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Volume 10 Issue 13…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…March 30, 2007
Intuit's Vibe
Democracy
By Langston Hughes
Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and
fear.
I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.
I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.
I cannot live on
tomorrow's bread.
Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted In a great need.
I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you.
Honoring Confederate
Heritage
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court handed down its landmark ruling in Brown v Board of Education of Topeka,
outlawing racial segregation in public schools. The ruling struck down the
"separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy
v Ferguson (1896), which the Court ruled was inherently unequal.
Outraged over the decision, southerners pledged massive resistance to Brown's implementation.
In March 1956, nineteen (19) United States Senators, representing eleven
states, and 77 members of the House of Representatives, including the entire
Georgia delegation, signed the Southern Manifesto, which charged the Supreme
Court with "a clear abuse of judicial power." Much like the southern
states' efforts to preserve slavery, i.e., "the southern way of
life," during the Civil War, signatories of the manifesto pledged to fight
the decision, which was seen as an unconstitutional encroachment on their
southern heritage.
As part of the global commemoration of the 1807 end of the Atlantic Slave Trade, several US state legislatures have passed legislation apologizing for their role in the inhumane institution. In February, US Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) introduced legislation on the House floor calling on the US government to apologize for 246 years of slavery and 100 years of Jim Crow discrimination. While it stopped short of an apology and far short of calling for reparations, Rep. Cohen commended the Virginia General Assembly for becoming the first state of the old Confederacy to express "profound regret" for the "involuntary servitude" of African-Americans and the "exploitation" of Native Americans.
In response to the introduction of a resolution in Georgia's General Assembly calling for such an apology, Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) has expressed some reticence about issuing an apology for slavery and suggested the state should look forward, not back at the sins of the state's forefathers.
State Senator Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) proposed a bill to recognize Georgia's Confederate history heritage. If passed, the legislation will permanently establish the month of April for recognizing Georgia's considerable role in efforts to maintain slavery and ongoing racial inequality.
The slavery apology measure may never receive a
vote. Mullis' proposal, Senate Bill 283, has already received unanimous
approval in the Senate Rules Committee. The Senate Rules Committee now has only
to decide if and when to bring it up for a vote before the full Senate. If
passed, Georgia's blacks will be honoring their ancestors' slave masters'
"confederate" heritage during the month of April.
Iraq Constitution (2003-2006)
Following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and occupation of Iraq (2003) by
US-led forces, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) effectively became the
government of Iraq. Proponents of the war touted the need to "bring
democracy to this troubled region of the world and free the Iraqi people"
as motivations for their actions when previous assertions, i.e., weapons of
mass destruction and ties to 9-11 terrorism, proved erroneous.
Between December 2003 and March 2004, the CPA selected the Iraqi Governing
Council, which drafted the interim Law of Administration for the State of Iraq
for the Transitional Period (TAL). In January 2005, national elections were
held to select a National Assembly, which was charged with drafting Iraq's
constitution. With US assistance and a deadline for the draft's completion,
members of the Iraqi Constitutional Committee began work on the country's new
laws in early February 2005.
Fraught with controversy, sectarian tensions figured prominently in the
process; the deadline for completion of the draft constitution had to be
extended four times over language on the national religion. While the final
draft emphasized democracy, rule of law, the private over public sector,
religious freedom and human rights, Article 2 essentially established Iraq as a
theocracy... "Islam is the official religion of the State and it is a
fundamental source of legislation."
While Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader, called for
the direct election of the nation's leaders, the draft constitution called for
indirect elections of the president and prime minister. Contrary to the notion
of democracy, the draft constitution called for members of the Council of
Representatives, which are directly elected by general ballot, to select the
President of the Republic by a two-thirds majority. The President appoints the
leader of the majority party in the Council of Representatives to serve as
Prime Minister.
Described as republican, representative, parliamentary and democratic government,
the constitution claims, "Iraqis are equal before the law without
discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, origin, color, religion,
creed, belief or opinion, or economic and social status," yet "the
elections law aims to achieve a percentage of women representation not less
than one-quarter of the Council of Representatives members." This is a
quota, which is considered discriminatory and undemocratic in the US. Moreover,
in allowing the draft constitution to contain language that preserves the status
quo in the Kurdish region, the document enshrines a difference in treatment.
A majority of the Sunni members of the drafting committee did not sign the
final draft. On August 28, 2005, the constitution's proposed text was read to
the National Assembly. On October 15, 2005, Iraqi voters went to the polls to
vote in a referendum to approve or reject the draft constitution. According to
Iraqi election officials, sixteen of the country's 18 provinces voted to ratify
the new constitution. More than 60% of eligible voters participated in the
election. (Sources: www.usaid.govl,
www.usip.org and www.msnbc.msn.com and http://en.wikipedia.org)
Youthful Alzheimer's
Sufferers
The Mayo Clinic at www.mayoclinic.com
describes Alzheimer's as "a progressive, degenerative brain disease."
While it may start with occasional memory lapses, Alzheimer's sufferers
experience increasing and persistent forgetfulness, difficulties with abstract
thinking, difficulty finding the right word, disorientation, loss of judgement,
difficulty performing familiar tasks and personality changes.
At present, there is no cure for Alzheimer's, and scientists are not certain
about its causes, even though it is understood the disease damages and kills
brain cells. Like the human variant of mad cow, which sounds disturbingly
similar to Alzheimer's, only after death can its victims' brains be examined to
determine the cause of death. Given the similarities between these diseases,
one would think scientists would have conducted studies to determine if there
is indeed some link between these fatal ailments.
A recent report released by the Alzheimer's Association shows 5 million
Americans suffer from the disease, a 10 percent increase since the last
published estimate five years ago. The Alzheimer's Association predicts this
number will skyrocket once the nation's baby boomers begin to turn 65 in 2011.
More disturbing, Alzheimer's and dementia symptoms are showing up in
increasingly younger patients. The Association report estimates between 200,000
and half a million people under age 65 have either early-onset Alzheimer's or
another form of dementia. For more on Alzheimer's, visit www.alz.org/.
By John Burl Smith
Slave descendants in the United States (US) face particular problems
reconciling policies and prescriptions for advancing freedom and democracy as
put forth by George W. Bush and his neocon supporters, since blacks enjoy so
little of it. They insist blacks are free because Abraham Lincoln's
Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment declared slaves
were free. The Emancipation Proclamation only provided manumission for slaves
in states still at war with the union as of January 1, 1863, and the 13th
Amendment merely limits who can be held in physical bondage, i.e., convicted
prisoners. An administrative action, manumission merely means to unchain or
unbind individuals by commanding their release from bondage or some other
oppressive condition. Conversely, freedom allows the exercise of rights and
provides unfettered access to all institutions of this nation.
Foreigners newly nationalized or in the country on H-1B visas instantly gain
full access to institutions my ancestors built with blood, sweat and tax
dollars but could not enter. And today, Bush tells slave descendants you still
"have a long way to go." Why? Why should slave descendants still have
so far to go to realize freedom and equality, the cornerstones of democracy?
Historical records and present conditions prove conclusively, slave descendants
have never possessed "rights that a white man is bound to respect."
Concurrently, the federal government refuses to admit that slavery had
deleterious affects on its descendants and that the 3/5 Compromise of Article I
Section II of the US Constitution preserves inequality in the US. Rather than
"white only" signs above the door, today doors are marked with
"tokenism." Relatively speaking, socio-economically and politically,
the disparities between blacks and whites in the US remain as they were during
the height of chattel slavery.
The US was created to preserve the power of those who became economically
advantaged under England's domination, basically white men. Descendants of
those white men still run the US. Their ability to remain in power has depended
on their ability to keep blacks out of power (Election 2000). Almost
immediately following the Civil War and throughout Reconstruction, whites (Ku
Klux Klan) North and South undermined every effort to extend freedom to blacks.
By the 1900s, lynch-law was the law of the land. Segregation and lynching were
state-sponsored terrorism, designed to keep slave descendants from exercising
any of the freedoms granted by the 13th, 14th and 15th
Amendments.
The illusion of freedom for US blacks was unmasked in 1981 by Dot M. Smith when
she published the classic study Recession
and Unemployment: A Retrospective Analysis of the Welfare Loss
(Mid-South Journal of Economics Vol. 6 No 3). Smith's research identified the
source of disparities between blacks and whites. It revealed a trend line that
matches the 3/5 Compromise, which not only means that the US Constitution
mandated discrimination against slaves and their descendants, it means state
and federal governments enforce its discrimination today. The federal
government can not produce any hard evidence that shows it granted slaves
anything more than manumission-- the release from an oppressive condition.
The reality of this illusion of freedom is that those who accept it refuse to
believe that slavery in the US never ended. Currently, Bush and the neocons are
trying to sell people in Iraq a similar illusion of freedom. With the US
imposed constitution, written by the US chosen government, Sunnis have been
permanently 3/5 compromised down the Tigris-Euphrates into second class Iraqis,
much like blacks in the US. Internationalizing the illusion of freedom Bush and
neocons insist blacks have in the US, the Iraqi constitution guarantees Sunnis
never run Iraq's government.
This same illusion was sold to the Palestinians as the "road map" to
a Palestinian state. Constitutionally mandated discrimination (3/5 Compromise)
has been disguised as freedom for blacks since 1789. Imagine two hundred
eighteen years from today, Palestinians still struggling and dying trying to
survive under Israeli occupation backed by the US and imposed by the United
Nations.
Back in 1863, slaves were too ignorant to know the difference and today some
blacks are too rich to care. Although US freedom is an illusion, some blacks
continue fighting to preserve the lie of "Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty we are free at last!!!!!!" Not!
The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro recently expressed elation that "spring
has sprung." Across the southeast, the lush and growing greener plants are
releasing their pollen. In Georgia, it is so thick some of us dare not go
outside for fear of getting sick. An asthma sufferer, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro
would only say in response to comments on Georgia's pea soup atmosphere,
"There should be a law outlawing this goo!
Disgruntled wants to know:
You probably missed the story in US mainstream media. A version of it appeared
in the Sun-Sentinel. Written by Dave Hype, it was titled "Some old wounds
opened for Serena Williams." Hyde recalls Williams' experience on landing
in Africa last year for the first time and feeling so incredibly comfortable
and happy. According to Hyde, Williams, who is playing in the Sony Ericsson
Open in Miami, had America still echoing in her ears on Monday when she had the
referee eject a hate-spewing fan that yelled n-word epithets at her. While some
people will say it was a single hateful person, Williams knows better, as do
the media covering the tournament. Question is, when will this country stop
pretending racism is a thing of the past and seriously examine its propensity
to discriminate based solely on skin color?
Disgruntled says: During the 2000 GOP race for the presidential nomination, I found myself seriously considering a vote for Senator John McCain (R-AZ). His "straight talk" appealed to many disaffected Democrats across the nation. Like Senator Lindsey Graham and other GOP lawmakers, McCain's credibility has come into serious question as he bends over backwards to be a loyal Bushie willing to discard any principle including fiscal conservatism and the rule of law. In fact, not that Democrats are any better, the GOP seems to have lost its way. Not since Richard Nixon has the "Grand Ole Party's" leaders been so fundamentally crooked hypocrites.
Disgruntled feels:
20/20! Justice is supposed to be blind! We hear the line all the time in this
country. In the US, it is the rule of law that is supposed to be applied
indiscriminately for rich and poor, black and white. But, in reality, justice
is fully sighted and under George W. Bush and Alberto Gonzales, justice no
longer wears a blind-fold; she carries a magnifying glass to uncover nuances in
law that never before experienced the light of day, including firing attorney
generals and finding it perfectly acceptable for a current Justice Department
official to plead the fifth in congressional testimony.
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and
Phone Calls
E-mail www.msnbc.com Blacks suffer most in
foreclosure surge...Across the United States, blacks and Hispanics are more
likely to get a high-cost, subprime mortgages when buying a home than whites, a
major factor in a wave of foreclosures in poor, often black neighborhoods nationwide
as a housing slowdown puts millions of "subprime" borrowers at risk
of default. Even more troubling, real-estate industry analysts say, is an
alarming proportion of blacks and Hispanics who received subprime loans by
predatory lenders even when their credit picture was good enough to deserve a
cheaper loan. In six major US cities, black borrowers were 3.8 times more
likely than whites to receive a higher-cost home loan, and Hispanic borrowers
were 3.6 times more likely, according to a study released this month by a group
of fair housing agencies.
Email www.nbcnews.com Documents: Gonzales OK'd
firings... Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several
U.S. attorneys in a November meeting, according to documents released Friday
that contradict earlier claims that he was not closely involved in the
dismissals. The Nov. 27 meeting, in which the attorney general and at least
five top Justice Department officials participated, focused on a five-step plan
for carrying out the firings of the prosecutors, Justice Department officials
said late Friday. There, Gonzales signed off on the plan, which was crafted by
his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson.
Email www.concordmonitor.com /It's about
the oil John Warner..Cheney and his secret energy task force have finally shown
their hand. It comes as no surprise that the Iraq war is really just about oil.
A law being pushed through the Iraq parliament gives foreign companies almost
exclusive control over its oil reserves. While some profits from tapping the
world's second largest reserves would go to the Iraqi people, most would flow
to Chevron, Exxon-Mobil, Shell and BP. Other Middle Eastern countries retain
control over their oil resources and distribute profits in ways that benefit
their people. In Iraq, it will be like the early days of the 20th century when
Arab nations did the bidding of transnational corporations backed up by the
armies of foreign powers.
Email www.legitgov.org...U.S. Navy Launches Show
of Force Off Coast of Iran 27 Mar 2007.. The U.S. Navy on Tuesday began its
largest demonstration of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of
Iraq, led by a pair of aircraft carriers and backed by warplanes flying
simulated attack maneuvers off the coast of Iran. The maneuvers bring together
two strike groups of U.S. warships and more than 100 U.S. warplanes to conduct
simulated air warfare in the crowded Gulf shipping lanes.
Email jrswriter@comcast.net The
Bureau of Labor Statistics has been co-opted and made totally useless by the
Bu$hites ever since Bu$h was installed as president. They routinely underreport unemployment
figures. The real unemployment numbers in the black community are catastrophic.
Since a large number of blacks (especially black men) have been unemployed for
over two straight months they don't count them in the overall statistics. It's
all a sadistic con game. With the auto, airline, housing and mortgage
industries in a free fall, things will get even worse. Bu$h and Co (doing the
bidding of their international banking puppeteers) are turning AmeriKKKa into a
society with a super rich minority who are waging a class war which is turning
the rest of us into a wage and debt peons.
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