[HCCN] Fwd: Action to Expose the Lies for Escalation in Afghanistan

[Judith Robbins]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dud Hendrick <dudhe at myfairpoint.net>
>
>
> Watchfires of Freedom
>
> Political Action to Expose the Lies for Escalation in Afghanistan
>
>
>
> On Thursday, December 17th at 5 pm in front of the Federal Building  
> in Bangor non-partisan activists from across the state will  
> replicate “Watchfires of Freedom” in protest of President Obama’s  
> policies and speeches.  In this, the first of several planned  
> ceremonies, the group will protest the escalation of the war in  
> Afghanistan, re-enacting the model of women suffragettes, who  
> burned the hypocritical words of President Woodrow Wilson in front  
> of the White House in 1919.  Wilson had lectured in Europe,  
> extolling the virtues of democracy, while at home women were denied  
> the right to vote.
>
>
>
> President Obama’s speech was full of fabrication and falsehood  
> designed to win public approval for the continuation and  
> enlargement of this misguided war. Obama has now committed more  
> soldiers and more money to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than  
> the Bush Administration. We will read sections of the speech,  
> expose the lies, and then burn the words in a small urn. Our use of  
> fire is metaphoric. Fire purifies and transfigures. We will be  
> demonstrating our disrespect for official lies and explaining how  
> they actively betray our Constitution, our democracy, our soldiers  
> and the cause of peace.
>
>
>
> Robert Shetterly, one of the organizers of this event, has written:
>
> We are here today not to advance the agenda of any political party.  
> Our agenda is democracy and truth. It’s an old truism to say that  
> the first casualty of war is truth. It might equally be said that  
> the first casualty of untruth is democracy. Democracy is a sacred  
> trust. That trust must burn with the pure, transparent clarity of a  
> flame. If a democracy is really to be of, by and for the people,  
> the people can only take on its responsibility if they know  
> everything their elected officials know. How else, then, can they  
> make decisions to devote their precious lives and resources to  
> solving their common problems?  Elected officials who employ fear,  
> patriotism, propaganda, secrecy, and false history to mislead their  
> own people have betrayed democracy.
>
> Unfortunately, President Barack Obama in his speech of December 1,  
> 2009 calling for the escalation of the War in Afghanistan, used  
> multiple duplicities about the present and the past to make his  
> case for expending more blood and money.
>
> While the style of our president is articulate and persuasive, his  
> content is hypocritical and purposely misleading. Our intent is to  
> burn the lies and shed light on the truth. George Orwell said,  
> “When deceit becomes universal, telling the truth becomes a  
> revolutionary act.”  If truth is war’s first casualty, then telling  
> the truth must be the harbinger of peace and justice.
>
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mainetalk.org/pipermail/hccn_mainetalk.org/attachments/20091213/6098bd15/attachment.html>