We need to get off our computerized asses & out into the streets

Ever wonder why we don't see mass protesting today like we saw in the Vietnam days? I sure do. Had there been no internet in recent years, perhaps there would've been enough mass protesting in the streets to EVER have kept this criminal from getting elected to a second term in 2004.

The internet is a wonderful thing and I don't know what we'd do without it, but in this case, I don't think we're using this great tool completely to our advantage. Not YET, that is.

Somehow, we have to get our young AND old people out in the streets, and off their computers, for everyone to see us protesting this maniac of a madman president. There's probably more dissatisfaction with this president's tenure than any other, but it's going virtually unseen because we're doing so much of it online. That's a shame.

How about we use this great internet tool to organize us into getting us OUT of our homes and offices and into the public spotlight? There's nothing like mass protesting in the streets to get the message across. Whining online how we all hate the Chimp and how we all hate Corporate Media is not hitting home with mainstream America. Carrying signs will.

Wanna get the Corporate Media whores to start covering the truth? Organize large groups of people in the streets of NY carrying signs questioning THEM, the media whores, and you'll start seeing some change. There's nothing more effective than embarrassing them into change.


Wanna make a dent in Bushco and the fundamentalist whackos who are running this country into the dark ages? Well organize a few hundred thousand protesters in the streets carrying signs and things WILL change for the better. It shouldn't be too hard to rally enough people. Just the unemployed, dissatisfied citizens would be enough to fill all of NY or Washington, let alone the millions of unhappy people over all the other issues like the war.

Wanna get the message across that there are just as many people upset with the Iraq war as there were during the days of Vietnam? GET THE PEOPLE IN THE STREETS PROTESTING.

Somebody out there has to start doing some organizing and getting us off our asses and out where we can be seen and heard. The important message we have to tell is NOT getting out there. We need to fuel the anger, but we need to do it AWAY from our desks. How about we used the internet more for organizing public protest and less for inner whining among ourselves?

The MSM didn't show much of the protests that occurred here during the RNC. It was huge. I met people from all over the world and the only reporters roaming the crowds were either foreign or bloggers.

compared to the amount of protesting that should be going on now.

There's way too much protesting going on among us online, and way too little in the public spotlight.

I am always both surprised and sad by how few people show up. Recently in attempting to get younger people (20s and 30s) to come out to protest the war on 3/19, I couldn't believe the lame excuses I heard for not attending. I am afraid it will take the DRAFT to get people out in protest. Go out to the local mall on any given Saturday and the streets are filled but to get people to publicly denounce the WORST PRESIDENT EVER and an IMMORAL WAR and they find better things to do. :(

I have to agree about some dissappointment i've experienced due to lack of intensity and participation from people who even view themselves as progressive and politically active. We go to all this trouble to organize something, how hard is it just to show up for a couple of hours?

"I am afraid it will take the DRAFT to get people out in protest"
as it did in the late 60's and early '70's.

Most people just don't seem to care about issues until it affects them personally.

I take to the street every chance I get. Where I live (a red state, and a very conservative city, I'm afraid), there aren't many participants.

:)

Maybe Kerry would be president... The challenge was done, but there was no public outcry that the election was rigged... We have no leader that can bust through the media static and propaganda.. But I tell you this.. like bush makes more terrorists in other countries.. he inspired more americans daily to pay attention and to be ready to protest.. the time will come, and we will show up in mass numbers! Till then.. we must work to spread the truth.. on and offline!

I am probably going to piss off the Massachusetts forum for saying this, but for a few weeks I have been encouraging we get out to actions and events.

To my knowledge only TWO DU members attended the anti-war protest on Boston Common March 20.

Posted March 24, with one reminder a couple days ago, there has been ONE "maybe" commitment to attend an Iraq teach-in at Faneuil Hall tonight.

Who is involved with "Breaking Ranks - Iraq, two views from the trenches"?

Mike Hoffman (founding member of Iraq Veterans Against the War)
and
Paul Rieckhoff (executive director and founder of Operation Truth)
moderated by
Jay Harris
(publisher of Mother Jones magazine)

I have it on pretty good authority that Noam Chomsky will also be attending.

But I guess we are all too busy sitting at our computers sipping our herbal tea (or stronger beverages) and whining about bushco instead of attending teach-in's or taking action.

What are YOU doing?

Almost all of us, including myself, are guilty of talking the talk but not walking the walk. I guess what I'm hoping is that some young, motivated, inspirational leaders start rallying people into the streets, and getting the message out ala the old fashioned way. When that he or she comes along and gets things organized, they can count on me to join in the march.

Are you saying we are sheep?

I have a collorary. There certainly is a leadership vacuum. But perhaps the "dynamic leader" will not be young.

When I went to the January 3 election fraud teach-in at Faneuil hall, 90% of those in attnedance were of the "love" generation, there were very few under 30.

:)

Not saying we're sheep at all, although maybe we could use a good shepherd or two to lead us from our offices and out into the pastures to make a little noise in the limelight. Might not be a bad thing if we get a chance to become someone's sheep. Who will the shepherd be, I'm wondering?

I call them "Kitty's Neighbors" after the 36 neighbors of Kitty Genovese who sat on their asses, watched from the safety of their apartment windows, and did NOTHING while she was stabbed to death in front of their building. They didn't want to "get involved," you see. I mean, just imagine the horrer of "getting involved" . . . like, you know, calling the police? Good Christians all, no doubt.

But you asked what I am doing.

I set up a web page to collect a bounty to be paid for convictions for election fraud. You make a pledge, and you only have to pay your pledge if their is a conviction. Several thousand people have visited the page, and about 50 have pledged. (http:electionfraudbounty.org) I guess that doing that pledge stuff is, well too difficult. Or can't work. Or . . . oh, hell, fill in your own excuse, neighbor!

I set up another web site to promote citizen's initiatives against bribing public officials. When a corporation gives money to a politician it IS a bribe. So far, out of about five thousand visits, 24 people have volunteered to help. (http:breakthelink.org) I hope that when we are actually out gathering signatures here in Florida that others will be inspired to join in, but probably not. We will know by the end of the week, I hope, as our official paperwork should be delivered to the State division of elections today.

I don't know about you, but I have been far more dissapointed by my fellow americans and their abject apathy than by Bush and Co. History tells us to expect evil bastards from time to time, they are par for the course. But where are the good guys?

Welcome to DU :hi:

Don't wait for "somebody" DO IT YOURSELF.

The easiest way to do this is to form local DU meet-up groups. It's very simple. Go to www.meetup.com, open a free account, and familiarize yourself with the site. Search for "DU" or "groups in my area (by zip code). Join existing or start your own. Put your meet-up group address in your signature line so whenever you post others will be reminded to join in.

Thanks for the advice, though, serously.

Hey, Ive already implied that I'm part of the problem, and I most certainly AM trying to do some good by suggesting we use the internet to much better advantage by organizing ourselves out of our chairs and into the streets where we WILL be noticed. I do appreciate your suggestions, BTW.

and you and you and you........

Thanks for the post, I hope it starts the motivational juices flowing.

Thanks!

How many times have people posted a similar message here? What's missed is the essential difference between then (i.e. the 60s) and now. Basically, small protests will be completely ignored.

Large protests will be covered briefly by the media, but there will be no government action.

Large protests over several days will get the participants in jail, the hospital, or the morgue, and the folks on the nightly news will blame YOU, the protester, for being in any of the three places.

Nonviolent protest only works in countries where the press and the government has a collective conscience -- Say, our country 40 years ago, or Great Britain at the end of WWII, when they gave sovereignty to India.

But protest does not, will not, work in a country that has no conscience. If the Jews had marched together in Germany in the 1930s, it just would have made it easier for them to all be rounded up and gassed. Nonviolent protesting does nothing in 21st Century America, except make it easier for all of the people against the administration to be rounded up and tossed in jail.

but protest among ourselves in semi-secrecy.

Great.

But my point is born out through recent history. Note the hundreds of thousands who protested at the RNC and before the Iraq War, and the lack of media coverage.

Personally, I was in Miami in Mov. 2003 for the FTAA protests, and I saw firsthand what the government will do to you if they actually feel your protest is a threat.

I didn't say action can't work. I just said traditional nonviolent protest can't. We need to go back to the drawing board and rethink how we do things. Come up with new methods for a new age.

Nobody wants to get their head busted, but that isn't the only way to protest. By the end of the week I hope to be out with a little sign, all by myself, asking people to sign my signature form for a citizen's initiative entitled: PROHIBITING BRIBERY OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND PERSONS SEEKING PUBLIC OFFICE. Believe me, this is a protest with the potential to BITE, because if our politicians are blocked from feeding on their legal bribes they will simply die off.

You might want to give it a try: http:breakthelink.org

I have been saying the same thing since the "fraud."

The controlling element of this society have finally got things where they want them. They can now control elections. The first run was in Florida in '02 and they finally worked the bugs out in '04. So, for the forseeable future, the appearance of elections will continue, the make-up of the Congress will continue to be Democrat and Republican. Democrats will get elected by playing ball and if anyone raises their head above the public trough to speak out, "off with their heads!"

So, am I saying do nothing? On the contrary, but the old ways will not work anymore. Why do you think that the 60's generation are coming to the seats of power now? Many of those same people that supported the coup in '63 and Vietnam are in power now(Cheney, Rumy, et.al). In fact, I believe, the counterculture of that time has to begin to get back in touch with the original message and begin to teach all of us how to go about it. Anyone remember, "Turn off, tune in and drop out?" I'll add something to that for today's consumeristic mentality, "What if they had a sale and nobody came?" As long as we keep supporting the system as it is they have us.

I have began to withdraw from supporting mass consumerism and the corporations that spawn it. I'm looking anew at everything I buy that is in my home and who makes it. If I can make it myself, naturally or by educating myself in alternative methods to do the same thing the product does, I will. It's not much now, but, it's a beginning and I will do more as I learn more.

I think the reason people haven't hit the streets is they are too comfortable. I don't know if they are angry, but they are definitely comfortable! I live in a progressive & affluent pocket & I don't sense much anger. Post election, people went from pumped up to pooped, almost overnight. That too, is a symptom of being too comfortable. "We have to fight for our democracy?"

Many of these are the people that got me off my ass last year! Now they don't even pay attention to the fact that our new Dem senator voted to confirm Rice & Gonzalez. Or that he voted yes on the bankruptcy bill. And yes on the tort reform.

This year, everyone I am close to & everyone I work with will get a copy of this book: We the People: A Call to Take Back America by Thom Hartmann. It is a superb book, and should be compulsory reading for everyone over 8. It's written in comic book fashion, so it's a quick read, but it is a basic telling of who we are that everyone should review.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1882109384/qid=1112627734/sr=8-7/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i7_xgl14/002-2349647-1398402?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Your post got me to thinking about ways to get the people I know more active again. Thanks for a great thread! Nominated.


on edit:

"People don't get it" posted by ariellyn:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3418173

This is exactly what I see every day!

http://www.emaki.net/wtp.html
http://www.emaki.net/excerpt.html

Just using one little window alone, the one that says, "We don't want to pay excessive taxes, but we are also fully willing to pay our share for the upkeep of the nation, for safe streets and communities, and for our nation's defense." is the kind of rhetoric that our Democratic spokesmen need to use when it comes to our position on taxes. Too often, we're looked upon as tax goblins, and we never take time to explain in simple language WHY taxes are necessary AND patriotic.

Getting back to the subject of demonstrating in public, I think the computer age has made it too easy for us NOT to do just that. Somehow we need to get our message from our computers and places like our forum and out into the streets because our message is the right one and it needs to be seen by people besides just us.

One thing Bushco is good at is fooling so many people into a state of complacency. I think people need to find a way to get out in numbers to let the country know that this is simply not the case, other than some pockets like yours which you mentioned. Not only does the anger need to be fueled, but the truth does, too.

People at DU have all the right ideas, but we've got to take it a step further somehow and mobilize the masses into the streets carrying signs showing what we've come up with from talking on this forum.

anything, when progressive protests don't seem to get much media attention. I've been guilty of that myself. But since the RW approach is so loud and "in your face," I think we're going to have to speak up more. As it stands now, anyone watching the MSM might easily assume that the RWers are the majority in our country. I don't believe that's the case ... yet.

into thinking that they'll have the upper hand forever. Well, if we find a way to start mobilizing masses of people and start getting noticed in some form or another, we can reverse the trend. We just have to get noticed, so as to get the message out there that the majority of people are NOT satisfied with the chimp, like the right wing wants everyone to believe.

from his speech on 20 May 1965*:

"...before a protest can be approved by responsible leadership, they must answer the following questions:

(1) Do we have a just grievance, or is our purpose merely to create confusion for its own sake, as a form of revenge?
(2) Have we first attempted to eliminate the problem by negotiation, petition and appropriate appeals to authority?
(3) Having found these channels useless or forcibly closed to us when we embark upon any type of lawbreaking, are we prepared to accept the consequences society will inflict and to maintain, even under punishment, a sense of brotherhood?
(4) Do we have a clear program to relieve injustice to ourselves without inflicting injustice upon others, and is that program reasonable and grounded in the ethics and best traditions of our society..?"

(1) and (2) are damn near PERMANENTLY present conditions...we, as an opposition (to what, may be the question...), are wholly lacking (3) and (4) right now...that is why protests, as currently employed, only do so much / not much...

* Listen to the speech here: http://www.videonewswire.com/video.asp?brand=VN&file=2002011601.asf&stream=w

Goes along with another poster's point that protests work because there is a government or media or social conscience that can be appealed to. Also points out that the nature of protest is to be against something. There's usually no visionary aspect.

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=9366

That's why we supported the flier and petition route on the filibuster. We have to go around the media and educate. But, while there should be complete hysteria about the filibuster today, I'm seeing little response.

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=661

but there seems 2 B more vocal, local activity here in SoCal. I know there R many people showing up @ a city council meeting 2morrow night because the council wants 2 close a work center. In another city their is risinf opposition to a huge owntown project. I think people understand that if we don't influence where we live, we have no hope of influencing anything on a national level. I know our DFA group is more involved on a local and state level, politically. We have our state Democratic convention in 2 weeks. Last year not one DFA member was a delegate. This year there R 12!

And, honestly, the last time there was a protest, I had a choice. I could attend the protest, or I could go teach a training for precinct chairs. I chose the latter. I think first you have to organize and draw your progressive community together and network. And then there will be more of a chance for protests to take off.

Just my two cents.

The protest we are now living is one of personal actions. What you buy and where you shop. The information being spread through the net should result in a longer lasting and more effective transformation than mass protests on the streets.

There will come a time when mass protests are just the thing to tip the balance on matters, but right now, most folks would just say WTF is up with that? The Iraqi war protests were proper and well timed, but today there is no one thing that would mobilize the masses.

What we are now doing is showing solidarity and organizing on a one to one level. When another matter comes to the fore needing the masses to take to the streets we will be ready to put them there.

http://www.freewayblogger.com/
Here's how it works:
When you put a sign on the freeway people will read it until someone takes it down.
Depending on its size, content and placement
it can be seen by hundreds of thousands of people.

If you haven't done it lately, you should point out freewayblogger in a new thread. Great signs and my wheels are spinning already ;)

I just heard he's appearing at a hotel fund-raiser in downtown San Francisco and nurses and teachers etc. will turn out to protest the Schwarzenegger beast.

His popularity loss will affect the neo-cons. Let's GO!

Go Cal protesters, more power to you.

:kick:

...with people.

Even a small protest is an opportunity to network. Find allies. Know that you're not alone.

I had a party recently. I called it "Drinking Liberally" and invited every progressive person I know who lives around here. It was a huge success, full of people who normally wouldn't go to a meeting or a protest but here they were: having great conversations with Green party members and anti-war activists. I think a lot of them are more likely to go to a protest or a meeting in the future because they're more comfortable with who's involved.

So...looks like I'll be having more parties.

Each and every little thing we can do will add up, whether it's protesting in public or just spreading the truth every chance you get. Maybe next time you could tell each person coming to your party to invite a couple people they personally know might be interested. You'd either have to buy a bigger house or rent a hall!

and expecting the msm to take notice and report on real issue's is one and the same -- the government obviously has control of what the media reports -- this is a tough one -- got to do a little more think tanking this time around.

to get people out in the streets, is to have small community groups. If these groups meet reguarly, when a protest comes around people have a group to encourage them to go and to go with. Thats how fundies manage to organize their little protests so quickly, they have their church groups who shame each other into going.

I'm being totally serious. How can people waving signs, generally marginalized by politicians and the media as a discontent minority, change public policy? It didn't do a goddamned thing about the Iraq war, and why would it? Are these powerful people who are cruel and brazen enough to lie to make a case to invade another country going to be intimidated by screaming crowds?

In some ways, I question their effectiveness even thirty years ago. Nixon let thousands of people die totally needlessly before accepting a peace agreement that he could have obviously signed four years earlier, yet he was reelected in an overwhelming landslide in every state except Massachusetts; even about half of the youth voters cast their ballots for him.

Protests are fine, but don't exaggerate their influence, lest you too are left heartbroken when they prove futile.

Maybe it didn't END the war, but it let us know that we're not alone in our anti-war sentiment. It let us know that the entire world was with us on this. It let us know that just because we're in the minority in THIS country, it doesn't meant that we're wrong.

We have to do this because I feel we should never give up.

I didn't say that there should be no protest at all. It makes us feel better, to be sure. And it generally does no harm, although I doubt it's coincidental that venues continually give the most incendiary and radical groups prominent space to protest, and the media obviously loves to fixate on extremists in the crowd waving red flags, regardless of whether it genuinely reflects the attendees. Nevertheless, we shouldn't be silent.

But for the sake of our collective sanity, we also shouldn't cling to expectations of actually influencing the evil opportunists and authoritarians in our capitols. Perhaps if we had someone truly charismatic with broad appeal, like MLK, it would be different. I don't know.

Media ownership has changed-- case in point, CNN was ok until they bought off Turner.

Not allowed - not permitted, recently applauded those in California who were slick enough to use the media camera's surrounding the Jackson trial with there "Illegal Iraq War" and "bring the troops home" signs before "someone " (?) picked up on it and made that problem go away.

MSM? total black out..it is truly like the book Farenheit 4.51 we quite
obviously are plagued with a dictatorship government.