State of Disunion

It was three o'clock this afternoon. I panicked for a moment when I realized that the President was about to deliver his final State of Union address and I had no act of defiance planned out yet. I had to move fast. I couldn't let this moment go by without doing something to state my opposition to Bush and all he represents. I decided that in my own private way, I would deliver a very public personal response to this pathetic and criminal administration and the vast damage it has done to this nation and around the world. 'Disunion' or the termination or destruction of union, seemed to be a far more appropriate description than any other word to what is going on around the country.

In a flash I typed up STATE OF DISUNION into my Adobe Illustrator program. Sized it to a 36inch tall by 96inch wide PDF file and e-mailed the graphic to my local FEDEX/Kinkos. They printed it and within the hour, I had two massive banner messages ready tod go ($24). I took the outputs to a local HomeDepot and purchased cheap 48 inch bungee cords, 2 inch masking tape and a 4 x 8 foot piece of 1/2 inch rigid foam insulation ($7.00). I taped the message to both sides of the panel and headed to my local freeway pedestrian overcrossing and 'free speech' platform over the Golden State Freeway at Los Feliz Blvd. in Los Angeles.

It was almost 6pm by the time I reached the overcrossing. The sun was setting over Southern California as the President's blather began ringing across the nation and world. It took an instant to post my message on the inside of the cyclone fencing, right below a light on the bridge -- Immediately thousand of motorists plying through Monday night rush-hour were exposed to personal act of defiance. And in it's own way -- this message stands out like few others to help 'implicate' all of us into some form of action in the face of the enormous catastrophe that this nation has allowed to happen.

We must act and not just complain about the Democrats and their lack of 'spine'. For nearly eight years the media has made every effort to marginalize dissent and rendering it 'invisible' to the mainstream. The government (both democrats and republicans) are acting against the will of the people and managing the debate like never before. Mainstream media is complicit in this charade as the Constitution is being subverted. Our Congress is the in the process of granting immunity to those in the telecom industry who knowingly enabled criminal government surveillance of fellow Americans. We cannot as citizens allow this to happen without a real and vital response whether in small personal ways or as part of a transformative movement that arcs toward justice.

-Robert Corsini