Week Links: 2-28-2001
(A Typical Week)
SEVEN DEADLY SINS?
Just an eye-catching domain home page. Worth clicking to and enjoying their ad-bites. Favorite quote I gleaned from the site: "one plus one equals many".
FROM THE HOME FRONT
Last night my son finished up his report for Women's History Month. He chose to write about Emma Goldman: Emma Goldman (1869-1940) stands as a major figure in the history of American radicalism and feminism. An influential and well-known anarchist of her day, Goldman was an early advocate of free speech, birth control, women's equality and independence, union organization, and the eight-hour work day. Her criticism of mandatory conscription of young men into the military during World War I led to a two-year imprisonment, followed by her deportation in 1919. For the rest of her life until her death in 1940, she continued to participate in the social and political movements of her age, from the Russian Revolution to the Spanish Civil War.
"There is neither freedom nor security in the world today: whether one be rich or poor, whether his station high or low, no one is secure as long as there is a single slave in the world. No one is safe or secure as long as he must submit to the orders, whim or will of another who has the power to punish him, to send him to prison or to take his life, to dictate the terms of his existence, even from the cradle to the grave." March 1, 1933
I'm sure I'll be hearing from my son's principal soon! But I have this excellent source on Emma's life:
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Writings/Speeches/foyles.html (March 1, 1933 Speech)
2-23-1868 BIRTH OF W. E. B. DUBOIS
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois received his doctoral degree from Harvard in 1895. His thesis, The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870, is still regarded as a masterpiece of historiography. Although he produced over 4,000 works in his lifetime, W. E. B. DuBois was also a noted activist, who focused on to solving "the twentieth century's problem of the color line." Increasingly, he became involved with progressive socialist thinkers and activists who related the problems of Africans in terms of capitalist oppression. He believed that crimes of racism and exploitation necessitated the unity of Africans throughout the world. He called upon the United Nations to hear the crimes of the U.S. government against its own people.
http://members.tripod.com/~DuBois/biography.html
2-26-1965 DEATH OF JIMMIE LEE JACKSON
It was the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson that provided the catalyst for the march from Selma to the capital steps in Montgomery. In Marion when blacks attempted to execute their constitutional right to a peaceful protest, they were told they had to march at night because it was disrupting business. On the night of February 18, 1965, Alabama State Troopers attacked blacks leaving a mass meeting at Zion Methodist Church. An officer moved to strike Jimmie Lee's mother Viola Jackson; as he tried to protect her, they assaulted him and then shot him at point blank range. He died February 26 in a Selma hospital due to an infection caused by the shooting.
http://home.judson.edu/intranet/triangle/civilrightsrm.html
2-27-1973 WOUNDED KNEE LIBERATED BY AIM
Do you know the stories of Wounded Knee? Do you know the stories of broken treaties and lies? Do you know the stories of genocide and ethnic cleansing? Do you remember that the land upon which you now sit was stolen? How many Congressional Medals of (dis)Honor were awarded for butchering women and children?
"Oh, but this happened in the past. There's nothing that can be done about it," you might say?
Leonard Peltier rots away in Leavenworth because he wasn't (Mark) Rich enough for a Clinton pardon. Congress has never righted the wrongs done in the names of United States citizens to Native Americans. It would be simple to recall the 20 medals awarded for the Wounded Knee massacre. Restoring the rights guaranteed by treaty might be more complicated, but failing to do so makes *each* of us complicit in the gross injustices and oppression of native peoples.
The American Indian Movement took this pledge on 27 February 1973: "The American Indian Movement is directed by spiritual guidance of the Great Spirit. This guidance has seen us through hard ways and has carried us through many dangers. Indian lives have been lost but not in vain, for us to con- tinue our old ways. Many more will follow that path. To those who have gone before us we are committed, to those who follow we must set the same trail. So we make this decision. That AIM will use every necessary means at our disposal to fight for the repossession of the sacred Black Hills. There will be no compromise. No peace until the Paha Sapa rests with the original peoples."
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jamarcus/wknee.htm (A brief synopsis of the AIM liberation of Wounded Knee)
http://www.dickshovel.com/DwyBrd.html (An eyewitness survivor of the original Wounded Knee massacre)
http://woptura.com/ (The original Wounded Knee atrocities)
http://www.dickshovel.com/medals.2.html (Details the 20 Congressional Medals of Honor awarded for the massacre of nearly 300 women and children)
http://www.aics.org/WK/ (historical AIM documents)
http://www.aics.org/WK/wk007.html (The longest war: 1890 - 1973)
http://hometown.aol.com/buff2trail/wounded-knee-links.htm (A good list of links about Wounded Knee & related subjects)
IF 673 LAW PROFESSORS JUMPED OFF A CLIFF . . .
Would you? 673 law school professors, from 137 American law schools have signed on to a statement, first presented by 554 law professors in a full page ad in the New York Times: "By stopping the vote count in Florida, the U. S. Supreme Court used its power to act as political partisans, not judges in a court of law . . . as teachers whose lives have been dedicated to the rule of law, we protest." What do you think? Do you protest, too?
http://www.the-rule-of-law.com/index.html
THE GREAT MOON HOAX
The other evening I got home and my son informed me that he had just watched a TV show which proved that we never actually made it to the moon. The next day, I mentioned this to my boss, who found a great deal of humor in this. His wife did some of her graduate work with rock samples returned from the moon. According to her, they could not possibly have been of terrestrial origin. Or, I could just be part of the conspiracy myself . . .
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb_2.htm?list75513
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html
THE "REAL" CONSTELLATIONS OF THE ZODIAC
The creepy lounge lizard walks up to you, shirt unbuttoned down to his navel, gold chains dangling, and asks, 'What's your sign?' Calmly, you take a sip of your drink, and say, 'Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer. I guess that's appropriate right now.' On the other hand, I have a friend who uses astrology to pick stocks. This friend makes a better living than I do!
http://www.griffithobs.org/IPSRealConst.html
HOWARD ZINN ONLINE
Howard Zinn is a historian and a playwright. He taught at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, then at Boston University. He was active in the civil rights movement, and in the movement against the Vietnam war. He has written many books, his best known being A People's History of the United States. A list of his online works, well worth reading:
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/%7Esachs/Zinn/online_works.html
RESIDENT BUSH
If you voted for Dubya, you still might crack a grin at this site. Chances are, you won't. Evil satire. Not to be missed by those who believe that we ought to *elect* our Presidents, not *select* our residents.
visitors