Certainly one of the most ignored components of the Plainfield, N.H. standoff between the feds and Ed and Elaine Brown will be the incredible outgrowth of support they have received through alternative media channels. The owners of “mainstream” media in the U.S.–corporate, profit-driven, unconcerned with true, investigative journalism–will surely not report well on the vast numbers of people who have been rallying on blogs and websites for months now on the side of the non-taxpaying Browns, and have been clamoring for a peaceful resolution.

The Brown family has thousands of supporters around the region and world, and most of them are peaceful–as I imagine them to be at core, although they're obviously very prepared for the worst. And the federal government might just give it to them since by sheer numbers of soldiers and guns it looks like they're getting ready to blow the place up. But watch closely for the role of the corporate media who may be inclined to help light the match by offering close-eyed, unabated coverage poring over any unflattering detail of the Browns' lives, condemning their stand as the last stand of a couple crazies who won't pay taxes and who've had the audacity to question the motivations and increasingly violent actions of the U.S. government. In particular the mainstream media might seek to demonize Ed and Elaine Brown on the basis of theirs or their supporters' questioning  of “the official story” of 9-11, which is fraught with so many inaccuracies and questionable events that it SHOULD be questioned, and re-investigated thoroughly. But then again maybe they won't seek to give the 9-11 Truth Movement the kind of honest and unslanted coverage it deserves.

So how will it end? Will our federal government look at how this is going to play in Peoria, and decide to back off? Will they realize that at this point most people get their real news from the Net and already know from the Browns' blog and their MySpace account that the couple is intelligent and peaceful and generally reasonable, and that there is an answer far more effective than our stock response of defensiveness and fear and thoughtlessness and violence? Will they realize in time that there is no answer here but one of nonviolence, and that they hold the power to make that decision?

Let's hope so.

James Gage
Randolph