They tumble into my mailbox as a daily deluge. Petitions and protestations ranging in scope from saving the whales from sonar onslaughts to saving Social Security from the onslaught of a Bush, with clean air, drug benefits, judicial nominees and election reforms thrown into the middle for good measure. Laudable causes – each one, worthy of attention, money and a signature. We righteously sign, attach a dollar or more, reply and forward the material to our friends and foes confident that we are fighting the good fight securing the pursuit of happiness for our children. We wait breathlessly for the cumulative force of signatures and dollars to be deposited at the electronic doorstep of some unsuspecting congressman or senator; catching him or her perhaps in the midst of a fund raiser or a meeting with a lobbyist busily setting the rules of the game.
Let me therefore add a new petition to the list and this one is addressed to the Democratic Leadership of America. But before that – a few words of explanation are in order.
Social Security is not a fund – it is a commitment made by a society to its people to provide care and dignified sustenance to its aged and its afflicted not because they ‘earned’ it but because it is the way that society values life. It is an entitlement of human right not a privilege bestowed for good behavior.
A partisan and / or theocratic judiciary is not a judiciary it is an oxymoron. It is a rubber stamp used to smudge the treachery hidden in malicious legislation.
A bipartisan legislature is not a legislature; it is a technical fix for an uncomfortable symptom. It is make-up applied to hide the face of capitulation.
A media that asks every question but gives the question “Why?” a huge wide berth is not a guarantor of free speech but a pimp making a living by selling the words of their trade to the highest bidder.
Petitioning the powers that be to cease being the powers that be is not political opposition it is the loyal sublimation of opposition.
All democratic societies and constitutions are based on the simple premise that unless otherwise explicitly specified ALL POWER rests in the people. And through the constitution and a few other instruments SOME POWERS are assigned to the Legislature, Judiciary and the Presidency separately. Not the other way around!!
So – my petition, - Please stop gaming the system and pretending that you are winning battles. Please remember that to win a war you first have to acknowledge that there is a war. You have to make the decision to declare the war and then organize for it. Your troops are ready, able and willing but where are the generals, the strategy and plan?
A hundred skirmishes do not a victory make.
Here lies your challenge – Do we take to the streets and define our society the way we want it and then as the constitution says, bestow upon the presidency, the legislature and the judiciary the rights needed to secure and implement that society and retain the rest of the rights in the people?
The default is that ‘they’ assume the rights they want, leaving us to protest and petition – even vigorously, if we feel up to it. It’s comfortable – but fairly suicidal.
