A message to the naive.

[mmonk]

While you await exactness from history before you take any cues to defend your democracy, you will lose it to the similarities and echos of method and pattern. The rest of us cannot wait with you. We require action now.

[Az]

1. Those who wait for the pendulum of history to swing back the other way

do not realize that the reason the pendulum swings is because people have become motivated to move it back throughout history. It doesn't just happen. People have to act to change the course of things. This generation seems to be waiting for the thing to correct itself. Well its not going to happen. It will continue going the way it is until We The People stand up grab the damn thing and drag it back to the left.

[cali]

2. Is this post inspired, by any chance, by this thread?

Just curious. Because if so, I know damn well what I was doing there. and it had zilch to do with being naive, as you so condescendingly put it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2010566

[mmonk]

10. Why do you feel this is speaking to you?

[porphyrian]

3. Dog poo on the family room carpet.

Everyone is trying to ignore it in hopes that someone else will clean it up.

[Richard Steele]

4. And it doesn't look EXACTLY like the last dog poo, so it can't possibly be dog poo, they say.

Because we've been told that dog poo can't happen here;
so that stinking brown pile must be something else.

[porphyrian]

5. Some people are so good at denial that they really believe it's true. - n/t

[cali]

6. and some people recognize facile dog poo

and know the stinking pile that must be cleaned up, doesn't need to compared erroneously to certain other piles of dog poo.

[Richardo]

8. A pile of dog poo <> overflowing septic tank

There's a difference in substance and scale

[RestoreGore]

7. People wait for a savior

Instead of seeing the potential within themselves to do the saving.

[mmonk]

9. What you can do.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
First Amendment

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Fourth Amendment

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.
Sixth Amendment

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Eighth Amendment


People need to watch what they say, watch what they do.
Ari Fleischer, 2001

I warn every animal on this farm to keep his eyes very wide open.
Squeeler, Animal Farm

When America gets fascism it will be called antifascism
Huey Long


“They have special apparatus to produce…confession”
“Torture”, I exclaimed
Greta nodded sadly, “Night come, you hear”.

Stalin’s torturers led their prisoners into thinking they would be killed to get false confessions.

Waterboarding simulates drowning.

American Freedom Campaign
www.americanfreedomcampaign.org

American Civil Liberties Union
www.aclu.org

The Center for Constitutional Rights
www.ccr-ny.org