The DISH

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Volume 7 Issue 35…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…September 3, 2004

Intuit’s Vibe

Orange Agent

By Nguyen Thi Lan

Let's sign for justice

for young victims of Orange Agent

Suffered, imperfect, poor, painful, all the worst

A brave little girl, Rasha, has just called on the world

To support her petition for restroom accessibility on planes

As she can't bear the small ones

Where she and her mom don't fit

I signed for her

Why not stand for my own young people in this poor country

Young victims of orange agent, what a beautiful name!

Its gifts mean death!

Young children with no arms

Young children with no legs

Young children without five fingers on one hand

Young children know neither happy nor sad!

Young children can't talk

Kim Anh, a girl of 22, should be sexy, healthy and ready to get married

Have a strong husband then one or two children

And continue happy generations.

Why should you lie all your life in bed?

Half alive, half dead!

Her mother all her life busy

Taking care of an old baby!

I know one family

The loving couple has three children,

All of them are with disabilities!

Why so? Who can say?

Are they affected by orange agent?

Can anyone make an experiment? Thank you!

Why heads are so big, so heavy on babies?

How can they live a full life?

Questions, questions, more questions to put...

What are the answers?

Can this world say?

News You Use

Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, dioxin is a carcinogen; it can enter the human body through the skin, the lungs by inhaling dust, fumes or vapors and through the mouth. It is so toxic that less than two millionths of an ounce will kill a mouse.

During the Vietnam War, the United States military sprayed dense jungles and populated areas and dumped in rivers and streams millions of gallons of dioxin-laced defoliants in Southeast Asia. Its Vietnamese victims suffered an array of ailments, including disfigurement and death. The offspring of those that survived suffer with crippling birth defects

The US has neither repaired the damage done to this country nor compensated its people. At www.petitiononline.com/AOVN/petition.html, signatures are being gathered for a petition demanding that the US government recognize and compensate the more than three million Vietnamese people that still suffer as a result of Agent Orange contamination.

In part, the petition reads, “We welcome and support the Civil Action brought by the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin...The documents have been submitted to a court in New York, on behalf of all affected by the chemicals used by the American Forces in their War on Vietnam. This will be the first ever such action by Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange in any court of law. We call upon the U.S. President, Government and the Chemical Companies to accept their responsibilities for the damage caused by their actions and products, and to pay full compensation to the victims.” You can help! Please sign the petition at the above site and support the victims’ efforts.

Bit of History

Rainbow Herbicides (1940-1972)

During World War II, Professor E.J. Kraus, chairman of the botany department at the University of Chicago, discovered various hormones could kill certain vegetation. He discovered that dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) induced uncontrolled growth spurts and death like cancer. Kraus contacted the War Department. Army scientists tested the plant hormones, but found no use for them before the end of WWII.

Civilian scientists found a market for the diluted defoliant in controlling weeds. Military testing continued. Eventually, scientists mixed the 2,4-D with trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), which produced an almost immediate negative effect when sprayed on foliage. The 2,4,5-T contained the toxin dioxin.

In 1961, a variety of chemical agents were shipped to Vietnam to destroy food crops and jungle foliage. These agents were shipped in 55- gallon drums with rainbow colored stripes for identification. Called rainbow herbicides, these chemical agents included Blue, which contained arsenic, White, Purple, Pink, and the most lethal, Orange, contained the carcinogen dioxin.

On January 13, 1962, Operation Hades (later called Operation Ranch Hand) began the defoliation of Vietnam. Over the next nine years, an estimated 20 million gallons of these chemical agents were sprayed and dropped on crops, in waterways and on the people of Vietnam. Throughout this period, the U.S. military and the chemical manufacturers -- Dow, Monsanto, Hooker Chemical, Diamond-Shamrock and Hercules, Inc.-- proclaimed these chemicals posed no human health risks. As early as 1965, their internal memoranda suggested concern regarding dioxin’s toxicity.

Unlike the diluted defoliants used in the United States, the herbicides sprayed in Vietnam were six to 25 times the manufacturer-suggested concentration. In addition to concentrated strays, defoliated areas were burned during Project Pink Rose. On March 11, 1966, in a test operation known as “Hot Tip,” B-52s dropped incendiaries on a defoliated area near Pleiku. Future burns were coordinated with US and Vietnamese troop movements. Not only did burning significantly increased dioxin’s toxicity, forces on both sides of the conflict lived and fought in air filled with deadly dioxin smoke.

In addition to spraying, dumping and burning these agents, the containers were reused for everything from storing gasoline and oil to cooking and makeshift shower stalls. Oil and gas stored in these containers were used in military vehicles; their exhausts bled an orange aerosol in the streets of Saigon. Thus, the defoliants’ deadly impact was felt across Vietnam.

In 1969, research by Bionetics Research Laboratories showed that dioxin caused deaths and stillbirths in laboratory animals. These tests revealed that as little as two parts of dioxin per trillion in the bloodstream was sufficient to cause deaths and abnormal births. Some US veterans returning from Vietnam had 50 parts per trillion, and more, in their bloodstreams. The US Surgeon General prohibited the use of Agent Orange for home use in 1971. On June 30, 1971, the US military ended its defoliation operations in Vietnam. (Sources: www.va.gov, www.lewispublishing.com and www.veteranshour.com)

Hood Notes

Families Protesting Bush’s Wars

"War is simply man's most ignorant way of dealing with his problems" (War by Red Burdett)

An organization called Mothers Against Bush (MAB) marched across the Brooklyn Bridge on Friday, August 27, 2004. The peaceful demonstration drew hundreds of people, mostly mothers and small children.

Worried about their children’s future, MAB members see George W. Bush as a bad apple with no thought or plan to achieve peace. Equipped with baby strollers, diapers and red, white and blue balloons, the group of Bush protesters claims to represent more than 10,000 members nationwide. According to one MAB marcher, “We do not want our children to grow up in a world where the only solution to problems is war.”

On Sunday, August 29, 2004, a massive anti-war march and demonstration against the policies of George W. Bush took place in the lead up to the Republican National Convention, which began on Monday. The estimated one million marchers included families of those killed in action in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as dozens of anti-war and anti-Bush organizations and individuals opposed to this administration. The United For Peace and Justice marchers clogged the streets of Manhattan, chanting, clapping and waving placards and banners denouncing Bush, the war and demanding that the troops be brought home. The march’s organizers plan to demonstrate throughout the Republican Convention.

Politics Y2K4

US Agent Orange Legacy

The Vietnam War ended more than thirty years ago, yet its legacies linger. Today, presidential campaign ads criticize candidate Senator John Kerry’s swift boat service and medals earned in Vietnam and question the nature of George W. Bush’s National Guard tour of duty on the US mainland. Not only does this narrow political debate deflect attention away from the incumbent’s domestic and foreign policy record, it obscures more serious issues surrounding that conflict.

Senator Kerry has been harshly criticized for his antiwar activities and testimony at a congressional hearing about atrocities US forces committed in Vietnam. Those attacking Kerry for “dishonoring the brave men who fought in Southeast Asia,” overlook the fact that his testimony was based on affidavits signed by veterans that witnessed and participated in atrocities and suffered personal tragedies as a result of that war.

The Mai Lai massacre, a documented war crime, was not an aberration; there were other atrocities. Agent Orange exposure became personal tragedies for US veterans and their families. Agent Orange’s legacy of terror continues to victimize US veterans and the Vietnamese people decades after the conflict ended.

While the US military terrorized the Southeast Asian countryside with bombs, napalm and its arsenal of herbicides, US servicemen and pilots breathed the chemicals’ misty drift along with the Vietnamese. They returned home contaminated with the defoliant. Ravished by ailments from skin diseases to cancer, their children were born with birth defects. Adding insult to injury, the US government lied to them to limit its liability and protect the Agent Orange manufacturers.

With the government procrastinating, US veterans filed a class action lawsuit against the chemical companies. The out-of-court settlement came without any public admission of guilt by the chemical companies, which continued to maintain that Agent Orange was not the likely cause of the ailments veterans experienced. Yet, evidence against Agent Orange continued to mount.

There were birth defects and illnesses among the patriotic employees of the manufacturing plants where the defoliants were made, as well as soil contamination in surrounding areas. In 1983, the US government spent $33 million buying the homes and business of Times Beach, where dioxin and oil were sprayed on the roadways in the small Missouri town to keep dust down. Still, the government gave veterans the runaround.

Evidence of a government cover-up came in a House Government Operations Committee report published in 1990. Officials in the Reagan administration purposely "controlled and obstructed" a federal Agent Orange study in 1987 because it did not want to admit government liability in cases involving toxic herbicides.

The battle for Vietnam veterans continues. Funds from the previous lawsuit were exhausted in 1992. Additional attempts to sue the manufacturers have been unsuccessful. In the most notable case, Ivy vs. Diamond Shamrock, the Supreme Court refused to hear the arguments, ending the matter in 1992. While the Court and the US government can act as though “the matter is settled,” the legacy of Agent Orange is far from over.

Disgruntled wants to know: Last week, the US Census Bureau issued a report showing increased poverty. Released early so as not to interfere with the Republican National Convention, it got little attention. Like last quarter’s lower than expected gross domestic product, the poverty rate, deficits, national debt, anemic job growth and other economic data, which reflect negatively on the Bush administration, receive little news coverage. In a democracy, which requires an unfettered and engaged press to keep the public informed, how do the national media services square giving the Scott Peterson murder trial more coverage than the economy?

Disgruntled says: In a rare moment of clarity, George W. Bush admitted the war on terror could not be won. The next day, he did a flip-flop, announcing that the US is winning his unilaterally declared conflict. Bush knows his war can only be won by defeating the world’s biggest bully. But, according to a multitude of polls on global sentiment, the US, under his leadership, is the international bully and the chief sponsor of global terror.

Disgruntled feels: Déjà vu! An unintended consequence of US defoliation during the Vietnam conflict is the human and environmental damage caused by Agent Orange. Like Vietnam veterans, the first Gulf War vets complained of a number of ailments believed to result from exposure to depleted uranium. As expected, the US government downplayed their complaints and deployed its depleted uranium arsenal in Afghanistan and Iraq. For Gulf War II veterans and victims, it is déjà vu!

Antwone Fisher

By John Burl Smith

Fear and terror are very strong emotions that are awfully easy to view as threats from outside. Under those circumstances, most victims tend to think of erecting walls for protection or developing defenses to ward off attackers. Terror can petrify and fear can well up within, paralyzing all appropriate responses. For most people, me included, it is inconceivable that such hysteria can grip the mind and incapacitate rational functioning. For me that was true until the little girl next-door told us of our grandson Trevius’ nightmare. She said he was bullied daily by two boys while waiting for the bus to Cedar Grove Middle School in DeKalb County, Georgia; he was too afraid to tell anyone.

Outraged, my first reaction was to rant and call him a coward. Demanding he be a man and fight back, I resolved to teach Trevius to defend himself. Later that night, while trying to sleep, a confused face with big bright eyes flashed in my mind. Instantly, I recognized it as Antwone Fisher, a boy (played by Derek Luke) in the movie by that name directed by Denzel Washington.

A true story, Antwone, born to a mother he never knew while she was in prison, grew up in foster care. His caretaker, an elderly woman with a daughter in her early twenties, was a strange character with unclear motivations. The woman forced Antwone and two other boys in her care to attend church religiously. As most fire and brimstone zealots, she brutalized them physically and verbally. Her favorite reference when addressing Antwone was “nigger.” Terrified when the daughter sexually molested him, Antwone found refuge with a boy down the street, who befriends him. Alone, petrified, brutalized, sexually molested and taken in by the streetwise punk, Antwone grew up fighting at every provocation to suppress his fears.

Co-staring as a navy psychiatrist, Denzel Washington tries to help Antwone understand his fears and resolve inner conflicts, if he is to remain in the navy. His first major directing effort, Washington does an excellent job grappling with a very difficult, yet very real and human, experience. Tastefully exposing the forces that shaped Antwone’s development, Washington lifts the shroud of familial mystery, cultural deviance and religious fervor that cloud Antwone’s mind. Brilliantly, Washington peels away the complex layers that armor the ego of many young black men in America.

For instance, at first glance Antwone’s elderly caretaker seems motivated by hatred and meanness. However, from the perspective of someone abandoned in an uncaring world, she may have been trying to toughen him for the harsh realities that await someone, like Antwone or Trevius, who lacks the sheltering arms of caring grandparents. Born into a situation not too unlike Antwone’s, Trevius’ parents did not inoculate him with self-esteem and confidence. Like Antwone, only Trevius knows the truth of his early years, but today we all know what those experiences taught him.

Psychologically, Washington’s insightful characterization pulls back the curtain on a quiet kind of terror most never experience, and even if one does, it is so very difficult to verbalize, let alone comprehend. Although I had seen that look of terror reflected in Antwone’s eyes in Trevius’ before, I failed to recognize it. Life’s dynamism is so powerful and profound, like Washington, I must be sensitive enough to help my grandson work through his fears while finding and retaining his humanity and not compound the brutality the world has heaped upon him.

The movie Antwone Fisher is excellent viewing for the family. It is worth seeing a second and third time. So, check it out on the next trip to the video store.

Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes & Telephone Calls

Email www.rumormillnews.com Posted By: PROZZAK, “I'm not against any one politician. I am against those who disgrace the Constitutional Republic upon which America was founded: The ability to protest freely without "free speech zones" surrounded by barbed wired, armed guards with machine guns. This is not America. The First Amendment is having a near-death experience. Bush raised the alert status to Code Orange based on three-year-old information and exclaimed to the country, "We are a nation in danger." How right he was!

Email www.rense.com/general56/dep.htm Depleted Uranium - The Real Dirty Bombs-By Christopher Bollyn...Lost in the media circus about the Iraq war, supposedly being fought to prevent a tyrant from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, is the salient fact that the United States and Britain are actively waging chemical and nuclear warfare in Iraq - using depleted uranium munitions. The corporate-controlled press has failed to inform the public that tons of banned weapons of mass destruction (WMD) - used and unused - remain in Iraq...being used by the U.S.-led coalition.

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