I am getting old (57) and I have seen better times.  Not in terms of my own finances, because truthfully I am about as prosperous as I've ever been, which is comfortably middle-class.  I have been poor and this is better.  Or in terms of my own mental health; I have been terminally depressed, and this is better.  But in terms of the rest of the world, our own nation, I have seen things slide down hill.  Of course, the global economy, not just our own, is in sorry shape, the dollar is depreciating, oil prices are going to the moon, inflation is rampant, there is turmoil in the Middle East.  Still, having lived through the seventies, I feel like this is deja-vu all over again.  We can survive this.

Other things are not so easy to fix.  And I don't mean that flippantly.

the revolution will be stoked by a grey-bearded man who emerged from six years of prison with the clear understanding that power is seeing into action what has been promised with mere words...

Today on this date in 1789, the people of Paris symbolically kick started the French Revolution by storming the gates of the Bastille.  From wikipedia:

The Storming of the Bastille in Paris occurred on 14 July 1789. While the medieval fortress and prison in Paris known as the Bastille contained only seven prisoners, its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution, and it subsequently became an icon of the French Republic. In France, Le quatorze juillet (14 July) is a public holiday, formally known as the Fête de la Fédération (Federation Holiday). It is usually called Bastille Day in English.

It is midnight in Paris as this is published. For the 219th year in a row, French men and women commemorate some horribly necessary bloodshed with a song.

Despite taking a completely different path, the French Revolution consciously modelled itself on the American Revolution of the previous decade (just as the American colonists had formed their revolution on the example of the Glorious Revolution of three British generations beforehand, which was in turn an inversion of the Parliamentary Revolution of two further generations back.)

To help us moderns grasp some of the vigor of the French movement at that point in history -- where the Old World deliberately admired and imitated the New -- here is a loose, unofficial, freehand English translation of the Marseillaise. (It gets its name from the fact that it was first introduced into Paris by people from Marseille singing it as they marched.)

Our nation is in need of being reborn.  The spirit of '76 is no longer with us.  The fireworks will not do it.  I can't get that feeling back about this country anymore.  I spent the day in the presence of a wonderful group of young people from all over the world.  I am a Lion and we sponsor a Youth Exchange every year at this time.  My wife and I are hosting two wonderful young women, one from Algeria and the other from Croatia.  They have been here for a little over a week.  The District 24D Lions  had a picnic and it was the first time the entire group of students were together in one place.  It was refreshing to see this miniature United Nations having fun together.  By the way, did you know that The  Lions Clubs International are the only service organization that has its flag flying among those from all the Nations at the UN?  That is because the Lions were instrumental in helping the UN get organized.  Later , at dark, we came back to Mathews County to watch the fireworks.  Let me share my thoughts about all this with you below the break.

Every year on the 4th of July, my family sits down to watch the film, "1776." Besides just being appropriate to the holiday, it is a good movie. Musical, to be more precise.

If you don't know what I'm talking about read about it here. "1776" is a musical written by Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone. It was a stage play (it won the Tony Award for Best Musical of 1969) before Columbia Pictures committed it to film and released it in 1972, just 4 years shy of the Bicentennial.

Come down below the fold to find out more...

Well it has been 232 years!  Actually things went sour quite a while ago, but that is the time from then until now.  The last really strong thoughts I had about a new American revolution were during the Vietnam War.  I wasn't alone.  Not at all.  I just reached over to my bookshelf to pull out my copy of the book that sums that all up.  It is entitled: The Movement Toward a New America: The Beginnings of a Long Revolution  Assembled by Mitchell Goodman, A Charter Member of the Great Conspiracy, in behalf of the movement.  It is 752 pages long and the size of a big city phone book.  Here's how it starts:

WHAT IT IS

This is not a book of the mind alone.  There are minds here - some of the best in America.  The Movement is not mindless.  It is a book of bodies, souls, minds - inseperable.

It is a book of the Movement experience; ideas, theories, analysis are set inthe experiential context.  It is a book of acts, of voices, plans, hopes - of how to live, what to do.

 It may seem funny that we have such a document.  I'll bet almost no one has seen it.  Look beyond the break and allow me to share some things with you.  I think they matter very much right now.

This is a good time to remember the Spirit and Letter of the Declaration of a new Congress that was passed and signed by so many on this day in 1776:

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, [certain unalienable Rights...] it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

This country's founding was a practical application of the Right to Revolution.

It Declared and Affirmed this Right in it's Founding Document.

It's Time to Declare a new Independence and make a new Revolution.

Happy Fourth of July

See You at the Beach!

Naomi Klein’s speech at the National Conference for Media reform was not included on the conference website. subMedia got a hold of a copy and published it on its website - http://subMedia.TV

Yesterday my stepson, Justus, started a conversation here on Daily Kos and since I’m the candidate he referenced, I thought I’d chime in.

In today's Washington Post there is the following article: A New Social Contract  By Michael Kazin professor of history at Georgetown University and  Julian E. Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. They state:

For the first time since 1964, Democrats have a good chance not just to win the White House and a majority in Congress but to enact a sweeping new liberal agenda. Conservative ideas are widely discredited, as is the Republican Party that the right has controlled since Ronald Reagan was elected. The war in Iraq has undermined the conservative case for unilateral military intervention and U.S. omnipotence. Economic insecurity has led Americans to question the rhetoric about "big" government, while President Bush's embrace of new federal programs has undermined GOP promises to cut spending.

 That is one way of seeing why we are at this threshold.  There are others.  Look beyond the break and see what I am getting at.

Why do we place our trust in politicians to ensure our rights as human beings?  There is a pretty serious logic gap when we talk about our "certain unalienable rights".  We place our complete trust in "politicians".  It's misplaced.  IMHO.  We've been trampled and stomped on and made complacent.  Make no mistake, we are SHEEP.  Whether you accept that term or not.  It is what we are.  

We rely on a media run by a few power hungry wolves to inform us.  How pathetic!  These sad days are dictated by hungry money mongers!  They REFUSE to be denied their "power".  However pathetic that "power" may be.  

Think for yourselves!  You capitulate to the rules of the game set before you.  Like this is some sort of board game.  Wake up!!!!!!!

"Cant hear the revolution?"
-Robert Pollard

While it's true we are still several tectonic shifts away any kind of real revolution here in the US, I think - the overhaul is here.  Whether or not it will be televised is still up to the media overlords, it seems who are already caught with their pants down by that damned inter/web (yep, it's all just a series of tubes!) and all of those pesky citizen journalists and that annoying 'real world' is intruding again into the dreamworlds of salesmen and monsters masked men and marauders everywhere are nervous - lawless rogue superpowers - out?  

(I ran a modified version of this up the flagpoles at Docudharma and Eurotrib a few weeks ago.  I decided to finally post it here after reading  LieparDestin's diary.)


The New Revolution

I trust that it’s become clear by now that some US citizens are under siege.  I use that word guardedly.  If under siege, we are in self-defense mode.  That means we can take whatever measures necessary to defend ourselves.  We have that right.  It can't be taken away under threat, because the threat itself gives us the right to defend ourselves.  

I am so pumped right now!  Ok ok...I've been excited for a while now.  Barack Obama will be the Democratic Party's nominee!  History, my fellow Kossacks, is being made! Forgive me if I sound presumptuous for I feel in my heart that we finally can start our move forward.  I have respect for Hillary, she gave a good fight and at the end of the day hold our respect, she is still one of ours.  But the primaries are over, and this evening history is being made. Tonight we start our revolution to take it back!

We were young. We were confident that individuals with like liberal ideals would inherit the Earth. And why should be we not be confident? Who would not want to see the downtrodden raised up, a noble nation looking out for the little guy, a system that brought out the very best in us?
But that year Nixon won, and since then our nation has pursued a path of blind greed and usury. We have slid inexorably down a path of sleazy expedience to a point where Water Boarding scarcely raises an eyebrow.
But there is something new coming...

In the spirit of HBO's Recount, here is a press release for a different, more conservative docu-drama...

"Iowa Terror," by Mike Palecek, former federal prisoner, small-town reporter, Iowa congressional candidate.

"Mike Palecek writes with wit, compassion, and always with a profound social conscience."

— Howard Zinn