A Movement that was triggered in Tunisia
Posted on 19. Dec, 2011 by Michael Moore in Opinion
A Man in Tunisia, a Movement on Wall Street, and the Soldier Who Ignited the Fuse …
a letter from Michael Moore
Dear Friends,
It's Saturday night and I didn't want the day to end before I sent out this note to you.
The man who changed the history
One year ago today (December 17th), Mohamed Bouazizi, a man who had a simple produce stand in Tunisia, set himself on fire to protest his government's repression. His singular sacrifice ignited a revolution that toppled Tunisia's dictator and launched revolts in regimes across the Middle East.
Three months ago today, Occupy Wall Street began with a takeover of New York's Zuccotti Park. This movement against the greed of corporate America and its banks — and the money that now controls most of our democratic institutions — has quickly spread to hundreds of towns and cities across America. The majority of Americans now agree that a nation where 400 billionaires have more wealth than 160 million Americans combined is not the country they want America to be. The 99% are rising up against the 1% — and now there is no turning back.
Twenty-four years ago today, U.S. Army Spc. Bradley Manning was born. He has now spent 570 days in a military prison without a trial — simply because he allegedly blew the whistle on the illegal and immoral war in Iraq. He exposed what the Pentagon and the Bush administration did in creating this evil and he did so by allegedly leaking documents and footage to Wikileaks. Many of these documents dealt not only with Iraq but with how we prop up dictators around the world and how our corporations exploit the poor on this planet. (There were even cables with crazy stuff on them, like one detailing Bush's State Department trying to stop a government minister in another country from holding a screening of 'Fahrenheit 9/11.')
The Wikileaks trove was a fascinating look into how the United States conducts its business — and clearly those who don't want the world to know how we do things in places like, say, Tunisia, were not happy with Bradley Manning.
Mohamed Bouazizi was being treated poorly by government officials because all he wanted to do was set up a cart and sell fruit and vegetables on the street. But local police kept harassing him and trying to stop him. He, like most Tunisians, knew how corrupt their government was. But when Wikileaks published cables from the U.S. ambassador in Tunis confirming the corruption — cables that were published just a week or so before Mohamed set himself on fire — well, that was it for the Tunisian people, and all hell broke loose.
People across the world devoured the information Bradley Manning revealed, and it was used by movements in Egypt, Spain, and eventually Occupy Wall Street to bolster what we already thought was true. Except here were the goods — the evidence that was needed to prove it all true. And then a democracy movement spread around the globe so fast and so deep — and in just a year's time! When anyone asks me, "Who started Occupy Wall Street?" sometimes I say "Goldman Sachs" or "Chase" but mostly I just say, "Bradley Manning." It was his courageous action that was the tipping point — and it was not surprising when the dictator of Tunisia censored all news of the Wikileaks documents Manning had allegedly supplied. But the internet took Manning's gift and spread it throughout Tunisia, a young man set himself on fire and the Arab Spring that led eventually to Zuccotti Park has a young, gay soldier in the United States Army to thank.
And that is why I want to honor Bradley Manning on this, his 24th birthday, and ask the millions of you reading this to join with me in demanding his immediate release. He does not deserve the un-American treatment, including cruel solitary confinement, he's received in over eighteen months of imprisonment. If anything, this young man deserves a friggin' medal. He did what great Americans have always done — he took a bold stand against injustice and he did it without stopping for a minute to consider the consequences for himself.
The Pentagon and the national security apparatus are hell-bent on setting an example with Bradley Manning. But we as Americans have a right to know what is being done in our name and with our tax dollars. If the government tries to cover up its malfeasance, then it is the duty of each and every one of us, should the situation arise, to drag the truth, kicking and screaming if necessary, into the light of day.
The American flag was lowered in Iraq this past Thursday as our war on them officially came to an end. If anyone should be on trial or in the brig right now, it should be those men who lied to the nation in order to start this war — and in doing so sent nearly 4,500 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to their deaths.
But it is not Bush or Rumsfeld or Cheney or Wolfowitz who sit in prison tonight. It is the hero who exposed them. It is Bradley Manning who has lost his freedom and that, in turn, becomes just one more crime being committed in our name.
I know, I know, c'mon Mike — it's the holiday season, there's presents to buy and parties to go to! And yes, this really is one of my favorite weeks of the year. But in the spirit of the man whose birth will be celebrated next Sunday, please do something, anything, to help this young man who spends his birthday tonight behind bars. I say, enough. Let him go home and spend Christmas with his family. We've done enough violence to the world this decade while claiming to be a country that admires the Prince of Peace. The war is over. And a whole new movement has a lot to thank Bradley Manning for.
Yours,
Michael Moore
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3 Responses to “A Movement that was triggered in Tunisia”
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Stiri scurte: 20.12.2012 « George Valah Blog
20. Dec, 2011
[...] A Man in Tunisia, a Movement on Wall Street, and the Soldier Who Ignited the Fuse [...]
Rehmat
21. Dec, 2011
Michael Moore being a millionaire himself – should know the power of his fellow 1% at the Wall Street (49% of whom are Jewish). Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen are far away Muslim countries. New York's Zuccotti Park is right in the heart of American Jewish empire. The 1% cannot let the Occupied Wall Street (OWS) movement with sitting on their hands. They have already blamed Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Iran behind the OWS.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/lobby-ows-has-ties-to-muslim-brotherhood/
Vellach Samie
25. Dec, 2011
I respect Michael Moore for his views and tirless efforts to wake up fellow Americans to the blatant Human rights violations being carried out by the American Government all around the world.
But if such efforts cannot safe a citizen of America from torture and prison isolation in American soil, and no American can do anything about it except to write articles, then we are indeed in a very pathetic world.
I see only a few possibilities. Let Americans handle their own problems. If they allow a Government to become a Monster. So be it.
But such monster is going around killing people of other nations. That cannot be tolerated. Bombing America and sending it back to Hell would be a good idea but may not be practical without our own destruction in retaliation.
Thus the best answer in my opinion is to just find a way to survive. not protest, not fight, but stock up food and stay alive until the American Government collapse on their own monstrous weight. BUT hey, wait… is that not what the majority of Americans are doing. Seems they know what they are doing. So Michael Moore. Unless you have a better idea, please stop this intigations. Let us live. Bradley Manning may be a Hero. But he does not deserve putting my family at risk.
Good People already know who American Government really was even before Bradley Manning's exposure. And his exposure did nothing to stop any killings in Libya, Tunisia or Iraq anywhere else.
I wished he had stop listening to that noise in his head and found a girl to live a happy life. Oops – he is gay.