Were You There?

September 8, 2007

Were you there: The March on Washington? Some said there were three-and one-half million people. Never so many people. So many people, the march lasted, three days, day and night. Marching. In the year two thousand-and five, pastors, preachers, men and women, teens and babes, from pulpits, across the land, heard the call. It rang out. The United States is not a felon, not a thief, not a mugger of non-threatening, defenseless Middle Eastern countries. We do not use armies to break down the doors of homes, scare women and children. We do not use bombs and cannons on civilians. We can make mistakes. We can apologize. We do take responsibility for our own behavior. We do not lie to American citizens. We do not waste tanks and helicopters and the lives of young military men and women. We do not “out” CIA operatives who are undercover. We do not allow private contractors to kill as they please and bill as they please. We do not approve of tax cuts for the rich and then have a military without adequate equipment and without adequate medical care and national guard troops without adequate training, botched pay checks, and states left to fire and flood without manpower and without equipment. Our Army in Iraq is not defending us at home. There was no enemy and no threat in Iraq. With our Army in Iraq we are left defenseless at home. The costs of our Army in Iraq is an attack on us at home. Were you there? After all the grand Presidential promises and fanfare, New Orleans was left to the mold and rot. After the President announced victory in Afghanistan and after the President announced victory in Iraq the battles wage on -- years later. With a United States army in Iraq, battering in the doors of homes, al-Qaeda, across the Muslim world, gains volunteers. That is a big world. And this President calls for the army to stay until victory. What victory? Whose victory? Unbelievable! It was as if someone had switched a switch and across the United States, all fifty states, plus the territories, and a light went on: Oh! Got It!

Pastor Jones or was it Smith or Baptist, Quinn, a small church, Lutheran, L.D.S, Schakowsky, Anglican, conservative, Catholic, fundamentalist, Presbyterian, Moravian, a huge church, Church of Christ, Wong, or shiny modern, Herschel, Church of God, new age, Pentecostal, Christian, Christian Science, Liddell, even the Salvation Army, a country church, Muslim, Lundquist, Hindu, Pulaski, Sabatini, Beauchamp, started the service by asking that all windows be opened. Let some fresh air in, he said. There is a stench in this room. A stink in this nation. Pollution. Let some air in. The time has come, he said. We must march. Truly we do have the very best politicians money can buy, but it is not your money. Nor mine. The overpowering stench of Washington D.C. has reached California, Maine, Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, every state in the nation. Plan to be gone for five days. Pack accordingly. We no longer thrive. In the competition among nations, we are not living as long, we are shorter, less healthy, we have more disease, less medical care, our children are fatter, more prone to diabetes, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, our jobs are in India or China, our bridges collapse, our President speaks and nothing happens. It is all hot air. His friends are doing very well. Clearly, we are not among his friends. Mammon rules. We will not bow before Mammon. Per capita we have more guns and more people in prisons, more cars and more privately owned homes, more gated communities than any other nation on earth. There is a problem here. We have a problem. We will go by car, plane, train, bus. Walk if you can. Transportation will be provided for those without. We must go. All who can. All of us.

It is our money that pays for the salaries of our Representatives and Senators, but it does not buy much time or allegiance. Elections cost a lot of money and it is not our money that pays for their elections. We vote them in but they are not ours. They have become the hired hands of private interests. But our interests are both private and public. We must begin to pay for their elections and their salaries. We do not want our Representatives and Senators spending all of their time ass-kissing to fund their elections and re-elections. They have day time jobs with us and we have work for them to do.

Render unto God that which is God’s. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. A godly person might walk away or run away from a corrupt Caesar in a fascist state, or communist state, or a monarchy, or an oligarchy. They might run to a democratic state. Many did. Many came to the Promised Land: they came here. But in a democracy one cannot run. It is our country. Each person owns a share of the state, each person is a part of the state. In a democrary Caesar also wants your voice as well as your vote. This is our country. Now, power can corrupt both church and state. Always has. Always will. From time to time people have to clean things up. Always have. Always will. Citizens must participate or Caesar becomes too powerful and too corrupt. We must go to Washington. The time has come to march. If not now, like to many, soon we will be in prison and will be unable to march, unable to vote. The godly must march, but we must go as good citizens. It is as citizens that we and the church down the street can march together. If Caesar gets more powerful there will be no church down the street and then Caesar will need our block for another police station or sports stadium or as a condo for his friends.

You and I and we are our brother’s and sister’s keepers. We must care for one another and that includes the government we have in common. Otherwise, my good friends, you and I and we are prissy-assed hypocrites.

Heavens be! Our President is inciting and providing for the training of al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq. They only came to Iraq after he invaded. Who is the terrorist? Where is our greatest threat? This nation needs help. We must march.

The police in the Capitol and in Washington D.C. and the Secret Service knew we were coming. They couldn’t believe how many! They said, Don’t come. Congress is in recess. The President is in Texas. It is too much of an opportunity for terrorists. There will be too many people. It will get out of hand. Everyone said, We are coming. You can’t. We can. The planning started. This route. That route. A million people here. A million people there. A day here. A day there. We will march. Earlier marches had been downplayed or not reported by the few major newspapers and television. This time all of the churches everywhere became news outlets for their communities. The few major newspapers and television didn’t know what was going on. We will be heard. We want the President, we want Congress to be accountable to us and not to oil, coal, steel, agriculture, sugar, utilities, Saudi Arabia, Bulgaria, your friends and lobbyists and cousins and sons and... .

FDR brought a little accountability to government and business, empowered the little man a little, fought a war, and also cut a deal with the devil. He said the Democrats would work side by side with those taught from the handbook, Masters and Slaves. This book teaches one to be fearful of others and to make others fearful. With Civil Rights, the Democrats said we are not that afraid. It drove the angry and fearful (have you noticed that they are often the same?) off to the Republican Party. Pappy said, Nothing good could come from siding up with Republicans. Like old slave owners they were fearful of the slaves. Some became Righteous Republicans. They wanted to legislate and judicate the personal soul-wrenching decisions made in bedrooms and doctor’s offices, protecting womanhood, and so forth. As long as they had their vote, this was fine with the other Newt Republicans who for a little more power and money put their souls and the country up for sale. The Democrats were envious. Purveyors of private security and prisons benefited from the argument that there was more crime and that they were the answer. Citizens became convinced that it made sense to spend more money on prisons than on schools. Master Bush decided he and his friends ought to own a little oil in Iraq. None cared if the little people -- those privates and sergeants and lance corporals and families -- died. It makes my brain ache. We must march.

Back then when the Republicans despaired of ever having majorities again, before Civil Rights, knowing even in the 1930’s that the Democrats were corrupt, evil, and didn’t know their place, they decided that the end justified the means. Anything to discredit Democrats. Even voting for wasted money. Even sabotaging working programs. They declared war on the Democrats. Then they decided that it was big government that was bad. They declared war on government, Big Government. No one said, Wait a minute! If it is the government that is bad then it is our job and yours to make it better (a tougher proposition that requires a little responsibility, a little accountability). When elected, they made big government bigger. We discovered it is not a war at all. It is just another raid on the public treasury. An old story. A fraud. A con. After a few trillion dollars, the Righteous Republicans are starting to catch on. Big government is not bad. Government is only as bad as the people running, operating it. One cannot use any means to justify an end. People who do are dangerous to all other living creatures. Lost souls.

We must march. I am about to retire, my baby needs shoes, medical care, my wife is sick and we have no insurance, transportation, power brownouts, I need Wi-Fi and the big companies won’t invest in rural areas, bridges, security, the big transportation companies do not want to invest in port security, water pollution, how many years after 9/11 were flight attendants given instruction in self defense, the globe is cooking, our newspaper/radio/TV station is owned by a conglomerate who does not know us and does not care to know us, we have long ago lost those who would speak for us, we have gained those who would fill your heads and mine with lust, greed, envy and anger. Bush will blow nearly a billion a day in Iraq and let New Orleans rot. I see the light. Do you see the light? We must march. We must march together. If not now then when? My breath catches as I feel the Freedom in this nation shrinking.

We are all Christian or Muslim or Hindu or Jewish or Druid Warriors and we are all in exile in Eqypt. It is time to go home. Not Jerusalem. To The Promised Land: The United States. The capitol dome needs polishing and we will polish it even if we have to use the seats of pants of lobbyists and Representatives and Senators and a few bureaucrats to do it.

An early administrator in Iraq did not see nine billion dollars disappear. We have “lost” more billions since then. We have “lost” thousands upon thousands of weapons and ammunition. When we invaded the Army was instructed to secure the oil ministry but not the many munitions depots, not museums, hospitals, schools, utilities. Tons of weapons went to the underground, the insurgents. Private contractors have had no-bid contracts and have over-billed. They have also killed and the Army claims no responsibility for their actions. The President says, Mistakes were made. The above are the President’s responsibility. Mistakes? Mistakes! Do you see, do you hear a pattern here? If not, what then do you smell? This pile of manure is so deep and so wide its stench has spread around the globe. So bad, so vile, it can no longer be covered up. Congress is working at corruption with teaspoons when they should be using bulldozers. Pardon me Lord, but we have a problem here a helluva lot larger than initiating impeachment.

I wish there was some other way. I wish I could say that Congress is working hard in our best interests and though it is slow right now things will pick up. I don’t think so. I don’t think we can wait any longer. It is time. We must march. Go home. Pack. You will be given an instruction sheet as you leave the church. Pack for five days. We will be leaving ten days from today.

We marched. I never felt so proud. So many people. Placards. Banners. Singing, Onward Christian Soldiers. Singing, We shall overcome. Buses, planes, trains. So many. Although the President was not in town, Congress was in session and our Representatives and Senators found time to meet with us, listen to us. I met so many people, from all over, with so many of the same concerns I had. And, now, we shall see. But I stood tall and I am proud. I hope I never have to do it again.