I'm always pleased when somebody speaks the unspoken truth. A blogger named Driftglass pretty much summed it up here: http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2009/06/recount.html It's interesting to note the contrast between the many Iranians who are willing to risk their lives over having their votes counted versus the many American "sheeple" who passively allowed former Pres. Bush and the unelected "Supremes" to steal at least one election.
*Addendum: I ran across another interesting analysis of the situation. I'll post the links here as I come across them.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav062209.shtml
**2nd Addendum: Here's an example of why we must be extremely cautious of the "mainstream media." The headline to this New York Times story says "Arab States Aligned With U.S. Savor Turmoil in Iran." If they were honest the headline would say "Arab Dictatorships Aligned With U.S. Savor Turmoil in Iran," because that's what these U.S.-aligned states are. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/world/middleeast/25arabs.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
The "news" story is careful to only hint at this fact in the last couple of paragraphs when it says:
"The Arab world is ruled by authoritarian leaders, kings and emirs — and its greatest challenge to legitimacy and control is political Islamic movements like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Jordan.
'Opponents of the Islamist movement go far in anticipating the collapse of the Islamic revolution and the end of the Islamist movements and their political project,' said Mohammad Abu Rumman, research editor at the newspaper Al Ghad in Amman. 'Anticipating the failure of the revolution is an anticipation of the failure of political Islam in general.'"
The story is careful to NOT make the connection between these "authoritarian leaders" and the "Arab states aligned with the U.S." It's careful to not point out that these are the same states.
This points out the nuances that those who support justice must keep in mind.
Weakening the brutal, authoritarian Iranian regime also means weakening the only Middle Eastern government that is strong enough to be completely independent of U.S. hegemony. And weakening the only Middle Eastern government that has actively and openly supported the Palestinians' and Lebanese struggles against Israeli aggression and occupation.
In the short-term context, more justice for the Iranian people = less justice for the Palestinians, Lebanese, and others who are directly suffering under Israeli oppression. I don't know what the best balancing of interests is in this situation. I just know that I haven't heard these nuances discussed. Not even among "progressives."
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Exactly...We are more interested in the "Jon & Kate" drama...
From "V From Vendetta"
"... People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people"
Yes, yes, yes.
During the election, I wondered what Americans would do if there were voter fraud...for a 3rd time in a row.
I do look at people & wonder under what circumstances do we put our lives on the line?
CW,
V For Vendetta is one of my favorite movies. In fact, I wondered how it slipped past the censors (who use financial blacklists to punish folks) to get made in the first place.
________________________
LaJane Galt,
Well, I've concluded that the American sheeple in general (including the masses of Black folks) aren't even worth the retail value of 2 dead flies. They're certainly NOT worth risking one's life. I used to be idealistic, but at this point I would only risk my life to protect me and mine. Full stop. Period.
Let's just consider how we as AAs treat the Black people who DID put their lives on the line for us: We've completely forgotten about them and their sacrifices on our collective behalf.
When I was in school (in the late '80s), I went to a few mass meetings called in support of those Blacks who were STILL political prisoners due to their activities in the 1960s. Of course, I was one of only a handful of Blacks present.
Most of the political prisoners under discussion were Black. Meanwhile, the auditorium was filled with White progressives, Communists, etc. And the meeting itself had been called by a White progressive bar association---the National Lawyers' Guild. The Black bar organizations were nowhere to be found.
We ignore those people who risked their lives for us. Meanwhile, we avidly follow the smallest details of Negro celebrities' mostly useless lives. We've completely forgotten the Panthers; while we continue to talk about Tupac and Biggie. We don't deserve to have people risk anything for us! Neither do the American sheeple in general. Hmmph.
Peace, blessings and solidarity.
I watch and shake my head. Now the trend is to have a green avatar and I think: "Why?". We should be taking to the streets about lack of jobs, healthcare, etc but too many people are complacent.
Faith,
I've concluded that the time of mass-anything, of "taking to the streets" has long since passed. For a variety of reasons (it's no longer an effective strategy in an era of police-managed "free speech" zones; etc.).
There's not going to be any "mass" solutions. Only individual-level and family-level solutions. We need to secure our OWN interests as individuals and families, first and foremost.
I believe we should heed the lessons of how AAs ignored and allowed our surviving 1960s AA martyrs to languish in prison for decades. Totally forgotten, except for White radicals.
Peace, blessings and solidarity.
Enlightened,
You said, "And what's even more ridiculous is that as ungrateful as we've shown ourselves to be towards the people who sacrificed for our collective advancement, lots of black folks are STILL waiting for a savior. I heard someone asking "I wonder who the next black leader will be!" THIS WEEK."-
Oh yes, this is contemptible. But it reflects a widespread mindset. I'm always amazed at the number of AA folks who have plenty of suggestions about the WORK that they want others to do. Meanwhile, they never offer to do anything themselves.
I saw this pattern during my "save alla our people" days. Folks noticed that I was willing to (naively, foolishly) make heroic efforts on behalf of the so-called AA community.
[I've made waves at work and risked jobs over this "save alla our people" stuff.
During one such exploit, I quickly rocketed to a top-10 slot on the enemies lists of: (1) The then-Presiding Judge of the division I worked within; (2) my jurisdiction's then-chief prosecutor---THE District Attorney; and last but not least, my then-employer. All of whom were looking for a pretext to get me fired. Thankfully, over the years, much of this has cooled down. But it took some time.]
Plenty of coworkers, acquaintances and others always had plenty of suggestions as to what I could do about xyz problem. They were always shocked when I asked, "And what are YOU going to do about xyz problem?" Their usual plan was to watch ME fight the battles.
After a while, I started to step back from that sort of high-visibility "struggling." After the Dunbar Village Atrocity & Aftermath snapped me out of my Black Nationalist trance, I stopped that "struggle" nonsense altogether.
Finally, after pondering Evia's and others' essays, I stopped all "heavy lifting" and started living like a WOMAN. This was one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life.
Peace, blessings and solidarity.
I added the following as a 2nd Addendum to the post:
**2nd Addendum: Here's an example of why we must be extremely cautious of the "mainstream media."
The headline to this New York Times story says "Arab States Aligned With U.S. Savor Turmoil in Iran." If they were honest the headline would say "Arab Dictatorships Aligned With U.S. Savor Turmoil in Iran," because that's what these U.S.-aligned states are.
The "news" story is careful to only hint at this fact in the last couple of paragraphs when it says:
"The Arab world is ruled by authoritarian leaders, kings and emirs — and its greatest challenge to legitimacy and control is political Islamic movements like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Jordan.
'Opponents of the Islamist movement go far in anticipating the collapse of the Islamic revolution and the end of the Islamist movements and their political project,' said Mohammad Abu Rumman, research editor at the newspaper Al Ghad in Amman. 'Anticipating the failure of the revolution is an anticipation of the failure of political Islam in general.'"-
The story is careful to NOT make the connection between these "authoritarian leaders" and the "Arab states aligned with the U.S." It's careful to not point out that these are the same states.
This points out the nuances that those who support justice must keep in mind.
Weakening the brutal, authoritarian Iranian regime also means weakening the only Middle Eastern government that is strong enough to be completely independent of U.S. hegemony. And weakening the only Middle Eastern government that has actively and openly supported the Palestinians' and Lebanese struggles against Israeli aggression and occupation.
In the short-term context, more justice for the Iranian people = less justice for the Palestinians, Lebanese, and others who are directly suffering under Israeli oppression. I don't know what the best balancing of interests is in this situation. I just know that I haven't heard these nuances discussed. Not even among "progressives."
Peace, blessings and solidarity.
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