Letters to the Editor
November 2001

How to treat a friend
President Bush said when he addressed the nation, “The United States of America is a friend to the Afghan people.” Bombing and destroying is not how my parents taught me to treat a friend. We must learn to work diplomatically rather than striking out for revenge. The military operation against Afghanistan is called “Enduring Freedom.” Going to war and killing beings of our own species will not result in a free world. More likely it will create bitterness toward the United States. We must listen to the words of M.K. Gandhi, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

Ellie Wiener
14 years old
Minneapolis, MN

Media bias alive and well
I am responding to the headline “Study finds media to be fair,” in the October issue of Southside Pride. This headline and the first sentence, “The MN media has little or no bias in stories written about high-profile MN coaches...” are extremely inaccurate as to the content of the article. The article goes on to state all the examples of unfair treatment by the media:

• “After an exhaustive study of the media coverage....the researchers found that the allegations against the African American coaches were deemed more serious than those levied against the white coaches.”

• “Negative coverage of black coaches...make them all but unemployable after an incident.”

• “While the report did not find blatant instances of racist language involving the black coaches, they did find fault with the way that the media framed the stories.”

• “The report suggests intensive training to educate members of the media to become more aware of their power to influence the perception and stereotyping of African Americans.”

The framing of this article is certainly an example of unfair media treatment. A reader who is skimming your paper could be given the idea that the media does not contribute to racism. Unfortunately, your paper has inadvertently contributed to maintaining racism.

Margaret Rozycki

Johnson debunks myths
Kelly Bailey’s letter (Vol. XI, issue 8) is filled with misinformation and myth. If he (or she) is referring to me as the “seriously misguided socialist individual” that would be myth number one. I am a small business person (sole proprietor, semi-retired) and I praise small business people who are providing goods and services that people truly need. He says that “the cycle of violence is a myth.” That obviously is wrong as we see the bombing of all the major cities of Afghanistan on our television screens, cities that are made up now mostly of civilians, children, crippled orphans and many who have no strength or ability to flee, innocent people who have already suffered and lost so much from the wars of the last twenty years or more in that destitute country.
Myth number three is that socialists “suffer from the misguided notion that the natural state of life is a socialist utopia.” I don't know of any socialists who believe this. It seems that the more natural way of mankind is greed and the drive to accumulate “wealth.” (Bucky Fuller tells us that our “real wealth” is our future healthful days on this planet.) I do know socialists who believe that the distribution of wealth in this capitalist country rewards the greediest, the biggest polluters and the predators. I do know people who believe that our priorities in this country are perverse and twisted.
Those who interpret the Bible literally are no better than the fundamentalists, the Taliban, the extremists, the intolerant bigots. The Wise words of turning the other cheek is only a way of suggesting that there might be other means. In this country we have courts. In the world we have world courts. They may not be the only answer, they may not work perfectly, but they seem to be just one of the many alternatives to knee-jerk violence that kills more innocent people.
Defending the perpetual apartheid in Palestine and defending Americans gluttonizing the world's oil only to put the deadly effluents into our seriously polluted atmosphere is quintessential ignorance and moral bankruptcy.

Don Johnson

Time for revolution?
Imagine Sisyphus reaching the top of the steep slope and finally being able to push that boulder up, over and out of the downward spiral of despair. The mythic struggler has to discover that he alone lacks the power to break the cycle, but together with his sisters and brothers, the force behind that almost immovable barrier is too much to tame, and will break forth like a mighty river.
The present global situation has literally put humanity at the edge of the abyss. This is a moment when everything counts, when each moment holds many possible outcomes that are in constant flux. We humans have, as a species, a great opportunity to make a quantum leap forward in our development, or, potentially, a giant leap backward down into the lower depths of turmoil. In order to make the leap forward, it is essential now that we collectively put an end to the common enemies of “humanization,” to borrow a term from Paolo Friere.
The root causes of the attacks on this country lie most deeply in our economic structure, in the absurdities of the market economy, in national and global capitalism. Our foreign policy merely reflects and ruthlessly enforces the free flow and reproduction of capital. How illustrative it is that right now the cry is “buy” and “spend,” as billions are being tossed about for some stimulus package to manipulate this cancerous economy. No matter how much money is poured down the bottomless pit of the capitalist system, the wounds will never heal.
Everything this government has ever done here and abroad is steeped in the blood of genocide, land theft, disease and greed, the naked lust for power to accumulate. The whole world knows that the U.S. government is the ultimate terrorist, but the masses of folks here have been so effectively kept in ignorance that their entire perception of reality is completely misguided. The advertising/popular media/brainwash education machine has done a spectacular job of making the sheep manageable, blindly following leaders toward the brink of disaster. Chalmers Johnson's recent account of “blowback” gives us an accurate account of this dynamic, however he fails to reach deep enough for solutions.
We must be calling for peace, and we must be calling for justice, but now is also the time to start moving stalwartly toward the dismantling of this global capitalist system and re-imagine a new world order (“Another world is possible”). The capitalist system has two ugly siblings, white superiority and patriarchy. These are the three heads of the beast we must be dealing decisively with now. To neglect one of these is to fail to address the entire problem facing the planet. I saw with great satisfaction that the ANSWER Coalition in Washington D.C. had combined the peace and anti-racist movements, but felt instinctively that it should have been ANSWERS instead—Act Now to Stop War and End Racism and Sexism. In fact, this is the moment when each and every oppressed group must rise up and stand together to transform our collective reality. This is the time for a Rainbow Coalition of strugglers to push that rock of oppression out of the way.
Capitalism will not be able to endure the tests of time because of the inequities and injustices inherent in the very stuff it is built on. The concept of profit, an imaginary quantity that has been forged on the backs of slaves and wage-laborers, will never be “democratic.” Racism, sexism and xenophobia are part and parcel of how the capitalist boss makes his dollar, dividing the many to enrich the few. Expensive education and health care, low wages, high taxes, union busting, all our daily problems are the pillars upon which capitalism is built and thrives. Our American economic system was born through death and destruction and thrives therein. There will never be any “fixing” it that will do enough to solve our myriad of problems.
The truth is that we are truly crazy to allow Alan Greenspan and a handful of rich, elite white businessmen run this country and indeed, most of the planet. The beauty of the anti-globalization movement is that we now know that millions of people everywhere are now realizing this fact and deciding to say NO, this world belongs to the PEOPLE. It is a fundamental truth that the power of the people united can move the parameters of our reality in a radically different direction. While I have been inspired by the brilliance of the intellectual debate about the dangers that face us all now, rarely do I see the arrow of informed debate go directly to the heart of the matter: Global capitalism and its arms of racism and sexism must be dismantled for the collective good of the planet, indeed, for our very survival and ability to build a future.
The nearly universally available technology of telephone, cable television and Internet can link our separate movements in a way unimaginable up until now. If I want to link up with some revolutionary Afghan women or aboriginal activists in New Zealand, all I need do is “Search” and I will find. We do not have to be alone and divided anymore. Now is the time for town meetings, salons, conferences, marches and rallies, phone chains and e-mail lists, independent media and radio talk shows that focus on the next revolution and how everyone can play a part in refashioning our systems of living. Anything that we can imagine, we can do if we follow the straight and narrow path of struggle. The growing critical mass for our movement forward was evident at the rallies in New York and Washington, D.C., just as the fury of the Middle East is plain to see as the people react to American and European aggression. If it takes outrage to move us, there is plenty to go around right now.
Our task is monumental, of that there can be no doubt. For those who still cling to the viability of the electoral system, we are going to have to vote them out, starting yesterday. In my view, Barbara Lee is the only Congress member who should be keeping her seat in the next round of elections and all the senators have to go after that 98-0 vote of a few weeks ago. Here in Minnesota, the disgusting hypocrisy of Senator Paul Wellstone, only weeks ago speaking out to halt U.S. terrorism in Colombia, and now waving the saber of war, is a call to oust him and every other one of his colleagues.
We are going to have to say NO to oppression in every form, every day, within our own selves and in the others we meet. White people are going to have to atone for the collective sins of our history and abjectly repent. Reparations are a start, but nowhere near the end of what we must do to move beyond white supremacy. We should really be following the leadership of black people now, people of color, and in particular women, who have always been the very last in all realms. Now is the time for the first to be last, and the last come to the fore. Many might write these views off as being too extremist, but isn't it the John Lennon song “Imagine” that is tugging at our souls right now? Imagine it, enough of us, and working together we can attain it. That is a certainty.
Call me crazy but I feel certain that the end of capitalism is at hand. The entire bloated monster is poised to topple all around us. Fidel Castro has been right all along, about the inherent injustices of capitalism, the dangers of the IMF and World Bank and WTO, and the intricately woven oppressions of imperialist aggression around the world. This corrupt government's 40-year blockade against Cuba has aimed to prevent the masses of people in this country from hearing Fidel's absolutely correct analyses of everything. The truth will never be quelled however, and Fidel's recent prognosis of the end of capitalism as we know it within the next several decades rings true. We, the people, must bring forth a revolution in all realms to cleanse our polluted planet and ourselves.
Our revolution must be a profoundly comprehensive one. Everything we have been raised to “know” in this country is a LIE, from the state-sanctioned version of history to the anorexic ideals of feminine beauty and worth, from the sanctity of money and private property to the mediocrity of the common person's contribution to reality. We must completely reeducate each other and ourselves through small working groups devoted to blasting away the lies and reworking our consciousness in the light of truth. We can do this. In realigning ourselves to Truth, we can come up with the solutions to remake our economy and our cultural life. We can become a friend and neighbor of other countries, leaving domination behind. We can reach forth to create a brand new kind of future. It is possible; it is time for a revolution!
Samantha Smart