Volume 4 Issue 16…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race… April 27, 2001

Note: The DISH is based on themes from T.H.I.N.C. (Teaching Humanity In New Consciousness): The Chrysalis of Evolution. According to the President's Initiative on Race, "The issues that this book brings to the forefront are important in our efforts to achieve the goals set forth by the President for the Initiative. This work will serve as a solid resource for us as we begin to examine these critical issues." For your copy of T.H.I.N.C., The DISH or to submit comments, contact ICIM, Inc. at (404) 244-6023. The DISH © 2001

The Atlanta Vibe came alive Wednesday, April 18, 2001 for the United Nations "Year of Dialogue among Civilizations through Poetry." Artists of all types joined Yohannes and AHOP (African House of Poetry) in this international call to speak out against racism, bigotry, sexism, homophobia, the War on Drugs, and to free all political prisoners, such as Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier.

Mad bomber of truth, Yohannes set the mood with themes from his Red Clay Diary. Our Native American brother Raven, personifying the ancestral spirit, flew in to give voice to the ongoing plight of America's first citizens. Flying low cover in this war of words, Ntrensick and Ratsack dropped truth, like B-52s over Hanoi. Mad bomber Qadire and a host of other local word warriors kept the place torched with their artful sorties.

Addressing the capacity crowd to explain why their efforts are needed, Yohannes said, "Today, Palestinian boys barely ten years-old are facing Israeli tanks and helicopters with only rocks. Like their grandfathers, Hindus and Muslims are fighting in Kashmir. Students, from Damascus to Malaysia, are protesting Time Magazine's blasphemy of the prophet Mohammed. HIV/AIDS is depopulating Africa, and America is still selling arms to everybody. Check this out. America is paying Colombian generals billions to defoliate peasant crops with a hi-tech version of "Agent Orange." These people have no voice. If we do not speak out on their behalf, we become part of the problem. The Atlanta Vibe wants the world to know we stand for freedom, justice and equality for all people. No justice, no peace!"

by Yohannes Sharriff

Alone,

I stand in the cool blankness of a cloudless night.

At the threshold of genesis,

My conscious expands the Milky Way.

This immature world sleeps, gazing into forever,

Replaying yesterday and creating tomorrow.

Chilling winds of change blow bringing form to the nebula raging within my infant mind.

I hear the moan bereaving the dying past

And the cry, EVOLUTION!!! The future is born.

Staring into the starlit sky,

I sense the universe move within my confines.

Yet, as my unbridled imaginings swim in epiphany,

I still feel alone...separate...disconnected.

Succumbed by the hunger of a starving soul,

My need to touch searched furiously through layers of facade to cradle the undiscovered self.

As my want for life's breath broke the grip of stasis, inner will became consumed by purpose.

And in my quiet dark, muse was the only spirit witness to the emergence of a phoenix.

False images burned, releasing this child from his tomb,

A cocoon of tears woven from the fabric of linear secularism, capsuling my limited sphere.

In an attempt to quench my unknown thirst,

Questions of Fate found salvation, in the abandonment of my familiar existence.

Once freed, my foundling hope rode the wind upward, grasping the spinning infinity.

Quivering with a nameless fear, my heart clung desperately to the soul to no longer feel alone!

In that moment, the sleeper is the Awakening!

by John Burl Smith

To understand why intelligent Americans should relentlessly oppose honoring Confederate symbols one needs only read about Rabbi Steven Lebow in the Atlanta Constitution (4-20-01). Invited to speak at their baccalaureate by a committee of students and parents from Walton High School in Cobb County, Georgia, his invitation was rescinded by the pastor of the church where the event was to be held. Referring to Rabbi Lebow as a "nonbeliever in Christ," Rev. Randall Mickler claimed his talk would be a "sermon" and that it would "dishonor Christ" for him to speak. Hiding behind such thinly veiled intolerance as this, Rev. Mickler treated students and parents like Adolf Hitler's Nazis treated Germans, just before they began burning books. Rev. Mickler represents the real danger of government support for "faith-based institutions." With churches able to shun "nonbelievers" and deny free speech, the government will be paying for censorship.

A Confederate flag controversy made Walton High notorious. After students painted over a huge Confederate flag on the school's gymnasium wall, KKK activists had the flag restored. Black students suffered the same abuse their parents did in 1956, when the flag was painted on the wall in support of segregation. As their parents, white students at Walton High are being taught to adopt the same racist and bigoted attitudes, practices and behaviors. Like other southern institutions, churches have always taught racial hatred and bigotry. Christian churches still teach that black skin is the mark of Kane and that slavery was God's punishment.

Run Children Run wants young people to understand that today the battle is over ideas. Those pushing Confederate heritage know their ideas have lost relevance with their children. Young people are not dedicated to maintaining the color line as their parents. They know that in the long run, melanin, as in color, is a good thing; it adds a healthful glow to human skin.

Americans opposed to the hypocritical doublethink being imposed on our children see Rabbi Lebow's banning as lynching. Historically, lynching teaches fear. Its aim is to intimidate anyone who would speak truth about the Confederate heritage of intolerance. The truth is the Civil War was fought for the right to own slaves; those fighting for the Confederacy were traitors.

Like other young people, Walton High students are trying to reconcile the stringent response to school shootings from Jonesboro to Columbine with the national campaign of zero tolerance, the War on Drugs and the death penalty with the standards of compassionate conservatism that allows increased arsenic levels in drinking water, dioxin in meat, abrogating Kyoto, clear-cutting in national forests and oil drilling in Alaska. They watched money buy an election in the name of democracy. Students do not want sermons about a "pie-in-the-sky" Jesus Christ that hides out in churches counting money afraid of getting robbed by Muslims, Asians, Hispanics, Jews and Blacks. Most students see their parents living roles like those in movies such as American Beauty. They do not want to be plugged into the power plant like slaves in The Matrix. John 2001

Disgruntled wants to know: The Free Trade of the Americas talks convened in the name of freedom and democracy. After the mass disenfranchisement of black American voters and the Supreme Court's decision to block the counting of votes, Dubya shamelessly showed his face on an international stage talking democracy. It is any wonder the hypocrite hid behind a concrete wall?

Disgruntled says: The newspaper photo is classic. Little more than ten years old, a smiling child is draped in the Confederate battle flag. The caption reads, he believes it represents his heritage and honors his forefathers who fought on the losing side in the war between the North and South. Behind him stands his father, a white supremacist who believes in segregation, and who teaches his child black people are inferior.

Disgruntled feels: Earthy! Bound to this planet, Earth is home. If we trash it, we are doomed!

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is concerned about the future of man. When asked for his comments, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro promised, "Boy Wonder and I will travel to the future for the good news to tell the people in the past."

Phantom Scribbler

A sci-fi buff, I recently watched, for about the twentieth time, Soylent Green, the movie based on Harry Harrison's book Make Room! Make Room! Directed by Richard Fleischer, the 1973 eco-thriller stars Charleston Heston, who is not one of my favorite people since becoming chief spokesperson for the National Rifle Association (NRA). But, he was once a great actor.

Born Charles Carter on October 4, 1924 in Evanston, IL, Heston received the Academy Award for Best Actor for the movie Ben Hur. Soylent Green is not one of his better-known films. You probably remember him for Planet of the Apes, Return to Planet of the Apes or some of his other more famous movies.

Soylent Green is set in New York City in the year 2022. Mankind has polluted the Earth. Over- populated, the city is bursting at the seams. Food is scarce, and the primary food supply is synthetically manufactured in local factories. In 2022, dinner is a choice between blue, yellow and green Soylent.

When an executive of the Soylent Company is found murdered, police detective Thorn (Charlton Heston) is sent in to investigate. Acting in his final film role, Edward G. Robinson plays Sol Roth, Thorn's old friend. They team up to investigate the murder. In the course of their investigation, the pair examines a bevy of suspects from desperately poor New Yorkers mad-from-hunger or the food they eat to the few that eat real food and live well high above the masses in a state of luxury. Thorn's investigation uncovers the terrible truth about the main ingredient of Soylent Green.

The 1973 film is reminiscent of The Matrix in which humans are liquefied and fed to other humans. Only in Soylent Green, dead humans are transformed into a dry foodstuff; those forced to eat it are mad.

Hood Notes

After months of telling people they have nothing to fear from foot-and-mouth disease, which mainly affects animals with hoofs, such as cow, pigs, horses and sheep, on Monday, April 23, 2001, CNN reported that a man was being tested for the disease. Close to Home, a new monthly commentary on world events in an article titled "They say you are what you eat" (March 2001), stated "a farming source told BBC News Online that both liquid and solid human and animal wastes were used in UK animal feed until about 25 years ago."

While the first cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)- mad cow - were identified in the early 1980s, the cattle were probably first infected in the 1970s at the height of the practice of feeding animals animal protein. The Pathology Department of the Central Veterinary Laboratory (CVL) of the State Veterinary Service (SVS) first investigated the death of a cow that had succumbed to BSE in September 1985, but the disease source was not identified until the end of 1987, when John Wilesmith, head of the CVL Epidemiology Department, concluded the cause of BSE was the consumption of meat and bone meal, which was made from animal carcasses and incorporated in cattle feed. See Http://www.bse.org.uk/report/volume1/execsum4.htm and http://www.mad-cow.org/ for more information about mad cow/BSE. Remember, when mad cow was first discovered, people were told they had nothing to fear; most continued eating meat, trusting the government. Since then, people as young as thirteen (13) in the UK have died from the human form of mad cow or Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CDJ). Know what you eat!

News You Use

Neiman-Marcus Cookie Recipe

An email is circulating on the Internet about urban legends. It claims the Neiman-Marcus recipe is not real. Nothing could be further from the truth! The DISH communicated directly with the disgruntled Neiman-Marcus patron. The Texas wife and mother paid $250 for the recipe. According to her, she thought the waiter meant $2.50 when she agreed to purchase the recipe after she and her daughter had eaten a Neiman-Marcus cookie. Had she known he meant two hundred fifty dollars, she would not have approved the credit card purchase. When she got her credit card bill and saw the amount, she called the store to explain the mistake. They said, too bad! To get her money's worth, she decided to share her recipe with the world via the Internet. It has been a success!

The DISH, with the aid of two of its readers, tested the recipe for its authenticity. The recipe is real! So, do not believe those claiming it is an urban legend. For your free copy of the cookie recipe, see The DISH at http://personal.atl.bellsouth.net/~icim. Go to News You Use on the menu and click on Neiman-Marcus Cookie Recipe. Enjoy!

by John Burl Smith

Shedding his chrysalis of Conditioned Subordinate Psychology (CSP), at age 22, Yohannes returned home to share his insight T.H.I.N.C. (Teaching Humanity In New Consciousness): Chrysalis of Evolution with his mother and me. Blacklisted in America, this book reflects his personal struggle to define his pain and understand his subjugation. Developing T.H.I.N.C. peeled away layers of confusion, self-deception and lies. A slave descendant, Yohannes lived a 3/5ths Compromise existence, while observing whites enjoy the fruits of American citizenship. A philosophical matrix, T.H.I.N.C. identifies CSP/LS mind-sets and offers counter responses.

Linear Secularism (LS) reflects the straight line Neanderthal thinking of those like Sen. Strom Thurmond and John Rocker. They see blacks as subhuman and by nature less intelligent than whites. Slave masters, whites embody everything good, and slaves exemplify everything bad. Presently, this adoration/despicable complex defines the LS/CSP 3/5ths Compromise relationship of blacks and whites in America. Through this prism, Yohannes, a holistic student, shows the reader that life is filled with "Questions of Fate." Therefore, each of us is a work in progress (AWIP) trying to achieve an evolutionary environmental consciousness through reciprocal love. It is this range of infinite possibility young people around the world are struggling to realize.

This is the kind of intrepid battle for the planet that raged last week in Quebec, Canada at the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) talks. Internationally ground zero in the fight against globalization, Earth Day activists heeded the call to T.H.I.N.C. as one family to save Mother Earth. Not even during the height of Vietnam War protests did the powerful, who are parents, build twelve feet high 2-1/2 miles of concrete walls to protect themselves from their own children in the streets. This impenetrable obstacle to dialogue is a hemispheric "Berlin Wall" constructed to protect corporate profits. How will they get over such a resolute refusal to talk? What happens at the diner table? What explanation does President-select George W. Bush, Jr. give his children regarding slavery, reparations, arsenic in drinking water, reneging on the Kyoto accord, dioxin in meat, drilling in Alaska, nuclear shields, the "War on Drugs" and the death penalty? Do they know the meaning of apology?

Young people facing such concrete walls must act as Yohannes in 1997. It is your parents making the decisions that determine the world your children will inherit, not some stranger across town or on the other side of the world. You must convince your parents to fight on the side of the planet. Remember that they faced this same decision once before, and like Bush and his right-wing apologists, they took it all back by supporting the status quo. Young people today must use their eyes to help their parents see clearer, if their children are to inherit a better Earth. T.H.I.N.C. about it! John 2001

by Dot

More than a year ago my daughter used the weird expression "hell to the naw!" Weird though it sounds, I instinctively knew what she meant. You must admit, it is catchy. Recently, I heard it in a hip-hop song on the radio and had to laugh to keep from crying, because it is my child's creativity and she did not get a dime for it.

Turning off the radio in disgust, I turned on C-Span and learned it was Thomas Jefferson's birthday. Again this year, his family members, black and white, are debating their genetic link to him. I wondered why they bothered and found myself exclaiming, hell to the naw!

It is obvious the man did not do the right thing. He took a young slave little more than twelve years old to his bed. A sex slave, she gave the old geezer her entire youth and was still a slave when he died. No thanks to Jefferson, the yardstick he used to value human beings did more societal harm than good. America is still a country divided by race. Hell to the naw! Jefferson's blatant hypocrisy is nothing we wish our children to emulate. A rake and unprincipled reprobate, Jefferson is no hero, even though he personifies America's creed and greed. He plagiarized noble principles to construct the Declaration of Independence, then he embraced slavery as the constitutional and economic foundation of this nation when he agreed to the 3/5ths Compromise of Article 1 Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution.

We are told to view the man in the context of the times in which he lived. What can we say about George W. Bush and contemporary racists who value humans exactly as Jefferson did in his day? Rather than celebrate Jefferson's birthday, we say HELL TO THE NAW!

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