Common Dreams Article

This is one activists story. However, I don't doubt that it was repeated over and over again, all over the country. In fact I know it was. This is a damning indictment of our nation and is symptomatic of a deeper rot here. If we are to ever climb out of this mess we find ourselves in then it needs to be dealt with. However, before I begin I would like to extend a hearty and heartfelt thank you to president Barack Obama for making my case so well.

First an introduction. My name is Michael Cavlan. I am a Registered
Nurse. My parents were Catholics from northern Ireland and in fact
they brought my brothers and myself there, to live from 1969 till
1985. My mother raised us in a dirt poor housing project in the
"north." Both my parents have been life long activists for justice
and equality.

In 1985 I returned to the United States. After getting my Nursing
degree at De Anza College in California, I moved to Minnesota.
I currently work at a local Level One Trauma Center, in the Burn Unit.
I have also been very active here, especially in the media reform
movement, co-creating the Counter Propaganda Coalition. In the weeks
after the September 11 attacks, I along with five of my co-workers went
and helped out. I was sent to the Washington DC Burn unit, where I
treated some of the most critical burn patients of the Pentagon attack.

In 2004, I, along with 8 other people from Minnesota went to Ohio and
participated in the Ohio Re-Count, finding evidence of the blatant voter
fraud that was evident there. I also was involved deeply in the Impeach
For Peace movement that our nation so desperately needed to regain the
rule of law here. In 2008, I was one of those Street Medics who treated
some of the countless victims of police abuse that happened in St Paul
and Minneapolis during the RNC. All of these things make, what can be
fairly described as a fairly impressive political activist resume.

What is described from here is a story of what happened when people
tried to speak the truth, our truth and how it was suppressed all
over the nation.

In 2006, I and others decided that I should run for US Senate in
Minnesota. We were deeply involved in an illegal, immoral and
racist war for oil and I was promoting the recent northern Ireland
Peace Process as a real working template for non-violent conflict
resolution. I was involved with others in attempting to push for
Impeachment and accountability for the Bush/Cheney Administration.
Also, as a Registered Nurse my position on creating Single Payer
healthcare seemed a no brainer.

It was at this time that I was to face just how bad things were. At
the local ABC affiliate,  KSTP TV US Senate debates, I was excluded
and physically ejected from the audience for pointing out just how
exclusionary and undemocratic this was. Unquestioningly as the only
peace and justice candidate present, as we were in said illegal,
immoral wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, this was just the
beginning.

I come from a long family line of Trade Union activists. I had been
a member of many Unions and was, at that time a member of the
Minnesota Nurses Association. In 2001, during the largest Nurses
Strike in US history I has stood, with many of my Nurse Sisters
and Brothers, on the picket line almost every day. Yet when I
approached my own Union seeking endorsement, I was told that they
were not interested in talking to me, not even for screening.
That they had already decided to endorse Senator Klobuchar. So the
MNA had one of their own running for office but their own
membership would not even know. This experience, with the corporate
media and with the Trade Unions would be repeated over and over
again. Little did I know that it would become much worse. You see,
I created the most grave of sins. I was not a Democrat and worse
yet, was pointing out the Democrats complicity in war funding,
blocking Impeachment and yes, Single Payer. I had dared to point
out that the Emperor had no clothes. Little did I realize just how
much worse this was to get.

After the election and so called democracy that happened, I remained
active. In early 2007, I met John Nichols from the Nation magazine,
at a conference in Minneapolis about NAFTA. My campaign manager
Dori and myself talked to Mr Nichols, talked about who and what
we were and that I was attempting to run for the US Senate again.
John Nichols took my card, with my phone # and website information
with the promise that "Oh yeah, I am going to write an article on
the Senate race in Minnesota next week." Sure enough, the very
next week his article came out. A half page glorification of Al
Franken, two lines about Franken's Democratic challenger whose
positions were much as my own. However, not one word of my
campaign or a mention of my name.

I met John Nichols again, ironically enough at the Media Reform
Conference in Minneapolis in 2008. I walked up to him, talked
again, mentioned how disappointed I was in his last article and
gave him my card again. Mr Nichols looked me right in the eye
and told me not to worry, that he was writing another article
in the Nation about the Minnesota US Senate race. Sure enough,
two weeks later another half page article, glorifying Al Franken
but at least he mentions the Democratic challenger  a little more.
After Franken had already won the nomination. Of course there was,
yet again no mention of my name or of our campaign.

By this time, I had left the Green Party, when it became apparent
that they were too busy playing footsie with the Democrats both
locally and nationally to be an actual opposition party.

Then came the COTO experience.

Op Ed News was billed as a "tough, progressive, liberal" news site.
Since media and media integrity has been such an important issue,
I joined in enthusiastically. I posted numerous articles, became
involved in discussion and debates. It was an exciting time.
However, after some time things began to change.

Myself and some others there started a group, a club of sorts.
We called ourselves COTO or Committee Of The Obvious. We started
pointing out that, after listening to Obama that it was obvious that he
was not "progressive." We drew the same conclusion about
Hillary Clinton and in fact most of the Democratic Party. One of
our members was Rady Ananda, the managing Co-Editor
of Op Ed News. It became very evident that things were
going badly there. After the election of Obama, we COTO folks
were told, in no uncertain term that we were only allowed
our "doom and gloom" in a pre set column. That if we stepped outside
of our pre approved "Free Speech Column" at Op Ed News that we
would be banned.

Then, in a sudden move, each and every one of us were banned
without warning or notification. About forty of us in number,
including Co-Editor Rady Ananda. I should point out that this
suppression of dissent was happening all over the place. From
Daily KOS to Huff Post, to groups, to bloggers to corporate media.
It was systemic and it was horrific to witness. Simply for daring
to speak our truth.

There are countless more other such stories, personal testimonies
of myself and countless other truth speakers all over our nation.
I write this, not as a "told you so" or as "you all suck." Quite
the opposite. I write this in the spirit of truth and to beg you
all to not allow this to happen again.

Remember please that for many of us, we follow the words of
another truth speaker from the past.

"Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither
safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is
right." ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thank you again president Obama. You have made my case and the
reality of where we find ourselves so much more evident that we could
have by ourselves.  You have also exposed those who can no longer be
trusted by progressives. Thank you Mr president.

Michael Cavlan RN
Minnesota