The Mason Missile, October 21, 2014

Greetings! As we are still in the month of Tishrei, the month of Rosh Ha-Shona and Yom Kippur, along with Sukkot and Simchat Torah, I wish every one a happy, and prosperous new year. A bit of a brag-Reconstructionist Press, the publishing arm of the Reconstructionist movement of Judaism, had a contest for people to submit a haiku for the new year. I submitted, and I WON! The prize was a new Machzor, the prayer book for the High Holy Days. That is a valuable lesson, to do those things, try a contest-who knows, you might just WIN. One thing I’m being careful about is what in the Jewish tradition is called loshan ha-ra, speaking negatively about a person-even if that person is yourself. In spite of the silly old “sticks and stones” rhyme, words do indeed have a real affect on a person’s mind and behavior; verbal abuse is just as devastating as physical abuse. Let us be careful about speaking negatively about others, and especially about your own self. I have remained active in the Moonstone Arts Center (moonstoneartscenter.org), operated by Larry Robin, owner of the late, lamented Robin’s Book Store. The localized arts communities are the incubators of much important cultural activity, and they must be supported. Their web site is moonstoneartscenter.org. I was appalled by the unilateral action of the School Reform Commission, meant to supervise Philadelphia’s school system, to void the contract with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT). That body has demonstrated terrible arrogance in its dealings with the public; I remember watching a news clip of a session of the commission in action-citizen’s were demonstrating, chanting, holding placards, while the commission went about its business as if the public they are supposed to serve were NOT there. It’s a good sign, though, that students from the Creative and Performing Arts High School, the Science Leadership Academy, and the Franklin Learning Center went on strike in support of their teachers, showing these kids take their education seriously-they want to be prepared for the adult world. Election time is upon us; I go by the words of my dear late mentor and father figure, Harry Hyde Jr., “Vote as you please, but please vote.” Efforts to take away the right to vote, by reactionary Republicans in state legislatures, and under the control of the Koch brothers and other plutocrats, have passed laws that would only allow certain types of identification to be allows inside the voting station, such as current driver’s licenses and, in some states, hunting licenses; many low-income people and students don’t have any such ID’s, and thus they would be barred from voting-IF we give up, which, from everything I’ve seen, we have not done, and never will. There remains among white people in less urban areas the subliminal message of racial hostility, which is one of the appeals of the voter ID laws. I recall the “Southern Strategy” of Richard Nixon, who used the leftover racial hatred of southern whites, angry with the Civil Rights movement, to get elected and reelected President. This was the strategy expounded in the book The Emerging Republican Majority by Kevin P. Philips, and after Nixon’s passing this strategy was treated like political wizardry; instead of trying to unify the country and heal national wounds, reconcile one another in this country after the Civil Rights movement and Viet Nam, the tactic was to have “decent” people hate “those freaks and weirdoes.” There was also the element of nostalgia, a longing for a better time in the past-whenever that was-before all the upheaval and the drugs and the rock and roll, before “those people“ made themselves known and asserted their rights. People have to understand that those halcyon days when you can beat up anyone you like because they are of this or that demographic, or deny them a job, or evict them from a house, are long gone. This is all covered by Rick Perlsteins’s history of the late ‘sixties-early ‘seventies Nixonland. The so-called “left-liberal biased” news media, instead of challenging the Nixon Southern Strategy, or the idea that the social programs of the Great Society was merely “throwing money at problems” and did nothing to alleviate poverty and created a “culture of dependency,” repeated them until it became a popular gospel in the mews media and thus in public discourse. In spite of the conservative propaganda, the news media is comprised of larger and larger media corporations consolidating each other, and so no alternative voices can get through, except in the limited, localized way of locally based alternative presses. The news media, being comprised of large corporations, thus defers to the conservative viewpoint, since it is the most socially acceptable, being based on things as they “always” have been, thus being commonly accepted belief. But history does not stand still. In 2004, the news media looked at the religious right movement defeating referenda in several states that would have approved same sex marriage; this proved, said the commercial media, that Americans are overwhelmingly conservative in their “moral” values and are not motivated my economic issues. Now, ten years latter, we have same-sex marriage approved in the majority of states (including Pennsylvania) and the District of Columbia. This came about through the tireless work of activists over several decades, working in their local communities, advocating on specific issues and developing political skills and interpersonal networks-and planning for the long haul, further down the road from the next election cycle, a thing the news media does NOT do, preferring to treat presidential races like football games or horse races-spectator sports, and not opportunities to change governments or affect public policy. Please remember this as you vote. Your vote, and your participation in the system, does count. Bye!

The Mason Missile, September 1, 2014

Greetings, and happy (belated) birthday to me. That is, August 1st was my biological birthday. A person could have many rebirths in his/her life. I count the time I came to Philadelphia in September 1981 as my rebirth, so in many respects I’m 33 years mature, not necessarily old. All too many “older” people could be immature. I was appalled by the US Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case, which stated that a “closely held” corporation, like those owned by a single family, has the right to refuse to provide contraceptive care, under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in their health care plans. This is on top of the Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions, which had taken away the limits of how much a person or a corporation could donate to a political campaign. It is as if the modern corporation has become a machine, like out of science fiction, where the wealthy enter into and they become powerful. After the Hobby Lobby decision, the federal courts received petitions from other corporations for exemption from the ACA on “religious” grounds, disproving what Justice Samuel Alito said about the Hobby Lobby ruling being “narrow” in scope. To what extent does a corporation have the right to monitor and regulate an employee’s life? The traditional model of a corporation is the small, neighborhood shop or store, which is the model presented of a business, and not the contemporary multinational corporation which brings in billions of dollars a month and reaches every continent, and hires thousands of employees the stockholders never see. Your modern corporation is as bureaucratized as any modern government. So why worry about the private lives of employees? To me it’s more of a refusal by a corporation to assume responsibility for the health and well-being of the workers who build the products and provide the services that bring in the profits for corporations; their power and reach is so vast, they not only can dispose of individual workers but whole communities and nations in the pursuit to the greatest amount of profit for the least amount of payment. They look on workers as parts of the assembly line, not as human beings that have families to take care of. We must allow ourselves some downtime, some rest and refreshment after work; going on and on all the time, while it sounds heroic, doesn’t always work. I have participated in Labor Day, the holiday honoring workers and what we have accomplished for this nation, and for our families. I also am active in the movement to reestablish May Day as a workers’ holiday; who says we can’t have both? Who says we don’t deserve the time for rest and reflection? Rest and recreation are not only fun things to have, they are necessities, it is one of the Ten Commandments, shown in Deuteronomy 5:12-”Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God: you shall not do any work-you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or your ass, or any of your cattle or the stranger in your settlements, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the LORD your God freed you from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God has commended you to observe the Sabbath day.” Rest and refreshment are necessary for the physical, mental, and spiritual health of a person. Well, I have rested, and I will resume the workday tomorrow, and I will prepare for more downtime to take care of myself and those I love. Bye!

The Mason Missile, July 4, 2014

Greetings! At last! Pennsylvania has joined the roster of states legalizing same-sex marriage. Originally, the plan was to have the court, and thereby the state, recognize same-sex marriages conducted in other states. The federal court, however, took it to the next level. Bans on same sex marriage are also being challenged in Texas and Utah, traditionally conservative states. There has been the fear raised about how same-sex marriage would change the definition of marriage, that it would lead to marrying farm animals (ridiculous!). But HAS the definition of marriage ALWAYS been one-man, one-women, till death they do part? In the Torah, we have Abraham marrying Sarah and holding Hagar as a concubine-servant; Jacob conned into marrying Leah, and marrying Rachel after seven more years of work with Laban; Jacob’s wives and concubines together giving birth to Jacob’s sons; David marrying Machal, then lusting after Bathsheba; Solomon with a thousand wives and concubines to seal alliances with neighboring tribes and kingdoms. So, you can’t say “religious values” as a reason for why marriage is a one-man-one-woman thing. One book that discusses this is Sex At Dawn, by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha, which chronicles marriage practices among indigenous tribes in Central and South America and in the Pacific; in many tribes marriage and divorce is as simple as leaving and entering the other person’s hut, usually on the initiative of the female; many of these tribes are matriarchal, with much decision-making by the women. In more patriarchal societies, marriage has nothing to do with who loves who, but it is a matter of transferring property and sealing alliances. Echoes of this is in the new conservative Christian phenomenon of “purity balls,” featured on ABC News; the fathers pledge to protect the sexual “purity” of their daughters and vet any men that go near them. At the “purity ball,” the fathers sign a pledge to watch over the purity of their daughters “as high priest of the home.” The fathers sign it, and it resembles a marriage vow, and they conclude with a “father-daughter” dance. As far as I know, there is no similar ritual that fathers take towards guarding the “purity” of their sons; the sexuality of the young women is thus the property of the father, and it is transferred, via marriage, to the husband. All this takes place in the anniversary of the Stonewall riot of June 1969, when young Gay men, drag queens, and lesbians sat in a crummy, mob-owned bar and the police came to raid the place and arrest everyone; but, this time, instead of taking the harassment and abuse from the cops, the patrons fought the riot cops for several days, thus starting the current LGBT rights movement. There was, previous to the Stonewall riot, underground organizing of Gay men and Lesbians; there was the Mattachine Society, called a “homophile” organization, founded in 1950 by Harry Hay, who was a veteran organizer for the Community Party and the CIO; and the lesbian Daughters of Bilitis, founded in 1955 by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. These groups were organized in the 1950s, the time of the Red Scare, the time when “”homosexuals” were considered security risks. All this could be seen in the wonderful documentary film Before Stonewall, go rent the DVD; it shows the enormous historical and political “prep work” that went on before the Stonewall incident. Really, equality doesn’t need the permission of others to happen. But still it has been fought for, usually with blood. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the murder of three young Civil Rights activists-James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman-in June 1964 in Philadelphia, Mississippi, during the “Freedom Summer” campaign to register Black people to vote. They investigated the arson fire at a Black church, were later arrested by the police for “speeding,” and then were handed over to the Ku Klux Klan to be killed. Later that year, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited racial discrimination in schools, housing, and other facilities. (Voting rights were not included in the bill; it was covered by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.) But-The Republican party has taken over the tactic of code-worded race-baiting. Not for nothing did Ronald Reagan start his presidential campaign in 1980 in a town near Philadelphia, Mississippi, where Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney were murdered, and he included the phrase “I believe in states’ rights,” the old war cry of the pre-Civil war-south, as their mantra for enslaving African-Americans. It is a tribute to the Civil Rights movement-and to the young activists who risked their lives against official and freelance terror in the south- that blatant, public, in-your-face racial slurs are not acceptable in public discourse (which is the basis of the right-wing whine about-I HATE this term-”political correctness,” as if they would fight to the death for the right to scream racial and ethnic slurs). The tactic from then on was exemplified in the “Southern Strategy” of the presidential campaign of Richard Nixon in 1968, to play on racially-motivated fears of “urban crime’ and “welfare loafers.” After the re-election of Nixon in 1972, it was as if the country had amnesia-all the discussion about Civil Rights and reducing poverty was reduced to cutting needless government spending and kicking the lazy welfare bums off the rolls, and in general reducing the size of so-called “big government”-and including liberating corporations from the burden of regulatory agencies, while consciously not discussing the problems of air and water pollution, occupational safety and health, product safety, financial fraud, to name a few, and trusting in the “free enterprise system” to handle everything, trusting the corporate geniuses (such as Bernie Madoff) running our corporations (such as Enron) to handle everything. Remember, it was NOT the federal government deciding all of a sudden to implement from on high financial regulation, Civil Rights enforcement, occupational safety laws, consumer safety, etc.; it came from the work of dedicated activists, people like those you go to school and the job with, who worked hard at campaigning for these things-people like Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney, and the other young brave Civil Rights activists of the Freedom Summer of 1964. We may not have to face fire hoses, mean police dogs, even meaner cops, or homicidal Klansmen, but ever time we make a stand, people will join us, and we set an example for future campaigns for freedom-and believe me, the campaign for freedom never ends. Enjoy your Fourth-bye!

The Mason Missile, April 10, 2014

Greetings! I stand corrected-A reader questioned me as to whether it was Idaho or Iowa that legalized same-sex marriage. Here is a list of states where same-sex marriage is legal, and they include the District of Columbia: California, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, Maryland, Washington. (Utah’s ban on gay marriage was overturned by a federal court, but reinstated by the Supreme Court pending a review.) Quite a wide swath of the country, and its citizens, have called for an end on banning same-sex marriages. (Pennsylvania-not yet, but eventually…) But back in 2004, while America was mired in Iraq and Afghanistan, commentators kept saying that the only thing that worried voters was same-sex marriage; Karl Rove, George W. Bush’s political advisor, arranged for referenda is certain states that would specifically outlaw gay marriage, and that would turn out the religiously-oriented conservatives to vote. Now, same-sex marriage is growing in acceptance, in public consciousness and in law; what a change in so short a time. The movement is also growing to legalize the recreational use of marijuana-Colorado and Washington are two states that have legalized it, and there are also movements in other states to start small, with medical marijuana. ( I DO have a slight cold, heh heh.) Ideas and causes that for decades have been relegated to the fringes of political discourse (by whom? The corporate news media? The political “leadership?”) has now arrived in the “mainstream“-by people, activists and people in general, who have decided “This isn’t working, no more of this!” Of course, politicians are going to take their time with changing these laws. Such is the nature of conservatism, a belief or idea can be proven wrong, but they cling to it anyway because it’s what they’ve grown up with and they’re afraid to think anything different. Opposing marijuana and same-sex marriage have been default mental modes in our politics and our corporate “news” media, it’s been orthodoxy for SO long. Forgive me for being away for so long, I have had problems with my computer, my electricity, and my furnace all through the winter. And just as I had to upgrade my entire household infrastructure, the United States needs to upgrade its own infrastructure of road and highways, bridges, levees, airports, and railroads. This has been an old issue, dating back to the Andrew Jackson administration, when it was known as “internal improvements,” at the time when capitalism was developing and farmers and manufacturers needed roads, bridges, canals, and waterways to move their goods to the market. BUT- the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has a “report card” web site, http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org, which shows the decay the nations structure of airports (D), bridges (C+), dams, drinking water systems, levees, inland waterways (D-), harbors, public transit, (D), railroads (C+), highways, solid waste treatments systems, and schools(D). A serious program of public works repair and upgrading, like what went on during FDR’s New Deal, would employ workers, and they would have money to provide for their families, and they would spend their money in locally-based stores-THIS is how you revitalize the economy, from the bottom up, and not by giving tax breaks and grants to billionaires. BUT-the Republicans in Congress have constantly refused to vote for the money to pay for such projects. Thus the economic well-being of American working families is imperiled by the most foolish economic game-playing. Keep these things in mind in November, so we can FINALLY vote these idiots out of Congress. What have I been up to otherwise? In March, to help recover from the miserable month, I joined my wonderful congregation Leyv Ha-Ir (leyvhair.org) for Purim, the wild and crazy holiday which commemorates the Megillah of Esther, which tells of the beautiful queen, married to the not-too-bright king Ahasueras, who foiled the plot by the evil prime minister Haman (BOO!) to massacre all the Jews in the Persian empire. It’s the holiday where arrogant power-mongers are taken down a few notches. This month, we will commemorate Pesach, or Passover, the time of the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt, known in Hebrew as Mitzraim, the narrow place, the place of limitation. It’s a wonderful time to look at our lives and find out what are our OWN places of limitation and what we are enslaved to-a bad habit or relationship, low self-image and self esteem. It’s also the holiday where the youngest person at the table asks Mah Neshanic - “Why is this night different from other nights?” The asking of questions is encouraged as the first phase of learning, which is the enemy of the tyrant ignorance. Plus, I will, later on in the month, go on vacation, rewarding myself for enduring the miserable winter and what I had to put up with. Rest and recreation are not luxuries, they are necessities, for your physical and mental health. It is a sign of good self-esteem, to know you are worthy of some fun and pleasure. I hope you out there treat each other just as well. Bye!

The Mason Missile, December 29, 2013

Greetings! I honor the life and work of Nelson Mandela, who was imprisoned for 27 years during the fight against the Apartheid regime in South Africa; then, after his release from prison and his election to the Presidency of his country, worked to reconcile the racial groups of South Africa-Black, White, Colored (mixed-race) and Asian-into a “rainbow nation.” Much work still needs to be done; there is still a great economic gap in that country (like here is the US of A) between a wealthy elite and workers and other low-income people, due to a reliance on the “free market” , along with a grave crime rate, also like here. Still the fact that the Apartheid system has been overturned is amazing, due to the perseverance of brave and dedicated activists. I have been impressed by the mile-long lines of people of all races getting ready to vote in the first multiracial election in 1994. Alas-Our own government has done whatever it could to prop up the Apartheid state. There is evidence that the CIA helped the South African police to capture Mandela and other ANC activists. The Reagan administration’s policy of “constructive engagement” meant that there would be no pressure on the Apartheid state to change or end the system, or to release Mandela and other ANC leaders. Conservative journalists and activists in this country worked to make excuses for the regime, acting like the only alternative to the Apartheid system would be a Communist takeover. Plus there was the attitude, sounding like Tarzan movies and Donald Duck comics, that the Africans were not ready for democratic self-government-as if the regime would allow them to be! The government and the conservative movement in this country refused to take seriously the horrors of Apartheid, with a “What’s the big deal?” attitude. Thus, with the fall of the Apartheid system, conservatives have been, once more, on the wrong side of history, siding with a regime that did nothing but hold off the inevitable. William F. Buckley described a conservative as “a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling ‘Stop! ‘“ Well, conservatives have proven to be no more than speed bumps, slowing down the advance of freedom for downtrodden people (maybe), but the conservatives get run over anyway. Case in point-so far 18 states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage. This is almost a decade after the 2004 election, and the strategy of George W. Bush's political adviser Karl Rove to have ballot initiatives in certain states concerning gay marriage, which brought out the religious conservatives to vote against them and for Bush, thereby “proving” that the US of A is a “conservative” nation where people are only motivated to vote on “moral” issues. Still, same-sex marriage is now being acknowledged as a civil and human right, with even conservative states like Idaho, Utah, and New Mexico legalizing them. However in Utah, it has been a federal court that struck down Utah's laws against gay marriage, and the conservative argument has been to have the public, rather than the courts, decide the issue; but do people really need other people's permission to have equal access to public facilities, education, housing, veterans' benefits, health care, etc.? How is the existence of a gay-lesbian-transgender-bisexual-whatever-else person working with you, or shopping at your local store, a danger to you? Once again I performed at PhillyCAM, on the show “Conversations Across Time”; this time I portrayed George C. Wallace, the legendary segregationist Governor of Alabama. From my reading of his career, as a judge he was “moderate” on racial issues, speaking respectfully to African-American attorneys; but after losing election as Governor to a hard-core segregationist, Wallace vowed, “I’ll never be out n----red” again!” It was out of political opportunism that Wallace became the symbol of racial animus he is remembered as now, with the image of him standing at the entrance of the University of Alabama to prevent Black students from attending-which was a big show, since he had no power to stop them. Still, his fame as a segregationist hero grew, and in 1968 he ran for President under the American Independent Party, and there was the possibility that his candidacy would put the election into the House of Representatives, since he could have had some Electoral College votes. But after the attempt on his life in 1972, which put him in a wheelchair and in great pain for the rest of his life, he had a change of heart, becoming moderate again and even appointing Blacks to his cabinet. Still, the damage was done to our politics; Richard Nixon saw Wallace's appeal to racist whites, and played into those sentiments during the 1972 election. How it affected the running of government, and to whose benefit, it didn't matter to Nixon or Wallace; instead of trying to govern for the benefit of all the people, Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, whatever, the idea was to rile up one group against another, not using racial slurs-they could not even do that, which in itself was a victory for liberals-but the tactic was to use such phrases as “welfare bums,” “crime in the streets,” “excessive government spending,” while knowing their core constituents would, in their minds, associate minorities with these things. (At this writing, I recall how Newt Gingrich referred to President Obama as a “fried chicken” President and a “Food Stamp” President.) I believe the tide is turning in progressives' favor; rolling over and playing dead, or even trying to meet the Republicans half way or trying to reason with them, is no longer an option. In this new year, I myself will continue the good fight, and I know you will too. Happy New Year!

The Mason Missile, October 5, 2013

Greetings! I bid everyone L'Shana Tova, a sweet, happy, and prosperous new year-we all could do with one. On Monday September 2, I marched and rallied and partied, in the rainstorm, with many other Philadelphia area trade unionists in the Tri-State Labor Day Parade and Family Celebration. we deserve the commemoration of our part in developing the country-it is US who are the engines of American prosperity, and without us, the corporate masters would have to do all the mining, manufacturing, and service themselves-scary thought. I have also celebrated the High Holy Days, Rosh haShona and Yom Kippur, with the brothers and sisters of my congregation, Leyv Ha-Ir (leyvhair.org). The idea of the hlidays are sinking into me, that we all deserve a fresh start; learn from the past-it has no hold on you at all, you are not bound by it-and start anew. For Yom Kippur I had the honor of reading the d'var torah on the Book of Jonah; God orders Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and preach to them to change from their wicked ways. But Jonah instead gets on a ship to get away from performing the task God called him to do; did he think he could get away from the omnipresent Deity? Did he think going to another place would get him away from the Ruler of the Heavens and the Earth? After being thrown overboard and swallowed by the fish, Jonah prays-for himself; he does not follow God's command to preach to Nineveh. Inside the fish, Jonah prays for his own safety in the most terrible conditions, but he doesn't care about the people of Nineveh. The fish spews out Jonah, and God calls him again to preach to the people of Nineveh. The Nineveh-ites accept the message, and they repent and change from their sins, hoping to avert God's punishment. But Jonah is not happy with the result of his preaching, but is upset with the people of Nineveh repenting-why? Did he desire the Nineveh-ites be punished? Did he not see that God also cared for the people of Nineveh? There are people who are only concerned with their own spiritual welfare, but not with that of others. We've seen people like that, people proud of their own piety and indifferent to the problems of others. I wondered, why is this story told on Yom Kippur? It's the story of a people warned of their sins and shortcomings, and they and repent, turning their lives around. That is the message of Yom Kippur, finding out where we've gone wrong, where we've gotten off track from our true selves, so we can realign with who we really are. It also tells of the negative voices, inside and around us, that say you can never change, that voices that don't want you to improve, and so you can recognize them and resist them, so you can find your true, positive, God-oriented state. On September 26, I went to the studios of PhillyCAM, the public access able channel for Philadelphia (phillycam.org), to act in a taping of a new show of their, “Conversations Across Time,” where historic figures discuss historic events-in this case, the overthrow of the government of Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran in 1953 by the CIA. I played John Foster Dulles, Eisenhower’s Secretary of State, and I did a fabulous job of acting-a nice side gig after I retire, but I’m not giving up writing. As part of my research, I read All The Shaw’s Men, by Stephen Kinzer, a history of the events in the history of Persia/Iran leading up to the coup, including the effort by Mossadegh to nationalize Iran’s oil industry, which was controlled by a British firm, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now known as British Petroleum, or BP), the economic sanctions the British government imposed on Iran for this effrontery, the refusal of President Harry Truman to go along with efforts by British intelligence services to overthrow Mossadegh, and of the Eisenhower administration, urged along by John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles (CIA Director) to pick up on the British plot and carry it through-and of the spinelessness of the Shah through all this, constantly having to be bullied into signing the decree ordering the ouster of Mossadegh. This was how our government operated through the Cold war era: a government somewhere decides to put the well-being of its people ahead of multinational corporations, and our government, allegedly “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” overthrows it, and in its place is a regime that tortures and murders its people. This also was the situation in 1954, when in Guatemala, President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman took unused farm lands from multinational corporations, like United Fruit, and distributed them among poor peasants. The Dulles brothers had stock in United Fruit, but they treated the Guatemalan land reform as a leg of the International Communist Conspiracy, and supported efforts to overthrow Arbenz, with a combination of training anti-Arbenz troops and propaganda that portrayed the Arbenz government as “Communist.” The coup thus produced a series of military regimes that declared war on its own people, in the name of “fighting Communism.” I don’t believe we Americans were well-served by our government or by the “news” media during the Cold war era; every regional conflict was explained in too-simplistic terms, as a good-guys-bad-guys scene: it was the United States of America, land of freedom, filled with God-fearing people, as opposed to the Soviet Union, an oppressive dungeon of a Godless nation-which side were you on? There was no consideration of the situation inside these nations, the efforts of their governments to improve the lives of their people. The same is true with the plot by the CIA, under Richard Nixon, to overthrow the elected government of Salvador Alliende in 1973, and replace him with Augusto Pinochet, who instituted a reign of terror over his people, costing the lives of thousands; while discussing Alliende, Henry Kissinger said, "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much to important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." If the leaders of our government think this way about the people of another country, I don't think it would be much of a stretch to think they think the same about US, the people of THIS country, in whose name these crimes are being committed. We are especially NOT well-served in the current debate in Congress over raising the debt ceiling and being able to pay for government functions, such as national defense (including paying our military members, who also have families to care for), national parks and monuments people visit, services like SNAP (formerly Food Stamps), the WIC program, Head Start for school kids-why? To prevent the implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act (the dreaded “Obamacare”) which would contribute to helping people have access to health insurance? I agree, it’s not a perfect plan-I would prefer a Canadian-style “single payer” system-but it’s a start, all programs have to work out some glitches. The very fact that people ARE applying for health care through the ACA “exchanges” shows how important health insurance is to working Americans, of which around 55 million have NO health insurance. This is NOT a luxury, it is a necessity, like education, clean drinking water, and food-and the federal shutdown affects such functions; these are no federal employees to process student grants for education and Head Start programs, no EPA inspectors to watch out for corporations polluting rivers, no USDA inspectors watching meat in the slaughterhouse for unfriendly bacteria, and you can't leave these functions to the "free market." It was from the agitation, the campaigning, the marching and demonstrating against abuses in the social-economic-political system that we have such mechanisms in place-but the conservative propaganda machine and the commercial news media don't tell you this. In fact, throughout history, governments in this country and throughout the world have erred on the side of the wealthy elite, be they industrial capitalists, bankers, or agrarian plantation owners. Also throughout history, it has been the work of dedicated lower-class people-small crafts people, small farmers, and industrial workers, along with decent upper-class people on their side-that challenged these power arrangements and made governments work more for the benefit of the vast majority of the people. Do the tea party types in Congress know they are doing the work of undoing over a century of social progress like this? Are they conscious of who their policies are benefiting to the detriment of the greater masses of people? No matter-I urge everyone to continue the fight to make our government more user-friendly, to make it work for ALL of us. Let us educate ourselves on these issues, and learn the appropriate course of action. Bye!

The Mason Missile, July 28, 2013

Greetings! The first week of July commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, where is early July 1-3, 1863, the Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee fought Union forces under General George G. Meade, which ended in defeat for the Confederates and was the turning point of the Civil War. The period 2009 to today has been the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, and I was afraid the event would start nostalgia for the "lost cause," especially after the election of our first African-American President. From the end of the Civil War, the history of the event was altered to be a war among brothers, and the Confederacy was recast as a "noble cause," a conflict for "states rights" against an oppressive federal government-and slavery had nothing to do with it. The Civil War, among southerners, was called the "War of Northern Aggression," and the term was used as early as last year by Jim Porter, President of the National Rifle Association. Slavery had nothing to do with secession? Here is an excerpt from the Texas Ordinance of Secession, ratified by the Secession Convention in February 2, 1861: "She (Texas) was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery--the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits--a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future time. Her institutions and geographical position established the strongest ties between her and other slave-holding States of the confederacy... "The controlling majority of the Federal Government, under various pretenses and disguises, has so administered the same as to exclude the citizens of the Southern States, unless under odious and unconstitutional restrictions, from all the immense territory owned in common by all the States on the Pacific Ocean, for the avowed purpose of acquiring sufficient power in the common government to use it as a means of destroying the institutions of Texas and her sister slave-holding States." Here is the Secession Ordinance of Georgia, January 29, 1861: "For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery. They have endeavored to weaken our security, to disturb our domestic peace and tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their express constitutional obligations to us in reference to that property, and by the use of their power in the Federal Government have striven to deprive us of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories of the Republic." The ordinance complained about the new Republican party as "admitted to be an anti-slavery party. While it attracts to itself by its creed the scattered advocates of exploded political heresies, of condemned theories in political economy, the advocates of commercial restrictions, of protection, of special privileges, of waste and corruption in the administration of Government, anti-slavery is its mission and its purpose. By anti-slavery it is made a power in the state...While the subordination and the political and social inequality of the African race was fully conceded by all, it was plainly apparent that slavery would soon disappear from what are now the non-slave-holding States of the original thirteen." Finally, here is the Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union, issued in December 24, 1860: "We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States have assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection. " For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the common Government. Observing the forms of the Constitution, a sectional party has found within that Article establishing the Executive Department, the means of subverting the Constitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that 'Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,' and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction." So, this is the "noble cause," the right to own and keep other human beings as slaves, livestock. This has been the basis of "states' rights," the code word for maintaining supposed privileges based on skin color. This went on after the Civil War; Andrew Johnson, who became President after the murder of Lincoln, had a reputation of hating the planter aristocracy that led the South into secession; but he hated Black people even worse, and he allowed the former Confederate states to implement "Black Codes" to control the newly freed slaves, who, although physically liberated from slavery, had no economic base to protect themselves, no land of their own to build farms on. The Black Codes of South Carolina, for instance, prohibited Blacks from possessing firearms, making and selling liquor, entering the state without possessing a bond of "good behavior," prohibiting them from selling farm products without the permission of the white employer. The codes used "vagrancy laws" as an excuse for sheriffs to imprison Blacks and send them into hard labor, and to "hire them out" to private employers-slavery in another form. Is this what the South is commemorating? (You can read about Andrew Johnson, ranked by historians of the US Presidency as among the worst Presidents, in the biography Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed. Gordon-Reed writes of the time, during Lincoln's second inauguration, when Johnson comes across Frederick Douglass, the great African-American abolitionist; "The first expression that came to his face," Gordon-Reed quotes Douglass writing, "and which I think was the true index of his heart, was one of bitter contempt and aversion. Seeing that I observed him, he tried to assume a more friendly appearance, but it was too late; it was useless to close the door when all within has been seen." Douglass came to the conclusion that "Whatever Andrew Johnson may be, he is not friend of our race.") These issues haunt us through to this day, even after the Civil Rights movement of the 'Fifties and 'Sixties. African-Americans were elected to positions of power in this country, including the South, but the racist feelings did not remain dormant; they were given new code words like "welfare queen," "urban crime," "racial quotas," and "war on drugs." Nixon, Reagan, and lesser Republican politicians afterwards utilized these subliminal, racially-triggering phrases. Read the posters at Tea Party rallies, with insulting racist images of Obama on them; look at the efforts in state legislatures to pass "voter ID" laws, that target students, minorities, and seniors, constituencies that mainly vote Democratic. Such efforts to limit voting by unacceptable persons gained momentum after the US Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, voided Section Four of the Voting Rights Act, implemented to protect the right to vote for minorities. The purpose of the act was for the federal government to approve or veto changes in voting laws that would discriminate against minorities. After that, Texas, North Carolina, and other states reintroduced voter ID bills in their legislatures. In its ruling, the Court noted, "Largely because of the Voting Rights Act, '(v)oter turnout and registration rates' in covered jurisdictions ’now approach parity. Blatant discriminatory evasions of federal decrees are rare. And minority candidates hold office in unprecedented levels.’...The tests and devices that blocked ballot access have been forbidden nationwide for over 40 years.” The Court acts like racial discrimination and prejudice no longer exist. But it does, as I pointed out earlier. The voter ID laws are the brainchild of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization of state legislators and corporations formed to promote bills in legislatures that benefit corporations, such as “tort reform” bills to protect corporations from lawsuits; anti-immigrant bills that would incarcerate undocumented persons in privately-owned prisons, such as those owned by ALEC donor Corrections Corporation of America (CA); bills that would inhibit a state government’s ability to tax or regulate corporations, in the name of the “free market”, thereby forcing state and municipal governments to lay off employees; “right to work” (for less) bills that would limit unions’ ability to organize and support favorable candidates for office; and the “stand your ground” law, like the one in Florida, which George Zimmerman invoked after killing Trayvon Martin. (By the way-Let us take up the case of Marissa Alexander, an African-American Florida woman who fired a warning shot at her abusive husband. She invoked the “stand you ground” defense, but the judge sentenced her to 20 years in prison. Laws like “stand your ground” were designed to be discriminatory, and the Justice Department has begun to look into this. Let us do what we can for Ms. Alexander’s defense, and take these laws off the books.) On a more positive, personal note-My 56th birthday comes up on August 1, and that puts me one year into the City of Philadelphia's DROP (Deferred Retirement Option Plan) plan. After three years more working in the City records Department, I will retire with a pension, a bonus, and money from the Deferred Compensation plan. After I retire, I'll have more time to devote to afflicting the comfortable oppressors and comforting the afflicted, to let them know their affliction is not inevitable. The right to a safe, dignified retirement has come through the efforts of trade unionists over the years. (Hint, hint!) Also-On August 4, I will be interviewed for my writing work over FoMerlot Entertainment, one of the programs over the internet radio site Blog Talk Radio. The site for the show is http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fomerlot. I'll let you know how it turns out. Bye!