[R-G] How Can It Be "Free Speech" When Only Money Talks?

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July 4th Edition
July 4th, 2007
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In This Issue...
-- How Can It Be "Free Speech" When Only Money Talks?
-- Swami's Call for Impeachment.

How Can It Be "Free Speech" When Only Money Talks?
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Abusers, Enablers and Healing America's Political Dysfunction.
by Steve Bhaerman

"The good news is, we still have free speech in this country. Unfortunately,
if you want anyone to listen, that'll cost money."
-- Swami Beyondananda

In our travels through Europe, we found one enduring and persistent
impression of the United States. Whether they love us, hate us or tolerate
us, most people here seem to agree that in America, money rules. As if to
punctuate that point, two 5-4 rulings of the Bush Supreme Court last week
indicate that we still have free speech in America -- provided it's money
that's doing the talking.

The Court ruled last week that sections of the McCain-Feingold Act were
unconstitutional because they sought to restrict money spent by corporations
and unions on negative political ads late in the campaign. By the same
narrow margin, the Court also ruled that a school was within its rights to
prohibit a student from displaying a banner reading "Bong hits 4 Jesus."
Regardless of how you may feel about bong hits, Jesus or the number "4"
being used as shorthand for a word, this is not dangerous speech -- nothing
at all like shouting "fire!" in a crowded theater.

The other decision is even more troubling. It indicates once again that in
America, the noises made by money can drown out more helpful political
discourse. In this latest "affront d'jour" to truth, justice and the
American way (at least as our Founding Fathers saw it), we now have one more
chance to see clearly and act on that clarity.

Cynics (and maybe even realists) would say that there are three kinds of
people in America: Those who hate Republicans more than Democrats, those who
hate Democrats more than Republicans, and those who have equal disdain for
both of the "two potties." In any case, people tend to fall toward one side
or another looking to find an evil lesser than the greater one. I'd like to
offer a slightly different analysis that might lead us in the direction of a
helpful strategy.

I begin with the assertion that we do have a two-party system consisting of
the Democratic Party and the Undemocratic Party. Whatever you think of the
Democrats (we'll deal with them shortly) the Republicans have given every
indication that when the issue is money vs. people, they will be on the side
of money every time. This, by the way, has been the enduring struggle since
the founding of this nation -- between those who see liberty primarily as
extending opportunity to as many people as possible, and those who see
liberty as their right to make money at the expense of the whole.

The Republicans -- despite lone voices such as Rep. Ron Paul and the
long-forgotten visionary ideals of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight
Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater -- are a wholly-owned subsidiary of those who
already have huge amounts of money and power and want more. They have formed
an unholy alliance with the American ayatollahs of the Christian right (aka,
"the Grinch that stole Christianity") and together they've enabled the
moneychangers to throw Jesus out of the temple and somehow still call it
"Christianity."

Wither the Democrats?

My friend Rita George says that power can be abused either by using it, or
by not using it. The Republicans have shown themselves to be remarkably
adept at the former. Whether it involves torturing detainees or torturing
the Constitution, the Republicans in power have demonstrated their
willingness to do anything inside or outside the bounds of law to keep
themselves and their cronies in power. While they're willing to put a happy
face on totalitarianism, the most Machiavellian among them understand that
when push comes to shove they and they alone must be the ones doing the
pushing and shoving.

While some might say the current administration is a neocon aberration, look
at any of the "electable" Republican candidates and you see a cheerleader
for empire and the "re-colonization" of America by the 21st century version
of the British East India Company. The notable exception of course is Ron
Paul. But libertarianism, like any ideology, doesn't offer the flexibility
to solve problems at the next level. And any Republican candidate will feel
obliged to push the toxic, backward agenda of the religious right.

The Democrats, meanwhile, play the classic role of enabler to the Republican
abuser. With the exceptions of a few Senators and Representatives willing to
use the "f-word" (fascism) and the "e-word" (empire), the Democrats have
failed to stand up to the abuse by failing to call it what it is. And yes,
they too are subject to the same economic powers that control the
Republicans. Consider that Bill Clinton and now Hillary have shown their
greatest strength to be fund raising from large donors. All of these "chits"
will have to be repaid when the chit hits the fan, so to speak.

I have said cynically that the Democrats provide the final resting place for
progressive votes. They keep our attention diverted by the worthy but
ultimately lesser issues of universal health care and women's right to
choose. When you step outside the matrix to see the true dangers facing the
republic, the Democrats are reminiscent of the man looking for his car keys
in the parking lot instead of the bushes where he lost them because there's
"more light there."

One of the characteristics of codependent enablers is denial. Like the
abused wife or spouse of an alcoholic, the Democrats have been until now
unwilling to face the truth -- and consequently, unable to perform the
necessary "intervention." And as those who've grown up in dysfunctional
families have sadly learned, you never want to depend on a codependent.
Consequently, we the people must now face a third truth about abusive power.
Power can be abused by denying you have it.

Through the habitual rituals of so-called "democracy," and through the
numbing up and dumbing down perpetrated by the mass media, we the American
people have forgotten the promise of our founding documents. As Jefferson
and company asserted, we are not subjects of some king or dictator but
sovereign citizens. We are served by our leaders -- not served up by them to
predators. As sovereigns, we have -- until now -- abdicated our power to
rule.
And that brings us back to the current dysfunction at the junction -- the
two-party system that's no party for any of us. While it makes sense to
wholeheartedly encourage taking back both political parties, the first step
in the intervention of we the people is to rebalance the power by empowering
the enabler to tell the truth and assert functional autonomy. This means
first taking back the Democratic Party and restoring democracy, first to the
party and then to America.
If the so-called leadership of this party is looking to see which way the
wind is blowing, then we must be the wind. We must be so clear and so strong
that the wall of lies gets blown to smithereens, and the Democratic Party
can either choose to follow the leadership of the people -- or go the way of
the Whigs.

At this very moment, there is no comprehensive and coherent national
movement to contextualize and crystalize this issue for all to see. But that
movement is inevitable, given the massive awakening taking place right now.
That awakening may look like disillusionment in the short run, but as Swami
says, the main reason for disillusionment is illusionment.
In one of our last stops in Europe, we visited Berlin.
The ostensible reason was so Trudy could visit the bust of Nefertiti at the
Egyptian museum.
However, we also got to see the Reichstag (the German Parliament during the
Weimar Republic), and what was formerly the Berlin Wall. Each in its way
represented the "karmic destiny" of Germany over a sixty year period. The
Third Reich began with the Reichstag fire in 1933 -- quite likely a "false
flag" operation blamed on "terrorists" that was used to justify the
repression that solidified the Nazi stranglehold on the German government.

The Berlin Wall represented an imprisoned people who had to be restrained
from leaving "the worker's paradise" established by the Soviet Union in East
Germany. The fall of the wall symbolizes -- to my way of thinking -- the
"healing" of Germany. While we may think of Germany as the stereotyped
Prussian militarism, Germany also produced Goethe, Herman Hesse and the
warmth of "gemutlichkeit." Germany today is wiser and humbled, and offers
perhaps the greatest understanding of what we humans are capable of when we
are in a state of self-serving denial.
Now it makes no sense to say George Bush is like Adolf Hitler.

However, it makes all the sense in the world to understand that George Bush
is OUR Hitler.

He represents America's denied shadow.
His administration has shattered forever America's self-proclaimed image as
bringers of freedom and democracy.
The veil has been lifted for those willing to look, and we see that
"democracy" means no more than the freedom
to exploit -- both at home and abroad.

There are those who have compared 9/11 to the Reichstag fire; even if it
wasn't a "false flag" operation to create the "new Pearl Harbor" needed to
mobilize Americans to fight the perpetual war the neocons desired, it was
used that way. Consider that the anthrax attacks (still "unsolved" to this
day) occurred just as Congress was considering the so-called Patriot Act -- 
a 342-page document that appeared as if by magic a month after the Twin
Tower attacks.
The Senate was put into such a state of panic that the act passed even
though only a few of our representatives ever read it.

And the Iron Curtain can only be compared to the Irony Curtain -- the wall
of B.S. perpetrated by our media to usher in a new orwellian age where
repression is called freedom and the Patriot "Act" becomes a toxic
substitute for patriotism. America's disease has been "not-seeism," the
unwillingness to see our own shadow. To heal -- and serve as an example to
the world -- we must acknowledge our own Reichstag fire and bring down our
own Wall of Lies.
Whether we do it through the Democratic Party or in spite of it, it must be
done and it will be done. Our Founding Fathers never meant for us to live in
fear of our own government. May this be the last July 4th we mark under the
shadow of tyranny.
An Afterthought ...

P.S. In anticipating an understandable response to this piece, I want to
address the question,
"What about the threat of what has been termed 'Islamofascism?'" My answer
is this:
The American body politic must acquire the ability to think and chew gum at
the same time.

In other words, we must be able to look "evil" in its evil eye
and separate the behaviors from the individuals.
We must simultaneously face the reality that there are forces in the world
that are indeed bent on our destruction,
and we must also be curious as to how and why those forces magnetize
support.

The first step in political and spiritual maturity is to recognize how our
own policies and behaviors contribute to the problem -- and take
responsibility. As those in recovery understand, a sign of health is to be
able to distinguish between what we can and cannot change.
When we confront the evil in our own system -- from toxic abusers of power
to religious fundamentalists who more closely resemble radical Islam than
they do the ideals of our Founding Fathers -- we take two important steps.
First, we take the healthy step of focusing on what we do have the power to
change. Second, we become a living example of how political maturity works,
and in doing so we offer inspiration for those in the Muslim world to choose
a more spiritually mature expression of their own religion.

As we clear the toxins out of our own body politic, we can as a people find
a truer unity. We can see the absurdity of the phrase "support our troops"
and ask the politically mature question, "In doing what?" We can begin to
ask as a nation, what are our healthy objectives in the world, and how do we
best achieve those? By dealing with the criminality that has infected our
own system, we become more credible law enforcers abroad. And by exposing
and debunking the militaristic so-called Christians who have power far
beyond their numbers in America today, who have replaced "love thy neighbor"
with "we're going to heaven and everyone else can go to hell," we offer the
best antidote to the Islamic brand of backward, toxic religion.




Swami's Call for Impeachment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Read Swami's Call for Impeachment, please click here.




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