March 6, 2005 -- My children are eleven, fourteen and sixteen years of age, three boy scouts, prime cannon fodder for the wars launched by the Bush Dynasty. I want to abolish war, militarism, redirect the world’s resources from killing and controlling to healing and nurturing life, humanity, and, in particular, children.

Undoubtedly, I was blessed with a liberal education, cushioned from harsh political realities by my skin color, and a trust fund. Only in 1992, after seeing the film, JFK, did I begin to wake up, began researching the CIA, and became an activist.

In those days, I had two young children and was pregnant, so my activism was balanced by motherhood. I asked my kids as they got older, “I think I could be a really great mom, or try to save the world; what do you think I should do?”

They replied, “Do both.”

My background was in public relations, and I was astonished at how critical issues were not headline news, until I realized that the press was part of the problem. The press was serving corporate and government interests, rather than the public. As William Randolph Hearst remarked, “News is something that somebody wants suppressed, the rest is advertising.”

The press sells “War,” one of the most lucrative businesses on the planet, despite the human and environmental costs. Besides dropping bombs, shooting, and physically killing people, there have been a series of economic wars, more deadly than traditional warfare. The deaths by hunger, disease, and deprivation of the basic necessities of life are quietly ignored. For years I focused on “the global economy,” changing the monetary system, challenging the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO. Over the years more people became concerned with these issues, outside the US where policies were life and death issues for many, movements grew. Throughout the world we have fought trade agreements that were written of, by and for corporations, to obliterate local and national sovereignty from interfering with corporations’ ability to extract profits, and to laden others with the costs.

September 11th dramatically changed the world landscape and was an enormous setback for the growing global justice movement. Looking back on it now, I think 9/11 was an act of fear on the part of a global elite, using terrorism and war to frighten people into silence and submission. However, the crime committed that day, the subsequent lies, cover-up, could be their undoing. Those of us in the 9-11 Truth Movement hope that by exposing the truth about 9/11, we can end the “War Game,” once and for all.

Last year we organized the San Francisco International Inquiry into 9-11 Phase One, which was mainly ignored by the television stations, but drew the print media, and forced a response from the White House, and helped to galvanize activists and researchers. I felt like the bottleneck of an hourglass, as I was given a new book, video, DVD, articles on 9-11 almost daily, and certainly could not digest and disseminate the wealth of information that was coming my way. We also struggled to challenge the official Cover-Up Commission and their flawed recommendations, which would expand the “National Security State” into a “Global Security State” and give even greater power to the architects of 9-11.

My duties as mom forced me to take the occasional vacation, and reminded me to eat, sleep, and play. A tremendous amount of energy was directed by many into defeating Bush at the voting booths. The blatantly stolen election evoked great outrage, and, at the same time, discouraged people, who had worked to “redefeat Bush” and felt doubly betrayed. Counter-Inaugural protests were widespread, and so was the hunger for people to connect, to strategize, to figure out “what can we do to stop this madness?”

Collectively, the country is in the midst of an identity crisis. The White House thinks they can “spin reality” into their chosen vision, despite bothersome physical reality which keeps intruding to challenge their words, and projections. The Orwellian media landscape, has split the public into the “believers and the non-believers,” of media in general, and of the government, in particular.” In this polarized country of deeply conflicting worldviews, with unending, impending war, and new terrorist threats, people want to live in ignorance, feel powerless, or are hungry for ideas. People want to know what actions that they can take, to redirect the course of history from the current suicidal, bleak, apocalyptic rush of the neo-fascist horseman. The fear within the Bush regime is revealed by their actions; they cannot bear questions beyond their control, the truth; we can trip them by being honest, loud, truthful, and overcoming whatever barriers the corporate press throws our way. We can follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther King and Gandhi who believed in the power of truth “Satyagraha,” and the power of love to overcome the power of violence.

January 30th began the “Gandhi and King Season of Non-Violence” which will last through April 4th (See “64 Ways in 64 Days Daily- Commitments to Live By” at http://www.agnt.org/snv64ways.htm).

This is the season to study the history and evolution of non-violent social movements and learn how each has built upon the insights, mistakes of the past, and try to creatively evolve and nurture an effective non-violent movement that can disarm the warmongers.

A Force More Powerful is the title of a book and a companion film that reveal that violence is the tool of those lacking moral authority, a tool of desperation, of the weak, the frightened, the bully. We need to look at successful non-violent social movements over the past two hundred years, to see the mistakes they have made, to recognize what they learned from one another, and how they have evolved.

I telephoned the producer, Miriam A. Zimmerman, to see about getting permission to show the film, publicly. I admitted that the one shortcoming of the film was that the narrative pointed to the voting process as a way to get rid of dictators, when electoral fraud in the United States has brought us Bush, and cosmetic elections in countries under military occupation which have dubious value.

She didn’t see anything wrong with U.S. elections; she told me that she was going to Venezuela to do a film about a madman who did use electoral fraud to obtain power- Hugo Chavez. I should have had the presence of mind to ask her if she thought Aristide was in that category, too, but I was too stunned. Cloaking dictators under the window dressing of democracy is a slick pacification trick. Not only does the press sell wars, but they also choose who is “legitimate” and “who wins” in rigged elections.

The United for Peace and Justice National Conference drew 500 activists from across the country to vote on proposals, strategy, and direction for the movement. 9-11 truth activists tried to pass a proposal which would expand the goals of the peace and justice movement to include the truth about 9-11; while winning on round one, the vote was delayed until the last day of the conference, when fewer people were around, and the proposal was defeated. Had the activists been more aware of the politics of the group, we might have prevailed, but growing a movement and knitting relationships takes time.

The greatest hope for humanity is simply consciousness-raising, enlightenment on a large scale, and truth-telling, which will lead to personal, social, global transformation. My mentor, Bill Moyer, a strategist for Martin Luther King Jr., wrote the book- Doing Democracy- The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements. The first stage is recognizing that a problem exists. The second stage is proving the failure of existing institutions. The third stage is ripening conditions, which is where the 9-11 Truth Movement was last spring. “Take Off” (Stage Four) might have occurred in New York last September when over half a million people gathered to oppose the Republican National Conference in the streets of New York. The Zogby polls showed that half of New Yorkers believed that the Bush Administration knew about 9/11 and consciously let it happen. Jimmy Walters spent millions of dollars on ads and events in New York, which resulted in the 9/11 Truth Movement being acknowledged and publicly attacked in newspapers and on CNN.

At Stanford University the presidents of ABC, CBS, NBC discussed media coverage of the 2004 election, they were asked about exit polls and disenfranchised voters; I questioned them about 9-11; their failure to respond to key questions was broadcast on C-Span. The footage will be useful for documentaries on the media.

Stage Five- The “perception of failure” occurs when a roused public doesn’t see immediate results of their actions/demonstrations, and “powerholders” remain in office, numbers of people attending actions and demonstrations appear to be less.

There were a lot of people protesting on January 20th, but maybe not as many as on February 15th 2003, prior to the war on Iraq. Some people felt burned by Kerry, disappointed that Bush got away with another stolen election, outraged at a press that could ignore the obvious fraud that had taken place, and a Congress that failed to serve the people. The movement for peace, truth and justice is still growing, maybe not in the streets, but within the major institutions and organizations, involving ever larger numbers of people to address the problems, and place them on the political agenda. There are many small, local gatherings, film screenings, and conversations taking place across the country. Hundreds of people gathered in Oakland February 26th, to re-examine the stolen election, and work towards democratizing the country.

New people are joining the movement. There are more and more books being published, videos being produced, songs written, articles appearing. The military has not been able to meet its recruitment goals. In Northern California, there is so much organizing going on that one must choose between multiple events on any given night, but it is beneath the press radar.

The 9-11 Truth Movement is under attack, again, from “Popular Mechanics”, CNN, local radio show hosts, and ex-CIA agents who are on tour selling the “incompetence” theory. The technique used is to create a “straw man,” a ridiculous theory, and then tear that apart to discredit the entire movement, without having to deal with the real issues and questions that we have raised.

As I organize premieres of the documentary- The Great Conspiracy- The 9/11 News Special You Never Saw, I’m finding it easier to get sponsors amongst the bookstores, KPFA, Pacifica, and Project Censored. There is still resistance, but the ideas that were rejected as heresy years ago, are now being accepted as obvious facts. At least one editor wants to do a cover story, and the press is encouraging, even if they don’t want to publicly participate in the events.

The documentary was produced by Barrie Zwicker, the first mainstream journalist to deeply examine the official story; he also was the Director of the Toronto International Citizens’ Inquiry. Following the premieres will be a dialogue with Barrie, author of “9-11 Synthetic Terrorism- Made in the USA,” Webster G. Tarpley; investigative journalist, musician Michael Kane; Director of Project Censored, Peter Phillips, and representatives of the press. It is easy to understand why the press is reluctant to speak and allow themselves to be questioned publicly; most of them are guilty of silence on the biggest lies of our times. (The events will be held March 9th Menlo Park, March 10th Oakland, March 11th San Francisco, March 12th Santa Rosa-details at http://www.communitycurrency.org).

“In a time of Universal Deceit –to tell the truth is a revolutionary act.” George Orwell

There is a revolution going on right now, a media revolution, in which people are finding their voices and speaking their truths and challenging the prevailing lies. As the mainstream press fails to address or mention the big issues and key stories, more and more people begin to rely on the internet and one another for information. Each day, more blogs appear. A friend of mine pointed out that if you examine the major media news sources websites, the most important stories, even if they are buried in the back pages of the New York Times, are the ones that are most emailed. People are not stupid, and not completely fooled by headlines; they can discern what is the most important information. There is growing hope.

To win over the majority of people to serious change, one needs to provide some vision that is better than the status quo. Fear has been used to construct the “Police State” and a gargantuan military; we need to convince people that a military and intelligence apparatus that kills and terrorizes Americans is a liability to us and the people of the world.

Stage seven and eight occur when pressure is directed at the power-holders to force reforms or systemic change, a shift in paradigms. This is when “reforms” occur, which, if they are cosmetic tokens, lead us back to stage one, again.

Exposing state-sponsored terrorism should be sufficient to cut funding from the military and intelligence agencies that were most responsible for carrying out 9-11 and the subsequent wars. Redefining “security” from “having the most weapons” to “maintaining healthy relationships” is the paradigm shift that I would like to see. This will require major consciousness-raising, a dramatic shift in perception, but I believe this is what we are experiencing right now, individually and collectively, this massive identity crisis. Worldviews are collapsing and people are struggling to find out who they are and what they will do under new circumstances. When people realize that the dominant systems oppose their deeply held values, they may choose to change those systems or change their perceptions. The process of transformation individually and collectively takes time.

Fortunately, there are leaders, visionaries, solutions to many of the problems that we face. Many have faced the long, dark night of the soul, and emerged to light the path of courage, hope, and creating a positive future. What people generally don’t realize is how much power they have; as long as they think they are alone, weak, atomized, they are afraid to do anything.

When they realize that they are part of an unstoppable movement that is the hope of the planet, they become energized, connected, whole, powerful, and a gift to the planet. I remember protesting the G-8 in Denver in 1996; there were perhaps a thousand of us in the streets; later hundreds of thousands protested the G-8 in Italy. Mobilizing North Americans to the first World Social Forum was very difficult, only 39 of us went; this year, over 100,000 gathered, many of them from North America. We have much to learn from the struggles that are taking place throughout the world, generally against multinational corporate interests and puppet regimes.

I see the eventual merging of all the movements for peace, truth, justice, equality, liberty, ecological sanity, life, health. One of my mentors, Bob Swann, who was president of the E.F. Schumacher Society, a pioneer in land and monetary reform, was also a great joy to be with, and in describing most of the direct peace actions he participated in, he could usually chuckle and add, “It was fun.” When enough people realize that it is more “fun” to be on the side of “life” than the side of “death,” that it is insane to waste our precious human resources on “wars” and controlling “resources” for the benefit of a few. We will then be able to redirect resources towards people and planet, and happily remind ourselves of our responsibility towards our children, all children, and the continuity of life.