Listen to a reading of this article: Thousands of people from across the political spectrum gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC to protest US militarism, proxy warfare and nuclear brinkmanship in Ukraine on Sunday. I've been seeing some people try to downplay the numbers on social media, but
I have been requested to send the following message from a veteran peace activist for 57 years: Thank you for reporting it because the media won’t report it here. We were 5000 strong, seniors, young people, and veterans from the 1960s anti war movement. This is only the beginning, because people were clear, conscious, and unified that the war is horrible. Billions for war in the Ukraine but nothing for the 1 million homeless people and the millions who are hungry throughout the United States. Thank you.”
Three thousand self-aware, empowered and conscious creative essences are more powerful than a million who are not. Every action has a ripple. Every quality act creates a tsunami. Thank you to everyone there and everyone who supports them.
Thanks Caitlin! I was at the rally today and was very encouraged. There was a lot of intellectual and emotional firepower built into the speeches. People are probably afraid to come out because of the legacy of violence the US has demonstrated against protesters, along with COVID concerns. I thought your article here was very well reasoned and hopeful. It's encouraging to consider that the state shifted to hybrid warfare in response to the Iraq antiwar movement. Hopefully we can keep building momentum and convince people it is worth it.to her out there and express yourself among others.
Beautiful article. I will side with anyone who promotes peace and freedom.
I think a lot about how Czechoslovakia overthrew its tyrants in 1989. In part, it was because the citizens stopped participating in:
* Their banks
* Their schools
* Complicit businesses
* Their propaganda media
* Their food systems
* Their whole society.
They created a parallel economy that had nothing to do with false narratives.
You may disagree with me as to which narratives are false, but I think the more local you can go, and the less a part of any gigantic government or business, the better. I don't buy any of the narratives I hear about Ukraine, China, the economy, or the environment. I am grateful I never got the clot shot. If you did, I hope you look up a protocol from Dr. Peter Kory or another as to how to clear the poison from your system and your mind. Also, I would never send my kids to a public school.
That's a step toward awareness. And awareness needs to lead to public action.
We were there and what the gathering may have lacked in numbers was more than made up for in enthusiasm and determination. So often during Bernie's rallies I thought we needed to drop our differences because Trump supporters wanted the same jobs, education, health care, and housing that all people want. I saw the beginnings of that coming together today at the gathering itself and on the bus ride down and back. Thanks for writing about this.
The ability to protest is a trait of human beings. Actually, all intelligent species protest. We just don't pay attention. It's not even essentially a question of efficacy: we must protest injustice and inhumanity to retain our humanity, or achieve it. The intricate web of lies and propaganda governments must resort to in response is itself a sign of stress: It's becoming laughable - as in the "balloon crisis". Keep up the pressure and they might crack and -become sane. We are the majority: we can. do it.
My Mom, who just turned 91, still drives, plays bridge (silver lifetime master), reads three books a week; told me years ago that people only do something when they go hungry.
As long as Americans have their TV, pizza, beer, and comfort; Biden can kill whomever he wishes.
Yes, it's a start and it's encouraging to see!! And, for some more good news, about 10,000 people attended the antiwar protest at the Munich security conference today /yesterday!
Even half a million or more people in New York in 2003 didn't slow down Bush's stupid war, which leads me to believe maybe we should begin discussing a diversity of methods besides the good ol' tried and true.
" The only reason Syria and Iran remain sovereign, unabsorbed governments, and the only reason the imperial body count isn't much higher today, is because enough people put their foot down and said "NO" to that kind of war."
The resilience of the Iranian and Syrian peoples had nothing to do with it at all?
I think that if we look at the modest numbers participating in the demonstration (everything is difficult at the beginning), we can take into account that the old Roman tactic "Panem et circenses", i.e. Bread and circuses for the people, works very well in the USA and Western Europe. After all, the average person he is well fed, he owns a house or an apartment (which he bought with a loan) every adult member of the family has a good car (with a nice big engine with high consumption) they go out on the weekends, he has a credit card that can be used for shopping, absolutely unnecessary but expensive things, and when the head of the family goes home in the afternoon after work , not to the library he goes to study or buy a book, instead he sinks into the armchair, pulls the bucket of chips and half a dozen cans of beer close to him and with wide-open eyes absorbs the stupidity instead of knowledge ! Well, this man will not protest, it's clear to everyone, isn't it ! Because he believes in nonsense that this is the right of the exceptional Western specimen from God and it will be like this forever ! :) If this media-numbed man would raise his head and look around (and even if he could see), he would find that the industry that his grandfather and father built no longer exists, but that the owners, most of whom are the ruling elite, dismantled it and transferred it to other countries. now operates there very profitable ! So if you think about it soberly, he has become a citizen of a pirate republic, who has no value creation, except when he robs other countries and steals other people's natural treasures !
Well, as a sobering note, I am a citizen of a small country (10 million inhabitants) Hungary, and last year on March 15, 2022, nearly a million of us marched to support our patriotic government !
I was curious about the talk about a breed of liberals not supporting yesterday's event, so I cruised over to (commondreams.org) that I discovered right after 9/11 and lead-up to the Iraq war. There I discovered writers that I respected and they got me through some bad times with GW Bush & Co.. After a few years of change though, I'd stopped reading it because it (like a few others) evolved into what I thought was just another mouthpiece for the neoliberal/(warmonger)'Hillary order'. Sure enough I saw not one word about this event. Even this morning...zilch. Incredible. We'll never be the people of the 60's & 70's and we'll never-ever stop another war until we get mad enough to actually stop one, and don't even think of disassembling the MIC apparatus that drives it. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, and I'm thankful to those that went and supported it –and there were some incredibly good speeches. But, like yesterdays turnout, despite all the media communication ability we have at our disposal, despite millions of Americans and multiple reasons we should be angry enough to express it, when it comes to fulfilling our duties as citizens, we are just damn pitiful and the beatings will continue until it ends in a nuclear holocaust. I'm sick of it.
Wow, watched two posted comments disappear as I was replying to them. Either Johnstone’s hacked or her attitude has changed.
Protest must have as its purpose a) making it okay to be anti-war, b) reifying the threat of economic repercussion in the perception of the financial sector’s leadership.
It was not the silly longhairs throwing flowers at cops who brought the murder of Vietnam to an end. It was the dawning realization of the working class that the war was being fought for profit, and that the corpses were being pre-selected along class and race lines. The warmongers spent the 60s laughing at the students and their ‘leaders’, but shrank back in horror at the first grumbles from the working class. Yes, the protests were important. They were also reported by a competitive press composed of thousands of independent outlets. Today the media, all of it, is an outstanding example of the need for antitrust enforcement. Five enormously bloated mega-corporations control what 95% of Americans still think of as the news, and the interests of those five entities mostly overlap and intertwine.
Today dissent means economic noncooperation. Stop paying debt. Stop buying new if you can get it used. Stop hoarding. Start sharing. Start rebuilding the back door economy your grandparents took for granted, and save thousands of dollars a year.
You can’t sell out and go live in the woods, but you can find creative ways to bypass the system. The only protest that matters is the one that makes it harder for the system to wage its wars.
We must build parallel systems to circumvent these corrupted ones.
Let’s create a new decentralized 4th branch of government that is 100% controlled by the people and is used to hold corruption accountable. No one else is coming to save us.
The Power-Serving Myth That Anti-War Protests Make No Difference
I have been requested to send the following message from a veteran peace activist for 57 years: Thank you for reporting it because the media won’t report it here. We were 5000 strong, seniors, young people, and veterans from the 1960s anti war movement. This is only the beginning, because people were clear, conscious, and unified that the war is horrible. Billions for war in the Ukraine but nothing for the 1 million homeless people and the millions who are hungry throughout the United States. Thank you.”
Three thousand self-aware, empowered and conscious creative essences are more powerful than a million who are not. Every action has a ripple. Every quality act creates a tsunami. Thank you to everyone there and everyone who supports them.
Thanks Caitlin! I was at the rally today and was very encouraged. There was a lot of intellectual and emotional firepower built into the speeches. People are probably afraid to come out because of the legacy of violence the US has demonstrated against protesters, along with COVID concerns. I thought your article here was very well reasoned and hopeful. It's encouraging to consider that the state shifted to hybrid warfare in response to the Iraq antiwar movement. Hopefully we can keep building momentum and convince people it is worth it.to her out there and express yourself among others.
Beautiful article. I will side with anyone who promotes peace and freedom.
I think a lot about how Czechoslovakia overthrew its tyrants in 1989. In part, it was because the citizens stopped participating in:
* Their banks
* Their schools
* Complicit businesses
* Their propaganda media
* Their food systems
* Their whole society.
They created a parallel economy that had nothing to do with false narratives.
You may disagree with me as to which narratives are false, but I think the more local you can go, and the less a part of any gigantic government or business, the better. I don't buy any of the narratives I hear about Ukraine, China, the economy, or the environment. I am grateful I never got the clot shot. If you did, I hope you look up a protocol from Dr. Peter Kory or another as to how to clear the poison from your system and your mind. Also, I would never send my kids to a public school.
That's a step toward awareness. And awareness needs to lead to public action.
God bless you.
We were there and what the gathering may have lacked in numbers was more than made up for in enthusiasm and determination. So often during Bernie's rallies I thought we needed to drop our differences because Trump supporters wanted the same jobs, education, health care, and housing that all people want. I saw the beginnings of that coming together today at the gathering itself and on the bus ride down and back. Thanks for writing about this.
The ability to protest is a trait of human beings. Actually, all intelligent species protest. We just don't pay attention. It's not even essentially a question of efficacy: we must protest injustice and inhumanity to retain our humanity, or achieve it. The intricate web of lies and propaganda governments must resort to in response is itself a sign of stress: It's becoming laughable - as in the "balloon crisis". Keep up the pressure and they might crack and -become sane. We are the majority: we can. do it.
My Mom, who just turned 91, still drives, plays bridge (silver lifetime master), reads three books a week; told me years ago that people only do something when they go hungry.
As long as Americans have their TV, pizza, beer, and comfort; Biden can kill whomever he wishes.
Yes, it's a start and it's encouraging to see!! And, for some more good news, about 10,000 people attended the antiwar protest at the Munich security conference today /yesterday!
Bring back conscription and then you will see an anti war movement. War mongers in power know this so they just use mercenaries.
Even half a million or more people in New York in 2003 didn't slow down Bush's stupid war, which leads me to believe maybe we should begin discussing a diversity of methods besides the good ol' tried and true.
" The only reason Syria and Iran remain sovereign, unabsorbed governments, and the only reason the imperial body count isn't much higher today, is because enough people put their foot down and said "NO" to that kind of war."
The resilience of the Iranian and Syrian peoples had nothing to do with it at all?
Biden is checking his bank account in Ukraine today.
I think that if we look at the modest numbers participating in the demonstration (everything is difficult at the beginning), we can take into account that the old Roman tactic "Panem et circenses", i.e. Bread and circuses for the people, works very well in the USA and Western Europe. After all, the average person he is well fed, he owns a house or an apartment (which he bought with a loan) every adult member of the family has a good car (with a nice big engine with high consumption) they go out on the weekends, he has a credit card that can be used for shopping, absolutely unnecessary but expensive things, and when the head of the family goes home in the afternoon after work , not to the library he goes to study or buy a book, instead he sinks into the armchair, pulls the bucket of chips and half a dozen cans of beer close to him and with wide-open eyes absorbs the stupidity instead of knowledge ! Well, this man will not protest, it's clear to everyone, isn't it ! Because he believes in nonsense that this is the right of the exceptional Western specimen from God and it will be like this forever ! :) If this media-numbed man would raise his head and look around (and even if he could see), he would find that the industry that his grandfather and father built no longer exists, but that the owners, most of whom are the ruling elite, dismantled it and transferred it to other countries. now operates there very profitable ! So if you think about it soberly, he has become a citizen of a pirate republic, who has no value creation, except when he robs other countries and steals other people's natural treasures !
Well, as a sobering note, I am a citizen of a small country (10 million inhabitants) Hungary, and last year on March 15, 2022, nearly a million of us marched to support our patriotic government !
Wake up American people!
I was curious about the talk about a breed of liberals not supporting yesterday's event, so I cruised over to (commondreams.org) that I discovered right after 9/11 and lead-up to the Iraq war. There I discovered writers that I respected and they got me through some bad times with GW Bush & Co.. After a few years of change though, I'd stopped reading it because it (like a few others) evolved into what I thought was just another mouthpiece for the neoliberal/(warmonger)'Hillary order'. Sure enough I saw not one word about this event. Even this morning...zilch. Incredible. We'll never be the people of the 60's & 70's and we'll never-ever stop another war until we get mad enough to actually stop one, and don't even think of disassembling the MIC apparatus that drives it. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, and I'm thankful to those that went and supported it –and there were some incredibly good speeches. But, like yesterdays turnout, despite all the media communication ability we have at our disposal, despite millions of Americans and multiple reasons we should be angry enough to express it, when it comes to fulfilling our duties as citizens, we are just damn pitiful and the beatings will continue until it ends in a nuclear holocaust. I'm sick of it.
Wow, watched two posted comments disappear as I was replying to them. Either Johnstone’s hacked or her attitude has changed.
Protest must have as its purpose a) making it okay to be anti-war, b) reifying the threat of economic repercussion in the perception of the financial sector’s leadership.
It was not the silly longhairs throwing flowers at cops who brought the murder of Vietnam to an end. It was the dawning realization of the working class that the war was being fought for profit, and that the corpses were being pre-selected along class and race lines. The warmongers spent the 60s laughing at the students and their ‘leaders’, but shrank back in horror at the first grumbles from the working class. Yes, the protests were important. They were also reported by a competitive press composed of thousands of independent outlets. Today the media, all of it, is an outstanding example of the need for antitrust enforcement. Five enormously bloated mega-corporations control what 95% of Americans still think of as the news, and the interests of those five entities mostly overlap and intertwine.
Today dissent means economic noncooperation. Stop paying debt. Stop buying new if you can get it used. Stop hoarding. Start sharing. Start rebuilding the back door economy your grandparents took for granted, and save thousands of dollars a year.
You can’t sell out and go live in the woods, but you can find creative ways to bypass the system. The only protest that matters is the one that makes it harder for the system to wage its wars.
We must build parallel systems to circumvent these corrupted ones.
Let’s create a new decentralized 4th branch of government that is 100% controlled by the people and is used to hold corruption accountable. No one else is coming to save us.
https://open.substack.com/pub/joshketry/p/lets-build-a-4th-branch-of-government?r=7oa9d&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post