Eve of destruction

"If the button is pushed, there's no running away,
There'll be no one to save with the world in a grave"

2020 HKonJ Rally in Raleigh NC

Photos of Ken Jones representing Veterans for Peace, Chapter 099. Photos taken by Vicki Ryder (of Raging Grannies) at the HKonJ rally in Raleigh on February 8, 2020.

Ken Jones also sang from the stage at this rally and here is the song he sang (will share you tube video if one turns up):

Militarized Mind (Sung to the Tune of “Satisfied Mind” by Johnny Cash)
 

I grew up a good boy

and I followed the rules

I knew we were good guys

and the rest of ‘em fools

But when I got older

what truth did I find?

That I had been raised with

a militarized mind.

In schools and on TV

They taught us to hate -

that god loved us better,

that our country was great.

But when we got older

what truth did we find?

That we had been raised with

a militarized mind.

We’re told that we’re free

but look at our jails

the poor in our streets

the war that prevails

Now it’s time to wake up

leave the lies all behind,

and free ourselves up from

this militarized mind.

About a Sanders vs Trump election

Bernie Sanders' Commie Kill Swarm

America just can’t catch a break. After three long years of brutal oppression under Donald Trump’s Russia-backed Nazi Reich, it turns out the only Democratic candidate with a chance of unseating him in November and rescuing the world from the Putin-Nazis is a 78-year-old bloodthirsty Commie with a Khmer Rouge-like army of kill-crazy followers.

Yes, I’m afraid the rumors are true. Apparently, elements of Jeremy Corbyn’s recently-disbanded Nazi Death Cult have regrouped in the United States, formed an alliance with Bernie Sanders fanatics, and together this Mega-Commie Kill Swarm is roaming the Internet with complete impunity, sadistically mass-murdering Sanders critics and defenseless differently-abled persons with vulgar language and vicious poo-memes.

The corporate media are doing their best to alert Americans to the imminent threat. CNN broadcast a special report explaining how Sanders’ “army of supporters” are “bullying” and “frightening” his critics into silence. An “outspoken Elizabeth Warren supporter whose daughter with Downs syndrome is recovering from cancer” was verbally-abused to within an inch of her life. An “activist dying of ALS” was instructed to go “f___” himself. The Working Families Party was subjected to a series of inappropriate adjectives. The Party’s leader, an African American and a personal friend of Bernie Sanders, was taunted with a racist Tweet, which Sanders took to Twitter and condemned, but by that time it was much too late. His Commie Kill Swarm was beyond his control; they started tweeting memes comparing Elizabeth Warren to a snake and Pete Buttigieg to a rat, and otherwise terrorizing the American public.

Senior Investigative Correspondent Drew Griffin spoke to several other “victims” of Sanders’ Commie Kill Swarm’s tweets who are recovering from their Internet traumas in undisclosed secure locations and so insisted on remaining anonymous. According to Griffin, these emotionally-traumatized victims are so emotionally traumatized by what they experienced on the Internet that they wouldn’t even let him describe the traumatic “circumstances” surrounding their “attacks.”

snip……..

But by far the most bombastic display of unbridled Sanders-Commie-Kill-Swarm-Panic was MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who totally lost it after the last debate and started sputtering about “socialists” staging public mass-executions in Central Park. Matthews is apparently firmly convinced that Sanders, if he wins the election, plans to dress up like Fidel Castro, march Matthews and his cronies out onto the Great Lawn, and go full-bore Daenerys Targaryen on them. 

(any candidates with dragons has got my vote!)

snip……

Thus the “Sanders Swarm” hysteria, and the Iowa caucuses “technical difficulties,” and whatever other propaganda and dirty tricks the Resistance has planned to prevent a Sanders nomination, so they can lose to Trump with a non-populist candidate and play “Resistance” for another four years.

So, unless you relish the thought of that, or the thought of watching a humiliated Bernie obsequiously shuffle around the country campaigning for Buttigieg, like he did for Clinton, please do what you can to get him nominated, so we can enjoy a Pol Pot vs. Hitler election.

The rest of the article is here.

A Mother's Question

The Afghanistan Papers and a Mother’s Question  

The Washington Post recently released the Afghanistan Papers, which are internal government documents that exposed the lies told to the American people, documenting early on that the Afghanistan War was a debacle and could not be won. Yet, our government chose to continue that war now in its 19th year. 

As the mother of an infantry officer who served in Zhari District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, at the height of President Obama’s surge, I have a question:  How do three Presidents and top military leaders responsible for the Afghanistan War, justify their actions to those mothers who lost a child for no good reason?

Our government, and those who enable endless war, have clearly shown us what they think of our military men and women, the ones they proclaim to honor and respect – that, in fact, their lives are disposable, and can be simply thrown away, sacrificed for lies, unwilling to admit the Afghanistan war could not be won, damn the consequences.  

As the Afghanistan Papers clearly outline, lies were told to benefit ladder climbing officers, falsely documenting progress on their watch, when none was made. And lies were told by our government leaders, on both sides of the aisle, who knew, or should have known that the war was futile. And the arms makers made a killing off of killing, raking in billions of dollars, year after year. They were just fine with the concept of endless war and endless profits. All of this is despicable and disgraceful.   Those in power have deeply betrayed our military men and women.

These facts are just another way to continually torture families who lost a loved one, or whose family member returned home from war broken, physically and mentally.

And to add more insult to injury, Congress overwhelmingly approved, in the wake of these horrendous revelations, the ever-increasing Pentagon budget of $738 billion.

Also, the U.S. has dropped more bombs on Afghanistan in 2018 and 2019 than at any other time since the war began. In 2019 alone, the US dropped 7,423 separate munitions on Afghanistan targets representing a dramatic increase in bombings since President Barack Obama's "surge" in 2010, when 5,101 bombs were dropped.  These bombings have greatly increased civilian casualties. And to what end? Killing civilians is the most effective recruitment tool, creating more enemies determined to fight America.  

        

So, for the record – we have documented proof that the U.S. government has gone to war for lies in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. And these lies have cost the lives of at least 66,000 U.S. troops and the lives of well over a million civilians.    

How can we ignore these facts? Where is our humanity? Where is our anger?    

The war in Afghanistan is criminal, the horrors outlined in the Afghanistan Papers demand accountability. Congressional hearings must be held and the Afghanistan War must end now.  

We must stop the killing, take the trillions of dollars devoted to endless war and instead invest in our people, invest in our environment, and invest in our future.      

Stop the Madness – No More War.  

Mary Hladky 

United for Peace & Justice Coordinating Committee 

Military Families Speak Out, a UFPJ member group  

What if we nuke a city?

NO WAR ON IRAN! US OUT OF IRAQ!

U.S Peace Council Statement:

NO WAR WITH IRAN! US OUT OF IRAQ!

END REGIME-CHANGE SANCTIONS ON IRAN!

Friday January 3, 2020

On January 2, 2020, the Trump Administration recklessly escalated its war on Iran by the drone assassination of Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, Commander of Iran Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force. The assassination, ordered directly by President Trump, is a lawless action against an official of a sovereign state — Iran — with which the US is not officially at war. It occurred on the territory of yet another sovereign state — Iraq — with which the US is not officially at war.

This reckless act is bound to lead to Iranian retaliation and possibly to an all-out war in the region. It is clear that we are no longer on the “brink of war with Iran,” but the war has actually begun.

The decision by Donald Trump and the Pentagon to launch new air assaults on the Iraqi territory in the past week has ignited nationwide resistance by Iraqis who demand to reclaim their full sovereignty and refuse to allow Iraq to be used as a U.S. base in a U.S. war on Iran.

The Trump Administration’s path to all-out war with Iran didn’t start on December 27, 2019, when a US “contractor” (mercenary) was killed. Rather, it started in January 2017 with Trump’s inauguration: First, he selected as top foreign policy advisers such war mongers as John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, who called for war on Iran. Then he pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA) and embarked on the “maximum pressure” campaign, imposing illegal, severe economic sanctions on Iran and forcing US allies to join in. Since then, he has launched cyberattacks on Iranian facilities and has worked to isolate Iran diplomatically. His public comments have been bullying and contemptuous of a sovereign nation.

The Trump Administration is now further escalating the war by sending thousands more troops to the Middle East, in the name of “preparing against retaliation” by Iran. He has already ordered 750 more US troops to the Middle East and potentially 3,000 more. This is in addition to the 5,200 already in Iraq that push the US agenda against Iran, Syria and Yemen. Many more troops will be needed if the US expands the war.

But the current US policy toward Iran is part of a bigger and longer picture. It is part of the 1953 overthrow of the democratically elected Iranian government, the insertion of a dictator Shah for 26 years. After the Shah was deposed in 1979, the US supported the Saddam Hussein’s 8-year military aggression against Iran as part of US-engineered takeovers of independent countries in the Middle East — through wars on Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan.

Every US president over the last 30 years has ordered the bombing of Iraq. More than a million Iraqis have died during the past three decades years as a consequence of U.S. occupation, bombings, and sanctions. Tens of thousands of US troops have either been killed or suffered life-changing injuries. The US government has spent more than $3 trillion of our tax dollars in the on-going occupation and bombing of this oil-rich country.

Trump Administration’s policy against Iran has also tightened the US alliance with two of Iran’s mortal enemies, Israel and Saudi Arabia; has ramped up tension in the region, has concentrated military forces in the Persian Gulf; and has armed the Saudi monarchy in its genocidal war on Yemen.

Since Trump took office in 2017, US aggression against the rest of the world has also been put into overdrive. The Trump Administration’s foreign policy — supported by much of Big Business and wrapped in the deceitful cover of “Making America Great Again!” — vastly expands Pentagon spending and profitable US arms exports; bullies allies to buy more US-made weapons and join with US military operations; and threatens wars on any state refusing to bend the knee to Washington. The US has been ripping up any multilateral treaty that imposes even the mildest constraints on its aggressive behavior, while flouting international law and the UN Charter.

Given the fact that the US has invaded and initiated war on more than a dozen countries since the beginning of this century and has imposed coercive sanctions — economic warfare — on dozens, all in violation of international law, we should recognize that today the US is the greatest threat to peace in the world.

On Saturday, January 4th, people from around the United States will be organizing local demonstrations to demand: TROOPS HOME FROM IRAQ! NO WAR ON IRAN!

WHAT WE NEED TO DO URGENTLY:

1. Show up on Saturday January 4. List of local actions is below

2. Phone Congress 202-224- 3121. Phone your House member and your US Senator. Take Action to Prevent War with Iran!

3. Phone the White House: 1-202-456-1414 (Switchboard) 1-202-456-1111 (Comments). Say No war with Iran! The Administration must hear that millions of us are unalterably opposed to an insane war.

4.  Write Letters to the Editor. Express your opposition to war with Iran. Bring all the troops stationed in Iraq home safely, now.

5. Hold Vigils and organize Rallies in your area and your cities against war with Iran.

6. Take photos of yourself holding “No War with Iran!” signs. Post them on Twitter and Instagram. Send them to your House Representative and Senator. Encourage others to do the same.

Lies and the war of aggression on Afghanistan

RE: “I helped write the official lies to sell the Afghanistan War” by Lauren Kay Johnson (published in the Washington Post on December 13, 2019)

This was my response to the op-ed written above. WaPo did not publish this piece.

+++++++++++

Like Ms. Johnson, the Afghanistan Papers were not a revelation to me. Not because I was helping to perpetuate the lies and deceptions like Ms. Johnson, and not because I was even on the ground in Afghanistan. I have known what was going on there because I have been paying attention and listening to the voices of the Afghan people whenever I could. And I have been paying attention and listening to the independent journalists, foreign journalists, and human rights workers who were reporting on Afghanistan. Some of these voices included former US military members. 

Furthermore, there was a large publication of the Afghan War Diaries by WikiLeaks in 2010 that was full of information about the ongoing situation in Afghanistan. But even without these sources of information, anyone with critical thinking skills would quickly realize that things are not going well in Afghanistan because of the unending bombing by the US for the last 18 years, the sending over of more US troops repeatedly, and the fact that some US troops are being killed over there. All of these facts point to a horrific mess in Afghanistan.

I am very certain that abuses, killings, polluting the environment and corruption are rampant in every war zone where the US military is present. War is not only a failure of human intelligence and human compassion, it has been a total policy failure from the US government throughout my  entire lifetime. I was paying attention to the impacts of US foreign policies long before Ms. Johnson was born. I have known for many decades that wars and military actions by the US government are based on violence, lies, deception and rampant corruption.  

It is admirable that she wanted to make a positive difference in Afghanistan and her country. But I was very surprised to read that she actually thought that this could be accomplished by deceit and lies. I was even more surprised to read that she did not question this strategy of lies, misinformation and deception while she was in Afghanistan. 

I fail to understand how any US citizen can reach the age of 25 and not realize that a constant pattern of lies will never lead to a good ending. This does not strike me as “idealism” so much as deliberate, dedicated blindness. It is no wonder she felt like a part of a corrupt bureaucratic machine, because that is undoubtedly what she was.

I can tell her what her beliefs and deceptions (or “warped projection of the truth”) may have cost, since she seems to be confused on that issue. It cost the destruction of many innocent lives, the deaths of many innocent people and horrific damage to the culture and environment of Afghanistan. It brought many  people, combatants and civilians alike, the democracy of death and the freedom of the grave. It accomplished nothing good - of that we all can be quite sure. 
I have been protesting and speaking out against the US government foreign policy of wars and human rights abuses for many decades. I certainly was opposed to the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. I knew that it would not turn out well, while it would make loads of money for a very few individuals and corporations. 
And while Ms. Johnson’s article does articulate some new details on how the many lies of war and occupation were fostered on the American and Afghan people, I do not detect any great remorse or grief in her statements about what she helped create. I believe my grief and remorse at failing to stop these wars is much greater than anything she has experienced. 

It is curious that she wonders what happened to the paper trail of her work, as if that has some importance. I wonder what happened to the Afghan people who were subjected to the disinformation campaign she helped run. I wonder if they are still alive, if they are uninjured, if they are still in their homes, and if they are warm and fed at this point in time. I wonder if their environment has been forever poisoned by US military actions. 

However, unlike Ms. Johnson, I have developed no expertise in my endeavor of stopping wars. I have been a total failure, no matter what avenue of expression I have tried, and for far longer than she has been alive. I have supported individuals and organizations that have also opposed all these wars, but they have not seen success yet either. 

The wars and abuses rage on. It seems that the vast majority of my fellow citizens are not even aware of what is happening, much less concerned. The politicians that I lobbied have not listened or heeded what I have said. I have been ridiculed and abused for going public with my statements, whether on the internet or standing with a sign on a street corner or just speaking to someone that I know. Yet, I persist. I persist because I detest lies of all kinds. I persist because I detest the killing and harming of innocent people. I persist because it is my government that is perpetuating this evil insanity. It upsets me deeply that the vast majority American people, including members of the US military, do not rise up and stop the vast evil that our government fosters on foreign countries. It grieves me deeply that so many innocents have been killed, or had their lives, their homes, their businesses, their health, their communities and their country  destroyed for nothing. 

I believe that war is still not the answer. I believe that lies and deception are never a path to wholeness or improvement or anything good, no matter how much ‘idealism’ or naivety or blindness someone brings to the situation. I wish I believed that the American people could do better, but I no longer believe that fantasy. 

After we impeach the president......

How the MSM Lies Even When Telling the Truth

Quote: “It is a fact that far more news media energy is going into one trivial aspect of an impeachment agenda that will with absolute certainty fail to remove Trump from office than there is for the known fact that the US government fought to suppress indisputable proof that American officials have been consistently lying about an 18-year military occupation which continues to this day. This fact should, by itself, be sufficient to completely discredit the mainstream press. This one tiny piece of information, that there’s vastly more buzz about an irrelevant impeachment sideshow than there is over the Afghanistan Papers, should in and of itself cause everyone to regard the entire establishment media complex with the same amount of respect as it gives the Flat Earth Society.” - Caitlin Johnston

The rest of the article is here.

All Wars Start With Lies

Quote: “There have been many US military interventions that were based on lies. This is not a conspiracy theory. It is not some kooky blogger’s opinion. It is an extensively documented and indisputable fact.

Nothing has ever been done to address this extensively documented and indisputable fact. No laws were ever changed. No war crimes tribunals were ever held. No policies or procedures were ever revised. No one was ever even fired. No changes were implemented to prevent the Iraq deception from happening again, and, when it happened again, no changes were implemented to prevent the Libya deception from happening again.

When you make a mistake, you take measures afterward to ensure that you never make the same mistake again. When you do something on purpose, and you intend on doing it again, you do not take any such measures.

There is a large and growing body of evidence that we have been lied to about Syria to an extent and to a level of sophistication that may be historically unprecedented. One particular aspect of the US-centralized empire’s military involvement in that nation, the 2018 airstrikes by the US/UK/France alliance and the alleged chemical weapons incident which preceded it, has been subject to intense scrutiny ever since it took place. And with good reason: there are many pieces of evidence indicating that the Douma incident was staged to falsely implicate the Syrian government.”

The rest of the article is here.

And so this is Christmas - and what have you (USA) done?

From Veterans for Peace in the UK

Fenya - Christmas Truce from Veterans For Peace UK on Vimeo.

Free Assange!

From the Black Panther Party

Having a black panther as a representative to your political party is far cooler than having an elephant or a donkey.

Veterans Demand Accountability

Veterans Demand Accountability for Revelations in Afghanistan Papers The release of the Afghanistan Papers this week has laid out in clear detail the failed policy and the catastrophic level of malfeasance that reach the highest levels of the U.S. government. Every level of government bears responsibility for misleading the American public and for creating the conditions in which an unchecked military operates without accountability.  The Afghanistan Papers are filled with over 300 people detailing the systematic failure of the military to take any responsibility and blaming the “corruption” of the Afghanistan government, all the while revealing the massive corruption and lies that the U.S. is perpetuating. While military commanders bemoaned Afghan leaders enriching themselves off American tax dollars, those self same commanders were climbing government ranks, earning promotions for promoting endless war.  Soldiers, contractors, and Veterans were routinely marginalized or persecuted in order to maintain the status quo in Afghanistan, up to and including the prosecution of Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning for their efforts. The integrity of those heroes were questioned while the lies were glorified as truth by a complicit media and government agencies.  Last year the U.S. war on Afghanistan killed more civilians than any previous year. Every single lie detailed in the #AfghanistanPapers and every single year this went on meant overwhelming consequences for families and individuals in Afghanistan, many who are already living in devastating poverty. The U.S. military has destroyed countless villages and continues to create an atmosphere of fear and hatred with covert drone operations that kill thousands of innocent people.

Furthermore, three days after these documents were released, proving three different administrations lied to the public and spent years covering up mismanagement, abuse and massive waste, Congress voted to pass the largest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in history, funneling $733 billion to an already bloated military budget.   As veterans who have served in these wars and past wars, we are exasperated by leaders that lie to us and lack the moral courage to do anything about it even when there is proof. We demand accountability in real and tangible ways. We are tired of seeing headlines that only result in a Congressional member’s outraged tweet, statements on the campaign trail and slick tv spots, while nothing changes.

We demand real accountability: Immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops  The military IMMEDIATELY release all three hundred names of those quoted in the Afghanistan Papers  Congressional hearings that include perjury trials for all those officials who knowingly lied in official Congressional testimony, including closed door session of the Armed Forces Committee  A special Congressional committee to investigate fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement for the war in Afghanistan  A Congressional tribunal allowing Afghanistan veterans to testify about their experience.  Repeal of the AUMF -- which includes any subsequent AUMF to have a sunset clause.  Recognition of Moral Injury as a legitimate diagnosis   Reparations to each Afghanistan family who have lost a family member

Liberals love the military

FROM THE BLACK AGENDA REPORT:

Freedom Rider: Liberals Love the Military

Margaret Kimberley, BAR editor and senior columnist 

Self-styled liberals believe they are a better class of people than Trump, but are bigger supporters of unjust wars than the so-called “deplorables.”

“Liberals eagerly wait for a war they can believe in.”

The trauma of Donald Trump’s presidency has created continued insanity for American liberals. They were never very trustworthy, due to their abiding belief in United States exceptionalism and an imagined right for it to intervene in the rest of the world as it pleased. Liberals could be counted on to protest wars which killed Americans in Vietnam or in Iraq. But by and large they trust in imperialist dictates if someone they like is in charge and who doesn’t allow too many of their countrymen to get hurt.

Hence their dilemma with Donald Trump. Trump is their anti-Christ, a bad mannered, proudly stupid, racist who expresses the id of the great unwashed deplorable white masses. There are many reasons to oppose him but liberals generally attack from the right. The same people who remember that the surveillance state lied about the WMD threat from Iraq now parrot every word from the same people if they are anti-Trump. Their earlier opposition to war propaganda was more a result of their anti-Bush, anti-Republican stance than anything else. They didn’t really oppose U.S. interventions or stand up for peace. Instead they eagerly wait for a war they can believe in if the rationale is to their liking. 

Now this group which labels itself the resistance say nothing about U.S. sanctions that kill Venezuelans and Iranians by depriving their governments of the ability to conduct transactions needed to secure food and medicines. When their favorite news outlets proclaim Evo Morales to be a “strongman” and make the case for the coup that ousted him they go right along and make the case for imperialism carried out by the president they allegedly dislike so much.

………..

Now their derangement is so complete they will even support military rule or some other effort to take what is left of our rights. The “resistance” are a clear and present danger to us all. 

The rest of the article is here.

Sanctions Kill

FROM U.S. PEACE COUNCIL:

Call to Action for International Days of Action Against  Sanctions and Economic War – March 13 – 15, 2020

Sanctions Kill! 

Sanctions are War! 

End Sanctions Now!

Sanctions are imposed by the United States and its junior partners against countries that resist their agendas. They are a weapon of Economic War, resulting in chronic shortages of basic necessities, economic dislocation, chaotic hyperinflation, artificial famines, disease, and poverty. In every country, the poorest and the weakest – infants, children, the chronically ill and the elderly – suffer the worst impact of sanctions.US imposed sanctions, violate international law and are a tool of regime change. They impact a third of humanity in 39 countries. They are a crime against humanity used, like military intervention, to topple popular governments and movements.

They provide economic and military support to pro-US right-wing forces.The US economic dominance and its +800 military bases worldwide demands all other countries participate in acts of economic strangulation. They must end all normal trade relations, otherwise they risk having Wall Street’s guns pointed at them. The banks and financial institutions that are responsible for the devastation of our communities at home drive the plunder of countries abroad.

Many organizations have been fighting Sanctions and Economic War for some time. NOW is an opportunity to combine efforts to raise consciousness on this crucial issue.

This broad campaign will include protests and demonstrations, lobbying, petition drives and all forms of educational efforts.

As an initial step for this campaign we encourage mobilizations and educational efforts to be organized for the International Days of Action against US imposed Sanctions and Economic War on March 13-15.

Please add your endorsement and help spread the word:

https://sanctionskill.org

Our Children........

The date to publish this photo was chosen at random. Yet, I fear, there will be another mass shooting at a school this month inside the USA. We have a serious problem, and we need to abolish the second amendment.

War criminals need to be held to account

This movie is well worth watching. And we have yet to hold the politicians who started this evil war of aggression on Iraq based on a pack of lies to account.

Lessons

Lessons in Moral Courage

by Mona Shaw

Without Thomas Paine, there would have been no American Revolution. Until Paine’s pamphlet, “Common Sense,” the drive for independence was not a popular one. Originally titled, “Plain Truth,” Paine’s treatise made a case for how independence would benefit the common people. He attacked the monarchy in terms far harsher and damning than Jefferson. He spoke of human rights as not the province of birthright or property but as an innate entitlement.

His words were so compelling and convincing that John Adams allowed, “Without the pen of the author of ‘Common Sense,’ the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain.”

Thomas Paine was a staunch abolitionist, and a strong advocate for workers’ rights. He proposed a system in which workers had ownership in their labor. He was a loud supporter of the French Revolution because that revolution was led by the common people, while our Founding Fathers were suspicious of it for the same reason.

While the heralded of our founding fathers were happy to exploit the outcome of Paine’s text, they were equally loathsome to adopt many of the ideas within it.  They were quick to condemn Paine and any suggestion that common people should have rights equal to those of the landed gentry. The promotion of abolitionism was particularly taboo and regarded as political poison. Even Benjamin Franklin, who had come to abolitionism late, refused to argue for it during the founding of the nation. These founding fathers were among the elite, and they envisioned a nation ruled by the elite. Citizenship and codified rights for anyone who was not rich, and male, would come slowly in the new nation and only through the sweat and blood of those affected by this slight.

Paine persisted in his call and wrote many subsequent works that outlined the notion that “all are created equal.” He became ignominious for this and was slandered and persecuted by the same founders who had momentarily praised him.  He was so reviled that he died in poverty. Only six people attended his funeral. Three of them were Black. The other three was a woman and her two sons that he had saved from persecution in England. Our Founders would describe him as a man who did a little good, but much more harm to the nation. Even his remains were treated with commensurate disrespect. It was impossible to find a cemetery in which he could be buried. And his bones were exhumed so passed around so many times, they were eventually lost.

Ironically, it is Paine’s vision that prevails as the myth of the Founding of America, when it was anything but.

Paine understood that advancing human rights involved two essential things: Education and Agitation. He was an unthwartable practitioner of that truth. He gave his life and everything he had.

Education and Agitation are equally essential. No progress toward human rights has been realized without both.  Still, and even today, it can be difficult to find those who realize this.  Most people don’t want to do anything. They want to be consumer citizens who shop the ideas of others and opine or vote for the ones the like best, or, in modern times, for the things they hate the least.

The few who are willing to act tend to fall into two camps. Those who want to agitate and those who want to educate. The Educators tend to believe we can do this nicely and win through reason alone. The Agitators just want to shake things up and believe the populace will understand what they’re doing through osmosis or something.

I’ve witnessed this in my own puny efforts for justice. Those few who find reason to praise me often look to the times I’ve been in the streets or in handcuffs. They don’t see me sleeping less than four hours a night for years while I was up writing pamphlets for our cause. They don’t see me passing a hat and spending money I didn’t have to get them printed or the hours I spent on street corners and in government buildings distributing them. I have memorized for all time the click a windshield wiper makes when you stuff propaganda beneath it and pray the rain holds off until the driver returns to that car.  I’ve spent far more time submitting op ed columns and letters to the editor than I have at demonstrations. And, yes, there are some who praise my prose while condemning my disrupting public events.

The people never mobilize until they know the reason to mobilize. They must be told those reasons again and again and again.  Concurrently, the people will never mobilize until the see others putting their bodies on the line for that cause in public again and again and again.

People remember King for being in jail and giving eloquent speeches. (Speeches primarily written by a gay man few remember.) They don’t remember the countless teaching sessions held in countless churches and homes of those affected by racism. King could only be in one place at a time. Thousands of visionaries gave their all in all the others.

And there is something else. There is no glory in this work. You don’t get a community award for telling truths people don’t want to hear or stirring some pot. It’s hard and dirty and more apt to leave you in poverty and reviled or even killed. It will leave your body exhausted and your spirit wounded.  King knew this. Paine knew this. Every single soul who has ever gotten traction for justice knows this. None were revered until they were dead. And, most not even then. Their living bodies were subjected to death threats and public condemnation.

My working-class father often said to me, “You’re going to get yourself killed one of these days.”

I would say, “Oh, God, Dad, if only what I do or say ever has that much influence.  I’m pretty your daughter is safe.”

I’m an anonymous barely perceptible cog in the wheel with a lot of other cogs who will never be remembered at all. We are fine with this. The struggle for justice is not a do-gooder activity.  It is a call. Those who have this call know what I’m talking about. Those who don’t just don’t.  Those called are flawed and common human beings, usually broken in some way. Justice is not won by those we coddle or praise into it. It’s won by those you can’t talk out of it. We can’t even talk ourselves out of it. It’s like breathing. It’s a reflex, even in your darkest moments, something will speak to your soul and before you even think, you’ll find yourself going after that something.

May we honor the ghost of Thomas Paine and continue to educate and agitate.