Was I a good American in the time of George Bush?

[spindrifter]

Rebecca Solnit
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian

Was I a good American? How good an American was I? Did I do what I could to resist the takeover of my country and the brutalisation of my fellow human beings? How much further could I have gone? Were the crimes of the Bush administration those that demand you give up your life and everyday commitments to throw yourself into maximum resistance? If not, then what were we waiting for? The questions have troubled me regularly these last five years, because I was one of the millions of American citizens who did not shut down Guantánamo Bay and stop the other atrocities of the administration.

I wrote. I gave money, sometimes in large chunks. I went to anti-war marches. I demonstrated. I also planted a garden, cooked dinners, played with children, wandered around aimlessly, and did lots of other things you do when the world is not crashing down around you. And maybe when it is. Was it? It was for the men in our gulag. And the boys there. And the rule of law in my native land.

Before the current administration, it had always been easy to condemn the "good Germans" who did nothing while Jews, Gypsies and others were rounded up for extermination. One likes to believe that one will be different, will harbour Anne Frank in one's secret annex, smuggle people across the border, defy the authorities who do evil. Those we scornfully call good Germans merely did little while the mouth of hell opened up.

I now know the way that everyday life can be so absorbing, survival so demanding, that it seems impossible to do more on top of it or to drop the routine altogether and begin a totally different life. There is the garden to be watered, the aged parent in crisis, the deadline looming; but there are also the crimes against humanity waiting to be stopped. Ordinary obligations tug one way even when extraordinary ones tug the other way. The Bush administration is by no means the Third Reich, but it produced an extraordinary time that made extraordinary demands on US citizens, demands that some of us rose to - and too many did not.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2033397,00.html

[Webster Green]

1. Highly recommended!

Thanks!

[babylonsister]

2. WOW! K&R! More:

These days Americans seem to be waking up one at a time, groggy and embittered, from the hypnotic nightmare that was the Bush administration's one great success - spreading a miasma of fear and patriotic submissiveness that made it possible to mount an illegal and immoral war, piss on the bill of rights, burn the constitution and violate international charters on human rights and prisoners of war with widespread torture. None of the sleepers seems to remember that they were part of the legions who obeyed the orders to fear and hate - but we welcome the latecomers into our ranks anyway.

What took them so long? How could people believe that a fairly defanged country, one we had been bombing since the first Gulf war, was an apocalyptic menace in a world where most nations were well-equipped for mass civilian murder? A year ago, the turning point was marked by the comedian Stephen Colbert's volley of (accurate) insults delivered to Bush's face, in the guise of giving the keynote address at the Washington press corps' annual dinner. He was just aggressively ignored by the mainstream media. Perhaps Katrina turned the tide: the indifference, incompetence, and obliviousness of the federal government was so gross that its pedestal melted.

[alittlelark]

3. I felt like I was reading about myself

Extreme parallels (aside from Camp Casey). I'm not sure if I saw her on the day we tried to take over the business district - it was a scary day.

[OneBlueSky]

4. a question that definitely needs to be asked of every . . .

senator and member of Congress . . . loudly and often, until they start taking their responsibilities seriously and put a stop to the BushCo madness and associated crime . . .

[groovedaddy]

5. Plenty of blame to go around

The huge sums of money given by special interests to BOTH major political parties, tends to dampen the willingness to hold those same interests to account.
The complacency of a populace that regards politics as a nasty business that they (we) want little or nothing to do with.
The working poor, justifiably, see that the political system has little regard for them. Their lives just keep getting more difficult, and as that happens, they become even more distanced from the political system. Still, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
What do you value?

[raccoon]

6. Thanks for posting that.

"Those we scornfully call good Germans merely did little while the mouth of hell opened up."

"the mouth of hell opened up" --well said! that was exactly what happened.

I feel that a lot of us did what we could. So many Americans are misinformed by the corporate MSM hoes.

[salib]

7. This thought is SO important

When we became convinced that we were "basically powerless", that responsibility means you "own up" and simply SAY "I am responsible" but do nothing with that responsibility, when we became a "nudge, nudge, no what I mean, know what I mean" kind of society when it comes to corruption/greed/sociopathy/torture/etc/etc/etc, we lost this Republic.

Can we still take it back? Tag, you're it!

k&r, BTW.

[jazzjunkysue]

8. I took alot of hell from my co-workers, friends and family, slowly

opening their eyes to the corruption. Now, they all know I was right from the start, but, it upset alot of people along the way. I am considered a trouble maker.

So, yeah. I was a good american when my country was stolen. I continued to speak out any time I could. I always had a Bring Them Home bumper sticker on my car, and it pissed off a few policemen.

But it looks like my country is coming back ot its senses, now, and that's a total relief.

The wheels are coming off the neo-con bus, and they're not going back on.
I was part of the solution. I emailed and called my senators and congresswoman, thanking them for good votes and reprimanding them for bad.

We all need to keep contacting them. Support them when they need us.

[Land Shark]

9. If telling ourselves the truth risks feeling guilty, well guilt motivates action

and action can redeem. Thanks for this post.

[SeaBob]

10. A must-read!

[Canuckistanian]

11. Stops you dead in your tracks, doesn't it?

I mean, if you had foreknowledge of what was to come, would you do absolutely nothing?

And in this case, the signs are not so obvious, but menacing, nonetheless.

Do you do something? Or do you trust that others will do it for you?

And what if you're wrong? Will others chastise you? Ridicule you? Will you doubt your own sanity?

How much do you care? What's the ultimate cost of drastic action?

A powerful dilemma.

[BridgeTheGap]

12. Are we a bunch of media addicted sheep?

There is one fundamental belief, propagated by the power structure, that lies at the heart of inaction: I don't/can't make a difference.
It's easy to think this when looking at the relative power we have over our own individual lives. History is rife with examples of individuals making a huge difference AND individuals working in concert with others (Civil Rights / Anti-War).

It started in 2000 when we took that damned Supreme Court decision lying down. A few million of us needed to go to D.C. and shut the fuck'n place down for a few days! We wuz robbed and did very little about it.