We clearly saw madmen at the wheel.
Topic: Civic Duty
On my piano sits a hymn book I've kept there since my days as an active Mormon when, among other things, I played the organ every Sunday in church. One of the hymns in that book is entitled, The Morning Breaks, The Shadows Flee."

Such describes my mood today. Once again those of us who've been actively involved in what we were taught in our civics classes - and believed - enter into this bi-annual day of hope with a prayer that by the end of the day we will have taken giant steps back toward social, economic and political sanity.

Many like me re-entered our political process with reluctance, not wanting to be bothered ... until it became clear that those driving the vehicle of democracy had their pedal to the floor, little concern for steering through hair-pin curves and no concern for the safety of America's citizens and the cargo of constitutional protections and freedom.

We clearly saw madmen at the wheel.

Any change from our current circumstance - from having exchanged citizen priorities for corporate priorities to having lost the most powerful global influence for good in the name of greed, corporate capitalism and undifferentiated power - will be a giant step backward toward sanity. On the three previous days of hope I went to bed around midnight with a disappointment and shattered sense of the political wisdom of the electorate;

with a new fear that we might have forever lost our capacity for fair and honest elections;

with a genuine active Christian's disgust with any priest or preacher who makes of the pulpit not a force for goodness and Jesus' teachings about kindness, forgiveness and the true God of Compassion, but a bullhorn for social repression, lies about who victims are and a pretense that God as a bigot is on the side of bigots.

What will I feel when the dawn returns to darkness this evening? A day's end sense of serenity and hope?

or continued despair?

Across the spectrum of political ideas the wisest and most honorable counsel of all advocates who place country above party and ideology is that we all participate.

The best way to combat any notion that partisans can mechanically manipulate our votes is thru massive voter turnout and monitoring of polling sites.

With attention focused on the actual mechanics and integrity of voting systems, any attempt to manipulate places the cheaters at greater risk. They will be in need of attempting to manipulate an ever-increasing quantity of votes because more votes have been cast and by voters with expectations.

Make no mistake that the national consciousness is the sense that bums need to be thrown out. We do not need polls to tell us so, merely to pay attention whenever conversation turns to this election.

Short of joining the restricted audience at a Republican party rally, when was the last time you took part in a conversation where the majority of opinion favored retaining Bush and his party.

The sleeping giant is awake and if a High Noon is out there, it had better not be the result a rotten-smelling election.

The idea that a voting result that resembles the recent election in Mexico would truly test the patriotism and individual commitment to the ultimate ideal of democracy based on the individual voting voice.

The need and Willingness to fight for our country has never been greater in the lives of most Americans.

If, at the end of today's voting we are told about a total disconnect from the reality preceding the opening of the polls, who among us are prepared to take to the streets and join in any activity to shut this country down through strikes, traffic-jamming protests, public outcry and in-your-face demands of those currently in office?

I would.

If liars and cheaters steal this one - even in appearance until the actual accurate result is confirmed - no voice of moderation from our weak and gutless broadcasters, no voice of moderation from political and moral pundits who ask us to believe an unbelievable truth will justify our sitting still for fraud.

I watched Olberman's opinion last night - another of those brave and bold editorials in the tradition of Murrow - and agree with his final word ...

Vote!

Lietta finally gets to a computer!
Topic: Civic Duty
Hi Friends, I've been on the bus for 13 days now and first time I could get to a computer. Our Central Tour bus is in Philadelphia as I write this today. It looks like my dear husband, Arthur, has kept the blog going with updates I've been sharing with him.

The tour is Amazing! How so? The response from the people in the towns where we stop and visit is what is making it amazing. People have turned out now in the hundreds to thousands in the cities where we have made stops on our Central Tour route. We've learned of busses being arranged to go to Washington DC for the Sept 24 rally in every town and city we have visited. People have been gracious, hospitable, filled with questions and eager for dialogue. I like to believe for every town we have visited, we have left people there even more committed to doing the 'hard work' to end this war, bring our troops home, and take care of them when they get home. You know what? I think it's going to happen!

As lovely as people have been to us, let me tell you, we've been kept busy with back to back events, forums, rallies, and visits to Congressional aides in every stop. One day in one town or city might have 3-4 to 5-6 activities already planned for that day. Our visits are being used expeditiously to maximize exposure in several venues simultaneously. I can feel the power of the people at every stop as our journey comes closer to it's destination of Washington DC. The grassroots level feels like a prairie fire of the people's will is sweeping through our nation.

I am proud of our Central Tour, our panel speakers have formed a cohesive and intuitive bond, and what we share in common with each other is the respect and dignity of our unique voices, strengths and talents as we bring forth the military community voice and message. Our organizations of Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace are reflected in the harmony our group has developed precisely because we do have such high regard for our troops. And from where I'm sitting (on the bus going from town to town) it looks like so does America! Bring Em on Home America, let's get the job done and get it done right, bring our proud troops home...they've done their jobs, now let's make sure and do ours! Get on a bus and get to Washington DC on Sept 24, stand with us and in one thunderous voice all at the same time, Bring our Troops Home Now!

PS (whisper, whisper, some of us are working on a tour of the Western States; get ready, we may be coming to your town..)

regards to all who follow my blog;
Lietta Ruger,
of Camp Casey, Crawford, Texas
of the Bring Them Home Now Bus Tour, Central Route.
member Military Families Speak Out

The Apathetic American Inactive Civic Reserve needs to be called back to Active Duty!
Topic: Civic Duty
My wife let the Mormon missionaries in the house Thursday night and then went upstairs to her computer, abandoning me to my fate.

I used to be one of those missionaries, growing up in rural Idaho and called to Texas when I turned 19.  So I enjoyr their visits. We usually  talk religion ... spiritually liberal me versus anti-gay Utah-Bush-Supporting them ...

politically liberal me versus politically conservative Republican them.

"What do you think of Hilary Clinton?" one of them asked me.

"I'm not ready to support her, I responded."

"Me neither!" He said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"She'll put in a draft." he said.

"So? Nothing like a good draft to equalize the risk and sacrifice in this country." I said.

"I don't want to go over there and fight." he said.

Not aware of the actual implication of his words, the young Mormon elder typifies the massive voting block of disinterested and apathetic American citizens who have foregone actual civic duty, deferring perhaps to more exotic or at least entertaining and self-gratifying priorities.

It is time for all those who have ownership, accountability and responsibility for the national acts committed in our names to wake up, get away from the snack bar and go out to check on the family enterprise. There are highly dishonest and immoral leaders out there pretending to make statesman-like and/or wise political decisions on our behalf and - “propagandally” - for the good of America.

Your country is calling you back to active duty from the Apathetic, Inactive and Not-Ready  Civic Reserve.

Put down your golf clubs, your iPods, your channel clickers. Move away from that bar, pay your tab and sober up. Give up a few potluck suppers, choir practices and Sunday singfests and engage with true goodness and morality in this country.

Pay attention and stop lazily accepting your role as a patriotic American faithfully doing the corporate-lobbied duty of consuming while paying no attention to reality on the ground.

Your Christian in the White House is killing innocents abroad in the name of The United States of America and expecting you to thank him for it and appreciate it by continuing support.

Get out of your inactive apathetic sack and be responsible!

Your Christian in the White House has belittled the life of every other human being on this planet who is not a Republican & Radical Christian Evangelical-brainwashed voter.

You are either for goodness or for your Republican administration.

But you literally cannot be for both at the same time.
By their fruits ....My wife let the Mormon missionaries in the house Thursday night and then went upstairs to her computer, abandoning me to my fate. I used to be one of those missionaries, growing up in rural Idaho and called to Texas when I turned 19. So I enjoyr their visits. We usually talk religion ... spiritually liberal me versus anti-gay Utah-Bush-Supporting them ... politically liberal me versus politically conservative Republican them. "What do you think of Hilary Clinton?" one of them asked me. "I'm not ready to support her, I responded." "Me neither!" He said. "Why not?" I asked. "She'll put in a draft." he said. "So? Nothing like a good draft to equalize the risk and sacrifice in this country." I said. "I don't want to go over there and fight." he said. Not aware of the actual implication of his words, the young Mormon elder typifies the massive voting block of disinterested and apathetic American citizens who have foregone actual civic duty, deferring perhaps to more exotic or at least entertaining and self-gratifying priorities. It is time for all those who have ownership, accountability and responsibility for the national acts committed in our names to wake up, get away from the snack bar and go out to check on the family enterprise. There are highly dishonest and immoral leaders out there pretending to make statesman-like and/or wise political decisions on our behalf and - “propagandally” - for the good of America. Your country is calling you back to active duty from the Apathetic, Inactive and Not-Ready Civic Reserve. Put down your golf clubs, your iPods, your channel clickers. Move away from that bar, pay your tab and sober up. Give up a few potluck suppers, choir practices and Sunday singfests and engage with true goodness and morality in this country. Pay attention and stop lazily accepting your role as a patriotic American faithfully doing the corporate-lobbied duty of consuming while paying no attention to reality on the ground. Your Christian in the White House is killing innocents abroad in the name of The United States of America and expecting you to thank him for it and appreciate it by continuing support. Get out of your inactive apathetic sack and be responsible! Your Christian in the White House has belittled the life of every other human being on this planet who is not a Republican & Radical Christian Evangelical-brainwashed voter. You are either for goodness or for your Republican administration. But you literally cannot be for both at the same time. By their fruits ....

I'd Like Your Blessing, Dad.
Topic: Civic Duty
My generation is one in which there are still many living veterans. Furthermore, from our generation primarily come the children who make up the current blood and guts of America's military with its duty of defending the American Constitution, Country and Citizens.

If our children - or their children - come to us when considering enlistment or a commission, asking our reaction or even our blessing for their willingness to sign the bottom line, are we ready to speak honestly with them?

Have the things we've taught them about citizenship and patriotism come back to gratify us?

... or haunt us?

Just what have we tried to instill in them in terms of a civic and patriotic sense? What did we teach and model for them when they were young?

... we who were part of a generation of soldiers betrayed by a government we all wanted desperately to trust?

The letter from college arrives.

---

---

Very well then ....

Dear daughter,

As you know, you do not come from a family of warriors.

Your Grandfather was drafted.

Your uncle and I joined up in the 1960's because it was that or the draft. Our national leadership had failed us badly because of their misguided and exaggerated fear of communist enemies;

Of foes who had never proven themselves capable of toppling continents nation-by-nation, domino-like, let alone conquering the world based on military or economic power.

As a result of those years, the extremely poor choices made by politicians we trusted and elected left us with a powerful legacy not previously seen so powerfully in this country … acceptance of dissent as a patriotic act.

To this day, that concept has not been refuted. More so, this current government has tragically demonstrated again just why it is vital that citizens hold government accountable.

Viet Nam legitimized a permanent change in civic thinking. That's why a large segment of today’s society sustained by legitimate baby-boomer wisdom remains willing to question the motives and speak out against the administration ... and with greater empowerment to resist being isolated and marginalized by pseudo-patriotic politics. Our perspective is much more legitimate than it was in the 60's and 70's. We as citizens are duty bound to take and hold the ethical and moral high ground in this country rather than trust broadcast blowhards and pretend political genuises.

The party officials, cheerleading TV networks and pundit blowhards don’t have a monopoly on patriotism, daughter. Those are - every one of them - the least qualified to tell you or me what it means to be patriotic. They are the cut-and-run actors from my generation who have never served and have never justifiably spoken for the troops and veterans in today's world.

You are going to join an all-volunteer military force that has the same commission given the military services during World War II. The big difference today is that the bulk of the troops back then were drafted. Your choice is voluntary - signing a contract offered by the Pentagon.

When you sign, remember that we who are not military members make up - along with you - the citizenship that expects you to honor that contract you endorse.

Citizens of this country expect total fealty from you which means loyalty to the United States, to the Constitution, and to the Flag. Citizens of this country expect the same from our elected leadership. They all owe us that same fealty, loyalty to the United States, to the Constitution and to the Flag.

Citizens also expect of our soldiers the highest honesty, integrity and honorable behavior of which they are capable. Military behavior that is dishonest, lacks integrity and dishonors troops, citizens and country is a betrayal of all that America has traditionally stood for.

The same is absolutely true and equally vital of our elected and appointed leaders.

Citizens do not expect that our fully trained and capable military members are so brainwashed to fight and kill that they have transitioned to a place of shame. While desiring that our military children develop instinctive and effective military and combat skills, we do not expect our children to be turned into mindless killing machines devoid of conscience or the ability to make a moral choice.

Arguments insisting that combat training must teach instinctive hate, bigotry, racial profiling and cultural inferiority in order to create armies and soldiers capable of efficient killing and destruction of enemies are not legitimate reasons for why we fight.

Nor do they hold out a possibly for what we hope the end result of a national military objective will look like.

Citizens want and expect that our troops are warriors of honor who instinctively act and react with exceptional valor;

...Warriors who reflect national ethics, a positive national morality, compassion and respect.

If those things are lacking in the leadership, a way to intervene before a corrupt leadership can poison the military is vital.

The nation cannot abide armies of failed or corrupted warriors.

If those values are lacking in the country, it is the citizens who have failed the military.

Military service is and should always be thought of as an honorable profession where men and women serve with honor;

... are treated with honor by a grateful nation.

If you are joining the military, I expect you to have a career of honor.

I fear for you but will keep those fears managed in my own heart.

It is your life, not mine, and I do not pretend to dictate your choices.

Nor is it a life that belongs specifically to a General, a Secretary of Defense, a President or a Political Party.

You are not to be a tool of helping a party focus national priorities in such a way as to win elections.

There is no military code of silence or submissive loyalty to the Commander-in-Chief that requires that you do not seriously consider the legality and morality of orders given you regardless of their source.

I of course hope that your own sense of civic and moral integrity is honed sufficiently strong as to allow you to perceive almost instantaneously whether or not an order is illegal.

But if you need time and have time, then I expect you to take that time and make up your own mind. Whatever decision you make - if informed by your own study, searching and wisdom - is all anyone can ask of you.

Blind obedience in a combat moment is not the same as blind obedience when you are not in a combat moment. Rather in a moment of moral or ethical questioning when a different kind of instinct takes over, if you have a strong sense of ethics and honor, you will not be helplessly tempted to shame yourself, your unit, or your country.

You have a right to expect and function under the integrity and honor of the commander in chief of the military.

You have a right to expect and demand the Commander In Chief's honesty, honor, skill, wisdom and understanding of all reasons when and why military citizens are to be placed in harm's way.

I in turn have a right to expect that you pay attention - for me, for your family and for your country - to whether or not your Commander in Chief is being honest, honorable and legal.

The Commander-in-chief is hardly going to order me to do something illegal or immoral. If he gives an illegal or immoral order there's a greater risk he will give it to you whom he might see as bound to obey blindly and without question.

So your father, your family and your country are at the mercy of your ability to discern and act on that discernment.

You are then left at the mercy of your father's, your family's and your country's ability to discern the acts of our President, to hold him accountable and take action - if necessary - to make sure he is accountable.

You must trust me to be willing and supportive in making sure the leadership does not waste your vital blood, devotion and patriotism in pipe dreams, self-interested agenda's and ideologies.

In closing, my adult child, I express my pride in you and your willingness to act on your desires only after you’ve given them serious thought and consideration.

I accept and endorse your decision as I trust it is your own.

You do your part and serve.

I'll do my part and cover your back.

Anyone inside or outside this government who wants to criticize, harm or otherwise betray you will have to deal directly with me.

I promise.

Love,

Dad

Urgency about death, dying, political failure and why suddenly I feel sheepish ...
Topic: Civic Duty

I'm not a Democrat first and a patriotic civic-minded American citizen second.

I'm not one of the local flagship bloggers who don't seem to be able to resist showing off their political savvy and acumen obtained and presumably earned over perhaps five years of political struggle complete with battle scars that make others swoon in the moonlight.

No I don't swoon and although a late-comer in terms of speaking out, I'm not a late-comer in terms of seeking out political truth for civic reasons, voting my conscience and having my own collection of scars - some inflicted before most readers under 40 years old were born - and much deeper than some supposed shame in my state's possible loss of a senate seat to a Republican.

I'm also not a member of the fighting keyboardists who talk about war, Iraq and collateral damage as if it were some aspect to a video game where the pleasure is in pretend.

Military families (those who speak out, those who can't and those who don't dare) are all part of one big family whose actual and potential sacrifice on behalf of this nation is way out of proportion with the rest of the country. Those of us who speak out have not been fooling with theories, strategies nor tactics that pander to my blogging colleagues and their pretense that lock-step voting and campaigning will lead to the most prompt and immediate end to death and dying.

Truth is, we have no guarantee that a Democratic sweep of both houses will lead to the quickest end to death and dying in Iraq.

We have no guarantee that a democratically controlled congress will have as its first or highest priority, the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq, the consequential immediate lowering of the amount of gasoline America's presence in Iraq pours on the fires of resistance and contributes to our family losses and killing of Iraqi civilians.

We do face a strong likelihood that a foolish newly elected Democratic majority will arrogantly allot to itself a greater wisdom in how to get the job done in Iraq and how to accomplish what Bush and neocon nutcases (Just ask <a href="http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/entertainment/books/14382208.htm"> Francis Fukuyama </a> ) couldn't do right. If you want proof, go to the Democratic Leadership Council site and read their foreign policy nonsense.

Mark my words and I promise you that if/when party takeover of Congress happens, my words will be true:

The Demos will attempt to accomplish the same goals the Republicans couldn't.

The Demos will not take immediate action to remove the troops and get this country's inflammatory presence out from its position as the direct cause of dreadful effects in Iraq.

Too many voters and leaders see this from an abstract point of view and so long as it remains an abstraction, the competitive gaming-lure of strategic debate remains more enticing and involving than actually staunching the flow of blood.

We are seeing DLC strategy played out even as I write this. We are seeing why Cantwell, the DLC/neocon under-informed foreign policy lightweight, believes that she can go through motions with folks like we who've met with her, that she can ultimately point to having met with us several times and heard us out, and then do nothing inconsistent with her unchanged attitude, philosophy and voting record.

In the meantime, the DLC/Democratic tactic of doing nothing while Republican scandals multiply seemingly exponentially - thereby facilitating a greater probability of their being swept out of power - means that the DLC/Democratic tactic is also to express that two military and several civilian deaths every single day in Iraq are needful and worth the price of doing nothing.

How would you like to be standing at the lip of a human meat grinder watching your military loved one move forward in the sacrificial line and listen to do-nothing Democrats like Maria - who are content to do nothing but watch eroding Republican popularity - tell you that when your loved one steps off the lip and into the grinder, it's for a higher national good?

But if we acquiesce, shut our mouths and pretend that supporting Ms. Cantwell is the wisest and most patriotic act we can take, we fool ourselves and pass me another glass of Kool-Aid.

What can we count on if we let the Democratic Party stay fully managed by DLC centrists and their local party fools in every state? Will stopping the killing in Iraq be one of the highest priorities - like, for example - putting out a house fire where people are dying?

From their own site where pretense begins with the visual illusion that the DLC is somehow "official" party authority:

Democrats should begin by reaffirming their party's commitment to progressive internationalism -- the belief that America can best defend itself by building a world safe for individual liberty and democracy.

Progressive internationalism occupies the vital center between the neo-imperial right and the noninterventionist left, between a view that assumes our might always makes us right, and one that assumes that because America is strong it must be wrong. It stresses the responsibilities that come with our enormous power: to use force with restraint but not to hesitate to use it when necessary; to show what the Declaration of Independence called "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind"; to exercise leadership primarily through persuasion rather than coercion; to reduce human suffering where we can; and to bolster alliances and global institutions committed to upholding an increasingly democratic world order.

They can pretend they sit "between" neo-imperial and non-interventionist, but they are still advocating spreading American's version of corporate capitalistic democracy from the barrel of gun if necessary.

The barrel of a gun philosophy is the precise reason why today, tomorrow, the next day and every f***ing day from here on out two soldiers and who knows how many Iraqi civilians will be killed while politicians and parties in this country continue to behave badly, unwisely and stand with their fingers stuck up their politically failed orifices.

Geov Parrish  expressed the problem we face with blind and nervous support of the (D)-bird in hand versus  more appropriate alternative (D)-birds in the bushes around America where dumb DLC Democrats need them to stay.

After doing more homework, something I recommend to local party strategists, I'm feeling more sheepish than ever, going to have to flip flop and withdraw my declaration of intent to vote for Maria Cantwell in my party's primary election.

There is a significantly more important election for Democrats than the November midterm and that is their soul-searching primary election - regardless of all those "in-place" leadership Demos and self-appointed PAC apologist-type party activists who have yet to prove that they possess a higher wisdom for the well-being of this country and that they can win with it.

Until or unless they ever do, I'm not throwing in with them.

I'm not throwing away any opportunity to say that I also have a voice that is NOT traitorous to America because it disagrees with narrow party fearful thoughts

I also have a voice and ask everyone else who reads me to speak up, even if your voice shakes - or even if others who read me tell you, like they tell me, to shut the hell up. We have opinions that can and should be expressed in a public venue regardless of who likes it and who doesn't.

At this stage in the midterm election process, the (D) bird in hand is not worth more than what's out in the bushes. The one in hand has made no declaration that expresses anything other than a DLC/neocon foreign policy foolishness that in this case has a disproportionate share of the families in this country at risk for paying the highest price for everyone else's right to live free or die.

Like General Zinni, as a veteran, I served to preserve the right I myself and all of you have to speak out, to dissent, to criticize presidents and senators. Folks like us have the least obligation to shut up or defer to other folks who didn't serve, who have no intention of serving and who in fact live in a world of political and economic abstractions based on pretense.

Why in the land of the free and home of the brave where Lincoln sits on a granite chair, and where a rowdy group of 18th century dissenters are now revered as founding fatherly icons of the United States of America, who the hell has the right to say or imply that what Mark Wilson stands for isn't good enough?

In Washington State Democratic hands is a bird who wants to just sit in your hand, look pretty, look senatorial and do nothing of immediate good for this country.

In the Democratic bushes however is a candidate who has spoken out, who has gotten up off his ass and put his money and his personal life where his mouth is.

All of a sudden I have to ask why that isn't good enough?

Why is it shameful or stupid to recognize that?

Why can't a citizen run and a party respect that running? (BTW: I still haven't seen explanation or justification from King County or Suzy Sheary - see my wonderings on 5/11/06

Why do people who haven't taken that step have the gall to pretend they are greater judges of American character, core values and citizenship, not to mention behaving as self-appointed expert advocates of political expediency?

Why must we settle for mediocrity because that's the Republican standard in this country?

Why must we diminish ourselves and concede to an ignorant lower standard of political acumen, civic duty and citizenship patriotism?

Why are so many of us fearful of standing up, speaking out and working to make a difference?

Why do so many pretend it is wise to accept mediocrity out of a fear of the loss of one election, a fear that leaves us caught in the headlights and too terrorized or intimidated to do more than stare at an oncoming disaster, hoping it passes by with as little damage as possible?

Why are so many afraid to fight?

Is it more convenient because Maria Cantwell gives an excuse not to get in there and mix it up directly with the bad guys?

to sit back, vote Maria in the primary, tell everyone else to be quiet?

And wait for Cantwell to do the dirty work of resisting and overcoming the Republican villains?

When she's demonstrated that she voted to support dirty work in the first place?

I'll say it again, I'm not a Democrat first and a patriotic civic-minded American citizen second.

And there are no lines to read between here.

I do not endorse Maria Cantwell who hesitates and has lost for herself and for all of us more than we can measure.

I do endorse Mark Wilson.

Immigration Issue Nonsense
Topic: Civic Duty
We truly need repudiation of the idea that a government of, by and for the people should refuse to talk to its people in any language other then English. This kind of junior high patriotism reflects an incredibly misplaced foolishness on the part of every son and daughter of the historical immigrants who believed the promise implied by the Statue of Liberty.

Elevation of this issue to national importance at a time when this country has been the cause of massive suffering - and I mean Republican/Jingoistic-driven persecution, misery and death of millions of non-English-speaking global citizens is a national hypocrisy.

There are extremely more important issues for patriotic chest-pounders to publicly support or oppose. Government business exclusively in English ain't one of them folks.

A few weeks ago my wife and I drove to Raymond to meet a staffer of Brian Baird. We arrived at the tail end of someone else's moment with Baird's assistant, a moment in which this particular local citizen proudly announced support for exclusion of civil rights and government services to any citizen (even those born here) or legal alien currently unable to speak English.

Proud of Nordic immigrant heritage, the speaker somehow crept around the mulberry bush of how those original immigrant ancestors negotiated their own path within the American Dream without becoming as accent-free and English-proficient as we 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation children of immigrants.

(My Great Grandfather Ruger, for example, was a university professor in his native Switzerland in the mid-1800's. He moved his little family to America while in his 50's and was - because of his age, not his intellect - unable to master English. He raised his family in a dugout, supported by his church because he brought music to a rural American community that had none.)

The local patriot speaking to Baird's aide of course made no reference to what happens when emergency services vital to the preservation of life are withheld because a person does not speak English - services driven by medical coverage to which all citizens and legal immgigrants are and ought to be entitled if financially eligible.

I have personally seen instances where the state's ability to communicate with at-risk non-English-speaking residents has acutally saved lives and averted death.

My thought was, the next time I hear someone around the Sunday dinner table spout this shameful ignorant rhetorical nonsense, I'll kindly say, "If that kind of jingoism is your best and most laudible attribute - the best way you think to sing praises of the American Dream - then get your ass out of my house.

Here we are multi-lingual, multi-cultural and work to represent all that is really good and dynamic about the United States of America.

Too many Americans were smelling the rot coming out of the stewpot of exxagerated fear-mongering.
Topic: Civic Duty
Is an administration with no mandate whatsoever for needless killing preparing to continue the slaughter in Iran?

Should we continue to look the other way and pretend that Survivor, CSI and Desparate Housewives are more important; or that the truth omitted from our largest broadcast programs must not be relevant if they are not talking about it.

The War in Iraq was a post 9/11 fraud foisted on a fear-driven electorate as the commander-in-chief truly worshipped a higher father; a father of lies, greed and imperialism.

Too many Americans were smelling the rot coming out of the stewpot of exxagerated fear-mongering. Too many Americans became aroused these past two years.

Too many Americans began questioning the reason for troops in harm's way and too many families started questioning the deception proclaimed arrogantly and with a straight face.

Are we about to hear things that should arouse in us the most intense indignation one can imagine - an indignation that we as a people truly did not authorize a president to do? Is the president once again going to try to fool most of the people most of the time?

Only the sleepiest among us believe fair and balanced campaigns from Foxy liars are going to lead to a fair expression of what should be done about Iran that's in the best interest of corporate America.

Only the blindest followers of a misunderstood code continue to insist the citizens are not patriotic if they don't blindly accept the unchallenged political self-interest of its commander-in-chief aand his doofus decisions.

Perhaps the sleepiest among us are those who thought they were doing God's work by voting George another term.

Why? Because only the most outrageous Christian hypocrites make mountains out of moral molehills at the expense of the heart and compassion of the real teachings of Jesus.

The President's definition of "freedom" to his faith voters is in fact fraud against all American voters.

Calling ourselves heroic spreaders of "freedom" who are doing battle with amoral Muslim killers who are driven primarily out of a hate of our own corporate-driven consumer freedoms is another fraud.

Why do we let these people sell us bridges and worthless stock in pseudo-American ideals that no majority of us ever endorsed?

Why do we let this administration embarass our returning soldiers maimed for life by being chintzy with treatment, benefits and support?

Why do we robot-like jerk to attention when leadership waves the flag at the same time it blames the problem of inadequately-protected troops on someone else beneath their pedestal?


The majority of the electorate did not authorize the president and his subordinates to continue a needless waste of American and Iraqi lives and the wasteful exploitation of the environment and national economy.


But then, maybe worrying about liberal attacks on Christmas, about the Super Bowl and about which film will win the Oscar ARE significantly more important.

MFSO Pac NW meets with Murray, Smith and the Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee
Topic: Civic Duty

"Your son volunteered. He knew what he was getting into ..."
Topic: Civic Duty
So did I ... in 1968 five months after the Tet offensive. I dropped out of college and enlisted.

And like the current volunteers who are described by worn-out conservative flag-wearers, I had a rough idea of what I was getting into. That "rough idea" was based on trust ... trust in a system and, ultimately, trust in a specific leader and a specific governing political party.

The specific leader of course was LBJ, the specific party was the Democratic Party and the specific system was and is the system that allows us to hang our political opinions on buttons and sanctimonious drapery of stars and stripes from which we belch our prejudices.

When you sign up you endorse a contract on the bottom line. It's a contract with specified written obligations on the part of both parties, but also with unspecified but powerful assumptions on the part of both parties.

In the case of joining the military knowing what you are getting into is based on very powerful unwritten but nationally accepted assumptions:

(1) The integrity and honor of the commander in chief of the military and that CIC's skill, wisdom and understanding of all reasons when and why military citizens are to be placed in harm's way.

As a volunteer you are at the mercy of that individual, his party and their combined priorities - with a strong expectation that those priorities extend beyond a desire to remain in the driver's seat.

(2)As a volunteer you are at the mercy of your own fellow citizens (including your own family) whom you trust to be willing and supportive in making sure the leadership does not waste your vital blood, devotion and patriotism in pipe dreams, self-interested agenda's and ideologies; That leaders are driven by a genuine desire to involve the country in on-going mutual participation and compromise regarding foreign policy before resorting to force as a last resort.

(3) Volunteering to become a soldier is volunteering to preserve and protect - with your own power and will - the country, its borders, its citizens and its institutions. It isn't volunteering to keep a political party in power. The only way to avoid that circumstance is for the citizens to assume their rightful role in the triangular relationship with the troops and the CIC.

The troops are expected to trust the CIC's wisdom as well as the patriotic participation of the Citizens who will keep the CIC honest.

The CIC is expected to trust the troops to follow orders and expects to sustain by honesty and integrity the support of the Citizens.

The Citizens expect the troops to do their duties and expect the CIC to sustain by honesty and integrity his political authority. The Citizens must be willing to hold the CIC accountable and willfully resist when the honesty and integrity of leadership is absent.

That is what is going on right now. The President has demonstrated a lack of leadership at a time when leadership is needed. The killing continues daily .... and we are witness to a repeat of a leader who is like a deer caught in the headlights ... sitting there ... doing nothing ... pondering what ... while pretending to enjoy "My Pet Goat."