Volume 5 Issue 1…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…January 10, 2002

by Yohannes Sharriff Smith

Watch the muppets cast an illusion before your eyes.

As comatose couch cushions pin senses to soaps,

sensors wash commonsense with seductive corruption,

spawning controlled consumer surrender.

We stab our open wounds with currency.

Secretly, pimps pray prostituting will sates the need.

Like infants, the masses suckle the phallic superficial.

Impaled upon the crucifix of debt,

we sacrifice live dreams for dead presidents.

As they strive,

even children shudder with unearthly pleasure,

pushing pass pennies from parents

put into collection plates,

panting for the devil's almighty dollar power.

Crucified! Why? For lifeless wooden promises!

The spirit of will dies, while industrialized primates

feen for better visual highs.

Assimilated lobes open wide like parted thighs

with sighs and penetrating cries

creaming for the evening news pushing lies deeper.

Journalism is delivering billions of subliminal

violent multiple-orgasmic editorials.

Pornographic bent reality drips from thin pink lips,

advertised with no life found in empty eyes.

Realize "the top story" is woven

from the fabric of politics and Nielsen's opinion

to paint a pessimistic picture,

reflecting society's apathy.

But, please,

read between the lines to see the true signs

of how hopeless the media want you to be,

so commercials can program your mentality.

Michael Shore, writing in the Black Republican Newsletter (Vol. 1 No 5), identifies pieces of the 9-11 mystery that are puzzling, given official explanations. Shore suggests forming a people's committee to uncover the real 9-11 mastermind by answering seven questions.

First, who purchased the "large amount of put stock options on United and American Airlines before 9-11? Money is made on put options when the stock price falls. Second, why do none of the so-called terrorists' names appear on the passenger manifests?

Third, a number of passengers reportedly made cell phone calls from the 'hijacked' planes, why do these calls not appear on the phone billing records? Why were the black boxes, which record pilot and ground control conversations, all destroyed or recording not released?

Fourth, immediately after the 9-11 tragedy, why did President Bush allude to the Global Hawk technology as being developed for future use when he knows the remote control technology already exists?

Fifth, no US military jets intercepted either hijacked plane, a breach of safety protocol. Who gave the order not to "scramble" military jets? Only high-ranking government officials can give such an order.

Sixth, could oil and opium be the reasons for this war? Shore's list of American businesses involved in harvesting Central Asia's six trillion dollars of oil and the opium for which Afghanistan is well known includes Carlyle and Haliburton Corporations and Unocal.

Seventh, is Bin Laden really the "mastermind" behind 9-11? There have been no additional "terrorist" acts. Even though Afghanistan is being bombed to smithereens and thousands of innocent civilians are killed, still the "enemy terrorist" does not fight back. Hello Americans, wake-up! The complete essay is worth reading; email BlackProsperity@aol.com for a copy.

Bit of History

by Current, Williams & Friedel

Prior to the Civil War, in the days of James K Polk (1840s), the US nationalistic spirit demanded military conquests. Conquest was "Manifest Destiny," a term coined by journalist John L. O’Sullivan (1813-1895). Writing in the Democratic Review (1845), he prophesied the "fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions." In other words, the United States had a divine mission to take the whole of North America, by force, if necessary, to make room for its rapidly growing white Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) population while carrying the blessings of its republic to less favored peoples who happened to occupy attractive lands nearby.

Not all Americans shared this view. One, Daniel Webster, said, "I have always wished that this country should exhibit to the nations of the earth the example of a great, right and powerful republic which is not possessed by the spirit of aggrandizement." Even forceful expansionists were not motivated merely by the grandiose notion of Manifest Destiny. They usually had fairly specific goals in mind. Polk himself focused his attention on the two great natural harbor areas of the Pacific Coast: Puget Sound and San Francisco Bay.

During the expansionist flurry of the 1840s and 1850s, the United States attained essentially the size and shape of the 48 contiguous states. It might have added other territories - including overseas possessions such as Cuba and the Hawaiian Islands - had expansionists remained united. Sectional divisions over slavery in the new acquisitions endangered national unity on expansion. Slavery and the ensuing civil conflict postponed the acquisition of an overseas empire for half a century.

Following the Civil War, Manifest Destiny gave way to the New Imperialism, exemplified by US foreign relations under President William McKinley and American expansionism in the 1890s. The new imperialism meant acquiring island possessions - some of which were already thickly populated. Unsuitable for settlement by migrants from the US, they were to be held indefinitely as colonies, rather than as states or territories. The new expansionism was largely motivated by trade considerations. Thus, it represented a kind of commercial imperialism, in which America - the republic - not democracy, aggressively sought new markets to ply its wares and exploit foreign natural resources, which include the acquisition’s geopolitical significance.

On January 6, 2002, Los Angeles Times Special Correspondent William M. Arkin's report (U.S. Air Bases Forge Double-Edged Sword) provides an apt description of US military might in the high tech age of American imperialism. Arkin, citing Pentagon sources, describes the military tent cities or forward bases that have sprung up in locations all over Central Asia, from Bulgaria and Uzbekistan to Turkey, Kuwait and beyond, ringing the oil and gas rich region.

Leveling mountains, the Pentagon bomb trails mimic Unocal's proposed pipeline routes leading from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. This military destruction of natural wonders, which surely mountains qualify, is an abomination, particularly as it is done to facilitate the harvest of the oil and gas reserves believed to exist in the Central Asian countries. Fondly referred to as the "stans," i.e., Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, etc., they are part of the Muslim Diaspora.

Read Arkin's article at http://www.latimes.com; it describes naked US high tech aggression. Wisely, he suggests it could have unintended consequences, as there is always the outside possibility that the people in these Muslim countries may object to American imperialism.

Disgruntled wants to know: Monarch butterflies are dying as agri-businesses make frankenfoods that destroy their environment to feed the masses. In a similar manner, toxic chemicals that poison the ocean kill Orcas. Extinction is reality for any number of mammals, including the buffalo, whose meat is the featured delicacy in Ted Turner's latest restaurant venture. Many of the creatures facing extinction are primates. The top primate slated for extinction is the African slave descendant. Their replacement rate, the number of births necessary to replace blacks that die, is insufficient to sustain this population's current level. Extinction eliminates claims for reparations. The death rate for blacks collapsed across all casualty categories is 25 times that of whites. We know what the world thinks of Monarchs and Orcas, disgruntled wants to know, does the world care a group of human beings is slated for extinction sometime around 2065, if not sooner?

Disgruntled feels: Numb! Shocked, appalled and hurt to the core of my American borne and bred being, I had to accept my research finding. After more than 20 years of academic research, complete with field tests and trials, I have proven US racial inequality is built into its laws, leaving no room for the white-washed denials about institutionalized racism that controls economic activity!

Disgruntled says: Burdened by the knowledge that the 3/5 compromise is the law, I seriously doubt that black people will enjoy freedom and equality in my lifetime, given we must change the law before either is possible. Moreover, the horizon for our children grows dim, because our 'black leaders' still do not articulate our problem as a function of America's legal system.

Imperialism: Racism Uncloaked

by John Burl Smith

Imperialism is the economic and military power to define the world and then force those definitions upon it, vis-a-vis the 1800's and the British Empire. In the name of democracy, America's Supreme Court-led coup d´etat redefined freedom, justice and equality for African slave and Muslim Diaspora. Specifically, US Supreme Court justices stopped counting legally cast ballots and selected G. W. Bush president, though he lost the popular vote.

Imperialists, in their redefinition, insist that by putting G. W. Bush in the White House, the court honored the founding fathers' intention in establishing America as a republic. Simultaneously, they proclaim the court's action made America the world's greatest democracy. Hypocrisy knows no bounds. For millions of legally registered black and immigrant voters, who were disenfranchised in 2000, in using the Constitution to justify white supremacy, the court reaffirmed the intent of Article 1 Section 2 (3/5 Compromise) to maintain racism as the function of American law. Damn democracy!

Observing America in Afghanistan, the world is experiencing Adolf Hitler's mad dash into the Sudetenland and subsequent invasion of Poland. It is déjà vu! The world has its Lord Chamberlain in Tony Blair, appeaser-in-chief, but it lacks a Sir Winston Churchill. Unlike today, Churchill understood, one cannot appease a greedy bully; he must be stopped in the yard, if possible, but at the door by any means. Once inside, one may have to destroy the house to get him out.

Personifying Israel in the Middle East, Bush's new imperialism is not only redrawing the geopolitical map of the world, America is redefining the terms used to describe its new toehold in Central Asia. America's "war on terrorism" has allowed the US to redefine Muslim opposition groups and freedom fighters as terrorists, rather than revolutionaries. Even more frightening, without debate, the world has allowed America to redefine sovereignty and national integrity.

The overriding implication of Bush's imperialism is that those dissatisfied with their government or their economic condition cannot wage revolution or use the same violence against their oppressors that their oppressors use against them. Case in point: America justifies Israeli tanks, jet fighters and helicopter gun ships killing unarmed Palestinians and targeting its political leaders for assassination as just responses to terrorism. Conversely, it defines Palestinian children throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers as acts of terror. Forcing a very extreme redefinition of responsibility on the world, America now targets whole nations for the actions of a few individuals. In Palestine and Afghanistan, it blames nations for those who choose to blow themselves up, rather than live under Israeli or western occupation.

Bush's new imperialism is really an old story. It is the same old Wild West massacre America has perpetrated since the Mayflower's landing. In discarding the Declaration of Independence's principles to enshrine white supremacy in its Constitution, America said only white lives matter. Beginning with Manifest Destiny, the US' quest for land drove Native people and the buffalo to the brink of extinction. Behind the Monroe Doctrine, America did the Afghanistan thing to Spain taking Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Iranians remember the Shah and Chileans are still trying to recover from Pinochet, both were American puppets. Argentina, well everyone knows its story. Too bad you are not here Sir Winston. Maybe, coming from you - a white man - the world would move to stop America's racist imperialism. John 2002

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro thoroughly enjoyed his holiday. When asked what he thought of the New Year, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro lamented, "I am going back to school, but I don't want to!"

by John Burl Smith

As young lovers, filled with wild impetuosity, we thrived on all-nighters. Sometimes, we would shut out the world and work jigsaw puzzles all weekend. Now, plainly gray and Dot slowly turning, her birthday present this year proved good spirits still work magic. Never having impressed her with expensive gifts, asking for a puzzle fit her mould. Over the years, life brought us disillusionment, depression and dissolution cloaked as change encroaching on our world and challenging us as a unit. Experiencing Dot struggling to complete that puzzle, as we had on so many weekends, was like wild flights of fantasy running in unknown woods as children.

Truer than fiction and like a powerful prayer, in an instant, this ode unfolded revealing my life with Dot, like hidden secrets. A grub's existence, we endured, while paying our dues, faithfully munching in the underbrush. Prey to any creature that discovered or uncovered our presence, foraging for tasty morsels. Our struggles were solitary ones when I first met her. Knowing what it took to survive from flowers blooming in the spring to leaves turning brown in the fall, I felt her drive and the power of her dream.

Creative energy drives the human spirit to aspire for what seems unattainable, but yet imaginable. Like some thoughts that lurk just beyond conscious reality, which cannot be expressed, they are clearly visible in the mind's eye. Such reflections are conceived as hope. They are born gleams in the eye of chance. Unlike grubs, however, their survival deepens on being recognized as opportunities that must be grasped from afar.

Dot's chrysalis was a world besieged by predators, deferred dreams and efforts not rewarded. Depressive clouds stretched from horizon to horizon darkening her hopes. A storm tossed voyage across turbulent seas was an inner battle she waged. Facing a merciless torrent, floods of doubt threatened destruction with every pitch and roll. Just when all seemed lost, she trimmed her sails and saved the mask. Courageously trusting her skills and experiences, she sailed against the wind. Emerging on the other side in full sail, it is clear she can close on her dream with speed.

Shaking off her chrysalis of depression, I watched Dot's wings hardened. Drooped and still heavy with residue from regeneration, their brilliance bore a grayish tent. Unfurled, her wings’ massive span traps wind, like a tall ship gliding the Pacific rim. Recapturing competence, rising to the challenge, understanding what is needed, then mustering the persistence to persevere, spreading her wings she showed a Monarch can soar like the Phoenix. John 2002

Mailbox

Email cnthsp@aol.com: The world believes that on 24 December 1979 the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and, in response, the U.S. and Muslim countries rallied to help repel the invaders. Like so much of the widely accepted history of the Arab-Israeli conflict and U.S. Middle East involvement, this is wrong. Governments and intelligence agencies, specifically the CIA and the Mossad - manipulate history.

What really happened is that President Jimmy Carter secretly approved CIA efforts to topple the Afghan government in July 1979 knowing that US actions would likely trigger Soviet counter-reactions. Read the interview with Zbigniew Brezinski, Carter's National Security Adviser at www.MiddleEast.Org

Email mhawkins11@juno.com agentsmiley@yahoogroups.com: In the mid-seventies, America faced a new and escalating crisis, with US commercial jets being hijacked for geopolitical purposes. Determined to gain the upper hand in this new form of aerial warfare, two American multinationals collaborated with the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) on a prototype to facilitate remote recovery of hijacked aircraft. Brilliant both in concept and operation, code name Global Hawk allowed ground controllers to listen in to cockpit conversations and take remote control of the aircraft's computerize flight control system.

Email brotom@lava.net: BBC Monitoring Service reports of an imminent US attack on Somalia in its efforts to crack down and pursue Usamah Bin Ladin's Al Qa'idah affiliates. International media have been carrying reports lately on Somalia. All internationally recognized newspapers, quoting unnamed officials, are predicting an imminent US attack on Somalia. It is increasingly suspected that the US might use Ethiopia to conduct the infantry phase of the war, with the USA facilitating the logistics and financial requirements. However, there is no clear proof of terrorists in Somalia, merely claims in this regard. At the moment, US, German and French warships are stationed off the Somali coast, inspecting ships entering Somalia's territorial waters, in a bid to check for fleeing Al-Qa'idah members who have been defeated in Afghanistan.

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