Things that should not be happening.
Things that should never happen, because they've happened before, and history knows the cost.
We know the cost.
Our government has turned against us.
Our government is attacking us.
Our system of checks and balances has, thus far, failed the everyday American.
The failure is because the very ones who ARE the checks and balances have decided that they'll do nothing.
Not every one of them, of course, but the majority of them.
They are neither opposing nor promoting.
They are doing nothing.
Waiting to see which side wins, so they can continue in their own importance.
I wonder, sometimes, where are the underground newspapers of the 1960s? The Village Voices? The LA Free Presses?
Where are the broadsheets and broadsides on every bulletin board or utility pole in every town?
People ARE speaking up, and speaking out.
There ARE rallies and protests and civil disobedience.
These are sometimes well-attended, and there is an effort at coordination, but it seems futile.
It seems random and chaotic and unorganized.
Where are the organizers?
Where are the Samuel Adamses as the USA passes from the Terrible Twos into the next phase of national existence?
Where are the Abbie Hoffmans and the Jerry Rubins?
The Black Panthers and the Young Lords?
Where am I?
I should be Sam Adams.
Shouldn't I?
Writing invective rhetoric, rallying cries, offering education and information and ideas?
Isn't that what effective writers do in time like these?
These days, we don't post broadsides on the messenger poles in the center of town.
These days we use memes, and sound bytes, and unfiltered, uncut videos.
OUR media is online, spread through invisible waves (for want of a better word.)
We are ALL speaking out, striving to be heard, but sometimes we lapse into speaking -- or not speaking out for our individual selves instead of all of ourselves together.
Our checks and balances are slowly beginning to appear.
So slowly.
But I, the wannabe Sam Adams, am I doing enough?
Am I doing my best?
Am I speaking up and speaking out?
Am I doing my best with the abilities I have?
How can I do more?
How can I do better?
Am I doing enough?
How can I do enough?
How can WE do enough?
