Volume 4 Issue 9…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race… March 9, 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

Hosted by Tamara Madison-Shaw and starring some of Atlanta's finest spoken-word artists, Live Poets Society presented its first run of A Troubled World on Saturday, March 3^rd. By all reckoning, it was a smashing success. According to Madison-Shaw, the production was designed "to provide an evening of spoken word for stage to bring underground poets above ground."

Casually dressed, the Clark-Atlanta University audience built slowly on a rainy night in Georgia. After a delay to allow for latecomers, thunder roared and lightning flashed outside, as the cast's electric performances wove through vignettes that showcased the depths of Atlanta spoken-word talent. With stellar performances all around, the production explored the range of human emotions from hate to love.

Promising more of the cooperation and collaboration that went into this production, Live Poets Society deserves encouragement and support to elevate spoken word and arts in Atlanta's black community. So impressive, a closer look at the organization and talent that went into putting this stage production together is called for, so in issues to come, The DISH will highlight some of these young artists and feature their poetry.

An objective overview of DeKalb County expenditures for things like community arts programming, parks and recreation shows that the funding for these quality of life improvements has generally favored the majority white Northern end of the county. The proposed referendum to increase property taxes to fund the purchase of additional greenspace and build new facilities will do nothing to change the traditional manner in which tax dollars have been spent. In fact, some DeKalb County taxpayers, particularly those in the Southern end of the county, see this as an opportunity for more of the same in the sense that it will continue the inequities in funding amenities. Remember HOST? What happened to the sidewalks, bike paths, sewers and gutters for the incorporated portions of south DeKalb? Until changes are made in how funds are allocated or until South DeKalb enjoys amenities similar to those already provided in the Northern end of the county, these taxpayers question the efficacy and prudence of giving the county more funds for even more amenities for North DeKalb. The DISH urges property owners to vote NO on the referendum below:

Shall special recreation tax district, general obligation parks bonds to acquire land for additional parks and natural areas, preserve greenspace, protect clean water, improve existing parks and develop new facilities, in the amount of $125,000,000 be issued by DeKalb County, and not less than 70% of the net proceeds shall be used to the acquisition of land and any improvements thereon and the remainder of the net proceeds shall be used to improve existing parks and develop new facilities, payable from the levy of a direct annual ad valorem tax upon all taxable property within the unincorporated portion of DeKalb County?

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro was in fine spirits for a Monday. When asked for his comments, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro wondered, "Grandma I am not complaining about going to school today, isn't that good enough for you?"

According to anthropologists, 50,000 years ago at least three different hominoid specimens existed: Neanderthals, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. Each had different points of origin Europe, the Far East and Africa, respectively. Each developed an approach to survival that was dependent on groups. Group survival was a function of individual needs. In 1968, I developed a novel theory, which posits differences in these groups' concepts of the soul determined individual approaches to survival. Moreover, it is clear from the fossil record, simple extinction does not explain the disappearance of Neanderthals and Homo erectus. This hypothesis postulates two distinct subgroups of Homo sapiens emerged and today they can be identified based on their view of humanity and its survival.

Possessing the strongest genes, Homo sapiens migration into Europe and the Far East, consumed the other two groups through interbreeding. Intelligent, but very brutish, individual Neanderthal survival strategies drove the group toward extinction. Although absorbed by Homo sapiens, observable traits remain and are reflected in the psychological make-up of humans today. I contend belief in the existence and value of the soul or spirit delineates these subgroups. Homo sapiens accept the soul as a given and view it as the common link between individuals and groups. On the other hand, Neanderthals had no concept of the soul. They saw survival as a battle of the fittest in an "eat or be eaten" world. Anthropologists agree, Neanderthals did not have burial rituals nor did they use artifacts, such as paintings and drawings as symbolic representations, until well after Homo sapiens' migration.

Accepting the soul as a given, as opposed to an "eat or be eaten" approach to life is manifested in the Christian church's support of wars, slavery and Nazism. Neanderthal brutish survival of the fittest mentality feeds the tendency toward war and extinction. This characteristic aided aristocratic dominance in feudal Europe. Benevolence entered Europe on the point of the church's spear bringing an organized concept of the Homo sapiens' soul. In Mediterranean Africa from whence it came, the soul is embraced as the inspiration toward humanistic values of daily intercourse as the key to a moral life.

Homo sapiens' merger with Neanderthals did not wipe out their DNA, thus today the world has two distinct psychologically different groups of Homo sapiens. Those who believe in the oneness of humanity are guided by the concept of the spiritual soul. Those who believe some humans are better than others see themselves as masters of an "eat or be eaten world." This scenario played out in the Christian church. Its early leaders were Southern Euro-Mediterranean; Neanderthals were most directly influenced by Homo sapiens' migration. As Northern European Neanderthal mentality came to power within the church, its benevolent character gave way to a money-driven "eat or be eaten approach to God, throwing the value of the soul into question, hence, its support for Nazism.

Eugenics attempts to prove Aryans - Neanderthals - are perfect humans. Further, it says Homo sapiens polluted the pure Neanderthal blood of Aryans. Moreover, this theory proclaims Neanderthals as the master race and insists all traces of Homo sapiens genes in white people should be bred out as Adolf Hitler attempted during his reign of terror. On which side of the family tree does your fruit grow? John 2001

Disgruntled says: Alan Greenspan joined the voodoo economics cult. Conjuring up spirits like David Stockman from the supply-side netherworld, Greenspan is chief witch doctor casting spells for Bushonomics.

Disgruntled feels: Obesity is a problem in America. In the last two decades, more of our children look like beef on the hoof and die from heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. It is time parents seriously looked at changes made in the foods consumed. USDA meat is hormone-treated to make the animals age and get fat quicker. These hormones collect in the fatty tissues and meat and may act similarly on those who eat it.

Disgruntled wants to know: In Georgia, given the absence of a vigorous Democratic Party campaign during Election 2000 and the fact that black voters made up the majority of Democratic votes cast, how does the state party operate and what roles do blacks play other than voting for the party's candidates?

by Robert Lederman

IBM, one of America's most respected corporations, was an ally of Nazi Germany; its technology helped make the Holocaust possible. When will GW Bush publicly deal with his family's links to the Third Reich? IBM and the Bush family are among many corporations and Americans directly linked to Nazi Germany. They include Henry Ford, JP Morgan, Du Pont, Mellon, Allen Dulles (first CIA director), John Foster Dulles (Eisenhower's Secretary of State), Charles Lindbergh, William Randolph Hearst, Alcoa, Rockefellers' Standard Oil (now Exxon), G M and ITT.

These entities did not simply invest in German subsidiaries. Some repeatedly met with Hitler and his advisors, contributed millions of dollars to establish the Nazi party and continued to channel money and technology to the Nazis after the US entered WWII.

IBM and Chase Manhattan Bank have apologized for their Nazi connections. Others have acknowledged but not apologized, but the Bush family has done neither. Our President's link to Nazism is not limited to an embarrassing episode of WWII history. His father, former President Bush, was exposed in 1988 for having numerous former Nazis and Nazi sympathizers in his campaign. GW's corporate cabinet features representatives of the same companies that were Hitler's biggest American supporters, like Alcoa and GM. His appointees have direct ties to racist organizations like the Pioneer Fund, which helped write the US and Nazi's eugenics laws and to modern-day eugenicists, like Charles Murray, author of the Bell Curve. The Bell Curve was written while Murray was a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where he still lectures. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" was invented by the CIA's Manhattan Institute, a right-wing think tank founded by former CIA director William Casey, who helped bring thousands of former Nazis to the US following WWII.

Because the media depend on corporate ads for their livelihood, they are not falling over themselves to expose Nazi ties. In light of the IBM story, isn't it time to let all of this dirty laundry be aired? If IBM can be forced to come clean, can the US President hide his own far more extensive links to Nazism any longer? Americans have a right to know.

About Me: An artist, Robert Lederman is a regular columnist for the Greenwich Village Gazette, The Shadow, The African Sun Times, The Vigo-Examiner and Street News, and he is author of hundreds of essays on Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. To date, he has been falsely arrested 41 times for his anti-Giuliani activities, but never been convicted. Best known for his paintings depicting Mayor Giuliani as a Hitler dictator, he is President of Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics (ARTIST) http://baltech.org/lederman/1299lederman.html

by Craig Timberg

On February 2, 2001, the Virginia State House passed a resolution to express regret for the state's role in forced sterilizations. According to its sponsor, Del. Mitchell Van Yahres (D-Charlottesville), "Scientifically we're greatly advanced, but morally we have a problem."

The eugenics movement began in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. Indiana passed the nation's first sterilization law in 1907. Over the next seven decades, there were 60,000 sterilizations. Only California, with 20,000, had more than Virginia.

Virginia passed its Eugenical Sterilization Act in 1924; it targeted "socially inadequate offspring." On the same day, it passed the Racial Integrity Act prohibiting marriage between whites and nonwhites. Both grew out of eugenicists' drive for a superior stock of humans. "Virginia eugenicists saw themselves as the vanguard of the future." More than half of Virginia's sterilizations happened at the Virginia Colony for Epileptics and the Feebleminded in Lynchburg, though others happened at hospitals in Petersburg, Staunton, Williamsburg and Marion. Most victims were white, but some African Americans and Indians also were sterilized, historians say. "People were sterilized not because they were feebleminded, but because they were 'poor white trash.'

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld forced sterilization at the Lynchburg facility in a case involving Carrie Buck, who had become pregnant as a teenager. In allowing her sterilization (1927), Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes assessed Buck, her mother and her daughter, and then declared, "Three generations of imbeciles are enough." Sterilizations tapered off when Nazi brutality in WW II turned public opinion against eugenics. Virginia forced sterilizations continued until 1979.

Rev. Jim Thompson is a journalist and Baptist preacher from western North Carolina. He has written a number of investigative series on the issues of poverty, the environment, and domestic violence. His work has won numerous awards from the NC Press Association, including two Community Service awards.

On February 16, 2001, he wrote a letter asking us to pray for peace. In part, he wrote, "I write tonight hours after the attack on Iraq launched by George W. Bush. There can be no question in anyone's mind that it is his intention to provoke a military conflict with Sadaam Hussein. The suddenness and strength of the attack, the flimsy excuses fabricated by our military, and the record of the Bush family can leave little question.

Tonight, all people of good will, of all faiths, must pray for peace. War is evil. War is inexcusable. War violates the primary beliefs of nearly all religions today. For Christians, war is unacceptable. Jesus taught "love your enemies," "turn the other cheek," and "those who live by the sword shall perish by the sword." War with Iraq would not be fought, even in self-defense, other than to defend the oil interests who have contributed to Mr. Bush's career and that of his family. No American, Iraqi, no British person, no one should die on behalf of these corporations. We must pray, but we must do more. With love in our hearts, and peace in our spirits, we must resist the war drums. We cannot allow government propaganda to move us to hate anyone - including Sadaam Hussein. We cannot allow the censored and screened images we will see on our televisions to stir our ancient angers and ancestral brutality to action. We must urge people of all ages to speak out, now, against this war that George Bush is preparing. We must be prepared to encourage our young people to resist being sent to war for the corporations. Together, we must pray and act for peace."

ICIM Boycotted People, Places and Things: War, death penalty, the Fraudulent Election of Dubya, Georgia's New Confederate swastika, Coke, AT&T, Hormone-treated meat, Milk, MCI, IBM, GM, MARTA sales tax, HOST, GRTA, big banking predatory lenders, temp agencies, IRS and other governmental agencies that engage in discriminatory employment practices, Trent Lott and other weapons of mass destruction.

by Yohannes Sharriff Smith

The divine is within...

Heaven is at hand.

It is the land beneath your feet,

in the air we breathe,

your seed, that place you go when you dream,

within the deoxyribonucleic acid and it's closer than you think... you know.

But thru rose-tinted vision what can you really see?

People continue to wear colorful contact cataracts

that choke our community with undigested bites of American pie,

while my all-natural soul food serves imagery

like a waiter performing the Heimlich maneuver on the future.

Baby, you got to breathe...

cause I'm racing against time to save my babies dying in vain.

I'm racing to change these tracks in my veins

to rails that maintain this underground train of thought;

buried in unmark graves under garbage dumps.

Slumlord land-filled lives light a candle for the lost.

That cracker-jack frost megabit the chip on my shoulder.

So I build sanctuary for those who can't afford the cost of a soft bed.

Yesterday, I used to be homeless, now I'm hopeful.

These eyes have seen roses grow from concrete gardens,

sparking my passion for love to turn the tragic into lilies and lilacs.

Imagine, love, you are all the magic we need to heal the madness within.

The divine is...

Heaven at hand;

It is the land beneath your feet,

in the air we breathe, your seed,

that place you go when you dream,

within the deoxyribonucleic acid and it's closer than you think... you know.

But, thru rose-tinted vision, what can you really see?

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