'67 revisited

[Doug Millison]

>Subject: ZNet Commentary / Robert Jensen / Citizen's Oath of Office / Jan 22
>Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 18:46:06 -0800
>
>Inauguration 2001: A Citizens' Oath of Office
>by Robert Jensen
>
>On Inauguration Day 2001, standing on the steps of the State Capitol just a
>few blocks from the governor's mansion that George W. Bush recently had
>vacated, about 1,000 Austin residents raised their hands as I administered
>a Citizens' Oath of Office:
>
>"I do solemnly pledge that I will faithfully execute the office of citizen
>of the United States, and that I will, to the best of my ability, resist
>corporate control of the world, resist militarism, resist the roll-back of
>civil rights, and resist illegitimate authority in all its forms."
>
>Bush's inauguration in Washington earlier that day made it clear to all of
>us that whatever radical and progressive political organizing we had done
>during the eight noxious years of the "New Democrat" administration of
>Clinton must be intensified during the toxic four years to come under a
>Bush administration.
>
>The possibilities for that organizing were plainly visible from looking at
>the range of people in the spirited, noisy and passionate crowd -- from
>Democrats to the Radical Anarchist Marching Band. On the platform,
>representatives of the NAACP and Green Party, the American Civil Liberties
>Union and University of Texas Radical Action Network, the National
>Organization for Women and International Socialist Organization, all spoke
>to a common theme: the need to build a popular movement to challenge power
>and keep alive radical and progressive politics.
>While many in the crowd voted for Al Gore, there was a consensus that a
>Democratic Party which has moved so clearly and consistently to the
>right  -- embracing reactionary domestic policies, such as Clinton's
>so-called  welfare "reform" law, and pursuing brutal and inhumane foreign
>policy, such  as the ongoing bombing/sanctions policy toward Iraq -- is not
>going to be  at the forefront of a progressive movement.
>
>In Austin we chanted, "He's not my president." But I also said that if Gore
>had been elected, for me the chant would have been the same. The
>politicians of both major parties who have surrendered the promise of real
>democracy to corporate interests will never be leaders of the people.
>
>If Bush is not our president, and Gore wouldn't have been either, the
>question is clear: Who can be our leader?
>
>At that moment, I asked the people in the crowd to turn to the person next
>to them, then turn to the other side, and then to look at themselves. If
>our movements are to be truly popular movements, leadership will come from
>us. It will be diffuse. We will all, at some point and in some fashion,
>have to step forward to claim both the right and the obligation to lead.
>Popular movements don't search for leaders, they produce leaders. Such
>movements -- to abolish slavery, win labor organizing rights, end wars --
>have won real gains for human freedom and justice, not because of leaders
>but because of the moral vision and courage of all the people who did not
>turn away from the struggle.
>
>The last phrase of the citizens' oath we took in Austin echoes the "Call to
>Resist Illegitimate Authority" issued in 1967 by Americans struggling to
>end their government's barbaric attack on the people of Vietnam. Those were
>grim times, certainly no less scary and threatening than the situation we
>face today. But people struggled, fought, resisted -- against the grain and
>against the odds.
>
>The powerful have added new weapons to their arsenals -- structural
>adjustment programs and World Trade Organization rules whose effects are as
>lethal as a B-52 bombing run. Just as their strategies for domination and
>control have "matured," so have our analyses and strategies for fighting
>back.
>
>But the essence of the struggle is unchanged, and our pledge should
>conclude with the same words as the 1967 pledge: "Now is the time to
>resist."



>Robert Jensen is a professor in the Department of Journalism at the
>University of Texas at Austin. He can be reached at
>rjensen at uts.cc.utexas.edu. Other writings are available online at
>http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/freelance.htm.
>
>------------------------- Robert Jensen Department of Journalism University
>of Texas Austin, TX 78712 rjensen at uts.cc.utexas.edu office: (512) 471-1990
>fax: (512) 471-7979
>http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/home.htm -------------------------
>  www.zmag.org


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Jensen: "At that moment, I asked the people in the crowd to turn to 
the person next to them, then turn to the other side, and then to 
look at themselves."

Pynchon (writing before Nixon resigned and before the inauguration of 
the Reagan/Bush dynasty): "There is time, if you need the comfort, 
to touch the person next to you, or to reach between your own cold 
legs . . . "

The comfort of community, blessings of the flesh, then it ends and 
begins again, looping back to the novel's opening, with a song that 
celebrates the "Light" that will "Find the last poor Pret'rite one" 
and "a Soul in ev'ry stone. . . ."

The beauty of the damned:  glass half full, or half empty?  Which do 
you want it to be? Or might it be both/and, not either/or  -- that's 
how Christian theology, which permeates GR, resolves the 
contradiction: "In the light of the Christmas-Epiphany Mystery, we 
perceive that union with Christ is not some kind of spiritual happy 
hour. It is a war with the powers of evil that killed Jesus and that 
might kill us, too, if we get in their way. Because we live in the 
human condition, the divine light is constantly being challenged by 
the repressive and regressive forces within us as individuals and 
within society, neither of which wants to hear about love, certainly 
not about self-giving love. The Gospel message of service is not one 
that is easily heard." (Thomas Keating, _The Mystery of Christ_)
-- 
d  o  u  g    m  i  l  l  i  s  o  n  <http://www.online-journalist.com>