Friday, April 28, 2006

Have You Listened to 'Nuestro Himno' Before Criticizing It?

A Plea to All Americans:


Please LISTEN to Nuestro Himno/Our Anthem before criticizing it--

This recently released Latino rendition of the US national anthem is one of the most moving renditions of the Anthem I have ever heard. If people bothered to listen to this artistic tribute to the United States and its history as a nation of immigrants before jumping on the bandwagon to criticize it, perhaps something important for the future of this nation could be learned by all Americans.

Nuestro Himno features many different artists who have together produced an amazingly beautiful and inspiring bilingual tribute to the US Anthem. According to the Latino-oriented record label Urban Box Office (UBO), which has released the recording,

"Nuestro Himno" or "Our Anthem," is set to "urban Latino rhythms" but respects the song's traditional structure.

Indeed, what much of the reactionary off-the-cuff commentary on this rendition of the Anthem seems to be missing is this simple point: As a work of art, Nuestro Himno is not intended to replace the traditional English version, or to suggest that all Americans should begin singing the Anthem in Spanish. Rather, in the best creative tradition of this nation, this song pays tribute to the heroic spirit of the Anthem and gives its history renewed meaning and life for a new generation of Americans in the twenty-first century.

Yet, without pausing to consider the possibility that there might be something profound and beautiful for all Americans to learn from this artistic tribute to the US national Anthem--something that might help to draw all Americans closer together, and give them wisdom to solve some of the problems of immigration they are currently confronting--when asked about this Latino version of the Anthem earlier today at his news conference, the President responded dismissively by saying that the Anthem should only be sung in English.

This kind of dismissive response, which seems to be in line with so much of the unfortunate reactionary tone of the rhetoric about immigration today, does not allow a question central to the resolution of the current debate over immigration to be considered: What can we learn from past and present traditions of art and creativity, to deepen our understanding of the kind of future Americans can build together?

Nuestro Himno has much to teach all Americans, if we will only pause for a moment to listen, and to think about what is has to say about the deep wisdom and beauty that resides in the traditions of immigrant solidarity that have made this country as richly diverse and creatively vibrant as it is today.

So I hope, before you jump without thinking on the bandwagon to say, like the President, that the National Anthem should only be sung in English (as if translating the language of our most important national songs or literature has suddenly become unpatriotic), I hope you will take a few minutes to listen to this music, and to ask whether all Americans might not be able to learn much from what it has to teach us about how we can continue to build a future for all Americans out of the rich traditions of this country's immigrant past and present--

*****
President Bush also said at today's news conference,

"One of the things that's very important is, when we debate this issue, that we not lose our national soul. One of the great things about America is that we've been able to take people from all walks of life bound as one nation under God. And that's the challenge ahead of us."

This is indeed the challenge ahead of us! And this is a challenge we will surely fail to meet if we react to the challenges of immigration without first pausing to listen to the lessons of history and art, and to think creatively about new forms of policy that are needed to respond to the challenges of the present.

If the President and US citizens can voice such sentiments about our "national soul" and yet, without pause, argue that the National Anthem can only--everywhere and always--be sung in English, I'm afraid such reactions may indicate that much is already missing, or in danger of being lost, from our "national soul."

If Americans cannot come to see how a beautiful song like Nuestro Himno offers much to enrich our national soul, I fear we are very much in danger of losing it.

And in any case, the immediate rejection of this possibility seems to be the basis on which the current unthinking backlash is developing. This backlash is itself unpatriotic, since it would suggest that Americans are too narrow-minded and fearful to appreciate and value the tribute paid to their anthem by Nuestro Himno.

Why can a Latino version of the National Anthem not be viewed as a patriotic expression of solidarity with the history of the US as an immigrant nation? If we cannot learn from our own history how it was that previous immigrant cultures enriched our national history and made possible what is best in it today, I fear we may be losing touch with the best part of what the President called our "national soul"....

For historical background on the US National Anthem, see the Smithsonian's website on the Star-Spangled Banner.


Tuesday, April 11, 2006

In Celebration of the Movement for Just and Humane Immigration Policy

The organizers of the developing movement for just immigration policy and humane treatment of immigrants are providing a great model of democratic mobilization for the reform of U.S. policies that hurt all Americans. This movement is providing an example of the kind of organized mobilization that will be needed across the country in order to transform U.S. policies contributing to the growth of global warming, poverty, and terrorism.

This just immigration movement is not waiting for Democratic and Republican legislators to create good policy--this movement is defining the democratic standards that should govern our country's development of policy, and is organizing the visible public demand that is needed to insure that our legislators (of both parties) will translate such policy standards into law.

This movement understands that in order to insure such just policy development, we cannot stage one march and then retreat from the streets. This movement has been mobilizing a continuous build-up of democratic forces, and is continuing to organize and develop plans for marches, rallies, boycotts, and strikes that will continue to take place over the course of the next months until our legislators pass the kind of just immigration legislation that ALL the people of this country deserve.

So CHEERS to all the great work and effort that the organizers of, and participants in, the actions of the past month have been dedicating to building this movement!

I hope all Americans will learn from this example what the people of this country can do to change policy when we stop relying on our elected representatives to define policy for us, and realize that it is up to us as responsible citizens of this country to take policymaking back into our own hands, and organize ourselves to demand that our legislators become accountable to serving the best interests of All Americans, instead of only the narrow interests of the wealthy.

Monday, April 10, 2006

National Day of Action for Immigrant Rights

After yesterday's marches and rallies, which included what police estimated as 500,000 people in Dallas alone (see front-page article in today's NY Times), today is the National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice. Today's actions may prove to be the largest mobilization in support of immigrant rights in the nation's history:

Massive Marches Planned for Today's National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice

Marches, rallies and demonstrations are planned for more than 75 cities in 29 states including Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Oregon, North Carolina, Nebraska, Kansas, Connecticut and Colorado. The largest solidarity marches are expected in California, Texas, Florida, and Texas.

Immigrants and their allies are marching to oppose the harsh anti-immigrant House bill HR 4437, and to demand just and humane immigration reform that is comprehensive, respects civil rights, reunites families, protects workers, and offers a path to citizenship for the current 11 million undocumented workers who came to the US to fill jobs offered by the US business community.

A primary rally is set for Washington DC, the home of the National Capitol Immigrant Coalition, a sponsor of today's National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice, along with the Immigrant Solidarity Network, and hundreds of grassroots organizations across the country.


About the April 10 Day of Action

The plan for the April 10 Day of Action came from the grassroots. The National Capital Immigrant Coalition – a coalition of immigrant, labor, faith, civil rights and business community groups in the metro, Washington, DC area – and allies around the nation, developed the concept of a National Day of Action. Their good idea caught on like wildfire and today hundreds of local grassroots organizations and coalitions are working together in cities all over America to make our voices heard.

For months, the incredible energy and organizing talent within immigrant communities has been leading the national news. Communities that have lived in the shadows and in fear are now speaking out about how America's broken immigration system regularly rips families apart, creates the conditions for gross workplace and civil rights violations, and fuels a political climate where being “anti-immigrant” is considered by some politicians to be a winning strategy.

Immigrant communities are coming together on April 10 to proudly declare that “We Are America” and that immigration reform must not violate the American values that we cherish. In cities from coast-to-coast, immigrants, families and friends will gather, tell our own personal stories, demand political action and contribute our energy and talents to the growing movement for immigrant justice.

Our goal is to stop anti-immigrant legislation from becoming law and to pass real, comprehensive immigration reform that provides a clear path to citizenship, unites families, and ensures workplace and civil rights protections for all.

You can help support immigrant families on April 10 by:

-Learning about events in your community.
-Making a donation to help support April10.org and the movement for immigrant justice.
-Signing the petition for immigrant rights--

Petition to Congress:

I believe that Congress should pass real, fair and comprehensive immigration
reform that:

1) Respects my values of fairness, hard work, and family

2) Provides a clear path to earned citizenship for immigrants living in
America today

3) Fixes America’s immigration system to make it safe, legal and orderly

4) Unites families

5) Ensures workplace and civil rights protections for everyone

I am opposed to immigration legislation that includes unworkable and immoral provisions. Proposals – such as arresting and deporting 11 million men, women and children to nations all over the world – are simply unworkable and run against the American values that I cherish.

America’s broken immigration system is not working for new immigrants and citizens alike. It is time for Members of Congress to show real leadership and pass real, fair and comprehensive immigration reform now.

*****
This petition may be downloaded for signatures, and the www.april10.org website provides additional information to support mobilization efforts.

For overview and background on the uprising of action for justice on immigrant rights, see yesterday's feature article in the Washington Post.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

A DAY IN SUPPORT OF IMMIGRANTS--BOYCOTT/WORK STOPPAGE

MONDAY APRIL 10 2006


PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH YOUR FAMILY, RELATIVES, FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS, AND CO-WORKERS

MARCH or BOYCOTT for Immigrant Rights!!!

IMMIGRANTS WORK!
Our Immigration System Doesn't!

MORE THAN 12 MILLION UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS IN THE U.S.A. DESERVE DIGNITY, RESPECT, AND SHOULD BE RECOGNIZED FOR THEIR HARD WORK, EFFORT AND THEIR PARTICIPATION IN U.S. ECONOMIC GROWTH

Support Comprehensive Immigration Reform
AND SEVERAL CIVIC GROUPS IN FAVOR OF A COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM ARE CALLING YOU TO JOIN AND SUPPORT:

A GENERAL STOPPAGE
AND ECONOMIC BOYCOTT
IN PROTEST
OF THOSE ANTI-IMMIGRANT BILLS THAT, IN CASE OF BEING APPROVED, WILL AFFECT MORE THAN 12 MILLION UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS AND THEIR FAMILIES

"A DAY WITHOUT HISPANICS"
MONDAY APRIL 10 2006

YOU CAN PARTICIPATE BY:

-DRESSING IN WHITE
-HANG A WHITE SHEET ON YOUR DOOR
-PINNING A WHITE RIBBON ON YOUR CHEST
-NOT GOING TO SCHOOL THAT DAY
-COPY, PRINT AND SHARE THIS FLYER WITH FRIENDS, FAMILY, REALTIVES & NEIGHBORS
-JOIN WITH AN ORGANIZATION OF A WALK-OUT IN YOUR CITY
-NOT GOING TO WORK THAT DAY (SPEND THAT DAY WITH YOUR FAMILY)
-NOT USING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION (BUSES, TAXIS, SUBWAYS, TRAINS, ETC. )
-NOT GOING TO PUBLIC PLACES (MOVIE THEATERS, RESTAURANTS, BARS, ETC.)
-NOT BUYING GASOLINE
-NOT GOING TO SUPERMARKETS (WAL-MART, CITY MARKETS, PRICE, COSTCO, ETC.)
-NOT SHOPPING AT ALL
-CONTACTING YOUR SENATORS AND/OR CONGRESSMEN, ASKING THEM TO SUPPORT A COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM


UNION HISPANA DE TELLURIDE
325 Coonskin Court Suite F12, P.O.Box 3278 Telluride, Co. 81435.
Phone: (970)-417-9634.
http://unionhispana.org

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Today We Begin to Stand Against the Violence

Hunger Strike

To Stand Against the Violence
Of US Domestic and International Policy
& Initiate a Nationwide
Nonviolent Democracy Campaign


Today, on the anniversary of Gandhi’s initiation of the All-India Satyagraha campaign on April 6, 1919, I am taking up a hunger strike to summon the people of the United States to begin, before it is too late, to build a nation-wide campaign to transform US governmental policies of violence and devastation into policies of healing and justice, and to repair the breach in the heart of the world.

This political and spiritual work cannot wait until the next Presidential election in 2008. By then it may be too late. What is needed in any case is more than simply a change in the party of the executive administration. We need a fundamental change in the framework of policy that governs this country, whatever the political party in charge of the executive or Congress.

The mid-term elections this year give the citizens of the US the opportunity to demand fundamental change in the policies that have been leading this country so badly astray at almost every level, foreign and domestic. --Environmental policy that ignores the overwhelming evidence of the devastating effects of global warming; economic policy that ignores the gathering signs of fundamental economic rupture; social policy that ignores the growing costs of increasing poverty and lack of adequate health insurance for 46 million Americans and more; and a national security policy and framework that is unable to provide even the most basic forms of human security and voting rights to Gulf Coast victims scattered across the face of this country.

While changing the fundamental framework of our nation's policy agenda is undoubtedly a large task that will require the collaborative vision and creativity of all the citizens of this country, this task is much less difficult and heavy than continuing to accept the dead load of a policy framework that has failed us at almost every level. If we work together to learn to organize our demands in dramatic new ways, beyond mere party lines, and to demand fundamental policy change, rather than superficial change in the bodies that inhabit the seats in Congress, we will be able to accomplish so much more this November than an election victory for one party or the other.

For if the personnel are changed, but the policies remain the same, what's the point of all the money and time and energy spent on politics in this country? What if, instead of focusing on the stale old politics of winning a seat for our party politician, we focus instead on the politics of transforming the policy (and the policymaker) that will be speaking from that seat?

Politics can be about so much more than the media show and superficial personality games and glitz it has come to signify. But it will only mean more in practice if we demand that it do so. And the best way to give our demand force is for us to stop investing in politics as usual. This is the core spiritual and political meaning of the "strike" I am calling all Americans to take up, and of which the hunger strike is merely a symbol of refusing to invest in life as usual.

Over the months ahead, we need to find ways to organize a nation-wide and sustainable sit-down strike against politics as usual, in order to open the door to forging a new democratic policy agenda for the nation. This strike is intended to open up the creative space for inventing a framework for policymaking beyond the unimaginative and violent black box to which the traditional political game confines it.

We all recognize how desperately we need a new kind of politics, one that engages our deepest spiritual and human values and aspirations and hopes for not only a better and more just world, but for a more humane and beautiful world for both our own generation and generations to come. It is now high time for us to stop being satisfied with what our paid politicians and corporate leaders have been willing to hand us. It's time for us to go on strike to open up the new imaginative space we need to be able to forge a new vision for politics and a new framework for policymaking.

If we continue to govern ourselves as usual--as if even the melting of the Arctic and Antarctic Ice caps (which has been speeding up tremendously in the last ten years--see the series of articles in last week's [April 3] special report on global warming in TIME magazine, titled "Be worried, Be Very Worried") is no big problem, then we all will have failed not only each other, but the many generations after us that will have to survive in the wake of the environmental devastation our generation might have prevented. We will have failed the essential test of our humanity--upholding our responsibility to the future.

As responsible citizens of the United States, WE cannot continue to live “normal” lives without being complicit in the policies that the US government is promoting in the name of its war against terrorism. If we continue to allow our government to sacrifice the values that once made this country stand for something positive in the eyes of the rest of the world, not only have the terrorists already won, but WE will have allowed our own government to sell us out to terrorism.

Because in a democracy we the people are ultimately responsible for what our government does, it is we who must dramatically transform the nature of our governmental policies if this nation is to stop leading the world into a horror-filled century of increasing poverty, terror, and environmental devastation. We must therefore call each other, as fellow citizens of this country to engage—before it grows too late—a nonviolent democratic spiritual/political struggle to resist and transform the policies of this country contributing to global warming, growing poverty, and the war on terror.

As one person alone, I realize I can do little to change the direction of US policy. Gandhi developed Satyagraha into a soulful political technique to draw together the powers of individual bodies, minds, and souls into a collective struggle capable of overcoming the British empire. He refused to believe that the unarmed Indian people were powerless to overthrow the military and economic might of empire. And by unifying the spiritual and political force of the people of India, Satyagraha brought British dominance over India to an end without the use of military force.

Because both our major political parties have proven unable to resist the corrupting powers of wealth and the seductions of military force, it is time for the people of the United States to rise up and call each other and their politicians to account. I refuse to believe we are powerless to change the policies of our government. I believe together we can learn to organize the spiritual and political force of our nation to take government back into the people's hands to use for the purposes of achieving the healing of each other, our fellow citizens, and the world.

It is time for Americans to begin to organize together the spiritual force of a new kind of politics and policy that will allow the people of the US to break the political stranglehold of the addiction to violence and oil, which has come to dominate us. We cannot afford to allow ourselves to continue to feel powerless before the foreign and domestic policies that have made the United States a symbol of arbitrary, undemocratic, and unjust power to the rest of the world.

The struggle against the policies of destructive violence that now govern us will not be easy. But the alternative for our futures, and that of generations to come—if we fail to live up to the challenges of this struggle—is too bleak to contemplate.

Through engaging now--with all our hearts and souls--a sustained and persistent struggle to win back our government and our national policy for the noble democratic purpose of creating human well-being for all, rather than allowing our government to be exploited for purposes of individual profit and greed, we may still be able to preserve our link to the future, and thereby salvage our humanity in the present.

And more than this--We may learn together that the best way to promote democracy in the rest of the world is to learn how to practice it well here at home. If we show the rest of the world we can do this, we may slowly win back the admiration of the rest of the world we have lost by trying to impose democracy by the brute force of military might. By its very nature, democracy must grow from within; it cannot be enforced from without. This is the most tragic error of understanding, both spiritual and political, at the heart of the current failed policy in Iraq.

National Public Health Week

Bill Introduced to Address Health Effects of the Built Environment
as Part of National Agenda to Improve Children’s Health,
Says American Public Health Association

Bill Introduction Coincides with National Public Health Week,
April 3-9, 2006;
Week Focuses on Building Healthier Communities
and Raising Healthier Kids

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

How Do We Counter and Reverse the Developing National Disaster?

After Katrina, I reacted to what I witnessed on the TV screen with a deep sense of betrayal because I recognized that the deaths we were witnessing were not the result of any natural disaster, but a disaster of our own making--a disaster of government stemming from a long-developing failure of policy vision and policymaking. The voices of the people abandoned to death or hunger after Katrina screamed of the failures of policy and political vision that had been preparing this disaster for many long years.

These same policies, along with the shallow policy vision of both political parties that informs them, will continue to prepare many disasters to come until we, as citizens, change our government's vision, along with its policy of wilful blindness and neglect toward the most vulnerable of our fellow citizens.

I take our current and ongoing failures of government initiative personally because I know we can do better, in this culturally and materially wealthy country, than this. We not only can do better, we must do better--if we want a future for this country that will be worthy of what the citizens of this country have to offer each other and the rest of the world.

Michael Eric Dyson's recently-published book, Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster begins by discussing the long history of our nation's blindness to the structural politics of race and class, and the short-sighted practices of policymaking, which long before August 2005 paved the way for the disastrous response to Katrina (which continues seven months later).

Most valuable in Dyson's opening chapter "Unnatural Disasters" is his look beyond the immediate failures of government to the failures of citizenship and civic responsibility that made the response failures not only possible, but inevitable. Dyson underlines the naivete of the majority of white middle-class and wealthy Americans who were surprised to see their government leave behind the most vulnerable poor and black citizens of Louisiana and Mississippi. And he indicts the culture of "blissful ignorance" that keeps so many Americans "deliberately naive about the poor while dodging the responsibility that knowledge of their lives would entail."

Dyson goes to the heart of the matter when he underlines the blissful escape from responsibility embodied in the framing of what happened to the Gulf Coast six months ago as a "natural disaster."


"We are thus able to decry the circumstances of the poor while assuring ourselves that we had nothing to do with their plight. . . . We are fine as long as we place time limits on the origins of the poor's plight--the moments we all spied on television after the storm, but not the numbing years during which we all looked the other way. But we fail to confront our complicity in their long-term suffering. By being outraged, we appear compassionate. This permits us to continue to ignore the true roots of their condition, roots that branch into our worlds and are nourished on our political and religious beliefs" (4).

Dyson then notes simply this basic fact: "There are 37 million people in poverty in our nation, 1.1 million of whom fell below the poverty line in 2004."

Meanwhile, as we all know, our federal government has dedicated itself for more than four years now to enriching the wealthiest among us with tax cuts, while cutting what little remains of the social safety net of government programs that were created once upon a time when the citizens of this country still understood what it meant to use government as a common instrument for helping all Americans to share with each other the responsibilities and privileges of being citizens.

As I have watched the political blame game play itself out over the last seven months in Washington, my long-developing fears and despair about the future of this country have only been compounded. I fear we now live in a country where the most advantaged individuals, who have gained the most from living and doing business in this country, no longer feel they owe any duty or responsibility to either their fellow citizens, or the social infrastructure (which includes public health), that has made their success and wealth possible. Why else would they accept increasing tax cuts while the least advantaged of their fellow citizens go without health care and fight their wars overseas? And based on the way those with the most power in our society and government have been devoting ever-increasing fractions of the tax dollars some of us pay (along with the lives or our fellow citizens) to fighting wars overseas while ignoring the poverty and suffering that increases among our own fellow citizens, I have lost faith in our current national "leadership" (of both parties).

One of my hopes in the future of this country is that we can learn to allow Katrina to teach us how to become citizens of a common country. 9/11, for all its trauma, and for all the media-inspired celebrations of patriotism that followed, apparently failed to do this. Otherwise we would not be allowing our government leaders to continue to abandon our fellow citizens as we have been since 9/11. While near 3000 died that day, how many more of our citizens have died since then of poverty and lack of access to proper health care? How many more have died from despair at watching their government leaders talk of promoting democracy in the rest of the world while the most basic of human services are denied them at home?

And by abandoning our fellow citizens, I mean not just those from the Gulf Coast, but those 37 million in poverty (including the 1.1 million new poor in 2004), and the 46 million of our fellow citizens without health insurance, all over this country, who are suffering because of a national policy of wilful neglect and failure. Until we all, as citizens of this country, take responsibility for summoning the collective will to create a government and a policy structure worthy of the people of the United States, I will continue to live in despair of this country's future--for the poverty of other Americans is my poverty. Until we begin as a nation to understand and feel the poverty of others as our own, we will not escape our current national state of spiritual impoverishment. And this spiritual impoverishment is already showing its very material hand.

For no matter how much American citizens like to criticize their government when it does badly, and take it for granted when it serves us well, our government and our policy are what we make of them, for better or worse for all of us. Our government's failures (at local, state, and federal levels) to serve the most vulnerable of our fellow citizens only underline our own failures as citizens to create the kind of government that will not leave our fellow citizens (us) behind in their (our) times of need--

And so I continue to take our ongoing failures of government policy and vision personally. We can do better, in this rich country, than this. We owe it to ourselves and to each other, as citizens, to make sure our government does better in the future. We owe it to ourselves and each other to join together as citizens to demand new political vision and new policy frameworks for addressing the suffering of our fellow citizens.

Lest we make the mistake of thinking that doing better for the citizens of the Gulf Coast would demand that we all become selflessly noble and philanthropic, we need simply to remember that a country filled with increasing numbers of poor and impoverished people, without hope, and living in despair, can not long continue to be a prosperous and successful country on any level. We should demand of ourselves that we do better for the citizens of the Gulf Coast because one day we will depend on the citizens of the Gulf Coast to do their part to help the rest of us in our time of need. This is the meaning of citizenship in common.

The great Mississippi flood of 1927, and the government failures of response after it, preceded the Great Depression by only a few years. But the market, policy, and political failures that brought on the Depression were already firmly in place by 1927. One need only compare the economic policies of Coolidge during the 1920s to those of today to begin to see the much larger failure toward which we may be heading in an era which seems to think there is little reason to pay attention to the lessons the history of the past century of human market failure and war might have to teach us.

A country of people too self-involved to summon the collective will to demand that its government insure the health and well-being of ALL its citizens can hardly serve as a good model of democracy to the rest of the world. Such a country has only a poor future ahead of it. The future we help (or do not help) to build in the Gulf Coast will mirror the future we are building (or not) for the rest of the country. Perhaps the best way we can begin, as a people, to earn back the respect of the rest of the world for this country is to show that we can insure the well-being of our own fellow citizens, beginning with those on the Gulf Coast.

Distorted National Policy Priorities that Need to be Challenged


Today's front-page article in the New York Times, "Big Gain for Rich Seen in Tax Cuts for Investments" tells much about how terribly askew our national policy priorities have grown.

While the victims of Katrina are suffering from inadequate support and funding, the Bush administration tax cuts, which Congress approved in 2003, "have significantly lowered the tax burden on the richest Americans, reducing taxes on incomes of more than $10 million by an average of about $500,000."

These are the tax cuts that Congress is now considering making permanent, even while our national deficit has reached record levels. The burden of this debt is pressing ever more heavily on middle and lower-income American citizens. Meanwhile, the citizens of New Orleans scattered across the country are not even being assured their basic civil rights to vote for the next mayor of their city.

This is the kind of corruption of policy priorities that will change only if the citizens of this country rise up together to demand the reversal of such unfair policies, by making clear they will refuse to vote in November 2006 for any politician that does not make cancelling the tax giveaways to the wealthy a primary policy priority. We need a nationwide campaign that will mobilize citizens to demand such change from BOTH their Republican and Democratic candidates. This is a basic first step in establishing clear political priorites of principle for the new democratic policy that should govern this nation:

REGRESSIVE TAXATION = UNJUST TAXATION = THE BETRAYAL OF DEMOCRACY

DEMOCRACY CANNOT SURVIVE IN THE US if THE RICH GET RICHER
THROUGH THE DESTRUCTION OF THE MIDDLE CLASS
AND THE OPPRESSION OF THE POOR.

The Bush administration, in the name of promoting "democracy," has dramatically shifted the tax burden of this country onto middle and lower-income people who are simultaneously struggling to survive under the increasing pressure of rising prices for everyday items on which we depend for our survival: gasoline, home fuel, and basic food and groceries. Under the Bush administration, the tax system has become increasingly regressive, so that the same citizens who are fighting the wars launched by this government are having to worry about how their families will survive when they return from their war service.

Meanwhile, thousands of citizens are losing well-paying middle-class jobs, such as those in the car industry, only to find that they are being reduced to the ranks of the working poor.

Monday, April 03, 2006

The Power of Satyagraha

To Stand Against the Violence

Hunger Strike

To Stand Against the Violence
Of US Domestic and International Policy
&
To Initiate a Nationwide
Nonviolent Democracy Campaign



This Thursday, April 6, on the anniversary of Gandhi’s initiation of the All-India Satyagraha campaign in 1919, I will begin a hunger strike to call the people of the United States to begin to build a nation-wide campaign of resistance and transformation directed against those policies of the US government that are leading the world into a twenty-first century nightmare of accelerating violence, impoverishment, and environmental devastation. I cannot any longer remain sane and pretend to live normally under a governmental regime that is leading us all into such a terrible future.

As responsible citizens of the United States, WE cannot continue to live “normal” lives without being complicit in the policies that the US government is promoting in the name of its war against terrorism. If we continue to allow our government to sacrifice the values that once made this country stand for something positive in the eyes of the rest of the world, not only have the terrorists already won, but WE will have allowed our own government to sell us out to terrorism. Unfortunately our current government, with its policy of military violence as the first and best solution to most problems, is already well on the way to delivering us over to a perpetual war of terror in this century—one in which the terrorists on all sides of government, including our own, control the future—much like Big Brother in George Orwell’s 1984.

But because in a democracy we the people are ultimately responsible for what our government does, it is we who must dramatically transform the nature of our governmental policies if this nation is to stop leading the world into a terrible century of increasing poverty, terror, and environmental devastation. We must therefore call each other, as fellow citizens of this country to engage—before it grows too late—a nonviolent democratic spiritual/political struggle to resist and transform the policies of this country contributing to global warming, growing poverty, and the war on terror.

To maintain any sense of sanity and spiritual integrity, I must begin to struggle against our government’s march into oblivion with all my powers of body and soul. But as one person alone, I realize I can do little to change the force of US policy. Gandhi developed Satyagraha into a soulful political technique to draw together the powers of individual bodies, minds, and souls into a collective struggle capable of overcoming the British empire. He refused to believe that the unarmed Indian people were powerless to overthrow the military and economic might of empire. And by unifying the spiritual and political force of the people of India, Satyagraha brought British dominance over India to an end without the use of military force.

Because both our major political parties have proven unable to resist the corrupting powers of wealth and the seductions of military force, it is time for the people of the United States to rise up and call each other and their politicians to account. It is time for Americans to begin to build together the spiritual force of a new kind of politics and policy that will allow the people of the US to break the political stranglehold of the addiction to violence and oil, which has come to dominate us. We cannot afford to allow ourselves to continue to feel powerless before the foreign and domestic policies that have made the United States a symbol of arbitrary, undemocratic, and unjust power to the rest of the world.

The struggle against these policies will not be easy. But the alternative for our futures, and that of generations to come—in the absence of this struggle—is too bleak to endure. Through nonviolent struggle, hope may survive. And more than this—we may change the policy of the world.