- "The apathy of the people is enough to make every
statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead."
-- William Lloyd Garrison
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- The apathy of most of America is stunning and appalling
to me. When I found this quote I was filled with wide-eyed wonder that
there is one statue left in America complete with statue, or one grave
or tomb still occupied.
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- On October 26th, as MoveOn.org was holding its candlelight
vigils across the country to mourn the death of the 2000th American soldier
in Iraq, I and two dozen others were being arrested in front of the White
House protesting the carnage done in our name by the illegitimate residents
therein.
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- Now, counting the 11 American soldiers who were pointlessly
killed in George's unconscionable and brainless war of terror in the Middle
East, the American "official" death toll is up to 2193: 200 more
families ruined in less than three months!
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- My son Casey was in the first 1000 to be killed in Iraq.
We reached that dismal mark by September 2004. MoveOn.org conducted candlelight
vigils for that occasion. Then a little over a year later, MoveOn.org conducted
candlelight vigils to commemorate the 2000th soldier.
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- If we don't get off of our collective apathetic and complacent
backsides to stop the barbaric killing in Iraq, when will the next candlelight
vigil be? George Bush and the evil neocons are killing our precious soldiers
at the rate of 2.78 per day. By my calculations, we should be lighting
our candles again and singing "Kum bah ya" by October.
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- This article is not intended to be an indictment of MoveOn.org,
which does some amazing work and who were big supporters of Camp Casey.
But my point is this, America: the longer we allow the illegitimate pretender
to the White House and his conniving and callous gang of co-conspirators
to continue, the more our collective humanity is damaged.
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- Apparently, candlelight vigils do very little to stop,
or even slow down a little, the carnage committed by the war criminals
in DC.
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- Then we have the unfortunate innocents of Iraq. I have
heard reports of up to as many as 200 of them killed yesterday. So if 200
were reported, one has to really wonder what the true count was.
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- Bill O'Reilly and George Bush define a terrorist as someone
who "kills innocent men, women and children." Am I the only one
who sees the irony and stunning hypocrisy in this statement?" Who
do Bill and George think are being killed in Iraq? A well-trained and organized
Army? Terrorists? We all know that is false.
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- This is who is being killed in Iraq: living breathing
human beings, identical to Americans or any other human beings on earth,
who are just trying to go about their lives, trying to survive in a war-torn
country that was no threat to America or our way of life.
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- "I would say 30,000 more or less have died as a
result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis,"
said George on December 12, 2005. Even if one accepts this very low guess-timate
by George, his policies have been responsible for ten times the 3000 deaths
on September 11, 2001. By his own admission, he is ten times the terrorist
that Osama ever was. If George says 30,000 ... who knows what the truthful
total is. It fills me with sorrow and hurts my heart to even contemplate
the number.
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- America: this is what you are allowing your government
to do in your name: Detain and torture prisoners without due process. Use
chemical weapons on other members of humanity. Spy on Americans without
a court order (I hope my conversations put them in a coma of boredom).
Carpet bomb cities filled with human beings like yourselves.
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- Destroy the infrastructure of other countries. Destroy
the infrastructure of American cities. Cut taxes on the rich while pouring
money and blood into the thirsty sands of the Middle East. Decimate our
treasury. Rape the environment. Et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum.
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- Hillary Clinton told me that the "wheels of government
grind slowly." This is a tired cliche and it is unacceptable blather
while the war machine is grinding the bones of our children. It is time
for us wide-awake Americans to make our elected officials speed up the
timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.
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- If I hear one more rendition of "We Shall Overcome"
and then watch the vigilers or marchers go home and turn on their TVs and
crack open a brewsky, content in the fact that they have done something
for peace that day, I am going to scream! We can't overcome unless we take
the proverbial bull by the horns and overcome!
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- Hold your vigils and marches in relevant places: such
as warmongering local Congressional offices. So many Senators and Congresspeople
come to mind. Or in front of a recruiting station. Or federal buildings.
Or military bases. Then instead of going home and cracking open a beer,
or uncorking a bottle of wine, sit down and say "we aren't leaving
until you call for an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq." Put
your butt on the line for humanity.
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- Change will not happen until we make it happen. We can't
make change happen by wishing or praying that it will happen.
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- We actually have to do something.
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