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Because People MaterProgressive News and Views November / December 2006

By Gail Ryall

Over 200 union hotel workers and their supportersrom many Sacramento unions, community organizationsand churches, participated in a spirited picket line out-side the Sheraton Grand Hotel in downtown Sacramentorecently, chanting and singing to the accompaniment odrums and noisemakers.

Te UNIE HERE Local 49 Hotel Workers Ris-ing campaign, to gain better union contracts or hotelemployees in Sacramento, has been escalating this all. Insupport, a coalition o local clergy, community leaders,elected ocials and even some small businessmen havebeen sending delegations to meet with the managemento the Sheraton Grand Hotel to urge better health care andworking conditions or their employees.

Te Stonewall Democratic Club sponsored a commu-

nity support event, eaturing Cleve Jones, national ound-er o the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Jones isspearheading a national campaigncalled Sleep With the Right Peoplewww.sleepwiththerightpeople.org.

Te Sheraton Grand is the largestand newest o the ve union hotels inSacramento. Negotiations have beenunderway or several months. Work-ers have been doing inormationalleaeting outside the hotel.

At a Sacramento communitymeeting in August, hotel workersdescribed the physical drudgery andspeed-up that they endure. Christineroughton, a cook at the SheratonGrand, told o liing heavy pots and

50-pound sacks o onions or pota-toes. She needs surgery and therapyor her shoulders, but cant aord it,so she takes ylenol or Motrin to keepgoing. I have to get my paycheck to pay my bills, so I keepworking through the pain, roughton said.

Eva uaga, who has a sick husband, has worked or16 years as a hotel maid, earning $8.50 an hour. She pays$156 every two weeks or health insurance. In an 8-hourshi she is required to clean 16 messy rooms, includingmaking two luxury beds with heavy mattresses, thick cov-

ers and several pillows in each room. Many people clockout at the end o the day and then go back to nish theirrooms on their own time, uaga told the audience.

UNIE HERE labor contracts, expiring across the USthis year, provide a key opportunity to raise workers liv-ing standards.

In San Francisco, UNIE HERE Local 2 has justwon a contract struggle with 13 o the citys largest hotelcorporations. In addition to gains in health care, wages,pensions and workload protections, the ve-year contractgives workers the right to remain union when a hotel

changes hands. In Chicago, hotel workers have ratied anew contract with the Hilton Hotels, raising wages nearly21 percent and cutting workloads.

In both cities, the unions willnow call on other major hotels tosign similar agreements.

Hal o the recent increase in USservice jobs is in hotel maintenance,in hotels owned by large national andinternational companies. Most hotelworkers are women and people ocolor, and many are immigrants.

Te hotel workers strugglerequires them to conront interna-tional companies on a national level.Vivian Rothstein, deputy director othe Los Angeles Alliance or a New

Economy, spoke at the Sacramentocommunity meeting in August. Allo us need an economic and social

justice movement, Rothstein said.Trough the process o conronting poverty, clergy andcommunities can strengthen their own organizations,while helping to rebuild the labor movement, she added.

Te Hotel Workers Rising campaign is undamen-tally about raising the working poor out o poverty, saidSherry Chiesa, UNIE HERE international vice president.What the auto workers union did in the private sector in

the last century is what we have to do or the service sec-tor now, she said.

For more inormation about the Hotel WorkersRising campaign in Sacramento, contact UNIE HERELocal 49 at (916) 564-4949 or Josh Eidelson at jeidelson@unitehere.org

Gail Ryall is a long-time labor activist, and a delegate tothe Sacramento Central Labor Council rom the CaliorniaCapital Chapter o the Coalition o Labor Union Women.

Sacramento Backs Sheraton Grand Hotel WorkersSeeking higher wages and lower workloads

Many people clock out at the end o

the day and then go back to nish their

rooms on their own time. Eva Tuaga,

hotel maid at the Sheraton Grand.

Freedom From WarDavid Dionisis work for apeaceful world

by Tom KingTey also serve who only stand and wait. Tis

amous sentence rom the pen o John Milton, himsel apassionately politicized writer, might just be the maxi-mum encouragement to us who stand with our signs atintersections promoting the dream o peace. Sometimeswe grow discouraged out there when it seems the weekspass without evidence o sucient change. Tats why,when something remarkable does happen, right inSacramentos backyard, its so inspiring.

Sacramentos backyard? No oense, Davis, but thatmeans you! What has come orth in Davis is a world-beating organization with a world-beater at its helm! Tisis Freedom From War, created by David Dionisi, who inless than a year aer its ounding has already made it aninternational organization active in our countries.

Tis man Dionisi is many admirable things. In 1985,while an army intelligence ocer in Korea, he rst beganto question this countrys oreign policies. A book heswritten to reawaken our sleep-walking world to the all-too-real nightmare o nuclear weapons,American Hiro-shima, is translated and available even in Korea, and thesource or a motion picture being made in England. His

und o inormation on world aairs, much o it gathered

as an intelligence communityinsider, is prodigious.

Dionisi will address thepublic wherever theyre will-ing to listen, and as a speakerhes not just good, hes ormi-dable. More than just a highlytalented tongue, however, hesa humanitarian who organizesand serves orphanages in thirdworld countries. In act hes taken allhis inordinate capabilities and trained them uponone objective: to rescue the world rom the terminaldisaster that appears about to swallow it.

Now I come to one nal talent o this man: hisgenius or organization, with its ruition in the rapidlyswelling membership o Freedom From War.

So what distinguishes FFW? Te paramount dis-tinction must be Dionisis vision o a peace movement

sweeping up all the l ittle pieces o peace into a strong,unied orce eld. Our open source peace model andsharing o best practices, he writes, has the potentialto change the insular and oen ineective eorts omany peace organizations.

In terms o community service, its umbrella coversworld-beating undertakings, some o them truly heartliing. Umbrella is the operative word here: Dionisi isthe systemic unier, administrator and servant to otherolks independent projects.

One o the most impressive o the projects beingadvanced is the eort by FFW member Nadia McCa-rey to create homes to care or soldiers shattered to thepoint o dysunction. Now in the process o becominga separate organization, the homes or veterans pro-gram, while so ar only a concept, illustrates how FFW,

disapproving o war, reaches out to the victims o war.

Te nal good news bulletin: FFW will soon have a Sac-ramento chapter! o learn more about Freedom From

War, visit www.reedomromwar.org. You can reachDavid Dionisi at ddionisi@sbcglobal.net. Toseinterested in purchasing his book can visit www.americanhiroshima.

om King is a retired college proessor who livesand writes in Sacramento.

Above and let: drums and bullhorns, and cans flled withpeas accentuated a sea o signs, as over 300 workers andcommunity supporters wearing Hotel Workers Rising t-shirts marched in ront o the Sheraton Grand Oct. 19.photos: Ellen Schwartz

Inside this issue:Editorial. 2Demonizing.Arabs.&.Muslims. 2Teen.and.Youth.Violence. 3Rethinking.Jesus. 4Poem:.Destiny.Calls 4

Black.Panther.Party.reunion.5Boling Public Water.6Project.Censored.2007. 7The.Case.for.Impeachment:.

The White House &.Hurricane Katrina. 8

Book.Reviews. 10Media.Clipped. 11Peace.Action. 12Hugo Chavez: Hero. 13Poem:.This.Time.Oaxaca.14Calendar. 15Progressive.Media. 16

A peace movement sweeping up

all the little pieces o peace into astrong, unied orce eld.

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BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTERNovember / December 2006

People MaerVlume 15, Numbe 6

Published Bi-Monthly by theSacramento Community forPeace & JusticeP.O. Box 162998, Sacramento,CA 95816(Use addresses below for

correspondence)

Ediial Gup: JacquelineDiaz, JoAnn Fuller, Seth

Sandronsky

Cdinaing Edi fis Issue: Seth Sandronsky

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Keltner

Design and Lau:Ellen Schwartz and

Dale Crandall-Bear

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because Editorial

On the coverOn October 19, outside theSheraton Grand hotel in down-town Sacramento, as over 300union hotel workers and theirsupporters marched in a spiritedpicket line, four clergymen, rep-resenting Catholic, Protestant andJewish faiths, attempted to delivera statement to the hotel manage-ment called On Hospitality andHuman Dignity, signed by 47local Catholic, Protestant, Jewishand Muslim clerics. They weretold none of the managers wereavailable.

Before the demonstration brokeup, the participants outside thehotel chanted to the manage-ment that wasnt there, Well beback, well be back, promisingto return in even larger numberson November 2.

See story on Page 1.

photo: Ellen Schwartz

Seth Sandronsky, Coordinating Editor for this issue

Free Trial Offer!Try a ree six-month subscription to BPM. Thereis no obligation to buy anything.

We think you will like the alternative newsand views you nd in this all-volunteer localbimonthly.

O course, i youre already convinced, thenenclose $15 with the coupon and help supportSacramentos alternative to the corporate-controlled media.

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Do you like shorter days and longernights? Whatever your answer, all is

here. And winter is ast upon us. It isa ne time to look back and catch your breath.What a year 2006 has been, ull o perils andpromises. Tis mix can and does spur regularpeople to use their creative energies to try tosolve some o our pressing issues and problems.

BPM is a progressive voice in these struggles.In this edition o the paper, our writers oeranalysis, artwork, events, news, poetry, and moreto help you better understand our world, and toget a glimpse o what ordinary olks are doing totry and make it better. Your participation in theseeorts is most welcome. In act, it is necessary tocreate the progressive change we so dearly neednow!

Mazda Majidi decodes the schemes o the

Bush White House over Irans presumed mili-tary threat to the US. Once again, he notes, theadministration is trying to make the Americanpeople ear a oreign government. Sound amil-iar? Te same president and his (wo)men madethe case or Iraqs weapons o mass destruction(still missing!) as an excuse to invade that nationin March 2003.

om King and Jeanie Keltner (BPM editorat-large) join Majidi in critical thought about war,ocusing on local people laboring or peace andunderstanding. Bob Richards discusses a very

amous social activist, Jesus, in relation to theviolent empires o Rome and US.

Violence in war cultures is both global andlocal. Rhonda Erwin details who is mobilizingto address Sacramentos awul cr isis o teen andyouth violence, and why.

A.J. Crisostomo reports on a new studentgroup struggling to improve the Multi-Cultural/Womens Resource Center at CSU Sacramento.Enjoy the poetry o Felicia Martinez and Shayana

Mendes about Mexico and the US.Dan Bacher lauds Hugo Chavez, president

o Venezuela, who recently criticized PresidentBushs concern or the reedom o oreign peo-ples. How can the White House with Democratsbacking export reedom while crushing humanrights here in the name o security?

On that note, Kevin Wehr has a major piecein our centerold (pages 8 and 9). He argues thatimpeachment o the president and vice presidentor what they did not do to help innocent Ameri-cans during the Hurricane Katrina disaster andood is a punishment that ts their crimes.

Water is where all lie began and what lie

itsel requires. Nancy Price explains the corporateprivatization o that natural resource, and what

people can do to stop it.I consider some press coverage o the US

health care system. Te rising price o health carehas propelled the recent walkout o thousands oSacramento County workers. Gail Ryall reportson some hotel workers in the city struggling orbetter health care and pay rom their employers.

Mary Bisharat and Leon Leson review bookspenned by journalists o diverse eras. CharleneJones reviews a volume o news analysis by Proj-ect Censored, based at Sonoma State University.

Elbert Big Man Howard o the Black Pan-ther Party brings us a bit o hidden history romthe 1960s. Ten, Panthers were on the move,bringing various peoples together or the com-mon good.

Ten and now, as 2007 approaches, overcom-ing our divisions o class, gender and race is abig key to creating a better society. BPM is parto this reedom movement, which has its uniquestrengths and weaknesses.

Please join us to help strengthen BPM, tokeep it going as a voice in struggle. Does thatinterest you? On behal o the many volunteerswho produce and distribute this paper, we lookorward to working with you.

Seth Sandronsky is a co-editor with BecausePeople Matter.

Please join us to help

strengthen BPM, to keep it

going as a voice in struggle.

Perils and Promises

By Jeanie Keltner

Khaled Umbashi was worried. Aer 9-11, hiswie had been harshly insulted at a gas station,and at school his 10-year-old son Mohamed hadbeen accused o being a terrorist because o hisname. And now here was a textbook rom theboys schoolWorld Geography by McDougalLittellthat seemed to Khaled to portray Mus-lins and Arabs as terrorists. Tis could only makethings worse or Muslims.

Umbashi is an activistweve worked togeth-er on several issues over the yearsso he went to

Te Bee and the Sacramento News & Review, botho which published thoughtul articles about hisconcerns. And the texts publishers, HoughtonMifin, agreed to take Umbashis objections intoaccount when they put out a new edition.

But that is hardly the end o the story. Khaledis right to worry.

A recent report by the nations largest Muslimorganization, the Council on American-IslamicRelations (CAIR), says complaints o discrimina-tion, harassment, and violence against Muslimsin the US jumped over 30% rom 2004 to 2005.One ourth o respondents to a CAIR surveybelieved stereotypes such as Muslims value lieless than other people and Te Muslim religionteaches violence and hatred. Over our in 10 saidthey associated anaticism with Muslims (www.

antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9716). Recent pollsby Gallup and the Washington Post/NBC show46% holding a negative view o Islam. Obviouslyall these stereotypes make it easier to victimizeMuslims.

Yet nearly 60% o US citizens say they havenever met a Muslimso these opinions are creat-ed by political discourse and by the mediaromMohameds textbook to the networks to the newsto the rightwing shock jocks who specialize inriling up anger.

Interesting and alarming proo that mediaimages and ino work on the mind below thelevel o consciousness and rationality is the Uni-versity o Michigan study reporting that althoughmost non-Muslims eel the media depicts Arabs

unairly, they still hold negative opinions (Wash-

ington Post3-9-06)!Anti-Arab/Muslim eeling is not new.

Michael Parenti showed in Make-Believe Media:Te Politics o Enter-tainment(WadsworthPublishing, 1991) thatHollywood elt ree toslur Arabs as a groupwhen other subgroups became protected by polit-ical correctness. Now, however, Islamophobia isan essential strategy in the Bush/Cheney regimesmove to control the mineral/oil/gas wealth o the

Middle East and Central Asia. As we are seeing(with war on Iran looming on the horizon), thisentails war on many Muslim nations. And tomake the massive killing and brutalizing accept-able to the US public, the targets must rst bedemonized.

Tus Islamophobia is cultivated con-stantlyrom Bushs initial ly entitling the attackon Iraq a crusade and his current reiteration oIslamoascism as the enemy to the Popes recentattack on Islam as violent and irrational (whenin act Islamic societies historically have actu-ally been more tolerant o other religions thanChristianity).

Anti-Arab/Muslim sentiment is beingencouraged since this regime needs every dis-traction it can muster to deect a populace that

seems to be rousing itsel to opposition. Hatredo the Other is such a convenient and blindingdistraction that racism is a necessary part o allascist regimesa way to ocus anger createdby ones oppression away rom the tyrant abovetoward the Other below.

Tis has happened, perhaps, to a greaterextent and intensity with Muslims than withprevious US enemiesmaybe because the Bush/neocon imperial project is so grandiose, requir-ing not only harsh aggression abroad but alsoharsh repression at home, that the enemy mustbe big to justiy it. Immediately aer 9-11 Bushintroduced the concept o evil into the discus-sion: the evil-doers, the axis o evil. Tis movesthe discussion rom the political to the meta-

physical. Evil: Te orce o nature that governs

and gives rise to wickedness and sin, associatedwith Satan (Random House Dictionary).

We see this magnication clearly in thetextbook: Te tradi-tional motives, such asgaining independence,expelling oreigners,or changing society,

still drive various terrorist groups around theworld. But other kinds o terrorists, driven byradical religious motives, began to emerge in thelate 20th century. Te goal o these terrorists is

the destruction o what they consider the orceso evil. Tis evil might be located in their owncountries or in other parts o the world. Teseterrorists oen threaten to use weapons o massdestruction, such as chemical, biological, or

See Umbashi, page 14

Stereotypes make it easier

to victimize Muslims.

Demonizing Arabs and MuslimsStrategic Islamophobia and the US imperial project

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November / December 2006 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER

SacramentoProgressiveEventsCalendar onthe Web

Labor, Peace,Environment, HumanRights, Solidarity

Send calendar itemsto Gail Ryall,.

By Rhonda Erwin

Our community is responding to teen andyouth violence. Why do we need to rec-

ognize these community members?Te rst reason is to destroy the myth that

we dont care. We are not motionless in address-ing the violence within our communities.Recently, I saw the Nation o Islam men doingoot patrol in heavy violent crime areas o bothMeadowview and Valley Hi. As members o thecommunity, the deeds and labor o the NOI arenot going unnoticed, and they are appreciated.Tese men come in peace,stand or peace and leavein peace.

Secondly, we needto help teens, youth andamilies involved and aected by violent cr ime,to transcend their collective suering. Recently, I

spoke by phone with Reynaldo Placencia (the 22-year-old brother o Robert Placencia, a 17-year-old killed this summer in south Sacramento).Reynaldo participated in a revival or teens romSacramento, Modesto and Stockton who werecoming together to address youth violence. Rey-naldo is using his brothers tragic death to reachout to teens involved in or aected by violence.

Finally, we need to prevent teens and youthrom aping gang culture/membership as a mas-querade or youth leadership. Te Zeta BetaLambda Chapter o Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity,in partnership with Consumes River College andthe Greater Sacramento March o Dimes, is coor-dinating the Alpha Academy workshop, held oneSaturday a month. Te workshop brings adultproessionals together with middle school and

high school teens (12 to 18 years old), with theocus being to improve academic perormance,prevent teen pregnancy and enhance career goals.

In early all, several school children weremaimed and murdered in school shootingsacross the US. I cried or the school teens as Ihave cried a river o tears or teen and youthmurder victims in Sacramento.

President Bush spoke out about ways to pre-vent uture youth murders. I watched news mediareports on the teens who witnessed the schoolkillings. eens and amilies aected by the schoolshootings were given support and helped to moveon. Our children, on the other hand, have diedsenseless deaths or decades, and until recently

our suering was not very newsworthy.Meanwhile, our teens and youth are killing

one other. One shooting is copying the other.One uneral copies a uneral the day beore. Te

government has been slow to respond to amiliescries and pleas or teens and youth o color dyingthese violent and senseless deaths.

In early all, media reported high-schoolshooting stories, acknowledging the emotionso the teens and youth involved. In contrast,news coverage or the violent deaths o our teensand youth is sensationalized. Our children aredehumanized.

Current news coverageo our suering rom vio-lent crime comes packagedwith what the SacramentoCounty Sheris Depart-

ment, Department o Justice and Sacramento CityPolice Department are doing to round up crime

suspects. I question these law enorcement priori-ties. Why is all the emphasis on apprehendingsuspects? Where is the money and time or pro-viding solutions to preventing more crime that, inturn, creates, more suering?

Where are the crime prevention policies basedon research into the violent deaths o our teens andyouth? Why is the solution to our communityspain the building o more jails and prisons? Why isa blanket pulled over our suering? Why is it con-tinuously assumed that we human beings o coloreel no pain or the violent deaths o our childrenand the separation o our amilies?

Were on our own, saving our own. Just aswith Hurricane Katrina, the government that col-lects our taxes, who calls us all Americans, claimswe are all equal, will orce some to save ourselves,

but reach out to li others rom eeling pain. Whydoes our government think the color o yourskin makes you immune rom the pain o violentcrime?

Te sad thing is that our government wontsee our suering and continues to build more jailsand prisons. Tis is not a policy to prevent utureteen and youth violence. We know that. Tat iswhy we are mobilizing to save our daughters andsons rom the violence which disproportionatelyaects underprivileged communities o color.

Tis movement has been stalled. Why? Teanswer in part is the news media. It osters alseimages o people aected by teen and youth vio-lence. Tus this media bias makes it hard to rally

JUVENILE CLASS ACTION STRIP SEARCH SETTLEMENT

IF YOU WERE BOOKED, ASSIGNED TO A UNIT, AND STRIP SEARCHED AT

THE SACRAMENTO COUNTY JUVENILE HALL BETWEEN JANUARY 1, 1998,

AND OCTOBER 1, 2004, YOU WILL BE ENTITLED TO MONEY UNDER A

STRIP SEARCH CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT

There is a proposed Settlement of a Class Action lawsuit, Robinson, et al. v. Sacramento

County, et al. and Kozlowski, et al. v. Sacramento County, et al., pending in the United

States District Court for the Eastern District of California. The lawsuit concerns the strip

search policy and practices of the Sacramento County Juvenile Hall.

What is the Litigation About?

Plaintiffs alleged that Defendants violated various federal and state laws by strip searching

juveniles booked at the Sacramento County Juvenile Hall between January 1, 1998, and

October 1, 2004.

Who is Involved?

You are a member of the Settlement Class if you were booked, assigned to a unit and strip

searched at the Sacramento County Juvenile Hall between January 1, 1998, and October 1,

2004. To see if you qualify for a payment you should check the website or call the toll free

number below.

What are the Terms?

If you were a juvenile booked and assigned to a unit at the Sacramento County Juvenile

Hall and strip searched during the class period (January 1, 1998, through October 1, 2004),

you will be entitled to compensation depending on the number of times you were booked

and assigned a unit, the charges on which you were booked, and your probation status at the

time of booking.

Up to $4.0 Million will be available to satisfy claims under this settlement. Class Counsel

will apply to the Court for an agreed fee of $1.5 Million for reimburse ment for attorneys

fees and reimbursement of costs and expenses. Representative plaintiffs will collectively

share $280,000 (Two Hundred Eighty Thousand Dollars), and $500,000 (Five Hundred

Thousand Dollars) will be reserved for Claim Administrator expenses, for a possible total of

$6,280,000 (Six Million, Two Hundred Eighty Thousand Dollars).

For more information or to receive a claim form, consult the website or call the toll free

number below.

How Much Will I Get?

If 25% of those entitled to share in the settlement submit Claim Forms, the average payout

will be $2,000 per person. You may be entitled to more or less than this amount.

What are My Legal Rights?

If you wish to share in the Settlement Fund you must file a claim as discussed below. If the

Court approves the Proposed Settlement, you will receive a payment if you qualify. You

will also be bound by all of the Courts orders. This means you will drop any claims you

may have against the Defendants covered by this Settlement.

If you wish to file a claim you must complete a Claim Form. You can get a Claim Form by

contacting the Claims Administrators, in writing, at the address given below, or by calling

the toll free number. Claim Forms must be signed and post-marked no later than January 8,

2007.

If you do not wish to be a member of the Settlement Class, you must sign a Request for

Exclusion letter as outlined in the Stipulation of Settlement and Notice which you can

download from the website or get from the Claims Administrator. Your Request forExclusion must be filed with the Court no later than February 16, 2007.

When Will the Settlement be Approved?

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California will hold a Fairness

Hearing to decide if the proposed settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate at 10:00 a.m.

on March 2, 2007, at the United States District Court, 501 I Street, Courtroom 2,

Sacramento, California 95814. At the hearing the Court will also consider whether Class

Counsels request for attorneys fees and costs are fair, reasonable, and adequate.

If you remain a member of the Settlement Class you or your counsel have the right to

appear before the Court and to object to the Settlement. However, in order to object, you

must file a written objection, as outlined in the Stipulation of Settlement and long form

notice. Objections must be filed with the Court by January 8, 2007.

FOR INFORMATION ON THE PROPOSED SETTLEMENT,

YOUR RIGHTS, AND A COPY OF THE NOTICE:

VISIT: www.robinsonvsacco.com or Call: 1-800-401-0541 or

Write: Sacramento County Juvenile Strip Search Class Action,

c/o Claims Administrator, P.O. Box 1110 Corte Madera, CA 94976-1110

PLEASE DO NOT CALL THE COURT

Legal Notice

Responding to Teen and Youth ViolenceCommunity versus government solutions

We are mobilizing to save

our daughters and sons.

support whenmany people,consciously andunconsciously,

eel that wedeserve ourpain and sor-row. In spite othis negativity,the communityis creating crimepreventionsolutions.

Tere are many events being planned toaddress teen and youth violence. While our gov-ernment shows its lack o concern towards oursuering, many citizens are rising to the call toshow support towards the amilies whose heartshave been broken and who drown in sorrow andtears. We are mobilizing to save our daughters

and sons.Rhonda Erwin is a violence prevention activ-ist and mother who lives in Sacramento, andwelcomes those who can help .

Peace Arts Xchange 2007 calendar now available

Peace Arts Xchange (PAX) presents Childrens Art about Peace, its 2007 calendar. The color-

ful wall calendar is now available at The Avid Reader, East West Books, Sacramento Area Peace

Action, and the UNICEF Store, all in Sacramento. The artwork above is a detail from June 2007,

by Kindergartner Ariana Mirmobiny. To see images from the works of Sacramento area students,

or for a full list of outlets, go to www.sacpeace.net. More Info: 736-1678 or 393-7676.

This project is funded in part by the ArtScapes Grant Program of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission with

support from the City and County of Sacramento.

Rhonda Erwinphoto mrzine.monthlyreview.org

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BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTERNovember / December 2006

Justice on earthBy Bob Richards

Jesus lived at the height o the most dominant,

hierarchical, militaristic empire in ancienthistory. Romans completely lorded over

the Mediterranean world and parts o the Mid-East with their military, engineering, and eco-nomic empire. Jesus grew up our miles rom theRoman-Greek center o Galilee, where the Herod

dynasty exploited the region.Unlike his cousin, John the Baptist, who

ocused on goodness and uture salvation, Jesusocused on present day lie, healing and build-ing community among the poor. He walked theback roads with the homeless, with dispossessedarmers and rustrated shermen. Jesus ate withpeople and taught about what he surely deliber-ately called, Te Kingdom o Godmeaning adierent kind o political organization. His teach-ingsbased on orah, prophetic, and wisdomwritingswere thoroughly the opposite o impe-rialism: Te land belongs to God and we shareit airly, and take care o relationships with ourworkers and animals, and the earth. All peopledeserve Sabbath (rest, peace, healing). Love yourneighbor comes rom Leviticus. Injustice andviolence o any kind toward anyone were heavilydecried.

Jesus and his ollowers met the Samaritans(a hated enemy among Jews). He related to

By Shayana Mendes

When Cheneys in-side,

When Cheneys intown.

Surely, there will beRuckus- all around.Because we willdrive

Bush out.We will unravelConusion anddoubt.

We are the people.We hold the power.In we go into theMajestic tower.The tower o light,Love, and peace.Time to make thewar cease.

Oh look, at the

Vivid, magenta hue.I pause as I stareAt you.What a breathtak-ing-

View!As I gaze intoYoure eyes, ImOnce again,

Feeling mesmerized.The tsunami- blueWave.Indicates thoseO us who areBrave.Out here to speakour voice, we will

beHeard.Oh look at the fut-tery,

Wings o the dove.From its wings,emerge

Golden, eulgent-Rays.

People can stare,And be hypnotizedor

Days.On September11th, I willast!Ill show them thatWe wont let thisWar last. No, I wontrest.

I wont give them theTime o day.I reuse to sit

Silent as the power-Hungry men haveTheir way.I wont do it!No way!I wont give themThe time o day!Why should I?When many inno-cent

People have died?

It enrages and sad-dens me that Bushlied.

How dare he takeAdvantage o theInnocent youths vul-

nerability.Being out here isMy responsibility.So, I treat itAs such.The pain hurtsToo much.

Oh, the achingDaggers cutA hole in my chest.

I eel the pain,Deep within myBreast.I am sensitive,So sometimes ICan eel otherPeoples pain.Theyre only eelingthis because

All Bush wants to

Do is gain,Gain, gain.He doesnt

Care that others arein pain.He is such anIgnorant man.Ughh, people likeThis, I justCant stand.It makes meWant to go onA stormingRampage.It makes meWant toRip this page.The melancholy,Gloomy day.The morose, riveting,glowing moon.

I am drowning in theMonsoon.Thats whats hap-pening,

To people ghtingthis

War.They dont knowThe real reason oWhat theyre ght-ing or.

For the rabid, tumul-tuous

Storm.The waves o sorrow.Makes me wish itWere tommorow.The poison that isentering in,

Controlling themrom outside,

As well as rom

Within.

Thats what poisonis.It is a venom toThe mind.Its this same venom,That has thoseSoldiers chained, itHas them bind.They are chaineddown.

They are thrown toThe ground.As the ropes tighten,It pulls deep withinthe skin.

It controls outsideand

Within.When will peopleLearn that war scarsOne or lie?It doesnt makeThem strive?You think its a

Joke?What?Do you ndMe annoying?Well, too badFor you.Because Im not toy-ing. I wish I

Were.Man, everythingSwings by inA blur.Everything is blurry.Time to tell you allA story.

A story o peace,

Love, and hope.At one time,I too was guillable.

I too was nave.I didnt know what toexpect,

Nor what to per-ceive.

So, certain peoplestarted brainwash-ing.

They started toyingwith me.

They thought thatId never openUp my eyes, to theTruth.

But, I have, youSee.So truly, I tellYou.

Dont let them brain-wash you.

Or, youll become avictim too.Im being draggeddown,

By the rabid- tide.Im being told toCome along or theRide.Its as MartinLuther King Jr. onceSaid.That which youDont ght toChange, youllBe orcedTo accept orBelieve.Now, do you see

why my anger dothseethe?It is our destiny.It is our ate.Lets spread love andPeace,Beore it

Gets tooLate!

Shayana Mendes is acommunity college stu-dent in Sacramento.

Roman soldiers and curious Pharisees. But Jesusdenounced puritanical, sel-righteous, hypocriti-cal legalistic busy-bodiesand also the Zealots,

who continually planned or and awaited thetime o armed resistanceand who eventuallybrought on the complete Roman destruction oJewish organization in Palestine.

When Jesus and his large group went to Jeru-salem just beore his death, in stark contrast tothe Roman military contingent out in ull orce,they entered Jerusalem with symbols o peace,humility, and poverty. Te next day he ca lled thetemple, where the poor and unacceptable werenot allowed, a Den o Robbers. Treatened byJesus messages, the priests sought to get rid oJesus but couldnt because o the crowds support.

Jesus teaching and example remain at theheart o so much o what our struggle is about.Jesus ollowers, such as Martin Luther King,

Jr. and myriads o justice workers, named andunnamed, have given their lives in non-violentprotest, working to end child labor and unjustworking conditions. Teocracy periodically hasraised its ugly exclusivity within Christianity, butJesus was entirely inclusive, without any barriersor gender or diering groups, especially or theoutcast, the poor, and the marginalized.

Now the empire is again in ull swing. Tepast trend in the US toward more and moresocial/political justice is being pushed back byconsumerism and social control. Our govern-ment vilies enemies and emphasizes power,competition, wealth, global control. We see moreand more breakdown in justice, in good teachingand in equity-producing social, economic, andpolitical organization. And so many o us seem

ignorant or unconcerned about this dri.Te history o Christianity as an institu-

tionalized religion is a long history with manyand requent divergences into its own terribleinjustices, domination, and hierarchy. But orcenturies, Jesus true ollowers have struggledagainst empire and worked to build a humaneglobal community. And, importantly, those whopractice non-violence, community building, andjust and loving relationshipseven when seem-ingly unsuccessul in the short termalways nda basic meaning in lie!

Bob Richards is a retired junior high schoolteacher, a bible and theology student, and socialjustice activist.

For urther reading: How Jesus Apostle

Opposed Romes Empire with Gods Kingdom byJohn Dominic Crossan, 2004.

Jesus: Social Activist

Jesus true ollowers have

struggled against empire and

worked to build a humane

global community.

Destiny Calls

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November / December 2006 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER

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1008 24th Street(Between J & K Streets)Mon-Sat 10-6916/442-9295

Unity in the Community! Black Power to Black

People! White Power to White People! Brown

Power to Brown People! Yellow Power to Yel-

low People! Red Power to Red People!

Tese cries emanated rom black communi-ties throughout this nation in 1968, initiated bythe Black Panther Party. Many organizations wereormed aer hearing those calls.

Who were these groups and how did theycome into existence? Te Patriots were a groupo poor young white working-class people, manyrom street-tur gangs, originally ormed inChicago. Teir chapters and en Point Programwere modeled aer the Black Panther Partys. Te

Patriots supported and closely ollowed the BPPsexample and dedicated themselves to serving thebasic needs o their communities, such as reebreakast programs, ree health clinics and otherservices. Te Patriot Party, like the Panthers, pub-lished a newspaper.

Te Young Lords also ollowed, in purposeand actions, many o the examples set by the BPP.Tese young Puerto Ricans ormed chapters inPennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, Mas-sachusetts, and Puerto Rico. Teir emale leader-ship strongly pursued the ght or womens rightsand ormed prison solidarity groups or incarcer-ated Puerto Ricans. By 1976, the Young Lordshad been all but destroyed by the FBI. However,other groups ormed and continued to pursuetheir goals.

San Franciscos Red Guard was patternedclosely aer the BPP. In 1969, the ederal govern-ment wanted to shut down a tuberculosis testingcenter in San Franciscos Chinese community. Atthe time, Chinatown had the highest B rate inthe country. Te young Asians in the Red Guardorganized the community and staged successuldemonstrations to keep that B testing centeropen. Trough these protests and the programsthat the Red Guard initiated, Chinatowns citizenswere enlightened and became open to moreprogressive politics. In 1970, members o the RedGuard were part o a delegation invited to jointhe Panthers Minister o Inormation, EldridgeCleaver, in a visit to China, North Korea, andNorth Vietnam. Aer about two and a hal years,

due to political and police repression, such asoce raids, arrests without warrants, alse arrests,and armed stand-os with police, the organiza-tion collapsed.

Cesar Chavezs United Farm Workersbrought attention to the plight o Hispanic andFilipino arm workers in this country. Becauseo his inuence, and that o the Black PantherParty, young Chicanos rom the barrios came torealize that struggle against oppressive conditionswas necessary or change, and the Brown Beretsorganization was ormed in 1967, with a 13-PointParty Platorm similar to that o the BPP. In the

summer o 1968, the Brown Berets marchedwith the Rainbow Coalition in the Poor Peoples

Campaign in Washington, DC. Among theirmany contributions, they organized Vietnam Warprotests, exposed police brutality, and startedthe Chicano movement or sel-determination.Unortunately, this organization met with a simi-lar ate to that o the BPPpolice inltration andoppression.

Te American Indian Movement (AIM)

was organized in the summer o 1968 whenapproximately 200 members o the Native Ameri-can community met to discuss various criticalissues in their communitiespolice brutality,slum housing, 80% unemployment, and racistand discriminatory government policies. oday,despite many legal battles and repressive actionson the governments part, including the impris-onment o leaders such as Leonard Peltier, AIMhas grown and still continues to serve its com-munity rom a base o Native American culture.In Minnesota, AIMs birthplace, organizationshave developed to institute schools, housing andemployment services. In November o 1969, theworld took notice when young Bay Area NativeAmerican students and urban Indians occupiedAlcatraz Island or 19 months, claiming it in the

name o Native Nations.In the 1960s and 1970s these diverse groups

ormed strong bonds with the Black PantherParty. We came to understand that we had com-mon problems; our communities were sueringrom similar social and economic conditions. Wewere being oppressed and exploited by the sameperpetrators. Tese groups met with the BPP anddiscussed and set orth plans to resolve some othese issues. Te Panthers 10-Point Platorm andProgram was a basic plan o action spelling outclearly what we wanted and what we believed.Tis program and platorm was so poweruland so on-target that many o those solidaritygroups drew up similar programs tailored to theircommunities.

Because o strong solidarity with these manydierent groups, the BPP was able to amass greatnumbers o people to participate in demonstra-tions such as Free Huey Newton (BPP co-ound-

er), stop the military dra, and end the VietnamWar rallies, which occurred all over the country.

Included among these supportive organiza-tions were many splinter groups such as the GayLiberation Front, the Peace and Freedom Party,the womans liberation movement, the Yippies,the Gray Panthers and groups that ormed orthe rights o disabled people. Tese solidaritygroups did not go unnoticed by the FBI andwere also subjected to the FBIs dirty tricks andCointelpro program. For example, the groupsoces and residences were bugged; they wereinltrated by government spies, and set-up orrame-ups and alse arrests. Although the other

groups were harassed and brutalized, only theBlack Panther Party was singled out or completeextermination.

Many members o the Black Panther Partywere tortured, murdered, and/or locked away indungeons, where many still remain. However,they did not get us all. We, the survivors, have aduty and a responsibility to continue to ght orthose same 10 Points, or what we want and whatwe believe .

Elbert Big Man Howard went to Merritt Col-lege in Oakland with Huey Newton, co-ounder othe Black Panther Party. Howard joined the Pan-thers at the very beginning. He was the frst editor

o the Panther newspaper. Later, Howard becamethe Panthers deputy minister o inormation andspokesperson.

Remembering the BlackPanther PartyA catalyst for solidarity and unity

By Elbert Big Man Howard

In the 1960s and 1970s diverse

groups ormed strong bonds

with the Black Panther Party.

Angela Davis and Elbert Big Man Howard meetbeore the BPP Reunion.Photo: Billy X. Jennings 2006

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BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTERNovember / December 2006

Peace Actionon the WebKeep up to dateon peace activismin Sacramento.Check out.

CapitolOutreach for a

Moratoriumon the

Death Penalty.

Third Mondays,11:30am to 1:30pm.

L Street at 11th.

We bring petitions,literature and banners.You bring yourselves.

Cae nearby or coeeater the vigil.

INFO: 447-7754

By Nancy PriceBottled water is a private diversion o our

public water commons. An intense 15-year publicrelations campaign has turned bottled water intoa multi-billion dollar-a-year business. Bottledwater sales outpace all other beverages exceptsoda pop. At the same time, beer, coee and milksales are at.

Consumers now want bottled water at anytime and place. Whats more insidious, we havebeen convinced that our tap water is not sae, andthat buying bottled water up to 1,000 times thecost o water rom a municipal systemthat wehave already paid or with our tax dollarsmakessense.

We are being conditioned to look or andaccept individual, private, and costly solutions tolocal water problems. Instead, we should workwith public ocials and others on communalstrategies. Te strategies are: testing water, iden-tiying and stopping pollution, and adequatelyunding our public water works.

Three bottled water giants:Coca Cola with its Dasani brand and Pep-

siCo with Aquana both contract with local gov-ernments and pay pennies to just turn on the tapto make plain bottled water, with some addedltration. Nestl Waters North America, an ali-ate o Nestl, SA, the number one Swiss oodand beverage multinational, taps directly intoour resh springs and aquiers and dominatesthe spring water market hiding behind regionalbrand names, such as Arrowhead and Calistogain Caliornia.

Northern Caliornia a targetIn 2003, Nestl signed a 50-year contract, renew-able or 50 years, with the McCloud Community

Services District to build a 1-million square-oot bottling/distribution center in this ruralcommunity. Te center is justsouth o Mt. Shasta on Route 89o I-5, and is similar to centersin Michigan and Maine.

Nestl will use 1,800,000gallons o spring water per day,with access to unlimited groundwater and 8,500 acre-eet annu-ally o water rom the McCloudRiver upon purchase o the oldCal-Cedar Mill property. Nestlwill pay only .000087 cents pergallon or the water it takes rom

McClouds springs, or only 8.7cents or 100,000 gallons. A 16-ounce bottle o the same watersells or around $1.29, or $10.32 per gal lon. Ata shel price o $10.32 per gallon, 1600 acre-eetwould gross $5,380,451,712 dollars. I Nestl nets1/5 o what that water sells or it would makeover $1 billion a year.

Already, Crystal Geyser bottles water inWeed, northwest o Mt. Shasta, and Coca-Colahas just purchased a Mt. Shasta plant that uses500 gallons o water per minute in a 150,000-square-oot building. Nestl and Coca-Cola arealso bottled water partners in Indonesia.

What is our public water commons worth?

Groundwater is pumped 24 hours, 7 days-per-week rom surrounding wells and habitats.Tis process creates a staggering depletion owater supply that scientists have documented. Yetindustry disputes it, repeatedly.

Just as important, petroleum and naturalgas are used to make the multi-billions o plasticbottles that contain water. Plastic water bottles(and their later disposal) leave a world-widetoxic trail o land, air and water pollution. Tispetroleum-ueled trail rom plastic bottles beginsat manuacturing centers and travels to wholesaleand retail outlets. Tis transit mode contributesto global warming, and air and water pollution.

Less oen mentioned is the contaminationo our bodies by even trace amounts o pollu-tion. Tis has serious health consequences or allages. See Water or Lie Not Corporate Protin the Alliance or Democracys newsletterJustice Rising: www.theallianceordemocracy.org/html/eng/2363-AA.shtml.

o get involved, support the McCloud Water-shed Council eort to stop the Nestl/McCloudproject. Learn more about this campaign at www.mccloudwatershedcouncil.org/nestle. Statewideand national mobilization has generated over2,000 expert legal, scientic and citizen com-

ments, which were received by the SiskiyouCounty Planning Department on the DraEnvironmental Impact Report. Finally, join theWomens International League or Peace andFreedoms Save the Water Campaign at www.wilp.org/campaigns/water. o order ap Into Itbumper stickers (see top o page) call 530-758-0726 or nancytprice@juno.com.

Nancy Price is co-chair, Alliance or Democ-racy and Western Coordinator o the DeendingWater or Lie Campaign; member, leadershipteam o Save the Water Campaign o the WomensInternational League or Peace and Freedom.

Quick Factson Bottled Water versus cleaning up the drinking water supply

Members of the United Nations estimate that if the world took half of

what it currently spends on bottled water ($100 billion annually) and invest-

ed it in water infrastructure and treatment, everyone in the world could have

access to clean drinking water.

But bottled water is cleaner, right? Actually, the U.S. EPA sets more strin-

gent quality standards for tap water than the FDA does for bottled beverages,

and roughly 40% of bottled water is actually just tap water.

1.5 billion barrels of oil are consumed each year to produce the plastic for

water bottles, enough to fuel 100,000 cars.

According to the Container Recycling Institute, only 14 percent of plastic

water bottles are recycled.

A water bottle in a landfill or lying around as litter will take over 1,000

years to biodegrade.

Source: www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/Bottled020606.cfm

In 2003, Nestl signed a 50-year contract, renewable or 50years, with the McCloud Community Services District to build a

1-million square-oot bottling/distribution center just south oMt. Shasta.

Bottling Public WaterSelling nature or proft

We are being conditioned tolook or and accept individual,

private, and costly solutions

to local water problems.

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November / December 2006 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER

By Charlene Jones

P

roject Censored celebrates 30 years odigging up what was buried by corporatenewsmakers with the September release

o Censored 2007. Each year the media analysisproject, headquartered at Sonoma State Uni-versity, publishes research and exposes storiesoverlooked or under-covered by mainstreamnews. Tis years anniversary edition eatures abounty in addition toits annual top 25-cen-sored picks.

Emblematic othe projects mission,the No. 1 censoredstory or the 30thyear ocuses oninormation meansand media, titled Future o Internet DebateIgnored by Media. It alerts readers to the largely

underground debate regarding the uture o theInternet as Congress sets its sights on re-writingthe nations sweeping telecommunications laws.Reerred to as network neutrality, ensuring theInternet remains open to all voices and ideasbecame a erce contest among telecommunica-tion companies, public interest groups and Inter-net service providers. Meanwhile corporationspour millions into public relations and politicalcoers, insisting web access and its worldwidecontent must come only at a price, their price.

Te next 24 censored stories are an assort-ment o disturbing disclosures including: Oceanso the World in Extreme Danger, US Operativesorture Detainees to Death in Aghanistan andIraq, Hunger and Homelessness Increasing inUS Pentagon Exempt rom Freedom o Inorma-

tion Act and Chemical Industry is EPAs PrimaryResearch Partner. In addition to regular yearbookeatures such as Junk Food News and NewsAbuse, the expanded volume adds chapters oncorporate media cross-ownership, media activistgroups and bias by the Associated Press.

In the AP chapter corporate media malea-sance is illustrated by a broadcast blackout o anAmerican Civil Liberties Union press release,

containing American military sources, whichannounced dozens o deaths rom US torture.Te ACLU posted to their website 44 autopsyreports o civilians who had died while in USmilitary prisons in Iraq and Aghanistan rom

2002-2004, indicatingwidespread torture byUS orces.

Te AP wire ser-vice made the storyavailable to US medianationwide. However,research showed 95percent o the daily

papers in the United States did not carry thestory nor did AP conduct ollow-up coverage.

Censored 2007 also gives readers a glimpseat 29 years o No. 1 censored stories with anupdate on each and a retrospective by projectounder, Carl Jensen, Ph.D. eaching at SonomaState in 1976, Jensen produced a cablevision pro-gram titled CENSORED: Te Great AmericanMedia Mystery. It revealed mainstream mediagave little coverage to important consequentialnews and Project Censored was launched.

From 1977s No. 1 Jimmy Carter and the ri-lateral Commission to last years Bush Adminis-tration Moves to Eliminate Open Government,Project Censored has provided original research,vital inormation and commentary rom abroad selection o non-conormist reporters andscholars.

No. 1 stories rom past and present have

addressed the investigative theme o news andeorts by corporate interests to curb and containit. Tree decades o Project Censored publica-tions nd corporate media has not been theFirst Amendments riend2003, FCC Moves toPrivatize Airwaves; 1996, elecommunications

Project Censored, 30 years and countingCovering what big media covers up

No. 1 stories rom past and

present have addressed the

investigative theme o news

and eforts by corporate

interests to curb and contain it.

Deregulation: Closing Up Americas Market-place o Ideas; 1993, Te Great Media Sell -Out toReaganism; 1992, CBS and NBC Spiked Footageo Iraq Bombing Carnage; 1991, Te Gul War:ruth was the First Casualty; 1990, Global MediaLords Treaten Open Marketplace o Ideas; and1988, Te Inormation Monopoly.

For 30 years students and aculty, com-munity experts, research interns, guest writersand national evaluators have assisted ProjectCensored, which remains critical to the publicdialogue that underpins US democracy. Pick up

the book or a ew o them or those who read andthose who desperately need to do so. Contactwww.projectcensored.org or (707) 664-2500.

Charlene Jones is a member o the Sacra-mento Media Group and writing team or ProjectCensored.

Useful Web SitesInstitute for Middle EastUnderstandinghttp://imeu.net/

Union for Radical Political Economics PoliticalEconomy of the Iran Crisishttp://urpe.org/Iran_Crisis.htm

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BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTERNovember / December 2006

By Kevin Wehr, Ph.D.

he US Constitution provides or theremoval o an authority rom a position

o powerimpeachmentbased onhigh crimes and misdemeanors, includingtreason, perjury, and abuse o power. In the caseo the Bush administration, mishandling o oneo the most crucial issues o our timeglobalclimate changeconstitutes a clear and danger-ous case o the abuse o power. Further, theadministrations stunning incompetence and

criminal recklessnessin the ace o HurricaneKatrina and decades ooreknowledge o thedangers o storms to NewOrleans also constitutes asucient justication orthe removal o Bush and

Cheney rom any position o authority.

A human-made disaster: predictable

tragedy

Tere are really ew totally natural disas-ters. It was a social decision to build a city inthe way o a natural, predictable (i very pow-erul) storm. Social disasters dont just comeabout rom the ignorance o where a city grewup, but also rom the actions o the state (poorplanning, cronyism, and ideologically-motivat-ed politics) and the needs o capital (on whosebehal action is oen undertaken by the state).

What caused Hurricane Katrinas dev-astation? First, the natural waterways o thedelta were reconstructed, canals were cut anddredged, the river was re-routed, and levees

were built, all o which denied the delta thenatural changes it needs, allowing the city tosink.

Ten the wetlands were drained to makeroom or subdivisions. Tis, too, is not separaterom the racialized and class-based charactero the tragedy: capitalism requires a continualand stable use o natural resources, but it alsorequires laboring bodies, and the most easilydominated groups are those that are most mar-ginalized. White ight to the suburbs on thosedrained wetlands le the city under-undedin terms o taxation, and with concentratedcommunities o color and poverty. Te ruraloutlying areas are also subject to this urbanand classist raming o the disaster. While

New Orleans gets the lions share o moneyand media attention in the post-disaster scene,

whole (poor, rural) towns in Mississippi wereliterally wiped o the map and got almost no

media coverage.

Decision-based act-making

Blind emphasis on pro-business and anti-environmental policies, such as the reusal tonegotiate or ratiy the Kyoto accord (on cli-mate change), the promulgation o ineectualvoluntary pollution control measures, broaddevelopment policies based on market needs,and privatized solutions to public problems alladd together to constitute an abuse o power in

the ace o scientic consensus on global climatechange. Virtually all credible scientic stud-ies now agree that the earth is warming due atleast in part to anthropogenic (human-induced)causes.

An important outcome o global warmingis an increase in the power o hurricanes. MI

Proessor Kerry Emanuel, in several paperspublished in Nature between 1987 and 2005, hasdemonstrated that in most cases, the evolu-tion o hurricane intensity depends mainly onthree actors: the storms initial intensity, thethermodynamic state o the atmosphere throughwhich it moves, and the heat exchange with theupper layer o the ocean under the core o thehurricane. Te warmth o the ocean is directlyaected by global climate change: the warmerthe globe, the warmer the ocean, the stronger thehurricane.

Te Bush administration must be heldaccountable or denying global climate changeand or not taking appropriate actions. Tisabuse o power connects to the ury o HurricaneKatrina as it destroyed New Orleans and much

o the Gul Coast. Katrina could not have beenstoppedi we put cities in the way o nature, wehave to expect to be slapped. But the power oKatrina was ueled by global warming, and actionshould have been taken years ago to reduce theprobability o such supercharged storms. Teseconditioning actors are ideologically-driven, andreect a gross incompetence by those in power.And yet even the solutions to Katrinas devasta-tion are similarly ideological: large private rmshave beneted rom no-bid contracts (just as inIraq), pollution controls were temporarily puton hold, a gul opportunity zone is establishedsimilar to export zones in developing nations(not subject to normal state controls), andmoney has been thrown at a problem rather than

employing careul thought and analysis.

Fiddling while New Orleans foodsTe presidents response to Katrina was crim-

inally delayed, indierent, and inept. As KanyeWests public comment exhibits, many observersconcluded that George Bush doesnt care aboutblack people. Just ater the disaster in NewOrleans Bush spoke o taking aggressive actionagainst deep and persistent poverty with roots ina history o racial discrimination. In the span oabout two weeks, however, the Republicans werebusy blaming the victims themselves, saying that

the poverty o the evacuees was clear evidencethat the last three decades o governmental pov-erty alleviation programs had clearly not worked.Such comments denigrated the people o NewOrleans, suggesting that entitlement programswere at ault or creating dependency amongstthe destitute. And yet the most damaging orm o

entitlement is the gi o a political oce based onpolitical connections rather than ability, and thiscronyism contributed directly to the devastation.

In the year beore Hurricane Katrina hit, theBush administration continued to cut budgetsand deny grants to the Gul Coast. In June o2004, the Army Corps o Engineers l evee budgetor New Orleans was cut. It was cut again in Juneo 2005, this time by $71.2 million or 44% o theirbudget. Adding insult to injury, in 2004 FEMAdenied a Louisiana disaster mitigation (reduc-tion) grant request. Bush, in other words, didworse than nothing. Te administration slashedbudgets or levee restoration, downgraded FEMArom a cabinet position, and considered privatiz-ing the entire agency.

Since Watergate, the classic question has

become What did they know, and when didthey know it? Te answer, in this situation,is they knew it all, and they knew at least 24hours in advance. Te White House was givenmultiple warnings that Hurricane Katrina hada high likelihood o causing serious damage toNew Orleans and the Gul Coast. At 10 am onSunday 28, August 2005, the day beore the stormhit, the National Weather Service published analert under the title DEVASAING DAMAGEEXPECED.

Te Homeland Security Department alsobrieed the White House on the scenario,warning o levee breaches and severe ooding.According to the New York imes, a HomelandSecurity Department report submitted to the

A Case for ImpeachmentThe White House and Hurricane Katrina

The presidents

response to Katrina was

criminally delayed.

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November / December 2006 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER

White House at 1:47 am on Aug. 29, hours beore

the storm hit, said, Any storm rated Category 4or greater will likely lead to severe ooding and/or levee breaching. Tis document, made publicby a Senate investigation, clearly contradicts thestatements made by both President Bush andHomeland Security Director Michael Cherto,immediately aer the storm, that such devasta-tion could not have been predicted. On Septem-ber 1, 2005, President Bush said I dont thinkanyone anticipated the breach o the levees. Butthe devastation was predicted, and both Bushand Cherto were inormed. And then they liedabout it.

So the weather service told them it wascoming. So did the only FEMA agent on theground. So did members o the DHS itsel. What

was it that administration ocials did whileNew Orleans ooded? Bush, Cheney, and othermembers o the cabinet were not inconveniencedby the Gul Coast disaster. Te President gavean unrelated speech at a Naval air station in SanDiego, comparing himsel avorably to FDR, witha media photo-op o him strumming a guitar(not ddling, as Nero did). Te vice presidentremained y-shing on vacation in Wyoming.

What did people do in response to this gov-ernment bungling, this death, and destruction?Tey organized themselves so as to overcome.What is most brilliant in this disaster is the abilityo the people themselves to solve the problemsthat the authorities cannot solve or will not ace.Te people o New Orleans did not all act withintegritythat much is clearbut most o them

did, most o the time. While race and class clearlyconstructed the chances o individuals to get out,these same olks responded to such indignitiesby developing the types o systems that actuallysolve problems, rather than denying disaster andthen merely giving lip-service, as those o theBush administration did.

A New Orleans hurricane survivor, DeniseMoore, was evacuated to the Ernest Morial Con-vention Center. Tere she and amily membersound a nightmare. Tey were there or two dayswithout ood or water. Shelter was not conduciveto human existence; she thought she was in hell,and that the authorities had le her and her am-ily (including a 63-year-old and a 2-year-old)there to die. When authorities did come, they

came only to drop o more and more people,

people who had been rescued rom rooops.

Tey arrived delirious rom dehydration andsunstroke. Te authorities said that the bus-ses would come, but they did not, not or days.Denise reported that the police drove by, win-dows rolled up, thumbs up signs. National Guardtrucks rolled by, completely empty, soldiers withguns cocked and aimed at them.

But those in the Convention Center werenot entirely dispirited. Denise reported that therewere young men with guns there, but they werethe ones who organized the crowd:

Tey went to Canal Street and looted, andbrought back ood and water or the old peopleand the babies, because nobody had eaten indays. When the police rolled down windowsand yelled out the buses are coming, the young

men with guns organized the crowd in order: old

people in ront, women and children next, men

in the back. Just so that when the buses came,there would be priorities o who got out rst.

She also saw some men shoot at the police,because aer some time all the people thoughtthe cops were coming to hurt them, to kill themall. Tey all believed they were sent there to die.I it wasnt or them, she said we wouldnt havehad the little water and ood they had ound. Iwill never look at thugs and gangsters the sameway again.

Kevin Wehr is an assistant proessor o sociol-ogy at Caliornia State University Sacramento.Wehrs article is adapted rom his essay in a col-lection o essays titledImpeach the President: TeCase Against Bush and Cheneyedited by Dennis

Loo and Peter Phillips, (Seven Stories Press, 2006).

This image shows two curves. O necurve (white dots) is a histogramof hurricane intensities for currentclimate conditions. The secondcurve (black dots) is a histogramof intensities for warm climate(high CO2) conditions. The warmclimate curve (intensities) is shiftedtoward lower central pressures(higher intensities) compared tothe present climate curve. Thecaption above provides details onthe experiments that producedthe data.

This year, the hurricanes took a break. But what will happen in the future?

The strongest hurricanes in the present climate may be upstaged by evenmore intense hurricanes over the next centuryas the earths climate is warmedby increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Although we cannot say at

present whether more or fewer hurricanes will occur in the future with global warming,

the hurricanes that do occur near the end of the 21st century are expected to be stronger

and have significantly more intense rainfall than under present day climate conditions.

This expectation (Figure below) is based on an anticipated enhancement of energy

available to the storms due to higher tropical sea surface temperatures.

From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. www.gfdl.noaa.gov/~tk/glob_warm_hurr.html

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10 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTERNovember / December 2006

Tis unauthorized memoir is the biting, yetdelightul, story o the authors 30 years in theearly network news era o V. It was a time in the50s, 60s and 70s when the three great conglomer-atesNBC, CBS, and ABCwere organized andruled the roost. It was a heady period o businessexpansion in the communications eld, as well

as in the cultural realm, whose ull potential wasyet to be tested. Much o what occurred duringthose years had promising intervals o culturalenhancement that provided opportunities ortalented, creative people to work in the newbooming communications industry. And it wasa period as well o vast changes and advances intechnology that made possible todays CNNs,HBOs, C-SPANS, and Clear Channels.

During those years, the evolving techniquesand methodology or deeply inuencing thethinking o Americans about all aspects o ourdaily lives took a quantum jump. Brainwashingthrough advertising and public relations becameperhaps Americas biggest industry. Everything

with the potential or commodica-tionor being turned into a saleableproductwas (and is) grist or themarket economy. oday its calledprivatization.

Stephen Fleischman is one o thegreat talents and unsung heroes as awriter, director, producer, and muchelse in the eld o media. Unknown tohis bosses, he was rom his early years aMarxist who understood the inner work-ings and dynamics o the capitalist system.Tat knowledge pulled him through many adicult phase in his working career. Miracu-

lously, he managed to escape the ravages othe McCarthy period (o anti-communistwitchunts), or so it would appear rom hisbook.

In the course o three decades in networknews, Fleischman encountered and worked withsome o the bright stars in network news: WalterCronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Fred Friendly, DanRather, Howard K. Smith, Eric Sevareid, PeterJennings and others. On a personal note, in myvery early years, I worked or a period o time inthe US post oce in New York City and deliveredmail to some o these notables.

For people o Fleischmans generation, thesenames will live longer in history than the Lim-baughs, Hannitys and the George Wills o ourtime. From the moment I started reading this

book I couldnt put it down. For this reviewer,much o it is dj vu, reliving a segment o histo-ry that, with all o its negatives, stands as a lode-star compared with the dolorous times in whichwe live today. I highly recommendA Red in theHouse as an inormative and stimulating read.

Leon Leson is a veteran political activistand retired state worker who lives and writes inSacramento.

Sandy olan, international journalist, documen-tary producer, and current I.F. Stone Fellow atUC Berkeleys School o Journalism, has woventogether thousands o elements o the complexhistorical realities o Palestine and Israel, basedon reporting, research, interviews, and archivaldocuments, both published and unpublished.

Some eight years in process, Te Lemon reedisplays with great richness o understandingand skill the human complexities in the story oAn Arab, A Jew, and the Heart o the MiddleEasta story o one house and 2 amilies.

Te Khairis are a l arge and prosperousPalestinian Arab amily rom the ancient city o

Al Ramla. Since CE 714, Al Ramle had been anexclusively Arab town, but when Israel was beingcreated in 1948, all its citizens were expelled bythe order o young Yitzhak Rabin (the late IsraeliPrime Minister). Tey ed to Ramallah, a 20-mile walk under the hot sun with their children,among whom was six-year-old Bashir. ManyPalestinians died in such marches.

Te other amily, the Eshkenazis, are descen-dants o Sephardic Jews expelled rom ChristianSpain in 1492, but welcomed into the MuslimOttoman empireBulgaria. Frightened by thehorric events in Europe and the roundup oJews in Bulgaria, the Eshkenezis started a new liein Palestine in 1948, when Israel was declared astate or Jews. Tey brought with them their tiny

daughter Dalia.

Te narrative describes theexperiences o Dalia, an IsraeliJewish woman, and Bashir, a dis-posessed Palestinian, over a 40-yearperiod. In 1967, Bashir goes to Israelto search or his lost home in Ramle.Dalia opens the door and invites himin. Tey tour the house, Bashir nds

out his old room has become Daliasroom, and also nds the lemon tree hisparents had planted long ago.

olan switches back and orthbetween the histories o the two amilies,giving a context or what happened toDalias amilythe essence o secularZionists. When Dalia wondered who hadlived in the house, she was told the Arabspreerred to leave. But why, she wondered,would anyone leave so willingly?

Dalia learned to live a lie o discernment,to see the whole and not judge solely by sur-aces. And on the intuitive level, she must havebeen aware o that history, or she rememberedit when she opened the door, she thought Wow!Its them! Its as i Id always been waiting or

them. When they le, she elt welling up insideher a sense o akhrayetan ability to respond tothe other.

Meanwhile, Bashir matured and specializedin labor matters. He became an Arab nationalist.He reasoned, orce expelled us, and only orcewould get the land back.

It is impossible to read this book withoutdeveloping strong ties to these two individualscaught in a moral dilemma. When Dalia visitedBashirs amily in Ramallah, he showed her acabinet containing a lemon, now shriveled, whichshe had given him rom the tree. He says, Tislemon is more than ruit. It is land and history.She replies We can see ourselves in you, Bashir.We can remember our own history o exile over

thousands o years.

Tey were residing within a contradiction:

they were enemies and they were riends. Teensuing chapters are gripping. Bashir was impris-oned or 15 years and brutally tortured. Dalia elther spirit was being crushed by an historic wheelo inevitability.

Dalias parents passed away and sheapproached Bashir about what she should dowith her house. She oered Bashir reparations,which he quickly rejected, suggesting instead thatDalia and her husband Yehezkel Landau makethe house into a pre-school or the towns Arabchildren.

Te original lemon tree had diedbut a newone was planted and is growing.

Mary Bisharat is a human rights activist and

retired social worker in Sacramento.

Book Reviews

A Red in the House: The Unauthorized Memoir of S.E. Fleischmanby Stephen FleischmanPaperback: iUniverse, February 25, 2004. 382 pages.

Reviewed by Leon Lefson

Unknown to his bosses, he

was rom his early years a

Marxist who understood the

inner workings and dynamics

o the capitalist system.

The Lemon Tree, by Sandy TolanHardback: Bloomsbury Publishing (May 2, 2006). 304 pages.

Reviewed by Mary Bisharat

The narrative describes the

experiences o Dalia, an Israeli

Jewish woman, and Bashir,

a disposessed Palestinian,

over a 40-year period.

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Sacramento PublicLibrary (Main & manybranches)

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Where would you liketo see BPM? Let PauletteCuilla know, 422-1787.

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November / December 2006 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER11

he cost o US health care has climbed 43percent over the past nine years, accord-ing to the Bureau o Labor Statistics. Tis

price jump is close to

double the over-allrate o ination (priceincreases) o 26 percentin the same nine years.David Leonhardt, in theNew York imes o Sept.27, wrote that the spiral-ing prices or the UShealth care system areslowly creating a crisis.

However, he continued, we ool ourselvesi we think that American health care is over-priced. In act the nations health care is pricedright or what the American people get. We areliving longer and as a result are paying more orhealth care that includes debrillators, chemo-

therapy, cholesterol drugs, neonatal care andother treatments that are both expensive andeective.

I have a question or Leonhardt. I US healthcare is such a great deal or what it provides thepeople o the worlds best democracypleaseexplain how is it that Canada spends less per per-son or health care than the US, while Canadianshave longer lie expectancies than Americans?

otal health expenditure per person or 2004was $6,102 in the US versus $3,165 in Canada,according to the Organisation or Economic Co-operation and Development. As o two years ago,Americans were paying 45 percent more thanwhat Canadians pay or health care.

Spending on health care per person in theUS was $1,776 versus $1,264 in Canada in 1985.

Health care spending was $2,752 or the US and$1,737 or Canada in 1990. By 1995, US healthcare spending per person was $3,670 comparedwith $2,055 in Canada. US health care spendingper person reached $4,588 as Canadian spendingwas $2,503 per person in 2000. Canadas per per-son health care costs went rom 71 percent o USspending levels in 1985 to 55 percent in 2004.

Meanwhile, Canadians can expect to livelonger than Americans. Lie expectancy was 79.3years or Canadians versus 76.8 years or Ameri-cans in 2000, according to the OECD. Canadianscould expect to live 75.3 years compared withAmericans 73.7 years in 1980. Canadians lieexpectancies were 77.6 years versus lie expec-tancy o 75.3 years in the US in 1990.

As US per person health care spending roserelative to Canadas expenditures, Canadians lieexpectancies increased aster than Americans.How can that be? Te OECD does not providethat answer. What we do know is that Canadaprovides its citizens with universal health care. Inother words, health care is the right o all Cana-dians. Te US has gone in a dierent direction

with health care provision or its populace.Leonhardt does not consider universal health

care or Americans. Tus his column echoed con-ventional thinking on

our system. Considerthis: Te day aerSacramento Countyworkers walked out,in no small part dueto management push-ing them to pay moreor health care, Cali-ornia Gov. Arnold

Schwarzenegger vetoed state Sen. Sheila Kuehls(D-Santa Monica) Senate Bill 840 to provide allCaliornians with high-quality, comprehensivehealth care.

SB 840 relies on the ailed old paradigm ousing one sourcethis time the governmenttosolve the complex problem o providing medical

care or our people, the governor said in a pressstatement.Without a mention o this vetoed universal

health-care bill, an unsigned Sacramento Bee edi-torial o Sept. 7 urged county workers to get usedto health-care costs, rising or everyone. It isworth noting that Sen. Kuehls universal health-

care bill would have done away with a main orcedriving up the costs o medical careprivatehealth insurance. Tese same insurers such asBlue Cross/Blue Shield are also a source o ad

revenue or media such as Te Bee and campaigncash or the political system.

Seth Sandronsky is a co-editor with BecausePeople Matter.

Media ClippedSeth Sandronsky

US Health Care in Crisis

How is it that Canada spendsless per person or health

care than the US, while

Canadians have longer lie

expectancies than Americans?

Eight students in C-COLORS (Coalitionor Cultural Opportunities in Leadership andOverall Retention o Students) rallied with sixaculty members at Caliornia State University,Sacramento in mid-October to voice concernsabout the direction o the Multi-Cultural/Womens Resource Center.

Students rst introduced themselves at apress conerence. Later, they submitted overa dozen completed job applications or a newclerical position in the Center.

C-COLORS wants more employmentdiversity in the Center. Tere are many stu-dents who have the drive and qualications towork with various ethnic groups on the CSUS

campus.C-COLORS goals include eectively

boosting the retention rates o CSUS students.Te group suggested mentoring and tutoringoutreach as two methods or the Center to useto improve student retention.

Also, C-COLORS wants the Center tobring in more cultural organizations on cam-pus, and to actively arm diversity. Tis is onlythe rst step or C-COLORS.

For more inormation, contact (916)215-0894.

Anthony A.J. Crisostomo is a secondyear student at CSU, Sacramento, and activelyinvolved with the local Pilipino community.

Students, Faculty Rally for Change at CSUSMulti-Cultural Center

By Anthony A.J. Crisostomo

Peace in the Precincts volunteers working to elect Dr. Bill Durston to Congress and Jim Cookto the State Assembly. Durston and Cook teamed up to support each others campaigns. Theyhave many enthusiastic supporters. For more inormation about Peace in the Precincts and tovolunteer, go to www.ippcampaign.blogspot.com, or call 225-5670.Photographer: Harold Fong

05/08/2006Caliornia Nurses march onSacramento, demanding clean money, airelections, and healthcare or all. Shown here withstate Sen. Sheila Kuehl, author o SB840.photo: California Nurses Association

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1 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTERNovember / December 2006

Mohammed el-Baradei, InternationalAtomic Energy Agency director, issueda report to the IAEA Board o Gov-

ernors and the UN Security Council on August31, 2006. Te report contained the obvious truththat Iran had not halted activities related to ura-

nium enrichment. But another part o the reportreceived ar less coverage in the corporate media.Inspections have not uncovered any concreteproo that Irans nuclear program is o a militarynature, the report stated. In other words, as theIAEA has consistently reported, there is no evi-dence o a nuclear weapons program in Iran.

Te UN Security Council passed Resolu-tion 1696 on July 31. Te stated objective o theresolution is to halt the development o Iransprogress in uranium enrichment, an importantphase in nuclear technology.

In late May, a ministerial meeting o theNon-Aligned Movementwhich includes over100 statesdeended Irans right to develop itspeaceul nuclear program. Te NAM views thepressures on Iran as another example o themajor capitalist powers stiing independent tech-nological progress.

Irans ambassador to the UN, Mohammad-Javad Zari, agreed with the NAMs view. odemonstrate the peaceul nature o its program,Iran submitted its nuclear acilities to an unprec-edented inspection by the IAEA in the precedingyears, Zari said, which enabled the agency toorganize the most robust inspection it has evercarried out. It included more than 2,000 inspec-tor-days o scrutiny in the past three years.

John Bolton is the US ambassador to the UN.He indicated that the US will pursue an inde-pendent coalition or penalizing and sanction-ing Iran, reported the Aug. 26 LA imes. Youdont need Security Council authority to imposesanctions.

o the extent that the US can use the cover othe UN Security Council to advance its objective

o regime change in Iran, a diplomatic, multilat-eral approach is, o course, desirable. I and whenthat ceases to serve the US purpose, or becomesirrelevant, then the US will act unilaterally.

UN Security Council Resolution 1696 isunair and baseless rom the standpoint o inter-national law. Iran is a signatory o the reatyon the Non-prolieration o Nuclear Weapons(NP). Te other nuclear-armed countries inthe regionIsrael, Pakistan and Indiahavereused to sign that treaty, with no threats orconsequences.

Originally signed in 1968, the NP entitlesits signatories to the peaceul developmento nuclear energy. Further, the NP obligatesnuclear-armed nations to dismantle their nuclear

weapons and provide technical assistance to non-

nuclear nations.Te US, Britain and France have no inten-

tion o dismantling their huge arsenals o nuclearweapons. US threats o direct military interven-tion and the possibility o sanctions against Iranhave no more to do with nuclear arms in Iranthan the invasion o Iraq was about weapons o

mass destruction. Washingtons strategy in theMiddle East has long consisted o bringing downindependent states and breaking down massresistance. Recent events in Palestine and Leba-non are two examples.

Sanctions and wars, in addition to diplomaticmaneuvers, are all at the service o this strat-egy. When 12 years o Washingtons genocidalsanctions against Iraq ailed to bring about thedesired regime change, invasion became the best

imperialist option. Recall the imperialist dreamthat Condoleezza Rice recently termed the newMiddle Easta region where no independentstate or popular resistance movement exists.Meanwhile, transnational corporations control allthe key resources.

With the majority o Arab governmentsbeholden to Washington or in shambles, the twostates that now stand in the way o a new MiddleEast are Syria and Iran. Tis is the essence othe current conict. Te Iranian nuclear issueonly serves as a convenient pretext or the USgovernment.

Given the array o orces lined up againstIran and the possibility o a devastating US mili-tary attack, it would be understandable or Iran

to bow to such pressure and abandon its pursuito nuclear technology or the sake o sel-pres-ervation. According to this view, whatever gainsthat could be made rom nuclear technology aremore than oset by the devastation that wouldresult rom sanctions and war.

Te Iranian leadership is keenly aware, how-ever, that the abandonment o their nuclear pro-

gram would not put an end to the relentless driveor regime change. At best, it would only orcethe White House to nd a dierent pretext.

In the buildup or the invasion o Iraq, theBush administration used a multitude o pretexts,rom Iraqs supposed development o weapons omass destruction to its alleged connections to the

Sept. 11 attacks to Saddam Husseins repressiono Iraqi Kurds.Similarly, the Bush White House has opened

various propaganda ronts against Iran. Besidesthe nuclear question, there is Irans support orterrorismmeaning the liberation orces in theMiddle East. Unable to squash Iraqi resistanceand unwilling to admit its widespread supportwithin the Iraqi population, the Bush administra-tion has pulled out the bogey man o the oreignagitator.

Iran is responsible or training, unding andequipping some o these Shia extremist groupsin Iraq, said US Brig. Gen. Michael Barbero. Teirony is, o course, is that the oreign agitatorinterering in Iraq is the US military!

Yet another pretext that the US government

routinely uses is the deense o ethnic and reli-gious minorities. Tis was the main justicationused or the US attack on Yugoslavia in 1999.Te population o Iranwhich is majority Per-sianalso has Kurds, Azeris, Baluchis, Arabsand others. Alongside the majority Shia Muslimpopulation, there are Sunni Muslims, Christians,Zoroastrians and Jews.

Any outbreak o ethnic conicts in Irancould provide a suitable pretext or US interven-tion in deense o these minorities. O course,these ethnic and religious conicts could also beorchestrated i necessary. Recently, Iranian o-cials accused British and US ocials and agentprovocateurs o backing the riots and bomb-ings in the oil-r ich, majority Arab province o

Khuzestan.

Mazda Majidi is an Iranian-American activistand member o the Northern CA chapter steer-ing committee o the ANSWER Coalition. He is aregular contributor on Iran and the Middle EastorSocialism and Liberation magazine and theweb site www.pslweb.org.

There is no evidence o a

nuclear weapons program

in Iran. International

Atomic Energy Agency.

The US Threat To Attack IranBush White House Pounds Its War Drum Again

By Mazda Majidi

IAEA Director Mohammed el-Baradei.

Sacamen Aea Peace Acin is an all-vlunee ganizain a

wks educae and mbilize e public pme a nn-ineven-

inis and nn-nuclea US feig