WAWA/WeAreWideAwake is my Public Service to America as a muckracker who has journeyed seven times to Israel Palestine since June 2005.
WAWA is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole
truth.
We who Are Wide
Awake are compelled by the "fierce urgency of Now" [Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise
awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of the crucial issues of our
day: the state of our Union and in protection of democracy, what life is like
under military occupation in Palestine, the Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land,
and spirituality-from a Theologically Liberated Christian Anarchist
POV.
"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils." George Washington's Farewell Address - 1796
"My aim is to agitate & disturb people. I'm not selling bread, I'm selling yeast." Unamuno
"Imagine All the People Sharing All the World." John Lennon
"If enough Christians followed the gospel, they could bring any state to its knees." Father Philip Francis Berrigan
"You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won't back down." Tom Petty
"If I can't dance, it's not my revolution." Emma Goldman
"We have yet to begin to IMAGINE the power and potential of the Internet." Charlie Rose, 2005
Only in Solidarity do "We have it in our power to begin the world again" Tom Paine
"Never doubt that a few, thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead
"You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free." John 8:32
DO SOMETHING!
Photo of George shown here and in web site banner courtesy of Debbie Hill, 2000.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence
HomeBlogAugust 2011 August 13, 2011: Two degrees of Kevin Bacon and Message through The Door of The Colbert Report
August 13, 2011: Two degrees of Kevin Bacon and Message through The Door of The Colbert Report
August 13, 2011: Two degrees of Kevin Bacon and Message through The Door of the Colbert Report
[New York City]--Six
Degrees of Kevin Bacon is a game based on the understanding of our
interconnected world and plays upon the assumption that individuals can be
linked through film roles to actor Kevin Bacon within six
steps. The name of the game plays upon the "six degrees of
separation" concept. In 2007, Bacon began a charitable organization
named SixDegrees.org.
Last
week, I went back to my homeland-New York City, by way of Jersey where I had
flown my 85 year old early Alzheimer’s mother to visit with her 75-year-old
sister who can pass for 60 by way of looks, dress, attitude and vigor.
My
Uncle is also younger than his birth certificate claims. He buys his hats in
Harlem and he has dozens of them. Their home is happy and filled with the
sounds of Sinatra and photos of the well-mixed Italian, Polish Jew and Irish
Catholic family.
Last
Thursday my Uncle was coordinated in champagne and cream from brim to sandals for
our day in West Central Park, where their youngest son, his wife and the best
baby in the world know home in a brownstone down the block from Jerry Seinfeld
and up the street from Kevin Bacon-thus I stake claim to a second degree
connection.
My
cousin’s wife laid out a feast of jumbo-sized shrimp, mango and corn salsa,
fresh veggies, roasted red peppers, meats, cheeses and the crustiest outside
and lightest within Italian bread that I haven’t had since my last trip to NYC
in 2007.
At
2 PM my Aunt, mother and cousin grabbed a cab to travel the few blocks to the hair
salon where my mother and me received much-needed haircuts and blowouts.Just after 4PM, I grabbed a cab to The
Colbert Report Studio “on a mission from God” [The Blues Brothers] and my
family spent the afternoon in Central Park on a mild sunny day in the city like
no other.
Twelve
other non-ticket holders had arrived before I had and their names were on the
Stand By list. They had all taken off and would not return until around 5:45 PM
to learn if there was room for them after all the Ticket holders who had lined
up against the Wall were let in.
I
spoke with the Intern known as “the dashing roguish one” who was busy but pleasantly patient as I tried to BRIEFLY explain that
I was a nurse, then novelist, turned reporter-muckraker and was now a serious candidate
for US House of Representatives from District 5 in Florida and I wanted to get
a message through to the Supreme Allied Commander of the Colbert Super PAC
Nation.
He accepted
a copy my only fund raising vehicle- BEYOND NUCLEAR:Mordechai Vanunu's FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a
Muckraker: 2005-2010, and letters from the offices of
Bibi and Peres, Obama and Biden acknowledging receiving the copies that I had mailed
them. The Intern known as “the dashing roguish one” sweetly laughed as he
viewed photo of me with Helen Thomas as I said that when I told Ms. Thomas I
wanted to reach Colbert, she warned me “that’s toxic.”
The
Intern known as “the dashing roguish one” snapped the picture above of me and delivered all of my offerings to
the front desk of The Colbert Report and I stood next to the Fence at 513 West
54th Street under the “STAND BY” sign and Ticket Holders stood in line along The Wall next
to the Studio under the sign “Ticket Holders.”
I
spent my time back in my mind at the Checkpoints in the Wild West Bank of
occupied Palestine. I also thought about the 20% of
the House of Representatives who will be spending their holiday recess on an American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) paid tour of Israel.
The spin is that the trips for the 26 Democratic congressmen
headed by House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, and two other
continegents of 55 Republicans, one led by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor-
the latest darling of the tea partiers- are about providing congress with a
"deeper understanding" of the situation in the Middle East.
Until ALL Congressional reps also spend EQUAL time in occupied
Palestine, walk through The Terminals and stand in line at the 600 odd
Checkpoints scattered throughout the West Bank and view The Wall without the
faux paint and landscaping that hides Apartheid from the eyes of travelers on the
highways and byways of Israel; they will never know jack about the true facts
on the ground in the so called holy land.
Israel’s Wall is also funded by USA Tax payers and it has eviscerated
the land as it grabs legally owned Palestinian property, devours their resources
and denies them access to their jobs, families and holy sites.
"Financed with U.S. aid at a cost of $1.5 million per mile, the Israeli wall prevents
residents from receiving health care and emergency medical services. In other
areas, the barrier separates farmers from their olive groves which have been
their families' sole livelihood for generations." [1]
“Meanwhile back on Capitol Hill, other friends of Israel were busy prior to
recess, also without any mainstream media coverage. Two congresswomen from
Florida, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, have introduced legislation that
will allow Holocaust survivors living in the United States to receive federal
funds to help them stay in their homes, rather than having to move to an
institution. The bipartisan bill places survivors on a special list of elderly
citizens receiving preferred treatment through a grant program to help them
with their transportation and other needs.” [2]
Around about 5:45, a china doll petite blonde with a Colbert
Report cap on, announced the names on the stand by list who would walk through
the doors of The Colbert Report Studio for that evenings taping.
I was not among them, but will forever be grateful that my third
book at least made it through the door of The Colbert Report Show and had
traveled beyond the front desk by the time I bid goodbye and again thanked the
Intern known as “the
dashing roguish one.”
I walked 30 blocks back to my
family just as joyous to deeply inhale traffic fumes as fresh flowers and
pizza.
I
went off in my mind and imagined the Intern known as “the
dashing roguish one” might one day write a script and Kevin Bacon will star in it;
and I will claim another second degree of Kevin Bacon.
But
far better will it be if Colbert will break the News that THE MEDIA has been
ignoring and as The Media pays rapt attention to Colbert they can be FORCED to
finally Report "The Big Get" I documented in my third book.
On 26 March 2006, the Whistler Blower of Israel's WMD Program, Mordechai Vanunu
told me:
“Many journalists come here to the American Colony, from CNN and NY Times. They
all want to cover my story, but their EDITORS say no...CNN wants to interview
me; but they say they can't do it because they don't want problems with the
Israeli censor. BBC is doing the same thing.
"Sixty Minutes from the United
States from the beginning they wanted to do a program, but because of the
censor situation they decide not to do it. Also big media from Germany,
France, Italy, Japan. None of them wants problems with the Israelis."
[The "Big Get" Don
Hewitt and "60 Minutes" Didn't Get Read more... ]
On 14 July, the Israeli High Court justices
ruled that Vanunu’s petition to have his citizenship revoked under the recently
passed Citizenship Revocation Law must be answered within 30 days. [3]
"HOPE has two children.The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine
"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust." - Aquinas
Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
" In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."-Mother Teresa
“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased...to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946
The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright
“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” - Rev. MLK
Establishment of Israel
"On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations." - May 14, 1948. The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel