PHILOSOPHER SEED

Campaign to Boycott Corporate Christmas

It is often said that Americans are complacent about the U.S. Occupation of Iraq because they are making relatively few sacrifices towards the resolution of that conflict compared to our soldiers in the field and their families.

Yet we all do to some degree because of the billions of dollars of our taxes funneled down that rabbit hole. We sacrifice proper funding of our schools, better access to health care and countless other social programs-not to mention disaster preparedness and relief.

For those of us who support this Occupation, it appears that these sacrifices are sufficient; for those of us who oppose this ongoing War Crime, nothing less than that which will bring the troops home will be enough. We are putting 10 billion dollars a month into this Occupation, slowly bleeding our country of resources, precious lives, and the respect and good will of all the people of this planet.

And, perhaps most importantly, we are sacrificing the lives, the security, and the future of millions of innocent Iraq’s in our thinly veiled attempt to dominate the region and their strategic oil reserves.

Those who have resisted this Invasion and subsequent Occupation have poured into the streets in protest; have done so since before the illegal aggression against Iraq. No effect. We have continued to demonstrate our dissatisfaction, assailed our representatives with our demands, threaten impeachment for those responsible for the lies and deceit which temporarily justified this unprovoked attack upon another sovereign nation. No effect.

The President and Congress remain steadfast in their position. Though many legislators pretend to be against this Occupation, they vote to continue supporting the troops and funding the outrage, against the people of Iraq, the people of the planet, the people of our country. In the final analysis these votes amount to complicity.

What can we do to end this Occupation? No actions so far has been properly characterized by the Corporate Media, and so Americans at large have no real grasp of the magnitude and depth of neither the situation in Iraq nor our commitment to extricate ourselves from this ragged attempt at Empire. Poll numbers are cold; they do not touch mainstream America. Neither the sacrifices of American lives and limbs nor the deaths and injury to countless innocent people in their Homeland seem to move the nation to action.

What can we do?

Perhaps the answer has been in front of us all along. In fact, the solution was extended to us by George W. Bush at a News Conference on December 20, 2006. He offers up a solution to the problems facing this country:

“The unemployment rate has remained low, at 4.5 percent. A recent report on retail sales shows a strong beginning to the holiday shopping season across the country — and I encourage you all to go shopping more.”

George Bush, December 20, 2006

If, in the perspective of those who rule this country in our name, this expansion of the economic engine of consumption is the solution to all the problems enumerated in his speech, than perhaps the implementation of it’s opposite might give the people of this country a sense of the power they wield- the ultimate power of consumption.

We hold the hammer; our wages, diffused and spent throughout the country and the world ARE the economy. This is no more obvious than during the Christmas season, a time when Bush made his statement to the people in 2006. Christmas is the supreme economic engine in this country, when we all shift into high gear and purchase, spend, shop, and quite often go further into debt.

If we want this Occupation to end by Christmas, then maybe we should sacrifice the frantic purchasing of gifts for Christmas. It’s really not all that much of a sacrifice. We can still cherish our loved ones, worship our Savior, continue to support the daily economy and continue participating in providing for the common good.

During this time of year, when everyone’s eye is unfortunately as much on Sales as upon the sacrifice of that Jewish Carpenter from Nazareth, we can demonstrate both our disgust with the Occupation and our faith in each other. We can find ways to gift those we love without rank consumerism and display that good old American ingenuity in the effort to end this Occupation.

There are many ways to express the spirit of Christmas other than appearances at the shopping malls and large conglomerate retailers. Within each of our own lives there will be ways to touch those we love with affection and appreciation, without recourse to mass produced and marketed products.

To those who complain that the Economy will suffer I say that the Economy is already suffering, with the apportionment of resources going to oppress an innocent people that should be going to sustain our own. This is an attempt to set things right, and if sacrifices are necessary, we are willing to make the necessary sacrifices.

To those that suggest that we will disappoint our children, I say that perhaps they should be more impressed by your close affection and love than by presents, and if they are not then perhaps you have work to do in that area.

To those that appeal to tradition and religious ritual I say that these are all products of the Human Spirit, and this outrage in Iraq demands we implement whatever methods are at our disposal to make our voices and our power manifest. “We the People,” means just that. We are ultimately as responsible for the actions of our public and private sector leaders as we are recipients of successes.

Christmas is a celebration of the Spirit of love and giving within the family, the community, the nation, the planet. The continuing War Crime in Iraq is affecting the people of this planet on all these levels. It is our duty as citizens of this country and this planet to end this and make reparations.

And, we need to realize our power, the dynamic of Consumption. Think how different this country, the planet would be if we weren’t in debt to our credit cards. How different if our purchasing power was used to support our local communities rather than the transportation of goods from all over the planet, indenturing us further to the feudal Lords of Oil.

Think how different the world would be if the phrase “We the People” included our awareness of this power and our acceptance of the duties and responsibilities of that power.

I am suggesting a deliberate and strategic sacrifice, not necessarily of Christmas, but of the conventional celebration of that spiritual holy day.

Ultimately we stand to gain much more than we are sacrificing. How can we, with a clear conscience celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace while tacitly condoning the brutal Occupation of another country?

To join the boycott supportpeace@peacemail.com.

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