Adrian Gattenhof, Mullumbimby
Just one day after John Pilger’s passionate and inspiring talk in Byron and his assurance that Ecuador could not legally expel Julian Assange from its embassy, we witnessed Assange dragged down the steps and into a police van.
On the same day scientists revealed the first photo of a remote black hole. Julian’s likely destiny is to be devoured by the proximate black hole of American vengeance.
The message is obvious as his fellow truth tellers, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowdon, have learnt; real journalists, journalists with the courage and means to discover and reveal the crimes of power, are now criminalised.
Truth is the enemy of power. The luminous ideals of America’s founders have long been swallowed by the insatiable black hole of its military and corporate interests.
As Dubya warned: ‘You’re either with us or against us’. That’s why we, along with Britain, Canada, and most countries, are America’s servile vassals.
It’s better than being bombed and napalmed.
But don’t worry; keep clicking, keep shopping, keep partying and keep festivalising. That way you’re unlikely to stray into American crosshairs.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
