Standing up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times
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Standing Up to the Madness not only is a timely, inspiring, and even revolutionary look at who wields the greatest power in America-everyday people who take a chance and stand up for what they believe in-but also offers advice on what you can do to help.Where are the millions marching in the streets to defend human rights, civil liberties, and racial justice? Where is the mass revulsion against the killing and torture being carried out in our name? Where are the environmentalists? Where is the peace movement? The answer: They are everywhere.The award-winning sister-brother team of Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, and investigative journalist David Goodman traveled the country to detail the ways in which grassroots activists have taken politics out of the hands of politicians. Standing Up to the Madness tells the stories of everyday citizens who have challenged the government and prevailed. As the Bush administration has waged war abroad and at home, it has catalyzed a vast groundswell of political action. From African-American residents of deluged New Orleans who are fighting racism and City Hall to regain their homes; to four Connecticut librarians who refused to spy on their patrons, challenged the USA PATRIOT Act, and won; to a group of high school students who were barred from performing a play they wrote on the Iraq War based on letters from soldiers; to the first U.S. Army officer to publicly refuse orders to deploy to Iraq, charging that his duty as an officer is to refuse to fight in an illegal and immoral war, Standing Up to the Madness profiles citizens rising to extraordinary challenges. And, in the process,they are changing the way that politics is done, both now and in the future. In communities around the United States, courageous individuals have taken leaps of faith to stop the madness. They could only hope that if they led, others would follow. That is how movements are born. What begins as one, eventually becomes many. In that tradition, the authors have included the ways in which any individual can take action and effect change.
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: "We Will not be Silent" 1I Standing up to the Madness 9Turning Point: The Montgomery Bus Boycott 111 Reclaiming Common Ground 142 T Is for Terrorist 343 Librarians Unbound 52II Science Under Siege 73Turning Point: The Pentagon Papers 754 Some Don't Like It Hot 785 Psychologists in Denial 109III Students Standing Up 137Turning Point: The Soweto Uprising 1396 Voices in Conflict 1427 Justice in Jena 162IV Soldiers of Conscience 185Turning Point: The GI Movement 1878 Peace Warriors 189Conclusion: "We are the Leaders we have been waiting for" 216Notes 229Index 237
