Here is a web page that explains the origin of Citizens For a Legitimate
Government:
https://www.legitgov.org/we_will_not_get_over_it.html
Citizens for Legitimate Government, a multi-partisan activist group
established to expose the Bush Coup d'Etat and oppose the Bush
occupation in all of its manifestations.
Citizens For Legitimate Government™
is a multi-partisan activist group established to expose the Bush coup
d'etat, and to oppose the Bush occupation in all of its manifestations.
Contribute to CLG
Get a Copy of We Will Not Get Over It: Restoring a Legitimate White
House, by journalist Jackson Thoreau and social worker Sharon Thoreau.
Foreword by Michael Rectenwald, CLG Founder and Chair
Download it here. We ask for a contribution of $5.00 per copy. We are
relying on your honor: please do not access the book unless you have
made a contribution. Please go to the Contribute and make a donation.
Then, download the PDF file of the book. Read the review below.
New Book that Tells the Untold Story of the Vast Opposition to the Bush
Illegitimate pResidency
"Like many other similar organizations, we have been ignored by the
media. My question has been: If there is a protest and the media doesn't
cover it, did it make a sound?" - Voter March member
"The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth." - Tom Paine
When the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the legal counting of votes for U.S.
president in December 2000 and effectively handed Republican George W.
Bush the White House, the justices eroded many people's confidence in
the judicial system, the White House, and elections. Thousands of
supporters of Democrat Al Gore, who attracted more than 539,000 more
overall votes than Bush, took action. They wrote letters, organized
rallies and marches, signed petitions, formed Internet sites and groups,
and did whatever else they could to register their disapproval of what
the court did. They worked for needed electoral reforms so that all
Americans' votes could be counted in future elections.
We Will Not Get Over It: Restoring a Legitimate White House covers their
story, which has been largely ignored by the media. The roughly
100,000-word book was written by journalist Jackson Thoreau and social
worker Sharon Thoreau. Backed up with hundreds of footnotes and sources
that are linked to Internet pages, We Will Not Get Over It starts by
outlining how the Republicans employed questionable actions to win the
election in Florida. Those included purging legal voters from the rolls,
doctoring absentee ballots, using state offices for political purposes,
giving voters misleading instructions, approving confusing ballots,
questionable decisions that favored Republicans by Florida Secretary of
State Katherine Harris, who was Bush's state co-chair, behind-the-scenes
maneuvers by Bush's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and blaming
Democrats for delays when Republicans filed the lawsuits blocking and
delaying the legal vote-counting process.
We Will Not Get Over It goes on to detail what organizations like
Democrats.com and Citizens for Legitimate Government, panels like the
U.S. Civil Rights Commission, politicians like U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee,
D-Calif., and others are doing to restore confidence in the White House
and U.S. electoral system. It shows how many in the media ignored and
belittled such actions and embraced a president who has little business
being in the White House. The book also covers how people and
organizations in other countries are reacting to the controversy.
Michael Rectenwald, an adjunct professor and writer at Carnegie Mellon
University in Pittsburgh and founder and chairman of Citizens for
Legitimate Government, wrote the foreword to this book.
Finally, We Will Not Get Over It includes recommendations from people
like Rev. Jesse Jackson, Barbara Streisand, and U.S. Rep. John Conyers
Jr., D-Mich., and organizations like the ACLU, NAACP, and the National
Commission on Federal Election Reform, led by former Presidents Jimmy
Carter and Gerald Ford, on what needs to be done to restore legitimacy
to the White House and our election system. There is a long directory of
more than 220 organizations, Internet sites, and individuals - with Web
site, email, and mailing addresses and other information - to enable
readers to learn more and get involved with this important cause.
Unlike other books that are focusing mostly on what happened in Florida
and with the U.S. Supreme Court, We Will Not Get Over It spins the story
forward and coincides with the one-year anniversary of Bush's takeover
of the White House. No other book covers the people involved who are
making a difference to restore confidence and integrity in the U.S.
political system in as much detail, the authors said.
"The development of a grassroots movement in the past year to oppose the
Bush administration is a very important story that has been largely
overlooked by the mainstream media," said Jackson Thoreau, 42, a
journalist, photographer, and activist for more than two decades,
primarily in the southwestern United States. "Many people who were not
really involved in politics before have become involved, largely through
the Internet. I know I stepped up my involvement after the U.S. Supreme
Court stopped the counting of legal votes and handed Bush the White
House. I joined the Democratic Party and groups like Democrats.com and
Citizens for Legitimate Government that have worked to raise awareness
of how devastating the Bush administration has been to civil liberties,
the environment, health care, and other issues."
The mainstream media, especially television, has pretty much marched to
the Bush party line, and We Will Not Get Over It is Thoreau's effort, as
a member of the media, to say, "Enough is enough," he said. "I was mad
as hell about how Bush and the Republicans stole the White House last
year, and I continue to be mad as hell about that to this day. I will
most likely be mad about it for the rest of my life. Bush is not, and
never will be, my president," Jackson Thoreau said. "This is not a petty
burglary we're talking about. This is the theft of one of the most
cherished institutions our country has, done right before all of our own
eyes. And we just let them get away with it. Thomas Jefferson, Ben
Franklin, Tom Paine, and others are probably still rolling over in their
graves. If you can fix an election like this, you can fix almost anything."
The book is dedicated to the Thoreau's young son, said co-author Sharon
Thoreau, 36, a clinical social worker and adjunct professor of sociology
for a college in the southwestern United States. "We want him to grow up
in a country that truly practices liberty and justice for all, that
cares about issues like health care for all people, a clean environment,
and civil rights," she said. "We want to show him that there are people
who care about this country for more than just their own selfish motives
and will continue to fight for our most cherished ideas and institutions."
The terrible events of Sept. 11, 2001, make it more important than ever
to campaign for a legitimate White House and improve our political
institutions, the authors said. "What better way to honor the victims
than to improve the American system that they worked for and lived
under? We have to move forward and address the issues that the terrorist
acts brought to the forefront," Jackson Thoreau said. "The Bush
administration has cynically used Sept. 11 to push through much of its
agenda and erode the liberties that many Americans worked, lived, and
died for. We have to move in a different direction, one that truly
addresses the underlying causes of terrorism and works to prevent such
acts through increased security, intelligence, international cooperation
and aid, and diplomacy. We have to continue to help those in other
countries develop a higher standard of living so they don't resort to
terrorism. We certainly should not be bombing other countries; we didn't
bomb our own country after the Oklahoma City terrorism act done by
Americans in 1995. We should treat these acts of terrorism like we did
the one in 1995, as a terrible crime that should be handled in the courts."
Jackson Thoreau has written for numerous newspapers and magazines and
authored several books related to politics, history, and other subjects.
He has written about and participated in numerous projects and
demonstrations that raise awareness for world peace, human rights,
environmental justice, and other causes. He walked more than 5,000 miles
on a project endorsed by Jimmy Carter, Mario Cuomo, the Fellowship of
Reconciliation, and others to reduce Cold War tensions by walking across
the U.S., Europe, and Russia and meeting everyday people in 1984-85. He
is, or has been, a member of organizations like Citizens for a
Legitimate Government, Democrats.com, Sierra Club, ACLU, Amnesty
International, Fellowship of Reconciliation, and others. He was
politically independent for much of his life, but the way Republicans
won the White House in 2000 made him become a member of the Democratic
Party for the first time.
Sharon Thoreau has worked for children as an investigator with Child
Protective Services, for mentally ill clients, for Democratic Party
values, for workers' rights as a union leader, and other causes. She is
a member of the National Association of Social Workers, Democratic
Party, and others.
The authors used pseudonyms for We Will Not Get Over It to help protect
their son and guard against personal and professional threats. "It's a
sad environment we live in, when those who speak out against the
established powers are threatened with the loss of their jobs and more.
We think we live in such a free country, but the reality is quite
different," Jackson Thoreau said. "Professors who speak out against
Bush's policies are threatened with being fired. Students who speak out
are threatened with being expelled. I was recently laid off from my
full-time reporting position with a daily newspaper, even though I had
an excellent work record and had won some awards. Though my former
bosses deny it, that could have been a political decision. I know that
Cheney and Bush want a certain number of layoffs to turn our economy
from an employees market to an employers market. Before last year, all
these CEOs were complaining about how they couldn't find enough good,
loyal employees, and Cheney and Bush went on television talking down the
economy and all-but asking companies to lay off employees. Now you don't
hear those complaints from CEOs. That's another payback from the Bush
administration for their campaign contributions. I know that several
bigwigs at my former company contributed to Bush's campaign, while I was
forbidden to as much as sign a petition."
The authors' son has also been the target of vicious comments from Bush
supporters who used profanity. "We know the risks of speaking out and
aren't afraid of anyone ourselves, but we will do whatever we can to
protect our son," Sharon Thoreau said.
With their pseudonyms, the authors chose to honor a sibling who passed
away, one of their dogs who recently died, and one of Jackson's favorite
writers and activists, Henry David Thoreau. Sharon was the name of
Jackson's older sister who died when he was young, while Jackson was the
name of the authors' late dog. "In this way, my older sister and our dog
still live to do some noble, important deeds," Jackson Thoreau said.
"Thoreau was a writer who did a lot more than just write about problems
in society in the 1800s; he worked for solutions. He helped start a
school that did not practice corporal punishment and took students on
field trips. He was active in the anti-slavery, transcendental,
environmental, and other movements of his day. If Thoreau was alive
today, I think he would have written a book like We Will Not Get Over It."
Table of Contents of We Will Not Get Over It Foreword & Afterword by
Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D. Introduction - Why We Will Not Get Over It
Chapter I. Roots of the Coup d'etat Chapter II. Completing the Coup
Chapter III. Patriots Revolt Chapter IV. The Establishment Responds -
Sort Of Chapter V. Getting Stronger Every Day Chapter VI. The Whole
World Watches Chapter VII. The Media Sleeps on Bush's Lap Chapter VIII.
What Do We Do About It? – Suggestions for Electoral Reform and
Responding to Terrorism Chapter IX. Other People Who Will Not Get Over
It – A Detailed Directory Bibliography Note: Footnotes appear at the end
of each chapter.
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--
Irvin D. Yalom “Truth," Nietzsche continued, "is arrived at through
disbelief and skepticism, not through a childlike wishing something were
so! Your patient's wish to be in God's hands is not truth. It is simply
a child's wish—and nothing more! It is a wish not to die, a wish for the
eveastingly bloated nipple we have labeled 'God'! Evolutionary theory
scientifically demonstrates God's redundancy—though Darwin himself had
not the courage to follow his evidence to its true conclusion. Surely,
you must realize that we created God, and that all of us together now
have killed him.” ― Irvin D. Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept