Saturday, December 31, 2005

If they would only read Ann Cunter's columns, these poor dupes would know that they are celebrating a holiday for white liberals. Ann Cunter's crusade against Kwanzaa Ann Cunter's latest frothing is a hatchet job on Kwanzaa. She spends most of her current column slinging mud at the black founder of Kwanzaa and implying that blacks in general are thugs (as opposed to the white elites, who just the U.S. military to drop bombs and to fire missiles in order to do their killing, using the working people's tax dollars to pay for the bombs and missiles and using the working people's disposable children to take the bullets and the shrapnel. It's a great gig, if you can get it, and of course you can't, because you weren't born into an elite white family, as George W. Bush was). "Kwanzaa is a holiday for white liberals, not blacks," Cunter declares, which is news to me, as I and millions of other white liberals have never celebrated Kwanzaa, and it's news to the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of blacks who have been celebrating Kwanzaa with no idea that it is a holiday for white liberals.  Cunter calls Kwanzaa "a lunatic blend of schmaltzy '60s rhetoric, black racism and Marxism. Indeed, the seven 'principles' of Kwanzaa praise collectivism in every possible arena of life -- economics, work, personality, even litter removal. ('Kuumba: Everyone should strive to improve the community and make it more beautiful.')" God fucking forbid that the people should work together! That's too much like Marxism! No, Jesus Christ taught the social Darwinism that Cunter and her ilk push; sink or swim, dog eat dog, every man for himself was Jesus' core teaching. No, wait a minute, scratch that; Jesus taught that we work together and that we take care of each other, and in the New Testament the early Christian communities are described as having been quite communal -- quite communistic (little "c"). Not that something like history or the actual words of the New Testament are going to stop Ann Cunter from writing the hatred and lies that she actually gets paid to write. Speaking of history, Cunter is either ignorant of or intentionally misleads her readers about the origins of Christmas. She froths: A movement that started approximately 2,000 years before Kwanzaa leaps well beyond merely "unity" and "faith" to proclaim that we are all equal before God. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). It was practitioners of that faith who were at the forefront of the abolitionist and civil rights movements. But that's all been washed down the memory hole, along with the true origins of Kwanzaa. It was people who think like Cunter thinks who opposed abolition and civil rights, so why she makes the link between her brand of "Christianity" and the abolitionist and civil rights movements escapes me. (No, it doesn't; she makes that link because she's a fucking liar. It was liberal Christians, not right-wing "Christians," who were at the forefront of the abolitionist and civil rights movements, of course.) In her column Cunter doesn't talk about the true origins of Christmas, which have been washed down the memory hole. The true origins of Christmas are that of an early Christian church that had to compete with the pagans' winter solstice and the Romans' Saturnalia. If the early Christian church didn't offer a similar December-time party, it would have a harder time getting new members. So the early Christians invented -- that's right, they made up -- Christmas. No one knows on what date the historical Jesus Christ was born, so to claim that Christmas is the celebration of Jesus' birthday is bullshit. Christmas was just as made up as was Kwanzaa. That Christmas has been around a lot longer doesn't make it any less fabricated. And even if Kwanzaa, which was first celebrated in 1966, were invented last fucking year, so the fuck what? In her column Cunter does what she does most, which is to attack, and she attacks the founder of Kwanzaa. I won't bother to research whether any of her allegations about Kwanzaa's founder are correct because I don't think that it fucking matters whether or not the founder of Kwanzaa is sinless. Smear by association is one of Cunter's common tactics, and in her column she also attempts to smear Kwanzaa by associating it with the Symbionese Liberation Army. (How about we associate Christmas with the Inquisition?) Kwanzaa isn't about its founder or the SLA; it's about its seven stated principles, which, according to Wikipedia, are: Umoja (unity) Kujichagulia (self-determination) Ujima (collective work and responsibility) Ujamaa (cooperative economics) Nia (purpose) Kuumba (creativity) Imani (faith) No wonder Kwanzaa spooks Cunter! These seven values don't serve the purposes of the right wing, which Cunter slavishly serves. I mean, unity? No, the people are easier to control when we have them terrified of each other and thus hating each other. When they are unified, they can't be controlled and we might actually have -- gasp! -- real democracy! And we can't have that! No, we can have bogus color-coded terror alert levels instead -- and we'll never drop it below yellow, which means "significant risk of terrorist attacks."  Self-determination? No, we'll tell the people what to think and what to do, thank you! That's why we have FOX! Collective work and responsibility? No, that would cut into corporate profits! We want the people to be wholly dependent upon corporations -- even for such basic necessities of survival such as clean drinking water! Cooperative economics? Again, that wouldn't be good for the likes of Halliburton. And what are you, anyway -- a Commie?! Purpose? You don't need no fuckin' purpose! Your search for your purpose is over, because here is your purpose: You live to do what the white elites and their mouthpieces like Ann Cunter tell you to do. You live to serve the white elites' corporations, which includes funding, through your tax dollars, their bogus for-profit wars. If you're really patriotic, you will sacrifice one or more of your children in one of their bogus for-profit wars, and if you're really, really patriotic, you might die in one of their bogus for-profit wars yourself! Creativity? If we can profit from it, OK, but we're going to cut arts and music programs from the public schools, because unless we can profit from it and profit from it immediately, creativity doesn't serve your purpose (see the preceding paragraph). Faith? God hates fags and sand monkeys and loves the Republican Party. What more do you need to believe in other than that? Here's another value: Freedom. We claim that in the United States of America we value FREEDOM (TM). Do we really fucking value freedom, or is "freedom" just an empty fucking word that we use to justify our having illegally, immorally, unprovokedly and imperialistically invaded Iraq in March 2003? Because if we truly have freedom in the United States of America -- wait a minute. We don't have freedom in the United States of America, because we make gay men and lesbians second-class citizens by refusing to allow them to legally marry in the vast majority of the 50 states. Gay is the new black. So let me start again: Because if we truly value freedom in the United States of America, that means that come December, we allow everyone to celebrate whatever fucking holiday he or she wishes to fucking celebrate, be it Christmas, Hannukah, winter solstice, Kwanzaa, even fucking Festivus -- or not to celebrate anything at all. To play the game of "My holiday is better than your holiday" is not only ignorant and juvenile -- and utterly unChristian -- it is unfuckingAmerican. Which is what Ann Cunter and her ilk are. 9:58:03 PM    Comments []

Associated Press photos The handsome Farris Hassan poses for a photographer at a Baghdad hotel on Wednesday. The 16-year-old American, whose parents came to the United States from Iraq more than 30 years ago, skipped a week of school and went to Iraq -- where, thankfully, he didn't lose his head -- and he is on his way back home now. (Yes, it occurred to me that had he been kidnapped and had his captors threatened to execute him, it might have spurred a "Save Farris" movement...) Farris Hassan's days off Farris Hassan is the 16-year-old Floridian who went to Iraq on Dec. 11 without telling his parents and who is now on his way back home. Hassan, who is a junior at a prep school in Fort Lauderdale, left for Kuwait without telling any of his family members, according to The Associated Press. His plan was to take a taxi from Kuwait to Baghdad and witness the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections in Iraq. The Iraqi border was closed for the elections, however, so Hassan left to stay with friends of his family in Lebanon and then flew to Baghdad on Christmas, the AP reports. Hassan hung out in Iraq and began his journey back home yesterday. "When he first gets off the plane, I'm going to hug him. Then I'm going to collapse for a few hours and then we're going to sit down for a long discussion about the consequences," the AP quoted Hassan's mother, Shatha Atiya, as having said. The AP reports that Hassan had recently studied immersion journalism and wanted to understand better what Iraqis are going through by joining them. Hassan "was able to secure an entry visa because both of his parents were born in Iraq, though they've been in the United States for more than three decades," the AP notes. Hassan had told only two of his friends about his trip and didn't tell his family about it until he arrived in Kuwait, where he sent them an e-mail, according to the AP. "We didn't know where he was. He was missing for a couple of hours. We thought he was at a movie," the AP quoted Hassan's 23-year-old brother, Hayder Hassan, as having said."Who thinks your little brother will run off to Iraq, when no one is looking?" Hassan had expressed interest in going to Iraq, where an uncle lives, and his mother offered to take him there after things there calm down, reports the AP. (God knows how long that might be, of course.) "I thought that would be sufficient for him, but he took it upon himself to do this adventure. He has a lot of confidence, but I never thought he would be able to pull this together," the AP quotes Hassan's mother as having said. The AP quotes a federal government official as having said that 40 American citizens have been kidnapped in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, 10 are known to have been killed, and about 15 remain missing. Probably the best-known death of an American citizen in Iraq since March 2003 is that of Nicholas Berg, the 26-year-old who was decapitated by his captors in May 2004. Of course, Hassan had at least two advantages in Iraq that Berg did not: Berg was a Jew -- and even worse, in the eyes of his extremist Islamist captors, he was an American Jew. And Berg looked American, or at least foreign. Hassan, being of Iraqi descent, could pass in Iraq for an Iraqi citizen, I'm guessing -- as long as he didn't speak, because he doesn't speak Arabic, the AP notes. And although Iraq is still a bloody fucking mess -- and it looks like it will remain a bloody fucking mess for some time* -- there is, I understand from news reports, at least slightly less chaos there now than there was when Berg was there. One thing Berg had in common with Hassan is youthful hyperidealism. The AP ran portions of an essay on Iraq that Hassan wrote before he went off on his adventure. Here are some excerpts:   There is a struggle in Iraq between good and evil, between those striving for freedom and liberty and those striving for death and destruction. You are aware of the heinous acts of the terrorists: Women and children massacred, innocent aid workers decapitated, indiscriminate murder. You are also aware of the heroic aspirations of the Iraqi people: liberty, democracy, security, normality. Those terrorists are not human but pure evil. For their goals to be thwarted, decent individuals must answer justice's call for help... So I will. Life is not about money, fame, or power. Life is about combating the forces of evil in the world, promoting justice, helping the misfortunate, and improving the welfare of our fellow man. Progress requires that we commit ourselves to such goals. We are not here on Earth to hedonistically pleasure ourselves, but to serve each other and the creator. What deed is greater than sacrificing one's luxuries for the benefit of those less blessed?... I know I can't do much. I know I can't stop all the carnage and save the innocent. But I also know I can't just sit here... I feel guilty living in a big house, driving a nice car, and going to a great school. I feel guilty hanging out with friends in a café without the fear of a suicide bomber present. I feel guilty enjoying the multitude of blessings, which I did nothing to deserve, while people in Iraq, many of them much better than me, are in terrible anguish. This inexorable guilt I feel transforms into a boundless empathy for the distress of the misfortunate and into a compassionate love for my fellow man... Going to Iraq will broaden my mind. We kids at Pine Crest [Hassan's prep school] live such sheltered lives. I want to experience during my Christmas the same hardships ordinary Iraqis experience every day, so that I may better empathize with their distress. I also want to immerse myself in their environment in order to better comprehend the social and political elements... I plan on doing humanitarian work with the Red Cross. I will give my mind, body, and spirit to helping Iraqis rebuild their lives. Hopefully I will get the chance to build houses, distribute food supplies, and bring a smile or two to some poor children. I know going to Iraq will be incredibly risky. There are thousands of people there that desperately want my head. There are millions of people there that mildly prefer my demise merely because I am American. Nevertheless, I will go there to love and help my neighbor in distress, if that endangers my life, so be it... If I know what is needed and what is right, but do not act on my moral conscience, I would be a hypocrite. I must do what I say decent individuals should do. I want to live my days so that my nights are not full of regrets. Therefore, I must go. While I admire Hassan's altruism, he seems to have an oversimplified view of the situation in Iraq. (And indeed, such dramatic pronouncements as "For [the terrorists'] goals to be thwarted, decent individuals must answer justice's call for help... So I will," sound like symptoms of a Superman complex.) While the Bush regime would love for all of us Americans to think of Iraq in stark, black-and-white, good-guys-vs.-bad-guys terms (with us Americans perpetually being the good guys, of course, no matter what the fuck we do), the fact is that the Iraqi people are under attack from two factions: From the extremist Islamists who, as Hassan notes in his essay, indeed do such things as assassinate, kidnap and bomb -- and from the extremist U.S. capitalist imperialists who do such things as bomb, assassinate, kidnap and torture (I refer to the detention and the subsequent mistreatment of Iraqis, many if not most of them innocent of any wrongdoing, such as at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison). For any real progress ever to be made in Iraq, we need to understand that. We need to understand that while we Americans claim that we are "striving for freedom and liberty" and the "terrorists" are "striving for death and destruction," the "terrorists" view themselves as "striving for freedom and liberty" and see the Americans who are occupying their nation as "striving for death and destruction." And the "terrorists," as we Americans call them without thinking about it, see the American occupiers as the terrorists. (And in my book, both the extremist Islamists and the American imperialists in Iraq -- which yes, would include the U.S. troops -- who kill and maim people and who blow shit up are terrorists.)  We Americans can say that "Those [Islamist] terrorists are not human but pure evil," but of course those "terrorists" probably think the exact same thing of us Americans, that we aren't human but that we are pure evil, and we have seen the atrocities that occur when one group of people sees another group of people as not being fully human: the decimation of the Native Americans by the Anglo conquerors of what is now the United States of America; the enslavement of Africans by Anglo Americans; the Holocaust; the interminable war between the Israelis and the Palestinians; the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001; the Bush regime's illegal, immoral, unprovoked and imperialist invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq in March 2003; and the subsequent abuse and torture of Iraqi detainees by Americans at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and elsewhere are some examples that come to mind. Pronouncing others to be not human or to be less human than we are is a dangerous game that sets the stage for further atrocities, some that persist for years, such as the tit-for-tat shit between the Palestinians and the Israelis.   The choice that the Iraqis now seem to have is to be oppressed by extremist Islamists or to be oppressed by U.S. capitalist imperialists, neither of which group has the best interests of the Iraqi people at heart, but only wants more power and control. Yes, there is a struggle in Iraq between the forces of good and evil, but again, we need to note that both the extremist Islamists and the U.S. imperialists believe themselves to be on the side of good -- even though both groups leave death and destruction and pain and misery in their wake. Farris Hassan can help the people of Iraq from here at home in the United States of America -- by fighting imperialism here at home,** and by, as an Iraqi-American, doing what he can to build bridges between Americans and Iraqis. *The Associated Press reports that at least 20 Iraqis were killed today in bombings and shootings, and that a total of 842 U.S. military personnel were killed in Iraq in 2005 -- only four fewer than the 846 who were killed in Iraq in 2004. Some fucking progress, eh? **It rankles the fuck out of me, for instance, to know that a huge chunk of my federal taxes goes toward the death and destruction that the U.S. military is wreaking upon Iraq and to Dick Cheney's Halliburton and the other war-profiteering subsidiaries of BushCheneyCorp, and that fewer and fewer of my federal tax dollars are going to things that help people, such as food, shelter, medical care and education. We have a lot of fucking work to do here at home before we go off trying to save the rest of the world. 4:46:55 PM    Comments []