I was 19 years old when I awoke on September 11, 2001, to the defining event of our era. Huddled with others around a screen, I watched live television broadcast images of planes flying into the World Trade Center. The mood of life – its color and tone – changed in an instant.

The importance of my school receded to the background; it was clear that the world had bigger questions to resolve. A month later, I watched the American invasion of Afghanistan on CNN. While the consensus in America seemed firmly behind military retribution, I met many people who expressed deep dissatisfaction with the invasion and realized that 9/11 was a tremendous opening that called humanity’s collective future into question. I didn’t know whether or not we should have invaded Afghanistan, or even who the Taliban were. In fact, like most young people at that time, I was blissfully ignorant of the world outside America. But I knew that life after 9/11 was rushing toward a conclusion that no one, young or old, could fully foresee. Nothing could be more exciting for the youthful spirit than to feel that the future was open to discussion, and I resolved to start an anti-war student organization. With this decision, I unknowingly joined a nation-wide movement that was building momentum toward a revolutionary moment.

We founded an organization at Swarthmore College called Why War? and adopted the motto “Question the war.” Our position was simple: 9/11 blindsided us, and we need time to reflect before we’ll know the proper response. However, when it became clear that we had to fight to have our voices heard, we turned to protest.

I remember the mood in 2003 when 38 million people worldwide gathered to voice their opposition to the impending invasion of Iraq. On the streets of New York, we felt that we had finally accomplished an organizational feat capable of altering the future. I watched as my friends broke through barricades, and I refused to move as police horses charged a blocked street, nearly trampling my head. The revolutionary momentum was at a peak – it felt like anything was possible, and that a new world was truly within our grasp. How could the world leaders stand against us when we were able to organize and synchronize protests on every continent in the world?

But our movement didn’t stop America from invading Iraq. The much-heralded “Day X,” a day of civil disobedience that was supposed to sweep the nation, fizzled out without noticeable achievements. Our failure to prevent the Iraq war dealt a blow to our confidence and our momentum dissipated.

Although the Bush administration was able to stem the tide briefly, it did nothing to weaken our vision – merely driving us underground and making our present resurgence more powerful. And in place of the naïve hopes of yesterday are the mature demands of today – voiced in whispers in our hopeful hearts, a dangerous conspiracy to outlast the regime, to maintain our youthful exuberance but temper it with wise consideration. We’ve seen enough in the seven long years since 9/11 to know that we were right to question the war and to trust that, inevitably, we can change the future.

Our momentum is growing. Bush is done, consumerism is collapsing and the patricians are dancing for plebeian votes. On the horizon appear presidential candidates who claim to be the source of our strength, but who are merely the symptom of the revolutionary thrust picking up again in America. We’re optimistic for the future and willing to be inspired, but too skeptical to respond to the rhetoric of “Hope” and “Change” with our whole hearts. So we let them do the work of encouraging demands for change, knowing full well that we will carry their promises further than they intend. What we hear is not what they’re saying. What we’ll accomplish is not what they envision. By playing for our votes, the establishment only helps us see the questions that are off limits and the positions that are deemed impossible.

In martial arts classes, timid students are taught to put their fists through solid wood by punching through the barrier. The target is not the wood, but the space behind the wood. Likewise, in revolutions, momentum is not meant to stop on a specific day, but to carry through to the other side. The barrier is the limitations of what has been declared possible. We’ll overcome it by imagining, demanding and achieving the impossible. In the weeks and months ahead, we will see America’s revolutionary momentum build and, with wise youthfulness and experienced imagination, we will learn to pierce the mental barrier that stands between the tired allegiance to this world and a passionate building of the next. Our target is not the election, but a time beyond the election, when our mental preparation will combine with our political momentum in a revolutionary moment that ushers in a storm of change.

_Micah M. White is a Bingington, New York-based writer and activist, who is currently pursuing a PhD in Media and Communications at the European Graduate School.

 

COMMENTS:

I like the bit about the breaking of boards. The graphic with this piece confuses me, though. None of the three main democratic candidates strike me as anything like revolutionary. Ron Paul he is insane. But definitely a revolutionary. Dennis Kucinich was a revolutionary. Mike Gravel is a revolutionary. Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, they are revolutionaries. Elections are distractions. They are a temporary fight in the long battle. Keep your eyes on the prize.
Asher Platts

It is nice to hear thoughts about significant change. Real summits must be held, meetings of the minds must be arranged, beyond leadership training courses, establishments of think-tankesque structure must be countermanded yet if built, built better. A party stands ready for the evangelicals to takeover, the Democratic party must be raided, used, mobilized and fundedan empty shell, an unmanned vessel we must captain. Obama's Dean image despite his unproven, non-voted, unknown stances on vital issues is beside the point. Either candidate finds no machine to their support, message echomachine or PR battallion, and whoever shall fill such ranks will reap the reward. One complains about the buying of the presidency, yet forms no counteroffensive. The war is now, it began in the 70s when the disillusioned began to homeschool and build a corporate empire that would infiltrate/absorb corporate culture. Rockridge Institute, Democracy For America, Center For American Progress, and now floundering Air America are the foundation of the new future we must build upon, thinktanks, CoOp partnerships, AltCraft culture, DIY culture and Media are the keys to the kingdom. Genuine 911 investigation, real healthcare reform, trustbusting, actual education, funding of the arts and the alternative energy space racethe germans are approaching their sputnik, must be the first lines of our 95 Theses. Revolution threatens noone after the fall of Russia and the opening of China. It is reform and regression, a return to the power of the individual and the end of the consumer that threatens. It is intellect and education that threatens, the freeflow of information that cannot be allowed; for the establishment it is violence that is the answer, physical or symbolic. To dye a cut flower you don't spray it with color, you must dye the water it breathes.
Sean

I applaude your spirit and tenacity and salute your valiant efforts to brake through the barriers.....yet it will take more then audacity to wake up the slumbering masses who are so plugged into the matrix of society that if you trie to rouse them they shout at your for disturbing their daily dose of the crack that is entertainment......we must meet fire with fire.
Krs

Although Barack is certainly a welcome change to this election, No Government will ever give you freedom. Your best chances for change is to never stop beating the drum of change. You have to fight the system that causes these problems. Universal Health Care is the Farmer Subsidies of Today, Good for the short term crisis, but can nothing more than a quick fix. Our Government has managed to make us believe that we need them to protect us. Nothing could be further from the truth. Do not be surprised when whoever is elected, you still have the same problems you have always had. If you want to stop the war, Stop paying the taxes that pay for the war. If you want a better society, try talking to a stranger. Can't afford college tuition, go get in the ditch and dig with those you're trying to save. Just an opinion, not one bit better than yours.
Bean

right on. when the problem extends from the corporate media to corporate-driven consumer culture and right on through to corporate-controlled government, nothing essential is up for grabs in the elections. Even darling Obama does not appear to take seriously the bare necessities of change: just for instance: a transformation from a wasteful global economy based on consumption and ecocatastrophe and justified with abstract numbers to a local, sustainable one based on people's needs. This shift that needs to be imagined and demanded in all spheres of life, from healthcare to food supply to education and transportation... But if we can use Obama to push for a truly revolutionary agenda with the momentum he capitalizes on and creates, I'm all for it.
CTR

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - Freedom and Democracy - Regarding new elections in Florida and Michigan, Senator Obama said we should play by the rules, I contend. In other words, we should not change the rules in the middle of the game. Senator Bradley and Senator Daschleboth Obamanitessaid the same thing as Obama. Play by the rules. Play by the rules even though the voters of Florida and Michigan have been disenfranchised. Ok. Well, the rules also say that superdelegates can vote for Hillary even though most pledged delegates are for Obama. Those are the rules. And we should not change the rules in the middle of the game, says Senator Obama, Senator Bradley and Senator Daschle. I wonder if the corporate media will remind them that they are sticklers for the rules and for not changing the rules in the middle of the game. I would imagine if the senators forget their rulesmanship it will look to the public as if they will say whatever they have to say in order to win. In other words, it will look as if they are practicing that old style politics they say they are so adamantly against. For example, you might hear them say that superdelegates should be punished by the voters if they choose the rules over freedom and democracy. Hmmmmm? Then I suppose Obama, Bradley and Daschle should also be punished by the voters because they defended the rules against freedom and democracy for Florida and Michigan voters.
scottsoperson

The status quo in American politics is caused by the fact that they are all leaves off the same branch.....it's like back in grade school when you and your best friend ran for class president...It doesn't matter who won cause in the end you just made all the decisions together while playing Super Mario on the NES.
Krs

Yes, 9/11 was a false flag operation, along with the first world trade city bombing notice how i typed First world trade city BOMBING the towers were demolished by strategic explosions within the building..., and Oklahoma City bombing. In 2010, canada, mexico, and the u.s. will join into the North American Union, abolishing national constituions and the american bill of right. This initiative is spearheaded by long time banking cartels such as the Rosthschilds and Rockefellars. David Rockefellar helped mold the organization known as the Council on Foreign Relations or CFR.org which is pushing for a global tyranny campaign based on a one world government. The banking cartels control the money in this country that control the companies that control the media, and the government is only enforcing their policies. Hiliary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain are all affiliated with this tyrannical organization. By the way the 16th amendment was never ratified, that means that the income tax is UNCONSTITUIONAL!
Bill Seeds

CTR said it lol. fight fire wiht fire. propaganda and media is the paint on the wall we must break thru. we need to use the same undeniably effective methods used to lull our sleeping masses in an inverse, beneficial. become what we hate and destroy it from the inside. oh and more people willing and able to lead.
Blaine

Looking through these comments I am astonished that so many people still have a very limited understanding of what the words that they use actually mean. The words freedom and democracy are use so often and interchangeably that people forget that the two have almost diametrically opped meanings. Freedom cannot exist in a democracy. A democracy is mobrule, a lynchmob and 2 wolves and sheep deciding wwhat to have for dinner. The founding fathers of America rejected the idea of democracy in favour of freedom. What are you doing?
Jens

Last week The Ruckus Society reached a perfect point. We did an audacious, high tech action with a group led by impacted Tibetans on the Golden Gate, escalating a campaign which we consider a longterm. Began a strategic direct action training process with Klammath after success in the Arctic stalled MacKenzie Pipeline and Desert Rock denied tax incentive to dirty coal and received a grant for our Climate Justice Action team.The sky is the limit for the kind of actions we will pull off now that we have locked in the formula for what takes direct action beyond symbolism to power tactic. We want you to tell the story of how folks are losing their fear and standing up for sustainable communities at the local, regional, national and international level! This is the year of the National Elections after 3 elections rampant with suspect behavior and we're working with youth organizers gearing up for actions on the campaign trail, at the conventions and protecting voters around the elections. This is the year of the Olympics in Beijing and we're supporting partners Students for a Free Tibet in actions along the Olympic Torch path. This is the 5th year of the Occupation of Iraq, and we're working with high school students and conscientious objectors to stop recruiters and use Election year media to highlight our vision for an end to this war. This is the year when we determine whether our commitment to going green will be cosmetic or radical, we're training Climate Justice organizers to raise the stakes from the Arctic to the Mexican border. Each of these issues is escalating much like Montgomery and Selma once elevated the Civil Rights Movement and the young modern day Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jrs are coming together, as they did then, to train in visionary nonviolent direct action NVDA tactics. Come meet them!
Celeste Faison

I hope you are right. The last election proved a lot of things to me sitting in Africa about the general head space out there. It seems people are more determined than ever, but the proof is always in the pudding. Good night, and good luck.
Mallix

I would gently suggest that you now see the results of your past resistance. You did not get the outcomes you wished. A different future means doing things differently. There is another principle found in martial arts, which states What you resist you empower. There are answers, but they are hard to hear when your thoughts are directed at what you don't like, rather than toward what you wish. Smiles. ET
uduzit

To. Mr. Travis, It seems to me that you're not European. Your words is also my conviction that a revolution in America is never possible because the soul of this continent is the mirror consumerism let alone revolting against it. I suggest you stay there and leave us Europeans alone so we would not get corrupt with your silly ideas. PS. Where was your government in Katrina, I wonder. Respectfully.
Alain Cousteau

this is ridiculous. America screwed themselves over.
dsg

For those of us zapped by 9/11, Iraq War 2, Katrina, Global Climate Change, etc. during transformative years, Mr. White captures the surge of deep awakening with inspiring honestly. A similar mass soulaltering that the previous generation experienced during the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam, assassinations, Watergate, etc. Many of our parents also 'aimed beyond the board,' a rousing idea, only to break their collective middle fingers. In the spirit of personal honesty, I think our generation still feels the quiet sadness of their revolutionary courage, with all its victories, that just couldn't bust that last board. The fact that none of us, young or older, have punched that hard again raises many questions. Is the idea of our parents' having a collective sense of disappointed dismay fair to them? Is it real? What does it mean for our generation? What does it mean for theirs? What have we learned? How can we use that knowledge now? Who will teach us? Who will stop showing us their scar and learn with us to punch with our other hand? I seem to remember my uncle telling me 'it's all about money.' That's a start. A recently retired friend of mine says 'a revolution in which the needs of the average worker are not met only delays the real revolution.' Makes some sense too. His friend said 'these revolutionaries nowadays only seem interested it describing what life will be like after the bad guys win. There is almost no discussion of strategies to use in the fight. Or even if there'll really be one.' His point's well taken. Politics, blogging, attacking consumerism, protesting, back to naturism, lobbying, voting, etc. are not likely to change things by the time it's too late for too many. His wife pointed out that 'all pollution begins in a factory somewhere.' Hadn't thought about it that way, but if you think about it, it's true. It's also true that all wealth is created in a factory, or a mine, or a kitchen, or a field somewhere. The things stockbrokers need to talk about, the things humans need to survive, can be traced back to where these places and working people interact to produce food, clothing, shelter, money. My imaginary friend says 'if pollution and money are to be addressed by our next attempted revolution, perhaps we should learn to focus, then STRIKE through the barriers.'
Bibble

Ever think you are on the wrong side?
g50

we still won't have justice till Bush and Cheney are tried at the Hague!
stoplossed

you want change? change yourself. the leaders will have to follow or be pushed under by the new waves in the ocean.
annie

sigh.... I wish so badly the author could come down to louisiana and talk with the locals. Having grown up in Europe but attended university at LSU Ive gotten to see both sides of the coinliberal europe, conservative south. In my opinion the south is far and away the better place in almost every category.
Travis

That's some great writing, the part about piercing the mental barrier that stands between the tired allegiance to this world and a passionate building of the next, gets me right out of my apathetic no-win feeling of being a student in the reddest state of them all in Utah where mindless allegiance is the norm.
mr. bixby

As I understand now, 911 was an inside job. I remember seeing Bush in overlybright lighting declaring himself the winner on corporate TV in December 2000. Bush was appointed president of the USA in early 2001, even though Al Gore got more votes. In early spring 2001, US government funding that paid companies to hire IT staff was dropped. The dotcom bubble burst. In late spring 2001, so-called leaders from the US threatened the Taliban in Afghanistan that the US would bomb Afghanistan into oblivion. The Taliban had pretty much stopped Afghanistan's poppy and heroine production. But, don't think for a minute that I support the so-called Taliban despot because they have been funded and provided weapons by the US since the USSR invaded, and I don't support the USSR invading either, or the British before them. By midsummer 2001, Bush was called a lameduck president, hanging out on his ranch, not doing much, and not paying any heed to intelligence reports of what was coming. The stock market was tumbling except for a few put options on US airline companies. A week before September 11, 2001, crews were seen running around installing networking infrastructure throughout the unlocked towers. Cleaning staff was asked not to work in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Reportedly a conspiracy by a handful terrorists from Saudi Arabia was undertaken on September 11, 2001 to fly airplanes into the two towers, the Pentagon, and the Whitehouse. This conspiracy of terrorists was reported on some US news stations even before anyone knew what the hell was going on on September 11, 2001. At this same time, Dick Cheney ordered US military aircraft to stand down, even though the US was supposedly under attack. An unprecedented number of tests by the military were being carried out on this day. ditto for the unprecedented tests in London, England years later during a smaller event. The terrorists all died in the crashes. Three World Trade buildings, not two, but three buildings were pulled on September 11, 2001. The new owner received a US$8000000000 payout in insurance. Insurance premiums have skyrocketed since. Corporate media repeatedly showed the clip of planes flying into the towers and quickly cut over to the scenes of the buildings collapsing. They showed this over, and over again. And, I believed that planes brought down the towers. A commission declared that the buildings were brought down by fire. perhaps, a cordite fire, but I don't think they mentioned cordite in their findings. Most of the wreckage and asbestos was quickly carted off and sold to China. Dunno where those solid steel cores went to. Think a lot of bombing, murderering and warring might have gone on since then. Regardless of this and anything that might have occurred since then, I still have sympathy for Americans and their wonderful country today.
Mark Stock

I am very excited that there are those in the in the US that are hopeful and will hopefully challenge the status quo in American politics. However, I am weary of such eloquent prose. As an individual outside of the US perspective, I hope that you not only consider and question the motives behind the two wars that your nation has embarked on, but also question why 9/11 occured and why there is such a backlash against American hegemony and culture. America if it to continue to be a leader in today's world, it must rethink or at least critique its position on a host of global conflicts, challenges and perspectives as well as the reasoning and basis for its current ideological stance. Why is America one of the last Western democracies to have Universal Health Care? Why is it one of the last Western democracies to have subsidized education? Why is its literacy rates so low? And why are there so many living under the poverty line in the richest country in the world? I hope that the revolution asks these sort of questions and really takes a hard look at the American hegemon.
Rudi

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