Posts Tagged ‘vote’

Epidemic of Silence

Sunday, March 31st, 2013

Why does it seem like people in positions of power are too scared to speak their minds? Is it the same reason the vast majority of us don’t always stand up for what is right? There are these tremendous tasks ready to be accomplished, yet no one seizes the reigns. Reigns which are just waiting there idle, well within anyone and everyone’s willing grasp.

I speak to these blights on our world which, if we had our shit together as a species, would have been eradicated decades ago. Extreme poverty. Mass starvation. A behemoth industry that profits off the very war it creates. This faux-democracy perpetuated by businesses and their puppets within the political system.

We cannot afford to wait.

Especially when millions of lives are hanging in the balance daily, and the only ingredient missing is enough people willing to take action. We have the resources. We have the know how. But we don’t yet have the get-off-our-assedness enough to breach the threshold.

Take modern warfare, as an example. It is completely unnecessary  It serves no purpose, other than charging entire nations billions of dollars to kill a high percentage of our fellow global citizens. We don’t need it in our world to survive. In fact, it’s pretty much the opposite of what our world needs. Yet war, as so often is the case, remains absent from mind and mouths of the mainstream media, politicians, and most importantly – we the people. We know it’s wrong but we haven’t risen to the occasion and stopped it.

And speaking of war, the war on drugs is a proven failure which – thanks to conservative governance – we continue to pursue with greater ferocity than ever. What the hell, people? It’s like in the movies where a boulder or car is barrelling down from behind, and our only inclination is to run faster in the same direction when a step to either side would see our problems end.

The evidence is overwhelming. Making drugs illegal has done nothing to stem the harm they can cause society. If, on the other hand, drug prohibition is a means to institutionalize racism, reinforce poverty, and bolster a militarized domestic police force, then the war on drugs has been a resounding success.

But I digress. My point is that all of these institutionalized mistakes can be readily fixed, if only enough of us were to speak our minds. Just look at Women’s rights and minority rights. It works for them. And right now LGBT rights are at the crux of their struggle for same rights on Facebook and elsewhere. Plus, marijuana legalization is making some great headway.  All this happens because a big enough collective  of people found ways to share their voice.

It’s not that these injustices went unnoticed for generations. It’s that we regular people have been too scared to campaign against them with enough determination to make change. Only now, when for years just a handful of brave souls would dare to make noise, does the majority hop on board and then make what’s right become integrated into society as a whole.

Still, we have yet to reign in the banks, gain way more accountability over global corporations, clean up the collusion and corruption in the news media, end the war on drugs and then dismantle the whole war machine for good. And… oh yea, I’m gonna need us to go ahead and end world hunger while offering every human, at the very least, the most basic necessities for life. That’d be great.

These goals are quite clear. The sooner we get them done, the better. So what the hell are we waiting for?

End of Israel’s Atrocities?

Monday, September 5th, 2011

Later this month, it is expected that the United Nations will vote in Palestine as a new member nation, based on the 1967 borders. When this happens, Israel’s current occupation of Palestinian land will be officially illegal in the eyes of the international community.

In preparation, Israel’s military – the IDF – has been handing out tear gas and stun grenades to civilians, anticipating the coming demonstrations from the newly freed Palestinians. But what they should really be preparing for are the economic sanctions coming from the rest of the world in response to Israel’s decades long record of human rights violations.

For example, a recently leaked cable exposes the IDF’s willingness to use ‘harsh measures’ upon peaceful Palestinian protestors. Another story reveals how the State of Israel consistently tortures confessions from Palestinian children, as if that’s going to earn them any love from the world.

Sure, Israel still has the support of the US and its taxpayers, who, over the past 10 years, have subsidized every 5-person Israeli family the staggering sum of $200,000. And, of course, the US has been urging the UN to stall the upcoming vote, not that the UN intends on listening.

But the US is waning as the world’s superpower, and without their giant ally overseas to protect them, Israel is fast finding itself alone, surrounded by enemies while facing a huge upswell of dissension from within.

It won’t be long until the State of Israel has no choice but to capitulate to mounting pressure from the globe, forever ceasing their crimes against humanity. What a glorious day this will be for the world’s peace movement.