One of my readers took up my challenge to “friend” Chiroux and returns with this intel. Of course, Obama drove Chiroux to this – Obama must be feeling like Nixon about now;
\n<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s come to this. Obama\u2019s gotta wage his war, and I gotta sit in the street. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that I like blocking traffic or getting arrested or dealing with the fall-out when I could be reading a book. It\u2019s that I can\u2019t live with endless war and I must end it or surely die.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not leaving this country. This is my mess, so help me, and I\u2019ll scrub it till my fingers bleed. I will not compromise with genocide. I will not run from those behind it. <\/p>\n
Endless war is the promise of our time, signed in blood and sealed with death\u2019s own kiss. Its stench hangs around us heavy smog. While I dare not breath for fear of intoxication, I cannot hold much longer.<\/p>\n
This is the American nightmare, and it\u2019s shattering my heart like glass. <\/p>\n
As I stepped to the microphone outside West Point Military Academy Tuesday, all I wanted was to go home, honestly. Good lord, don\u2019t let me cry in front of these people, I thought. Why must I play out this misery for all to see?<\/p>\n
Obama\u2019s only doing exactly what he said he\u2019d do, but still, I\u2019m heartbroken. I can\u2019t go on like this.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been a mess. When I try to imagine the future of this country, I see nothing. I have no faith that good always triumphs anymore. I think where there\u2019s a will to change there\u2019s a way to subvert it. I taste the world I am to inherit, and it makes me sick to my stomach. <\/p>\n
But as I admitted to the crowd my feelings of hopelessness and despondency, I realized once again, that I am not alone. People stared into my eyes with equally heavy brows and clenching teeth. When they came close, I saw tears in their eyes as well, and they seemed thankful to see them in mine.<\/p>\n
Our suffering is one. We are the disenfranchised. In our lives, our jobs, our politics; we have been denigrated to utter impotence. People are not meant to live this way, and we cry out in one voice through history for liberation. Again and again, we\u2019ve had our voices ignored and our mutual bonds dissolved by paranoia and fury. <\/p>\n
But I couldn\u2019t let him get away with it. They think his slick speeches and skin color will keep the left at home. Someone had to go down for this, even if it was me.<\/p>\n
We marched to the installation gate where a line of cops and troops were waiting. When we sat down in front of the barricades, they didn\u2019t seem all that concerned. Young and old alike joined us on the pavement. I was left awestruck by the singular dedication of the burgeoning crowd to ending our Global War of Lies and Terror.<\/p>\n
For 30 minutes, the hundreds of us shouted down the full winter moon. We chanted our opposition to escalation. We lamented the change we were promised and denied. The message was loud and in no unmistakable terms: Obama, this is the death of your presidency! <\/p>\n
When we moved into the traffic lane after he started his speech, I felt a great warmth from within for the first time in weeks. While through my head streamed images of Satyagrahas past, my heart pounded reassurance, for it knew I was there for a reason. <\/p>\n
This government refuses to respond to the needs and demands of its people. It\u2019s come to this. I refuse to be ignored. I pledge to be peacefully ungovernable. <\/p>\n
The police carried my crutches while I limped to the car in hand-cuffs. A sense of satisfaction settled in as I waited in the back and counted those who\u2019d be joining me \u2018downtown.\u2019 Six of us in total. We\u2019d done it. At least to us, Obama had not gotten away with it.<\/p>\n
Not an hour later, we were released. The officers who I dealt with were beyond respectful to us and our cause. While I didn\u2019t make any friends, I didn\u2019t find any enemies. At some point during the evening, I cut my finger on the pavement, but beyond that, we walked away with little more than disorderly conduct charges and a notice to appear Dec. 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the Town Court at 254 Main St. Highland Falls, NY 10928. (Come join us!)<\/p>\n
As we left the station, I was thrilled to see a sidewalk full of activists waiting and to find a prominent lawyer in town already representing us. While Obama had shattered our dreams of peace, we felt we\u2019d won the day. Even with the impending escalation, we found the strength to joyously declare the birth of a new peace movement! <\/p>\n
The government won this round. 30,000 more troops is a clear loss for us and more importantly the people of Afghanistan. But from what I saw, we are ready to rededicate ourselves to unwavering resistence from within. In the words of our former dictator, \u201cfool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…see, you can\u2019t get fooled again.\u201d <\/p>\n
Obama is a war president and we are a peace movement. As long as we\u2019re moving, Obama, and you refuse to be governed, we\u2019ll refuse to be governed. Your racist wars will end and this world will know peace in our lifetimes. Until that day, rest assured that WE WILL BE YOUR INSURGENCY! <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Doesn’t he strike a sympathetic figure? Fake-limping while the police carries his crutch (that he should have tossed aside four or five months ago)?<\/p>\n
“This government refuses to respond to the needs and demands of its people. It\u2019s come to this. I refuse to be ignored. I pledge to be peacefully ungovernable. ”<\/p>\n
Just what the peace movement needs, another blowhard who can’t write. I’ll help you in the “refuse to be ignored” department, Matthis. In fact, last I heard, the VA’s OIG is checking into your VA bennies. Hope you saved up some money from living in your girlfriend’s apartment.<\/p>\n
I can’t wait for Blanka’s book to hit the stands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"