In a little over a week, there will be elections in the United States. Right now, the most attention related to those elections is on a media argument between a talk radio personality and a movie star.
Meanwhile, in Oaxaca, Mexico, striking teachers and other workers are fighting paramilitary and Federal forces in a street-to-street conflict. The officials have rifles, armored vehicles, and water cannons. The teachers have slingshots, rocks, and whatever they can get their hands on. The struggle has been going on for months. I don’t remember Katie Couric mentioning it, but it’s going on all the same.
On Friday, as he documented the clashes, William Bradley Roland, aka Brad Will, a journalist with IndyMedia, was shot and killed by a plainclothes paramilitary mercenary. He died en route to a Red Cross station. He was one of four killed that day.
The last video footage he captured is available to watch. It begins with several interviews, includes several minutes of the conflict, and ends with Brad Will shot in the chest. It’s not graphic at all, but it is disturbing. I watched it this morning. You should, too.
Why?
Because it’s important to remember that the events you see on your evening news are remote, but not removed, from your life. Because it’s important to recognize that journalists are dying to document the conflicts and struggles taking place all over the world.
Watch it, and be reminded that the freedoms we enjoy in the United States are exceptional, and rare. Watch it with the knowledge that our own freedoms will not be sustained without our awareness, and our vigilance. Watch it, and ask yourself how far away is fighting in the streets of our cities, as the Bush Administration sanctions torture and martial law.
Watch it because you won’t see it on the evening news. You may have never seen raw reporting like this, and you should.
Finally… watch it out of respect for a man who died following his convictions. Watch it in tribute to all journalists.
There are several ways to get the video on this page.
It’s also available on Google Video.
The Village Voice has coverage.
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Very tragic and sad. But at the same time, he died doing what he believed in. Plenty of us can say that we are willing to die for something, but few of us actually even live for something.