"Frankly, I don't know what it's going to take," writes Pierce, "to get an anesthetized citizenry off its ass and realize what a threat the country is facing in having a criminal idiot as a chief executive." (Photo: Ted Eytan/flickr/cc)
Why Aren't the American People Marching in the Streets Over McConnell Cover-Up in the Senate
The American public has now proved that it will tolerate just about anything except sign-stealing in baseball and a bad decision on The Bachelor.
WASHINGTON--To borrow a phrase from the late Laura Nyro, Colleen Boland has a lot of patience, and that's a lot of patience to lose. Every day for the past month or so, she has gathered with another group of people in the lobby of the Hart Senate Office Building as part of Swarm The Senate, an act of moral witness and a general lobbying force in favor of removing El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago from office. Boland also has joined with Jane Fonda in her weekly Friday climate protests up the street in front of the Capitol. Colleen Boland has been arrested three times in as many weeks, which is not something one might expect from a master sergeant in the United States Air Force who retired after 17 years in the service.
"When you have exhausted all other avenues to find the voice of reason within our government, it's a time-honored tradition and effective tool," she said. "Not everyone can do it, and I know I come to it from a place of privilege of being able to do it. But for those who are called to it, it's not only empowering for me at a time of great frustration and personal fear, it allows me to feel like I'm doing something."
Frankly, I don't understand why there aren't a few thousand of Colleen Boland in Washington this week. Frankly, I don't know what it's going to take to get an anesthetized citizenry off its ass and realize what a threat the country is facing in having a criminal idiot as a chief executive, a guy who has put every part of the republic up for sale, and for cheap. (The latest? In the middle of a trade war with China, the president*'s business operation was teaming up with a state-owned Chinese company to build a golf course.)
I, myself, have run out of patience with people who can abide this dangerous foolishness--whether those people are elected Republican senators, timid Democratic politicians, wishy-washy journalists, or the great, massed, unmoving American public, which now has proved that it will tolerate just about anything except sign-stealing in baseball and a bad decision on The Bachelor. Last week, senators took an oath--and signed for it--that many of them have no intention of keeping. Colleen Boland understands oaths. She had to take one in order to do her former job.
"I can speak to what my oath means now," she says. "I understand those words much more seriously now that we have to defend against all enemies foreign and domestic. Many of my friends never dreamed a day when we would have to come home and employ that domestic piece. One could never imagine the time when we would. I never gave it a second thought. I mean, I got the foreign piece. But domestic enemies?
"We're still talking to senators. My call to them is that Trump is a national security threat. He's a global security threat. When I was in the military, I was posted to 30 countries so I saw first-hand what violence can do, what scarcity of water can do, what scarcity of food can do. He is endangering all of that in huge ways."
And so the retired master sergeant rejoined the corporal's guard in the lobby of the Hart Building, hoping to get a word with the senators who were hustling across the street to play their part in what was rapidly being rendered a charade for the entertainment of a republic sleepwalking toward a fathomless abyss.
Urgent. It's never been this bad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just four days to go in our Spring Campaign, we are not even halfway to our goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
WASHINGTON--To borrow a phrase from the late Laura Nyro, Colleen Boland has a lot of patience, and that's a lot of patience to lose. Every day for the past month or so, she has gathered with another group of people in the lobby of the Hart Senate Office Building as part of Swarm The Senate, an act of moral witness and a general lobbying force in favor of removing El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago from office. Boland also has joined with Jane Fonda in her weekly Friday climate protests up the street in front of the Capitol. Colleen Boland has been arrested three times in as many weeks, which is not something one might expect from a master sergeant in the United States Air Force who retired after 17 years in the service.
"When you have exhausted all other avenues to find the voice of reason within our government, it's a time-honored tradition and effective tool," she said. "Not everyone can do it, and I know I come to it from a place of privilege of being able to do it. But for those who are called to it, it's not only empowering for me at a time of great frustration and personal fear, it allows me to feel like I'm doing something."
Frankly, I don't understand why there aren't a few thousand of Colleen Boland in Washington this week. Frankly, I don't know what it's going to take to get an anesthetized citizenry off its ass and realize what a threat the country is facing in having a criminal idiot as a chief executive, a guy who has put every part of the republic up for sale, and for cheap. (The latest? In the middle of a trade war with China, the president*'s business operation was teaming up with a state-owned Chinese company to build a golf course.)
I, myself, have run out of patience with people who can abide this dangerous foolishness--whether those people are elected Republican senators, timid Democratic politicians, wishy-washy journalists, or the great, massed, unmoving American public, which now has proved that it will tolerate just about anything except sign-stealing in baseball and a bad decision on The Bachelor. Last week, senators took an oath--and signed for it--that many of them have no intention of keeping. Colleen Boland understands oaths. She had to take one in order to do her former job.
"I can speak to what my oath means now," she says. "I understand those words much more seriously now that we have to defend against all enemies foreign and domestic. Many of my friends never dreamed a day when we would have to come home and employ that domestic piece. One could never imagine the time when we would. I never gave it a second thought. I mean, I got the foreign piece. But domestic enemies?
"We're still talking to senators. My call to them is that Trump is a national security threat. He's a global security threat. When I was in the military, I was posted to 30 countries so I saw first-hand what violence can do, what scarcity of water can do, what scarcity of food can do. He is endangering all of that in huge ways."
And so the retired master sergeant rejoined the corporal's guard in the lobby of the Hart Building, hoping to get a word with the senators who were hustling across the street to play their part in what was rapidly being rendered a charade for the entertainment of a republic sleepwalking toward a fathomless abyss.
WASHINGTON--To borrow a phrase from the late Laura Nyro, Colleen Boland has a lot of patience, and that's a lot of patience to lose. Every day for the past month or so, she has gathered with another group of people in the lobby of the Hart Senate Office Building as part of Swarm The Senate, an act of moral witness and a general lobbying force in favor of removing El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago from office. Boland also has joined with Jane Fonda in her weekly Friday climate protests up the street in front of the Capitol. Colleen Boland has been arrested three times in as many weeks, which is not something one might expect from a master sergeant in the United States Air Force who retired after 17 years in the service.
"When you have exhausted all other avenues to find the voice of reason within our government, it's a time-honored tradition and effective tool," she said. "Not everyone can do it, and I know I come to it from a place of privilege of being able to do it. But for those who are called to it, it's not only empowering for me at a time of great frustration and personal fear, it allows me to feel like I'm doing something."
Frankly, I don't understand why there aren't a few thousand of Colleen Boland in Washington this week. Frankly, I don't know what it's going to take to get an anesthetized citizenry off its ass and realize what a threat the country is facing in having a criminal idiot as a chief executive, a guy who has put every part of the republic up for sale, and for cheap. (The latest? In the middle of a trade war with China, the president*'s business operation was teaming up with a state-owned Chinese company to build a golf course.)
I, myself, have run out of patience with people who can abide this dangerous foolishness--whether those people are elected Republican senators, timid Democratic politicians, wishy-washy journalists, or the great, massed, unmoving American public, which now has proved that it will tolerate just about anything except sign-stealing in baseball and a bad decision on The Bachelor. Last week, senators took an oath--and signed for it--that many of them have no intention of keeping. Colleen Boland understands oaths. She had to take one in order to do her former job.
"I can speak to what my oath means now," she says. "I understand those words much more seriously now that we have to defend against all enemies foreign and domestic. Many of my friends never dreamed a day when we would have to come home and employ that domestic piece. One could never imagine the time when we would. I never gave it a second thought. I mean, I got the foreign piece. But domestic enemies?
"We're still talking to senators. My call to them is that Trump is a national security threat. He's a global security threat. When I was in the military, I was posted to 30 countries so I saw first-hand what violence can do, what scarcity of water can do, what scarcity of food can do. He is endangering all of that in huge ways."
And so the retired master sergeant rejoined the corporal's guard in the lobby of the Hart Building, hoping to get a word with the senators who were hustling across the street to play their part in what was rapidly being rendered a charade for the entertainment of a republic sleepwalking toward a fathomless abyss.