Last night I sat down and watched CSPAN (something that I'm actually doing more and more of these days as I listen to the battles mount in Washington over this illegal, immoral, evil and stupid war). CSPAN was covering the rally that took place at Oakland's Grand Lake Theater this past Saturday, featuring Rep. Barbara Lee (the only congressional representative to say "NO" to Bush's Iraqi charade from the beginning) Sean Penn, Daniel Ellsberg, and many others. Rep. Lee has joined with Petaluma congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (frankly the best thing about Petaluma in my opinion) and LA representative Maxine Waters to form the Out of Iraq Caucus.
Instead of joining jovially with the democratic leadership to authorize funding that KEEPS our troops dying for another year and a half, the true leaders of Congress, these three women from California, voted AGAINST Nancy Pelosi's supplemental appropriations bill on Friday, not for the same reason as Republican dissenters, but because they felt the time table was not good enough. "We can't afford to spend one more dime or lose one more American or Iraqi life on this illegal and unwinnable war," REp. Lee told the crowd. She has submitted a plan to begin IMMEDIATE re-deployment of troops, acknowledging that sending more people to kill and die in a war that can't be won can, under no circumstances, be deemed SUPPORT.
The BIG news of the day was Penn's rather strangely worded attack on the Decider in Chief, "We cower as you point your fingers telling us to support our troops. You and the smarmy pundits in your pocket - those who bathe in the moisture of your soiled and blood-soaked underwear - can take that noise and shove it." Unfortunately, it's Sean's strangely surrealistic remark that's gotten most of the press (I even heard about it from a friend yesterday afternoon who had no idea about the context). Despite the fact that he's been personally on the scene, not just in Iraq, but in the middle of the turmoil in New Orleans and that he knows first hand whereof he speaks, his more important comments were largely ignored by the media.
"Let's make this crystal clear: We do support our troops, but not the exploitation of them and their families," he said. He went on, reading from his open letter to Bush, "Speaking of squandering, how about the billion and a half dollars a day our Iraq-focused military is spending, where three weeks of that kind of spending, would pay the tab on a visionary levy-building project in New Orleans and relieve the entire continent of Africa from starvation and the spread of disease. Not to mention the continued funds now necessary, to not only rebuild our education and healthcare systems, but also, to give care and aid to the veterans of this war, both American and our Iraqi allies and friends who have lost everything."Interrupted by whistles, applauds, and cheers, Sean continued, "You say we've kept the war on terror off our shores by responding to a criminal act of terror through state sponsored unilateral aggression in a country that took no part in that initial crime. That this war would be fought in Iraq or fought here. They are not our toilet. They are a country of human beings whose lives, while once oppressed by Saddam, are now lived in Dante's inferno." With this comment, Penn nailed it. This is the heart of the matter; the real obscenity that is taking place is due to the evil propagated by Shrub and his whole collection of greedy, lying, clueless puppeteers.
It was quite an amazing event, with a collection of interesting and articulate speakers including an Oakland public high school student, and a former Marine with Iraq now behind him, who spoke eloquently and profoundly about his conviction that "supporting the troops" means getting them the hell out of the meat grinder. Emotions were high, but so was hope. The entire event was a positive assault on this administration's cynical, duplicitous, and negative perspective on world affairs, a ray of hope in this dark time.
Bruce Cockburn is right... You've got to kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight.
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