Achieving Our Country: The Citizen Counter-Filibuster

The promise of the United States,

its vision and ideals, as set forth in its founding documents (the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America) are best understood as "works in progress." The United States' failure throughout its history to live up to the lofty standards codified in those founding documents in no way lessens their meaning, nor their value. The good that the United States has in fact achieved since 1776 has served to reinforce the idea of a country striving, by design, to be better than its all-too-human and very imperfect nature. Most important, those ideals exist as real, true things that We, the People can achieve. It's the hopeful intent of this site to discuss and facilitate ways of actually achieving our nation, and thereby continue to form, as the Constitution exhorts, a more perfect union.

The title ''Achieving Our Country''

is drawn from the famous last sentence of James Baldwin's ''Fire Next Time.'' There, Baldwin called on the saving remnant, ''the relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks,'' to ''end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world.'' The point of invoking James Baldwin, of course, is that he was entirely unforgiving of his country's sins and still looked forward with hope to a better future. A left that fights for the political and economic changes that will ''achieve our country'' is the left that the United States once possessed and needs as much as ever, but is hardly to be seen.
--from a book review: "The New New Left"
by Alan Ryan

17 July 2007

The Citizen Counter-Filibuster

Today in my city, Memphis, Tennessee, a group of citizens will gather at the Federal Building downtown (167 N Main St # 102, Memphis, TN (901) 526-6771) to demonstrate solidarity with Senate Democrats, while the Republicans carry out a planned filibuster of the current troop withdrawal proposal. This MoveOn sponsored event is scheduled in various locations nation-wide. In MoveOn's words:

Counter-Filibuster to End the War

Republicans in the Senate are planning to block a vote early next week on ending the war. Let's be perfectly clear on this: Republicans are blocking this vote because they know they'd lose.

It's time to leap into action. As Republicans filibuster on Tuesday, we're holding citizens' counter-filibusters on Tuesday night. We'll gather outside Senators' offices and in public places to read first-hand accounts from Iraq vets and military families about the cost of the war. We'll send a clear message to Senators and the media that this isn't about partisan games -- it's about people's lives.

Click here to find a citizen's counter-filibuster near you.

Achieving Our Country

The promise of the United States,

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17 July 2007

The Citizen Counter-Filibuster

Counter-Filibuster to End the War

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