Activism Is Hard

The struggle for people on the side of social justice to be heard continues. Ron Kuby, one of the few leftists with a steady talk radio job (he co-hosts a show in New York with conservative Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa) was scheduled to speak at a peace activist meeting at a Catholic church in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. The more conservative parishioners got wind of it and complained bitterly to the pastor. The meeting was abruptly canceled by the Cedar Grove parish, and the peaceniks were told to take their pow-wow somewhere else. This is the greatest, most egregious display of bigoted arrogance to be displayed within the Roman Catholic Church since Thursday.

Meanwhile, the so-called liberal media continues to show its true colors. Jim Lehrer's program on PBS gave extra coverage to George W. Bush's speech on Iraq at the right-wing Heritage Foundation yesterday but gave little notice of Al Gore's excellent speech on the erosion of civil liberties by Bush and his Himmlerian honcho, John Ashcroft. Gore won the 2000 popular vote, and he's still being treated like a loser.

Personally, I'm getting tired with activism. When I was in kindergarten, baby-boomer liberal activists were working around the clock for positive social change to create a better tomorrow for kids like me. It never came, and the truth is, my generation got one of the rawest deals in American history. We're working at dead-end jobs for less pay than our Boomer elders - if we're lucky - and we live in one of the most rabidly conservative eras since Oliver Cromwell was calling the shots as England's de facto leader after the fall of the House of Stuart. Too many Boomers are too busy decorating their trophy houses to get involved in the protests against the war in Iraq, and let's face it, if all of those protests are so successful, why are we still there? Work to end war? We can't even work for better public transit! I ought to know; I've tried!

Meanwhile, some activist acquaintances of mine are supporting the presidential campaign of Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich, whose ultraliberal agenda would be a big hit in Belgium but doesn't exactly bring in big numbers here. They invited me to a Kucinich support party that was last night, but I didn't go. First of all, I'm not really supporting any Democrat for President right now (though I am leaning toward Howard Dean). Secondly, the party was too far away and too late at night. Thirdly, I wanted to stay home and watch "I'm With Her" and "Frasier."

It's pretty hard for Dennis Kucinich to compete with Teri Polo for my attention. :-)