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Introduction Greetings loyal readers! Although the shock of the September 11th events is wearing off somewhat, things have hardly returned to normal here in Gotham City. Law enforcement of all flavors is still ubiquitous, although the military presence has lessened somewhat. Bridges and tunnels are open, although passage is somewhat restricted, as cars entering Manhattan must be inspected before being allowed in. (And I thought Manhattan was a police state before!) The fact that the United States Congress has passed anti-terrorism legislation as horrifying as the Sedition Acts of 1790 makes the sight of uniforms in every subway station all the more creepy. The City’s Mood Things have gotten more back to normal here, as evidenced by the rudeness with which New Yorkers are once again treating each other. The giant candle, flower, incense and stuffed animal shrine ordinary New Yorkers had been creating in Union Square was put to a precipitous end by the Mayor just two weeks after the tragedy. As the search and rescue mission at Ground Zero devolved into a pure search mission, our Mayor returned to doing what Rudy does best – being a fascist. Mayor Rudy had decreed it was time for us as New Yorkers to put our grief behind us and move on with our lives. He ordered that all the “Missing” posters all over the city be removed, and then he took our shrine away from us. The shrines at police and firehouses, however, remain unmolested. What I’d like to know is, who died and left this idiot in charge? Who is Adolph – excuse me – Rudolph Guiliani to tell anyone else how long their personal grief should last for anything? Does he believe he is somehow in charge of every New Yorker’s personal emotional life now? If he’s my daddy, then I want my allowance NOW. Time Warner, my cable television provider, sent a letter saying how bad they felt about the devastation at the World Trade Center on September 11, and that they knew some of us in the neighborhood had been without cable service for several days when 7 World Trade Center fell. Therefore, they were providing us all with a $25.00 automatic credit for the service unavailability. (Normally there is no such thing as an automatic credit from Time Warner Cable of New York City. You have to call a special number that is always busy, and wait on line forever in order to get a $1.00 for each day your service was out. Do any of you have time to do that?) When I received my monthly Time Warner statement, I noticed that my account had indeed been credited with $25.00. I wrote the following notice on the return portion of my statement: “Thanks for the credit. However, why did 6,500 people have to die before your company issued an automatic credit?” Needless to say, I have not received nor do I expect a response. With all the flag-waiving going on, I thought I should have a flag, too. So I went to Adbusters (http://www.adbusters.org) and ordered a fabulous American flag that has white corporate and brand logos where the stars should be. I have been bringing it to peace demonstrations. The demonstrators love it, of course, and ask where they can get it. So far I have been photographed by US, Japanese and French print publications while modeling it draped across me. (Who knows – my picture may even appear in New Jersey!) I also like the American flags that have the peace symbol in white where the stars should be, and the one that shows the entire planet. But the Adbusters American flag says it all for me. So far I have only met one person who disparaged my wonderful flag. A man in Washington Square Park said the flag was “disgusting.” Upon reflection, I discovered that I agreed with him. I find it thoroughly disgusting that multinational corporations run this country and dictate its foreign policy, instead of “We the People.” When an angry man yelled, “Fuck you! Fuck you” at a group of peace demonstrators, I smiled at him as sweetly inveighed “Jesus loves you!” He quickly departed with a worried expression upon his face. Despite all the anthrax scares, I don’t know anyone who is particularly worried about it, especially in light of recent revelations that ABC News actually falsified a story about an employee contracting anthrax to boost ratings. Just when you think that mainstream media journalism can’t reach a new low, there they do and do something as morally depraved as exploiting a situation as deadly as anthrax for ratings, and faking a story in order to do so! And speaking of new lows in journalism, how about the mainstream media’s suppression of the fact that a media recount now proves that George W. Bush lost the presidential election by 600,000 votes? Al Gore (detestable as he is) clearly carried Florida. There is no electoral votes issue. What we have, plain and simple, is voter fraud committed by Hilary Clinton’s “vast right-wing conspiracy.” The media is shuffling and tapping about now not being “the right time” to release a story proving that the fool who has created over a million refugees (many of whom were starving to begin with) by bombing Afghanistan is illegally occupying his office. Anyone who believed the US could get Osama Bin Laden quickly by bombing Afghanistan must be ingesting a powerful hallucinogen. What are all those fools who parroted this party line thinking now? Clearly this “war on terrorism” is meant to continue without end to enrich the existing power structure and further their aggrandizement by destabilizing the entire region. After all, central Asia is a rather nice chunk of real estate – especially since it has so much oil running through it and fertile drug-growing lands, and oil and drugs are how the powerful have stolen and maintained their wealth for so many generations. Is it an accident that George W. Bush and so many people in his cabinet and administration are oil moguls with side businesses in narcotics? A month ago there were lots of people telling me that I was “naïve” to advocate peace. Now let’s take stock of who has been naïve here. So far, the United States has succeeded in killing four UN workers who were removing land mines from the country that contains ten percent (10%) of the world’s land mines. That’s right folks, ten percent (10%)! These mines were left behind by the Soviets. Since the United States is the only country that refuses to sign the treaty banning land mines, there certainly weren’t any US workers in Afghanistan helping remove the mines. It seems the narco-oil criminals in our government were so concerned with protecting their bribes from arms manufacturers that they “accidentally” destroyed the building housing the UN de-mining project, killing four workers in the process and assuring that the UN has now pulled the entire project out of Afghanistan. So now there is no de-mining going on in the world’s most heavily mined country. Nice going, Spurious George! Given the news blackout, it is impossible to know with certainty how many civilians US forces have killed in Afghanistan to date, but one thing is certain. The US has been bombing Afghani cities and villages, which means civilians are being killed for sure. The US claimed to have hit a fuel depot (by the way it exploded), but it turns out they destroyed a large amount of that city’s cooking oil. Yes, friends, cooking oil is flammable just like gasoline and diesel oil! So in addition to the 7.5 million starving people in the area, we have now deprived a large number of Afghani civilians of their cooking oil. Will somebody please explain to me how cooking oil is a military target? And if the response is that our technology isn’t good enough to tell gasoline and diesel oil from cooking oil THEN WE SHOULDN’T BE DESTROYING ANYTHING, SHOULD WE? If anyone else in the world had done this to US citizens on US soil the vitriol of the revenge rhetoric in this country would be deafening, but since it’s happening to darker-skinned people on the other side of the planet we say it’s a “mistake” is if that were an acceptable explanation. The United States will never have any peace in the future until its government and an uncomfortably large percent of its citizenry confronts the extent of their own racism and makes constructive moves to overcome it. Instead of seeking to dominate global resources, we should be looking to share them equitably with the rest of the world. It’s not so hard – all the racists have to do is see all the other races as people! What To Do When the FBI Comes Calling My old friend John Gilmore, a director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and one of the original Cypherpunks (and the person who broke the US government’s DES encryption standard in four days) recently disclosed that he has been investigated by the FBI simply for his political opinions and beliefs. Here is a public service announcement about what to do if the FBI knocks on your door. First of all, you should ask them if they have a warrant. If they say no (which is likely) then you can legally refuse to let them into your home or office. You can also refuse to speak with them or answer any of their questions without obtaining the advice of counsel. If they want to speak with you, ask them to slip their business cards under your door and tell them you’ll have your lawyer get in touch with them. You should be aware that the FBI has no subpoena power, so they cannot compel you to answer questions, let them into your home or office, or visit their office. In addition to being unnecessary to speak with them, it is generally inadvisable to say anything more to them than you have to (such as “May I see your warrant” and “Am I under arrest?”) In speaking to the FBI, anything you say can and will be used against you. Under no circumstances should you try to convince them of your opinion on anything. For one thing, it could get you in trouble. For another, it is a complete waste of time to attempt to minister to a closed mind (to say nothing of the dishonor involved in having a battle of wits with an unarmed person). Those of us with radical politics can expect trouble from law enforcement in the near future. Just as during the McCarthy era persons with progressive viewpoints were deprived of their livelihoods and hounded by law enforcement. The title track off of songwriter Janice Ian’s 2000 CD “God and the FBI” releases her rage at the FBI for ruining her father’s career and creating great financial and emotional hardship for her family. Ian’s father was a schoolteacher. The FBI approached the administration at every school the elder Ian ever worked at and told them Mr. Ian was a Communist. The school would then fire him. This happened repeatedly, not just to Janice Ian’s father, but also to many people. It is starting to happen again. When Middle Eastern-looking people are hounded by police, arrested, interrogated, abused and then fined $250 for an outstanding parking ticket, we are ALL in serious trouble. Keep an eye out for suspicious-looking people in law enforcement! Copyright 2001 Marcy J. Gordon. All rights reserved. The author wants you to know you are free to copy and distribute this article for noncommercial purposes, provided you reproduce it in its entirety and credit the author. For quotation permission, please contact the author at mgordon@pipeline.com. |