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The tears fall each time
young soldiers, die.
For a lie…
The tears fall as last breaths whisper, goodbye.
For a lie…
The tears fall, as exploding bombs, fill the sky.
For a lie…
The tears fall, filled with hate, questioning why?
FOR A LIE!
By Carolyn
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 Carolyn's Archives
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Connection
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Where do soldiers |
In my
quest to find the truth about what is going on in our
country and in the world, (you can't count on mainstream
media for true information anymore) I came across this
very interesting editorial, written by a New Jerseyite.
Since I originally am from New Jersey, I felt a sort of
kinship with the writer. Anyway, his words ring
true for any thinking person, who wonders why so many
people, as Mr. Testa put it, voted for Bush
"the symptom not the problem". As
he states, it is the voters, especially the religious
RIGHT that put him in office. Thanks, Jim Testa for
writing such a clear, easy to read, bit of TRUTH.
We need media minds like yours in these LIES infested
times. Carolyn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
by Jim
Testa This issue began with the idea of doing a politically-themed issue timed to come out before the 2004 presidential election. Great idea, right? Only if you know anything at all about Jersey Beat, you know that we don't exactly have a reputation for getting issues out on time. They come out, and have for 22 years, and I'm proud of that. And one of 'the things that's kept me from burning out or going insane over that time is that I've learned not to stress out over deadlines. This isn't Newsweek or The New York Times.... if we're a week or two (or three or four) later than what we planned on, well, that's just part of being DIV. But
with this issue, I wanted as many people as possible to
see this issue before Election Day in November... but if
you find yourself reading this after the election, that's
okay too. Because in the editorials and opinion columns
and interviews that you'll find in this issue, you'll
find information and ideas that go far beyond who wins on
November 2, 2004. Hopefully what you will find here is
not just another reason to vote George Bush out of
office, but the how's and why's of getting involved in
the political process for the rest of your life. People
talk about punk rock all the time, but what does
"punk" really mean? I like to think that at
least in part, punk is about being part of an ongoin9
revolution that looks to undo the "old" way of
doing things. Big corporations put out records? Punk rock
says, it doesn't have to be that way, we'll put out our
own records. Rich promoters controls which bands play
what venue? Punk rock says, Let's put on our own shows.
Media conglomerates publish pop magazines that pander to
the least common-denominator? Punk rock says, we'll put
our own fanzines and write about what we really care
about. I'd
also like to think that being an American is all about
being part of an ongoing revolution too. What revolts me
most about the Neo~Cons and the Ashcrofts and their ilk
is the post-9/l I screed that questioning authority is
somehow unpatriotic. Nothing is more patriotic than
standing up for your beliefs and speaking out. It's the
foundation of this country. It's what the United States
of America is built on. There is no document more sacred
to me - and I would think, to any American, than the
Constitution. And yet we have elected and appointed
officials in Washin9ton D.C. who are not only working to
pass new amendments banning abortion, flag-burning and
gay marriage, but actively seeking to repeal or curtail
the freedoms we were given in the Bill of Rights. It's
not so much that George Bush should lose and John Kerry
should win this election. George Bush is a symptom, he's
not the problem. The real problem are the people who put
George Bush in office, people whose beliefs are not our
beliefs, whose goals are not our goals, whose values are
not our values, whose concept of right and wrong is not
the one we share as free, independent thinking Americans. The history of the United States has always been a story of empowerment, of extending rights. Oh yeah, we got a lot wrong, but that's part of being human. But look at all we've fixed. - abolishing slavery, women's suffrage, the civil rights moment. Now that tide has turned; political discourse talks about using the courts and the legislatures to take away rights, to limit freedoms. What's ironic is that the Bush agenda hides behind the cloak of Conservativism. But if you know anything about Conservative ideology, you know that's nothing but blatant hypocrisy. The true Conservative believes that man is inherently more capable of making moral decisions than the government; that government governs best when it governs least. Yet this modern Conservative movement is all about legislating morality - banning abortion, taking the issue of gay marriage out of the hands of the states, limiting scientific research in the name of questionably religious ethics.
I was raised a Catholic. I lost my faith a long time ago, although when life turns bad, I (like most other people) still turn my eyes to heaven and pray for help. But the values I learned as a Catholic stay with me. We were taught that Jesus fed the poor, healed the suffering, championed the meek. We were taught that his death and resurrection happened for the benefit of all humankind - not just people who looked like us, talked like us, worshipped like us, The Evangelical Christian movement - of which George Bush is both a member and a driving force - has taken Jesus' message and twisted it to its own agenda.
I've read the New Testament. I don't remember it saying anything about hating people. Christ's message was a message of tolerance. But Born-Again Christians think that only "they" have the true answer, Only they worship the one true God and only they will go to Heaven. The rest of us, those of us who aren't born again, we'll just go to Hell. And since we're going to Hell anyway, it's perfectly all right if we get pushed around a little while we're still here on Earth.
William
F. Buckley once said that as a Catholic, he didn't need
to be born again; he was "a congenital
Christian." Mega-ditto, Bill. But none of us
"needs' to be born again to enjoy basic human
rights, guaranteed to us in a Constitution that
specifically calls for the separation of church and
state. (Funny, 1' also remember another guy who said
something about "render unto Caesar that which is
Caesar's and render unto God that which is God's."
Sounds like the same idea, doesn't it?) Here's my theory. The Christian Right know in their hearts, above all else, that they are going to heaven, because they've taken Jesus into their hearts. So it doesn't matter what else they do while they're here on Earth. Plunder the environment? Why not? Give to the rich and take from the poor? I'm not sure the Jesus I read about in Paul and Luke would like that, but Bush and his cronies at Halliburton don't seem to mind the idea. Invade another country, violating generations of United States foreign policy, because you have a personal gripe with the guy running the place? Sure. What's a few thousand dead American soldiers (and tens of thousands of dead Iraqis) if we make Baghdad safe for Gulf Oil and Starbucks? None of those heathens were on the glory train anyway.
Here's what I hate most about the Christian Right, though. Not that they're evil; that they're smug. They think they have this country in their hip pocket, because the people who don't follow them into church on Sunday are home in front of their TV’s watching Fear Factor and celebrity poker. They think the rest of us are too apathetic, too jaded, too stupid, or just too cowed to fight back.
And that's why it's important to vote. Not just this election, but every election. Why it's important to protest. Why it's important to speak out. We have to let THEM know that WE are here too. We have to make our voices heard, and we have to spread the message that it's all right to open your window and shout, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Because that's the only sane response to the current state of this country. There are some excellent books reviewed in the current issue of Jersey Beat that you should find and read. Mark Anderson's ALL THE POWER: Revolution Without Illusion provides a step-by-step guide for true punk activism, combining commitment and idealism (and, lest we forget, patriotism,) with punk ideals and ideology. Krist Novacelic, the bassist of Nirvana, has written a short paperback called Of Grunge And Government: Let's Fix This Broken Democracy. It's all about using the power of the ballot and the public forum to create meaningful change. The
first time I was old enough to vote, I not only voted, I
volunteered and canvassed door to door for my candidate.
He was a man I believed in passionately, and I hated his
opponent as much as I'd ever hated anyone. That candidate
was George McGovern. His opponent was Richard Nixon. And
you know (I hope) how that election turned out. But less
than four years later, the tide had turned, and the
majority of Americans felt, as I did, that Richard Nixon
wasn't fit to be President. Nixon was undone by a handful
of diligent and persevering newspaper reporters, a group
of honest politicians on the Watergate Committee, and
most of all, public opinion. Never think your opinion NEVER matters, never think your vote doesn't count. If you do, they WIN! Click Here To Go To Black Ties and Body Bags carolynconnection.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ by Jim Testa November 3, 2004 I've been seeing emails, blog postings, and MySpace bulletins all day saying things like "I hate this country," "I'm moving to Canada," "I'm ashamed to be an American." Wrong. Maybe if this had been a repeat of 2000, if Kerry had won the popular vote and lost the electoral college by 500 votes...maybe then, we'd have something to grouse about. But that's not what happened. We had an election. 120 million people voted. That is a good thing. Bush won. Okay, that's not what I wanted. But that's how democracy works. In 1972, Richard Nixon defeated George McGovern in one of the biggest landslides in American history. People said the defeat would destroy the Democratic Party. Then an incumbent Republican president was soundly defeated by a peanut farmer from Georgia in 1976. So George Bush has four more years. Iraq will turn into an even bigger nightmare as time goes on. The deficit will continue to grow. Bush's tax cuts will continue to help the rich, screw the middle class, and fuck the poor. Things will get worse before they get better. Hopefully, the American heartland will wake up. And then we'll get our chance again to fix it in 2008. That's how this country works. And it does work. If you don't believe that, then maybe you should move to Costa Rica with Roseanne Barr. What went wrong? I never thought John Kerry was a lock to beat George W. Bush. In the last few weeks, I allowed myself to become mildly optimistic; I thought he had a chance. But the rest of the country isn't New Jersey, and we forget that sometimes. Jesus is still more popular in Iowa and Ohio and Michigan than Bruce Springsteen and Ben Affleck. Evangelical Christians in South Carolina and New Mexico would rather see their family and neighbors lose their jobs than think about the prospect of homosexuals getting legally married. About half this country believes that abortion isn't a lifestyle choice, but murder. That's the reality of it. It's easy to forget all of that when you're a pointy-headed liberal on the East or West Coast. This is a big country, and all those folks in the middle don't necessarily think like we do. And the plain fact of the matter is that their opinion counts too; no more so than on election day. That's what you and me and Fat Mike and P.Diddy forgot. The best analysis I heard about this election came from Chris Matthews. Let's pretend that John Kerry wasn't famous. Let's say that he just showed up one day on the street in Missouri or Kansas or South Carolina. People would look at him and say, "Who is that guy? He's not from around here. He's not one of us." That's why John Kerry lost. George W. Bush was going around the last few weeks of the campaign saying, "you might not agree with me, but at least you know what I believe in." Sub-text: I'm just like you. The other guy isn't. Case closed. John Kerry wasn't Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter; he was an Eastern liberal intellectual with a weird wife who used big words. At lot of us - including most of the Democratic Party - thought that anybody would be better than Bush. Maybe we were right, but the middle of the country didn't agree. So what are you gonna do about it? We're stuck with Bush for four more years, but the House of Representatives is up for re-election again in two. Senators, governors, mayors... there are lots of choices to make every year. I'm really excited that 120 million people voted, that organizations like PunkVoter.com and Rock The Vote got young people to participate in this election. I just pray that the results don't turn all those kids off and send them scurrying back to their XBox's and Ipods. You can't play the game if you aren't willing to lose sometimes. The bad guys didn't cheat, they just won. Next time, maybe it'll be our year. And in the meantime, we can let this administration know when we're pissed off, when we disagree, and when we think they're heading in the wrong direction. That's part of the process too. Don't give up. Get angry. And keep swinging. JERSEY BEAT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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