And GET ON THE BUS! Also, found great hotel on the Met line: $79/night!
Most are free
: ? )
Have you check out all the new buses, mostly from the east sadly?
If you're in New York (Lower Manhattan, Long Island, the Borroughs), New Jersey (Bergen County, New Brunswick) Middle Tennesee, Georgia, NC (Asheville and Durham), Penn, Wilmington Delaware, Massachusetts (Lots of locations), Burlington Vermont, and Richmond, Virginia drop in and find your seat!
Link to the 10.2.10 March on Washington: Buses diary below.
Righteous Rant and Food Stamp Solutions offered below:
The cruel unfairness and dignity destroying, life destroying, and family destroying US social policies are all over Daily Kos today. And as heart-rendering as these diaries/stories are, they speak to the tip of the iceberg of our problems.
And it seems that politicians have become solution averse.
We are about to lose what few social safety nets we have left. Food stamps could easily become a thing of the past. Healthy food for the poor history.
Unless we unite and act.
Dear Kossacks: You know, more than many in this country, what has happened to our democracy over time. It has been weakened and many even hint might have fallen into a quasi-fascist state witnessed by many great authors.
Anyone with a modicum knowledge of history, an understanding of economics, and a flare for the obvious can see that 5% of the nation is doing just fine and not worried about economic insecurity, while the remaining 95% awake each day to another day of total insecurity.
We are insecure about losing everything if a chronic illness appears or our job disappears.
The time for debating the causes ad nauseum, finding a name to call our Country's condition, wringing our hands, and/or burying our heads in the sand is over. We've gotten to the point, on every issue, where we must ask:
That's what! So what! Now what!
IT'S TIME TO TRY SOMETHING NEW, because what we are doing might lose. A scary, scary reality.
We are watching a frightening, omni-phobic, hate-fueled, intolerant, constituency about to ascend to the halls of power helped, in no little way, by billionaires and Fox News. Beyond all reason, the noisy tea baggers have intimidated even the most moderate Republicans into saying crazy things, and even trying to enact crazy laws like requiring a drug test for unemployment benefits.
Good grief! This had better scare the crap out of you! And, when it does, get off the pot, and get on the bus!
I'm sure many of the millions falling into this constituency are good people knocked senseless with fear and desperation. I am sure their brains are starved by nutritional and educational malnutrition. I know they are blind to historical context other than the faux history Beck has been inventing.
What I do know that they don't know is that they have no idea how they will be used if we allow this trajectory to continue and the demagogues they choose to run for office take over the halls of power. Any even cursory student in history sees us running into the arms of fascism, defined as the marriage of corporate/political power. Although it may be time for a new term: Theo-fascism.
Case in point:
I just finished reading a very dark book entitled: The Kindly Ones, by Jonathan Littell. It's the first of his books that I am not thoroughly enjoying although it is compelling.
In short, it is the story of an average, college educated German man who, because of a college indiscretion, is blackmailed into becoming an SS Officer prior to and throughout WWII. He tried really hard to avoid doing so; however, left with no choice he joins. He is the narrator and he thinks out loud for the reader. We get to listen to how he mentally and emotionally handles the atrocities he ends up supervising. In short, it is the story of the descent of a good man into the jaws of hell, where he gets to play Satan. We listen while he loses himself.
I share this because if The Good Man depicted in The Kindly Ones can become a monster, most can. All it takes is a political mandate for many men and women to choose being a monster over death. It's a survival mechanism. In Germany, the majority chose to be monsters rather than torture and/or the firing squad, or having to watch their family members killed. Simple human nature. You see, if you were caught speaking out against the Reich, you were assured of pain and even death. It's just that simple.
We all think we would be better than that. Think again. Fear is a mighty character alterer. Really, if your wife, friend, or child were threatened with torture or death, do you really think you would stand up and fight against the regime?
Some will, but they are usually too few, and they are sadly silenced too quickly.
I haven't forgotten how we were cowered a tad when, to speak out against the Bush regime after 9/11, was deemed unpatriotic.
And who doesn't wonder if everything we type here, or say on our phones is being recorded and stored?
Back to our present. We don't want to get even close to going down a Theo-fascist road.
It is time to act. It is time to organize in a new way, instead of around a politician, a party or around our personal cause celebre'.
This is a new idea, really. One Nation Working Together has invited all organizations (Civil, Labor, LGBT, Peace, Environment, Gender, Race, Religion, All inclusive) to come to one table together to work out the daunting task of cleaning up Congress and politics of all levels to include local and State.
The beauty of this idea is that everyone remains affiliated with their particular organization, and the organizations' members continue doing their work within their own organization.
However, each member of the organizations and all of us with no particular organizational affiliation are invited to join One Nation Working Together so that we, as individuals and as organizations, have a voice and, more importantly
UNITED, WE EACH HAVE MORE POWER
I think it's brilliant and long overdue. I just hope it's not too late.
All causes must join together in a unified manner because
UNITED EACH ORGANIZATION WILL HAVE MORE POWER
What we have been doing isn't working. Look at the horrid state of our country right now.
If we can organize under one banner, we can Make Change happen, over time. There's no quick fix, but disaster looms if we don't.
This is why I am driven to promote ONE NATION WORKING TOGETHER.
Please, just this once, let's all put aside our quick-trigger-Progressive-Poo-Poo's to a new idea that isn't ours, or that doesn't just focus on our particular ax to grind.
Because, unless and until all causes unite under one banner, all causes will be lost in the same way they have been lost for decades. If they hadn't been lost, we wouldn't still have hundreds of peace, environment, LGBT, etc. organizations fighting for resolution for DECADES. With teensy weensy gains over time.
I propose we all be open to the possibilities of having a central umbrella to work under so that we can bring all constituencies under one roof for the following potential:
- If we can be huge enough, we can choose who runs for office. I am tired of only monied and/or famed people to choose from for candidates.
- A coordinated voter registration program. ONWT can call us all to help a district or state that needs a major candidate shift so we can weed out DINOS and Republicans.
- A database can be set up to alert all organizations in calls to action, issues needing to be addressed. Let your imagination soar, that's just how powerful this can be.
- A database can be set up to receive each individual members vote on a policy, putting the pollsters in a run for their money. Congress isn't getting a really clear indication of the will of the people. Well, not as clear as having millions go on line and submit their vote on a bill or on an issue.
- Communications and media outlets can be managed more effectively. One voice contacting them on behalf of hundreds of organizations.
- A database to organize our citizen journalism. Imagine being able to call in a team to help investigate why that company is dumping radioactive waste 40 miles from your home. Who made that possible? Just mentioned as an example. We are losing journalism. 80 Reporters were just laid off from the largest paper in my area. 80!!! Or being able to organize a group to report on your local town hall meetings, State Legislature, etc. If we don't, we will be shut out of this process even more than we presently are. But we must act as teams and have a place to report our findings.
Ok, enough of the potential I hugely believe, no I am convinced, One Nation Working Together can be.
Can we stop being this progressive MISH MASH nipping at each other's heels before we lose all we hold dear?
CAN WE WORK TOGETHER, ALL PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS, and provide the fence sitters with our side in a cohesive, concise, poignant manner that will resonate with all those who possess a sense of compassion and empathy for others?
We must. We must have one voice nationally. One message. One purpose.
Until we clean up the electoral process that is rife with problems that steal people's rights to vote, and until we get corporate money out of the process as in publicly funded elections monitored and corruption free.
Can we unite all of our near and dear pet issues under one roof, while still maintaining our individual organizations?
We must.
Before our friends who belong to one of those groups now referred to as "They" by the tea baggers are harmed any more?
Before we become a blatantly Theo-fascist and, even worse, a theocratic, totalitarian, even American Taliban governed country?
If you haven't already, I urge you to join One Nation Working Together. It's FREE.
Want more information?
It's all here, including links to One Nation Working Together
http://www.dailykos.com/...
FIND A BUS HERE:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
WANT TO HELP HOST the One Nation Working Together Live Blog? This will be an ongoing project as the 10.2.10 March is, in one aspect, a launch of One Nation Working Together.
Please go here and sign up. Thanks
http://www.dailykos.com/...