For years Gerald Celente's Peace & Freedom rally in Kingston, New York has been a summer fixture for Hudson Valley peace activists. Today its future is in doubt.
Part of the problem is that we are all getting older, Scott. I reported on antiwar, peace and social justice events in Iowa and beyond for some 20 years for Washington Report on Middle East Affairs beginning in the late ‘90s. One evening post-9/11 I was surprised to hear an NPR commentator tell his national audience that Iowa was home to America’s largest antiwar community. Sad to say, those days are long gone though there is still a dedicated group of activists in Iowa including some younger people. Many if not most of those who were influential and involved 10 or 15 years ago have simply aged out. The pandemic took a toll, then the Ukraine War split the community for a time.
If we want to encourage more participation by young adults we must create events where young people are front and center on stage. I suggest that organizers look to the activists who are now participating in the GSF for many younger leaders and speakers. The flotilla is in the vanguard! There are today’s and tomorrow’s leaders, and they are showing that they have what it takes.
You are so right. I think Scott and friends need to find young people with the same views, and promote them as a master does a student and the simple fact is that Scott, Gerald and many more are masters in their fields of knowledge and experience. Maybe we can also help by introducing Scott and Co to those whom we personally know are young, bright, and eager to be trained by the best to keep the fire of goodness alight in these very dark times.
Maybe Scott and Co could set up some kind of recommendation service we can promote those we know to them for an online (closed interview to start) then if all goes well, they can then be introduced through Scott, Alexandra, Gerald and many associated experts. There must be a way to encourage younger people to carry on the hard work which has been put into this, as I think many who may be interested may feel they do not have the confidence or skills to engage, even if they fully agree with everything Scott says.
I would do more myself if I had the age and confidence, and would like to mirror Scott's efforts in the UK, but I am 58, with emphysema, Unstable Angina, leaking lower left mitral valve, and dire living conditions. I long for an opportunity, but have zero confidence.
I'll stream it if it's online though which it was last year, can't wait for it the best speakers, and of course, the judge and yourself to say the least!
I listened to the rally online and donated to occupy peacd
peace.
I also subscribe to your substack and russia house and listen to you almost daily.
Please allow me to offer one (and only one) criticism. That is your liberal use of the F word in some of your talks.
Now I am not prude. I was a 19 month Marine corps grunt in Vietnam (I corps).
But I noticed that some of the women at the peace rally didn't look too happy when you were salty with the language. Frankly it sounds immature. It takes away from your brilliance.
Ok..that's it. Carry on Marine! I've learned a lot from you.
Scott Ritter has that tendency in his character to insult those who supported him, if they dare slightly to criticise him on minor issues. Thereby he mirrors the mentality of any US government in general, if anyone dares to criticise America for its falsehood, corruption, cruelty and imperialism.
I call it "The Big Balls Syndrome".
Immature self-righteousness.
Many Europeans consider the inevitable decline of the USA as bad karma.
Sad to say, I too share the view that Scott too frequently insults the people who support him and takes offense at the questions his supporters ask. I'm an "older" woman who, if I say so myself, still has a lot of "snap." Every woman to whom I've recommended Scott's podcasts has told me that they were turned off by his angry outbursts. This saddens me, because Scott has so much knowledge and such a strong commitment to the cause of peace, but I think he shoots himself in the foot by acting so contemptuous of his audience.
I agree that Scott is super knowledgeable and committed, and I understand his frustration, but I wanted to share how he comes across to many people whom he might otherwise reach. I doubt that will change. I've been following him for many years (first met him at a Ron Paul's peace conference in DC many years ago), but there are times when even I simply can't bear to listen to him for very long.
While it is important to fight these smaller battles, we must not lose sight of the true enemy, the private Cartel of Central Bankers that control the wealth and political will of the West (They've got us by the short hairs!)
The root cause of this situation is the system of various districts that permit Special Interests to seize control of our Country.
In a true Republic, the States and Counties would be directly represented in Congress, the Counties in the House, and the States in the Senate. This would atomize the power once held by Special Interests.
Republics are not controlled by the people and these people in the States finally know it. What you're fighting is APATHY. Nobody or few feel they can change the true rulers of this nation's government and a lot see that EVERY DAY they loose even more possibility of making an impact.
You must convince them with people and examples that have made a difference this year or last. It's difficult to see any movement in the correct direction. The "US First" promise is something that should be capitalized on. That is a betrayal by this country that has people angry and they must see that the government is putting their "Masters First" and NOT their voters or constituents.
People have to be ultra motivated when they feel ignored, ridiculed and then beaten with truncheons, as well as exhausted by the Monetary policies that are stealing most of the value of their work so that they need to work double time to keep up. It's a tired and beaten feeling on top of the media lying to them all the time. Constant and relentless propaganda is also doing a lot of damage. Whole families have stopped talking to each other since 2016 and the silly Culture Wars once sane people are dangerously embracing.
I have siblings that are afraid of trans people though they have never in their entire lives met or know of one in their circles. You can blame that on Liberals, but those Liberals are only doing as they're told just as the Conservatives are by their Masters. It's the "Good Cop vs Bad Cop" play acting that all parties are doing to Divide and Conquer. The Oligarchy had used this strawberry l strategy since the Greek Empire.
Scott, I was able to watch the Occupy Peace & Freedom rally on Judge Napolitano’s YouTube Channel as I do everyday during the week. I really wanted to attend to hear first hand but being in Chicago and 80 years old I could not make it. However I would like to offer a few comments.
I suppose it’s unrealistic to have Erika Kirk attend the rally as that probably would have drawn a younger larger crowd. I loved seeing Roger Waters and his new song/video “Samud”. I have seen Pink Floyd many times when they played in Chicago. I’m surprised that his video didn’t draw more youths.
What surprised me is that the venue from my perspective was very physically small. I’m not sure where you could have more attendees sitting, but perhaps it would be possible.
I was surprised that your A-list lineup of speakers did not include Judge Napolitano’s name. Also I did not see him in the crowd after he spoke. I guess you did mention that some of the speakers left after they had spoken.
Today I looked for the broadcast rerun on Judge Napolitano’s YouTube channel, but could not find it. Another thing very strange happened during the live broadcast. The YouTube broadcast was split in 2 parts, but when the first part ended the second part was no where to be found? I was able to locate it by switching to a different hardware device. Here is where you can find both if it is still available:
Scott, I love your passion and everything you bring to Judge Napolitano’s YouTube channel “Judging Freedom”. Also I have seen you on many other YouTube channels to which I subscribe. Thanks for all you do and I pray that you can get more boots on the ground. I’ll be sure to send my donation.
I'm 80. From the age of 15 or so I've been anti-war, peace loving left liberal who for two years volunteered with wife and two small children in newly independent Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, the right, financed largely by Zionist Jews and their lackeys have been bribing manipulating their way into power, the most recent example being starmer advocating Corbyn policies when campaigning for UK Labour leadership while being secretly funded by ardent pro Israel Jewish banker Trevor Chinn. Until more people come out and state the obvious that zionist Jews are a threat to humanity they will continue to murder. and maim anyone in their way.
As Professor Shahak & Professor Mezvinski wrote three decades ago in their article 'Jewish Fundamentalism' .."similarities between the Jewish political messianic trend and German Nazism are glaring" .... but I doubt even they didn't realise the level of depravity, barbarity, cruelty, lying, deceit, manipulation, bribery, corruption they were capable of.
Tis the reality that the sixties essentially failed to bring peace love and music to the masses minus the Incarceration, drugged alocoholism, and perversion.
Anotherwords. The bad guys won.
I went to jail no less than half a dozen times when I ran for mayor of SF two thousand seven, Gruesome won.
We have lost the peace, the yellow press supports war. The pictures of dead bodies from Vietnam are banned from the false coverage of UkroNam.
No one can pretend there is democracy, if the desired outcome don't have a chance of being allowed anywhere, outside Russia. Ironically.
So there it is
We lost . We lost the peace, which means we will get war.
We lost the whole war of the scamdemic Harmacide.
It is nearly legal to kill folks as long as tis more than a few at a time.
Truth is the first casualty of war.
Gerald says when all else fails the take you to war
We've already lost
Digital virtual fakebooks fuckerbwrgs bots don't need more care for peace, love, and happiness.
Go to an AA meeting, that's the closest we gonna get to peace in these days of despair.
The revolution failed. we lose.
We allow mass homelessness and incarceration.
Solitary isolation .
No one really cares if we save our planet, we weren't using it anyway, so Nevermind.
Thanks Scott.
All the folks at every antiwar thing I went to were older than me .
I read that Cat Stevens just had to cancel his American tour that was to begin on Thursday. Because he was unable to get visas for his staff. The empire is doing everything it can to derail the peace train.
Scott. You, Celente, and the others on Judging Freedom are true American heroes. You put everything on the line to do the right thing. This trait is going extinct. Further, it is not valued or admired by most Americans. CRAZY. This is not the America I grew up believing in. It took a while for me to accept this but once you see the truth there is no turning back. I pray for you and for all the other outspoken patriots like you. And I pray for America. Best, Cole
First, thank you for your service. Scott, you already have the answer, we are a distinct minority, those not brainwashed by corporate captured media. We are a sick and tired population, even the young are debilitated with our poor quality food, dirty environments and the pharmaceutical schedule that the majority of young and old are advertised into. The crowd that shows are OLD people and a good percentage won't be alive or well enough to attend next year. The peace and environmental movements were divided and decimated decades ago, even Gerald's occupy Peace is just a sideline for his media company, but I do salute him for doing the right thing. I tried to find the live links to the rally that morning to send out and looked at the first three pages of Google search without finding them. The powers are blocking the peaceful from getting together.
I'm looking at the attendance as a success after seeing how many show up at other peace rallies in Kingston and Albany and Poughkeepsie. Not sure if occupy Peace would generate a large crowd of supporters if it were a full time organization with the media ignoring and most people distracted and not knowing which news is truthful or not. Thanks for all your US/Russia common sense, we need more. They will keep lying and we will keep yelling at our computer screens, let's hope our kids figure a way out, their lives depend on it. Peace now!
Thanks, Scott for all that you do. I sent a small donation, but one financial factor is that 60% of the population is living pay check to pay check. Another factor is the corrupt corporate media that doesn't tell the truth about events. If there were graphic photos of blown up and maimed children everyday in the news, there might be a different reaction.The number one step is to break up the 3-6 media conglomerates that are controlled by the military and bankers. There also needs to be publicly funded elections and automatic inclusion in debates for any candidate who is polling 2% or more. Finally, we had a peace candidate in Jill Stein and she was not enthusiastically supported by you, Gerald and most other peace advocates. ?????. Dennis Kucinich would be a great candidate who could win if the above issues were addressed first.
What motivated the mass protests against the Vietnam War?
1. Young men like myself were being drafted, (I would call it being kidnapped by the federal government), and dying in Vietnam. Body bags filled with the remains of these young men were seen on American tv, newspapers and magazines almost on a daily basis. So enlightened self interest and a repulsion at being treated like cannon fodder, the awareness that conscription was just another way that the politicians tell us "we own you! You are not free!" moved us young folks in those days. Mass protest ensued and many young men publicly burned their draft cards or escaped to Canada or went to prison as did Mohammed Ali.
2. At the same time young blacks and whites were mass protesting against Jim Crow laws in the South led by people like Martin Luther King, Malcom X and others. This was the Civil Rights movement of the '60s.
3. While the the Civil Rights Movement reached it's apex in 1964 and succeeded in eliminating Jim Crow laws, and while the US government was ramping up the Vietnam War in the same year, the free speech movement was born on the UCLA campus at Berkeley in response to university restrictions of political activities and speech on campus.
4. The American major media at this time still exhibited independence from the state, still true to its purpose as evidenced by the public exposure of the Pentagon Papers by the NY Times.
These historical events with the support of a relatively free press combined to energize each other. They were each fighting and protesting against oppressive state institutions: a lying war mongering federal executive branch, a legally enforced segregation in the South, and anti free speech policies in the universities and colleges.
In each of these events the protesters had much skin in the game. They were motivated by the threat to their life or freedom. Nothing like this exists today.especially with regards to the incessant war mongering. The young have no skin in the game, there is no draft... yet; and American servicemen are not dying in droves as they were in Vietnam. Now the US government buys corrupt leaders in other countries to force their own people to fight and die for the US government. The major news media is now wholly in the pocket of the political elite whose purpose is to gaslight, confuse and turn Americans against each other, shut down debate and discussion of important and controversial issues, and when necessary murder anyone who stands in their way.
Does voting really matter? Is there any difference between Tweedle dee and Tweedle dum(b)?Is democracy bringing us peace and prosperity? Does it give us effective or simply illusory control over this out of control government of ours? Do we judge each other by our character and not by the color of our skin as Martin Luther King hoped for?
In 1964 I and most of us still believed in the democratic state. Now I think the institution known as the state, any state, is by nature the enemy of human freedom; with the democratic state being akin to the sirens of the Odyssey, those seductive women who lead sailors to their death with their bewitching songs.
Today we are in the throes of an Orwellian universe. In 1964, "1984" was still just a novel.
Scott... I sense your frustration, but despair not. Change seems to only depend on a small percent of our fellow humans to occur - it just has to be the right cohort and you and Gerald are in that group!
Robert E. Lee's words come to mind:
“My experiences of men has neither disposed me to think worse of them nor be indisposed to serve them: nor, in spite of failures which I lament, of errors which I now see and acknowledge, or the present aspect of affairs, do I despair of the future. The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow and our desires so impatient; the work of progress so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope. ”
The "wave" may ebb from time to time, but in the long run, it always advances... Peace and hope!
Part of the problem is that we are all getting older, Scott. I reported on antiwar, peace and social justice events in Iowa and beyond for some 20 years for Washington Report on Middle East Affairs beginning in the late ‘90s. One evening post-9/11 I was surprised to hear an NPR commentator tell his national audience that Iowa was home to America’s largest antiwar community. Sad to say, those days are long gone though there is still a dedicated group of activists in Iowa including some younger people. Many if not most of those who were influential and involved 10 or 15 years ago have simply aged out. The pandemic took a toll, then the Ukraine War split the community for a time.
If we want to encourage more participation by young adults we must create events where young people are front and center on stage. I suggest that organizers look to the activists who are now participating in the GSF for many younger leaders and speakers. The flotilla is in the vanguard! There are today’s and tomorrow’s leaders, and they are showing that they have what it takes.
Keep up your good work, brother!
Free Palestine!
You are so right. I think Scott and friends need to find young people with the same views, and promote them as a master does a student and the simple fact is that Scott, Gerald and many more are masters in their fields of knowledge and experience. Maybe we can also help by introducing Scott and Co to those whom we personally know are young, bright, and eager to be trained by the best to keep the fire of goodness alight in these very dark times.
Maybe Scott and Co could set up some kind of recommendation service we can promote those we know to them for an online (closed interview to start) then if all goes well, they can then be introduced through Scott, Alexandra, Gerald and many associated experts. There must be a way to encourage younger people to carry on the hard work which has been put into this, as I think many who may be interested may feel they do not have the confidence or skills to engage, even if they fully agree with everything Scott says.
I would do more myself if I had the age and confidence, and would like to mirror Scott's efforts in the UK, but I am 58, with emphysema, Unstable Angina, leaking lower left mitral valve, and dire living conditions. I long for an opportunity, but have zero confidence.
We all wish we could do more. I suffer from anemia that resists my doctors’ efforts. Even so, those like you and I still have roles to play. Sumud.
I love you guys. Gerald is the best.!
Peace everywhere!
I wish I was at the rally coming up in Kingston.
I'll stream it if it's online though which it was last year, can't wait for it the best speakers, and of course, the judge and yourself to say the least!
I listened to the rally online and donated to occupy peacd
peace.
I also subscribe to your substack and russia house and listen to you almost daily.
Please allow me to offer one (and only one) criticism. That is your liberal use of the F word in some of your talks.
Now I am not prude. I was a 19 month Marine corps grunt in Vietnam (I corps).
But I noticed that some of the women at the peace rally didn't look too happy when you were salty with the language. Frankly it sounds immature. It takes away from your brilliance.
Ok..that's it. Carry on Marine! I've learned a lot from you.
Scott Ritter has that tendency in his character to insult those who supported him, if they dare slightly to criticise him on minor issues. Thereby he mirrors the mentality of any US government in general, if anyone dares to criticise America for its falsehood, corruption, cruelty and imperialism.
I call it "The Big Balls Syndrome".
Immature self-righteousness.
Many Europeans consider the inevitable decline of the USA as bad karma.
I don't view scott ritter like that.
Sad to say, I too share the view that Scott too frequently insults the people who support him and takes offense at the questions his supporters ask. I'm an "older" woman who, if I say so myself, still has a lot of "snap." Every woman to whom I've recommended Scott's podcasts has told me that they were turned off by his angry outbursts. This saddens me, because Scott has so much knowledge and such a strong commitment to the cause of peace, but I think he shoots himself in the foot by acting so contemptuous of his audience.
I don't mind him getting angry but he needs to watch.His language Especially when there's women in the audience
. I don't mind him getting angry because he's a passionate guy and that comes through and I like that. In my opinion scott is number one.
I agree that Scott is super knowledgeable and committed, and I understand his frustration, but I wanted to share how he comes across to many people whom he might otherwise reach. I doubt that will change. I've been following him for many years (first met him at a Ron Paul's peace conference in DC many years ago), but there are times when even I simply can't bear to listen to him for very long.
Long live scott ritter.
While it is important to fight these smaller battles, we must not lose sight of the true enemy, the private Cartel of Central Bankers that control the wealth and political will of the West (They've got us by the short hairs!)
The root cause of this situation is the system of various districts that permit Special Interests to seize control of our Country.
In a true Republic, the States and Counties would be directly represented in Congress, the Counties in the House, and the States in the Senate. This would atomize the power once held by Special Interests.
There is more.
Republics are not controlled by the people and these people in the States finally know it. What you're fighting is APATHY. Nobody or few feel they can change the true rulers of this nation's government and a lot see that EVERY DAY they loose even more possibility of making an impact.
You must convince them with people and examples that have made a difference this year or last. It's difficult to see any movement in the correct direction. The "US First" promise is something that should be capitalized on. That is a betrayal by this country that has people angry and they must see that the government is putting their "Masters First" and NOT their voters or constituents.
People have to be ultra motivated when they feel ignored, ridiculed and then beaten with truncheons, as well as exhausted by the Monetary policies that are stealing most of the value of their work so that they need to work double time to keep up. It's a tired and beaten feeling on top of the media lying to them all the time. Constant and relentless propaganda is also doing a lot of damage. Whole families have stopped talking to each other since 2016 and the silly Culture Wars once sane people are dangerously embracing.
I have siblings that are afraid of trans people though they have never in their entire lives met or know of one in their circles. You can blame that on Liberals, but those Liberals are only doing as they're told just as the Conservatives are by their Masters. It's the "Good Cop vs Bad Cop" play acting that all parties are doing to Divide and Conquer. The Oligarchy had used this strawberry l strategy since the Greek Empire.
Scott, I was able to watch the Occupy Peace & Freedom rally on Judge Napolitano’s YouTube Channel as I do everyday during the week. I really wanted to attend to hear first hand but being in Chicago and 80 years old I could not make it. However I would like to offer a few comments.
I suppose it’s unrealistic to have Erika Kirk attend the rally as that probably would have drawn a younger larger crowd. I loved seeing Roger Waters and his new song/video “Samud”. I have seen Pink Floyd many times when they played in Chicago. I’m surprised that his video didn’t draw more youths.
What surprised me is that the venue from my perspective was very physically small. I’m not sure where you could have more attendees sitting, but perhaps it would be possible.
I was surprised that your A-list lineup of speakers did not include Judge Napolitano’s name. Also I did not see him in the crowd after he spoke. I guess you did mention that some of the speakers left after they had spoken.
Today I looked for the broadcast rerun on Judge Napolitano’s YouTube channel, but could not find it. Another thing very strange happened during the live broadcast. The YouTube broadcast was split in 2 parts, but when the first part ended the second part was no where to be found? I was able to locate it by switching to a different hardware device. Here is where you can find both if it is still available:
https://www.youtube.com/live/w_UMrungC-g?si=RdZe557X87E4rBnN
https://www.youtube.com/live/SX86UfitWOA?si=xow_Kqjub3h4sp0o
Scott, I love your passion and everything you bring to Judge Napolitano’s YouTube channel “Judging Freedom”. Also I have seen you on many other YouTube channels to which I subscribe. Thanks for all you do and I pray that you can get more boots on the ground. I’ll be sure to send my donation.
I'm 80. From the age of 15 or so I've been anti-war, peace loving left liberal who for two years volunteered with wife and two small children in newly independent Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, the right, financed largely by Zionist Jews and their lackeys have been bribing manipulating their way into power, the most recent example being starmer advocating Corbyn policies when campaigning for UK Labour leadership while being secretly funded by ardent pro Israel Jewish banker Trevor Chinn. Until more people come out and state the obvious that zionist Jews are a threat to humanity they will continue to murder. and maim anyone in their way.
As Professor Shahak & Professor Mezvinski wrote three decades ago in their article 'Jewish Fundamentalism' .."similarities between the Jewish political messianic trend and German Nazism are glaring" .... but I doubt even they didn't realise the level of depravity, barbarity, cruelty, lying, deceit, manipulation, bribery, corruption they were capable of.
https://ifamericansknew.org/history/rel-jfund.html
You nailed it.
We need more awareness, way more, about that subject.
The majority of people is naive about that subject.
Tis the reality that the sixties essentially failed to bring peace love and music to the masses minus the Incarceration, drugged alocoholism, and perversion.
Anotherwords. The bad guys won.
I went to jail no less than half a dozen times when I ran for mayor of SF two thousand seven, Gruesome won.
We have lost the peace, the yellow press supports war. The pictures of dead bodies from Vietnam are banned from the false coverage of UkroNam.
No one can pretend there is democracy, if the desired outcome don't have a chance of being allowed anywhere, outside Russia. Ironically.
So there it is
We lost . We lost the peace, which means we will get war.
We lost the whole war of the scamdemic Harmacide.
It is nearly legal to kill folks as long as tis more than a few at a time.
Truth is the first casualty of war.
Gerald says when all else fails the take you to war
We've already lost
Digital virtual fakebooks fuckerbwrgs bots don't need more care for peace, love, and happiness.
Go to an AA meeting, that's the closest we gonna get to peace in these days of despair.
The revolution failed. we lose.
We allow mass homelessness and incarceration.
Solitary isolation .
No one really cares if we save our planet, we weren't using it anyway, so Nevermind.
Thanks Scott.
All the folks at every antiwar thing I went to were older than me .
We have failed the children.
Cat Stevens asked , Where do the children play?
We dont
I read that Cat Stevens just had to cancel his American tour that was to begin on Thursday. Because he was unable to get visas for his staff. The empire is doing everything it can to derail the peace train.
Oh I've been crying lately........
Thinking about the world as it is....
Why must we go on hating....?
Why can't we live in bliss?
Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again....
Peace train holy roller....
Ride on the peace train.....
Cat Stevens, from the glorious and fantabulous album,
Tea for the tillerman,
Peace train.....
Oh. And why do both lyrics and poetry always seem to lose in digital word processing sic sickness?
We failed Womanity with the failure of the peace in the sixties, before my time crying
Absolutely true!! There is one incentive that will active the youth to engage the Peace and Freedom movement. The draft! Moms and dads too!
Scott. You, Celente, and the others on Judging Freedom are true American heroes. You put everything on the line to do the right thing. This trait is going extinct. Further, it is not valued or admired by most Americans. CRAZY. This is not the America I grew up believing in. It took a while for me to accept this but once you see the truth there is no turning back. I pray for you and for all the other outspoken patriots like you. And I pray for America. Best, Cole
You can't "occupy peace" if there's no choice for peace in the voting booth.
https://warismakinguspoor.com/a-nation-at-peace/
First, thank you for your service. Scott, you already have the answer, we are a distinct minority, those not brainwashed by corporate captured media. We are a sick and tired population, even the young are debilitated with our poor quality food, dirty environments and the pharmaceutical schedule that the majority of young and old are advertised into. The crowd that shows are OLD people and a good percentage won't be alive or well enough to attend next year. The peace and environmental movements were divided and decimated decades ago, even Gerald's occupy Peace is just a sideline for his media company, but I do salute him for doing the right thing. I tried to find the live links to the rally that morning to send out and looked at the first three pages of Google search without finding them. The powers are blocking the peaceful from getting together.
I'm looking at the attendance as a success after seeing how many show up at other peace rallies in Kingston and Albany and Poughkeepsie. Not sure if occupy Peace would generate a large crowd of supporters if it were a full time organization with the media ignoring and most people distracted and not knowing which news is truthful or not. Thanks for all your US/Russia common sense, we need more. They will keep lying and we will keep yelling at our computer screens, let's hope our kids figure a way out, their lives depend on it. Peace now!
Thanks, Scott for all that you do. I sent a small donation, but one financial factor is that 60% of the population is living pay check to pay check. Another factor is the corrupt corporate media that doesn't tell the truth about events. If there were graphic photos of blown up and maimed children everyday in the news, there might be a different reaction.The number one step is to break up the 3-6 media conglomerates that are controlled by the military and bankers. There also needs to be publicly funded elections and automatic inclusion in debates for any candidate who is polling 2% or more. Finally, we had a peace candidate in Jill Stein and she was not enthusiastically supported by you, Gerald and most other peace advocates. ?????. Dennis Kucinich would be a great candidate who could win if the above issues were addressed first.
I tried to donate, they did'nt accept, gave me error msg's
What motivated the mass protests against the Vietnam War?
1. Young men like myself were being drafted, (I would call it being kidnapped by the federal government), and dying in Vietnam. Body bags filled with the remains of these young men were seen on American tv, newspapers and magazines almost on a daily basis. So enlightened self interest and a repulsion at being treated like cannon fodder, the awareness that conscription was just another way that the politicians tell us "we own you! You are not free!" moved us young folks in those days. Mass protest ensued and many young men publicly burned their draft cards or escaped to Canada or went to prison as did Mohammed Ali.
2. At the same time young blacks and whites were mass protesting against Jim Crow laws in the South led by people like Martin Luther King, Malcom X and others. This was the Civil Rights movement of the '60s.
3. While the the Civil Rights Movement reached it's apex in 1964 and succeeded in eliminating Jim Crow laws, and while the US government was ramping up the Vietnam War in the same year, the free speech movement was born on the UCLA campus at Berkeley in response to university restrictions of political activities and speech on campus.
4. The American major media at this time still exhibited independence from the state, still true to its purpose as evidenced by the public exposure of the Pentagon Papers by the NY Times.
These historical events with the support of a relatively free press combined to energize each other. They were each fighting and protesting against oppressive state institutions: a lying war mongering federal executive branch, a legally enforced segregation in the South, and anti free speech policies in the universities and colleges.
In each of these events the protesters had much skin in the game. They were motivated by the threat to their life or freedom. Nothing like this exists today.especially with regards to the incessant war mongering. The young have no skin in the game, there is no draft... yet; and American servicemen are not dying in droves as they were in Vietnam. Now the US government buys corrupt leaders in other countries to force their own people to fight and die for the US government. The major news media is now wholly in the pocket of the political elite whose purpose is to gaslight, confuse and turn Americans against each other, shut down debate and discussion of important and controversial issues, and when necessary murder anyone who stands in their way.
Does voting really matter? Is there any difference between Tweedle dee and Tweedle dum(b)?Is democracy bringing us peace and prosperity? Does it give us effective or simply illusory control over this out of control government of ours? Do we judge each other by our character and not by the color of our skin as Martin Luther King hoped for?
In 1964 I and most of us still believed in the democratic state. Now I think the institution known as the state, any state, is by nature the enemy of human freedom; with the democratic state being akin to the sirens of the Odyssey, those seductive women who lead sailors to their death with their bewitching songs.
Today we are in the throes of an Orwellian universe. In 1964, "1984" was still just a novel.
Scott... I sense your frustration, but despair not. Change seems to only depend on a small percent of our fellow humans to occur - it just has to be the right cohort and you and Gerald are in that group!
Robert E. Lee's words come to mind:
“My experiences of men has neither disposed me to think worse of them nor be indisposed to serve them: nor, in spite of failures which I lament, of errors which I now see and acknowledge, or the present aspect of affairs, do I despair of the future. The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow and our desires so impatient; the work of progress so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope. ”
The "wave" may ebb from time to time, but in the long run, it always advances... Peace and hope!
God bless ya Scott, you’re a man after my own soul - as my da used to say!