by Danielle Bloch
Daily Lobo
David Barsamian said all capital in America is going to the war machine.
"All the money is going to weapons of death," Barsamian said, speaking to a crowd of more than 100 at the SUB on Monday.
Barsamian is the founder and director of Alternative Radio, an independent weekly radio show in Boulder, Colo.
Claire Long, one of the organizers of the event, said the College Greens expected about 100 people to show up.
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Around 6:45 p.m. all 100 seats were already full.
"And liberals never show up on time," she said.
The event started at 7 p.m. They added seats to accommodate extra people.
Barsamian said in New Mexico, one in four people do not have health care, though the state puts a lot of money into creating weapons.
He said citizens who are aware have a responsibility to do something about the way things are in America.
"To look away, for a conscious citizen, is unacceptable," he said.
Barsamian said individuals complain they are only one person and don't feel they can make a difference.
"Gandhi was one person," he said. "Martin Luther King was one person and they made tremendous change."
He added not looking away is a courageous act. Persistence, he said, is what will change the political situation in the United States.
He said Bush and his administration are using the same scare tactics they used to convince Americans to fight the war in Iraq to convince Americans to privatize Social Security.
Barsamian said Social Security is the greatest program in American history for reducing poverty, and right-wingers want to get rid of it.
He also said corporate media is a sounding board for the Bush administration.
"If your diet is corporate media, you are going to be in the dark," Barsamian said.
Most people's diet consists of corporate media, he said, and mainstream media does not serve the public interests.
Decoding propaganda does not take any special training, Barsamian said. It just takes analytical skills.
Long wanted Barsamian to speak at UNM, because he is one of the leading voices in alternative radio, she said.
Alternative radio is a good venue for progressives to be heard, Long said.
UNM student Chris Sanderson said Barsamian reiterated viewpoints he holds about the political situation in American, but it was good to see someone who was "like-minded."
Barsamian ended his hour-and-45-minute speech by saying they were only his opening remarks.
