Participated in the second annual "Walk Out" of Hellgate High School today, which was sold as a protest of the presidential "Mission Accomplished" speech of 2003. I feel like I should cement the action, you know. Articulate the reason "why?" I participated and what I think would be a more productive avenue.
As a Missoulian journalist approached me with questions flying high enough to make the hair on my neck sit still, I began to think, well maybe he's right. What is the point. Sure, it's swell enough to speak your mind and in this case, march your mind down the city's main street. But there's a colloquial complimentary that accompanies such an action--what's this here action gonna do? I am I simply a Yodeling Yippie?
The fact that I'm reading Edward Abbie's The Monkey Wrench Gang doesn't help or cover up this feeling of ill-placed effort. I mean, these guys were the prodigies of action.
Fictional-- yes. Impactful-- yep.
-If I'm not proactive, If I don't use my first amendment right to assemble/protest, and If I fail to illustrate what effect this war has on my personal life...
I'm afraid to say it, but I don't have shit
And so, I'm in the process of organizing a May Month to March gig in my town. Should be founded on the idea that one march each day will present people in my community with an outlet of frustration for essentially...
1) being deceived by an administration with poor political and economic justifications
2) loaning an unjust war the money of future generations (taxing people who are not born without representation)
3) not being given a logical policy alternative to continued occupation
4) morning the dead and dying soldiers killed for imperialistic aims.
5) the lack of response of other citizens who are despite their own ignorance or narcissism affected by a perpetual war.
(These are each important frustrations. None of them are more significant than the other. They just exist.)
And like I told the reporter-- I've written my representatives and I've lavished in political discussions with my friends and acquaintances and online blogs. Now I feel it's time to take it to the streets against an immoral, an uneconomical and an unpatriotic fight.. It's not what I would call Fighting The Good Fight at all.
What good could result from a good fight? I'd say a helluva lot more than inaction. This isn't about a presidential candidate and this isn't about me. It's about time.
How long will it take people to realize the Iraq War is not in our interest? How can more people involve themselves in the struggle once they've realized this war is perpetual without democracy? How long until our representatives perk up their golden ears to our calls? How can we speed up the process?
I only know a segment of the answer to the latter question-- immediate and resolved action.
I'm an idealist who believes in the power of democracy. It's time to prove there are some more dissident voices in this country.
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