The brutality of the Oakland Police against #OccupyOakland and Iraq vet Scott Olsen is prompting many to measure their eminent victory with ol' Gandhi's hopeful adage: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Apparently we've reached the fight stage. Yeah no. Sorry folks but teargas and nonlethal measures while dressed in riot gear is still the LAUGH AT YOU stage. You'll recognize FIGHTING. It's what America does to everywhere.
Tag: Mahatma Gandhi
Not-Violence: Pie Any Means Necessary
From Pie Any Means Necessary by the Bionic Baking Brigade: "...our weapons of choice hurt nothing more than the image and ego of our targets. Although we don’t claim to be nonviolent in the proactive Gandhian sense, we do claim to be not violent."
Which was more awesome: power of nonviolence, or right of self-defense?
Give praise to Allah where praise is due As the Freedom Flotilla made its slow approach last week, a popular Huffpo article pronounced the convoy a testament to the awesome power of nonviolence. That sentiment went about as viral as activist-geeks can get. But the blockade running denouement proved something of the opposite, didn't it? I hope the sanctimonious pacifist will be brave enough to admit it. The Muslim Brotherhood bravely charging the Israeli navy was surely the definition of martyr, if anyone has ever earned it. Without pushing the IDF to bare its authoritarian fangs, there would have been no story, no outrage, the end. An entirely compliant convoy would have been led by the nose to Ashdod and diplomatic compromise. Neither Gandhi nor King nor Mandela gained without a massacre they didn't provoke. It's a slander to their legacy that nonviolent movements have been co-opted by religious purists who subordinate social justice to self-fulfilment, generally in the guise of your post-earthly reward. Labor organizers used to curse the industrialists' first line of union busters, the churches which practiced appeasement and promised "pie in the sky when you die, by and by." We may view and review the IDF night vision tapes which recorded the hardly nonviolent reception given Israel's would-be swashbuckling commandos. Those convoy defenders delivering the first blows may appear to be having way too much fun for our sense of propriety. But it's hard to begrudge men who've suffered under the Israeli boot, perhaps even Israeli torture, who've never gotten closer to their oppressors than an Israeli sniper's range would allow. Perhaps they have loved ones to avenge, or ideals higher than secular humanists can credit. Whatever hatred or anger, the bravery it took to lift metal pipes against modern firepower is undeniable. And just like the stone-throwers of their youth, this is the indomitable spirit that buoys their survival. Without this fight, their numbers would entropy to servitude and attrition, lifeless bodies suspended on their invader's web, to feed the occupier's young until they are gone. From our church pews and academic perches we can supplicate they heed the road most honorably traveled. What do Westerners know of pragmatics? At best our reality is theoretical. Really, who are we, we are always wrong. We can neither elect presidents who matter, nor pass legislation that does not agree with our corporate landlords. And we presume to advise on struggles that mean life and death. Am I saying that there is no efficacy to nonviolent action? Not at all. But I do say, give human nature and righteous anger its due. Nonviolent passivity is for sheep. It will lead us all to an unceremonious death. Wolves count on sheep that don't bite back. If humans can be divided between wolves and sheep, be upfront with the sheep and perhaps you'll rouse in some of them a wolf's courage. That is what will lift your collective humanity. At this moment a second wave of the Freedom Flotilla is poised
Cuba declines OAS offer of Trojan Horse
Over US objections, the Organization of American States (OAS, OEA) voted to invite Cuba back into the fold, from which it had been expelled in 1962 for hanging with Communists. Cuba's reply? No thanks! Although Cuba's acceptance by fellow nations was hailed a victory, Fidel Castro wrote: "It is naive to think that the good intentions of one president justifies the existence of a body that... supported... neoliberalism, drug trafficking, military bases and economic crises." In an essay published the day before Cuba's official repudiation of the offer to recommit to the OAS, Fidel Castro recalled a lesson from the siege of Troy. Castro was reported widely as having called the OAS a "U.S. Trojan horse." In reality, Castro blamed the OAS for having "opened the gates" to the Trojan horse of US post-colonial despotism. The Trojan horse RAFAEL Correa, president of Ecuador, currently visiting Honduras, stated the day before the OAS meeting: "I believe that the OAS has lost its raison d’être, maybe it never had a raison d’être." The news, circulated by ANSA, adds that Correa, "prophesized ‘the demise’ of that organization given the many errors it has committed." He affirmed "that the countries of the American continent, given their geographic conditions, cannot all be put ‘in the same basket.’ And for that reason Ecuador proposed some months back the creation of the Organization of Latin American States. "’It is not possible for the region’s problems to be discussed in Washington; let us construct something of our own, without countries alien to our culture, our values, and obviously including countries that were inexplicably separated from the inter-American system, and I am referring to the concrete case of Cuba… that was a tremendous shame and demonstrates the double standards that exist in international relations.’" On his arrival in Honduras, both President Zelaya and Correa stated that "The OAS must be reformed and reincorporate Cuba; if not, it will have to disappear." Another cable from the DPA news agency affirms: "Cuba’s reintegration in the Organization of American States (OAS) has moved from being an issue per se of the organization’s General Assembly in Honduran San Pedro Sula, to once again being turned into an excuse for a struggle of interests that goes much further than the limits of the Caribbean island and could (once again) call hemispheric relations into question. "The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, made that very clear on describing the hemispheric meeting that begins this Tuesday in Honduras in quasi military terms. "It will be," he said, an ‘interesting battle’ in which if it is demonstrated that the OAS ‘continues being a ministry of the colonies’ that is not transformed in order ‘to subordinate itself to the will of the governments comprising it,’ it will be necessary to propose ‘leaving’ the organization and creating an alternative." "’Latin American countries are making Cuba the litmus test for the quality of the Obama administration's approach to Latin America," Julia E. Sweig, a Cuba scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Washington Post on the
Singing a song of angry men
Do you hear the people sing, singing a song of angry men? It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again. When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums, There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes. If you search online for Les Miserables lyrics, strangely you find only the first stanza of DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING, repeated three times. The other refrains are in the Finale. Have a read. Have Gandhi or Mandela or MLK or His Holiness the Dalai Lama, delivered anyone yet from impoverished misery, persecution, or captive servitude to the idle rich? When you want to put your fate into your own hands, maybe it's going to take guts. Do you hear the people sing, singing a song of angry men? It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again! When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums, There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes! Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me? Beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see? Then join in the fight that will give you the right to be free! Do you hear the people sing, singing a song of angry men? It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again! When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes! Will you give all you can give so that our banner may advance? Some will fall and some will live, will you stand up and take your chance? The blood of the martyrs will water the meadows of France! Do you hear the people sing, lost in the valley of the night? It is the music of a people who are climbing to the light. Oer the wretched of the Earth there is a flame than never dies. Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise. They will live again in freedom in the garden of the Lord. They will walk behind the plowshare, they will put away the sword. The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward. Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see? Do you hear the people sing? Say do you hear the distant drums? It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes.
Gandhi possessions safe from defilement
The iconic personal possessions of Mahatma Gandhi were auctioned this week, and will remain in India. Gandhi's poverty may have been largely symbolic, but his bowl and sandals remain unimpeachable representations of his ideals. If there's an upside to the banking collapse, it's that some Wall Street or London financier was not able to purchase Mohandas' bowl for the sole purpose of taking a shit in it.
Zionism is Nazism with a yarmulke
Israel plans propaganda offensive, to convince the world that they were the victims of the Gaza genocide! Visualize Nuremberg. Israel warns top military officers not to travel abroad, as they might be subject to arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity over the genocide in Gaza. NeoNazi Zionist rally in NYC calls for "wiping out" the Palestinian people. The only real difference between Israel and Nazi Germany, is Nazi Germany only lasted 12 years. Should the US Pull the Plug on Israel? by Chuck Spinney They hanged Mussolini, didn't they? If Obama ignores the crimes of the past, the GOP will just repeat them in 8 years. "An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it." --Mohandas Gandhi I was tempted to headline today's page with WE SURVIVED GEORGE W. BUSH, but sadly there are all too many of us just barely hanging on. How many of us will survive the disastrous course of the Bush administration remains to be seen. I'm cynical about Obama (having once been fooled into believing in Bill Clinton), but secretly I do desperately hope that he can change American politics. Excerpts from Thomas McCullock's Jan 20 notes, thomasmc.com.
Indian elephants fail to apply Gandhi’s theories of peaceful resistance
OK, this is a gratuitous commentary but don't blame me for it, since I've merely overdosed on the religion from the Colorado Springs Justice and Peace Commission, a group supposedly dedicated to fighting US war making and not just for going to some sort of New Age Church on off days of the week. Wild elephants kill 3 in northeast India Pacifists always are counselling others on non-violence, but rarely are under any direct attack of their own that they have to defend against. However, elephants are in a different situation and react normally rather than spiritually as Jesus perhaps would have done. Of course, stories have it that in the Temple he did not act nonviolently either? But that's just the Bible so what do they really know about Jesus anyway? Actually, most American pacifists I have known think that Jesus would merely have voted for the Democratic Party ticket if Jesus were to return as an American. When you see those morph computer images of 'Barack Lincoln', we should realize that Lincoln is just a stand-in for Jesus and/ or Gandhi here. It is against the Christian religion to morph Jesus with people like Barack, just like Muslims don't allow pictures of Mohammed to be waved around to all. So Barack Obama morphed with Lincoln is allowed though, so they went with that. I'd rather see a herd of Indian elephants show up at the Grand Inauguration this Tuesday though, and resist in the manner they know how to do so well.
Will the Biden-Obama plan to ethnically divide Iraq into 3 parts lead to peace?
Joseph Biden is a long time proponent of creating 3 separate ethnic enclaves in Iraq so that the Pentagon can better dictate Iraq's future. Essentially, Joe Biden is the actual architect of current Bush Administration strategy in Iraq, which is based on ethnic cleansing and separation. See the report US Senate votes to divide Iraq for a peek into the background information about this. The Democratic Party controlled US Antiwar Movement has been in a long hibernation away from doing any sort of mass protests against the US-Iraq War and Occupation by Pentagon troops, simply because the Democratic Party has been directing the strategy of the US troops for some time now and there is no plan by their Big Shots to basically change anything that was previously worked out with the Republican Party in this strategy currently being used. The strategy has bipartisan accord going for it and the Iraqi people themselves working against it. In short, it's doomed to failure. The problem facing US antiwar activists today is how to break the grip the Democratic Party has on this movement? The American public itself does not see the connection between their own bleak economic fate from the pending economic collapse, and the continued US occupation of Iraq, and has opted out to do just about basically nothing as it puts its faith almost entirely into accepting the empty sloganeering that the Obama Campaign used to get the Democratic Party Establishment back into the White House. It has not registered on most American's minds that military deficit spending is the foundation of corruption that the entire US economy is structured on. The long term prognosis for the Biden strategy of maintaining US government control over the fates of the people of Iraq is bound to produce a horrible collapse into total chaos and disintegration for the entire region, not that either the Democratic Party Big Shots nor their more local 'PEACE' underlings really care much at all about any of this. They will merely wring their hands and absolve themselves of all responsibility for the final meltdown when it eventually occurs, even as they will cast blame onto the supposed 'violence' of the Iraqi people themselves. One can already begin to imagine the recriminations of the US religious Left, pacifist DP voters as they will lament about the lack of Gandhian methodology used by 'the others', the Iraqi people. They will pray on the matter and then will continue to go on about their business of getting more Democrats into office. The Iraqis will be left inside a totally decimated country left in shambles. Those of us outside this mind frame owe the people of the world to do the best we can in opposing the complicity of our own US liberals in the destruction of Planet Earth, the US economy, and the Middle East. We
American death squads and torture in Somalia
Why are Americans so uninterested in what their government does in their name in Somalia? We certainly have shit loads of good liberal folk running around in circles demanding that the US government intervene militarily in Sudan, do we not? But we have a virtually total silence about what the US is doing to the Somali people. More blowback from the war on terror Why is that? One local example is how the church folk over at the Colorado Springs so-called Justice and Peace Center have never shown any signs of interest in helping fight to stop this US war which is becoming genocidal in nature. It's off their hypocritical lips altogether. They just received a $1600 grant from a local church, but don't look to see any of that money put to uncovering the plight of Somalians for people here in Colorado Springs. It will all go to talking about their supposed commitment to 'non-violence' and love of Gandhi. Wonder if they would act the same if they were Somalians in their US-Ethiopian invaded Homeland? One rather doubts it. Here are pictures of All American troops in Somali, in an all Black country, fucking it all up. Now the US government has Black African mercenaries doing most of the dirty work for them.
Lack of democracy in the PPJPC should not hide behind religiosity
Two PPJPC board members, Genie Durland and Dorothy Schlaeger, wrote to The Colorado Springs Independent trying to explain why the group's officers locked some of its membership out of the PPJPC building where we had tried to hold a meeting. To compound the insult of locking us out of the building, the new Board Director, Jo Ann Neiman, then called the police when she saw us still attending our meeting on the sidewalk in front of the PPJPC building! She explained to the police that she wanted us to be told that we were all trespassing! So what did Genie and Dorothy have to say about all of this? In short, they implied that we, the members of the PPJPC who wanted to meet inside the PPJPC rented building, were violence-prone, and they used a bunch of excessive religiosity about Gandhi to do so! They mixed their own liberal religious beliefs together with what they see as the teachings of the Hindu religious leader, Gandhi. Here is how they justified the current board director calling the police on us, 'Many who consider themselves "peace activists" across the globe engage in tactics, which fail to engender peace. PPJPC is deeply committed to nonviolence and will neither engage nor support activism employing tactics inconsistent with Ghandian nonviolence.' Genie and Dorothy, I might ask you both, what is 'Gandhian' nonviolent about suggesting we are violence-prone when we are not that in the least? You do the rather violence-prone Colorado Springs municipal police a big favor in labeling others amongst the PPJPC and general public in such a manner. You are actually encouraging police violence against us with this sort of rhetoric against us, who are all people that have in fact never engaged in any violent acts at all. In short, you are playing a game of Holier-Than-Thou and The Independent was absolutely correct in labeling and titling that as being 'Malice in the Movement'. What also is Gandhi-like in calling the police on us to tell us that we were supposedly trespassing by holding a nonviolent meeting, of all things? What is nonviolent in locking us out from the meeting we wanted to do inside of the PPJPC building, not out on the sidewalk? And most of all, what is nonviolent in a PPJPC organized to have a single membership meeting per year? That is undemocratic community organization, not nonviolence. This is the real issue of concern, not whether to be tactically violent, as you falsely imply that it is. We tried to hold our meeting because we want some internal democracy within the PPJPC where now there isn't any. We want a group not controlled by paid office staff eating up tens of thousands of donated dollars in their salaries each year, just to run the group autocratically as they determine activities of their own making for
Gandhi and India’s ‘untouchables’
America's Christian liberal pacifists have canonized Gandhi into being one of their Holy Trinity of Christian pacifist Gods. #1 Jesus, #2 Gandhi, #3 Martin Luther King... Almost all of these American pacifists, though, know little to nothing about Gandhi, the Indian subcontinent, or the history of the British Empire that Gandhi supposedly liberated 'his' people from, and these Christian-oriented liberals have an entirely idolized view of the man Gandhi and his life. So as a counter to their hero-God worship, we ask them, Why Do India's 'Untouchables' Hate Gandhi? If you want to know yet more about the Dalit's struggles inside and against the Hindu caste system of India, then check out all the other Counter Currents articles about The Dalit Struggle for Equal Rights. If you want to know more about Gandhi, then read up some about his military career! Yes, that's right... Or read about his views on medicine and diet. Or read some about his family and his sex life. All interesting topics in their own right. Gandhi not only was not any saint, but was not all that great a man even. At least do more than just rent the movie titled 'Gandhi'. Read up a little on where the funding for the movie came from, at least.
European troops in North Africa are regionalizing Darfur conflict, not ending it
French imperialist troops in Chad, backed by the US and UN, are helping regionalize and spread the Darfur fighting, rather than helping stop it. Since the entrance of these troops into the region, we have seen attacks on both the capital of Chad, and also on the capital of Sudan. See CHAD: STATE OF REBELLION section of BBC's reporting. Worse, the regionalization by US and European backed troops of the North African conflicts, threatens to also destabilize the peace accords in Southern Sudan, and also to spread new wars into the Horn of Africa, where the US has effectively destabilized peace for Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Somalia! The UN now admits that it has helped create, working alongside the US, a greater humanitarian crisis in Somalia than currently exists in Darfur. Plus, the UN and US have hardly definitively settled down the conflicts of Eastern Congo, Burundi, Uganda, and Rwanda. None of this has stopped the liberal bleeding heart imperialist community from demanding more US/ UN/ French/ British action in Africa. The entire US and British antiwar communities are riddled with these pro-war folk posing themselves off as Gandhian pacifists, who just want to stop genocides.... by calling in the troops! This is the real desert cooked up by a supposed 'peace community' that is in love with hugging the cops, hugging 'the troops', and hugging the Democratic Party politicians. They hug the supposed 'Green' corporations and Pentagon, too! In the Colorado Springs area, these folk have all but totally taken over the PPJPC (Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission) non-profit corporation, hiding themselves behind Jesus in the mean time. All the antiwar community faces a real battle against these pro-war forces inside the 'peace' community, masquerading as pacifists. Their real program is to glue the antiwar movement to the Democratic Party Right, immobilize public protest, and to defang and derail all activity outside of small little gatherings of the most conservative of liberals. Meanwhile, the Darfur conflict is becoming further spread, the Iraq-Afghanistan conflict is being further spread, and the American public has lost all desire to fight against the Rightward shift of its corporate elites. What a mess! And the greatest impediment to moving forward from this impasse, is once again folk posing themselves off as being 'liberals'. Very sad....
Hey, Hey, USA, how many kids did you kill today?
I have this sign that I pull out at times when we have our little protests, and it always seems to cause consternation among some 'Peace' people! Their faces get all grim and often times they ask me to put it away. Who are these people that feel this way? Are they really for peace, or are they really merely just trying to love up to the Patriot Missile crowd? Personally, I think they just have a plain bad attitude. Here is what bothers these people about the question, 'Hey, Hey, USA, how many kids did you kill today?' They don't want not to be seen as national patriots. They are the types that come out to every vigil when we cross a 1,000 more US troops dead, but only manage to throw in the most meager note of concern for 'the others'. They want to reform America, not change it. Now you and I know that America tortures people and has done so for the longest time. But the largest liberal site, Common Dreams, has just come out with a bumpersticker message that states... My America Does Not Torture... ...Just who do they think they are actually kidding?!!!!! 'Hey, Hey, USA, how many parents of kids have you tortured today?' And 'How many kids have you allowed to starve to death?' I don't really like this milk toast attitude of these supposedly on the same side 'Peace' people, the ones that criticize my sign. I go to the J$P, and you can see these people dominate there. The front message on the web site there isis about something they call a 'peace camp', which is kind of a vacation Bible school set up by them for kids. Yeah, like for about 2 or 3 kids, maybe? You people, why don't you send these 'Peace' kids of yours instead to Haiti or Yemen, Bangladesh or Nigeria this summer? Don' you think that they would learn a tad bit more than you preaching to them about the supposed wisdom of Gandhi here in Colorado, with your 'scholarships' and all? I really don't have much in common dreams with these folk beyond that they occasionally and rarely will come out of their closets in public, and actually say that they are against the Iraq War. Beyond that, most of them are rather hopeless. Good people and all, but watch their tempers if you cross them! Hey, hey, J$P, how many kids will your government kill today while summer 'peace camp' was in progression? A few, I do believe.....
The Rosa Parks Lone Rider Theory
Urban mythologists would have us believe that Rosa Parks launched the Civil Rights Movement all on her lonesome. Why? Because that’s exactly how it’s not done. And the corporate tale spinners have no interest in educating the public about how societal reform is accomplished.
Stokely Carmichael on liberal pitfalls
Most liberals are naive to other thinking or to the insightful speeches of the socialist black activists of the 60's. Stokely Carmichael saw the powerlessness of the liberal that other moderate Negro leaders wouldn't attempt or couldn't see. The Black Panthers saw through the petty liberal ideology that always sought cooperation with the capitalists, or as Stokely put it, the oppressors. He talked of liberals and peace activists rejection of violence as a means to achieve real change. Real change defined as eliminating capitalism which is the very root of our dilemma. Is it that the progressive/liberal ideology is largely bankrupt? That it goes nowhere often and deceives its followers into static worn out Gandhi-Goodman, no alternative strategies that always succumb to the real power that is the fascists source of control? Violence? Yes is the answer. Less a massive armed militant mobilization and a clean break from the stink that is capitalism, there will never be a fair social system that works for the vast working class population. And a re-education of our children away from fascisms model and as to the truth about democratic socialism. "What we want to do for our people, the oppressed, is to begin to legitimize violence in their minds. So that for us violence against the oppressor will be expedient. This is very important, because we have all been brainwashed into accepting questions of moral judgment when violence is used against the oppressor." The Pitfalls of Liberalism by Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) (From the book; "Stokely Speaks - From Black Power to Pan Africanism") Whenever one writes about a problem in the United States, especially concerning the racial atmosphere, the problem written about is usually black people that they are either extremist, irresponsible, or ideologically naive. What we want to do here is to talk about white society, and the liberal segment of white society, because we want to prove the pitfalls of liberalism, that is, the pitfalls of liberals in their political thinking. Whenever articles are written, whenever political speeches are given, or whenever analysis are made about a situation, it is assumed that certain people of one group, either the left or the right, the rich or the poor, the whites or the blacks, are causing polarization. The fact is that conditions cause polarization, and that certain people can act as catalysts to speed up the polarization; for example, Rap Brown or Huey Newton can be a catalyst for speeding up the polarization of blacks against whites in the United States, but the conditions are already there. George Wallace can speed up the polarization of white against blacks in America, but again, the conditions are already there. Many people want to know why, out of the entire white segment of society, we want to criticize the liberals. We have to criticize them because they represent the liaison between other groups, between the oppressed and the oppressor. The liberal tries to become an arbitrator, but he is incapable of solving the problems. He promises the oppressor that he can keep
Fidel Castro’s US public relations problem
Aww, it's positively time to tune out the radio. Fidel Castro is stepping down and the Cuban malcontents, the would be scouts for capitalism, the agents of our banks and special interests, the progeny of corrupt Batistas run out in 1959, who cloak themselves as dissidents or oppressed civil rights activists, are jockeying to get in their last digs. Fidel Castro's PR problem is that the megaphone is in the hands of a corporate press intent on reclaiming the communist redistribution of wealth from its people. Cuba Libre [of the US] may not ultimately survive Castro's retirement and death, but our own people's revolution would be better served to celebrate the accomplishment he represents. Fidel Castro liberated Cuba from the largest predatory power on Earth, and kept its claws at bay for going on 50 years. He didn't do it like Gandhi, he wasn't given the opportunity like Mandela. Castro repossessed the Cuban haciendas at gunpoint, with the same violent determination the Spaniards and Americans had shown in putting down every populist grievance since Christopher Columbus. If the sinister quality of America's imperialism is new to you, have a talk with any immigrant up from the south. Those Americans have been fighting the US for over a century. Indigenous populations of the Americas suffered for 400 years to throw off their Spanish occupiers, and no sooner were they succeeding when the USA stepped in to preserve the inequitable colonial power structure. US military (.mil) archives abound with accounts of US interventions throughout Central and South America to protect US business interests there, in the name of halting Communism. In Cuba, like nowhere else, Fidel Castro beat them.
War decides who is left
I'm learning of a vulnerable schism among pacifists. There are pacifists like Gandhi and MLK, known as pragmatic pacifists, and principled pacifists emerged from the socialist school. Pacifists up against the usual suspects need to ally, but their ideological differences are easily exploited by agents who would divide their efforts. One side has Jesus and a belief somewhat parallel to the one which dictates that none can be right except through Him. The other carries the baggage that religion has always messed up common man's self determination, but beggars can't be choosers.
The Naval Academy at Annapolis
It turns out that the Air Force Academy here in Colorado Springs was not chosen to bring 'PEACE' to the Middle East, nor was the Army Academy at West Point. The site for The Cheney Empire to force more of a mess on the Middle East is to be the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Welcome, Palestinians! It's a festive occasion this week! What a fitting resort for Dick and his invites! Let's call it the Sail and Quail Special, shall we? Enough to give one a heart attack even. But really? Is it not somewhat comical that the same US mad bombers planning to destroy Iran next week are today now talking compromise and peace to the non-representatives of the Palestinian people? I bet they even manage to pull out a reference to Gandhi for the media somehow? OK, let's wait and see what type of show they have put together for us commoner American dip shits? A political Cirque du Soleil perhaps? Maybe some Bristol brew might help wash this stuff down some while watching any goofy gazoos on TV news this week? And pretzels...
Masked crusader of illiterary legend
All Pikes Peak Reads has chosen this year's library recommendation: ZORRO! Did you know that was a work of literature? Dumas, you think? R.L.S.? This choice follows To Kill a Mockingbird, Frankenstein, Treasure Island, and Alice in Wonderland. All accessible to younger readers to be sure, and literary to boot. I have no argument with Isabel Allende's Zorro [prequel], to entice the participation of Pikes Peak area adults, but what for the children? Charles Lamb? Harold Lamb? Did Zorro capture their prolific imagination? No, the kids get to read not the Legend of Zorro, but ABOUT the legend of Zorro. Great, so it's not literature, at least it's history. Is it? Not even. It turns out Zorro sprung from a post-WWI pulp serial The Curse of Capistrano written by screenwriter Johnston McCulley. The black mask and cape were added by Douglas Fairbanks in his 1920 portrayal, and the rest is [film] history. So Zorro is Tinseltown legend, and the historical setting inverts itself from there. The Hispanic colonial rule of California against which Zorro rebelled never existed in that too-rural territory. But it sure creates a convenient boogey man from which the United States can feel better liberating the early Californians. Zorro, in Spanish "The Fox" being the surrogate advance scout, extending justice over the objections of the despicable Spaniards until the cavalry can arrive. The adventure published on the heels of US belligerent fight-picking with Mexico. So much for history. A Zorro legend lacks even for historical precursors. Robin Hood might be the closest example, except according to legend, Robin Hood was a man of the people, not a rich man robbing for the poor. Zorro's Don Diego follows more the Alexander Dumas model of The Count of Monte Cristo, avenging having been usurped of his noble birthright. Since the Enlightenment and the suspicions it cast on the divinity of monarchist rule, official chroniclers have been tasked to remind the masses that a "fox" could never be more cunning than his betters unless he was of uncommon blood. Noble deeds can only be expected of noblemen, hence the term. This stereotype has always trumped the Puss in Boots or Horatio Alger stories coming from steerage. The Count begat Zorro begat Batman begat the Green Hornet begat the George Soros secret funding mystique. Now we even speculate that Robin Hood, had he existed, must have been a disenfranchised noble. Likewise Jack the Ripper. Common man can't even get credit for crime. To be clear, the oligarchs know their people won't buy rule by divine right, but we do respect Darwin's survival of the fittest. And certainly fitness and advantage are hereditary. Only those fit shall rule. I extend this deference of heritage to my real life heros, but is it warranted? Che Guevara was from the privileged class and is lauded by the counter-culture as the most heroic revolutionary figure of our time. But ultimately, and conveniently, a tragic failure. On the other hand, the truly effective populist reformers of modern times
Undeclared pacifism: No War On Bush
Bush counts on the Democrats to toe the line. He counts on the peace movement to take his actions lying down. They're passivists but won't admit it. And the smirking chimp rolls on. Into Iran, Africa, Asia. While the peace-talking pacifiers quiet your outrage. Be Gandhi, be Jesus, be lambs to the slaughter, the non-violence disciples cry. You'll die in good conscience. Don't rock the boat, you'll disturb our meditation. I call it slumber. In Colorado Springs we live in the belly of the beast. Don't upset it. Pass the cookies.
Dishonest scholarship and street justice
Somebody's written a new biography of Che Guevara, painting him as the father of modern terrorism. How silly. Did Boeing father 9/11? It seems a perverse sacrilege I don't want to abide. Shall we say Gandhi was the father of couch potatoes? George H.W. Bush fathered a bastard. I hardly know how to keep track anymore of the traitors in academia, or the dishonest scholars in the fraudulently accredited foundation ink-tanks. It's hard for me to imagine anything less than a Robespierre tribunal bloodletting when events are sorted out and the bastards are overcome. Would we welcome the cretins to our side, over the transitory moments, all forgiven, good show what, or do we hold them responsible for their deceptions and contrivances, which delayed rectification for too long? They know the lies they are telling. They have orchestrated the discourse, keeping a meticulous black-out on opposing voices, and they're getting paid big bucks to do it. These are Mephistos we are talking about, selling the lie, diverting justice, reinforcing roadblock after roadblock to peace, stoking the fires toward more destruction, murder, enslavement and human misery. There will come a time for storming the castle. It might be time already, judging by the defenses they've already erected against us. You and I, and whoever we can enlist in the effort, have to scale these walls with what tools we can muster. These authoritive faces, who'd you forgive and forget, are on the parapets above us, holding us off. They're at the bullhorns, making it harder for us to rally peers to our support. They throwing everything at us. If we can scale past them, if we survive the fight with them, with so much at stake, I don't see why quarter should be offered.
Hateful Hamas and Friendless Fatah
Hamas and Fatah. Do you know which is which? I try to keep abreast of the people's struggle, so I find it strange and disappointing that in the news I so often cannot differentiate the two. I blame a slanderous media intent on confusing us about which are the Honest representatives of Palestine, and which are the Fake. Fatah stands for Palestinian National Liberation Movement in Arabic backward, and they came First. Though they emerged from Yasser Arafat's PLO, they settled into the bureaucracy of the Palestinian Authority, Israel's Kapos in the occupied territories. Fatah now enforce Western Foreign interests in the Middle East and as concerns representing the oppressed Palestinians, Fatah have become Frauds. That's how in a landslide election last year, Hamas came to take the reins, and why Israel which holds the purse strings, refuses to give Hamas its due tax revenues. Hamas, or Islamic Resistance Movement, may sound like Hotheads to you, but who are we to say what will work best for the Palestinians? Their land has been stateless for going on sixty years, they remain in permanent dislocation, made worse forty years ago under direct Israeli occupation. But I oversimplify. Israelis seem satisfied to create a Palestinian Diaspora same as was done to the Israelites in 500 BC, or let the non-Jews die in refugee camps in the meantime, but for Hamas. Still uncertain? Watch how the corporate media covers Palestine. If there's something Favorable to say, it's about Fatah. If it's Horrible, it's about Hamas. Perhaps my continued disorientation grows from the optimism that one day the media will show some respect and Hope for the Palestinian people. Hamas are considered terrorists, and like the IRA and Sinn Fein, they lead Palestine's fight for independence from colonial empire. Those who do not want to condone armed struggle should ponder Occupied France under the Nazis, a cakewalk compared to Gaza. With whom would Gandhi or Mandela have sided, the Resistance or Vichy?
Numb skulls awarding peace prizes
Two weeks ago I wrote about a CIA funded Otpor spokesperson in town talking to local pacifists of Gandhi and nonviolence and how supposedly that had overthrown Milosevic in Yugoslavia instead of the US and NATO bombs rained down on his country. Then last week I wrote about a NM Department of Tourism run 'peace' festival in Albuquerque funded to the tune of $450,000. Sappy 'peace' rhetoric run by the Chamber of Commerce basically. This week I guess the focus has to be on the Australian 'Sidney Peace Prize'. This one just blows me away, too! The prize was awarded to none other than Hans Blix, which is the most absurd award of a peace prize since Henry Kissinger was given the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1973! We truly live in an Orwellian world these days when initiators of wars are so often given prizes by people spouting pacifist ideology. Hans Blix was the guy who set up all the lies about Saddam Hussein and Iraq having WOMD that Bush and his Democratic and Republican Party enablers used to launch the invasion and occupation of Iraq. No way he deserves a peace prize, and actually he might better be executed as a war criminal instead. Without his personal act as wrench-er up of the propaganda, hysteria, and panic, the world public would never have gone along much as they did with initially supporting the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. This is just one more example of how pacifist beliefs and desires by much of the public can often be distorted into its opposite by simplistic twists of illogic. Then we get numb skulls awarding peace prizes to war criminals like Hans Blix and Henry Kissinger. PS- I am still trying to get over how the local ACLU cut off audience questioning of CS police chief Richard 'Liars' Myers last week. The ACLU organizers required that all questions be vetted and then read by one person alone to the audience. Because of this, the annual meeting of the ACLU turned into a hug and handshake fest with the cops. Shameful. If the city of Colorado Springs had tried to do this sort of stunt at the city council meeting we would all have gotten peeved off. But instead, the audience silently sat by while the police chief fed them a long sermon of crap. And then many of the crowd applauded just that! Sometimes some amongst the 'peace' crowd can make one wanna cry with their innocence and naivete.
Peaceful vacation in New Mexico, Anybody?
Half a million can buy some PEACE for you in Albuquerque next week. You get Rigoberta Menchu, the Dalai Lama, and some Gandhi, too.... all for just $65/person, price of hotel room and organic vegetarian nourishment not included. I feel like flying there in a hot air balloon! New Mexico Peace Conference