Good evening. We'll start things off with Democracy Now!
London Mayor Calls for Iraq Withdrawal, Galloway Praises Iraq Resistance
As Bush exchanges words with Zawahiri, two of the most vocal critics in Britain of the Iraq occupation are speaking out once again. Rebel Member of Parliament George Galloway has been on a tour of the Middle East where he said the resistance in Iraq was made up of ordinary Iraqis defending their country against "foreign invaders." Galloway said, "It can be said, truly said, that the Iraqi resistance is not just defending Iraq. They are defending all the Arabs and they are defending all the people of the world against American hegemony." Galloway was expelled from the Labour Party over his outspoken remarks about the Iraq war. Meanwhile, London Mayor Ken Livingstone on Thursday called on the British Government to withdraw troops from Iraq to prevent further attacks against Britain. In an op-Ed in The Guardian newspaper, Livingstone wrote "The London bombings demand clear thinking, not rhetoric. People's lives depend on the decisions made. These must be for every community to aid the police; to treat Britain's Muslim community with respect... And for Britain to withdraw from Iraq."
See what's happening there? England gets bombed but they don't all start running around screaming "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" Remember Pru's realistic response and how devoid it was of panic and "OH MY GOD!"s?
What happened to us was anytime somebody showed a spine and spoke out, they got attacked by the right, the center and some on the left. Even right now there was this dopey bull awhile back as people rushed to defend a blogger and kept saying, "See! He didn't quote Galloway! That was someone else!"
The point is you fight back. You don't try to back your way down the court, you charge down the court. But we don't get that here. We end up trying to defend ourselves and we don't know the first thing about defense.
"He didn't quote Galloway!" isn't defense. "It was someone else at his site!" isn't defense.
Defense is, "What of it? Wanna make something of it?"
But we all try to look so "reasonable."
And it's nonsense.
"They keep moving the line!" someone on the left whines about the right. Yeah, well who lets them do that?
You fight each play. You don't interrupt the ref to say, "Oh, they're right, give them the ball."
That's what you're doing when you make statements like, "He didn't quote Galloway!" That's how you end up with the list of undesirables that we're supposed to all stray away from.
The other side plays to win and we play like we're okay with being last in the league. And that's if we even show up for the game.
My prof stopped me on my way out of class today. I was thinking there was a problem with the paper I turned in. Turns out he just wanted to tell me that what Elaine and C.I. did really spoke to him. He said he's so sick of sites that don't defend or worry about who to mention because mentioning someone might mean they're not "reasonable." He pointed out that people like Joan Baez and others made a name for themselves because they spoke in a way that touched people. That's why the right attacks them. And when we back off a Jane Fonda or anyone else to be reasonable we're backing off our history and some of our strongest speakers.
It's like the people who have been strongest in the league are being blacklisted. We could brag about our championship season but that would mean noting them. So instead we have nothing to brag about.
We need to stop giving away our bragging rights.
I haven't heard from Lachelle yet but Bobbi did write in to say that the comments helped. She said she's especially thinking about what Lee Anne offered.
So that's great.
I want to make sure everyone's checking in with Betty. Kat e-mailed me "Can you hear Thomas Friedman?" It's hilarious. And check out Kat's review of Midnight Serenade because my parents are in love with that CD. My sister says it's kind of funny to watch them dancing in the living room when they play that CD on. And don't forget to check out my buddy Cedric. He's doing great work.
The weekend's upon us. I'll be working with Third Estate Sunday Review tomorrow night and may not post here. It'll probably be an all nighter but we're all hoping it won't be. It was so cool to get done early last time.
