The DISH

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Volume 9 Issue 4…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…January 27, 2004

Intuit’s Vibe

My Poem (1968)

By Nikki Giovanni

I am 25 years old, black female poet

asking nigger can you kill

if they kill me it won’t stop the revolution.

I have been robbed it looked like

they knew that I was to be hit

they took my TV my two rings

my piece of African print and my two guns

if they take my life it won’t stop the revolution.

My phone is tapped my mail is opened

they’ve caused me to turn on all my friends

and all of my new lovers if I hate all black people

and all Negroes it won’t stop the revolution.

I’m afraid to tell my roommate where I’m going

and scared to tell people if I’m coming

if I sit here for the rest of my life

it won’t stop the revolution.

If I never write another poem of short story

if I flunk out of grad school if my car is reclaimed

and my record player won’t play

and if I never see a peaceful day

or do a meaningful black thing

it won’t stop the revolution...

Comments from the Bat Cave

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro will soon turn thirteen, an age in which hormones rage. Often moody, these young people frequently prefer their own company to other people’s, especially members of their family. Those with younger siblings find it difficult to keep the peace and protect one’s privacy, when they barge in uninvited. After throwing his brother and sister out of his room several times, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro whined, “Grandma, how do I get a right to privacy?”

Hood Notes

Ogling Google

On January 18, 2005, US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion in federal court to force Google, Inc., the most-used Internet search engine, to comply with a subpoena issued last summer. The DOJ subpoena sought an unspecified week of search requests and Internet addresses.

The DOJ claims the information will be used in its efforts to restore the Child Online Protection Act, an anti-pornography law that the Supreme Court struck down two years ago. It also claims Google’s data will "assist in its efforts to understand the behavior of current Web users, (and) to estimate how often Web users encounter harmful-to-minors material in the course of their searches."

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, which tracks Internet activity, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN and AOL handle nearly 90 percent of all U.S. search requests. Yahoo and MSN have complied with similar subpoenas, and AOL provided the DOJ with a list of search requests, which it says are already publicly available from other sources.

Google collects and stores a vast array of personal data on its users, names, addresses and Social Security information. For Google, whose motto is reportedly "Don't be evil," complying with the DOJ request would represent a betrayal to its users and expose its trade secrets.

Although the government has stated it has no interest in personal data, the subpoenas raise serious privacy concerns, which have grown with recent revelations of White House warrantless wiretapping. Privacy advocacy groups and others support Google’s refusal to comply with the DOJ’s subpoena. They are simply leery about the government’s real purpose in ogling Google searches.

The Island

By John Burl Smith

The current debate involving stem cell research, cloning, genetic engineering and eugenics pose the propositions, “What value should society place on life or should one place such a value on their own life that no other life matters? Slavery is the only concept that clearly illustrates this dilemma. Slavery is based on the idea that some humans, because of the circumstances of their births, are of less valuable than others. As such, their sole benefit resides in service to those of greater value.

Directed by Michael Bay, the science-fiction movie “The Island” presents this dilemma from a different perspective, yet the implications are similar. Awaking in a world where people either maintain the system or are its victims, hero Lincoln 6-Echo (Ewan McGregor) and heroine Jordan 2-Delta (Scarlett Johansson) are cared for in every way by those running their world. Yet, things are not as they seem, and they must learn the truth to survive.

Living in a controlled environment, residents in this world lack individuality. Residents have roles and functions to perform daily but rigid rules allow only limited contact between women and men. Healthy virile males and fertile females are totally segregated in their domiciles. The reward for enduring this unnatural state is to win a trip to a better place through a lottery: “The Island.”

Human in every way, curiosity and imagination prime our hero with questions that push him to discover the dark truth about their world. Synonymous to slavery in every way, their benign existence, no matter its trappings or justification, is antithetical to the human spirit. Denied the one act that drives human growth and potential, choice is removed as a consideration.

Slavery in the US is the classic example. Procreation, the most basic human choice, was taken away. Reproduction was a commercial process. Blacks were breeding machines, producing products like themselves for the benefit of their owners.

Choice is intricately bound up with the human drive to survive. Denying choice, slave masters, no matter what their title, attempt to make self-definition irrelevant or the province of those who know best. Once choice is removed, it can be represented as an abstract concept. For slaves in this film, the lottery removed choice. Winning a trip to “The Island” embodied freedom. Such intangibles as freedom and democracy lack concreteness and exist only in the mind. When such elusive constructs replace choice, those in control can define the conditions under which one can choose.

Slavery is a value concept. A slave is a living human treated as a commodity whose value is determined by those in control. “The Island” illustrates that function determines value. The only difference between those who serve the system and those who are its commodities or products is the condition of their birth. Like Germans that kept the Nazis system going, those pledged to support the system turn blind eyes and deaf ears to what happens to its victims. They pretend ignorance about the system’s injustices. In “The Island,” they are the ones that use and maintain the lottery. They determine who goes to “The Island.” In reality, their sense of value depends on enslaving others.

Make viewing “The Island” a family educational activity the next time you visit the video store. Parents can help their children understand the complicated issues presented in this film.

Politics Y2K6

End Eminent Domain Abuse

In Kelo vs. City of New London, the Supreme Court ruled the city could seize homes under eminent domain. New London argued tax revenues and new jobs from economic development would benefit the public.

In the tradition of the Boston Tea Party and the Pine Tree Riot, which took place during the winter of 1771-1772, when colonists in Weare, New Hampshire beat up officials appointed by King George III who fined them for logging white pines without approval, the Committee for the Preservation of Natural Rights is trying to get Justice David Souter evicted from his New Hampshire farmhouse.

The Committee has submitted petition signatures to bring the matter before voters in March. The petition asks whether the town should take Souter's land for development as an inn; whether to set up a trust fund to accept donations for legal expenses; and whether to set up a second trust fund to accept donations to compensate Souter for taking his land.

The group wants Justice Souter's home seized for the purpose of building an inn called "Lost Liberty Hotel." Their goal is to put an end to eminent domain abuse," according to group organizer Logan Darrow Clements. For more about the group and efforts to end eminent domain abuse, log on to .

Bit of History

Death with Dignity (1994-2006)

Advances in modern medicine have made it possible to prolong life well beyond the point at which the body can sustain itself. Drugs manage pain and machines provide oxygen and nutrients. Often in vegetative states, individuals are not allowed to die with dignity. Others in constant pain must hang on, because state and federal laws make doing anything to assist the end of life a crime.

In 1994, Oregon voters by a margin of 51% to 49% approved the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, which allowed physicians to prescribe lethal doses of medications to terminally ill patients. Opponents filed Lee v. State of Oregon. The US District Court halted the law’s implementation. On appeal, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

In 1997, Oregon voters again passed a physician-assisted death referendum by 60% to 40%. While the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court's injunction, conservative Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and US Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) sought to prevent the Oregon law’s implementation through a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) policy statement. Clearly, their action was at odds with the Supreme Court, which ruled in its Vacco v. Quill and Washington v. Glucksberg that physician-assisted dying, while not a constitutional right, is an issue best addressed at the state level.

In 1998, former Attorney General Janet Reno refused to prosecute doctors prescribing lethal drugs to terminally ill patients. Congressional opponents failed to pass the Lethal Drug Abuse Prevention Act to overturn the Oregon law. While the House of Representatives passed the Pain Relief Promotion Act (1999), which would prohibit physicians from prescribing lethal dosages of medications for the terminally ill, the Senate did not vote on the measure.

Former US Attorney General John Ashcroft (2001) ordered Federal Drug Enforcement Agents to prosecute physicians and pharmacists for practicing under Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act. The U.S. District Court issued an injunction against Ashcroft’s order. After hearing oral arguments in 2002, it ruled the US Justice Department lacked authority to overturn the Oregon statute. Ashcroft appealed the decision in 2003 to the Ninth Circuit.

On May 26, 2004, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s decision in Oregon v. Ashcroft. Again, Attorney General John Ashcroft appealed the ruling, which was rejected on August 11, 2004. On November 9, 2004, the Circuit Court rejected the rehearing request. Ashcroft filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, prior to announcing his retirement.

On October 5, 2005, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Gonzales v. Oregon (formerly Oregon v. Ashcroft). On January 17, it ruled 6-3 in favor of Oregon. Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts dissented. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion. (Sources: , and )

Disgruntled feels: Torn! Out of an abiding respect for life, I oppose the death penalty, and wish the US would end its wars of choice and adequately feed, clothe, shelter and educate all its children. As a woman, I empathize with my contemporaries that chose their careers and/or sought to avoid family and community scorn by getting illegal abortions. Today, some of these women would love to have children of their own, but the back alley butchers they were forced to use took more than the fetuses in their wombs. Many of these women will never know the joys and sorrows of being mothers. While I took a different path, I support their right to make the life and death decisions that affect their lives. Hence, I am torn between a woman’s right to choose and the life of the unborn.

Disgruntled says: Entertainer/activist Harry Belafonte has been excoriated for his critiques of George W. Bush and his administration. On a visit to Venezuela, he called Bush the world’s greatest terrorist. Elsewhere, he pointed out Bush lies and stated Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, two high profile Bush administration blacks, served their master well. In an interview with Wolf Blitzer, Belafonte refused to back away from these assertions. When Blitzer commented on his steadfastness, Belafonte informed Blitzer that he, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in telling the truth. Well said! Give them hell Harry!

Disgruntled wants to know: George W. Bush has an approval rating in the low forties. His administration and party are steeped in controversy from the war in Iraq to the lobbying scandal tied to Jack Abramoff. How is it possible that any large audience, given the chance to ask questions, lobs softballs? And, how long will mainstream media ignore the ever-present protests?

Venue for an Artist

The Right to Vote

By Jesse Jackson, Jr.

"The vote" is a human right. It is seen as an American right. In a democracy, there is nothing more fundamental than having the right to vote. And yet, the right to vote is not a fundamental right in our Constitution. Some liberals argue that the fundamental right to vote for every American citizen is implied in the Constitution, based on Supreme Court precedent. When I ask them about the denial of voting representation in Congress to District of Columbia citizens, or about the denial of ex-felons' voting rights in most states, many liberals concede that the current structure of our Constitution limits the ability of the courts and Congress to adequately address important voting-rights issues.

It is amazing that many Democrats failed to grasp the most fundamental finding in Bush v. Gore: "The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States." Our voting system's foundation is built on the sand of states' rights and local control. We have 50 states, 3,141 counties and 7,800 local election jurisdictions – all separate and unequal.

In four states, ex-felons are barred from voting for life. Five million Americans (including 1.8 million African-Americans, mostly in Southern states--where 55 percent of African- Americans live) who have paid their debt to society but are prohibited from voting. At the same time, in Maine and Vermont you can vote even if you're in jail.

We need to build our voting system on a rock--the rock of a Voting Rights Amendment to the US Constitution. The amendment I proposed in each of the last several Congresses (HJR 28) would provide Americans with a citizenship right to vote. It would give Congress the authority to craft a unitary voting system for federal, state and local elections--one that guarantees all votes will be counted in a complete, fair, free and efficient manner.

Democrats have been made so defensive by right-wing Republicans' constant stream of absurd amendments--anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-flag "desecration"-- that we've developed a negative rationale and posture about the Constitution: It's fine just the way it is. But fights over "rights" and constitutional amendments are where elections are being won and lost. And when Democrats don't fight for laws, defending human rights, we reaffirm states' rights and local control, both of which are inherently separate and unequal.

Building a more perfect union by turning human rights into American rights is what Democrats should be fighting for. Let's wage this fight one issue at a time, rolling out a sort of second Bill of Rights. After the Voting Rights Amendment, we might add amendments for public education, equal-quality healthcare, equal rights for women, affordable-housing, clean, safe and sustainable environment, fair taxes amendment, full-employment and direct election of the American President and Vice President.

Fighting for human and constitutional rights is a theme and a strategy that could keep Democrats together for the next fifty years, election after election. It's time to begin a lofty fight to add the right to vote to the Constitution--and paint a truer picture of most Republicans as undemocratic. It's time to stand up and insure every American's right to vote to have that vote fully protected and to have it fairly counted.

About Me: US Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. represents the second congressional district of Illinois. Learn more about his views and record at , and read article at www.thenation.com/doc/20060206/jackson .

Mailbox: E-mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls

Email Iranian Nuclear Ambitions and American Foreign Policy ...By Terence M. Gatt...The controversial issue of Iranian ambitions for a civilian nuclear energy project ironically began with the assistance of the United States during the reign of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi. In 1957, Iran signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States as part of the US Atoms for Peace Program. Additionally, under this program Iran purchased a research nuclear reactor from the United States that was put into operation in 1967.

E-mail Googling Past the Graveyard By Maureen Dowd...I don't like the thought of Dick Cheney ogling my Googling. Because what I'm Googling, of course, is Dick Cheney. I have to constantly monitor how Vice Voyeur is pushing the federal government to constantly monitor millions of ordinary Americans' phone calls, e-mail notes and Internet searches. If you want to know why the Grim Peeper is willing to turn this country into a police state to take his version of democracy to other countries, just do a Google search under "antiterrorism," "government snooping," "overreaching" and "fruitcake."

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