Organizing Notes

Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....

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Location: Brunswick, ME, United States

The collapsing US military & economic empire is making Washington & NATO even more dangerous. US could not beat the Taliban but thinks it can take on China-Russia-Iran...a sign of psychopathology for sure. We must all do more to help stop this western corporate arrogance that puts the future generations lives in despair. @BruceKGagnon

Saturday, January 08, 2011

IN THE CROSS HAIRS

You can click on this picture for a better view. It is from Sarah Palin's political action committee web site during the recent election where she "targeted" Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) for being taken out. Palin urged followers to "reload" and "aim" for Democrats. Notice the gun site cross-hairs for each candidate on the list. Apparently since the shooting in Tucson, Arizona today of 18 people, including Rep. Giffords, Palin has taken this graphic down from her web site.

Palin, and much of the right-wing in the U.S., has recently been celebrating the joys of guns and routinely used shooting metaphors and violent images when they talk about their political opposition. There can be no doubt that the right-wing in this country is fostering a violent political culture. Thus it is sadly no surprise today when this killer goes on the rampage and kills six people, including a nine-year-old girl.

At one campaign event held by Rep. Giffords in August 2009 the threat of violence led her aides to call the police after one attendee dropped a gun. In last November's election she was hounded constantly by Tea Party members, some of whom were photographed firing rifles at a shooting range while wearing her Republican opponents campaign T-shirt. The Republican governor of Arizona has encouraged armed vigilantes to "patrol" the border between Mexico and Arizona as part of her anti-immigrant policies.

Pima County sheriff, Clarence W. Dupnik offered an emotional indictment of the state of political discourse. “The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately, I think Arizona has become sort of the capital, we have beome the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry,” he said. “There’s reason to believe that this individual might have a mental issue, and I think that people who are unbalanced might be especially susceptible to vitriol.”

Any self respecting politician should be calling for a scaling down of the aggressive violent talk in U.S. politics today.

We don't yet know much about the killer except that he has had some "anti-government" ideas on the Internet and that he had been rejected for military service.

I am indeed worried that we are going to see more of this as the economy continues to collapse and more "angry" people turn to violence. The worst part is that politicians like many on the right, including Palin, are making a living encouraging this political violence.

The public must speak out loudly against this violent culture that is deep in America's core.

Below is a video from 2010 where Rep. Giffords was interviewed after her office was attacked because of her vote on health care.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Brother Jonah said...

Pete Seeger said it in his song:
Lyrics to If A Revolution Comes To My Country :
if a revolution comes to my country
Let me remember now
If a revolution comes to my country
Let me remember now
I mean if bloody conflict rages
I better learn right now
How to catch and skin and cook a rat
How to boil a soup from weeds
And especially learn how to share
Oh, hear the thunder...

If a revolution comes to my country
Let me remember now
I mean if civil war breaks down everything
I better learn right now
How to sleep ten in one room
How to keep dry outside when it rains
And especially learn how to share
Oh, hear the thunder...

If a revolution comes to my country
Let me remember now
There'll be sickness, epidemic
I better learn right now
How long to boil water safe to drink
How to recognize gangrene
And especially learn how to share
Oh, hear the thunder...

If a revolution comes to my country
Let me remember now
Old dollar bill, you won't mean much
I better learn right now
What in life has true value
And, oh, if we'd only learn to share
There'd be no more need for revolution
Oh, hear the thunder...

If a revolution comes to my country
Let me remember now


It's been their stated goal since they lost the election in '08.
Boehner says he's not going to allow the shooting to deter him, well, now...
Mighty white of him, considering it was HIS party issuing the terrorist threat, at gunpoint, "vote our way or else".
Fred Phelps and his cult are going to picket the funerals. Isn't that wonderful? He's going to show "christian" love by going to a funeral for a child whose death he helped incite. Not to mourn, but to gloat. In the name of God.

They'll lose any "revolution" their Masters incite. Fancy that, usually a revolution is to overthrow the established order, not cement it in place.
They'll lose, but so will everybody else. It won't make me feel any better watching them lined up against the wall. My turn would probably be next.

Meet you at the barricades.

1/9/11, 4:00 PM  

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