Are you inside or outside of the
cage?
Democracy was herded into a cage on Thursday
night. Whether you think Obama is part of the problem or not, recognize
that it is intentional to involve the masses in the so-called political
process in this manner. The intention is to get the population off the
streets and into seats where they can consume and support corporations
by buying overpriced merchandise, food, and drinks.
When democracy is turned into a spectator
sport by the politicians and interests that run this country, when democracy
is nothing but political theater, when it gives off an aroma that smells
like change, the populace must know that sitting down in a seat in a
stadium to hear politicians offer platitudes and fig leafs onstage is
adverse to any real change.
The American people tend to be way too
democratic for those in power. The American people when politicized
discuss the issues, the possibilities, and use their imagination to
conjure up politics of the impossible. The people in history when oppressed
or repressed have asked and in fact, demanded the politicians employ
the politics of the so-called impossible and reverse the oppression
and repression that allows politicians to sit cozy in office and manipulate
the populace.
“Barack Obama On Tour”, which may
be coming to a stadium or arena that seats 50,000-90,000 near you, is
a premeditated plan to dilute any power the people might want to wield
because the people are potent right now.
With so much young energy, the so-called
Obama generation needs to have their energy directed into stadiums,
arenas, and in the end, the voting booth so that this generation of
youth do not keep their expectations of this world high—so that this
generation accepts the politics of the possible and the terms for change
set by the DNC and the Obama campaign.
Invesco Field in Denver was the answer
to the streets outside of Pepsi Center. Fill up Invesco Field and clear
out the area around Pepsi Center.
In Denver, about 8,000 people marched
behind Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) from the Denver Coliseum
to the Pepsi Center. The police did everything to keep the veterans
from getting near the Pepsi Center to deliver a letter personally to
Barack Obama. IVAW’s tenacity and courage could not be stopped.
IVAW achieved victory with the help of
thousands of people. The police state in Denver stood ready to take
action and tear gas the people, but IVAW was able to convince the veterans”
liaison to be sent out by Barack Obama’s campaign to accept the letter.
IVAW wanted to get up on the podium in
the Pepsi Center and address the delegates briefly. They wanted to read
the letter to Barack Obama to the people of the world. All they were
told is that Obama’s campaign would get back to IVAW sometime soon.
Nothing definitive was promised.
IVAW’s moral clarity and righteousness
is such that they will not go away. The anti-Iraq War group and in many
cases, the anti-“War on Terror” group, will be going to St. Paul
to take on John McCain’s record on veterans” issues and this “war
on terror.”
What if IVAW was herded into a cage?
What if IVAW was told to sit down and drink coke and eat a hot dog while
Barack Obama stood on stage? What if IVAW sat down and just waved a
flag and thrust a sign that said “CHANGE” on it during each applause?
Imagine what would have happened if those
70,000 and more in Invesco Field had been on the streets outside of
the Pepsi Center. What if they had been demanding to meet with representatives
of all those in the halls of power and all those campaigning for the
halls of power?
If 7,000 people led by veterans could
get Barack Obama to bend to their will, think about what 70,000 people
could do? Think about what ten times that could do.
Those who have the power in this country
don’t want 70,000 on the streets with their cameras that take photos
and video capturing the inevitable clampdown by the police. So, they
concede on one count and “involve people in the process.”
Ever notice how Democratic Party or Republican
Party leaders rarely ever lead rallies or marches in the streets of
America?
If we remember the words and wisdom of
George Carlin, this system will never allow you to be involved
in the process. And it will always work hard to keep you involved
under their terms if you
are involved at all.
“You know something? They don’t want
people who are smart enough sitting around the kitchen table to figure
out they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard thirty
fucking years ago. They don’t want that. You know what they want? They
want obedient workers. Obedient workers. People who are just smart enough
to run the machines and do the paper work, and just dumb enough to passively
accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the
longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing
pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it.
And now they’re coming for your Social
Security money. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it
back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street.
And you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you
sooner or later. Because they own this fucking place. It’s a big club…
and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in the big club.
By the way, it’s the same big club they
use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what
to believe. All day long, beating you over the head in their media telling
you what to believe, what to think and what to buy.
The table is tilted folks. The game is
rigged. And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. Good, honest,
hard working people. Blue collar, white collar, doesn’t matter what
color shirt you have on. Good honest hard working people continue…
these are people of modest means… continue to elect these rich cocksuckers
who don’t give a fuck about them. They don’t give a fuck about you.
They don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t care about you. At all.
At all. At all. And nobody seems to notice. And nobody seems to care.
That’s what the owners count on, the
fact that Americans will remain wilfully ignorant about the big red,
white and blue dick that is being shoved up their ass every day. Because
the owners know the truth. It’s called the American Dream because you
have to be asleep to believe it.”
Does anybody here know what it’s like
to be in a cage? Ron Kovic knows all too well what it’s like to be
in a cage. He told Democracy Now!
last week during the big IVAW-led march in Denver:
“” Do you know how insulting, how
humiliating that is, that we have to go inside of a cage? Can you imagine?
Think about this. Wake up for a second. Think about these young men
and women.
These young men and women, they are the
very best. They are the finest. They”re not going to go inside of
a cage. You”re not going to cage democracy. You”re not going to
cage freedom of speech. You”re not going to invade our privacy. You”re
not going to wiretap us. We”re getting sick and tired. We”re getting
sick and tired of people telling us that we”ve got to remain silent.
We”re not going to be silent anymore. We”re not going to be silent.
We”re going to speak our minds and we”re going to be heard.”
But, this system in American cannot function
with 70,000 Ron Kovics marching down the streets to make demands of
their country.
That’s why there are reports from the
RNC of a police state sending in the “Gestapo” to prevent protests
and also arrest those who might videotape police to protect protesters. OEN’s own Rob Kall has an
extremely comprehensive look at the police state in the Twin Cities.
This is all intimidation to make sure
the sheep trot and bleat like the power structure wants the sheep to
trot and bleat.
So, follow the leader into the stadium.
Find your seat. And sit down. And fall for the glitz and glamour of
an event that is truly the most shameful sight in American politics—that
is truly diverting energy from ending war, emancipating humanity, reforming
this democracy and its social systems which must be altered to properly
address poverty.
Eugene Debs said, “My greatest regret
is that, under our Constitution, the American people can have almost
anything they want, but it just seems they don’t want much of anything
at all.”
Unless we change our routine, this America
will not change.
Step outside of the cage. I dare you.
Vote for a candidate not from the two
major parties. Help candidates like McKinney and Nader and Barr get
into the debates or get more media attention. Stop throwing your vote
away on people who will do nothing for you or humanity.
Advance key ballot initiatives in your
state. Find out what ballot initiatives are being advanced, if any,
in your state.
March in the streets and when the police
give orders from the mayor that tell you to go home or be tear gassed,
point at the press, the cameras, and the innocent bystanders and remain
standing strong steadfast in the face of agents of terror.
Dare them to break this up violently
in front of the world. And then, when they must pack their gear up,
drive their trucks off, and pile back into their SUVs they ride around
hanging out of to intimidate us, make a pledge to be back in the street
tomorrow and the next day until our leaders make real change.
Be a Ron Kovic. Be a Cindy Sheehan. Be
a morally righteous, courageous, and passionate American in the same
vein as Martin Luther King Jr. or Nelson Mandela and stand up.
Just because a stadium doesn’t have
barbed wire lining it doesn’t mean it isn’t a cage.
The stadium is a place for you to shut
up and listen.
Don’t humiliate yourself by going into
a cage.
Get out there and fight for the country
you want to live in!
Kevin Gosztola goes to Columbia College
in Chicago where he is studying film. He hopes to become a documentary
filmmaker. He is currently working as a production assistant on a documentary
called “Seriously Green” which traces the development of the
Green Party throughout the 2008 election.