We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The undisputed person of the year

Click here to access article by Eamonn McCann from Socialist Worker.

Certainly the man of year for activists is Bradley Manning for exposing heinous war crimes. We need to ask ourselves what we would do in the circumstances he faced.
What would any of us do? We might hope we'd risk the wrath of a government involved in war crimes and cover-ups, and tell the people the truth.
It says a lot about the nature of the Empire when people like former Sen. John C. Stennis are memorialized with his name on an aircraft carrier. With all the press coverage Chris Kyle is receiving from mainstream media, I would not be surprised if he were not designated as person of the year.
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