This Iraqi vet
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=VwwMF6biCJU
Says "We gotta hit the streets! We gotta stop paying our taxes!
We gotta stop feeding this fuel! Cause if you believe 9-11's a lie,
why are you still paying your taxes?"

Is this really our response to the question
of what we need to DO to change things?
I find this rather disconcerting.
Because if this group of people,
a long-standing community of right-thinking people
who have written volumes of words
expressing concern at the current path
of Amerika and the Earth
have not a single practical suggestion to make...
does this mean we're screwed?
that there is literally no hope?

It's up to us, isn't it?
There is no Prince on a White Horse
to ride up on a cloud of dust and rescue us.
The political system is not going to miraculously heal itself.
Big Business is not going to decide to save the Earth.

If not us, then who?
If not now, then when?

Do we hit the streets?
Do we strike?
Do we sit and watch the American Dream disintegrate?

Maybe we're just not singing that bar of Alice's Restaurant LOUD! enough.

I think it means that you posted the question on Friday. Weekends aren't the best time to expect responses to a post; most of us are out there doin' something--it may be going to gigs, doing laundry, or political activity. You'll probably get more response during the week.

What I'm doing right now is whatever I can do to convince others to vote for Obama, and that means getting them to focus on the issues and not the "Barracuda," who is proving to be exactly the distraction from the issues that they wanted/needed. We have 60 short days to make this happen. We can ignore this and hare after other agendas right now only at our (and the world's) peril, and if we do we will play right into the hands of the incumbent 'masters' we have now. After November 4, there will be LOTS more to do.

We're working hard to get expats registered to vote here. Unfortunately a lot of folks think their vote won't matter, and don't want to go through the bother to register overseas. I carry cards in my wallet with the site for them to register (votefromabroad.org). I'm so determined that we will trim the Shrubbery and all his cronies that I've even gone into the men's room at the Hilton to talk to people about voting. (There wasa Turkish guy who was so freaked out by me barging into the men's room that he was afraid to come out of the stall! lol!)

That's a good thing to do, thanks.
Still, the sad truth is that in '04
the expat votes were not counted.
Or at least those from Canada.
(dang, I wish I could trust my memory)

I even wrote to the Ron Paul website
asking how this could be addressed,
but, alas, never received a reply.
And I waited for more than a weekend, too!

Excuse me for not remembering names but I lived in a small town in Pennsylvania and in the '96 (I think) election my goofy parents and brother and sister voted for some odd candidate. Now they never expected this person to win but the day after the election they had the numbers posted and this person had a tally of 2 votes.

I remember one yr hearing in the news that some folks had voted for Pete Seeger in one of the Presidential elections. Pretty cool...

Okay...

Getting folks registered to vote is a good thing.

Campaigning for what we believe to be the best candidate is a good thing.

Focusing on the elections because they are urgent is a good thing.

It really depends on what your goal(s) is (are), no? And, in this economy, if we all get arrested, lose our jobs, homes, cars, right to vote (being a felon does that) then we won't be able to do too much, will we?
Voting is one thing. Voting to affect a change is another. Voting to just make a statement ..... well, been there, done that and Bush got
(s)elected.

No animosity here, Shas; it's good to have this place for such discussion. Here's my 32 cents; no postage due:

For now--51 short days; just over 7 weeks--I still think the best thing is to do what we can to elect the best candidates. Anyone who was in the peace movement in the late '60s will remember how the government infiltrated our groups with people who seemed just like us, though always they were from somewhere else, and nobody knew them, and they tried hard to get us to plan something violent--it was the government's best wet dream that we would alienate the public that way. For anyone to take to the streets right now, or otherwise make it appear that there's a (gasp!) radical movement afoot, even though a peaceful one, would be giving a BIG early Christmas present to the Republicans. It would be the absolute best way to assure our own defeat on November 4. The sheeple would automatically herd to the right in fear, not realizing that the right has had on the wolves' clothing all along and we are just the border collies. (Sorry; I just had to sneak that in for Ben's sake--he's our beloved bc.)

What we must not do is sit back when the election is over. What we can do now is resolve to do more after the election, however it goes. Even the best candidates for office will need our help--through our insistence--to be able to fix all the things that are broken. Whether or not we put pressure on them after the election, you can bet the neo-cons will, and that is when activism for good will be most effective. We must not celebrate (if it please the Universe that we win) and then figure that the work is done. It will only be beginning.

IMHO.

I appreciate the responses so far.
I'm still pondering, of course,
but I see real wisdom in this group
(which is why I asked my question here in the first place).

Yes, the elections are both critical and urgent
and it makes sense to focus our resources there right now.
Encouraging folks to vote,
encouraging folks to do some critical thinking,
avoiding giving the current administration ammunition
to use against us (though if the ammo George has provided
would be used against him, he'd be behind bars
and the election results would be much more predictable!).

Cap'n Zap, thanks for reminding me that writing in
a nearly impossible name on my ballot
is likely to be counterproductive
(ah, but if only Paul COULD be the next Pres...).

What I find so difficult to sort out
is when my own fears or desires or anger
make certain actions seem so logical and right.
It ain't easy to be objective.



This is true, for sure.
The other side of the coin is this:
we have already lost the cornerstone of American freedom,
the precept that all law and all governmental authority
derives from the Constitution.
If we fail to stand firm on this point
we oldsters may be allowed to finish our careers
and live out our retirement
in something that looks like peace,
but our children and their children will never know
the freedom that we have given up to a usurping criminal.


Man, I wish I had a crystal ball!

Reminds me of the dilema Phil Ochs faced in his classic song, "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends". Give it a listen.....It addresses many injustices of our time, and why we ironically let them go unchallenged. One of many great verses:
" Smokin' marijuana is more fun than drinkin' beer
But a friend of ours was captured and they gave him thirty years
Maybe we should raise our voices, ask somebody why?
But demonstrations are a drag, besides we're much too high
And it really wouldn't interest
Anyboby
Outside of a small circle of friends"

Another relevent Ochs song just flashed through my.....well, it flashed somewhere---"Love me, I'm a Liberal": (sorry I don't have links to these---I've only got them on old vinyl)
"I vote for the Democratic party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I attend all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singin' those songs
And I'll send all the money you ask for
Just don't ask me to come on along.....
So love me, love me, love me
I'm a liberal!!!"

[quote="Shas"]Fear for ourselves urges caution,
fear for our children urges a bold stand.
Will we make things worse by protest
or does our passivism empower the usurpers?
It seems that the hijackers are able
to turn our every action or inaction against us.[quote]

You can protest without getting violent or arrested. You can write, call and/or email your elected politicos. Or maybe try to get the under forty crowd to get off of their collective asses and do the same. I go to a few vigils here and there and (me, being in my middle fifties) I'm one of the younger attendees! Yeah, there are a few young-uns who show once in a while, but they're usually outnumbered by the AARP members.

And while we're offering musical comments:

"You say you got a real solution,
Well, you know, we'd all love to see the plan.
You ask me for a contribution,
Well, you know, we're all doing what we can."