Peace IS Patriotic

With the upcoming Fourth of July celebrations, it's time to start reclaiming the meaning of the holiday. In case people have forgotten the meaning in the current swarm of fireworks as simulated bombings and, explosions, the smarmy excuses for hatred wrapped in the flag, and the hijacking of the term "Patriotism" to abuse many of us into submission, it was to celebrate the birth of our country and the leaving behind of religious intolerance, monarchy rule, and unfair taxation on the backs of the poor.

Here's what we need to reclaim in order to get our country back and restore our true independence:

1. Quit glorifying war. It only makes the munitions makers and arms dealers wealthier and does nothing for peace, democracy, and spreading tolerance for one another around the world. You can start by taking back the word "Peace." The right wing warmongers have turned this into a nasty four-letter word to further their own political agenda without taking into account it will be their children and grandchildren who will die in dirty little wars as a result of their ancestor's stupidity. Peace is all that will save us from the Cheneys of the world. Wear Peace. Display Peace. Speak Peace. Live Peace. By doing so you will be doing your part to put the warmongers back under their rocks of hatred where they will stink up only each other's space and not the rest of the world's.

2. Repeat after me. Peace is Patriotic. Those who tell you differently are too blinded by their own hatred to see the truth. They wrap themselves in the flag and think it will protect them from the consequences of their behavior. They have foolishly been led to believe that a piece of cloth can make up for loss of integrity, the endorsement of torture, spying on Americans who have done nothing wrong, wars fought for oil and profit instead of honor and security, and spreading hate as if it were something than shit that will eventually bury them no matter what color the shroud used to wrap around their decaying bodies. It is up to you to get the message out there that Peace is the highest form of Patriotism because it doesn't depend on killing or imprisoning or torturing someone to get them to believe what you do. A nation that tolerates and expects equality and diversity is a peaceful nation.

3. Fight back against the mono-theistic blindness that a small minority in this country is trying to inflict on everyone else. Yes, the Supreme Court has ruled that you can't challenge Bushco's faith-based crap programs. But you can fight back by expanding the meaning of faith to include other belief systems besides wacko fundamentalism that spreads and encourages and funds hatred of anyone who does not belong to that particular cult. If you are a Buddhist, a Wiccan, a Pagan, a flower worshipping cat loving peacemonger, then it is your obligation to get your beliefs defined as faith and eligible for federal dollars. Make this biased Supreme Court stacked with Bush fundies tell millions of you that your beliefs are not valid, not equal, and not part of the religious freedom guaranteed by the laws they are sworn to uphold. Demand that your beliefs are given equal status, equal money, equal respect. Start schools and day cares and after-school sessions that the fundies are using to rake in the dollars and make your beliefs equal to what they are using to get those dollars. Make this hypocritical government go on record trying to prove that what one group believes has more or less validity than another. That's what our ancestors fought and died for. Are you going to sit back and let their deaths and sacrifices become meaningless in the face of religious wackos and their big, greedy hands sucking all the funds for themselves and their political agendas?

4. Bring Democracy to America. This means reining in Cheney and the rest of Bushco. Contact your congressional representatives and make your voice heard. Let them know your vote depends on their actions. Let them know they can no longer let someone like Cheney control the fate of this country. Let them know you are paying attention and will continue to pay attention. Get loud and get heard.

5. This fourth of July, don't cringe from Patriotism. Reclaim it. Clean it up and make it shine again. Make Peace, Tolerance, Diversity, and Democracy a good thing again. Wear a button, a shirt, send a card, make a poster. Do what it takes but do something because your silence implies consent and is that a good thing for your grandchildren to one day believe about you?

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Changing minds one t-shirt at a time. Visit Ursine Logic for more designs.

Peace IS Patriotic

Barack Obama and Al Gore For President

My dream ticket for President has once again shifted to what will probably remain in place for a while now because it fits what I want. That ticket is Barack Obama and Al Gore. The reason I have Gore second is because I think he would be more effective as a Vice-President. As Cheney has proven with his backroom deals and strong-arm manipulations, you can get more done while others are looking elsewhere...like at the President instead of you.

The difference is that Al Gore, unlike Cheney, is a man of conscience and principles. You can't be selfish and still devote your life to something like Global Warming. Before real Science began its slow comeback and started knocking the junk science/oil company propaganda "theories" off the shelf, he might as well have gone around saying he was abducted by aliens. People nodded politely and backed away from him with fear in their eyes.

There are some who still do, the pathetic brain-washed pulpit pets who wouldn't know an original thought if it whacked them upside their religious crap addled pea brains. But those people will never vote for a Democrat. They'll continue to follow their idiot leaders right off the cliff. The ones that did manage to make their way to the voting booths based on hate crumbs will not find their way back once they realize the GOP front runners are no longer pandering to them the way they did before Jerry "Dick in a box" Falwell was alive to translate for them. And once the rapture comes and takes them away, we'll have our country back anyways.

I want a Vice-President that I and the rest of the world can respect. Al Gore gained my respect with "Earth In the Balance." I've always respected visionaries who can back up what they see with some hard facts and he did that in his book. His theories have not only withstood the test of time, they've been proven to be exactly what he said they were, unlike the right wing wackos and their hallucinations about dinosaurs riding around on arks.

This is the kind of man who can bring honor and dignity back to the Vice-President's office because he doesn't need it anymore than he needs the Presidency. He's already had power, he's already had fame, he's already had respect. So the office is safe from those kind of political machinations that will leave the kind of dirty brown shit stain on it after Cheney leaves. Al Gore can do more as Vice-President to reverse Global Warming and Climate change than he could ever do with all the obligations of the Presidential office.

My reason for wanting Obama as President is because I believe in him. I believe that he is a good man. I believe that he honestly does not want war, does not need war to pump himself up so others will see him as a man instead of an idiot like Duh-bya. Obama won't embarrass us by marching around in a flight suit he did not earn the privilege of wearing. He won't act like the ignorant uncle bubba who had one beer too many and started fist fights with foreign countries. He will restore dignity to the office of the President. He will be a good, honest and caring President with the courage of his convictions. I define strength as standing up to the war machine when all the bought and paid for presstitutes and their handlers are screaming for war and Obama had the courage to do so. That alone tells me has the courage needed to be a good president.

But my main reason, shallow though it may sound, is that this country needs a symbolic turnaround for the rest of the world to believe we are really trying to take our country back from the crazies. We've gone backwards in time by allowing the American version of the Taliban to do our public speaking for us. So many in the world not only perceive us as violent and oppressive war-mongering invaders, they also see us as religious fruitcakes not much different than other religious extremists like the Taliban and Al Queda. When you have TV Evangelists defining foreign policy for the Moron-In-Chief, you tend to lose world respect as a country. Extremism is extremism no matter what holy book it uses to excuse its extremism.

So it comes down to this: I like both candidates equally. I think both would be great for the country and for the world. But I think a really bad symbolic act would be to have a Rich, White, Southern Christian male as President and a black man as his VP. Even if we know in our hearts that the relationship between them would not be anything less than total equals, the symbolism is counter-productive to the image we are trying to re frame to the world. And because of the damage done by Bushco we have to fix our image first before we can move forward. Anything less than an Obama Presidency will say we are ready for more of the same under a different name. Only Obama can truly be the face of change the rest of the world wants to see.

That is why we need Obama as our first black President and Gore as our Vice-President. Together they make a team dedicated to peace because one had the courage to stand up to the warmongers and the other actually served in a war so he understands first hand the necessity of keeping us out and getting us out of another one. They are both intelligent, educated men who don't have to resort to simple-minded bible quotes and threats to run a country. They will lead us into the new age with honor, dignity, and pride of accomplishment.

It will not happen overnight, but between them there's quite a few presidential elections to win in the future. I truly believe that together they will move us forward so the damn dinosaurs can get off that stupid ark and get back to their tar pits where they belong and we can get our country back.

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Changing minds one t-shirt at a time. Visit Ursine Logic for more designs.

Barack Obama and Al Gore For President