The walk is over.

Marshall Thompson, recently returned Iraq war veteran, walked all the way from the Utah-Idaho border to the Utah-Arizona border (for those who didn’t take geography, that’s about 500 miles north to south). He was a journalist in Iraq. He figured walking across the state would be a stunt to bring attention to veterans against the war. It turned out that he had a lot of time to think, mostly alone in his walking. He has found that he’s more at peace himself, more than when he first returned with nightmares and anger. The soldier’s peace he found was personal even while he brought attention to the movement among Iraq veterans and other veterans against the war.

Publicity like this doesn’t just reach the US public, it reaches soldiers themselves, who may be reluctant to speak out for many reasons. Marshall Thompson brings attention to organizations like Appeal for Redress, sponsored by active duty military personnel who will deliver their appeal to Congress on Martin Luther King Jr Day, January 2007.

Many active duty, reserve, and guard service members are concerned about the war in Iraq and support the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Appeal for Redress provides a way in which individual service members can appeal to their Congressional Representative and US Senators to urge an end to the U.S. military occupation. The Appeal messages will be delivered to members of Congress at the time of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January 2007.

The wording of the Appeal for Redress is short and simple. It is patriotic and respectful in tone.

As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq . Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.

More resources from Marshall Thompson’s website

• http://www.fofchange.org/
  Families of the Fallen for Change

• www.thepeacealliance.org
  Campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace

• http://www.mfso.org/
  Military Families Speak Out

• http://www.veteransforpeace.org/
  Veterans For Peace

• http://www.vaiw.org/vet/index.php
  Veterans Against the Iraq War

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The voting troubles have begun. Even my local early voting is jammed. I voted last week, but I had no wait and no problems (that I know of). I had intended to vote absentee, but the County Clerk’s office was slow slow slow in sending out the information. (I signed up months ago, and the signature form arrived only after I voted early on the electronic machines.) At least part of the reason I voted early was to vote at the public library rather than at a church. I DON’T WANT TO VOTE AT A CHURCH. How can that be approved? Is it just Utah? At the public library, Dan Jones asked me who I voted for, so I told Mr. pollster man-boy.

News of the voting troubles seems to be mainstream. Is HBO mainstream? Diebold doesn’t like HBO’s new documentary, Hacking Democracy, to be shown in heavy rotation this coming weekend. If you need convincing that the situation is serious, take a quick look at the HBO interview with Bev Harris, founder of Black Box Voting.

Get serious and get out there. My local party has teams of poll watchers to send out on election day. There are national fair voting campaigns for any level of commitment except apathy.

• TEXT MESSAGE. The Ruckus Society (the people who brought us the War Profiteers playing cards) will text message you to go to your local polling place if you are needed. Watch the video first.

• VIDEO. Video the Vote is encouraging people to take their phones and cameras to polling places to document what they find. Register there as a videographer. For the moment, it’s still legal for you to videotape the exercise of democracy.

• From HOUSE PARTY to LAWSUIT. For the seriously committed, Black Box Voting has prepared an amazingly thorough Citizen’s Toolkit. Register there to become part of the National Hand Count Registry. They have also provided online chapters of the book Black Box Voting to help you as you discuss the issues.

• MANY CAMPAIGNS. A longish article on Alternet Monday links to many of the campaigns to document the vote and prevent fraud.

For now, the government is still what we the people say it can be. Get up on your feet, find out what is going on locally, and tell everyone else. If all we can say is, “All’s quiet,” we’ll all share our surprise together.

Update: Alternet started a center for Voting Resources.  Good stuff.

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That’s what Keith Olbermann said in his commentary this past week. It seems I won’t be the only local there. Wear the shirt. Meet before you arrive in Cuba. You’ll be easier to round up if you’re already wearing orange.

(This is, of course, if O’Lielly does get us all first with his hand grenade. Is it seriously OK to threaten to use a weapon like this but not OK to tell Cheney you disagree with his policies? Yes, I know the answer.)

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When I need to get my blood pumping, there are several ways to go about it. Most predictable is to go to the “Political” section of my music files. I have it shuffling on continuous play right now so I can listen to:

• Michael Franti, “Yell Fire” - I met Michael Franti when he was opening for Billy Bragg in Washington DC about 15 years ago. He was an angry, articulate teenager. Smart ass, smart man. He’s still angry. “They’re telling you to never worry about the future.” He very nearly throat sings in this song. I aspire to throat sing. Mother Jones Magazine chose this as one of its In Tune songs last month. You can listen / download at Anti. “Revolution nevers comes with a warning.”  The thing is, when there IS a fire, you have to yell fire.

• Black Crowes, “Soul Singin’” Rocky Anderson vs. Black Crowes remix from Head On Radio - “Holy shit!” I said when I first heard it. “I know that voice. That’s my minister.” There is Tom Goldsmith from First Unitarian Church introducing Rocky Anderson. (Unitarians = all of the church and none of the religion. I didn’t figure Tom was listening to the Black Crowes regularly, so I sent it to him. “What a kick,” he said. Hip dude.) I was there, and I’ve heard the speech many times since, but listening to this song does it for me. This speech certainly has made Rocky Anderson a popular guy. So what if he has ego. Anyone willing to get into politics really has to have massive ego, even if they disguise it. I think he may be pulling an Obama by spreading his approval around across party lines. I know Utah Democrats aren’t happy about this, but I suspect it’s part of his broader strategy. I’m not saying that works. I am just saying I listen to this speech, and I know I want to hear this man speak up on the national stage.

• Steve Earle, “The Revolution Starts Now” - I need to leave my ancestral condo and walk my 5% Democratic precinct to encourage registered voters to walk down the street to the church to vote. I made a map of my precinct showing where all of the voters are — masses of little red dots for registered Republicans, even more pink dots for the Unaffiliated, an impressive number of black dots for Unknown, four American Constitution Party, and two lonely Greens. Altogether, there are fewer than fifty Democrats. I made a map so I could see them clustered together. When I listen to this song, I think about my precinct. “I was running down the street in the town where I was born. . . .” I want to believe they would make community with those who live among them–with ME. I want to believe that we can work together if the disaster we’ve trained for comes. But, look, I say “them.” I can’t say “us” even though this has been my how since before I reached adolescence. “Revolution starts now, in your own backyard, in your own hometown.” Maybe my experiences with neighbors have deflated my high ideals of local community. “They all brought what they could bring, nobody went without.” A demographer for a national Utah campaign told me, 1) I live in the most reliably Republican-voting district in the Redest state, and 2) wouldn’t I be happier in Sugarhouse? Damn. Probably. I heard a nice Unitarian say he was single-handedly integrating Bountiful. I think of myself doing that in my town. I need my soul singing to be able to do this.

OK. Deep breath. Ask myself what’s so funny about peace, love, and understanding, then go encourage my neighbors to vote.

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Beginning of the End of America. That is the title of Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment this week. “We have lived as if in a trance. . .” he began.

Do you find that phrase as alarming as I do–or did? “Beginning of the end of America.” Gradually, the more I let climate change sink in and I resist the growing fascism, I find the idea of the fall of American civilization less alarming. It seems closer to inevitable. I stop wondering whether my own children and their children will survive. The question I have been asking are will civilizations survive? Will humanity survive?

Like so many people, I listen to Keith Olbermann’s weekly Special Comment. When I can stand the clownish context, I watch on television. When I miss it, I watch online–usually. Also like so many people, I wonder how long he will be able to do this. Even if this is the most popular spot on NBC or MSN (the only one I bother watching, for sure), can this go on? When voicing one’s opinion of Dick Cheney to his face is an act of terror, how can Keith Olbermann speak so directly week after week? Does the fact that nearly 70,000 people have watched the commentary on You Tube alone in the past couple of days give Olbermann any measure of protection?

The man is not going to be quiet as habeus corpus begins to die in Bush’s signing of the Military Commissions Act. I don’t know why they let him keep talking in this growing climate of fascism, but I listen and I talk about it. Keep talking. Face-to-face communications will always be free. Exercise your rights.

Full transcript on Common Dreams.

Full transcript and video on MSNBC.

Video on You Tube - 86,206 views, 1755 comments and counting. The number of views went up by 18,000+ in the several hours it took me to finish this post. That’s 0.0006% of the now 300,000,000 population of the U.S. (as if all views came from the U.S.).

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