Lila Garrett here to report on Our Revolution. The concept of “Our Revolution” Left Something Out yours and mine, was the one started by Bernie Sanders who almost got us out of the government by-for-and-of the 1% into government of, by, and for the people. Democracy I believe it’s called. It’s been so long since we had one, it’s hard to remember exactly. But it had to do with one person, one vote, no gerrymandering districts to manipulate that vote, no phony identification requirement to make that vote, no hiding polling places so it’s impossible to find them, and no having to be a billionaire to get in the game. (Thanks a lot, Citizens United.)

Bernie Sanders in his campaign called that change a “revolution” and he won 22 states and 46% of the committed delegates doing it. To the victor belongs the spoils, and while Hillary went around the country collecting those spoils….megabucks from the millionaires & billionaires…we all sat around biting our nails, nervously wondering when the revolution to give us our country back would start.

Now when he chose to throw down the gauntlet of his revolution…excuse me OUR REVOLUTION… he remained silent on the item that takes more than half of our country’s money and most of its morality.

Well, on the night of Weds August 24th it started. Bernie Sanders former populist candidate for President of the United States appeared on closed-circuit TV and announced that Our Revolution begins now. That’s its name, “Our Revolution.” He then went into a rousing speech of all the injustices we, who are part of the revolution, are going to change. I think you know the list… Same goals he used in his run for office. A $15 minimum wage, free public colleges (like we used to have in the 50s & 60’s). The end of Citizens United, healthcare for all, taking the country out of the hands of the mighty rich and giving it back to the people.

Our group of about 50 progressive watched it at the Peace Center. There was great enthusiasm as once again we approved the platform on which this great populist ran.

Some of us held our breath, waiting for the big one to be included in the list. The item that takes 57% of our discretionary budget, the issue we spend at least a trillion dollars a year on, our #1 industry, our #1 export, the centerpiece of our claim to exceptionalism, the policy that makes us the most feared, most powerful country on earth.

Bernie Sanders never once mentioned the word at the core of our culture and our wealth.

WAR

He had stayed away from the subject of American’s wars as much as possible during his run for president, too. We understood that. The average American voter is unforgiving to anti-war candidates. But now, when he was free of the restrictions of a political campaign, when he is safely ensconced in his beloved Senate seat, now when he chose to throw down the gauntlet of his revolution…excuse me OUR REVOLUTION…he remained silent on the item that takes more than half of our country’s money and most of its morality. It was as though war didn’t exist. And remarkably in the session I attended…. local progressive activists who spoke after him to continue the momentum never mentioned it either.

How could that be?

Do we not want to face the fact that we are now dropping drones, bombs and missiles on eight countries? Do we not want to recognize that war is not only at the center of our economy but of our character. Do we refuse to acknowledge that war profits are the glue that holds our country together. War….the word most used to describe not murder, but patriotism, war the most useless instrument for constructive change the human race has ever discovered. War was not even hinted at in the launching of OUR REVOLUTION.

What an omission! It was a perfect opportunity to discuss conversion from our endless war economy to a consumer economy. A great chance to zero in on the toxic override our endless war policy has on everything we do and are. But that concept was never even implied. Neither obviously was the word “peace”. Being locked at the hip, war and peace walked into the sunset of OUR REVOLUTION as though they never existed.

Well, they do exist and there are people who spend their lives…even sacrifice their lives to stop it. They don’t buy in to glories of war, war porn, or the redefinition of words like “patriotism”and “heroism”. They recognize that when one person kills a second person for the power and profit of a third stranger, that is war. We have no right to redefine it for the convenience of war profiteers.

The seduction of young people to join the military, bribing them with promises of free education, free healthcare, and all the other half truths that tempt them to join the military, the lies which support our policy of endless war should not only be a major part of OUR REVOLUTION, it should be at the core from which the rest of the agenda springs.

Along those lines, I recommend you see the documentary “Paying the Price for Peace,” by Brian Wilson, who sacrificed part of his body to protest the Veitnam War. It will be shown on Wednesday, August 31st at the Laemmle fine Arts Theatre in Los Angeles at 7:30 at 8556 Wilshire Blvd. In Beverly Hills. He’ll be on my “Connect the Dots” broadcast Monday morning as well. (see teaser for the film below)

Lila Garrett

Connect The Dots

