How many more will progressives kill to avoid making a stand?

What do you mean "how many more will progressives kill to avoid making a stand?!" Two examples: Progressives, peace activists, Catholic Workers... "know," that -

• "Knowledge is power." Sir Francis Bacon
  
• "With power comes great responsibilities." Common
• 600 million people are soon to be drowned off their land because we do not make a stand for an immediate and escalating carbon tax.
• 500 people more are now dead in Palestine because we will not make a stand against the $1 trillion U.S. defense budget.

"False" you say! Progressives, etc. DO make a stand. Hmmm. Not by any historical measure:

• Making a stand were elementary students in Soweto.
• Making a stand were activists in Seattle to stop the WTO.
• Making a stand were Americans walking to work for a year in Montgomery during the bus boycott.
  
• Making a stand, as mistaken as it is, are young Americans in uniform in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  

"…the great stumbling block …[is the] moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to the positive peace which is the presence of justice." Martin Luther King, Jr.

There are three ways to respond to the need to "make a stand," to participate in life and death struggle, such as the two mentioned above:

1. Cowardice - By-standing, on-looking including talking, blogging, writing, criticizing, tepid, low risk, "symbolic," "sacramental," activism (banner drops, 1 day arrests, etc., 2 hour marches, candle light vigils....)
2. Violence - Putting the other guy's life on the line - terrorism as practiced by the U.S., Israel and Hamas.
3. Nonviolence - Putting your OWN life on the line (see examples above, Soweto, etc.).
4. There is no 4th way. We've all read Zinn's People's History, etc. All significant change comes when, and only when people make a stand - putting their very lives on the line.

Why are these the only options? Because the forces of destruction DO put their lives on the line. They are NOT fighting "symbolic," or "sacramental" fights. The Military - Corporate - Industrial complex fights smart, to win. They DO put your life AND thier lives on the line. Cowards always lose. Cowards always lose.

"More and more I feel that people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will." Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate of for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?" Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is past time, and in 4 more weeks it will be too late for Progressives, peace activists, Catholic Workers... to make a stand.

And there is one and only one strategic place to focus for any all of your goals to be won (Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Environment..). The place of strategic focus is the defense budget. This is the root cause for which Palestine, Iraq, Iran... are the symptoms. Lester Brown says so. Howard Zinn says so. Barney Frank said so. Medea Benjamin said so.

Sanity, humanity, common knowledge says so. Now, January 2o09 is the time to make a stand:

1. Headlines today - U.S. faces trillion dollar deficits for years to come.
2. Headlines today - U.S. needs a trillion dollar stimulus.
3. Russia spends $45 billion on Defense.
4. China spends $60 billion on Defense.
5. "A nation that year after year spends more money on the military than it does on social uplift, is facing spiritual death." Martin Luther King, Jr., April 4, 1967, the Truth of which Dr. King was shot for exactly one year later to the day.
   
6. The U.S. is bleeding to death from $1 trillion in defense spending.
7. If we immediately shift $200 billion from Defense (death and destruction) to PeaceBuilding (Life and construction) we WILL head off the drowning of 600 million by global warming and head off the #1 threat to U.S. security - failing states - Lester Brown, Plan B 3.o. And we can achieve all of the other Progressive agenda items.
   

Today I spoke to 40 or so congress folks about the need to cut Defense, as they streamed out of the Capitol.

• 1/3 said "I agree."
  
• 1/3 made no response, but clearly they "heard" the truth of this.
  
• 1/3 tried hard not to hear, but obviously could not avoid hearing it. "The truth crushed to earth will rise again!" Marin Luther King, Jr.
  
• Although they could avoid eye contact with me, not one was able to avoid the issue hitting their conscience !
  

The Defense Budget is the elephant in the room that no one is talking about. The Defense Budget is totally indefensible today if we will only make heroic, life on the line stand against it!

Progressives, now is the time to make a stand, in D.C., with your lives, demanding the shifting of $2oo billion from Defense to PeaceBuilding as called for by "Plan B 3.o," Lester Brown.

Progressives, take a leave of absence from work, risk your personal connections and relations, lay down your lives for your children and grand-children, nieces and nephews. A few of you should join me on Hunger Strike / 24 hr per day Occupation of the Hill. But most of you should mount the most sheroic, unflinching lobbying / sitting in of strategic, "good guy" Hill offices ever seen in DC - Barney Frank, Dennis Kucinich, Bernie Sanders, Eleanor Holmes Norton (Prop 1 Economic Conversion Act sponsor every year since 1993) until they join us and help guide us to victory. Ellen Thomas, http://prop1.org can give you good guidance here. AND, also lobby everyone and every group you know to join you.

Progressives, if forces overt, covert, conscious and unconscious can keep you sidelined, distracted, diverted (what Obama does, the Inauguration, etc.), cowardly by-standing for just 4 more weeks, until after the stimulus package is set, you will have been defeated in all of your causes, forever. Why? The tipping points - political and environmental to do with global life support collapse and failed state proliferation will be beyond reversal! Scientific fact. Your enemies, the corporate - military - industrial complex will have won for time immemorial. Is that OK with you?

It is time to put up, or it is time for us to shut up. Let's put up.

Start Loving,
Day #22 Hunger Strike 24 hour per day Occupation, Capitol Hill, outside Cannon House Office building, Making a Stand for $200 Billion shift from WarMaking to PeaceBuilding - Plan B 3.o.

http://www.YouTube.com/StartLoving1
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PB3/pb3book.pdf