U.S. Senators Don't Represent The Public On Gaza Genocide
The only way you're going to be able to speak with the people who allegedly represent you is...by accident.
Pictured above is my friend Ridgely Fuller outside Senator Angus King's home in Brunswick on Christmas Day. She made a sign, wrapped a baby doll in a keffiyeh, and called for a vigil that drew a baker's dozen of people and two dogs.
Back in the day, senators and others in Congress used to meet regularly with anti-war constituents to hear their concerns. At various times I've met with Senator Susan Collins via video from her office in Maine's capital and in person with the 2nd congressional district rep about U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This type of constituent access ended around the time one-term Rep. Bruce Poliquin ducked into a women's bathroom to avoid questions.
Now, even the town hall is a thing of the past and the only way you're going to be able to speak with the people who allegedly represent you and spend your taxes is...by accident.
Kudos to Jack a polite, insistent, well-informed constituent who made a video of Susan Collins spouting talking points and avoiding conversation about genocide in Gaza at Panera Bread in Augusta. The one aide accompanying Collins appears to push Jack, but he remains undeterred.
Those of us who gathered in response to Ridgely's call left messages for King all over his lawn and front porch as a dog barked inside with nobody home (one in the know said the family was likely at their "ski palace" in Sugarloaf). Earlier in the month King sent a fundraising email with the subject line: I've got BBQ on my mind (and received the reply: This makes you a monster).
Congress critters can go on raking in cash and ignoring the people, but they appear to be rapidly losing the consent of the governed. One manifestation of this is the fact that the imperial forces are having even more difficulties recruiting amid "a general disinterest or even distrust of the US Armed Forces following decades of wars predicated on dubious pretexts."
U.S. senators serve those they consider to be their important constituents: war profiteers.
A report of a recent action at one of General Dynamics' profit centers in Maine may be found here.
Hey senators, our message is loud and clear: stop funding genocide!
We're seeing an enormous breakdown of our democratic institutions. It's just corruption gone rampant. Corporate media serves as a lapdog of the wealthy and powerful. Our Congress serves as a lapdog of the wealthy and powerful. The Supreme Court is a joke anymore. We know it's been horribly corrupted.
My sense, though, is that in 2024 everything is going to change. We as peace activists have a tremendous responsibility now to forge the future, as everything starts to crumble. We have to be determined to build a new structure that is fair and just for everyone, using a new foundation of love and compassion.
Corruption in the U.S. has gotten so out of hand that the entire edifice of our government and our economy has been weakened. The phoenix has always been my totem. Out of the ashes rises new life. We are the new life that will soar out of the ashes.
This is the time for visionaries who do not look away from the stark reality, who observe and witness what is happening with unclouded vision, and yet know in our hearts that most people are basically good and that love is the strongest force in the universe. Hate and fear and evil and all the baser manifestations of empty hearts and wounded, stunted souls are just the absence of that creative force of love. They beget destruction, death, misery and suffering.
Yet love always overcomes because it is the only true force. It is the natural order, as we see in unspoiled nature and the abundance of this Earth, our shared home that is so beautiful and precious. Love expressed begets the highest achievements of humanity, and brings us babies, the new life of our flourishing family tree. This is my best understanding of the forces at play that I've been able to arrive at, and yes, it borders on belief and faith, and isn't entirely a philosophy of the mind.
thank you again, Lisa, for being out there!! You are an inspiration!
DemocracyNow this morning was (as it has been increasingly) most enlightening.
Exposure of the massive Iraeli propaganda "Canary Mission" (a blacklisting of those who dis Israel on anything) in action for many many many years, funded as always by billionaires. Article in The Nation by Bamford.
Also excellent, detailed, clear, refreshingly blunt and honest (and very welcome to hear) analysis of what's going on by analyst Rami Khouri. How arrogantly ignorant the US is, and has been, for many many years. About as long as I have registered as an independent. https://www.democracynow.org/2023/12/27/arab_us_relations#:~:text=Supreme%20Court-,%E2%80%9CAxis%20of%20Resistance%E2%80%9D%3A%20Hamas%2C%20Hezbollah%2C%20Houthis%20Challenge%20U.S.%20%26%20Israeli%20Power%20Amid%20Middle%20East%20Tension,-STORYDECEMBER%2027
I'm not sure there even will be an election this year. As in Ukraine?