How Much More Pissed-Off Can I Possibly Get?

Almost every day for the past four years I've wondered why masses of Americans aren't out in the streets demanding administration heads on pikes, in nooses, rolling down the gutters, etc. Why is Cindy Sheehan the only military mother (or at least the most visible one) to be appearing at every event she can get to, camping outside the Bush ranch in Crawford whenever she can, getting arrested over and over, traveling ceaselessly from protest to demonstration to the halls of Congress to speak out in no uncertain terms about the evils of this war? How is it possible that Bush is once again demanding MORE MONEY for his troop escalation in Iraq, and no one is pouring gasoline over their heads and lighting a match to themselves outside the White House? (Not that I think that's a great idea, mind you.) Remember when that happened? Remember when this country gave a shit? How can people see the soldiers, the families, testifying yesterday at Waxman's hearings on the conditions at Walter Reed and not explode with anger and fury and despair?

But wait...Perhaps Amy Goodman, on this afternoon's Democracy Now program just told me why the streets remain free of angry protesters, why no one has hauled our leaders out into the public square and demanded their accountability for the horrors that many of my fellow Americans may not be seeing on their TV screens...Yes, Amy just told me that last week Fox News spent twelve times more air time broadcasting important stuff about the death of Anna Nicole Smith than on the scandal of the conditions at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Again, that's TWELVE TIMES MORE

Admittedly Iam old, but I can't possibly be the only one who remembers the sixties and seventies, when another senseless war against a peasant population was the main focus of every single nightly newscast? When we saw the endless bodies rolling in to Dover Air Force Base? When death and scandal and the horrors of real war were not hidden away from the public. It's been a radio afternoon, as I've spent much of it in my car, so I've also listened to my local NPR station's (it broadcasts from the University of NM) afternoon "Free Form" music program, and this was the final set on the show, just before Democracy Now came on. How's this for war commentary? for expressing the anger and despair of a generation:

Please Mr. Nixon, Clarence Gatemouth Brown

• The War Drags On, Donovan
• John Brown, Bob Dylan
• IFLIFTD (I Feel Like I'm Fixin to Die) Rag, Country Joe & The Fish
• Handsome Johnny, Richie Havens

Young folks who aren't familiar with this music - google the lyrics to any of these songs, or drift around and see if you can hear some of these songs. This was powerful stuff, the music of my youth, the music that inspired a peace movement that actually got results. Those of you who listen to today's music, please tell me, is anything equivalent happening? Will it take a draft to get young people this angry, angry enough to really start moving out into the streets?

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