|
People Can Make A Difference Comment by Larry Ross, January 9, 2007
Al Gore believes people can make a difference as his following article shows. He has demonstrated that this can be true with his film "An Inconvenient Truth" and his global efforts to publicize this issue. The people also made a difference in New Zealand by their multi-faceted campaign to declare New Zealand a nuclear free zone. David Lange judged this to be a vote winner, so he jumped on the band wagon in 1984 when he said "elect Labour and we'll make the whole country nuclear free". And so it happened, Labour was elected and made New Zealand nuclear free. But do the various democratic techniques of effecting social change that have worked well before, work in the USA today against the entrenched expanding insanity of the Bush regime? So far the democratic method hasn't worked to stop Bush's illegal and phoney 'wars on terror'. Millions demonstrated against the war with Iraq. There was much expert testimony refuting Bush's lies and false assumptions. But Bush and his administration were unconcerned by all this evidence and protest. Now most people have adjusted to this illegal war based on lies. They no longer bother about demonstrating against it, against the murder of 655,000 Iraqis, against the torture, kidnapping and false imprisonment of opponents. Being faced with an implacable de-facto dictatorship embarked on a murderous criminal campaign, which increasingly targets domestic critics as well, most people have decided to leave this protest business to others, and gone back to 'business as usual' Who can really blame them? The people who could allocate some of their time and resources to oppose these trends, wars and potential new wars, usually don't bother about such things. Opposing any established or de-facto dictatorship is very difficult. The difficulties are much greater in the US today, with the Bush de-facto dictatorship. This dictatorship is planned and guided by a group of very intelligent and dedicated, but fanatical Neoconservative Machiavellis in power, with huge financial and human resources at their command. They are infecting and corrupting the US system, other nation's leaders, and the United Nations. If our way of life is to prevail, it will take a lot of new thinking, commitment and sacrifice by many sectors of society. Dodging the issue is no longer an option. Bush's neocons learned they could not only get away with a litany of lies to make war, but also gain public adjustment for accepting these lies and any consequences. This was a useful lesson for Bush and his fanatical neocons. Their blueprint and techniques were obviously working as planned. Bush's loyal mass media repeat his lies and mainly ignore the opposition. They pretend there was no opposition, minimalise or suppress it, and generally act as if it is of no consequence. That is also the case in 'coalition of the willing' countries such as the UK , Australia and even pro-Bush war policies in newspapers in countries such as New Zealand. Some New Zealand editors are really quite slavish in their "pro-Bush wars, right or wrong" editorial policies and attitudes. Most democratic opposition in the US accepted Bush's original war lies, legislated for them, and acted to facilitate Bush's wars, and opened the US Treasury to his requests. Anything Bush wants to wage his illegal wars, the US Congress will give to him. They now accept the Bush's new lies about Iran being a nuclear threat. Naturally the Necons are emboldened. They think - why not another litany of big lies, this time for a much larger war with Iran ? Of course the democrats will tip their hats to the people who voted for them in protest at Bushism. They will put on a show of opposition to escalation of more troops in Iraq . But too many democratic congressmen and senators support Bush's lies and wars. Bush is likely to go full-steam ahead and ultimately get what his war insanity demands, inspite of any protests by a few honest democrats. Dictatorships of fanatics are willing to take risks, even the risk of a nuclear holocaust. They do not care about consequences, especially if they have already committed a series of major crimes. They need the kind of real US dictatorship that they could achieve and justify with a huge major war with Iran. That would allow them to suppress any potential revelations or punishment of themselves for these crimes. It is unlikely that the democrats will stand in the way of a much bigger war with Iran - particularly if Bush stages a 'False Flag' operation to incriminate Iran as his war justification. Bush is not interested in what people's views may be if they differ from his own. He is only interested in the lies he can make them believe or force them to accept. As with his senior advisers on war, Bush rejects the entire scientific community on global warming, by disregarding and/or denying that there is any threat. US policies towards Global warming reflect the distorted ideas of George Bush, not the findings of the scientific community. The most powerful man in history, George Bush, can annihilate the world in an afternoon. That is today's reality. So all the protest, logical and careful criticism and democratic opposition means nothing if one individual and his followers and band of fanatics can do as they please. Indeed the democrats have already legislated to allow Bush to wage pre-emptive nuclear war against any enemy he names. They have smoothed the path and facilitated his insanity. Should we forget about the nuclear madman who are taking us with them on the road to an Armageddon sometime soon in order to devote ourselves toward the Global Warming problem? Global warming seems to have become 'flavour-of-the-month' for some people who, for some unknown reason have been avoiding the Iran war issue. Why? I don't know the answer to this problem. Huge and vitally important though the global warming problem is, it does not compare with the even more immediate problem of an all-powerful madman, and his allies in this madness. George Bush's USA , Tony Blair's UK and Olmert's Israel, are all moving toward a war with Iran, and are prepared to use their nuclear arsenals to accomplish their new war crimes. Why are the peace movement and other concerned people so quiet about a war that would be a colossal evil and could quickly grow and end humanity? What Al Gore is doing is a very essential for human survival. It is a very meritorious action that proves what individuals and awakened people can do. It is a cry for sanity and action for our threatened home - earth. But even more urgent is the threat that the world is threatened with early extinction by a few people with nuclear weapons and the power to use them. Perhaps we should focus on the nuclear madmen problem first, as all other problems will be blown away if we allow Bush and his disciples in the UK and Australia, to continue their march to war. I wish Al Gore had fought a little harder in 2000, contested Bush's phoney win through the US court system and was now US President. I wish he could be, and would be, franker today about Bush's lies which led the American people into a phoney war in Iraq, and Bush's new batch of lies justifying a major war with Iran.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gore Mobilizes Global Warming Activists By Anne Paine, The Tennessean, January 8, 2007 Hundreds at Hilton Hotel receive tools for training others.
Hundreds of volunteers from across the country have flocked to Nashville this fall and winter and more are here today as part of a grass-roots training effort to spread the word on global warming. They are taking part in Al Gore's The Climate Project, which mushroomed from his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. The goal had been to train 1,000 "presenters" to show slides of melting glaciers and charts of climbing temperatures, but many more have wanted in. Those selected to gather at the Hilton Nashville Downtown last week included teachers, doctors, a meteorologist, ministers, Wal-Mart employees, actress Cameron Diaz, architects, retirees, veterans and financiers. Gore held their attention for hours on end as he flashed the slides that would be their toolkit, beginning with a Christmas Eve 1968 photo of the Earth as seen from the Apollo 8 spacecraft. "This image exploded in the human consciousness," Gore told the more than 200 participants seated at row after row of tables in a Hilton ballroom. That's when the environmental movement took off, the former vice president said, and laws that included the Clean Air and Clean Water acts followed. |
