Forum Post: Transformation of our nation: Why the NSA & police state can't win ---

This should be the revelation that brings down the whole house of cards.

We Americans need to wake up and realize that our freedoms have been systematically stolen from us. Republicans and Democrats are all in on it along with their corporate puppet masters. The whole house of cards needs to come down. Out there listening NSA? Suck this into your data vacuum: We're not afraid of you anymore. There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come. And you can't put us all in jail. You can't evict or jail an idea.

Once citizens wake up and realize they're all being screwed, once they speak with one loud and clear voice outside their government's headquarters and say simply: we don't believe in you anymore, the whole thing comes crashing down. Look to history. The walls that seemed so solid, the powers that seemed unstoppable all came tumbling down.

Once we realize that we have more in common than we have separating us, we can begin to make decisions from a position of unified strength rather than making complaints and demands from a position of divided weakness.

Some quotes that point the way. . .

"Truth crushed to earth rises up." - MLK Jr.

"The moral arc of the universe bends towards justice." - MLK "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history". ~ Gandhi

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” - Gandhi

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead

Breyton Breytonbach said this just before he was sentenced to prison in South Africa for his protest activities:. "With confidence, we lay our case before the whole world. Whether we live, or whether we die, freedom will rise here like the sun through the morning clouds."

"No lie can live forever." - MLK

And then there's this by the Rastafarian poet, Bongo Jerry: "Sooner or later but mus' the dam is going to bus' What force can stop them, this river of people who know their course?"

And this from Stevie Wonder: "You better tell your story fast, 'cause it won't be too long."

"Sooner or later it'll all come down 'cause you can't. . push. . . people around." - unknown jazz musician

Bob Marley - "They would do anything to materialize your ev-er-y wish."

Bob Marley - "We refused to be. . . what you wanted us to be. We are what we are. That's the way it's going to be."

Bob Marley - "There's a natural mystic flowing' through the air. If you listen carefully now you will hear."

"And I am talking about getting ready because it is coming." Because there are those of us and yourselves out there who are dedicated to the proposition that it is going to happen." - CORNEL WEST from Prophetic Thought in Postmodern Times

AND THIS from P.B. Shelley: 'Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you - Ye are many - they are few."

And this from JAMES BALDWIN's "No Name in the Street": "The representatives of the status quo are sickened and divided, and dread looking into the eyes of their young; while the excluded begin to realize, having endured everything, that they CAN endure everything. They do not know the precise shape of their future, but they know that the future belongs to them. They realize this -- paradoxically -- by the failure of moral energy of their oppressors and begin, almost instinctively, to forge a new morality, to create the principles on which a new world will be built."

Quote from John O'Donohue essay:

"Sometimes when we look out, the world seems so dark. War, violence, hunger and misery seem to abound. This makes us anxious and helpless. What can I do in my private little corner of life that could have any effect on the march of world events? The usual answer is: nothing. We then decide to do what we can for our own, and leave the great events to their domain. Thus, we opt out, and join the largest majority in the world : those who acquiesce. Believing ourselves to be helpless, we hand over all our power to forces and systems outside us that then act in our names; they go on to put their beliefs into action; and ironically these actions are often sinister and destructive.

We live in times when the call of full and critically aware citizenship could not be more urgent. We need to rediscover the careless courage, yet devastating simplicity, of the little boy who, in the middle of the numbered multitude, in naive Socratic fashion, blurts out; " But the emperor has no clothes." When spoken, the word of truth can bring down citadels of falsity.

Real presence is the ideal of all true individuation. When we yield to helplessness, we strengthen the hand of those who would destroy. When we choose indifference, we betray our world. Yet the world is not decided by action alone. It is decided more by consciousness and spirit; they are the secret sources of all action and behavior. The spirit of a time is an incredibly subtle, yet hugely powerful force. And it is comprised of the mentality and spirit of all individuals together. Therefore, the way you look at things is not simply a private matter. Your outlook actually and concretely affects what goes on. When you give in to helplessness, you collude with despair and add to it. When you take back your power and choose to see the possibilities for healing and transformation, your creativity awakens and flows to become an active force of renewal and encouragement in the world. In this way, even in your own hidden life, you can become a powerful agent of transformation in a broken, darkened world. There is a huge force field that opens when intention focuses and directs itself toward transformation."