Let's Go!

Following Cindy Sheehan's arrest outside of the U.S. mission to the United Nations, her sister Dede Miller calls on all patriotic Americans to Go Gandhi:

What will it take for the majority of you who don’t support the occupation of Iraq or the Bush regime to rise up? Polls tell us that 59% of you believe the occupation is wrong and we are being lied to by Bush. I do not see 160 million of you out in the streets. Again, what will it take? I will tell you what it took to get me off of my ass. It took my sweet beautiful nephew Casey’s blood spilling in Sadr City Baghdad. It took watching my sister and family suffer a pain I don’t think I can ever explain well enough but know it is a pain I would not even wish on the Bush family. I feel an indefensible guilt because of my apathy...

So when will you wake up and rise up?

Will it be when you are arrested for trying to deliver a petition to a Government entity that your tax dollar pays?

Will it be when you are arrested for wearing a shirt a government official finds offensive?

Will it be when your e-mails and phone conversations are monitored by the NSA?

Will it be when your Child's brains are blown out in a foreign country?

Tell me please what it will take?

I do not think many people living in America today understand the levels of surprise, revulsion and horror that we in the rest of the world feel as we watch the unfolding debacle of the Bush administration. To get some perspective - the rest of the world now sees the USA as the most dangerous nation on earth, more threatening than China or Russia.

Bush can be seen as a symptom of a sick society, for only a dysfuntional country could have elected such an unqualified buffoon in the first place (let alone re-elect him again 4 years later). Never mind that the USA's elections were not free and fair - the fact that they were even close says it all.

Similarly, the reluctance of Americans to publicly protest against Bush, despite growing outrage at a whole host of issues, is also a symptom of a society that is in urgent need of change. Look at how the citizens of Eastern Europe stood up to their totalitarian regimes! Look at how a small band of brave grandmothers in Argentina protested every day, for year after year, until justice was done. Look at the crowds of protestors in central Bangkok today! That is what real Democracy is all about!

And yet America presumes to "Export Democracy" to the rest of the world? Puh- lease! What Bush & Co are exporting is corporatized globalisation.

Unfortunately, we in the rest of the world are impotent to bring down the Bush regime - only Americans have the power to change their own government, despite the huge influence America now exerts around the globe. But in the minds of far too many Americans, public protest is inextricably associated with "Pinko" Communism, "Small L" liberalism, or a fundamental lack of patriotic respect for the office of President. Even "socialism" is a dirty word in Bush's USA, despite the fact than many Democratic Western governments call themselves socialist.

Americans, please open your minds. Look at what is being done in your name. Stand up and be counted.

The time is now.