Why Ten Year Olds Think "America Is In Other Countries Fighting For Their Freedom"

"Winged Genius Anointing the Keeper of the King's Bow" Assyrian relief removed from the palace of King Ashurnasirpal II by looters in the 19th century and now on display at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. 

Empires throughout history have spent a ton of money on internal propaganda. And it works. School children will scurry across a room to stand with a classmate wearing a U.S. Marine Corp. t-shirt who states -- falsely, but with great conviction -- that "America is in other countries fighting for their freedom." How would a ten year old even get that idea when it's doubtful he could find Afghanistan, Iraq or Ukraine on a map?

You can count on the fact that he has not seen any news like this:

At least 54 Colombian girls sexually abused by immune US military: Report

U.S. soldiers and military contractors sexually abused at least 54 children in Colombia between 2003 and 2007, according to a recently released historic document on the country’s conflict. The suspects have allegedly not been prosecuted due to immunity clauses in bilateral agreements [emphasis mine].

Colombia -- that's where the White House is, right?

You can also count on kids today having seen plenty of movies and t.v. shows with the message: Nazis bad, "American" soldiers good. The fact that the U.S. scooped up the German rocket scientists after WW II, or that IBM and Ford made plenty of money doing business in Nazi Germany? They'll never hear about it. And it would be impossible to count how many movies and shows kids today have seen depicting Islamic extremists blowing things up and harming innocent bystanders.

I turned off corporate television so many decades ago that it's quite a shock when I travel and see the disinformation streaming out from big screens in airports and hotel bars. No shortage of enemies, ever. Russia, Iran, ISIS, fill in the blank -- someone is always menacing the mighty and exceptional U.S.




But, history would also suggest that empires who overspend on wars and propaganda while allowing their citizens to starve crumble into dust.

Congress is about to impose austerity cuts that will make those of the past look mild by comparison. Even with our high rate of children growing up in poverty, the U.S. appears to be about to throw millions more families off food stamps and Social Security. Here in Maine we have 70,000 low-income people who are unable to receive Medicaid because of our Tea Party governor.

Libertarian Rick Santorum made news this week by saying. "We will never have the elite, smart people on our side." Maybe he has read some history and even knows what to expect from the lumpen proletariat. Meanwhile, many so-called smart people are kept busy crowing over how one corporate party seems dumber than the other corporate party. As if that made a bit of difference in both parties working together to push through (in secret) the Trans Pacific Partnership, or starting another few wars with our best buddies Saudi Arabia and the neo-Nazis of Ukraine.

The great danger of propaganda is that empires start believing their own bullshit -- right up until vandals break into the palace and start slashing the wrists of the king's keeper of the bow, that is.

"Get A Job" & "I Love War" Say Workers @BathIronWorks, While Others Desire Change From Building WMDs

When working class Mainers encounter peace demonstrations, hostility often gets expressed in the form of shouts to "Get a job!" Yesterday at General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works shipyard we heard a lot of that. Being unemployed is just about the worst fate some who are employed building destroyers for the U.S. Navy can think of. Besides, if we're standing around on the pavement at noon on Saturday speaking what's in our hearts we must be in need of something better to do -- right?

"I love war" was another thing we heard amid the jeers and catcalls that greeted one of our speakers in particular. Hee Eun "Silver" Park seemed to anger the BIW workers, or perhaps it was the banner in Korean that her husband, Paco Michelson, held behind her as she spoke. Translated it says NO NAVAL BASE but to many of the BIW men changing shifts at noon it was Chinese, and they didn't like it.

Silver spoke movingly in English saying that the people of Jeju whose coral reefs have been trashed to make a deep water port for U.S. destroyers in South Korea don't hate the workers who make the ships, and don't consider them enemies.

Post by Lisa Savage.

The Chorus of the Unemployed song from my play Canteen Annie at the Bomb Factory expressed what many BIW workers have told protesters there over the years: we need our jobs, but we would love to build windmills or trains instead of weapons of mass destruction. BIW workers are like Brecht's Mother Courage, the basis for the character, Annie, making a living off the war machine out of necessity. Do they, like Annie, try unsuccessfully to save their children from recruiters? Do they go on working for General Dynamics because it's the largest single employer in Maine? 

We live in a state where full-time, full benefits jobs are as scarce as daffodils on the first day of spring. Also, some workers shared with us that many have had their hours cut lately and are no longer full-time. So they must feel scared about the prospect of being unable to pay their mortgages and keep food on the table at home.

Post by Lisa Savage.

Annie's dreadful bargain doesn't save her children in the end. Neither will the BIW shipyard workers you can hear shouting at Paco in the video be able to save their children from the effects of a fully militarized economy. Younger generations will also experience coastal flooding and other effects of environmental degradation caused by the Pentagon's massive carbon footprint.

Children everywhere are teetering on the brink of inheriting a planet that won't support life. 

I'll be sending a letter to Maine's congressional delegation signed by many in Bath yesterday. It calls for a budget that serves people's needs over those of the Pentagon's many wealthy contractors. It reminds them that Congress is supposed to represent the people, not General Dynamics.

Canteen Annie At The Bomb Factory: Mother Courage At @BathIronWorks #mepolitics

STREET THEATER AT BATH IRON WORKS WILL MARK 

MAINE’S PARTICIPATION IN NATIONWIDE 

SPRING MOBILIZATION FOR PEACE

At General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works on Saturday, March 21 at noon CODEPINK, as part of the nationwide Spring Mobilization for Peace, will present CANTEEN ANNIE AT THE BOMB FACTORY based on Bertolt Brecht’s legendary antiwar play, Mother Courage and Her Children.

Bruce Gagnon, an organizer of an ongoing series of Lenten vigils to protest militarism explains the significance of presenting the play at Bath Iron Works: “We need to stand together to express our opposition to the ongoing crime against peace which is the building of guided missile warships at BIW.”

Gagnon will speak on March 21, along with international organizers Hee Eun “Silver” Park and Paco Michelson, peace activists from the Jeju Island Anti-Naval Base struggle. Park and Michelson are travelling across the U.S. in March and April to share the story of the struggle through the screening of a new full-length documentary, Gureombi, and speaking about their personal experiences on Jeju Island, Korea where a coral reef is being destroyed to create a deep water port for the destroyers built in Bath. The film will be shown March 20 at 7pm at Grace Episcopal Church in Bath and on March 23 in New York City before touring the rest of the country.

Free transportation on March 21 will be provided from Portland, leaving Monument Square at 10:30 am, and Brunswick, leaving the train station there at 11:15 am. CODEPINK and other sponsors of the event are calling on Bath Iron Works to convert to producing light rail trains for public transportation rather than weapons of mass destruction.

This event is sponsored by Smilin’ Tree Disarmament Farm’s Lenten Vigil at Bath Iron Works,CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace, Peace Works of Greater Brunswick, Alliance for Democracy, and Global Network Against Nuclear Weapons & Power in Space. FMI: (207) 542-7119

CANTEEN ANNIE AT THE BOMB FACTORY

CHARACTERS: There are 7 main characters, each with a mask that identifies them.

In order of appearance:

 

 

 

Canteen Annie

Son #1

Son #2

Daughter

Recruiter

Payroll Master

Soldier

SETTING: Annie’s Canteen is held at each end by a stagehand, in such a way that the BIW shipyard is visible in the background.

SCENE #1

Canteen Annie, Son #1, Son #2, and Daughter are visible behind the cut out window of Annie’s canteen. Extras approach the window from stage left, mime a transaction, and exit stage right.

Annie steps out from behind the canteen holding her mask, approaches the microphone and addresses the audience.

;

Annie: Selling food to workers at the bomb factory is what I do. Hey, a mom has got to make a living somehow. It’s a family business. My kids don’t have to make bombs or enlist in the military. I can feed them right here! Besides, where else are they going to get a job these days? Have you seen those lines at unemployment? If it wasn’t for the bomb factory, nobody would be working.

SCENE #2  The Unemployed Chorus

Lead singer at the microphone, others lined up behind him across the stage in profile holding sheafs of papers representing job applications.

Everyone sings to the tune of 

YANKEE DOODLE DANDY

BROTHER, HAVE YOU GOT A JOB?

SISTER, ARE YOU WORKING?

WE JUST WANT TO EARN A WAGE,

NO B.S. AND NO SHIRKING.

EVERY JOB WE SEEM TO FIND

DOESN’T PAY A LIVING;

ASKING FOLKS IF THEY WANT FRIES

IS THE ONLY JOB THEY’RE GIVING.

IF WE GOT A JOB RIGHT HERE

WE’D HELP TO BUILD DESTROYERS,

MAKING LOTS OF PROFITS FOR

GEN. DYNAMICS AND ITS LAWYERS.

WE DON’T WANT TO BUILD FOR WAR

WE WANT JOBS SUSTAINING

LIFE AND HEALTH AND LIBERTY

FOR EVERYONE REMAINING.

WHY CAN’T WE BUILD WINDMILL TOWERS? 

TRAINS & TRACKS THEY RUN ON?

WHY DO ALL OUR TAXES GO 

TO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION?

SCENE #3

Son #1 steps from behind the canteen, followed by Annie. They approach the microphone.

Son #1: I hate this canteen like a disease. My hair smells like grease all the time. I’m better than this.

Annie: Be thankful for what we’ve got, son!

Recruiter enters from stage left. He has his mask in one hand, paper and a pen in the other

Recruiter to Son #1: How would you like a brand new pickup truck kid? Just sign right here. I’ll make sure you get a good job in the army. With benefits. And money for college after.

Annie: Get away from my son! He doesn’t want to talk to you!

Son #1: Yes I do!

Annie: Listen to me! Don’t listen to the recruiter! War is hell. It destroys the innocent.

Recruiter to Son #1: Just sign here.

               to Annie: I won't let you spoil my war for me. Destroys the weak, does it? Well, what does peace do for'em, huh? War feeds its people better.

EXIT RECRUITER AND SON #1

Annie returns, dejected, to the canteen.

SCENE #4

Son #2 steps from behind the canteen wearing glasses and carrying a laptop case. He is followed by Annie. They approach the microphone.

Son #2: I won’t make the mistakes my brother made. I’m studying accounting.

Annie: That’s a good boy!

Payroll Master enters from stage left. He has his mask in one hand, paper and a pen in the other.

Payroll Master to Son #2: How would you like a job? I need smart young men like you to work in the payroll department at the bomb factory.

Annie: Get away from my son! He doesn’t want to talk to you!

Son #2: Yes I do!

Payroll Master to Son #2: Just sign here.

EXIT PAY MASTER AND SON #2

Annie returns, dejected, to the canteen.

SCENE #5

Daughter (in red boots) steps out from behind the canteen carrying school books. Annie waves goodbye to her from the canteen window.

Daughter approaches the microphone.

Daughter: I can’t believe I’m finally at community college. A dream come true!

Soldier enters from stage left, carrying his mask in one hand and school books under his other arm. He sees Daughter, drops his books on the ground, and grabs her around the neck from behind.

Daughter: (Screams) Help! Rape!

Soldier lets go of her and she crumples to the stage. He runs off stage right.

Daughter applies duct taped X to the mouth of her mask and slowly stands up with mask covering her real face. She goes to back of stage and picks up a large sign protesting the war economy and blood for oil. Begins walking back and forth across the stage showing one side of her sign, then the other.

Soldier approaches from stage right and pantomimes shooting her. She crumples to the stage and remains there.

Annie runs out from behind the canteen and crouches over her fallen Daughter.

Annie: (Crying) Oh, daughter, what have they done to you? What have they done?

SCENE #6

A new swarm of workers enters from stage left and stands at the canteen window.

Canteen Annie rises slowly from her fallen daughter. She goes dejectedly to the microphone.

Annie: Yes, I'll manage, although there's not much point in it now. But I must get back to business.

Annie goes back behind the canteen window and pantomimes selling food to workers.

THE END

Fiddling While Rome Drowns

I woke up in the belly of the beast this morning -- Washington DC, where oligarchs have our "democratic" government hurtling toward WWIII at an ever more rapid pace.

After attending a depressingly enlightening talk yesterday by Finnish education expert Pasi Sahlberg I slept restlessly, then awoke to news that Stratfor, known to some as the shadow CIA, has plans for partitioning Russia drawn up already. Ukraine and NATO's backing of neo-Nazi militias there has been on my mind lately, along with the sense that the U.S. now wages wars against the poor on so many fronts that it's hard to focus on any one spot. Ferguson, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Ukraine, pivot to Asia -- which is the most urgently dangerous?

Since Stratfor's forward planning is depressingly accurate at predicting where my tax dollars will be deployed on wars instead of educating our young, I am taking their plan seriously. All the nuclear weapons that will come loose if NATO succeeds in breaking up the Russian empire is one thing to worry about.

Here's another:

The hypocrisy of people like freshman Senator Angus King scolding Iran for even thinking about developing nuclear weapons can be astonishing. Though King doesn't mention Israel in his directives for Iran, the hand of AIPAC is clear enough behind his threatening rhetoric.Who is more bellicose:  Iran, or Israel with its repeated bombing of Gaza and its completely uninspected nuclear arsenal?

Even without counting nuclear pollution, the Pentagon is the biggest polluter on the planet; its carbon footprint is larger than any other organization on Earth. The wars it fights for access to fossil fuel deposits and their transport rage on and on, expanding every year since 9/11 was staged. Polar ice is melting rapidly, coastal areas and islands are flooding, and many environmental scientists feel we passed the tipping point for reversing this trend some time back.

Somewhere I'm sure Stratfor has made plans for how the empire will continue to operate when Washington DC, Wall St., Boston, Miami, San Diego and Houston are all under water.


You would think this crisis would call for urgent action by our elected government. Instead, lavish campaign contributions by Pentagon contractors and calls for more war by our "representatives" roll on.