The DISH
Unbossed and unbought
news and information you can use
Vol. 11 Issue 6…Dedicated to the Dialogue on
Race…February 8, 2008
Venue for an Artist
Who Will Clean up the Elephant Crap?
By Robert W. Barker
No matter who becomes the next
president, he/she will have a lot of cleaning to do. The elephant crap the
current elephants have left behind will be a circus show clean up.
A huge pile of dung is sitting on the floor of the Congress and the debt to the
world is insurmountable and growing so high the pachyderm craps on a ladder.
The Elephants have crapped all over the Constitution, left foot prints on the
US social fabric and urinated on rights that many gave blood for.
Elephant crap can be found in
almost every community in the USA. The sizes of the crap piles are larger in
New Orleans than, say, Pensacola, but both have the scent of pachyderm dung all
over them. The difference is New Orleans does not like the smell, the Pensacola
residents revel in its nasty scent.
Arrogant pachyderms have driven us to send dung to Iraq and want to spread it
to Iran and beyond. Lying trunk bearing animals have placed us all in a huge
pile of feces that is sticking to every citizen.
Their long trunks reached the international community and sprayed them with
snot with a mighty blow from their long reaching nostrils.
When the smell was too much for the other countries and they backed away
holding their nostrils from the stench, they are called traitors for not
wanting elephant dung in their land.
Elephants never forget, they say, so we can depend on these elephants to
remember all that cleaned up the crap they left, and those crappers will be
waiting to loosen some dung on them later.
Elephants’ flagellations are killing many in places like Iraq and fellow
pachyderms want to spread this pachyderm fart worldwide.
It does not take a deep breath to smell these animals but many have filled
their nostrils with wax and become nonchalant at the overwhelming odor.
Now it is time for a new Zookeeper and we wonder will they ever get the scent
of elephant crap out of the Zoo or will they put another elephant in charge so
that the scent will never go away. And, if we put a donkey with a full blown
cart to haul away the droppings in the Zoo, will they be able to overcome the
nasty environment left by overeating pachyderms with the runs?
Let us get out the hoses, bring
on the brooms, shovels, and tools for cleaning and get the odor of awful dung
smells out of the USA and around the world.
About Me: Robert Barker is a writer
photographer and travail aficionado from Eureka, CA. Mr. Barker writes for
several Internet sites around the globe. Send thanks and comments to Mr. Barker
at BDozer1947@aol.com.
Politics Y2k8
Brattleboro's Ballot
In the tradition of rebellion
against tyranny begun by the nation's founding fathers in opposing the policies
of an inane King George, the citizens of Brattleboro, Vermont will consider a
ballot measure on March 4 that calls for the arrest of George W. Bush and Dick
Cheney for crimes against the Constitution. At least five percent of
Brattleboro's citizens signed the petition that was submitted to the town's
Select Board, which voted 3-2 to put the measure on the ballot.
News of the measure has generated a lot of attention, especially on the
Internet. Some people have been highly critical of the town's decision to hold
Bush and Cheney accountable for their impeachable offenses. Given Congress
refuses to act, the people are left with little choice. And, even though they
possess little real power to change the situation, it beats doing nothing.
Bit of History
Rosa L. Parks (1913-2005)
"I'd see the bus pass every day. But
to me, that was a way of life; we had no choice but to accept what was the custom.
The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white
world." -- Rosa
Parks on buses taking white students to their new school and black students
walking to theirs.
Born February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama, Rosa Louise McCauley grew up on a
farm in Pine Level, just outside Montgomery. Home-schooled by her mother until
age eleven, McCauley took courses at the Industrial School for Girls in
Montgomery, before attending a secondary education school set up by the Alabama
State Teachers College for Negroes. McCauley dropped out of school to care for
her sick grandmother and later her mother.
She married Raymond Parks (1932), a barber and member of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). After her marriage,
Rosa Parks held many jobs, but managed to complete her high school studies at a
time when few blacks had high school diplomas.
In 1943, she joined the Montgomery branch of the NAACP, becoming secretary to
its president, Edgar D. Nixon, a position she held until 1957. Parks briefly
worked at Maxwell Air Force Base, where segregation was not allowed; she rode
on an integrated trolley, an experience she said "opened my eyes up."
She worked as housekeeper and seamstress for Clifford and Virginia Durr. During
the summer of 1955, the liberal white couple encouraged her to attend the
Highlander Folk School, an education center for workers' rights and racial
equality.
On December 1, 1955, Parks boarded a bus, paid her fare and took a seat in the
"colored" section. When all the seats reserved for whites filled up,
James Blake, the bus driver, ordered Parks and other blacks to give their seats
to white passengers. In her 1992 autobiography, Rosa Parks: My Story, she
recalled the incident, writing, "...I felt a determination cover my body
like a quilt on a winter night." She refused to vacate her seat; Blake
called the police, which arrested and charged her with violating the law.
Four days later, Parks was found guilty of disorderly conduct and violation of
a local ordinance. It rained that day, but blacks did not board a bus. Parks'
arrest ignited a spark for change. The Montgomery Bus Boycott became one of the
most successful anti-segregation movements in US history. Her defiance also
served as the catalyst for Browder v. Gayle, which challenged the legality of
segregated buses. On June 19, 1956, a US District Court ruled the segregation
law violated the equal protection and due process clause of the Constitution's
14th Amendment. On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the lower
court's decision, outlawing racial segregation on buses.
On December 21, 1956, the day after the court order arrived in Alabama, the
boycott that lasted 381 days ended. However, segregationists continued to commit
acts of violence and retaliation against black churches and civil rights
activists. Parks lost her job at the department store. In 1957, her family
moved to Virginia, where Parks found a job as a hostess in an inn at Hampton
Institute. Later that year, they moved to Detroit, Michigan, where Parks worked
as a seamstress. In 1965, US Rep. John Conyers (D) hired her as a secretary and
receptionist for his congressional office, a position Parks held until her 1988
retirement.
In 1987, she co-founded the Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development. Its
"Pathways to Freedom" tours introduce young people to civil rights
and Underground Railroad sites. In addition to her autobiography, Parks
published her memoirs, Quiet Strength, in 1995. She received honorary
doctorates from universities worldwide, the NAACP Spingarn Medal (1979), Martin
Luther King Jr. Award (1980), induction into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame
(1983), Presidential Medal of Freedom (1996), and the Congressional Gold Medal
(1999).
Parks died October 24, 2005. On October 29, 2005, her casket was transported to
Washington, D.C., to lie in honor in the US Capitol Rotunda -- the first woman
and second black so honored. (Sources: www.rosaparks.org/
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks)
The Dark Knight-Batman/White
Ninja/Zorro is undergoing serious change from child to young man. His most
important task requires him to fight evil in an obscure dimension. Ignorance is
a tenacious foe ravishing the nation's public school system. When asked for
comments on his public school struggles, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro declared,
"Grandma, the teachers can't teach!" It was an unexpected declaration
without further explanation. Thus, this situation requires more thorough
exploration.
Everything Must Change
By Benard Ighner
Performed by Oleta
Adams
Everything must change
Nothing stays the same
No one stays the same
The young become the old
And mysteries do unfold
'Cause that's the way of time
Nothing and no one
goes unchanged
There are not many things in life
You can be sure of
Except rain comes from the clouds
Sun lights up the sky
And hummingbirds do fly
Winter turns to spring
A wounded heart will heal
But never much too
soon
Yes, everything will change
The young become the old
And mysteries do unfold
'Cause that's the way
of time
Nothing and no one goes unchanged
There are not many things in life
You can be sure of
Except....Except
Rain comes from the clouds
Sun lights up the sky
And hummingbirds do
fly (Repeated three times)
Everything must change
No one stays the same
No one, no one
Everyone must
change...
Disgruntled feels:
Oily! As its preemptive war and occupation of Iraq demonstrate, under George W.
Bush, the US has acted like the playground bully, terrorizing weaker opponents,
taking from them what it wishes. And, just like a bully, the US lied about its
actions. Its reason for war in Iraq was not weapons of mass destruction. Even
the belated claim of faulty intelligence is a lie. According to a study by the
Center for Public Integrity, Bush, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Dick
Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice lied hundreds of times in
leading the US to war. Now, the world is told the US must stay the course. Some
politicians would have the US occupying Iraq until the region's oil wells run
dry. Oil is the reason the US is in Iraq. Likewise, the reason the US went to
war against Afghanistan has more to do with a gas pipeline and opium than Osama
bin Laden and 9-11.
Disgruntled
says: In my formerly middle class subdivision, hundreds of houses are
vacant. A sign of the times, the repo man visited my neighbor. The tow truck
backed into her driveway, hoisted her car onto its flatbed, and drove away. Nothing could sway the repo man, who
seemed oblivious to her tears and tantrum. He must deal with a lot of desperate
and distraught women. The next morning, my neighbor caught the bus. Some folks
believe there is no recession, only a slight downturn in the economy. That has
to be a top down perspective. Because in looking at this situation from the bottom
up, the nation has declined well beyond recession; poor folks are experiencing
a depression. In such an environment, change comes rapidly, and one must be
ready to deal with it when it happens. One day, we style in our own ride and
the next day we commute via the bus.
Disgruntled
wants to know: Revelations about Enron's accounting schemes to fool
employees and investors that it was a sound entity suggested the company
engaged in unique practices. However, the subprime mortgage mess shows shoddy
accounting is widespread. No one, especially the Democrat-controlled Congress,
seems to be rectifying this mess or calling the major players on the carpet for
creating it in the first place. Congress can investigate professional athletes
on steroids, but robber barons ruining lives are off limits. With such a
laissez-faire attitude, expect the government to continue bailing out the big
banking and insurance businesses. The government will claim they are too
important and/or too big relative to the overall economy to be allowed to fail.
Ironically, the media will neither explore nor deplore the fact that such
bailouts are anathema to market capitalism, which they generally champion. I
must have missed something in Econ 101? What is the market rationale for allowing
small businesses and individuals to fail, when the government assures the big
boys prevail?
Signs of the Times
By Dot
It seems the nation's leaders have belatedly come to realize the economic
situation is significantly less than rosy and the US economy's resiliency is
questionable. As Congress debates the proper size and scope of a fiscal
stimulus package, the financial fate of millions grow direr.
Thanks in large measure to the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs, declines
in the value of the dollar and the subprime mortgage mess, thousands have lost
their homes, and many more face foreclosure. Bankruptcy filings across the
nation are at an all-time high and rising as families beset by hard times try
to salvage pieces of lives turned upside down by job loss, illness, credit card
debt, etc.
In this economic morass, one bright spot is the repossession business, which is
booming, thanks to growth in the number of delinquent automobile loans. Armed
with tow trucks and the law, repo men are making life even more unpleasant for
families and individuals struggling to make ends meet in an economy that has
turned south. With gold hovering around $900 a troy ounce, people are pawning
personal possessions at an unusually high rate to stave off foreclosures and
repossessions.
These are signs of the times, which are economically rough for a growing number
of families and individuals. Unfortunately, the fiscal stimulus package being
considered by Congress will do nothing to improve the economic situation for
those currently facing foreclosures and repossessions.
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Phone Calls
Email www.commondreams.org...Stepford Republicans!...By
Jeff Cohen…The Stepford Wives" is the story of once-smart,
independent women who get abducted and turned into tamed, mindless robots. I
have a theory about a similarly subversive process that turns grown men once
capable of independent and reasoned thought into robotic extremists. Call them
Stepford Republicans. The nefarious transformation always occurs before the
individual gets close to becoming a Republican president or vice president.
Stepford Wives become robotically subservient only to their husbands; they pose
no threat to the rest of us. But Stepford Republicans become subservient to
right-wing forces of corporatism, war and prejudice. Once converted into
mindless ideologues, Stepford Republicans are a threat to us all.
Email http://abcnews.go.com...Sick Cattle
Used to Feed School Children...By Brian Hartman...A hidden camera investigation
uncovered disturbing treatment of ailing cows at a California slaughterhouse
that provides meat for school lunches. The video, obtained during what the
Humane Society of the United States said was a six-week undercover
investigation, shows a sickly cow being dragged by a chain before being poked,
prodded, rolled and lifted with a forklift. Workers also are seen hosing the faces
of cows in a manner that HSUS described as "torture, right out of a
waterboarding manual." An HSUS official said its investigator confirmed
that at least some of the animals in the video were "spent dairy
cows," allegedly sold for meat after they had grown too old and sick to
produce milk, and that they were slaughtered for use in the human food supply.
HSUS says Westland Meat Company, which owns the slaughterhouse in Chino,
Calif., is the No. 2 supplier of beef to a USDA program that "distributes
the beef to needy families, the elderly, and also to schools, through the
National School Lunch Program."
Email www.truthout.org...What Killed the
Ownership Society...By Tom Saunders...Naomi Klein, writing for The Nation, asks:
"Remember the 'ownership society,' fixture of major George W. Bush
addresses for the first four years of his presidency? 'We're creating ... an
ownership society in this country, where more Americans than ever will be able
to open up their door where they live and say, welcome to my house, welcome to
my piece of property,' Bush said in October 2004. Washington insider Grover
Norquist predicted the ownership society would be Bush's greatest legacy,
remembered 'long after people can no longer pronounce or spell Fallujah.' Yet
in his final State of the Union address, the phrase was conspicuously absent.
And little wonder: rather than its proud father, Bush has turned out to be the
ownership society's undertaker."
Email www.washingtonpost.com ....Gandhi's
Grandson Quits Peace Center After Remarks on Israel...The grandson of Indian
spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi resigned as president of the board of a
conflict resolution institute after writing an online essay on a Washington
Post blog calling Jews and Israel "the biggest players" in a global
culture of violence ... He wrote that Jewish identity is "locked into the
holocaust experience," which Jews "overplay . . . to the point that
it begins to repulse friends." The Jewish nation -- Israel, he wrote -- is
too reliant upon weapons and bombs and should instead befriend its enemies.