Action Point with Cynthia Black 04-20-2008: The Reference Shelf

Today's article and item links:

• POLITICS: NATIONAL: CAMPAIGN 2008: William Ayers and the Weather Underground:

  Maybe this has less to do with 2008 and more to do with 1968 ('69, '70, '71 and so on). Regardless, what I want to know is why do attacks on Obama's Reverend Wright engender The Man to stirring race speeches while truth about joblessness and despair merits back-pedaling and far-stretched attacks on William Ayers engender rapid disclaimers and distancing? Is it really the “violence” both Clinton and Obama disdain, or is it the anti-war left?

  AND: Clinton Backer Distributes Essay On How GOP Would Link Obama To '70s Radicals:

  Sloan argues that Rove will use Ayers and Dohrn for 'red-baiting' attacks on Obama. Rove's "target is Barack Obama's signature slogan 'Change We Can Believe In.' Rove wants to redefine it as revolutionary change, change driven by an alien ideology, change no patriotic American could stomach. And he intends to do so by channeling Senator Joseph McCarthy."

• MUST READ: The Ludlow Legacy, Part II: Colorado: from David Sirota:

  The Ludlow Massacre's tiny monument off I-25 in Southern ColorAdo is easily missed if you don't know where to find it. Though the nearby coal mine garnered international attention in 1914 after a government militia slaughtered union organizers there, the minimalism of the memorial is predictable. History books venerate Rockefellers # the union-busting mine owners # and disregard agents of progress like the labor movement. But remember the parable about those ignoring history repeating it, particularly on April 20 # the anniversary of the atrocity. As noted in last week's column, the methods of Ludlow are being celebrated in our foreign policy. But they are also being trumpeted at home.

• NATIONAL SECURITY: IRAN: Iran Provision Added to Debt Cancellation Legislation:

  Today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on H.R. 2634, legislation "to provide for greater responsibility in lending and expanded cancellation of debts owed to the United States and the international financial institutions by low-income countries." There was a motion to recommit the bill back to the Financial Services Committee with instructions to include a provision that no country that has a business relationship with Iran can receive debt cancellation. The motion carried.

  Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), chair of the Financial Services Committee, later returned to the House floor, to state that the Committee accepted the language. The debt cancellation bill then passed with the Iran language. What are they thinking? Oh, yes, SANCTIONS are a form of negotiation! We squeeze the lifeblood out of their economy and they will “comply”. See how well that worked in IRAQ?!

William Ayers and the Weather Underground

As Barack Obama distances himself from association with William Ayers, one-time member of the Weather Underground, I feel deeply frustrated. He is distancing himself from the spirit behind some of today's most committed and caring anti-war pro-justice advocates. Does he know that?

Do they?

While today's ratings-driving media spirals into ever-lowering standards of tabloid journalism, demonstrated just this Wednesday with the ABC so-called "debate" between Democratic primary contenders Obama and Clinton, American voters are exposed to more of the very culture the Weather Underground hoped to eradicate; callous disregard for issues of civil rights and a draining and irrational war against Evil somehow lurking in small yellow, brown and poor people*.

Fortunately, I am old enough to remember the era of 60's and 70's "revolutionary fever" and it's motivations. Although too young to participate, I was then and now a true sympathizer with the social justice concerns that lead to the creation of the Weather Underground. The story behind their desperate and misguided attempt to stop the government they found guilty of craven foreign policy and the vicious and eventually unpopular war on Vietnam, has an echo today in the Occupation of Iraq.

In the Youtube video attached here I invite you, who did not know that rebellious period of the 60's and 70's, to see for yourselves what conservative fascists are investing their considerable wealth into trying to eliminate -- passionate liberalism, patriotic free-thought, and enlightenment democracy. Smearing Obama with "terrorism" is just their latest attempt.

In meeting Bill Ayers, Obama has nothing for which he should apologize and nothing from which to distance himself. Ayers and his wife in 1995 were no more "terrorists" in the post-9/11 sense of the word they attempt to apply than are you.

Please someone, remind Obama.


* I suggest that enlightened Democrats nation-wide punish ABC's abuse of their good faith by boycotting ABC sponsors until they send the station the message that American viewers, not their commercial ad buys, keep their industry running.