| Progressive Calendar 09.19.09 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001 tc.umn.edu)
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| Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2009 06:16:58 -0700 (PDT) | |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 09.19.09 1. Peace walk 9.19 9am Cambridge MN 2. Foreclosures forum 9.19 9:30am 3. MEPN/Palestine 9.19 10am 4. Small biz/NMpls 9.19 10am 5. Waite Park fest 9.19 11am 6. Northtown vigil 9.19 2pm 7. WPA writers 9.19 2pm 8. Report from Cuba 9.19 4pm 9. Burma VJ/film 9.19 5:15pm 10. KFAI/meal/movie 9.19 6:30pm 11. Peace programming 9.19-28 12. Stillwater vigil 9.20 1pm 13. Amnesty Intl 9.20 3pm 14. RNC defense 9.20 3:30pm 15. Silent auction 9.20 5pm 16. David M Green - Politics in the past tense/can America be salvaged? ---------1 of 16-------- From: Ken Reine <reine008 [at] umn.edu> Subject: Peace walk 9.19 9am Cambridge MN every Saturday 9AM to 9:35AM Peace walk in Cambridge - start at Hwy 95 and Fern Street --------2 of 16-------- From: Lydia Howell <lydiahowell [at] visi.com> Subject: Foreclosures forum 9.19 9:30am Saturday, September 19, 2009, 9:30 a.m. -- 4:00 p.m. Sabathani Community Center, Minneapolis Facing Challenges and Creating Solutions: A Housing and Mortgage Foreclosure Forum KFAI Radio presents Facing Challenges and Creating Solutions, a daylong event focusing on the housing and mortgage foreclosure crisis in the Twin Cities. The forum will include interactive group discussion, information from community organizations working on solutions to the housing and mortgage foreclosure crisis, and an opportunity to create action plans toward solutions. Guest speakers include Marcus Mays of ACORN, Richard Amos from St. Stephen's Human Services, and Cheryl Peterson from Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity. The forum will be broadcast via online media and a website will include links to further information. Facing Challenges and Creating Solutions: A Housing and Mortgage Foreclosure Forum Saturday, September 19, 2009, 9:30 a.m. -- 4:00 p.m. Sabathani Community Center, Banquet Room, 310 East 38th Street, Minneapolis, 55407 Community and media organizations, scholars, students and individuals of racially, socially and economically diverse cultures are invited to participate in this one-day event. REGISTRATION: This event is free and open to the public. Pre-register by September 17th at https://www.kfai.org, by calling KFAI at 612.341.3144, ext. 33 or in person at KFAI, 1808 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis, Monday -- Friday 10:00 a.m. -- 6:00 p.m. Refreshments and lunch will be served. This event is presented in partnership with KFAI, Fresh Air Radio and the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder newspaper. KFAI's Strive To Thrive: Housing and Mortgage Foreclosure Forum is funded, in part, by the Northwest Area Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, administered by National Center for Media Engagement. CONTACT: Dixie Treichel, Project Coordinator PHONE/EMAIL: 612.617.9575, fluidrainbow [at] yahoo.com --------3 of 16-------- From: William Bailey <wbailey [at] visi.com> Subject: MEPN/Palestine 9.19 10am MIDDLE EAST PEACE NOW Presents IS A PEACEFUL SOLUTION STILL VIABLE? DOMINIQUE NAJJAR, a well-known Palestinian lecturer on Israel/Palestine, will discuss his recent trip to Palestine and current developments there. A five-day Fatah Congress was held in Bethlehem the first week in August, the first Fatah congress held in twenty years and the first ever on Palestine soil. President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad were re-elected. A 23-member Central Committee and 120- member Council were also elected. Mr. Najjar will address the implications flowing from the Congress and the viability of a two-state solution in light of the divisions between Hamas and Fatah. Mr. Najjar is Vice President and CFO of Cherne Contracting Corp., Eden Prairie, MN. SATURDAY, September 19, 2009 9:30 a.m. Refreshments, 10:00 a.m. Presentation and Discussion SOUTHDALE HENNEPIN COUNTY LIBRARY 7001 York Avenue South, Edina, MN 55435 For information call 651-696-1642 or email mepn [at] mepn.org. Visit our new MEPN website at http://www.mepn.org --------4 of 16-------- From: Friends of Springboard <Friends [at] sb501c3.org> Subject: Small biz rally/NMpls 9.19 10am [http://www.sb501c3.org] Save the date - Saturday September 19, 10am-2pm. Corners of Plymouth and Sheridan Avenue North in front of Uncle Bills in Minneapolis. 2426 Plymouth Ave North, 55411. If you ever thought about opening a business, are a business owner - or interested in getting information about becoming a DBE (disadvantaged business enterprise) or WDBE (women disadvantaged enterprise) join Springboard Economic Development Corporation, Minnesota Department of Transportation, Internet Marketing Giant iNetGlobal and other local business for the "Bring Small Business Back to North Minneapolis - A Small Business Rally!"North Minneapolis has not seen business growth, (small or major) in over 30 years. This is your opportunity to show there are entrepreneurs and small businesses in North Minneapolis that want to grow, live and become profitable in our community. Join us. Limited booth space will be available for businesses that want to display or provide information about products and services. A $100 fee will be charged for individual tables provided by the event planner Additional promotional packages available. Jerk Chicken - Jerk Chicken If you've never tried it, now's your chance. Crispy, juicy and tangy jerk chicken. If you've never tried it, now's your chance. This is the real deal, folks, presented by Jamaican chef. Watch her expertly recreate this amazing chicken exactly - come take a fantastic voyage of Jamaican Jerk Chicken with Red Beans and Rice. The hottest Jamaican dish with a smile!" Saturday, Sept 19th, 10am-2pm, 2426th Plymouth Ave North, Minneapolis, 55411. Corner of Plymouth & Sheridan Ave, formerly Uncle Bill's. [http://www.sb501c3.org] Information/Booth Rental 612-861-6662, lennie [at] sb501c3.org This message was sent by: Springboard Economic Development Corporation, 1901 Glenwood Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55405 Email Marketing by iContact: http://freetrial.icontact.com --------5 of 16-------- From: Nik <kreuzauge [at] gmail.com> Subject: Waite Park fest 9.19 11am This year's Waite Park Fall Festival will be held on September 19 from 11:00 am until 2:00 pm at Waite Park. We hope you will join your Waite Park friends and neighbors at this annual gathering put on by the Waite Park Community Council and the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board. Planned events include a bike safety clinic, a tree planting and soap-making demonstrations. Family activities include carnival games and live music from the Northeast Community Band and other local musicians. The Fall Festival will also include our "political soap box," an informal candidate forum that will feature candidates for City Council, Park Board, Board of Estimate and Taxation and Mayor. Waite Park is located at 1800 34th Ave NE in Minneapolis. We hope to see you there! --------6 of 16-------- From: Vanka485 [at] aol.com Subject: Northtown vigil 9.19 2pm Peace vigil at Northtown (Old Hwy 10 & University Av), every Saturday 2-3pm --------7 of 16-------- From: Lydia Howell <lydiahowell [at] visi.com> Subject: WPA writers 9.19 2pm The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library presents a month of lectures, readings, discussions and activities honoring the 75th anniversary of the New Deal, and the Works Progress Administration Federal Writers' Project (FWP). In the oral history tradition of the FWP, a group of collaborators has created the WestSide Theater Project, a professionally directed and designed show based on stories from the people of the West Side of St. Paul. Professional theater artists gather stories from neighborhood residents, create a script with community input, and produce and perform in the neighborhood. Watch a run-through of this production on Saturday, September 19, 2 p.m., at the Riverview Branch Library, 1 E. George St., Saint Paul. Alayne Hopkins Programming Coordinator The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library 325 Cedar Street Suite 555 Saint Paul, MN 55101 651/222-3242 alayne [at] thefriends.org <mailto:alayne [at] thefriends.org> --------8 of 16-------- From: Anya Achtenberg <aachtenberg [at] gmail.com> Subject: Report from Cuba 9.19 4pm From the Minnesota Cuba Committee (mncuba [at] minnesotacubacommittee.org) Reportbacks from Cuba 9/19 and 9/26 15 Minnesotans challenged the US travel restrictions on going to Cuba this summer. They have returned to tell their story of their interactions with Cubans through pictures, story and video. Hear what is going on in Cuba today...Why is this the only country in the world that US citizens are restricted to travel to by their own government? ...Why is the rest of the world working with Cuba and isolating United States policy? Saturday, September 19th 4:00 PM Room 114 of the Carlson Bldg on the West Bank of U of M, 321 Nineteenth Avenue South. A skyway connects the building to the 19th Avenue parking ramp also Saturday, September 26th 10:00 AM Resource Center of the Americas, 3019 Minnehaha Ave. basement office sponsored by www.MinnesotaCubaCommittee.org<http://www.minnesotacubacommittee.org/> call 612-721-8440 for info For more information about the Minnesota Cuba Committee and meeting times: www.minnesotacubacommittee.org --------9 of 16-------- From: info [at] mnfilmarts.org Subject: MFA Presents Burma VJ, a Human Rights Political Doc, Opening Sept. 19 Governmental propaganda, civil rights violations, censorship, protest, murder. All these themes fit into the backdrop of Burma, as courageous young citizens live the essence of journalism by keeping up the flow of news from their closed country, though risking torture and life in jail. Minnesota Film Arts is proud to present Burma VJ, a gritty and emotional documentary geared for human right activists and global political enthusiasts. The film offers a unique insight into high-risk journalism and dissidence in a police state, while at the same time providing a thorough documentation of the historical and dramatic days of September 2007, when the Buddhist monks started marching. Compiled from the shaky handheld footage of the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), acclaimed Danish filmmaker Anders Østergaard's Burma VJ pulls us into the heat of the moment, playing almost like a thriller, as the VJs themselves become the target of the Burmese government. Smuggled out of the country, it confirms everything you've heard about one of the most repressive countries in the world today. The Oak Street Cinema will show Burma VJ on Sept 19th at 5:15pm, t Sunday at 5:15 & 9:15pm, and Monday - Wednesday at 9:15pm. Ticket prices are $5 for members, $6 for seniors/students, and $7 general admission. If you are able to get your organization to come, group rates are also available. We would GREATLY appreciate it if your organization could forward this email. Please contact us via email or phone 612.331.7563, or visit mnfilmarts.org for more information. Follow our fall schedule and future peace/human rights/political documentaries. From: info [at] mnfilmarts.org Subject: Burma VJ/film 9.19 5:15pm Governmental propaganda, civil rights violations, censorship, protest, murder. All these themes fit into the backdrop of Burma, as courageous young citizens live the essence of journalism by keeping up the flow of news from their closed country, though risking torture and life in jail. Minnesota Film Arts is proud to present Burma VJ, a gritty and emotional documentary geared for human right activists and global political enthusiasts. The film offers a unique insight into high-risk journalism and dissidence in a police state, while at the same time providing a thorough documentation of the historical and dramatic days of September 2007, when the Buddhist monks started marching. Compiled from the shaky handheld footage of the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), acclaimed Danish filmmaker Anders Østergaard's Burma VJ pulls us into the heat of the moment, playing almost like a thriller, as the VJs themselves become the target of the Burmese government. Smuggled out of the country, it confirms everything you've heard about one of the most repressive countries in the world today. The Oak Street Cinema will show Burma VJ on Sept 19th at 5:15pm, Sunday at 5:15 & 9:15pm, and Monday - Wednesday at 9:15pm. Ticket prices are $5 for members, $6 for seniors/students, and $7 general admission. If you are able to get your group/students to come, group rates are also available. Please contact us via email or phone 612.331.7563, or visit mnfilmarts.org for more information. Follow our fall schedule and future peace/human rights/political documentaries. --------10 of 16-------- From: Lydia Howell <lydiahowell [at] visi.com> Subject: KFAI/meal/movie 9.19 6:30pm SAT. SEPT. 19, 6:30 pm MEAL @ a MOVIE for KFAI COMMUNITY RADIO hosted by Lydia Howell, host of KFAI's "Catalyst:politics & culture" @ MAY DAY BOOKS, West Bank (around the corner from KFAI!(, Minneapolis $7-10 plus: RAFFLE Tickets for KFAI mug/T-shirt, Books,DVDs, Art & more! MOVIE: "Talk To Me" Inspired by the true story of 'Petey' Green, ex-convict turned Washington D,C, fiery DJ/call-in radio show host in the late 1960s & '70s. Starring Academy Award nominee, DON CHEADLE (backed up by greats like MARTIN SHEEN and CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER), this humorous drama shows the power of radio to "tell it like it is" and bring community voices to the airwaves! MEAL: BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Lydia's CHILE--Meat and the vegetarian/vegan Texas 2-Bean, with Corn Bread, Salad (from Lydia's garden!) and homemade desserts, including Cheesecake and Vegan Cake. Eat, laugh and support KFAI, your People-Powered Community Radio Station! You can also sign up to become a KFAI member of or renew your membership. MAY DAY BOOKS, 301 Cedar Ave. S. (basement of HUB Bicycle), West Bank,Minneapolis (612)333-4719 --------11 of 16-------- From: Curt Lund <clund [at] mnbookarts.org> Subject: Peace programming 9.19-28 Minnesota Center for Book Arts is welcoming the Combat Paper Project to our art studios for an artist residency in September called A Week For Peace. The Combat Paper Project mission is to "raise community awareness and stimulate conversations regarding our responsibilities to returned veterans and the dehumanizing effects of warfare" and "to help combat veterans reconcile their personal experiences and challenge traditional narratives surrounding service, honor and military culture". CPP projects begin with military uniforms worn in combat, cut up, then beaten into fiber, and reinvented as handmade sheets of paper used for artwork and writing. There are also two Peace-themed readings, a community roundtable and series of workshops. ALL of the activities are FREE and open to the public (though preference will be given to veterans for workshops due to limited space). If your group could help us spread the word of these activities (Sept 19 through 28), we would be so grateful, we'd like to reach many many more people beyond our typical reach. More information on MCBA, CPP and A Week For Peace events is available at http://www.mnbookarts.org/peace. -- Curt Lund Audience Development Manager Minnesota Center for Book Arts at Open Book . 1011 Washington Ave S, First Floor . Minneapolis MN 55415 Phone 612.215.2527 . Fax 612.215.2545 . clund [at] mnbookarts.org As the largest and most comprehensive center of its kind in the nation, Minnesota Center for Book Arts celebrates the book as a vibrant contemporary art form that takes many shapes. From the traditional crafts of papermaking, letterpress printing and bookbinding to non-traditional artmaking and self-publishing techniques, MCBA supports the limitless creative evolution of book arts. To learn more, visit our website at www.mnbookarts.org. --------12 of 16-------- From: scot b <earthmannow [at] comcast.net> Subject: Stillwater vigil 9.20 1pm A weekly Vigil for Peace Every Sunday, at the Stillwater bridge from 1- 2 p.m. Come after Church or after brunch ! All are invited to join in song and witness to the human desire for peace in our world. Signs need to be positive. Sponsored by the St. Croix Valley Peacemakers. If you have a United Nations flag or a United States flag please bring it. Be sure to dress for the weather . For more information go to <http://www.stcroixvalleypeacemakers.com/>http://www.stcroixvalleypeacemakers.com/ For more information you could call 651 275 0247 or 651 999 - 9560 --------13 of 16-------- From: Gabe Ormsby <gabeo [at] bitstream.net> Subject: Amnesty Intl 9.20 3pm GROUP 37 SEPTEMBER MEETING REMINDER: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 - 3 TO 5 P.M. Join us for our regular meeting on Sunday, September 20th, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. We will share other actions on human rights cases around the world and get updates on the work of our sub-groups. All are welcome, and refreshments will be provided. Location: Center for Victims of Torture, 717 E. River Rd. SE, Minneapolis (corner of E. River Rd. and Oak St.). Park on street or in the small lot behind the Center (the Center is a house set back on a large lawn). A map and directions are available on-line: http://www.twincitiesamnesty.org/meetings.html --------14 of 16-------- From: info [at] rnc8.org Subject: RNC defense 9.20 3:30pm RNC 8 Defense Committee Meeting Sunday, September 20, 3:30-5:30 (at the latest) Walker Church basement: 3104 16th Ave. S., Minneapolis --------15 of 16-------- From: Women Against Military Madness <wamm [at] mtn.org> Subject: Silent shh auction 9.20 5pm WAMM's 25th Annual Silent Auction!!! Sunday, September 20, 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. St. Joan of Arc Church, 4537 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis. The WAMM Silent Auction has been called "the best Silent Auction in town" and features over 200 items such as gift certificates, vacation homes, restaurants, health and wellness services, theater tickets, artwork, gourmet dinners and much more. Be sure to stop by the Hot Buys tables where you will find small items to go. Enjoy a substantial complimentary buffet. Supervised children's activities available. Live music. Suggested Donation: $10.00 to $30.00 (no one turned away). Payment by cash and check preferred. Visit the WAMM web site at www.worldwidewamm.org to take a look at and start bidding on great vacation getaways and much more! FFI: Call WAMM, 612-827-5364. [Even more appropriately, the WAMM Silent Auction has been called " ", and even more appropriately, all the things it has never been called.] --------16 of 16-------- Politics in the Past Tense Can America be Salvaged? By DAVID MICHAEL GREEN CounterPunch September 18-20, 2009 I really don't know what to say anymore, about a country in which proposing a new and better version of corporate-plunder masquerading as national healthcare gets you burned in effigy for being a socialist stooge by gun-toting angry mobs. I really don't know what to say anymore, about a country in which the same people who hate you for being a socialist simultaneously hate you for being a fascist. I really don't know what to say anymore, about a country in which angry mobs of supposed anti-socialist demonstrators scream at their congressional representatives to "keep your government hands off my Medicare". I really don't know what to say anymore, about a country in which claims that the government is going to start killing off seniors are taken seriously by tens of millions of people. I really don't know what to say anymore, about a country in which people are all worked up about government czars, but sat silently while the Bush administration destroyed the Bill of Rights and used a thousand signing statements to write Congress out of the Constitution. I really don't know what to say anymore, about a country in which deficits have all of a sudden become the source of enormous anger among people who said nothing about them previously, as the tax cuts for the wealthy, off-budget wars based on lies, and unfunded prescription drug Big Pharma giveaway transmogrified the biggest surplus in American history into the biggest deficit ever. I really don't know what to say anymore, about a country in which politicians can rant incessantly about other peoples' sexual morality, get caught screwing prostitutes, and then still be reelected to the highest ranks of government by trashing the president. I could go on and on, but what would be the point? The positions of so many Americans on so many policy questions are truly inane - yes, for sure. I wish that was all that concerned me. But it all goes so much deeper than that. The entire premise of a self-ruling democracy rests on some reasonable degree of rationality and some reasonable degree of an ability to discriminate between real information and falsehoods. Today's American democracy seems to lack these qualities in increasingly abundant amounts. And yet it goes deeper than that still. The entire premise of a society - any society, democracy or not - is that it possesses a certain degree of shared community, a "we-ness" that transcends narrower tribalisms and self-interest in critical ways and at critical moments. That too has unraveled of late. Think of the nice white men with shotguns blocking the exit from flooded New Orleans during the worst moments of Hurricane Katrina. Looking at America today, it all feels so very past tense to me. In some very profound ways, this is not the place nor the time you'd expect the implosion of an established democracy and society. To be an American is to be a member of the richest and most powerful nation on Earth. If they're not whining so much in Botswana these days, who the hell are we to? On the other hand, though, it makes a lot of sense. The moment correlates precisely with the peaking of the empire several decades ago, now further exacerbated as the deep wells of remedial pillaging - our credit cards, our mortgages, our children, a rising Chinese middle class, brown people everywhere, the environment - have disappeared entirely, with nothing but despair and moral dessication left in their place. Moreover, the folks most aggrieved and most estranged from their senses of late are precisely the people who were bought off of their sanity at every turn with the latest form of bigotry du jour, used to assuage their ever-diminishing sense of relative social status. Over and over again, the people I see on my television screen acting absolutely and incoherently stupid in their senseless rage seem to be little more than fat, white, Southern, sixty-something racist good ol' boys. Well past their sell-by dates, they've of course gotten tremendous help cranking it up again. That's no surprise. I'm not sure these crackers are smart enough to even be stupid without coaching. As Lyndon Johnson used to say: "Couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel". Lucky for them, those marching orders come from a host of politicians and media whores who, in an even moderately just world, would receive a wee taste of Abu Ghraib in repayment for the reckless destructiveness they've fomented upon the always precarious edifice of liberal democracy. There's special place in Hell reserved for these shouters of "Fire!" in crowded theaters, these bloodsucking bottom-feeders, especially since they are being paid so handsomely for their faithful service as prolocutors for predators. I doubt anyone has ever reminded us of this ongoing danger more eloquently than did the famous American diplomat, George Kennan, when he wrote: "The counsels of impatience and hatred can always be supported by the crudest and cheapest symbols; for the counsels of moderation, the reasons are often intricate, rather than emotional, and difficult to explain. And so the chauvinists of all times and places go their appointed way: plucking the easy fruits, reaping the little triumphs of the day at the expense of someone else tomorrow, deluging in noise and filth anyone who gets in their way, dancing their reckless dance on the prospects for human progress, drawing the shadow of a great doubt over the validity of democratic institutions. And until peoples learn to spot the fanning of mass emotions and the sowing of bitterness, suspicion, and intolerance as crimes in themselves - as perhaps the greatest disservice that can be done to the cause of popular government - this sort of thing will continue to occur". Hear, hear. Sorry to say it, George, but you're lucky to have died when you did. It's only gotten so much worse in just the last few years. And while the O'Reillys and the Reagans of our time have joined forces to turn "the counsels of impatience and hatred" into an entire political party and more, they are, of course, mere conscious tools of the Big Green Greed that ultimately drives the system. They know they are prostitutes, but the money's good. And so is the fame and adulation - no small thing for these sorry critters. Look at the Becks and Limbaughs and Gingriches of this country. Were there ever people in this world with so much self-esteem ground to be made up from the transparent ostracization of their younger days? Were there ever individuals so obviously motivated by retribution against everyone who treated them like the jerks they were in their formative years? Was there ever a walking warning sign more brightly flashing about the costs to society of youthful bullying? I'm sorry Glenn, I'm sorry Rush, I'm sorry Newt. I know when you were younger you were pudgy fast-talking smart-ass petulant pricks who made up in wedgies from bigger guys what you never got in attention from attractive women. But isn't about time you stopped taking it out on America? I'm sorry you got your ass kicked on a weekly basis, but I didn't do it. Though I'm thinking about it now. It takes a willful act of ignorance (something we see a lot of these days) not to perceive the United States as the latest in history's falling empires. Like Rome, the true contribution of its sometimes great ideas has ultimately been substantially buried under the rubble of its ill-fated decision to greedily grasp the nettle of empire. Unlike Rome, this puppy is taking decades, rather than centuries, to collapse. Empires come and go, of course. Rising and falling is what they do. It's their job in life. What is truly frightening to contemplate, however, is what happens when an empire falls in the era when technological capacity absolutely dwarfs political maturity? And what happens if that occurs not just anywhere, but in arguably the most immature, self-serving and self-indulgent of developed societies on the planet? The only model we have for this so far is the Soviet implosion of two decades ago, though even that is only a partial representation, since the Soviet bear was no match for the American boor in piggishness. Even so, that history does not bode so well, outward appearances notwithstanding. We should all collectively be walking on eggshells thinking about the tens of thousands of strategic and smaller tactical nuclear warheads that may or may not be accounted for. Nor is the renascent and rather irredentist new Russia necessarily a pretty picture either, a fact that may become increasingly relevant in the coming decades. Still, all this noted, the Russian imperial collapse has to be said to have been relatively uneventful, closer to the post-war British and French experiences than to any cataclysmic end of days scenario. I wish I could be so sanguine about the implosion of the American empire. In one sense, it was probably a good thing for the Russians to go through this experience with only a fake democracy and repressed civil liberties in place, and some serious if undemocratic quasi-dictators running the show. It might have saved the country from the worst elements seizing control. I don't much care for the product of American democracy and political discourse as things now stand. Imagine how it might all turn out under real duress, with the Glenn Becks and Rush Limbaughs further egging on both the angry rabble on the ground and the Sarah Palins in the political sphere. I'm tired of overused Nazi references these days, but the most salient analogy has to be to 1930s Weimar Germany. The economy is broken, the political system is broken, the public is struggling, angry and full of nationalistic rage at their country's failure to possess all the riches and glory it and they deserve. And so say bombastic demagogues, backed by a small army of street thugs, and offering both a scapegoat and a solution. Given a democratic election in which voters can choose between a dynamic, assured and energetic salvation figure, on the one hand, and an enervated, inept and passionately passionless status quo government, on the other, it's not hard to figure what will happen. And what did. Above all, what is wrong with this country (and what therefore inevitably becomes the world's problem too - just ask the people of Iraq), is not so much the vicious thugs who would just as soon vacuum it free of any piece of wealth they can get into their hands as take their next breath. Nor is it the existentially petrified Confederate Crackers for Jesus who find that hate and violence is a pretty decent emollient to mitigate for the moment their otherwise completely debilitating fears. That stuff always happens, though admittedly not often quite like this. What's really wrong is the near total absence of prominent political figures willing to sacrifice much of anything to protect their country from these depredations. It's been so long now that I've forgotten for sure, but didn't they used to call that patriotism? David Michael Green is a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York. He is delighted to receive readers' reactions to his articles (dmg [at] regressiveantidote.net), but regrets that time constraints do not always allow him to respond. More of his work can be found at his website, www.regressiveantidote.net. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - David Shove shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu rhymes with clove Progressive Calendar over 2225 subscribers as of 12.19.02 please send all messages in plain text no attachments vote third party for president for congress now and forever Socialism YES Capitalism NO To GO DIRECTLY to an item, eg --------8 of x-------- do a find on --8
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