Solution or problem?

You do know, of course, that nobody’s going to do it for you. If you want change, you’re going to have to work for it. Back in the days, the Black Panther Party would say that “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem”. And that’s still true today.

Now then, if you don’t mind that bush and his cronies have destroyed this country, you don’t have to do anything. The country will go down the tubes for you, just the way you want. If that’s your attitude, then let me warn you. Do not expect politeness from me. Do not expect respect. And don’t expect me to leave you alone, because I will be on you like flies on shit. Which you are.

If You Don't Mind, Why Don't You Mind?
by Todd Huffman
Published on Saturday, April 8, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0408-20.htm

A favorite line of song, penned by the Canadian band The Magnetic Fields, poses the question: If you don’t mind, why don’t you mind? Where is your sense of indignation? To anyone who isn’t yet appalled by the extent of the disaster that is the Bush presidency, I could not think of how better to ask it: Why don’t you mind?

Not a day goes by without some new disclosure, some new bit of headline evidence that the Bush presidency is the most catastrophic presidency in the history of our great country. The consequences of this fact will effect not only yours and my personal future and fortunes, but those of our children and theirs. Where is your sense of indignation?

[…]

So what can you do? It is easy to feel helpless, or to lapse into indifference. But what these perilous times cannot bear is indifference. We can no longer stand on the sidelines and wait for some non-existent catalyst to suddenly appear and mobilize a movement that we can then join. It is past time to take action. The profile of courage required is in the mirror.

This is an election year. Write letters to the editor. Write letters to your congressional representatives. Call your congressional representatives. Join your local and state Democratic Party organizations. Talk to your family, friends, co-workers, and fellow members of your congregation about writing, calling, and joining together. Good people of all political persuasions opposed to what the Bush Republicans are doing to our country must not rest until we take back the Senate and House this November. We must not rest until in 2008 we take back the White House, the people's house, and hang on it a banner reading "Mission Accomplished".

It will most certainly not be easy. But "not easy" is not a synonym for "let’s give up". Rather, it just means "we have to be more imaginative and work harder and do more and work together to make things right again". We must come alive with the immediacy of our challenges. The time for turning our great nation away from the road to ruin is fast passing.

Todd Huffman (doctortodd@att.net) is a pediatrician and writer living in Eugene, Oregon. He is a regular columnist for the Springfield (OR) News, and a regular contributor to the Portland (OR) Oregonian, the Eugene (OR) Register-Guard, the University of Oregon Daily Emerald, the Washington (Seattle) Free Press, and the Columbus (OH) Free Press.