January 13, 2005
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TOPIC: DEMOCRACY WANTED
So…As I’m starting to learn so much about the ills of America that I was led to believe did not exist, because of the sanitized education and media to which I have exposed for now 23 years, I’m getting closer to the question of…what is being done, and what can I also do?
Before acting, I must educate myself. That is the period in which I am now in. Learning requires finding non-mainstream sources, as well as non-mainstream acts of democracy that are being taken, acts of freedom of speech, independent media, freedom of protest, etc. Acts that are being taken to right the wrongs of America.
And I came across this 30min. video from Democracy now! about American media, how it has sanitized and therefore misled America about the war in Iraq, its purpose and nature, in so many ways. This 30min. video (you may need to download real player, takes a few min.) will remind you not only that a healthy democracy requires a healthy democratic media, but it will also inspire you that progress is being made.
http://www.democracynow.org/static/IMIATOW.shtml
Part scathing critique, part call to action, “Independent Media In A Time Of War” is a hard-hitting new documentary by the Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center (www.hm.indymedia.org). This film is composed of a speech given by Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! illustrated by clips of mainstream media juxtaposed with rare footage from independent reporters in Iraq. The documentary argues that dialogue is vital to a healthy democracy. “Independent media has a crucial responsibility to go to where the silence is,” says Amy Goodman, “to represent the diverse voices of people engaged in dissent.” She makes a compelling argument that the commercial news media have failed to represent the “true face of war.”
