In those three years, we've brought to public attention hundreds of fresh thinkers not seen anywhere else, and drilled down hard, and day after day, on critical themes like the foreclosure crisis and the Wall Street meltdown. We spoke regularly with real experts as well as real working people.

We traveled to D.C. for the inauguration of President Obama. “What are we going to inaugurate?” was our question. And we stood in the cold with labor protesters, week after week, in Wisconsin.

Special guests I remember -- the extraordinary Eduardo Galeano reading aloud from his book Mirrors, labor rank and file like Angel Warner describing what it is to organize. The much missed Juliano Mer Khamis with his students from Jenin talking about theater and freedom. When the National Portrait gallery caved to the censors we played David Wojnarovicz's video on homophobia and AIDS for all to see. And we platformed the work of our brilliant GRITtv Commentators, GRIT Group partners and friends at The Nation, Brave New Films, Women Make Movies, and many more.

Three years later, you can find all that work permanently archived at our website. Just check it out. Effective today, though, we're suspending daily production to retool.

Come this fall, with your help, you'll see a new project: a one-hour weekly program, right here, and also on PBS stations from coast to coast. You can contribute to that effort online, right now.

I think of the words of a few recent guests. Vandana Shiva reminded us of the principles of Gandhi: self governance, self-sufficiency, struggle for truth.

The reality is that effective self governance requires a free media, but independent media makers have yet to make ourselves self-sufficient. We hope a weekly show will have a better chance. But today it breaks my heart to close down a daily platform for movements, and to say goodbye to an extraordinary team - Gina Kim, Diane Shamis, Sam Alcoff, Rich Kim, Diane Pottinger, Sarah Jaffe, Jason Abbruzzese, Danya Abt and Rebecca McDonald---  most of whom have been with me since day one.

We asked Bob Herbert recently if it's hard to stay on the beat of the "left out" people when our money culture so prioritizes insiders and fame? His answer -- it's what I'm interested in. The same is true for us too.

Fight for Truth. While we're taking a break today, that work will carry on. You can support GRITtv at GRITtv.org and support Free Speech TV. We'll see you in the next place soon.

Meanwhile, criticizing the killing seems to have become taboo, and even progressives who were vociferous against Bush now cheerlead for what amounts, let's face it, to extrajudicial targeted assassination, without approval inside a sovereign state.
President Obama told the country on 60 Minutes again that "justice was served." Those who disagree, he said, need to have their heads examined.

It's a kindler gentler version of "you're either with us or against us," but Obama's words are having the same impact: shutting down debate. Sparking shouting matches, on TV, on Twitter, and yes, too, face to face.

Due Process -- not war -- in terror cases -- which John Kerry and the Democrats ran on not even a decade back; as one sad viewer put it to me this week, "Due Process is dead and I miss it."

A tiny bit of hope came this week when Democracy for America sent out an email to its supporters calling for an end to the war in Afghanistan.  We might not be able to stop the cheering but if we work together, maybe we can finally stop the war, say some. DFA is catching up with the majority of Americans who've polled in favor of a pull-out for years -- and they're partnering with four Senate co-sponsors of a bill that would at the least redeploy combat troops.

But, warning to DFA -- and those valiant politicians -- it's hard to rally people around issues of war and peace at the best of times. It's even harder when standing up for ideals like justice, real justice, and the rule of law --  has liberals aiming at your head.

In Vermont, that is.

Mary Gerisch of the Vermont Workers Center joined us last month here on GRITtv to explain the grassroots organizing campaign that finally resulted in victory in the state legislature. She noted that two years ago, they were told that it was not politically possible to pass single-payer legislation, but they didn't take no for an answer.

The insurance companies will no doubt keep fighting this bill—even one small state single-payer plan could provide a powerful example for the rest of the country. Already, California Democrats are reviving a bill that would create single-payer care in that state—and it's already moved out of the Health Committee.

We've spoken before to Wendell Potter, formerly a CIGNA executive, about the way the health insurance industry fought national health care reform, and we know that misinformation, attack ads, and millions of dollars will be flowing Vermont's way as the bill moves through reconciliation and toward the governor's desk.

But for now, Vermont—and all of us--should be celebrating the proof that a grassroots campaign can lead to victory for single-payer advocates and progressives in general. We're that much closer to recognizing health care as a human right. And much closer to the big fight which will show really, which side our for-profit insurers are on. Keep an eye on Vermont, people. An alternative model. . . the US has invaded small countries for less.

Kushner, who also has an honorary degree from Brandeis University, told Salon's Justin Elliott that this was an “unprecedented and pretty ugly experience.”

Sadly, though, it's not that rare for academia to balk at support for Palestinians. Elliott notes that just this January, a Brooklyn College adjunct professor was fired—and later reinstated—after students and an assemblyman complained about his views.  Last summer, GRITtv guest and fellow Brooklyn College professor Moustafa Bayoumi was the center of a controversy around his book, How Does it Feel to Be A Problem? Being
Young and Arab in America. And back in 2009, Joel Kovel visited us at GRITtv to discuss his termination from Bard College, which he believed was over his pro-Palestinian views.

It's notable that the same cast of characters turns up again and again in these stories. Bruce Kesler, a Brooklyn College alum, caused a stir in both Brooklyn College cases, and Jeffrey Wiesenfeld is the CUNY board member who blocked Kushner's honor.

Wiesenfeld is, Elliott notes, a trustee at the pro-Israel think tank the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and an organizer of the Salute to Israel Day Parade Committee. His views are clearly not considered controversial or problematic.

Instead, even a famed Jewish playwright like Kushner, who reiterated in his letter to the CUNY trustees that he supports the continued existence of Israel even as he opposes the state's policies, is accused of being an extremist.

At a time when dancing in the streets is accepted as a proper response to a killing (of Osama bin Laden,) it's ironic  to see that support for human rights - in this case in Palestine - is still too controversial for college.

Hours after the attack on the Trade Towers in 2001 I walked down to the site. I returned there again last night and found a loud crowd shouting mostly the words "USA, USA," in the darkness to a clutch of news cameras.

While different in almost every other respect, what I found on both occasions were people searching.  A decade ago, dust still on their skin, people were looking for safety, for loved ones, for explanation. This time, with a whole lot more breath in their lungs, people were looking once again -- for others to be with and for closure.

"I came because they came," one firefighter told me, pointing at the crowd. He spent days at the site a decade ago looking and ultimately finding the body of a co-worker.  Like everyone else who took time to talk, he said that he hoped the killing of Bin Laden would bring comfort, and closure to the victims of the attacks -- and to America's critics.

People want this chapter closed. The longing for that is palpable. Others last night talked about bringing troops back home, putting America back on course and moving towards peace. Quite a few people talked about that.

Much as we may want, history doesn't tend to roll out in neat chapters. "Justice has been done," the President said Sunday night. It's an indication of how changed we are: no arrest, no trial.

Justice isn't, actually, a 40-minute firefight. Bin Laden hasn't been the leader of Al Qaeda in any operational way for years. Is his killing an achievement for US intelligence, armed forces and the president? Absolutely.  Will his death end history? No more than the attacks of 9-11 began it.

To me, where we are today feels like where we were were on 9-11 itself. Americans seeking sense and getting vengeance. Seeking connection  and finding mostly media-fed jingoism. Trillions of dollars and a global ocean of tears later, Americans want to move on.

It's not that simple. Just as it was ten years ago, and as it has been shown to be around the world since, remapping our way as a nation will not, in all likelihood, be done by our leaders. It'll have to be done by us. By we the people.

“Royal wedding reminds us why we tossed Brits,” ran one letter to a local paper recently. That exorbitant $80 million spent on a medieval style ritual in time of 21st century austerity. It's shameful. It's old world. It's just what Americans fought a revolutionary war to throw off.

And then there are the folks like Rupert Cornwall at the UK Independent who argue hat people in the US love British royals precisely because they don't have their own real thing.  Gary Younge at the Nation noted that even his liberal friends wanted to know what he, a British citizen, thought of the prince marrying a "commoner." Oh please.

The only serious and in fact actually quite insidious part about this is that it re-inscribes the notion that the US has no  class.

Really? When the top one percent of wealthiest Americans own 34 percent of the country's wealth and enjoyed 80 percent of the total increase in wealth here between 1980 and 2005? No class?

As for ruling class? In the UK the commoners keep their royals on welfare. Here we do the same with our corporations. Billions in tax dollars keep them afloat and keep CEOs in mansions. Why not just give them palaces? At least we could keep them open for tours.

Since the Supreme Court has given corporations free speech rights and personhood -- how about marriage equality next?

Then, we could string up Bunting flags for the next monopolistic coupling... At the Comcast and NBC nuptials we'd all throw money while they stroll down the aisle. And -- with a nod to Jim Hightower -- instead of aristocrats with  coats of arms, the paid off politicians would express their heritage -- in corporate logos on their lapels. At least then we'd know who owns whom.

The trinkets from a corporate marriage might be dreary. And the offspring, who can say? But at least we'd get a day off and one hell of a party. Plus we'd move out of denial.  The more I think about it the more I like it. Monarchies or Megacorps? Why not declare them royal?