March in a protest and forget using the airlines. Not much of a secret.
Expect a hassle at customs too.
Kirk
Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070504-084119-9450r
The Middle East Times Friday, May 4, 2007
Where Is The Dissent In America?
by Charles R. Larson
Washington - When viewed through American eyes, the recent protests
in Istanbul and Tel Aviv demanding that their governments become
accountable are truly impressive and extraordinary.
For a US liberal - which is what I consider myself to be - the
Israeli and the Turkish protests are also a disturbing reminder that
Americans have apparently forgotten one of their constitutional
rights: the right to protest. Americans are loud at proclaiming their
rights, but, lately, they have been reluctant to practice them.
Indeed, a couple of years ago, when Iraq was writing its new
constitution, a joke was frequently repeated in limited circles: "Why
not give them the US constitution, since we're not using it?"
The George W. Bush presidency has articulated, ad nauseam, America's
plan for exporting democracy to the rest of the world - especially to
the Middle East. Yet, rarely does the Bush administration proclaim
the need for democracy outside of areas where oil is of our concern.
Take Africa, for example. A couple of years ago, it was Liberia,
which, under Charles Taylor, became one of the most wretched places
for human rights in the world. Taylor could have been unseated
quickly and expeditiously with minimal force, and the United States
certainly had historical reasons for "liberating" Liberia from its
monstrous dictator. But Taylor stayed in power until he wrecked his
country, at which stage the US sent in a handful of marines to make a
belated push to force Taylor to leave.
More recently, Zimbabwe and Nigeria ought to be of major concern
regarding constitutional abuses, but Robert Mugabe still reigns
supreme in the former country (that has no oil) and the rigged
election in Nigeria two weeks ago, which ought to have triggered a
barrage of criticism from the American State Department, resulted in
hardly a puff of smoke. (Actually, in the case of Nigeria - one of
America's major oil suppliers - it looks as if oil did contribute to
Bush's decision to do nothing.)
But it is the war in Iraq that ought to have led to major protests in
the United States by now, because of the administration's "selective"
push for democracy around the world.
Three weeks ago, a lone gunman at Virginia Tech murdered 32 innocent
students and faculty members, triggering a massive outcry for a few
days, but no one expects that America's obsession with guns is about
to change. One hundred US soldiers have died in Iraq in the last
month alone, and there is nary a protest or airing of concern from
Americans, who have clearly stopped paying any attention to the
debacle - except to say that they "want our soldiers to come home."
Americans have so compartmentalized the war that hardly anyone pays
attention to what's happening in Iraq, except the families of the
150,000 US soldiers who are dying there. Most other Americans have
stopped reading articles in the newspapers about the war and muted
their TV sets during the evening news when the declining minutes of
daily coverage are broadcast.
In part, the utter lack of concern about the war is because Americans
are convinced that it has nothing to do with them economically - they
have certainly not been asked to make any sacrifice to pay for the
war. So, the war continues to drain the country of billions of
dollars, while the American consumer continues to prop up the economy
by increasing personal debt. That is, of course, a mirror of the
government's own massive debt because of Bush's folly.
And it is not just the war that Americans are reluctant to protest
about - but just about everything else involving George W. Bush's
vision for the country and the world. The country's top law enforcer,
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has been disgraced by recent
partisan acts that clearly were designed to support the Republican
agenda. Yet, Gonzales is praised almost daily by President Bush,
while he violates other parts of the constitution in acts that have
systematically eroded all of our individual rights.
Paul Wolfowitz, head of the World Bank, is similarly lauded by
President Bush and Vice-President Cheney, though Wolfowitz has also
compromised his position and run the morale of the World Bank into
the ground.
The list of abuses at the hands of the neocons in their attempt to
cram right-wing conservatism down the throats of every American are
so ubiquitous that the only pleasure a sane person can take these
days is the occasional smile, and the remark, "I told you so," which
echo a bumper sticker seen on many vehicles in the country for the
past six years: "If You're Not Outraged, You're Not Paying Attention."
Americans are asleep. They have tuned out and shut down to recent
events because of the staggering amount of outrage and abuse by their
government during the past half-dozen years. Even in the best of
times, a large portion of the population pays little attention to
world events. If you visit the outlying sections of the country and
pick up a local newspaper, you might conclude that the readers of
that gazette were only concerned about local events. An international
incident, which ought to be of concern for everyone, is either given
no attention at all or buried in a minor paragraph at the back of the
paper.
One wonders what kind of outrage would finally draw Americans into
the streets as the citizens of Istanbul and Tel Aviv did earlier this
week.
Charles R. Larson is Chair of the Department of Literature at
American University in Washington, DC. He is a frequent Contributor
to Salon, The Nation, and The Washington Examiner magazines. He
submitted this commentary to the Middle East Times.
© 2007 The Middle East Times
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