The Eyes Have It

Trey Smith

I am currently reading Norman Solomon's autobiography/social critique, Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State. Though I'm in the early portions of the book -- I'm just starting in to his first year at Reed College in Portland, OR -- he already has reminded me that the FBI casts a wide net that snares lots of little fishies.

Solomon relates how he first wound up on an FBI watch list: at age fourteen, he picketed in support of integrated housing. As a high school senior in metro Washington, D.C. he formed a student group to oppose war and the FBI kept tabs on that. While at Reed College, he and friend started a publishing company for anti-war leaflets and the FBI was interested in this activity as well.

As I get farther in the book, I'm sure I'll find out that the FBI continued to keep watch of him as he protested and wrote about nuclear disarmament, environmental protection and, again, his steadfast opposition to war. Though he is now a well-known progressive activist, the FBI first began tracking his activities when he was a relative nobody.

We're always told that the this nation's massive security apparatus is here to protect us and that the various agencies are always on the lookout to thwart vile terrorists who mean to do us harm. The historical record tells us otherwise!! It seems that an inordinate amount of time, money and resources are expended keeping a watchful eye on anyone who disagrees with the elite ideology.

Though I have never made a request to the FBI to see if they have a dossier on me, I would be dumbfounded if they didn't. Like the then-14 year old Norman Solomon, I'm a very small fish in a large sea. But I have been very open in my overall disdain for capitalism and what I see as the malevolent direction this country has been heading for most of my adult life.

I have organized large protests and demonstrations against armed aggression in two states. I have testified before numerous legislative bodies on issues such as progressive taxation, farmworker rights, protection of the environment and opposition to war. I worked for nearly an entire decade for Oregon's largest peace organization.

On top of all that, I'm an avowed socialist -- not a socialist with a lower case s, but the kind with a bold capital S. I ran for the House of Representatives and Governor in Oregon on the Socialist Party ticket. I served as treasurer for the Socialist Party USA and the Socialist Party of Oregon as well as the treasurer for the Pacific Green Party and the Green Party of Washington State. In all of these positions and more, I served as one of each organization's public spokespeople.

And though I am no longer an on-the-streets activist, I make my views abundantly clear on this blog. So, one certainly could say that I'm a small fish with a big mouth! :D

...Just the kind of individual that the FBI likes to keep tabs on.