Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Journalists Arrested

I have only a few minutes before I need to get ready for work, and I had wanted to write about our visit to the hospital yesterday and dinner with friends last night, but I feel compelled to say something about the arrest of Amy Goodman and two producers of Democracy Now!

The three journalists were violently arrested yesterday in St. Paul while covering protests at the Republican National Convention. You can watch Nicole Salazar being arrested at 0:29 here.

If you find that abhorant (and if you don't, please ask yourself why not), what are you going to do? What did we, myself included, do when the Supreme Court overrode the will of the people and elected George Bush in 2000? What did we do, after saying we'd move to Canada if he were reelected, in 2004? The government of the United States monitors 90% of the communications in the country. It tortures and detains without trial those who it pleases without any oversight. Journalists are being violently arrested. Wealth is being transfered from the poor to the rich and our youth are being killed, dismembered and psychologically tortured in Iraq and Afghanistan in illegal wars.

At what point will we step out of our comfortable lives and rise up to bring about change?

Well, I gotta go to work. Then I'll be tired and probably want to go to bed, maybe after an episode of the Daily Show. Then I'll do the same tomorrow. My bank account will grow by a few dollars, and I'll continue to live in the absolute comfort that modern civilization produces, that we've all come to expect and that satiates us all.

1 comment:

Anjole said...

This kind of action isn't new. In fact, it is recreate '68 in action and reality! What we can do is speak up and make people aware. Let's see how this is covered in mainstream press. I got it from Alternet.