Saturday, July 29, 2006 | The Nature of... PART of why so few people speak up against rampant injustice and having their lives destroyed is because so few people do it. Everyone who is silent has their "reason." Maybe if you speak up against the mayhem in Iraq, you're afraid you'll get fired because your boss is Republican. Who knows, maybe your husband is Republican and you want to preserve the so-called peace in your house. Perhaps you don't know what to say. Perhaps you've got the message of the NSA wiretapping program and you're afraid to even mention it to a friend on the phone, or in an email. Or perhaps you know that if you speak up, you may bring out the nature of the beast. That is -- you may fear that when you open your mouth, you will invoke the evil that we all feel lurking behind the façade of patriotism and the color of law that allows disasters like Iraq, Afghanistan or Lebanon to proceed unchecked. Sometimes the nature of the best is revealed -- and that is one of the most crucial functions of protest of any form. In order to retaliate against you for being against a war, your [theoretical] boss would need to reveal his position, and reveal the true nature of not only his politics but also the vengeful quality that informs the viewpoint. Anyone who wraps himself in the flag and then persecutes someone for expressing a political viewpoint is full of shit. And they would be revealed as such by their actions. This is why protest of any kind is so important. The word protest is not about being against something -- the prefix "pro" means you are for something. What are you for? Life. Existence. Reality. The most important form of protest is breaking the silence. It can happen at the kitchen table, it can happen in a discussion next to the water cooler, it can happen in the hallowed halls of Congress, the very Cathedral of Denial. Please talk to your friends about what's happening in the world. Ask how they feel. Visit the local offices of your congressional representatives (you may not get to see the big dude himself/herself, but you can almost always meet with a ranking person in the local office). Visit your local newspaper (weekly or daily) and insist on coverage of local soldiers and marines. Call into your local call-in radio shows. If you don't like politics, or even if you do, any life affirming statement, any creative act, any gesture of giving yourself permission to exist, to express your heart and soul...counts right now, from music to art to fucking. Yours & truly,     e PS: Check this out! http://www.infowars.com/articles/sept11/cspan_airing_conference_shows_mainstreaming.htm