reflections 1-16-05

Looking back over the past couple of months, I have been very depressed since the November 2nd fraudulent election.  It's not surprising that the voting machines were rigged; we all know that was in the works.  What is very discouraging is Kerry's abdication of his responsibility to vigorously contest the election, and his shamelessness about it, which matches Bush's shamelessness about stealing another election.

 

Then there is the media blackout of the heroic efforts by Cobb, Nader, Conyers, and many others to demonstrate that the vote was indeed fraudulent.  All of it goes to show how deeply depraved this country has become, how willing to buy the prevailing lie, how uncaring about truth, freedom, dignity of voters, the democratic process. 

 

And the lack of outcry about Kerry from the liberal wing of the Democratic party!  Even William Rivers Pitt, one of my favorite journalists from truthout.org, is trying to cover for him.

 

Then there's Iraq, the horrendous leveling of Fallujah, which has gotten very little attention from the media and even from the internet press.  It seems as if this country has totally lost its moral compass.

 

The tsunami, which I am now convinced was  natural, not man-made, showed the world how coldhearted Bush is, as if we didn't already know.  It has given Americans an opportunity to salve their consciences about the slaughter in Iraq by giving to the tsunami victims. 

 

Then there's the social security scam coming up, meant to impoverish the elderly and those saving for their old age.  And with a Republican-controlled Congress, what's to stop him?

 

Bush's cabinet shuffling bodes ill for the future.  He has purged the "reality-based" people who have some common sense, people like Scowcroft and Powell, and is appointing the worst fascists, people like Gonzales.  He has already passed Patriot Act II, giving him unlimited powers that we haven't even begun to comprehend.  Opposing his regime now takes real courage.

 

There are some positive developments.  The recount effort showed that there are some people with integrity, willing to take risks for the truth.  Bush's  programs are so outrageous that some of the moderate Republicans are starting to rebel. 

 

But these dark times will test us all.  Either we accept the moral depravity of this administration, or we protest, engage in civil disobedience, use all the nonviolent techniques we learned from Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesus.  I'm ready.

 

To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
And your law is within my heart!

Psalm 40: 9

http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/011605.htm

 

In the name of the Prince of Peace,   Carol Wolman

Fw: It's time to use the F-word-

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken Freeland"
To:
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 11:07 PM
Subject: FW: It's time to use the F-word




-----Original Message-----
From: Luz Ogarrio [mailto:ogarrioluz@yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 6:20 AM
To: Ogarrio
Subject: It's time to use the F-word


It's Time to Use the F-word
By David Martin

Many political theorists so narrowly define fascism that it is seen as an
historical anomaly tossed in the dustbin of history in the 1940s. Given
these theorectical blinders, they fail to recognize the current rise of
fascism in the United States. But to describe the current political context
as anything other than fascist is merely wishful thinking.

Do we still live in a "bourgeois democracy"? From purging voter rolls and
the Supreme Court intervention in 2000 to voter suppression and electronic
vote rigging in 2004, the last two presidential elections have clearly
violated bourgeois democratic principles in what can best be described as a
fascist coup. We may still have the illusion of bourgeois democracy but its
substance has been gutted. Remember fascists commonly hold elections as long
as they can control their outcomes (as electronic vote rigging now has made
that simple.)

The Bush Administration's assault on civil liberties from the Patriot Act to
the recently passed Intelligence Reform Bill also signals the end of
bourgeois democracy. But we can still protest in the streets, right? I don't
know if you have been to a protest lately, but from the Feb 15th anti-war
protest to the FTAA protest in Miami and the RNC protest in NYC, the police
attacked, trapped and detained masses of protesters, dirupting and
marginalizing the protests. Of course, the suspension of the Bill of Rights
in these cases was justified by the pretext of a "terrorist threat."

And, yes, we can have our websites and email too, but
forget about having a mass audience, since the Big Media marginalizes
dissent and acts as a propaganda arm of the Bush Administration. In return,
they reap the benefits of the Administration's pro-concentration media
policies.

The fascist movement has a mobilized mass social base formed by the
reactionary elements within the (especially white) working class, christian
fundamentalists, the petit bourgeoisie, and, of course, wealthy and
corporate elites. This is a classic fascist ruling bloc: an alliance of Big
Business, the Church and the State (with the usually strong ties between the
war/resource industries and the state policy makers).

Their policies are obviously fascist from attacking labor rights and
regulations on industry at home to expanding the empire through the use of
military force abroad (overturning the international law in the process).
From the politics of fear and scapegoating of Arab/Muslims to
super-nationalism and militarism, the ideology of the Bush Administration is
fascism wrapped in an American flag, as Huey Long predicted. The fascists
have tapped into the rivers of American white supremacy that flow through
"Manifest Destiny" and "making the world safe for democracy" to cloak their
fascist rule in the myths of American exceptionalism (or is it "immaculate
conception"?). Is there really any difference between the Nazis claiming to
bring civilization to the benighted Slavs and Bush Administration claims to
bring democracy to the unfortunate Arabs of the Middle East?

Big Business turns toward fascist rule when faced with a crisis. In this
case, the crisis began in the 1970s with declining profit rates. The
solution at the time was global neoliberalism. But by the late 1990s, global
neoliberalism had lost momentum and a global resistance was gathering
against it. For powerful sectors of Big Business, the solution to the crisis
of global neo-liberalism is global neo-fascism.

Moreover, global neo-liberalism was not opening up the Middle East's
largest, last remaining oil reserves to US control, at a time when as these
reserves' strategic value sharply increased as reserves in other regions
were depleted. The Middle East was never going to submit to the tutelage of
the IMF. For Big Business, the solution to the crisis of global oil
depletion/peak oil production was to install a permanent military presence
in Central Asia and the Persian Gulf, where largest reserves remain, and
therefore the US can exercise control over these reserves.

The collapse of the Soviet Union provided an opportunity for such an
imperial expansion, while the rising industrial power of China posed a
threat that could be contained if its oil supply was controlled by the US.
So in this case, fascism was less a reaction to domestic threat (such as the
strength of the Communist party in Weimar Germany)than to a global threat to
US hegemony as well as an opportunity to reconstitute it through military
force.

For this reason, the violent political repression commonly associated with
fascism has appeared less often at home and more frequently abroad. The
Arab/Muslim population stands in the way of US global designs to control the
world's last remaining oil reserves, so therefore they have become the
principal target of US fascism. The torture policy is the most poignant
example of this, but other examples include mass detentions/deportations of
Arab/Muslim immigrants in the US, the creation of a global gulag system, and
Guernica-style aerial bombing and destruction of whole cities, massacres,
assassinations and other means to terrorize Iraqis into submission to Bush
Administration's will.

The fascists have also constructed a powerful police state apparatus at
home, so if a social movement ever arises that poses a potential domestic
threat to their rule, then fascists can and will dirupt and destroy it.

The violent political repression generally associated with fascism is a
symptom, not a cause. Just because a symptom may not have fully developed
does not mean that the disease has not. Stroomtroopers react to potential
political threats, and have always been sporadic under fascist rule. The
lack of stormtroopers kicking doors and silencing dissent is not a sign of
the lack of fascism, but rather it signals that dissent is so successfully
marginalized that it does not pose a threat to fascist rule.

Why do is it so important to describe the current political context as
fascism? Well, the political context determines what are the best strategies
for progressive social change. If social movements organize based on the
assumption that we live in bourgeois democracy at time that we live under
fascism, then the result will be utter disaster and fascism will easily
defeat such movements. But on the other hand, if we organize to fight
fascism, then we at least have chance.

=====
"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth." -Albert
Einstein



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Fw: Martin Luther King Jr. Observance Day

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

To: cwolman@mcn.org

Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 1:09 PM

Subject: Martin Luther King Jr. Observance Day

January 17, 2005 Martin Luther King Jr. Day Observance "World peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew. Nonviolence is a good starting point. Those of us who believe in this method can be voices of reason, sanity, and understanding amid the voices of violence, hatred, and emotion. We can very well set a mood of peace out of which a system of peace can be built." --Martin Luther King, Jr., December 1964 Martin Luther King Jr., was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. A civil-rights leader and international hero, King is one of the 20th Century's most visible advocates of non-violence and direct action as methods of social change. Inspired by Gandhi's achievements through non-violent resistance, King played a vital role in achieving significant gains for humanity ranging from the desegregation of schools and other public facilities to the acceleration of civil rights as a government priority. Martin Luther King delivered one of the most passionate addresses of his career, his "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28, 1963 at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Later in 1963, King was designated Person of the Year by TIME Magazine. In 1964, at the age of 35, King was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his unyielding efforts. In his address, King spoke of war and nuclear destruction: "I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of nuclear annihilation... I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow... I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed." In his speech "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution," delivered at the National Cathedral, Washington, DC, on March 31, 1968, King stated: "It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence. And the alternative to disarmament, the alternative to a greater suspension of nuclear tests, the alternative to strengthening the United Nations and thereby disarming the whole world, may well be a civilization plunged into the abyss of annihilation, and our earthly habitat would be transformed into an inferno that even the mind of Dante could not imagine." King was assassinated four days later on April 4, 1968. Martin Luther King is one of the few social leaders to be honored with a national holiday. To commemorate Martin Luther King Day, read the following and pass the message onto your family and friends: A Biography of Martin Luther King; "I Have a Dream" delivered on August 28, 1963 at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; TIME Magazine Person of the Year Award to Martin Luther King in 1963; Martin Luther King's Nobel Peace Prize address in 1964; "Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution," delivered at the National Cathedral, Washington, D.C., on March, 31 1968; Martin Luther King's Quotes on War and Peace. More Information on Martin Luther King Jr. Click here for more information on Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement; Visit the website of Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change; Visit the National Civil Rights Museum, originally The Lorraine Hotel where King was assassinated.

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CALIFORNIA BARBS by Carol Wolman

CALIFORNIA BARBS by Carol Wolman

 

Barbara Lee, Congresswoman from Oakland, has been a thorn in the side of  George W. Bush since 9-11.  She was the lone Representative to vote against the invasion of Afghanistan, properly maintaining that terrorism is a criminal activity, not an act of war, and should be dealt with by law enforcement, not by the military.  As cochair of the Progressive Caucus in the House, with Dennis Kucinich, she has continued to speak out against war and the illegal invasion of Iraq.

 

Recently, Barbara Lee was instrumental in insisting that the voting irregularities in Ohio be carefully examined.  The second California Barb, Senator Barbara Boxer, stepped forward to lead a Senate group to also insist that this be done.  Senator Boxer is now circulating a petition questioning the appointment of Condoleeza Rice as Secretary of State. 

 

Hooray for the California Barbs!  May they continue to needle the White House and question its decisions!  How about Barbara and Barbara for the 2008 Democratic ticket!

 

Peace,  Carol Wolman

Why study the Bible?

The word of God is living and effective,
sharper than any two-edged sword

Hebrews 4: 12

http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/011505.htm

 

Dear Friends,

 

When I took on the task of applying the daily Bible readings, from the Catholic missal, to current events, I had no idea how relevant the Bible would turn out to be.  Part of it is because Jesus lived in times similar to ours, in which little people were being oppressed by pious rulers who claimed to represent God.  His sayings are very applicable to our situation today.

 

But more deeply, the Bible distinguishes between godliness and ungodliness, good and evil, right and wrong.  The Bible warns us that false prophets will arise who justify pious rulers, who will claim to represent God when they actually are working for Satan.

 

The Bible is designed to right wrongs, to protect the powerless and restrain the powerful.  Its emphasis on justice and mercy empowers the underdog.  Its distinction between worship of material objects and of spiritual values helps us to understand the sickness of our times.  The passion for truth that the prophets, especially Jesus, manifested, and their willingness to suffer as a consequence of speaking the truth, inspires us and gives us courage to do the same in these difficult times.

 

The Bible gives us visions of peace and promises of peace.  The gospels teach nonviolence and give us practical lessons in how to use nonviolent protest to bring about change.  Martin Luther King, Jr. showed us how this applies in modern times.

 

For believers, reliance on the Bible gives us confidence, a firm foundation for making judgments about what we are witnessing.  The Bible has been misinterpreted and usurped by evil people, who distort it to strike fear into our hearts and allow the rulers to exploit us more.  We peacemakers need to reclaim the Bible, its moral authority and its power, to bring about peace.

 

In the name of the Prince of Peace,  Carol Wolman