Where does a Revolution begin?
This one may have begun at the dinner table when a man such as myself realized that it was impossible to put a roof over his family’s heads and food on the table. It may have begun when a student opened his tuition bill for the coming semester and realized that he could not afford to go back to college, and would have to get a job. But there were no jobs to be had. It may have begun when an enterprising employed and valuable commodity of an individual with unique talents who wished to take them to another company but couldn’t…because even if there was an open spot for them, they already had a bad back and that would not be covered by the new medical insurance. (Or the fact that he used to smoke but quit ten years ago and jogs three miles daily, which still counts against you). It may have begun when people were asked to do the jobs of two people while corporations reached their maximum profit line: that is, earning the most they can with the fewest number of workers or benefits paid. And their raises were non-existent. No bonus for Christmas while those in charge reaped the profits, profit sharing, stock options, and bonuses. And they got jack shit.
It may have begun when they shot an ex-Army soldier who fought in Iraq and served his country regardless of the fact that he vehemently disagreed with the war and what we were trying to do. But he was a PATRIOT FIRST, and a SOLDIER and he knew what his duty was and he carried it out to the best of his ability, just like thousands of other Americans everywhere in the world each and every day. They follow the CHAIN OF COMMAND…but when that breaks dows, then that may indeed be when the Revolution started. It may have started when regular Americans were required to show ID (‘vere are your papers, hmmm?) while trying to go to work to make sure they worked in a closed sector of NY City…a public place sectioned off by Mayor Bloombag because he feared more violence…violence that eventually escalated and became a reality while he penned people in. Violence that began when his gang of thugs, “The White Shirts” of the NYPD pepper sprayed the crowd. Then that became commonplace for the police in ANY city to do, because if they can do it in New York, then surely we can do it in Oakland (tear gas canister hits aforementioned Vet in head causing hospitalization and brain damage) or in UC Davis in the most egregious incident caught in video: peaceful students who simply sat, arms locked. There were no weapons worn by them like there were at neither Tea Party Rallies nor signs to kill the President by implication (“the tree of liberty must be cleansed with the blood of tyrants, etc). They were simply SPRAYED IN THE FACE WITHOUT AN ATTEMPT TO MOVE THEM OTHERWISE.
And sooner or later, we will have our Kent State moment…and when that happens, all of the fuel gathered together will explode VIOLENTLY. This will NOT be a people going gently into that good night. This will be a people reacting in a manner of self-defense against a Government owned by the Corporations, for the Corporations and ensuring that it and the crazy Order and Chain Of Command it espouses shall indeed perish from the Earth. These will be ANGRY AMERICANS who were attempted to be SUBJUGATED by their Government, and THAT my friends is when you have a Revolution.
It happened in 1775. It can happen in 2011 or 2012. The people out there now are PEACEFUL. Rest assured, violence will be met with violence after that Kent State moment (God help us all)…and then we will have a hell of a lot more to worry about. Rumors abound about a more beefed up military presence Stateside as the soldiers return from Iraq. I have faith in our military…there is no way in hell they would shoot their fellow citizens, especially since they may be shooting at a fellow Vet AND most importantly because they are sworn to uphold the Constitution. This isn’t about Corporations…this is about freedom. This is about the right to speak and peacefully redress our grievances as guaranteed by the First Amendment. This is a right basically being denied by those who would subjugate the American populace into Corporate submission and domination in every facet of their life…in other words, Fascism.
We have it now, but we are afraid to even admit it exists: you no longer have the freedom to move between jobs because of the benefit situation or the pay is a lateral and not an increase. That is virtual indentured servitude for one corporation, a captive audience quite literally as the rights of the individual shrink while working for a corporation. For example, what you can and cannot say on Social Media…why is a Corporation given precedence over a person…when in fact the Supreme Court just made Corporations persons? Isn’t that discrimination?
The American Public is finally awakening to the fact that we have been a Corporate Democracy…we have ALWAYS been controlled by the Corporations…and I say it’s time to exercise our rights of free speech and fight them if we have to in order to do so. And fight for the freedom of this country. And fight for the Democracy that so many died for on the field of Battle…and 150 years ago, we lost more of our own than in any war. COMBINED. God help us if some idiot tries to have that Kent State moment, or is ordered to…by the Chain of Command…
…the Chain of Command that subjugates your right to work wherever you want to.
…the Chain of Command that controls both Houses of Congress, the Judiciary, and the Executive Branch
…the Chain of Command that denies you free and open access to healthcare and education so you will grow up THINKING and not some beer guzzling guy in a t-shirt in a trailer park with his shotgun and trusty dog Clem by his side.
…the Chain of Command that MUST BE BROKEN.
“Captain Jean-Luc Picard: At the end, he gave me a choice – between a life of comfort… or more torture. All I had to do was to say that… I could see *five* lights, when in fact there were only four.
Counselor Deanna Troi: You didn’t say it.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: No. No. But I was going to. I would’ve told him anything. Anything at all. But more than that – I believed that I could see… five lights.”
-From The Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode, “Chain Of Command”
Intersections In Real Time 