I know, it’s not big news.
But Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning and Anonymous bring us fresh examples everyday—governments lie casually, gratuitously, aimlessly, and viciously.
All governments lie some of the time; some governments lie all of the time. The role of any honest or self-respecting journalist (thank you Amy Goodman!) is to find out what the lies are, who’s telling them and why. Journalists who fail to start there are simply stenographers for power, no matter how they pump up their image.

President Vladimir Putin managed to unite the entire chattering class from Fox News to MS-NBC, as well as politicians from the most liberal Democrats to the farthest right Republicans in their outrage and unanimous condemnation of the Russian head of state, by uttering a simple truth on the op-ed page of the New York Times:

It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too.

He’s right of course.

“American Exceptionalism,” in common with reactionary nationalism everywhere, insists on  seeing similar sets of facts in dramatically different ways: torture, rendition, imprisonment without trial, nuclear threat, manufacturing or storing chemical weapons, extrajudicial killings, assassinations, drone strikes and the bombing of civilians—all of this and more is condemned as evil or embraced as good by the governing class and its “amen chorus” of nationalist/patriots depending on only one item: who did the deed?

“American Exceptionalism” insists that our cause is always just, the American heart always pure, and “our” side always righteous. We won’t hold ourselves to the standards others must follow because we are the chosen ones, the superior group, above the law and common norms of behavior. We’re exceptional!

That’s nonsense; it’s the way of lawlessness, permanent war, crimes against humanity, and a breakdown of any hope for a world at peace and in balance.

The US should spend time practicing how to be a people among peoples, a nation among nations. We can start by agreeing with that short bit Putin wrote above. And we can then work toward discovering our own deepest humanity by fully embracing the humanity of all others.

Quick!

Since Syria has signed the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (CWC) bringing the number of states who are party to the CWC to 189, what state in the region has failed to ratify the Convention?

Got it?

OK, hint one: some hidden agreement or secret informal censor assures that you will hear no mention of this in the corporate media.

Now?

OK, hint two: it shares a border with Syria.

Still searching?

OK, hint three: beyond manufacturing and storing banned chemical weapons, it has a huge stockpile (officially unacknowledged) of banned nuclear weapons.

Right : it’s Israel.

Unless you embrace the perverse and racist idea of Israeli Exceptionalism—little cousin to American Exceptionalism—it’s time to push for a comprehensive ban.

Mindless, reactionary nationalism includes the manufactured and sometimes imposed capacity to see similar sets of facts in dramatically different ways. Torture, rendition, imprisonment without trial, nuclear threat, manufacturing or storing of chemical weapons, extrajudicial killings, assassinations, drone strikes and the bombing of civilians—all of this and more is condemned as evil or embraced as good by the governing class and its “amen chorus” of nationalist/patriots depending on only one item: who did the deed.

“Israeli Exceptionalism” like “American Exceptionalism” is the magic potion nationalist/patriots drink in order to justify these specific atrocities and other human rights violations when carried out by the Israeli or US states: the Israeli moves are always defensive and necessary, we are assured, the American cause is always just, the American heart always pure, and “our” side always righteous.

A decade of protests paved the way for Americans to say ‘no’ to Syrian strikes.

ABOUT THIS AUTHOR

Bernardine Dohrn is a social justice activist, children’s rights and international human rights law professor, writer and speaker. She lives in Chicago and has three sons and three grandchildren.

Here are some comments earned by my last memoir, Fugitive Days. I’m girding myself for the coming barrage when Public Enemy hits the streets in October, sharing these with you now:

Bill Ayers is a total genius; he writes like Ernest Hemingway…Brilliant.  Donald Trump, newsmaker

I’m just a curious American…I’m curious to know how Bill Ayers wrote this book. Sarah Palin, curious American and serious troublemaker

A serious student of literature, Ayers has written thoughtfully on the role of the first person narrator in the construction of a memoir…To be sure, there are other postmodernists in Chicago, but few who write as stylishly and as intelligibly as Ayers. Jack Cashill, author, Deconstructing Obama

[W]allows in familiar Marxist incitement. David Horowitz, poster boy for New Left apostasy

[Ayers committed] absolutely, I mean literally, incoherent and reckless acts in the name of nonsensical beliefs. Todd Gitlin, self-appointed CEO of the Sixties, Inc.

An unrepentant New Leftist. Alan Wolfe, scholar

[Ayers was] play-acting with violence. New York Times, newspaper of record.

And more of what people are saying about me:

He’s that unrepentant domestic terrorist…Bill O’Reilly,

You are a despicable, sordid sack of elitist shit. Anon. Houston, Texas

I’m coming to get you and when I do, I’ll water-board you. satan@hell.com

The poster boy for un-Americanism…Sean Hannity

Resign all and leave the country or you will be whacked. Joe Americo, Boca Raton, Florida

May you die a long slow and painful death. I’d kill you with my bare hands given the opportunity. Anon. Fresno, California

Please come to South Mississippi and speak…Keep staying public.  I would love to give you what you deserve. AND I WOULD NOT BE STOPPED.  (shiprek03@yahoo.com)

My friends and I will pay a visit shortly. We’ve got the address. (scott_noie_@hotmail.com).

Angela Davis:

With incisive humor, Bill Ayers’ captivating memoir reveals that behind the fearsome “public enemy” lies a deeply dedicated parent, compassionate teacher, and principled revolutionary activist, representing this country’s best hopes for a democratic future. 

Publishers Weekly:  

[A] witty and spirited follow-up to Fugitive Days. . . . Among the book’s many edifying elements, including insight into the inner life and deep humanity of a man portrayed as a “cartoon character,” are the author’s conversational style and whimsical sense of humor. . . Through humor and self-reflection, the book offers a complex portrait of Ayers, including his experiences as an early education specialist, professor, husband (to former Weather Underground leader Bernardine Dohrn), father of three, author, and activist. . .Often times riotously funny, yet also plainspoken and serious, this is a memoir of impressive range.

Amy Goodman host/executive producer Democracy Now! :

In Public Enemy Bill Ayers writes eloquently of the profound challenges, the joys, and the toll of embracing a deep, lifelong commitment to social change.  He has confronted power for more than half a century, in the civil rights movement, against the Vietnam War, living underground for over a decade, and during his long career as a respected educator. This deeply personal memoir spans the gap from the ’60s to the present day, framing the current, so-called ‘war on terror’ in a critical, urgent light.

Junot Diaz:

The legendary Ayers is at his spellbinding best in Public Enemy—a brilliant, spirited document of a revolutionary life in our not-so-revolutionary age.  One of the most compelling insightful memoirs of the year.  

Aleksander Hemon:

Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident is an inspiring, ripping read. Apart from being a committed activist, engaging thinker, brilliant parent, Bill Ayers is a great storyteller. If only our true enemies were anything like that!

Adam Mansbach:

Bill Ayers is a master teacher, a master storyteller, and a clarion-clear voice of conscience and commitment. Here he is, standing calmly at the center of the never-ending maelstrom, a Public Enemy trying to make meaning and change and sense of it all.

BOOKLIST (June Sawyers):

This compelling sequel to Ayers’ Fugitive Days—published on September 11, 2001—describes the author’s chaotic life after he and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, became the topic and target of conversation during Barack Obama’s first run for the presidency. Accused of being a domestic terrorist, Ayers, a popular professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, learned to navigate his new role as the nation’s “public enemy.”

He begins his story in April 2008, when he was watching the presidential primary debate between Hillary Clinton and Obama with a dozen of his graduate students, and one of the debate moderators, George Stephanopoulos, asked Obama to explain his “friendship” with Ayers, a member of the radical 1960s Weather Underground. Ayers describes the nightmares that ensued: hate mail, death threats, cancelled lectures, being denied entry into Canada. He owns up to his activities as an “unrepentant terrorist” with the Underground but points out no one was killed or harmed: “Our notoriety, then and now, outstripped our activity.” Demonized and blacklisted, Ayers maintains not only his sanity but also his humor. When a reporter notes that he doesn’t look like a real Weatherman, Ayers laughs and asks her what a real Weatherman looks like.

A wonderful homage to free speech.

Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident

Tour Schedule, October/November 2013

Tuesday, October 8^th 

7:00pm – B&N at the University of Michigan

530 S. State Street

Ann Arbor, MI

Wednesday, October 9^th

6:00pm – 57th Street Books, event at the International House/ University of Chicago

1414 E 59th Street

Chicago, IL

Thursday, October 10^th

7:30pm – Skylight Books

1818 N. Vermont Avenue (between Hollywood Blvd & Franklin)

Los Angeles, CA

Wednesday, October 16th

7:00 pm – People’s Book Cooperative

804 E. Center Street

Milwaukee, WI

Thursday, October 17^th

5:30pm – 6:30pm: Pre-event Reception

7:00pm – Wisconsin Book Festival

Capitol Theater

Overture Center for the Arts

201 State Street

Madison, WI

Friday, October 18^th

7:30pm – Women and Children First

5233 N Clark Street

Chicago, IL

Tuesday, October 22^nd

7:00pm – Common Good Books

38 S. Snelling Avenue

St. Paul-Minneapolis, MN

Wednesday, October 23^rd

7:00pm – Left Bank Books

399 N. Euclid Avenue

St. Louis, MO

Friday, October 25^th

6:00pm – Octavia Books

513 Octavia Street

New Orleans, LA

Wednesday, October 30^th

7:00pm – Elliot Bay Book Company

1521 10^th Avenue

Seattle, WA

Thursday, October 31^st

7:30pm – Powell’s City of Books

1005 W. Burnside Street

Portland, OR

Friday, November 1^st

7:00 pm – Tsunami Books

2585 Willamette Street

Eugene, Oregon  

Wednesday, November 6^th

7:30 pm – KPFA Radio Event

The Hillside Club

2286 Cedar Street

Berkeley, CA

Thursday, November 7^th

7:30 pm – The Booksmith

1644 Haight Street

San Francisco, CA

Tuesday, November 19^th

7:30 pm – Book Thug Nation,100 North 3rd Street, Brooklyn

Event venue: indieScreen

289 Kent Avenue

Brooklyn, NY

Wednesday, November 20^th

7:00pm – Barnes & Noble, Upper West Side

2289 Broadway at 82nd Street

New York, NY

Thursday, November 21^st

7:00pm – Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse

30 W. North Avenue

Baltimore, MD

Friday, November 22^nd

7:00pm – Politics & Prose Bookstore

5015 Connecticut Ave NW  

Washington, D.C.

Saturday, November 23^rd

6:00 – 7:30pm – Busboys & Poets

5th & K location (1025 5th Street NW)

Cullen Room

Washington, D.C.

Sunday, November 24^th

Time TBA – Miami Book Fair

300 N.E. Second Ave. #4102-1

Miami, FL

Monday, November 25^th

7:00 pm – Harvard Book Store

1256 Massachusetts Ave.

Cambridge, MA

Tuesday, November 26^th

7:00pm – Broadside Bookshop

247 Main Street

Northampton, MA

The good news is that the choice is not between dithering and unleashing US military power. There are ALWAYS alternatives.
If you support US military action, what exactly are you for? Taking out gas supplies? It’s super-dangerous and not even on the table. Degrading Assad’s air force? It will matter little. Arming Al Qaeda or the other fundamentalist fighters? I doubt it. Invasion? Occupation? How will you know when we’re done?
Why not go to the UN? Putin will block anything, you say. So what? Make the world forum a bully pulpit. Organize! This also makes sense in the long run since the next humanitarian atrocity is as predictable as rain. Why aren’t you thinking ahead to the building blocks of global order and sanity? For example, get your fucking government to join the International Criminal Court, submit to its authority, and refer violators there.
There are a thousand steps to take now—and if you fail to take them, or even try, the next set of videos will have you once more hauling out the heavy stuff.
Last week you were urgent for US violence to begin. I urged you to think of 100 action alternatives that would not be US bombs. Here’s one you or I might have thought of last week, but didn’t: Syria could put all its chemical weapons under international control. You didn’t think of it even though it was there to be thought of. It might prove useless, but OK: now think of 99 more.
The point is you imagination is being eclipsed by the war mongers and the liberal-hawks. Resist!
Your historical references actually prove my point, not yours. Take Rwanda—the UN generals on the ground begged France or GB or the US to jam Radio Rwanda. It was a non-violent partial solution to a genocide—estimates are that hundreds of thousands of lives might have been spared. I guess “we don’t do pinpricks;” the masters of war need to break bigger things.
Now, please get busy with 99 non-violent steps the US could take, and 98 steps (I already gave you 2) that will make the next crisis more actionable, the response more effective.

The Masters of War are an easy crowd to understand because they play a single note: Invade, Strike, Bomb, Break Things Up! There’s no problem too large or too small for a laser-guided missile.

The Liberal Hawks and the Chicken Hawks are for more interesting, and even fun to watch if the consequences of their dishonest self-delusions were not so deadly–they trumpet their good intentions and their high moral standards everywhere as they tie themselves into knots pushing for war. Against all evidence they tell us they are certain that this proposed strike will stop the use of chemical weapons, send a message to Iran and Korea, and make Americans safer.

See if you can follow the twisty logic of this one—promoted by Jonathan Alter, Charles Blow, and several of the MSNBC crowd: The president was right to go to Congress for authorization to strike Syria; the Constitution requires it since only Congress can declare war; Congress must now vote yes on authorization or no future president will ever again ask permission; voting “no” on this war guarantees that the executive will brush Congress and the Constitution aside. So why exactly do we have Congress and the Constitution, Jonathan?