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Volume 6 Issue 41…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…October 17, 2003
The Road to Damascus
By John Burl Smith
Committed to what one believes is the greatest good or ultimate truth, we shrug off gentle tugs from spirits that pull us away from that which we piously cling. Blaming weakness or tricks of the ego on such pricks of conscience, we ask God for proof of his intention, as Gideon or Jeremiah. Sometimes knowledge or clarity gained from such demonstrations comes like the mighty blow that struck Saul of Tarsius blind on the road to Damascus. Such epiphanies over time and through grace can communicate the spirit's intent.
Presently, such a drama is playing out at courthouses across Georgia. Raging in the US Bible Belt, this struggle is reminiscent of the Civil War. Removing public displays of the Ten Commandments has become a battle ground for confederate flags, Ku Klux Klan and born-again Christian neo-conservatives. A proxy war representing the racial and civil divide over free speech, equal access and personal choice, faith-based strict construction Republicans are claiming Mosaic Law is America's heritage. This fallacy is not supported by the US Constitution with principles such as "Thou shall not kill or steal." Descendants of convicts, Georgians slaughtered Native Peoples and stole the land on which this country stands.
According to Jeremiah Chapter 34, God abrogated the covenant with Jews symbolized by the Ten Commandments. Specifically, Jeremiah was sent by God to tell King Zed-e-kíah that because of their transgressions, not freeing their slaves in obedience to the Ten Commandments, He would allow them to be destroyed by the King of Babylon. Consequently, the "promised land" claims of Jews have no validity today.
Christian orthodoxy and liturgy subsumes Mosaic Law within the manifest life and death of Jesus Christ. "The Prince of Peace," Christ's sacrifice fulfilled and repealed the old covenant with the promise of redemption through repentance. Accordingly, Israel's claims that as "chosen people" the "promised land" covenant gives them the right to kill and take Palestinian land is bogus. They are enslaving Palestinians, like America's slaughter enslaved Native Peoples.
A zealous Jew, Saul’s campaign to "root out" Christianity, like George Bush’s war on terror, provides parallels. A Roman bounty hunter, Saul’s terror spread from the Mediterranean to Mesopotamia. Convinced of his rightness, Saul killed Christians, like Ariel Sharon slaughters Palestinians. However, on the road to Damascus, a blinded Saul saw the error of his ways.
The depth of Saul's transformation is revealed in 1 Corinthians Chapter 13. Evolving, Saul saw his years of killing with remorse and self-reproach. A work in progress, his mental anguish over past wrongs, especially those whose consequences could not be amended, produced such a painful sting of conscience, he not only changed, his conversion into Paul changed others.
Profoundly, Paul set the standard for what a changed life reflects. Public displays or claims of defending the Ten Commandments, while praying to preserve the death penalty or supporting Israel's senseless and useless killing in the Middle East are "sounding brass or tinkling cymbals." Charity, as Paul points out is the greatest, even greater than faith. Quintessentially, love of objects, graven images or power violates God's covenant and separates Christians from the profane and Neanderthals from Homo sapiens.
The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is an astute fellow; he quickly learns valuable lessons from his encounters with good and evil. When queried about his most recent brush with one that can only be described as a bully, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro wisely acknowledged, "Some people are real tricky."
"The Phantom-Wooer"
By Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803-1849)
A ghost, that loved a lady fair,
Ever in the starry air
Of midnight at her pillow stood;
And, with a sweetness skies above
The luring words of human love,
Her soul the phantom wooed.
Sweet and sweet is their poisoned
note,
The little snakes' of silver
throat,
In mossy skulls that nest and lie,
Ever singing "die, oh!
die."
Young soul, put off your flesh, and come
With me into the quiet tomb,
Our bed is lovely, dark, and sweet;
The earth will swing us, as she goes,
Beneath our coverlid of snows,
And the warm leaden sheet.
Dear and dear is their poisoned
note,
The little snakes' of silver
throat,
In mossy skulls that nest and lie,
Ever singing "die, oh!
die."
About Me: English poet and dramatist, Beddoes studied medicine and anatomy at Göttingen after graduating from Oxford. Obsessed with the macabre, his work includes The Improvisatore (1821), The Bride's Tragedy (1822) and Death's Jest-Book (1850). Published posthumously, Death's Jest-Book features some of his favorite themes, such as occultism, the supernatural and revenge. Thought to be a frustrated homosexual, he committed suicide by poison. (Source: www.1upinfo.com/encyclopedia/B/Beddoes.html)
Ariel Sharon: Zionist Warrior (1928-)
Born at Kfar Malal in 1928, Ariel Sharon first gained attention for his military leadership in the 1948 War of Independence and 1956 Arab-Israeli Wars. In 1953, he found and led a commando unit specializing in retaliatory operations. By the 1967 Six-Day War, Sharon had gained the rank of major general. After the Yom Kippur War (1973), he helped establish the Zionist Likud party and won a seat in the Israeli parliament (Knesset). He served as security adviser to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (1975-77), minister of agriculture (1977-81), and defense minister (1981) in the second Menachem Begin government.
In 1982, Defense Minister Sharon claimed terrorists remained in Lebanese refugee camps. The claim justified the indiscriminate bombing of Beirut. At Qibya, bombs destroyed the village, killing every inhabitant. According to 2001 complaints filed in Belgian courts, Sharon allowed Lebanese Christians to invade Palestinian refugee camps in West Beirut between September 16-18, 1982. The complaints charge genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes similar to those against defendants in the Nuremberg Trials following WWII and the Jewish Holocaust. Several investigations, including the Israeli Kahan Commission, held Sharon, at least indirectly, responsible for the massacres in the Sabra and Shatila camps.
After resigning from the defense ministry (1983), Sharon remained in the Knesset. He served as minister of trade and industry (1984-90) and minister of construction and housing (1990-92). As minister of construction and housing, he worked to increase Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. From 1992-1996, Sharon served as a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. In 1996, he became minister of national infrastructure in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet, and foreign minister in 1998. After Labor Party leader Ehud Barak defeated Netanyahu in 1999, Sharon succeeded Netanyahu as Likud leader.
In 2000, Sharon, accompanied by armed soldiers, visited the Al Aksa Mosque (Temple Mount). The holy site to Muslims and Jews is located in Palestinian East Jerusalem. Sharon's stated aim was to show Israeli sovereignty over this and other holy places. The visit sparked Arab demonstrations, which led to a Palestinian insurrection and, less directly, a prime-ministerial election. As Likud leader, Sharon challenged and overwhelmingly defeated Barak (2001).
Sharon's coalition government advocated a hard line with the Palestinians. Violence escalated in Israel and the occupied territories. Sharon ordered the reoccupation of West Bank towns, employed targeted assassinations and began building a controversial security wall to prevent suicide bomb attacks against Israelis. Forced to call elections when his unity government broke up in late 2002, Sharon won reelection in early 2003.
Update Cobell v Norton
In June 1996, Native American Elouise Cobell and three associates filed suit in federal court asking the government to account for the tens of millions of acres of land the government forced into trust in 1887 and to account for and distribute to its beneficiaries the correct amount of funds it received and invested from leases it arranged for timber sales and for oil, gas, minerals and grazing rights on Indian trust lands. When Congress established the trust fund, it assigned the responsibility of managing the oil, gas, timber and grazing royalties from the land to the Interior Department.
In court testimony, a senior Treasury Department official admitted that the United States has used Indian trust funds to reduce the national debt. No one knows how much or for how many years the US government used Indian trust money for this purpose. In addition, the head of the Interior Department's Office of Historical Accounting testified that 40 million acres of Individual Indian Trust land simply vanished.
In 1999, US District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled the government breached its responsibilities and ordered the interior and treasury secretaries to provide a complete accounting of all trust assets, including the revenues generated from trust lands since 1887. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld Lamberth's ruling, chiding the Interior Department for its obvious malfeasance. When the Interior Department, under Secretary Gale Norton, failed to satisfy the court's order for an accounting of trust assets and funds, the judge found her in contempt.
Last week, Lamberth gave the Interior Department yet another opportunity to act in good faith. Expressing little confidence, he set strict deadlines for completion of phases of the accounting process. A final tally is to be reached by September 30, 2007. He also established a time frame for the Interior Department to correct its mismanagement of trust funds and appointed a court monitor to keep tabs on the process, conduct investigations, if necessary, and report to the court.
After seven years of litigation, the steadfast resistance and level of hostility of Democrats and Republicans have stunned Cobell and her associates. As Cobell says, "We can settle this case, but the government first must participate in settlement talks with integrity, something they have refused to do for seven years."
Disgruntled wants to know: In light of recent events, character assessment is not a G. W. Bush forte. He called the Zionist warrior Ariel Sharon "a man of peace." He looked into Russian president Vladimir Putin's heart and saw "a good man." In looking into the heart of the cagey former KGB agent, did Bush portend Putin parlaying Russian oil in Euros rather than dollars?
Disgruntled says: In the wake of revelations about radio right-wing talker Rush Limbaugh's addiction to prescription pain medication, which he illegally obtained, there has been a mad dash to portray him as a victim. Unlike other addicts for whom conservatives advocate incarceration, Rush deserves liberal doses of compassion, i.e., drug treatment minus prison. The dichotomy is striking as proponents of the rule of law rush to ignore the law for Rush by drawing meaningless distinctions between types of addictions. Like "zealots" that claim to be Christians supporting the death penalty, right-wing fanatics support the rule of law until one of their own breaks the rule. It is plain to see that wherever fanatics, religious or otherwise, gather, logic flees.
Disgruntled feels: Forked tongue! A phrase for liar, Native Americans often used it in reference to US government officials, especially when it came to the government's propensity to dishonor every treaty in achieving its "manifest destiny." With forked tongue and weapons of mass destruction, the US robbed Native peoples of their lives and land from "sea to shining sea."
Free Form Exchange Presents: Yohannes Sharriff
Sunday, October 26, 2003, Free Form Exchange features the new millennium performance of Yohannes Sharriff at the Apache, 64 3rd Street in Atlanta, Georgia. Extending concepts developed on his latest CD- The Cosmic Possibilities of Father Time - Yohannes brings an evolutionary approach to the art of spoken word. Fusing blues, jazz and hip hop, his motif transcends word poetry to sound based improvisation to communicate our African essence. Accompanied by percussionist Shola and the wailing soulful moans of Dash on trumpet, this new age trio pumps an ancient vibe in today's asphalt beats. Do not miss this special treat. Get there early for the best seat. Doors open at 9 PM. For more info email thedish@surfglobal.net or voice 404-244-6023.
Skullduggery
Alexandra Robbins, a 1998 Yale University graduate, conducted extensive research on the Skull and Bones Society for her May 2000 exposé in The Atlantic Monthly. A cursory overview of Yale's secret society's history, it identifies some of its most famously powerful personalities. Skull and Bones dates back to 1832 and is fashioned after a German student organization.
Famous Bonesmen, as the society's members are known, include Democratic presidential hopeful Senator John Kerry and Bush men George W., his father and former president George Herbert Walker Bush and his grandfather Prescott Bush. It is believed that Prescott Bush (1918) and associates robbed the Fort Sill, Oklahoma grave of the great Apache chief Geronimo, whose skull is an ornament in the group's domicile, known on the Yale University campus as "The Tomb."
Human and animal skeletons figure prominently in the group's rituals. Descriptions of initiations and activities in the inner sanctum are bone-chillingly eery, especially since these powerful people publicly proclaim themselves devout believers in God, whether Jews or Christians. Yet, Bonesmen, like the frustrated homosexual poet Beddoes, dabble in necromancy and the occult, things antithetical to organized religious worship, but more on the order of rites in a Satanic cult.
It is said that Bonesmen pledge allegiance to their group and nothing else, including country. Could this be the source of the fanaticism that reduced the US from its role as honest broker to pariah in foreign affairs? Who can say what skullduggery is afoot when powerful men chant in an underground crypt?
It's About the Rule of Law
Professor of Law, Dr. Francis A. Boyle steadfastly advocates impeachment of George W. Bush and others in his administration based on the rule of law. At www.counterpunch.org/boyle07252003.html, he offers ample justification for the US House of Representatives to pursue a Bill of Impeachment against Bush, Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Dr. Boyle met with Congressman John Conyers, Ramsey Clark and others to debate the case for impeachment prior to the impending war with Iraq in March 2003. According to Dr. Boyle, "most of the "experts" there opposed impeachment on the grounds that it might hurt the Democratic Party get their presidential candidate elected in the year 2004." Rather than view impeachment as a partisan consideration, Dr. Boyle argued its merits based on the US Constitution, US Federal Laws, US Treaties and other International Agreements to which the U S is a contracting party. Article VI of the US Constitution provides that Treaties "shall be the supreme Law of the Land." This Clause of the US Constitution also applies to International Executive Agreements concluded under the auspices of the US President such as the 1945 Nuremberg Charter.
On March 19, 2003, Bush began his war of aggression against Iraq with an attempted assassination of President Saddam Hussein by means of a so-called "decapitation" strike, which is clearly illegal and criminal. Using the rule of law, Republicans in the US House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton for having consensual sex and lying about it. Surely, the House can, should, and must impeach Bush for starting an unprovoked war, lying about it, and threatening more wars based strictly on the rule of law. For the good of all humanity, we must terminate America's Imperial Presidency and subject it to the Rule of Law. Dr. Boyle can be reached at fboyle@law.uiuc.edu.
Mailbox: E-Mails,
Faxes & Telephone Calls
Email awalker@yahoo.com I recall thinking the road map to peace, accepted by the Palestinians and approved by the Israelis, would no more resolve the important issues, such as the occupied territories, refugee right of return and Jerusalem, than UN Security Council Resolution 242, which Israel has yet to implement. The road map to nowhere reminds me of the delaying tactics the US used against Native Americans in implementing the hundreds of worthless peace treaties the parties signed. They delayed implementation until all the parties were too old to fight or dead.
Email www.scotsman.com In the first mass refusal to obey orders in the Israeli air force, 27 pilots have signed a letter saying they will no longer conduct illegal and immoral combat operations against civilians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the letter, submitted to the air force commander, Dan Halutz, the signatories wrote that they oppose Israel's illegal and immoral occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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