"They've Stolen Our Country And It's Time To Take It Back!"
From Jim Hightower's newest book, "Thieves In High Places"

CHAPTER 9: EVEN THE SMALLEST DOG CAN LIFT ITS LEG ON THE TALLEST BUILDING

REBELLION IS WHAT BUILT AMERICA. As I roam around the country speechifying at various events, invariably there's one person in the crowd who'll stand up during the Q & A period or come up to me after the talk and hit me with a comment that goes something like this:

Wwwwwwwwwwhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnneeeeee. Actually, the whine is slightly more specific, along the lines of, What you're saying about fightin' to get our country back is fine and good, but I gotta tell ya that the people I know just wanta make money and go to Wal-Mart to buy junk and take their kids to McDonalds to eat junk, and they don't care, and I try to tell 'em about what corporations are doin' to us, but the dummies get all their information from the boob tube and talk radio, which the corporations control, like you were saying, and the polls show that Bush is still popular with people despite him screwin' 'em every day in every way, and meanwhile their side has all the money, the media, the politicians, the military, and how're we ever gonna beat that -sometimes I think it's hopeless, besides, I'm getting' worn out and I'm not getting' any younger, so when are we gonna win, and why aren't the people in the streets like we were back in the Sixties - now that was a time, and maybe you don't remember what was goin' on, back then, but lemme tell ya somethin'."

Whew! Sperm whales can't go that long without taking a breath! Nor do they go down so low or stay down as long as these pessimists do - nor spew so much froth when they surface. By the time an old wheezer like this runs out of breath, the crowd is fidgeting, the young folks are rolling their eyes, and some hisses are rising around the room like steam venting. My response usually is to interrupt gently about the time Ol' Wheezer is going to take a deep dive into the Sixties, and say as politely, soothingly, and considerately as I can: GIVE ME A BREAK! COME ON, QUIT YOUR BELLYACHING, GUT IT UP, KEEP FIGHTING OR GET OUT OF THE WAY!

Of course it's hard to battle the bastards! So what's new?  History - and certainly the history of our country - is the story of people struggling, always going uphill against the powerful to seek a little more democracy, a tad more justice, a slightly wider sliver of the economic pie.

Old Mr. Power, The Man, The Machine - by whatever name, the establishment is not in the giveaway business. Striving for democracy is bone-wearying, agonizing, frustrating, cruel, bloody, and often deadly work. "You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth." Henrik Ibsen said that, but he didn't mean by it that we should stay home and press our pants, rather that we should gird-up accordingly and go forth into the fray.

Look at what we have in America, at the priceless opportunity that has been handed to you and me by those who've dared to make this struggle in past years. Very few people in today's world, and very, very few in history, have even had the possibility of trying to create an egalitarian society ruled by the common good. Those who came before us risked all of their property, their reputations, their freedom, and their lives to push the boundaries of democracy for us.

And you're telling me that you're tired or impatient that the promised land has not yet been reached? A little perspective, please:

* Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary War veteran, organized Shays' Rebellion in New England in 1780. A poor farm hand, he'd fought at Lexington, Bunker Hill, and Saratoga. He was wounded in action, but he never got paid for his service in the Army, so finally he quit and went home, only to find himself in court for non-payment of debts! It turns out that the blessings of America's newly-won liberties were not meant to be extended to riff-raff like Shays - they could fight, but they couldn't vote or run for office. So Shays gathered up a ragtag army of 1,000 outcasts like him and led a rebellion against the merchant and landed classes of America's new "democracy." The farmers sought justice, but it was not to come in their lifetimes, for they were soon routed. Shays lost it all - his rebellion, his freedom, his livelihood - later dying in poverty. Yet his revolt helped advance the cause, awakening more people, including some of the founding elites, to the hypocrisy in their democracy, eventually leading to more rights and an extension of voting to citizens like Shays. Indeed, it was Shays' uprising and others like it at the time that prompted Jefferson to write to a friend: "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing.   God forbid that we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion."

* Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucrecia Mott, Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Sarah and Angelina Grimké, and others organized a movement in the 1840s to obtain voting rights for women. They were ridiculed, harassed, and defeated again and again. None of the founders lived to cast a single vote. But they advanced the cause, eventually won some 75 years later with the passage of the19th Amendment in 1920.

* Some names you should know, but probably don't, since school textbooks delicately avoid the common heroes of America's story, are: Big Bill Haywood, Clara Lemlich, A. Philip Randolf, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (The "Rebel Girl"), and John L. Lewis. These are but a few who have been the fighters (literally, in many cases) for American labor, challenging brutal corporate power that uses everything from the national guard to hired thugs to break the skulls of labor leaders and break the back of the labor movement. Few of these lived to see the success they envisioned, yet all advanced the cause for economic justice that has now gone global.

* Native Americans not only have had their lands stolen - beginning in the East and pushing across the upper-Midwest, the South, the Southwest, the Plains, the Far West, and eventually everywhere - but also have had their populations decimated in what has been one of the longest, most horrific terrorist campaigns ever. As explained by one of the worst terrorists, General William T. Sherman in 1867: "The more Indians we kill this year, the less will have to be killed in the next war." But still the Natives persevered, and they fight yet today to advance the cause of justice for a long-suffering people targeted for annihilation by a succession of presidents, congresses, and generals in the Land of the Free.

* The struggle for Civil Rights for African-Americans didn't begin (or end) in the Sixties. It started when the first slave was put on a boat to America, and it has moved steadily through slave rebellions, the abolitionists, the Civil War, the vicious terrorism of Jim Crow, the Klan, civil rights marches and murders, Bull Conner's dogs, Malcolm X, and on into today and tomorrow, each generation advancing the cause, step by hard step.  Inhale a bit of our country's pungent, brawling, inspiring history of grassroots rebels, then tell me that battling the bastards today is too hard, too uphill, or takes too long. What else are you doing that is more worthy of your efforts than trying to establish the moral principles of fairness, justice, and equality for all in our America?

Well you say: "Hightower, I've got a family to care for."   Of course, and that's first. But stretch a little on what "care for" includes.  Bettering their lives and yours is also about making a better America right in your own community. I'm not talking about quitting your day job and becoming a full-time Thomas Paine. But do what you can, where you can - and especially reach out to others to be a part of a group - or two or three groups, or better yet a coalition of groups, so our individual efforts are multiplied as we try, bit by bit, to take our country and our ideals back from the elites who have stolen them. Plus, I can tell you from experience: It's fun! In fact, joining with others in the ongoing, historic effort to realize the great possibility of America is just about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on.

EXCERPTED FROM: "Thieves In High Places - They've Stolen Our Country And It's Time To Take It Back!"
-- the explosive new book by Jim Hightower. ** COMING AUGUST 18!!