Psychicbabble(sm)
by Marcy J. Gordon
New Moon in Aries 1999 Cycle
New Moon in Aries 0:22 AM EDT April 16, 1999
Are We Enjoying the Solar New Year Yet?
Introduction
Greetings USED KARMA readers - and those of you who access this column through John Derrickson's PsyPlan(tm) site (www.psyplan.com)!
As many of you may know, the solar new year begins on the Vernal Equinox, the first day of spring. That was March 20, 1999. The Persians celebrate their new year then, going back to Zoroastrian tradition. So do certain cultures such as the Serbs and the Bosnians and the Croats - though they claim to have invented it. (They certainly deny their own Zorastrian roots!) I hope this new cycle finds you healthy, happy and ready to protest injustice wherever you find it.
Coming to Grips with Institutionalized Racism
Many current world events are highlighting the need to face the extent to which racism is institutionalized in American society and other societies around the globe. For example, here in New York City we have had the highly publicized killing of a 22-year-old immigrant street vendor from Africa, Amadou Diallo, by the New York Police Department's "elite" Street Crimes Unit. The Street Crimes Unit was created to get guns off New York City's streets. Their methods have come under increasing scrutiny in the past few years, culminating in the Diallo shooting.
Amadou Diallo, unarmed and with no police record, was shot 19 times (four cops fired a total of 41 bullets) while fumbling for his keys in the vestibule of his apartment building in the south Bronx. The police claim he resembled the description of a rapist they were seeking (translation: he was young and black) and that he was "acting suspicious." Given the fact that thousands of young black, Asian and Hispanic men are illegally stopped searched by the police, the presence of four white policemen in a minority neighborhood would strike fear into the hearts of most young black men. Amadou Diallo was probably terrified at the site of four white cops watching him as he fumbled for his keys to enter his apartment building. The police claim they thought he was reaching for a gun. Isn't it generally a good idea to wait until you actually see a gun before pumping someone full of bullets?
The fact is that the New York City Police, under the direction of Mayor Adolph - excuse me - Rudolph Guiliani (or is that Mussolini?) - have turned this city into a police state for anyone whose skin isn't white. A friend of mine who lives in the South Bronx told me her 12-year old son is afraid to stay home from school when he is sick. Why? Because he missed four days of school last year (two of them related to an automobile accident) City workers came to his home to speak with his parents and investigate whether he was a delinquent hanging out on the street. Honors students who happen to be members of minority groups have been harassed by the cops for no reason and then brought into central booking to get police records. The police want every young person in New York City to be entered into their system. They consider everyone who isn't white to be guilty of something, or to be predisposed to commit a crime. These demented police officers actually believe that all members of minority groups will commit crimes sooner or later, so it is acceptable to arrest them on some pretext and give them police records.
The good news is that New York State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer has opened an investigation into the numerous civil rights violations committed by the New York City police. Further good news is the fact that the four policemen who killed Amadou Diallo have been indicted for second degree murder - reckless disregard for human life. This is the most serious offense they could have been charged with under the circumstances. Perhaps they will plead to a lesser offense and all get off without a trial. If they do go to trial it will be a media circus the likes of which this city has never seen.
And speaking of media circuses, New York City's own Al Sharpton, king of the sound byte, has actually been doing something useful lately. For the past month he has organized daily civil disobedience demonstrations in front of Police Headquarters. Celebrities such as Jesse Jackson, Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel, former New York City Mayor David Dinkins and Hollywood movie stars Ruby Dee, Ozzie Davis and Susan Sarandon have gone down to Police Headquarters to get themselves arrested to protest Amadou Diallo's killing. Sharpton's vow is to continue the demonstrations until the four police officers responsible for his death are arrested. Indictment is a good start, but as one famous pundit remarked many years ago, in New York State you can get a ham sandwich indicted. However, the fact remains that the Sharpton-led demonstrations have forced the Street Crimes Unit to change their ways. They have been receiving additional training to assure appropriate behavior, and the relentless publicity is making them think twice before drawing their weapons and harassing people without reason. In addition, Police Commissioner Howard Safir has announced that 50 minority officers will be added to the Street Crimes Unit, and that all members of said Unit will now wear uniforms instead of plainclothes.
Common Sense, Anyone?
Here are some interesting statistics. Although minorities make up over 60% of New York City's population, they constitute less than 40% of the City's police force. Not only that, but all - count 'em, ALL - members of the New York City Street Crimes Unit are white. Consider the absurdity of this. If you were going to do a study on residents of a neighborhood inhabited almost exclusively by minorities, would you hire a bunch of white people to go out and interview neighborhood residents? Of course not! You would hire people who look like folks from the neighborhood, people whom the neighborhood people would feel comfortable with, people the residents would open up to.
Yet the New York City Police Department only hires white people to go out into minority communities in order to reduce street crime and get guns off the street. When queried as to why there are not more minority police officers, especially on the Street Crimes Unit, the N.Y.P.D.'s mumbled response is some nonsense about there not being enough qualified minorities. Of course, the Department's efforts to recruit minorities into police work are almost non-existent, and those that are in police work seem not to be promoted as frequently as the white police officers.
Obviously none of this is possible without systematic racism at all levels of the N.Y.P.D. But is this phenomenon limited to the N.Y.P.D.? Of course not. The entire country was horrified by the dragging death of a black man in Jasper, Texas at the hands of particularly sadistic white racists. The forensic evidence revealed that he was alive the entire time he was being dragged behind the truck and was in tremendous pain while his torturers no doubt laughed and laughed.
Ethnic Cleansing is a Code Word for Genocide
The chaos in Yugoslavia is a perfect illustration of evils of jingoism. It is absolutely insane for NATO to bomb Kosovo. Did the United States bomb Hanoi into submission during the Viet Nam war? Did the United States bomb Iraq into submission? What makes us think we can bomb Slobodan Milosevich into submission? While eliminating genocide in this region is a very noble aspiration, bombing is not the way to do it.
The situation in Yugoslavia is extremely complex. I do not claim to be an expert, nor to even fully grasp exactly what's going on and why. However, I do know that there has been outrageous brutality by all sides in this conflict - Serbs, Croatians, Bosnians, Albanians and everyone else involved in the fighting. It is important to remember that not all members of all these ethnic groups are interested in genocide - many of these people are interested in living peacefully with their neighbors. For NATO to jump in now with bombing, while angering the Russians and the Chinese, is not a very smart move.
The night the bombing began I was horrified to watch the U.S. Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, talking about how the Clinton Administration was praying for the well-being of our troops over in Kosovo. What about praying for the well-being of all the people NATO was going to kill, maim and leave homeless? The Government propaganda that passes for news told us that 38 Serbian soldiers were killed on the first day of bombing. Does anyone remember how the Government lied about casualties during the Gulf War? How about the fake casualty numbers we received during the Viet Nam war? Do you actually believe that only military people were killed? Do you think it's possible to deploy massive quantities of bombs and only kill soldiers? And is killing soldiers somehow "better" than killing civilians? What about the widows and the fatherless children who are created when soldiers are killed?
The comparisons of the Serb leader to Hitler in the press are simply nauseating. The purpose, of course, is to lull the American people into believing that this is a "good" war, a "just" war. There are no good wars. There are no just wars. How can you justify killing people against their will? Now consider the irony of Dr. Jack Kevorkian being tried for murder because he is trying to help people in desperate pain and suffering to end it through suicide? People who choose to die are prevented from doing so by government, yet government has no problem executing people for crimes and killing people in far off countries. Isn't it ironic how many people who scream and yell that abortion is murder have absolutely no problem with dropping bombs on ordinary people thousands of miles away?
Now that the outer planets are in fixed signs we are forced to confront the absurdity of our actions on this planet. This fixed energy is forcing us to look at what kinds of societies we have created on this planet, and to reflect upon it. We can only hope that the Aquarian energy of social consciousness will awaken in sufficient numbers of people that we can rise up in great numbers and convince our leaders to behave in a more sensible, fair and just manner.
Copyright 1999 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.
This article represents the author's personal views and in no way shape or form reflects upon the author's employer, although the author's employer is very cool. See http://www.ericmarder.com.
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