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Technorati2003 Flashback: Maybe Democracy Happened That Day
Amid the freezing 24-degree day under the sunny skies of Washington, D.C. with the drums, speeches, occasional whiffs of sweet-smelling incense, and the chants and signs calling for peace not war, the most significant outcome of the Saturday, January 18, 2003, peace march was the sound of pent-up silence unleashed.
The 9/11 factor, which has provided Mr. Bush with unqualified acquiescence to his every proposal, including the 2002 election sweep, was no longer a good reason not to question his plans and policies toward Iraq-or toward civil rights, civil liberties, the 2000 election, his National Guard record, or even the possibility that he should be impeached due to his mishandling of his office.
It was all out there, every bit of it. It had been there before but all criticism of Mr. Bush stopped the minute the hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon. That Saturday afternoon criticism of the administration once again became acceptable, necessary, even patriotic.
"The People," those abstract entities that Mr. Bush promised to trust in his campaign speeches, had finally come out to speak against him. Significantly, they were not followers of the opposition party, which has yet to emerge from hiding, but they were a mass of people from a cross-section of America.
This well-organized march brought bus loads of people from as far west as Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Kansas, as far north as Maine, and as far south as Florida, Mississippi, and Texas. It was inspiring, truly inspiring, to see people who braved a cramped bus-seat sleep-over to come to Washington D.C., right in front of the Capitol Building, and stand for peace.
These were committed people who endured distance, cold, discomfort, and put forth an alternative for handling conflict with our enemies, including those who dared to threaten us on our own turf.
"Peace is not the absence of war," said one speaker, "It is the presence of justice." And how did they define justice? For these Americans, it was not retaliation for 9/11 or Saddam's attempt on #41's life.
Justice was about spending billions of dollars on health care, jobs, and education for Americans.
Justice was about protecting basic civil liberties, respecting diversity, giving all people a chance to make a life for themselves.
For our enemies justice was about saving children from disease, hunger, homeless, and annihilation. It was about preventing a new type of holocaust-nuclear as well as biological and chemical warfare that could kill and maim mass numbers of soldiers and civilians.
For poor countries, justice was about controlling a voracious American consumerist appetite. It was about recognizing that the health of our economy was too dependent on low-income slave-labor service jobs, ripping natural resources from the earth, and promoting habits of wastefulness so a few profiteers could benefit from our addictions to cheap oil, cheap food, cheap technology, and cheap products.
For minorities justice was about allowing all people the right of access to all our institutions-whether they held a legacy card, an affirmative action card, or a middle class ticket to a good and healthy life as an American citizen.
In a recognition that the "emperor has no clothes," the cloud hovering over the Capitol that day seemed to lift for a little while as people sensed a certain relief that the destructive nature of the Bush administration's policies and practices were not their imagination-nor were they alone in that perception.
Most significant of all was the fact that the peace march was non-partisan. No one rallied around Democrats or Republicans. Instead, they were there as citizens protesting a war they did not want and which has no justification for fighting. If there was any partisan talk it was the chastisement of congressional Democrats who sheepishly voted in favor of the October 2002 resolution allowing the president to go to war with Iraq. They couldn't take a stand against war because they were afraid of not looking strong. They cared more about being re-elected than they did committing troops to die for a president's obsession with Saddam Hussein. Shame on them for caving in to such cowardice!
The peace march wasn't a passing theme or whimsy. It was serious effort to avoid an illegal, unnecessary, immoral war and instead to turn the nation's attention to its own backyard where people were hurting because they lacked a job, adequate health care, a home, or an education leading them to a job.
The marchers in Washington, all 500,000 of them, also joined a worldwide movement comprised of millions of people who recognized that the old ways of defending one's country through war were no longer effective, viable, or decent and that weapons of mass destruction, whether ours or theirs, were capable of killing whole populations of people.
The speakers at the rally criticized a cock-eyed foreign policy determined to declare war on Iraq about presumed weapons of mass destruction and not North Korea, who readily admitted, even flaunted having such weapons.
They objected to unilateral war and pre-emptive strike against Iraq-or any country and pointed out that such a tactic violates our Constitution.
Yes, it was clear that the peace movement wasn't going to go away. Nay, Saturday's march was only a beginning where those who had been confused, discouraged, angry, isolated, or oblivious to the policies of our country would no longer be silent. Too much was at stake not to demand a leadership that advocated for all people to live a life worth living. No, this thing was bigger than even the Bush Administration. It was a call for change in America about who were in the world and what we wanted for ourselves and other people.
Much was accomplished on that cold, sunny day in Washington, D.C. and in cities across the United States and the world. People marched the city streets to make peace an option, peace a possible outcome, peace a stand against war. They marched to make peace patriotic! People were finally speaking their minds. It's been so long since they have. Yes, maybe democracy happened that day.
Olga Bonfiglio is a professor at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and author of Heroes of a Different Stripe: How One Town Responded to the War in Iraq. She has written for several national magazines on the subjects of social justice and religion. Her website is www.OlgaBonfiglio.com. Contact her at olgabonfiglio@yahoo.com.
31 Comments so far
Show AllIt was a perfect day.
Perhaps B KEN you're "meek enough to turn the other cheek", as "the meek shall inherit …" and "turning the other cheek" is about our own transformation to enable LOVE to flow and PEACE to build.
As D n G mentions above, "… violence and retribution breeds more negativity and violent madness. I would rather sit across the table from one of them and toast their failure with a good glass of Bordeaux. We have to embrace the darkness to find the balance. That way everybody goes home whole and a path opens to a better future.
And later more
"I have been taught and believe that violence strengthens evil. To lessen evil we must not return evil but deflect it as best we can and live in ways to bring balance. Balance involves accepting evil as a reality but not a lifeway. It guides our path to a better sense of harmony. Evil is a trail marker to a better life"
It is also my belief that this moment of "turning of the other cheek", is mutually transformational - one will have to be a different person to get to the other side, and that act of selfless love is also about metamorphic acceptance of Namaste, and thereby raising the tide that "carries" us all into the LIGHT.
… … … … … … … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … … … … … … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed »
Doom n Gloom - thank-you for what you say. I have tried to read it closely and slowly to understand as best I can. I think our views are similar even though I suspect we have arrived at them through very different paths and circumstances.
I started to write some personal things here, but decided perhaps it is not the appropriate time and place. Let me say this though. My concern regarding the current times is the SCALE of injustice - it is so globally out of balance and is unprecedented. New ways of thinking about how balance can be restored need to be considered because the situation is so precarious. Humanity is definitely at the crossroads like never before.
I have a vision of where it could go, but I don't know what the future holds. However, I do sense that the Plains need the Buffalo to be healthy and vice-versa --- just as all People desperately need trees to grow - for our own sake and for the benefit of the trees (although the trees would do fine on their own if humanity wasn't here).
I have no intent on lashing out violently, but at the same time I am not meek enough to turn the other cheek.
Peace,
Ken
"Doom n Gloom (your name is a paradox!) - I so agree with what you say about violence (as well as most of your other insights…). Retribution on the other hand in my opinion can be about restoring balance and can be justified. In my opinion, focussed retribution upon those who perpetuate large-scale suffering of innocence and refuse to recognize this is necessary for facilitating possible remedy, but I suppose this might be easier said than done. I just have a hard time envisioning a better collective future if those who are responsible for so much suffering are not held accountable in the here and now."
Buffalo Ken, the answers we all hold will bring the reality, positive or negative. I have no insight into the future, just an opinion. I have been taught and believe that violence strengthens evil. To lessen evil we must not return evil but deflect it as best we can and live in ways to bring balance. Balance involves accepting evil as a reality but not a lifeway. It guides our path to a better sense of harmony. Evil is a trail marker to a better life.
I also tend to think in universal time, long term time. I know that progress can be made in balance. So maintaining balance and living each day in a good Spirit and defining my happiness as being a balanced part of the natural universe is all that I am meant to do. Life is a great gift, love is the fire of life, thankfulness is the recognition of the good of life. Every day is a new page that we ourselves write. I will carry that Spirit to my grave in whatever way it arrives and in whatever time frame. I will sing my death song in thankfulness and balance. Since we are all a part of the natural oneness is it not better to work for balance? Just a thought, that's all.
If you think you only have democracy when you march in the streets, then why don't you get out there and march.
Probably you will think "I need the masses to join me."
Have you asked your neighbors and family and friends to join you?
if not, why not?
I have friends who picket for peace every week and they don't whine about how the masses don't join them because they are doing what they believe in.
If you wont do what you think is good because the masses won't follow you because the corporate media doesn't report favorably, you are just giving yourself an excuse to complain and blame everyone else, even the peace movement.
Please get out and picket and march ... others are every Day.
If you realize that the masses move when the time is right, you might not be so disappointed.
If you want it all now, You won't get it.
Don't ask me when... it happens when it happens and when the time is right it will happen.
Thank you for reading.... And don't forget to throw out your TV.
I was there and I truly believe that there were 500,000 citizens there, all who saw the ditch of lies that BushCo was driving us into. The "Mainstream" military corporate media gave equal time to a couple dozen counterprotesters down at the end of the march near the Navy Yard. The next month the huge rally in NYC was the start of the system enacting large scale violations of the right to assembly for demand of redress of grievances.
That was a beautiful day, with masses of beautiful, intelligent Americans marching to save their country from the current mess. It will not be forgotten. As much as the Masters of War wish it was.
O roe: It is the same Lizard. I believe anger is always a mistake and by extension so is war. You misunderstand me. I seek only to make Americans accept responsability for the actions of their government, as opposed to seeing themselves at a par with the victims they create. Americans are in denial as to their negative contributions to the world, and I think this is a problem. I bet you agree with me. Sincerely, the warmongering troll.
"Fifteen minutes before the NBC Las Vegas debate, the Nevada Supreme Court granted NBC's "emergency" appeal and barred Dennis Kucinich from the televised debate.
The court held that the "first amendment rights" of a "corporate media outlet" trumped the right of the American people to an open debate process." - IndependentPrimary.Com
We know "Democracy" didn't happen this day!
It would appear we need to march in the streets to make "Democracy" an option; for without a "functioning" Democracy, there will be no peace.
There needs to be a massive rally BEFORE the election. As as warning to either of these two possible match ups:
Obama v. McCain, as Obama will likely be behind in the polls are keeping to the middle where he philosophically is.
Clinton v McCain, ditto.
Of course if its Edwards v. anybody, we won't have to worry.
O roe - I Refuse also!!! With that said it seems to me the Constitution is barely on life support if that. I just ordered a bunch of gardening books and I will continue "going local" and working with others locally. I've gardened for several years but not nearly as successfully as I would like.
Doom n Gloom (your name is a paradox!) - I so agree with what you say about violence (as well as most of your other insights...). Retribution on the other hand in my opinion can be about restoring balance and can be justified. In my opinion, focussed retribution upon those who perpetuate large-scale suffering of innocence and refuse to recognize this is necessary for facilitating possible remedy, but I suppose this might be easier said than done. I just have a hard time envisioning a better collective future if those who are responsible for so much suffering are not held accountable in the here and now.
Siouxrose - Thanks for your feedback. I think those who are "of the fear" (particularly fear they direct towards others....as if they are puppeteers pulling all the strings) will be "pulled into a solution" by the very tools of fear they utilize.
Peace,
Ken
I would be hard pressed to believe there are 2 posters on different sites that go by 'lizard', he is from AOL and is a spiteful, horrific, misiniformed, truly hateful war mongering TROLL!
I speak for Muslims, I am aware of whom and in which country CCRjustice has a case on appeal for Torture, you?, I read the Qur'an, I know a Latina, she is called MY DAUGHTER, the Hac(Turce)is what allows Muslims to reach their higher plane, I fight 10 hours or more daily to make sure those Traitors, treasonous, deceitful, kidnapping, murderers of ours and theirs are impeached, even if it is 2 1/2 minutes before they leave office on 1/20/2009, democracy has left the building until we move our asses and get rid of those F@@KERs .
I refuse to allow bush/cheney/rice/rumsfeld/mukasey/mullen and the lot to take OUR Constitution away, I will not allow it, I will do what needs done but I REFUSE!
Like an Apache gone mad in the blood-fire of the Moon, the River dances in spring. The iced-blue fastness of winter's hold breaks into a million shards as the mountain's white life-blood turns clear, cascades from the heights and gorges a land wild in the throes of Her lust. She oozes. She quakes. She surrenders Herself all shaking and trembling to give forth all color and lushness. Deep within Her bowels She has taken the mountain's lifeblood. Deep within Her that fluid has nurtured Her seed, made it whole, and like a borning fire that seed erupts through the surface with its life. The Gallatin Canyon in Spring. The River is Her artery. TLD 1974.
Peace.
I think 500,000 (woodstock) is a good size. But the fact is that Americans going to elections are concerned about their money, and Iraq is secondary. A hell has become secondary.
Furthermore, people are unhappy with the Iraq war but they want McCain! They are unhappy they aren't winning, they want to change the manager. Just a few are unhappy that the people of Iraq have been assaulted and are now being tortured, collectively and individually, and LITERALLY!.
Where are the marches for that? Marches for impeachment? Marches against torture? Marches against war and demonizing Muslims? The author is right, democracy was only that day.
I wish that Common Dreams would make the comments section an opt-in feature. For every article, there is an immediate trashing. For all the talk about how the Democrats and Republicans eat their own, the in-fighting on the left is only effective in killing any chances of uniting behind a policy, let alone a slate or a candidate.
This has led to more people to give up on activism. Those who live only for the self destruction contribute nothing. When I was in college back in the seventies, the only leftist organization was the Young Socialist Alliance of the Socialist Worker's Party. If the Communist Party or the Democratic Socialists had an office there, I would have chosen them. I wanted to be part of a leftist organization that I could agree with most of its platform.
What I found with the SWP was they spent way to much effort telling new members what was evil about the USCP. There was no thought about ignoring petty differences and cooperating on fundamental issues. The only thing the SWP accomplished was meetings that brought the attention of the FBI spies.
In the first decade of the new century, a common theme, brought up by the first post, is the lack of demonstrations. Geez, it is not that hard to have small demonstrations that might lead to bigger ones. No, it is easier to complain about the lack of big media events. Change has always come when large numbers of people understand that mass movements are more effective than individual action.
Siouxrose, I'll bring the food.
Hey Buffalo Ken, thanks for the poem. lol... violence and retribution breeds more negativity and violent madness. I would rather sit across the table from one of them and toast their failure with a good glass of Bordeaux. We have to embrace the darkness to find the balance. That way everybody goes home whole and a path opens to a better future.
As I rode the train into DC that day
my spirits were high and overcoming shyness I
discussed these unjust times along the way
with the one seated beside me, a teacher. She
had a sign, too (mine said "Support our troops--
don't ask them to be war criminals"), as did others,
all of us regular folks with jobs and families--
not the tie-dyed wild-eyed radicals that you see
in the photos from the Post and the Times-- just
citizens of the empire sharing our indignation
over the crime that was being plotted in our names,
and I asked her if she thought Bush should be impeached,
and as I said those words
the woman sitting in front of us jerked her head
around gasping with a look of horror-- as if to see
what kind of person would utter such words, as if
I had said impaled instead of impeached--
and then she turned back and didn't look again.
We were there and we know that times have changed,
but only a little bit. Now its only the TV pundits,
and not folks who ride the train, who gasp in horror
at the thought of Bush unmasked and impeached.
The corporate media, in their august fairness, covered the antiwar marches and the prowar marches with completely the same number of colunm-inches.
DOOM & GLOOM: Since I never perfected "the art of th e hunt," and eventually may have to trade for food, I am currently working on belly dancing and/or whirling dervish skills, combined with a Sheherezade capacity for weaving great fictitious tales and skills in oracle casting.
BUFFALOE KEN: Thanks for sharing the poem. From one writer to another, I'd alter the last 2 lines...
I have been ranting for months how incredibly whiny and "thick" even so-called progressive Americans are ; it's the MSM , stupid . Instead of marching and risking job-loss and worse , protest in the privacy of your own home . Learn how to read again , books , not newspapers , play bridge , take a walk , listen to music...anything but watch television or any MSM.
Shut down MSM by mass lack-of-interest and you shut down the propaganda machine that condones the evils of White House , Supreme Court and Congress.
Insist on watching that creature-comfort and Americans deserve to be subjected to even worse evils.
Here is a sample of what locust writes, since the topic of entertainment has been raised. Thank you, Buffalo Ken for your words.
Money Wish
I wish there was no money.
Now, you may think that I'm funny
to think that we all could do without that stuff.
But if we were more like ants,
or bees or termites or even plants,
we would do fine though we would need to be tough.
We could run around like ants,
to and fro through garden plants,
to spend money we would not have time enough.
Or if we were more like bees,
with our hives in some big trees,
finding nectar would be all we're thinking of.
If we lived like termites do,
chewing old wood through and through,
money would be hardly any use to us.
Or if we thought more like plants,
(how? by thinking less? like in a trance?)
life would be simple, we would not need that much.
So you still think that I'm funny
because I wish there was no money?
Well, you may be right, but I will never change.
I was there on that cold day in DC then with an even bigger crowd in Manhattan on a much colder day (hardly above 0F) - along with tens of other millions around the world.
A big snowstorm moved in the next day and this was the big news story. We were ignored. The elites proceeded with their war without even giving us the courtesy of a response.
I am Glad we had large demonstrations.
It was a modern mass education.
Maybe what most folks learned was that the Decider couldn't care less if we had 40 million in the street.
The public learned that the war economy is bringing down the vast majority, now more than ever.
The large Demonstations were a useful education in the kind of "democracy" we are getting. I am glad that I was part of them because I learned that they are only a small part of the answer.
For our survival, Small is better and less is more.
Siouxrose and Doom & Gloom: How about this for a Saturday poem that I came up with today:
(plus I apoligize to anyone who has already read it - if so, just skip it!)
entitled: retribution
___________________________________
The show must go on yelled the pompous who;
Wield the strings for we are the elite few.
They did as told and chuckled with spittle;
Oh how stupid are the small and little.
What a marvelous lot we are on top;
Superior we are; we can't be stopped.
Pass the wine; the wine of blood;
We'll do as we please for the rest are but mud.
******
Out in the field toiling away;
A lonely voice cried out – there shall be a new day.
A gentle wind blew from the east;
The pompous who was nothing but a beast.
The voice was picked up by the wind;
And carried aloft across lands and ocean.
Others chimed in and soon there was song;
Music of harmony no longer lonesome.
*****
The numbers grew exponentially;
The strings were cut discriminately.
Flapping in the wind the strings wound together;
The chuckles were hushed by the foul weather.
Ropes had been formed in mysterious solution;
The time had come for justified retribution.
The few felt fear…it was all they knew;
The ropes pulled them in; a solution so true.
Siouxrose, as ndn's we have never lost those things. It's the non-indian peeps that have. I read something recently in one of my Prof/wife's books. The point was made that in poor societies entertainment is held as one of the highest values. I thought about that for a while and it made perfect sense. People who can lift people's spirits through song, dance, writing, humor, storytelling, and good conversation skills would lessen the effects of hardship, even if only temporarily. An enriched culture is life affirming.
The rest of the world responded by ousting every single "leader" who "supported" the Loonitary Decider. We responded by allowing him to steal another "election."
DOOM & GLOOM: Good advice & good posting... let's not forget the priceless aspect of intangibles like song, poetry, humor and storytelling, aspects of a creative legacy that's been co-opted by the MSM with its infantile programming potentially designed to short circuit our own improvisational public talent pools.
Seeking peace and justice is more about stopping consumption than marching today. Learning once again to accept patches on our clothing, bent fenders on our old cars, mismatched china, eclectic furnishings, homemade dandylion wine, less meat in our diets, cardboard patches in our shoes, weeds in our lawns, beards and long hair, worn tires and slow speeds, small and simple marriages and funerals, cotton clothing, and simple pleasures in life. This is the face of positive change. Cooperation and caring for one another is essential. Life in the slow lane will boost the positive meaning of life once again and human progress will be redefined in new and better ways.
"Much was accomplished on that cold, sunny day in Washington, D.C. and in cities across the United States and the world."
Yes, much was accomplished. We got our pictures into FBCIA files. Some of us lost our jobs becaus of "bad" t-shirts. The rest got to find out what it means to be called "Traitors to the Fatherland" by the knuckle-walking majority.
Now of course things are much better. KBR is building domestic concentration camps. Bush may not use them for us. Hillary will, "To maintain order in the Fatherland." The chimp in charge has already set up the EOs for her and the cells will be waiting. Ever been to West Texas?
Pieces of 8.
Unfortunately, this demo was not followed by others that were larger and more militant in character, but instead by Democratic Party tied folk taking over the main antiwar formations and then whining about how demos 'don't work' and that we need to lobby the good guys to get tough and blah, blah, blah.
Ken, our future lies in our collective wisdom and actions. There is no one right answer. Well intentioned thinking people end up in the same place even though their paths are different. I believe it is the wisdom of the collective that we seek. Again, just a thought.