assisinating the Nobel Peace Prize

Remember when Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize right after taking office. It was true that Obama becoming president, many of the words he spoke during the campaign, and the movement of people who wanted 'Change' all inspired dreams of peace. After Bush terms of war, Peace, was the change most of the world was looking for.

Of course Obama never promised peace (although many of his speeches implied it) but few predicted he would move us into the territory we are now in. I think he has basically been taken advantage of. He was a bit of an outsider and he kept much of the old guard in charge, which meant they knew how to get what they wanted. A perfect example I heard of this week was Obama's sale of deep penetrating bunker buster bombs to Israel. These were wanted for an attack on Iran and the Bush administration had refused to sell them to Israel. The Obama administration sold them the weapons six months after Obama took office. You know he wanted to be seen as supporting Israel and the powers to be saw the opportunity to act.

So I suspect the same has happened with Obama's massive expansion of the drone assassinations - including the one just today of an American citizen. The President ordering an execution of an American without a trial is new territory. We got mad at Bush for DETAINING Americans without a warrant and not Obama is ordering fools assassinated. That smacks of authoritarianism. Now Obama has already been ordering assassinations of non Americans. And these assassinations are happening is countries where we are not officially at war. To me there is no difference where a person is from, assassinating them is wrong. But as far as the law in this country goes, there is a big difference and Obama is pushing the limits beyond what Bush/Cheney did.

Now of course the targets of these assassinations are often clearly 'enemies' of this country. Our argument for killing this guy today is that he influences people to attack America. Well by assassinating him are we really convincing his followers that we should not be attacked? OF course not, with every drone attack we make more enemies. Our "war on terror" is a war of terror and the more people we kill and homes we destroy the more 'terrorists' we create. It makes me sick and while I think things are largely out of Obama's control, it is sad that he was given the Nobel Prize for Peace, for he is commander in chief over an expanding war of global scale that is pushing the rule of law as well as that of morality.

If I broke the law and killed people...

The double standard is infuriating. All this "debate" about corporations and how they don't need regulation, the free market will keep them responsible, the supreme court has even said they are people and can contribute endless money toward politics. Conservatives seem to think they should be above the law and be able to buy politicians.

In the news this week are a couple stories that demonstrate the double standard between real people and corporations. What would happen to me if I broke the law and it led to the deaths of numerous people? I think I would be in a little trouble. Like the mom who recently crossed a street illegally (j-walking) and a drunk driver killed her young child. The Mom is being prosecuted. Or the case of Troy Davis who is on Death Row. He is accused of killing a cop but 10 witnesses in the case have signed affidavits recanting their testimony and indicating that police coerced them into implicating Davis and there is no physical evidence linking him to the killing.

The same day I hear talk of this story the government released a damning report blaming BP, Transocean, and Halliburton for the accident. It says BP violated several Federal Regulations, cut corners, and failed required safety procedures. So they broke the law and people died. BP has done this before, BP is a serial killer. And even though the supreme court considers BP a person can BP go to Death Row? Can BP get the Death Penalty? BP is actually doing well right now financially and is opening new contracts around the world. Meanwhile many businesses in the Gulf have not rebounded. And as I write this the news is talking about clean up workers from the spill who are sick from the dispersants BP dumped.

Corporations should not have it both ways. If they want to be 'people' then they need to be held accountable for crimes like people.

If nothing else seeing the disregard for safety and regulations by all three corporations involved in this accident should remind people why we need stronger regulations and enforcement for corporations (which have no conscience) rather than less.

Danny, the Burning Van, and 9/11

In the summer of 2001 my boss at the time, Bob Licht of Sea Trek, told me he knew of the perfect car for me. I would learn later that he had told others it was an eye sore, but he was right - it was perfect for me. It was a 1984 Dodge Ram Van with broken windows and a stripped out interior. I bought it for $700, moved out of the '82 Toyota long bed 4x4 I had been living in for 3 years, and moved into what would be my home for the next few years (until Anke was 7 months pregnant and we were forced to start paying rent). Using all salvaged materials I made the interior homey by building a bed, cabinets, surfboard rack, and I put in wood paneling and carpet to finish it off. Before I drove it to Burning Man that year I painted flames on the side and in big bold letters christened it "The Burning Van".


A few days after returning from the Playa (A.K.A Burning Man) I was in a coffee shop in Mendocino with my fellow kayak instructors when we heard the news of the 9/11 attacks live on the radio. We would spend the day away from media, enjoying the incredible Mendocino coast by kayak. We explored caves, surfed over rocks and down waterfalls on the other side, shot through tunnels, and enjoyed the peacefulness of nature in the company of good friends on a day that we knew was going to change the course of history. We had an exceptional day that day, the tragedy of the morning reminding us how precious life is.

Back in the real world (it was weeks before I would see the images of the attacks on a TV - something my van was not equipped with) I was overwhelmed by the drum beats for war and the complete lack of representation of any nonviolent solution in the media. There was a complete blackout of any opinions that went against the Bush Administration's push for war and even congress was caught up in the fury - Barbara Lee being the only single person in the House of Representatives to vote against the resolution to attack Afghanistan. I felt like I had to say something and the biggest "voice" I had was my new found mobile billboard. So a week after 9/11 I painted a big red peace sign and the quote from Gandhi: "An eye for an eye will make the world blind".

Of course the Bush Administration was waiting for an excuse to got to war. In 1999 Cheney, Ashcroft, Wolfowitz, and many more had signed a document for the New American Century that said America must dominate the world through war and that in order to get the American people behind such a radical mission we needed a "new Pearl Harbor". Well they got what they wished for and off to war we went.

There was such a feeling created by the media and the government that to talk about peace was unpatriotic that I had a friend who asked me not to paint a peace sign on my van for fear of my safety. Well it felt good to speak out in what way I could and the van became an ever changing work in progress that would last me years. I often reacted to main stream media and current events. When we launched the War On Terror, I painted a line through the "On" and replaced it with "Is". When everyone started putting up "God Bless America" signs, I painted a globe and wrote "Goddess Bless the World". Later when we went to war with Iraq I painted "God Bless Iraq". I had in large letters for much of the time "The Bush Administration is a Terrorist Organization".

It was a very interesting experiment in free speech. I had an incredible amount of interactions with people. Some folks followed me so they could give me a hug. Many told me that it was the only time they saw something that spoke what they wish they had the courage to say. People left me notes, CDs, books. One time a guy walked into a coffee shop and asked who's van that was out front. I said it was mine. He told me I had a parking ticket and that he would like to pay for it. One time I needed a tow and the tow truck driver said "wow! a real life hippy van!" and then he towed me to Ocean Beach (I wanted to wake up for the dawn patrol) for free. The van was even put in the book "America 24/7".



Of course not all the comments were good. I got hate notes, middle fingers, and lots of disapproving head shakes. Once in Orange County while visiting a friend his neighbor asked me not to park it in front of his house. In fact in San Francisco in Pac Heights where I was working as a substitute teacher in a rich private all boys school a lady came out one day and asked me to park in front of my own house. When I told her that I worked nearby she said that the people in the neighborhood were offended by my van. After explaining to her why I did it she warmed up and said "well, you are a good artist!" The hate I felt multiplied exponentially after we went to war with Iraq. Once that happened, people got crazy. People would say things like: "I was against the war before it started, but now that we are in it you have to support it." The government was clever in blurring the line between supporting the troops and supporting the war. I always thought the best way to support the troops was to try and prevent or end the war so they could come home.

When I traveled I began writing on t-shirts, especially when I flew. When the Iraq war first started, I made one that said "God Bless Iraq". I had it on for five minutes when a guy came up to me and said "As an ex-marine.." I thought 'uh oh'. he continued: "I want to solute you for wearing that shirt." In fact most military guys who chose to talk to me about the van said they loved what I was doing. Getting off an airline once the pilot told me he did not appreciate my shirt ( the God Bless Iraq one). I said "God bless EVERYONE right?" He said "No, that's not right." Then while walking away from the plane a high school kid who had overheard him said " I think your shirt is cool." Another time I was walking through an airport in Germany with a shirt that said "Bush is a Terrorist". Two huge military guys walked past me and behind me I heard one say to the other "did you see his shirt?" ...."It's cool!"

The Burning Van was a fun vehicle/home for many years. I would say that for me, 9/11 was a terrible tragedy but it was the far worse wars that our government launched, using 9/11 as an excuse, that sparked my passion for politics. Passion is a funny word because mostly my interest in politics is simply anger/frustration at the terrible decisions which are being made every day by our government. But like the bumper sticker says: "If you aren't outraged, you're not paying attention."

Peace...