Time Of Lone Wolf Is Over by Bruce Gagnon

by Bruce Gagnon
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
Organizing Notes
January 3, 2011

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

I went to a meeting on January 1 at the home of a local activist. About two dozen folks were there and most were local peace or environmental activists. The general theme of the meeting was to discuss what we all might do in the year ahead.

To be blunt about it I was severely disappointed by the meeting. Several people talked about wanting to find joy, wanting to “go inside” to find out what their values are (these are people in their 50-60’s), or that they wanted to have fun.

“The Left Has Nowhere to Go” by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
January 3, 2011

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

Ralph Nader in a CNN poll a few days before the 2008 presidential election had an estimated 3 percent of the electorate, or about 4 million people, behind his candidacy. But once the votes were counted, his support dwindled to a little over 700,000. Nader believes that many of his supporters entered the polling booth and could not bring themselves to challenge the Democrats and Barack Obama. I suspect Nader is right. And this retreat is another example of the lack of nerve we must overcome if we are going to battle back against the corporate state. A vote for Nader or Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney in 2008 was an act of defiance. A vote for Obama and the Democrats was an act of submission. We cannot afford to be submissive anymore.

Re-creating Revolutionary Communities (Part I) by Cindy Sheehan

by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
January 3, 2011

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

In 2009, after the inauguration of Barack Obama, I was feeling out of step with the ½ of the country that I would usually be in step with: those Hope-notized by his campaign-ad/sound-bite rhetoric.

I spent a lot of time pondering the why of this Hope-nosis and how badly our country was still doing economically and I was dismayed (but not surprised) by the increasing violence of Obama’s foreign and domestic policies.