Radical Radio: Or, how I learned to hate, loathe and detest War Mongers.

It’s a rainy 5th of July in Prague. Today and tomorrow are national holidays (don’t ask, I don’t get involved) and I’m laughing at all the Czechs who left their warm and dry city apartments to go out to nature, which is how they refer to their country chatas. A chata, in most cases, is not heated, which is why they don’t use them in winter months; may or may not have running water, which is why so many of them return from their weekends smelling of cabbage, onions and vinegar; and may or may not have electricity, which is why Czech get used to waking and sleeping with the orbit of the Earth around the Sun.

I’m in my nice, warm, dry city apartment listening to Radical Radio on the Internet, thinking about a theory I came up with upon moving to Prague 10 years ago, to whit there are three kinds of Czechs: lions, lambs and jackals.

The lions have always been the Czechs who left when they found that things here didn’t agree with their philosophy of life. It takes a lot of gumption to walk away from home and family and not many people can do this without much regret. My father-in-law was one of these: He left at a time when it was still the Austro-Hungarian Empire and his options were to become a farmer, like his father, or be apprenticed to a shoemaker. He got himself to America, worked his butt off and became a dentist. During World War I he joined the American Navy and, thereby, became a U.S. citizen for life.

The lambs are the people who stay. They find they cannot leave home and family and, no matter what they have to put up with, put their heads down and walk through life trying to keep a low profile so that no one will notice them. These are the people who voted in the socialist government after World War II, wanting to be taken care of, thinking that their lives would be better off with the promises that were made by the so-called communists who ascended to power in 1948.

The jackals are the people who are lions in sheep clothing who learn early on how to bend the rules and take advantage of anyone who is less assertive, or aggressive, than they are. These were the people who came to power in 1948 and sustained their power base, with the help of the Soviet Union, until November 1989.

Of course, my argument has always been that it was never Communism in Czechoslovakia. Having read the Communist Manifesto, I always knew what Communism was supposed to be. Simply look at the similarities between Communist ideology and the words of Jesus, or read Utopia by Thomas More – Marx was a rip-off artist on a grand scale, and you will certainly see that what happened here was not communism; it was more akin to slavery in the buffer states that surrounded Russia. These buffer states of the Warsaw Pact were raped by Russia, and the people lived a minimal existence with shortages of this or that, the only thing consistent throughout the entire reign.

But I digress. Listening to Radical Radio (I’ve chosen that over CNN or the BBC because I want to really know what’s going on in the land that I love and the NY Times doesn’t totally get it either) I’ve decided that it’s not just Czechs who are lions, lambs and jackals.

True, I’m a whacko in my own way (just ask Max, she knows the truth). I played the role of mother for so long that I almost started believing my own act, worrying about my reputation to some extent, as though anyone gives a damn. However, I am willing to own up to the fact that I’ve always been a closet radical.

I really hate what’s going on in the United States since W became president. I really hate that my peers have become so complacent and no longer question, as we did in the past, the true motives of our political leaders. But most of all I hate the War Mongers. We were the generation who brought down a president who may not have been guilty of wrongdoing, but who helped cover up a wrongful act. Now we have a president who, along with his top aides and the vice-president, has committed a crime. It boggles my mind that nothing is being done by the people, (lambs?), and the media (also lambs?) under the control of corporate groups. Are we, those of us who live outside the U.S., the lions? But, like the Czech Socialist government of the past, our politicians are now the jackals!

The question now becomes: “What can I do about it?

I have the distinct feeling that this is going to be a lot more difficult than fixing my bed. We always suspected, but had no proof that he orchestrated the war against Iraq. Now we have proof in the Downing Street Memo. Congressman Conyers has called together members of Congress to begin an investigative process, and there are lawyers who are already calling for an impeachment proceeding.

Well, I’ll start small, by writing this blog. Then I shall copy and paste this blog to send, by email, to all my American friends – asking them to write their congressmen and senators to investigate this travesty of justice. Over 1,700 young men and women have died, and many more have been maimed, because of the deceptions disseminated by this administration. I’ve heard him say that this is a Crusade (he did actually use the word) and that he’s the War President. Well, I don’t see him going off to fight a war, as they did in the Crusades a thousand years ago. Instead, he’s sending young Americans off to fight a war that will, inevitably, cause Armageddon.

Make no mistake, we shall all be held accountable in the future if we allow this to continue. Stop the War Monger now! If you love your country, and the principles we have always admired, stop him now – before he causes us all to suffer.