Chris Hedges: Sacrificing the Vulnerable, From Gaza to America

[marmar]

from truthdig:


Sacrificing the Vulnerable, From Gaza to America

Posted on Sep 14, 2014
By Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges gave this speech Saturday at the Sauk County Fairgrounds in Baraboo, Wis., before a crowd of about 2,000. His address followed one there by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who seems to be preparing to run in the Democratic presidential primaries. The Fighting Bob Fest, the annual event at which they appeared, brings together progressive speakers from around the country and honors Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette (1855-1925), a U.S. senator from Wisconsin who opposed the United States’ entry into World War I. Parts of this talk were drawn from Hedges’ past columns.

I would like to begin by speaking about the people of Gaza. Their suffering is not an abstraction to me. I was the Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times. I spent seven years in the region. I speak Arabic. And for much of that time I was in Gaza, including when Israeli fighter jets and soldiers were attacking it.

I have stood over the bodies, including the bodies of children, left behind by Israeli airstrikes and assaults. I have watched mothers and fathers cradle their dead and bloodied boys and girls in their arms, convulsed by an indescribable grief, shrieking in pitiful cries to an indifferent universe.

And in this charnel house, this open-air prison where 1.8 million people, nearly half of them children, live trapped in an Israeli ghetto, I have witnessed the crimes of occupation—the food shortage, the stifling overcrowding, the contaminated water, the lack of health services, the crippling poverty, the endemic unemployment, the fear and the despair. As I have witnessed this mass of human suffering I have heard from the power elites in Jerusalem and Washington the lies told to justify state terror.
An impoverished, captive people that lack an army, a navy, an air force, mechanized units, drones, artillery and any semblance of command and control do not pose a threat to Israel. And Israel’s indiscriminate use of modern, industrial weapons to kill hundreds of innocents, wound thousands more and make tens of thousands of families homeless is not a war. It is state-sponsored terror and state-sponsored murder. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/sacrificing_the_vulnerable_from_gaza_to_america_20140914

[LiberalEsto]

1. Much as I hate to say it, he's right

And I'm afraid that any resistance to corporatism will be brutally suppressed, like the Occupy movement was. We have police departments with military weapons and new technologies to disperse crowds.

I hate violence in any form. And I do not perceive any way out of this.

[raouldukelives]

2. The people pulling off the coporate coup are well funded by investors.

Who only care about money and not the future of this country or this world.
"I know you will use this money to suppress democracy, to deny minorities the vote, to deny climate change, to commit atrocities against our planet and our children. As long as I get a good return, I'm glad to assist!"

[Scuba]

3. I estimated the attendance at closer to 5,000, but I'm not a pro. I will post pics tomorrow.

[PeaceNikki]

5. I wasn't able to make it, but my mom and pop were there.

[xchrom]

4. du rec.

[Dustlawyer]

6. +1! We need to remain focused this time on the root problem, campaign money!

We must demand Publicly Funded Federal, State, and Local Elections (PFE's) and outlaw campaign contributions. All other issues need to be put aside for the time being as success of PFE's will allow us to resolve many other issues that have been stymied by the PTB.

Climate Change will never be seriously addressed by the PTB. This is an example of the issues that can better be taken care of after PFE's are passed as well as one reason why we cannot wait to start taking action. I keep saying that these midterms are the perfect opportunity to show America how much each candidate has raised and ask the question, "What do you have to do for all this money?" If there is no Quid Pro Quo as Justice Roberts said, why do they do it? They get rid of regulations, have their taxes cut and cut, and syphon money from us, through the government, and into their pockets. These corporations move to other countries to avoid our taxes so it cannot be that they donate this money to candidates out of patriotism.

This is not a Republican or Democrat issue, it's an American issue! As citizens in a Democracy, it is up to us to protect and fight for our rights. We need to spread this far and wide and organize protests outside of TV stations. We need to stay peaceful to show the rest of our countrymen and women that even the right to peaceably assemble has been taken away (see Ferguson). It will not be easy, but it can and must be done to save this country, and this world from ruin.