Bring US Home!

It is time for President Obama to show us the type of deliberate change that we need on the war issue. I am hopeful that the president can muster the will to declare the original mission in Afghanistan "accomplished," and to begin withdrawing all but a strategical force, adequate for defending itself and maintaining enough order for rebuilding around Kabul.

Who is to say that we have not dealt the Afghan leadership -- the one that harbored Osama bin Laden -- a decisive blow? Were we not able to mete out retribution for September 11, punish the Taliban government, and signal to the world that crossing swords with the United States could mean their ruin? The answer is yes. Now, Mr. President, leave in place a well resourced strike force, a massive intelligence network, and bring our troops home from Dick Cheney's war. Please.

Half The Story Has Never Been Told

I am reading A History of Ireland by Mike Cronin. I looked for a good history on the Irish people because of the vague, yet interesting, facts I often here associated with their plight. [That was how I came to be interested in the Black Panther Party too.] There is something about truth and nobility. No matter how hidden, sullied or disparaged, it still resonates. Cronin's work chronicles the story of a European people whose history reflects that of the African in America and abroad --colonization, genocide, and yes slavery. Irish people, like many people of color where grist for the mills of modern capitalism, and not so long ago! People sometimes acknowledge that "some whites" were indentured servants during the colonial period, but rarely is that subject even explored, let alone presented in depth and for mass consumption. The truth, as it turns out, is that this period of white servitude was longer and more wide spread that people want to acknowledge. A more accurate characterization of it is slavery -- specifically at the hands of the British. As a school teacher, and proud black historian, I remember teaching African American history to my students with passion; always hoping that, as Na'im Akbar exhorted once, that they would see it as a triumph and not a shame. Nevertheless, I saw how the stigma of being descendants of a class of slaves was a difficult and weighty obstacle to overcome for them. I told myself that a better approach going forward would be to teach how slavery is more inherently a system of economics than a rite of passage for African people upon our encounters with Europeans and Arabs. My how I could have been aided by the history of the Irish that Cronin writes. Sure, know your history, but black people, should know about the history of other people too. We might free ourselves of the idea of perpetual victimization... we might learn something more about humanity and the tendencies of all men... and we might do as Bob Marley encouraged and emancipate more of ourselves from 'mental slavery'.

Afghanistan

Here comes Omar beating his wives
Here comes Osama threatening our lives
There goes the Taliban hiding their man
Now here comes Bush with a war plan
He's raining 'daisies' all over Afghanistan
Now the mistake they made...
Was how long they stayed!

-DP

Jewels, Gems and Other Assorted Valuables

My new favorite book is Eduardo Galeano's Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone (2009, Nation Books). In Mirrors, Galeano exhumes the mass graves of the previously unknown who have salted this earth. Using the art of brevity, the authors holds up a mirror that shows us reflections of humanity's ghosts, the images of international vampires. He reveals the toil of angels.

Innumerable paragraphs stand alone as literary gems and chronicle the ethereal nature of mankind as both an inspiration and a toxicity. None escape Galeano's scrutiny. Not as races, nations, tribes, nor as individuals. Mirrors astounds with stories of Africans, Mayans, Anglicans, Indians and others. More compelling, however, are tales of arrogance, hubris, irony, nobility, happenstance, hate and love. Indeed Mirrors may be an anecdote for the banal education that inoculates the youth of nations. A stimulant for legions of uninspired school children who rarely find any wonder in the antiseptic antholgies, standard in public education.

Eduardo Geleano gives proof that all nations have blood stained banners. And while imperfect, individual liberty and considerate stewardship over the earth are the only cleansers.

Ramadan 2009

Ramadan Mubarak!
All praises are due to Allah for the inspiration granted unto his human creation and manifest in the Holy Quran.
Now where these lunatics get their inspiration for beheading, stoning and mutilations I do not know?

Assalamu Alaikum.

Haiti

Haitians have caught hell from the international community in the West for two hundred years for having the audacity to be free from first Spainish, then French tyranny. Haiti was forced into debt (servitude) under terms established with France after winning their war for independence. Afterward they suffered through a prolonged embargo by France's allies, including the United States. Like Cuba today, the country's people suffered economic embargoes intended to choke them financially and encourage civil insurrections. Ultimately the vestiges of racism among the citizenry on the island overcame the unity of the revolution. The Island slowly funneled into a brutish form of prolonged class warfare and military dictatorship...much to the delight of her true foes.

Haiti is still catching hell by these same means.

I Repent

August 6, 2009. I repent from my selfish and reckless actions.

Bismillah...

God Almighty. Master of the Universe and Lord of All Creation.
I recognize my blessings, for I am truly blessed.
I recognize my blessing that I might continue to be blessed.
Continue to watch over me...guide me.
Keep me strong and moving in the right direction.
These things I say in humble recognition of all that is good righteous and merciful in the world.

Amin.