Bill LaCroix: War is War; Say No to Syrian Missile Strikes Now

Thursday, September 5, 2013

War is War; Say No to Syrian Missile Strikes Now

Howdy. Been a while since I posted, and this isn’t what I intended to get up next. But if anyone’s out there, this is urgent:

If you don’t like the idea of the U.S. taking on another war in the Middle East, please to this minimum. Go to Moveon.org’s petition here: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/truly-protect-the-syrian, sign it and pass it on. Then contact:

· Tester http://www.tester.senate.gov/?p=email_senator
· Baucus http://www.baucus.senate.gov/?p=contact
· Daines http://www.stevedaines.com/contact/

Tell them the same. They’re meeting in Washington on Sept. 9^th to give Obama the green light. So far they’re all for the war and that’s what’s going to happen if your reps don’t hear from you immediately. Tester and Baucus are nominally vulnerable. Daines is hopeless but give him hell anyways. Below’s my comment to Obama. Use more or less words or no words. Cut and paste it, I don’t care. Just say NO! Make ‘em hear. If you don’t say anything, you’re complicate. Simple as that.

It’s easy to believe that nothing we do makes a difference. Denial’s seductive that way. Everything we do makes a difference, one way or another. It’s up to us, not them. Yes, it does have to be ENOUGH of us, and we may not get our way right away even then. But do it anyways. Visualize seven-year-old children torn apart by Tomahawk missiles. Just for instance, I have a seven-year-old. Do you? Visualize it. You have to try.

President Obama,

We voted for hope--twice. Over and over and over again We The People have expressed to you that we overwhelmingly desired something different from this administration. I am an activist. I will vote for Democrats because I understand that I have no choice. The damage this administration does when it cuts off the legs of its base is not us walking around with a limp (for your administration anyway). It's all the first time voters WE GOT TO THE POLLS who voted for hope and who will now never darken the door of a voting booth again. War is war. Missile strikes and dead civilians is war with a capital Ugly, especially if it's "sold" to us as a peace package. Please do not play games with our English language. That's so Bushian. Be honest with those first time voters whom we (and you) so desperately need. And then, please! Do not go to war with Syria. Your administration had a mandate. Here's your chance to see if you can get it back.

Sincerely

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Why I Blog

Thoreau and Emerson had a discussion in May of 1846 about the Mexican War--our first war that set us on the course we still track today. Conquest of nation-states and the inevitable Imperialism that follows. Emerson counseled his friend that we can supersede the transgressions of a well-meaning State by the Muse. Thoreau wasn't so sure that the State was so well-meaning or that the Muse alone would be enough to supersede it. But he tried both the Muse and "other means" to our everlasting benefit. Civil Disobedience, in the American sense, has always been his child, in large part because he raised it to the level of Literature. "Other means" requires the Muse to be lasting and effective, and vice versa. How would anyone know what the hell you were talking about otherwise, let alone emulate what you're trying to do?

The problem with Progressives today, I think, is that we have been in the habit of letting other people--Rupert Murdoch, the Koch Brothers, Sun Myung Moon--tell our stories for us, people who do not mean us well. We haven't plugged our muse into our political discourse very much, and that's a big mistake. Mark Twain didn't make that mistake, and he was among the first American writers to use the new-fangled typewriter. Why do we children of Twain, Emerson and Thoreau make that mistake now with our new-fangled computers?

For all its faults, Corporate America understands that people are story-based critters, like it or not, and I think we progressives should like it. By definition, people make many important social (read: political) decisions based largely on who's the best storyteller. It’s in our nature, and Corporate Media is a classic example of how Nature abhors a vacuum. We’ve collectively created a cultural ‘narrative’ vacuum by allowing ourselves to be so easily entertained by—Corporate Media! And Nature hates that. She’ll allow the same garbage responsible for that vacuum (Corporate Media!) to be sucked in and to rattle around until it ruins our cognative motors before she’ll let that sad state of affairs stand. I'd ask any "America Firsters" stumbling on this blog and reading this far to consider: Rupert Murdoch is from Australia. Sun Myung Moon, now-deceased but whose creatures, the Washington Times and UPI still walk the face of the earth, was from Korea. The Koch Brothers, of course, were from the sheikdom of Texas. All of them were, and the living ones still are, so obscenely rich they apparently believed they own America simply because they paid for it, and we collectively let them define who among us are “real Americans”?! C'mon!

Although it helps to strive toward the goal, progressives don't have to be great writers, and I'm not claiming to be one. We simply have to acknowledge that we have the better stories and we’re sitting on our best ones. Our truest ones. Multi-national billionaires have better versions of American Liberalism and Progressivism than the real ones told by real Americans? Us? We shouldn't put up with that. Why do we?

Like any historic attempt, we need to find our Voice. Significant action will come only after our contemporary, progressive political muse matures, which it hasn't yet. Not to paint with too wide a brush, but too much of our positions have been framed in intellectual, almost-didactic prose, which, if you don't identify as an intellectual, means boring. Not all of it, just a whole lot of it, but never mind. If history's still a guide--and I hope it still is--there's hope, because when any progressive movement's Muse matures, it generally becomes the baseline for much of Western Civilization’s meaningful and therefore lasting literature. For example, "Mein Kampf" is still in print but I'll bet you'd have to turn over a lot of rocks to find someone to call it 'literature'.

So, this blog. It's a call, I suppose, to elevate our critical modern discussions out of Fox-news-landia back to where intelligent, caring Americans can find their feet and fight back, either with the Muse, by other means, or both. It’s not up to some politician to change the narrative. That’s up to us. So by definition we still have as good a chance as we ever had. Don't lose hope. It’s always been this way. At least in literate societies.

In other words, like Emerson advised and Thoreau partially agreed with: stories matter, and may the best Muse win.