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Chickens of Our Own Making
By Cindy Sheehan
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."
Reverend Jeremiah Wright; Sept. 16th 2001
White America refuses to study, reflect, and learn a lesson from history…
Malcom X in "Chickens Coming Home to Roost"
Malcolm X's story is familiar to many people here in America. Denzel Washington played him brilliantly in the eponymous movie. Malcolm X never backed down from a challenge or from the truth. In his speech after the horrible assassination of Pres. John Kennedy, he rightly said that, "White America refuses to study, reflect and learn lessons from history." Apparently, some people in black America aren't so good at learning from the past, either.
Senator Barack Obama is being credited by many with being the candidate of "change and hope." For the life of me, I would love to believe this. I would love to believe that anyone who is still involved in the race for the White House (that is rarely won by the most honest, sharpest, or best candidate) will bring hope and healing to our broken nation that desperately needs it. After almost eight years of ruinous BushCo, and really since April 30, 1789 when George Washington took his first oath of office, our country has been ruled by white men who have been several cuts above our third president named George, but who more often than not have been disastrous, also.
Barack Obama has denounced the above remarks of his mentor and pastor, Rev. Wright saying: "I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies." Let's parse the Rev's statement.
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye."
Yes, on December 7th, 1941 (another day that will live in infamy), a US Naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked by Japan. On that day, 2338 American service personnel were tragically killed, but there was little of what our Pentagon calls "collateral damage," civilians killed. As a matter of fact, during WWII, Japan killed very few American civilians. However, the US military command in the Pacific killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians in aerial bombings and with the use of the new WMD; H-bombs. General Curtis LeMay informed future Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara (who was under LeMay during WWII), that if the US had lost they would have been tried as "war criminals." The loss of innocent life in Japan was numbered in the hundred of thousands and I don't hear Senator Obama denouncing those acts of cowardice.
We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans,
I think there is little dispute that Israel (which I assume is what Obama refers to when he says "allies") receives approximately three billion dollars in aid from the U.S. each year and have brutally oppressed and occupied Palestinian lands for decades. In a one week's period this month, Israel killed over 300 Palestinians and was "shocked" when 8 Jewish seminary students were killed in return. I hate and reject all loss of innocent life no matter what is the color, religion or nation of origin. I think Senator Obama may buy into the neocon lie that somehow Israeli or American lives are more precious than Arab lives or black lives. Not only has the US supported state-sanctioned terrorism in such places as Palestine and South Africa, but we are committing some more of our own in Iraq and Afghanistan.
…and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost.
Yes, with arrogant American exceptionalism, we were indignant when almost 3000 of our brothers and sisters were killed on 9-11. We were indignant and we were stunned, shocked and sorrowed. But instead of searching our collective souls and reflecting about why they "hate us" so much, our insane president (backed by a bloodthirsty gang of racist opportunists) set off on a mission to send more chickens out into the world that will be a helluva bitch when they come home to roost.
Senator Obama also denounced any remarks that "disparaged our great country." Hmm…does he denounce remarks that his own wife made about being proud to be an American for the first time in her "adult life?" I wish I could be proud of a nation that tortures people and imprisons them without basic legal rights. I wish I could be proud of a nation that has a sitting president that has been responsible for killing almost a million innocent Iraqi people in a misadventure that was based on lies and is for profit. I wish I could be proud of a nation that rapes its poor people to feed the already rich in a demented reverse Robin Hood affect. I wish I could be proud of a country where over a million children are homeless and hungry every night. I wish I could be proud of a nation that left our black brothers and sisters hanging off of their roofs after Katrina. The list can go on and on. Senator Obama needs to denounce me, because the policies of our government do not make me proud and oftentimes endlessly disgust me.
As a nation, we need to pull together and denounce the policies of our government, which were the cause of 9/11. We need to apologize for the gory excesses of BushCo and we must learn how to conserve and cut-back on our own consumeristic orgies to give the rest of the world some creature comforts that are basic human rights. We need to call our "chickens" back home to peacefully roost before they roost again in violence.
I sit here behind my computer screen in solidarity with Rev. Wright. Not only do I not denounce him, but I support him in telling the truth. I wish Senator Obama would recall how he once stood for truth. A desk in the oval office that has been corrupted by years of calumny is not worth selling ones soul for.
We need to "study, reflect and learn" from our history that has been violent, but where elected officials mostly fed the carnage for imperial conquest and corporate profit. The next step is "change." True change; not more of nationalistic "same old, same old." with a different name.
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Agreed - In my opinion the major issue of division in this country is between a) people who take a literalist stance in terms of "patriotism" to our national mythos of "American Exceptionalism" and b) people who see our country as being one interrelated part in the larger global community of nations (and ultimately the earth).
The literalists will never understand the "American Exceptionalism" article http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/2006/06/american-exceptionalism.html Which I think makes perfect sense to those of us who don't blindly accept and endorse a non-sustainable philosophy of "America at all costs, America is the best, America against the world" etc.
That's my take on the main division in the country and I think it ties into the blowback that occurs when Jeremiah Wright, Ward Churchill, Dennis Kucinich and other critical thinkers make comments pertaining to the issue of "American Exceptionalism".... And which the literalists take umbrage with because they are unable or refuse to see beyond their immersion in the American national myth(s).
When over 10% of the black male adult population is behind bars (a black person is 8.2 times more likely to be in prison than a white person), I think that Jeremiah Wright is stating several raw truths of the historical and contemporary black experience in America that the white majority still doesn't want to hear and deal with.
American Exceptionalism is the foundational philosophy and driving force of our national elites – anytime this philosophy is challenged or criticized, the major media and literalist leaders will do everything they can to knock down, marginalize and ultimately do away with those (JFK, RFK, MLK, Malcolm X, etc) brave enough to call bullshit on our nation’s blind spots and injustices.
"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." -Samuel Johnson
Whenever the slightest reference to truth comes out in the mainstream media, the person responsible is vilified as was Michelle Obama and more recently Rev. Wright. No one is allowed to attack the sacred myths that we have been sold about our country. The NW Indiana Post-Tribune printed my letter on the Michelle comment last week. It follows and then a right wing response in today's paper.
There Are Reasons Not to be Proud of Country
When Michelle Obama said the other day that “for the first time in my adult life, I am proud to be an American” the right wingers jumped on her with a vengeance and the bought and paid for main stream media demanded a retraction. She gave a clarification saying that she was referring to the more and more formerly disenfranchised voters now finding their way into the political system as record turnouts have been the norm in Democratic primaries.
Well enough, her answer was acceptable for a dumb down electorate, numb from a lifetime subjected to constant corporate and political propaganda. What if she had felt the need to speak more candidly?
She might have said something like: We went into Vietnam in a war based on lies and an estimated 2-5 million Vietnamese lost their lives in addition to the 58,000 plus U.S. dead and now our own military death toll in Iraq approaches 4,000 and the best estimate for Iraqi dead is over 1 million. That in addition to the 4.5 million displaced and who knows how many wounded. Now 5 years after the invasion, with unemployment running at 70%, and appreciably less electricity, clean water and sewage treatment than before the invasion, why exactly should one be proud to be from the country that started the carnage?
Mrs. McCain was quick to weigh in that she was always proud to be an American. Some questions for Michelle to ask her.
Are you proudest to be an American when your country tortures prisoners? Or when it holds prisoners for more than 6 years without charges in violation of habeas corpus which predates the Magna Carta? Or perhaps you are proudest when your President and Vice President deliberately misrepresent the intelligence about the phantom WMDs in Iraq and the non existent ties between Saddam Hussein and Ossama bin Laden and 9/11? And then make our beloved country the perpetrator in an illegal war of aggression?
Or Mrs. McCain, perhaps it is when the President signs into law an amendment fought for by your husband making torture illegal and the President signs it with a statement that he will obey the law according to his interpretation and whim? Or perhaps you are proudest when your husband, a man who was subjected to torture himself, then sits back and says nothing as the President continues to shred the last vestiges of hope that America used to provide for the rest of mankind?
Nick Egnatz
Veterans For Peace
Munster, IN
Letter responding in today's paper
Reader has always been proud of nation
Yes, Nick Egnatz, we all know you (and Michelle Obama) are not proud to be an American. Everyone who has had the unfortunate opportunity to have read your letters these past six years (and, more recently, March 9) knows you are not proud to be an
American.
Nick and most of his followers have shown nothing but disdain for America, what it has always stood for and what it has always been. They continually wish to change the values America was founded on.
Where was Nick on Sept. 12, 2001, the day after the attacks? Was he embarrassed by America that day?
Where was the out-of-Iraq guru the day our soldiers brought down the dictator's statue? Did our military embarrass him that day?
How about the day the jubilant Iraqis got to vote? That was really embarrassing, right Nick?
Where was Nick on Nov. 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down, signifying the end of the Cold War? Was he embarrassed that day?
Where was he on July 5, 1986, when the Statue of Liberty was reopened after extensive refurbishing? Was he embarrassed that day as well?
There will be those who will excuse Nick for not being proud of America since the start of the war in Vietnam. Not me. I think Nick owes America and our soldiers an apology.
I feel pride as an American because America has always been a nation of freedom, a nation that helped other countries in need. I still feel pride when I see Old Glory and recite the Pledge of Allegiance or sing the national anthem. Have you ever really looked at the words and understood their meaning, Nick?
Ron Raymer, Hammond
Life is too short. I have no patience for moronic wingnuts like "Ron Raymer, Hammond".
". . .a) people who take a literalist stance in terms of "patriotism" to our national mythos of "American Exceptionalism";
Mr. Ron Raymer's letter quoted in its entirety in Mr. Egnatz's above post represents what existed in the mid to late 60's and the early 70's, the Viet Nam era! It is the reincarnation of MY COUNTRY, RIGHT OR WRONG syndrome.
I was a teen ager and then a college student in the Viet Nam era. I studied law from 1975 to 1978 and have been practicing law since 1978. That in and of itself is no big deal and I am the first to admit it. In fact, I have quite candidly always felt that if I could graduate law school and pass the bar, why can't anybody else from my kind of middle class background. I just lived in a time when people such as myself had the OPPORTUNITY to obtain such an education to gain entry into such a profession.
I wonder how many similarly situated teen agers and college students from similar backgrounds can enjoy the same kind of OPPORTUNITY today. I doubt Raymer even takes the time to contemplate such questions. People such as Raymer are consumed in the hype, the flag, the red-white&blue, the stars and stripes, etc. These people wear the flag lapel pin and wave the red-white&blue and quite probably consider that the sum and substance of "patriotism"!
As for me, I'm with Mr. Egnatz and proudly so! I appreciate when people employ their God-given intellect to critically review what is being done in all of our citizens' names. Understanding why policies are conducted when the apparent results are argueably detrimental to the general populace and, at the same time, argueably beneficial to the strata of the citizenry from which the policies emanate is an important intellectual exercise which all citizens should undertake. Avoiding it by claiming that the citizens who do critically examine government actions are in some way less than "patriotic" by doing so is irresponsible conduct bordering on xenophobic.
Poor Raymer is just a moron who can do us no harm in the long run.
IMPEACH BUSHCO & RICO PNAC/AIPAC>"OUT" ANTI-AMERICAN CABALS!
WE MUST DEFEAT MCCAIN!!!
My god you are a total idiot.
To include JFK and RFK as people who are not national elites shown off screwed up you are. JFK had well-documented connections to organized crime. Both grew up in sheltered excessive lives, well-crafted public images and had no interaction with ordinary people EVER except on the campaign trail. The youngest brother - Ted - continues the tradition. he demands from others what he will not do himself (think wind energy - which he opposes outside the Kennedy compound, taxes on people when the Kennedy money is all sheltered via trusts, living in mansions, etc). Kinda like Gore (uses 10-15 times the energy of the average American, which would be 100 or more times the average person in the world) but everyone else must conserve - of Edwards with his mega-mansion, who made millions winning lawsuits that are totally debunked now.
Perhaps people committing crimes (liek Katrina refuge selling stealing tvs - is that a right?) would stop, there would not be so many people in jail. I mean, I don't steal, rob, cheat, sell drugs. And maybe Hussin Obama should really but into what Wright says, and his wife can give up her $300,000 plus job at a charity hospital - now that Hussin Obama has channelled a $1 million earmark to the hospital.
He chose preaching as a vocation to open Americans' eyes as well.
Pastor Wright is doing a very good job at it !
IMPEACH BUSHCO & RICO PNAC/AIPAC>"OUT" ANTI-AMERICAN CABALS!
WE MUST DEFEAT MCCAIN!!!
USA! USA! USA! WE're NUMBER 1!!!
I'm going to waste as few keystrokes as possible on this:
You people are a bunch of idiots.
Terry Notus
Your absolutely right, IDIOTS, LIBERALISM IS A MENTAL DISORDER.
Cindy:
Please tell us more about how FDR knew about Pearl Harbor, as the esteemed Rev. Wright has told us. Can we impeach a dead man? I'd also like to learn more about the invention of AIDS!
xoxoxoxo, Howard
Hate is hate no matter what direction you point it at, but at least try to be accurate when you spew it. She talks about the lack of American civilian casualties in WWII, but I bet if you ask the Chinese, Koreans, and many other countries of southeast Asia you may get a different response.
Close to 17.3 million civilians (not combat troops mind you) were killed during WWII in China, French Indochina, and Korea alone. Who did that? Was it us? Nope, it was the Japanese Empire that she seems to think "wasn't so bad." You tell me how it would go over if we sat in our wonderful country all safe and secure and said "I guess we'll wait until it hits 25 million."
It is sad to see grief turn somebody into a parody. You marginalize yourself with every word. As a fellow vet I honor her son and continue to marvel at a world that could produce somebody like him from somebody like her.
Too bad this story is so misunderstood. Robin Hood took money from an overly oppressive government system and returned it to the people. His was not a redistribution of wealth, but a return of money to the people who earned it.
The 'rob from the rich and give to the poor' line is an over-simplification and a misrepresentation.
What group of politicians today are the most like Robin Hood? But another group likes to claim his legacy...
I agree with Cindy and most of what Rev. Wright states. Many famous "white" people have said the same thing as Rev. Wright, albeit in a different way. I have just finished reading 3 recently published books that state the same ideas.
Listen to talk radio and really hear hate speech.
The NeoCons run this country and are trying to run the world. The dangerous game they have the US playing is going to get us all killed as far as I am concerned. We are in every corner of the world butting into business that has nothing to do with us, telling everyone how to live, how to worship, what kind of government they should have. Meanwhile our rights are being erroded away by FEARMONGERING.
I guess free speech went out the door with all our other rights under FISA and the Patriot Act.
I am so sick of what is going on in this country I'm getting ready to leave and throw my citizzenship in the ocean.
Mary Jo
So this is the voice of the enemy within, the voice of the the guilt ridden self loathing loons who hate themselves, their country, Western civilization, Christianity and the military. Every stance they take is wrong, the only explanation is drugs.
Wow, just wow. You folks hate America, and in the process, many, if not most Americans. Why don't y'all just leave? I'm sure Castro's Cuba, Chavez's Venezuela, or even the "wonderful folks" in Tehran, will welcome you all with wide open arms!
Jeremiah Wright is a racist, anti-American. Now that's his right as an American. And even though his racist crap makes me want to puke, I would die to defend his right to spew it.
But Obama wants to be President of ALL Americans. And outside of Wright, and this little enclave of hatred, most Americans are very proud of their country. Most Americans know we live in the greatest country on earth. Most Americans know that folks, like yourselves, would be jailed, or executed, for your speech in many countries, like the above mentioned.
It goes to judgment on Obama's part. He's been a member of this radical church for 20 plus years. Reverend Wright married Barrack and Michele, and baptized their children. Obama has called the reverend his "spiritual adviser". They are obviously close. So it is no stretch that Obama believes the hate that Wright preaches.
That means that Obama is not fit to be President, and should resign from the Senate. As his is also not fit for that office, either.
It has nothing to do with skin color, age, or political party. It has to do with a decidedly unAmerican man wanting to become the most powerful person in the world. That's a job he is not fit for.
I am not a democrat. I don't support Senator Clinton. Like Obama, she is a Socialist. But I would much rather see Senator Clinton as the world's most powerful person, than Obama.
Thanks for your time,
Gary P Jackson,
Texas
Mike Gravel is right, neither of them are qualified to be president of the united states.
Thank God Ron Paul's a senator again, he may have lost in 2008, but his revolution will be around forever.
Ron Paul is a Congressman, not a Senator.
I had barely made it halfway through the article before I could no longer contain myself.. JAPAN WAS THE AGGRESSOR IN WORLD WAR II--NOT THE U.S., and we did not use the H-Bomb in World War II. It had not been invented yet. We used the atomic bomb, a totally different weapon. Cindy Sheehan you should read, study and ponder history before you condemn the U.S.. Had we have lost WWII you would not be able to voice your opinion nor would I be able to voice mine. For that I am grateful.
For those of you moronic enough to believe in Rev. Wright's comments and ESPECIALLY Ms. Sheehan:
Eat a bullet.
Walk in front of a moving train.
Move out of our country.
Vilify yourself.
Drink poison.
Swim in a puddle of AIDS.
I am not republican't, nor democrap.
I am not black, white, latino or asian.
I am not straight, bi or gay.
However, I am American and your thoughts sicken me.
Shame on you fascist scumbags for attacking Cindy Sheehan and Reverend Wright. Yes Japan attacked America in World War 2 but Franklin Roosevelt deliberately provoked Japan because he wanted Japan to attack us so he would have an excuse to get America involved in the war. The American people were against America getting involved in the war before Japan attacked us. AIDS was a man made created virus used as a biological weapon. Obama and Clinton are fascists like yourselves you stupid twits, not socialists. The only politician who comes close to being a socialist is Dennis Kucinich.
Whats sickening is how anyone can support the acts of tyranny and terrorism committed by the US government and its "allies."
Wow, Cindy, I always knew you had a few screws loose, but this story proves that you are completly off your rocker... And since you hate America so much, why don't you get the hell out and never come back!!! We won't miss you. Let us defend ourselves from the dangers of Islamic terrorism without moonbats like you getting in the way.
You rabid bitch. Euthanasia for you would be a blessing to our society.
"As a matter of fact, during WWII, Japan killed very few American civilians."
Yes, just the ones they could get their hands on.
If you want a proper appreciation for the regard of the Japanese military for the well-being of civilians, google "Rape of Nanking." Google "Japan biological warfare experiments," or "Japan Unit 731."
Sheehan is a comic figure because she offers condescending, santimonious lectures about subjects she knows nothing about. She is too ignorant to even realize how ignorant she is. She could at least read up on things a little before writing about them - but then, if she learned too much, her arguments would evaporate, along with the identity of Cindy the quasi-celebrity.
It's too bad about the loss of her son. It's also too bad what she's done since then.