Volume 4 Issue 22…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race… June 8, 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

Reversed Psychology?

Recently, a DISH focus group gathered. The diverse group, which includes blacks, whites and Native Americans, veterans from WWII to Vietnam, blue collar workers, hip-hop artists and parents of children of all ages, gathered to discuss a wide variety of topics from Senator James Jeffords’ defection from the Republican Party to President Bush’ energy proposals.

On Bush’s energy proposals, some felt he is using simple reversed psychology. They contend Bush figures Americans will accept relaxed environmental regulations and be willing to open up pristine areas for fossil fuel exploration, such as the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) and the coast of Florida, to reduce gas prices, rather than risk its unpopular alternative - nuclear energy. Too many Americans remember Three Mile Island. In the final analysis, rather than move away from the internal combustion engine and its non-renewable fuel, we will embrace them more. Bush’s plan makes his buddies in the gas and oil industry filthy rich.

Children of WWII veterans remember when school safety drills for nuclear attacks, where there were no bomb shelters, included hiding under their desks. We now know that strategy is stupid. While there have been notable advances in technology, scientists have yet to develop a safe system for disposing of toxic nuclear waste. Americans are unlikely to embrace more nuclear energy. Bush’s plan puts us back at square one with a current stockpile of nuclear waste we do not know what to do with and an increased dependence on foreign sources for crude oil, while we drill and destroy more areas in search of black gold.

President Bush’s energy plan does not do enough to promote renewable alternative sources, such as wind and solar power. His plan actually reduces their funding. Heavy-handed, Bush is playing the old reversed psychology to keep us running in circles. Bush should know that we are not as stupid as before when we bought the dumb ideas of hiding under the desk in a nuclear attack. Then again, maybe we are, since according to the one-mind media, we have bought into the idea that the Supreme Court can select the President in a democracy.

Disgruntled feels: Obliged to continue speaking out! Dedicated to keeping it real!

Disgruntled wants to know: With higher gas prices jacking up their cost of living, folks who ran from inner-cities and bought gas-guzzling SUVs are returning in droves to get closer to their inner city jobs. Displaying poor inner-city blacks, gentrification is a hot topic. So, why are some black people moving to suburbia?

Disgruntled says: CNN reported Senator Jim Jeffords’ life has been threatened. Presumably, these threats came from some far right fanatic bent on keeping America right of center. Personally, Jeffords is a hero. The Senate was proceeding along as if Bush had a mandate to govern from the far right. A Supreme Court coup put him in office. Freedom loving people, a majority of Americans did not vote for him. Though Election 2000 laid waste to all claims of democracy, we still like the notion.

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro has been out of school for summer vacation three short days. Mainly a nighttime creature, he quickly changed his sleeping habits. When asked for comments before noon, he replied, "I am hot, tried and sleepy. What time did I go to bed anyway? Why are we up so early?"

John Burl Smith

Willie Lynch's system of slavery made black women the point of control. Exploiting their vulnerability, its goal was to make black women dependent on white men. Her role was/is to train her children to be slaves. Slave law counted children with their mothers. She worked to keep the family together as long as possible. Sometimes she had to decide which ones stayed with her and which ones were sold.

Following the Civil War, successive waves of migration to the North by black families did not change this fact. Packed into government housing projects, black families were warehoused like an over supply of batteries. Socialized to depend on welfare, Northern cities in America replaced slavery with second class citizenship without ever putting up any signs.

Bill Clinton's welfare reform in 1993 ended a horrible system but did not replace it with a means of survival. After three generations of training families to depend on government assistance, the federal government simply walked away without providing slave descendants with reparations. Mothers faced a future worst than that of the first generation to flee to the North. Most were without education, training or work experience. Like deciding which ones were sold, mothers had to make hard choices. Without childcare or other support facilities when welfare ended, sharecropping came to the big city dressed up as temp agencies.

Government statistics show that about the same time the "prison for profit industry" came online, state legislatures and law enforcement agencies began targeting nonviolent crimes. Simultaneously, contact with the criminal justice system by black women showed a sharp spike. Having barred black men from the home during its last five decades, welfare denied black women a viable support system and today it forces them to work without providing reasonable childcare.

For the inner city, losing welfare was like closing a military base, shipyard or prison to a small town. The drug culture thrives in the inner city because it generates income. That has always been its impact on impoverished communities. People without resources can ill-afford to refuse the survival options drug money provides. The key to Willie Lynch's system was making black women dependent on white men. Ending welfare is the final phase of Willie Lynch's plan to use black women to enslave their descendants for three hundred years. Reparations are only interest on America's debt owed slave descendants. John 2001

In the past decade, the number of women in US prisons increased 138% to more than 90,000. Prison activists at http://prisonactivist.org credit increased arrest rates due to the "war on crime" and "war on drugs" and worsening economic conditions for the steep rise. At the same time, they estimate that twenty-five percent of US political prisoners are women. Below are more facts:

Prison activists see racism and economic discrimination as "inextricably linked to sexism in our culture. This creates severe inequalities in our criminal justice system. Black women are twice as likely to be convicted of killing their abusive husbands than are white women. On average, they receive longer sentences and higher fines than white women for the same crimes; 54% of women prisoners are women of color"

Most women prisoners are nonviolent offenders. Typical criminal convictions are for crimes such as check forgery and illegal credit card use. The vast majority- 92 % - are poor by US standards with incomes under $10,000. The average age of female prisoners is 29, and 58% are high school dropouts. 90% of women prisoners are single mothers, who lose contact with their children, sometimes forever. The mothers of more than 160,000 US children are in prison.

The late Senator Hart estimated that the annual cost of corporate crime was between $174-231 billion dollars, while the economic cost of "street crimes" (e.g. burglary and robbery) was $3-4 billion. It is time our society examined why states focus on enforcing laws, which penalize actions undertaken by poor and working class men and women, while systematically ignoring the more destructive white-collar criminals.

Of the women convicted of violent crimes, most were either defending themselves or their children. Average prison terms are twice as long for killing husbands as for killing wives. Disparate treatment continues in prison. On the average, women prisoners spend more time locked in their cells with less outside exercise than their male counterparts. For these and other facts on women in US prisons, visit http://prisonactivist.org.

In less than a year, Republicans went from a slim majority of 55 in the 100 member Senate to a 49-seat minority. Last week’s defection from the Republican ranks by Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords blew their single vote majority of 51, if you count Vice-President Dick Cheney’s vote to break potential ties in the 50-50 Senate. Jeffords' move stirred anger among Republicans. Several senators, including outgoing Majority Leader Senator Trent Lott, have suggested reappraisals.

Despite losing control, Lott is expected to continue leading Senate Republicans. In a show of leadership, Lott penned a memo to the party’s leaders and made guest appearances on talk shows harshly criticizing Jeffords’ defection and urging party leaders to wage a war on Democrats. A right-wing conservative, the Mississippi Republican claims the new Democratic majority "lacks the moral authority of a voter mandate." Urging an immediate offensive, Lott claimed Republicans have a moral obligation to deliver their agenda.

Filled with priceless irony, Lott’s strongly worded memo called Jeffords’ action a "coup of one, the impetuous decision of one man to undermine our democracy." Yet, when the Supreme Court stopped the Florida vote count in Election 2000 in which the vast majority of Americans voted for Al Gore rather than George W. Bush, Jr., Lott was silent on democracy.

In his memo to rally the troops, Lott wrote, "we must begin to wage the war today for the election in 2002. We have a moral obligation to restore the integrity of our democracy, to restore by the democratic process what was changed in the shadows of the back rooms in Washington." What about the Court’s deal which put Bush in office? Lott promised war to push Bush's agenda, which moves America right of center.

Remember Voter News Service (VNS), a creation of the six major news organizations - The Associated Press, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC? This collaboration of the one-mind media was undertaken to save on the expense of gathering election data. Since all the networks deliver basically the same information, VNS made economic sense.

After the debacle of November 7, 2000, VNS came under heavy criticism from the networks. Fox News led the revolt from VNS’ data and started the "Florida too close to call rumor," which eventually led to the networks declaring Bush the winner in Florida and nationwide. After they abandoned VNS’ election night exit poll numbers, which showed Al Gore the winner of Florida’s twenty-five Electoral College votes, the networks blamed VNS for the election night uncertainty.

There was some question as to whether or not the networks would continue their VNS collaboration. Last week, they decided to keep VNS intact. VNS will make some changes, which include updating its computer systems and improving the statistical models used. However, the most cogent reason for keeping VNS intact is, its exit polls last November were on the money; Vice President Al Gore won Florida. In the end, the networks did what makes economic sense, besides they figured there was no need to punish themselves for being right.

Webster defines Milquetoast as "a timid, meek or unassertive person." While the Bush daughters are receiving some unpleasant scrutiny, voyeurism mostly, American mainstream press is Milquetoast on Bush.

The one-mind controlling American mainstream media is a Bush backer. One-mind shares Bush's conservative philosophy, which is founded on white supremacy, the 3/5ths Compromise that drives the American socioeconomic and political system. Bush is what the business community wanted. And, by George, they were determined to have him, even if it meant orchestrating a coup to do it. Mostly positive things appear in the media. It is ridiculous to suggest there is a liberal bias in American mainstream media when what is reported is determined by who buys commercials. During the campaign for president, Bush spent millions.

Quite naturally, Bush's vow to appoint judges to the courts that strictly interpret the Constitution went unexamined. Yet, it gave us the greatest opportunity in a generation to address institutionalized racism. The one-mind media ignored the implications. While telegraphing the most divisive political philosophy in American history, Bush called himself a uniter. Ignoring for the moment that UNITER is not in Webster's dictionary the press glossed over his strict construction hypocrisy.

Bush is a divider, and the mainstream media has basically been Milquetoast in its coverage of Bush's divisive philosophy and actions. Blah on their silence!

DISHing It Up Hot!

by Dot

As most of you know, The DISH began as a complaint against government waste associated with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employment discrimination. When six high-ranking IRS officials showed up at my unemployment compensation hearing, it was the kind of overkill that simply had to be reported. I wondered then, as I still do, how far these people can go before we end the blatant discrimination practiced in the IRS' hostile work environment? I decided to tell somebody about the situation. The DISH was born.

When former President Bill Clinton announced his Dialogue on Race, The DISH embraced the project, since then, each issue has sought to advance the conversation. From its early beginnings of a few people here and there, family and friends mostly, The DISH mailing list has gradually grown. Now, it is read in households around the world.

To continue the service without interruption, I need your assistance. If you receive The DISH via the email address icim@bellsouth.net and DO NOT wish to do so, please email us as soon as possible. Words are unnecessary; simply put UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line and we will do the rest. Your address will be promptly deleted from our mailing list.

For more than half a year, few invitations to join The DISH list have been extended; these went primarily to individuals on black-oriented listings, such as TheBlacklist@topica.com and Universalwoman@yahoo.com. While some of the latter group's members and I have been heatedly discussing Farrakhan's message, I would hate to think they are behind the anonymous complaints, which prompted this request. According to The DISH's internet service provider (ISP), someone complained in the last two weeks about receiving The DISH.

BellSouth is working with The DISH to resolve real complaints. Because BellSouth is not at liberty to divulge the identity of the complainant, complaints must come directly to The DISH to be quickly resolved. If you DO NOT WISH to receive The DISH, let us hear from you. If no request is made, BellSouth and The DISH must assume anonymous complains are simply a mischievous attempt to silence The DISH.

Lesson: 1+1=2

by John Burl Smith

Returning home, I encountered a totally exasperated Dot at wits end with our two grandsons, Trévius, who is eight and TyChi, who is two. Loves of her life, the two were in danger of losing the best friend cantankerous brothers could ever have. Trévius' hero, Batman, offered an excellent opportunity to teach the lesson of how to handle an expanding world. Having lived a closed off life free of emotional attachments in the movie "Batman, Forever," Batman is torn between maintaining his solitary existence or taking on a more nurturing role, which required him to share the wealth of his emotions, rather than his fortune.

An only child for more than five years, sharing his world with TyChi has been difficult for Trévius. As an only child, Trévius could pick and chose among those with whom he wanted to spend time with no sense of loss. Absent competition, Trévius was only concerned with receiving, giving was for others; he was the center of attention. Sharing was not a concept he understood. The arrival of TyChi changed everything. Toys were no longer solely his. Our attention became divided, and any going to TyChi meant less for him. More quickly than he could comprehend, everybody was giving TyChi everything he had once enjoyed exclusively. How could he compete?

The lesson of 1+1=2 teaches one cannot do what two can do better. One must combine with others. More than mergers, partnerships, such as Batman and Robin are formed. Watching the movie with my grandson, I tried to teach Trévius that giving of himself by teaching Robin, Batman became more powerful. Robin became dependent on Batman's leadership and their combination made both stronger. Therefore, 1+1 equals 2, which is greater than one. Trévius did not completely understand the need to include others in our world when the lesson ended but like the rest of us, he has a lifetime to get it right. T.H.I.N.C. about it! John 2001

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