Presidential Candidate John Edwards, speaking over Martin Luther King, Jr. Day last month said it clearly – “silence IS betrayal!”  When, finally, new Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV) attempted to advance a simple, symbolic, non-binding resolution in the Senate – the now minority Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) did NOT even want a debate on the Iraq war!  Such “silence IS betrayal!”

I’m reminded of the stories I heard from my elders about how the German people were silent for too long while Hitler’s Nazi Party rose to power.  In college I took a quick survey course in Anthropology and the professor was a former German soldier that had been drafted out of the Nazi Youth Corps near the end of the war.  As veterans of war we became friends, and I had the occasion to discuss WWII with him at length.  He told me how very few of the German people were true Nazis.  According to him, most Germans thought the little political party of Nazis were just a bunch of fools.

Most Germans were peace loving people that were opposed to fascism, fanatics and zealots.  He went on how the German people were so proud and so busy re-building their lives, businesses and families to even care to take the time to pay much attention to what was happening politically in Germany.  That was the single mistake that so many in Germany made, they did nothing substantially and remained silent for too long!

What happened?  The majority of German citizens just went on with their lives, sat back, and let the Nazis slowly take over!  Then, before the German people realized what had happened the Nazis owned and controlled everything in their society!  We now know the history that followed – and the German people, to this day, remain ashamed!

A similar pattern followed in Communist Russia.  The result, 20 million people were murdered.  While, the majority of Russians were peace loving people – they had become irrelevant!  For citizens to allow themselves to become irrelevant is unpatriotic! 

In Japan, most citizens were not warmongering sadists.  Yet, they allowed their government to murder 12 million civilians – and only America, sadly, could stop it with two of the greatest acts of violence the world has yet seen – Nuclear Bombing!  

In China, with their huge population, the majority of Chinese are peace loving people – but, it is irrelevant!  Chinese Communists zealots murdered a staggering 70 million people!  Then there was the rein of terror in North Korea, and under Pol Pot in Cambodia, and we have seen what fascist zealots have done, time and again, through-out Africa!  Rwanda and, now, Darfur – how long will the international community – that is to say, including Americans, let such insanity continue to terrorize societies of our world?

The pattern of perverted power in the wrong hands continued to repeat itself in Serbia, Kosovo, Palestine, Somalia, Nigeria, Algeria – all because, at the very root level of society, the common people did not speak up, organize in their neighborhoods and throughout their towns and cities and protest for peace – again, and again, “silence is betrayal!”  When are “we the people” going to stop extremists, fanatics and zealots in their tracks, regardless of their nationality, religion or political party affiliation, before they undermine our inalienable rights and civil liberties, and drive their delusions past proven democratic principals and wreck their destruction on another society 

Now, while the vast majority of Muslims are, in fact, peace loving people – a few radical, fanatic, zealots have launched a crusade, sadly in the name of Islam, against all infidels on the face of the earth!  Again, the majority of peace loving Muslims have now become irrelevant and remain silent – and “silence is betrayal” of their very faith!

America’s Global War On Terrorism has garnered few allies beyond our always faithful friends in England and Australia…this Global War On Terrorism must become a truly “global” effort backed by the majority of the international community!  But, that will not happen until we have a new American President that is willing to work with our allies, not bully them – and talk respectfully, and listen closely, to our enemies!

“We”, that is to say all of us “peace loving people” in America have seen the rise of the radical, right-wing, neo-con, zealots who have taken over the Republican Party in the past decade.  Too few of us have spoken up, as these American zealots have openly attempted to dismantle the very principals of our Democracy as set out in the Constitution of the United States – most have just sat back and watched, listening in occasionally, but continuing to be “too busy” to follow the long trail of facts, become fully informed on what has happened and cognizant of the realities of the past six years under Bush!

Our “silence IS betrayal” and because of our laziness we have violated the very principals of our Founders and allowed America to engage in a pre-emptive, unnecessary and unjust war in Iraq.  While we should blame Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield, Rice and all of the radical, far right wing, extremists in the Republican Party, in all fairness we must look at all of those in the Democratic Party that failed to ask enough of the right questions at the right time – and we must take our share of responsibility and recognize that our own inactions as citizens is culpable – “silence IS betrayal!” 

My Republican friends tell me, they too are “privately angry” and believe that the leadership of the Republican Party is “corrupt to the core” and “don’t even represent the average Republican Party member anymore” – yet, they are afraid to speak out publicly!  Many have confided, privately, that they secretly crossed party lines and voted for change last November – that’s a good first step, but, we are so far behind the power curve – it is past time to swallow our social fear of being stigmatized – and publicly speak out!

Far too much damage has already been done by the Bush Administration gone amok!  We have lost thousands of precious lives, tens of thousands of our best and our brightest have been horribly wounded and billions and billions of dollars wasted!

A century of good will, fought and paid for with the sweat, tears, blood, flesh, limbs and lives, and hard won taxes of ourselves, our Fathers and Mothers, and Grand Fathers and Grand Mothers, and Great Grand Fathers and Great Grand Mothers - all of our American ancestors – has been squandered by a small group of nut-case neo-cons, led by a below average guy who doesn’t even like to read, and can not put two sentences and a complete thought together extemporaneously, let alone write a full paragraph!

I’m convinced the model of Democracy, as designed by our Founders, requires at least three viable major political parties to be effective.  While, we still have two formally organized political parties, the Republicans leadership is corrupt to the core and won’t be able to recover until they vote out every crook hiding in every cranny.  The Democrats often appear dysfunctional, due to their desire to fully represent the diversity of America – but, they need to clean their House and Senate as well.  “We the People” can not afford to continue to allow criminals in OUR Congress!

Dear readers, ladies and gentlemen, we are down to only one political party that is functioning occasionally!  America is at a “tipping point” it’s past time for the American People to take back the power, elect progressive candidates, fight for reforms and protect our freedoms – the Global War On Terrorism starts here at home in our neighborhoods! 

We must support our troops and we should support the Global War On Terrorism being waged in Afghanistan and elsewhere throughout the world, and we must, finally, fully fund the Veteran’s Administration – but, “W” has been “way wrong for too long!”

I am most certainly, not trying to cause a panic, and I’m not saying “the sky is falling” by any means.  But, if, at this late date, you are still not yet outraged – then, obviously, you do not know what in the name of Heaven and Hell is going on – that makes you an “occupant” and a failure as an American “citizen!” 

How long are YOU, YOUR Family and YOUR Friends going to remain silent?