05-29-01
HEROES AND TRAITORS


You know, the other day I was all set to write a somewhat tongue-in-cheek rant about 'post-coup stress disorder', but as I gathered my thoughts and contemplated how to put a light-hearted spin on what we've been going through, I found that I wasn't feeling terribly sardonic. While post-coup stress disorder will probably never be recognized officially, it is very real. I know, because I suffer from it. Since this column's primary purpose is to preach to the choir, I'm betting that you suffer from it too. And while it has an amusing ring, and could no doubt be used in any number of witty top-ten lists, what we are feeling, and the effect it has on us, isn't funny at all.

There isn't a roller-coaster in the world that contains as many ups and downs, as many dizzying turns, as the emotional roller-coaster that we've found ourselves on in the past six months. One moment we're outraged over yet another unbelievable action by the Bushies; the next moment we're filled with hope as we read a protest report or hear a public figure speak out against the coup. We're filled with rage at traitors like Zell Miller and Dianne Feinstein, because they do everything they can to prop up Bush's right-wing extremist agenda yet don't have the guts to openly admit that they're Democrats in name only, and then we're filled with admiration for a man of principle like Jim Jeffords, who was willing to put his entire political career at risk and incur the wrath of the Rove machine (no small thing) in order to remain true to his beliefs. At times we're overwhelmed with the near-impossibility of our task, given that so many people in this country don't want to hear the truth and that the corporate media continues its relentless coverup of what has happened.

We're willing to suffer the consequences of dealing with insane amounts of stress because we have no choice - we love our country, and we love democracy, and 'getting over it' is not an option.

When someone you love dies, you don't decide 'oh, I'm not going to care about this'. When you lose something dear to you, you don't think 'oh, I should just get over it'. You don't, that is, unless you are a person of unprecedented shallowness...in which case you never really loved what you lost in the first place.

For us, of course, it is much more than grief alone. When you grieve over the death of a loved one, you know at a deep level that at some point you have to accept the loss, even though you may never reach the mythical state of 'closure'. But when you grieve over the death of something which can be brought back to life - as is the case with our democracy - then along with the grief is a burning need to seek justice and restoration. Though we are fighting against an enemy more powerful than we often realize, we do have a shot at winning...and as ironic as it sounds, at times this makes things more difficult for us. Though acceptance doesn't always mean closure, it does enable one to move on, to pursue other things and to come to terms with grief. Without acceptance, the emotional wounds are re-opened daily. And this takes its toll.

In addition to our grief, we also have to deal with an almost unbearable sense of frustration, as people who claim to feel as we do bewilder us by their refusal to stand up and denounce the right-wing coup. I know that I am not the only person who has occasionally stopped dead in my tracks and thought "Am I crazy? Am I the only one who feels this way? Why aren't there millions of people protesting in the streets? Is there something wrong with me?" We ALL feel this from time to time, because we are constantly barraged by propaganda from the right-wingers and their media, near-daily outrages from the Bush mis-administration, and the deliberate and stubborn ignorance of a large segment of the population. We are NOT crazy, and of course deep down we know it...but knowing this doesn't relieve the stress of trying to combat the lies and misinformation

What we need, desperately, are heroes. More than that - we need PUBLIC heroes. Those of us deeply involved in the protest movement know countless heroes - there are over 500 of them listed on this site - but we already know that there are 'average' citizens who share our beliefs. And though every single patriot in the protest movement is of deep and lasting value to the fight for democracy, we need heroes who have access to the public eye; people who are known throughout the country and are willing to stand up and join us in our fight. And there are precious few of these.

Until today, I counted Bill Press as one of our heroes - a somewhat lukewarm one, to be sure, but given the state of the media and the cautious (some would say wimpy, and I wouldn't bother to argue) nature of the majority of Democrats and progressives, I've been taking any hero I can get. In the past, Press has stood up for us against the likes of right-wing lunatics like Bob Novak, and held fast to the truth that Al Gore is our rightful President, and yet on tonight's 'Crossfire', Press allowed CNN to present a so-called 'balanced' view of the stolen election: on the right, Bill Sammon of the Washington (Moonie) Times, author of "At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Presidency", and on the so-called left, Jake Tapper, author of "Down and Dirty: the Plot to Steal the Presidency". Sammon claims that Al Gore tried to steal the election (primarily because the networks called Florida for Gore based on the exit polls, though how he thinks Gore managed to force the networks to make the early call is beyond me). Tapper claims that both Gore and Bush tried to steal the election - Gore by trying to 'throw out' military votes (never mind that according to Florida law those votes shouldn't have been counted, yet DID get counted in the end, unlike thousands of other votes) and by trying to get a manual recount in only a few counties (never mind that Florida statute supported his initial decision, or that he later tried to get a full state-wide recount); and Bush by 'running out the clock' and possibly getting military personnel to vote after the election (yet no mention of the felon purge, the counties which never did the MANDATORY machine recount, the faulty machines in African-American precincts, the absentee ballot tampering, the treasonous USSC decision, etc etc etc ad nauseum). As if it weren't enough to have two guests blasting Al Gore (Tapper, the coward, spent precious little time saying anything negative about Bush), they also felt the need to show a clip of Gore's concession speech, after which Novak, Tapper and Sammon all three went on at length about what a 'terrible' speech it was, and how irresponsible it was of the media to have praised it.

I sat there and watched as Bill Press squirmed and mumbled and apologized and basically let Sammon hog the limelight with his insane accusations, and I felt the frustration and hurt that can only come from watching someone you trusted betray you. He is no longer a hero of mine.

Ironically, what lifted me out of my dark mood was nothing other than Faux News' Hannibal (Hannity) and Colmes - because Vincent Bugliosi was invited on to speak about his book, The Betrayal of America. Even better, it was a one-on-one interview with Alan Colmes, who plays a liberal on the show (okay, so maybe he really is a liberal, but he's in SERIOUS need of a spine), so Bugliosi actually got the chance to talk, which he surely would not have been able to do had Hannibal not been muzzled. And so I went from feeling rage to feeling hope and validation in a very short period of time.

Bugliosi is a hero; no doubt about it. He is a hero because he is not willing to sit by silently and accept the popular notion that we should all just 'move on'. He is a hero because he is willing to stand up for democracy, and to tell the bald, ugly truth - that a partisan Supreme Court committed treason against our country. And he is further a hero because he does not simply state this truth; he PROVES it. God bless Vincent Bugliosi. Without people like him - and other heroes who have guts, and love our country, and aren't afraid to risk public scorn and condemnation by saying out loud what we all know in our hearts - our task would be much more difficult, and the effects of post-coup stress disorder would be even more extreme than they already are.

The coup is the ultimate litmus test for heroes. Anyone willing to speak out against it is a patriotic hero; anyone who supports it - either through lies and propaganda or through deliberate ignorance - is a traitorous coward. Period.


~Rose




Opinions expressed in the daily rant are those of the author and may not reflect the opinion of every member of the fringefolk project. The articles posted here are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any form without the author's express permission. You do, however, have permission to post a link to this article and include the first few sentences as a lead-in, if you wish.