By David Swanson
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

    Friday 22 September 2006

    Apologies to Robert Frost, and to you, and your family, and what would have been your great grandchildren. We are sending missiles to Iran on a ship departing my home state of Virginia next week, and the water the ship will be passing through is warmer than it used to be, and there's more of it.

    Judging by media reports, there are two crises facing us right now. Can you guess what they are? That's right: gay marriage and illegal immigration. I would argue that gay marriage is not quite the threat it's made out to be, though, since - as a friend told me yesterday - gay people will die out through failure to reproduce. That's right, in the proud state of Virginia we now give kindergarteners standardized written tests, and our capacity to analyze social dilemmas has climbed sharply. Democratic participation by our educated populace is so high that towns in Virginia are now passing laws that prevent Mexicans from living in houses.

    Never mind that our energy policies are going to make large sections of the earth uninhabitable, leading to massive immigration unlike anything we've seen before. The important thing is that we're getting tough and cracking down and standing proud. Our brave Senator George Allen is up for re-election, and his hooded white sheet keeps falling off in front of cameras. The other guy, Jim Webb, the "anti-war" "Democrat," is from the "I oppose this particular war but I'd single-handedly slaughter a village before I'd be caught at a peace rally" camp. His campaign slogan on posters and flyers is "Born Fighting," and he waives toy nukes around at his speeches. Remember when supreme racist David Duke was in an election contest against a convicted criminal, and people made signs and stickers that said "Vote for the Thief, It's Important." Now we've come down to "Vote for the Warmonger, It's Important." Happy International Day of Peace! If somebody doesn't die making peace, every child is going to be born fighting.

    Well, at least we'll be able to live near the mountains AND the beach at the same time, right?

    Not necessarily. First we have to prevent a gang of religious nuts from attacking Iran and potentially initiating a global nuclear war. And how do we know that we're shipping missiles to Iran with the intent to use them? Because outraged officers in the US Navy told Ray McGovern, who told a crowd at Camp Democracy. Here's the video.

    Word of mouth and real-world gathering: nothing beats it. And the only thing that comes close is the progressive media that will report it.

    While the New York Times today gave us a lovely analysis of how much spoiled New Yorkers who like to dress up as journalists resent the president of Iran giving a speech in their city, actual reporting on his actions and those of the imperial nuclear power targeting his nation for death, destruction, and takeover would be more helpful.

    Luckily, Americans are catching on to the value of honest media. Jefferson told us our only protection was a free press, and we haven't forgotten, no sir. In fact, every week or so now, an organization opposed to the Bush administration's fascistic inclinations throws a monkey wrench into the gears of governmental abuse by purchasing a full page advertisement in the pages of the government's official transcription services. In fact, many progressive organizations now devote their energies to raising the funds to do this and then bragging about having done it.

    A black and white full page advertisement in the main news section of the Sunday New York "Aluminum Tubes" Times costs $197,820. For the same amount, you could buy a full page black and white ad in The Nation magazine ($9,000) and a full page color back-cover ad in In These Times magazine ($1,450) plus one-year subscriptions to one or the other of those two magazines for about 5,000 of your closest friends. In so doing, you could either boost the Nation's subscriptions over 190,000 or boost In These Times' subscriptions to 30,000. In the case of In These Times, you'd be responsible for 20 percent of the total subscriptions. And each subscriber would be vastly better informed for an entire year.

    Of course, the same argument could be made on a larger scale. Every election cycle, what's left of the US labor movement dumps enough cash into corporate television networks to create a new television network that would cover working people honestly every day of the year.

    Are we going insane?

    Has someone drugged us all?

    Daniel Ellsberg and Katherine Gunn are urging members of the US government to leak secrets. Why? What would more evidence do for us? We already have public confessions and/or indisputable evidence of illegal war, lying to Congress and the public about war, numerous war crimes, detentions without charge, torture, murder, warrantless spying, the abandonment of New Orleans, stolen elections, and the dictatorial reversal of 800 acts of Congress. What will more information do for us, unless it involves sex?

    What we need is action, and this is the week for it. The Declaration of Peace has organized massive plans for civil disobedience. And, in a nod to our national insanity and future genocides, the Declaration of Peace - although begun by religious groups - is largely refraining from promoting religion.

    Thank God!

    Last night, Camp Democracy concluded with a march to the premier of a new film, "The United States versus John Lennon."

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too

    And if you can imagine those things, imagine impeachment. It's much easier.