Emperor Seen Naked In LA!

Dan Hamburg
Mirror contributing writer

   Then a small child shouted out, "The Emperor has no clothes!" and all the people knew immediately that it was true. Up until then, they were quite certain that His nakedness was the most extravagant regalia. To say otherwise was to be shunned, banished, even executed.
   Last week, the Emperor and his minions were on pageant in Los Angeles. At the Staples Center, pols and pundits extolled the current, crotchety state of affairs to thousands of cheering subjects. In gilded parlors, royal coteries met privately to exchange gifts, pleasantries, and secrets of state. Meanwhile, on the streets, thousands of rabble armed with placards and discontent held their own against thousands of the Emperor’s guard, armed to the teeth.
   Make no mistake: the massive show of armed force in Los Angeles last week was a sign of weakness not strength, nakedness not finery. This Republicrat government, and the order it defends and promotes, is right to be fearful of its own people. On multiple fronts, its legitimacy is legitimately in question. That’s what we protesters, and Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, are saying.
   One of the oft-repeated slurs against the protesters was that their message was murky. Nonsense. Anyone who spent ten minutes in the streets could read the placards. It wasn’t hard to understand what it meant that the large puppet of W. holding a syringe was a protest against the death penalty. Is Billionaires for Bush (or Gore) a difficult concept to grasp? Nor was there any shortage of explanatory information. The Independent Media Center, operating out of Shadow Convention headquarters at Patriotic Hall, poured out hundreds of hours of print, radio, and televised information about the protests. When you’ve chosen not to listen, it’s expedient to say you don’t understand.
   The police are not to blame. It is the politicians and, behind them, the corporate power structure, who create the climate of fear, then dispatch the police to quell that fear for an appreciative, sycophantic public. But what are the powers-that-be so afraid of? Not a hundred kids dressed in black, heaving plastic water bottles over a cyclone fence while row after row of LAPD faced them off with rifles that shot hard rubber plugs.
   Many people I spoke with in L.A. regretted the armed welcome the city extended to visitors, but felt it was necessary in order to insure that larger riots would not be ignited. They cited the recent episode after the Lakers took the NBA championship as proof of how quickly "these situations" get out of hand. Nonsense again. The protesters in L.A. made clear from the start that protests would be nonviolent. They were answered nastily by Mayor Riordan that "nonviolent civil disobedience will not be tolerated." This is America? Furthermore, why this tinderbox society? To hear the prez tell it, we’ve never been "more secure and more free." No, they’re afraid of something more real. They’re afraid of losing their hold over the minds of the people. As South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko said, "The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." 
   The message from LA is that despite his vacuous platitudes and thuggish behavior, the emperor has no clothes. Pass the word along to your family, friends, and co-workers. When enough of us know that it is so, maybe more of us will start speaking, and acting, up. Then we can move forward with the task of creating a better agreement, or as the Founders described it, "a more perfect union."