DRG in Denver - Oct. 19, 2007

A report from "intheflow" at DemocraticUnderground.com (Larger pix at link)

I helped to plan a speaking engagement in Denver for Griffin on Friday night. Last night there was a dinner to thank the volunteers who helped make the event happen. I sat at a random long table that only had two people at it when I sat. There were several other tables where he could have sat, but I was delighted when he chose a seat directly across the table from me. After hearing him speak on Friday, and then getting to know him more personally, I've moved me much further from my LIHOP position toward an MIHOP position.

The Friday event was hosted by a number of organizations: 9-11 Visibility, Be The Change, Iliff's Justice and Peace Studies Program, and the organization where I work, The Veterans of Hope Project. Griffin packed the house. There were 200 chairs set up, but we had an overflow room that held another 50 or 60 people, and there were also 20 or so people sitting on the floor in the back of the hall to hear Griffin speak.

The event was MC'd by my boss, Dr. Vincent Harding. Harding rose to prominence in the 1960's by working in the Southern Freedom Movement with Martin Luther King, Jr. In fact, Harding wrote King's famous speech, Beyond Vietnam, so he knows firsthand about the government discrediting dissenters, as well as the complexities and ramifications of America's military-industrial complex. Here's Harding reading audience questions to Griffin:

One of the most lasting images I'll take with me from Griffin's talk is a poster he had on stage, his only prop. It showed a dog blindfolded by an American flag. This represents the blind loyalty of Americans to question that their government could be evil enough to perpetrate attacks on its own citizens. It has long amazed me that so many people have no problem at all believing that the Bush administration is actively working to curb civil liberties, gut the Constitution, staff the Department of Justice with loyal brown shirts, that they lied to get us into Iraq, that they outed Valerie Plame, that Cheney held secret energy meetings to strategize how to get Middle East oil, and the list goes on. But perpetrate attacks on its own citizenry? Blasphemous conspiracy theory, detractors cry! But to my mind, it's just not that far of a leap.

There was so much to Griffin's speech, it's hard to summarize salient points. But here are a few points that have moved me:

1) The official story is itself a conspiracy theory. To imagine that 19 or 20 guys, who may or may not have been linked to bin Ladin, plotted and executed the attacks is still only a theory. So it is just a matter of which conspiracy theory you chose to believe.

2) What's all the fuss about? Why is everyone so scared of the 9-11 Truth movement's voice? If it's baloney, history will prove that out. No harm in letting the people talk publicly, freely, and have their views covered unbiasedly by the media. In fact, history can only prove either side by having vigorous discussion and an independent investigation of the events of that day. But if it's not baloney--the implications are too horrifying for most Americans to grasp.

3) Any one incident on 9-11 could be dismissed as an anomaly, but the totality, the plethora of holes and discrepancies in the official accounts and Bush administration reactions begs for further investigations.

4) Griffin didn't talk about this per se, but I'm struck by the time and energy that's been put out to discredit him because he doesn't have a background in architecture, structural engineering, physics, etc. As he himself says, though, he can read. As a lifetime academic, he is used to doing exhaustive research an drawing well-reasoned conclusions. Likewise, I was never in the military, but I knew we were being lied to about going to Iraq based on what I read; history has proven I was right when at the time I was called a conspiracy theorist. These attempts to discredit Griffin's work strikes me more as an attack on the intellectual community, one of the first communities to be silenced in under oppressive regimes. In Nazi Germany, we look to Dietrich Bonhoeffer as an example of resistance, but he was not a military man, nor did he have a background in governmental affairs. He was merely a theologian who could read the writing on the German wall.

5) The so-called conspiracy theorists are expected to know all the answers--without access to unfiltered and classified information. Griffin contends we can only posit theories because no independent investigation has occurred. We "truthies" are not saying we know what happened, or how it happened. All we're asking for is government transparency and an independent investigation of the day's events. What is more American than that?

This event has revitalized my interest and involvement in the Truth Movement. And so I post this, my first real foray into DU's contentious September 11 forum. I'm wearing my flame-retardant suit, so all you deniers, feel free to flame away!

I'd rate this a 10

But I don't see any 'Rate It' link here.

Great piece.

"I've moved me much further from my LIHOP position toward an MIHOP position."

I wonder what LIHOP (Let it happen on purpose) means practically regarding the WTC demolitions?

They gave al-quaida the thermite? They showed them how place the thermite etc...?