am delighted beyond measure to be male in this incarnation. Thrilled. Exquisitely pleased. And I would expect nothing less from you than to give birth on the same day Eugene V. Debs was born!

Off to NaNo now, must create a “body” of work before too long.

Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 11/06 at 02:20 PM

RMJ, I would LOOOOOVE to visit about now...even if it was 40F at noon. I’m so over being hot and sticky. Bleah.

Tiny revision to my curmudgeonly image: I don’t like CUT flowers because they’re the amputated sex organs of a plant, useful for nothing but decoration. I don’t plant flowers because they’re not useful to me, and they make me feel faintly guilty using the water it takes to keep them alive here in the desert, but up there I have no animus towards them. Grow your little hearts out, I say to each pansy (my favorite flower, bar none, and not JUST because I’m queer as a $3 bill) I pass. Pick ‘em and it gets ghoulish to me...sorta the plant kingdom version of fur.

Just sayin’ is all. I deserve my grumpy image, but I have reasons behind the grump.

BTW, my best friend Betsy is at a gemstone convention in VT right now, up by Canada somewhere, and she’s RAVING about the weather! She lives in Florida, so she’s almost swooning with joy at needing a coat!

Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 11/06 at 02:29 PM

Was on the NaNo site just now, looking for people nearby who can chare my misery, and one Cedar Park woman’s sig line made me laugh:

Sometimes it’s just not worth chewin’ through the leather straps in the mornin’

How sik a pup am I that this made me laugh and laugh?!

And, in case anyone’s forgotten, I have a question before the assembled that no one’s even taken a stab at addressing: Is there no such concept as “enough” (captcha) in market economies? If not, can we introduce one somehow?

Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 11/06 at 03:00 PM

Hello Mudge and RMJ. I thought I’d chime in before heading out to meet Michele. Thanks for the kind words. Your support, combined with a sunny 70 degrees on Nov. 6, has me feeling good.

As for your query, Mudge, “early” on Streisand and Summer may have crooned “enough is enough,” but a casual glance at this list (http://www.forbes.com/400richest) demonstrates that what the captains of industry want is simple: they want everything. Don’t miss the nauseating poll on that same page.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/06 at 03:05 PM

It’s small payback for all you do, but I am glad to have made your day a fractional bit brighter. The weather goddess did more, of course...70 on Nov. 6 is astounding up there! Enjoy these stolen “hours”.

Yeah, I saw that poll when you posted this originally, and it’s what set me thinking about the whole subject. Is this capitalism, or is this something like metastatic capitalism, consumerism shall we call it. Capitalism SHOLD have a market function limiting consumption because, as rational economic actors, we should KNOW there isn’t an infinite supply of ANYthing and therefore should limit our consumption to reasonable and affordable amounts of things.

The bill of goods we’ve been sold is that consumption creates prosperity, when all it does is create lack and want and shortage. Capitalism, as I understood it, was not sent to eart by God to make some people rich and some poor, but to incent people to move things from where they are to where they need to be so as to maximize well-being and thereby create a surplus for all to enjoy.

Silly me.

Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 11/06 at 03:29 PM

Speaking about Capitalism...I was overjoyed the other night to hear Hugo Chavez say to a large cheering crowd that “...the next thing that they would bury would be Capitalism...” You gotta love C-span.

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/06 at 03:57 PM

Hi Mickey and all,
I know what it is like to feel helpless in the face of massive corruption. But my wife, Angela, reminds me when I am particularly down, that I have influenced quite a lot of people both directly and through them, others indirectly.

Jos, even though you got a stony silence doesn’t mean you didn’t have an effect. Even if you anger people, you move ‘em. You challenge the denial. One way or another you have planted many seeds which others may water.

On to another metaphor, To set a fire raging first you need to collect the kindling, then the larger pieces of wood and finally up to the big mommas that burn all night. All the while the work is getting heavier and heavier with nothing to show, no warmth; no indication that this is gunna work. But we keep going because we know from the past that it DOES WORK out.

This is when we need to look to the past to see the examples that have succeeded and how people worked for long times before the results flowed. This is where books like Mickey’s 50AR are invaluable. “A Force More Powerful” is another good one. Jonathan Schell wrote a good one too but can’t remember the title.

Mickey, howzabout a thumbnail each week of a story from your book to remind us that resistance and activism DOES WORK.

I think it would also be valuable to think back to this time last year and wonder how we would feel if we knew that there would be multiple investigations into the wrongdoings of the Whitehouse and Congress and with Scooter being indicted and Rover looking down the barrel, all within a year!

The neocons are teetering but seem to be trying to retrieve the situation with an attack on Syria. If we can make so much noise (i.e. talk to everyone you meet as Joe says) that it is stopped, I think the whole pack of cards will crumble.
I’m going to reread Joe’s article and then decide whom I can “harrass”

Cheers soldiers,
Jim

Posted by Jim on from 11/06 at 06:37 PM

Thanks, all. I can always count on you to “provide” a lift.

Jim: This week, I will provide a 50AR excerpt, re: Battle in Seattle (which was 6 years ago this month).

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/06 at 06:52 PM

Seeing all the commenters on Mickey’s threads aka MZ’ers are so much more eloquent than yours truly, I’ll keep it brief: another great post, Mickey! ‘Jarhead’ sounds good - it seems Sam Mendes is still going strong ..
And hi to all of you MZ’ers!

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 11/06 at 07:15 PM

Oh, and I have emailed this post to several people, Mickey! Spread the word even if there are no reactions to speak of ..
Keep raising hell!

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 11/06 at 07:18 PM