Friday, May 07, 2004

Please Forgive U.S.?

By Mickey Z.

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Posted 05/07 | Add a Comment

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  1. The African proverb Mickey cites has a parallel in Roy’s India...as the difference between ignorance and stupidity.  Everyone who reads Mickey’s article has an obligation to act to change things...by doing something other than (in addition to) writing and talking.  Cynthia Peters in a recent ZNet Sustainer piece (April 27th) addressed the problem of what to do.  And Mina Hamilton, in a recent http://www.dissidentvoice.org piece, fretted about the dilemma also.  It’s obviously on everyone’s mind...and I plan to submit something to this site by Monday at the latest...that will provide some recommendations that are dicey...but necessary.  To not pick up on one of them...to not come up with your own variation on the theme asap...is to join the woman behind the counter in Virginia.  Freedom as we go into solution, Richard Oxman P.S.  Thanks, once again, Mickster.  It should make every reader shudder to see that Mick’s excerpt was written in ‘93.  Everyone should ask themselves what they’ve been doing since then to change things.

    Posted by Richard Oxman from  on  05/07  at  09:42 AM

  2. Both America and israel are, in my opinion, showing the traits of the cawardly bully who has all the power. The arrogance that these 2 governments are exebiting is beyond understanding. I wonder what each wold do if the fought an equally strong adversary.
    It is also very obsious that this American government has been rulled by israel for quite a long time. I want very much to have an American government that is not rulled and manipulated by a foreign entity. israel cannot exist without our support which has been most unjust to the Palestinians and against international law, let all nations remember the rules of the UN and conditions that israel accepted when it jointed the UN. so should we.

    Posted by Walter Sarkis from  on  05/07  at  12:14 PM

  3. Upon re-reading the article, I realized how easily it could be misinterpreted, i.e. pointing my finger at others while making excuses for my whispering.

    I assure one and all that I was not exempting myself from scrutiny.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from  on  05/07  at  12:19 PM

  4. Your article didn’t intimate that at all Mickey.  And it was, as usual unique and inimitable shared observations.  Thank you.

    Hope y’all’ll indulge me as I go out on a tangent here. 

    For several reasons I don’t smoke pot anymore.  It would be more accurate to call my most recent use of it miniscule than moderate.  At it’s worst pot use is innocuous.  I’d like to leave aside the almost uniquely diverse applications of the marijuana/hemp plant here.  Except to say that smoking marijuana is the cornerstone of my happiness.  Nor am I discounting the truth that it makes one more sensitive, and is thus in many ways also the cornerstone of a deep depression. 

    Letting all that pass, am I free to smoke marijuana? Am I free to participate in that part of getting high that is akin to a religious sacrament and is thus part of my religious freedom?  And in any event, is an important part in my pursuit of happiness?  No I am not.  There is no religious freedom in the United States.  More accurate is it to say the First Amendment use of the term “religion” is code for “Christian.”

    Worse, smoking marijuana is practically THE prohibited.  Nuclear bombs?  Fine and respectable.  Nuclear energy and the dangers of accident and storing the deadly waste?  No problem.  F-16s, Apache helicopters, Seawolf subs?  Okay.  Fossil fuels and the insatiable single-occupancy verhicles and the other factors leading to global warming and climate change?  Corporate domination of our society and bought elections?  Election irregularities like 2000?  Extreme disparities of wealth and opportunity?  $5 billion a year to the repressive Zionist regime?  Racism, sexism, and on and on ad nauseum?  All okay, fine and dandy, no problem.  But pot-smoking?  NO, NO, NO.  It is almost THE no.  And indeed, I believe the government is extremely afraid of marijuana and the states of consciousness it engenders because it is, as George Carlin says, a values-changing drug.

    All this American freedom jabber is a bunch of balderdash.  Freedom to do what?  Freedom for whom?  Free toward what end?  Freedeom for the corporations, of the corporations, by the corporations; which more properly is Tyranny for the corporations, of the corporations, by the corporations.  That is just what we have.  As Mussolinin had it “[F]ascism is corporatism.”

    Incidentally, now that I think about it I just read that last line yesterday in Mickey’s excellent book “Saving Private Power.”

    Posted by Tracy McLellan from  on  05/07  at  02:12 PM

  5. In Korea we fought the communist, why? In Vietnam, we fought the communist, why? The entire cold war, we fought the communist and then some, why? What did we gain, what did we lose, and what didn’t we lose. Everyone has there own interpretation of what’s right and what’s wrong. Fact is, the subject of being right or wrong, for or against our team is being publicly discussed with America’s dirty laundry being held out for all to see. Maybe if we were a bit more like China, we wouldn’t have these problems of being criticized, since they were on the other side of the previously mentioned wars, and you hear nothing of them and their atrocities. But fear of criticism, is fear that your own actions aren’t justified. Our relationship with our cold war allies has changed since they don’t see us having a common threat anymore (USSR). The issue with our former allies is that they see the so called terrorist problem an American problem (why should we get our hands dirty, since you’ll do it on your own anyhow). If America vanished tomorrow, would the terrorist really stop? Don’t be afraid to speak out, it’s easy to sing the song the whole choir is singing when that’s all you hear. Everyone wants to conform and go along with the band wagon, and its much more pleasant to believe your right. But as far as America starting nothing but wars to kill for no good reason all the time and that we are the cause for the worlds problems is easy to say and easy for many to believe. Why not blame the Middle East problems on the Germans, if they have never tried to kill all the Jews, the chances for an Israeli state would have been not much better than zero. They needed a place to call home and we all knew the problems that would result upon the declaration of an Israeli state. Let’s blame the Germans for this one since they were the root of modern Middle East hatred that we are left to deal with. Let’s determine what damage we really are responsible for and hold ourselves accountable, and lets hold those are responsible for their own wrong doings.

    Posted by Jon from US  on  06/01  at  04:14 PM
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