Huddle Up!

By David Swanson

t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor

Thursday 25 January 2007

Team, huddle up. Huddle UP! Now, listen. I'm not going to even tell you
what to do in the second half unless you understand what you did in the
first

half. Do you?

You think you're tired and worn down and you got beat bad, right? Is
that what you think? When you pu?led off the most powerful offensive attack
in

league history on February 15, 2003, putting millions of people in the
streets against this war, you think no points went up on the board, right?
You need

to understand that you sidelined three-quarters of their lineup. They've
been using the same players without a break ever since. You sent most of the
nations

on the globe and the United Nations out of the stadium. You left them with a
couple of skinny Brits and a fat Italian as substitutes, and that's it. Now,

do you think you're the ones who are dog-tired? Their uniforms look bright
and clean, but they're hurting bad.

And what about your defense? Have you seen them move into North Korea
or Iran or Syria yet? You're holding them to the little stuff. They're
losing

the ability to think and adjust. And when you thumped them in the November
7, 2006, elections in the final seconds of the half, you could see the fear

in their eyes. They're running on rubber legs, they're spitting blood, and
they're scared. And look at your bench! You could each play half a minute
and

go home. You've recruited two-thirds of the stands onto the team. You've
also put the refs on your side by calmly and relentlessly exposing their
cheating.

The cards are in your hands, and this is your game to lose.

Now, I'm going to talk about the second half and we're going to go out
there and finish this thing right. But first you're going to give me 100
pushups.

Now! You think you're tired? You think you're ready and wasting energy? The
more energy you use, the more you're going to have. We're playing for the
world

here, and we have the world to work with. Don't think about saving
resources. We've got resources you can't drill for in any wilderness. You
can only find

them in a crowd. You can only find them on a team. There you go! Faster! 2 -
3 - 4! Push it! Don't stop! It's making you stronger! Strong enough to walk

out there and win this thing with a look.

Stand up! If you think you've struggled, you don't know your history.
And you don't know the misery of your opponents' victims. Pain is not the
worst

thing you can face. Pain together for the better good of all is a pleasure
you should value. You're not going to win a field full of virgins in
paradise.

But nobody else is either. You're going to win something that actually
exists. You're going to win peace and life and freedom - and before any of
that

you're going to find solidarity. Did you know that protesting is good for
your health? It is the brotherhood and sisterhood. It nourishes your soul.
It

brings you in from your masochistic exurban mansions of isolated media
intake and puts you into action with others. You will get stronger the
longer you

struggle. And it's going to be a struggle. They haven't exhausted their
playbook yet. They're going to open the second half with a defensive
formation

called the Democrats.

Pay attention. This is when you strike hard and long. This defense is
misleading. You move into it and it gives way, but it cushions your blow and
then

moves you to the side, to the side, to the side, and endlessly out of
bounds. You start out right up the middle demanding an end to funding the
war. They

are going to counter with a claim that bringing our men and women safely
home is an attack on those troops. You'll think you've heard them wrong, but
you

cannot pause. They're just throwing sand in your eyes. They're about to hit
you with an escalation and an opposition to the escalation, and they'll have

the fans getting into the opposition too. And you'll find yourself sliding
out of bounds unless you stay in the middle and cut off the funding for the

war. If you do that, you'll slowly gain traction, and if you hit them hard
with articles of impeachment they'll be on their backs, wondering which way

up is.

Their offense is still going to look like a standard corporate-media
assault on free thought, but it's going to overreach and commit more errors.
Your

best defense is a good offense. Turn to the independent media and build it,
and play tough with the corporate corrupters of communication. You can shut

them down and turn them around. They need you much more than you need them.

Our opening drive is January 27th in Washington, DC. If you are not
there, you are letting down the team. If you are not there, you will feel
shame

when your grandchildren ask you about your life. If you are not there, you
are not in solidarity with the people of the world who do not know what
Americans

think because not enough of us are there. Get up! There are no excuses. No,
not even that one. No, not that noble one. Not that personal one. Not that

strategic one. NO excuses. You need to be in Washington, DC, on Saturday,
January 27th. If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, you could just go buy a
trophy

and put it on your television. You've got to EARN IT, my friends. You've got
to get your ass to Washington, DC, this Saturday, or you can join the other

team. We don't need you. We'll win without you. Have a nice glass of oil
with your steak. Or come and eat and march and sing and share and laugh with
us

as we turn this world on its axis.

We're going to march past the US Capitol, and it's surrounded by
Capitol Police, but they are on our team and they know we're marching for
them too.

We're marching to tell Congress what it has to do. But we're also going to
march past Fox News, and this is where we throw a screen pass and go long.
We're

going to hit Fox News with a protest so loud that deep within their studios
a guest will seize his throat and some truth will come out. We're going to

rock to the ground the opposition's two key players - Fox News and the US
Senate. We're going to demand an end to this war now:

http://www.unitedforpeace.org.

And then we're really going to start. Then we're going to reach way
back into our playbook and drag out of our memory what really happened in
Washington,

DC, the last time it was run by a man named Dick. The anti-war movement last
time around built the momentum for an impeachment movement, which gave
Congress

the nerve to end the war, and then the threat of impeachment stopped Nixon
from vetoing the bill that cut off the war funding, and the exhilaration of

doing the decent thing and cutting off the war funding drove impeachment to
the goal line.

You can come to Washington on Saturday and march, but you can't go back
home. We need you on Sunday as we train and prepare:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/january27.

Posted by Miriam V.