We can’t afford to be innocent
Stand up and face the enemy
It’s a do or die situation
We will be invincible
And with the power of conviction
There is no sacrifice
It’s a do or die situation
We will be invincible
The lyrics are from Simon Climie and Holly Knight's "Invincible" which was recorded by Pat Benatar originally for the film The Legend of Billie Jean.
If you're expecting your independent media to tell you The Legend of Kyle Snyder, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. There will be photos, no cover stories, of Kyle Snyder in your independent media because your independent media just doesn't give a damn.
They've demonstrated that they're the movement equivalent of the friend who says they'll help you move and then doesn't show up or answer their cell phone. You'll find more bravery in a Pat Benatar song than in your independent media on this issue.
Snyder's an interesting story. The ignoring of Ricky Clousing, Darrell Anderson and Mark Wilkerson might be explained away by some as, "Well maybe they just don't think it has any dynamics?" Synder self-checked out in April of 2005 and went to Canada. He returned two Saturdays ago to the United States. He turned himself in to Fort Knox on Tuesday where he learned that the arrangement his attorney (Jim Fenner) had worked out was not going to be honored so . . . he checked out again.
He checked out right under their noses. They gave him a bus pass, he took a pass. Where in the world is Kyle Snyder?
Print indymedia won't tell you, won't cover him. As the war resisters continue to be ignored, it's really time to start asking the question of why that is?
We hear the talk, largely in interviews on the radio, from them that they're against the war. They'll hide behind generals and recovering neocons who are upset about the 'strategy' of the illegal war. They won't cover the peace movment (though in FAIR's case, they will point out that no peace activist has been on The NewsHour while overlooking the fact that their own CounterSpin hasn't offered up a peace activist as a guest either). They won't cover war resistance. What do they cover? Put it to the tune of Adam Ants' "Goody Two Shoes." And while you do, wonder if the left print mags don't speak out because they can't?
Is there something distasteful about war resistance? Are they afraid they might be seen as 'radical' for covering the war resistance. Well, heaven forbid. Just keep churning out that same silly copy, over and over, that's had little to no impact and let everyone else do the heavy lifting.
They think, they say, that the war is illegal.
But people who work to end the war don't get covered. You have a better chance of reading about the dishy Richard Armitage in The Nation these days then you do of reading about Medea Benjamin, Jeff Paterson, Cindy Sheehan, Kyle Snyder . . .
It's a long list. Before The New Republic(an) committed their slow suicide (hastened by cheerleading an illegal war -- but then they cheerlead all wars), that was seen as the 'bible' of the beltway. (Some would say the 'left' 'bible' but some are idiots.) Are The Progressive and The Nation attempting to get carried onto Air Force One in 2009, provided it's a Democrat holding the office?
We don't know. But we spoke with a Nation cruiser to find out what the summer cruise was like? Did they appear to be recruiting for the DNC? No. Did they give speeches that stated or indicated that the magazine wanted to move to the middle? No. In fact, we were told, the cruise was so much livelier than the print version of the magazine.
Why can't that same life be in the magazine? Why can't war resistance within the military be covered?
Are we 'framing'? Is that it? If so, that's rather sad. We're all fully aware that The Nation has pushed that nonsense like no one else. We're also aware that there are people at the magazine more than old enough to know better than to fall for yet another deacde's hula-hoop. What's the point of all these "Democratic governor in a formerly Republican state!" pieces? What's the point of so much crap passing for political coverage that reads like someone's idea of holding a centrist accountable is to swat at them with a tissue?
We don't know. But we know that Kyle Snyder mattered last week and the week before and matter this week and the next. We know that war resister Carl Webb got mentioned in the magazine this year with nothing to identify him as a war resister. (The magazine did know that they were speaking to a war resister, didn't they? We're not trying to get anyone fired here.) We know that long after the ink's faded on the wide variety of puff pieces that we like to dub the "Learning To Live With The Centrists," the war will still be going on, the dying will not have stopped and the still not documented peace movement will have continued to grow.
Maybe the independent magazines will wave to us from the sidelines? If so, don't be surprised if your wave is ignored and you're snubbed because people are getting sick of it. That the independent media seems to think one print story (one each for The Progressive and The Nation in two years) on Cindy Sheehan somehow is covering the peace movement is ridiculous.
We're still scratching our heads over some of the choices to write about media revolution in a recent issue of The Nation. The former Wonkette? What? Did someone see the Sunday Magazine of The Times where she was a 'school girl' sandwiched between two oldies? She didn't appear to have gotten in based on her writing. Well, it was spring, and maybe AMC's hint of nipple was seen as the bikini issue?
But that's how bad it is currently. The former Wonkette can pen a 'thought piece' that runs in the print edition of The Nation but war reisters and the peace movement can't get coverage. It's past time that changed.
Michael Franti & Spearhead warn, "Revolution never comes with a warning." No, and it appears that when it does come, it will send our independent media (print division) scrambling to try to figure out what the hell just happened because while the movement's building, they're doing Google searches to see what the ten most searched subjects are so they'll have something to write about.
Kyle Snyder's story matters. Don't count on independent media, get his story out yourself. The way you've gotten word out by demonstrations and rallies.
[Gold star of the week to Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez and the staff of Democracy Now! for their interview Friday with Kyle Snyder. No, they aren't print media. We have no gold stars for print media.]