ONE VOICE CAN’T SPEAK FOR MILLIONS
By
Eric L. Wattree
I feel compelled to reiterate a theme that I addressed in an earlier article where I emphasized that education is the key to improving our condition in the Black community. I realize that I’m at risk of sounding like Willie One-Note, but I see the need for education in the Black community as a refrain that needs to be played over and over again, because all of our problems can be boiled down to that one simple point. The fact is, God made birds to fly, fish to swim, and man to think. If a bird refuses to fly, or a fish refuses to swim, they’re not going to survive very long. The same is true of man—if a man, or a community of men, refuses to think, they cannot remain viable in this society.
Education will teach us right off the bat that the only rights that we have in this world are the rights that we can take and then defend. Now, I don’t mean “take” in a military sense—that would be a recipe for disaster. When I say “take”, I mean using our collective intellect to obtain. Because it has become clear that we can’t out scream the White man, we don’t have the electronic resources. And it makes absolutely no sense to try to appeal to his compassion, because he doesn’t have any--and what’s going on in Iraq shows that we certainly can’t match him when it comes to brutality. But Martin demonstrated without a doubt that if we marshal our collective intellectual resources, we can out think this man. We are a highly creative people—we’ve simply got to develop the gift that God gave us, as our essential means of survival.
God didn’t create anything in this world and leave it defenseless. He gave the chameleon the ability to change colors and blend in with its environment, to make itself virtually invisible. He gave the skunk a funk that’s so powerful that nothing wants to get close enough to eat it. And some fish can blow themselves up so large that they can’t be swallowed. He did the same with man. He placed man on Earth as a naked ape—he wasn’t as strong as the elephant, or as ferocious as the lion, and couldn’t fly like the eagle, so God gave him a brain. It didn’t seem like much, at the time, but the human mind has allowed man to create machines that can now crush any elephant, slaughter any lion, and soar well beyond the eagle’s domain.
He’s done the same thing for Black people. He’s given us a highly developed sense of creativity, which, by definition, is a primary indicator of intellectual development. But our problem is, we only utilize God’s gift for our entertainment, rather than using it to soar like the eagle, and step beyond the domain of ordinary men.
It’s amazing to me how the Black man fails to recognize his powerful gift of creative intellect—we’ve already seen it in action. The hill that Martin had to climb to reach the mountaintop, and see over the heads of common men, was much steeper than the molehill we have to climb today. Yet, he managed to dredge up a strength and power from his soul that was so profound that it served to lift the rest of mankind to a higher level of humanity. That was not only a testament to one Black man(s ability to pull himself up from the dust of his humble beginnings, but also, a testament to the capacity of his people to meet the test of greatness.
Similarly, I’m also amazed that whenever I hear a discussion on Black pride, someone always seems to brings up the issue of Egypt, and whether or not Cleopatra was Black. All that's academic. We don't have to go back to antiquity to find a source of pride. All we have to do is study the life and times of our parents, our grandparents, and that generation of Black people born between the turn of the century and WWII. In less than a hundred years our people have gone from being the defenseless and nameless victims of public lynchings, to becoming people like Colon Powell, who was responsible for the defense of all of America and the entire western world. In less than a hundred years, the Black people of that generation went from housekeepers and flunkies, to the boardrooms of multinational corporations. And in less than a hundred years, we’ve gone from playing washboards and tin cans on the side of the road, to becoming the greatest musicians the world has ever known.
As a musician, I think about that time a lot—when White folks use to laugh and simply tolerated as “quaint” those “simple” brothers with their washboards and tin cans on the side of the road. They weren’t seen as a threat, because they were deprived of going to the prestigious music conservatories that White musicians had access to. But today, America is defined by the legacy of those very same musicians. Every time anyone turns on a radio anywhere in the world, they should have to pay royalties to Bird, Miles, Coltrane, Quincy Jones, Marvin Gaye, and the myriad of other Black musicians that have carried on our legacy. Yeah, they laughed at us in the beginning, just like they’re laughing at us now; but now, you can get a Ph.D. in just about any university in the world for just trying to figure out what Bird was doing—and fifty years after his death, they still can’t get it right. That is the power of creativity, and that is our legacy as a people.
So, we’ve got to start taking ourselves much more seriously—because we are a powerful people, with an exceptional intellect. But we’ve got to develop it, and refine it, and extend it to the whole of human knowledge. And we’ve got to stop taking ourselves for granted, and expecting one voice to speak for millions. We must seek to educate ourselves, so that millions can speak with one voice:
Neither scholar nor the head of state,
The most common of men seems to be my fate;
A life blistered with struggle and constant need,
But as my legacy to man I bequeath my seed.
More fertile, more sturdy, these ones than I,
This withered old vine left fallow and dry;
The nectar of their roots lie dormant still,
But through their fruit I(ll be revealed.
Eric L. Wattree, Sr.
eric@wattree.com
Saturday, May 27, 2006
ONE VOICE CAN'T SPEAK FOR MILLIONS
UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRATION
Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
The Hispanic community may have done itself a gross disservice last week. The huge demonstrations that turned out against proposed immigration reform in the U.S. Congress might well have done more to bolster alarmist arguments against Hispanic immigration than any words the alarmists could have possibly come up with on their own.
That old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words never rang more true than during this past week. Prior to last week’s demonstrations alarmist constantly bombarded the American people with facts and figures in a desperate attempt to portray just how serious the problem of undocumented workers coming into this country each year had become. But they had a problem—the facts and figures were abstract. While the American people heard the facts and figures, they simply could not visualize what those facts and figures represented. But the mass display of humanity that flooded the streets and cities across this country last week brought the message home loud and clear--We have a serious problem.
I can only imagine how the alarmists and racists in this country are going to use those images to instill fear in the average American. When I turned on the television and saw the half million people protesting in the street on such short notice it even scared me, a progressive who tends to be sympathetic to the cause of the underdog. Those images brought an important message home to me—we’ve had our heads in the sand for far too long. This is an issue that must be addressed immediately, and in a firm and aggressive manner.
Last week’s images have shocked America into drawing lines in the sand—but lines that are convoluted and with the strangest of bedfellows on both sides. Unfortunately, I don’t think that bodes well for the undocumented worker. In spite of the seriousness of this matter, this entire controversy is rapidly degenerating into an exercise in what America does best—catering to self-interest.
On the one hand you have the advocates of undocumented workers who argue that these are people who only take jobs that other Americans don’t want. They contend that they’re a people who have been exploited by American business for years, and have contributed greatly to the United States economy for very little or no reward. They also argue that to criminalize illegal status would turn hard working and productive people into felons, and to require that they return to their country of origin would disrupt families and be unjust to their children, who, in many cases, are American citizens. The proponents of this position are Hispanic politicians who are both, responding to their constituency, and, the potential political advantage of gaining 9 million new Hispanic voters. Their partner in this position are conservative business interests who want to exploit the opportunity for cheap labor.
On the other side you have those who contend that during this time when America is under the threat of terrorism we must have control over our borders. They also take the position that the large number of undocumented workers are taking jobs from American citizens, and that they’re also placing a tremendous strain on our education, healthcare, and welfare systems. Lined up on this side are progressives who are concerned with the impact that the large number of undocumented workers are having on unions and the earning power of the average American, but standing along side them are the racists and xenophobes who are just hostile to Hispanic immigration period—and therein lies the problem for many progressives.
Nevertheless, and while I sincerely regret finding myself in the same camp with racists and xenophobes, I have to recognize that even a broken clock is right twice a day. Thus, when I weigh the relative merit of the two arguments it seems that the latter holds more weight. Every country must protect its borders—if it doesn’t, the word “country” is meaningless. And while it is true that the undocumented worker has been exploited, they placed themselves in that position when they decided to immigrate here illegally. If they’d turn out in their own countries in the numbers that they did here in the United States they just might have been able to gain concessions in their countries of origin.
And the argument that they only take jobs that Americans don’t want is completely
fallacious. Undocumented workers do much more than just pick grapes—they work as truck drivers, upholsterers, meat packers, chefs, bakers, printers, and many other relatively high paying jobs that Americans would love to have. And finally, all one has to do is go to any county agency, public school, or emergency room in Los Angeles to see the negative impact and strain that undocumented workers are placing on those systems—many teachers are being threatened with the loss of their jobs if they fail to become bilingual in a given period of time, and the phone systems of many government agencies will tell a caller to, “Press 1 if you want to speak in English.” Come on, now—this is the United States! Why should I have to press 1 to speak the native language?
So how should we handle this problem? First, we should find out who is here and where they work by issuing work permits, and the worker should have to return to his country of origin to obtain one. This permit would also serve as an identification card that would allow him to register his children in school and obtain other public services. In addition, any person involved in forging, or found to be in possession of a forged card would be charged with a felony. And finally, any business that hires a worker without a card should be fined $20,000 per violation. I think that would be a pretty good start.
Finally, I want to point out that I was born in Los Angeles and grew up with Hispanic people, so I not only have a great love, but a tremendous respect for them--In fact, I’d like to see many of their cultural attributes reflected in my own people. Because of that fact, it was important to me that I ask myself a simple question before I wrote this article: Would I take the same position if we were talking about African or Haitian immigrants? The answer-- absolutely. The reason for that is, I’ve come to the conclusion that while compassion for others is one of man’s highest virtues, cutting one’s own throat in pursuit of that virtue is simply foolish.
Eric L. Wattree, Sr. Sphere: Related Content
THE NEW WORLD ORDER
LET US WELCOME AMERICA
TO THE NEW WORLD ORDER
While I was at ARCO the other day, paying homage to King George, I noticed this brother at the pump getting progressively more agitated as he watched the numbers reel by. The brother looked so distressed that I stood there hoping the pump would stop before he had a stroke. Then he looked up at me and said, “Damn man, these numbers are whirling by like a slot machine.” I assumed he was talking about the price gauge, because watching the gas gauge creep along was like watching paint dry. So I told him, we’d probably be better off if it was a slot machine. Then, we’d have a shot at hitting three cherries and getting a free tank of gas. The brother laughed and then kind of lightened up.
But it’s not a joke what the Bush Administration is doing to the American people. They have that bottom-line mentality, and the bottom line is wealth and power. If they have to give our all to get it, then, so be it—we just have to bite the dust.
I never thought we’d ever see the day when it would be more cost effective to pour Chavis Regal down my tank than gas, but that day is rapidly approaching—and it’s not just hitting us when we gas up, it’s affecting every area of our financial lives. We’re going to be paying the price of fine Scotch for everything that has to be transported by truck, which means everything we buy, from baby wipes to toilet paper.
And this is not a result of poor planning, or by accident—on the contrary, it’s a well thought out plan. It’s no accident that they’re outsourcing our best paying jobs to other countries, or opening up the borders to a flood of cheap labor, or attempting to destroy our public school system through the use of vouchers. It’s called “The New World Order.” It’s a plan to turn America, and the entire world, into a Third World economy, where there is no middle class, and everyone is at the mercy and whim of big business.
Take the school voucher system, for example. It sounds good on the surface—they want to give the people money-- people that they’ve never cared about before-- “to insure that their kids get a quality education.” But tell me, what are these people going to do when the public school system is destroyed, after the public has taken all its kids out of it for $1500 a year, then the private school system goes up to $5,000 a year? I’ll tell you what their going to do—their going to sit at home, with their illiterate children, who have no chance of ever rising above the status of their parents. The children will then have but two choices--they’ll either have to work for whatever peanuts big business is willing to throw their way, or join the military and become canon fodder in a perpetual state of war to enhance the fortunes of Dick Cheney and Haliburton.
The agenda is clear. While our love ones are being blown apart, Haliburton--the company that Vice President Cheney headed before coming into office, and is still being compensated by--is enjoying unprecedented profits, while providing our troops with contaminated water; and as our families are being scarred for life, the children of Bush’s chicken hawks are following in their parent’s footsteps--lying back in the lap of luxurious privilege, content to cheer the heroic "little people" from the lobby of exclusive tennis clubs. And then, when we attempt to end the bloodletting, and to get our children out of harms way, they tell us we’re un-American.
Well, it seems to me that anyone who buys into that nonsense is not only a non-thinking person, but in point of fact, an absolute idiot. But then, that brings us right back to why they want to destroy our educational system, doesn't it? Knowledge is power, but it’s become clear that in the past five years the American people have been brainwashed into believing that independent thought is an elitist concept. So as we slowly sink into this cesspool of virtual slavery—or neo-slavery, as it were—allow me to be the first to welcome America, to the New World Order.
ODE TO A MAGNIFICENT OLD SWINGER
ODE TO A MAGNIFICENT OLD SWINGER
I’d like to take a moment to give a little something back to a magnificent old swinger. Being from the old school, and born and raised in Los Angeles, jazz has always been a major force in my life. So when Chuck Niles, of radio station KKJZ left this Earth, it represented the eternal silence of yet another force that went into molding what I think of as me. In my mind, jazz, Chuck Niles, and who I am today are all a part of the same continuum. Rahsaan called us Eulipians--a brotherhood of writers, poets, musicians and uncommon drunks, who thrive on a riff, and passionately embrace the proposition that man’s thirst for knowledge will someday overwhelm his lust for stupidity.
I can't begin to describe the impact that this grand old cat has had on my life over the years. I first came across him when I was a kid listening to "The Knob"--Radio station KNOB. I’ve heard people talk about how tough KBCA was, and indeed it was a powerhouse of jazz, but nobody in the history of radio swung it like The Knob. They had people like Tommy B, Tollie Strode, Stevo, and of course, the ever swingin' Chuck Niles.
Man, those cats swung it 24‑7 like it was their last day on Earth, and every one of them had an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz. So there was never a lull in the music—Bird, Monk, Miles, Dexter Gordon, Jackie McLean, one after the other, all day, and all night long. I mean, these guys would be smokin’, and every time you thought they couldn't possibly get any tougher, they'd kick it up a notch. As a youngster, I couldn’t live without them, but even back then I understood the meaning of sacrifice--so I’d sleep on Tuesdays.
Chuck and his cohorts at The Knob not only provided me with a Ph.D. in the world of Jazz, but they also laid a foundation for a way of life that has served me quite well over the years. By the time I was 16 I had gained a wealth of knowledge into the beauty of what contributed directly to who I am. Jazz became a hook upon which I could hang other knowledge—both historic and political. I became curious about such things as what kind of political environment led to the development of a Charlie Parker or Thelonious Monk. That, in turn, led me to consider the realities of my own political environment.
Then later in life, during those moments when life became funky, I'd only have to consider my roots to know that I had what it took to carry on. The love of jazz and, the cultural message it related, taught me to take pride in my ability to deal with hardship. It also taught me to never have more respect for anyone else’s ability to think than I had for my own. It put a swagger in my outlook that has stood up to the most severe adversity, and a love and respect for knowledge, creativity, and achievement that has allowed me to truly overcome.
So these cats didn't just spin records, they were educators. They provided a foundation and a philosophy of life upon which many young cats like myself have based our entire lives. And at the same time, they also promoted a tradition that assured the viability of modern jazz—an unassailable tradition, that stands as a monument to the creative genius of Black people.
Chuck Niles, even though he had white skin, was as dedicated to that proposition as any Black man I've ever known, and he continued to stoke the flame right up to his final days, with a new generation of believers at KLON (now KKJZ) on the campus of Cal. State Long Beach (a listener supported station that’s always in dire need of our support).
Today we live in a world of hip hop, Nikes, and jogging suits. But Chuck represented a different world‑‑a world of bebop, Florsheims, and Brooks Brothers suits. His was a world of unspoken class, magnificent ladies, and shinny new Cadillacs glistening against the Moonlight; of Ray Brown's sweet bass struttin' down uncharted avenues of the blues; of Charlie Parker's bittersweet serenade to the angels; and of course, a passionate young Miles with his muted horn, sweetly brooding Stella By Starlight into a smoke filled night.
When I think of Chuck, I think of beautiful days and sweeter nights; a time when the promise of tomorrow was more tantalizing than the chilling passion of the night before. So the passing of this swingin' old warhorse also represents the passing of a magnificent era; an era reminiscent of an elegant lady--a lady that Chuck now, lovingly, escorts into the mist.
Support jazz, by supporting radio station KKJZ, 88.1 FM—one of the last stations in America, that truly speaks of you.
Eric L. Wattree
wattree.com
LET US SHED OUR SHAKLES
LET US SHED OUR SHACKLES . . .
AND HERE’S THE KEY
Last week I mentioned in passing that the shackles on our minds have proven to be much more resilient than those that chained us to this Earth. That comment seems to have resonated with a number of people in the community, and I’ve been urged by several of you to pursue that line of thought, so I intend to do just that. But I want to preface my remarks by pointing out that I’ve thought long and hard over how to approach these issues, because the Black community already have too many people, both Black and White, who are much too anxious to wag their fingers and lecture, ad nauseam, both, Black people and the world at large, about the shortcomings in our community. In fact, one “Black man”, Larry Elder, has forged a lucrative career out of dragging his own people through the mud over national radio on a daily basis (an issue I’ll be addressing in a future column), so we don’t need that. But what we do need is an honest discussion on how we can live up to the potential that we’ve already demonstrated as a people. So I’ll attempt to initiate that discussion, in a constructive, rather than self-serving way.
In that regard, it seems to me that the very first thing we must come to terms with is to realize that as a people who are the product of a racist society, we are just as racist towards other Black people as any redneck White man. Without a concerted effort, that was unavoidable, because we’ve been indoctrinated by the very same environment that indoctrinated White folks. Of course, our first reaction is to vehemently deny that assertion, but the way in which we relate to one another says it all.
Just look around you, and yet again, I mention Larry Elder—what that “brother” is involved in day after day, week after week, and year after year can’t be described in any other way than an exercise in self-hatred. Now, consider our reaction to it—we’ve allowed this guy to drag us through the mud with absolute impunity. He says things about the Black community that no White man would be allowed to get away with, and that’s the very key to his success. No other group of people on the face of this Earth would allow that. If he’d been Jewish, or Mexican, or even Aborigine, and talked about those people the way he does Black people, he wouldn’t have lasted on the air past his second commercial. Thus, the very fact that he’s allowed to prosper at our expense, speaks volumes about what we think of ourselves--and the powers that be are listening. After all, why should they stick their necks out to fight for a people that won’t even fight for themselves?
Now let us look at the issue of drive-byes and gang related violence. The murder rate in the city of Compton alone has reached its highest level in 10 years. The homicide rate was reported to be up by 72 per cent last year. If that fact is not ugly enough, there’s one fact that should give us pause—out of all of the brutality committed against Black people in Los Angeles County last year, not one perpetrator was reported to have been wearing a sheet. Again, that stat speaks volumes.
But as ugly as the facts above are, they are far from our most tenacious shackle. All of the problems sited above, and all of the problems in our community as a whole, can be traced back to one fundamental flaw-- the attitude that many of us hold towards our Black women.
Too many of our young brothers see the need to refer to our women as “bitches” and “whoes”, as though it’s a rite of passage into manhood. The pride that they take in being perceived as playas and pimps demonstrates without a doubt that they think being a man is about denigrating Black women. Again, this is the root to all of the problems pointed out above, because you cannot love yourself, are have any respect for your people, until you learn to cherish the very cradle of your culture. No wonder we can’t get the respect that we feel we deserve from the world. As long as we go around calling our women “bitches” and “whoes”, by our own definition, we’re calling ourselves “sons of bitches”—then we wonder why the world won’t take us seriously. In contrast, the White man places his woman on a pedestal, because he knows how important she is to his own self-esteem.
The way White men view their women is graphically portrayed in the movie King Kong. When they took that White woman ashore and the natives laid eyes on her blond hair, and blue eyes, they went totally berserk—I mean, into an absolute frenzy. In spite of the fact that the island was full of Black women, the natives were convinced that nothing in this world would appease this twenty-five foot gorilla like the opportunity to lay his hands on this White woman. And it turns out they were right, because the minute King Kong laid his hands on that White Woman he forgot about all else. Thereafter, he fought forty foot snakes, numerous dinosaurs, and finally, the United States Air Force, just for the love of this one White woman, who wasn’t even as big as his thumb.
That is the value that the White man places in his women, and if we are ever to shed our shackles, that is the value we must place in our own. We must learn that once our women raise us from boys to men, we must cherish, and stand by those women, and help them to raise the next generation of strong men, and loving and determined women. So I want to challenge my young brothers. Take a minute to call the house you were raised in, and I’m willing to bet everything I own that you’re not gonna find one “bitch” or one “whoe.” What you’re gonna find is the love and determination that dragged you into what passes for manhood--and what remains, the very key to your survival.
Eric L. Wattree, Sr.
Author of “A Message From The Hood”
(213) 399-5171
I’d like to dedicate this article to my late wife,
Valdie Lavern Wattree
Baby, ‘Til death do us part—and beyond.
SELLING GUCCI BAGS IN A HOMELESS SHELTER
BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE
The American people must be out of its collective mind to allow these people to run a game on us like that. And what really gets next to me is, while the rich are getting this kind of kickback, I can’t even write off the interest on my credit cards - Ronald Reagan, that other gangster, took that from us. I’ve got to tell you - they say Bush is not all that bright, but he certainly knows how to stuff his pockets. This guy puts Iceberg Slim to shame. He never saw any problem that taking "mo money" from his whoes wouldn't fix.
Here’s the game they’re running: They’ve convinced America that if we give the rich enough money, they’ll use some of that money to create jobs for the poor and middle class. Now, I don’t claim to be an intellectual giant, and I haven’t spent more than 30 minutes studying Economics, but it doesn’t take a great mind to understand that demand fuels supply, not vice versa. If I made my living selling Gucci Bags, for example, I don’t care how much money you give me, I’m not going to produce any additional Gucci Bags if I'm being forced to sell them in a homeless shelter. It wouldn’t make sense, because no one has the money to purchase them. The only way that you’re going to get me to hire people to produce Gucci Bags is if you gave that money to the people in the shelter so they’d have the money to buy my merchandise.
Reagan ran the same game on us twenty years ago with his now infamous “Reaganomics” - or, the “Trickle Down Theory” as they called it at the time. Supply- Side Economics was a scheme hatch by U.S.C. economist Arthur Laffer and the Reagan crowd which was supposed to cut the deficit and balance the budget. The theory behind Reaganomics was ostensibly, if you cut taxes for business and people in the upper tax brackets, and then deregulated business of such nuisances as safety regulations and environmental safeguards, the beneficiaries would invest their savings into creating new jobs. In that way the money would eventually "trickle down" to the rest of us. In addition, the resulting broadened tax base would not only help to bring down the deficit, but also subsidize the tremendously high defense budget. When the plan was first floated, even George Bush Sr., Reagan's vice president to be, called it "voodoo economics."
Reaganomics, for the most part, sought to undo many of the safeguards put into place during the Roosevelt era and create a business environment similar to that which was in place during the Coolidge Administration. What actually took place, however, was even more like the Coolidge era than planed. Instead of taking the money and investing it into creating new jobs, the money was used in wild schemes and stock market speculation. One of those schemes, the leveraged buy out, involved buying up large companies with borrowed funds secured by the company's assets, then paying off the loan by selling off the assets of the purchased company. That practice destabilized our manufacturing base and cost the citizens of this country millions of jobs that we haven’t recovered from to this day. In addition, the bottom fell out of the stock market. On Monday, October 19, 1987 the Dow-Jones Average fell 508.32 points. It was the greatest one-day decline since 1914 - 15 years before the Great Depression.
And what about Ronald Reagan's promise to balance the budget and lower the deficit? By the time Reagan left office he was not only the most prolific spender of any president in the history of this nation, but he also added more to the deficit than all of the other presidents from George Washington to his own administration combined - but of course, now Bush makes Reagan look like a tightwad. And what does the Republican Party propose to do about that? One of the Republican proposals in their "contract with America" was a capitol gains tax cut - for the rich.
History is clear. Conservative Republicans don't mind spending money at all. They just don't want to spend money on those who need it - us. Remember, they're the party of Alexander Hamilton, one of this country's founding fathers who believed that only those who owned property should even be allowed to vote. He also said:
“All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and wellborn, the other the mass of the people.... The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot receive any advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain good government.”
(Debates of the Federalist Convention (May 14-September 17).
So I've found that a good rule of thumb is to not believe a word that comes out of either Bush or the GOP's collective mouth. As comfortable as I am in my heritage, if the GOP voted a resolution on the floor tomorrow assuring me that I was Black, I’d feel obliged to go and have my DNA tested.
Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
.
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. Sphere: Related Content
RUMSFELD IS ONLY A SYMPTOM
BUSH IS THE CANCER
There was a time just a few short years ago when regardless to what horrors were taking place in the rest of the world I thought I could take comfort in the fact that “it could never happen here in America.” With the benefit of hindsight, however, I now see that I was clearly naïve, since less than sixty years ago a segment of the American populous was bringing picnic baskets to the public lynching of Black people all over the South. Nevertheless, America was able to put on a good front and convinced both me, and the world, that such behavior was an aberration, and far from representative of who we are as a people. They managed to convince us that the United States was an anointed place, chosen by God to show the rest of the world the way.
But in five short years the Bush Administration has managed to undermine all of the spin, disinformation, and public relations that America has so painstakingly spoon-fed the world over the past two centuries. In the graphic parlance of the street, “he’s pimped our [whoe] card.” Ordinarily I would thank him for bringing us back to reality, but in doing so he’s created a new reality—a reality that has placed America in serious jeopardy.
During the years that America benefited from the illusion of moral propriety, even our enemies paid us a grudging respect. They had second thoughts about carrying out their more malevolent tendencies due to the fear that their conduct might offend the moral sensibilities of this great beacon of moral propriety on the hill. But in a mere five years the Bush Administration has demonstrated that America at its worst is just as immune to moral propriety as any malevolent, tinhorn dictator that the world has ever known—and it’s much more dangerous, due to its awesome political and military might.
When Bush invaded Iraq under false pretenses, and then declared that he’s prepared to engage in preemptory military operations against any country that he perceives to be a threat to American security, essentially, he put the world on notice--what has happened to Iraq can also happen to them on just his personal whim. So in essence, he’s declared himself president of the world. As a result, friend and foe alike are looking at America in a far different way. They now see that America is greedy, power hungry, and cannot be trusted. And while they may well recognize that the Bush Administration may simply be a passing aberration in American politics, just the fact that they’ve been allowed to effect such vast changes in the American body politic demonstrates that the American character itself can turn on a dime, and therefore, makes for a highly unstable world entity. Thus, the only way to protect themselves from this hungry giant is to align themselves against it, and to move forward with programs to develop nuclear armaments as fast as they can. The nations of Iran and North Korea are perfect examples of that mindset at work.
The leaking of the Downing Street Memo is another example, but this time an example of our allies working to undermine American interests. The memo is a Top Secrete document to Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It was written by Matthew Rycroft, a foreign aide to the Prime Minister, after meeting with the Bush Administration. The document points out in graphic detail the Bush administration’s game plan to deceive the world in order to justify its decision to invade Iraq. It pointed out that “Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.” In short, it was saying that Bush wanted to go after Saddam but they were going to have to lie to justify it. Just the fact that this memo was allowed to see the light of day demonstrates that even our supposed allies are actively working to undermine this administration—and with good cause.
George W. Bush has always been a shady character and a failure at everything he’s ever attempted in life. In spite of the fact that he’s so willing to sacrifice American lives in Iraq, even after strings were pulled to place him at the front of the line to get him into the Texas National Guard to avoid going into the regular army, and possibly having to risk his own life in Vietnam, he ran away from his responsibility to serve out his term. That was swept under the rug. Then in 1978 Bush started an oil business called Arbusto Energy. It was a total failure and never turned a profit. But before the business went completely under, friends of the Bush family managed to merge it with another company call Spectrum 7 and made Bush the CEO. Within a few years that company was also in debt, but once again, Bush was bailed out by family friends. The new company was called Harken Energy. During his tenure at that company Bush was given $120,000 a year and huge stock options to do absolutely nothing. Just before that company collapsed Bush sold all of his stock for a huge profit. As a result he was being investigated by the SEC for insider trading, but by that time his father was president, so the investigation was quietly dropped. Now we find that Haliburton, the company that his vice president headed, thus, ended up getting no bid contracts in Iraq, has been knowingly serving our troops contaminated water. I could go on for many pages, but quite frankly, I don’t think it should be necessary.
Again, George W. Bush has been a man of shady character, highly incompetent, and an abject failure all of his life. Just the fact that we’ve allowed such a man to become the President of the United States is an indictment against our society, and should be a source of great shame and embarrassment to every American. But it goes much farther than that—remaining true to his nature, yet again, this man is about to crash and burn. So the question we must ask ourselves is this: Are we prepared to just stand by and allow Bush to take all of America down with him? Think about it—because daddy’s friends can’t save us this time.
Eric L. Wattree, Sr.
Friday, May 26, 2006
WEAR RED ON FRIDAYS IN SUPPORT OF OUR TROOPS?
BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE, SR.
WEAR RED ON FRIDAYS IN SUPPORT OF OUR TROOPS:
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF MANIPULATIVE NONSENSE
My sister recently forwarded me a piece of e-mail that was sent to her from a friend. The e-mail suggested that we all wear red on Fridays as a show of support for our “heroic troops in Iraq.” In response, I pointed out to my sister that if she really wanted to support our troops, she’d stop buying into this kind of manipulative nonsense. If we all wore red on Fridays to support our troops, every neo-con in the country would spin it as proof positive that, “regardless to what the polls say, deep down inside, the vast majority of the American people support the war in Iraq”—the very war that’s killing our young people, and destroying their families.
The neo-conmen and chicken hawks of this world stay up all night trying to conjure up little schemes like this. They need a constant flow of nonsense to try to drum up support for this illegal war. They’d do, or say anything to keep this war going for just one more day, because with every day that passes, their cash registers go “Ka-ching.” With each day that passes, they pocket more money than any of us will see in our entire lives—300 million dollars a day. And much of that money is going to Halliburton, the company in which Cheney served as CEO before becoming Vice President. No other company was allowed to bid on the contracts when we went to war in Iraq, and two years ago the contracts were estimated to be in excess of 11 billion dollars. There’s nothing that takes place in Iraq that Halliburton doesn’t have it’s hands on—from feeding the troops and providing “security” for the most awesome military force that ever walked this Earth, to repairing everything that we blowup. If ever there was a sweetheart deal, that was it.
But what is at least as unconscionable as this mercenary war itself, is the fact that they use the very victims that they’re sacrificing for their avarice and greed--our beloved troops--as human shields against criticism of their motives. That’s why with every speech that Bush gives on this war he’s either verbally wrapping himself around our troops, or using the troops as a backdrop at some military base.
These neo-cons have been expert in confusing issues before the American people—after all, they’re businessmen, so they bring they’re marketing expertise with them: If you happen to be anti-Bush, they say you’re anti-American; if you’re against the war, they say you’re against the troops; and when they want to suspend the United States Constitution, they call it “The Patriot’s Act”—which is to say, if you’re against it, you’re unpatriotic. But just one moment of uncluttered thought on the part of the American people would unravel their entire game, because for them to say that coming out against this war is undermining the troops, is the same as saying that being against gang activity is undermining our young people—both are needlessly placing the lives of our youth in jeopardy. And further, just ask yourself, were the German people who were against Hitler, and hid Jews from the Nazi death camps during WWII unpatriotic, or were they the ultimate patriots? After all, a patriot is not one who blindly follows party lines or the demagogic whims of an individual, but one who is loyal to the ideals upon which the nation was founded.
The American people has fallen for the oldest game in the book—“Don’t believe your eyes, you don’t have any sense, just believe what I tell you.” If that weren’t so, Americans would be asking themselves a few fundamental questions like, if this is, indeed, such a heroic crusade, then why don’t I see any of the Bush or Cheney family members over in Iraq? And if they hold our troops in such high regard, why did they send them over there to die needlessly, before they provided them with the proper equipment? Of course, the answer to that is that they underestimated the stupidity of the American people. They thought they had to rush over there before we had time to think. But as it turns out, they had nothing to fear—here it is three years later, and some of us still haven’t seen the light.
There’s a couple of other questions that we should be asking ourselves: Why does a wounded soldier who has to leave his equipment on the battlefield have to pay for that equipment before he leaves the military? And why does a wounded soldier have to pay for his own meals while in the hospital, even as Bush is signing a 70 billion dollar tax cut for the rich?
So we need to stop buying into the political rhetoric of these neo-cons, because words are a very powerful tool, and if you buy into the words, you’ll begin to embrace the concept. Another example of that is always referring to the troops as heroes. Our troops aren’t heroes, they’re victims. Of course, we appreciate the fact that they’re willing to place their lives on the line for what they’re told is in the best interest of this country, but calling them heroes serves to push Bush’s agenda. First, since a hero is one who places his life on the line for a noble cause, referring to our troops as heroes serve to endorse Bush’s ignoble and blatant war of aggression. And secondly, it serves to entice impressionable young people to yearn to become cannon fodder.
What young people want more than anything else, especially young men, is to be considered strong and capable adults. Now consider that young man who has always come up just a little short—he’s a capable and loving son, everyone likes him, but he never quite made the “A list.” He was never the brightest or the most handsome guy in school, and the girl he was secretly in love with was crazy about the captain of the football team, while he could never get past second string. Then he hears all the talk about our heroic troops, and like a flash he has an epiphany: “This is my chance to shine--I’ll show ‘em all what I’m made of. No more second string for me—I’m going to the Super Bowl, baby!” But once he gets there, he realizes a little too late, that they’re not throwing footballs, they’re throwing live grenades—and unfortunately, this time out, he’s the wide receiver.
Then, as the Sun goes down over the hood, another proud Black mother goes to bed not knowing, she’s a mother no more—and the George Bush family says, yet again, “Ka-ching!”
Eric L. Wattree, Sr.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS
TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS:
WHERE IS YOUR BACKBONE?
I urge every member of congress, both Democrat and Republican, to wake up, remember your responsibility to this nation, and support Senator Feingold's initiative to censor George Bush for his blatant disregard of our United States Constitution. Thereafter, you should follow up with impeachment proceedings for both he, and Vice President Cheney. This is not merely the right thing to do, it is incumbent upon you. For if you fail to act in a forthright and decisive manner during this country’s time of constitutional crisis, you will forever be frowned upon as the weakest and most irresponsible congress that has ever failed to serve this nation.
And to Democrats in particular, by failing to be more aggressive on this issue, you’re also making a serious political error, in addition to everything else. Your failure to speak out clearly and forcefully against the many excesses of this administration makes you look weak, impotent and ineffective. How can America trust you to protect us against foreign threats when you don’t even have the backbone to protect us from an even more severe threat right here at home? If you feel you have to put your collective thumbs up to the wind before carrying out what is clearly your responsibility, you shouldn't be in office in the first place. We need people in office with backbone, not wimps, and people that are more concerned with their own political careers than what's in the best interest of this country. You’re not there to perpetuate your career. You’re there to promote the interest of your constituency—which, in times like these, is all of America.
If there has ever been a time when this country was in dire need of sober and resolute statesmen, it is at this very moment. While partisan spin masters are trying to play this issue down, let there be no doubt it, this is one of those moments in our history where this nation is being challenged to redefine itself: Are we going to adhere to those noble principles laid down by our Founding Fathers to protect this republic, or are we going to desert those principles to embrace the self-serving whims of the moment? Are we truly loyal to the lofty ideals upon which every American claims to embrace, or in the final analysis, more loyal to political parties, self-service, and the political exigencies of just one man?
It is a time to choose—a time for all true patriots to set all false rhetoric, posturing and self-service aside, and step forward to protect this nation. This is one of those moments in our country’s history where the rubber meets the road--a time where all men of responsibility and good conscience must step to the plate, in spite of vicious odds, and speak the words that could possibly bring this nation back from the threshold of tyranny.
No, it’s not easy to step forward and place your life and everything you’ve worked for in political jeopardy, even in a time of crisis. If, indeed, it were easy, we’d all be great men--but that is precisely why we hold those men and women who were willing to do so in a special place of honor. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wisely stated, “It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion, it is easy in solitude to live after one’s own; but the great man is he who, in the midst of the crowd, keeps with perfect sweetness, the independence of solitude.” So, follow your heart, and your gut. That alone will be such a novel approach during these days of self-service and cynicism, that your career will take care of itself.
You’ll be hearing from me again during the next election.
Eric L. Wattree, Sr.
American citizen
Thursday, February 23, 2006
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
Here’s a little something purportedly written by a White man. While I can’t substantiate that fact, since it is unsigned, nevertheless, it is a serious indictment against Black people that’s being spread like wildfire all over the internet. I had mixed emotions about whether or not to even share this with our community, but I came to the conclusion that it constitutes a graphic depiction of how some in this society think of us, and knowledge is power—even when it’s slanderous:
“THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES”
“We can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the effort of physical slavery. Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED, and SELFISHNESS." Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment.
A great man once said, "The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book." We now live in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes &Noble, and Amazon.com, not to mention their own Black Bookstores that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality which should have been their fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all.
“GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 10 billion dollars during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars in total yearly income (2.22%). Any of us can use them as our target market, for any business venture we care to dream up, no matter how outlandish, they will buy into it. Being primarily a consumer people, they function totally by greed. They continually want more, with little thought for saving or investing. They would rather buy some new sneaker than invest in starting a business. Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU, and they still think that having a Mercedes, and a big house gives them "Status" or that they have achieved the American Dream. They are fools! The vast majority of their people are still in poverty because their greed holds them back from collectively making better communities. With the help of BET, and the rest of their black media that often broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. They'll continue to show off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses that we market to them.
“SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, Dubois said that there was an innate division in their culture. A "Talented Tenth" he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some "form" of success however, that segment missed the fullness of his work. They didn't read that the "Talented Tenth" was then responsible to aid The Non-Talented Ninety Percent in achieving a better life. Instead, that segment has created another class, a “Buppie” class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner. They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not allow them to be able to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. When they do get together, their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of their goal.
Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote their name without making any real change in their community. They are content to sit in conferences and conventions in our hotels, and talk about what they will do, while they award plaques to the best speakers, not the best doers. Is there no end to their selfishness? They steadfastly refuse to see that TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE (TEAM) They do not understand that they are no better than each other of what they own as a matter of fact, most of those Buppies are but one or two paychecks away from poverty. All of which is under the control of our pens in our offices and our rooms. Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as they refuse to read, continue to buy anything they want, and keep thinking they are "helping" their communities by paying dues to organizations which do little other than hold lavish conventions in our hotels. By the way, don't worry about any of them reading this letter, remember, 'THEY DON'T READ!!!!”
This is a perfect example of a “factoid”—a lie that’s been told so often that people begin to think it’s the truth. The actual fact is, while much of this is true, it’s a truth that only applies to a small minority of the Black community—that small part of the Black community that this society chooses to focus upon to represent our people. And further, you can take this very same essay and apply it to any group of people in America. This essay states, for example, that “The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book. That statement is just as true for all of America—if that weren’t so, Bush wouldn’t even be in office. ” It takes an ignorant people to allow an ignorant man to rise to the top of their society. The rest of the world recognizes that, and the fact that America doesn’t is an indictment on this nation. And, as an aside, who’s more selfish and greedy than this current administration?
In fact, if someone doesn’t step up to the plate very soon and get America’s attention, ignorance, self-service and greed is going to destroy this nation. Because as we speak, the American people are standing by, twiddling their collective thumbs, while Bush is allowing our shipping ports to be sold to the very same people that we’re supposed to be fighting. And in response to that insanity, you have so-called intellectuals (with advanced Harvard degrees) saying, “What’s wrong with that?” Now, that’s ignorant. There’s not a Crip in the world—even if he’s never opened up a book in his life— that’s gonna to let the Bloods open up a crack house on his block. That is the epitome of ignorance, stupidity, and reckless greed.
So I thought I’d drop this little tidbit of racist stupidity on you for two reasons. First, since Black people are generally blessed with common sense, I wanted to give you a snapshot of true ignorance at work. And secondly, I want you to read this, think about it, and recognize that we’re not dealing with intellectual giants here. That’s part of our problem in the Black community-- we’ve been under thumb for so long that we assume that the White power structure is all, be all, and knows all. That’s not at all true. We’re being led by idiots, and with our common sense alone, we could rise to the very top of this society—and with just a modicum of formal education and effort, we could have a tremendous impact on this nation. After all, the above cited essay comes from the very same type of idiotic mentality that once said that Black people couldn’t compete in Big League Baseball. Now, how stupid was that?
Eric L. Wattree
Wattree.com
Sunday, January 01, 2006
REPARATIONS?
REPARATIONS?
THAT WOULD BE WONDERFUL, HOWEVER . . .
By
Eric L. Wattree, Sr.
I was recently in Leimert Park and heard a brother speaking on the need for reparations for the African American people. The brother was quite articulate in stating his position, and made several salient points. But while much of what the brother said was undeniable, the fact is, the chances of Black people getting reparations in America today, or anytime in the foreseeable future, hovers around zero. That isn’t to say that Black people should give up on this issue—since we have a responsibility to push for our piece of the American pie, regardless to how miniscule that pie has become. But we shouldn’t allow issues such as this to become a distraction from more pressing issues in the Black community—and there are many.
We’ve got to keep in mind that there are only three issues in the American body politic—money, race, and class. Some would add power to that list, but since the American people have allowed themselves to become so under-educated and politically unsophisticated, money now trumps power—since, with enough money, you can manipulated the mindset of the under-educated, and thereby, obtain power. Consequently, the balance of power has been turned on its head in America today—conservatives have taken their vast resources of revenue provided by big business and used it to buy up most of the radio, newspaper and television networks across this country. So now, the only thing the American people hear, is what the conservatives want them to hear—and reparations for African Americans won’t be among those things.
Further, as a direct result of the conservatives’ control of the media, most people don’t realize that one of the primary motivating factors in the Neo-Con push to go to war in Iraq was the opportunity to put the United States so deeply in debt that it precludes our ability to fund entitlement programs. Destroying the “New Deal” has been one of their primary reasons for being every since it went into effect during the Great Depression. But since they’ve been unsuccessful in destroying it legislatively, they’ve decided to make it impossible to implement.
If the conservatives had their way (and they seem to be well on their way to getting it) there’d be no laws against child labor, sweat shops, or corporations firing any employee who had the gall to think they had a right to join a union. There’d be no such thing as Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, Disability, or Medicare. Conservatives consider such programs a form of socialism—and they’ve been fighting to get them abolished every since “that commie”, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, put them in place in his “New Deal” to help the common man, during the Great Depression.
So, reparations for the African American people is an issue that is forty years past its prime. It’s an issue that should have been addressed during the 1960s, when Democrats could utilize the power vested in them by a politically sophisticated electorate to get it passed. But now, this country is run by tight-fisted fiscal, and mean-spirited social conservatives who have built their entire power base on a foundation of undermining the needs of Blacks, and all other people who happen to be in the under-class. So since our condition is primarily a result of a lack of education, our primary response should be the single-minded pursuit of education in the Black community—and we should allow few, or no distractions, in that regard.
We’ve got to focus on modifying our cultural mindset. While reparations would be nice, we’ve got to make our primary goal education, and helping our young people to recognize their innate potential—their birthright. Evidence of how dire that need is can be heard in casual conversation in the community. We’ve all heard our brothers and sisters remark, “Listen to that chump talkin’ all proper—he must think he’s White or somethin’.” That statement speaks volumes. What it says is, too many of us assume that the White man owns knowledge. It also indicates that too many of us think that being black dictates a moral obligation to be ignorant, and the pursuit of knowledge is the White man’s domain. So while we might want to pursue other goals on the side, our primary responsibility is to turn that perception around.
It is no accident that during slavery it was against the law to educate a Black man. History clearly shows that White folks knew exactly what they were doing, because as Black people, we’ve repeatedly demonstrated that we become the best at whatever we set our minds to. White folks have known for at least a couple of centuries now that to educate a Black man is to create a monster—like Johnnie Cochran, for example. O.J. Simpson is one of the most hated men in America--but it's not because he is alleged to have killed a White woman, it's because he brought Johnnie Cochran to the world’s stage. Racists see O.J. as responsible for allowing Johnnie Cochran to destroy the White Man's comfort zone. Prior to the Simpson trial, the racists in White America use to imply that, due to Affirmative Action, Black professionals were professionals in title only, and weren’t quite as competent as their White counterparts. But then, in walks Johnnie Cochran to represent O.J., and he immediately proceeded to play the judicial system like a fiddle. Now those same racists say, the only reason O.J. got off was because he could afford “exceptional representation.” That’s a far cry from their claim of Black incompetence.
The very same thing happened in music, sports, and even the military and government, when Colin Powell came upon the world stage (Let us not forget that George Bush was a second choice among White folks—even the Republicans wanted Colin Powell to run for President). So the sad fact is, historically, White people have had a better understanding of our potential than we’ve had of our own. That’s got to change--and the only way it is, is not to allow ourselves to become distracted by side issues.
We’ve got to recognize that as African Americans, we’re neither fully African, nor fully American—we are a hybrid of both cultures. Like it or not, we are a brand new culture, and in the infancy of our development. That makes us what they call “a gathering threat.” Because if Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Johnnie Cochran, and Colin Powell comes from a culture in its infancy, just imagine what we’re going to be when we come into our own. Thus, our history lies before us, and it is up to us to lay the foundation for a people who, I think, are destined for greatness—reparations or not.
****
Monday, December 26, 2005
WAKE UP, MY PEOPLE
I went to view the remains of Stanley Tookie Williams last week-- he went to Washington high school with my late wife. When I went inside the mortuary’s Slumber Chamber where Tookie’s body lie in repose, there was a lady sitting in the front pew crying, presumably a member of Tookie’s family. It was obvious that the lady was in great pain, so in spite of the fact that I didn’t know her, I offered her my condolences. The chamber was quiet and solemn. Then I walked out the side door of the mortuary—and into an absolute zoo.
In the parking lot next to the mortuary there was a crowd of people partying like it was New Years Eve–the music was blasting, one car was on lifters so high that it seemed to be standing on end, and three sisters were dancing in a heated frenzy before a crowd of maybe a hundred people shouting, “Go ba-by! Go ba-by! Go ba-by!” It was unbelievable. But the scene outside the mortuary that night served to reinforce a point of view that I’ve held for many years now--it's time for our people to wake up and sniff the funk, because the fumes are emanating from all around us, and it’s coming at us from every direction. That goes for the American people in general, but black people in particular.
As black people, we have a beautiful and festive culture, and I realize that in the past that festive spirit has been used to great effect as a defense against pain. But times are changing in this country, and they’re changing faster and more drastically than we’ve ever known before. So, if we are to survive as a people, we must adapt to that change--and we’d better do it real fast.
Looking at the United States today, one can’t help but recognize that it’s become reminiscent of Germany during the 1930s, just prior to the rise of fascism. We have a regime currently in power that’s stolen two elections, and has taken over every branch of government; they invaded a sovereign nation on false pretenses, and they’re saber rattling towards others; They’ve set up concentration camps all over the world, and they’re torturing innocent people. As we party, they’re not only passing laws that will allow them to spy on American citizens, but arrest those citizens, while denying them rights supposedly guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States.
We’ve got to start thinking the way this government thinks (notice that I didn’t say “the White man”, because if a White man happens to be poor or middle class, he’s in trouble too). We‘ve got to start thinking ahead. When I was in The Marine Corps way back in 1971, even then, they had me out in Twenty-nine Palms training reservists in desert warfare. So you see, while we’re living in the moment, this government is thinking ahead. And when you consider the fact that Bush is now spending 2 billion dollars a week in Iraq, and sending this country into so much debt that it precludes our funding education, Medicare, most entitlement programs, and possibly, even Social Security, you’d better believe they have a game plan in mind. They have to have one, just to deal with the resulting social upheaval that is sure to result—and they are practicing that game plan in Iraq as we speak. So it is past time for black people to set our party shoes aside, at least for the moment, and embark on a very serious and sober reassessment of where we stand in this country today.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-America--I Love America. America has provided me and my family with a way of life, and opportunities, that we might not have found in any other place in the world. But what I love most about America is the American ideal, those ideals that we may not always live up to, but we aspire to. It is the American ideal that makes America special, and it is the assault on those ideals that makes me very nervous about the Bush administration. Under Bush, we seem to be losing sight of what America stands for. He claims that the terrorist hate us because of the American ideal of freedom, justice, and equality. But if that is indeed the case, the terrorist are clearly winning this war, because with every day that passes those ideals are being whittled away.
When Bush invaded Iraq in response to 9-11, he demonstrated very clearly his propensity for venting his hostility towards people of color. In spite of the fact that all available evidence pointed to the fact that Saddam Hussein had absolutely nothing to do with attacking this country, his invasion of Iraq seems to say, “Oh well, one Arab is just like another—they’ll do.” That is not the American way.
And as a result of that policy, United Press International reported on July 12, 2005 that according to an Iraqi humanitarian organization, 128,000 Iraqis have been killed since the U.S. invasion began in March 2003. The report goes on to say, “chairman of the 'Iraqiyun humanitarian organization in Baghdad, Dr. Hatim al-'Alwani, said that the toll includes everyone who has been killed since that time, adding that 55 percent of those killed have been women and children aged 12 and under.” Thus, according to this report, more women and children are being killed in Iraq than anyone else--and that, is not the American way.
In addition, it has now come to light that the Bush administration has been spying on Muslims in their homes, businesses, and mosques, without warrant, since September 11, 2001. Conservative spin masters try to justify this policy by saying that this fudging of the Constitution only affects
0.1% of the people, so those of us who don’t have anything to hide, don’t have anything to worry about. But the fact is, these violations set a precedent that sends the nation down a slippery slope that affects us all. It’s not only a gross violation of an entire community of people, but a corruption of the United States Constitution that places us all in jeopardy. That is not the American way.
So it is clear that our government, under Bush, has no understanding, nor respect, for limits. Since he's already demonstrated his propensity to paint all people of color with the same brush, it’s not a very big leap from terrorist, to Muslim, to Black Muslim, to black people in general. While that's not the American way, it's a glaring reality.
So, again, it is past time for the black community to turn down the music for a minute and get serious. The Cabbage Patch can wait, because if there has ever been a time in our history where it is incumbent upon us to focus, educate ourselves, and become politically engaged, it is now. We’ve demonstrated over the years that we can party hardier than any group of people in the world, but at this point in our history, we have nothing to party about. Tookie’s body should attest to that fact.
Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
TOOKIE
That scene alone demonstrated that this brother was an exceptional individual. He clearly had more strength of character than any other player in this sad and sorted affair, and therefore, was certainly worth saving.
Of course, there are those who are going to say that he didn’t have so much character that it prevented him from killing four innocent victims in cold blood. But in response to that, remember, it is not at all clear whether or not Mr. Williams committed the crimes in which he was ultimately executed, since he declared his innocence to the very end. What is clear, however, is that this brother had something far less than a fair trial.
As Dr. Firpo Carr pointed out in his piece, Terminate Tookie? Terrible Travesty!, in the December 8th edition of the Los Angeles Sentinel, the irregularities in Tookie’s trial provided more than enough grounds to, at the very least, spare this brother’s life.
First of all, the prosecutor in the case, Robert Martin, made it a point to see that there were no black jurors on Mr. Williams’ case. Secondly, he had the venue of the trial moved from Los Angeles to the predominately white city of Torrance, Ca. Also, this same prosecutor, Robert Martin, was censored by the California Supreme Court for “invidious discrimination” during the prosecution of Tookie’s case. In addition, there was absolutely no physical evidence pointing to Tookie committing any of the crimes in which he was charged, and every witness that testified against him had a vested interest in testifying for the state (such as charges being reduced or dropped for crimes they’d committed). And beyond that, one witness was even allowed to read the police report in his jail cell so he’d know how to testify. So again, to my mind’s eye, all of these irregularities in the prosecution of this brother constitutes more than a compelling reason to, at the very least, not put this brother to death.
But even if Tookie did commit the crimes in which he was convicted, the fact is, that happened a lifetime ago. In the twenty-five years since those crimes were committed Mr. Williams’ life had undergone a dramatic change, and certainly the years that he lived with death as his constant companion (not to mention the last agonizing hours that he spent not knowing whether or not he was going to live or die) should have paid some dividend on that debt. That brother must have died a million times over the years. And beyond that, it wasn’t as though he was going to be freed—he would have still had to face his natural life behind bars.
The most tragic thing surrounding this sad affair, however, is our failure to at least try to drag something positive out this negative situation. Our society was so bent on retribution that once again we’ve missed yet another opportunity to make an investment in our young people—and thus, an investment in our society.
Stanley “Tookie” Williams could have made a tremendous contribution to the curbing of crime and violence on our streets, but once again, this society has allowed its lust for stupidity to overwhelm its dire need for enlightenment. But the black community doesn’t have to follow suit. Let us mark the death of this brother as the beginning of a new era—an era where our passion for enlightenment will overwhelm society's lust for stupidity.
So let us begin our renewed demonstrations now. Let us redouble our efforts to save the next Tookie, while he’s still in the cradle. And let us pray for all our sakes, that the world at large doesn’t judge America, as severely as the state of California judged this proud blcak man.
Saturday, November 26, 2005
AMERICA'S BLIND SPOT
The controversy surrounding the Nine-Eleven tragedy has revealed a glaring blind spot in the thinking of the American people. Every since that horrible tragedy American politicians, generals, educators, theologians, and even little old ladies calling in to talk shows have come forward to express both their righteous indignation with Arab terrorists and their opinions on how we should go about defending our shores against terrorism. But in all of that verbiage not one person has asked the fundamental question that is the key to addressing this issue: What would the American people do if, based on the history of black people in this country, an invincible military power took Texas and gave it to Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam to create a homeland for black people, then propped the new nation up with billions of dollars of foreign aid and military hardware?
If we really want to protect America from terrorism it is imperative that America not only ask that question, but answer it honestly. Because when you're dealing with a foe who takes pride in committing suicide for his cause, there is absolutely nothing you can do to prevent it. Your only line of defense is to try to understand what motivates him.
But the American people are resistant to asking itself this question, because the question requires an honest answer. America doesn’t want to admit that if it were placed in the same position as the Arabs, the American people would do the very same thing that the Arabs are-- right down to declaring its "terrorists" heroes.
As children we learned the old adage that all's fair in love and war. That adage is as true today as it was when we recited it as kids. But since the United States and its allies have equipped themselves with all of the most devastating military hardware, it is to our advantage to attempt to set the rules to war--the most important of which, is that the only approved way of killing people is with the toys that we possess. But that rule leaves most Arab states out in the cold and vulnerable to our whims--like taking their land and passing it out as a gift. So naturally the Arabs have decided to fight the only way that they can, through suicide bombings. Of course, we cry foul, but the Arab response is to thumb its nose at us and say, "So what are you going to do, kill us?"
To think that the world is going to just stand by and allow us to stack the odds in our favor is not only ridiculous, but a monument to our towering arrogance. It is also arrogant to believe that the rest of the world can't see through our alleged concern for the killing of innocent women and children. Every time the Israelis roll their tanks onto, or bomb Arab soil, they kill innocent women and children--and the United States made watching the slaughter of innocent women and children a national pastime during the Viet Nan era, again in Desert Storm, and yet again in whatever they're calling this latest atrocity. Even we described our campaign in Iraq as "Shock and awe". Those terms can only be defined as "terror."
And further, let us not forget that the most unconscionable act of terrorism in the history of mankind was when the United States dropped not one, but two atomic bombs on the women and children of the Japan. In that case, we attempted to justify it by saying it saved countless American lives, but by using that argument we readily admit that terrorism, and the killing of innocent women and children, can indeed be justified under certain conditions.
The American people can be blinded to these issues through the thick fog of patriotism, but the rest of the world is not hindered by our laundered point of view. They see our actions for what they are--terrorism.
But I don't bring these atrocities up to wag my finger at the United States, because in spite of our lapses and tendency towards arrogance, we still represent the greatest social experiment that man has ever known. And in spite of any inferrences that one may draw from my remarks concerning our lopsided policy with regard to the Arab states and the state of Israel, I fully support Israel's right to exist in peace.
But if we want to protect what we have, we've got to learn to think clearly and objectively, and stop trying to delude ourselves into thinking that we're the perfect society. We have a lot of work to do to become the nation that we profess to be, so let us use our energies in trying to reach our professed ideals, instead of wasting that energy in an attempt to prove that we've already arrived.
We need to understand that in order to truly become the nation that we profess to be, we need clear, objective, and unadulterated thinking. That, in turn, requires that we first see reality as it is, and only then, as we would have it. We can start that process by first, recognizing--and admitting--that we're not always right. Secondly, we need to accept the fact that military might can't solve all problems. Third, we should ask ourselves what are we doing to make people want to fly planes into buildings. And finally, we must realize that the only difference between Arab terrorism and American terrorism is that we have a much more efficient delivery system.
Eric L. Wattree
BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE, BUT DON'T BE A FOOL
The Bush administration is in desperate need of warm bodies these days. Young people are dying, enlistment is down, and many of the troops in Iraq are either on their third tour of duty, or on involuntary extension—in spite of the fact that, in the case of many reservist, the military has stopped paying the families they left at home. As a result, the administration is putting out commercials portraying the glamorous and exciting life to be had in the military.
But unfortunately, they’re subjecting our young people to the old bait and switch. They’re showing soldiers in nice, crisp, uniforms, sitting in what looks like computer rooms with everyone playing video games, instead of the very probable truth--lying out in the desert in 125 degree heat, thousands of miles from home, blind, and with a leg or arm blown off. That is the reality of military life under the Bush administration.
This administration proclaims to anyone who will listen that they honor and respect our troops, but as the old folks use to say, “that dog don’t hunt”, and there is ample evidence of that fact on the public record. At this point, for example, the administration finds it expedient to deny that during the run up to war in Iraq they told the American people that Saddam Hussein represented an imminent threat to the United States. Now that weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq, they want us to forget the urgency in which they rushed us into this war. But if what they now say is indeed the case, and Saddam didn’t represent an imminent threat, why did the administration needlessly sacrifice the lives of our troops by sending them to war without the necessary protective gear?
If Saddam wasn’t an imminent threat, it would have been in the best interest of our troops to wait until we had all our ducks in a row before we went to war—or at least until we had the necessary equipment. But the Bush administration had other priorities. They had priorities that superceded the welfare of our troops—the need to go to war before the American people had the time to think about what we were getting in to.
Our young people were sent to war with vehicles they had to armor plate themselves, with scrap metal they’d found along the road. In addition, the families of many soldiers had to scrape up the money themselves to buy protective gear for their love ones--and if that wasn’t bad enough, it took an act of congress to get the administration to reimburse these families for their expenses. So just think about it-- here we are, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, and the parents of the troops have to send their children the protective gear from home, to help them stay alive. Then, administration has the nerve to say they honor our troops. I don’t think so. Even the Crips have flack jackets—and their parents don’t have to send them from home.
But nothing demonstrates the arrogance and the cavalier attitude of this administration towards our troops more clearly than remarks made by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfelt. While meeting with the troops at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, in response to one of the soldiers’ questions regarding inferior equipment, Rumsfelt responded, “As you know, you go to war with the Army you have.” And then, he went on to say, “And if you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up. And you can have an up-armored humvee and it can be blown up.” So in essence, Rumsfelt told the soldier, don’t worry about it, they can blow you up anyway—armor or no armor.
That’s only a couple of many glaring contradictions in the behavior of an administration that claims to love, honor, and support our troops. While they’ve made a mantra of the claim that they honor our troops, their actions grossly belie their assertions—in fact, most of their policies with regard to our military seem to suggest that their only concern for our troops is in using them as human shields against the criticism of a very unpopular and pernicious agenda.
Therefore, this administration would be content to "stay the course" in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries in perpetuity. And why not--they don’t have anything to loose and everything to gain. It’s not their children dying for this dubious campaign, yet the trough of their selected, and bid-protected corporations are overflowing from the swill of war. While our love ones are being blown apart, Haliburton—the company in which Vice President Cheney headed before coming into office—is enjoying unprecedented profits; and as our families are being scarred for life, the children of these chicken hawks are following in their parent’s footsteps--lying back in the lap of privilege and luxury, content to cheer the heroic "little people" from the lobby of exclusive tennis clubs. Then, they tell us that our attempts to end this war, and to get our children out of harms way, is un-American. Well, it seems to me that anyone who buys into that nonsense is not only a non-thinking person, but in point of fact, an absolute idiot.
If these chicken hawks truly had the courage of their convictions (and I emphasize the word "courage"), they’d be encouraging their children to flood the enlistment depots to join in this "noble American endeavor", as just a simple matter of patriotism. But on the contrary, instead, their children are being allowed to follow in the tradition of that great and resolute American, Dick Cheney, and his five deferments.
Yes, it is indeed easy to say "we must stand firm" when your love ones are safe at home, but I’d be willing to bet the few dollars Haliburton has yet to take from America’s treasury that if Bush, or any one of the other chicken hawks, knew for a fact that their child was going to be the very next casualty, their attitude towards this war would undergo an immediate, and drastic change.
This is a war of political and economic expediency–it promotes an agenda that represents everything that conservative ideologues have passionately pursued since the New Deal. First, it was used to shore up Bush’s numbers, which gave him the clout to get the rest of their agenda past the American people. Then the war was used to redistribute the wealth. It not only allowed Bush, Cheney, their cronies, and selected corporations to raid the United States treasury, but along with the huge tax cut for the rich, create a debt that made it next to impossible to maintain social and entitlement programs. The only reason Social Security was spared is because Bush’s numbers began to fall.
The following excerpts from the Downing Street Memo says it all:
The Secret Downing Street Memo
_____
SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL _ UK EYES ONLY
DAVID MANNING
From: Matthew Rycroft
Date: 23 July 2002
S 195 /02
cc: Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Attorney_General, Sir Richard Wilson, John Scarlett, Francis Richards, CDS, C, Jonathan Powell, Sally Morgan, Alastair Campbell
IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER’S MEETING, 23 JULY
C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action . . .
It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force . . .
The Attorney_General said that the desire for regime change was not a legal base for military action. There were three possible legal bases: self_defence, humanitarian intervention, or UNSC authorisation. The first and second could not be the base in this case. Relying on UNSCR 1205 of three years ago would be difficult . . .
(Rycroft was a Downing Street foreign policy aide)
Thus, when the facts regarding this war is looked at objectively, it becomes clear that these neo-cons were willing to kill and maim thousands of our trusting and brave youth for no other reason than to promote an agenda that they’ve been salivating over since the advent of the New Deal. It’s unconscionable.
So the next time you see Bush or Cheney praising our “brave American troops”, or hear them saying “All we need is a few good men” or “Be all that you can be”, just remember, the first step towards being all that you can be is to avoid being a fool. So ask yourself, where are their kids? Then consider the fact that the United States Senate had to step in and demand that the White House stop charging wounded soldiers $8.10 per day for their hospital meals.
Eric L. Wattree, Sr.
Wattree.com
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