The World is Rioting While the USA does nothing

As the OP, I just wanted to set the record straight. I am not advocating rioting...I agree with most of you here. Rioting is pointless.

But I do say that someting must be done to air the concerns that most Americans have. As I speak to my friends and relatives, many say "yeah, we know it's all screwed up, but what do we do? What can we do?" I think there is a fundamental absence of leadership, which fosters the hopelessness of all. My legislators don't speak for me. My local politicians don't speak for me. In fact, no legislator or politician has ever asked me what I think. How can they "represent" me if they never speak to me?

Personally, I know what's wrong, but I don't know how to rally against it. I write my legislators at every turn, and I get these nicely worded responses that basically say "we hear you, but you're wrong. we know better." I have no experience in this. My gut says go on the rampage, but my brain says that's not the right approach.

reply to post by BostonBill99


we have Obama why should we riot?

He's going to save us all no need to panic

Just go home, sit down, watch some tv with a beer and everything is going to be ok

Just ignore the bombs being dropped (war games!)

Ignore all the corruption you see it's really not what you think it is

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out (or in however you like it)

I fail to see what starting riots helps out the economy,things get damaged people get hurt or injured,mostly the rioters,wow this really makes a lot of sence,all violence does is breed more violance,what irk's me I hear how the US is so overly aggressive,maybe we can deal with adversity other ways IMO

reply to post by BostonBill99


Rioting won't fix anything. Perhaps we in the US are more realistic, rational and adult than others?

Bad news for the Looters in the US though. They will have to make do with burglaries and such.

How rioting will fix the economy and solve anything eludes me? How violence on the streets will lead to peace is way over my head.

Why isnt America doing anything about it?
As Americans, we are supposed to be setting an example to the rest of the world showing how we set ourselves different from other nations.
We should be handling this like mature adults, not teenage punks with overdriven hormones.

Besides that, WTF else can we do about it? Nothing.

We can write letters, and walk down the sidewalk screaming obscenities, but as far as physical violence...well..thats just an excuse to start trashing things(nothing more).

Our Govt hears us, whether you think they do or not.
So lets attack em the same way they been attacking us
...with the stroke of a pen.

reply to post by wutone


how does one "not pay their taxes" if one 1.) works for an employer who pretty much withholds them before one even sees the money or 2.) makes a purchase where taxes are included?

[edit on 6-2-2009 by ~Lucidity]

I have a few takes in this topic:
Have you ever heard or read about the wealthy creating civil unrest or being involved in riots?

As for previous comments regarding the current riots in several countries, please hence it all started as a peaceful demonstration (except perhaps Greece) which turned into a what media calls "riot".

On a different note... lets bring back the basics:
In a so called TRUE democracy, the elected are elected by the people who in its turn govern FOR the people and NOT the way around.

reply to post by Common Good


I agree. And, I think we will show an example to the rest of the world by getting though this. Just as we did in the 1930's (Great Depression), and then the 1940's (WWII).

We got through those things and emerged as a world power.

(I think we're not "rioting" because we, unlike socialist countries in Europe, we do not rely on a gov. to take care of everything for us. Americans sit tight, and get tough. That is what we have always done. We have to feed our families, keep working and get through tough times as we did during those years mentioned above. It works.)

We don't start rioting unless our freedoms are being disturbed, contrary to popular belief that really hasn't happened yet, in my humble opinion.

Riots, demonstrations, protests... How is it all working out for you?

I was here during the social unrest of the 1960s, race riots, "peace" demonstrations... been there, done that.

I'm waiting ...


Be careful for what you protest... the outcome of the 1960s is what we are living today.

That era generated the evil that has befallen us.

Originally posted by pyrytyes



Riots, demonstrations, protests... How is it all working out for you?

I was here during the social unrest of the 1960s, race riots, "peace" demonstrations... been there, done that.

I'm waiting ...


Be careful for what you protest... the outcome of the 1960s is what we are living today.

That era generated the evil that has befallen us.

Hi. What "evil" from that generation are you speaking of? Were you one of those protesters?



[edit on 6-2-2009 by Electro38]

reply to post by Electro38




"Hi. What "evil" from that generation are you speaking of? Were you one of those protesters?"

The evil I speak of are those within our government, and those who "influence"
our government at many levels. I believe our education system took a nosedive in response. Some social programs spawned during the era are controversial in creating the " government will provide", free-loader mentality, harbored by more than a few...


Do not think I am bad mouthing my generation, but like each we bear the responsibility of future generations successes.

Yes, I did my share of sign carrying, sitting-in. For all the good it accomplished. No, did not riot... I have too much respect for others propetry than to deny them use of it through destruction.

Originally posted by detachedindividual

What I suggest is that people follow Iceland's lead.

Protest, legally, and be civil about it.

Do you have any idea how big this country is? We arent Iceland. Or England. Or Ireland. Your countries are teeny tiny. It is a big logistic thing to coordinate 300,000,000 over a whole continent.

When you guys coordinate the whole EU into one simultaneous protest, I will feel guilty that we havent done that here.

ipsnews.net...

According to the group, thousands of people in more than 190 cities and towns across the country took part in demonstrations against the corporate bailout bill proposed by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson last Friday.

www.liveleak.com...

Thousands of protestors demonstrated agains the proposed $700 Billion bail out plan for the finance and banking industry, yet the national news media in America didn't even report it! Why not? It seems strange that this barely generated a gander from the big news outlets like ABC, CNN, CBS, NBC etc. all of whom have a presence in New York City.

thelede.blogs.nytimes.com...

Already, opponents of the plan were making a difference. Senators were reporting phones ringing off the hook with “universally negative” reactions to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s proposal to spend up to $700 billion in taxpayer money to buy up “toxic” assets from struggling financial institutions.

How big was the outpouring of opposition that helped kill the bailout bill in the House of Representatives on Monday? Big enough to leave the House’s Web site with unprecedented technical problems.

The “Write Your Representative” feature on House.gov came under even more stress than the credit markets did, seizing up completely for most users over the past 24 hours. “The House of Representatives is currently experiencing an extraordinarily high amount of e-mail traffic,” a notice said.

We cant help it that there is a media blackout of much of the protesting going on. I dont see the BBC over here making sure it gets on the world news. What would you suggest we do? Form a paramilitary operation to storm and seize control of the airwaves so that we can be better informed and coordinate with one another in our protests?

And dont forget, Iceland is protesting because the S has already HTF over there. I dont recall protests in the months leading up to it.

And dont forget, we were protesting over here BEFORE this whole mess occurred. Even though the MSM was loathe to air that as well.

en.wikipedia.org...

The scale of the demonstrations—even the lowest estimates put the crowd at over 40,000—dwarfed any previous demonstration in the United States against a world meeting of any of the organizations generally associated with economic globalization (such as the WTO, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), or the World Bank).[1] The events are sometimes referred to as the Battle of Seattle.

We are in a bit of a bind here. The country is large, and so word of mouth doesnt get around easily, and our media is refusing to cover protests. What do you suggest we do? Or is there ANYTHING we could do to please the other side of the pond?

Originally posted by pyrytyes

Be careful for what you protest... the outcome of the 1960s is what we are living today.

That era generated the evil that has befallen us.

I for one am reveling in the "evil" of equal rights for women and people of color.

Or was there some other "evil" that I havent read about.

I praise all the Gods every day that I live that I was born after the civil rights movement and not before it.

reply to post by pyrytyes


Actually, most of our demonstrations were harmless and peaceful. We wanted nothing to do with phony violent people who pretended to join in. Be careful with labels. There are some genuine Hippies here Peace, Love, Dove all

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander


I wish that I could have avoided those times myself. I feared much more for our country then, as now.

Once the smoke settles from this newest BS, it'll start over again, with some other event of epic proportions.

reply to post by Blaine91555


Perhaps I was not a card-carrying Hippie, but I fit in quite well. Good times rolled in spite of it all. Non-violent, but not pacifist, it takes a bit to draw anger here. I have never participated in violent activities, and when it has erupted, vacated the scene.

Reading some posts here- I wonder what a gathering IRL would be like...

And I do not think I pointed to any specific group, so as to label, My apologies
should I have offended...

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander



Have you petitioned to recall your representative?

Bring them home to remind them of what life is really like back there where the people of your state live.

Tine and distance makes for poor memories especially when they are being seduced and manipulated.

Save them. Save us all. Bring them home.

reply to post by NightSkyeB4Dawn


I threatened to fire everyone of them BEFORE the election and bailout, and I voted Constitution party during the election (or other third candidate in some of the smaller races) I cannot even tell you how many emails, and petitions, etc. I have been involved in.

I have not been to a physical demonstration, but I am not averse to it. We just need to figure out a way to make the majority of the people realize whats going on. People in Europe seem to think America's news organizations are carrying coverage of the demonstrations all over Europe, when in fact, if it gets any coverage at all it is just, "oh there you go, crazy Europeans, next.."

America has one of the most controlled medias in the world. Not by government. We would probably be much better off if we had a government broadcast network like the BBC. Our media is completely owned by corporate interests, the same people who want the bailouts. Why do you think we keep having two Corporate owned shills to pick from every four years? Dissenting voices are not even allowed to BUY air time in some cases, (MoveOn.org anyone?)

Most people do not get their news from the internet. They get it from TV. And no one is going to start moving until they see the herd moving. The problem is, how do we make sure they can and will see it? In Europe, it is easier. You look out your window and see the herd moving. You have small countries with small cities, very tightly built so that everything is close. Here it is the opposite. We are all very spread out, big sprawling cities and suburbs. How to get the whole herd aware that it should move is a huge problem.

In fact it has occurred to me lately that no matter how many guns we have individually, it might not be hard at all to take the citizens down. All you have to do is start a disinformation campaign talking about "email hoaxes" so that any world coming through the internet is disregarded, and then just knock off one city at a time maintaining a media blackout of the event. We would never know til they came to our town, and then, it would be too late.

The illusion of a free press is crippling us right now. And has been for probably 20 years or better. The big corporate interests and the politicians they own learned their lesson from media coverage of events in the 60's and they arent going to let that happen again.

The only evil I see in the civil rights movement is that it stopped before it got the government back on the side of the people. It bought us some great stuff, dont get me wrong, but it allowed the chance for people to snatch power away from business interests to slip past.



[edit on 6-2-2009 by Illusionsaregrander]

[edit on 6-2-2009 by Illusionsaregrander]

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander

I threatened to fire everyone of them BEFORE the election and bailout,

Don't threaten. You will start to sound like the boy that cried wolf and no one will take you seriously. You need them to take you seriously because you have a lot of important things to say and you will have an important mission.

Here is the information and the instructions.

If you live in one of the 18 states you can send a very powerful message to our government.

It is time that they know who they serve and we have got to start holding them accountable.


knowledgerush.com...

www.answerbag.com...

Originally posted by pyrytyes
reply to post by Electro38

 

Some social programs spawned during the era are controversial in creating the " government will provide", free-loader mentality, harbored by more than a few...

Interesting, never heard anyone from that generation say this before. I have heard things like that said from that generation's parents (the hippies parents).

I was just born during that time but I always thought the worse things to come from the 60's was the whole drug culture, aside from the great loses of a few great men.

What social programs do you mean?



[edit on 6-2-2009 by Electro38]