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Fighting the Good Fight
The Occupy Wall Street movement has unleashed patriotic outrage. If you don't want to camp out or protest in the street, find another way to let your voice be heard in the new year.
I was recently shown a picture from one of the Occupy protests taking place across the country. It featured a young woman surrounded by police. She was the only protester in the picture, but she didn't seem intimidated. All by herself, up against the police barricade, she held a handwritten sign saying simply "I am a born again American."
I've never met this woman, but I think I know exactly what she's feeling.
I had my first "born again American" moment 30 years ago, when I was moved to outrage and action by a group of hate-preaching televangelists who were trying to claim sole ownership of patriotism, faith and flag for the far right. One of them asked his viewing congregation to pray for the removal of a Supreme Court justice.
I did what I knew how to do and produced a 60-second TV spot. It featured a factory worker whose family members, all Christians, held an array of political beliefs. He didn't believe that anyone, not even a minister, had a right to judge whether people were good or bad Christians based on their political views. "That's not the American way," he wound up saying. I ran it on local TV, and it was picked up by the networks. People For the American Way grew out of the overwhelming response to that ad.
One of the most encouraging things to happen in 2011 was the birth of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which is giving the entire country the chance for a "born again American" moment. In calling attention to the country's widening chasm between rich and poor, the Occupiers have unleashed decades of pent-up patriotic outrage against the systematic violation of our nation's core principles by the "say good-bye to the middle class" alliance of the neocons, theocons and corporate America.
To those many millions of Americans whose guts tell them the Occupy movement is on to something but aren't the sort to camp out or protest in the street, I say find another way to let your voice be heard in the new year. Work with others who share your passion for equal opportunity and equal justice for all Americans, and find ways to channel outrage into productive action. I'm betting you'll find, as I have over my nearly four score plus 10, that you'll form some of the most rewarding relationships and have some of the most meaningful experiences of your life.
I have been lucky in many ways. I was raised by my immigrant grandfather to treasure the freedom and opportunities America offers. I also learned early to fear the power of demagogues with megaphones, as an 11-year-old listening to the anti-Semitic ravings and attacks on President Franklin D. Roosevelt from radio priest Father Coughlin, the spiritual godfather of those who poison our airwaves and online forums today. By the time I was a teenager, I knew that the values of individual and religious liberty were worth fighting for, which is why I dropped out of college to enlist in the war against Hitler.
Since then I have repeatedly seen Americans get off their couches to hold this country accountable to its stated values. They did it to fight for civil rights and the dismantling of the legal apartheid of Jim Crow; for the women's movement; for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. They have rallied to ensure that immigrants are treated with dignity and justice. All these efforts to overcome bigotry and institutionalized prejudice are still works in progress, but I am awed by the progress we have made.
Generations of Americans have worked to create a nation in which individual liberty can thrive alongside commitment to the principle that all members of a community should have the opportunity to pursue their dreams and build a decent life for themselves and their families. In recent decades, that dream has been betrayed.
The religious right leaders who got me engaged in politics often portray such things as free expression and equal protection for all Americans no matter their race, religion or sexual orientation as anti-Christian and un-American, as symptoms of cultural decline. I couldn't disagree more. What strikes me as un-American are the greed, deception and systematic corruption that have infected politics, business and so much of our culture in recent years. Some of those with power and privilege have worked to create a system that continually reinforces that privilege and power, leaving ever-increasing numbers of Americans without reasonable hope for the kind of life their parents worked to give them.
Many Americans are in despair, and it has left them open to demagoguery and political manipulation. Blame gays, liberals, unions, immigrants or feminists for your family's struggles, for shrinking economic opportunity, for foreclosures and disappearing wages and benefits. Blame secularists or Muslims, or both, for the sense that our values have gone haywire.
A year out from the 2012 election, I am already tired of those who use the phrase "American exceptionalism" to reassert the far-right's claim that God, the Founding Fathers and any decent freedom-loving American must share their reactionary political agenda. I embrace the idea too that our nation should be a "shining city on a hill." We are the spiritual heirs to those Americans who struggled to end slavery and segregation, to end child labor and win safe conditions and living wages for workers, to enable every American to enrich his or her community and country by finding a place and a way to flourish in the world. We must make ourselves worthy of that legacy.
Call it the American dream, the American promise or the American way. Whatever term you use, it is imperiled, and worth fighting for. It is that basic, deeply patriotic emotion that I believe is finding expression — bottom-up, small-d democratic expression — in the Occupy movement. We can, and I would say must, fully embrace both love of country and outrage at attempts to despoil it. What better cause? What better time?
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Show All"hate preaching televangelists", they are paid propagandists of the fascists to preach their hate and calling it christianity because the audience is ignorant. The never define their god or their brand of christianity. The are paid by the fascist think tanks, Grover Norquist, Karl Rove and other ingrate cretin fascists. The preachers never mention the corrupt system criminal conspiracy of the Wall St., Wash., DC, Axis of Evil which is rife with bribery and passing laws against those whom protest against this criminal conspiracy, beating, gassing and throwing them in jails. The hate preachers and their fascist front organizations are exempt from taxes, citing themselves as being tax exempt, non profit. This means the tax exempt organizations are funded by the FORCED CONTRIBUTIONS, withholding taxes, on USAn's labor. These government subsidized, by the FORCED CONTRIBUTIONS then proceed to produce propaganda campaigns to influence a gullible USAn public, which is resoundingly successful, into being fearful and hateful. Meanwhile the vast majority of USAn resides in their ignorance , a chosen state of consciousness[which is unconsciousness]. This process of Manufacturing Consent, Noam Chomsky, is now 90 years in the making and has/is manipulates public opinion into accepting being ruled by a elite ruling class of Capitalist fascists comprised of government, business, pretend christians all of which use the MSM to trumpet the propaganda orchestrated by bribing the MSM never to even mention the corruption and bribing those necessary, which afflicts USA society.
I'd like to thank Norman Lear for Archie Bunker. Lear's show, ALL IN THE FAMILY brought the bigotry and sexism of America into the light of the family living room, where it could evaporate like a vampire in the sun. Archie Bunker was the Stephen Colbert of his time. Lear took a lot of heat for his liberalism, his humanism. I call him Mensch!
MAPLE: As far as I can recall, this is the first piece C.D. ever published by Norman Lear. For some time I've felt that it would be a good time to either air the old "All In The Family" series, or create a newer version. It's been said that only the fool can tell the king the truth; and as is increasingly seen in the likes of the Colbert & Jon Stewart shows, comics provide more accurate news coverage--masked as comedy--than is found via the official networks.
A new "All In The Family" would hold up the mirror to society's racists, sexists, homophobes, etc. And while a company like Lowes would be unlikely to sponsor it, the modern TV sit-com might wish to point its prejudices at Muslims just to expose the ridiculous nature of this latest scapegoat offensive.
If Mr. Lear reads this thread, I hope he'll consider the idea. Through comedy, sensitive topics can be covered. The dialog and familiar characters might help some viewers, heavily entrenched in dangerous prejudice and similar authoritarian views to reexamine their certainty in all things rigid...and wrongheaded.
For instance, if I got to join the team of writers for the new version, I'd have the Hispanic lawn worker/gardener a Ph.D. candidate forced to leave his native land due to NAFTA's role in destroying its economy. (This would throw a monkey-wrench into the typical assumption that all the "illegal" Hispanic workers have no education, etc.)
the occupy movement - which is a worldwide movement - is a reflection of the desire for normal everyday people to break out of the debt servitude prison which has ruled our world for thousands of years
it is not a democracy movement either here or abroad - democracy is a joke and we have the political leaders to prove it
we live in a bankster terrorist prison of debt and servitude whether we live in cairo or rome or athens (greece or georgia either one) and we want out
that is the feeling of occupy
busting out of this prison is a broad topic that covers all manner of controls which is why occupy doesn't have a single message or a single leader
the particular issues vary from place to place but the desire is the same
Zbigniew Brzezinski knows it - he warned, in a speech to the council on foreign relations of "the great awakening"
"For the first time in history almost all of humanity is politically activated, politically conscious and politically interactive. Global activism is generating a surge in the quest for cultural respect and economic opportunity in a world scarred by memories of colonial or imperial domination"
http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=19873
here's a youtube post of the speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uIsSoTcsXc
it is worth a listen
his book the grand chessboard 1996 outlines amerikan hegemony and the wars for oil which came to pass
"He sees the US as the only global superpower, but inability to maintain its hegemony indefinitely means that ``geostrategic skill'' is essential. To what end is not specified beyond the vague shaping of ``a truly cooperative global community''
http://www.amazon.ca/Grand-Chessboard-American-Geostrategic-Imperatives/dp/0465027261
lastly here's a link to a pdf of his book between two ages
http://www.sensesoverloaded.com/documents/Zbigniew_Brzezinski_Between_Two_Ages.pdf
so, in the new year, i urge all, as does this writer, to fight the good fight
reject the debt prison and rediscover your dignity and your freedom
do what you need to do to find love in this ingracious age
"Blame gays, liberals, unions, immigrants or feminists for your family's struggles"
Why not put the blame squarely where it belongs, on cowardly, racist, reactionary, superstitious, greedy, polluting, war profiteering, chickenhawk, conservatives who act like animals instead of humans?
Animals don't act that way, only humans can organize their prejudices and abstract their struggles to blame some sort of metaphysical Other.
Americans have to stop being consumers and become citizens again. We have given control over our government to corporations. We finance their bribery of Congress to get laws protecting their interests over the good of the people. The result is that we have a government more concerned with making globalization a reality than with making our country prosper.
Hoa binh
I admire and respect Mr. Norman Lear for his many years of TV writing and producing, with such great and culture-changing shows as "All in the Family"--and I stand with him in his desire to see Americans of all stripes taking back the America that has been promised to all.
I do want to point out, though, that "Born Again American" is not simply a calling card or slogan or rallying cry. It is, indeed, an organization founded by Mr. Lear (http://www.bornagainamerican.org/), for whatever that's worth.
There's nothing wrong with a little self-promotion, so long as we're completely truthful and forthcoming. I embrace the principles Mr. Lear is espousing, although I'm not sure I fully embrace the "evangelical" flavor of the message or its iconography.
I have to admire Lear for his hope. While I strive to grasp it with many of the same considerations of positive aspects of the society, culture, and economy of the US, for me it would be like having hope while hanging on to a rail of the Titanic as it was going down or preparing for a sea voyage from the shore of Polynesian Tikopia in their tradition of population control.
In an article posted today on CD regarding the president and the two parties torpedoing of Social Security's independence from the federal budget with their stealthy tax break, an SS actuary is cited with the following affermation:
"The chief actuary of the Social Security trust fund has affirmed that the payroll tax cut will not put a dent in the $2.6 trillion fund, which is expected to pay all promised benefits until 2036. The law requires the government to make up any shortfalls."
I'm not so depressed with the prospect of the parties turning it into a budgetary
football as with the possibility the US will no longer exist in 2036. The barbarians are no longer at the gate, they have already taken over.
" I had my first born again American moment 30 years ago when I was moved to outrage and action by a group of hate-preaching televangelists who were trying to claim sole ownership of patriotism, faith, and flag for the far right ".
Nothing has changed in 30 years, sad to say, except the brain dead, born again christian fascists carrying a false cross and wrapping them selves in a false flag have become more powerful and dangerous. Some like Wacko Pat the rat are billionaires; hence 1%' ers and they demonize the occupy movement with perjoratives. These are the same type of church insanity people that supported Hitler. They are Bible thumping, fascists that support Wall Street, International Financiers and are cheerleaders for war and use their Bibles for pom poms!
PAUL: I think it's worsened. In the 60's & 70's, racist beliefs were being seriously challenged. More people were anti-war, and the whole intellectual atmosphere of that era was OPEN to questioning everything, starting with "The Establishment" and what passed for authority figures.
The Backlash was phenomenal! To counter the growth of liberal views, huge investments were made in think tanks, later in ALEC and how universities got funded. The strategy on the part of right wing groups expanded into buying up media, and then filling Washington with lobbyists. The secondary front focused on the right's most reliable funding base: the fundamentalist Christians.
When cable TV opened the way to the Evangelical ministries, the money began pouring in. This gigantic demographic's funding led to the set-up of mega churches, and it went on to fill our military with evangelicals. Heck, it even created its own multi-billion dollar publishing industry. Add all that to its own Christian rock stations, and Christian music publishing, and Christian books for home schooling and an ilk was firmly established that would reliably follow authority figures. These inroads ensured that millions would intellectually reside inside a narrow box, assured of "God's" validation, no beliefs need be questioned... Such certainty in the face of taught ignorance poses as an ENEMY to a free, open, diversified society.
So while I agree that these prejudices have always been around, what CHANGED was the way media ownership & mega church development set up its own channels of indoctrination. There have been studies shown which PROVE that a new uber: religiosity has set in. What's most upsetting is the parallel rise in miliarism. This is why I've often stated that the deity that's truly worshipped in the USA is Mars, the god of war. It is not a God of love, tolerance, compassion, peace or turning the other cheek. Heck, all that's for sissies in the land of endless shows of macho militarism.
There is no convincing a True Believer of anything other than what his "faith" tells him is "true."
This is a dangerous situation... and it's been capitalized upon by dark powers in secular, economic, military, and theological realms. In my view, this inversion of Divine principle = The Anti-Christ.
30 years ago you would not see 4-5 Republicans boasting of their substantial ignorance on national TV, nor speaking idiotically about things like evolution or climate change. (Of course 30 year ago, the climate change facts and factors were not yet understood or coming barreling towards us). You might have seen one wing-nut who was broadly seen for what he was. I think you get my point.
Excellent and comprehensive comment Sioux Rose!. " The inversion of Divine principle = The Anti- Christ. That pretty much says it all ! Yes, I get your point. Approbative post. Paul
Thank you, Paul.
May 2012 be THE year that rights the scales of justice: "As above, so below" style. And Happy New Year to you, and friends on this site.
Sioux Rose.
Thank you for your kind words and Happy New Year to you.
Paul
The "inversion of Divine principle" precludes the Anti-Christ and those involved in this blasphemy are the agents of the Anti-Christ laying the groundwork of deceit. The One World System, NWO, globalization are the organs of the Anti Christ.
To add another dark dimension to the conversation, yesterday from CD:
“Published on Thursday, December 29, 2011 by Foreign Policy in Focus
The Return of Waterboarding?
by Robert Pallitto
During the recent Republican presidential primary debates, three candidates said without hesitation that they would authorize waterboarding as an interrogation technique if elected president.”…”Tough-sounding rhetoric gets votes – especially among audiences who cheer for the death penalty , as some spectators did during a recent Republican primary debate.”
---------------------------
Thanks to Naomi Wolf(book: End of America) and to Chris Hedges(book: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America )
for warning us of our current danger from fascim and christo-fascists
----------------------------
Ponder this:
“In one 2006 survey by the Scripps Center at Ohio University, 66% of Americans who identified themselves as strongly Republican supported torture, whereas 24% of those who identified themselves as strongly Democratic. In a 2005 U.S. survey 72% of American Catholics supported the use of torture in some circumstances compared to 51% of American secularists. A Pew survey in 2009 similarly found that the religiously unaffiliated are the least likely (40 percent) to support torture, and that the more a person claims to attend church, the more likely he or she is to condone torture; among racial/religious groups, white evangelical Protestants were far and away the most likely (62 percent) to support inflicting pain as a tool of interrogation.” - from Wikipedia under torture.
-----------------------------
My hope is stronger than my conviction that: “2012: The Year of Nonviolence?” by Jake Olzen from CD yesterday, will come true.
The rational for the pretend christians to support torture is that the Christ was tortured, so why should US mere mortals be exempt from torture, it the christian thing to do.
new Guardian: I don't know if you're a new poster, as I don't recogize your screen name; however, your post was appreciated. Thank you for the supportive data.
For years I've been offering the message, taken from an Astrological perspective, that this is the End of the Piscean Age. The prior Age (each Age consists of about 2200 years, and is based on our solar system's orbit around the central sun) was that of Aries, and for Aries, the sign ruled by Mars, war is holy. in fact, for Mars, life centers on war, battle, and competitions always in search of the next in a long line of "who's Number One!"
Jesus's birth represented the arrival of the Piscean Age. Venus, the cosmic counter-balance to Mars, is exalted in Pisces. The marked duality of the sign of two fishing swimming in opposing directions meant that two quintessential paths were possible. It was intended that Jesus act as Avatar inspiring a change in collective behavior moving from war to peace, and violence into compassion. Compassion is the key teaching of Pisces' "fish less traveled by." What instead happened was that the old warring ways were carried over and the name of Jesus used as endorement. The Mighty Church has been 90% behind this spiritual retardation due to its own quest for empire. Consider how the Roman Catholic church has reached across the globe to control the lives of at least a billion people?
There's been a gross misappropriation of Divine Will on the part of institutions of so-called spiritual authority.That, along with expunging the Divine Feminine from the basic over-riding spiritual equations that have impacted and embedded culture down the centuries, explains the gross disregard for Mother Nature, and why there's also a virtual war declared upon every once viable ecosystem. To offset this calamitous disregard for LIFE at its roots, the Christian religions make noise about "right to life" ONLY insofar as controlling the birth canal, and thus women.
The entire thing is insidious, and it's brought humanity to the brink of ruin on multiple fronts from the economic to the ecological, with the sickening call to war, war, and more war now pitched to such a high tech level that millions can be murdered in the blink of an eye. I, for one, am tired of hearing the military's apologists in this forum suggest that Americans love war. Unless and until you speak HONESTLY about all the mechanisms--from the ubiquitous church pulpits, to the media, with the worship of sports tossed into the toxic mix--that SHAPE that "love" of war, STFU. It's just apologia for the worst sins of moral depredation. And it's almost entirely PROGRAMMED into the masses.
It is important to understand the source of these martial inclinations, and that goes back thousands of years. Lately I've been mentioning Riane Eisler because her findings, as taken from an expanse of anthropological research, support the contention I've repeatedly made (in this forum) as to this idea that MARS rules. Until the archetype used to symbolize "God" is deconstructed, and dislodged from its mythological counterpart that exalts war, peace will always be considered: unrealistic, the path of sissies, impossible, antithetical to the nature of mankind, etc.
That stance, that war is inevitable, is the lie that's been told so often down the centuries, as to be taken for true by too many. And it does the likes of Goebbels proud to keep repeating it!
P.S. Bogi: The church is a very punitive institution. The focus on sin leads to the reciprocal idea that disobedience MUST be punished. I think this ethos lays the context for the ease with which those conditioned by patriarchal religion accept torture.
I would say America worships Mammon and its religiosity is that of the son of perdition. The irony of course is all those end-timers don't see what is staring them in their face -- their own pivotal role in the rise of Babylon.
CETI: I agree, and I applaud you for stating something quite profound in a few words. It's my view that Pat Robertson is, or was, CIA. Furthermore, it just seems "too coincidental" that Christian fundamentalism could spread like wildfire thanks to the growth of cable TV channels, and morph the same message the military held as sacrosanct (M.A.D) for some time into its "religious" equivalent, as End Times. The 700 Club gave it a religious cloak.
When MILLIONS are taught to believe that GOD wants to destroy the world, why would they care if they drove over-sized vehicles burning up the atmosphere faster than might be thought possible? Why would they question the escalation of conflagration (purposely set like live fuses) in the Middle East?
I mean it's AS IF the religious venues became another covert theater of war and relayed a planned campaign of propaganda. The net result is that the sheep-like congregants, taught NOT to question the authority of their priests, ministers, and reverends, go along like lambs to the slaughter.
There is no respect for life in this equation.
A trance medium once imparted this message to me:
"Many want oblivion... and end to it all."
When I contemplated that profound statement, what I recognized was that rather than throw the GIFT of life back in Creator's face, it would be far better to invent the axiom that it was GOD that wanted an end to human life on this majestic sphere.
When religions and the military both push the "Mutually Assured Destruction" meme, as appears to be the case... then Houston, we have a problem. And it's not a problem that can be altered through logic since "True Believers" absolutely convinced in a better afterlife, are as ready as the nut jobs wearing their Sci-fi outfits at "Heaven's Gate" to join "the great beyond."They have far more in common with the suicide bombers they rant against, than with average AWARE persons who just want to live; or as Judge Brandeis once put it, "Just be left alone!"
Scary thing is, a lot of these wing nuts have their hands closes to the triggers, with staggering numbers inside the DC beltway, if not in the Oval Office or its wings.
I always get a little wary when I hear the term " the American Way".. What the hell is the American way, and why is it defined as being exclusively American?
Unless of course we are talking about unregulated free-markets, where wall-street robs at will and leaves the people with the bill. Where lobbies buy the power of our elected official with pockets full of corporate money. I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.
Too bad the American people can't afford lobbyists to protect us from the corperations. Maybe after OWS grows we can, but I am afraid the Kochs, fox news, and the tea party will always be able to out spend the American working class. This is the worse congress in history, probably the only repair forreed greedy bastards is to take the corporate money out of elections and politics. Stop the congress insider trading.
Yes, Rick. That was my reaction as well.
Why not "I'm a Born-Again Earthian"...? I mean, this effects us all, doesn't it? The coming paradigm shift has to do with a re-structuring of society along 'horizontal' as opposed to "vertical" lines. Corporatism, Fascism, Militarism, Law Enforcement, Organized Religion all have a vertical, authoritarian structure. A horizontal, free and open, inclusive, and above all, cooperative society should be our goal.
Yeah, I think they are trying to redefine the American Way as part of the progressive tradition, as opposed to that other and more dominant American Way which Morris Berman has defined as the way of the hustler.
http://morrisberman.blogspot.com/
You just described the MeriKan way.
You will not like my conclusions about Fr. Coughlin, based upon a decade of research in matters in which he was a player.
The radio attacks of Fr. Coughlin required approval all the way to the throne of St. Peter. The line of command went through Bishop Spellman to his friend, Secretary of State Pacelli, under Pope Pius 11. The friends set up what we call a =protection racket=. After relentless radio vitriol, Coughlin got polls in June 1936 down to only a 50 percent chance for FDR's re-election, due to the absent Catholic vote. No kidding.
THEN in Sep-Oct, Joe Kennedy financed a visit to the USA by Sec. Pacelli - and put a DC3 at his disposal. Pacelli went to Detroit and (ha ha ha) gagged Fr. Coughlin (ha ha thigh slap). Pacelli then toured US cities with major Catholic populations and expressed his basic approval of President Roosevelt. Listeners knew that Cardinal Pacelli was almost certainly going to be the next pope. This turned a tide.
Pacelli remained in the US until the 1936 election was over and it was a landslide for FDR. Two days later, Joe and Rose Kennedy showed up ay Hyde Park, along with Spelly and Pacelli. It was time for quid pro quo. Rose boldly asked for Joe to be appointed Ambassador to the Court of St. James's. Sec Cardinal Pacelli asked for appointment of an American Ambassador to the Vatican. FDR replied the best he could do was a Personal Representative. This was the wrong answer.
BTW, Francis Spellman loved this sting, because Franklin D. Roosevelt had =personally and with pique= blocked his application to be a US Navy Chaplain in the Great War. Spelly was too short. IMO, the Coughlin matter is best seen as the palm of Francis reaching for the privates of FDR and squeezing them tighter and tighter. I call it "the revenge of the gay stamp collector".
History is fascinating.
Trylon
NOT TO WORRY. At the present rate of discovery of and consumption of fossil fuels the wold temperature will rise past the life enabling point long before we run out of oil. I have discovered a way out! Die first!
An Open Letter to Norman Lear:
I write this comment in respponse to your elegant article. You have accomplished much and are admired by many. I know that you have a connection to Vermont, but do you know about the level of censorship of political speech in Vermont? Maybe not. Because when speech is censored or banned it disappears from the landscape. It is hidden. You could do much to change this. Please Google DENNIS STEELE ARRESTED. This is only one of many examples of censorship of political speech.
We need to shine a light on this issue and restore the spirit of the First Amendment. Please contact me if you are willing to help.
Mr. Lear,
These are very nice packaged thoughts that you have espoused. I would encourage you to look beyond the words and create with that extremely intelligent mind of yours something that would help the 99%.
We are waiting for more brave souls like you and the one percent of the one percent that get it, to step out from behind the curtain of words to real positive affirmative action. You have enjoyed the liberties to create and produce the product you have pushed on the masses......now is the time to give up some of that energy to we the people......
Sincerely, MindMover