Blowin' in the Wind
By Bob Dylan
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin'
in the wind.
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin'
in the wind.
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin'
in the wind.
The Harlem
Hellfighters
Although their numbers were small
during the war for independence, over 200,000 slaves and free blacks fought in
the Civil War and as Buffalo Soldiers. For the more than 400,000 slave
descendants who fought for the United States (US) in World War I (WWI), Jim
Crow segregation was a formidable obstacle. Facing hostile enemies abroad and
at home, oftentimes without proper training or adequate equipment, and hampered
by poor communications and incompetent white officers, black soldiers and
sailors still demonstrated their effectiveness, efficiency, bravery and loyalty
in defense of an ungrateful nation.
In 1917, France was desperate. WWI had exhausted its dwindling army and taken
the measure of the beleaguered nation. Defeat lurked in Verdun, Argonne Forest
and trenches around Aisne-Marne. The French appealed to the US for help. Rather
than send white Doughboys to fight under the French flag, the American
Expeditionary Force (AEF) sent the 93rd Division, made up of black boys from
New York, Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Tennessee and
Washington, DC.
Comprised of three National Guard units, what the 93rd lacked in training and
experience, they made up in conspicuous valor and audacious gallantry. The
first US combat troops on French soil, the 93rd became a unit in the French
Army. For the French, dying in combat was an equal opportunity undertaking. So,
when the all black 369th Infantry, the first regiment of the 93rd Division to
reach France, arrived in December 1917, it entered combat in the Argonne
Forest. For nearly a month they repelled German assaults. Without a break from
combat, the 369th took on the German offensive at Minacourt. The intrepid 369th
showed tremendous tenacity fighting alongside the French 161st Division,
crushing the Germans at Aisne-Marne.
Remaining at the front without relief and routing the enemy when they should
have suffered defeated, Germans dubbed the 369th the "Harlem
Hellfighters." Vanquishing the Germans at Meuse-Argonne, the 369th fought
at the front for 191 consecutive days, five days longer than any other regiment
of the AEF. In addition to awarding the unit the Croix de Guerre, France
presented 171 individual medals to members of the unit for exceptional
gallantry in action.
Black troops took justifiable pride in the 93rd Division's performance. The
Division paid a very heavy price in helping to achieve victory -- 3,534
casualties. After proving themselves in Europe, black soldiers and sailors
expected a hero's welcome on returning home to America. Instead, they were
greeted by black and white signs, racial discrimination and the "Red Summer"
of 1919.
Anti-black race riots erupted in twenty-six cities across the US. Crowds of
whites, as large as 100,000, lynched black men at will. The grim total
increased from 58 in 1918 to 77 in 1919, ten of those victims were war veterans
lynched while wearing their uniforms. Whites feared that after having tasted a
bit of respect in France, black soldiers' demands for equality would be backed
up with their military training. This was a time of ethnic cleansing and white
terrorism against blacks in the US. With the return of black troops, the Ku
Klux Klan became a shadow government in the US and lynchings increased
dramatically each year. (Sources: www.au.af.mil/au/aul/bibs/afhist/afwwi
and ww2.pstripes.osd.mil/01/feb01/ed021901d)
Bush Refuses to Honor a Black War Hero!
By John Burl Smith
The Medal of Honor application
for Henry L. Johnson, a black American WWI hero, who fought with the 369th
'Harlem Hellfighters,' submitted in 1996 was rejected by the Bush
administration without comment. The application for the medal was approved by
the Clinton administration's Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera in 2001. But
Bush's Joint Chiefs Chairman Henry Shelton would not concur before leaving
office. US Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y) asked newly appointed Joint Chiefs
Chairman, General Richard Myers to keep the process alive by reconsidering the
decision.
In a letter to the Pentagon, Sen. Schumer wrote, "It would be extremely
unfair to force Sergeant Johnson's application to undergo an entirely new
review. Sergeant Johnson's family and supporters have fought for too long to
gain him the recognition warranted by his actions on the battlefield. The
military's inaction on this case is becoming increasingly inexplicable as more
evidence of the historical record surrounding Johnson's heroism is uncovered.
Burial in Arlington National Cemetery is reserved for the truest of American
heroes, so it's obvious that at some point someone in the U.S. military
establishment took notice of Johnson's service."
Born to very poor parents in Alexandria, Virginia, Johnson was a small, quiet
man. He stood just 5 feet 4 inches and weighed 130 pounds. Johnson grew up in
Albany, New York, where he joined the Army National Guard's 369th 'Harlem
Hellfighter.' Jim Crow segregation policies forced the black American unit to
fight under the French flag, rather than the American stars and stripes.
Cpl. Johnson's heroic battle took place on May 15, 1918. His exploits were far
more heroic than those of Sgt. Alvin York, who did not receive a scratch during
his ambush of German troops. And, the world remembers the farcical heroics
attributed to Pfc. Jessica Lynch. Neither compares to the indomitable will and
gallantry of Sgt. Johnson.
Johnson and Needham Roberts, his comrade, performed in real life the kinds of
things John Wayne portrayed in movies when a German raiding party attacked
their position. Lobbing grenades at their post, two dozen Germans attacked in
full force. Roberts and Johnson were seriously wounded, but Johnson returned
fire until he ran out of ammunition. Fighting off Germans trying to take
Roberts prisoner, he attacked them swinging his rifle butt and a bolo knife. He
killed two Germans while rescuing Roberts.
The wounded men took cover in their bunker, where they held off the Germans.
Suffering some 20 wounds and with only grenades passed to him by Roberts,
Johnson held the superior force at bay for more than an hour. He was credited
with killing 4 and wounding 10. Johnson spent weeks in a French hospital with
injuries to his left arm, back, feet and face. Doctors inserted a silver plate
in his left foot.
Johnson and Roberts received the French Croix de Guerre with Gold Palm for
their gallantry. He was also promoted to sergeant. Sgt. Johnson was not
discharged as a disabled veteran; his war record did not mention his wounds.
Johnson, like many other black war veterans, did not receive any disability allowance
or medical care. Returning to his job as a redcap at the Albany train station,
Johnson found the work was too strenuous -- he continued suffering from his war
wounds. Facing racism in the US, Johnson was disheartened. Constantly in pain,
he began drinking heavily.
Heralded by the US government as a hero in order to use his face to sell war
stamps, Johnson died a destitute alcoholic at the age of 32. Needham Roberts,
his comrade-in-arms, died in a mental institution. Johnson was posthumously
awarded the Purple Heart, 78 years after receiving his wounds, on June 25,
1996. Lawmakers from New York that sought the military's highest honor for
Henry Johnson have continued to pressure George W. Bush to award Johnson the
Medal of Honor with federal legislation. The bill also proposed a review of
service records of other black WWI veterans to determine whether they too were
overlooked for awards of valor.
The battle of Henry Johnson shows that racism is still alive and well at the
top of the US military chain of command. This is one US war hero Bush refuses
to honor. Not honoring Johnson speaks volumes about racism and discrimination
in the US today, rather than in 1919! (Sources: www.arlingtoncemetery.net/henry-johnson
and www.coax.net/people/lwf/NAAA_CHG)
Black Anti-War
Sentiments
Somehow this madness must
cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering
poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes
are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor in
America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and
corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it
stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders
of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to
stop it must be ours. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a
man of peace, opposed naked aggression. He was criticized by some in the civil
rights movement for his public opposition of the Vietnam War, because it took
the focus off the battle for racial equality here at home. But, Dr. King, who
believed 'injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere,' empathized with those
dying, being maimed and displaced in Southeast Asia. Never one to be silent
about injustice, he lent his voice to the anti-war movement. Some of his
followers believe, if he was alive today, Dr. King would oppose the US wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Like the majority of US and world citizens, most black Americans believe the US
is on the wrong side of history. Their anti-war sentiments are succinctly
expressed "For African Americans, folly of this war hits home, an article
written earlier this year by Derrick Z. Jackson (Boston Globe, May 9, 2007).
Jackson quotes a number of African American veterans, including Gregory Black,
a retired Navy diver and creator of the Internet site www.BlackMilitaryWorld.com. The following
are some of their cogent remarks:
"This is not a black people's war. This is not a poor people's war. This
is an oilman's war."
"African-Americans detest this war. Everybody kind of knows the truth
behind this war. It's a cash cow for the military defense industry, when you
look at the money these contractors are making. African-Americans saw this at
the beginning of the war and now the rest of the country has figured it out.
It's not benefiting us in the least. It's basically about oil, basically about
money. It's an economic war."
"Guys are saying we're halfway around the world fighting people of color under
the guise of democracy and we can't see how it's benefited anyone." It's
hard to fight halfway around the world for people's freedom when you're not
sure you have it at home."
According to military sociologist
David R. Segal, who has conducted surveys of solders, "African-Americans
are always more sensitive to anything that smacks of neocolonialism, which this
war did smack of. What we're getting is not an opposition to war, but
considerable opposition to this war. What we're seeing is a growing resentment
that it feels to them that the military has gone to war, but not the nation.
The military has gone to war; the nation has gone to Wal-Mart."
Rally for Jena 6
The Jena 6 controversy began when
black students sat under a 'white' tree. White students, in what the town's
fathers labeled an 'adolescent prank,' hung nooses from its branches; the
culprits received relatively light three-day school suspensions. Black students
organized a protest. The white District Attorney, Reed Walters, publicly
threatened the black student protestors with 'ruined lives' at a school
assembly, if they did not end the protest.
A December 2006 fight among students led to criminal charges being filed
against six black students, rather than school suspensions or expulsions. The
first of the six black students to go on trial, Mychal Bell was charged with
attempted murder. The charge was reduced to aggravated battery. At trial, his
attorney, a public defender, called no witnesses, and the all-white jury took just
three hours to convict Bell.
On Friday, September 14, 2007, an appeals court judge threw out Bell's
conviction. This turn in the Jena 6 saga comes on the heels of a West Virginia
Abu Ghraib-like hate crime in which a black woman was held captive by six
whites for a week, sexually abused and beaten. While the Bell case has been
remanded to juvenile court for retrial, since Bell was only 16 at the time of
his arrest, charges are still pending against the other five black students.
On September 20, 2007, thousands of people plan to gather in Jena, Louisiana to
protest in support of the Jena 6. The rally at the Jena courthouse begins at 9
a.m. For more information on efforts to support the Jena 6, visit www.JenaSix.org.
Disgruntled wants to know:
Given the events of the past thirty years, Mahmoud Abbas behaves as though
he has just awakened from a deep sleep like Rip Van Winkle. Consequently, he
missed Anwar Sadat's Sinai deal with his friend Menachem Begin, which sold the
Palestinians down the Nile, as well as, Israel and the US hoodwinking Yasser
Arafat with the Oslo Accords' promise of statehood. Snoozing through the entire
Intifadah and nodding through funerals for thousands of Palestinian children,
mothers and elderly killed by Israeli tanks and planes, Abbas' eyes are wide
shut to the treachery of the occupier Israel, which has reneged on every
agreement it has made with the Palestinians. Asleep at the wheel, Abbas is dead
set on following a flawed road map, which fails to include the Israeli
'security fence' that steals more Palestinian land. Ignorant of his people's
history, Abbas is crawling into bed with a floozy rather than finding common
ground with HAMAS, which represents his people. Wake up Abbas and smell the
coffee! If Israel will not honor UN resolution 242, why would Ehud Olmert honor
an agreement with Abbas, who controls less territory and commands less loyalty
than Arafat?
Disgruntled
says: From former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, we learned some
intuitive truths. For example, "...as we know, there are known knowns;
there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that
is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also
unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know." One unknowable
is what will happen in the future. Yet, there are politicians and talking heads
asserting, as if they know it is fact, what will happen in Iraq if US troops
leave. No one knows what will happen in Iraq. The US is in the same position it
was in when it had overstayed its welcome in Vietnam. We do know, based on that
unfortunate experience, that none of the prognostications of dominoes falling
proved true. If this nation was honest, it would admit it was morally and
ethically wrong for what it did in Vietnam. Given Iraq did nothing to provoke
an attack, the US, in 20/20 hindsight, is likely to be similarly wrong for its
naked aggression.
Disgruntled
feels: Betrayed! While Republicans are working overtime to get Democrats
to denounce the Moveon.org newspaper advertisement that does a play on words
with General Petraeus' name and 'betray us,' rank and file members of the
Democratic Party, independents, moderates and others feel betrayed by our
elected representatives in both parties. In the 2006 mid-term elections, US
voters sent a majority of Democrats to Congress to end this war with the world
nonsense, treat terrorist acts as the crimes they are and pursue and prosecute
the perpetrators using tools of law enforcement, rather than military might.
Instead of honoring this mandate, Democrats seem determined to cave-in and
continue funding this unholy war. We would rather see Bush vetoes than to be
betrayed by Democrats compromising with the devils that lied us into war and
created this mess in the first place.
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls
Email hang101@comcast.com On Wednesday, Georgia
GOP Senator Johnny Isakson appeared on C-Span's Washington Journal. According
to Isakson, the US went to war in Iraq to enforce UN Resolution 1441, because
Saddam Hussein refused to allow UN weapon inspectors access to suspected WMD
sites. No UN Resolution authorized the use of force against Iraq. In fact,
hours before the US began its 'shock and awe' attack, inspectors begged for
more time to complete their mission. When Isakson said he never heard that
Saddam switched from dollars to euros in selling Iraqi oil under the UN oil for
food program, I dismissed him as credible. Stuck on stupid, Isakson is too
ill-informed or un-informed to represent any state, even Georgia!
Email www.freewebs.com/truthseeker22
...Imminent Iran War Endangers Planet...By Steve Beckow...According to radiation
experts...if we don't stop an assault on Iran (or any other country) using the
same depleted-uranium (DU) weapons that have been used in the Balkans, Iraq,
and Afghanistan, Iran (or any other country) could become a wasteland, as Iraq
may already have become. Such an attack would release a load of hundreds if not
thousands of tons of DU into the atmosphere to circle the globe with lethal
effect for billions of years. Dr. Rosalie Bertelle, an
internationally-recognized radiation expert, has called the DU risk
"omnicide."
Email http://news.independent.co.uk
...Doctors accuse US of 'unethical practices' at Guantanamo Bay...By Jeremy
Laurance...More than 260 doctors from around the world have launched an unprecedented
attack on the American medical establishment for its failure to condemn
unethical practices by medical practitioners at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp
in Cuba. In a letter to The Lancet, the doctors from 16 countries, including
Britain and America, say the failure of the US regulatory authorities to act is
"damaging the reputation of US military medicine." They compare the
actions of the military doctors...to those of the South African security police
involved in the death of the anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko 30 years ago.
Email liljoe.radical@gmail.com...By
Douglas A. Borer…The US promotes democratization in the Middle East and
has taken direct action by invading Afghanistan and Iraq to bestow the
blessings of democracy. However, for Muslims, the coverup emerges when
Washington then rejects the outcome of the democratic process following Hamas'
victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections, and when it disregards the fact that
in Lebanon Hizbullah is an elected part of the government. Washington ignores
the fact that Iran is a democracy with hotly contested elections. Moreover, in
Afghanistan and Iraq the democracies that the US has installed appear to be
contributing causes of the ongoing Islamic insurgencies that threaten to spread
throughout the region. The US preaches democracy as a broad policy mandate,
only to reject it when it produces results America doesn't like.
Email www.legitgov.org/ Iraq Oil: The Vultures
are Waiting...By Sarah Meyer ...The oil majors met at the Iraq Oil, Gas,
Petrochemical & Electricity Summit from 2 - 4 September 2007 in Dubai to
discuss "the future of Iraq's abundant energy resources." Attending
were US puppets, described as "some of the most important figures from
Iraq's energy sector." Also attending were the waiting vultures, BP,
Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Lukoil, Statoil, Marathon Oil, Total, Shell,
Kuwait National Petroleum, Annadarko, Schlumberger, ABB, ONGC, General
Electric, Cummins Power, Mitsui, Aegis, ArmorGroup, Janussian, Control Risks
Group, Unity, Hart, Olive Security, GardaWorld and Triple Canopy.
Email www.flybynews.com...It
took 60 years for an in-depth report to surface on the horrid conditions from
the US dropping atomic bombs on two Japanese cities. Independent journalist
Wilfred Burchett, wrote: "Hiroshima does not look like a bombed city. It
looks as if a monster steamroller has passed over it and squashed it out of
existence. I write these facts as dispassionately as I can in the hope that
they will act as a warning to the world." But, the censors came in to
shape public opinion. Malcolm X said: "The press is so powerful in its
image-making role; it can make a criminal look like he's the victim and make
the victim look like he's the criminal."
Email hardcore323@att.com According to a news report I ran across on the net, the town of Mansfield, Louisiana is imposing a city-wide dress code that prohibits the sag. Those caught sagging will be fined $150 (plus court costs) or be thrown into jail for up to 15 days. Members of the city council passing this ordinance claim it is "race-blind," but we know better. It is aimed at the group this nation traditionally has seen as "threatening" - young, black men. It is a shame that black folks are still targeted with racist laws in the twenty-first century.