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by our bombs alone in the initial "shock and awe," and the torture of many others, and the chaos and suffering created in our name, are a heavy burden. The raw wounds to the psyche would most likely hit the sensitive earliest and hardest--people who open themselves up and makes themselves vulnerable, for artistic or religious reasons--artists like Malachi Ritscher, and, in Vietnam, Buddhist monks. Also, the young, who are naturally open-hearted, and the most sensitive or youngest of our soldiers.
Most of us have some coping skills, to fend off the horror--to be able to make it through the day, and to try to do something about it. But, with the Bush Junta, I think many of us are carrying quite an emotional load. It's not just that our government was wrong and criminal in its actions, it's that nothing is being done to correct or recompense those crimes, more such crimes are occurring now and are being planned, and there is NOTHING positive--Nothing!--in the direction of our country. The only thing we can point to is this actually very limited Democratic win in Congress, which doesn't even come close to reflecting the SEVENTY PERCENT of the American people who want this war ended, and the EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT who want no part in a widened Mideast war.
"Impeachment is off the table." And maybe we can come up with a plan for "withdrawal" from Iraq (ahem..."redeployment" to nearby emirates), but Bush/Cheney/McCain are intent on MORE troops, MORE multi-billions for the war profiteers to loot, and the new Congress has insufficient power to override them, because our own party has failed to condemn this war, and, what is worse, has sat back in the face of tyrannical executive action and blatantly, egregiously non-transparent vote counting in the last three elections. They should be issuing Magna Cartas to the White House. Impeachment should be the first order of business in January, amidst calls for immediate return to a hand-counted, paper ballot system. To Hell with the minimum wage! If they don't correct this "balance of powers" situation, we can kiss our country goodbye.
But they won't, and we know it. They, too (most of them), are (s)elected by TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by Bushite corporations. By their own action--our own party, whose leaders supported this private corporate assault on our voting system--they are thus (s)elected. They, too, owe their power to the far rightwing interests behind Diebold and ES&S.
They further support the corporate military hogpen that our nation's capitol has become. And some of them are also motivated by, a) U.S. oil consumption and need to grab Mideast oil fields, and b) protecting Israel (even though the Bush Junta has put Israel into the most vulnerable position it has ever been in, and has literally become a wrecking crew for Mideast stability). (Stupid, short-sighted Democrats like Lieberman, who now holds the pivotal vote in the Senate, due to the party's stupid, short-sighted lack of support for Ned Lamont.)
70% want the Iraq War ended. 84% oppose any U.S. participation in a widened Mideast war.
These can be causes of despair. After reading his statement, I think Malachi Ritscher succumbed to despair and was not in a positive, enlightened state of mind when he died. For instance, he regrets not killing Donald Rumsfeld, which he says he once had a chance to do--as if that would have made any difference. We can see today, with Rumsfeld resigned, the war goes on, and will likely be escalated and widened. This is a corporate war profiteers' project, and, until we bust THEM--which is our right as a sovereign people--it doesn't much matter who the frontmen are. Intense focus on the visible frontmen is a distraction. Hatred and violence directed at them is useless, off point and counter-productive (in both practical and spiritual/ethical terms), and Malachi's inability to sort this out points to some amount of egocentricity and immaturity.
I think he was sincere--and was overwhelmed with grief at the horror that has been inflicted by the Bush Junta, and by our inability of stop it. I'm sure he desperately wanted his death to help end the war. And I think the lack of news coverage by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies is more than likely related to the timing--four days before the midterm elections. So they black-holed it. Nevertheless, quiet as his death was, the flames that consumed him truly did reflect the burning desire of the voters to change the country's direction, which was only partially reflected in who Diebold/ES&s's "trade secret," proprietary vote counting formulae permitted to be elected.
I also think that Malachi is mistaken about the American people. It is not a matter of insensitivity, lack of thought, or lack of care. It is simply a matter of the People having been outmaneuvered by a fascist coup (which I think occurred in Oct. 2002, with the passage of the ruinous "Help America Vote Act" by the Anthrax Congress). This has happened before--perhaps never before with such potential dire consequences, and never before in quite this way, but still, it is not without precedent. The "waking dream" that Ritscher speaks of--deriding his fellow Americans--is more a matter of our illusions about our power as a people, and our misplaced faith in democratic institutions that have failed us, than it is a matter of obliviousness or lack of care. I think the vast majority of Americans really do care--but they are at loss about what to do. They vote in great outpourings of civic virtue and anger, trying to change the nation's course--and nothing happens. They have done this twice, in 2004 and 2006, and sporadically in 2002--all Diebold/ES&S elections.
They even tried to stop the war--with the resurgent Paul Wellstone campaign (who had pledged to lead the fight in the Senate against invading Iraq). Around that time, FIFTY-SIX PERCENT of the American people opposed the Iraq War (Feb. '03). That would be a landslide in a presidential election. Yet we still had the war (and Wellstone, of course, was killed). And now it's 70%, and still we have the war, and more war threatening.
I am, in fact, amazed and admiring of my fellow Americans--at their astonishing ability to resist the 24/7 rightwing propaganda that they are subjected to. I also think that they are--most of them--at long last aware of what's going down with these electronic voting machines. Huge numbers of people voted by Absentee Ballot in the recent elections (50% of the vote in the entire state of California), trying to get around the rigged electronics. This was a protest--a boycott!--of the machines, and it bodes well for general awareness of what the problem is.
So, how I deal with my own "cloud of darkness" is by doing everything I can to re-empower that great, peace-minded majority. I work on election reform--along with many others, and perhaps that is the key to dealing with grief and despair. No one person can empower the many. No action of mine can achieve transparent vote counting. It is necessarily a collective effort, as is ending the war, and--for the future--defunding the U.S. offensive military capability (no more wars of choice!), a project that will have to follow re-enfranchisement. We really can do nothing about these great horrors without transparent, verifiable vote counting. We still have a window of opportunity to get this done--which I think has to be done at the state/local level--and, as long as that window of opportunity is open, and even if it closes, I CANNOT despair. Because....
56% of the American people opposed the Iraq War from the beginning. 70% want the Iraq War ended now. 84% oppose any U.S. participation in a widened Mideast war. 63% oppose torture "under any circumstances" (May '04). 60% of the voters in the recent midterms said the Iraq War was their No. 1 concern.
And their will is not being done. And that's no okay with me.
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