Vote? Yes!
by Frank Scott

When Iraq agreed to allow weapons inspectors back in , it briefly spoiled
the bloody plans of the American government's serial killers. But
ridiculous reasons to disregard Iraqi attempts at reason are being created
every day. Before we hear that Saddam plans to molest our children at day
care centers, spread pancake syrup on our highways and put chewing gum in
all our cash registers, we need to consider that in just a month, we will
be asked to participate in what has become the most hypocritical process
of electoral democracy ever devised.

While we are being mentally molested in preparation for more slaughter in
the middle east, highly paid professionals will insist that we must vote
for their employer parasites. As usual, the great majority will totally
disregard them and stay away from the polls. This shows citizen
sophistication in rejecting the hypocrisy of a voting system that has
little to do with democracy, and much to do with the maintenance of
minority financial power.

But despite the mostly dreadful array of major party can5didates for sale
in the political mall, there are reasons for voters to participate, and
not only to select lesser evils. Voters will be able to choose
alternatives more often than is usually the case, and a larger vote for
those candidates, this time around, may have a greater affect than ever
before. Given a government in which a minority pinhead presides over a
congress selected by a smaller electorate than any democracy should
tolerate, a vote for regime change is desperately needed.

People need to demand alternatives to a status quo which is bringing us
closer to disasters that no major developed country will be able to avoid.
That was, or should have been the lesson of 911. Instead, we have embarked
on a journey to more disaster, and aside from some individuals - mostly
conservative - the major party has chosen to unite its factions in
saluting the flag, pledging allegiance to god, and marching towards more
murder and destruction.

What's a nation to do? Take heart from the fact that thousands of citizens
have demonstrated, petitioned, written and phoned their representatives to
speak out against war, even while these representatives have been cowering
in fear of being seen as un-patriotic if they are anti-war. Those
Americans who feel isolated and fear they are alone in their hopes for
peaceful change ought to look at the behavior of their fellows and take
heart. If people from places which often suffer worse material deprivation
than many of us can imagine, places like Venezuela, Argentina and
Zimbabwe, can rise up and demand change, shouldn't the people of the
richest nation in the world be able to at least do the same?

Despite the Saddam Hussein myth , our regime’s propaganda hasn’t swayed
most of the world. It understands that the most dangerous rogue nation is
“USrael”, that North American behemoth , with its biblical bully in the
middle east. While Iraq is depicted as a serious threat, it is unfeared by
its arab neighbors, is economically crippled, militarily weak and has no
nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, Israel threatens the entire region with its
nukes, regularly gives the finger to the UN, brutally occupies sovereign
territory, and nothing is done about its behavior. And while mainstream
pundits and political nitwits stand at attention for the president and his
policy, growing numbers of citizens not only oppose this increasingly
manic behavior, but show it in public demonstrations. Do they have any
real choice on election day?

Unfortunately, only a few candidates of the major party outspokenly stand
for peace, and even they can only be relied on for single issue support.
Most who want choice for American women when it comes to abortion, also
oppose choice for Palestinian women, when it comes to having a country, or
sending their kids to school, or freely walking the streets of their
occupied homeland. Still, that handful may deserve support, if only as
lesser evils. But more important, the vote for alternative candidates may
never have been as important in sending a message to the powers that be,
and their cowed supporters.

The choices are growing in number, as small parties, often locked out of
the national process, are greatly involved in local , congressional and
even state races. And the protest vote can be denied its impact only if it
isn't cast in the numbers it deserves. The Green party is growing, running
362 candidates in 39 states this year. It has already elected 146 office
holders and it is the only party raising a major critique of things as
they are, and not simply focusing on personalities. Nowhere does it offer
a better alternative choice than in California, the nation's most populous
and diverse state, with the nation's most dreadful major party
gubernatorial candidates.

An incompetent governor whose main talent is collecting funds is opposed
by another incompetent whose main talent is having been born with those
funds. But the Green's candidate, Peter Camejo, possesses intelligence and
wit beyond these plodding cash machines, which will assure that he gets
little coverage from mass media. Still, the alert, concerned public can
cast a vote for reason and against the status quo by selecting Camejo in
November, along with other worthy Greens.

We may be killing people in greater numbers than usual by the time we get
a chance to vote, but we cannot allow our temporary rulers to use war to
mask the reality of a failing economy, a threatened people and an
endangered global environment . We are a rogue nation that must be brought
under control by its own people, before an outside force of international
unity is made necessary to control us. It is up to Americans to do
something about our rogue nation, before others have to. They can start by
voting in November, for peace, and against war .

Copyright (c) 2002 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.

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                frank scott
                http://www.marin.cc.ca.us/~frank
                email: [log in to unmask]
                225 laurel place, san rafael ca. 94901
                (415)457 2415   fax(415)457 4791