Volume 5 Issue 30…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…August 2, 2002

Oppression is intended to suffocate the spirit. Psychologically, its goal is to induce humans to accept uncontrollability, "learned helplessness." Researchers have found that exposing organisms to severe stress, without any possibility of relief, produce frustration, desperation and depression. A highly susceptible state to prompting, affected organisms can be taught irrational and sometimes self-destructive behaviors.

Fortunately, human beings are conscious organisms, and although they may not be able to physically remove themselves from such situations, they have the power of imagination. The mind can visualize physical states far removed from the actual reality being experienced. It can give abstract concepts such as freedom, justice and equality concreteness as symbols. On the wings of imagination, the Wright brothers changed humans' earth-bound reality, lifting their hopes beyond the clouds. Today however, aided by this wonderful technology, Israeli occupation keeps Palestinians under house arrest. Resisting Israel's awesome power with a desperate adagio dance of death, unlikely combatants act out a defiant display in the skies above Palestinian refugee camps and towns.

Amazing the world by facing tanks and live ammunition, Palestinian boys as young as eight stood straight shoulder-to-shoulder with grandfathers throwing rocks at Israelis in 2000. Unnoticed dying on the streets like men as they walked to and from school, the media never called them 'innocent.' Burying fathers and brothers daily, baby boys organize brigades instead of football teams. Under siege, children fly kites over Palestine as their answer to Israeli helicopters and F-16s.

Gathering on root tops at dusk, children fly homemade kites painted with the colors of the Palestinian flag. They talk of "flying away on the wind like kites to places without killing and occupation." They dream of days when they can "run and play in the streets like Israeli children without having to dodge bullets." In the Holy Land, children pray for "silent nights" free of exploding rockets and bombs.

Stolen lives lost in this mad upside down world of pain and dying, the innocence of flying kites is a shroud covering the kind of imagination that drove Benjamin Franklin out into a storm. Today, kite flying is a provocation to bomb children, who dare imagine themselves free to soar. Even with such bleak prospects, some spirits never accept oppression and occupation! John 2002

The American fast food giant Burger King is looking for a buyer. A profitable concern, one might wonder why? One reason could be the body of evidence that suggests, one of its main products, French fries, contains high levels of acrylamide, a known carcinogen.

At a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting held in Geneva in June, scientists urged the global food industry to find new ways of making chips, biscuits, French fries, cereal and other products to cut levels of acrylamide. According to Jorgen Schlundt, coordinator of WHO's food safety division, the types of cancers provoked by acrylamide in animals were not just limited to the digestive tract, but also the mammary and testicular glands and skin. After the three-day summit, the experts offered no conclusive advice on the health risks associated with the chemical, but described its high levels in so many foods a "serious problem."

According to Barron's Dictionary of Legal Terms, posse comitatus is a Latin phrase referring to those called to assist the sheriff in making an arrest for a felony. Persons summoned in this manner are neither law enforcement officers nor mere private persons. While acting in this capacity, they are as much clothed with the protection of the law as the sheriff.

Concerns about the role of the military in civilian law enforcement predate the U.S. Constitution (1789). It was originally addressed when Maryland delegate to the Constitutional Convention (1787) Luther Martin maintained, "When a government wishes to deprive its citizens of freedom and reduce them to slavery, it generally makes use of a standing army." A separation of military and civilian authority made the possibility of a dictator arising from the military unlikely. Under the Constitution, Congress is empowered to set the standard for use of the military in domestic and foreign matters.

Congress did not pass Federal law specifically prohibiting the use of the military in domestic law enforcement until after the Civil War (1865). Following the advice of Radical Republicans in reconstructing the South after the Civil War, President Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1876) enfranchised newly freed slaves. To ensure their right to vote and to protect their civil rights, Grant sent federal troops to the South to enforce the 14th and 15th Amendments. His efforts proved futile, since black Americans continued to be victimized by the Ku Klux Klan and other terrorist organizations. By 1876, the former slaves had been disenfranchised and reduced to pre-Civil War socioeconomic and political conditions.

Marked by fraud, the questionable election of Rutherford B. Hayes (1876) facilitated the end of Reconstruction, withdrawal of federal troops from the South and an end to the meager protection their presence afforded former slaves in the exercise of their civil and human rights. Congress passed the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878; it expressly prohibited the use of the military in civilian law enforcement. Under 18 U.S. Code 1385: "Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or a force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned." In other words, the military should not be used when civilian law enforcement would better serve the purposes of maintaining order and the peace. (Sources: Barron's Dictionary of Legal Terms, Encyclopedia Americana and www.spintechmag.com/0010/da1000.htm.)

For all those beaten, for the broken heads,

The fosterless, the simple, the oppressed,

The ghosts in the burning city of our time…

For those taken in rapid cars to the house and beaten

By the skillful boys with the rubber fists,

-Held down and beaten, the table cutting the loins

Or kicked in the groin and left, with the muscles jerking

Like a headless hen's on the floor of the slaughterhouse.

For those denounced by their smug, horrible children

For a peppermint-star and the praise of the Perfect State,

For the priest hanged in his cassock,

The Jew with his chest crushed in and his eyes dying,

The revolutionist lynched by the private guards

In the names of the perfect states.

We thought we were done with these things

But we were wrong.

We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.

We thought the long train would run to the end of Time.

We thought the light would increase.

Now the long train stands derailed

And the bandits loot it.

Now the boar and the asp have power in our time.

Now the night rolls back on the West

And the night is solid.

Our fathers and ourselves sowed dragon's teeth.

Our children know and suffer the armed men.

About Me: Stephen Vincent Benet won the Pulitzer Prize in 1929 for his book length poem John Brown's Body. Though the excerpt above from his Litany for Dictatorships was written in 1935, it describes today.

Republicans and Democrats share the blame in blurring the lines between the military and police. Nowhere is there more evidence than the war on drugs.

President Ronald Reagan (1986) signed a National Security Directive that called drug trafficking a national security threat and directed the Department of Defense to participate in the "war on drugs." Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger called using the military as police "terrible national security policy, poor politics and guaranteed failure in the campaign against drugs."

Ignoring Posse Comitatus, President George Bush (1989) declared, "We will for the first time make available the appropriate resources of America's armed forces. We will intensify our efforts against drug smugglers on the high seas, in international air space and at our borders." Acquiescing, Congress expanded state power by passing the Forfeiture Act and other drug laws.

Under President Bill Clinton, the drug war intensified. After ruining countless lives and consuming billions in tax dollars, the drug war is a dismal failure. US prisons are packed with drug offenders; the war continues. Neither Congress nor the court has invoked posse comitatus, so the Big Brother State simply grows.

In July 2002, General Ralph E. Eberhart called for a change in the law to give the military a greater role in defending the US against attack. President George W. Bush directed federal lawyers to review Posse Comitatus and other laws that restrict domestic military policing. Changes will require congressional approval. Congress will likely rubberstamp changes, given it has abdicated its responsibility to date. The prospect of a greater military role in domestic policing makes the drug war, which has stolen countless lives, seem like a stroll in the park. (http://www.spintechmag.com and www.nytimes.com.)

Politics Y2K2

DeKalb County Georgia has one of the highest foreclosure rates in America. A majority black county, its citizens are in a deep recession with double-digit unemployment. Victims of the US' last hired, first fired employment structure, black homeowners are already under tremendous economic pressure to keep what is for many of them their first homes. To add insult to injury, Vernon Jones - the CEO they elected - continues to advocate policies that increase their financial burdens.

DeKalb Commissioners voted 6-1, Commissioner Elaine Boyer cast the dissenting vote, to pass a 0.55% millage rate increase on residential and commercial property. This property tax increase is in addition to the higher reassessments some homeowners received.

The 0.55% millage will generate $5 million in additional revenues, and the higher reassessments will bring in an additional $8 million. Commissioner Boyer suggested cutting DeKalb's budget, but neither Jones nor the other Commissioners considered her suggestion.

While DeKalb's recession deepens, CEO Jones increases taxes. Claiming to be a fiscal conservative, Jones must have failed elementary economics. A 0.55% millage rate increase is not a tax reduction! For more, contact Commissioner Boyer at gapolitics@msn.com.

Disgruntled wants to know: In a recent speech, Sen. Hilary Clinton called Bush v. Gore an example of a hypocritical Supreme Court that broadens states' rights when it serves conservative ends. She accused the court of judicial activism in installing Bush president. Bush received Florida's Electoral College votes, because not one Senator joined the House protest. Now, Clinton is speaking out against the hypocrites that stopped the Election 2000 vote count. Why was she silent when her voice would have been more than hot air?

Disgruntled feels: Victimized! There are all kinds of victims whose lives are stolen. Those imprisoned under arbitrary laws exposed to manmade pathogens and those forced to eat genetically altered foods are all victims. The US refuses to label its bio-engineered goods, so we have no idea what we consume. When given an informed choice, most people avoid frankenfoods.

Disgruntled says: When the US assumes unpopular positions in the international arena, it is invariably joined by countries it considers 'rouge' nations. Recently, it tried to block the UN's convention against torture and was joined by Cuba; neither wants observers to visit their prisons. In opposing the International Criminal Court, the US was joined by dictators and repressive regimes.

DISHing It Up Hot

Since trashing John McCain during the Republican Primary back in 2000, George Bush has been big on "treating a neighbor like you would like to be treated." While he admonishes Americans to follow this Golden Rule, he openly advocates the overthrow of other governments and call on Americans to spy on each other. His regime change fanaticism and his Operation TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System) are unlikely to inspire neighborliness among Americans or improve international relations.

Suppose Iraq openly plotted to overthrow the US government? Americans would be pissed and primed for battle. Yet, US leaders on international television and in print media talk of overthrowing other governments and brazenly demand regime changes to suit US interests.

When it comes to the Christian ethic "do unto others as you would have them do unto you, US, a professed Christian nation, backs up its demand for respect and deference with the threat of megaton bombs dropped from the stratosphere. Not only is this not neighborly, it is cowardly. Dictators rarely make good neighbors, regardless of their religious denomination.

After 9-11, Americans asked, why do they hate us? Bush's cookie cutter response is "they hate our freedom." But, the truth of the matter is, the US is only a good neighbor when its serves US business interests!

Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes & Phone Calls

Email http://www.fpif.org/ The IMF and World Bank have much to answer for. Many of their strongest critics are Africans. World Bank and IMF policies have eroded Africa's health care systems and intensified the poverty of Africa's people. These institutions must be made accountable for their role in causing the worst health crisis in human history, which Africa now faces. Some 10 million people in four African nations are at risk of starvation; millions more are dying of AIDS.

Email jide@jarowolo.freeserve.co.uk Experts involved in efforts to recover Nigerian looted funds expressed concern that the country is using a selective recovery effort that ensures 80% of what is recoverable is ignored. They also claim civil laws, which could have been used to sue the professionals who aided the corrupt leaders, such as bankers and lawyers, were left untapped. The Olusegun Obasanjo administration refuses to trace monies looted during the Babangida regime, but encourages the pursuit of Abacha stolen funds.

Email http://www.guardian.co.uk A group of US writers, actors and academics signed a statement criticizing US policies since 9-11. Accusing the Bush administration of promoting its own agenda, their statement - Not In Our Name - claims the government has "declared a war without limit and instituted stark new measures of repression." They criticized the media for failing to challenge the direction the government has taken. Some signers are Laurie Anderson, Mos Def, Ossie Davis, Ed Asner, Alice Walker, Russell Banks, Barbara Kingsolver, Grace Paley, Eve Ensler, Tony Kushner, Martin Luther King III, Gloria Steinem, Noam Chomsky, Edward Said and Rabbi Michael Lerner.

Email: Alarkam@webtv.net If and when the U.S. ruling class declares martial law, suspends the Constitution, or institutes an outright military dictatorship and violently eliminates larger numbers of Black people than it is currently destroying, our people should not open their mouths in disbelief and claim that they cannot believe that this is happening in America.

Email ibsa@networksplus.net Nigeria and the US identified opportunities for expanding bilateral trade under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, as well as agreed to maintain strong cooperation in the WTO. This was the outcome of the recent meeting between Nigeria's Commerce Minister Mustapha Bello and US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick

Email nadir@distortedsoul.com Sources close to OPEC say Nigeria may leave the oil cartel. Africa's biggest oil producer is reported to be annoyed by its low OPEC export quota. OPEC consists of eleven oil producing countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Nigeria is its fifth-biggest producer.

Email upcnet@upcparty.net On Tuesday, the US urged Zimbabwe to accept genetically modified food to avert famine. Local researchers said Zimbabwe should not be so quick to embrace the new technology; it will affect its beef markets in Europe and elsewhere. Countries with European markets do not use genetically modified foods since Europe refuses to accept such food or meat from animals fed with such food.

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