Sign the petition against Oakland's "Domain Awareness Center" PLUS related Hedges article

Also, I think that Chris Hedges' recent article "The Last Gasp of American Democracy" (here: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/01/06-1 ) is relevant. In particular, the 3rd paragraph, which begins, "The most radical evil... is the political system that effectively crushes its marginalized and harassed opponents and, through fear and the obliteration of privacy, incapacitates everyone else. Our system of mass surveillance is the machine by which this radical evil will be activated. If we do not immediately dismantle the security and surveillance apparatus, there will be no investigative journalism or judicial oversight to address abuse of power. There will be no organized dissent. There will be no independent thought.", and also the last paragraph, which starts out with, "We, like those in all emergent totalitarian states, have been mentally damaged by a carefully orchestrated historical amnesia, a state-induced stupidity. We increasingly do not remember what it means to be free. And because we do not remember, we do not react with appropriate ferocity when it is revealed that our freedom has been taken from us."

In any case, whether you have the time to read Hedges' entire article or not, please do sign the petition, here: https://www.change.org/petitions/the-mayor-and-city-council-of-oakland-ca-don-t-sell-out-the-people-of-oakland-to-the-department-of-homeland-security-don-t-vote-to-fund-the-domain-awareness-center