To Disappear You Is No Loss...
How many of you have a class picture from when you were young? How many of you have a class picture with circles around the faces: this one died, thisone was disappeared, this one went into exile, this one was shot at a demonstration, this one we never saw again...
Every day, in dozens of countries, people are disappeared, murdered, raped, and tortured by their governments and para-military squads.
Yesterday, over a dozen Iraqis were kidnapped, died, were murdered and some even raped in a country in which Paul Bremmer feels the US did a good job. Argentina recently supported the US by walking out of a meeting in which the US was roundly criticized for its role in the mayhem going on in Iraq today. Shades of almost 30 years ago when the US walked out with Argentina when Argentina was being criticized in a UN meeting about its dirty war against its own citizens.
The same men who were junior staff during Reagan watched and learned and waited. And now, we see what their schooling has wrought.
Today, as you read this, someone died in Iraq, someone disappeared, someone was dumped in an umarked grave.
Today, as you read this, you can make a difference: you can hold your government accountable, you can ask your representatives for answers on foreign policy, you can support Amnesty International and Survivors of Torture. And, if you live outside the US, you can ask your government how can they support one like ours.
Today, you can not look the other way and say, Thank God that was not me.
Today, even a little gesture such as visiting this photo essay on the disappeared, will make a difference, because, to simply do nothing, is one of the biggest mistakes you will ever make..
Oh, so that's what
No Child Left Behind means....
from Counterpunch, about the endlessly entertaining, endlessly inappropriate Mr. Rove. Ah yes, buffoons in high places...we truly are the Hope of the Free World.
LLate last month, Teachers of the Year representing the states of the union gathered in the nation's capital to be recognized for their outstanding achievement. While waiting for the arrival of President Bush into the Rose Garden off of the West Wing of the White House to receive their award, a door swung open, sending the Secret Service into a flurry of activity, questioning who had opened the door.
"The dog ate my homework," blurted out from a door opening to the garden where the teachers were waiting.
Who would sling such a remark at Americans' whose lives are dedicated to service? The answer: Karl Rove, the maestro of political strategy for the Bush Administration. What's more, he even had the audacity to follow his disrespectful comment with a snicker of laughter as he slid from the doorway and went about his daily goings-on. Perhaps even more unsettling was that he offered no other acknowledgement, uttered no other words to the teachers.
Too bad the dog didn't eat Karl Rove. Then again, maybe the homework tasted better...
Read the rest.
