insurgent49
  updated weekly
 home - contribute - donate -  message board - events - links - contact us - archive
November 18, 2005
Red Alert
by Soren Wuerth

A barrel of ink and a barrel of bullshit

“Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”

— Paulo Freire (quoted in Grassroots Journalism, by Eesha Williams)

     When I heard Bush was coming to town I fired off an email: PROTEST & RAISE HELL!!!!

     Apparently, about a dozen people gathered at the Elmendorf gate, pushed and prodded by working journalists. A reporter, word has it, called a local activist to ask where the protest would be held (if this ever happens to you, tell her the place and time of your demonstration, hang up, then quickly call as many people as you can think of to tell them about your rally).

     C’mon folks! Bush comes to Anchorage and there are only a dozen of us? What? You had “obligations?”

     This is a man who quite possibly is the worst president in the history of the United States, who has presented an agenda so extreme that he has members of his own party rankling with indignation, and who has created a murderous, unprovoked war to build an oil-soaked, sectarian empire. In his own language, Bush is as “evil” as the torturers for whom he’s provided countless victims.

     And, politically speaking, you’re his constituent. Don’t you think he should hear from you?

     I didn’t learn about the anti-Bush rally until my dad told me about it. My mom sent an email: “OK! We pulled off the protest, ... and KTUU presented an excellent report, almost more on us than on Bush's visit. ...They added an interview with (Green Party gubernatorial candidate and Native rights activist) Diane Benson, who is on her way to meet her son who just lost a leg and is still unconsciousness with serious injuries.  He had to go back for a second tour even though he tried to get out.”

     Out here in the village, the only news I heard about Bush’s visit was a report on APRN. The report read like a sound byte from one of Bush’s embedded press corp. Gabriel Spitzer, the reporter, gave an impressively mainstream testimonial. His story was picked up by the NPR wire.

     Gabe showed up with his microphone on a frigid day at the Park Strip a few years ago to cover a rally launching the understaffed, all-volunteer Murkowski recall campaign. When I heard his sober coverage of Bush’s Anchorage visit, I wondered what happened to that hard working, grassroots journalist with gusto. Why didn’t he talk to the folks on the other side of the fence?

     As it happened, some intrepid reporter from Channel 2 found our local heroes outside the gate waving signs as buses full of devil-worshipping children from Prevo’s Temple of Doom rolled by in school buses (Bush’s local “call-a-crowd”). So, in the midst of Bush’s fulminating about critics of his war, somewhere around 60,000 Anchorage residents at least saw and heard the sanity of 12 apostles of peace.

     Here’s a tip: make a business card with the numbers of the local press on one side and the numbers of your closest activist friends on the other. Anytime you feel the impulse to shine a spotlight on the cockroaches of our “republic”, just work those digits.

     Here they are so you don’t have any excuses: ADN, 257-4301 (city desk); KTUU, 762-9239 (ask for assignment editor); APRN, 263-7416 (ask for the working Gabe Spitzer); KTVA, 273-1111; KIMO, 561-1313; AP, 272-7549; and the 561-PRESS.

     In the meantime, look for inspiration in the resolve of Jacob Snyder, an Alaskans for Peace and Justice volunteer, who told KTUU, “I’ve made the personal commitment that I’m going to come out and be there at every public demonstration until this war is over.”







Soren Wuerth is perhaps Alaska's best known community activist. He resides in an undisclosed location in rural Alaska and can be reached at soren@insurgent49.com.
- Columnists -

Editor's Desk
by Aaron Selbig

Red Alert
by Soren Wuerth

Alaskan In Exile
by Neil Zawicki

The
Bramble Bush
by Kevin Morford





- also by this writer -

Frank Wants Access
Copyright 2005 Insurgent Media. All Rights Reserved.
in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership.