LEARNING FROM OUR MISTAKES

NEW YORK NOT IN OUR NAME / OUR GRIEF IS NOT A CRY FOR WAR read half of the signs produced for the October 7th 2001 march and rally. I carried one that read MAKE HISTORY NOT WAR, desperate for my fellow Americans* to recognize the enormous possibility of that moment when so many hearts around the world had opened to us in compassion.

 

Watching the towers fall from my Brooklyn rooftop, I was angry. Angry that the people of New York City, so often the scapegoat and target of conservative ire, were taking the hit for the so called masters of the universe. In the aftermath I couldn’t stop thinking about the innocents that would die in a rain of bombs when they decided where and how hard to “hit back.”

The back of my sign read REAL PROFITS FROM PEACE. Despite my hopes for a dramatic shift in policy, naivety did not blind me to the opportunities war offered. I had been to DC several times since the 2000 s/election to protest the illegitimate squatter in the White House. A war was exactly what he (they) needed to validate his stolen presidency. The bush cabal were primed to make a killing, turning war profiteering into a proverbial art form. Inextricably connected to The Carlyle Group, Bechtel, Halliburton/KBR – they all wanted a piece of that pie. Never before had the corruption in our government been so overt, we were quite literally being led (lied) into a war for profit. They branded it the “Global War on Terror.”

 

 

When it was announced at the rally that the United States bombing of Afghanistan had begun, I started to sob uncontrollably. The circle was closing, our vengeance was at hand. 10,000 New Yorkers marched to Times Square, united in common conviction that the United States government should not exploit the September 11th attacks as an excuse for war; a war that all but one lone member of our congress authorized, a war that would go on for the next 20 years…

About 243,000 people have been killed in the Afghanistan/Pakistan warzone since 2001. More than 70,000 of those killed have been civilians.

 

The war has cost more than $2 trillion, which breaks down to $300 million per day for twenty years, but this is only the beginning. The United States will continue to pay Afghanistan and Iraq War veterans benefits for years to come (an additional $2 trillion), not to mention the interest on these costs spent entirely in deficit (interest estimated to top $6.5 trillion by 2050).

 

Twenty years later the Taliban are back in power, Afghanistan is in chaos with thousands killed in a recent series of earthquakes, the opioid crisis rages, and the endless Global War on Terror continues. Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen. Any and all ongoing conflicts disappeared from mainstream media and the minds of Americans. The Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001, used to unilaterally wage endless war, has yet to be repealed in the United States Congress.

 

Mainstream media has been quick to adopt an analogy between the October 7th Hamas attack and 9/11, establishing the attack as precedent for an unrestrained Israeli military response.

United States politicians stepping up to espouse their unconditional support for such military action have had twenty years to wash the blood from their hands. They have yet to account for our use of cluster bombs, depleted uranium, and white phosphorus; not to mention rendition, torture, indefinite detention without trial. They take no responsibility for our perpetuation of violence as the largest arms dealer in the world. None of this was a choice, it was all necessary, inevitable, unavoidable...

 

No one in our media will ask them to justify the deaths of 70,000 civilians in Afghanistan/Pakistan and three times this number in Iraq. No one will ask if these wars ever actually achieve their stated goals, or perhaps more pointedly, why they continue if they do not?

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*Using this term for dramatic effect, well aware of its jingoist application.

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CAN FEAR OF ANOTHER TRUMP PRESIDENCY SAVE THE WORLD FROM CLIMATE DISASTER?

This weekend was the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, and I had the pleasure of gathering with several hundred of my comrades, old and new, at Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park) for a march to, and a civil disobedience action at, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This action, one among many in NYC this week targeting financiers of the climate crisis (BlackRock, KKR, Citibank, Bank of america), calls attention to the direct connection between Wall Street banks and their federal overseers, and ultimately President Biden himself.

A march in the pouring rain seemed somehow fitting in this time of progressively unpredictable climate events. I was thankful to be marching through water rather than wildfire.

 

Perhaps in a cynical attempt to abide by the stipulations of the recent NYCLU landmark legal victory concerning free free speech and police reform, a repeating pre-recorded message told us we were involved in an illegal action and subject to arrest as soon as the march stepped off onto Broadway. I attempted to move to the sidewalk as NYPD bore down on the march from the rear, but realizing that the sidewalk ahead was blocked with barricades, I continued down Broadway until the march could find its way onto an unobstructed sidewalk.

In a year that has already set a record for the number of $1bn(+) weather/climate disasters, it behooves us to think about who is footing the damages/recovery bill.

 

 

The passion of Occupy Wall Street was ignited by the unjust bailout of the banks who knowingly drove the world into the 2008 financial crisis. Now, the irresponsibility of the fossil fuel financiers is driving another crisis, this time with the future of the planet on the line. But here the public bailout is ongoing. Our taxes are effectively subsidizing the fossil fuel industry – if ExxonMobile, BP, Shell (Etc.) were forced to take responsibility for the damages/recovery caused by their industry, their profit margin would drop to zero overnight.

The Fed has the regulatory power to force the banks to stop financing fossil fuels, and that regulatory power, as the saying goes, that buck stops with Biden. The President can and must take action to address the climate emergency that is upon us. Our collective future depends on this action being taken – now. The youth I marched with are well aware of this. They know their future is in jeopardy, but they are also existentially aware that the fate of the planet itself is in question.

Sunday’s 75,000 person March To End Fossil Fuels culminated in a rally full of inspiring speakers and performers. Gen Z and Millennials will potentially comprise the largest voting block in 2024, with this in mind a powerful message for President Biden echoed from the stage:

 

We hold the power of the people, the power you need to win this election. If you want to win in 2024, if you do not want the blood of my generation to be on your hands, end fossil fuels.

Emma Buretta – Fridays for Future

 

Having seen, and written, about the failure of the Democratic party to secure the Presidency in 2016 through a shared power strategy that would have seen a Clinton/Sanders unity ticket, as well as the casual disregard of youth participation in 2004/2008 after Obama had secured the presidency, I have little faith in the party to concede to youth demands. In a contest between Trump and Biden, youth will once again be asked to hold their noses and vote for the lesser of two evils.

Will that precarious two party balance be upended in 2024 by a third evil – Climate Chaos? What would happen if these youth led movements explicitly stated that they would withhold their votes from Biden in 2024 if he does not address the climate emergency before the election? Does the DNC have the gall to risk another loss to Trump for the sake of going it alone?

Witnessing these youth led movements over the last week, I am delighted by the combination of resilience and irreverence. My favorite chant from Monday’s civil disobedience action was “No oil! No gas! Fossil fuels can kiss my ass!” I am delighted to see this generation rising and answering the call of mother earth. In the inimitable words of Arundhati Roy “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”