by David Burn | Sep 9, 2004 | Politics
“I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed…managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units…Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country.” -from Colin Powell’s autobiography, My American Journey
Many in the corporate press claim they’ve grown tired of the steady focus on Vietnam. Instead, they’d prefer a debate on Iraq. The problem is, we would not be in Iraq today if the chickenhawks who put us there had learned the hard lessons of Vietnam–America’s most divisive war and the only one we ever lost.
by David Burn | Sep 9, 2004 | Politics
Chair of the Democratic Party of Maine, Dorothy Melanson, testified under oath in a public hearing before Maine’s secretary of state last Monday that the national Democratic Party is funding efforts throughout the country to stop Nader-Camejo from appearing on ballots.
In this space last week I said I was tempted to vote for Kerry come November, and it is tempting, as he’s the only one left with any chance of dethroning King George. Yet, I find his party’s anti-democratic maneuverings reprehensible (if not criminal). If Kerry wants the progressive vote, this is not the way to go about it.
by David Burn | Sep 5, 2004 | Politics
Lately I’ve been thinking of moving to Canada, The British Virgin Islands, Australia, or even Bulgaria in order to at once, sharpen my critique of our federal government (if that’s possible), and also to deny the War Machine its portion of my taxable income. Here’s another point-of-view, more realistic and more responsible:
“The battle to reclaim democracy is going to be a difficult one. Our freedoms were not granted to us by any governments. They were wrested from them by us. And once we surrender them, the battle to retrieve them is called a revolution. It is a battle that must range across continents and countries. It must not acknowledge national boundaries but, if it is to succeed, it has to begin here. In America. The only institution more powerful than the U.S. government is American civil society. The rest of us are subjects of slave nations. We are by no means powerless, but you have the power of proximity. You have access to the Imperial Palace and the Emperor’s chambers. Empire’s conquests are being carried out in your name, and you have the right to refuse. You could refuse to fight. Refuse to move those missiles from the warehouse to the dock. Refuse to wave that flag. Refuse the victory parade.” – from “Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy” by Arundhati Roy
by David Burn | Sep 4, 2004 | Politics
We all know that sex sells. But fear looks to be challenging sex as a primary motivator in the post-911 world. The Republican National Convention was a four-day spectacle built on the unifying power of fear. The message was dead on–if you want to live and feel safe in fortress America, vote for Bush. Fear took us to war and fear will keep us there.
In advertising, where I’ve spent a decade crafting pithy lines for large consumer brands, I can report that employing fear as a motivating device is also fair game. Look at any insurance ad. That’s fear in your face, but there are also more subtle applications. Take beer advertising. Marketers speak of their beer not as a beverage but as a badge. They see their targeted consumers as wearing badges. I follow their drift, but in the end it’s just some guys drinking beer. Implicit in the idea of a badge is one’s need to connect with the right badge. To select the wrong symbol, or badge, is to be in error. Burdens will soon ensue.
The line that separates.
The Republican Party thinks it owns the American flag. It’s their badge. “You’re either with us, or you’re with the terrorists,” said Dubya. That is, if you are one of those Americans who chooses to dissent, you have picked the wrong badge. You’re on the wrong team. You’re un-American at best, or worse, you’re with the enemy. It’s incumbent upon the American people to not only reject the men in office, we must rid ourselves of their divisive messaging.
by David Burn | Sep 4, 2004 | Literature, Politics
From Arundhati Roy’s article, The Algebra of Infinite Justice
In 1979, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the CIA and Pakistan’s ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) launched the largest covert operation in the history of the CIA. Their purpose was to harness the energy of Afghan resistance to the Soviets and expand it into a holy war, an Islamic jihad, which would turn Muslim countries within the Soviet Union against the communist regime and eventually destabilize it. When it began, it was meant to be the Soviet Union’s Vietnam. It turned out to be much more than that. Over the years, through the ISI, the CIA funded and recruited almost 100,000 radical mojahedin from 40 Islamic countries as soldiers for America’s proxy war. The rank and file of the mojahedin were unaware that their jihad was actually being fought on behalf of Uncle Sam. (The irony is that America was equally unaware that it was financing a future war against itself.)
Also by Arundhati Roy: Confronting Empire and Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy, her classic anti-Imperial treatises.
by David Burn | Sep 3, 2004 | Politics
I’m a fierce independent. I believe the two party system has to go. Party’s over. I think the Dems are sold out to a slightly less slimy group of special (read: CORPORATE) interests, and that’s all there is separating them from the frightening and shameful Republicans. Yet, due to the hideous nature of our current situation, I’m starting to soften my position.
The G.O.P.’s outrageous media strategy, whereby they paint Kerry as unfit to be Commander-In-Chief–from an executive team with five draft deferments and one absent-without-leave from Guard duty among them–is stunning in its very boldness. They have people worried about John Kerry’s Boston accent in a 30 year old newsreel, while they conduct an illegal, hostile Imperialist policy disguised as The War on Terror, right under all our noses, each and every day, with money we provide for them.
It makes me want to drop my need to vote third party and vote for Kerry this fall. Dennis Kucinich helped me see the wisdom in becoming a progressive Dem. I voted for Dennis in the primary and I want to see him elevated to a cabinet position under Kerry. Dennis has advocated a Dept. of Peace. Great! If John Kerry wants the my vote, the progressive vote, Nadar supporters and the disenfranchised who do not normally vote, he would do well to embrace Dennis at this time.
by David Burn | Sep 2, 2004 | Politics
“It has been said truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protester the freedom he abuses to burn that flag.” –Zell Miller, Democratic Senator from GA, and keynote speaker at the GOP’s nominating convention in NYC last night
I know this what they preach in the military. I’ve heard it from family members who served. The exact words, the precise justifications. It may serve to ease the conscience of our trained killers, but to see the world through this lens is distorted, at best. The soldier does what he is told. Period. The soldier never stops to ask the critical question, “Whose interests am I serving here?” The assumption is “our” interests, the US, the West, democracy. The truth is our military has been sent in harm’s way for big business, time and again for 150 plus years. Our soldiers would do well to learn the nation’s history before they blindly accept a mission to defend what’s not their’s to defend. Of course, if we had better schools, it would make it that much more difficult to recruit new soldiers.
by David Burn | Aug 23, 2004 | Politics
According to Adbusters, one in four New York City residents is a Democrat. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Republican Party has never in its 150 year history chose to conduct its nominating convention in New York City. So what makes this year different? Two numbers: 9/11.
Given the mass mobilization of left-leaning activists and the very real anger they are about to uncork, I fully expect next week’s events in NYC to make Chicago in 1968 seem tame by comparison, even though it is clear the vast majority of protestors intend to be non-violent.
by David Burn | Aug 19, 2004 | Politics
For reasons unknown, fighter jets have been buzzing the air space over Chicago for the past few hours. Their first pass was directly overhead and the sound made me think that a plane was coming down in our neighborhood, for we are on a landing path to O’Hare. But this sound was coming from the other direction, making me that much more disoriented. Considering what these mechanical fighter birds are doing in Najaf today, once can begin to grasp just how terrifying it all really is. Maybe that’s why they’re up there today, to remind a city of 10,000,000 that we are, in fact, at war.
Najaf, Iraq today
by David Burn | Aug 17, 2004 | Politics
“I don’t believe in the dogmatic postulates of Marxist revolution. I don’t accept that we are living in a period of proletarian revolutions. All that must be revised. Reality is telling us that every day. Are we aiming in Venezuela today for the abolition of private property or a classless society? I don’t think so. But if I’m told that because of that reality you can’t do anything to help the poor, the people who have made this country rich through their labour and never forget that some of it was slave labour, then I say ‘We part company’. I will never accept that there can be no redistribution of wealth in society. Our upper classes don’t even like paying taxes. That’s one reason they hate me. We said ‘You must pay your taxes’. I believe it’s better to die in battle, rather than hold aloft a very revolutionary and very pure banner, and do nothing … That position often strikes me as very convenient, a good excuse … Try and make your revolution, go into combat, advance a little, even if it’s only a millimetre, in the right direction, instead of dreaming about utopias.” -Hugo Chavez speaking to Tariq Ali for CounterPunch.org
Hugo Chavez, the embattled President of Venezuela, yesterday defeated a recall in an election that brought out 94% of this oil-rich nation’s eligible citizens, many who stood in lines over a mile long to vote for democracy, not oligarchy. All this despite fierce and blantant opposition from the oligarchy-owned press, and a full course of dirty trickery care of Bush/Cheney, Inc.
The people celebrate their victory.
