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Mickey Z
Cool Observer
the Department of Homeland Security.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Some global perspective, a benefit book sale...and the one year since the RNC
You see an image of a dead body floating the flood waters of a major American city and you might feel shock...and the desire to help.
How many of us consider the cities and nations across the globe that have suffered similar or far worse fates thanks to U.S. military interventions?
Hiroshima (above), Nagasaki, Dresden, most of Southeast Asia, Yugoslavia, Somalia, East Timor...the list goes on and on and on. How about Iraq RIGHT NOW? As I type this, the bombs we all have helped pay for have are helping to create (or exacerbate) scenes just like those on the streets outside the New Orleans Convention Center and the darkest back hallways inside the Superdome (to name just two).
Our hearts go out to the victims of Katrina (and the government’s lack of response) on the Gulf Coast...and justifiably so.
How many of our hearts are broken over the destruction, starvation, disease, poverty, and misery perpetrated by the U.S. government and the corporations that own it?
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Hurricane reading:
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1077495.php
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=453
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/sep2005/noir-s03.shtml
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A small gesture of relief:
If you buy my “Seven Deadly Spins” or “Murdering of My Years” for $15 each or $25 for both, I’ll send all proceeds (minus my postage costs) to a grass roots organization helping humans and/or animals in need. My wife Michele has a friend in the New Orleans area who has taken in evacuees. Perhaps I’ll send her the money so she can keep them in her home longer and, perhaps, have a few less people to be found dead on the street.
Send cash, check, or money order to:
Mickey Z.
Box 9103
Astoria, NY 11103
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“Get off your asses and let’s do something”
Must-listen: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin interview:
http://www.atypical.net/mm/nagin.mp3
Transcript here:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/
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Watching Bush and his cronies (from both parties) in action is a good time to hark back to the Republican National Convention: One Year Later
The revered pugilist/philosopher Iron Mike Tyson once mused: “Everyone has a plan until they get hit.” And get hit everyone will. Case in point: Many of the Anybody-But-Bush (ABB) protesters who took to the streets of the Big Apple during the Republican National Convention in August 2004. I don’t just mean blows suffered at the hands of an over-eager policeman; I’m talking about the slings and arrows of activism as a life choice.
At the time, I wrote an article that questioned the strategy of only protesting the Republicans when the Democrats are barely distinguishable. I asked: “Where was the planned-for-months-in-advance outrage in Boston last month? The Hitler mustaches? The warnings about fascism? The cataloging of candidate crimes?” I also pondered the efficacy of “anti-authority types submitting to New York’s demands for polite opposition restricted to a pre-determined venue.” I summed up, calling this the “Michael McMoore era of dissent” and declared I would skip town during the RNC (I did spend two days at my in-laws’ house on Long Island but was back home in Astoria for at least half the convention.).
For the complete story, please click here:
http://mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=1663
(While at Mr. Bellers, check out the other RNC essays, too.)
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