February 17, 2004
Horizon of Hope
The Empire State Building is lit in bright red tonight, presumably for Valentines Day. It is blood red, like a beating heart. It looks as good as it has ever looked. The ides of February have passed, we're nearing the two-month marker from the winter solstice, at which point the sun has already returned one-third of the way to its peak. Now President's Day has passed, such as it is. Winter is more than half over. Time marches on in a most fascinating way. It is a moment bursting with possibility.Even the obvious fact that a lot of voting machine irregularities have taken place, along with many other kinds of voter fraud and distortion of the process by money, the possibility of an election -- the very idea -- can galvanize a population. In this time of tremendous political pressure being exerted by the Bush ruling order against the general population of the world, there is a great deal of rage boiling out of that population. The possibility of an election has created a synchronous moment for all of the people who are usually far too busy to focus much on political affairs. Even taking into consideration the tremendous power of the ruling corporate oligarchy to corrupt the voting process in favor of their candidates, there is tremendous power latent in a population of millions. Ultimately, potentially it is much greater power than that exerted by the small minority for whom nearly all policymaking in Washington is designed.
The idea that you can't do anything is what this little group wants the population to believe. Sometimes the feeling that everything is fixed is demoralizing. That is the desired result of corporate "news" propaganda. But it is not a fixed reality. It is only one possibility, which we will actualize if we believe it. If we believe it, we sit back and do nothing, and it comes true.
But remember the Poles as they ushered in the fall of the Soviet Bloc. They had no democratic political and historical tradition, as we in the States do. They certainly didn't have even a pretend democracy served to them. But the desire was strong and they threw off a teetering world order. It can be done. If they threw off the Soviet Union, surely we can throw off the Bush corporate state.
Happy Presidents Day! -- And we are talking about Washington and Lincoln, okay? Not these lowlifes in the White House now.
And Happy Valentines Day. Love is All You Need. War is over if you want it.