TEN THOUSAND BY THE FOURTH OF JULY

TEN THOUSAND BY THE FOURTH FOR JULY!

"The education's free you're looking for, but it's all gone to war. The bombs are heading South, South-East, with a tooth just like a saw."--Edmund Berrigan of I FEEL TRACTOR

For those of you who don't know, there are an estimated 8,000 United States military servicemen and servicewomen who are currently AWOL.

Some people would tell me these 8,000 are cowards, that they deserve to be captured, tried for treason, and sentenced to YEARS in prison. Some would say (some DO say) they should be executed.

I say they are my heroes, these 8,000. They are the REAL heroes of this war.

From the Working Class world I come from, if any of these 8,000 were from my family, they would be shunned. They would be as if they had never been born.

Imagine being a teen, in rural America, NO WORK to speak of, but the Army, or the Marines, which PROMISES you college tuition and Fatherly care. You take it, and with it, you take the BELIEF that you are defending this America. You believe, really believe, you are doing a duty to defend our America, and you can find no fault with this belief.

Then, your country's leaders decide to invade and occupy a sovereign nation, eventually killing some 50,000 innocent people of that country. This does not fit with the jargon of the recruit. This does not fit with your personal PUSH to rationalize the oath. This is not honorable, and you FUCKING KNOW IT! And you decide, DESPITE LOSING YOUR FAMILY, DESPITE HAVING TO BECOME A FUGITIVE FOR WHO KNOWS HOW MANY YEARS, to not go.

These 8,000 are my heroes. I'll repeat this as many times as you need to hear it. Heroes like Stephen Funk, and like Mehmet Tarhan.

Imagine your family never speaking to you again, or at least thinking you're weird, that you're not real, that you're a coward, for the rest of your life. You would almost have to be queer, like me, to understand this. But the truth is, being queer like me, would mean you've already had quite a lot of practice, unlike someone who has PLAYED by the rules, GONE to the prom, CHEERED for the home team on the ball field, and saluted the flag and meant it for your whole life, until now at this critical moment. In some ways, for someone like me it's been easier, the gradual slope of getting with the feel of the pain, the doses of torture. But how difficult is it to question your entire belief in your country (which is now so connected to your family, connected to your idea of Freedom and other fancy fucking bullshit terms these days) in such a brief moment of time? Do you hear what I'm saying? Do you GET how hard it must be?

You have to have REAL courage to CHALLENGE every single thing about your life in order to make the decision to NOT go to Iraq.

You might have to have a major break-through or break-down in order to get there.

You have to be, quite seriously, a brave fucking Soul to make that leap to NOT go.

Thank you for not going, those who did not go. You have sacrificed MUCH.

The best thing we who believe in You who refuse to GO can do for you, is to increase your numbers, to make it as impossible as we possibly can for the Bush administration to hunt you all down and find you all guilty of treason. We must encourage others to say NO. We must encourage others to make the same sacrifices you have made to say NO. As many as possible saying NO.

For the sake of all you FEEL for Life, you must say NO.

I remember watching the news the NIGHT BEFORE the Dow Jones (Tao Jones for some, especially those crazy fuckers on the news that night) hit 10,000 for the first time in history. People (and by people I mean rich people) were acting like we were about to land on the fucking edge of Heaven itself. Like the space shuttle missed it's target and discovered where God lives and does his evil. They were SO happy. It gave me a creepy, slimy, AWFUL feeling watching them react. I KNEW it was bad news for me and my family, and my extra-extended family of poor, and working poor. These fucking creeps were just WAY TOO happy if you know what I mean.

But my point is, LET'S have our OWN celebration of HITTING 10,000!

Let's help bring those 8,000 brave Souls an extra 2,000 by the 4th of July.

Let's starve those BASTARDS who invested in Haliburton three years ago JUST before the war started and are now filthy rich on the blood spilled on the desert.

Fuck John Kerry and Hillary Clinton (both of whom REALLY DID vote FOR the Patriot Act VERY RECENTLY to be made PERMANENT!) and their "exit strategies." Fuck all "exit strategies," let's help persuade everyone to NOT go as a strategy!

Let's STOP this machine.

Let's do it by supporting the men and women who are fugitives in their (our) own country. Let's all give them what they need in order to increase their numbers of brave Souls, to confuse Washington, to disrupt the White House, to end the madness we have begun as a nation.

Let's take this step together, please! It is evil, what we have done. If you pay your taxes, as I pay my taxes, we have bought many, many bullets together you and I, which have killed tens of thousands of lives. Together, let's stop the murder we have supported.

CAConrad

posted by poet CAConrad @ 12:38 AM