mara verheyden-hilliard is a civil rights attorney and co-founder of the partnership for civil justice. she is also on the steering committee of the international group ANSWER (act now to stop the war and end racism), the main organizers of the september 15, 2007 anti-war mass protest in washington dc. this woman is amazing. not only is she extraordinarily intelligent and articulate but her weltanschauung has a moral rectitude rarely found today. after all, i believe that we are living at a time when information-fixing and therefore thought-control have reached a new pinnacle. it is already a struggle to see past the smoke and mirrors but then to be able to stand up for what you believe in, even if that is considered “fringe” and unpopular, and to work tirelessly to change things for the better – that to me is the mark of an outstanding human being.
here’s an interview mara did back in 2003 for npr’s fresh air. she talks about her involvement in anti-war demonstrations on the eve of the american invasion of iraq. this interview is a big slap in the face of the theory that npr is somehow liberal. terry gross is as establishment as anyone else, she certainly has her own agenda, which she pushes aggressively to the detriment of her job as host and interviewer.
this is an article mara wrote for globalresearch.ca, june 3, 2006 – it’s called “the logic of war crimes in a criminal war“.
one of the points mara makes is not to get distracted by elections – if you look at the history of our country, no worthwhile, groundbreaking change was ever effected through the election of the right politicians. what we need instead are grassroots movements that mobilize people to come out in unison and decry the war as well as other racist government policies. this is the only way to force politicians, whether they be republican or democrat, to take account of what we think and what we want, we the people they are supposed to serve!