AFFIRMative ACTion

A senior White House advisor was quoted in the New York Times Magazine. He said that guys like the interviewer were...

“in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about Enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create reality. And while you are studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” Excerpts from Politics in an Age of Fantasy by Stephen Duncombe [published in Turbulence: Ideas for Movement]

Despite our complete belief in the lawless, wily, and Orwellian manner in which the Bush administration has governed this country, we have to admit that they are bold. Whatever their faults in character, of which there are many, they are brazen and determined. They say they are going to follow the law, then they break the law, and then add signing statements, issue memos, and appoint judges to change the law. They conduct their illegal and immoral activities in broad daylight, with cameras, lights and all of the major television networks watching.

Surely those of us on the so called left, can muster up enough courage to do the right thing in daylight, with cameras, lights and all of the major television networks watching. Our politicians have abandoned their principles and sense of righteousness for a run at the White House in 2008. They may exchange policies and their concience like trading cards but we don't have to. We have the opportunity to set our own agenda and to follow through. We have the opportunity to make history.

WE'RE CALLING FOR EVERYONE TO COME TO WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK ON THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 13TH FROM NOON TILL 6PM. Social justice organizations will converge on this date in order to

1. recruit activists. let me reiterate: "activists." Activists are not those who come for a day of service, they are not those who clean up some trash, go home, and pat themselves on the back. An activist is one who works for the bigger change, one who is unapologetic about their principles and seeks with passion a better tomorrow.
2. publicize social issues: From education to homelessness organizations will speak about why such issues are important AND what they are doing to address them.
3. Set the social justice agenda: Politicians are running around talking about what they are going to do. They may, they may not, but we don't have to wait around. We'll decide what we think is important
4. Invigorate the public to start a transformative movement: There are many that seek change. They can almost see it like the lingering memory of a forgotten dream. They may not have known what they could do about it. But after this event. They will know how they can become involved in siginificant social change.
   

Many of us concerned about social justice respond to injustices. Many of us respond when idiot college organizations play racist games, many of us respond when we hear about the injustices in the south like the Black 17-year old sentenced to 10 years for consensual oral sex with his 15-year old girlfriend, many of us respond when punitive and racist immigration laws are passed, and many of us respond when young unarmed black men are shot dead in the street. And we should!

But will we respond to our conscience? One of the most frequently used plots in movies is the vengeful protagonist that seeks justice by catching the killer of a family member, like in Spider Man or Braveheart. But must we always play the part of Peter Parker or whatever the hell Mel Gibson's name was in that movie? Will we initiate action simply because things aren't the way they're supposed to be? Or must we always wait to be slapped before we stand and say, "they ain't gonna be no more slapping around here."

If we always wait for injustice before we act we will forever be limited. For once the injustice subsides the movement is over. The movement can only grow to the extent of remorse and reform of the perpetrators of injustice. Such an approach abdicates our roles as responsible human beings and reduces us to that drop of water that bounces back after a turd has been dropped into the bowl. Doomed to serve as a check on the system rather than a creator of it. Afterthoughts perpetually contained to responses, but never freed for self-determination.

But when we dream... When we dream nothing limits us but our creativity. We can put the nation right without being beaten to do so. We can fight for health care before we're sick, we can fight for a cleaner environment before the world melts, we can fight against police brutality before we're brutalized, we can fight to end poverty before we're poor. Let's become activists because we know what is wrong in the world and we have a vision of what it can be like if we make it right. Let's take AFFIRMative ACTion!


Organizations sign up at

http://transformamerica.wufoo.com/forms/transform-america/