If Ukrainians Can Demonstrate in the Streets Over a Stolen Election, So Can We

If Ukrainians Can Demonstrate in the Streets Over a Stolen Election, So Can We
by Rob Kall

http://baltimorechronicle.com/121704Kall.shtml

Doesn’t our country deserve the same protest, the same raising of voices that the people of the Ukraine felt their country deserved?
I’ve been feeling a bit of a disappointed malaise and dejection the last few days as the realization that the theft of the election is going pretty much unprotested has sunken in, that the 55 million Americans who voted for Kerry don’t have whatever it is that the Ukrainians do have to go out on he streets and demonstrate. (Of course it could also be all that tryptophan from left over turkey meals.—No. It’s the election, not the tryptophan.) I’m pretty disgusted with how things stand right now and I’m not ready to go silently into the night-the dark time that a Bush second term promises.

I have, on my progressive website OpEdNews.com, along with a handful of other publishers of progressive websites, published articles and coverage of the murdering of democracy that has occurred in the form of vote corruption and fraud in Ohio, Florida, Oklahoma, Nevada, South Carolina and who knows how many other states.

In the mainstream media, Keith Obermann covered the election problems for a few days, then disappeared on vacation for a week. Aaron Brown covered if for an evening on CNN. But most mainstream media have attacked anyone who even discusses the possibility that the presidential election was stolen... again.
Most mainstream media have attacked anyone who even discusses the possibility that the presidential election was stolen... again.

Colin Powell says he’s not happy with the Ukrainian election. European observers say the Ukranian election did not meet democratic standards and make a big deal about it. Newspapers all over the world cover the election problems in the Ukraine.

Ukrainian democracy gets help from the rest of the world. But not American democracy. After all, who helps the bully when he’s getting the crap kicked out of him? Who will stand up to help the playground that the bully rules? With Bush and his criminals in control of the US military, it would probably be foolish for even the most powerful nations to stand up to Bush. I say “probably” because maybe, just maybe ,it would be brilliant and courageous, even planet-saving, if the leaders of the world’s other democracies joined together to challenge the questionable validity of the November 2nd presidential elections. Then again, why should the leaders of people of other nations try to rescue democracy in the US, if the 55 million “sane” Americans who voted for Kerry, who watched the reality of the exit polls morph into the horror of the final counts, as tallied by central computers controlled by privately-held corporations run and owned by republicans, failed to assert themselves?

Of course, things are much healthier democracy-wise in the Ukraine. Unlike the US, where the Congress and Supreme Court are pretty much controlled by the Republicans, it appears that the Ukraine has a real democracy, where their supreme court actually functions, and where their parliament is a healthily functioning democratic organization.

Before the election, I know there were a lot of people phone-banking, sometimes canvassing and sometimes marching and demonstrating, both for Kerry and against Bush. I know we had a lot of passion and we cared a lot, a whole lot. And now, we wait, passively, for Bev Harris in Florida , Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman in Ohio and a handful of unknown people to overturn what certainly appears to have been election theft, with no clear word from the leadership of the Democratic Party.

I’ve been waiting for talk of a protest of the election, other than the talk of a counter-inaugural on January 20th. I’m hoping that when you read this you too will decide you’ve waited long enough, that your country deserves the same protest, the same raising of voices that the people of the Ukraine felt their country deserved. I’m hoping you’ll decide it is time to take action, to make a sign, to call the people you worked with during the election, to post a message or a copy of this article to the listserves you subscribe to, to go to a busy intersection with a sign stating you believe the election was a fraud.

My fantasy is that I will be successful at getting other people out on the streets with me, and that it will be the first of many days of getting the word out, in spite of the failure of the media to do so. My fantasy is that people will start going to the streets in bigger and bigger numbers once they make their signs and see that they are not alone. I hope this fantasy becomes real, because my other fantasy is that It CAN happen here, that the rising of fascism, as Sinclair Lewis described in his book, It Can’t Happen Here,, will happen here, that it has already begun and will get worse and worse.

My fantasy is that after a week or two of growing demonstrations, that millions will pick a day and show up on the streets of their local population centers, that so many people will be pouring into the streets on that day, that so many people will be call in, missing work that day, that business will come to a halt, that traffic will come to a halt, that the outrage will rise as a single shout by millions and the rest of the world will see that democracy in America is worth supporting and rescuing.

The US must cure its ailing election system with verifiable voting. No vote should be allowed to be counted which cannot be recounted. And the obscene misuse of computers in counting, scanning and aggregating counts of votes must be banned, to be replaced by totally reliable, verifiable, trustworthy methods-so our democracy is restored and we will have a real, solid election technology that is so good that other countries import it.

Meanwhile, see you on the streets.
Rob Kall (rob@opednews.com) is editor of OpEdNews.com, where over 150 of his articles are archived He also maintains a blog at opednews.com/robsblog.htm. Kall lives in Bucks County PA.

more pics and stories from the Ukraine
How Democracy works: A lesson from the Ukraine

http://www.benfrank.net/nuke/lesson_from_ukraine.html

http://www.benfrank.net/nuke/lesson_from_ukraine.html