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Delivered-To: •••@••.•••
From: "Brit Eckhart" <•••@••.•••>
To: <•••@••.•••>
Subject: RE From Seattle to London
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 08:35:47 -0500
Why We Are Here
(London, 2003 and Seattle)
-- Robert Arthur Lewis
Because the world we imagined, the one
we had always counted on
is disappearing.
Because the sun has become cancerous
and the planet is getting hotter.
Because children are starving in the shadows
of yachts and economic summits.
Because there are already too many planes in the sky.
This is the manufactured world
you have come here to codify and expedite.
We have come to tell you
there is something else we want to buy.
What we want, money no longer recognises
like the vitality of nature, the integrity of work.
We don't want cheaper wood, we want living trees.
We don't want engineered fruit, we want to see and smell the
food growing in our own neighbourhoods.
We are here because a voice inside us,
a memory in our blood, tells us
you are not just a trade body, you are the blind tip
of a dark wave that has forgotten its source.
We are here to defend and honour
what is real, natural, human and basic
against the rising tide of greed.
We are here by the insistence of spirit
and the authority of nature.
If you doubt for one minute the power of truth
or the primacy of nature
try not breathing for that length of time.
Now you know the pressure of our desire.
We are not here to tinker with your laws.
We are here to change you from the inside out.
This is not a political protest.
It is an uprising of the soul. ~
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Dear Brit,
Thanks once again for your many contributions...I wish I
had space and time for more of them. Do you think
Lewis might be on to something? He speaks eloquently
and I want to hope that he speaks for many who
experienced what was perhaps the first Global Protest
in history.
Bush & Blair are thumbing their noses at the
world, the same way Hitler did before occupying
Chezchoslovakia. And they're being so blatant about
it, and the stakes are so high, that people are
responding viscerally to the charade. The very idea of
killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, on flimsy
and falsified evidence, in order to "reduce the threat
of weapons of mass destruction"! It is so absurd that it
breaks the heart. And the "Saviours" are intending to
use more deadly weapons of mass destruction that Saddam
could ever dream of, presuming indeed that he is the
kind of monster the Cross-Atlantic Bobsy Twins claim
him to be. They seem to think he is of their own ilk.
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From: Janet McFarland <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: Welcome to 2003 - The Year of The Apocalypse
To: •••@••.•••
Hi rkm,
Sorry I've been out of touch for so long (this is janet
formerly of pacbell.net now •••@••.•••). I
have your book and am so touched by you sending it to
me and beyond stunned to see myself mentioned/mirrored
there. Thank you!
I appreciate your analysis, as set out in this posting,
and instead of finding the scenario of creating
institutions that function alongside the oppressive
official ones daunting, I am counting all the
organizations/groups I am part of that are part of that
new scenario. It's actually a lot. And you're right,
when things collapse, it can be quite sudden and very
complete. Bush extending us all around the world on
multiple aggressive fronts could do it. Or people
finally getting all together and saying STOP might make
it suddenly possible. I guess I'm hopeful, for a
change! Thanks again
LOL
Janet
-------------------
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 09:45:12 -0800
From: Janet McFarland <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: (fwd) Groundswell of dissent encircles the globe
To: •••@••.•••
Hi rkm, do you think the protests are cause for
optimism? I just read your analysis on what we are
really doing militarily (makes a lot more sense than
anything else I've seen or thought of, as usual) and
part of your 97 china article. gives one pause. I
guess i'm not as optimistic as i was a minute ago!
LOL
janet
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Dear Janet,
Deja vu. Once again, you ask questions that get to the
heart of our current situation. Glad you liked the
book which you inspired.
I like your positive perspective on functioning 'along
side' the regime. We really have no choice. The
regime is there, we are here, and those are the facts.
But I didn't say anything about things collapsing. I
said change can happen very suddenly, but not that a
collapse must precede that. In fact, a collapse would
be a very dreadful thing. Imagine what would happen to
cities if transportation ceased and farmers couldn't run
their tractors, etc. Everyone would starve after a few
weeks. Besides, there wouldn't be a full collapse
because the one institution that would retain food,
command, and control, would be the military. Don't
even go there! And do be hopeful, what's the
alternative while we still breathe?
The protests are a cause for encouragement. Optimism is
more elusive.
I think everyone knows now that demonstrations will not
change government / global policies. The
Anti-Globalization / Anti-Capitalist demos of the
pre-911 era were perhaps the last and final attempt to
use demos as 'public opinion lobbying'. That genre was
essentially destroyed by the events of 9/11 and the
intentionally created hysteria that followed. Everyone
can read between the lines: "No more nonsense of any
kind."
Globalization has been eclipsed by the Terrorism thing,
and that is not accidental. Recall that international
news was led by anti-globalization activities right up
until 911. Remember Genoa? When the regime burned
down the Reichstag Trade Center, it signalled an
all-out attack on all rebellious elements. That
includes non-compliant regimes such as Libya & Iraq,
superceded institutions such as the UN, and domestic
dissidents.
In such an atmosphere, public demonstrations take on a
new meaning. They are no longer sending messages to
the regime; that no longer makes sense. They are
instead gatherings for their own sake. They are their
own message to themselves. They are community-from-
below in formation. They are perhaps, as Lewis put it,
an 'uprising of the soul'. The soul of humanity.
Optimism or pessimism? It depends on what picture
you're looking at. There are likely to many horrible
events before things get better. The genocidal
onslaught being planned against Iraq is so grotesque
one cannot find adequate words. There may be nuclear
exchanges with Russia and China. There may be
concentration camps in the USA with the likes of you
and me in them... especially if energy builds for more
demonstrations, strikes, and the like. The definition
of 'enemy combatant' is very broad, and even talking
about this stuff might be construed "conspiracy" by
a secret panel of military judges.
So in the short term, pessimism is simply realism. I
find my optimism on another time scale. We have been
in prison for 10,000 years. The prison has finally
reached its penultimate precision as an enslaving
machine. At the same time humanity has not lost its
spirit. All those centuries of conditioning have not
turned us into robots. The mind-control is only skin
deep. Every little child still starts out free. We
have the potential to wake up as a species, and today's
conditions may be the historic alarm bell that begins the
process...
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From: Mid-East Realities <•••@••.•••>
Subject: WALK-OUT by High School Students throughout
Washington, DC area
HIGH SCHOOL ANTI-WAR WALK-OUT
PROTEST IN WASHINGTON
NEWSFLASH - 21 February 2003: HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS in
Washington and surrounding areas WALKED OUT of their
schools today in protest against the 'Bush War'.
Students were threatened with expulsion or suspension
by their principles [stet-rkm], but many said this
would not stop them. A few hundred students held a
one-hour rally at Dupont Circle. Then they marked down
Connecticut Avenue, past the White House, and on to
Congress and Capitol Hill.
WATCH THE RALLY AND MARCH at MER - www.MiddleEast.org
(select FEATURE of the week)
--------------------------------------------------------
You know what happens when two waves cross in the ocean
- the sea jumps up in a wave twice as high. That's
called positive interference. It's the same with
movements, which are like "idea waves" in a population.
Think about all the movements which are activated by
Washington's genocidal intentions. The peace movement
of course, and all those who were recently called
"anti-globalization". And then there are those in the
US who believe Bush stole the election, and all the
civil-liberty activists who have been aroused by the
Homeland Security takeover. Every concern, from the
environment to human rights has reason to be aroused by
the threatened holocaust.
Perhaps a critical-mass will be reached, leading to the
kind of paradigm shift in movement consciousness described
by Robert Lewis. There are here at least the seeds of
optimism. And a high-school walkout encourages me
particularly. After all, it was a child who declared
the nakedness of the Emperor.
rkm
--
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