Why Are You Still At Your Computer? 
It's certainly not my regular habit to post front page articles singling out a diary on another blog, but this diary by stephdray over at Daily Kos so perfectly mirrors my own frustration, that I want to do more than paste it here. I want to print out a thousand copies and hand it out on street corners.
Know what? I just might.
You didn't used to be like this.
You didn't used to get enraged at George Bush's picture whenever it came on the tube. Now you flip him the bird, even if you're standing in front of the bank of televisions at Best Buy. And you never used to wonder if you should even be shopping at Best Buy. You never used to worry about whether or not your money was financing the destruction of the environment, the constitution, your future, your kid's future. You never needed to know what 'Buying Blue' meant.
There was a time you were astounded by this administration's disdain for the law, their reflexive dishonesty, and their malice towards everything you value. Whether it be the environment, the plight of the poor, accountability in government, international law, civil liberties, women's rights, the separation of church and state, jobs, Medicare, social security--the list of New Deal reforms that saved this country and led to the longest period of prosperity in the history of mankind are all subjects of this administration's contempt. You kept thinking that the administration's obvious incompetence alone, their obvious 'out of touch/out of step' approach to American concerns would have destroyed them by now and set things to right. You had faith that the media, those supposed bulldogs of the Fourth Estate, would do something about it.
Those words so painfully, exactly match my own feelings that it forces my thoughts into an area that I've never entered outside of nightmare.
Why are we not in the streets? What are we waiting for? Do we think there is going to be some Gandhi or King who comes to lift us on a cloud of reason, love, and expertly applied rhetoric? Do we think the media will put fear aside and start reporting the truth without cringing? Do we think we can wait for the rule of law to shackle those who have no belief in law?
Why are we waiting for justice instead of demanding justice? We've seen what civil disobedience has done from the Ukraine to Lebanon. Why are we too afraid to take action ourselves?
What level of horror are we willing to endure, before we demand that it stop?
KEYWORDS: activism, daily kos
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