I tried, I really did. I changed the look and content of the site, I tried to lighten up…but I think we all knew it was only a matter of time before I launched into another political tirade.
Today, my mother and sister, along with dozens of students and several priests from the small Catholic college my sister attends, are on their way to Fort Benning, GA, to join the annual protests against the School of the Americas.
When my mother told me about this on the phone last night, I tried to talk her out of it.
Not because I don’t agree with their actions, of course. They are completely correct in their opposition to an agency, run by the U.S. military, responsible for training murderous thugs all over Central America. Nope, I tried to talk her out of it because I think their safety is in danger. I try to tell myself that not even Georgia cops would be craven enough to fire tear gas on a bunch of students and nuns…but after November 2nd, I don’t really believe that.
I tried, in vain, to explain to my mother that this ain’t the 60’s anymore. Our current administration, the party that marches in lockstep with them, and the people who put them in power, do not regard protesters as American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. Nope, they regard them as criminals, and treat them accordingly. I am worried sick that my 57 year old mother, with her bad back and vision problems, will get nothing more in return for her belief in participatory democracy than a faceful of tear gas, a night (or more) in jail, and a place on some dubious Justice Department “suspected terrorist sympathiser” watchlist.
I told her all this, and they went anyway. My mother and sister have a quaint and touching faith that America is still a democracy, that the voices of ordinary citizens count, and that anybody in this country actually still gives a shit about the death and suffering inflicted on the rest of the world in our name.
Suckers.
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