Just a reminder: Please join a General Strike on October 17, 2007 (anniversary of the original Solidarity strike in Poland) to protest the war and the inaction of Congress to rein in the Bush administration. If you can, stay home from work, school, trips to the mall, etc. that day and spend quality time with your family and/or friends on behalf of a more peaceful world. For more details go to Shut it Down October 17, 2007.

This image (and a similar version with a white background) which is available at Shut it Down October 17, 2007 may used however you wish. Download it from Shut it Down October 17, 2007 to place on your blogs. Download it to your computer and make posters or handouts using the image. Send the image with emails to friends, family and your local newspaper. Whatever you can do will be appreciated.

I know some will say that this effort will accomplish nothing. That too few of us will spread the word, and even fewer participate. All I can say to that is great things have small beginnings. This protest may start small, but there will be others to follow. I’ve already seen mention of another call for a general strike on November 6, 2007 by Garret Keizer in Harpers Magazine. Here are some other places where a general strike call is mentioned online: here, here, here, here, here.

It doesn’t matter which day ultimately becomes the BIG EVENT that gains media attention and coverage. What matters is that we keep trying until we get that attention, whether on October 17th, November 6th, or some other day.

Because it has become clear to me that we can’t depend upon the political leadership of the Democratic Party to stop Bush from spreading more wars in the Middle East, bankrupting our future and destroying the planet. They are either too craven, too weak or too opportunistic and calculating to take the steps necessary to stop President Bush from killing more people and committing more war crimes. Nor will the leading Democratic presidential candidates commit to withdrawing all our troops from Iraq, even by the late date of 2013! No, the Democratic Party offers us no solutions to the crisis we face as a nation.

As Seymour Hersh has made clear in his articles in the New Yorker, many military leaders are opposed to this administration’s Iran war plans, but they have been publicly silenced so long as they wear the uniform. And once they take the uniform off so that they can speak out? They have been ignored and/or smeared by the right wing crazy talk machine. Just ask former generals John Batiste, Wes Clark and Lamar Odom, to name just a few. So, no, we cannot expect the military to stop Bush either.

Which leaves it up to those of us who have warned all along about the perfidy of the Neoconservative agenda in the Middle East, and catastrophic consequences to allowing that agenda to continue to be carried out by President Bush and Vice President Cheney without any prior restraint from Congress. We are the ones who must find new ways to oppose the war and prevent a new war with Iran. We are the ones who must act to serve, and save, our nation from further degradation, moral, physical and spiritual.

We need mass action by an outraged citizenry, fed up with the failure of our politicians to end this constitutional crisis. A crisis caused by a power mad leader, who all but a few fanatics and zealots believe is a liar and a fool. A leader who effectively rules over us as a dictator because no one in authority will stand up to him, and no one in Congress will challenge him, despite the overwhelming desire of the American Public to see a stake driven through the heart of his disastrous war policies, his abrogation of our laws (including the Constitution), and his regime’s continuing and ever more numerous violations of our individual rights and liberties.

A General Strike, whether on October 17th or November 6th or whatever date you prefer, is a good way to start.

Thank you.