To start things rolling, here is an ARTICLE I posted to Usenet, expressing my feelings about this situation.
"You have the right to FREE SPEECH --
As long as you're not stupid enough to try it!"
-Joe Strummer
Not content with blowing up children in Afghanistan, our government is now denying the rights of children here at home.
While the red, white and blue flourishes on school grounds, Katie Sierra, a West Virginia high school student, was barred from wearing a T-shirt bearing the message: "When I saw the dead and dying Afghani children on TV, I felt a renewed sense of national security. God Bless America." She was suspended for three days last October for refusing to remove her politically-charged garments. The school, upheld immediately by a state judge, would also not allow her to start a club promoting her anarchist views.
According to an article by Michael Colby on Counterpunch.org, local Board of Education member John Luoni accused Sierra of "committing treason" for criticizing the war.
Are we now taking cues from the Taliban and the Northern Alliance on repressing women and children?
17 OCT 01
Normally, I don't like The Nation because of their paternalistic liberalism, but recently I've read some very good critiques of the anti-war movement from them (and other sources) on Liberals stuck in 'scold mode' and how the anti-war movement has an uphill battle ahead. They don't pull their punches, but they're also very fair and objective -- definitely not the kind of rants you'd hear on Rush Limbaugh and other right-wing talk-radio shows.
Others have pointed out that Osama bin Laden, along with his extremist, intolerant, misogynistic cohorts, the Taliban, is a violent fascist. Unlike the Palestinians, bin Laden is not the victim of violent oppression: He is the scion of oil wealth -- very much like our own "nearly-elected" president. In fact, the two sides in this "war on terrorism" have a lot in common with each other. Osama, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell all share similar views on politics and religion. Fundamentalists like them, including Bush, have supporters with a fervent, often brutal passion for their shared beliefs. So perhaps Bush's war is better described as a war of fundamentalist capitalism versus fundamentalist Islam, with the rest of the world caught in the middle.
But the answer to bin Laden's fascism is not more fascism. He needs to be apprehended, forcibly if necessary, and put on trial. However, indescriminate bombing of Afghanistan and its people will only worsen their already desperate situation, and probably won't bring the perpetrators to justice. To do that, we need to build up international justice organizations like the U.N. and the World Court, not tear them down as Junior Bush and the Republicans have for many years. We need to create a truly international effort to elimate terrorism. But that won't happen as long as the current administration maintains its "if yer not with us yer agin' us" attitude.
The Algebra of Infinite Justice By Arundhati Roy
"We strongly encourage anti-authoritarians, anti-fascists, and anti-imperialists to go to ground--not to cease activities or curb their message, but to change tactics." Get Smart & Get Scared
Pentagon Reccomends Use of Nuclear Weapons
Some of Michael Moore's
insightful commentary:
Lost in America, Closer to Home
An OK City
Across America Tonight
Death Downtown
The War Prayer by Mark Twain
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