The Reasonable Activist

What is sinking this country today isn’t the American populace, it is the bad politicians and the greedy corporations.  In an ideal world, all politicos would be working solely for the public good.  In an ideal world, big corporations would use their power to help large quantities of people, both by providing desirable jobs and spending money on community enrichment programs.  Both of these things do happen; neither occur often enough.

But the American people ultimately control the power.  Without our consent, their can be no governance.  The outcry of a nation can be heard throughout the universe.  It is past time to be heard.

It starts, of course, with campaign contributions.  For too long we’ve allowed our attention to be diverted to minor issues while the elephant sits bloated in the room.  We’ve prevented lobbyists, who may be well educated in a subject, from becoming advisories.  My friends, it is not their knowledge we need fear, it is their money.  We’ve prevented them from giving large gifts, convinced by the very politicians themselves that this will end thee powerful influence of lobbying.  This is, in effect, dancing nimbly around the true sources of injustice, which are campaign contributions.

 There is a rule in place which allows for candidates to use public money to run their campaign.  And it seems every year, in a show of fairness, some campaigning politician promises to use this money to run their campaign… up until the point their private contributions exceeds the amount of the public fund.  See, if you use the public’s money, you can no longer use private contributions. 

If we were to end all campaign contributions and require all major politicians to run using only this set fund, the most effective campaigns would belong to those who handled their budget with thrift and efficiency.  This is in stark contrast to today’s campaign races, where often enough when the money starts to run dry, they put out a call for a fresh influx of dollars.

Who do you want creating the new national budget?  You have a choice, America.

Img src http://www.hrnk.org/hiddengulag/toc.html

Oh Kil-nam is a South Korean economist who moved his family to Pyongyang, North Korea when officials promised him a good job and treatment for his wife’s hepatitis.  They recieved neither.  Instead, the couple spent several months studying the teachings of Kim Il Sung, the “Great Leader” and founding dictator of North Korea.  They were given jobs in a radio station, broadcasting political propaganda.

Oh was ordered to leave for Germany to recruit South Korean students to live in North Korea.  Neither his wife nor his two daughters were allowed to go with him.  Initially, he planned to return. Oh recalls that he and his wife argued bitterly about what he should do.

“She hit me in the face when I said I would come back with some South Koreans,” Oh said. “She said I could not have that on my conscience. She told me to leave North Korea and never come back. She told me to think of her and our daughters as being dead from a car accident.”

Upon reaching Germany, Oh defected and was granted political asylum.  His family disappeared within the North Korean gulag ‘camps’.  It is unknown whether they are alive or dead.

I would like to honor the brave Shin Sook-ja, who knowingly gave up the future and possibly the lives of herself and her family, so that her husband could escape.  Through her self-sacrifice, she also protected the lives of any students he may have brought back.  There is no greater act of nobility than to submit yourself to endless torture and degradation so that another can be free.  Let her story not be forgotten.  Let us always remember that these gulags exist in many countries around the world. 

We will not be free until all of humanity is freed, for our obligation binds us to aide our distressed brothers and sisters.

REFERENCE ARTICLE:
Washington Post Article: A family and a conscience, destroyed by North Korea’s cruelty
1994 Amnesty International Appeals Information on Shin Sook-ja (scroll down)
The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK)

The latest US report shows that more than 1 in 10 juvenile offenders are molested or raped.  Around 85 percent of these occurences are at the hands of a staff member, rather than another inmate.  Surprisingly, 95 percent of all youth reporting staff sexual misconduct said they had been victimized by a female. 

For the full article, read:

Alternet: Shocking Report Reveals Epidemic of Sexual Abuse in Juvenile Prisons

I have the unenviable position of being neither for nor against this war.  Of course, I support the soldiers.  Then again, I also support humane treatment of all prisoners, even ones that don’t deserve it.  But whether or not you can justify the war at its inception, you can’t just send everyone home overnight, especially not when a war has been going on for as long as Afghanistan.  There’s probably a whole war-based economy by now that would collapse, for one (and no, I am not talking about the dealing of weapons).  Once you get past the inflammatory title, this is actually a well-rounded article that touches, if however briefly, on how complex these issues can be when viewed from different angles.

Obama’s Secret Prisons: Night Raids, Hidden Detention Centers, the “Black Jail” and the Dogs of War in Afghanistan