arms parity for moral parity?

Letters in both the NYTimes and the Daily News this morning try to draw a distinction between the morality of the recent Israeli murders in Gaza and that associated with Palestinian bombers.

There is a world of difference between the civilian deaths that occur during the Israeli assassination of the Hamas military leader and the civilian deaths that occur when buses or pizza parlors or discos or restaurants are blown up.
In one case, even if the Israeli military knew that there would be civilian casualties, the target was a killer. In the other, the purposeful target was the child holding the ice cream cone or the teenager out for a night of dancing.

and

It is outrageous and absurd that the Palestinians have the audacity to condemn Israel for its attack on Salah Shehada in Gaza. While Israel, as a rule, does everything possible to try to avoid civilian casualties, the terrorists only strike at innocents.

The Israelis occupy every inch of Palestine, have one of the most powerful military establishments on the planet, routinely employing its tools, whether tanks or F-16 jets, and have the expressed or implied support of the only superpower left in the world–which pays for almost all of this terror.
Some Palestinians have replaced stones with their own bodies as the only weapons available to them. Now if we were to force Israel out of the occupied territories and equip Palestinians with the same kind of power and weaponry, not to mention allies, that we give to the Israelis, we might be able to fairly compare the morality of what they do with such parity.
A well-directed missile intended for Sharon might end up killing civilians, including babies, but apparently it would be the thought that counts.

a garden! a garden!

Our tree arrives wednesday, and I feel like an expectant father! I’m sure what follows then will be like a new career. I’ve been without a garden since leaving the little 1760 house in Providence. While New York certainly has its compensations elsewise, if it’s not generally imcomparable, I’ve still missed the garden in Rhode Island, perhaps most of all.
Well, it would be pretty cool if now I could reproduce at least one of the four working fireplaces I had on Transit Street, but that really would be quite a project, what with four apartments stacked above us here, and even then we wouldn’t know where to store two cords of wood!

Lieberman supports “malefactors of great wealth”

And just why do you think that’s a bad move at this time, Senator Lieberman?
The conservative Democratic believes his presidential running mate, Al Gore, shifted too far to the left [sic] during the 2000 campaign.

In recent weeks, Mr. Lieberman has repeatedly expressed concerns that Democratic efforts to seize on allegations of corporate abuse on Wall Street could undo efforts made by some members of the party — most of whom are affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council [formed in the 1980s to elect Republican knock-offs] and refer to themselves as New Democrats — to move the Democratic Party to the center, and rebut its image as antibusiness.
In the interview last night, Mr. Lieberman said that he had felt the same way in 2000, when Mr. Gore presented his campaign as an appeal on behalf of “the people” against “special interests.”

This is from a speech he gave yesterday, not last year! Hasn’t anyone told him what’s going on in the country these days, or is this courtesan simply too horribly compromised by his own illicit or shadowy corporate l’affair de coeuer? The party should be stepping up to its own “bully pulpit!” If not now, when? If not critical of corporate malfeasance, supportive?
At least for the fortunes of his party, but certainly for the good of the Republic, this man must be shunted aside pronto!

leaving Palestine, and taking their hopes with them

Our policy throughout the Middle East has succeeded in creating enemies and weakening real or potential friends, in building-up repressive, violent and aggressive regimes and destroying the hopes of reformers and democrats.
Perhaps nowhere else at the moment is this better illustrated than in the Palestinian community, where, for those who have eyes and ears, the human dimension of our stupidity plays out so intimately yet dramatically, and at such great cost to any hope for peace and stability.
Palestinian-Americans (and other well-educated and prosperous Palestinians) are possibly in the best position to put an end to the violence thoughout the region and build a viable and just state. Now however they are being encouraged to leave, in many cases after returning from abroad during the last decade, when it appeared that their homeland was on the verge of statehood.

The residents of Turmus Aya, most of whom are American citizens, are trapped most days behind concrete blocks that Israeli soldiers have placed across the road into town, which is not a hot spot in the conflict.
….
[Because of the Israeli military occupation] Universities are inaccessible, and beyond selling corn flakes at the Supermarket California or pizza at the local restaurant, there is little work to be had.
Palestinian-Americans are concentrated in the southern West Bank, in Ramallah and surrounding villages like this one, where there are plenty of basketball hoops and residents tend to greet strangers with, “How ya doin’?” Like Turmus Aya, Deir Dibwan, to the south, also feels like a ghost town, because so many residents have gone to America.
….
These days, some Palestinian-Americans are embarrassed to be leaving for the United States, and others even to admit their citizenship, but Mustafa Zatar, 55, who worked for many years in Puerto Rico, proudly wears a baseball cap bearing the American flag.
“Every Fourth of July I fly the flag on my roof,” he said.
For four generations, as the West Bank passed from the Turks to the British to the Jordanians and then the Israelis, Palestinians have been leaving to seek their fortunes elsewhere. They gained citizenship in the United States, or Panama or France, and passed it on to their children.
The pattern has been for men like Ziad Igbara to leave after they finish high school to study or to work, but to raise their families here. Mr. Igbara said he did not know his own father until he was 14.
With his father and brothers, Mr. Igbara has been selling clothes in the Bronx for 22 years now. Unlike his brother Najeh, he is leaving his wife and six children here when he returns to the United States again this summer, because he is determined that they establish roots here. But he said he did not know how long he could hold out.

what year is it now?

Orwell’s 1984, written decades before the date, projected what the year 1984 would look like. At least we made it to 2002, even as the book has been stuck in my consciousness since Dubya was voted president by the Supremes. Can we delay the full authoritarian state a bit longer, or have we already lost the battle?

As President Bush wages his war against terrorism and moves to create a huge homeland security apparatus, he appears to be borrowing heavily, if not ripping off ideas outright, from George Orwell. The work in question is “1984,” the prophetic novel about a government that controls the masses by spreading propaganda, cracking down on subversive thought and altering history to suit its needs. It was intended to be read as a warning about the evils of totalitarianism — not a how-to manual.

I you don’t expect to pick up the book again, at least take a look at this essay.

tin patriots or true?

Is it American to give up liberty to be safe, or to give up safety to have liberty? Don’t bother asking the gang in Washington.

The administration consistently reminds us that we must take these steps [eroding our fundamental freedoms] to protect our lives. Perhaps it needs to be reminded that when our founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, they pledged “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor” to protect the fundamental freedoms they held so dear and not the other way around.

Well, I wouldn’t feel safe without liberty, and I think that should be the basis of any discussion of what is to be done, since safety without liberty would be an illusion at best, and safety can only be enhanced by a citizenry with liberty, especially if we are willing to share liberty with the rest of the world.

a very good match indeed

Two very, very good men are together about to make a very big difference in South Africa–and the world. South Africa’s most visible HIV activist, Zackie Achmat, and its undisputed moral leader, Nelson Mandela, are joining together to create a future for people with AIDS and the world which needs them.

[At great risk to his declining health, Achmat] refuses to take anti-retroviral drugs until the government makes them available to the general population.
Holding hands with Mr Achmat, Mr Mandela said the Aids campaigner was “a role model and his action is based on a fundamental principle which we all admire”.
After the meeting, Mr Mandela, whose attacks on the government’s Aids policies are subtle but insistent, said he would meet President Mbeki to discuss Mr Achmat’s condition, and by implication, those same government policies.
“I think that I’ve got a case to take to the president of the country and to acquaint him with what his position is,” said Mr Mandela.

President Mbeki’s notorious, anti-scientific views on AIDS are hugely responsible for the country’s disastrous response to the epidemic, and anything which might neutralize or reverse the impact on government policy of his current attitudes would be an enormous victory for sanity, and life, even beyond South Africa.

the call of the wild

Ok, what’s this one spunky cicada doing outside our windows on 23rd Street at one o’clock in the morning? We’re astonished we can hear him well above the ambient sounds of all kind of traffic late on a saturday night, but we can’t imagine what he’s doing there in the first place. I mean, even though the block may be an interesting location for certain male bipeds to hang out socially on a hot night, what’s this little guy expect to find?
Yo papi!

two views of Barcelona

The Barcelona AIDS Conference can be seen as the latest, problematic worldwide attempt to come to terms with what is expected to be the worst epidemic in human history*. Unfortnately it can also be seen through the demented eyes of
those who have condemned themselves to the sickness of ignorance and hate.
Most people, even in the United States, are blissfully unaware of the extent of the pure hatred and viciousness which has always been thrown at queers and, in the last twenty years, at those who have been perceived as representing HIV disease (for these fools’ purposes, the two groups are indistinguishable), but even after the death of tens of millions, this particular horror, produced by the hatred which arises from our lowest instincts, remains.
Distinct from the vituperation hurled at what is thought of as “The Other” is that cast by some gays and HIV positive people themselves at those whom they consider impolite or impolitic troublemakers.
Upon returning from Barcelona this month, one member of ACT UP found in the group’s mailbox an avalanche of emails revealing a perverse literature produced by blind hatred. I have seen some of the messages themselves** and they are incredibly sick, and the “stack” includes messages from gays as well.
Here is another ACT UP correspondent’s take on the phenomenon, written in response to an email distribution of the message texts:

So very, very sad. These poor ignoramuses have no idea what AIDS [activism] has done for patient empowerment, for public-private cooperative community-based interventions, for basic virology, for holding drug companies accountable and causing them to change their course, for getting research spread across several institutes of NIH integrated….
Of course, the unifying thread in all these letters is homophobia. I
don’t think I have heard as many variations of stick it up your ass
since I went to a conference on anal-genital neoplasms. It’s
interesting. These horrid, hateful people were always here, but they
seem to have dropped the “…and the poor babies” bit.
Based on what I infer of these authors’ intelligence and compassion
after reading these letters, I would say pissing them off was a sign
you’re doing the right thing.

____________________
[my apologies for the length of these two texts, but they were simply not available as links, and I thought it important to somehow include them here]
* an item from the Chicago Tribune
FACING UP TO AIDS WORLDWIDE
July 26, 2002
Viewed as a whole, the global AIDS epidemic is a calamity so immense it
likely will leave you feeling powerless. You’re tempted to turn to other,
more manageable problems. It defies the imagination.
As of the end of last year, approximately 40 million people worldwide were
living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and 22 million more had
already
died of the disease. At the present rate of growth, the number of infected
people is likely to rise to 100 million by decade’s end, according to the
latest batch of grim statistics released by the United Nations earlierthis
month. Add the collateral damage–children left without parents, economies
without workers, countries without futures–and the AIDS epidemic takes on
apocalyptic proportions.
But surrendering to AIDS by not mounting an effective global response
amounts to virtual suicide. The answer lies in breaking up the challenge
into more comprehensible pieces and acting accordingly, as participants at
the recent International AIDS Conference in Barcelona attempted to do.
Some
essential elements:
– A strategy has to be both global and coherent. This is a challenge
custom-made for the UN if there ever was one, and Secretary General Kofi
Annan’s initiative to develop a global fund to coordinate money-raising,
determine priorities and collect reliable information about the scope of
the disease is the right place to start.
– Money–in the tens of billions of dollars–will be needed. Annan has
set a
yearly target of $7 billion to $10 billion, also targeting malaria and
other
killers. Depending on who’s doing the arithmetic, the U.S. has contributed
as much as $1 billion or as little as $200 million.
The real number is probably somewhere in between–and not enough. Annan
would like the U.S. to contribute $2.5 billion yearly. The size of the
American economy–and the economic and security implications of AIDS in
Africa and of the exploding number of cases in Russia, China and India–
make
Annan’s number a good down payment on what the U.S. ought to contribute.
– The debate over prevention versus treatment in developing countries is
past. Both are needed: Treatment of those already infected is an integral
part of the process of preventing additional infections.
– Beating up on the big bad pharmaceutical companies is self-defeating-
they
are the ones coming up with new treatments. Instead, international
dual-pricing agreements ought to be established to maintain the financial
incentive for further research while making drugs affordable to poorer
nations.
– At this juncture, proven and blunt prevention methods–distribution of
clean hypodermic needles, condoms and sex education, among others–have
to
take precedence over moralizing. In Russia, the number of cases is nearly
doubling every year. Most of the victims are drug addicts who use dirty
needles. In the U.S., clean-needle distribution has repeatedly been
stymied
by some conservative groups despite its effectiveness. That is not an
option
worldwide.
– Local leadership is essential. While some underdeveloped nations have
been
ravaged by AIDS, Brazil has set an example of how head-on strategies of
treatment, prevention, education and other interventions can begin to
lower
the rate of infection. Global efforts cannot bear fruit amid local apathy.
The UN fund to fight AIDS deserves both active American participation and
dollars. Doing otherwise flies on the face of fundamental human compassion
and our clear national interest.
Copyright (c) 2002, Chicago Tribune
** the hate mail to ACT UP
[interesting that the action which shouted-down Secretary Thompson was actually the work of GMHC, not heretofore known for in-your-face activism, and not that of ACT UP]
*************
I don’t think we serve society by hiding this ugliness:Do you now,or did you ever think that in the ongoing stupidity of the human
race,that instead of sreaming at politicians,homophobes,and everyone else
you think is involved in some way of not coming up with a solution,that
maybe,just maybe,the answer starts with the peaple spreading the disease?
*************
Act-Up – have you ever heard of maybe, acting mature? Your arrogance knows
no bounds. Let me educate you a little since you seem to fail to realize the truth: most Americans don’t give a fuck about aids and never will. In fact, the more you idiots “act-up” like a bunch of assholes, the more you alienate your cause.
To counter your irrational activism, I’ve recently started a grass-roots
action group to end tax dollars expenditures on aids research. We have a
petition signed by hundreds of citizens already and we are completely
commited and totally motivated towards ending this total waste of our money.
As far as I’m concerned, the more of you freaks that die from aids, the
better off this world will be.
*************
Why should we give your organization any more money? You people who are
irresponsible take funds away from Breast Cancer research. You are saying
that Bush administration is killing people with aids. Why don’t you homos
who practice butt sex be more responsible and wear your rubbers, better yet, the only safe sex is no sex. You are the ones killing yourselves. In the Bible it talks against homosexuality, you should read it and get saved.
**************
My first impression was to tell your organization to go fuck itself. But
before you give me the racist homophobic bullshit blowoff, I’d just like to
let you in on an obvious fact.
You guys are your own worst enemy and you will ultimately bring yourselves
down.
**************
You guys are fascist idiots and only hurt our cause.
**************
You know, I for one am sick and disgusted and tired of the homosexual
community, period. You participate in risky behaviors and then, when you
come down with AIDS you want the taxpayer to foot the bill for your illness.
Here’s a unique concept: Stop Fucking
*************
While it is absolutely your right to demonstrate, I have just got to tell
you that many of your organization’s tactics “stink”. Please don’t classify
this as “hate” mail…because it isn’t. As a former NYer, I have been
watching ACT UP act up in public for quite a while, and I often wonder what
the response would be to a conservative group -young, loud, and hip- who
used the same , some would say harrassment, methods to demonstrate
abortion….
*************
If you FAGS quit puttin’ it up your INFECTED asses, aids would be under
control. More money??? HELL NO!!! You want to reduce aids in the US? drop a fuckin’ h-bomb on SF………..for starters…. Homo-sexual activity IS the problem…I really dislike your kind and this organ-ization.
*************
Does it really prove anything to act like a bunch of unevolved cave men,
when people are there and trying to help you?.What a bunch of moorons, in
the good old days they would have shot ass hole groups like you on the white house lawn. What if you all lived in Egypt, would the Government take care of you any better, if you feel it would, then get the hell out of this country….The Old addage holds true, God helps those who help them
selves….So quit blameing others for your downfalls, and quit expecting
true Americans to bail your asses out…..But being the typical liberal
lovers you are I doubt that will happen….give me give me give me…..when
u should think , more like how can I help my self…..
**************
I listened to the news reports of your actions to silence Secretary Thompson at the AIDS confernece. Free speech is guaranteed in this country. Your should be ashamed of your behavior. Your malady is preventable, particularly in the developed world. It is a self induced problem. I will write my representatives to divert the US’s 40% fundingto the war on terrorism. I believe under that definition, you may become a target yourself.
Freedom is earned, not granted. Free speech is a right not to be taken
away. Despots have learned that the hard way. Perhaps you did not listen
well in you history classes.
***************
In Light of todays development in Barcelona and your actions regarding
Secretary Thompson, what can you tell me, a straight, right wing, Republican who nevertheless has compassion for all suffering people, that will cause me to take up your cause, keeping in mind that you will need me and millions like me to lobby congress in order to help YOUR CAUSE ? No matter what you do or say you guys ( Gays , Queers , People that think your OK ) are a minority and you need the rest of the country in order to help your cause , so will you keep aleniating us to the point that we say fuck it let them rot; i dont want to do this but this is were all your attitude is leading me to, what can you say to convince me to be sympathetic to your cause ?
****************
You should be ashamed of yourselves. Taking resources from the whole of
humankind for your pitiful disease which has a cure. Taking research money
from diseases like cancer for a bunch of fools who can’t keep their clothes
on, is perhaps the most abhorant manifestation of selfishness known to the
world today.
***************
Hello – I read today that your organization took part in the protesting
durring Tommy thompson’s speach at the AIDS conference in Spain. The article said that Mark Milano from ACT-UP New York, and others,argued that “U.S. funding to fight AIDS remains inadequate.”
I would like to know why your organization wants me and other tax payers
to pay for preventing and treating a disease that is 100% preventable through actions of those not infected. It doesn’t cost anything to avoid AIDS through sexually transmitted avenues. The cost to better screen blood before blood transfusions would be minimal and I don’t believe the tax payers should have to pay for it unless they use the services. I am very interested in your response and will share it with those I work with. Thanks for your time.
****************
I’ve been trying to be empathetic with your organization and the search for
a cure for the AIDS virus. Your endorsement and/or condoning of the
silencing of Secretary Thompson after being invited by the Barcelona
Conference today has certainly gotten my attention. I will no longer ever
consider supporting an organization which does not believe in free
speech…you’re killing yourselves! I’ll now write my congressmen and tell
them to take our 40% funding of the World’s Aids fight and put it toward the War against Terrorism, which by the way, you may be added to that infamous list…
**************
I read a UPI story today about the demonstrations at the 14th International
AIDS Conference and how Sec. Tommy Thompson was kept from making his speech. In particular I read with disgust the statement by Milano Mark organization: ³He was going to tell lies and we shut him down.” How mature. We don¹t like what someone has to say so we are going to act like children having a temper tantrum and shout them down. Very productive. I think the technical term is CENSORSHIP.
As someone who is battling with HIV, I find your organization and its
members totally reprehensible. You are nothing more than a bunch of
ignorant anti-American radicals doing your best to destroy America. Do the
country a favor and go get a real job. Those of us with HIV don¹t need you
or ACT UP.
I pray and work daily for the destruction of your organization.
*****************
I just read an article about you crazy whackos and the way you treated our
Commissioner of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson. Again you people
show what you are really all about, and that is causing mayhem and trouble.
What possible good can it do when you are complaning that the US should pay
$10 billion to treat the AIDS crisis worldwide to spit in the face of the
man who has a large role in getting the funds you are fighting for.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to listen and try to work together. By the way
why is it the job of the US to pay for other countries problems? why is it
all out job to take care of everyone else? do you have a sensible answer for this? I know you don’t so don’t even try. Your organization is a joke and your members are crazy finatical lunitics who will never do any good for anyone engaging in the tactis you use. So why don’t you all get a life and try to help someone in your own neighboorhood and forget about some guy in Africa who refuses to use a condem.
You are Pathetic,
*****************
Are you proud of the actions taken by your delegates
in Spain? I think it is a disgrace to speak over a
person, especially a person in a leadership position
at a meeting of this nature. There are ways to get
points across, but I really think you missed the boat
on this one.
[the names and email addresses of these items have been deleted, what, to protect the innocent? No, to make the problem, and our enemy, less personal]

public service announcement

[note: This post is not intended to suggest any obligation to contribute to or vote for Ralph Nader, the Green Party or any of the other alternatives to orthodoxy locked out of the commercial media; we have to remember this is for us. We have to know what’s going on and we have to make the decisions.]
This is only meant as a field map, and a guide to the tools still available to us.
It’s about democracy.