My Well Wishes for The Democratic Underground this Eve of 9/11

[Zomby Woof]

Be kind, be good, and most of all, be sure to hold your heads up high as liberals, progressives, Democrats, socialists, or whichever stripe of free-thinking philosophical bent you hold dear. The annual onslaught of nationalistic oneupmanship is upon us, with fake pronouncements of 'united we stand', 'you're either with us or against us', 'we must fight them over there so we don't fight them here', 'giving up some freedoms keeps us safe', and other media-enabled, government-induced bilge ready to be shoved into our collective ears.

Be proud, for progress has been made, and truth is on our side. We were right all along about Iraq. We have been right all along about the Patriot Act, torture, Gitmo, and wiretapping. The majority of Americans are wise to the folly of occupying Iraq, falling behind in Afghanistan, and dismayed over the threat of war with Iran. We have done so much, and have so far to go...

The sunshine patriots of post-9/11 America have been exposed. While they mask their fear and loathing in the cloth of Old Glory, we keep ripping away the deceit and mockery they have made of our Constitution.

America is hurting. Jobs bleed offshore, living wages erode, debt soars, and our roads, bridges, and byways are crumbling. The middle class - the backbone of American strength and heirs of the American Dream - is shrinking before our eyes. The most important midterm elections in more than a generation beckon, and the greatest opportunities to reverse this course are ahead. The hardest work to rebuild America and realistically confront its problems, here and abroad, await us.

We're tired most days. We're angry as often as not. We sweat and we cry together. But we also know this is the very worst time to quit. The very worst time to walk away. The very best time to rally around our common cause: Suppressing and reversing Republican power and neoconservative dominance. Contrary to the talking points parroted like so much verbal sewage each day in the media: We have an agenda, and it begins with "We the people..."

So be good, everyone. Be kind, and be proud.

Most of all, have a great weekend. :hi:

[blm]

1. Wonderful post Z...and proud to be in the trenches with you.

Salute to a patriot.

[Ninga]

2. Hugs back to you..and thanks for your support...I will "pay it forward."

[janx]

3. Sweet!

Wonderful post. :hug: K&R

[MrModerate]

4. Sorry I can't respond to your exhortation with greater enthusiasm . . .

But as I see it, the damage done our country is vast and broad and would take decades to repair in the best of circumstances. And you can be sure we won't have the best of circumstances for the decades it would take: even if Dems win both houses and hamstring Bush, the avalanche of disasters will continue downhill.

The broad range of Democratic candidates nationwide inspires little optimism, the reality of political campaigns being that just about all of them own fealty to narrow special interests with more money than thee or me. We may indeed win, but we'll be putting in pols who are as much a part of the problem as the solution. And the problem is: big money is every politician's most influential constituent, and the rest of us have to suck hind teat until big money's needs are met.

Which is not to say that hobbling the worst administration of my lifetime and the wickedest congress in living memory isn't worth doing -- it is!

But if you're expecting miracles, if you're expecting anything more than a minor reduction in the dangerous absurdity that goes on in Washington, you're going to be very disappointed.

[vickitulsa]

11. I totally love the OP -- in fact ZWolf's tone is so much like

mine on most days, at least my better days. My more optimistic days.

But what has begun to disturb me more than ever before in my life -- and it has always disturbed me -- is just how completely most politicians including Dems and others who lean toward progressive ideas (in principle at least) are SOLD OUT TO THE MONEY MEN.

When I think about our nation's history, from early idealistic determinism soon shifting to adventurous exploration in a big way, I wonder what on earth went wrong in this great land of such promise. True, the U.S. was never "perfect;" but for quite a long while it seemed to be the perfect place for "the little guy" to find and to build a life fit for humans and other living things. There was plenty wrong with it, lots to improve upon, naturally. There were some national behaviors of great shame, in fact. But it was nothing like what we have in modern times!

Now just about ALL I feel is shame when I think about how low those who should be leading us in good and noble deeds and efforts have fallen. They might as well have "BUY ME" tattooed on their foreheads!

Except, of course, they don't advertise honestly!

Nooo ... far be it from our so-called representatives to reflect their true goals with candor and courage. We know what they do instead....

It's all so discouraging to anyone who's managed to remain stubbornly optimistic and hold ideals as goals worth pursuing. And I can't help but wonder if it wasn't the plan all along of the moneyed aristocratic element of our early leadership to create a "new world" where, although everyone may start out theoretically with an even chance to make good, eventually the same old trends of elitism seen in the Old World would take over and make a great and cushy life available to the few while it remains depressingly remote for the many.

All due to the orientation in this country toward MARKET VALUES instead of HUMAN VALUES.

I've never lost hope completely, but I've certainly been discouraged to the max a lot in our modern America.

I'm just thankful that I found DU last year and finally discovered there are a lot more people like me around than I'd guessed!

So as the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks nears, I plan to hang out here and to be VERY selective in what sorts of programming and reading material I take in, knowing what sorts of propaganda will be out there flooding our senses.

One thing about it: I do believe there was something about the audacity, the size and scope, and the suddenness of those attacks -- regardless of their source -- that has shocked Americans into reflecting on just what our nation is all about. And I think that alone is reason to take hope. Perhaps as U.S. citizens re-evaluate their own lives, goals, and behavior in these trying times, we can yet hope for a new courage to emerge among both the people and the politicians which are supposed to be representing us.

Long ago when I was a young adult, I recognized that our political system left a lot to be desired, and for many years I said that we could never get anywhere good when the system rewarded CORRUPTION instead of INTEGRITY in our leadership. I would tell people who tried to talk politics with me that it was hopeless ... that the only way a person could get elected these days was to become corrupt, and the only way to climb the ladder of power was to corrupt yet more all along the way. I maintained that the higher a person got in politics, the more corrupt s/he was.

I haven't seen this situation change much, sadly. But I'm hoping that the tragedy of 9/11 may bear good fruit in an unexpected way over time as Americans decide they do NOT WANT and WILL NOT PUT UP WITH "the way things are" in Washington, D.C. Not anymore.

In which case "whoever" caused 9/11 could end up ruefully quoting Admiral Yamamoto after the Japanese' "successful" attack on Pearl Harbor: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

**SALUTE!** Zombywolf! And carry on....

[underpants]

5. See this is what happens when you leave the cage open

they get out of the lounge

[MuseRider]

6. LOL

The Houdini Lounge Woof!

Hey Zomby! Love ya man. :hi:

[Maddy McCall]

7. Kick. C'mon, people. Let's get this sucker on the Greatest page.

Rec it. Please.

[rainbow4321]

8. K&R n/t

[opihimoimoi]

9. You iz da MAN.... kick

:kick:

Be Smarter....

[yowzayowzayowza]

10. Indeed!

A big ole honkin zomby k&r.

[peacebuzzard]

12. I love this post.

It fits lots of the general feelings around everywhere.
Touche'.
Peace.:thumbsup:

[H2O Man]

13. Very nice message.

Two months 'til elections. Let's roll.

[mogster]

14. Thanks

Right back at ya! :hi: :-)

[wiley]

15. Some God sent your post for me to read at this time

What an incredibly rough and raw week. The next few days, or weeks, I don't know, will be especially bitter and painful. Dad will come over and do his kind of military type memorial service for mom then cry for hours until he passes out. He's going to salute me in honor of my eldest son who died in Iraq. I'm supposed to see the honor in that, but that illusion went away two years ago. All my handsome and honest and fierce warrior and protector of things he loved needed to see was the image of WMDs being aimed at his family and his country to go get himself killed for what turned out to be a Republican campaign commercial and a fucking lie.

I don't think he really wanted to live without his grandma - his best friend and source of limitless unconditional love - anyway, but he went to personally get those fucking WMDs and kill anyone he thought might hurt his family. Then I'm going to fall into the black hole and hear mom singing The Old Rugged Cross at 6:45 am in the garden as she did every Sunday with people from her church who had fallen on hard times or just be in a beautiful peaceful place where they counted as valuable and loved human beings. At 6:45 am, the five year anniversary of the last time I sat early in the morning in the garden with my mom and oldest son, both of whose absence is like that big fucking whole in NYC that no one will or should ever be able to fill anyway.

The idea that someone would create a fiction for political purposes about an incident during which many of us don't actually know how or when our loved ones died because all that is left of them, if anything physical, is dumped in a big pile in Queens is about as reasonable and sensitive and fair to us as running a cheese grater over a third degree burn victim to produce a reality TV show. Thank You to everyone at DU for fighting against the destruction of truth and the abuse of 9/11 for partisan, evil purposes.

The clock is ticking down second by second to 9/11 now as I remember things like expressions and sighs and clothing and smells and touches and kindnesses and last times and so many missed opportunities to let those I lost who were unrelated by blood but still my family know I loved them more than I even knew at the time.

Tommorrow is mom's birthday, 5 days before mine. As I sat at the kitchen table in shock five years ago several days from now on my birthday, absolutely crushed and certain that no one survived on the floor mom worked on because I got forced back down the stairs by a fireman who was rushing up to his eventual death while trying to get up to mom's now missing floor, my son brought me a cake that he made with a neighbor's son who had lost his dad and sang another of mom's favorite hymns. "and he walks with me and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own.." He said that's about you, dad.

I know my son would believe - now that he would be aware of the deception about an imminent nuclear propelled chemical attack on the US by Iraq - everything in your post.

Please don't let those evil fuckers at Disney/ABC and in government get away with this. Thank You to all my friends at DU who have given me a reason to believe something again, and that truth and justice and protecting people from the abuses of that diseased Republican criminal cartel is the least I can do.

I can't fight anymore right now. There's light in the garden and I am so lost.

[Dem2theMax]

16. Can't find the words - can only do this -

:hug:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

18. Oh, Wiley, I'm so sorry for what has been descended upon you.

Thank you for this post, for being willing to open the wounds a bit, to share what must be excrutiating pain so we can really understand what the disheartening, at times, work of fighting this cabal is all about.

I'm shedding tears as I write this, after reading your heart wrenching post. And, I'm ready to keep up the fight for as long as it takes, for as long as I can, while keeping you, your son and your mother in my heart. MKJ

[laylah]

19. Oh Wiley!

:hug: My heart breaks for you and us all. For all we have lost since Coup 2000, for what many have become since 9/11, for our uncertain futures...for everything.

Jenn

[Zomby Woof]

20. My heart is with you

Thank you for your courage and for sharing the memories of your loved ones. I am not sure I could have endured what you have in the way you have... you inspire us all by your presence. Please know my heart and thoughts are with you this week ahead... :hug:

[katinmn]

23. Wiley, I try but I can't imagine the loss

Your son, defending your mother...both lost under such circumstances.
:cry:
I'm glad you are here and I hope you feel enveloped by love and support from your DU buddies.

And thanks to ZombyWoof for starting this thread.:hug:

[vickitulsa]

24. Wish I knew you better, Wiley, but surely you and your family

are why we all keep up the good fight.

Nothing makes me more furious -- and sad -- than the way those criminal bastards in D.C. keep on misusing the tragedy that struck our nation for their own evil ends.

If there is any justice in this world, or karma or whatever, certainly those who have wrought such emotional devastation on us will pay for it -- eventually if not soon!

I'm not by nature a vengeful person, but reading your heartbreaking story is enough to make even me see red and want justice with all my heart. I'm very glad Zwolf wrote so eloquently and with feeling in his OP, for all our sakes but especially for yours.

There's no way we here at DU could ever fill the void in your heart, but I often feel like people here are my TRUE KIN. I hope our love and support lifts you up and lends you some strength during this hardest of times for you! You sure feel like FAMILY to me. :hug:

I do know what you mean about hearing the hymns playing in your head and heart. I hope there is some comfort in the music as well.

Thank you for sharing your story with us ... I know I've read some of your posts before, but I had no idea....

My mom's favorite old saying is, "Joy shared is joy doubled; trouble shared is trouble divided."

PEACE & LOVE, Brother.

:hug:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

17. "We, the people" Powerful words.

K & R. :hi: MKJ

[Generic Other]

21. Thanks for the encouraging words

We have been fighting for so long.

[Hubert Flottz]

22. Send Coffee ASAP...

We need to be WIDE Awake at All times, until December!

[LunaSea]

25. Yes, Coffee!

Make mine JBM.