2002

Hard to be worse than 2001, but it might manage.

By: Bryan Zepp Jamieson

First off, let's hope that the top story of 2002 won't be as easy to pick as the top story of 2001 was. In an ideal world, the top story for the 2002 retrospectives will be that the Democrats, in fair and democratic elections in the United States, regained control of both houses of Congress, and impeachment proceedings will begin against Rehnquist, Thomas, O'Connor and Scalia to get them off the Supreme Court. That would be nice.

I think we would have to go back to the terrifying days of the cold war when nuclear war was not only feasible, but regarded as nearly inevitable between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Imagine what might have happened in, say 1954, when the US had enough nukes to destroy most Soviet cities, and the Soviets had enough to destroy American cities along the eastern seaboard. Suppose that with tensions between the two countries already sky high and a red scare playing out in the United States and the Soviets assuring their population that the evil Americans lived only to destroy the Soviet citizenry, a group of armed thugs, believed to be backed by the Soviets, broke into the U.S. Congress and shot up the place, killing a dozen Congressmen. Just as shocking as WTC, without the mass carnage.

Had something like that happened, would we have been able to avoid a nuclear war in 1954?

India and Pakistan glare at each other across the abyss, and while there have been one or two encouraging signs in the past few days that close the books on 2001, the two nations remain at the brink of war. Both sides have nukes - India is supposed to have about 75 such weapons, and Pakistan about 25 - and missiles that can reach the other's major cities. Add to the mix a deep religious hatred between Hindu and Moslem, and all it will take is one spark.

One thing that makes the situation slightly better than the one presented by my hypothetical attack on Congress in 1954 is that this time, there are several nuclear powers with considerably greater power who are doubtlessly making themselves quite visible to both sides, and without actually saying as such, reminding them that they will take any measure - any - to stop a nuclear conflagration in the subcontinent. And while our leader might not be up to the challenge, both Russia and China have direct and immediate reasons for preventing a nuclear exchange in the subcontinent. Fallout doesn't respect national borders.

Here in America, the Republicans worked hard to consolidate their coup against the United States, but were fairly dramatically derailed in that process by the defection of Senator James Jeffords of Vermont. Republicans suddenly discovered the Democrats had Senatorial power of investigation, a tool to keep them accountable, and the efforts to steamroll over the Constitution were halted.

Until September 11^th, that is. That was the best thing that could have happened, from the perspective of the Bush family, John Ashcroft, and the gimlet-eyed would-be rulers of America in the corporate and religious sectors. Ashcroft came up with an amazingly long and detailed list of new rules and regulations all designed to make it easier to watch, control, and punish ordinary Americans. It was almost as if they had the list ready, waiting for an opportunity to strike. In no time at all, we had a domestic secret police known as Homeland Security, and the administration moved to gut constitutional guarantees across the board.

Most dismaying of all was the complacency of the American people. It's one thing to expect a "rally 'round the flag" mentality to prevail in the wake of such a horrific attack, but the widespread notion that to even question any of Putsch's actions, war-related or not, was treasonous, was a sad thing to witness.

People cheered the idea of secret trials where the government controlled the evidence and the President could overrule any verdict he didn't like. They approved of national identity cards, and refusing to let people who "looked middle eastern" board flights. The congressional Republicans, cold and cynical bastards that they are, took advantage of the national grief to push furiously for such pet projects as bringing back strip mining on public lands and lifting restrictions on logging, and deregulation of power industries and of course, a big fat tax cut for the rich. Ashcroft broke away from the war on terrorism long enough to meddle with Oregon's assisted suicide law. People seemed to think that the Republicans should be allowed to grab all this power and all these windfalls for their rich buddies because, well, a lot of people died or something, and questioning Republicans was unpatriotic. We had the whore media assuring us of that each and every day.

If the media became a sad joke, the public at large got even worse. As a telling example, here in California, the publisher of the Sacramento Bee, Janis Besler Heaphy, gave a graduation address at the local California State University, and in the address, advised the students that no matter what, they should always be prepared to question their elected representatives, and think for themselves on matters of national policy. She advised them to be wary of "the perils of big government" - a notion near and dear to right wing hearts just last year. She was screamed down by outraged audience members who thought it was pretty horrific that someone would tell college students to exercise independent judgement and thought.

The Bee ran the entire address in their edition the following day. It was pretty tame stuff, really, but it brought on a parade of letters from twittering, huffing, outraged timorous wee beasties who snorted that her remarks were "inappropriate", "seditious", and demanded her firing and/or resignation for asking whether, given that our media feels free to self-censor on bin Laden, it should do the same for anyone who opposes the government?

The Bee got letters supporting the publisher and condemning the "flag waving yahoos" who booed her off the stage. But sadly, most of the letters came from windy, frightened, repressed and repressive individuals who had forgotten how to be a free people. One jackass attacked Heaphy and declared that her speech was brought about by disloyal elements who never "got over" the election.

I read the letters, and wondered if America was finished. Certainly a lot of people were lining up to kick dirt into the grave.

But then, just a few days later, a story broke in the LA Times. Two college graduates, kids in their mid-twenties, had pulled off a preposterous stunt. According to the Times, Todd Ruiz, 26, and Adam Prentiss, 27, said they were attempting to offer a different perspective on "marginalized, forgotten, and misunderstood" parts of the world. So these two students, not much more than kids really, got into Afghanistan, 'Cajoling, Bribing, and Lying' their way in, and disregarding the wishes of Putsch and the U.S. military that the media not report on this war except for what the military was willing to feed them.

When the two claimed they had been at Tora Bora, a skeptical press, already embarrassed by the antics of the clown Geraldo Rivera, did what it is supposed to be doing with the government and the military, and checked the story. To their amazement, the story checked out. The two had been front-row witnesses to the battle at Tora Bora. They plan to post uncensored reports on what they saw.

THAT'S how the media for a Free People behave! The go in, they find out the truth, they REPORT the truth. They don't gratefully accept handouts from smug White House bastards in exchange for good ratings. They don't waste everyone's time on celebrity watch, and they don't meekly knuckle under to the self-serving demands of a corrupt and repressive regime in Washington.

Free People don't stand around like goofs waving their little flags and praising 'Jeezus'. Instead, they go out and make sure we aren't getting screwed over by our representatives, elected or otherwise, and they make sure that the electorate at least has some idea of what is going on, whether that pimple in the White House desires it or not, and screw the ratings!

So Todd and Adam, my thanks, for allowing me to show people there are still real Americans out there who aren't deaf, dumb, and blind from the neo-fascist right wing propaganda, and still think for themselves, and put truth ahead of obedience.

You're at war with our disgraceful and servile media. So are many of us.

I hope you win. I sure want to help.