Up until just recently, I opposed the Bush Administration for their blindness to the economic problems in our country in an abstract ideological way. In theory things in our country have never been as bad and unpredictable as they are today. In my personal life I have felt that that is ridiculous and in some small ways have considered it a problem but also something that can be handled on a policy level. Certainly grassroots assistance is needed, however I for some strange reason, have been able to separate myself and my life from the throws of an unwieldy market. I voted for Barak Obama on the principled stance that he will bring an end to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, that the budget will again be balanced as it was under the Clinton Administration, and that the economic crisis that is impacting so many Americans will come to an end. I think on some level I felt as if the problems in the U.S. economy and therefore the world economy were being over dramatized by the media.
I believed this “crisis” was another gross attempt to distract from the political climate in our country. Thinking the government was utilizing fear and mass hysteria, once again, to hide important issues. Wary that politicians were guiding citizens, like myself, to focus on the fear of losing your savings or your home, rather than the issues; like Palin’s decision to charge rape victims in Alaska for their rape kits, many costing upwards of $1,000. She has returned to her state, that policy has not changed. Change is needed, not only on the national level but on the state level as well. Never has that truism been more apparent. However, that is a debate I will save for another blog. What I would like to impart right here and now is that I personally know several families that are in the process of claiming bankruptcy, loosing their homes due to foreclosures, loosing their jobs and finding themselves unable to meet basic needs. I am sure you can too if you actually thought about it, and not in the text book six degrees of separation sort of way but really think about your friends, your extended family, your co-workers and see if you’re really that far from this crisis yourself.
I am not on the cusp of the lower classes. I am an established member of the upper middle class if not the lower upper class, which if you have a lot of money means nothing and if you only have a little money means everything. The point is that these are educated, intelligent, relatively average people who are loosing their livelihood due to the impractical and exorbitant expense the U.S. Government is incurring in Iraq and Afghanistan, among various other financial sins. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi contends, “Think of it – forty days in Iraq could pay for ten million children getting health care in America for one year. And the president says we can’t afford it.” We can invest and reinvest in a loosing battle that only exists due to the incompetence of the leaders in this country, yet there is no provisional healthcare funding available for children in the U.S. The solution according to the Bush Administration is the same for the Iraq war and for economic downturn, don’t find out what is causing the problem or work to find a solution, just throw more money at it. Does anyone else see a recurring theme here? Failure on both fronts, in case you’re a little slow on the pick-up.
Speaker Pelosi makes another valid point, “Each year 550,000 people die in the United States from cancer. That’s 1,500 Americans per day. We spend $5.5 billion per year on cancer research – that’s less than what we spend in two weeks in Iraq. Today there is cancer research that is promising but unfunded. That is immoral.” There are over 4,000 Americans dead due to the war in Iraq, the number of Iraqis dead is estimated to be, 1,248,105 based on on a scientific study of violent Iraqi deaths caused by the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003. That study, published in prestigious medical journal The Lancet, estimated that over 600,000 Iraqis had been killed as a result of the invasion as of July 2006. Iraqis have continued to be killed since then http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html. I think there is some truth in Josef Stalin’s remark, “One man dead is a tragedy, 10,000 dead is a statistic.” When the numbers become too large for us to wrap our minds around we forget that each one of those men and women were someone’s child. In fact many of our service members are still children. Consider the 18 year-olds you know or have interacted with, how many of them are ready to face combat? Death? And yet many do, and have, and will tomorrow. They have husbands, children of their own, parents, friends and sisters. They are not a statistic and yet we’re distracted with promises of “victory” or “insurgents captured”. Honestly, what does that mean? There is no victory when people are dead. Instead of investing in the lives we have we’re sacrificing them on the altar of mine’s bigger than yours.
President Bush made the statement that we had to invade Iraq because they had weapons of mass destruction and if we did not invade, it would become a dangerous hotbed of terrorists. Now President Bush and the Republican Party believe we cannot leave Iraq because if we do it will become a dangerous hotbed of terrorists. We’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t, had this point come up earlier in political discussions perhaps those 4,000 Americans and 1,248,105 Iraqis would be sleeping next to their spouses tonight. The point is that the vast cost of warfare is what is crippling our economy. It is why my aunt and uncle are only able to live in their house because they’re keeping it up, even though the bank is foreclosing on them as I type. It is why my friend is filing for bankruptcy due to immense medical expenses. It is why a woman I work with is desperately attempting to get a promotion because she might loose the home where she raised her children and she might not be able to afford the doctor’s appointments for her pregnant daughter, who is uninsured. It is why my friend’s father, who works in the automotive industry, has been laid off for 11 months this year. It is why some friends can’t find steady work. It is why my step-mother and aunt have been out of work for over two years and can not find employment. Do I have faith in Barak Obama? Absolutely, I have to, if I believed there was no solution I would not work to find it. I would have to admit defeat and give up, I however am an eternal optimist and believe that something can and will be done, we just need to put our minds and resources together to figure it out.
Truthfully, I believe President Barak Obama has the sense to bring strong leaders to the forefront to compromise and resolve a number of the national and international issues this country is facing. Every day there is some small token, a realization, a hint that is dropped in my path, to show how much reform is needed. Arguably hope and change are not political platforms, they are ideologies. It is because of those ideas this man was elected at this time. He better make good use of it because there are a number of us left who need some change, a little hope and a hell of a lot of reform.
Innocent Militance May 24, 2009
Tags: hope, military action, revolution, War
There’s a little bit of innocence in every act of militance. The basis for this interpretation is that it takes innocence to believe that there is good in other people. The passion that instigates and ignites this action is driven if not compelled by hope. Faith that things can change; the world, this relationship, this state of affairs and most basically people can improve.
Regardless of the materialistic or violent tendencies expressed by innovative leaders, their basic guidance stems from the innocent belief in a common good and in humanity’s ability to adapt. Revolution is based in shared hope, which makes others willing to take up your cause and fight by your side. That is why even when there is death, oppression and failed military coups the number revolutionaries keeps growing. True revolutionaries press on until they are able to express their need or are crushed by it. Learning and diversifying until they meet that goal, hope lives on and is shared. People who are moved to act believe in a change with such determination that they are willing to make sacrifices to see that need met.
The simple act of revolution one any level; personal, national or international, implies that there is a belief by one or many people that something better is possible. Regardless of what that change is or who is protesting, the common understanding is that there is room for progress. It is established that for some people the status quo is not working and that there may be a solution. People are willing to fight in order to alter their way of life or to preserve their worldview. The answer is out there and as an activist you are determined to share it.
Revolutionaries fight for no other reason than the hope that this solution, this action, this time will work. Militant action is based in the innocent belief that change is possible. It also demands the audacity to assume that you are the bearer of this answer. That although there may be positive aspects to the leader, group or government you oppose the solution you have found trumps all. Believing that as the bearer of this wisdom it is your duty to seize this moment in history and make the necessary room for your idea to grow, by any means necessary. All of these factors combine in the mind of the revolutionary. Militant action, though extreme, is based in the passionate belief that what you are doing is for good and the right reasons. After all, what is more innocent than hope?