Carol Schiffler
"Now is the winter of our discontent"
Wed Sep 25 22:34:50 2002
208.152.73.42

''Now is the winter of our discontent''

By Carol Schiffler
YellowTimes.org Guest Columnist
(United States)

(YellowTimes.org) – "Do you care about
[insert name of Cause]? Take action! It only takes seconds.
Click here to send an e-mail to your Senators and
Representatives!"

It seems miraculous at first. In less than the time it takes to
microwave a bag of popcorn, you, John Q. Citizen, can become
a participant in the democratic process. You need not lose any
time from work. You need not miss your dental appointment.
Hell, you are able to do your civic duty, run to the Quickie Mart
for beer and chips, and still make it back in time for the
opening kick-off.

As you settle back in your recliner, you picture your very
important opinion flying across cyberspace and coming to rest
in the bit bucket of, at the very least, the Congressional Aide
in Charge of Counting Stuff. Later, you will eagerly check your
e-mail for a response from your elected representative, and
your trembling hands will click on the message he/she has
sent you, because, by God, it's there, and this is what it says:

"Thank you for contacting the offices of Senator
Fill-in-the-Blank. Your opinion is very important to us. We, too,
believe that [insert name of Cause] is important, and rest
assured that we will do everything in our power to see that
[insert name of Cause] is our highest priority in the upcoming
Congressional session. While we do not have time to answer
every e-mail, we have always maintained that a fair and
balanced approach to [insert name of Cause] is a cornerstone
of the very foundation that keeps our country strong.
Sincerely, Senator Fill-in-the-Blank."

Several weeks later, you will notice that Senator
Fill-in-the-Blank, totally against your wishes, has voted
against funding for your Cause, and you become incensed.
You counter with a scathing e-mail, castigating Senator
Fill-in-the-Blank for his shortsighted stupidity.

"Dear Senator Fill-in-the-Blank, you are an inept fool. How
could you ignore the fact that [insert name of Cause] is the
best policy for our state? Did you not read the facts set forth
in my letter of [insert date]? Your vote against [insert name of
Cause] was the most bone-headed decision you have ever
made, and if you continue to neglect the needs of the people
who elected you, you will not be re-elected. Sincerely, Your
Constituent."

You are pretty confident that these are the words that will set
the stupid bastard straight. He will surely change his evil ways
now. Never again will he vote against the Cause! And you sit
and you wait for the personal response that will most
certainly come after the Congressional Aide in Charge of
Forwarding E-mail sends your blistering commentary on to the
reprobate Senator.

Yup. You're feeling pretty damn good, until you open up your
inbox and find the following:

"Thank you for contacting the offices of Senator
Fill-in-the-Blank. Your opinion is very important to us."

In teeth-gritting frustration, you fire back, "I hate you, you
dim-witted, fascist cretin." But of course the auto-responder
does not care, and that's when it dawns on you - perhaps for
the first time - that neither does Senator Fill-in-the-Blank.

While cyberspace is no longer a new arena for political
activism, it has certainly become one of the busiest places for
the setting up of soapboxes. For the homebound, it has
become a place to connect with groups and coalitions that
share similar views. For third parties and those who espouse
non-mainstream platforms, it is a most effective way of
communicating their very existence to the world at large.

Each year, websites and e-mail lists save activists thousands
of dollars in postage - not to mention thousands of
envelope-stuffing man hours - by providing inexpensive,
communal locations for sharing announcements and
promoting events. Through the use of powerful search
engines, researchers and journalists are able to pull together
all the facts and figures they need to produce flyers, "talking
points," and letters to the editor without ever getting out of
their pajamas.

That's about where the serviceability of cyberspace as a
political tool ends, but unfortunately, that is not the
simultaneous and serendipitous termination point of its use.
As the rise of McFastFood has replaced home-cooked meals
for weary, wired citizens mired in hectic lifestyles, McActivism
has become the sole source of political involvement for many a
frazzled and well-intentioned constituent.

While John Q. Citizen would love to go to a protest, his work
schedule will not allow it. While that rally in the park looks
awfully tempting, it conflicts with Junior's soccer game, (which
is already conflicting with a piano lesson, a trip to the gym,
and the annual pilgrimage to the tax accountant). Who has
the energy? Who has the time? Who indeed.

On August 21, Costco brought its chainsaws to Cuernavaca,
Mexico with the intent of mowing down a substantial portion
of the town's historic district in order to make way for yet
another multi-million dollar trinket store. It was a bad move on
the part of Costco.

On that day, 300 citizens of Cuernavaca put aside their
remote controls, their keyboards and their family outings.
When the wrecking crews arrived, those 300 citizens refused
to let the Costco locust pass. Thirty-two of the most vigorous
protestors were unceremoniously hauled off to jail. Game
over? Not hardly. Within 24 hours, protest organizers had put
3,000 enraged citizens into the street and now Costco is -
well, exploring other options.

The previous month, several hundred unarmed Nigerian
women took on Chevron. The women marched on local
refineries, occupied the buildings and refused to leave until
Chevron agreed to come to the negotiating table to discuss
food, jobs and health care for the impoverished region.

Yes, while John Q. Citizen was engaged in a fierce,
unrelenting battle with Senator Fill-in-the-Blank's
auto-responder, the citizens of Cuernavaca and Nigeria were
not so quietly going about the business of increasing
government responsiveness. It is pretty apparent who is
getting results.

Now, I do not know what daily life is like for the good folks in
Cuernavaca and Nigeria, but I do know that for the majority of
the world's population, life is an infinite checklist of things that
must be done in order to survive. Unlike an Elvis sighting, food
does not miraculously appear on one's table, nor does a roof
materialize over one's head without the prerequisite blood,
sweat and tears of the family breadwinner. Laundry does not
do itself. Children are not born fully autonomous, no matter
what Aunt Bertha's Christmas card propaganda may state to
the contrary, and I don't know about you, but there is no
unseen Divine Hand cleaning the toilet bowl in the Schiffler
household.

It is certain that very little we receive in this life arrives via
wishful thinking, but it is equally certain that government is
not a self-maintaining organism - at least not one that serves
its people well and wisely. A government neglected by its
people is every bit as ugly as a public restroom in a bar on
Saturday night. It is an untended cesspool.

It is a garden gone to seed, and as any good gardener will
tell you, when the weeds start overtaking the wisteria, there
is really no substitute for just pulling on the ratty, old
gardening gloves and getting down and dirty. If you don't
believe me, just try e-mailing your petunias when you think it
might be about time they started blooming.

In the upcoming months, there will be many opportunities for
citizens to engage in direct action politics. Pro-peace and
anti-globalization groups will be mobilizing protests in
Washington, DC, and a unique cross-country caravan is
planned for Veteran's Day. Its message? "This country has a
Constitution. Our government will obey it."

There are weekly peace vigils in cities all over the world. In
Ann Arbor, Michigan, a group is regularly meeting to form a
human peace chain around City Hall. Californians are rallying
against police abuse and brutality, while activists in the
Northeast are forming coalitions to petition their city councils
to adopt resolutions condemning the reprehensible PATRIOT
Act.

If you must use the Internet and e-mail for anything, use it to
seek out a group in your area and then e-mail the organizers
for more information.

The federal government has become an unresponsive and
behemoth weed in the garden of civilization. It meddles with
our health, our food supply and our families. It sinks its needy
roots into our paychecks, and it sends our children off to die in
places with names our "fearless leaders" cannot even
pronounce. It imprisons our young men and stuffs our elderly
into dark closets, hoping they will turn silently to dust without
cutting too far into the profit margins. It regularly savages the
working men and women it governs by turning their
hard-earned tax dollars into bullets in order to more efficiently
savage the working men and women in distant lands.

Nonetheless, as every good gardener knows, for everything
there is a season. For God's sake, let this season be the
winter of our discontent. It's time to put down the mouse, go
outside and tend the roses.

[Carol Schiffler is a Senior Systems Analyst specializing in
software testing and quality assurance. She is a 47-year-old
mother of seven who lives in the Banana Republic, otherwise
known as Florida, where she chases storms, hikes to heavy
metal and gardens barefoot. Webmistress and content editor for
the politically irreverant http://www.falloutshelternews.com . She
lives in the United States.]

Carol Schiffler encourages your comments:
carsch45@yahoo.com 

YellowTimes.org is an international publication. YellowTimes.org
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