It's Clear Bloomberg Didn't Get It

Larry and Abdul Henderson (l) in Ft. Collins, CO

My friend, Larry Hales, who would also fit the description of dignity, sent this article to me before Christmas. Sorry, Larry, that I'm just now getting it posted but thank you for all you do in the struggle.
Larry is one of the quiet heroes of the movement of peace and justice. He does most of his talking with his actions. I've been fortunate enough to hook up with him on several occasions. I love hanging with him because he makes me think outside the box of conformity. I love hanging with him because he sees outside the borders of the corporation USA, Inc..
Larry is dignity and grace personified. He's intense a lot of the time, which is something I hope he can be able to soften a little. No, I don't want him to tone it down. I just worry about my friend's well-being. I want him to have joy and happiness in his life.
But I just presume Larry is too intense. Hopefully, out of my presence, he is loose as hell and gets the relief of laughter and fun in his life.
I see most brothers and sisters of this movement as wonderful people like Larry. Just one thing I suggest we all do on occasion. Lighten up, laugh, have humor about what we do even as serious as it is and nuture ourselves occasionally with something other than the movement.
Anyway, here's the article sent by my friend and brother, Larry. I hope we all can work to "get it".
Peace,
Terry


Date:
Fri, 23 Dec 2005 17:16:38 -0000
Subject:
[CCJP-discuss] It's clear Bloomberg just didn't get it
It's clear Bloomberg just didn't get it By Errol Louis, New York Daily News columnist Mayor Bloomberg yesterday confirmed that he stood by every word of his televised outburst against the Transport Workers Union's leadership at the height of this week's strike. He called them "thuggish," "selfish," "frauds" and the like. A host of critics, such as state Sen. Kevin Parker of Brooklyn, now accuse the mayor of being racially divisive. "We only need to look back to the day and time when MTA workers first gained the kind of pension and benefits which are now being called 'cushy.' The complexion of the union was sure of a different hue at that time," says Parker, the son of a transit worker. "Now that the Transit Authority workforce is majority black and Hispanic, they are suddenly 'spoiled,' 'selfish' and 'overpaid,'" Parker says. "Are these colors of the race card too obscure to see? Not from my view." Parker has a point. In August of 2004, when aggrieved members of the 91% white Fire Department of New York were protesting every public appearance by Bloomberg and threatening an illegal strike during the Republican National Convention, Bloomberg's spokesman, Ed Skyler, called the protesting firefighters "thugs." But Bloomberg himself took pains to not to repeat the slur, telling the New York Sun, "I wasn't brought up that way." And yet, when it came to the city's transit workers, the mayor's home training eluded him. Bloomberg's rant was not only divisive, it betrayed a fundamental lack of understanding of our city and its history. As the Wall Street Journal Online wrote in a revealing story earlier this year, the MTA "has been a haven for African-Americans seeking upward mobility since the 1940s, when Adam Clayton Powell Jr. joined other Harlem activists in pressing city-owned and private transit lines to hire more blacks." The article described the career of Valerie Beatty, a Harlem native who at 25 years old was a black single mother on food stamps - until she snagged a job as a subway cleaner at $18,000 a year. Beatty ended up in her early 40s as a motor inspector earning $50,000 a year, with a house on Long Island and her sons in college. Food stamps in the ghetto versus self-sufficiency, health care, a house in the suburbs and kids in college: For native New Yorkers, especially black New Yorkers, that's all this week's strike was ever about. It's why TWU chief Roger Toussaint risked fines and imprisonment and kept repeating the word "dignity" that so baffled and enraged Bloomberg and Gov. Pataki. Toussaint probably deserves a ticker-tape parade but will have to receive his glory on the installment plan: standing ovations in churches, union halls and almost any place he shows his face in black neighborhoods. The Trinidadian and Tobagonian-born former train cleaner gave Bloomberg a lesson in real courage, dignity and determination. Toussaint brought the city to a halt with five words to his members - "shut it down, then talk" - a power that even the billionaire mayor will never possess. And after ensuring that a path to the middle class will remain open to his members, Toussaint ended the strike yesterday with an equally terse order: "Hold your head high when you report to work." It brought to mind that word again. Dignity. Originally published on December 23, 2005

TWU Strike: Americans Don't Get It

Until Americans get the fact there are two Americas, the brave men and women like Roger Touissant and the Transport Workers Union will be seen as radical.
What's radical is the robber barons like Bloomberg, Coors, Bush, Nacchio and so many others will continue to hold the bulk of the world's wealth and allow men and women to starve and die.
The robber barons have ruled this land since day one and men and women like Touissant have rebelled against the oppression. We, the middle class allow them to be knocked down and discredited.
Malcom X had a message we didn't want to hear. We allowed the death squads of the rich to strike him down.
When Martin Luther King began to oppose the war and speak of radical action he was killed.
We look at King George today and feel he's taken away the right to dissent. That right has merely been tolerated up to a point, anyway. In the poor neighborhoods that were exposed to us briefly after Katrina the right to dissent has always been the fight to dissent.
At least with George we know where he stands without question. Bloomberg, Koch, and Guiliani have weaseled their way into NYC with glib talk and big bucks and become "beloved" to some. To the poor they have been just more of the same tyranny.
Isn't it about time middle class and white America look at the struggle being fought by true heroes of American life and speak up? We jumped at the chance to join Cindy Sheehan in Crawford as we rightfully should have. But we continuously fail to support causes such as unionism, such as the poor against the powerful in struggles that take us outside of our comfort zone.
Too much hostility, too much anger, too much possible violence is the mantra used to excuse ourselves of supporting the causes.
Hell yes there is anger and hostility! And it's only because of men and women like Touissant and Malcom who have tried to be rational and bring the reality to light there's not been an outpouring of great violence.
That day of violence is getting closer as we continue to look the other way at the plight of the poorest. I don't advocate it but I predict it. And I'll understand it when it occurs even if it's me that becomes targeted.
I continually wonder why the peace and justice movement doesn't connect the poverty and oppression with the war. Oh in intellectual conversations we do but in practical strategies we don't. Too much information, not focused enough, we need to keep it simple....so we just talk about the war.
I heard complaints there were people not focused on the war only in the D.C. rally and I said...yeah they're right. But I was wrong and so were they.
Life is complicated and complex; one action has effects on another. A war costing billions impacts all our lives and especially the lives of those who can least afford it.
Our outrage should include that viewpoint whether it is the poor American disenfranchised or the poor Iraqi unemployed and uprooted by the cost of war.
Sure this is rambling. So is life. How can we continue to say our focus should be in just one area?
How can we tell the homeless we're working on helping you by stopping the war? How do we tell the mentally ill we're going to help you after we get the war stopped? How do we tell the children of the ghetto we'll get you some good education right after we stop the war?
How do we tell a mom we'll help feed your kids as soon as we get the war stopped?
Each sector of life in America and throughout the world has a story to tell about how the wars of the ruling class have damaged them in some way. All those stories make up the connected puzzle of life which should be told.
The story of TWU is one of the stories we need to tell and we need to support.

Terry Leichner

The Speech George Wrote Before Editing

The Speech George Wrote Before the Editors got to It

My fellow ‘Mericans. I come before you tonight to lie once again about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan,
It seems we may have underestimated your stupidity. We now know that when we failed to produce WMD’s , you were ok to have us keep on killing. After all there was Saddam still to catch after we failed so miserably in catching Osama.
Once we found Saddam, we saw you were ok with us continuing the killing to establish democracy. Even after we got caught with the torture thing it went away until that fucking McCain kept bring it up.
I brought in Alberto Gonzales to interpret things so the torture would seem legal. I brought in a new Supreme Court Justice to pad the court against any possible vote against us.
I rigged another election without Jeb’s help this time. Thanks to my friends over at Diebold for all their efforts, by the way. I knew I could screw the poor blacks in Cleveland without much being said. And John and I agreed if he let me win this time the Skulls would work for him later on.
John did a brilliant job in losing an election that was in the bag waiting for him to win. I think his idea of the Swifties was the best thing since Karl skewered that fucking McCain in South Carolina. Even better than fucking over Max Cleland. These stupid Vietnam veterans will never learn the rich don’t give a fuck about them losing some jungle war in some place I can’t even find on the map.
Well this summer, there were a lot of problems. First some crazed bitch stakes herself out at my ranch area’s road demanding to talk to me. Just because she lost a kid in the war. Hell, bitch, freedom ain’t free and it’s an all voluntary military.
Next, a bunch of damn blacks didn’t have enough sense to leave New Orleans when we blew the levees to protect the rich and the oil. And apparently most of ‘em can’t swim too well either. Brownie did a great job of waiting until I woke to let me know what was happening. He knows I need my eight hours every night.
But were they happy down there when we sent my mama to the Astrodome?  Hell they tore up the Superdome until it will be next season until the Saints can play there. And it wasn’t me who let all those school buses sit while a bunch of blacks got flooded. It was another black man.
Yeah, sure they told me to declare an emergency but there weren’t none until the hurican came along. I couldn’t  act on something that didn’t happen.
Now it seems some of you are upset cause we have a few problems. I’m sure we can fix it so Dick, Karl and Tom will get off. And the Halliburton folks have promised to pay a few bucks more a week to those Pakis and Indians they hired to serve chow to our brave troops.
Sure, we’ve lost over 2000 brave ‘Mericans to the war. War’s hard. We all need to sacrifice. We can cut and run like that coward Kerry wanted us to do back in ‘Nam or we can stand and fight. If 9-11 didn’t scare you then just think of another 9-11. That’s what we face. 9-11 was a tragic moment in our lives and I don’t want another 9-11. 9-11 is why we fight over there so we won’t have to fight here and have another 9-11.
I have been told we’re winning in Iraq and just need to get the Iraqi police trained to pull our troops out. We have a choice here today…we can push forward and win or we can leave and lose. I will not let us lose. So it’s up to the ‘Merican people to decide where you stand.
We will merely tap your phones to discover where you stand. All the things we hear will be private and never be used against any ‘Merican that shows support for ‘Merica.
Don’t worry ‘Merica, be happy. We’re winning our struggle against insurgent Arab, fundamentalists, Islamics, Buddhist, Hindu, black, brown and olive skinned terrorist to prevent another 9-11. Good Christians like James Dobson will lead the way to the new ‘Merica..
My fellow ‘Mericans, we shall prevail against all who threaten our freedoms and all who try to use them against us. We will assure the rights of all ‘Mericans will be protected unless they’re on our list. We have made out lists and we’re checking them twice. We’ll be making visits to those on the dark side of terrorism.
We currently have contracted for forty more secret prisons to send the terrorists to in countries that have legal torture.
This will keep us from breaking the laws. We don’t break the law in this ‘Ministration. We are a country of laws.
Fear not ‘Merica, my ‘ministration is in charge and will be so as long as we have to be.
God bless ‘Merica. Goodnight.
And remember, smiling won’t break your face.
Georgie

TWU Stands for Us All!!!

American heroes

Power to the people!!!


White Corporate Slave Masters use their media to assassinate the character of the workers


Union leader Roger Touissant challenges NYC and America to do what's right


I’ve just watched the pig of a mayor, Michael Bloomberg, call the Transport Worker’s Union “cowards”. Then I saw the other rich bastard, Ed Koch, compare the Transport Worker’s Union with the terrorists of September 11th.
Two billionaire club members taking to task the rank and file of a union headed by a black man with a large membership of ethnic minorities is like the slave master taking out the bullwhip when his bidding isn’t done as he likes.
Ed Koch complained to the perennial sellout Geraldo Riveria the transit workers got to retire at age 58. Ed Koch has the arrogance to question what hard-working men and women do after endless hours of deadening work year after year. Bloomberg who is only mayor because he bought the election with his family money has the arrogance to call these people cowards when they stand up to the most powerful of cities and say, “enough of you abusing us!”
There certainly are cowards involved in this strike. It’s the corrupt men and women who rule the streets of New York and America. It’s the corporate “masters” of America who have stolen pensions and jobs from the poor year after year with impunity.
Not only have they stolen the goods from the workers, they’ve stolen their dignity and rights to have collective bargaining. They’ve enslaved other workers around the world by proxy and without guilt. They’ve allowed the jobs of the American worker to be the jobs of the child slaves of Haiti, the slaves of China and the slaves of all the other third world countries.
Then they go to their trade organization meetings with the rest of the world and continue to steal the natural resources of the smaller nations all the while acting as if they’ve been victimized.
If ever an action of people in this country epitomized courage it is the TWU. If ever the peace and justice movement needed to stand beside their brothers and sisters it is the TWU.
New Yorkers being inconvenienced at Christmas time is bound to drive a stake in the heart of TWU much as the air traffic controllers were gutted by dear, old, loveable, Ronnie. Too much money stands to be lost in the next few days by the consumer driven economy to allow a bunch of “commoners” to upset things.
Much of America will support the rich barons of greed as they smash down hard on this union. Many will point at this as the reason there’s no real need for unions in America.
They’ll do so as they worry about paying mortgages on a two income salary, while their kids are sent off to other people until odd hours of the night and while they often have huge debt they’ll never be able to repay in their lifetime.
They’ll pay for all that “stuff” they just had to have ten or twenty times over after they pay off the interest. These will be the people who will take out their anger against a transit union that had the courage to stand up from the enslavement of the corporate ruling class.
They will be people like you and me who constantly scoff at unionization. They’ll be those who complain about paying their dues because it takes money out of their pockets and yet will settle for less money without any recourse when big companies make record profits and lay off record numbers.
We’ll all say good things about the courage of TWU but it’s obvious we’ll not do much when it comes time to put up. We just can’t afford it. Jobs are getting tight and management might decide to look at what we’re saying and doing.
And one day when we look back we’ll wonder what happened to the American dream. We’ll wonder why the unions were willing to stand up to be killed and persecuted when all the rest of us never found that courage.
We’ll wonder as we see less and less of the pie coming our way and more and more of it going to the fat, greedy bastards like Bloomberg, Koch and Bush.

Terry Leichner
Ex Union Pipefitter
Former unionized nurse
Vietnam Veterans Against the War

Dead Soldiers Aren't Heroes

I've seen it on CBS and all the media outlets. I've heard it on radio and read it in newspapers.
They call the dead soldiers, Marines, sailors and Airmen heroes. The very act of dying is being used to call them heroes.
I've felt myself bristle with the characterization without being real clear in my mind why I did. Or maybe it was I just didn't want to add salt to the wounds of the families of the deceased.
It seems a callous thing to dispute the heroic characterization of our war dead. The truth is it's time such a characterization stops being used. It's just one more way to promote and continue the violence of war.
Chris Hedges calls it the myth of war. We create heroes out of the war dead and glorify the cause of it when in fact war is the single most horrific thing humans do. For ingrained in wars are torture, rape, war crimes and incredible brutality.

I recall a few Marines I served with dying without being heroes. The squad leader I had that caused the unnecessary deaths of innocent women and children in the bomb shelter, for example. He needlessly fragged the innocent people out of need to avenge the deaths of Marines in his company.
The soldiers responsible for the massacre of My Lai that later died in Vietnam are questionable heroes. In fact, all combat veterans know heroism and being a coward are just one fire fight apart.
I've been saying for years we need to redefine who the heroes and heroines are in our world. Far too often it is the warrior of violence being called hero and the peacemaker being ignored or called traitor or coward.
Casting the warrior as hero has an economic factor. Without the heroic figure of the warrior in battle it becomes more difficult to sell the young on sacrificing themselves for nationalistic causes of dubious reasons.
Without the heroic figure of the warrior the military-industrial complex finds it more difficult to sell the next profitable war.
Hedges describes the narcosis of war in his book The Force That Gives Us Meaning. Warriors and nations become addicted to the rush of war. When the fervor of war becomes the reality of war for the non-combatant they have the luxury of ignoring it or opposing it.
The combatants loathe the meat grinder of death and wounds brought by war but when it's over find nothing to substitute for the narcosis it brought them.
Dying in a war does not make anybody a hero. It makes them a victim. The constant glorification of the "fallen" by the media lends itself well for political propaganda but does nothing to bring us peace
A combat veteran often times gains some instant credibility from both the promoters and the opponents of war. It's not merited.
I don't say the veterans aren't entitled to benefits to return to the best state of health possible. I don't say they shouldn't have college benefits. I advocate all the benefits promised and even more.
Taking part in killing another person doesn't merit special status of hero or villain. Taking part in killing another human is a tragedy. Heroic is the warrior that puts down his weapon and says "enough, I won't fight your war anymore".
I knew one Marine who did that in Vietnam. He'd been part of the meat grinder without question of his willingness and his ability. But suddenly he told the leaders of death he quit.
The leaders of death couldn't afford his type to flourish. They made an example of him by parading him in front of the troops to embarrass him. They sent him to prison. To them he was just another uppity black man who needed to be put in his place.
I was a coward in my time in Vietnam. I went along to survive. I killed to survive. I led other men to kill to survive. The career ladder in the Marines is one you climbed the better you killed and did as you were told. I was especially good at that.
Once home, I found I could no longer endure the continued call to arms. But I wasn't done with it. I was told to train the next mindless, nameless group of cannon fodder to perish and lose body parts for nothing but the profit of greedy corporations.
Smedley Butler called it a racket. War. It took him thirty plus years but he finally made that conclusion. Needless to say they didn't teach us about Smedley at Marine Corp Recruit Depot.
I knew nothing about Smedley on the day I left Camp Lejeune, NC without permission. I just knew I could no longer go along to survive. I knew I could no longer be a party to training the young clones who followed me.
For over a year the Corps and I battled. They put me in a corrections camp for 6 weeks. I left the day after I was sent back to my company. They promised me a psych evaluation in Chicago. Instead the arrested me in front of my WWII veteran father.
The brig at Great Lakes was over crowded with mostly Vietnam vets. We rebelled when the section guards refused to allow a young Marine permission to use the "head". He soiled himself.
The guards were forced out and the doors barricaded. We made a list of demands for better treatment of inmates. They tear gassed the section and isolated who they felt were the leaders. All black Vietnams vets.
After a month of detainment I was sent to my company in North Carolina. They shackled us as we walked through National Airport in D.C... Then let us free at Camp Lejeune. I walked away.
I stayed away for a year until one day two cars with six FBI agents pulled up in front of my parents house and ran up to me and my father as we were about to enter. They had pistols aimed at us both.
As a deserter I faced possible prison time for many years. I was sent to the Denver City Jail for two weeks while the Marines decided where to send me. Finally I went to Camp Pendleton, California.
They handcuffed me on the plane but the blonde and very attractive flight attendant told them I couldn't be in cuffs when we were flying.
She paid me more attention than the two chasers trying to hit on her. She made it clear she sympathized with my cause once she understood I was a combat veteran who walked away. Her brother was in Vietnam at the time.
Eventually, I received an Undesirable Discharge when the Marines backed away from a court martial. I hired an ACLU lawyer who gave his services for free.
The Marines didn't want a decorated killer of their making brought to trial with the press fully informed.
A deal was offered. I accepted. My storied Marine Corps career ended. My life as peace activist began. Too bad I only found my bravery after I took part in the slaughter.
My personal story isn't the shining example of a veteran. It's not the shining example of a person of peace. It's the shining example of an 18 year old entering the military with idealism and nationalism finding out the truth. It's the shining example of going along, just doing my job and dehumanization.
Now I'm wiser. Now I know the heroes are the strong people who said no up front. The heroes are the nuns who dare challenge the whole system by cutting wire to enter a nuclear site. The true heroes are the young men and women who refuse to take part in immoral and illegal acts of murder.
As for us who did take part, we must take responsibility for our actions. We had choices. We made the choice to take up arms and hunt other humans to kill them. We allowed that squad leader to frag a bunker with a baby in it. We allowed My Lai.
We cannot get peace if we fail to acknowledge our responsibility and think we're heroes or victims. We are victims of self-inflicted wounds. We failed to educate ourselves. We failed to set moral limits. We failed to say "enough" as my fellow Marine did that day in 1968 as he was surrounded by angry and resentful men with weapons.
I didn't go to the Vietnam Memorial looking for heroes. I went to see the men I joined with to fight an immoral war. I went to grieve for us all because they weren't able to grieve for us. At times I feel they may have been the lucky ones. They didn't wake up one day and realize what horrible deeds they took part in doing.
I am sick of dead men becoming instant heroes. I'm sick of young men and women once again killing in the name of a nation long ago gone astray. I'm tired of being told I have some credibility for being part of a meat grinder.
My only credibility is as a witness to the insanity of war. I was awarded medals for alleged bravery and being wounded. They mean only that I was proficient at killing and poor at avoiding.
Do not afford heroic status on dead men of wars. Give it to those who have dedicated their life and souls to stopping those wars. Give heroic status to the true heroes and heroines like Rachel Corrie, Ardeth, Carol, and Jackie. Give heroic status to Daniel Berrigan, Kathy Kelly and William Sloane Coffin.
Heroic figures are men and women of peace and as I tell classes I speak to about my experience; you give up the role of peacemaker once you pick up a weapon and go out hunting other people to kill.
Terry Leichner
VVAW

Mental Health Profiling: The Forgotten Factor

An important aspect of the air marshals killing the male passenger besides racial profiling is the man had a mental illness. Persons with chronic mental illnesses are some of the most marginalized citizens throughout the world.
Though we're all crazy as hell, to be diagnosed with any mental illness is stigmatizing. It's unforgivable that communities and cultures fail to understand the multitude of emotional problems there are and the unfortunate person with the illness most often hides the fact.
Rather than give support, communities call these people "crazies" "nuts", "loonies", "retarded" "bums", "whacko or whack-jobs" and " psychos" to mention a few disparaging names. They also typically shun them.
I've worked in mental health for 22 years and have seen it happen daily. I've also worked with co-workers who struggled with major depression or bipolar illnesses that were forced out of their jobs. That's right; mental health organizations are the worst in supporting their own who struggle with the very illnesses they treat.
Every police department in the world should have specialized training for intervention with the mentally ill who are in crisis. There are some who do this training and those officers avoid killing or harming the person in most cases
Paul Childs is a classic case of failure to do this. He struggled with a dual diagnosis of developmental disability and a mental illness. He was typically a very gentle soul but at times reacted as a two year old might by having a tantrum.
Paul was known to the DPD and his intermittent explosiveness was known. Had an officer with training been called or all officers trained, an intervention of calming Paul could have prevented his murder.
In non-western societies, the mentally ill are included in the community as full members. Here in the so-called "civilized" world, God help you if you are ever diagnosed with mental illness and it becomes known.
Insurance companies keep extensive data bases. We fool ourselves to believe information isn't shared since there are so many changes and disruptions in coverage.
As with medical problems once you have a pre-existing condition and attempt to change or have to change insurance...don't count on mental illness being covered.
In Colorado there is a parity law that requires insurers to cover mental illness in the same manner as medical problems EXCEPT: only the mental illnesses said to have a biological etiology fall under the law. Those illnesses are schizophrenia, major depression (affective disorder), bipolar illnesses (affective disorder), schizoaffective disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
Not covered is a range of mental illnesses including PTSD, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, substance abuse and on and on.
There are also loopholes that allow employers to not be held to parity laws if they are a self-insured company. Most mental health centers are self-insured and guess what....they don't give parity for mental health care. They cap number of visits, hospital days and other forms of treatment services. They charge higher co-pays for each office visit and they charge higher inpatient deductibles.
Other ways individuals with mental illnesses are marginalized are getting their medications. Some patients have responded quite well on newer generation medications only to have insurance companies refuse to pay for the meds since they don't have it on their pharmacy formulary.
As a nurse I've had to fight to keep patients on the meds that worked instead of have an insurance company dictate they go on another less effective medication.
The burden upon mentally ill citizens in this country is intolerable and immoral. There are supposedly intelligent and informed citizens in this country that think people with mental illness can just "get over it" or pray more or some other foolish concept.
Major mental illnesses like the five mentioned are pretty conclusively known to be an imbalance of certain brain chemistry. People who have major depression are likely to have children with major depression because of genetics.
As onerous as medications are to treat these disorders, there are great successes in allowing many, many of the mentally ill the opportunity to live "normal" lives. Magic wands, chants, prayer and just talking about things won't change brain chemistry.
Check out the numbers of Americans who have mental illness. You know someone who hasn't told you because of stigma. Days, weeks and years of good health are lost because people won't seek treatment for fear of the stigma.
Mental health should be the focus but we can't get past mental illness because we can't accept our neighbors having such an illness. We can accept heart disease and cancer but not mental illness.
Imagine that man on the plane having racing thoughts, increased fear and paranoia, perhaps he hears voices in his mind no one else hears, perhaps he sees images or faces no one else see...hallucinations and he's spent the day crowded in airplanes and airports.
It's almost assured he's going to act strange, he's going to freak at authorities confronting him without training on how to approach him. When he sees the guns he's going to try to get free. And he's a man of color who is likely profiled because he has pigmentation of what Americans think of when they think of terrorists.
Timothy McVeigh wouldn't have been profiled for his color. He may well have been killed if he were mentally ill to the extreme the man on the plane was the day they murdered him.
I don't want to minimize racial profiling at all because it is without any doubt being done every day at every airport in the world.
I just want to bring a better awareness of this group of people who through no fault of their own, struggle valiantly with their thinking, their moods and their ability to function.
My personal perspective is no doubt unbiased but I can say the bravest people I've ever met were my clients who are white, brown, black, African, Asian, Native American and European. They are all of us. They deserve better than budget cuts for their treatment every year for the last decade.
They have become casualties of this immoral, illegal and sinful war. This is another case of connecting what the full cost of war is on our nation and all nations.
Terry Leichner, RN, C
Certified Community Mental Health Nurse (ANA)
AAS Individual Crisis Worker Certification
Emergency Psychiatric Registered Nurse
(Diagnosed with PTSD twelve years after combat duty in Vietnam)

Where the Fuck are the Liberals??

This morning the State of California executed Tookie. He was murdered by the state to avenge his involvement in the founding of the Crips and alleged killings while a Crip member. All appeals were denied because Tookie wouldn’t admit to his alleged crimes. Crimes, he says he didn’t commit.
If only he would have admitted to something he didn’t do he would have been considered to have redeemed himself. His community work over many years to prevent children from joining gangs while all the time imprisoned didn’t qualify as redemption. His children’s books condemning gangs didn’t make for redemption.
The man who made the final denial in a five page statement is a man whose family had ties with Nazis during World War II. He was afforded redemption.
The same man stood upon the platform with a President who has callously allowed the use of napalm, white phosphorous, depleted uranium and torture.
The same man illegally used steroids to win competitions that brought his name to the forefront but he condemns poor black and Hispanics using crack as criminals. He admits groping women against their will but still gets redemption by being elected.
George Bush and Arnold talked about justice and freedom during the election. They talked about a better America and democracy. When it came down to it though, that’s all it was …talk.
You have a mass murderer and his fascist, steroid freak, governor friend talking about justice and failed redemption as a reason to uphold executions of black men, brown men and retarded men.
You have the religious right spouting off about the sanctity of life and the right to life for the unborn but they don’t care a black man will be killed by the state.
We have pious and disgusting people who don’t mind killing off a bunch of Iraqis, gooks, camel jockeys or niggers. Pious people who haven’t a clue what a young black man or woman faces every day if they are poor and live in the wrong part of town.
We have pious people who talk about sanctity of life but don’t speak out about brown brothers and sisters being used for slave labor. Instead they complain about “wetbacks” taking jobs from Americans.
They haven’t a clue the people they complain about have an ancestry dating back to the indigenous peoples of America.
We have pious people talking about respect for life but they have stolen the lands of the true natives of North America and venerate the man, Columbus, who started the genocide of entire tribes and cultures.
Then we have a peace movement telling us how much they want to support the communities of color but fail to show up time and time again when those communities ask for support.
Last evening was such a time. When a call went out to the peace and justice community to come to oppose the execution of a black man and to cry out in outrage about the continued abuses of police in Denver and Aurora against men and women of color, the peace and justice community failed to put up.
How many of them knew of Tookie Williams is unknown. Apparently they didn’t feel his execution this morning at 1:25 a.m. was something worthy of opposing in person last evening at 3-6pm. They didn’t feel his influence from the cell on young brothers and sisters to stay out of gangs was redemption enough to bother, apparently. They didn’t feel his work to bring a truce from the violence between gangs was important enough to stand in the dark and cold to oppose the state murdering him, apparently.
But then if they had shown up last night they would have heard stuff like the “mother fucking cops” and the “fucking stooge press”. They would have heard angry black men calling out the leaders of the communities claiming to be the friends of black men and people of color.
They would have heard Professor Ward Churchill talking about Fred Hampton and his work in the Black Panthers. They would have heard about the breakfast programs and the job programs founded by Fred and the Panthers.
They would have seen Ward wearing the same button of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War that I wear. They would have heard him challenge the mainstream press to prove their ethnicity.
The peace and justice folks would have heard Ward telling the press they should be fucking ashamed of themselves for the propaganda and lies they write to stay journalists.
They would have heard Earl Armstrong speak of the beating his brother suffered for going out late at night and making the mistake of encountering the Denver Police. A beating Walter Gerash said was the worst he’d ever seen in relationship to the alleged offense and the supposed use of force the cops said they used.
Earl could have told them of his great concern the white community doesn’t care his brother was savaged by police in another of a countless number of beatings and shootings by police in this metropolitan area. He could have told them of his brother’s mental illness sure to be worsened by the beating he took.
The peace and justice community could have heard from a young black man subdued by police with a tazer because he was erroneously said to have stolen a salad at a Chuckie Cheese restaurant. They could have listened to young black men tell of the daily harassment they must endure in the neighborhoods of marginalized people here in Denver.
They could have heard an activist lawyer tell us Denver was like the “deep South” where she had previously lived.
They could have seen all the children called up to the front to symbolize the next generation of oppressed by the cops and by the systems of our society. They could have joined us in a circle of prayer asking for peace and justice for Tookie and all those who face oppression and suffering.
I’ll just repeat some of an email I wrote in frustration to a friend of mine after the rally last evening;

I’m in the process of writing a piece right now about the protest last night and the subsequent murder of Tookie by the Nazi governor.
One of the main themes has to be where the fuck was these fucking liberals who claim to want diversity? Where were all the white folks who say they want people of color but can’t say black and can’t show up when black men are being shot in the streets or beat near death by the fucking cops they tell you are only doing their job?
Protect and serve seems to have become the oxymoron of the ages. Better they should have Beat down and keep down on the sides of their cars.
Yeah, these are the cops we want to collaborate with in civil disobedience.

Where were the leaders of this organization to stand up for the concepts being talked about? Everybody is afraid to radicalize because it means confrontation of the truth. And the fucking truth is ugly.
My first sentence in my piece should read the Terminator should have put on his sheet and had Tookie hung from the tree outside his office while he had Maria put on Billie Holliday singing Strange Fruit.
Hell, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at the figures of the inmate population of this nation to see the obvious. The new slavery and plantation is the American forensic system. Something Ward Churchill eloquently mentioned last evening. But where are these peace and justice people to stand beside Earl, Shareef, Ward and Larry?
Oh that’s right these are angry black men who don’t give a fuck about their language. In fact they relish using the words so reprehensible and foul to the alleged movement.
No, no…..can’t have loud and angry in the mix of protesting outrageous acts of truly obscene people like Arnold and George.

I just kept thinking last night about the Catholic Church, so fucking pious about embryonic right to life and always talking about redemption of our souls, missing in action when it came to an execution of a black man who has redeemed himself.
There can only be one reason the Church and all who call for right to life are missing. Uppity blacks are a danger to the status quo. Just like Fred Hampton and countless other powerful men who sought to bring communities of those oppressed together, Tookie and the loud and angry present a threat.

It seems similar to my experience in Louisiana at a motel I stayed at. Two crackers were talking the vilest racist shit about the folks crammed into the Super Dome after Katrina. Oh, they didn’t use the word nigger but they may as well have done so. There I was at the breakfast buffet silently listening to their shit and they thought because I was white I was one of them. It didn’t occur to them I felt they were sick fuckers.
I probably should have said something but didn’t have the courage to do it. That’s part of my own racism because I grew up with a racist father. I loved him but I couldn’t endure him when he would speak to race. I argued incessantly with him about it and never got him to change. He infected me with it in those subtle ways that I see come out on occasions like that motel scene.


These are my words in anger but it’s time to speak in anger and it’s time to tell those who oppress they are mother fuckers who need to change now!!

Terry Leichner
Vietnam Veterans Against the War

I Shall Not Be Swayed

I Shall Not Be Swayed
RE: Yesterday's chant remarks on my part. I've been told the post I responded to was an errant post. I was assured there was no malice or provocation intended to continue the heated discussions about the rally, chant sheets, videos, attempts to have people tone things down and many others I'm probably forgetting.
I don't believe there was malice intended. I didn't at the time. I did think there might be an attempt to show chant sheets were previously used but since the explanation of the errant posting I stand corrected and apologize.
I made my response from my email and not the discuss room so if there were other posts retracting the errant posting, I didn't receive it. That's on me for not getting clarification.
I've also been told I've been targeting an individual or individuals with my initial commentary called Imagine That and subsequent responses. I'm sorry if there are those feeling that way but it's definitely not true.
I've been targeting a concept of being told what to say, how to say it or how not to say it. I've been targeting an issue that carries a charged connotation to it...racism and oppression.
These are issues the American people are uncomfortable about discussing. They should be uncomfortable because as my good friend, Larry Hales, said in his remarkable post the other day we're all culpable just by living in this country.
I thought very carefully before I wrote Imagine That and knew it would provoke strong feelings. I wanted it to evoke feelings. I just never realized a commentary starting with the precept of imagining the oppression families and individuals in Iraq or any other place in the world under seige would result in what it's become.
I deliberately kept the issue going with responses arguing points I believed in very much. I used sarcasm, parody, tongue-in-cheek and anger in my writing. I tried humor.
In the process, I've seen some very thoughtful remarks, good arguments and passionate emotion. The person I credit triggering all this for me is someone I feel great respect for. She and I have spoken and can understand each other's position. So we are at peace.
Unfortunately, I've been accused of a personal vendetta. I've had my values questioned. I've had my health questioned. And that's ok because I know what's in my heart and there hasn't been malice or personal attack there.
I've answered some personal questions about my remarks with the same passion I try to do with all my writing. I've made efforts to keep personal remarks out of the room and talk to people on private email. I made the remark anything I wrote was my opinion.
For some individuals there was nothing I could say that wasn't considered personal attack. I've reread every correspondence I had since last Tuesday and I'm ok with what I've written being intended as debate and argument. I can see where others may think I'm targeting them since it was their post I may have been answering.
I'm definitely open to any feedback of others and invite you to email me or post it. If you email me you're welcome to be as personal as you want. I'd prefer it be on a one to one. Comments in the room becoming personally attacking seem out of place.
The process of free speech isn't always pretty. It can get ugly and messy. It can be upsetting and disturbing. It can provoke anger, hate and sadness. It can cause new awareness and new perspectives. It can destroy friendships and build new ones.
We all want to be right but none of us is always right. None of us always wrong..except George...well he likes dogs. I have to give him that. I'm admittedly a smart ass, a skeptic, angry, bull-headed and several other adjectives not all that complimentary.
I believe I'm right and if you'd all listen the world would be a better place but you all give me so many arguments to the contrary. Good arguments that prove to be true more often than not.
I've tried to respect others in this coalition whether I agreed or not with their views. It seems for some that doesn't come across. Disagreement is uncomfortable and alliance seems to mean we can't disagree at times.
There are some points I don't have compromise in my heart for. It's become clearer to me censorship, pandering to the press and attempting to control thinking of others are among those points.
I think of ways to control free speech and find one is very insidious.Write something controversial and see what happens. Be provocative in writing and see the response. Suggest we are part of the problem even as we work not to be and see what happens.
It becomes time consuming to argue your point. It becomes discouraging to hear things about yourself you know to be untrue. It becomes disillusioning to try writing from your heart to only be told you're hostile and too angry.
Good and well intentioned friends have told me I shouldn't be so angry. Others have tried to tell me what I should really write about that would be of more help to the movement.
I tend to be a person who wants to please. It feels good to make everybody happy with what I do. I just won't allow that to happen in the one thing I find to be therapeutic and as artistic as I can be.
One reason I started a blog was to test the waters outside the CCJP world. I begin to feel more and more I'm not someone who will adhere to the vision of UPJC or CCJP if it means the types of responses whenever criticism of the group occurs.
The censorship of the group is the ultimate one. We become tired of the struggle to justify our criticism. We lose enthusiasm of being aligned with people unwilling to accept thoughts of others before asking respectful questions or for clarifications. The group becomes a bully for one way of thinking.
Pops Staples sings an old hymn that I've always loved. It's title is "I Shall Not Be Swayed". It's defiant and angry toward those who try to push him away from his beliefs. To those who think you'll shut me up with the bully of group or rejecting friendships as has happened in the past week, go listen to Pops sing that song and think of me when you do.

When Will it Be Enough

All the time I was reading the comments about why we shouldn't use profanity because it might be offensive to others, we might be viewed by the media as "crazies" or we might not connect I kept thinking of the many movies by a filmmaker acclaimed to be one of the most thoughtful and incisive in American life, Spike Lee.
Now I tend to think Spike connects with a lot of people. I think he is able to cross racial barriers with his thinking and his images. I feel he's an important social voice of American culture.
Anybody who's seen a Spike Lee movie knows there's the use of the word we're so afraid of we use other symbols to disguise it....F*&^K. You, know....fuck.
Anybody who watches the more relevant comedians in our society knows the word fuck is just part of the routine...with emphasis on routine.
Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor all have used the word to bring emphasis and power to social comment they want to portray.
Slam poets that are so dynamic and articulate connect at many levels with not only the young but some of us older folks, too. They rage and rant with much profanity about the social condition.
I guess their rage is what I connect with because if we're not outraged what is wrong with us? I can't tell young people things are going to be all right if I'm not connected with the rage they feel.
I can't talk with young combat vets of Iraq telling them to tone things down and try to portray a "good" image for the press. I won't ask them to watch their language like I'm their father.
I'd ask why we pander to mainstream media that's owned by companies like GE and cronies of Bush and other politicians? Why do we place any trust in companies part of the military-industrial complex to portray us as we want to be portrayed?
Did you notice the top story on all three major stations tonight? They lingered on the snowstorm for ten minutes. Then they spend time with feel good or self promoting stories.
Do these stations or the newspapers we're supposed to change our behaviors for ever tell of the white phosphorous or napalm being used in Iraq and Afghanistan on children and innocent people?
What page was the story of today’s KIA's on in our newspapers? Where was the story of Palestinian kids being shot by armed Israeli soldiers because they threw rocks at the soldier?
Where are the stories of the displaced black families of New Orleans? Where are the reports about corporate farming abuse of undocumented workers trying to feed their families?
How many times have we seen black or brown peace activists shown in the media? How many activists of Asian or Arabic heritage do we see portrayed in our newspapers and on the television news?
Where does our pandering get us? The mainstream media gives us little crumbs for our scrapbooks taking our quotes and editing them until what we said has no resemblance to what they put in the news.
But somehow any press is good press. Look, I got my name in the paper. Fifteen minutes of fame, instant celebrity is part of our culture and by God we have to be part of it.
Who were the leaders of the movement during the Vietnam War.? Was Bobby Seale well behaved in Judge Hoffman's court? Was Abby contrite and cooperative?
Do we so easily forget the takeover of college offices by students? Do we forget the murder of students at Kent State and Jackson State?
Do we forget angry veterans throwing medals over a fence of the White House and taking the steps of the Supreme Court?
What happened after Martin Luther King was assassinated? Why did the Black Panthers scare the hell out of the white run establishment? Why was Malcom X such a powerful voice in the black community?
Do we forget the stand off between Corky and the DPD ? Do we forget Corky and the high school students standing up to DPS.
What happened at Wounded Knee? What happened at Angel's Island also known as Alcatraz?
Was the woman's movement loud and at times profane? Alice Paul and Lucy Burns certainly didn't tone it down. They couldn't and expect to win their struggle.
What happened here in Colorado at Ludlow? What happened at Haymarket? How did American labor win the right for collective bargaining?
History shows anything conceded to the oppressed didn't come by toning it down or worrying about image.
Folks say they don't want to come across as angry crazies. They say we should embrace the police in our civil disobedience. Martin Luther King is mentioned time and time again as the example of peaceful change.
Look again at the photos and film clips of the civil rights movement. Defiant men and women stood up to water hoses, dogs and billy- clubs. It's a safe wager the police weren't part of the planning for the civil disobedience.
Research the DPD record of brutality and the number of times an officer has been disciplined. Eleven times out of over 500 cases.
Expecting people to tone it down and to go by the rules established by peace and justice organizations without diversity is just the same old song of oppression.
Go to Palestine and tell those young people to stop throwing rocks. Go to New Orleans and tell the people of the 9th Ward to trust the government to help them out. Go to Iraq and see the burns of white phosphorous and napalm and see how the families of the victims like their democracy.
It's very noticeable one woman was mentioned over three times as being the instigator of the "we don't want your fucking war" chant last week. Who were those other hundred who loudly and enthusiastically joined in with that chant?
Do we blame the same woman for the middle finger salutes by so many that surrounded the press buses and greeted Bush as he left?
37 million Americans live under the level of poverty. Do they get the right to be outraged enough to swear and flip the bastard Bush off? 30 percent of Americans are without health benefits. When they can't get adequate care or their credit is ruined by greedy hospital systems charging them 7-10 times more than the insured as an out of pocket expense for the same procedures are we to put a limit on their outrage? Sorry folks ...think of what the press will report.
Where the hell was the press to report the daily episodes of neglect in mental health services, alcohol and drug abuse treatment and care for the elderly?
When some poor homeless man or woman freezes to death where is the press to ask hard questions about the reason a person in the world's richest country can freeze on the streets?
When will there be enough oppression and injustice to warrant angry outrage in the streets of our cities? Should we keep the short fuse of the oppressed simmering much longer? We need only look to France to see what will happen if we go about things as usual.
I just don't agree with the plan of staying the course with the movement. I don't agree an angry group of people will discredit the movement. The movement has done that already by its failure to reach the marginalized of the American culture.
Hurricane Katrina should have been a wake up call for us all to understand the conditions of our poorer citizens. It should have been the event telling us we missed something in all our planning. We're deluded if we think the government is now in control.
I say all this and haven't mentioned the veteran's issues that this country faces in the very near future. When will there be enough outrageous things to make us want to holler loud and clear?
Perhaps at the same time I wrote this article last night a homeless man in Denver died of hypothermia from exposure to the below zero weather. Authorities speculate he went into a hypothermic dementia and threw off his coat only a few feet from where he died.

Terry Leichner, RN
VVAW

A note: The Colorado Communities for Justice and Peace has been in disagreement about how members should present themselves at events such as rallies. On a visit by George Bush on November 29th the chant " we don't want your fucking war" was used by a young woman of an Iraqi father. She's visited Iraq one time after the war began to see her father's family. Her uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. She's in the process of going again.
Organizers felt she was inappropriate in her chanting. This was the second time in less than three weeks she was told to tone it down at an event of CCJP.
While I didn't join in the chant I was fine that it occurred. A female Iraq vet was also part of the group of about one hundred who did chant the "fucking war" chant. Other Iraq vets were with her.
The discussion has raged for the last week until finally one of the chief organizers stated she felt this behavior inappropriate and could be used in the press to discredit the movement.
Personal attacks by some took place during the discussion. Sadly all this occurs while Bush continues to slaughter innocents.
The Corky referred to is Corky Gonzales of La Rasa and the Brown Berets that had their beginning in North America here in Denver.
Peace

My Friend Larry on Oppression and Insensitivity in the Movement

My friend Larry is responding to members of a peace and justice coalition attempting to have a group of Iraq vets and a person of color with family in Iraq "tone down" their outrage shown toward G. W. Bush on his visit to Denver. The problem seemed to be a chant using the words "fucking war" and the use of the middle finger. The discussion occurred after my irresponsible posting of the article Imagine ......I Can't which is also on this blog. Larry puts into words concise and to the point what I would do in pages. Thanks be to Larry



I think the thing to keep in mind is that, if a white activist
expressed to Malcolm X, or Rosa Parks or Robert Williams, how they
should represent their outrage, I'm wondering if said person would
walk away without having received an earful, or if said person would
have indeed walked away at all. I would not respond well to a white
person telling me as a Black Male how I should express myself at an
anti police brutality rally or something of that sort. Who cares
what the media picks up. We're not talking about the people's media
here, but corporate media of the bosses anyway. And,we are not
opposing people that would handle us gently, but send cops to bust
up or infiltrate our rallies, or when we take the streets, like the
rebellions waged by Black folk throughout our history of having been
in this country, the military is sent out to maim, murder or kill.
Imagine someone telling the brave North African and Sub Saharan
African youth in France to tone it down. The nerve, right? Some of
you all are the oppressor nation, and I mean people of European
descent that have white skin privledge, and don't be alarmed,
because though I come from an oppressed nationality, as a citizen of
the United States, I'm from the oppressor nation myself when I
travel abroad and have to show solidarity and be sensitive.
Keep in mind that you look quite odd telling someone like D....
W..... to tone it down. Now, it seems that there needs to be
sensitivity training, on racism and sexism in the movement,
something that actually has people of color speaking and not white
people talking to other white people. This is what I think.

Free Speech Coming under Fire

I recently wrote the article called Imagine ....I Can't. I placed it in my local coalition's discussion room to evoke some discussion about the issues of activists attempting to tone other activists down to present a better PR presentation, activists attempting to censor or script events in one way by discouraging some in their form of expression and activists attempting to tell marginalized people what and how they can express themselves.
The issue of lockstep thinking in the movement is as old as activism. It keeps reappearing. When I was in Crawford, Texas this summer a group of vets standing post down in what we called the ditch ran across an attempt to keep us quiet while Republican protestors across the street were yelling profanity and making accusations about our patriotism.
The veterans led by Dennis Kyne responded by skipping together as Dennis played his "skip" song. It broke the tension some of the younger vets were feeling ...and yes, some of the older also.
When Republicans chanted "USA " we joined them. When they sang patriotic songs we joined them. We were having fun and being loud. A group of handlers from Cindy Sheehan's tent further up the road from our ditch came down and tried to squelch our singing and responding to the Republicans.
Suddenly what was said to be a rally was turned into a vigil according to the handlers. We refused to go along. Our refusal brought down a woman who seemed to always be in charge ...I'm not sure who designated her to be leader but she definitely felt she was.
She broke out a megaphone and scolded the vet group for well over ten minutes as the Republicans listened in glee across the road. Only because a dear friend of the vets who had been Cindy's attorney asked us did we go along.
The woman in charge told the group she would hang around to make sure things were done as expected to add injury to insult.
I wrote about this incident to my local coalition and was accused of being a misogynist by a man who had close ties to Cindy....well she was to go on his radio show in rural Colorado. It seemed there could be no criticism of the whole Cindy phenomenon. Cindy later bailed on the visit after a church in a town close by decided they didn't want her appearance at their church.
In truth I loved what Cindy was about, I hated what some of her handlers and PR people did. Cindy remains a heroine in my eyes.
On another occasion a vet group marching in the September 24th DC rally told a woman I knew from Colorado to leave because she was a member of Code Pink. My friend had come to the vet group to see me because we'd not seen each other for some time. We hugged and were catching up with each other when a vet friend of mine told her she didn't belong with the vets.
Now that was misogynist!! Unfortunately, I was a coward and didn't speak up for Karen. She, however, was very cool and rejoined Code Pink after telling the vet she was just there to see me and catch up.
At a civil disobedience in front of a recruiting station a friend of mine was told to tone things down when she was loud with chanting and made some sarcastic remarks to police. The police actually joked with her while the activists attempted to shut her up. My friend is a person of color who has many family members living in Basra, Iraq.
One would think my friend might have some reason to vent her anger and feelings toward the military and police. "Not allowed", she was told.
These are some of the many attempts to modify or censor behavior and expression I've witnessed just recently.
Now after writing my article called Imagine...I Can't in which I try to have the reader imagine how it might feel to be an innocent civilian in a place like Iraq while under occupation or seige, I'm told I'm targeting certain members of the coalition who organized the rally for Bush's visit on November 29th.
I'm told this because I use the article to demonstrate why some might be angry and passionate enough to use profanity or flip the President off with the middle finger. After detailing the horrors we might experience as innocent civilians in Iraq, I then say I can't try to tell someone not to be outraged or not to express that outrage.
In a week since the rally I've been told I have a personal vendetta against one individual who took exception to my article and chose to use a public discussion room to belittle and criticize me personally rather than just make her opinion known.
When I addressed her objections she became further infuriated with me. There's since been several exchanges that seemed to get uglier and more personal.
One response I made had to do with this person asking me why I didn't focus on the glass half full idea of press coverage. In other words I needed to be positive about our rally getting a good turnout by the press corps.
I was provided a tape of CNN's coverage which focused on protestors flipping off the press buses and the President. The anchor woman and reporter showing the footage acted like the bird was a senseless murder. At one point the anchor said, " well that's enough of that ...."in a tone so serious it made many of us roll in laughter.
Again when I wrote a parody about the Tragedy in Denver, my protagonist accused me of being divisive and negative.
I responded with the following bit of writing.
I've responded individually to C... about her questions on my video posting. I will say the comments were a parody because I found the entire CNN video hilarious. I've written much more of a parody on my blog that includes the video footage.
In the email sent to me by Kelly the comments I read from Mike seemed to indicate humor.
As I told C... in my email to her...I don't see the American press in any way half full...I see it as totally empty. The American press ,to me, are the propaganda stooges of a tyrant causing hundreds of thousands of deaths throughout the world.
If there were anything to laugh about; the American press would be the laughing stock of journalism. They are complicit in the current genocidal bombing and artillery attacks on "chosen" Iraqi cities much like attacks on Fallujah.
Entire cities are being cordoned off with no entry or exit while Americans bomb and shell to rid them of "insurgents". The insurgents continue to include innocent civilians, innocent kids unable to leave these chosen cities. It's the new Vietnamization of Iraq.
Additionally, the El Salvador option is being carried out by the American trained forces against the Sunni communities because Cheney and Rumsfeld have identified theSunni as the insurgency. Every war needs a demon to beat down. Seymour Hersh spoke to this El Salvador option back in January of this year.
For those unfamilar with Hersh, he is the reporter that exposed the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. But as a mainstream journalist, he fails to tell the complete storyof the Middle East. His cognitive dissonance seems to be Palestine.
As for Chief Whittman....the city of Denver ranks very high in cases of deadly force, police brutality and failure to discipline rogue cops. Hopefully he was out on Tuesday to assure there wouldn't be a repeat??
If you think I'm a cop-hater you'd be wrong. My father-in-law was a cop and I loved him dearly. He actually walked the beat in the community he lived in. He later became known as the most progressive warden in the Pennsylvania jail system. He struggled to get funds for inmate education and job programs. His recidivism rate was the lowest in the state.
I saw many former inmates come back years later to talk with him and thank him for the help provided.
I still keep in mind the police are a para-military organization,though. People carrying weapons are potentially dangerous to anybody around them. To me, young males with weapons are frightening as acculturated by this society. I can remember myself as one. I think the potential harm and danger of a police force carrying weapons is reason enough for CopWatch to be in existence. I'm grateful for all the CopWatch folks who work hard to prevent abuse of power.
Peace,Terry
Addendum: I want to remind folks anything I write is always my opinion. I always try to avoid individual attacks or insults.Invariably, some things any of us write or say can be interpeted or perceived negatively by an individual. If you feel offended by any remark I've made please feel free to contact me individually for clarification.
Peace,
Terry
Again and again I met anger and accusation of attacking individuals. A friend of mine then jumped into the argument. Larry is a younger black activist....well he's in his thirties but that's young to me. He has dreds and is quietly outspoken.
Here's an eloquent statement by Larry:
I'm wading in this as well. I was not there yesterday, because I was one of the unlucky ones who could not take off work, seeing as I languished for a long time as a service employee and a day-laborer for scant under the table wages. I'm sure people remember me covered in dry wall dust. Reprimanding people for expressing themselves, however they choose to do so, especially people on the front line, be they people of color, young people or people that have family having bombs dropped on them is sorry indeed. And if some people have sensitive ears, then oh well. I can't appease this weak liberal mentality that eschews harsh language and militant tactics. And, to tell people to organize their own rallies is very divisive. Especially when certain sectors of the peace movement constantly maginalize youth and people of color, opting to invite out the weakest elements of certain communities because they want a Black face, when these elements have never been on the front line of opposing the war anyway. I remember the call for the antiBush rally, and it said be loud and vent and let those bastards hear our righteous outrage, not be PG or G rated.
Larry later wrote an even more eloquent statement I want to give a separate posting to.
But here's what we've become, folks. A group of white middle class activists claiming to want diversity but blocking it by not wanting to upset the neo-conservatives or the mainstream press. We've become a group of press-pandering phonies sucking up to what Dhar Jamail calls the presstitutes called mainstream media.
We don't do things if it's not a good press day. We're coached by media experts on sound bites and cookie cutter responses to questions. Spontaneous outrage is out and toned down sound control is in. We've become them.

Tragedy at Denver Rally: F and Bird Bombs Cut Down Crowd but Bush Escapes

Tragedy struck at a rally opposing the Iraq War during a visit by George Bush in Denver, CO, November 29, 05. I've just received graphic footage of horrific acts of violence perpetrated by a secretive terrorist group infiltrating a local Denver peace and justice organization.
The violence began when a radical Vietnam veteran managed to hijack a Mega-phone from the rally organizers. Instead of using the chants authorized by the organizers the insurgent veteran started chanting versions of chants well known from the days of rage during the Vietnam War.
The outlaw veteran was almost captured by leaders of the rally with the weapon of mass deafness in his possession but he managed to elude them and to secretively pass the Mega-phone on to another rebel vet. The other vet was identified as a female Iraq veteran dressed in camoflage to conceal herself in the crowd.
Rally participants only remember the radical Iraq vet as a young woman with red hair. She was said to be surrounded by other radicals also in camoflage.
These guerilla turn-coats were later joined by another suspicious woman dressed in a long green overcoat. Witnesses report they overheard the insurgents calling this woman "Dr. W".
Military intelligence along with the regional Joint Terrorist Task Force in Denver suspect the woman may have actually been the Al Queda leader Al-Zarkawi in disguise.
The insurgent leader immediately took control of the MEGA-phone to use against the crowd and President Bush supporters. The crowd was visciously assaulted with several precise and deadly rounds of F-bombs. Under the withering assault many in the crowd succumbed to a hypnotic suggestion and began participating in the F-bombing.
One woman who refused to identify herself told CNN, "It was awful....they all started with the F-bombing...I can still hear the horrible sounds...'one -two - three - four, we don't want your Fucking war!!!' I had to put my hands over my ears to keep my ear drums intact. Thank God I wasn't close to where the F-bombs were going off."
Thankfully Denver police were able to hurry the President into the Brown Palace Hotel before he could come under attack. The insurgents did hold two buses hostage for four or five extremely long minutes.
Apparently the insurgency thought the buses were full of Republican dignitaries and fired a withering round of F-bombs and Bird Bombs toward them. It was discovered later the buses were full of the working press assigned to report on the President.
It's not known how many casualties the press corps suffered. Apparently the assault was so heavy none of the reporters were able to give an estimate of the casualty numbers. Trauma counselors were rushed to the scene.
In a bold and daring counter-attack Denver Police Chief Gary Wittless repelled the rebels almost single-handedly. Wittless says he was overrun initially but was able to use his wily skills of combat to turn things around.
"I just did what was necessary to protect and serve."he told the Rocky Mountain Clueless. Wittless was awarded the Medal of Honor by Denver Mayor John Dickinstuper for his heroic actions.
Even after Witless turned back the majority of the rebels, small cells remained in the crowd. As the President departed several F-Bombs and Bird-Bombs were fired in rapid succession at his caravan.
Apparently one Secret Service agent was horribly disfigured with a head wound that caused him to have a complete loss of hair and a deformed skull. His status is unknown at this time. He was last seen in a Denver police car vandalized with the rebel group's identifying bumper sticker.
Authorities are asking any witnesses to this carnage to contact them at the Denver Homeland Security office. The CIA, FBI, JTTF, DPD, NFL, NHL, NBA and Israeli Mossad are working to identify and capture the suspects.
The suspected Al-Zarakawi was last seen fleeing the scene in the company of the ruthless Vietnam vet.
Authorities have found video footage of the events taped by a CNN crew at the time of the initial attack. The footage is graphic and horribly violent but fails to show the actions of the leaders of the insurgency.
The peace organization reports they've received an email from the Vietnam veteran taking credit for initiating the attack with the MEGA-phone hijacking. He's described by witnesses as being "very tall". There's some speculation he might be Osama Been Liedto, the vanished leader of terrorism in the world.
WARNING!! Graphic scenes - parental guidance necessary
http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=6.0.12&&title=protestbushbus&link=http://pantheon.yale.edu/~bkw5/movies/protestbushbus.wmv
CNN Has now taken away this link - probably too embarassed to allow their anchor woman and reporter to look so foolish.
This report filed by Wm. Terry Leichner
All events and all persons in the report authenticated as pure bullshit by the BS, NBC, ABC, DEF, CBS, TUV press organizations.

The Myth of Military Mental Health

As a psychiatric RN, I'm well aware of the "treatment" offered the soldiers in harm's way. As a combat vet, I well remember that "treatment".
The VVAW chapter in Denver along with Veterans For Peace in Boulder have worked to provide an alternative to the failed care of the military and the over-burdened system of the VA.
Military psychiatry has always been and will always be prostituted by the demands of the generals and the war-makers. It's amazing a pscyhiatrist or mental health professional could collude with the military in failing to help combat veterans start the healing process from the traumas of war.
The treatment given is akin to putting a bandaid on an amputated leg or arm. Only in the case of severe PTSD it is the mind that's suffered the trauma that may never heal.
Thanks to Dr. Soldz for his insightful and caring analysis of the military's "treatment" which basically is to reinjure the minds of our men and women. Click on the headline to see his article.
Terry Leichner, RN
VVAW - Denver, CO

Imagine...I Can't

Imagine hearing the incoming roar of a missile as your children cry in fear.
Imagine the terror of a three year old hearing the neighborhood they were born in explode in furious explosions coming from the air late in a darkened night.
Imagine a father seeing his son decapitated by the large piece of shrapnel from the bombs dropped on the village.
Imagine the horror of having white phosphorus burning the skin to the bone without a way to extinguish the searing heat.
Imagine sleep interrupted by men dressed in military uniforms, weapons pointed toward all the family and speaking loudly in a language unknown to all.
Imagine your husband and teen-aged son being forced to their knees with hands on their heads.
Imagine their hands being roughly tied with plastic loops behind their back and a burlap hood placed over their heads.
Imagine young men touching your daughters and you with their hands from head to toe as they speak in voices angry and loud.
Imagine your son and husband being taken away without knowing where it is they go.
Imagine your daughter and wife being left alone in a city already bombed to rubble while you and your son are taken away to a prison of unknown origin.
Imagine not understanding the yelling soldiers that entered your house, being struck with a rifle butt and made to lay flat on your belly as young men fondle your daughter and wife.
Imagine watching your adolescent son being choked and thrown to the floor next to you with his nose bleeding and his eye socket swollen.
Imagine being put in a holding cell with fifty to sixty other men in the heat of summer where the temperatures stay in the upper nineties or the one hundreds.
Imagine the smell of the place with only one sink and one hole in the floor for a toilet.
Imagine the flies and mosquitoes attracted by the crowded and filthy conditions.
Imagine the anger of some and the bullying by others among the group.
Imagine guards coming once each day to take you to a darkened cell to question you through an interpreter you recognize as a former member of the dictator’s secret police.
Imagine the sense of drowning as they strap you on a board and immerse your head into a pool of water.
Imagine being unable to answer the questions they keep asking and demanding you know answers for.
Imagine being stripped before the foreign women and made to sit nude in the cell for hours on end.
Imagine the screams of others echoing through the prison unknown in location.
Imagine your son being taken away to never be seen again.
Imagine the angry foreign voices continuously demanding you tell them where the enemy is located.
Imagine after nine months you’re released to go to a home no longer standing.
Imagine hearing your daughter perished in bombing by people who claim to be your liberator.
Imagine your wife battered and mute with inconsolable grief wracking her soul.
Imagine having no word or knowledge of your son.
Imagine seeing your neighbors lying in the street with missing limbs and the mask of death on their faces.
Imagine the burning rubble of your place of worship.
Imagine sewage as the only available water supply.
Imagine constant darkness at night without the electrical power.
Imagine scavenging food from the ruins of the city in order to survive.
Imagine seeing your brother shot in the temple by the sniper of the liberators.
Imagine the remaining live children bloated from dysentery and water-borne illnesses.
Imagine the ravages of radiation sickness caused by something the foreigners used to destroy your village. Imagine daily fights with family and neighbors for rations of available food and water.
Today I imagined all this when the man called President arrived in my city.
I imagined all of it as I read and heard about his luncheon costing one thousand dollars per person.
I imagined it all as I saw his caravan race past me and the group of people protesting his visit.
I imagined it as I saw buses lined to block any view he may have of us or we of him.
I imagined it as I thought of his lies and blatant arrogance.
I imagined it as I heard his shallow reasons to “stay the course”.
Today I imagined all of it as I was told by others in the activist community I shouldn’t come across as angry to the lying members of the mainstream press.
I imagined it all as I was told using certain words considered obscene by some was counter-productive and a form of violence.
I imagined it all as I listened to others tell some of us not to behave in a way that would upset the liars of the press and the lying President’s people.
Today I imagined it all as I saw veterans of the insanity now and insanities of the past.
I imagined it all as I saw my friend whose family lives in such a place vent her anger.
I imagined it all as I tried to forget my time as the oppressive foreigner.
I can’t imagine why I should quiet my angry voice.
I can’t imagine why the use of obscenity should upset any in this country if the true obscenity of this President and his hideous and evil actions don’t upset most people of this country all that much.
I can’t imagine having rules of gentility in times of unconscionable corruption and violence by those in power.
I can’t imagine protocols of kindness toward those perpetrators of brutality.
Maybe John Lennon could imagine we shall overcome and lay down our swords and shields down by the riverside.
I wonder if he could imagine American violence taking away his dreams of nothing to live or die for.
As for me, I’ve lost my imagination of goodness and kindness toward brutal oppressors of the poor and weak.
I’ve lost my imagination of caring about the feelings of those who only bring hate and fear to all around them.
Imagine that. I wonder if you can.


Terry Leichner
USMC

Freedom Ain't Free - Veterans Day 2005

G.W. Bush has spoken the truth today. He let them liberals and commie bastards have it right where it hurts. They tried revising history but my President rightfully corrected them.He reminded them Dems they saw the same stuff he saw about weapons of mass deduction.

It wasn't his fault the liberal spies of the CIA couldn't get things right. It wasn't his fault the Brits didn't tell him about the lack ofweapons of mass deception before he sent the boys over to kill terrorists.

Besides we got Saddam didn't we? People ought to be thankful that bastard is no longer around to torture and maim people. Why he dropped illegal weapons on innocent civilians. What a barbaric thing to do.

You watch, someday soon there will be a connection made that Saddam helped plan 9-11. I'm confident the new intelligence guy will find what the President wants.

The President's right about the troops having their morale lowered by these idiots calling for their withdrawal immediately. Just think how they'd feel leaving Iraq to Islamic terrorist who have no respect for life. And letting them have all that oil would be a catastrophe.

That's why we had to level that damn Fallujah. The Islamic terrorists had taken over the place. Sure some kids and old ladies got killed but that's how war goes. It happens in every war.

And besides, you can't trust the kids. They might be terrorists in training. And some of those old people don't have nothing to live for so they just become suicide bombers. Hell they don't even have running water in that place.

The liberals are always talking about the negative things. Like torturing those bastards at Abu Ghraib. If they weren't terrorists they wouldn't have been there. We don't just grab anybody off the street to put in prisons like that.

We need to talk about all the good things that our boys have done since they got there. Look at the new democracy they have. Our boys stood guard so they could vote. They even looked after the vote count so they could know who they elected.

Then there's the construction they've got going. We have new air bases being built. Halliburton and KBR are on it. And what do they get back from all of it? Accusations they're making money. So what!! Business is supposed to make money or they go out of business.

Those airbases are going to make sure Iraqis are safe the rest of their lives. Our boys make sure Halliburton guys get to work and back. They guard the bases where the work is going on.

We need to help the troops out by supporting them. We've given them big parades every time they come back to the U.S.. Hell, some of those guys have had three parades.

We should show our support by flying Old Glory wherever we can. I swell up with pride at seeing those cars go by with the flag flying off their ski racks. We should get those ribbon things to show our support too. I got three on my car.

I drive through the parking lot at church and see a whole bunch of them. The social action committee sold them a while back to do fund raising for the church.

And everybody's complaining about lack of armor for our boys. I saw on the news our guys just take the armor off the burned out Iraqi tanks and weld it on their vehicles. That's Yankee ingenuity for you.

I'm glad the President has kept the public from seeing the dead troops' caskets when they come back. The family needs their privacy. Just leave flowers at the graves if you want to show respect.

That damn Sheehan woman has a lot of damn gall. They should arrest that woman. She ain't the only one who got a kid killed over there. You don't see the rest of them making damn fools of themselves. They keep their mouths shut to honor their boys.

My boys almost enlisted. Then they got offers to work at Exxon and couldn't turn that down. Hell, they make ten times as much as they could've made in the Army. It'd be foolish to give that up. They'd have died for our President, though; if they'd have gone.

They're true blue patriotic. They fly the flag on their new houses they just bought. They buy those rubber wrist bands, too.

The other day a bunch of those damn scruffy looking war vets who say they're against the war showed up. My boys went and stood on the corner for nearly four hours showing the flag and letting those guys have it.

Just because they got wounded they think they should have special priviliges. Hell, I had to cut back on my four-wheeling up in the national park because the gas prices shot up so bad. We're sacrificing here,too.

My friends don't take their RV out nearly as much as they used to. And they loved to take it out on the road and go camping. I went once with them. They even had t.v. and a satelitte dish. I love camping but it's kind of bad for getting all dirty.

I heard a bunch of those peacenik vets went down to New Orleans and tried to butt in on FEMA and the Red Cross. Took a bunch of stuff down there and tried to go out without permission from FEMA.

I feel bad about things down there but what the hell can you expect if you're going to live below sea level next to a levee?

Barbara Bush was right. They had it a lot better in Houston than where they came from. Now they're all going to get free trailers to live in like they did in Punta Gorda, Florida. Look at them..they been allowed to stay over a year in government housing.

We only get occasional forest fires around here. One year it almost got the trees we have right outside our bedroom window. I need to trim that one cause the branches are scraping against the house.

So, anyway, I think the President is right to jump down the throats of them liberals. Look at all these investigations they started. Hell, Cheney's guy had to quit because there's a vendetta going on. The guy didn't do anything close to what that damn Clinton did.

What...he talked to a reporter. So what? Now the New York Times have got rid of her. Just like them to go after the only conservative reporter they had.

You watch, when we get all those bases built the Iraqis will be cheering us in the streets. They have a new constitution and free elections. We're even paying some of them for the deaths of guys who were in a place we were bombing or shelling.

What the hell they expect if they hang around when our boys are fighting those terrorists they hide in their towns? The peaceniks say it's an occupation. Well all I got to say is freedom ain't free.

I think my President did the right thing to use Veterans Day to tell it like it is. Someone's got to tell the truth about things. And George is a man of God. He's got God in back of him to make sure the truth is known.

That's why Kerry lost. Even them Catholic priests wouldnt give him confession because he wouldn't speak out about all the abortions going on. And the homosexual marriages. If God wanted men marrying men or women marrying women there'd be something in the Bible.

I've read the Bible and there's nothing saying there should be those kinds of marriages. It sure says a lot about war, though.

You look inthe old testament and it talks plenty about God's people going to war against the evil-doers. My President knows all this and goes by what the "good book" says. He's not afraid to say he's a Christian.

I mean Jesus would have wanted our President to acknowledge he's a Christian and to do the Christian thing. Our President says God even talks to him. I believe it.

Well that's all I got to say. I think there's a tape of a NASCAR race about to start. If that's not on, I'm pretty sure Survivor's on. They got that ex-Dallas Cowboy quarterback on there. I'll bet he wins the whole thing.

My parting words are America, love it or leave it. And if you're an illegal get the hell out. Quit taking our jobs.

This article written by WilliamTerry Leichner

It was meant to stereotype all groups and beliefs. If I missed your particular group or belief let me know for next time

Iraq Vets At DC Rally (Sept 24, 05)

These are some of the young women and men I was honored to spend time in Crawford, Covington and DC with over the summer of 2005. They have shown great courage, compassion and caring for their brothers and sisters still in Iraq and for the Iraqi people. They are the true patriots of our time.