by John Burl Smith

Poets For Peace, an Atlanta consortium of artists speaks to the Diaspora on behalf of children who will die in George W. Bush’s so-called "War on Terrorism." Holding poetic vigils contemplating John Lennon’s admonition Give Peace a Chance, we mourn the nameless and faceless children who have never ridden on an airplane, let alone thought of hijacking one, but who will become collateral damage simply because they were born in a Muslim country. The war hysteria sweeping America is a convenient rogue for the Bush administration to do what it planned all along. Remember, beefing up the military, turning attention away from Bush’s racist domestic and unilateral foreign policies, providing corporate bailouts and making limits on personal freedom litmus tests were already on the table. Poets For Peace cautions, war should always be approached with a grim face; it is not a football game. It is one of those things that take on a life of their own; Martha Mitchell illustrated this tragedy in Gone With The Wind.

Attorney General John Ashcroft’s plea for what he called, "necessary changes in the law to protect our freedom" seems innocent enough. Pumping up the volume for "WAR," America’s media have made patriotism the new weapon in the assault on individual rights. Compassionate conservative pro-life born again Christians have suddenly become pro-war Americans. Everything in Ashcroft’s package has been proposed previously. Never a defender of individual rights, the Bush administration is using the Pentagon and World Trade Center jetliner bombings to brand unpatriotic anyone daring to speak out for peace or close examination of his policies. Similarly, pointing out Israel’s Zionist aim to take land from Palestinians to extend its borders makes one anti-Semitic. On its face, it may appear Bush is doing what the American people want, but beneath the surface however, I am certain some people are getting rich. But even more sinister, when the dust settles, Americans will have lost more of their freedom.

U. S. Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) presented evidence from a Congressional hearing on Human Rights in the United States: The Unfinished Story, Current Political Prisoners - Victims of Co-Intel-Pro to the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia, Racial Discrimination and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa as part of slave descendants case for reparations from America for genocide. The purpose of this American government Counter Intelligence Program was to disrupt, destabilize, discredit, imprison and/or assassinate black power advocates. Patriotism signified support for the Vietnam War. Opposition to the war was the litmus test for profiling war protestors, civil rights and black power advocates. "Threat assessment" is the new code for racial and religious profiling. Under "threat assessment," Attorney General Ashcroft seeks the same authority exercised under Co-Intel-Pro that allowed FBI agents to suspend the constitutional rights of those expressing what the government considered unpatriotic or un-American sentiments. 

Within our life time, the government has admitted Co-Intel-Pro excesses, but still refuses to give specifics about what it did to American citizens and why. Rep. McKinney’s hearing proved that the government lied to Congress about these abuses. No government official has ever been charged or jailed for violating the civil rights of citizens killed or falsely imprisoned by Co-Intel-Pro agents. Now, John Ashcroft is telling America to trust the government not to profile citizens and violate their rights, when he will not tell America what went on under Co-Intel-Pro and whether or not he approves of such behavior. American history teaches that every time citizens surrender an inch of freedom the government takes a mile. The founding fathers added checks and balances along with the Bill of Rights to the US Constitution because they knew the government could not be trusted to safeguard individual rights. T.H.I.N.C. about it!

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