For My Angry Friends

Posted on November 9, 2004 in Campaign 2004 Courage & Activism

it’s clear that the struggle for justice should never be abandoned because of the apparent overwhelming power of those who have the guns and the money and who seem invincible in their determination to hold on to it. That apparent power has, again and again, proved vulnerable to human qualities less measurable than bombs and dollars: moral fervor, determination, unity, organization, sacrifice, wit, ingenuity, courage, patience-whether by blacks in Alabama and South Africa, peasants in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Vietnam, or workers and intellectuals in Poland, Hungary, and the Soviet Union itself.

— Howard Zinn

Repeat after me: The American People did not let us down. The American People did not let us down. They saw through the phoniness of Dubya. He lost this election as he lost it in 2000. No, I take that back: he lost it much worse.

The majority repudiated him. What is to wonder at is the so-called Free Media. The Media which asks “Why did our exit polls go so wrong?” without asking the one big question: were the results hacked?

So far, every irregularity has gone in favor of Bush. Counties with 5000 registered voters turned out 7000 votes. In every red state where they used computers to count the ballots, the exit polls indicated a Kerry win. The computers they used had modems attached! They were hackable! And the numbers are highly suspect.

I take back what I said on the morning following the election: George W. Bush is not our president and never will be our president.

But if We the People are to Rule, then We the People must take a stand. Last week, we indicated our faith in the system by going out to precincts and getting out the vote. This week, we must demonstrate faith in ourselves by demanding an accounting now, by taking a hard look at every number and demanding that the programs used to count the vote be brought out into the public. There can be no proprietary information where the public interest is at stake.

Three things have been struck down: our faith in elections, our faith in computers, and our faith in the media. It is worth restoring them, but this can only be done by our involvement in the process. We must be watchdogs and the time has come to bark. Bark so America wakes up. So that the howl may be heard around the world.

It is not Americans who let you down, not your neighbors. Reach out to them and bring them to the telephones and the doors again. To those who screamed at me last week in their panic: scream at this. This is to be screamed at. This is the real problem. MoveOn is motionless. Common Cause is still studying the problem. Americans Coming Together has fallen apart. DrivingtheVote has parked its minivans. It is up to Americans to solve America’s Problem and the Problem is Named George W. Bush. Let the People Lead.

Don’t let me down by doing nothing other than being angry. Don’t discourage me by stooping to expletive. Be a Leader.

Even when we don’t “win,” there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that we have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile. We need hope. An optimist isn’t necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places-and there are so many-where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

— Howard Zinn

Ten Questions about the Election