5 Comments so far

1. abbybwood March 16th, 2007 6:35 pm

   Back in the earlier 90’s before the first Persian Gulf War I was living in Los Angeles and was an ardent peace activist. As I read the various newspapers leading up to Saddam invading Kuwait I remember being shocked when I read the quote by our then Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, on the front page of The New York Times regarding Saddam complaining to her about Kuwait using “slant oil drilling” into Iraq and stealing Iraq’s oil. Her response to him was this: “The United States has NO OPINION on your border dispute with Kuwait.” So, Saddam took the regional matter into his own hands and, SHOCK!!, invaded and then we suddenly decided to have ONE HELL of an opinion!! Prior to the vote in the House and Senate over whether or not to give President H.W. Bush authorization to use force to remove Saddam’s troops from Kuwait, my friend Jerry Rubin of The Alliance for Survival and I had been to yet another meeting of peace groups in the L.A. area trying to decide what we could do to change Rep. Mel Levine’s vote FOR the use of force against literally the entire district! We decided a classic “sit-in” would be a great idea!

   We got Jo and Nick Seidita, the heads of the “Nuclear Weapons Freeze” Initiative and Ron Kovic plus other celebrities and activists and went to Mel’s office a few days before the vote and marched in with about 30 people and sat down. Because he was running for the Senate he didn’t want any “bad” publicity, so he “made nice” to us. They gave us an office, we had phones and fax machines, and we started a media blitz to the L.A Times and various local talk radio shows etc. We had sleeping bags and Jerry and I actually did KABC talk radio all night live with Ray Briem and had really great conversations about the war that might be coming. So, if you’re going to do the sit-ins, use the media to your fullest advantage!!

   As the word spread around the city, people started having pizzas delivered to us and other food, but finally the vote came and after about 3 days and nights we left. He never had us arrested.

   Jerry and I went to a big demonstration at the Federal Building after we left the office, then we followed Mel to a meeting at a temple where he was speaking. He actually told the crowd that although the entire district was against him via letters and phone calls he had to “vote his OWN CONSCIENCE.”

   After that, because there was re-apportionment and he was losing his seat anyhow, I decided to run in the open primary in a field of 7 other Democrats. I came in third with no money, no direct mail and no television simply by showing up at all the debates and doing my best to tell the truth and share my progressive vision with my district.

   I think sit-ins are a great idea and I applaud those who have just organized them. But what I’d like to see is a slate of Independent candidates running for every seat of the House next November with the same simple agenda that would be very Progressive in nature. One that is anti-war, pro-peace, for single payer national health insurance that is standardized nationally, a true response to global warming, the abolishment of the Federal Reserve Bank (watch The Money Masters 1 and 2 on Google), etc. And of course a third of the Senate will be up for a change. We’d need candidates running on the SAME SLATE for those offices as well. And for President and Vice President. I’ve already made the suggestion of Scott Ritter and Bill Moyers. I believe Scott is an honest and intelligent man and Bill Moyers is honorable and loved by many people in this country. And to be openly pragmatic, he’s a Texan and we need someone from the South to win. Split the vote like Jesse Ventura did in Minnesota. He won there, and I believe we could win nationally. Because the Democrats are completely in bed with the Republicans. They are all hopelessly corrupt. Watch “Loose Change 2″ on Google and you’ll see what I mean.

   And speaking of corruption, Google the quote of our current president who stated at a Republican function I believe in 2005: “The Constitution is just a Goddamned piece of paper.” This is the man who swore on the Bible to “Protect and defend the constitution against ALL enemies both foreign and DOMESTIC…so help me God.” The statement he made is treasonous. He is a traitor. Our current leaders either know he said it and don’t care, or don’t know he said it and probably still wouldn’t care, because they are COWARDS!!!

   What would the Founding Fathers tell us to do with Bush for making that statement? We must be smart and organize, organize, organize and realize as we do that there will be agent provacateur’s in our midst trying to derail our efforts. They WANT us to go out and carry placards then go home! They DON’T want us taking power. Which is what we must, as patriotic Americans, try to do. Not just to save our own lives, but to save the planet and all life as we know it.

   Bill Moyers can be written to at: P.O. Box 309, Bernardsville, New Jersey 07924. Let’s all write to him and tell him we want to draft him! Maybe he’d run for President! At least this is a great place to start! Molly Ivins would LOVE this!!!

2. pazmadre March 16th, 2007 7:34 pm

   go, sitters, go!
   my heart, my prayers, my love, and maybe even my butt as a sitter also….are with you.

   your courage is a light in the darkness.

   the rev

3. rtdrury March 16th, 2007 10:18 pm

   In addition to civil disobedience we may participate in general strikes/boycotts. The problems plaguing the world today are mostly created by corporatist bids to control markets, governments, and people. The Iraq war is perpetrated to increase corporatist control over the global oil market, over governments in oil producing regions, and over mass consumption patterns.

   Corporatists don’t understand the words you throw at them but they understand the dollars you throw at them, and the hours you put in working for them. Stop exchanging with them, and tell everyone why you stopped. There are many significant side benefits of boycotts, including synergy with localism. Threat of boycott may be carried out by groups that can use media campaigns to affect a corporation’s public image. Both corporate image and sales are vulnerable to boycott.

   Example from Coop America: “In opposition to French nuclear testing, the International Peace Bureau called for a boycott
   of French products. The French wine industry was hit especially hard by the boycott because of its international popularity. According to Bruce Hall, coordinator for the Comprehensive Test Ban Clearinghouse, the boycott combined with the protests had a real impact: the number of tests were reduced by 25 percent. Additionally, French President Chirac committed to signing on to a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.”

4. bnwupuwyzaxa December 11th, 2007 5:58 am

   tithoseryzyva…

   exhikuripuwe…

5. bnzykytasixi December 12th, 2007 4:01 pm

   titxinesupuxi…

   extozanewuki…

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