American Tears
I wish people would stop breaking into tears when they talk to me these days.
I am traveling across the country at the moment -- Colorado to California -- speaking to groups of Americans from all walks of life about the assault on liberty and the 10 steps now underway in America to a violently closed society.
The good news is that Americans are already awake: I thought there would be resistance to or disbelief at this message of gathering darkness -- but I am finding crowds of people who don't need me to tell them to worry; they are already scared, already alert to the danger and entirely prepared to hear what the big picture might look like. To my great relief, Americans are smart and brave and they are unflinching in their readiness to hear the worst and take action. And they love their country.
But I can't stand the stories I am hearing. I can't stand to open my email these days. And wherever I go, it seems, at least once a day, someone very strong starts to cry while they are speaking.
In Boulder, two days ago, a rosy-cheeked thirtysomething mother of two small children, in soft yoga velours, started to tear up when she said to me: "I want to take action but I am so scared. I look at my kids and I am scared. How do you deal with fear? Is it safer for them if I act or stay quiet? I don't want to get on a list." In D.C., before that, a beefy, handsome civil servant, a government department head -- probably a Republican -- confides in a lowered voice that he is scared to sign the new ID requirement for all government employees, that exposes all his most personal information to the State -- but he is scared not to sign it: "If I don't, I lose my job, my house. It's like the German National ID card," he said quietly. This morning in Denver I talked for almost an hour to a brave, much-decorated high-level military man who is not only on the watch list for his criticism of the administration -- his family is now on the list. His elderly mother is on the list. His teenage son is on the list. He has flown many dangerous combat missions over the course of his military career, but his voice cracks when he talks about the possibility that he is exposing his children to harassment.
Jim Spencer, a former columnist for the Denver Post who has been critical of the Bush administration, told me today that I could use his name: he is on the watch list. An attorney contacts me to say that she told her colleagues at the Justice Department not to torture a detainee; she says she then faced a criminal investigation, a professional referral, saw her emails deleted -- and now she is on the watch list. I was told last night that a leader of Code Pink, the anti-war women's action group, was refused entry to Canada. I hear from a tech guy who works for the airlines -- again, probably a Republican -- that once you are on the list you never get off. Someone else says that his friend opened his luggage to find a letter from the TSA saying that they did not appreciate his reading material. Before I go into the security lines, I find myself editing my possessions. In New York's LaGuardia, I reluctantly found myself putting a hardcover copy of Tara McKelvey's excellent Monstering, an expose of CIA interrogation practices, in a garbage can before I get in the security line; it is based on classified information. This morning at my hotel, before going to the sirport, I threw away a very nice black T-shirt that said "We Will Not be Silenced" -- with an Arabic translation -- that someone had given me, along with a copy of poems written by detainees at Guantanamo.
In my America we are not scared to get in line at the airport. In my America, we will not be silenced.
More times than I can count, courageous and confident men who are telling me about speaking up, but who are risking what they see as the possible loss of job, home or the ability to pay for grown kids' schooling, start to choke up. Yesterday a woman in one gathering started to cry simply while talking about the degradation of her beloved country.
And always the questions: what do we do?
It is clear from this inundation of personal stories of abuse and retribution against ordinary Americans that a network of criminal behavior and intention is catching up more and more mainstream citizens in its grasp. It is clear that this is not democracy as usual -- or even the corruption of democracy as usual. It is clear that we will need more drastic action than emails to Congress.
The people I am hearing from are conservatives and independents as well as progressives. The cardinal rule of a closing or closed society is that your alignment with the regime offers no protection; in a true police state no one is safe.
I read the news in a state of something like walking shock: seven soldiers wrote op-eds critical of the war -- in The New York Times; three are dead, one shot in the head. A female soldier who was about to become a whistleblower, possibly about abuses involving taxpayers' money: shot in the head. Pat Tillman, who was contemplating coming forward in a critique of the war: shot in the head. Donald Vance, a contractor himself, who blew the whistle on irregularities involving arms sales in Iraq -- taken hostage FROM the U.S. Embassy BY U.S. soldiers and kept without recourse to a lawyer in a U.S. held-prison, abused and terrified for weeks -- and scared to talk once he got home. Another whistleblower in Iraq, as reported in Vanity Fair: held in a trailer all night by armed contractors before being ejected from the country.
Last week contractors, immune from the rule of law, butchered 17 Iraqi civilians in cold blood. Congress mildly objected -- and contractors today butcher two more innocent civilian Iraqi ladies -- in cold blood.
It is clear yet that violent retribution, torture or maybe worse, seems to go right up this chain of command? Is it clear yet that these people are capable of anything? Is it obvious yet that criminals are at the helm of the nation and need to be not only ousted but held accountable for their crimes?
Is it treason yet?
This is an open invitation to honorable patriots on the Right and in the center to join this movement to restore the rule of law and confront this horror: this is not conservatism, it is a series of crimes against the nation and against the very essence of America. Join us, we need you.
This movement must transcend partisan lines. The power of individual conscience is profound when people start to wake up.
Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey said No: he told colleague that they would be ashamed when the world learned about the Administration's warrantless wiretapping. A judge today ruled that the U.S. can't just ship prisoners out of Guantanamo to be tortured at will -- she said No. The Center for Constitutional Rights is about to file a civil lawsuit -- against Blackwater: they are saying No.
In Germany, according to historian Richard Evans, in 1931-1932, if enough Germans of conscience had begun to say No -- history would have had an entirely diferent outcome.
If we go any further down this road the tears will be those of conservatives as well as progressives. They will be American tears.
The time for weeping has to stop; the time for confronting must begin.
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I would advise everyone not already on a watch list to exercise their Second Amendment rights while they still can, and to stockpile canned and dried/vacuum packed foods. It just may come to that.
The only small ray of light in this thought is that fascists are arrogant, and therefore will turn their backs on us at some point. We should be ready.
Oh, BTW, Huffpo, see what you can do about "losing" your user comment logs so they can't be subpoenaed or seized. Is there a way to encrypt ALL the packet traffic to and from your site? Maybe a java script that loads with the pages?
The Bush Admin has control of the Army, and is about one step away from finding an excuse to impose martial law. Losing the presidency to a "cut-and-run" liberal may constitute an irresistable temptation to find an excuse to do so.
The Army may not be with him entirely, but I don't think a few generals (already on lists, as you say) could stop it.
Anyone who knows a way to establish secure underground communications should be working on that, too.
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Kill your TV, and free your mind.
You are right, it's a culture of fear that keeps us quiet. If our very first instinct was to call bullsh*t on unreasonable repression, we wouldn't have this problem. But it's not. When we are singled out for our opinions, our first impulse is to shut up and lie low. I have that problem myself.
I live in a small resource-driven town, in which both gays and liberals are ridiculed and put down. I've not gotten jobs because I "let slip" that I have liberal sentiments. There are occasional drunken bat-beatings of gays, and probably liberals will be next. Not that that would work on me -- I know how to handle a drunk with a baseball bat: no mercy. But most of my "friends" are, inevitably, buy-the-line conservatives. Even the punk kids in town think they are Republicans. I would be effectively friendless if my actual stance were known.
But this is the reality we now have to face. We must -- we MUST -- let our feelings be known -- even if it means that some misguided souls hate us for it. We must write off their feelings beforehand, knowing what we will face. If our friends become not our friends because we are acting out of conscience, that can be amended later. Or not. The situation is just too dire to let ourselves be silenced.
Gays learned that long ago, and we can learn from them. Silence is death. Sometimes speaking up is death too, but the death from silence is pervasive and permanent.
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Kill your TV, and free your mind.
A retired Madame Supreme Court Justice from Canada who now sits as the head of the International Human rights council(i think this is what it is called)
PHD in Pshy. very educated, very soft spoken and kind,
said that these people who are leading in America are doing so out of great fear and anger. The kinds of which are seldom seen in history.
These are the only type of feelings that could explain this type of rogue actions.(T
She also said, however, that fortunately for the people, these types have seldom lasted, but depending on the amount of fear and anger festering, these times could result in massive casualties and much suffering in the mean time.
She also said the Nazis had these same values and the recent years are unfolding just like those did.
If even half of what Ms Wolf says is true...
Damn computers--and the rest:
God help us all. I have just enough information to be completely terrified for this country, and not enough to know how to prevent the Fascism marching through our lives.
I lived through the anti-war movement, saw protesters tortured at Santa Rita jail, saw the same pictures we all did of Kent State, Chicago, Berkeley. This is worse.
What I do know is that Bush, Cheney, Feith, Wolfowitz, and all the neo-con household names are just the tip of the iceberg.
They are run by the corporations, and especially the banking industry that controls our economy. The activities of the FED, the WTO, The World Bank, are the drivers behind this class warfare, and that is the real goal.
I'm past the point of believing that changing the usual suspects in DC will improve anything. I am ready to accept that when over 80% of both houses of congress continue to vote for the neo-con agenda, that we no longer have two parties at all.
I know that when JFK printed real federal money and talked about a return to the gold standard he was killed. Now they shoot us just for whistle blowing.
Naomi--what can we do?
God help us all. I have just enough information to be completely terrified for this country, and not enough to know how to prevent the Fascism marching through our lives.
Americans are scared, well they will be real scared soon if they don't do something. Ron Paul would go a long way to solving the problem but they are too blinded by partisanship to see that he is the right guy for the job and would end all the wars and the police state. Kucinich would be great too but he doesn't have the support or following Paul has...WAKE UP SO CALLED LIBERALS. Never mind the pet issues for now and vote for the Constitution and freedom.
Ron Paul is for some good things, but he is still a Republican. Sorry, no vote here.
More war then....NO END....
Joe lieberman was a DEM....The
Paul and Lieberdum are opposite examples of this.
If you knew what TRUE republican values stood for, you may change your mind...
Google Barry Goldwater.
Maybe you should put the partisanship aside, Ron is not corrupt like the Dems are.
I think I will go to Canada.
The USA will control Canada as soon as the SPP goes through so we will be caught up in the Bull crap too.
I will not go quietly.
Individuals, the more anonymous the better, have enormous capabilities for mischief. Why do Americans need to be led so?
The problem for many people is, who to trust? Many of your friends and neighbors have no problem with what is going down in the US. We wonder where the camp guards and brownshirts will come from in the new Fascist America. Spend a few hours at Free Republic reading the posts there. A lot of those folks go to sleep at night dreaming of nifty uniforms, running their own torture chambers and star-spangled red, white and blue swastikas.
We need to find our brothers and sisters and prepare them for the dark days ahead. Many of us already are good at what used to be called “The German Look.” Be careful who you talk to, but by all means, start organizing - one neighborhood, one small town at a time.
There is a time to be polite and a time to understand we must get our hands dirty in order to save our society. When Patrick Henry said “give me liberty or give me death” he was not engaging in parlor rhetoric. A noose awaited him and every single member of the founding fathers should the revolution have failed. The stakes were well understood. How well do we understand what is at stake?
This is not a pretty or pleasant subject but its one you must start thinking about. I for one, would rather die defending human liberty then live under a Dick Cheney kind of fascism. You?
Reminds me of a movie. Remember this one?
William: Aye, fight and you may die, run and you’ll live. At least a while.
And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to
trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one
chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take
our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom?!
My name is Keith Gottschalk
And I blog here:
http://bad
So, Ms Wolf, you say the country you live in is without fear. And yet you fearfully throw away items that you fear will cause you to be put on the watch list unfairly like a lot of other people who have spoken out against this administration and its terrorist policies. America can never have fear. Only its citizens can. A citizen who lived in America who valued its Freedoms would have proudly displayed for all other citizens to see those things which you threw away just so you would not get put on the no fly list.
The way to see that America stays free is to do those things which keep it free by standing up and standing out and being an inspiration! There are other ways to get around. The founders got around by horse and by foot.
So demand to be on the no fly list! Everyone being on the no fly list or any such similar list is the same as no one being on the list. If every one can't fly you better believe the true movers and shakers of this country, the CEO's of the airlines will demand that the no fly lists be done away with. Don't just preach, be an inspiration, be a doer! Be loud at the airport and let everyone know that you are as mad as hell and you won't take it any more!
Exactly right! If they're going to mug you, you must not quietly submit. You have to find ways to fight back or you will surely lose everything.
Let me know when you've put yourself on the No Fly list Handyman. Sure, there might be some PR value in Wolf riding from town to town on horseback, but what happens when her speaking engagements take her overseas? Canoe?
I'm not sure who said it, Upton Sinclair or Sinclair Lewis I think, but this is it:
"When Fascism comes to America, it will be
wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
Not if, but when. And it is here now.
"The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind,"
The answer is also in the streets
Impeach...
Sinclair Lewis.
Keep blogging on this Naomi as it will pick up speed ... I have proposed this on one of Bill Maher's blogs -
Naomi - you, Arianna, Bill Maher, Naomi Klein, John Cusak, and so many more of your very high profile friends need to come together and offer a green zone for those in our country who are whistle blowers, who are being stopped at our borders for being "on the list," etc., and assist them (us) as we will assist and offer our services and expertise in creating a safe haven for those who are on the brink of being ruined.
They may have their 600 FEMA camps to hold those who the Blackwater Militia corral because they happen to be on the list, but the green zones you orchestrate and we assist in maintaining throughout strategic spots on the land can be our strongholds. Keep it very public and I think you will be surprised at how many people come in for assistance.
If they institute a draft, you will have every mother and her children in your green zones.
Lawyers are often the butt of jokes. But the way out of this morass is a flood of lawsuits, which when in the courts become public record. One way to support this strategy is either money or time to the organizations and non-profits that are committed to ferreting out the truth.
No, I'm not a lawyer, but I realize that as much of a pain in the ass they can be for stupid lawsuits, they are essential for a free and open society. Same for journalists.
You are right and that's why we have to support the ACLU; the only organization in the United States whose sole crusade is fighting for the integrity of The Bill of Rights.
These people you are describing who are scared are wusses. These are the people whose couterparts in Nazi Germany would have just gotten on the trains to the gas chambers with no questions asked because they were "scared"
Guantanamo would be called a "Concentration Camp" in another era.
I'm not scared of these American Nazis.
Hey magen,
Have you been targeted? Do you know what it feels like to be violated by this sick and twisted changed system?
It's scary.
Invoking Presidential Directive 51 might be the biggest favor they'll do for America. Freedom is in our DNA somehow, and having it taken away - threats or no threats - will bring Americans together like few things could.
If PD51 is activated, it will be the end of the Bush administration (or regime if you prefer), and the beginning of the resurrection of America.
The first thing to do is identify the authoritia
I sure wish I had your confidence. There are different kinds of freedom and a truly free country provides a happy blend of the political and economic varieties. Many countries provide political freedom but when an elected government is prevented from acting on behalf of the electorate by carefully constructed laws protecting an economic status quo favoring the few, then can any people truly be free? As long as corporate America can get what they desire through the present political system, why would they bother implementing PD51? When corporate America decides that existing profits are high enough we may see Draconian measures implemented.
Most Americans perceive themselves free when in truth the freedom of the middle and lower classes has been under assault for more than 20 years. When a person can't change careers to pursue what may be a better economic opportunity for fear of losing their healthcare, how free is that person? And when an elected government is prevented by inaction from protecting its citizens from grossest of corporate abuses is that government truly representative? A people may be politically free but what we have seen over the past 30 years is that in almost every case, politics is a slave to economics and political freedom without economic freedom isn't freedom at all.
Well said!
with any luck everyone will be put on terrorist list so taking action against a criminal government is moot. What will they do put us on terrorist lists for taking action against the Criminal Bush regime?
If someone like Gandhi were around I suspect he'd be mobilizing thousands to line up at their local police stations to insist on being placed on watch lists.
It was Noam Chomsky or perhaps Howard Zinn who said that the people in most other countries know what to do, they put their lives and asses on the line, go out into the street and protest. This is heroism. Our country, the USA, has become as nation of cowards with cowardice being elevated to hero status. Examples are:Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perl,Libby, Addison, all of the political operatives who have replaced experienced people throughout the government. We've become a soviet-fascist country AND ALL PEOPLE SAY IS I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! Look to Venezuela in 2002, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina even Brazil to a lessor extent. Their th Palestinians, Hezbollah, and the Iraqi patriots to name a few more. South Africa come to mind. All of these are examples for heroism by the mass of people that care enough about them selves to do something about their situation.
I like Chomsky and enjoy his books but his interpretations are often overly simplistic. The people in Chili, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Indonesia leaned that even mass protests and collective action are no match for state terror, and, I can't think of one country where collective action prevented a dictatorship once a decision had been made and the will was present with which to create it.
Close to 2 million people were killed, imprisoned, and or subject to torture in South America before 1983 by right wing juntas. Do you know what ended these dictatorships? It wasn't mass protests. It was economic collapase from decades of mismanagement and cronyism. And when democracies came to power to the cheers of the masses, do you have any idea what occurred? The assholes who controlled the junta economies were appointed to control the economies of the new democracies. Nowhere was this practice more evident than in South Africa and Russia.
Why do yyou think this occurred? These politically unfree nations were economically ruined and they needed IMF and World Bank (read Western) help to get back on their feet. They got no debt relief even when that debt was created by oppressive regimes through mismanagement and corruption, and, these countries only got western financial aid if they retained the men who were in charge of junta economic policies. Democracy did indeed prevail in many of these countries but economically nothing changed. People can vote but they are/were still unemployed, starving, and dying of infectious disease.
The world's injustices are pervasive and their causes complex; so complex that they defy simplification. If you believe that a people can achieve total freedom through mass protests then I suggest you visit the hundreds of mass graves on South America and talk to the people who protested. The only action that can work against state terror is equivalent counter terror and what this begets is bloody revolution but even then I can't think of too many instances where the common people won anything through revolution.
Don't you think we will see economic collapse of this nation from the fast-tracked destruction of the middle-class Bush has put into operation?
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