Achieving Our Country: BLACK FLAG WEEK Grassroots Work Continues

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

07 March 2008

BLACK FLAG WEEK Grassroots Work Continues

Here is the draft Press Release/Talking Points that we've been working on:

PosseComment@US
For Immediate Release March 6, 2008

Who? We are a group of active blog participants whose primary connection is based in Glenn Greenwald’s blog on Salon.com. We came together as a group to work on raising awareness on issues facing our country and the world. We named ourselves PosseComment@US.

What? We are asking people to honor Black Flag Week, March 9-15, by wearing black armbands or black clothing, to support the Pakistani lawyers’ movement. These barristers are protesting, taking legal action, and being physically assaulted and jailed by their government, attempting to restore the rule of law in their country. They began one year ago, when President Pervez Musharraf illegally sacked the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Our goal is to support these lawyers in their efforts to restore democracy, the judiciary and the Constitution in Pakistan.

Why? Rule of law and democracy are fundamental to free societies everywhere. The lawyers’ movement in Pakistan recognizes this as a crucial nexus in the evolution of their society from the tyranny of a military dictatorship to a functioning democracy. ~~And t~~Restoration of justice and the voice of the people in Pakistan could very well be critical to the future safety of not only America, but also to the rest of the world as well. We in the United States have the freedom and the ability to act, to raise awareness and to show support for just causes. It is our responsibility to our own democracy to do so. It is the morally correct action to take.

How? We have been working for the past week, sending emails and flyers, making calls, contacting groups we think might wish to help and posting informational pieces on the internet. Preparations in Pakistan have been building and they are expecting a massive turnout of supporters. It is absolutely crucial that displays of support for this movement be seen not only in Pakistan, but also here and elsewhere in the world, to convince the Pakistani senate and the incoming government to act, and to restore the institutions so crucial to a just government.

Where? Our effort is based at http://AchievingOurCountry.blogspot.com. We have established contacts with law schools, lawyers, civil rights groups and bloggers in order to disseminate this critical message. As the movement in Pakistan is primarily based among lawyers and law schools, it seemed appropriate to call on their counterparts here, in the United States, and elsewhere, for support.

When? Aitzaz Ahsan, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association in Pakistan, has established the week of March 9-15 as Black Flag Week. Rallies, events and marches are being scheduled in Pakistan and we are encouraging supporting events.

For more information, please visit http://revolutionredu x.wordpress.com/20 08/03/02/pakistan-constitutions-and-the-rule-of-law/.