Terror Nation

By Sam Garchik

It’s been over 30 years since the SLA kidnapped Patty Hearst, 21 since of Philadelphia bombed MOVE headquarters, 13 since Waco, and 11 since the Oklahoma City bombing.

Since the most recent occurrence of large-scale domestic terrorism in Oklahoma, the focus of our government has been on international terrorism, and the great fear is that we’ll be attacked from abroad.

Over the past 5 years, however, the federal government has created the largest government agency in the history of this country, and has spied on its citizens using every tool available. Michael Moore attacked the feds’ obsession with the daily workings of non-terrorist groups in Fahrenheit 9/11 by featuring “Peace Fresno,” and their cookies. Now, Mike Palecek, a former reporter and congressional candidate, does the same in Terror Nation: Notes from the Perimeter.

Although specific details in the outside world, like the militarized Red Sox and White Sox, who wage war in the mountains outside of day-to-day civilization, the main narrative deals with Charlie Johnson, who is forcibly committed to the Saint Smith Mental Institution for writing too many nasty letters-to-the-editor. And it’s through Charlie’s mind that we get the best sense of just how oppressive government can be.

At a time when the current administration conducts secret wiretaps and sends fake reporters to cover real news events, this book presents a clear vision for what America, sadly but not surprisingly, might become.

451° F: Hot Books:
The New Pearl Harbor

Alta Price

451° F: Hot Books has a new blog!  For complete information on which books will be discussed, how to host a book discussion group, where to sign up to host a group, and much, much more, go to http://www.451f.org.

Blending my experiences as a Dean House Party Coordinator and as the organizer of a mother-daughter book club, I want to start a national book discussion organization featuring political books. The first discussion would be of the book The New Pearl Harbor by David Ray Griffin, which we would probably discuss in July. Here is the first draft of my idea:

The organization would be called 451° F: Hot Books (pronounced Fahrenheit 451), unless someone comes up with a better name!

Books would be political, with books through November 2004 chosen with the goal of contributing to the defeat of George W. Bush and his neo-conservative buddies. After that, we could be broader.

Book Discussion Groups (BDG) would register online, at the 451° F page at blogforiowa.com. A BDG could be as small or large as anyone wanted. It would be nice to get at least 451 groups. (!)

States with multiple BDG would have a State Coordinator. State Coordinators would keep in contact with 451° F and each other by email and conference calls.

We would have press releases, invitations, a logo, buttons with the logo and name of the current book, cool downloadable bookmarks like the ones for this book club, etc. - just like any DFA event.

On the same day, at the same time across the country, BDG would meet to discuss the book - with a conference call with the author or some other interesting person for part of the time, probably 20 minutes or so. Let's call this person the Discussion Leader (DL). For The New Pearl Harbor, it could be the author, Michael Moore, one of the Jersey Girls, etc. (Now of course, I don't know that I can actually get any one of these people to agree to do this, but I'm going to try. It would be a great way for the author to promote his or her book.) The DL would talk, and then answer a few questions (probably submitted in advance).

A state would volunteer to "host" the book discussion the next month. In advance of the day of the discussion, next month's host state (probably the state coordinator with input from local people) would choose 3 different books, finding a DL and a date the DL would be available for each book. This information would be posted online. Each BDG would give feedback about their discussion and would be allowed to vote, as a group, for whichever book they wanted. Whichever book got the most votes would be the one discussed the next month.

That's it in a nutshell. Suggestions? Comments? Volunteers to help organize this? Please either comment or contact me at:

altaprice@451F.org

Alta Price

Purchase 451°F: Hot Books merchandise here.

What Draws Us To Howard Dean

I am reading the book "The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World." It talks about the 3 different groups in the culture: traditionals (Ready Rapture types), moderns (the dominant group in our country now, running business and government), and a large, new group that has gradually emerged starting in the late 1950's. Cultural Creatives emerged out of the civil rights, feminist, environmental, holistic health care, etc. movements and have profoundly changed the values of our society.

I think we love Howard because he is a Cultural Creative, and so are we. In fact, he is one of the first Cultural Creative leaders to emerge at the national level. Cultural Creatives value authenticity. Politicians who dissemble are moderns. The first thing that struck me about Dean when I heard him in person was that he just answered questions honestly and directly. I couldn't believe it, or how much it appealed to me. Cultural Creatives value community, and Dean appealed to our sense of community. Cultural Creatives are optimistic and believe their individual actions can make a difference. Dean told us the power to change the country is in our hands.

The moderns want us to believe that a politician who speaks an unwelcome truth makes a "gaffe." The moderns tell us that our individual actions are too small to make a difference, so we need to just "fall in line" behind the leaders. Moderns tell us that opposing a popular pResident who wants to take us to war is political suicide, and the only way to win is to equivocate and work behind the scenes to try to lessen the damage. At every turn, moderns tell Cultural Creatives that our values are misguided and no reasonable person shares them.

And then came Dean. Howard Dean spoke our values out loud and we finally realized that our values are just as legitimate as those of the moderns. And when Dean gave us our voice and we started talking, we found each other and realized that we are not alone. In fact, there are 50 million of us. The future is ours.

Dr. Alta Price