Promoting democracy in Utah one pint at a time.
Promoting democracy in Utah one pint at a time.
From www.truthdig.com
Editor’s note: Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read document.
It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we get out.
Much has happened since we handed over our voice:
Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.
Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.
Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few “bad apples” in the military.
One of the books we read as part of Reading Liberally was George Lakoff’s “Don’t Think of an Elephant”, which talked about not just the language used by conservatives, but also the “frames” they use in order to change the whole perspective of an issue. It’s an intersting, quick read, and if you haven’t already read the book, I highly encourage you to do so. However, Lakoff’s book might be good at telling us what we need to do to re-frame the debate, but he just might lack the charisma to spread the word far and wide.
Today on KRCL I happened to catch a production by a group called Bioneers that focused on a speech given by a man named Thom Hartmann. Many of you have probably heard of Thom via Air America or another way, but this is the first I’d heard of him. Thom is a student of NLP and the tools of communication, and while he may not be a linguist like Lakoff, he understands the way people think and relate.
It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission, so I’m posting the program I heard on KRCL here [MP3, 28:22]: Frame or Get Framed. If you enjoy the production, please consider purchasing it at www.bioneers.org – it’s just $1.99.
Also, this article on Common Dreams by Thom I highly recommend: CommonDreams.org. It talks about the need to “brand” the things that liberals stand for in order to help people realize that they’re probably more left-leaning than they think. Even if America *is* educated on the issues enough to confidently vote Repubican, Hartmann offers us the tools we need to change their way of thinking.
Our first annual candidate Meet-N’-Drink was a great success. While a few of our candidates couldn’t make it for health reasons (I’m sure constant campaigning has really gotta wear on you), we had a few candidates come out that we weren’t expecting, including:
Steve Olsen, First Congressional District, http://www.steveolsen.org
Larry Wiley, Utah House District 31, http://www.le.state.ut.us/house/members2005/bios2005.asp?id=31
Bob Brister, Second Congressional District, http://www.bristerforcongress.org/
And Curtis Haring was there representing Beth Holbrook, Utah House District 20, http://www.voteholbrook.com/
Many candidates brought out flyers and lawn signs, and hopefully they were able to get some people from our group to help volunteer in the final stretch. We will be posting pictures on our group Flickr account, so we’ll let you know when that’s done.
Thanks to everyone for coming out and supporting our candidates, and thanks to Cherish and Piper Down for keeping the drinks coming despite the chaos.
This Friday is the event we’ve all been waiting for: our first annual Meet-N’-Drink with local Democratic candidates. You’ll be able to mingle with some of the most forward-thinking progressives in the state, including:
Christine Johnson – Utah House District 25 – http://www.electjohnson.com/
David Litvack – Utah House District 26 – http://www.le.state.ut.us/house/members2005/bios2005.asp?id=26
Jackie Biskupski – Utah House District 30 – http://www.le.state.ut.us/house/members2005/bios2005.asp?id=30
Josie Valdez – Salt Lake County Assessor
Mark Wheatley – Utah House District 35 – http://legislature.utah.gov/house/members2005/bios2005.asp?id=35
Michael Lee – Utah House District 32
Pete Ashdown – United States Senate – http://pashdown.com
Phil Riesen – Utah House District 36 – http://philriesen.com/
Ralph Becker – Utah House District 24 – http://www.ralphbecker.com/
Scott McCoy – Utah Senate District 2 – http://www.senatormccoy.com/
Sim Gill – Salt Lake County Distric Attorney – http://simgill.com/
The candidates look forward to hearing your input, and they could certainly use some help in the final stretch leading up to the election. Come out and join us as we toast to having such great candidates; people that make living in Utah a little more bearable.
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Welcome to Drinking Liberally Salt Lake City. We meet at 6:30 p.m. every second and fourth Friday in the back room of Piper Down [Map] and go to 9:30. All are welcome.
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