A powerful statement from Pat Tillman’s brother Kevin:
After Pat’s Birthday
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And here are some comments by a friend about the statement, at the end of which is an announcement for a teach-in this Monday 10/30 in NYC, for anyone in the area:
I had read excerpts of the statement which were very good, but taken as a whole it is much more powerful and really is a “must read” for everyone. (Though as you know, I don’t agree that elections are the solution, as I will touch on below.) His list of “somehow’s” is very reminiscent to me of the seven “your government” indictments at the start of the World Can’t Wait’s call to drive out the Bush regime — both are eloquent and sweeping indictments of the breadth of crimes and horrors that this crew is carrying out.*
Now I’m reading some of the sidebar articles and comments on the Tilman statement which are also very interesting. One thing they illustrates is how even at its peak, much of the support for Bush and the war were “a mile wide and an inch deep” because so much of it was based on lies. Yesterday’s “poster-child” becomes today’s passionate opponent, as happened with the Tillmans.
Then on the other hand, when you read the comments you also see that there is that hard-core christian fundamentalist section that not only won’t back up, but becomes more fanatical and aggressive with each setback and each lie exposed. They are probably only 20-25% of the people, but because they are emeshed in a hermetically sealed world-view that innoculates them against critical thought, and because they have the backing of the core of the ruling class (the Bush regime and their powerful backers), the government and its armed forces, large chunks of the media, etc., they cannot be dismissed or underestimated. This combination of civilian and paramilitary reactionary fanatics and thugs backed and led by a powerful state apparatus was exactly the formula by which Hitler rapidly and radically transformed the face and
even the culture of Germany, and unleashed monstrous crimes on the whole world.
The World Can’t Wait Call also states: “People who steal elections and believe they are on a Mission from God will not go without a fight”. (Or as another friend just put it “they will not be deterred by anything so trite as elections.”) And it also says, referencing the Democratic Party, that “this whole idea of putting our hopes and energies into ‘leaders’ who telll us to seek common ground with fascists and religious fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster and actually serves to demobilize people.
“But silence and paralysis are NOT acceptable. That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn — or be forced — to accept. There is no escaping it: the whole disastorous course of this Bush regime must be STOPPED. And we must take the responsibility to do it.”
Anyway, I don’t want to type the whole thing, but it is really worth reading and reflecting on this prescient statement; it was written just over a year ago, but every word rings more powerfully true now than it did then. (Go to www.worldcantwait.org for the full statement.)
In that light I want to let you know that World Can’t Wait is holding a teach-in:
“It’s Worse Than You Think: Where the Bush Regime is Taking the World and Why They Must Be Stopped”
Monday 10/30
St. John’s the Divine, Synod Hall
Amsterdam and 111th Street, NYC
Speakers will include:
* Bill Goodman, legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and the lead lawyer for the Guantanamo prisoners
* Chris Hedges, 20 year war correspondent and author of “War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning”
* Dr. Les Roberts, co-author of the recent John Hopkins University/Lancet report that revealed that the Iraqi civilian death toll is 655,000, not 30,000 as Bush says
For more info go to www.worldcantwait.org.
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* The “Your Government” Indictments start:
“YOUR GOVERNMENT, on the basis of outrageious lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights.
YOUR GOVERNMENT, is openly torturing people, and justifying it…”
… and goes on to cite illegal detention, growing moves to theocracy, suppression of science and critical thinking, attacks on abortion and reproductive rights, and the overal promotion of “a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.”
