American Tears / Naomi Wolf

[Demeter]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/american-tears_b_68141.html


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...
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....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.

[PDJane]

1. I believe Ms. Wolf.

Having read her book, which put on paper all the things that I have been watching with dread and loathing for the past six years or so. This is a scary time.

[earth mom]

2. K & R. This belongs in GD. nt

[AntiFascist]

3. Very important last paragraph...

Pelosi and others feel that Democratic politics is more important than bringing treason to justice. This is how corrupt things have become.

[Daphne08]

4. Very powerful! n/t

[LongTomH]

5. This quote was really ominous:

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.

The question isn't: Are you paranoid? It's: Are you paranoid enough?

:scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared:

[Locrian]

6. Read this amazing reply to Naomis article in the comments

GlenGary (See profile | I'm a fan of GlenGary)

Anyone remember that little Chinese guy in Tieanamin Square that stood in front of that tank? I'm betting he was scared that the tank crew would just say "screw you" and run him over. In my life I worked with several men who braved guard dogs, swimming in frozen rivers and searchlights with machine-guns trained on them as they slipped under barbed wire just to get out of Soviet Bloc countries and come to America. You think they weren't scared to death?

So you are afraid. Everybody gets afraid sometime. I've seen guys pee themselves fighting for YOU.. they were so afraid but they fought anyway. It is what you do with it that determines what you are. You have to turn your fear into something you can manage and something that gives you enough control to move forward and it is usually anger that does the job. Most heroes are just folks who got crazy mad and went headlong into unbridled rages. At that point they forgot they were scared or were just sick and tired of being scared and went for it. Sometimes folks just go bonkers and do something really extraordinary.

What was this country founded on and what was WW2 about and Korea and Vietnam and Desert Storm and this Iraq war? What were they all based on? FREEDOM for ourselves or someone else. And today our citizens are frozen in fear which deficates on every soldier's grave that secured our way of life and I think that stinks like, well, cowardice.

We will get the Government we deserve. It is that simple. If you feel that you and your children or grandchildren deserve better then GET ANGRY and then get busy and stop waiting for someone else to fight for you because everyone else is doing that same thing....waiting for a miracle that isn't in the wings.

The time is now and we all have our minds wrapped around our joint problems. The time for talk has passed.

[Duppers]

7. amen

We will get the Government we deserve. It is that simple. If you feel that you and your children or grandchildren deserve better then GET ANGRY and then get busy and stop waiting for someone else to fight for you because everyone else is doing that same thing....waiting for a miracle that isn't in the wings.

[Duppers]

8. how do one know they're on this frikin' list?

Besides not being able to leave the country?

As if it should intimidate us. Those 'good germans' can go to hell.