Posted on 02/20/2003 6:53:26 AM PST by veronica
My day in New York City began in much the same way as it would end several hours later. Around 11 a.m. Saturday, I arrived at the First Avenue site of the massive “anti-war” rally organized by the organization United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ).
As I headed toward a suitable vantage point from which to observe the afternoon`s scheduled proceedings, a large contingent of nearby demonstrators repeatedly chanted in unison, “We`re gonna beat-beat back the Bush attack!”
Lots of “peace” literature was being handed out, things like leaflets condemning the Bush administration`s foreign and domestic policies, and fliers advertising other upcoming rallies.
Among the many items available was “Proletariat Revolution,” a 24-page socialist pamphlet whose very first sentence was a harbinger of everything that would follow during that afternoon:
“The working class and every opponent of imperialism must join in action to stop the murderous attacks on Iraq by the U.S. imperialist war machine.”
“War against Iraq,” the piece continued, “has been going on ever since the 1991 Gulf War. . . . [E]conomic sanctions deprived the Iraqi people of food and medicine.” Reading on, I learned that the United States is “the world`s greatest terrorist power” whose ``war aim has nothing to do with Saddam`s weapons of mass destruction . . . [but] everything to do with conquering a major oil-producing country and asserting military dominance over the Middle East.”
The Bush Administration, said the article, “is seizing the opportunity granted by Sept. 11 to show the world who is boss.” And for good measure, I was informed that “the undoubted crimes of Saddam Hussein” are dwarfed by “the misery and devastation [that] imperialism inflicts on the world. Any socialist worth the name would take sides in wartime against the imperialist enemy of humanity -- in this case, in defense of Iraq.”
During the ensuing four-hour rally, not a single speaker would utter even a sentence contrary to any of those assertions. It can be said with great certainty that the vast majority of the demonstrators in attendance thoroughly detest President Bush. They clearly deem him an illegitimate president who “stole`` the 2000 election, a man of dreadful character whose motives for threatening war are firmly rooted in his own economic self-interest.
Consider the slogans borne by some of the placards on display: “The Unelected Idiot Is Going to Start World War III”; “Bush, Stop Your Terror”; “Bush the Baby Killer”; “Illegally Installed, Immorally Behaved: He’s Not My President”; “President-Bush is an Oxy-Moron”; “George W`s War Drums Dishonor and Destabilize Lawful Democracies”; “Spoiled Fascist Cowboy”; “Bush Exploits 9/11 Tragedy for Dirty Oil”; “Bush Likes to Steal Presidential Elections and Iraqi Oil”; and “No More Lies: Regime Change Here.”
In the speeches that followed, this abhorrence of Bush was closely paralleled by a vehement hatred directed against the United States; a belief that our country has historically been, and continues to be, uniquely evil; a conviction that America, more than any other nation, threatens peace and justice on earth.
Among the first to speak was a minister who said, “We are the only nation to use an atomic bomb against another nation. For that, L-rd, we ask your forgiveness.” He did not, of course, mention the historical context in which that weapon was used; the ferocity of the unyielding Japanese enemy we faced at the time; the alternative of sacrificing the lives of perhaps a million more Americans, not to mention ten to twenty million Japanese. Instead, he preferred to express how ashamed he was of America`s long tradition of wrongdoing, which he said continues to this day in the Iraq crisis.
“Deliver our nation from this sinful and self-serving war,” he prayed. He then asked for G-d`s help “not only to end this war, but to end racism, oppression, and human suffering” -- purportedly three of America’s most ignoble contributions to human civilization. He said nothing about anything sinful or shameful that might be occurring in Iraq.
Shortly thereafter, NAACP chairman Julian Bond took the microphone to denounce,
America`s “pursuit of empire, not world peace.” He called Bush`s Iraq policy “a political strategy designed to win the recent mid-term political elections.” Bush`s talk of launching a preemptive strike, he said, is “erasing our moral standing across the globe.”
Bond then confidently asserted that Saddam “does not represent any imminent threat, while bin Laden still does.” He did not say how he could be certain that the Iraqi dictator is, and will remain for the foreseeable future, harmless to our country. Instead, he shifted his focus to the price tag of war, a cost he believes would be better spent elsewhere. “This war will cost billions of dollars,” he complained, “at a time when funding for education, the environment, and health care are already at risk.” He condemned President Bush`s plans for a war that would cause “the deaths of thousands and thousands of innocent Iraqis.”
“If we really believe in regime change,” he said to thunderous applause, “we ought to begin right here at home.” He concluded his address by pronouncing, “We need peace, not war.”
The crowd was soon treated to the oratory of New York City Councilman Charles Barron, the self-described non- racist who recently announced that he would like to slap a white person “just for my mental health.” As is his wont, Barron chose to assess the Iraq situation from a “black” perspective. “I want to say on behalf of black youth in New York and the Latino youth of this nation, we will not go to war for a selected president who wasn`t even elected!”
“We don`t care if you [Bush] put forth Condoleezza Rice or Colin Powell,” he continued. “They do not represent the black community.” In the eyes of Barron and his ilk, Rice and Powell are mere mascots exploited by racist Republicans, inauthentic blacks who are traitors to their race.
When Barron was done, a man introduced as a poet recited his most recent work: “Our country has been wrecked by barbarians . . . like Trent Lott and Katherine Harris, [who] killed democracy in Florida” -- a reference, of course, to the disputed 2000 election of “hanging chad” fame. “It`s not just a war dance” that Bush and his aides are performing, said the poet. “They have a plan. It`s inherited through history. They destroyed the native tribes. Now each July they celebrate their victory.”
In short, his message was that Bush is but the most recent in a long line of oppressors that have led our nation throughout its purportedly sordid history.
Shortly thereafter, a New York University professor explained the importance of
protecting the world`s children from American aggression. “Children should learn their ABC`s,” she told her listeners. “They should not be killed [by U.S. bombs].” Those words earned her a loud ovation. Notably, she did not mention the thousands of Iraqi children who have been imprisoned, tortured, mutilated, and even slaughtered in retribution for their parents` real or imagined disloyalty to Saddam`s regime.
The parade of platitudes continued with the founder of the group Courage to Refuse, which consists of some 500 Israeli army officers who refuse to serve in the West Bank and Gaza. “The best way to neutralize your enemy is to make him your friend,” he said. “We have to remove the reasons for hatred.”
The theme was consistent: If only America would do things differently, Saddam, bin Laden, and other such barbarians would no longer want to blow us off the globe.
Every rally has its superstars, of course, and this was no exception. It was now time to hear from the mastermind of the Tawana Brawley fraud; the man whose vile rhetoric and frivolous charges of racism are legendary; the man who referred to the late Khalid Muhammad, whose racist diatribes were even too incendiary for Louis Farrakhan to condone, as “a very articulate and courageous brother.”
Yes, Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton stepped to the podium to warn that Bush “is pursuing a manifest destiny plan that will not secure America, but will put the whole world at risk.” It is wrong, he said, “to send our children to foreign soil to protect oil interests.” It is immoral, he emphasized, for Bush to pursue his “philosophy of international domination.”
Another well-known speaker who addressed the crowd was Ruth Messinger, the former Manhattan borough president and unsuccessful mayoral candidate. “A war [with Iraq] will cost us $200 billion,” she said, money that would be better spent on education, housing, and environmental protection.
She did not, however, discuss any environmental hazards that could result from a chemical, biological, or nuclear attack against our country. America’s war chest, she said, could “feed the 30,000 children around the globe who die from hunger every day” -- an assertion that earned her a loud ovation. No one seemed to care that the U.S. already provides fully 60 percent of food aid around the world. Such details would only have spoiled their rollicking hate fest.
Before long, it was time for the denunciations of U.S. foreign policy to expand far beyond the borders of Iraq. Harry Belafonte took the occasion to condemn America`s past military actions specifically in Vietnam, Grenada, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Cuba, “and many [other] places in the world.” Thereafter, two speakers representing New York`s People of Color Against War extended their “warm, militant greetings” to the crowd, and spoke about “the im-
pact of U.S. militarism on freedom in the Philippines.” A Colombian woman named Vividad Cordoba proclaimed, “I`m coming from a country that is a victim of U.S. foreign policy.”
Still another speaker blamed America for its “unjust” policies in “Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile, Grenada, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia.” The director of the Southern Peace Research and Education Center said that not only should the U.S. not attack Iraq, but that it was now time to put the Saddam issue behind us and “lift the sanctions on the Iraqi people.”
America`s “three vices [of] militarism, materialism, and racism,” she said, preclude our country from claiming any moral authority to decide who should possess the weapons of genocide.
New York Civil Liberties Union executive director Donna Lieberman focused more on perceived domestic atrocities. “We are here today to talk about the other war,” she said, “the Bush administration`s undeclared war on our civil liberties.” With that, the crowd erupted with cheers.
A Florida woman shared her own story of oppression as well. “I can tell you as a Jewish woman, a grandma....It`s not just the black people who were denied their [voting] rights in Florida.”
A homeless New Yorker took the microphone and expressed her deep concern “about the war on poor people in this country, the war on working people in this country.”
The day`s loudest, most frenzied greeting was reserved for the infamous Communist and black revolutionary “Sister Angela Davis,” as she was introduced. Describing herself as a former “political prisoner” in the United States, Davis mocked Colin Powell`s recent assertion before the UN Security Council “that he represented the world`s oldest democracy.”
A true democracy, explained Davis the Communist, would have allowed the demonstrators to march that day, rather than to just peacefully assemble. Charging that the Bush administration is “specifically targeting immigrant communities,” she casually dismissed any concerns about Saddam’s suspected stockpiles of hidden weapons. “Have we forgotten,” she asked rhetorically to a loud ovation, “which country claims the largest nuclear arsenal in the world?”
She accused the U.S. government and American corporations of supporting war solely for the purpose of taking over Iraq`s oil fields. Boasting that she was not worried about possible attacks from any external enemies, she expressed concern only “about attacks against single mothers, about structural racism, about homophobia,” and [about] the oppression of “political prisoners like [cop killer] Mumia Abu Jamal.”
Shouting over the cheering throngs, Davis denounced America`s “prison-industrial complex and the military.”
There were numerous others who spoke as well, including folk singer Pete Seeger, actor Ossie Davis, and playwright Tony Kushner. A representative of the Socialist Organization of New York was received especially well, as was the International Secretary of the Black Radical Congress. Susan Sarandon introduced a man who, though he lost his son in the 9/11 attacks, exhorted President Bush to “stop the headlong rush to war, anger, and destruction.”
Though he did not explain why a twelve-year wait for Iraq to comply with its obligations should be defined as “a headlong rush to war,” he chastised America for not promoting “the equitable sharing of the world`s resources among all peoples.”
The day`s final speaker took the occasion to publicly denigrate the hundreds of police officers who, in a thoroughly professional manner, had made certain that everyone attending the rally was safe. “When you leave here,” he told the crowd, “you can expect that the police will probably attempt to do something to try to provoke you.” Referring to the officers as “fools with guns,” he continued: “They will attempt to manipulate you in order that you might fall into their plans. We`re not going to fall into their plans. . . . Don`t engage in the foolishness that the police are gonna try to provoke you into. . . . We want to shame the police!”
The crowd responded with roaring approval.
National Organization for Women president Kim Gandy was, notably, the only speaker during the four-hour demonstration to utter even the most trifling criticism of Iraq’s brutal dictator. But even that was diminished by what she said in her next breath. Though she acknowledged that “Saddam Hussein is an evil, maniacal tyrant,” she quickly proclaimed that our government should combat “poverty, homelessness, and [street and domestic] violence” before meddling in foreign affairs.
The overriding anti-American venom pervading the entire rally manifested itself not only in the rhetoric, but also in the remarkable dearth of American flags. I observed only one such flag on display at any point during the day, whereas I saw tens of thousands of placards denouncing the U.S. and the Bush administration.
This crowd was characterized, as much as anything else, by its steadfast refusal to make moral distinctions between Saddam Hussein and George Bush, or between the Iraqi regime and the American government. One particular placard illustrated this point quite graphically. Featuring side-by-side photographs of Bush and Saddam, it read, “Two of a Kind, Hussein and Insein, Both Unelected, Both Psychotic”; Bush`s face was adorned with a Hitler-style moustache, the hairs of which were formed by black letters spelling the word “Florida.” In a similar vein, another sign read, “Germans Did Not Stop Hitler. Will Americans Stop Bush?”
On the few occasions where the demonstrators did make moral distinctions, they actually depicted Bush and the U.S. as worse than their Iraqi counterparts, as evidenced by the speeches heretofore referenced. And as one placard bluntly put it, “Drop the Bombs Where They Are Made” -- a curious suggestion indeed from a champion of “peace.” (FrontPageMag.com)
John Perazzo is the author of “The Myths That Divide Us: How Lies Have Poisoned American Race Relations.”
That is not a confession, it is an accusation.Lord, may the Holy Spirit call us into mindfullness of our own sins sufficiently for us to take refuge from them in the blood of Christ.
It's possible that Bush's plan will NOT secure America. That is half the truth. The other half is that America wasn't secure on 9/11, either--and I trust that Bush is TRYING to change that.It's also true that we weren't exactly secure when the FIRST attempt on the World Trade Center narrowly failed during the x42 years--and that x42 gave North Korea the wherewithall to undertake a nuclear weapons development program . . .
Actors live in a world of make believe where a clown like Martin Sheen actually thinks he has what it takes to be President of the world's only super power, where life and death decisions mean people live and die, not just get up, wipe off the ketchup and have another "take"
Actors who can't even manage their own families lives criticize a man like President Bush, and Tony Blair, who are responsible for the eating and sleeping of people all around the world by what they decide to do or not do.
When men like these hear about the rape and tourture and maiming and death, and cry and hold wives and sons and daughters of loved ones lost in a building just because they went to work on time, and they know if they don't do something about it more death and horror will rain down upon others whose only crime was to go to school or work that day
And on top of that they are forced to play some game trying to get the killers and their supporters to agree to some half assed resolution rather than go in and blow the son's of bitches into the fine mist they deserve...
That's when I thank God I'm an American who understands that there are leaders and sheep in the world, and we can thank our lucky stars the sheep we had for 8 years has been replaced by a man who knows who he is and what it means to head the most powerful nation on earth
And Angela Davis is still alive, too? Incredible! I mean, some of us still remember the Marin County courthouse shootout, and are not highly inclined to forgive or forget. And yet, even though many of us own deer rifles, Angela Davis is still alive. So much for the claim that we right-wingers are the dangerous, violent, and oppressive people.
Sedition?
Strom Thurmond isn't the only survivor of the 1948 presidential campaign. Pete Seeger makes an appearance in the volume of Mencken's journalism on the campaign of that year. Seeger made a musical appearance -- which Mencken praised -- at the Progressive (i.e., Commie) Party convention that nominated Henry Wallace.
I'd just love to hear this story, there's nothing like an elderly Jewish grandmother telling fairy tales. BTW granny, what does this have to do with Iraq and terrorism? Oh, you just hate republicans, eh? Thought So.
Remember, this rally took place in NYC. Ten bucks says the old bag is one of those snowbirds who votes twice; once from her home address in NY or Jersey, and then again from her condo address in FL.
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