What I Really Care About: The War On The Poor

"They got money for wars but can't feed the poor." Tupac Shakur, 1993 (photo source: Huffington Post)

When I started this blog what I really cared about were the USA's many, many wars against the poor both within and without our wealthy nation.

Children were and are being burned up in their beds at night by drones, flying killer robots controlled by soldiers in air conditioned trailers somewhere thousands of miles away. Also by conventional bombs dropped from airplanes with humans in them. Civilian casualties are pretty much ignored once they've been assigned marginal status as "collateral damage" in the U.S. wars for empire. This goes on with a ka-ching of the cash registers whether the person in the White House had a D or an R after their name.

The children killed and maimed are nearly always brown, and the soldiers and their commanders are usually white.

In the years since I started my blog, cell phones and body cameras have elevated the traditional policing practice of beating and even murdering black and brown bodied people who are unarmed and pose no threat. Also the traditional practice of not holding police officers accountable for their racist violence. So that is also a grave injustice that holds my attention.

Meanwhile, through my activist community, I've learned a lot more than I knew about the apartheid state of Israel and their occupation of Palestine. I grew up on Zionist propaganda in the corporate media and had lots of Jewish friends whose families subscribed to what filmmaker Eric Axelman calls "Israelism."

Now comes Rep. Ilhan Omar pointing out that lobbyists like AIPAC exert enormous influence on Congress by means of funneling money to our so-called representatives.

She has been vilified for stating this obvious truth. As organizer Philip Savage observed, "Progressive Democrats say Listen to women of color, but as soon as Ilhan Omar said something true they turned on her."

So I wrote to my new white man in Congress, Rep. Jared Golden, asking him not to join the "leadership" of the Democratic party in censuring Omar. What I got back was a boilerplate response that indicates Golden is completely ignorant of facts on the ground in Palestine, and suggests that he is already in AIPAC's hip pocket. (Because AIPAC's minions work fast and are extremely good at the wrong thing that they do.)

March 8, 2019

Dear Lisa,

Thank you for contacting me about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  It is my honor to serve as your representative in Congress, and I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

Israelis and Palestinians have suffered from heartbreaking violence for far too long. I believe that a negotiated two-state solution would bring security for both Israelis and Palestinians, and that it is the only way to ensure Israel’s future as a democratic and Jewish state.

The United States has had some success in brokering peace agreements between Israel and its neighbors. In 1978, we led the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. In 1994, we led the Wadi Araba Treaty between Israel and Jordan. I believe that the United States should build on this strong record and work to establish peace negotiations once again.

I respect the diversity of views that Americans hold on this conflict. As we grapple with this complex and painful issue, we must remain open to legitimate policy debates and reject all forms of bigotry.

Thank you again for reaching out to me on this important issue. I hope you will continue to inform me of the issues that matter to you.

Sincerely,

Jared F. Golden
Member of Congress

Golden was supposed to be our saver because he replaced Bruce Poliquin, a Wall St. lackey who was tremendously out of touch with his constituents in the poor half of Maine.

As a candidate, Golden was glorified as a veteran. That worried me, but some of my best friends are veterans who learned firsthand that war is hell and came home to honestly address their moral injuries.

He has now made his first voting blunder by opposing background checks on gun sales. This is entirely in touch with the 2nd district of Maine, full of hunters, doomsday preppers, and adults who grew up pretending to shoot people for fun.

So, the NRA -- a lobby so powerful it rivals AIPAC -- may or may not have already gotten to Golden. Time will tell.

In the meantime I will write back to Golden and strongly urge that he educate himself about the situation in Palestine, Israel, and the role of the U.S. in perpetuating problems there. For starters, recognize that the two-state solution is virtually impossible since the U.S. has permitted and supported the Balkanization of Palestine for the last several decades.

Source: International Middle East Media Center
"New Israeli government plans to annex 1/3 of West Bank by ‘legalizing’ illegal settlements" May 15, 2015

I know that I have already lost the interest of the scores of new readers I attracted by covering the mascot controversy in Skowhegan. But the two issues are actually not that different. 

Beneath the surface, both involve a dominant culture of white settlers stealing land and water resources, and herding the indigenous people into tightly confined spaces with limited civil rights. Also plenty of propaganda to characterize those targeted for genocide as undesirable, in many cases even less than human.

My next campaign will not involve demeaning stereotypes like mascots or even stopping the theft of Palestine from the Palestinians, an ongoing concern that would require my retirement to pursue in a meaningful way.

Design by Russell Wray

My next campaign will be close to home: the conversion of Bath Iron Works, which is owned by mega wealthy weapons manufacturer General Dynamics, to peaceful production. Pressuring a corporation is a whole lot different and more difficult than pressuring a small public entity like a school board to do the right thing. But it can be done, it has been done, and it will be done.

Someday I believe we will stop building weapons and start building sustainable energy solutions like solar and tidal power components.

Conversion will make us all safer. Because weapons don't make anyone safer. and because climate change is the biggest security threat facing human life on the planet today.

If you want to join me, consider taking the Natural Guard pledge and/or signing our petition about conversion of BIW.

Also consider an act of civil disobedience the next time a warship is "christened" in Bath, probably this spring. This kind of political advocacy is way more fun that attending school board meetings but the two have this in common: you meet the nicest people.

Stay tuned...