Nonviolence Is Not Passive

The logical challenge to the nonviolent philosophy of activism is the one asking if we'd be nonviolent if our community or families were being attacked. My personal answer would be, of course not. My immediate reaction would be to defend my community, my family and myself. Even the beloved Gandhi speaks about this situation and says much the same.

The difference between protecting ourselves against attack and initiating violence against others is the difference between morality and immorality. Being the aggressors takes away any moral standing we may have had in a struggle. That's not to say being assertive isn't a moral path. Nonviolent resistance is probably the ultimate form of assertiveness.

Nonviolent resistance doesn't mean passivity. It is the direct opposite of passivity. Nonviolent resistance doesn't mean sitting in streets being ceremoniously arrested in a plan worked out ahead of time with the police. It means taking to the streets to resist the oppressor and the agents of oppression like the police.

For too long the activist movement has wanted to play by the rules of the oppressor in their resistance. They've bowed to getting permits to allow them the "right" to march against oppression. They've coordinated with police to ensure things are "orderly" when the resistance is meant to bring disorder to a failed system. Activists have allowed police to be part of their strategy in resistance. This leads me to the analogy of inviting the fox into the henhouse to help plan a defense against the intrusion and violence of the fox.

Nonviolent resistance can and should target the icons of oppression. Companies like Shell, Halliburton and Fox are all complicit partners in oppression. Wal-Mart and other corporate giants have oppressed workers since the founding of their companies. Political action groups like AIPAC have bastardized access to elected officials and bought public policy. Foreign policy has been dictated by companies and organizations that make huge profits from the policies of never-ending wars.

Martin Luther King and the civil rights workers targeted Woolworths' refusing to seat blacks at their lunch counters. They didn't target the federal government or local government first. They started at the local and corporate level. They started at the level that would ignite the flame of perceived injustice being carried out in the everyday lives of people oppressed.

The flame was lighted by Rosa Parks being forced to stand when empty seats were available in the "white only" part of the bus. She was tired from working hard and for wages that hardly paid the bills. She challenged an oppressive and injust law by taking a seat in the "front" of the bus. Her arrest clearly highlighted the oppression of the segregated South. Her simple, noviolent action was heard around the community and around the nation.

The differences between the civil rights movement and the current movement are dramatic. The eventual diversity of the civil rights movement compared to the current activist movement stand out. The strategies of organizing locally and building by actions that address local issues are different from the march and rally shows against national policies today.

But the issue is Iraq and Afghanistan....Israel and Palestine the movement says. Those issues are surely foremost in a global sense but they trickle down to our local communities. Young men and women are induced into the military locally because they can't find adequate jobs or education. The money for such programs go into the war machine. Crippling the war machine has to be done by preventing it from taking our young people in a back door draft. Crippling the war machine has to be done by insisting local companies take precendence over huge corporate giants that contribute heavily toward war. Crippling the war machine has to be done by demanding local officials refrain from supporting the war economy. It has to be done by fighting for those oppressed locally so they can be enlisted to move on a grander scale against the larger oppressors.

It certainly isn't hard to find local oppression. Police brutality, substandard housing, substandard wages, substandard schools and the ongoing decline of inner cities while rich oppressors flee to the suburbs are but a small example of local injustices and oppression. The most oppresed locally and nationally are people of color and those of non-European ethnicity. Supporting this diverse population only makes sense to build any activist community. It's like planting seeds in the spring to see the the harvest in the fall. If we plant the seed of community caring and support that comes from all sectors of the community we have a rich harvest of activists.

Unfortunately, professional activists from the old Vietnam era movement has taken root and failed to remember the diversity needed to get the attention on the national level. Martin Luther King rallied his followers to join against the war. The Black Panthers were included in the movement. The Brown Berets and LaRaza were part of the movement.

Today we seem to work in separate issue groups that seldom acknowledge the need to connect all the issues as part of the overall oppression going on in this nation and around the world. Gay rights are part of human rights. Immigration rights are part of human rights and the labor struggle. Police brutality is part of racism and violence toward the disenfranchised. Police brutality is part of overall fear to dissent and challenge oppression and injustice. The issues are all interconnected and the activists should be as well for a movement to actually be effective.

Nonviolent action and resistance is not passive. It is assertive and doesn't back down even when violence is directed toward it. I feel strongly about protecting myself and others against violence directed toward us. I'm not going to sit at the curb and allow myself or others to be brutalized without attempting to stop the attacker. But I won't join in the planned attack of others to effect a temporary victory for change. That mentality of retaliation and reprisal is the problem we see in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and Gaza, among other places in the world. Violence truly does beget violence and I can't work with organizations that include violence as part of the strategy of effecting change. I did that once. It was called the Marine Corps.

I'm Not Endorsing The Path of Violence

As death continues to reign in Gaza, the Israeli army prepares for invasion and the US and allies stand idly by with the same old refrain...."Israel has the right to defend itself". The new face of change, Obama, is included in this Greek chorus of the ongoing tragedy being carried out.

The rationale for killing over 300 and destroying entire communities by accounts of the mainstream media is 7 dead Israeli citizens from the rocket attacks of groups in the Gaza strip. The truth, of course, is Israel is challenging the new President's loyalty to Zionist causes before he even takes the oath of office. The invasion and bombings were every bit as planned as was the war in Iraq. It was inevitable Israel would start the violence once again and continue it until they get what they want; a government they can control rather than one "democratically" elected.

Of course, the US can't condemn Israel's actions since they are so much like the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. The military strategy is simple; pound the target area with bombs and artillery killing indiscriminately to soften things up. Once the chaos, death and destroyed infrastructure is completed, the ground troops aided by helicopter gunships and on call air support enter and occupy. It's the Falllujah strategy. It was refined in Vietnam and carried over to the Middle East.

We fool ourselves, however, if we think voicing our outrage will do much more than validate that we care about the inhumanity of our biggest ally in the world stage. I don't say we shouldn't voice outrage however futile it is. I do suggest we not forget the great urgency we have to build a stronger coalition of activist that spans all cultures and ethnic groups.We have AIPAC and the military industrial complex to overcome to have our voices heard. Only when the numbers reach the scale of the Vietnam moratorium days or the days of Dr. King will the reasonable voices of peace and justice be heard.

I've worked with many activists in my 60 years of life. The most effective have been the men and women who decried the violence of all sides of conflict. The continued killing of those people caught between the two or more political forces at war isn't true revolution or peace and justice. The eye for an eye mentality so often demontrated by the warring sides is a vile repudiation of peace and justice for anyone.

I've been a participant in this insanity of war. The code was retribution for any of our Marines killed by the other side. If a sniper in a village killed one of us, that village was likely to disappear and evacuation of the innocent wasn't part of the deal. My Lai wasn't an isolated incident of war. That fact is finally coming out forty years after the war in Vietnam.

Retribution and revenge killing is common in wars. If I am to offer my support for the insurgents of Iraq, Afghanistan or Gaza, I'm forgetting the concept of peace and justice. Killing and destruction may make us feel good if it is inflicted on the "bad guys" but we give up a large chunk of our humanity to feel satisfaction about killing other humans.

I read and hear anarchists, liberals, progressives, Marxists, socialists and others talk enthusiastically about the struggle with the thinking violence is a logical tool of the struggle. I hardly ever hear that from the combat veterans who have gone that route. Young idealists with rage and frustration in their heart are misdirected in thinking violence will get them peace and justice. They're quick to recall Malcolm X and other radical figures in the past but forget Malcolm came to the conclusion violence wasn't the path.

Rhetoric about violent revolution is one thing, carrying out violence against a stronger and larger force is another. Entering the battle with spears against tanks, artillery and air power may be brave of those who actually engage but it's pretty damn stupid and a waste of life.

I've heard young radicals talk a good story of resistance and struggle but seen them disappear when heads started getting bashed. I've seen vocal leaders encourage their followers to act in violent ways but they always seem to be missing when the violence they encouraged happens. I've listened to impassioned speakers encourage others to resist and act but the only part they take is their words. They don't face the guns or the prisons. They seldom even risk arrest.

I'm not inclined to listen to rhetoric of phonies encouraging us to act violently, to resist and risk prison or to confront the oppressors if they don't walk their talk. And there's a lot of them out there. Now, folks like Kathy Kelly, Roy Bourgeois, Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson walk the talk and do it nonviolently. Their voices are strong and determined.

So, salute the leaders of violent means of change if you choose but don't expect things to change all that much. The power of the gun is a false god that leads only to more violence.

Your Friendship Is Cancelled Unless You Agree With Me

Just wondering this morning about recent comments from people on "facebook" about the Israeli slaughter in Gaza. I fully agree we should all be outraged by the overt aggression against an entire group of people for the actions of fanatics claiming religious cause for their actions. The fanatics firing rockets into civilian areas of Israel are no more religous than the fanatic Zionists claiming to protect Judaism in Israel. These are not religious people! Zionism is not Judaism and the self proclaimed Islamic warriors who kill babies and innocents with bombs aren't true followers of the Muslim faith.

I recently had the temerity to give the opinion being outraged without an activist group of great diversity is like going to a wilderness and screaming our displeasure. With a Zionist Congress and Presidency, a media that is primarily slanted toward Zionism and the power given AIPAC just being outraged activists won't bring any changes. The outrage from reasonable people won't be heard or taken seriously until there is a larger and more powerful coalition of many groups of people expressing outrage.

I also refused to go along with the thinking that Hamas is without some responsibility of the violence going on in Gaza and Palestine. Thinking fanatics on one side killing children are "freedom fighters" and fanatics on the other side killing children are aggressors misses the point of why we should be outraged.

The fanatics of both sides, or all sides, that continue to perpetuate violence have trapped the majority of the people in Palestine and Israel in constant violence and fear. They hold the Palestinian and Israeli people hostage with their hatred and violence. And they hold the world hostage because the American government continues to rubber stamp and supply the Zionists in their aggression.

There is no doubt Zionism had a master plan to displace the indigenous people of Palestine to create a "Jewish homeland". That movement began at the beginning of the 20th Century. David Ben-Gurion and others continued to formulate plans to achieve the reclaiming of the "homeland" until WWII presented them the perfect opportunity. The fanatics of Zionism saw the Halocaust as an opportunity to justify stealing Palestinian land for their own.

The hatred and religious fanaticism has gone on for centuries at the expense of innocent people desiring peace and the chance to dream of the future. And the hatred is a double-edged sword where Zionism posing as Judaism and terrorists posing as Muslim freedom fighters take anybody in the way with them into the bloody abyss of violence.

Apparently some took exception to such thinking when posted on a thread decrying the current atrocities in Gaza. My friendship on "facebook" was "canceled" by the person who made the original post. Unfortunately, we've known each other for a few years and I continue to be a great supporter of the person who "cancelled" me as a friend.

It seems immature to believe we can overlook the violence of one side killing children and innocent people and condemn the other doing the same. Since the cycle of violence is centuries old and there's arguments by both sides who started things, both sides deserve our condemnation for perpetuating violence trapping a majority of people wanting peace.

I strongly believe the American people should pressure their government to end the free pass to the Zionists running the Israeli government. I'm outraged American taxpayers fund a large part of the Israeli military from jets to rifles. I'm sick of AIPAC using financial influence to further the cause of Zionist aggression.

I'm just as sick of fake religious leaders using the Muslim religion to further their part of the violence. I'm sick of the fanatics who would blow up babies and innocent school children who claim to be freedom fighters. They are no better than Zionists claiming to be fighting for Judaism. And it is naive and foolish for American liberals and activists to perceive the perpetrators of violence against Zionism by way of killing innocents as freedom fighters as much as it is foolish and racist for supporters of Israel to think mass violence against an entire people for the actions of a few fanatics is acceptable.

Cancelling my "friendship" because I happen to see the need for both groups of murderers to be held responsible for their vile deeds is childish. Closing ourselves off from honest debate about this issue when we disagree with someone doesn't help us grow as a person it makes us ideologues and apologists for one group's violence and misdeeds.

I think if we were to ask the Palestinian people, the Israeli people or the people of Iraq and Afghanistan what they want most it wouldn't be the death of one another. I think they would want lasting peace and opportunity to see their families grow and thrive. I believe that to be the common desire of most humans. I think the eye for an eye mentality of killers claiming religious or nationalistic reason is no longer accepted by most people.

Bend Over, America

The American worker no longer has to wonder what will happen in these times of economic crisis. Already city and state governments are trying to balance their budgets on the back of their employees. Here in Denver, the mayor has asked the police, fire and sheriff department employees to take a 2% wage decrease or face possible layoffs. This follows rancorous wage negotiations between the city and police just last year which finally ended with a modest increase over a multi-year time.

The sheriffs just got their first significant increase in many years and a new city jail is well on the way to completion despite efforts by some to divert the money to programs that could intercede to stop incarceration, treat drug and alcohol addictions and improve schools; all proven preventative methods to avoid the ever growing imprisonment of a certain population of citizens. That would be people of color. With staff cuts, the new jail will immediately be short of qualified staff to adequately do the needed duties.

My guess is John Hickenlooper, the Opie acting mayor of Denver, has the cynical plan of going after the “heroes” who wear flag pins on the job first before the next request of city employees in other areas. If the badge guys and gals accept the decrease in wages they become role models for the rest of the work force.

There is no doubt in my mind the rest of management in all areas of the work force will be following the plan of making cuts on the backs of workers. Local government will also continue the trend to cut budgets in the safety net of Medicaid clients, the homeless, mentally ill and all other programs of human services. The weakest and poorest of this nation just don’t have advocates and political action committees like AIPAC and the defense contractors.

Over 400 billion dollars have bled from the American treasury to “bail out” Wall Street, automakers, insurance giants and other corporate giants but the American worker will have to face the foreclosure threat with less in their pay check. Health insurance will become more costly and families will have to choose between food or paying for catastrophic illness and injury. Elderly Americans will have to choose between food and life-saving medications. The mentally ill will have to choose between psychosis and relapse or paying co-pays that take away their monthly grocery money. And, we must ask where is the money for the alleged bail out going? Certainly not to the citizens most in need. Not even to the middle class families facing foreclosure and needing to go to the local food banks.

I’m sorry, why is it the American people don’t want to organize their workplaces? Is it because they can’t get enough abuse from the bosses who will continue to get bonuses from CEOs who continue to make obscene amounts in salary more than the average worker? Is it because they can no longer afford health and dental insurance? Certainly becoming homeless wasn’t what the workers felt came with their jobs.

All these dilemmas and many more continue to face the workers as they continue to be targeted as the problem in the economic meltdown. None of the greedy corporate masters are going to have to be responsible for their key roles in causing the meltdown. No politician allowing the regulation free world of Wall Street will pay for their role in the largest theft in history. The war machine continues to suck the life out of the American citizen and there appears no end is in sight. The bad economy favors reenlistments and new enlistments as jobs become impossible to find for the inadequately educated American students.

First there was the fear Wall Street was collapsing and taking a majority of American pensions with it. Then, it was either bail out or the end of the American economic system. Then, the Big Three automakers came to DC begging for financial aid. When it appeared a deal was done, anti-union Senators reneged because the UAW wouldn’t accept further concessions of pay and benefits. The finger was pointed at the workers while the malfeasance and criminal tactics of brokers, traders, politicians and the wealthy was pushed aside.

Since it worked so well against the UAW, the next step was to blame the rest of the workforce. That effort has started in earnest and soon we’ll all feel guilty about failing our country in a time of need, bend over, and take it like we always have done in the past.

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member

A Dying Labor Movement Wounds Us All

It certainly is no surprise the Congressional prostitutes of “big business” have targeted UAW as the problem in recent hearings and meetings to bail out the “Big Three” auto-makers of the US. And, of course, the non-union states catering to the Japanese auto-makers had Senators leading the charge against union members in the former "industrial states".

It has been clear for some time Republicans, and many of the so-called progressive Democrats, have done their best to bust the unions of America in an attempt to further erode the rights of workers and fatten the wallets of the multi-national corporate world.


The saddest part of the discussion about unionism in America is that the corporate world is succeeding in the dismantling of unions. Unions now make up less than 25% of the workforce in the US. But we can’t put the blame entirely on the lackeys of the rich oligarchy. For some unfathomable reason the American worker tends to put more faith in the bosses of the world than other workers who seek some equity and justice in their work for CEOs making 500-1,000 times more in salary than the average worker.


For some reason American workers are stuck on the idea of paying dues “to work” as an affront to them but meekly allow the bosses of Wal-Mart to continually abuse them and deny them a living wage. They allow foreign automakers to reduce benefit packages for healthcare and retirement plus tie the retirement into a volatile stock market. For some reason American workers think the bosses will treat them fairly while the union will cause them to get laid off.


The recent uprising by the Republic Window workers in Chicago is a classic example of the union versus the non-union workforce. Republic management gave the 250 workers less than a week’s notice the company was going out of business. To make matters worse the vacation/sick pay and promised severance pay in the union contract wouldn’t be paid by management because their financier, Bank of America, refused to put up any more credit for the company.


Unbeknownst to the union workers, at first, was the fact Republic was closing the union company at the same time they were opening a new company in another part of the country friendlier to business interests. The new code of the time for “friendlier to business interests” means, of course, unions aren’t welcome. Sure enough, the new company, Echo, was opened as a non-union shop without the “high” wages and expensive benefit package that meant all workers could afford health insurance and dental.


The 250 workers at the defunct Republic decided they weren’t going to put up with the rip off of vacation and severance pay they had legitimately earned. They were especially enraged Bank of America was withholding money to pay Republic’s workers the money due them. Bank of America had just received over 25 billion dollars in the “bailout” program to save America from economic disaster. And, like the many fat cats receiving the money intended to open up credit to businesses, Bank of America was holding on to their billions to make their own bottom line look good to investors.


The workers of Republic took over the closed company’s work place with a sit in. Word of their revolt soon reached the media and spread like a wildfire across the nation. A worker revolt in America was a surefire story because it was very unusual any worker in this nation stood up for themselves against the corporate masters. Union leaders attempted to arrange meetings with Bank of America and Republic management but Bank of America failed to meet the union leaders.


A strange thing began to happen, though. Americans identified with the injustice of the 250 workers of Republic facing unemployment without notice and without being paid for what they had rightfully earned. As usual, politicians came into things late, once they saw the public was outraged and the political fallout could be a problem. Soon President-elect Obama was calling for justice to be served for the workers. Only a few days later Bank of America changed course and negotiated with the union leaders to have the workers paid what was owed.


The uprising by the union members against Republic and Bank of America is an example of a strategy that needs to be used by all activists and the American worker. It was clear the worker was morally right in taking their stand against the company and the financier. Publicity of the injustice struck a note with most Americans facing similar situations of unemployment and loss of benefits. Bank of America had a choice of looking like the evil money grubbers they truly are or defusing the outrage by doing what was right. They paid the workers to avoid the negative image being seen by so many.


Only a few days after Bank of America paid the union workers of Republic the money they had rightfully earned, BOA announced layoffs of 35,000 workers across the nation. Happy holidays, Bank of America workers! Where’s the union to protect you from losing accumulated vacation and retirement pay? Weren’t the billions of dollars provided Bank of America intended to stimulate the economy? Apparently keeping Americans working isn’t part of such a plan.


Soon after the bailout GM, Ford and Chrysler CEOs came before Congress asking for their own bailout package. The first trip to Congress saw them arriving in three separate corporate jets. Nothing like flaunting their power and wealth to impress the public and Congress of the great need for bailout. Pressured by already angry constituents who saw the 250 billion bailout of Wall Street as a scam for the wealthy, Congress feigned outrage toward the auto-makers. The bailout was refused until the CEOs were prepared to provide a detailed plan on how the money they asked for would be spent and assurances the plans would include alternative fuel cars.

It was sickening to watch members of the prostituted Congress chastise CEOs of corporate America that often times buy favors from them. Their outrage was simply incongruent with the facts of political campaigns and political action committees. Drama Queen Pelosi and others looked like poor actors in a small town theatre production.


Now, there was certainly nothing wrong with scolding the CEOs of the “Big Three” and demanding a spending plan but we have to wonder why the same standards weren’t demanded of AIG and all the other Wall Street types when they received far more than the automakers were asking.



The 250 billion plus bailout of Wall Street firms basically came with no strings attached. There was a hopeful expectation the money would be invested in reopening lines of credit for business and helping home owners refinance from onerous loans causing record foreclosures. Of course, Wall Street failed to meet any such expectation. Instead they continued to schedule bonuses for management, prepared golden parachutes for themselves (just in case) and openly went off to luxurious retreats at warm resorts.


Rep. Barney Frank has since gone on national television programs like 60 Minutes saying “you can’t make anybody do what they don’t want to do”. Since Frank is head of a committee on banking and finance he wields great power but he’s disingenuous in his attempt to say there were conditions in the legislation for the 250 billion dollar bailout he, Paulson and Bernacke worked out. The carte blanche bailout of the rich was more a sell out than a bailout.


As we look around the landscape of the crashing American economy we can see the obvious greed factor as one of the major causes for the collapse. We can see hedge funds and selling short practices causing artificial wealth for the suckers hoping to invest in a fair marketplace. All the while, Wall Street became like a big crap game in some New York alley. Bettors put bets on the failures of certain companies in order to win huge sums of money. They used the ruse of calling such bets hedges or insurance but any gambler could tell us Las Vegas casinos run the same schemes.


So, along come the automakers asking for their payday in order to keep hundreds of thousands of union workers employed. At first the arrogant CEOs totally failed to include the UAW in the request for the bailout. Why would they want to include the workers that made their product in any plea for financial help?


On their second visit to Congress, the CEOs came by hybrid cars and had a plan. They included the UAW in negotiations with the Senate once the House passed a bill giving the automakers an original assistance package of 12 billion to tide them over until the Obama Administration took power.


Once the bill got to the Senate, Republican Senators decided they had the perfect opportunity to further weaken unionism by demanding the UAW concede lower wages and benefit packages as a good faith sign of “doing their fair share”. The UAW leadership balked at further wage and benefit concessions. Already they had offered future concessions in addition to the wages and benefits lost in the past twenty years to help keep the factories open. The CEOs had made a public spectacle of offering to accept only one dollar salary for the upcoming year to show their good faith. Of course, they had already prepared their finances for golden parachutes and offshore accounts.


Much is made of the average cost of labor being approximately seventy three dollars an hour for the Detroit automakers. The truth is the average worker’s wage at GM, Ford and Chrysler is around twenty five dollars an hour before benefits. The benefits have been consistently cut over the past two decades. The figures being spewed by anti-union politicians in bed with big business included money being paid workers already retired and the astronomical salaries of CEOs and management. In no other nation does an executive of a corporation make a salary a hundred times more than an average skilled worker.


Many say we should allow the American automakers to go bankrupt since they have mismanaged their business. Truthfully, the CEOs and management of the “Big Three” know they can’t lose either way. With bankruptcy, union contracts can be dismantled, pensions can be stolen and the smaller suppliers won’t be paid. The template has already been forged by the airline industry when they used bankruptcy as a tool to either destroy or fatally weaken their unions. Union members lost over half their accumulated pensions and they saw benefits shrink for healthcare. Wages remain stagnant and seldom match increasing costs of living.


And, of course, the union haters of the Senate blame the failure to give the automakers a financial bailout on the unions. The blue collar worker is being blamed for the problems with the economy not the greedy and cynical tycoons and brokers who have built the house of cards bound to crash on Wall Street.


I can only wonder how the brokers betting for companies to fail and then manipulating stocks to accomplish the failures sleep at night. I wonder how they can pose as patriotic while they systematically and deliberately drive companies out of business causing countless men and women to lose their jobs. And, then the same criminals have the gall to seek bailouts to rescue them from their own destructive practices and their prostitutes in Congress go along with the biggest rip off in American history. But, of course, the blame goes to the worker.


The American workers have become foolish sheep who continue to believe management is their ally despite every indication management will abuse and use them until they decide to excuse them from the workforce. Health benefits continue to decline with over 40% of Americans uninsured. Pension funds in 401K and 403K programs have lost 40-50% of their value in the crooked stock market of Wall Street. Job security is worse than any time since the Great Depression. Two wars bleed our youth and the money from our treasury while making enemies around the world. The failed economy has been a boon for enlistments and reenlistments. Treaties of globalization have devalued the wages of all workers worldwide.


The American worker wants to believe the villain is the union taking dues from their pay but fail to see the only reason their pay is where it’s at is because unions negotiate higher wages for union shops and the threat of unionism forces non-union shops to concede higher pay for their workers to stave off possible organizing. But big businesses, along with their lackeys in Congress, have created large campaigns to vilify and nullify unionism as Marxist, socialist and evil incarnate. And few Americans have any clue what the general principles of Marxism and socialism really are.


American workers need to understand the conspiracy against them is one which will indenture them to corporate power even more than it already does when the unions are destroyed. There are more than financial costs at stake for big business. They want total control of the worker. Breaking up the labor movement is the biggest step toward that goal.


Destruction of the middle class is already well under way. The oligarchy of America grows even bigger and stronger while the American worker foolishly thinks management has their best interests in mind by protecting them from the plague of unionism. Rising unemployment and covert and overt ageism, racism, misogyny and homophobia in the workplace are all signs management has no intention of allowing “undesirables” any power.


Undesirables are those who desire and seek economic justice such as a living wage with benefits to avoid total financial havoc in case of illness or damaging accident. Undesirables are those who want workers to have some security in the latter years of their lives in form of pensions that are stable and not dependent on the stock market.


I foresee a time when the workers of America will be not much better off than the Chinese or Thai slave laborer. I see workers being looked at as interchangeable parts that are thrown away when no longer able to do enough or when making too much. These things are already happening today. Only the labor movement has kept total management oppression of the workers from happening. When we kill the movement we kill ourselves as free people in the workforce.


Wm. Terry Leichner, RN

Combat veteran

Former union nurse and pipefitter

George W. Bush-Enviromental Terrorist

My friend Naomi Rachel has continued to tell me the environmental destruction we humans have created will destroy our planet long before our politics accomplish it. Naomi was a leading environmental activist in Canada before she moved to Colorado and became a professor at the University of Colorado.

I grew up in a mining family which meant we lived a life of constant moves to follow the work here in the Rocky Mountains. Much of my early childhood was spent in mountain towns like Breckinridge, Dillon, Leadville and a place that no longer exists called Kokomo, Colorado. This was before ski resorts dotted the Colorado mountains every hundred miles or so.

Kokomo was a company town for Climax Molybdenum. Climax mined molybdenum from a huge mountain peak at the top of Fremont Pass. Over the years that peak became a vast hollowed out mountainside and tailings from the mining stretched down a beautiful mountain valley for ten miles. The tailings eventually forced the closing of the small company town of my childhood to allow more room in the valley for the waste.

The ashes of both my parents were spread in the serene valley that was once Kokomo.The place where we spread their ashes is now covered with the waste product of the molybdenum mine. The once majestic peak on Fremont Pass has become an ugly eyesore of a mountain half collapsed in on itself.

The pristine forests my sister and I once spent entire days roaming have been taken over by ski resorts and condos. Pine beetles and various other virulent diseases of pines, Douglas fir, aspen and even ancient bristlecone occur with much more frequency and scar the beauty of a once glorious region of America.

In Rocky Mountain National Park glaciers that have been around for centuries are receding and expected to melt entirely in the near future. The clear mountain streams and remote lakes have become polluted from the nearby cities of Boulder and Denver spewing carbon wastes from automobiles and coal burning power plants. Rocky Mountain National Park is a crown jewel of mountain majesty that faces an ugly change in the eco-system. The beauty and serenity will be lost for the next generations of our families.

Colorado has over 300 days of sunshine annually. When the skies are blue and the winds lightly blow, I can think of no better place on Earth. Unfortunately, here in Denver an ugly brown cloud of pollution is about as common as the sunshine. Driving into Denver from any direction you can see the city lights from many miles away at night. And for the last thirty years you can see that ugly brown cloud of pollution during the day.

Living in Denver for people with respiratory problems used to be the ideal location. We had TB sanitariums that were known throughout the world. National Jewish Hospital is the leading research hospital for respiratory illnesses like asthma and COPD.
Today, living in Denver is a risky proposition for people with asthma and COPD. The pollution triggers the respiratory systems of the young and old struggling to breath. Ozone days have increased and lowered standards for polluting cars have caused even more “red” days of pollution.

It’s now more difficult to find the remote place to hike and be alone in Colorado. ATV trails scar the tundra and mountainsides. Four wheel drive roads are just as bad. Even we hikers have caused irreparable erosion with our lack of knowledge about the land and our ecosystems. We go off trails and create new erosion paths on tundra land, leave plastic and other trash along the way and demonstrate lack of respect for what we’ve been blessed with by carving initials and other stupid things into the trunks of trees.

I’ve been an activist in the peace and justice movement for over thirty years. I’ve gone to rallies and marches more than I care to remember. I’ve railed against the wars of our time and there are constantly injustices that need to be opposed and confronted. My friend, Naomi, has consistently pointed out the peace and justice community seldom mentions the deteriorating state of our environment. She’s right.

Part of a true peace and justice movement has to recognize the very ground we walk on is in jeopardy. If we fail to treasure our sunshine days and the places of nature to escape the madness of urban life, we fail in our quest for peace and justice. If we fail to understand we are responsible for trashing our cities, our forests and our open spaces we’ve failed as activists. Thinking “green” is the new buzz word but living in harmony with nature is a necessity.

So, as the criminal Bush regime comes to an end, there is great need to be on guard against the callous and calculated attempts to further weaken and destroy our environment. The further destruction has already started with Bush by use of “midnight regulations” which most outgoing Presidents use.

Bush’s regulations are another overt present to “Big Oil” and big business. The regulations are not at all regulations but instead deregulation of primary environmental protections. Clean water, clean air, logging, mining and drilling will all be affected for the worse while allowing corporate interests to have free rein in destroying wilderness areas, the air we breathe and the water we drink.

As we celebrate and contemplate the incoming Obama Administration most are distracted from what is happening in the Bush Administration. Much can be done in the final days of the tyranny of Bush and Cheney. The evil days of the neo-cons didn’t end on November 4, 2008 when Barack Obama was declared the winner in the Presidential election.

One of the biggest victims of the tyranny will be our environment. The giveaways to big business aren’t just happening in Wall Street or Main Street. The thefts of the corporate world are also going on in the rivers, the mountains and valleys so many of us cherish.

I’m including an article from the Guardian from recent days that reviews the Bush deregulations:

President for 60 more days, Bush tearing apart protection for America's wilderness

• Oil shale mining in Rocky Mountains gets go-ahead

• 'Midnight regulations' to dismantle safeguards

• Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday November 20 2008 00.01 GMT
• The Guardian, Thursday November 20 2008
• Article history

'They are taking down pollution controls' (link to audio)

George Bush is working at a breakneck pace to dismantle at least 10 major environmental safeguards protecting America's wildlife, national parks and rivers before he leaves office in January.

With barely 60 days to go until Bush hands over to Barack Obama, his White House is working methodically to weaken or reverse an array of regulations that protect America's wilderness from logging or mining operations, and compel factory farms to clean up dangerous waste.

In the latest such move this week, Bush opened up some 800,000 hectares (2m acres) of land in Rocky Mountain states for the development of oil shale, one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet. The law goes into effect on January 17, three days before Obama takes office.

The timing is crucial. Most regulations take effect 60 days after publication, and Bush wants the new rules in place before he leaves the White House on January 20. That will make it more difficult for Obama to undo them.

"There are probably going to be scores of rules that are issued between now and January 20," said John Walke, a senior attorney at the National Resources Defence Council. "And there are at least a dozen very controversial rules that will weaken public health and environment protection that have no business being adopted and would not be acceptable to the incoming Obama administration, based on stances he has taken as a senator and during the campaign."

The flurry of new rules - known as midnight regulations - is part of a broader campaign by the Bush administration to leave a lasting imprint on environmental policy. Some of the actions have provoked widespread protests such as the Bureau of Land Management's plans to auction off 20,000 hectares of oil and gas parcels within sight of Utah's Delicate Arch natural bridge.

The Bush administration is also accused of engaging in a parallel go-slow on court-ordered actions on the environment. "There are the midnight regulations that they are trying to force out before they leave office, and then there are the other things they are trying not to do before they go. A lot of the climate stuff falls into the category of things they would rather not do," said a career official at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Other presidents have worked up to the final moments of their presidency to impose their legacy on history. But Bush has been particularly organised in his campaign to roll back years of protections - not only on the environment, but workplace safety and employee rights.

"This is Bush trying to leave a legacy that supports his ideology," said Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, an independent Washington thinktank that monitors the White House office of management and budget. "This was very strategic and it was in line of the ideology of the Bush administration which has been to put in place a free market and conservative agenda."

The campaign got under way in May when the White House chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, wrote to government agencies asking them to forward proposals for rule changes. Bolten had initially set a November 1 deadline on rule-making. The White House denies that the flurry of rule changes is politically motivated. "What the chief of staff wanted to avoid was this very charge that we would be trying to, in the dark of night in the last days of the administration, be rushing regulations into place ahead of the incoming, next administration," Tony Fratto, the White House spokesman, told reporters.

But OMB Watch notes that the office of management and budget website shows 83 rules reviewed from September 1 to October 31 this year - about double its workload in 2007, 2006 and 2005.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration cut short the timeframe for public comment. In one instance, officials claimed to have reviewed 300,000 comments about changes to wildlife protection within the space of a week.

The new regulations include a provision that would free industrial-scale pig and cattle farms from complying with the Clean Water Act so long as they declare they are not dumping animal waste in lakes and rivers. The rule was finalised on October 31. Mountain-top mining operations will also be exempt from the Clean Water Act, allowing them to dump debris in rivers and lakes. The rule is still under review at the OMB. Coal-fired power plants will no longer be required to install pollution controls or clean up soot and smog pollution.

Yet another of the new rules, which has generated publicity, would allow the Pentagon and other government agencies to embark on new projects without first undertaking studies on the potential dangers to wildlife.

Announcements of further rule changes are expected in the next few days including one that would weaken regulation of perchlorate, a toxin in rocket fuel that can affect brain development in children, in drinking water.

The Bush strategy has prompted a fightback from environmentalists, the Democratic-controlled Congress, and members of the Obama transition team.
John Podesta, who is overseeing the transition, has said that Obama will review the last-minute actions, and will seek to repeal those that are "not in the interests of the country".

Pollute, baby, pollute

The last-minute rules passed during the "midnight hours" of the George Bush presidency differ from his predecessors because they are basically a project of deregulation - not regulation. Among the most far-reaching:

• Industrial-size pig, cow and chicken farms can disregard the Clean Water Act and air pollution controls.

• The interior department can approve development such as mining or logging without consulting wildlife managers about their impact.

• Restrictions will be eased so power plants can operate near national parks and wilderness areas.

• Pollution controls on new power plants will be downgraded.

• Mountain-top mine operators could dump waste into rivers and streams.

• 2m acres of land in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado opened to development of oil shales, the dirtiest fuel on Earth.

How We Failed The Missing Marine

LCpl. Lance Hering staged an escape from the Marines 27 months ago in Boulder County, Colorado. He is an Iraq veteran who faced redeployment to the war and couldn’t stand the idea of returning. Lance was apparently so desperate he and a friend staged his “accidental” death from rock climbing in a popular area for climbing.

The friend reported Lance’s fall from the rocks and a large search for him or his body ensued. The local sheriff estimates it cost $33,000 to search for the missing Marine. Rescue teams including several veterans and former Marines came out to search. Eventually the story of the friend unraveled and the public that helped search for Lance became furious that they were duped.

This week Lance was arrested in Port Angles, WA. following an anonymous tip to the Boulder, CO. police. His father was with him attempting to fly Lance out of Washington to a psychiatrist and then to turn himself in to the USMC. The Rocky Mountain News has made this a front page story for the past two days in a world of continued war, financial crisis, the Congo killings and all the other tragic stories of humanity. There is a tone of angry retribution swirling around this 23 year old Marine who was 20 when he was in Iraq.

What most of the angry public fails to realize is Lance was indeed missing and his life was like that of a rock climber on the edge of cliff without ropes or a tightrope walker trying to maintain balance above the deepest canyon. Trying to keep balance becomes tiring and at times the exhaustion makes a person want to let go or give in to a mind and body failing them.

What I’ve really just described is the thinking of a combat veteran struggling with PTSD. The video of horrific acts doesn’t seem to have a pause button. The intrusive thoughts break up friendly family interactions or attempts of intimacy with a loved one. Noises, normal to most, take on far more intensity and create startle and fear. Anger seeps into the soul like a deadly virus and explodes into violent reactions for unknown reasons.

Suicide is a daily thought for many veterans with PTSD. For some it is an hour to hour, minute to minute option. We’re told to carry on and suck it up but the truth is we’ve become tired of living in a skeleton of the person we used to be. Our guilt of seeing the dead friends and dead kids haunt us constantly. Dying seems to be an option that will bring us peace and relief.

There could be no search party on Earth able to find Lance Hering who was so desperate he staged his death to avoid returning to the hell known of the Corps and Iraq. He was lost before he started that day with his friend to find a way out. Lance Hering didn’t fail us. We failed him.

We expected a young man with a scarred mind to forget about things he’d seen and done. And to return to do them again. We failed to look beyond the appearance of a healthy young man to see his thousand yard stare that demonstrated his despair and depression. We failed to recognize we can’t send a young man or woman to war and get the same person to return.

I’m not angry, Lance. I totally understand the despair, the hopelessness and the darkness that leads to doing something to escape. When I was twenty I returned from my war as a Marine. I didn’t face redeployment but I did face remaining 18 more months in the Corps. I faced carrying on like nothing happened to me over there. And I couldn’t stand the thought of it. I left without permission to save my sanity.

What Lance Hering faces is a normal reaction to an insane situation. His mind absorbed insanity on a daily basis and it rebelled against it. He was asked to suppress his moral core to do his duty. He became numb to the holocaust of war. Coming home didn’t turn the switch to normalcy back on for him. It more than likely made things worse because he became a stranger in his own family, regardless of their love for him.

It would be easy to condemn a young man we think betrayed us but the more humane and appropriate thing would be giving him the help he needs to restore some semblance of a normal life. Lance has become a broken soldier/Marine that is no longer of any use to the war machine. Why should we demand a pound of flesh because we broke him? He needs the support given when it was thought he had fallen down a mountain; because he has fallen into the abyss of PTSD and it is a very long climb back up from that dark, dark place.



Wm. Terry Leichner, RN

Psychiatric RN

Combat veteran with severe and chronic PTSD

USMC – Vietnam 1967-1969

The Failure of The Church

In the past weeks significant events took place that confirms the Catholic Church has failed in bringing the message of Christ to me any longer. Instead the Church has become a right wing political action committee akin to the fanatical evangelicals of the Republican far right. Instead the Church has become the Pharisees like those who persecuted Christ in his final days.

Prior to the recent election there was a concerted effort by American Catholic Bishops to heavily influence the way Catholics should vote in the Presidential election. Locally here in Denver, Archbishop Charles Chaput publicly spoke out against candidates that professed a "pro-choice" viewpoint on the issue of abortion. He made sure to preface his remarks as those of a private citizen but knew without a doubt his views would have dramatic effect on Church members who strongly adhere to the direction of Church leaders.

Reports across the state and across the nation described priests cajoling their parishes to vote against Barack Obama for the singular issue of his abortion viewpoint. They described him as a "pro abortionist" despite his statements of great concern about reasons that led to abortion and his desire to reach out to both sides to prevent abortion situations from occurring.

It is not accident Chaput is also promoting a new book of his ultra conservative views that consider abortion the most "intrinsically evil" issue we face in our world today. Chaput has often consorted with the outgoing President Bush who is responsible for the egregious acts against Afghanistan and Iraq which have constantly proved to be without merit. His voice and those of most American Catholic bishops have been significantly silent about the millions affected by those wars.

At one point Archbishop Chaput argued to me some wars are morally justified with the implication Iraq was one of those wars. That was in answer to my protest when he endorsed Bush by default over a Catholic, John Kerry, for the same singular issue of abortion. A short time after the reelection of Bush there was a photo of Bush and Chaput smiling at one another during a White House breakfast for clergy. Bush was reaching out to Chaput with his hand on Chaput's thigh in a gesture of two "good ole boys" laughing it up. Photos can have lasting impressions, Archbishop.

The week after the election of Obama the American Catholic Bishops Conference declared they will strongly challenge (confront) the newly elected President over his abortion views. At the same time many of the Bishops implied and directly stated any Catholic voting for Obama should seek penance and not be given communion until that time. The mostly white male council of bishops has insinuated a vote for Obama was a mortal sin that should exclude the laity voting for him from the Eucharist.

For eight years this same body of Church leaders has given the criminal actions of Bush and Cheney a pass. They have consistently refused to speak out against the discredited wars started by Bush as long as he has consistently followed their agenda about abortion and fetal stem cell research. They have overlooked the illegal and immoral nature of the wars that have caused 1.5 million deaths according to the research of the medical journal, Lancet.

I've even heard of some of the Bishops defending their lack of action about the wars because the casualties were low in comparison with the deaths caused by abortions. Research on the numbers of abortions worldwide is highly unreliable, often over-inflated and often include spontaneous or "naturally caused" abortions such as miscarriages. The number of aborted fetuses is no doubt in the millions but the fanatical fringe groups declaring 40-50 million each year are simply doing more to harm their cause than help it. These figures are based on alleged research that lacks scientific principles. But, of course, like evangelical wings of the Christian churches other than Catholicism, science is considered witchcraft when convenient by all fanatics whether Catholic or Protestant.

It is now estimated one child five or under dies approximately every thirty seconds in the world for reasons that could have easily been avoided. Poverty, with poor water and poor nutrition is a major contributor to the approximately 9-10 million deaths of children under five each year.

If the Catholic priests were truthful, they would admit war throughout the world is the major driving force of poverty. The 1.5 million estimated killed in Iraq is the number of casualties from the military actions that took place. They don't account for the other millions of deaths caused from the poverty caused by the wars. And we need to keep in mind the number of children dying every thirty seconds from the causes of poverty and other preventable reasons is children five and under. The numbers of ages five through 18 would also have to be in the millions.

Many questions beg to be asked. Where are the Catholic bishops in the face of this genocide of the world's live birthed children? Why have they failed so often to condemn the wars of America and all other nations? Where are the fanatics of "pro-life" to be outraged about the men and women of government responsible for starting and carrying out the wars creating the deaths of so many?

Another less prominent event occurred last week that also demonstrates the misogyny and out of touch arrogance of the Church leadership. Roy Bourgeois, a Catholic priest and Vietnam veteran who was wounded in action during his time in Vietnam, was sent a letter threatening excommunication from the Church by the Vatican. His sin was sending a letter to the Church leadership demanding justice for the women of the Catholic Church by allowing women who felt a calling to become ordained as priests.

Father Bourgeois is no stranger to issues of justice. He is one of the founders of the annual School of Americas protest at Fort Benning, GA. Those protests are centered on the American military providing training to Latin American troops of dictators and tyrants to take back to their nations to use against peasants and any who object to the often American sponsored oppression. The Contras had many of their troops trained at this facility. For fifteen years the protest has grown to the many thousands. Many of the protestors are concerned individual clergy (certainly not Catholic hierarchy)and many have been arrested with severe prison sentences imposed during the eight years of Bush and Cheney. Father Bourgeois has been imprisoned for his own acts of non-violent civil disobedience against the American military exporting terrorism to nations of oppressed peoples.

There is no doubt Bourgeois will not be swayed by the Vatican's senseless mandate nor the Church by a simple priest demanding justice for women. He logically and righteously points out in a time of priest shortages all over the world the stubborn misogynists in charge of the Church continue to oppress women without reason. He points out thousands of male priests have shamed the priesthood as pedophiles or sexual abusers of Church members who see them as leaders. The opposition to the ordination of women is a shameful legacy by church leaders to subjugate women and lacks merit based on the teachings of Christ.

One other event created by religious zealots is the shameful oppression of gay members of society. The Mormon Church alone spent over 70 million dollars to prevent loving couples of the same sex from marrying and obtaining the same benefits of other couples in the area of health care and pensions in a California ballot issue. The Catholic Church also spoke out strongly against the "gay marriage" issue, as it has so often in other places.

Intolerance, hatefulness, sexism and even overt racism seems to have become the Catholic catechism. They seem to have turned their backs on the radical and rebellious nature of Jesus Christ who stormed the temple to chase the money changers and constantly stood up against the "establishment".

Christ was not a bureaucrat such as Charles Chaput or the current American Bishops Council. Or even the Pope. Christ was a rebel who chose to hang out with thieves, whores and tax collectors who most of "good" society scorned and rebuffed.

Would Christ be sitting in the streets of a Fort Benning or at a rally against illegal wars? Many of us concerned Catholics believe He would. Many of us concerned Catholics feel our Church no longer represents us, however. We don't want the leadership of our Church dictating we vote for tyrants and criminals like Bush or McCain simply because they "say" they oppose abortion.

It seems very curious the feelings these politicians express for the right to life only go so far as to curry favor with religious zealots but don't extend to the children of Iraq, Afghanistan and so many other poor nations. It seems illogical the Church wants to deny people who love one another a basic right to express that love while turning a calloused eye to the militarism that pervades this nation.

Sadly, the Catholic Church has become the modern day Pharisees caught up in rules and rituals while losing its soul and humanity. It fails to ask every day what Christ would truly want and seems more intent enforcing rules on the laity to succumb to the power and politics of the Church.

I for one reject the Church as it is today. I voted for Obama and I have no need of penance for that act, even as I wish I had a better choice than the Democrats or Republicans. And I will take communion until self-righteous priests deny it. When that happens I will not meekly stand by to accept the dictates of a Church that has become out of touch with morality and Christ.


Wm. Terry Leichner, RN

Denver VVAW member

Combat vet, disgruntled and dismayed Catholic

Veterans Day 2008

Five years of the current wars and a whole new generation of veterans has been produced. They will have their own nightmares, wounds and difficulty ever being the same son, daughter, husband, wife, brother, sister, or friend. And America will “honor” them with a day that is no longer even a holiday. Just a weekend parade here and there across the nation. And really the parades are more recruitment tools than honoring the veterans for the alleged service we’ve given this nation.

As usual, I object to a day that honors war, warriors and violence perpetrated by a government of rich, fatted cows who have fed on the backs of the poor and middle class far too long.

I continue to hear the same old clichéd line whenever I meet someone new that discovers I’m a veteran of Vietnam; “thank you for your service”. It’s easier to just accept the well intentioned comment than to go “Rambo” on them and ask them what damn service they are thanking me for.

Was it taking part in killing the old papa-san who happened to get in the way of Marines one day doing a search and destroy patrol? Was it the napalmed village full of kids and mama-sans? Was it the brutal investigation of a terrified Vietnamese woman by Naval intelligence that included an in-the-field form of water-boarding, the use of a .45 cal pistol to break her cheek bone, punches to the face and body and eventual execution once the Marine patrol was told to go up the path?

I’m just not understanding why Americans think I did any service to this country by taking part in an unnecessary war responsible for killing 58,000 plus Americans and 3 million Vietnamese. I’m sick of being seen as someone who “protected” our democracy by fighting “gooks”. If it ain’t gooks then it is haji or rag-heads. There’s always some pejorative word to capture the enemy’s race and ethnicity that isn’t like “us”.

Veterans Day is like Memorial Day. Both are attempts to cast the military veterans as righteous and courageous heroes who have fought for flag and country. Both are attempts to ease our collective consciences about the atrocity of wars we have continued to allow in our names. The days are attempts to glorify and sanctify militarism and imperialism so our future generations of sons and daughters will want to emulate those of us duped into believing we were going to make a difference by killing in the name of God and country.

This nation’s people love a parade. They love to see “Johnny come marching home”. They love all those red, white and blue flags and bunting. We get our little boys to dress up in costume uniforms of Marines to hold the flag like Ira Hayes held it over Iwo Jima during WWII. We gather together high school kids dressed in uniforms of the various ROTC programs with mock rifles held “shoulder arms” marching in lock step with one another.

We love to say we are a nation of peace but anybody that visits our nation’s Capital will be overwhelmed by the number of war memorials to be found in the Washington DC area. What does that say about our peaceful nature? There is an insane dissonance that we look at these war memorials as tributes to peace making.

How does the participation in killing other humans bring us peace? I guess the thinking is kill enough to get the other side to submit and we’ve brought peace to our world. The problem with such logic is resentment and hatred bred from the use of force seldom brings peace.

Making nations or groups of people capitulate to the more powerful force merely enslaves them to the power of a stronger force. They will most likely seek their retribution whenever they find a way of inflicting pain on their perceived oppressor. Occupation and oppression doesn’t make us a peaceful nation. It makes us bullies.

Oh yeah, the words I speak are not the words of patriotism some like to hear. They want to hear about the glory of our conquests. The whole world is a game and our role is to defeat all others to “win” for America. And like adolescents and small children, our politicians think they can keep hitting the reset button until we get it “right” to win the world domination game.

Ok, I don’t love my country more than anything else. I love humanity more. I love true peace more. I love justice more. I love being a citizen of the world more. I love the children of our world more.

I am tired of waving flags and cheering soldiers to perpetuate one war after another. I’m tired of being enslaved to the concept of my country right or wrong. I am sick and tired of phony days of tribute to the culture of death and violence that has been the essence of America far too long. Veterans Day does no honor to any of us.

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member

Dream On

Well it took all of one day before newly elected President Obama made it clear that it will be politics as usual. His choice of Rahm Emanuel for his Chief of Staff is a clear message to dash any Palestinian dream of an unbiased approach to peace between Israel and Palestinian refugees currently being walled in by the Israeli military.

Emanuel is a former Clinton staffer but more interesting is his dual citizenships. He is both an American who holds office in Congress and an Israeli citizen who volunteered with the IDF during the Gulf War. That’s the war the other Bush started back in the 90’s that led to the disastrous and deadly sanctions against Iraq. It’s estimated the effects of those sanctions killed at least a million Iraqi children.

It’s strange Emanuel wouldn’t join the American military as so many in Congress have done to embellish their biography for future political ventures. Being an American citizen it seems he might enlist to protect the “homeland” that he now represents in Congress.

A brief check of Emanuel’s background answers the question. His father was one of the original Zionist terrorists that took part in bombings of British and other colonial occupiers of the “Jewish homeland”, Israel. There is some speculation Emmanuel is well connected with the Israeli secret service, Mossad.

He certainly is no stranger to AIPAC and the contributions they make to American politicians to further Zionist agenda. AIPAC constantly lobbies against a fair hearing about the plight of Palestinian people forced into refugee camps and subjected to whims of the Israeli occupation. Of course, in the US, saying the word, Zionist, or complaining about the Israeli government’s aggression is tantamount to denying the holocaust or being anti-Semitic.

Obama has clearly joined the Zionist ranks which have no intention of legitimatizing Palestinian concerns or the need for a free Palestinian nation. Like most in Congress and the White House, Obama lacks the courage to go up against the most powerful political action committee in the US. He couldn’t have won an election by making a moral stand against AIPAC. It is a sad statement both major party candidates kowtowed to AIPAC to affirm their support of the current Israeli government.

Unfortunately, most Americans lack the political intelligence to understand the issue of Zionism and Palestine. We are a nation of citizens dependent on the sound bite type of media to keep us informed. Fully investigating and formulating our own thoughts and opinions isn’t taught in most of our educational institutions or systems. Our ignorance allows the latest “apartheid” by the Israeli government against the indigenous people of the Palestinian region. It allowed the deadly sanctions against Saddam Hussein that only affected the children and the poor. Our ignorance allowed two unnecessary wars to begin and will lead Obama to expand the deadliest of all quagmires, Afghanistan.

What is the message to the Muslim world when the new Chief of Staff for the President is a former member of IDF and has close ties with AIPAC? They can only surmise as most of us should that we’re in for more of the same.

On the night of the election after Obama was announced the winner, mainstream media gushed about the diverse and “new” look administration Obama would bring to DC. They spoke about people from outside the DC beltway becoming part of the administration. Looking at the lineup Obama has right now it looks like the Clintons won this election. Besides Emanuel, there are several other Clinton hacks surrounding the newly elected President. This is not change. This is the continuation of the same old oligarchy that has ruled in DC since the birth of the US.

Some don’t want to challenge or confront Obama because of the historical symbolism of his election. I was unabashedly emotional when the word came Barack Obama was the first African-American elected President. I saw the tears of Jesse Jackson and so many young black, brown and white supporters. I listened to John Lewis talk about the “struggle” he endured with MLK and never dreaming he’d see a black elected President. It was a momentous time of history that finally validated the struggles and courage of our black brothers and sisters.

It would be a disservice to have the symbolic leader of black Americans and all Americans continue with the failed policies of our past. His first actions to surround himself with people who symbolize that failed past need to be confronted and opposed. Too many believed him when he told them “yes we can”. Too many put their hopes in him to do whatever he could to bring peace and a sense of security to this world. Too many saw the chance for justice in his candidacy’s success.

He told us he would listen especially when we disagreed. Well we’d better start trying to get his attention so he can listen to our disagreement. Too many allowed Bush and Cheney to wall the public off from the process and look where we’ve ended up. Obama needs a heads up immediately. No punches should be pulled because of his historical symbolism. As activists we understand betrayal better than most. And we know what needs to be done when we’re betrayed. The dream is over. A new nightmare is beginning. All the alarms are sounding and now is the time to wake the hell up!

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member

I’m including the open letter to Barack Obama by Ralph Nader. Nader should be listened to and respected for his perseverance and integrity. By now he must feel he’s beating his head against a stone wall that’s immovable. And yet he continues out of love and concern for his country and the people we share the planet with.

An Open Letter to Barack Obama
Between Hope and Reality
By RALPH NADER

Dear Senator Obama:
In your nearly two-year presidential campaign, the words "hope and change," "change and hope" have been your trademark declarations. Yet there is an asymmetry between those objectives and your political character that succumbs to contrary centers of power that want not "hope and change" but the continuation of the power-entrenched status quo.
Far more than Senator McCain, you have received enormous, unprecedented contributions from corporate interests, Wall Street interests and, most interestingly, big corporate law firm attorneys. Never before has a Democratic nominee for President achieved this supremacy over his Republican counterpart. Why, apart from your unconditional vote for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, are these large corporate interests investing so much in Senator Obama? Could it be that in your state Senate record, your U.S. Senate record and your presidential campaign record (favoring nuclear power, coal plants, offshore oil drilling, corporate subsidies including the 1872 Mining Act and avoiding any comprehensive program to crack down on the corporate crime wave and the bloated, wasteful military budget, for example) you have shown that you are their man?
To advance change and hope, the presidential persona requires character, courage, integrity-- not expediency, accommodation and short-range opportunism. Take, for example, your transformation from an articulate defender of Palestinian rights in Chicago before your run for the U.S. Senate to an acolyte, a dittoman for the hard-line AIPAC lobby, which bolsters the militaristic oppression, occupation, blockage, colonization and land-water seizures over the years of the Palestinian peoples and their shrunken territories in the West Bank and Gaza. Eric Alterman summarized numerous polls in a December 2007 issue of The Nation magazine showing that AIPAC policies are opposed by a majority of Jewish-Americans.
You know quite well that only when the U.S. Government supports the Israeli and Palestinian peace movements, that years ago worked out a detailed two-state solution (which is supported by a majority of Israelis and Palestinians), will there be a chance for a peaceful resolution of this 60-year plus conflict. Yet you align yourself with the hard-liners, so much so that in your infamous, demeaning speech to the AIPAC convention right after you gained the nomination of the Democratic Party, you supported an "undivided Jerusalem," and opposed negotiations with Hamas-- the elected government in Gaza. Once again, you ignored the will of the Israeli people who, in a March 1, 2008 poll by the respected newspaper Haaretz, showed that 64% of Israelis favored "direct negotiations with Hamas." Siding with the AIPAC hard-liners is what one of the many leading Palestinians advocating dialogue and peace with the Israeli people was describing when he wrote "Anti-semitism today is the persecution of Palestinian society by the Israeli state."
During your visit to Israel this summer, you scheduled a mere 45 minutes of your time for Palestinians with no news conference, and no visit to Palestinian refugee camps that would have focused the media on the brutalization of the Palestinians. Your trip supported the illegal, cruel blockade of Gaza in defiance of international law and the United Nations charter. You focused on southern Israeli casualties which during the past year have totaled one civilian casualty to every 400 Palestinian casualties on the Gaza side. Instead of a statesmanship that decried all violence and its replacement with acceptance of the Arab League's 2002 proposal to permit a viable Palestinian state within the 1967 borders in return for full economic and diplomatic relations between Arab countries and Israel, you played the role of a cheap politician, leaving the area and Palestinians with the feeling of much shock and little awe.
David Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, described your trip succinctly: "There was almost a willful display of indifference to the fact that there are two narratives here. This could serve him well as a candidate, but not as a President."
Palestinian American commentator, Ali Abunimah, noted that Obama did not utter a single criticism of Israel, "of its relentless settlement and wall construction, of the closures that make life unlivable for millions of Palestinians. ...Even the Bush administration recently criticized Israeli's use of cluster bombs against Lebanese civilians [see www.atfl.org for elaboration]. But Obama defended Israeli's assault on Lebanon as an exercise of its 'legitimate right to defend itself.'"
In numerous columns Gideon Levy, writing in Haaretz, strongly criticized the Israeli government's assault on civilians in Gaza, including attacks on "the heart of a crowded refugee camp... with horrible bloodshed" in early 2008.
Israeli writer and peace advocate-- Uri Avnery-- described Obama's appearance before AIPAC as one that "broke all records for obsequiousness and fawning, adding that Obama "is prepared to sacrifice the most basic American interests. After all, the US has a vital interest in achieving an Israeli-Palestinian peace that will allow it to find ways to the hearts of the Arab masses from Iraq to Morocco. Obama has harmed his image in the Muslim world and mortgaged his future-- if and when he is elected president.," he said, adding, "Of one thing I am certain: Obama's declarations at the AIPAC conference are very, very bad for peace. And what is bad for peace is bad for Israel, bad for the world and bad for the Palestinian people."
A further illustration of your deficiency of character is the way you turned your back on the Muslim-Americans in this country. You refused to send surrogates to speak to voters at their events. Having visited numerous churches and synagogues, you refused to visit a single Mosque in America. Even George W. Bush visited the Grand Mosque in Washington D.C. after 9/11 to express proper sentiments of tolerance before a frightened major religious group of innocents.
Although the New York Times published a major article on June 24, 2008 titled "Muslim Voters Detect a Snub from Obama" (by Andrea Elliott), citing examples of your aversion to these Americans who come from all walks of life, who serve in the armed forces and who work to live the American dream. Three days earlier the International Herald Tribune published an article by Roger Cohen titled "Why Obama Should Visit a Mosque." None of these comments and reports change your political bigotry against Muslim-Americans-- even though your father was a Muslim from Kenya.
Perhaps nothing illustrated your utter lack of political courage or even the mildest version of this trait than your surrendering to demands of the hard-liners to prohibit former president Jimmy Carter from speaking at the Democratic National Convention. This is a tradition for former presidents and one accorded in prime time to Bill Clinton this year.
Here was a President who negotiated peace between Israel and Egypt, but his recent book pressing the dominant Israeli superpower to avoid Apartheid of the Palestinians and make peace was all that it took to sideline him. Instead of an important address to the nation by Jimmy Carter on this critical international problem, he was relegated to a stroll across the stage to "tumultuous applause," following a showing of a film about the Carter Center's post-Katrina work. Shame on you, Barack Obama!
But then your shameful behavior has extended to many other areas of American life. (See the factual analysis by my running mate, Matt Gonzalez, on www.votenader.org). You have turned your back on the 100-million poor Americans composed of poor whites, African-Americans, and Latinos. You always mention helping the "middle class" but you omit, repeatedly, mention of the "poor" in America.
Should you be elected President, it must be more than an unprecedented upward career move following a brilliantly unprincipled campaign that spoke "change" yet demonstrated actual obeisance to the concentration power of the "corporate supremacists." It must be about shifting the power from the few to the many. It must be a White House presided over by a black man who does not turn his back on the downtrodden here and abroad but challenges the forces of greed, dictatorial control of labor, consumers and taxpayers, and the militarization of foreign policy. It must be a White House that is transforming of American politics-- opening it up to the public funding of elections (through voluntary approaches)-- and allowing smaller candidates to have a chance to be heard on debates and in the fullness of their now restricted civil liberties. Call it a competitive democracy.
Your presidential campaign again and again has demonstrated cowardly stands. "Hope" some say springs eternal." But not when "reality" consumes it daily.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader

The Dream Is Not Complete

The faces of elderly black women and men, young African-Americans, young college students and a wide diverse group of hopeful Americans made last night a special and historical one.

Being 60, I remember the days when a high school in Little Rock was blocked by the Arkansas governor in attempt to keep black students from entering the fully segregated school. I remember Bull Connors “sicking” dogs and fire hoses on young men and women attempting to sit at a Woolworths’ lunch counter. I remember 3 dead civil rights workers, a church bombed, white hoods and burning crosses. I remember returning from patrol in the northern region of Vietnam to hear Martin Luther King was assassinated. He followed in the tragic footsteps of a President elected as a transformational figure who was also assassinated.

Living in this time of history I never envisioned a black American would be elected to the office of President and live in the White House built by slaves two centuries ago. Too many times I have witnessed the cruelty of racist hate from the perspective of a white male who felt sick and ashamed when it occurred. Too many times I’ve heard the terrible words used to demean and hurt men, women and children of color.

I recall making many journeys to Erie, Pennsylvania to visit my wife’s family during the 1990’s and early part of this century that I heard these hurtful words and characterizations come from citizens of that city. I felt at times I had entered a time warp and returned to those terrible days of the 1960’s. Last night 59% of Erie voted for a black President.

So last night was indeed special. And I felt tears rolling down my cheeks despite my cynical view of our world and the politics of our nation. I remembered reading the struggles described by Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison and Malcolm X. I remembered the harassment of my friends Butch Mayfield and Larry Hales by racist police. Last night there was jubilation with tears in places all over this nation by even the most cynical of us.

Barack Obama is the President-elect of this nation. And the celebration of history should not be obscured by the fears of the future. Even I will stop today and savor the historical significance of November 4, 2008. It was a day of redemption and one of lifting an oppressive force just a little off the backs of those oppressed for so long. It was the beginning of the end of the nightmarish years of fanatics of Christianity wielding far too much power over the rest of us who believe Christ was not like they describe.

Still, the cynicism seeps into my mind. Why do I fear there is some assassin waiting to be sent to kill this historical figure and spark violence like that of 1968? Why does my mind drift to thinking about young men and women wearing uniforms who will still be in Afghanistan and Iraq carrying out the duties of the corporate masters’ imperialistic occupation? Why do I think about the people of those nations and all the other nations that have been burdened and bludgeoned by America’s greed and militaristic nature? Why do I think about the many children who no longer play on the playgrounds and streets of their bombed nations but instead reside in the burial grounds of their ancestors? Why do I think about the continued racism that seeps throughout this nation causing the dreams of young blacks and Hispanics to dissipate into hatred or depression?

I don’t like to think these things but history and experience has taught me to always look for the trip wires of booby-traps that can kill dreams and hopes. History and experience has taught me the Democrats and Republicans are poisonous to the true ideal of democracy and freedom.

We can fool ourselves to believe a black face in the slave built residence of the leader of the American nation will transform us into a better world and nation but the truth is overtly evident should we care to look at it. The need for activism and a unified movement toward peace and justice has not diminished. It may well have grown ever more critical and necessary.

The oppressive cadre of politicians and tycoons wielding power will expect us to be lulled into the notion the dream of Dr. King has been fulfilled. They will expect us to think we have just proven democracy is alive and well in America.

They expect this despite the incarceration of so many young black men in the prisons of this nation. They expect this despite the continued police brutality all across this land. They expect this despite the urban blight caused by years and years of neglect for the poor and disenfranchised. They expect this despite the uninsured families unable to access adequate healthcare. They expect this despite the back door draft and the perpetual wars. They expect this despite the dismal infant mortality rates in this nation. They expect this despite the disparity of educational opportunity for the rich and poor. They expect this despite the ever growing homeless and hungry men, women and children all across this land. They expect this despite the failure of treating mental illness adequately and humanely.

Obama has spoken about these issues but his record belies that he is anything but a torch-bearer for the wealthy and corporate oppressors. He speaks eloquently and gives us hope but we must continue to keep our cynical guard up to prevent further expansion of the oppressive rule of the shadow government this nation has always had; the money men behind the scenes with their own agenda of power and domination.

Let us celebrate the historical event that took place last night but let us not accept it as a bone thrown to a hungry dog to keep it from barking and howling. Let us continue to bark and howl and do whatever necessary to truly effect the changes that will transform this nation into one that is supportive of peace and justice. Let us bark and howl for this nation to remember we are a people responsible for over consumption that pollutes the air of our children and grandchildren. Let us growl about American proliferation of weapons throughout the world that could destroy us all in a moment of madness. Let us unleash the corporate stranglehold on our world and insist on becoming true citizens of the world, sharing our wealth and ideals with all our brothers and sisters.

Many will look like our new President in color and many will be diversely different but all are brothers and sisters we should embrace if we truly want peace and justice. Many will follow the religions of their ancestors and many will only accept Christ. And if we Christians truly believe in the words and deeds of Christ we will embrace the entire world as brothers and sisters.

The selection of Obama to lead the American nation is only one small step toward us joining the world in a cooperative effort to solve the over-riding issues of peace and justice for our world. The flag of nationalism must be replaced by the embrace of a new world effort to care about all people, regardless of nation or flag.

Peace be with you

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member
Combat vet, peace activist, human

Come Nov 5th What Will Be Different?

Come November 5, 2008 the first black American President could be elected and for many this will be the penultimate moment of American politics. It will be a moment of history .Americans must ask why it took so long to accept an African American that didn’t have to do with sports or entertainment. And they must ask why women still wait to be taken seriously for the top leadership position in this nation.

On November 5th it could be Americans will wake up with another stolen election. An old political hack could very well steal away the hopes of all those who wanted to believe true change might occur. His evangelical picked running mate will have achieved what so many much more qualified women have not been allowed to achieve, the Vice Presidency.

Yes, November 5th will be a day of changeover but whether it is a day of change that will truly be remembered as a transformational time is doubtful. There will still be nearly 150,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. What will the election bring for them? Most likely they will continue to die and kill and their minds will be scarred if not their bodies as well. They will come and go on deployments with each time going back being harder than the previous. Many will be forever traumatized and their issues will carry over to families and friends and onto the public at large.

If Americans can’t remember the troops as being the most important issue of this election and choose to think of the economy first, let them remember 10 billion dollars each month is being drained from the families of all the troops and all Americans to fight these wars. Those ten billion dollars will continue to be spent with requests for even more by the military.

The ten billion dollars will be in addition to the normal budget of the DOD each year. Americans spend more on the military than any other nation in the world. We are a nation either perpetually at war or preparing for our next war. Somehow that militarism doesn’t speak well for a nation wanting to be known as a people seeking peace.

I truly want to believe Barrack Obama is the right person to lead this nation out of the great peril it faces but there is a reality based reason I don’t believe he is that person. And I certainly know John McCain isn’t that person. McCain has shown he believes, as too many believe, that our nation can force itself on others to get our way. He thinks we can merely utter the word, democracy, and it will show our goodwill.

Electing a black politician to the Presidency for the first time is diminished if it is business as usual for the American government. All indications point to the sad fact it will continue to be just that. The oligarchy will go unfettered while the middle class will be further disbanded and the poor will be further ignored. Already banks and investment firms that have gotten bailout monies from American taxpayers are planning on huge bonuses for the upper management of firms they allowed to fail. The bailout has done nothing to help Americans facing foreclosure and poverty.

Americans must prepare themselves for the coming disillusionment brought to them by Obama or McCain. Both men and their running mates are flawed characters and flawed in character. They are beholding to the ultra rich. Jobs will continue to be lost. Homes will continue to be lost. The weak and the impoverished will get even less as they lack the advocates to speak out for them. Young Americans will continue to be pumped into the killing fields of the military machine. American politics will not change with the election of either man.

Nothing in American history demonstrates the change from the wealthy few ruling the roost. The one percent will rule over the other 99% using the carrot of capitalistic theory that working hard will pay off for any citizen. The theory of Horatio Alger being one of us is a fairy tale. The truth is we live in a socialistic nation in which the sharing of the wealth only moves upward and never moves down to the citizens most in need.

Americans freak over the concept of sharing the wealth or redistribution of wealth but fail to recognize in the last eight years, while George W. Bush was in office, the greatest redistribution of wealth in American history took place. The schemes of derivatives and selling short on the market, the no bid contracts to friends of politicians and the endless funding of war has taken the American citizen for a ride of historic proportions. It was a ride to the abyss of a failed capitalist system and the truth of the welfare for the rich programs that have stolen the wealth from the treasury.

Columnist David Sirota calls it kleptocracy. As in the continued theft of wealth from all sources by the already wealthy. If a poor nation has natural resources that are valuable, the kleptocrats will have no problem extorting, bribing or bullying to make a profit on the backs of the poor people of that nation.

If it means stealing the pittance of a monthly disability check from a mentally ill citizen, kleptocrats don’t really care because as the latest John McCain bromide sums up; they don’t want redistribution of wealth, they want“to keep what is yours”. If it means cutting back all those bad welfare programs and “entitlement” programs, so be it. The kleptocrat sees programs like Medicare and Medicaid, food stamps and Head Start as too expensive and better left to charitable organizations. They ask us to believe the wealthy and those seeking to be wealthy will fund the charitable organizations enough to care for all those they would take off the “government dole”.

Kleptocrats don’t look at bailouts and subsidies of the already wealthy as being the highest form of welfare. They don’t see tax loopholes allowing ¾ of the largest corporations in America to be free of tax burden as welfare. No, they will point out the largest dollar amount of tax revenues comes from the rich but fail to point out those same rich have had the largest incremental increase in wealth over the past decade than any other time in history. They will also fail to mention Social Security is not deducted from the Americans making over 200,000 dollars each year. Hardly a fair contribution to a fund constantly borrowed from and said to be in risk of failing in the near future.

Kleptocrats want us to believe if they stay rich the wealth will “trickle down” to the middle class and working classes. Nothing in recent history has shown this to be true. Nothing in American history has shown this to be true. Only when “big government” enforced regulations and created safety nets for the poor did some wealth “trickle down”. Only when unions were allowed to flourish, and corrupted kleptocrats kept from running them, did Americans start to own their own homes and have hopes of some of the wealth being shared.

It’s laughable to hear the fear and the belief of middle class America that a fair redistribution of wealth is a dangerous Marxist concept. Americans want to believe they’re a fair people but the facts belie such a belief. How else can the bailout of failed business executives have occurred if there wasn’t a gross lack of fairness?

Americans would like to believe they are not racist but this Presidential season has shown the ugly side of racial stereotypes that still exist all over this nation. And the ugly face of bigotry wasn’t only in Jackson, Mississippi. No, places like Erie, Pennsylvania have proved to have the same hatreds as the “deep South”. Tactics led by Karl Rove have had constant code words and symbols of racism to fuel racist fears of bigots.

Americans would like to believe free speech is a revered concept but the reality is free speech is disdained by far too many of us. We only want to hear what we like and agree with. We don’t want to listen to the ideas of others that disagree with us. Most Americans reject criticism of the government but are constantly bitching about the very same government either being too big or impotent against special interests. We strike up the bands to send our troops to war and put yellow ribbons on SUVs but become enraged when the war is questioned in good faith by other Americans. We claim they are “anti-troops” even though that is not what is being said at all.

Most of us have grown up with the attention span of a two year old when it comes to political issues. We want our thinking shaped by 30 second or 60 second sound bites that give us distortions and outright lies. We accept a system rewarding a candidate with the deepest pockets and the best script writers. Few of our politicians can interact with their constituencies because so few of the “real” people have access to them. We accept the mediocrity and stupidity of men and women elected to office entrusted with grave issues; like wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We accept capitulation without debate by Congress to a disgraceful President hell bent on starting a war. We learn the truth of the corrupted reasons for war and passively allow the killing to continue.

November 5th will be a day of awakening. We will awake to an election of a new President and a new Congress but the corrupted system of special interests and oligarchy will remain in place. Palms will be greased by corporate interests. Deals will be made in corporate offices by the people elected based on the inane sound bites.

The sad part of the election of 2008 is the faith of the younger generation lost when the promises are forgotten by the elected. Americans of my generation have become immune to the lies and corruption. We have come to expect it. We owe the new generation of Americans a better future. We have failed them.

In 1971 after my deployment in Vietnam I became an activist. My generation was big on saying we would change the world. We bragged we would take on the “system” and make things different. As my life has fast-forwarded to my 60th year, those promises of change have resulted in eight years of Reagan and Bush. We didn’t change the system. We allowed the system to become a sewer that has poisoned the very fabric of our nation. I still love my country but I abhor what my generation has allowed my country to become.

I’d like to dream something other than the nightmares of the war I foolishly went to fight. I’d like to dream the generation of my sons and my grandchildren will face a better world than the one I faced in 1967. I’d like to dream there are new leaders that will emerge to bring the young hope and integrity. I’d like to dream and hope the way Martin Luther King dreamt. I’d like to dream the activists of my generation carried through with the promises. I fear I’ll wake up November 5th and discover dreams of a moral America are just a dream. I fear November 5th will be just another day of the nightmare we’ve allowed to happen.

Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member
USMC Combat vet – 1967-1969 RVN
http://visopeace.blogspot.com