Slowly, painfully, inexorably we crawl towards war. A new bomb was tested today. At 21,000lbs, it is by far the largest in the U.S. or anyone else arsenal! Where oh where are we going to drop that? The world is unraveling and I feel powerless to pull tight the string. War is inevitable, unavoidable; it lingers like a dark cloud over everything we seem to do. The stock market is down, the price of gas it up; all bad news seems to have “War with Iraq” stamped up its title page.
I am at the point now—and I know I am not alone—that I wish we would just invade and get it over with already. Invade and let the world implode, and the hatred of American and Americans, spill forth like hot lave from newly awakened volcano. The terrorist will strike and we will strike back, all is lost, all is lost, or so it seems.
The spilt with our Allies continues to grow and I fear for the future of the United Nations, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for that matter. Mired in a sea of poisonous self interest, and no longer united in the quest to end the evil of communism, the nations of the world have once again turned from multilateralism. The bridge over the moot of cooperation and human progression has been raised, and once again the world is hurdling towards world war.
The United States, is acting like a spoiled child and the conservatives blinder firmly attached trumpet the call to arms with unbridled, naked glee. A quick listen to conservative AM talk radio will bear me out. It’s scary really, how many people; mostly white males want to rush to war. They are so maddening in their Pavlovian devotion to the Accidental President. He can do nothing wrong in their eyes, he is the great White leader, who will slay the evil doer in Baghdad, no matter the eventual cost to nation.
More thoughts tomorrow, time to post…
Tuesday, March 11, 2003
Sunday, March 09, 2003
I have had mixed feelings about Associate Justice Clearance Thomas ever since he accented to the United States Supreme Court, being appointed to such by President Bush the elder. His record on the Court since that appointment has been one of overwhelming conservatism, which I admit disappoints me greatly. Thurgood Marshall is most assuredly rolling over in his grave! While Marshal championed Civil and Equal Rights of all Americans, and fought tirelessly to raise the status of black Americans, Thomas hid in a monastery! And yet I grudgingly respected his right to his conservative views, however abhorrent I found them.
However his dissent in the racial decimation case of Miller-El v. Cockrell, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice gave me considerable pause to think again. So repulsed was I, by his cold, closed minded analysis of the case, I wrote an essay for my school newspaper this past Friday. This man is dangerous to Black Americans folks, plain and simple! Below is the essay in its entirety:
Justice Thomas Has an Identity Crisis
Racial discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice. They are woven into the fabric of American society as tightly as baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet. Contrary to what most White Americans believe, racial discrimination is very much alive and thriving in America. As a black male I live with it every day of my life, and I will die with its mark heavy on my heart and its imprint etched into my soul. To be sure it is not in my face every minute of every day, but like a dark shadow it follows me wherever I go, reminding me from time-to-time of my station, my role, my burden. No matter the education, social status, or bank balance, if you are black in America you wear a dark suit that will never come off.
So it was with some surprise that Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and a man who grew up during the Civil Rights movement, should choose to dissent in a case dealing with racial discrimination in the justice system! I say some, because Justice Thomas, a staunch conservative, has always held views contrary to my own, and the vast majority of black America, about race and racism. And while I do not agree with his stance on most issues, I have defended his right to form them, and to stand apart from black masses. But his dissenting opinion in Miller-El v. Cockrell, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, in which he stated that “[b]ecause petitioner has not shown, by clear and convincing evidence, that any peremptory strikes of black viniremen (prospective jurist) were exercised because of race, he does not merit a certificate of appealability (COA). I respectfully dissent,” cannot be ignored, or explained away as just a difference in opinion.
For those unfamiliar with the aforementioned case, in 1986 Miller-El was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by the city of Dallas. Miller-El appealed the conviction on the basis that he did not receive a fair trial because all but one of the prospective Black jurors was struck from the jury pool by the Dallas District Attorney’s office. Using tactics that were found by the Supreme Court in Batson v. Kentucky to be contrary to equal application of justice, the prosecutors in this case used peremptory challenges to strike 10 out of 11 prospective black jurors. The prosecutors also used other methods—also ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court—to excuse black Americans from the jury pool, leaving a panel of all white jurists to hear Miller-El’s case with a predictable outcome.
It is every American citizen’s right to file a writ of habeas corpus before a federal appeals court, if it can be proved that ones constitutional rights have been violated. But before the writ can be filed, a defendant must obtain a Certificate of Appealability or COA from a United States District Court. However, before the COA can be issued, a prisoner must demonstrate clear and convincing evidence of a violation of his/her constitutional rights; violations a “reasonable person or jurist” might find compelling enough to grant a COA. The basis of Justice Thomas’s dissent is that Miller-El did not meet this burden. In his dissent Justice Thomas stated: “[q]uite simply, petitioner’s arguments rest on circumstantial evidence and speculation that does not hold up to a thorough review of the record.” I beg to disagree with his dissent!
By now it is an open secret that lady justice is neither blind, nor fair when dispensing justice to most Black Americans—especially black American males. There have been and continue to be, systemic abuses of the criminal justice system in America that have left the Black community devastated. Fatherless Black children, and a black male prison population grossly out of proportion with the over all black population of the nation, are just the tip of a societal injustice anchored in racism, ignorance, and fear. Some would argue that black males commit crimes proportionate with their numbers in prison, but in our own state 13 black males have been released from death row within the last ten years, having been falsely accused.
American history is replete with tales of the unprincipled, amoral, and egregious assaults on our system of justice by those bent on denying black Americans equal protection under law. And as I stated above, some of the most scandalous tales find their place at the table of modern, post Civil Rights, American justice. It’s against this backdrop that Justice Thomas delivered his ill-formulated dissent. If racially motivated malfeasance in the American justice system were a rarity, then and only then, could I understand and give careful consideration to his arguments in this case. But such is not the case, and like it or not at the end of day, whether the lights are on or off, Justice Thomas wears the suit of the black American male, and all it purports. I would submit that Justice Thomas has become a boorish European wannabe with no real sense of identity. Conservative values, and making oneself blind to the continued struggle for equality of your fellow black Americans, will not make it otherwise!
Thomas has done us all a disfavor by turning a blind eye to the cancer that is racism, a cancer that eats at the very heart of American jurisprudence. After all, the vaulted American justice system is only as pure and as fair as the men and women who shepherd it.
However his dissent in the racial decimation case of Miller-El v. Cockrell, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice gave me considerable pause to think again. So repulsed was I, by his cold, closed minded analysis of the case, I wrote an essay for my school newspaper this past Friday. This man is dangerous to Black Americans folks, plain and simple! Below is the essay in its entirety:
Justice Thomas Has an Identity Crisis
Racial discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice. They are woven into the fabric of American society as tightly as baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet. Contrary to what most White Americans believe, racial discrimination is very much alive and thriving in America. As a black male I live with it every day of my life, and I will die with its mark heavy on my heart and its imprint etched into my soul. To be sure it is not in my face every minute of every day, but like a dark shadow it follows me wherever I go, reminding me from time-to-time of my station, my role, my burden. No matter the education, social status, or bank balance, if you are black in America you wear a dark suit that will never come off.
So it was with some surprise that Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and a man who grew up during the Civil Rights movement, should choose to dissent in a case dealing with racial discrimination in the justice system! I say some, because Justice Thomas, a staunch conservative, has always held views contrary to my own, and the vast majority of black America, about race and racism. And while I do not agree with his stance on most issues, I have defended his right to form them, and to stand apart from black masses. But his dissenting opinion in Miller-El v. Cockrell, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, in which he stated that “[b]ecause petitioner has not shown, by clear and convincing evidence, that any peremptory strikes of black viniremen (prospective jurist) were exercised because of race, he does not merit a certificate of appealability (COA). I respectfully dissent,” cannot be ignored, or explained away as just a difference in opinion.
For those unfamiliar with the aforementioned case, in 1986 Miller-El was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by the city of Dallas. Miller-El appealed the conviction on the basis that he did not receive a fair trial because all but one of the prospective Black jurors was struck from the jury pool by the Dallas District Attorney’s office. Using tactics that were found by the Supreme Court in Batson v. Kentucky to be contrary to equal application of justice, the prosecutors in this case used peremptory challenges to strike 10 out of 11 prospective black jurors. The prosecutors also used other methods—also ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court—to excuse black Americans from the jury pool, leaving a panel of all white jurists to hear Miller-El’s case with a predictable outcome.
It is every American citizen’s right to file a writ of habeas corpus before a federal appeals court, if it can be proved that ones constitutional rights have been violated. But before the writ can be filed, a defendant must obtain a Certificate of Appealability or COA from a United States District Court. However, before the COA can be issued, a prisoner must demonstrate clear and convincing evidence of a violation of his/her constitutional rights; violations a “reasonable person or jurist” might find compelling enough to grant a COA. The basis of Justice Thomas’s dissent is that Miller-El did not meet this burden. In his dissent Justice Thomas stated: “[q]uite simply, petitioner’s arguments rest on circumstantial evidence and speculation that does not hold up to a thorough review of the record.” I beg to disagree with his dissent!
By now it is an open secret that lady justice is neither blind, nor fair when dispensing justice to most Black Americans—especially black American males. There have been and continue to be, systemic abuses of the criminal justice system in America that have left the Black community devastated. Fatherless Black children, and a black male prison population grossly out of proportion with the over all black population of the nation, are just the tip of a societal injustice anchored in racism, ignorance, and fear. Some would argue that black males commit crimes proportionate with their numbers in prison, but in our own state 13 black males have been released from death row within the last ten years, having been falsely accused.
American history is replete with tales of the unprincipled, amoral, and egregious assaults on our system of justice by those bent on denying black Americans equal protection under law. And as I stated above, some of the most scandalous tales find their place at the table of modern, post Civil Rights, American justice. It’s against this backdrop that Justice Thomas delivered his ill-formulated dissent. If racially motivated malfeasance in the American justice system were a rarity, then and only then, could I understand and give careful consideration to his arguments in this case. But such is not the case, and like it or not at the end of day, whether the lights are on or off, Justice Thomas wears the suit of the black American male, and all it purports. I would submit that Justice Thomas has become a boorish European wannabe with no real sense of identity. Conservative values, and making oneself blind to the continued struggle for equality of your fellow black Americans, will not make it otherwise!
Thomas has done us all a disfavor by turning a blind eye to the cancer that is racism, a cancer that eats at the very heart of American jurisprudence. After all, the vaulted American justice system is only as pure and as fair as the men and women who shepherd it.
Friday, March 07, 2003
I write an opinion column almost every week for my school newspaper, The DePaulia (I currently attend DePaul University’s College of Law in Chicago; yes political junkies, I am a first year law student), pretty regularly and sent in the essay below last week. It pretty much sums up how I feel about Bush and his administration:
Open Letter to President Bush
Dear Mr. Bush,
What are you doing? Try as I might, I cannot sign onto the direction you are taking the nation! Your Presidency thus far, has been predictably short-sighted, while displaying an overabundance of empty rhetoric, and stupefying arrogance. I often sit perplexed, numb, and just a bit depressed whenever I read, or hear about a new Bush Administration policy decision. I can’t help but feel as though you and your Party are ruining not only our nation with your unimaginative, self-serving, edicts. Worse still, you (if opinion polls are to be believed) are increasingly sullying America’s reputation among the worlds’ peoples with your unilateral and haughty approach to foreign policy!
The religious right heralded your ascension (a “God Fearing” man) to the Presidency as a return to moral righteousness and principled behavior in the White House. But, being a God Fearing man has not endowed you with wisdom and vision enough to see the folly of your present course. I strongly dislike what you and your Party are doing to my country, my society, and my fellow Americans in the name of “compassionate conservatism.”
Our country was founded on the Principles of equality and justice for all, Mr. Bush, not just the moneyed few. While the religious right pays unabashed homage to your accidental Presidency, I feel our country continues to devolve into a society of obscene private wealth and stupefying, public poverty!
I, for one, do not want my children to inherit a country where the rich have become the new aristocracy, and the poor the new serfs confined to the blighted inner-cities of our nation, while the middle-class hangs on by its finger nails, clawing forward, or slipping back at the whim of the corporate elite. Is that the kind of future you see for America, Mr. Bush? Do you care enough to pay attention?
Principles, real principles, mean something to me, Mr. Bush, not hollow homage to God, devoid of real compassion or empathy. In your policy decisions to date I see little principle and little compassion for the average struggling American. But I do see an almost un-relentless pursuit of personal wealth for yourself and those fortunate enough to be born with a silver spoon, and a seasoned pedigree. I was shocked to learn that you made more in dividend income last year then most Americans make in a year! And yet you seek to cut the tax on dividends, while seniors have to travel to Canada to find affordable prescription drugs!
And are you aware Mr. Bush that while you dream up new ways to fatten the already bloated and morally bankrupt coffers of the obscenely wealthy, two million American have lost their jobs since March of last year? And that most have not found new employment? What help for them Mr. Bush? They without golden parachutes, and fat severance packages totaling in the millions of dollars; they without health care benefits or prescription drug coverage (myself included); they who are losing not only their American Dream of today, but its promise for the future.
Have you no concern for them Mr. Bush? Seems not, because their plight, my plight, will not be your family’s to suffer. Is that why you give us such sallow disregard? Would a day, a week, a month spent with an average American family, plant the seeds of empathy and understanding in your bosom?
And why are you taking us to war Mr. Bush? Our nation, founded on the principles of the rule of law, has never launched a war against another sovereign country without being provoked in the most repugnant of terms. And without good reason, we should not insert ourselves into the affairs of other nations unless a gross violation of human principles and morality dictate our military response! By going to war with Iraq I would argue that you seek to violate the very principles that cement the foundation of our nations founding. And in so doing you lessen America’s standing in the eyes of the world community.
Is oil at the heart of your un-relentless march towards carnage and human suffering? If it is, shame on you Mr. Bush, and shame on all of those who would take the nation to war for profit and because you lack the vision, wisdom, and leadership to craft an energy policy that boldly moves the nation away from it dependence on foreign oil! Nobel laureate and former President Jimmy Carter has stated that: “In order for us human beings to commit ourselves personally to the inhumanity of war, we find it necessary first to dehumanize our opponents, which is in itself a violation of the beliefs of all religions…[W]ar may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good.”
So, Mr. Bush, Mr. Accidental President, I am tired. Tired of the short-sighted legislation that seeks to enrich the few at the expense of the many; tired of your conservative agenda cast deceptively in the guise of compassion that threatens to hold hostage the tide of social progression, at the hands of the religious right; tired of the unimaginative, self-serving, mean spirited nature of your policies that again benefit the moneyed few at the expense of all. I am tired too of war, and threats of war. And I am not alone, I am not alone in my weariness, the nation feels it too, if only you cared enough to listen!
Open Letter to President Bush
Dear Mr. Bush,
What are you doing? Try as I might, I cannot sign onto the direction you are taking the nation! Your Presidency thus far, has been predictably short-sighted, while displaying an overabundance of empty rhetoric, and stupefying arrogance. I often sit perplexed, numb, and just a bit depressed whenever I read, or hear about a new Bush Administration policy decision. I can’t help but feel as though you and your Party are ruining not only our nation with your unimaginative, self-serving, edicts. Worse still, you (if opinion polls are to be believed) are increasingly sullying America’s reputation among the worlds’ peoples with your unilateral and haughty approach to foreign policy!
The religious right heralded your ascension (a “God Fearing” man) to the Presidency as a return to moral righteousness and principled behavior in the White House. But, being a God Fearing man has not endowed you with wisdom and vision enough to see the folly of your present course. I strongly dislike what you and your Party are doing to my country, my society, and my fellow Americans in the name of “compassionate conservatism.”
Our country was founded on the Principles of equality and justice for all, Mr. Bush, not just the moneyed few. While the religious right pays unabashed homage to your accidental Presidency, I feel our country continues to devolve into a society of obscene private wealth and stupefying, public poverty!
I, for one, do not want my children to inherit a country where the rich have become the new aristocracy, and the poor the new serfs confined to the blighted inner-cities of our nation, while the middle-class hangs on by its finger nails, clawing forward, or slipping back at the whim of the corporate elite. Is that the kind of future you see for America, Mr. Bush? Do you care enough to pay attention?
Principles, real principles, mean something to me, Mr. Bush, not hollow homage to God, devoid of real compassion or empathy. In your policy decisions to date I see little principle and little compassion for the average struggling American. But I do see an almost un-relentless pursuit of personal wealth for yourself and those fortunate enough to be born with a silver spoon, and a seasoned pedigree. I was shocked to learn that you made more in dividend income last year then most Americans make in a year! And yet you seek to cut the tax on dividends, while seniors have to travel to Canada to find affordable prescription drugs!
And are you aware Mr. Bush that while you dream up new ways to fatten the already bloated and morally bankrupt coffers of the obscenely wealthy, two million American have lost their jobs since March of last year? And that most have not found new employment? What help for them Mr. Bush? They without golden parachutes, and fat severance packages totaling in the millions of dollars; they without health care benefits or prescription drug coverage (myself included); they who are losing not only their American Dream of today, but its promise for the future.
Have you no concern for them Mr. Bush? Seems not, because their plight, my plight, will not be your family’s to suffer. Is that why you give us such sallow disregard? Would a day, a week, a month spent with an average American family, plant the seeds of empathy and understanding in your bosom?
And why are you taking us to war Mr. Bush? Our nation, founded on the principles of the rule of law, has never launched a war against another sovereign country without being provoked in the most repugnant of terms. And without good reason, we should not insert ourselves into the affairs of other nations unless a gross violation of human principles and morality dictate our military response! By going to war with Iraq I would argue that you seek to violate the very principles that cement the foundation of our nations founding. And in so doing you lessen America’s standing in the eyes of the world community.
Is oil at the heart of your un-relentless march towards carnage and human suffering? If it is, shame on you Mr. Bush, and shame on all of those who would take the nation to war for profit and because you lack the vision, wisdom, and leadership to craft an energy policy that boldly moves the nation away from it dependence on foreign oil! Nobel laureate and former President Jimmy Carter has stated that: “In order for us human beings to commit ourselves personally to the inhumanity of war, we find it necessary first to dehumanize our opponents, which is in itself a violation of the beliefs of all religions…[W]ar may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good.”
So, Mr. Bush, Mr. Accidental President, I am tired. Tired of the short-sighted legislation that seeks to enrich the few at the expense of the many; tired of your conservative agenda cast deceptively in the guise of compassion that threatens to hold hostage the tide of social progression, at the hands of the religious right; tired of the unimaginative, self-serving, mean spirited nature of your policies that again benefit the moneyed few at the expense of all. I am tired too of war, and threats of war. And I am not alone, I am not alone in my weariness, the nation feels it too, if only you cared enough to listen!
Thursday, March 06, 2003
Hello Web world, I thought would come out swinging into this new world (for me anyway) world of BLOGS. My first post is a letter I sent to CBS concerning a segment on 60 Minutes II last night. Hope you enjoy the rant:
To Whom it May Concern:
As I watched your segment last night about Bravo Company of the 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, I was left with one over-riding question: where were all the Black American soldiers? Dan rather interviewed not one! As a matter of fact I didn’t see one black soldier, period; in for foreground or in the background while you were shooting! Is that because there are no black soldiers and or officers, in Bravo Company? That would be pretty hard to believe since the overwhelming majority of infantry is made of black men, or so we’re told.
So I am back to my question: where were all the Black American soldiers? Were they not photogenic enough; were they no heroic enough; did you feel they had nothing to say, or that they would say the wrong thing? Or is that racism—subtle as it may be in this case—is once again rearing it ugly multifaceted head? It may mean noting to you, but to me a Black American male who served his country for 15 years it means a lot! I want my children to see that black males are serving their country every bit as much as white men. I want them to know, from more then just my example, that black men are more then the subtotal of the media cliques they have grown up seeing on their television screens. That black men are then a prison statistic, more then a rap record; and much more then the drug dealers, petty felons, and one-dimensional sex fiends Hollywood loves to portray them as!
Shame on you for not showing us (the American public and the world) a balanced representation of Bravo Company. We deserve and demand better! I am tired of all of America’s heroes wearing a white face!
Vincent Martin...
To Whom it May Concern:
As I watched your segment last night about Bravo Company of the 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, I was left with one over-riding question: where were all the Black American soldiers? Dan rather interviewed not one! As a matter of fact I didn’t see one black soldier, period; in for foreground or in the background while you were shooting! Is that because there are no black soldiers and or officers, in Bravo Company? That would be pretty hard to believe since the overwhelming majority of infantry is made of black men, or so we’re told.
So I am back to my question: where were all the Black American soldiers? Were they not photogenic enough; were they no heroic enough; did you feel they had nothing to say, or that they would say the wrong thing? Or is that racism—subtle as it may be in this case—is once again rearing it ugly multifaceted head? It may mean noting to you, but to me a Black American male who served his country for 15 years it means a lot! I want my children to see that black males are serving their country every bit as much as white men. I want them to know, from more then just my example, that black men are more then the subtotal of the media cliques they have grown up seeing on their television screens. That black men are then a prison statistic, more then a rap record; and much more then the drug dealers, petty felons, and one-dimensional sex fiends Hollywood loves to portray them as!
Shame on you for not showing us (the American public and the world) a balanced representation of Bravo Company. We deserve and demand better! I am tired of all of America’s heroes wearing a white face!
Vincent Martin...
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