Civic Incompentence at the Highest Levels

The Bush Administration even after 8 years still doesn't get it. Do they really think that the declaration of a "War on Terror" immediately slapped the country into war-time restrictions, martial law and a suspension of the First Amendment?

Only in their wettest dreams. 

New York Times Editorial
Laura Berg’s Letter

Published: April 27, 2008

The PEN American Center, the literary organization committed to free expression, is honoring an American most people in this country have never read or even heard of: Laura Berg. She is a psychiatric nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital who was threatened with a sedition investigation after she wrote a letter to the editor denouncing the Bush administration’s bungling of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war.

That’s right, sedition: inciting rebellion against the government. We suppose nothing should surprise us in these days of government zealotry. But the horror and the shame of that witch hunt should shock everyone.

Ms. Berg identified herself as a V.A. nurse when, soon after Katrina’s horrors, she sent her impassioned letter to The Alibi, a paper in Albuquerque. “I am furious with the tragically misplaced priorities and criminal negligence of this government,” she wrote. “We need to wake up and get real here, and act forcefully to remove a government administration playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious deceit.”

Her superiors at the hospital soon alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and impounded her office computer, where she keeps the case files of war-scarred veterans she treats. Then she received an official warning in which a Veterans Affairs investigator intoned that her letter “potentially represents sedition.”

It took civil rights litigators and Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico to “act forcefully” in reminding the government of the Constitution and her right to free speech. The Department of Veterans Affairs retreated then finally apologized to the shaken Ms. Berg.

Even then, she noted, one superior told her it was preferred that she not identify herself as a V.A. nurse in any future letter writing. “And so I am saying I am a V.A. nurse,” Ms. Berg soon boomed out in a radio broadcast. “And some of my fire in writing this about Katrina and Iraq is from my experience as a V.A. nurse.” Thus declared Ms. Berg, well chosen to receive the new PEN/Katherine Anne Porter First Amendment Award.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Willapa Magazine  has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article.

04/13/2008

Send the chosen one to inauguration with a real mandate

I seriously doubt that voting America is on the same page with mere continuation of proposed responsible plans. I believe those Americans who can and will go to the polls in November are most likely going to vote what their gut has already  told them.
Something is wrong ... very wrong ... and needs immediate fixing. No more promises, thank you! Immediate action please!

There is no need for restraint right now - as if the Iraq problem can be reduced to an exercise in political and foreign policy patience.

Many seem to think that civic patience somehow means you only speak once for ten minutes every four years. The rest of the time let someone else's magic be the civic consciousness of a nation.

"Hang in there citizens! When you vote Obama or Hillary into office, ONLY THEN can a responsible plan to stop the loss can be worked out  and implemented."

Madness.

It will already be too late by then.

"Plans"  that falsely justify a mean drunk staying in the house of the abused to  wreak more havoc in the name of moral responsibility is political spin. It's a spin that  attempts to prey on assumed electoral gullibility.

At its manipulative best it only gets worse especially when never lessened by a media in need of money-generating pseudo-campaign issues.

Even now we are not being guided to the moral or ethical high ground. Rather the sound bite nonsense-mongers lead us up mere sand dunes where candidacies are too caught up in unnecessary strategy.

Voters in America are ready to rumble right now.

They are ready to generate  harmonic tremors that will not fail to get the attention of those yearning to be the chosen one.

What is needed now is not more patience with the primary and presidental campaign process.

What is possible right here is not the mindless marching, chanting and banner-carrying protests that cause most to tune out.

There is in fact - right now - national arousal in terms of an unlit fuse is just waiting for ignition. It is palpable in this country and you can feel it. Dissatisfaction and a sense of something being seriously wrong and rotten permeates the mood of most whenever politics comes into discussion.

It would be much better if all candidates were campaigning fully aware of the magnitude of voters fed up with Iraq and our economy.

What can you do right now?

If you get polled, stick to those talking points the politicos are most nervous about. Express and emphasize unleashed and unbridled indignation that reflects RIGHT NOW - not frustration, but genuine anger. 

Delay is poor decision-making.  Rather than waiting for a Tuesday in November to finally get mad, speak out now if you are polled. And immediately start letter-writing and phone calls to those who are most nervous.

A national growl is sticking in our craws and begging release.  

Don't send lazy emails that tempt your politicians to respond with cookie-cutter form letters. Write a real letter and buy a stamp. Then pay a little more for a notification that the letter was received.

I did so recently and it cost me 65 cents. Is your feeling for your country worth a letter, a stamp and an exra 65 cents?

Or call them up.

If you'd ever heard my wife, Lietta Ruger, call her Senator or Representative you'd have heard her demand a specific response.

No form letter thank you!
No aide calling back with vague promises.
I have in fact listened while she demanded a personal response from her  representative.

Why not? What have you got to lose by communicating just how fed up you are?

The key is to reveal right away that we are an electorate genuinely pissed off enough to repudiate any candidate who proposes a "plan" rather than vows to change things the very moment he/she is sworn in.

Repudiation is precisely the buzz-saw waiting for  McCain and his self-absorbed assumption that America is pining away for nothing more than another military president with no domestic or foreign policy agenda.

Newly-elected presidents need to arrive at inauguration scared, worried and nervous. They need to be sworn in fully aware that something is expected NOW; that conditions are such that there is not going to be a 100-day honeymoon. There is no other choice.

They will be motivated to take their hand off the Bible and immediately start giving orders to reflect a clear mandate forced on them.

If the electorate can communicate that kind of impatience right now, a lot of muck and  nonsense can be most easily swept aside. We can narrow the range of focus in this election.

Iraq, the economy and the Bill of Rights pretty well covers it.

If whoever is elected is also running scared because the electorate has legitimately convinced the winner that now means NOW, why would we listen to planners and political schemers and leave the door open to stall, delay and political manipulation?.

... tempting those we endorse to say to hell with what we expect.

... believing they can  take just a little bit longer so they can have what they want?

Is that what you want?

Arthur Ruger

Publisher, Willapa Magazine