Rage against the machine

Cindy Sheehan's call to action:

I was at a Rage Against the Machine concert last night, watching the thousands of young people in the audience from stage right. The crowd was as filled with life as the band, and I was amazed at all the energy. I wondered if the crowd knew how socially and politically radical the words are to Rage's music, and were not just as mesmerized by the pounding music and Tom Morello's amazing guitar playing as I was. I was wondering how the peace and justice movement could harness that energy in a positive direction to really shutting down the machine that is brought to us by Boeing and The Oil and Natural Gas Council, among thousands of other companies that profit off of war, and our politicians who let the machine tell them how to govern to keep that same machine well oiled, while stealing financial and human resources right out from under the noses of families and communities. Before Casey was killed, I did not rage against the machine that has been grinding up our soldiers and murderously oppressing other populations for generations. As a matter of fact, I practically threw my own son under the wheels of the machine. Despite my vague misgivings about the machine and my desperate worry about Casey going to Iraq, I watched him leave through tear-soaked eyes and a worry-laden heart. Rage, rage, rage against that machine! Don't let it eat up you or your children because it uses our flesh and blood to engender enormous profits; and while sending our children off to war to use up their airplanes, bombs, guns, bullets, uniforms, helmets and boots, the machine is sending its children off to expensive private schools to raise more machine heads. It is impossible to bring back the lives that have been stolen by the machine, but it is never too late to save the future. I am hoping my candidacy against Nancy Pelosi in California's 8th will be able to put a little sugar in the tank of the machine. The machine is powerful and heartless, but if we all stand up to it, we can finally dismantle it this time.

The machine: the corporate state, the war machine, the "just for the elite/ruling class" mentality, the "fear" mentality, the "democracy through invasion" approach... Maybe a few wrenches need to be thrown in.