I'm re-posting a diary which was written in April, 2014. In it I was venting my frustration at the numerous "sign this petition" that were piling up in my mailbox every day. I felt these petitions were ineffective in that the people or organizations they were being sent to didn't care what we thought. I wondered what in the world would it take to take to get you off your asses and take to the streets!
Then Good Golly Miss Molly, you listened to me! *
Along comes an orange haired buffoon with a good brain and knows how to use it, who wants to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it (“Fuck it, retorts Vicente Fox). Who’s aghast at the thought that Hillary needs to go pee (“Disgusting”!), whose many supporters are members of the KKK, whose campaign manager manhandles a female reporter among things has finally put you over the top.
* I know it wasn’t me, i was just messin’ with you. My diaries are relegated to the bottom of the rec heap. I once got eight recs or was it seven? One of my diaries was quite lengthy and good( “On the Supreme Court... “ ) I got one weird response.
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April 11, 2014
Every day I receive numerous "Sign the Petition Requests" from one organization or another. Although I support every one of the causes for which these requests are are made, Women's rights, Immigration rights, Gay rights, Voters rights, Equal pay, etc. , I send these requests to junk mail. You know why? The people or organizations to which these requests are sent throw them in the garbage. They don't care what I think.
As a young Chicagoan coming of age in the '60's, I believed in America. I believed in our Government. I voted for the first time in 1964. I was so proud of my self (and still am) when I left the voting booth. Then everything went crazy.
You know the story, Protesters, Flag burnings, Anti-Americanism, Hippies. Martin Luther King, I was annoyed by them all.
Little by little, I changed my mind. I went from being a conservative Democrat to raging Liberal. You know why? People took to the streets in massive demonstrations across the country. They got things done. They opened our eyes to the horrors of the Viet Nam War, the despicable treatment of African Americans, inequality in pay between men and women. The despised Hippies (I'm still angry at how they treated the boys coming home from the war) helped open after school programs, affordable pediatric clinics in neighborhood houses all over the city, helped register thousands of voters, drove them to their polling places on Election day and so on.
That's what you have to do, Petition Requesters. Don't take the easy way to protest with your Iphone or laptop. Take to the streets, show your faces, raises your voices. Mobilize, organize, March on Washington in millions (not hundreds), demonstrate in cities and towns all over the country. Yell at Congress, the Supreme Court, the Mainstream media, the Millionaire Bankers, boycott, occupy, demand.
Come on, channel your inner 1960's and get moving, but don't send me anymore "Sign the Petitions".
