Protest movement is presidential wakeup call for President-elect Obama

By WACO HERALD TRIBUNE

Speaking of change in 2009, we share the relief that some of our neighbors in Crawford are likely feeling — President Bush no doubt among them — as the protest movements that dogged him the past eight years have now largely moved on.

Yep. President-elect Barack Obama has yet to be sworn in, but anti-war protesters have already turned up at his Hawaii vacation home, led by no less than Ann Wright, a retired Army colonel and a figure familiar to those of us in the Central Texas news media as well as folks in and around Crawford.

According to a news pool report yesterday, Wright wore a T-shirt that read: “We will not be silent.” She carried a sign that read “Change U.S. foreign policy. Yes we can.” Other signs included one that read, “Free Palestine,” a common theme of protests well before the invasion of Iraq in spring 2003.

Welcome to the presidency, senator, complete with all the little, aggravating extras.

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Letter to the Editor of Waco Herald Tribune (not yet printed):

We will not be silent

On the last day of 2008, the Waco Tribune-Herald made a rather mocking comment on the Editorial Page about Col. Ann Wright showing up in Hawaii as a war protestor to protest the President-Elect.

What perfect Universal alignment, that Barack Obama comes from the residential state of the most honored of U.S. peace activists, former U.S. Ambassador, Col. Wright. The editorial stated that Col. Wright wore a shirt imprinted with the statement: We will not be silent; a shirt that has become her new uniform. Wright also carried a sign that read: “Change U.S. Foreign Policy-Yes We Can,” while another sign read “Free Palestine.”

Who has more credibility to question US foreign policy? With her 26 years of military service to her country and additional years of serving in Ambassadorships in war torn regions across the globe, Col. Wright follows in the footsteps of other great former warriors turned peace activists, such as General Smedley Butler who wrote War is a Racket.

We should pay close attention to Col. Wright, who served as Deputy Chief of Mission to Afghanistan in 2001 – 2002, and others who “question authority,” as true patriots who seek to restore our country’s credibility as a world leader. Our country finds itself facing unprecedented challenges on numerous fronts and complacency with the status quo of US foreign policy threatens to continue our downward spiral. As Naomi Kline illustrates in her excellent book Disaster Capitalism, our leaders have led us to the edge of the precipice. We really must ask some hard questions, such as:

Why do we continue to supply $2.4 billion in aid to Israel?As reported in the Dec. 14, Parade’s, Intelligence Report, a Tribune-Herald supplement, “virtually all of that money is used to buy weapons (up to 75% made in the U.S. ) Beginning in 2009, the U.S. plans to give $30 billion over 10 years.”

Perhaps some Central Texas citizens were irritated and annoyed by protests from Wright and other peace activists who questioned the Bush regime. That pales in comparison to what the Palestinians (and Iraqis) have endured for years. While American war profiteers were enriched by our tax dollars being used as shocking and awful exploding torments to Palestinians cut off from basic human necessities of water, food and medical supplies for years by the U.S. supported Israeli government.

I’m honored to call Col. Ann Wright my friend, and proud to have joined her in inflicting a little irritation to the locals; to national and international government and the media, as we stood up and spoke out about our governments’ policies. I’m confident that I speak for other peace activists, as well. I am not proud that I was somewhat ignorant of those policies until I became involved with the Crawford Texas Peace House and the Waco Friends of Peace. However, I have learned much more truth about U.S. foreign policy from Wright and other local, national and international peace activists over the past six years than I have from corporate media. Ignorance may be bliss, but it often leads to disaster.

Kay Lucas
Moody, Texas
Co-Founder, Crawford Peace House