“Revolution is the abrupt upheaval of the human tendency toward improvement, when a fairly numerous part of humanity is subjected by violence to a state incompatible to its needs and aspirations.”

“The end of all revolutions…is to guarantee for everyone the right to life, destroying the causes of misery, of ignorance, and of despotism…” – from To Die On Your Feet: the Life, Times, and writings of Praxedis G. Guerrero; selected writings from the periodical, Regeneracion

Revolution.  We need one in the United States, and we will most certainly have one.  The only questions are when, and how.  When will enough of us finally realize that our own  government is a fascist and terrorist organization?  How long can we, with a clear conscience, support a government that commits mass murder the world over for profit?  How long will it take for the majority of the citizens of this country to realize that so long as our government engages in these actions, we are in danger of just retaliation by those who have suffered from its barbarous policies?

This past weekend, on the second anniversary of the illegal U.S. invasion of Iraq, people protested in hundreds of cities across this country.  Not since the decade of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War has there been such sustained and active protest against our government.  Protests, large and small, throughout the U.S., have been consistent since 2000, and consistently ignored by the corporate-owned media.

So if the revolution is not televised, does that mean it is not occurring?  Ask the citizens of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Uruguay.  Ask the Zapatistas in Chiapas.  Revolution is surging throughout this hemisphere, much to the dismay of our government leaders, who use such words as “dictators” and “terrorists” to describe those who would organize and stand in solidarity with the people against the tyrants of fascist global capitalism -- those who own this country, and who threaten, invade, subvert the sovereignty of others.

Revolution.  Yes, we desperately need one.  But when, and how?

It is apparently not yet enough that our young people are being recruited, deceived, abused, and sent home dead and disabled from a war for the power and profit of a very few.

It is not yet enough that thousands of our citizens die each year from lack of access to health care, or that our infant mortality rate is higher than that of forty-one other countries, including many that our government calls dictatorships.

It is not yet enough that so many of our citizens live on the streets, and that millions of us are only a couple of paychecks away from such a fate.

It is not yet enough that the credit card companies and mortgage companies and banks have made indentured servants of the majority of Americans, and that our president and legislators have given them more power to enforce that servitude.

There will come a day when we will say “Enough!”  A day when we will, en masse, refuse to pay the usurious interest and penalties on our credit cards, and will cut them all up and throw them away.

There will come a day when we will refuse to pay our taxes to a government that uses those taxes, not for our good, but for the propagation of death all over the world, for the profit of one percent of our population.

There will come a day when we awaken from the deadly lullabies of consumerism, and refuse to buy the toys and gadgets that falsely sate our hearts and spirits.

There will come a day when enough of us refuse to participate in fraudulent elections, in which we are offered only the choice between two feuding despots, that the democracy those elections should represent is obviously a sham.

Someday, we will have suffered enough, and be angry enough, and have courage enough, to become what we claim to be – a country governed by and for its people. 

I have been told, many, many times, that my writing and activism will place me at risk.  That I will be on a “list,” and that I should consider my children’s welfare, and perhaps back down and keep a lower profile.  My answer is this:  If the government of my country is that oppressive, and that dangerous to those of us who would exercise our freedom to speak out and to try to change it, then I have no higher responsibility to my children, and to the world, than to oppose it and seek to replace it.

University of Texas professor Robert Jensen, in his speech at the protest on March 22 in Austin, stated our position, and our options, very starkly:

“We can live on top of the world or we can live in the world. The stakes are high; if we don’t find a way to force the United States to live in the world, before too long there may well be no world left for anyone.

These challenges can be condensed into a simple choice: We can be Americans, or we can be human beings.

The rest of the world is waiting for our answer.”

The longer the world waits for us, in this country, to stand together and replace our present government with one that ensures our own welfare, and does not pose a deadly threat to the rest of the world, the greater the danger we face.

We should not fear the word “revolution.”  Instead, we should fear that we take too long to make the word a reality.

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