Occupy Here & Now, Not Afghanistan/Pakistan/Bahrain

Occupy Augusta, Maine photo Waterville Morning Sentinel "Arrested occupiers explain stand"

On the one hand I occupy Augusta, Maine, and sleep overnight in a teepee like in ancient times, and my inner voice is  chanting joyfully like the 99% in Oakland did at the very start of their general strike video:

Hella, hella occupy! The system has got to die !

I know in my bones that if the system doesn't, the Earth will. And that is what ultimately matters as far as human life is concerned.

Then, on the other hand, the U.S. Senate proves itself every bit as venal and corrupt as any Roman body of leeches ever was by voting – overwhelmingly, only 7 against – for the U.S. military to be able to detain anybody -- without charges -- on planet battlefield in the war on terror. What rhymes with Indefinite Detention? Could be Extraordinary Rendition. So one more time I write or call my corporate owned so-called representatives, to express displeasure. I could try to occupy their offices, which are now barricaded because my friends occupied them years ago protesting war mongering. Or I could gather with the 99% and make art, not war, and talk about what to do next.

This piece of legislation is horrible, and laws do matter, used as fulcrums for leverage, and you can't let it pass unremarked without the outrage it deserves. But, really -- how much can this surprise us when Bradley Manning has been in jail for one year and five months without a fucking day in court?

Some say, oh, but he was in the military, so that's different. Looks like we're all in the throughly militarized USA now, whether we signed up or not.

The man accused of leaking thousands of files from Iraq, Afghanistan, and the State Dept. all over the globe, the man credited with sparking the Tunisian uprising which ignited Egypt which continues to roll out in great waves of freedom seeking behavior all across the planet will finally have his pre-trial hearing Dec. 16-17 at Fort Meade, Maryland. I will be in the streets for Bradley on that day for sure. (Find out how to join a Bradley Manning support action near you.)

When I contact my senators these days, I never fail to point out something they already know: they don't represent their constituents. Lately I send copies of the Bring Our War $$ Home Penny Poll, showing how people in Maine last election day wanted their federal taxes spent (educations, health care and V.A.) and how that compares with the nearly 2/3 spent on “defense” now. It's a gravy train for drone and other WMD manufacturers, i.e. the 1%, plus salary and benefits for a portion of the working class caught in the maws of the great war machine, forced as National Guardsmen and women to defend the homeland by being stationed in, for instance, Bahrain.

Lynn Redgrave as Mother / photo credit: http://www.veriport.com/galleries/a.htm

Bertolt Brecht wrote "Mother Courage" about the irony of a working class parent losing her three children one by one to the war economy she depended upon to feed them.

We can do better than this. And after reading Truthout's breathtaking interview about the Occupy movement with author Arundhati Roy, I think we will.

As the high school kids say, wait until summer!

Why fear the power of art?

Fear of art stalks the muddy land. As if piles of snow in April weren't bad enough, we Mainers, like masses of other people in the world, are besieged by the Forces of Greed (F.o.G.) hacking and slashing their way through the structures of civil society. 

That fearful art, Judy Taylor's now-famous mural depicting Maine labor history, will have a day in court next week. On Tuesday, April 19 there'll be a hearing at 10:00am in the Federal Courthouse in Bangor on a suit charging that Governor LePage violated citizens' First Amendment right of access to the mural by removing it. 

From the press release:

The court proceedings are open to the public. Those who attend the hearing will march at its conclusion in a parade from the courthouse to the rally about 11:30 at Pierce Park,  next to the Bangor Public Library. Everyone who supports the First Amendment, labor rights, and ethical governance is invited to join in. Bring signs and musical instruments if you can.

Why fear the power of art? I'll let these images from the most recent Draw-in at the State House in Augusta April 4 speak for themselves.

"Babe in Arms" by Nora Tryon. Additional powerful images here.

 “Whatever happens at the hearing,” notes artist Joan Braun, one of the plaintiffs in the suit against the governor, “we know that we will ultimately prevail. The will of the people of Maine cannot be disregarded without serious consequences..."

These attacks on working people globally are all of a piece.

Chris Hedges laid out cause for serious consequences in his discussion of the wholesale destruction of public education. He was talking about  the U.S.A. but he could just as well have said in the Americas considering what's going on in Honduras and Oxaca, Mexico.

Since the '09 coup in Honduras that Obama and the F.o.G. supported, the privatization of public education -- and the destruction of the powerful associations of public school teachers -- is on. "Rob the teachers' pension fund; buy tear gas and ammunition" a familiar F.o.G. strategy world-wide is reported here by Karen Spring & Annie Bird of Honduras Regime Impunity Watch.  The 3.2 million members of my union, the National Education Association, have yet to rise -- but they did send a letter. So can you.

Attacks are a lot more violent in other places where the struggle is more advanced. Instead of hiding a mural, F.o.G. violently attacks community radio stations and broadcasters in Honduras. Or, if the stakes are very high, people simply disappear.

In Bahrain, disappearances and torture are increasingly being brought against nonviolent pro-democracy activists, with the help and collusion of our mutual good friend Saudi Arabia. How hard will the Forces of Greed fight to keep Bahrain functioning as host to an enormous U.S. navy base? Pretty damn hard.