Seize
The Moral Highground
By T. Patrick
Donovan
19 October, 2004
Countercurrents.org
Few
of us alive today, certainly those of us who are of voting age, have
not seen the stirring photos of M.K. Gandhi and M.L. King standing up
to power. Two men of color, brought up under the gun and lash of racism
and oppression, faced down two of the modern world's most powerful empires.
How did they do
it?
By the sheer realization
that the systems they were resisting were morally bankrupt and that
to participate in them any longer could only mean a willing submission
to continued degradation.Out of this realization they determined to
seize the moral highground and organize resistance from the
vantage point of humanity's higher good and most noble vision.
How did they do
this?
What is often remembered
about the movements led by Gandhi and King is the nonviolent orientation
and character with which they mobilized the people. This is an important
thing to remember and is a fundamental part of their ideals and the
superior morality which imbued these mass movements.
But the subversive
cornerstone of these two social-political movements, the cardinal point
that we must remember today, is their declaration that these oppressive
systems no longer had any legitimate moral authority over the people.
Once this deep, strategic truth was realized the tactics of non-cooperation,
boycotts, sit-ins, civil disobedience and massive mobilizations flowed
easily and forthrightly.
What does this have
to do with Election Day 2004?
If there ever was
a time in American history when the political system had exposed itself
as illegitimate and morally bankrupt it is this time, right here, right
now. The occupation of Iraq is the most brutally compelling example
of this. Add to the mix Afghanistan and Haiti; add to the mix tax cuts
and corporate crime; add to the mix preemptive war and empire-building;
add to the mix all the crimes against the environment. Keep adding.
Is it not time for
us to step away from the foul contamination that this unjust and morally
decrepit system is attempting to spread? People ask, "dude, where's
my country?" And the answer that consistently comes back from the
powers-that-be is, "Don't you get it? This IS your country."
So let us make concerted
and noble effort to clamber out of this pigstyand take the highground.
If the resounding cry "Not in my name" is to have any real
meaning, it is time to take our names off the voter rolls.
It is time for a
movement of non-cooperation in the Presidential elections on November
2, 2004.
A must be a movement
that explicitly states our decision not to participate in no uncertain
terms. In other words, simply staying home and not voting does nothing
to alter the consciousness of the people of America, the politicians,
or our own for that matter.
If the polling places
are made empty by our movement, then the streets around the polling
places must swell with our bodies and our voices declaring the moral
illegitimacy of America's government, its actions at home and especially
around the world.
Gandhi and King
paved the way. Let us celebrate and creatively apply their legacies
by turning the voter booths into ghost towns. Let us not continue to
give legitimacy to a system that has, by its own actions, rendered itself
illegitimate.
Rather than "Vote
No" on Election Day, our rallying cry must by "No Vote On
Election Day!"
Our morality, our
humanity, and our planet is at stake.
[T. Patrick Donovan
is a doctoral student in Depth Psychology and can be reached at
[email protected]]