Famous words probably most of us here know. For those who don't let me quickly run this story by you. Henry David Thoreau is thrown in jail for refusing to pay a poll tax which he believed went to funding an unjust war (Sound familiar?). When Ralph Waldo Emerson goes to visit Thoreau, he asks him, "What are you doing in there?". I believe Thoreau asked him if he thought there was any fairness in the tax, and when Emerson concluded there wasn't Thoreau's response was "Waldo, the question is, "What are you doing out there?" That is indeed the question for all of us now. What are we doing out here?
After I woke up this morning and discovered I'm not dead yet, I raised my groggy head out of bed to figure out whether I'd do anything constructive today. I went to the computer, checked email, and then did the "rounds". I know we ALL do it here. We probably start with Kos, then on to Crooks and Liars, and Think Progress and Talking Points Memo, and nah.. fuck Huffington. ($35 Million dollars to AOL?? Does AOL have even 35 people who subscribe to their internet service anymore?).. and then I come back to Kos again, waiting for the next diary of outrage, or the next diary of "hope". (Odd, I feel compelled to put quotes around the word "hope" as that word has now been conscripted. It's a brand..a product sold to us like toothpaste or gasoline, and can just as easily be taken away at the power structure's whim.)
This morning I sat down, and realized that my tailbone is sore. Really, quite literally sore. I've been going insane watching the results in Wisconsin. I've been obsessing over the possible shut down of our government and now almost wish it HAD shut down for what we gave away to keep it going. And then I decided to write this diary. I'll work really hard on it, like I do all my diaries and sure enough it will go to the bottom of the diary list and then disappear. Or maybe, just maybe I'll get rec'ed and it will last.. what.. 24 hours? Still not sure how that works, as it's never happened before. Many people will do the same thing as me. The question is, what price am I willing to pay, really?
IF YOU'RE NOT PART OF THE PROBLEM, YOU'RE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION.
Not a misquote. I think we here, are just not creating any kind of problem at all. If we're not a problem then we are ignored. So I have to hand it to those great people in Madison, who seem to have caught on. The thing is, they are the proverbial tree that falls in the forest, and when the media moved our attention to Charlie Sheen, then Japan, and now the near shut down of our(?) government that tree stopped making a sound. The thing is, and I ask myself all the time, what am I willing to do? Would I face down police dogs, water cannons, tazers, nightsticks? Would I fast, boycott, sit-in or stand up? Would I obstruct and disrupt. Would I venture out of the "Free Speech Zones" to do it? Would I go proudly to jail, and face that curious question "What are you doing in there?" At this moment in my history, I would. (I think i would.) Or should I wait till I MUST. (Must I now?) I think it's time we take this to the street, people. So, I'm proposing that we start using Daily Kos to get our collective asses AWAY from the computer, and start listing daily, ways in which we can PEACEFULLY start creating undeniable noise in the cities we live in. I think these times call for "Civil Disobedience" in the strongest sense, with emphasis on the word "Civil", because frankly we have no other weapon that causes any concern to the powers that be. It's simply not enough to vote anymore, and I think sadly that we only think we've won elections. Victory in elections now seems we take only two steps to the right instead of three.
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And now having written all that, I actually ponder posting it. I'm frustrated and sad, and think that I may be soft in the middle, and lacking the conviction of any kind of hero, and that there's just not enough fight in me anymore, and I'm not sure I have the talent or fire to motivate myself, let alone anyone else. Still, I'll post this, because I am hoping somehow by just starting a spark I might ignite a fire within myself to do something.. anything, just to feel like I can.
Note: I had wanted to put a lot of picture of past civil rights protests, and such along the way. You know, MLK, Gandhi, Thoreau, Selma, Montgomery,.. but just can't figure out how. I went to FAQ and it's not making sense to me.
We all know those images, though.