Our evening with Amy

(photo by me!)

We first became aware of Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! back in 2004. After my bypass surgery Sparky and I decided to get away for a few days and we rented a house on a lake near Hickory in North Carolina. The house had satellite TV and we found a channel called Free Speech TV. On that channel was an earnest looking woman who had a show where she talked about issues we cared about, not the shit that they peddle on the usual corporate media outlets, and we both, Sparky and I, were blown away that there was someone one out there saying such things on TV. We watched as much of that channel as we could while there and when we left we were sad because we'd no longer see that show and that earnest woman who spoke truth to power and who talked about the stuff no other media person would dare speak of.

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Then when we got back home we heard that the radio version of her TV show was coming to our local public radio station. We were overjoyed. And we still are to this day, because in this politically conservative area where we live Democracy Now! stands out as a beacon of truth and independent journalism among that corporate media pablum that they try to feed us. Because of Amy Goodman's show progressive and liberal people in this area started getting together and meeting one another. And from those meetings arose friendships and action. If Ms. Goodman's show had not been on in this area then I doubt there would have been demonstrations against the illegal war of terror on Iraq and Afghanistan in this area, I doubt anyone would have had the guts to demonstrate to have that bloody thirsty war criminal Bush impeached, and there may have been a chapter of PFLAG started but I doubt it wold have been so well attended and supported as it is now.

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Well last night we finally got to see our heroine in person. Ms. Goodman came and spoke at ETSU last night and she's broadcasting her show from our fair city today. The lady has got a schedule that would kill a lesser mortal and for her to squeeze us in, well, it just tickled us all pink.

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Amy arrived about a half hour late due to weather issues. It was as cold as Christian charity yesterday and it snowed on and off all day in our region as well. She had an engagement on the other side of the mountain in Asheville yesterday afternoon and the drive over the mountain was a bit tricky at times. But when she took the stage at 7:30 she started talking and she had us all enthralled for an hour and a half.

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She spoke about the history of Pacifica radio, which is where she sprang from, about her many travels and about some of the folks she's been privileged to meet. She spoke about the crying need for more independent media in this country and about how the corporate media is nothing but a shill for whoever is in power. Her best line of the night in my opinion was, "We need a media that is the fourth estate, not for the state." She spoke at length about the teens who were Presidential Scholars who had more backbone than anyone in the corporate media when they confronted the murder George W. Bush about torture. She talked about the librarians who got served with a Patriot Act national security letter and who stood up to the tyranny of the bastard Bush. She spoke about how the corporate media, especially the ones ensconced in Washington DC, tell only one side of the story like they did in the run up to the war, most people were against going to war but the media ignored most all anti war voices, and in the national debate on health care reform, the majority of people in this country want single payer Canadian style health insurance but again the media ignores that because their corporate pay masters want them to. She talked about a lot of stuff and frankly it was almost enough to overload my poor brain but I'm glad she had so much to say because the other media figures in this country have so little to say, and that's why they have to constantly repeat themselves over and over again.

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She came across as very warm and friendly. She had a great sense of humor and she cracked a few jokes in her lecture which made me like her all the more. Sometimes she comes across as very cold and too business-like on her radio show but I understand why that is now, it's because she only has an hour to get out the stories that are ignored by the corporate media so she can't futz around. We didn't go to the reception to meet her in person but I'll always feel like we're friends now that we've shared some time together.

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I highly recommend you call your local public radio station and get them to air her show. If it can become a hit in our politically conservative area, then it can become a hit in yours as well.