Nobody left but us

From our overstocked archives

'I am Nobody! Who are you?

Are you - Nobody - Too?

Then there's a pair of us."
- Emily Dickinson

Sam Smith, 2002 - If you're waiting for someone in power to do something useful about this mess, forget it. The axis of violence - Bin Laden, Sharon, and Bush - has turned this into a war of alternative terrors, the only certainty being that, by their bidding, somewhere, somehow, more innocent people will be killed or maimed. In this country, those of influence who should rebel against the madness are too cowardly, incompetent, or complicit to raise their voices. And even if they did, the media would pay them no mind, preferring instead a sociopathic festival of death and brutality in the false name of patriotism.

We find ourselves now in terrible times with terrible choices. Worse, the obsession with security means that all choices - at least in the view of our leaders and the media - have been reduced to preventing something; there are no choices of possibility anymore.

Our leaders speak the language of denial. Denial of the fact, that whatever we have done to Al Queda, there are still be one billion Muslims with whom we had yet to find accommodation and who are angrier with us than before September 11. Denial of the fact that the flag being waved is really little more than a magician's cloth that when whisked away reveals the absence of what was there before. And denial of the fact that our response to the attacks has been remarkably similar to the spirit with which they were launched - an assumption that only violence can accomplish one's goals.

Just as in every great moment of moral crisis, the fatal flaw of power is to prefer its position to principle and to assume that its position is both permanent and an outward and visible sign of inner, invisible grace. Just as in every great moment of moral crisis, it is left to the weak to speak the truth, the outsider to find resolution, and the unannointed to carry out those responsibilities our elected representatives swore to fulfill but have so carelessly jettisoned.

There is a great coalition of conscience waiting to be formed - an American Solidarity movement - but at the moment it consists of millions who, thanks to the effectiveness of government and media propaganda, have yet to realize that they are not alone. Once that discovery is made - and oh how the apostles of violence seek to prevent it - then the way to sanity will open again.

After all, if those opposed to the present course represent even twenty percent of the country that's still bigger than any lobbying group in America. If that twenty percent were to be heard as one, then the illusionary national

unanimity - so heavily based on fear of offending or looking foolish - would start to unravel.

Any community can help to get this rolling by bringing together concerned citizens willing to stand with others and to say in a group what they have been reluctant to express singly. Religious leaders, writers, teachers, and others not a part of the machinery of power can play a major part as can those whose reputations are not dependent on the blessing of the political and media structure.

What started as a few people setting an example could spread until it becomes a national and international movement.

Something like this is already beginning to happen. But why not more? Put simply: fear. The president and his warlords have cloaked their reckless, impeachable endangerment of the country in the costume of patriotism. Many, just as they did in the 1950s, have run for cover.

It is worth recalling that it was not primarily liberals who brought McCarthy down but political moderates including a number of New England Republicans who had enough confidence in their own sense of honor to stand up to those who defiled honor. But it is also worth recalling that there were some exceptions. One was the columnist Mary McGrory who - she explained later - saw McCarthy as an Irish bully of the sort she had experienced before. Another was the cartoonist Walt Kelly who gave courage to countless others by gently but consistently letting the air of the tires of fear. There were journalists like Elmer Davis and Edward R. Murrow and there was Paul Porter of Arnold & Porter, the only mainstream law firm in Washington willing to counsel liberals and leftists under assault. Called before a congressional committee, Porter was asked whether it was true that his firm had represented Communists. “Yes sir,” he replied, “how can I help you?” Today as well, the place to begin is with a little courage. Not martyrdom, not masochism, but a healthy dose of that most American of traits - a willingness to stand up to the bullies in our midst.

It is something anybody - even a nobody - can do.