change – (v) to make the form, nature, content, future of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone: to change one’s name; to change one’s opinion; to change the course of history 

change – (n) the substitution of one thing for another: we finally made the change to a truly representative democracy.

August 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.

I am afraid.

What started as a general feeling of discomfort, of unease, has grown into a palpable fear.

I am afraid of what my country is becoming, of what it may already be.  My fear grows as I watch the rights, the liberties, and the standard of living of the working-class and underprivileged citizens of this country being systematically destroyed.  I see the largest corporations and the moneyed elite make a naked grab for more and more power at the expense of the majority.  I watch as we become an imperialist  power, waging endless, senseless wars in our quest to dominate the world with our monstrous, obscenely large military.  I stand helpless, along with my fellows, as we become a police state, as more and more civil liberties are slowly stripped from our legal system, as American citizens are locked away without trial or charges, tortured in anonymity in the name of “National Security.”  I fear the wrath of those who claim to represent the will of Jesus Christ as they sow increasing discord, as they discriminate, scapegoat, vilify and marginalize ever-larger segments of our population, and as they try to incorporate these twisted ideals into our governing bodies.  And I tremble as the natural resources of this nation are squandered and spoiled by those merely interested in making a profit.

I am afraid of each of these things, and certainly of all of them combined.  But I have a greater fear – that of my children one day, grown, realizing what this country once was, and what it will be then and them asking me – “Dad, why didn’t you do anything to stop this?”

Because there are things I can do to stop this.  I just can’t do them alone.

Madison, Wisconsin, March 2011

“It’s time for a change!”  These are words we hear every couple of years, mouthed by politicians trolling for votes.  “It’s time we did things differently in Washington,” they promise, but after they are elected it is inevitably just more of the same.  Most recently, liberals and progressives heard these platitudes and promises from Barack Obama.  The word “hope” was co-opted by his campaign and that emotion was plucked and played upon among folks who truly needed to feel it.  But things haven’t changed.  If anything, they have gotten worse for the middle-class, for the working men and women in this country, and for the less fortunate among us.  “Hope” has turned to disappointment, to disillusionment and yes, to anger.  To anger.

We are tired of hearing the same old thing election cycle after cycle.  We don’t believe the politicians any more.  The utter and complete domination of our government and our election process by money renders our simple vote relatively useless.  The overwhelming majority of those in Congress, and whomever happens to be inhabiting the White House, no longer represent you or me – their constituents.  They represent only their donors, their campaign contributors.  Their interests are solely self-serving, the legislation they consider and vote for only that which will reap financial reward, and thus get them elected to another term.  Last year’s Citizens United ruling by the conservative, activist Supreme Court, which gave the corporations and the wealthy the ability to contribute unlimited funds to any political campaign they desire, destroyed any hope the average citizen had of having his voice heard in Washington.  The government no longer answers to its citizens – it no longer fears us – and therein lies the foundation of our broken system.

It is time for a change, but it is a change we will have to bring about ourselves.  This change will start, has started, with conversations in restaurants and bars, in living rooms and break rooms, on fishing boats and construction sites.  It starts with two people talking and grows, must grow, to hundreds of thousands, to millions of us taking action.  Because the conversations will get us going, but only action is going to bring about any real change.  We can converse among the choir on Facebook and Twitter, but until we meet face to face on the streets of Washington, D.C. nothing will change.  These meetings, these gatherings, protests, actions will start quietly, peacefully, but may end up something else altogether.  Those in government and those “leaders of industry” must learn to fear us, to acknowledge that true power lies in an informed, unified populace.  A government is nothing but a compact between those who govern and those who are governed, a compact that can be shattered by a populace who feels betrayed.  History abounds in examples.

Finally, this must happen now.  We can’t afford to wait any longer.  The Citizens United ruling is a prime example of the rapid transformation of our democracy into something else entirely.  Those in power work tirelessly to further entrench themselves and further subjugate the working class.  The vast wealth of this country is being stolen at an accelerated rate and funneled upwards, out of our grasp and that of future generations.  We are at a critical juncture in our country’s history, about to define the future of our still-fledgling democracy.

We must act now – we must bring about radical change.  For our nation’s future, for our children’s future.

I must act, and in that action, I am not afraid.