Modern History as Performance Art By Martha I stew about this night and day and then some. It seems to me that the first obstacle we face is our invisibility. Those of us, who are sickened, outraged, fed up-to-10-on-the-dial and furious are writing, news releasing, shouting-out every day. Our dilemma is that Bush pretends that we do not exist, quite literally. I continue to be shocked and in despair that our elected officials "seem" to share our awareness that the needle is about to hit the hot red part of the dial, but do nothing. Nothing meaningful, anyway. Are they enslaved by their self interest or by other more nefarious boundaries? I don't know. The powers that be seem to have an investment in fully ignoring the din rising up from over 1/2 of the US population and in the global community. Our invisibility C O N T I N U E S. How Bush continually manages to pretend we are not there -- in his speeches, his policies, his strategies and plans –- amazes me. I have been in denial, thinking that I was missing something, that we were just being ignored as opposed to being diluted. I see this widespread problem as our first and most major problem. Despite the myriad articles and pundits screaming on cable, with Cindy Sheehan, and writers pounding their keyboards . . . it is deleted . . . eliminated from Bush's history as soon as it hits his page. I think that we need faces and bodies and heartbeats and legs in overwhelming numbers to present themselves, visually and collectively, on the National Stage so that a roll call will be inevitable . . . almost as performance art. I think that on the grass roots level, mid-wifed via the web, perhaps . . . people need to make a date to leave their house, their job, their keyboard , their gym and walk out into the middle of their town green or community and be THERE in a visual way. All over the country, all at the same time. Perhaps each person holding a sign, mute, saying "CAN YOU SEE ME," " CAN YOU HEAR ME," "MY VOICE MATTERS." I'm inclined to be more strident than my polite idea indicates but it serves the thrust of my point. We are being, have been, and I believe will continue to be SUCCESSFULLY ignored. At our peril. At the peril of the slaughtering of Americans and Iraqis . . . The evil doers count on the good natured Americans being incapable of believing the horrors that are slowly being unfurled -- right before their eyes -- as being "real." I can hear them chuckle at how fast and loose they can play it, right in plain sight. My "what to do" is not much at all, e . . . but until we resolve the issue of our invisibility (and until we STOP enabling this invisibility to continue -- without playing into their hands, i.e. being jailed or otherwise) I don't see a damn thing changing. As always, my love to you and all the lightsticks at Planetwaves,