corrente

Mel Giles at Michael Moore’s site reframes the “victimization” theme in a way that I find moving…

…We have a mandate to be as radical and liberal and steadfast as we need to be. The progressive beliefs and social justice we stand for, our core, must not be altered. We are 57 million strong. We are building from the bottom up. We are meeting, on the net, in church basements, at work, in small groups, and right now, we are crying, because we are trying to break free and we don't know how.

Any battered woman in America, any oppressed person around the globe who has defied her oppressor will tell you this: There is nothing wrong with you. You are in good company. You are safe. You are not alone. You are strong. You must change only one thing: Stop responding to the abuser.

Don't let him dictate the terms or frame the debate (he'll win, not because he's right, but because force works). Sure, we can build a better grassroots campaign, cultivate and raise up better leaders, reform the election system to make it fail-proof, stick to our message, learn from the strategy of the other side. But we absolutely must dispense with the notion that we are weak, godless, cowardly, disorganized, crazy, too liberal, naive, amoral, "loose,” irrelevant, outmoded, stupid and soon to be extinct. We have the mandate of the world to back us, and the legacy of oppressed people throughout history.

Even if you do everything right, they'll hit you anyway. Look at the poor souls who voted for this nonsense. They are working for six dollars an hour if they are working at all, their children are dying overseas and suffering from lack of health care and a depleted environment and a shoddy education…

Read on...

There’s victims and then there’s people who refuse to be victims, and stand as an example to us all. The DLC should take a page, here… or better yet, just roll over and shrivel up, because we’re mad as hell and we’re not gonna take it any more. The Democratic wing of the Democratic Party (which right now in my county means all the Greens, too) is taking over. The woman who was responsible for taking time off from work to watch the canvassing and who raised hell about irregularities when nobody else would has officially been nominated to succeed our current local party chair (who is a fine candidate for the DLC and oblivion). Word is, he’s isn’t going to fight it or put up a name, and nobody else accepted the nomination. It should be all done by the end of the month. Then, we’ll be ready to pick delegates to the state convention—and you bet they’re going to be young and full of piss and vinegar. And, we’re going to have a New Year’s party, too. Yeeaaaaaarrrrrrrgghhh!

Story: Was at the trading post Saturday and a guy saw my Kerry-Edwards and Dump Bush and aWol and More Trees/Less Bush and etc. stickers and pointed and said: “Might as well scrape those off. You lost.” I said, “No, we all lost, and when Bushco pushes the flush handle, I want it to be clear where I stood. They’re staying on until we win in ‘06 and ‘08.” I could have added that, along with baling wire and duct tape, they hold the truck together, but he was already laughing like I was delusional.

We’ll see who’s delusional.