Stand up for Jesus,
Ye soldiers of the cross . . .
That's from George Duffield's "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus," a hymnal written in 1858. The concept of standing up being a brave thing, being a needed thing and being a good thing is a concept that transcends political parties and, in fact, politics.
In America, we applaud Patrick Henry for declaring "Give me liberty or give me death," thereby persuading the Virginia Convention to enter into the Revolutionary War which made the United States a sovereign nation. Many who followed Patrick Henry over the centuries has been enshrined in the American canon for standing up for some principle. (Though, no surprise, men are far more likely to be canonized and White ones even more so.) Films and novels, short stories and songs, plays and poems all celebrate various people (real and fictional) who stood up.
In terms of right and left factions, the right has their own set of names they celebrate as stand-up people. That's their business and the left has the right to have their groupings.
But where is the left?
Kristoffer Walker returned from Iraq last month on a two week pass. While on his pass, he made a decision that led him to announce that the Iraq War was immoral, illegal and that he could no longer participate in it.
Translation, he stood up.
Last week, we got the news that Kristoffer had started a website and then the sad news that he had decided to return to Iraq. (A friend of his e-mailed both times.) With just the first news, we were planning on mentioning him again. With the news that he was returning to Iraq, we had a different article on our hands.
Kristoffer's returning to Iraq, returning to a war he doesn't believe in and feels is illegal. He has not retracted his statements and does not plan to. But the military has made a number of threats and he's concerned about his future. All of which is perfectly understandable in the best of times.
But Kristoffer didn't get the best of times. Kristoffer got nothing. He received coverage from the Associated Press and from Wisconsin (his home state) news outlets. That was really it. On the blogosphere, the right-wing covered him like crazy and, as is to be expected from across the aisle, they didn't care for him.
But even with the hate and bile they heaped on him, their statements and actions acknowledged that his stand was news. It was a stand that they (no surprise) disagreed with, but they covered it.
And on the left?
The Nation had no time for Kristoffer Walker. Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! could not even devote a headline to him. The Progressive, whose editor and CEO is based in Madison, Wisconsin, refused to cover him. In These Times never uttered his name. Go down the list. It's a long, long list. Even Courage to Resist -- a US organization congratulating service members who have the courage to resist -- never found the time to note Kristoffer or his brave stand.
Kristoffer Walker is a 28-year-old who stood up publicly. The reaction in Wisconsin media included some support (from one weekly and from those who wrote letters to the editor) and condemnation from one editorial board after another. We can only imagine what daily life must have been like.
When you take a stand -- any stand -- you know it's going to cost you. If it didn't come with a cost, it wouldn't be taking a stand. If it didn't come with a cost, it would just be "shooting the breeze." But while you expect that those who disagree with your stand will attack, you really don't anticipate that those who supposedly agree with you will ignore you.
But that's what happened with Kristoffer who resisted publicly for four weeks and never saw any of our brave left outlets rush to his side or rush to applaud him or, for that matter, even acknowledge him.
In a culture that values brave stands, we're left puzzled by the refusal of the left to support Kristoffer Walker. It shouldn't have required attacks from the right for the left to have supported Kristoffer; however, once those attacks started there was a duty for the left to step up. Our brave 'leaders' and 'outlets' never did.
From time to time, an e-mail comes in asking us: "Are you aware Ralph Nader is still alive?" A number of people are bothered by the fact that this site endorsed Ralph for president (everyone except Ava and C.I. endorsed him -- Ava and C.I. made no endorsement) and now we never highlight any of his writing! Why would we?
Have you read his writing? Have you read that chicken s**t nonsense?
We don't expect Ralph to write like Daniel Ellsberg speaks (though we'd love it if he did), but we do expect that, for example, on the sixth anniversary of the illegal war, a brave person like Ralph Nader can comment on it.
But we didn't get that. He wrote a column about Bully Boy Bush and, somehow, managed to ignore the Iraq War even when reviewing Bully Boy's eight years in the White House. That takes a lot of denial, Ralph.
Like the bulk of this country, we applaud brave stands. We just haven't seen any from Ralph since the election. We've seen a refusal to confront Barack Obama, a refusal to call him out and we've seen a lot of EZ Bake columns on EZ bake topics that every other gas bag in the universe writes about.
And that gas bag echo chamber? It's what prevented Kristoffer's stand from receiving the time and attention it deserved. While a nation debases itself in supplication, Kristoffer stood up. The fact that he received no support from the left media goes not to any faults of his but the very real lack of independence in independent media.