Reflections on the 2009 Real Change Conference

Certainly not the magnitude of these so-called 912 tea parties around the country, the 2009 Real Change Conference was a success, particularly given the treacherous weather conditions we all endured.

Unfortunately I missed Thursday's (9/10) street action, marching through uptown protesting the Council on Foreign Relations, David Rockefeller, and CNN headquarters, etc. I did attend some informative, tentatively assembled seminars on subjects such as being an activist journalist, dealing with 9-11 truth deniers - particularly hostile ones - and growing our own food. I spent most of the day just trying to catch my bearings in a city that, if you've never been there before, is really impossible to describe how massive and daunting it is. To top things off, I couldn't find a hotel I could afford that wasn't already booked solid. I was fortunate enough to have met Gary Tanis, who offered me a surprisingly confortable chair to sleep in in his Brooklyn apartment.

We were up at 6am Friday morning, and back on the subway to Ground Zero by 8. The weather was absolutely miserable, and would only get worse. Out of respect for the victims, whose names were being called out, we gathered several blocks from the ceremony, and mostly just made our presence noticed by standing along Church street, handing out DVDs and flyers explaining why it was necessary to have a new, independent investigation. Most people were either quietly hostile or just indignant. Occasionally we'd encounter some hostility - one extremely macho person, upon asking me if the DVD I had just given him was about 9-11 truth, threw it in my face when I explained to him that it was. A soldier came up to us and showed us his Purple Heart, and I informed him that he was wounded in battle fighting for offshore banks. Very rarely were words of encouragement offered.

The police presence was daunting. I had seen what New York has become, through watching videos such as Alex Jones' 9-11: Rise of the Police State, but to see it in your face was quite a sobering experience. For one, there was a massive lift with a sort of crow's nest with dark, tinted windows, and a surveillance camera on top. After having been harrassed by one officer, who insisted we clear the sidewalk, and having realized they were dealing with people who understood their rights and would not consent to having them violated, the police decided to barricade us onto the sidewalk. I scoped out the dozens of police who were scattered throughout the area, looking for one that might be personable to ask, in a non-confrontational and respectful manner, why all of this was necessary in response to a peaceful protest. I couldn't find one who looked like they would give me the time of day. A member of our group dared venture out into the street to interact with the people walking by, and was ordered to "GET BACK INTO THE PEN!" The pen. I was floored. As a simple gesture to show the police we weren't going to be penned in like animals, we moved down the street beyond their barricades and once again began interacting with the people, trying to get the message out. Rather than move the barricades, or bring in more to extend the "pen" to keep us in, the remainder of the street was lined with police motorcycles. This was not a very good start to the day, but it seemed that as the day moved on the police showed us more respect, and we reciprocated.

After the Ground Zero ceremonies were finished, we moved down the street to the fully rebuilt building 7. I was surprised to learn that building 7 was completely rebuilt; a shiny, glistening, beautiful modern building. It was pointed out to me that, while the area of the towers was still a pit of dirt, tower 7 was hastily rebuilt because the collapse of the original was the smoking gun of 9-11. The collapse of towers 1 and 2 could be nuanced by exotic scientific theories, which change every couple of years, but there is no way to explain building 7's collapse except controlled demolition. So they don't want you to think about tower 7; it's very hush hush.

Here we were able to be far more vocal and active, and perhaps because of this the reaction we recieved from the people was relatively positive. There are so many excellent and informed speakers among us, and they knew how to disarm peoples' hostility and let them explain to them why we feel the way we feel. Despite what the media and talking heads would have you believe, this is not a fringe group of brain dead zombies, and we don't hate America. There were Americans from all walks of life among us, from dreadlock hippy types to slick, well-dressed yuppies, and we were all there not for a hatred of our country, but out of love for our country and our fellow Americans. Our hate was reserved for what our government has done in our name.

I experienced my first run-in with what is known as COINTELPRO: government plants whose job is to instigate either us or other people, or look as ridiculous as possible; anything to draw negative attention to us. There were two idiots there, one donning a fluorescent green and yellow clown wig, and another in a lizard suit, who claimed it was an alien death ray that destroyed the towers, and that the planes we saw hit the towers were holographic images. They, not really being there because of any real principle, had no stomach for the weather and left after about an hour. Which was probably good because some were becoming agitated by their presence, and it would have been a shame if anyone gave them what they came there for, which was violence and more negative attention than their mere presence had already brought us.

After a couple of hours, it was time to march. We got organized in the main plaza in front of building 7, and began chanting at Larry Silverstein, owner of the World Trade Center complex, yelling "Pull it Larry pull it!" and "Traitor!" The cynic in me wondered if he were even aware of our presence, much less able to hear us. It's not like anyone expects Larry Silverstein to care about a thousand protestors outside his office; he participated in the murder of over 2,000 people for the sake of his own greed, and has made billions of dollars off their deaths.

From building 7, through worsening weather conditions, we walked to the New York Stock Exchange, and shouted "END THE FED!" To be honest, I wasn't really enthusiastic about shouting and chanting; maybe it was because by then I was extremely tired, and the weather didn't help. Or maybe I'm just not a very vocal person (hard to believe, I know). But when it came to shouting "End the Fed," I found myself extremely enthusiastic, energetic, and loud. Though our experience with the police had begun to improve by then, with them giving us a literal escort throughout downtown, and becoming more polite about where we were allowed to walk and stand, I was astounded to see that, on the high steps of Federal Hall across the street from the NYSE, were police in full body armor with assault rifles. I can't imagine what possible reason there would be for this; nobody was impressed by this excessive show of force.

From Wall Street we walked past Brown Brothers Harriman, the Nazi money laundering bank once chaired by Prescott Bush, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush's father and grandfather, respectively, and to the New York Federal Reserve which, even more than the Federal Reserve branch in Washington, DC, is the source of all financial evil in this country. Chants of End the Fed naturally ensued.

We then gathered in front of NYPD HQ, where Luke Rudkowski thanked the police for upholding our first amendment rights of free speech and freedom to peaceably assemble. He and other speakers explained to them that, more than simply exposing the 9-11 cover-up, we were there to raise awareness and money for them and other New York first responders who, in the days after 9-11, were lied to by their government and told the air was safe to breathe because they needed to re-open Wall Street. When all is said and done, the number of those who have and will die from cancer and respiratory illnesses related to being duped into breathing this toxic fume will dwarf the number killed in the actual attack. Unfortunately, most Americans can't even rally around this cause, because to believe their government would sacrifice thousands just so they could open Wall Street would shatter their belief that the government would never murder 3,000 of its "own" citizens, and so to this day, We Are Change and other 9-11 truth organizations and individuals are the only people who pay respect to and honor these individuals. Those who are fortunate to still be alive are with us, as are most of the victims' families.

In honor of those who died from these illnesses, who were not honored in the official ceremony and have been completely abandoned by their own government, Christine Ebersole, Tony Award winning actress, helped read the names of the nearly 200 people who have died from them. There is no real way to tell the exact number who have died from these illnesses, because nobody cares to keep track. Like building 7, it is very hush hush; they don't want anyone catching wind of the fact that the government would blatantly lie about something so profound and deadly.

This concluded the street actions for the day, and some friends of mine who I networked with on Facebook and met in New York took the subway back uptown and arrived at a restaraunt called Salon. It was finally time to relax, get some food, and drink some beer. In the meantime, we heard from several victims' family members, and first responders, as well as Eric Lawyer, founder of Firefighters for 9-11 Truth, and Richard Gage, founder of Architects and Engineers for 9-11 Truth. It was an outstanding presentation by everyone - Gage in particular, because, being an engineer himself, it's difficult to argue with him when he says there's no way for those building to collapse from fire at all, much less the way they did, and he goes into vivid detail over why this is, in a way that was easy for us all to understand. By the time Gage was done speaking, I was too spent (and buzzed) to sit and listen to Daniel Sanjata; the only reason I had stayed at all was to hear Richard Gage. I had been awake for 15-plus hours, and spent the better part of them in pounding wind and rain. It was time to go home.

My friend Gary Tanis had mentioned to me that he felt the movement was dying; that the crowds for these events get smaller and smaller each year. It was difficult to agree or disagree, because this was my first event; it sure seemed to be a great turn out to me, especially given the weather conditions. There were people from all over the country there, and some from overseas. I was impressed. I mentioned to Gary that, if the movement were dying it was only the activist movement; I am certain that the number of people who no longer believe the government narrative are growing by leaps and bounds every year.

Therefore, as important as it is to change peoples' minds on what they believe about 9-11, it is at least as important to change peoples' attitudes over what they can do about it. For too many people, it is a sobering reality that our government engages in such atrocities on a regular basis, but they've been conditioned to believe they are helpless to change it. Over the last two days we did do something about it, and every day there are people doing something about it, making a real difference. Luke Rudkowski and many others are at Ground Zero every Saturday and the 11th of every month, doing exactly what we all did today. Manny Badillo (pictured with me, below), who lost his uncle on 9-11, and other victims' family members, as part of NYC CAN, have collected enough signatures to have a referendum put on the ballot in New York City in November to vote for a new, independent investigation, with subpoena power, into the attacks of September 11, 2001. This is the first time in the history of New York City that anyone has ever done this.

These people are doing big things. The reason government commits false flag terror attacks is because of the ignorance, complacency, and apathy of the people. The evidence that 9-11 was an inside job was hidden in plain sight; it's not that they did a sloppy job, it's that they knew that as soon as the second plane hit the World Trade Center, your mind would shut off and all you would see was al Qaeda, al Qaeda, al Qaeda, from that point on, no matter what compelling, empirical evidence you were shown.

So can you make a difference? Of course you can. Join us. You don't have to go to New York City. You don't have to attend rallies. I would certainly encourage you to, but it's not entirely necessary. Talk to people you know and interact with. Talk to people who trust you. Learn the facts, inform yourself, and talk to people from a position of knowledge. Ask, if your government killed 3,000 people on 9-11, would you want to know about it? Explain to them that 9-11 was the catalyst for 2 wars resulting in the deaths of over one million people, the waste of trillions of dollars in American treasury, and the destruction of our constitutional liberties. If the reason for all of this was a lie, wouldn't you want to put a stop to it?

Some people say, let the families heal. But I talked to the families of the victims, I heard them speak. Just as the family of a murder victim cannot heal until their murderer is brought to justice, neither can the family members of the victims of 9-11 heal until the real perpetrators are held to account, and not one of you, anywhere in America, is safe so long as these killers are still at large. They did it before 9-11, and they'll continue to do it, until we expose them.

WAKE UP. Don't be afraid.