If you are shocked, maybe asleep you have been.
Activism means to act. If we want to change this world we must work to fix it. So many of us have been asleep, comforted by privileges of the work of our foremothers and forefathers.
May this be the alarm clock, to justice. May this be the gong to love. Through love and conversation, and right action can we change our world.
To all American’s here is a post from Bernie Sanders supporter Ed Munter
“It started out as a feeling of uneasiness, a nagging paranoia that my world was coming apart. I noticed this feeling being echoed throughout the country.
I felt the frustration growing. I sensed the rage rumbling in the heartland and seething in the urban jungles across the land. I saw the system breaking down.
I watched the mainstream media create distractions as barriers against the rising tide of resentment.
I witnessed visions of racism rising up across America like ghosts from the past returning to haunt us. I watched unarmed black teenagers getting gunned down by police and riots breaking out in the streets.
The feeling of uneasiness escalated into a sense of alarm. I asked myself, why was this happening? I saw the economic inequality, the disenfranchised people filled with rage, the collapsing middle class, the outsourcing of jobs, the failing economy, the homeless, the jobless, and the poor.
I saw the government turning its back on the people and brother turning against brother. I saw workers losing their jobs and families losing their homes. I saw Wall Street getting bailed out while the middle class was living pay check to check and barely able to afford to feed their families. I felt the nation splintering into factions. I watched people dividing into tribes and tribes warring against each other.
The media reflected our deepest fears, broadcasting them at full volume. Terrorists threatened our security. Refugees were headed for our shores. Undocumented immigrants were stealing our jobs.
Unrest was stirring across the nation. There was a hunger that was not being fed. There was a yearning that was not being heard. There were needs not being met.
Then the election season began. It started out with a new crop of the same old campaign promises. The media dished up a menu up of slogans, rhetoric, promises and spin. We were offered generous servings of hope, change, a return to prosperous times, and an invitation to a better future.
Most of the candidates seemed to be a reissue of an earlier model that represented the Establishment policies. In this period of social turbulence, it appeared as if we were being offered the same kind of leadership to which we had grown accustomed. It was common knowledge that the system was broken and most of us had already given up on the government.
One candidate, however, seemed to come out of nowhere and proceeded to perform a feat of magic. He took the cork out of the bottle and released the genie. He opened Pandora’s box and allowed the demons to escape. He pulled back the veil of illusion and allowed us to see the truth.
He explained our hunger and defined our yearning. He showed us how the politicians had been bought by the corporations. He revealed how big business was influencing the system and Wall Street was controlling the government in favor of their special interests.
He introduced us to the wealthy elite who had switched out our Democracy and replaced it with Oligarchy. He told us how the Oligarchs were taking the power from the people and he told us how the people could regain their power.
Although this candidate appeared to be a fresh new vision of greater possibilities, the Establishment saw him as a threat to the status quo and began making plans to silence his voice. Just before his words fell mute into the shadow of the truth, he told us exactly how our unmet needs would be met.
He did not promise to save us. He did not promise to lead us. He did not lie about the future or give us false hope. He promised that, together, we would reclaim the lost soul of America. Just before the system shut him down, he told us how we would do it.
He left us with a map, crudely drawn with a few words of simple truth: Change doesn’t happen from the top down to the bottom. It always happens from the bottom to the top.
Then the darkness fell over the election process complete with reports of voter suppression, media blackouts, rigged primaries, the stuffing of ballot boxes, the tweaking of voting machines, the systematic election fraud committed by the DNC and the collusion of the mainstream media.
The sound of the truth got lost amid the clatter of false campaign promises, pandering, character assassinations, lies, scandals, and cover-ups.
A divided country beset with conflict was visited by seven plagues: greed, the hunger for power, corruption, deceit, narcissism, hatred, and bigotry. The people were blinded by the illusion of choice and force to vote for the lesser of two evils.
Strategy replaced integrity. Performance art replaced policy. Spin became the new standard for journalism. Politics became show business for tricksters and clowns. The American Dream had morphed into a mutant stepchild of a Neo-Fascist Nightmare and a Covert Corporate Takeover.
I looked at the names on my ballot and took a deep breath. It will all be over soon, I told myself but my words could not convince me. Just make a choice, I thought to myself and then I can go on with my life.
I had become so accustom to the candidates and the press lying to me that I was now lying to myself. I was starting to believe the same bullshit that had been running the campaign process for the past two years. I couldn’t take it anymore.
I won’t believe the Lie. I won’t go back to sleep. I won’t fall in line and trust that my selected leaders will have my back. I will not become complacent and pledge allegiance to the illusion.
If being a patriot means taking a stand against the tyranny of the Oligarchy, I will choose freedom and I will fight for justice.
I am looking at my ballot now as I stand in the stark recognition of the truth that lies before me. This ballot appears less like an opportunity to voice my opinion and more like a challenge to claim my destiny.
There is no leader listed on this ballot who will return the power to the people. There is no choice listed on this ballot that can bring unity to this divided nation. There has been no campaign promise that speaks to the heart of the people.
I commit myself the harsh reality. If we are going to unite and reclaim our power as a people, it’s going to be up to us to do it. Our selected leaders cannot take us up the road ahead.
I remember those words: “change happens from the bottom to the top.”
In a little blank space on my ballot, I write the name of the man who gave me this map to follow.
I draw my line in the sand. I sign my declaration. Now I am the Revolution.
I have become the starting point for the changes to come. I know that I am not alone.
I know that there are others who are keeping the dream alive. There are others who still hold the vision of unity and are willing to put the vision into action.
We, the people, are the power. We, the people, must unify the country. We, the people, must move forward beyond the divisiveness, beyond the duplicity, beyond the politics of the Establishment.
Together, we will reclaim the soul of America.”
Get out there and protest today. Will we just sit and watch a country crumble? NO!
Image by Eric Raeber
Comments