Don't Give in to the Machine!

I've been talking a lot about the upcoming Revolution here in amerika. I have to tell you, I'm stoked about it! Some people I've spoken to jump right on board, are ready to go, but most...well, not so much. So many people point out that we are such a large and spread out country compared to Tunisia, Egypt, Spain, Greece, etcetera. I agree that has made large protests harder to organize, but look at the numbers we've racked up at the kapitol for other causes (go on, look! I posted a bunch here!). Many good people I have spoken to sigh and admit that they have little faith that enough people will show up. To them I say, if you don't show up, then maybe you're right! But why surrender and be a part of the problem? I understand how one gets to be burnt out and pessimistic. It can be exhausting going to anti-war protest after anti-war protest (for example) and seeing nothing change. You know they want us to give up, and if we do, than they win. The Machine wins. Don't let the Machine win! The Machine has so many tools they use to keep us down! Even the "liberal" media constantly reminds us that we should not have faith in our fellow americans, that americans are stupid and lazy and don't care about anything but themselves. Look around at the people you actually know--this is not true! The Machine thrives on this pessimism, this hopelessness. It thrives on drug addiction, poverty crime, and so many of the problems they pretend to be fighting. It thrives on fear, filling up the jails with all our revolutionaries. The mainstream media is a tool used against us--filling us with fear, self-doubt, self-hate, despair, misinformation, and distracting us with bullshit capitalist desires...most everybody gets stuck in this trap sometimes. But to sit at home and go about your daily routine because you don't have faith our fellow humans, well, that is giving in to the Machine. This is why YOU need to show up on October 6, 2011 and protest with the rest of us at Freedom Plaza in D.C.! This is why we need to spread the word and be very persuasive, enthusiastic, Optimistic. Give those burnt out and pessimistic potential activists the push they need to join in the Revolution! All of us can be leaders. All of us can be Revolutionaries.
In Solidarity,
Coco Pan.

As Mario Savio said in 1964:
 

  ...Those words have an even greater urgency today. We face ongoing wars and massive socio-economic and environmental destruction perpetrated by a corporate empire which is oppressing, occupying and exploiting the world. We are on a fast track to making the planet unlivable while the middle class and poor people of our country are undergoing the most wrenching and profound economic crisis in 80 years.

"Stop the Machine! • Create a New World!" is a clarion call for all who are deeply concerned with injustice, militarism and environmental destruction to join in ending concentrated corporate power and taking direct control of a real participatory democracy. We will encourage a culture of resistance—using music, art, theater and direct nonviolent action—to take control of our country and our lives. It is about courageously resisting and stopping the corporate state from destroying not only our inherent rights and freedoms, but also our children’s chance to live, breathe clean air, drink pure water, grow edible natural food and live in peace. --from October2011.org's call to action.

Protesters will gather the morning of October 6 on Freedom Plaza, located at the corner of 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The plaza is named in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., who worked on his "I Have a Dream" speech in the nearby Willard Hotel. Demands of the protesters will include ending the illegal war in Afghanistan, ending corporate control over people and government, human rights, health care for all, economic justice, and the environment. Many believe that this will be the most massive protest in U.S. history to date.

History of Mother's Day: Mother's Day for Peace!

Did you know that Mother's Day began as a Mother's Day for Peace? Read Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclomation here:
Arise, Then, All Women Who Have Hearts! | Common Dreams
This article points out that Americans spend $14 billion on flowers, chocolates, and trinkets for Mother's Day. Oh, capitalism. The Common Dreams article by Abby Zimet provides some alternative ideas of where to put your money--organizations that help mothers around the world. More on that here: www.mothersdaymovement.org.

In 1870, Julia Ward Howe published the Mother's Day Proclamation, a manifesto against the the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. Julia Ward Howe believed that women have a responsibility to shape our societies at the political level. Her manifesto called for an international congress of women:

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.


Here is a beautiful prayer calling on the spirit of Julia Ward Howe in this time of war.  
...Mother Julia, remind us
that every life has inherent worth,
that each person had a mother somewhere.
Help us to use this moment for self-reflection,
that we might grow and evolve...


Left is a photograph of Jane Addams and another woman upholding Julia Ward Howe's vision of Mother's Day for Peace.

Here is an article from National Geographic on Anna Jarvis, Julia Ward Howe, and the history of mother's day.


This tradition still carries on in some communities. Yesterday in Dorchester, Massachusetts, thousands joined in the Mother's Day Walk for Peace.

CodePink calls for the U.S. to pull out of Afghanistan (here is their petition to the president) and provide their modern interpretation of Julia Ward Howe's proclamation.

Another Mother for Peace was founded in 1967 in opposition to the Vietnam War. Here is their proclomation, A Pax Materna:

I join with my sisters in every land

In the Pax Materna--

A permanent declaration of peace

That transcends our ideological differences.

In the nuclear shadow, war is obsolete.

I will no longer suffer it in silence

Nor sustain it by complicity.

They shall not send my son

To fight another mother's son.

For now, forever, there is no mother

Who is enemy to another mother.

 Gloria Steinem, Vanessa Williams, Felicity Huffman, Fatma Saleh, Alfre Woodard, Ashraf Salimian, Christine Lahti and Mother's Day for Peace talk about the origin of Mother's Day by Julia Ward Howe as a protest against war. www.mothersdayforpeace.com

Disarm, Disarm! 

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