Friday, June 16, 2006
Pacifica Commentary For June 14, 2006
The South Central Farmers
June 13th, 2006, a day of infamy in the history of Los Angeles. Sheriffs and LAPD arrive in the middle of the night to attack peaceful people who have created a paradise in what was a trash heap. It was a quasi-military action and it was entirely unnecessary. These people were given ten minutes to get out after years of hard work and development of the area.
Exactly what threat to public safety were these peaceful urban farmers? Why were their trees cut down? Why were their plots bulldozed?
This beautiful oasis was developed 14 years ago in the wake of the uprising of 1992.Land was offered to the South Central Community by the City of Los Angeles.
The land was broken, scarred, paved over. There were abandoned refrigerators, shards of glass, old tires, piles of rags and discarded furniture. The South Central Farmers took away the trash, cut down the weeds and got rid of the rats. They turned the soil and found that it could live again and it provided food for 350 families.
What a putrid example of class justice. The poor are those selected to receive the death penalty. The poor are those selected to die in unnecessary wars. The poor are those who fill our prisons with two million inmates as part of the military, industrial, prison, gun and warfare state complex. And now the poor are evicted in an act of treachery by the City of Los Angeles.
There is only one solution and that includes restitution. First that this land be immediately set aside as the property of The South Central Farmers.
Second we must begin plans for many similar farms in the City of Los Angeles. We want these farms so that talented people will continue to grow crops that we will never see in a super-market. Precious seeds were brought in to produce crops that heal and nourish. Los Angeles will remain with a broken heart until restitution is achieved. The website for the Sounth Central Farm is: southcentralfarmers.org.
Call Mayor Villaraigosa and demand that the pledge made by the City of Los Angeles be respected. Call City Council Member Jan Perry and demand that she represent the people of her district. Call Mr. Ralph Horowitz the developer who initiated the eviction and insist that he negotiate with The Trust for Public Land and the Annenberg Foundation to make the South Central Farm a permanent symbol of the greatness of those who created it.
Mr. Ralph Horowitz' phone is : 310/440-7878.
June 13th, 2006, a day of infamy in the history of Los Angeles. Sheriffs and LAPD arrive in the middle of the night to attack peaceful people who have created a paradise in what was a trash heap. It was a quasi-military action and it was entirely unnecessary. These people were given ten minutes to get out after years of hard work and development of the area.
Exactly what threat to public safety were these peaceful urban farmers? Why were their trees cut down? Why were their plots bulldozed?
This beautiful oasis was developed 14 years ago in the wake of the uprising of 1992.Land was offered to the South Central Community by the City of Los Angeles.
The land was broken, scarred, paved over. There were abandoned refrigerators, shards of glass, old tires, piles of rags and discarded furniture. The South Central Farmers took away the trash, cut down the weeds and got rid of the rats. They turned the soil and found that it could live again and it provided food for 350 families.
What a putrid example of class justice. The poor are those selected to receive the death penalty. The poor are those selected to die in unnecessary wars. The poor are those who fill our prisons with two million inmates as part of the military, industrial, prison, gun and warfare state complex. And now the poor are evicted in an act of treachery by the City of Los Angeles.
There is only one solution and that includes restitution. First that this land be immediately set aside as the property of The South Central Farmers.
Second we must begin plans for many similar farms in the City of Los Angeles. We want these farms so that talented people will continue to grow crops that we will never see in a super-market. Precious seeds were brought in to produce crops that heal and nourish. Los Angeles will remain with a broken heart until restitution is achieved. The website for the Sounth Central Farm is: southcentralfarmers.org.
Call Mayor Villaraigosa and demand that the pledge made by the City of Los Angeles be respected. Call City Council Member Jan Perry and demand that she represent the people of her district. Call Mr. Ralph Horowitz the developer who initiated the eviction and insist that he negotiate with The Trust for Public Land and the Annenberg Foundation to make the South Central Farm a permanent symbol of the greatness of those who created it.
Mr. Ralph Horowitz' phone is : 310/440-7878.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Pacifica Commentary for June 7, 2006
The Button
Certainly we have become numb to the reality of nuclear destruction. This shadow has been over the human race for 60 years and now the danger of its use is greater than ever. One single individual in Washington has the future of this planet in his hands. There are no checks and balances, there is no judicial review, there is no advice and consent of the Congress. Friends, we are living in a nuclear dictatorship. The President can eliminate hundreds of millions of people in a host of countries simply by pushing the button. This should never be the prerogative of one individual. Actually, it should never be the prerogative of any individual or of any group.
Suppose a nuclear explosion takes place in the United States. Will the president strike back at a nation that had no part in the attack as he did after 9/11? After striking the wrong nation and having deadly radiation flow into surrounding countries, should we be surprised if they retaliate? The President's button represents a suicide attack on all of us.
Even if we had the most brilliant and humane president imaginable, she or he should never have authority over such a button.
This is not a matter of brilliance of an individual, it is a matter of the future of this miracle planet. And if you don't believe it is a miracle planet, please show me one like it.
Nationalism is killing us. It is archaic, fossilized, irrelevant and destructive.
What does it take to awaken people to this reality? At this moment in history our every thought and plan must be made with the planet in mind.
Global warming is a reality but the greed for short term profit together with a failed and catastrophic war has Washington trying to divert our attention to issues that should not even be in the sphere of the Federal Government.
Unfortunately what is good for profit is very bad for the globe.
Fully electric cars were manufactured and running well in the 1920's. But they were abolished by the oil industry. If this were not the case don't you think we would have made some progress with electric vehicles in the last 86 years?
We must take the quest for profit out of the world's drivers seat. We must take the button out of the hands of the president. And how do we do that? We do it by planetary thinking, the only kind of thinking that will make life possible for our grandchildren.
And we must turn our thinking into action by with a new Declaration of Peace.
The worn out eighteenth century nationalism in which we are currently living assures us that our grandchildren will have neither life, nor liberty nor the pursuit of happiness.
Certainly we have become numb to the reality of nuclear destruction. This shadow has been over the human race for 60 years and now the danger of its use is greater than ever. One single individual in Washington has the future of this planet in his hands. There are no checks and balances, there is no judicial review, there is no advice and consent of the Congress. Friends, we are living in a nuclear dictatorship. The President can eliminate hundreds of millions of people in a host of countries simply by pushing the button. This should never be the prerogative of one individual. Actually, it should never be the prerogative of any individual or of any group.
Suppose a nuclear explosion takes place in the United States. Will the president strike back at a nation that had no part in the attack as he did after 9/11? After striking the wrong nation and having deadly radiation flow into surrounding countries, should we be surprised if they retaliate? The President's button represents a suicide attack on all of us.
Even if we had the most brilliant and humane president imaginable, she or he should never have authority over such a button.
This is not a matter of brilliance of an individual, it is a matter of the future of this miracle planet. And if you don't believe it is a miracle planet, please show me one like it.
Nationalism is killing us. It is archaic, fossilized, irrelevant and destructive.
What does it take to awaken people to this reality? At this moment in history our every thought and plan must be made with the planet in mind.
Global warming is a reality but the greed for short term profit together with a failed and catastrophic war has Washington trying to divert our attention to issues that should not even be in the sphere of the Federal Government.
Unfortunately what is good for profit is very bad for the globe.
Fully electric cars were manufactured and running well in the 1920's. But they were abolished by the oil industry. If this were not the case don't you think we would have made some progress with electric vehicles in the last 86 years?
We must take the quest for profit out of the world's drivers seat. We must take the button out of the hands of the president. And how do we do that? We do it by planetary thinking, the only kind of thinking that will make life possible for our grandchildren.
And we must turn our thinking into action by with a new Declaration of Peace.
The worn out eighteenth century nationalism in which we are currently living assures us that our grandchildren will have neither life, nor liberty nor the pursuit of happiness.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Pacifica Commentary For May 31, 2006
Massacre
This age will be remembered for its love of fiction. The Left Behind Series sells tens of millions of copies fostering a nineteenth century mythology about the end of days. Many readers fanatically grasp on to the myth as if it were reality. Dan Brown writes a book called the Da Vinci Code and people are saying, "See I told you so."
Both books are legitimate, that is legitimate fiction. The fascinating element is how so many people have absorbed these writings as non-fiction.
I think we can understand what is happening here. Many people are so terrorized by reality that they want to live happily in fantasy land forever.
Just think how many hard fact, heavily researched books have come out regarding
the war crimes our administration commits each day. Fear of the truth and the desire to say, "Oh, I didn't know that," seems to lead the way in this quest for fantasy.
And now Time Magazine uncovers a massacre in Iraq. We are grateful for this legitimate journalism. But we must watch for the spin. We can't let this go with a few privates and sergeants condemned as bad apples. The Haditha Massacre includes a series of flat out denials and cover-ups by the military, just as the Mai Lai Massacre in Vietnam or the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. These are not isolated incidents, on the contrary, these acts personify our policy. The atrocity was not simply Mai Lai, it was the sheer evil of killing three million people in Vietnam. The atrocity is not simply Abu Ghraib, it is the fact that torture was routine then and has continued to be routine now.
The atrocity is not simply Haditha, it is fifteen years of butchering innocent people in Iraq. The invasion of homes and massacre of civilian inhabitants is a daily occurrence in Iraq. Many of these massacres are punitive actions like the punitive attacks on the people who lived in Fallujah, Some 6,000 civilians were killed during that November 2004 assault. This was simply not news until unimbedded reporters, at great personal risk went for the facts and not the fantasy.
As we lost the war in Vietnam every massacre was declared to be an attack on insurgents. And the same is happening in Iraq. A massacre of civilians is reported by the military as an Iraqi offensive. That is why we continue to identify dead insurgents who are two and three years old.
We definitively lost in Vietnam and now our behavior in Iraq mirrors the deception, deceit and treachery that is leading to our absolute failure there. Fiction continues to be popular. But only non-fiction can make us free.
This age will be remembered for its love of fiction. The Left Behind Series sells tens of millions of copies fostering a nineteenth century mythology about the end of days. Many readers fanatically grasp on to the myth as if it were reality. Dan Brown writes a book called the Da Vinci Code and people are saying, "See I told you so."
Both books are legitimate, that is legitimate fiction. The fascinating element is how so many people have absorbed these writings as non-fiction.
I think we can understand what is happening here. Many people are so terrorized by reality that they want to live happily in fantasy land forever.
Just think how many hard fact, heavily researched books have come out regarding
the war crimes our administration commits each day. Fear of the truth and the desire to say, "Oh, I didn't know that," seems to lead the way in this quest for fantasy.
And now Time Magazine uncovers a massacre in Iraq. We are grateful for this legitimate journalism. But we must watch for the spin. We can't let this go with a few privates and sergeants condemned as bad apples. The Haditha Massacre includes a series of flat out denials and cover-ups by the military, just as the Mai Lai Massacre in Vietnam or the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. These are not isolated incidents, on the contrary, these acts personify our policy. The atrocity was not simply Mai Lai, it was the sheer evil of killing three million people in Vietnam. The atrocity is not simply Abu Ghraib, it is the fact that torture was routine then and has continued to be routine now.
The atrocity is not simply Haditha, it is fifteen years of butchering innocent people in Iraq. The invasion of homes and massacre of civilian inhabitants is a daily occurrence in Iraq. Many of these massacres are punitive actions like the punitive attacks on the people who lived in Fallujah, Some 6,000 civilians were killed during that November 2004 assault. This was simply not news until unimbedded reporters, at great personal risk went for the facts and not the fantasy.
As we lost the war in Vietnam every massacre was declared to be an attack on insurgents. And the same is happening in Iraq. A massacre of civilians is reported by the military as an Iraqi offensive. That is why we continue to identify dead insurgents who are two and three years old.
We definitively lost in Vietnam and now our behavior in Iraq mirrors the deception, deceit and treachery that is leading to our absolute failure there. Fiction continues to be popular. But only non-fiction can make us free.
