Not ALL Christians Are Evil!

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New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 6 -- February 13, 2010

This Week in New World Notes, radio program #102, Feb. 16:

Not ALL Christians Are Evil!

How to destroy a religion: Establish it as the official religion
of your empire, elect yourself Pope, then appoint the
bishops yourself. Worked for Constantine (shown), ca. 313.
Detail from mosaic at Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, ca. 1000.
Click graphics to enlarge.

Executioners' summary

Organized Religion (O.R.) has served Mammon & Mars well, while diverting its customers from virtuous thoughts & actions. ("Episcopal" does mean "overlook"!) What killed O.R. for me--by age 10--was the Required Weekly Perjury, a.k.a. reciting the "Apostles' Creed." A few Believers, though, actually try to enact the teachings of their religion's founders and thereby do much good in the world. We'll hear two speak: veteran CIA analyst Ray McGovern and Martin Luther King, Jr. (from the Riverside Church antiwar speech, April 4, 1967).

A few more details

McGovern lucidly shows the oily roots of the Bush-Obama invasion of Afghanistan. Parts of his talk are funny--for instance when he recreates a discussion he had with a burgher of a rich Milwaukee suburb, on whether saving a dollar a gallon on gas is worth a half-dozen dead American soldiers a week. And on how many Commandments the State Department and Pentagon have broken by the time the gasoline reaches the pump.

Martin Luther King's hour-long speech contained, among other delights, a lucid history of the Vietnam conflict (not rebroadcast here), a fine discussion of how a Christian should respond to Communist revolutionaries, and a stirring denunciation of the Administration's policies of defunding programs that helped the poor ("both black and white") at home in order to pay for more bullets, napalm, bombs, and bombers to kill (primarily) innocent peasants abroad. Does any of this sound at all familiar?

One sign of the quality and power of King's speech: it was strongly denounced by almost all of the corporate-controlled American media. "Life magazine called the speech 'demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi,' and The Washington Post declared that King had 'diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people'" [Wikipedia].

Notes and Credits

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "table") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford. Feedback to kdowst at hotmail period com.

Thanks to Seattle's Mike McCormick for the talk by Ray McGovern--which I yanked from a half-hour interview on Mike's radio program, Mind Over Matters (November 2009).

Owing to time constraints, only Christians reached the mic today. They don't hold the patent on virtue. Just to toss off a few names that come immediately to mind, let's acknowledge the faith-based good works of Jews Howard Zinn, Rabbi Michael Lerner, journalist Amira Haas, and the hundreds of "Refusers" in the Israeli military, among many others.

Moslems--apart from "terrorist suspects"--receive scant attention in America, but two that come immediately to mind are Malcolm X (see the final photo caption, below) and the Grand Ayatollah Sistani. The latter was responsible more than anybody for bringing to Iraq whatever measure of democracy it enjoys today--bringing it in the face of determined opposition by the U.S.-installed Coalition Provisional Authority, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the administration named after W Bush.

Free weekly NWN email newsletter on request.

Top: 27-year veteran CIA analyst--now social activist--Ray McGovern.
Bottom: Detail from "Expulsion From the Garden of Eden." Artist: Bolton
Morris (1920-2004); Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Media, Pennsylvania.

This week's song

• Bye Bye Birdie (Original Cast), Hymn for a Sunday Evening (1960)

Coming Soon

• February 23 (except WWUH) -- Resisting Violence: Kathy Kelly (R)
• February 23 on WWUH -- Special hour-long live show for Pledge Marathon week

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/
• Saturdays, 6:30 to 7:00 PM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT) & http://www.whus.org/
• Saturdays, 7:00-7:30 PM, KRFP-FM 92.5, Radio Free Moscow (Moscow, ID) & http://www.radiofreemoscow.com/
• Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New+World+Notes

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Top: Delivering his address, "Beyond Vietnam," at a "Clergy and
Laymen Concerned ..." antiwar rally, Riverside Church, Manhattan,
April 4, 1967--one year, to the day, before his assassination.
Bottom: With Malcolm X, March 26, 1964--11 months before Malcolm's
assassination. The two leaders' paths had already begun to converge.
Following his conversion to Sunni Islam and his pilgrimage to Mecca,
Malcolm adopted the racial inclusivenesss of King's approach. For his
part, King came to adopt more of Malcolm's willingness to oppose and
confront established power including the national government--as we
can plainly hear in his great speech at Riverside Church. IMHO, this is
King's finest speech.
Each man died at age 39. In each case, elements of the National
Security State either connived in the assassination (Malcolm) or else
pulled the trigger (MLK).

Sir! No Sir!

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Donald Duncan

This week and next in in New World Notes, radio programs #88 and #89 (Tuesday, November 10 & 17):

Sir! No Sir!
(2 Parts)
adapted to radio by K.D.

In a nutshell:

David Zeiger's fine video documentary makes great radio. Rebellion by America's soldiers & sailors (God bless 'em!) ended the Vietnam War. Recent reflections by anti-Vietnam-war vets & other activists--some famous, some obscure--mix with period (~1970) newscasts & other recordings. The famous ones include Army physician Dr. Howard Levy, Army "Green Beret" Sgt. Donald Duncan, and actor & activist Jane Fonda. I've adapted the 50-minute BBC-4 version of the documentary to radio. The longer, American version is available for sale on DVD.

NB: For the complete screenplay (U.S.-version), illustrated with hundreds of screen-capture photos, click here.

Top: Jane Fonda

Quoth the raven:

GREG PAYTON, U.S. ARMY: Guys were coming from all over the country, so you getting people coming in with different information about the black power struggle at that time, and black unity, and feeling real good about yourself. You had to really question what you were doing in Vietnam.

I remember one day this first-sergeant was talking about gooks [Vietnamese people]. To show you how naive I was, I didn't know that gook was a racial slur. I didn't really understand that. And one day he was talking about gooks and I remember, a light went off in my head, and I said, "Wow! A gook is the same thing as a nigger!"

SUSAN SCHNALL, U.S. NAVY NURSE: I was a member of the Medical Committee for Human Rights. And then I remember also hearing about the B-52 bombers that were dropping leaflets on Vietnam, urging the Vietnamese to defect.

And I thought, well, if they can do it overseas, then we can hire a small private plane, load it up with leaflets, and drop the leaflets on military bases in the San Francisco Bay area. Thousands and thousands of leaflets.

At one point I know we were a little concerned about getting shot down, but nothing happened. Evidently they landed pretty accurately. That's what they testified at the court-martial.

And on my way driving in to the [anti-war] demonstration, I decided I was going to wear my naval uniform. . . .

David Cline

DAVID CLINE, U.S. ARMY: The third time I was wounded was on December 20, 1967, and we got overrun by North Vietnamese regulars. . . .

After the fighting ended, and the sun came up, they carried me over to this guy who had shot me. And he was sitting up against the tree stump, and he was dead. He had three bullet holes up his chest, and he had his AK [-47 rifle] laying across his lap. And the sergeant said, "Here's this gook you killed. You did a good job."

And I seen this guy, and he was about my age, and I started thinking, you know, "Why is he dead and I'm alive?" It was just a matter of pure luck. Then I started thinking, I wonder if he had a girlfriend, and how his mother is going to find out. And things like that.

And when you just went through an experience of that nature, and you find out that it's all lies, and that they're just lying to the American people, and your silence means that you're part of keeping that lie going, I couldn't stop. I mean, I couldn't be silent. I felt I had a responsibility to my friends, and to the country in general, and to the Vietnamese.

The last guy who I shot -- and I don't consider he was the first guy I shot, but it was the first guy I shot where I was shooting it out barrel to barrel with him, and looked him in the face afterwards -- and I felt a certain amount of responsibility to him. To make his death not be in vain meant that I had to try to advocate for the justice that he was fighting for. Because I believe he was fighting for his country. So I became involved in the [anti-war] Movement.

Top: Levy today. Bottom: Unidentified GI in Vietnam

Coming soon -- Tuesday debut date on WWUH shown:

• November 24 -- Joyce Malcolm on the Meaning of the 2nd Amendment

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/ (Noon to 1:00 PM on October 13)


• Saturdays, 6:30 to 7:00 PM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT) & http://www.whus.org/


• Saturdays, 7:00-7:30 PM, KRFP-FM 92.5, Radio Free Moscow (Moscow, ID) & http://www.radiofreemoscow.com/


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Unadvertised Special!

Rita Martinson sings that great song with which Part 2 ends, Soldier, We Love You. YouTube video -- complete, uncut, un-voiced-over, and in living color: (Click here).

Resisting War: Dahr Jamail in Hartford

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Top: at U.S. Capitol, April 23, 1971
All photos & drawings: Click to enlarge.


New World Notes News
Volume 2, Number 44 -- November 4, 2009

This week in New World Notes, radio program #87, Tuesday, November 4:

Consumer Media Truth Commission
A l e r t !

Be Advised . . .
That the current installment of the radio series New World Notes--which installment formerly bore the title: "Resisting War: Dahr Jamail in Hartford" (hereinafter designated as "said crummy program")--has been renamed by order of the Consumer Media Truth Commission (hereinafter: the Commission) as:

"Mr. (or Ms) Kenneth Dowst Gassing On about the Supposed Good Old Days of

• Appearing in Public with Unshorn Underarms and without Brassieres (both Genders)
• Characterizing the Commission of Unapproved Activities of a Sexual or Pharmacological Nature (with or without inhaling) as "Striking Blows Against the Empire"
• Unlawfully Burning Selective Service System Registration Cards
• Committing Unapproved Acts of a Sexual, Pharmacological, First-Amendment, or Scholarly Nature
• Failing to Support Economically America’s Barbers, Haberdashers, Pearl-Accessories Industry, Trouser Manufactures (other than Levi-Strauss and Wrangler), and Villager Clothing Retailers
• Aiding and Abetting our (formerly, . . for the most part . . .) Brave and Patriotic Soldiers, Sailors, and Airpersons in Vietnam in their Commission of Insubordination, Sedition, Mutiny, Sabotage, Dereliction of Duty, A.’ing-themselves-W.O.L., Desertion, Displaying Disrespect to Officers, Failing to Kill Gooks When Lawfully Ordered, Marching in So-called "Peace Demonstrations,” Littering U.S. Government Property with Discarded Combat Medals, Testifying about U.S. Atrocities, Defecting to Canada and/or Sweden, Chanting ‘Hey! Hey! LBJ! How Many Kids Did You Kill Today?’ and Other Offenses."

The reason for this change-of-installment-title is:

Only nine (9) minutes of said crummy program reproduce Mr. (or Ms) Dahr Jamail’s inappropriate, unPatriotic speech in Hartford, Connecticut, of September 20, inst. -- the remainder of said crummy program being devoted to the aforementioned unPatriotic if false memories of Mr. (or Ms) Dowst, plus an overly-long if equally unPatriotic prerecorded song by one Mr. (or Ms) Jefferson Airplane and some cacophonous glam-rock "music" from, presumably, the mid-1980s.

This notice must be prominently displayed near every radio receiver capable of receiving broadcast-band FM transmissions and in the possession of a recipient of the "New World News" newsletter, except in the case of remote-control garage-door-opening appliances, in which case this notice may be affixed to a windshield, directly in front of the steering wheel, or other steering mechanism, of a motor vehicle containing an FCC-certified transmitting device designed for remote activation of said door-opening appliance, provided that both the appliance and the remote operating device are properly installed and functional.

CC.: http://www.dahr.org/ -- http://ivaw.org/

Top: Dahr Jamail in Bushnell Park, Hartford, CT, 9-20-09
Middle, Bottom: Washington, D.C., 9-17-07

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/
• Saturdays, 6:30 to 7:00 PM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT) & http://www.whus.org/ (Note new day & time!)
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Top: Location & date unknown. Bottom: San Francisco, 1-27-2007.

Note: The radio program features my edited, condensed, 9-minute version of Dahr Jamail's Hartford speech of September 20, 2009. The complete, unedited, 16.5-minute speech (+ introduction) is available here.

Memorial Day Special

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This week in New World Notes, #65, May 26 & 29:

Memorial Day is Monday, May 25, and this week's show commemorates it.

Just as the wrong sorts of people wave the flag, for all the wrong reasons--so the same people do their best to turn Memorial Day into a celebration of military service, unnecessary wars, belligerent foreign policies, and obscenely high and ever-increasing expenditures for quote-national defense-unquote.

Top: 2 flags.
Bottom: 20 flags

Personally, I prefer Christmas--the only national holiday in which the word "peace" is ever uttered, however insincerely.

And don't even get me started on Armistice Day! Originally a multinational holiday celebrating the end of the most gawdawful war in history, to that date. Now transformed into "Veterans Day" by our patriotic, peace-loving Congress. Quite a metamorphosis, eh?

This week, New World Notes offers an Alternative Memorial Day Celebration. The full title is, The Slippery Slope of Memorial Day.

First I elaborate on the main theme. To remember those whom the State caused to die is worthy. To celebrate a foreign policy consisting mainly of armed belligerance is unworthy. To call for ever more deaths and ever more killing so that "these honored dead shall not have died in vain" is obscene--the bottom of the slippery slope.

Guess where most conventional Memorial Day celebrations end up.

Top: Graphic by Eric Drooker
Bottom: "Spain, 1936" by Robert Capa

Then we hear veteran Middle-East correspondent Robert Fisk sharing his own thoughts on war.

Finally I'll read Howard Zinn's fine 1976 column on war and Memorial Day. At the time, he was a columnist for the Boston Globe. The day afterwards, he was no longer a columnist for the Boston Globe.

Well--to invert T.S. Eliot--at least he went out with a bang, not a whimper!

Happy motoring!
Ken

From The Phantom English Major:

Zinn's essay both begins and ends with a few words about drunken smashups. At the end, though, he's talking about more than just highway accidents. Clever.

This week's music:

• Steppenwolf, Monster

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/
• Fridays, 7:30 to 8:00 AM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT) & http://www.whus.org/
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Kent State Remembered: May 4, 1970

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South Vietnamese national police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan kills
Vietcong suspect Nguyen Van Lem; Saigon, February 1, 1968.
(Photo by Eddie Adams.) All photos: click to enlarge.

Napalm victims, village of Trang Bang, June 8, 1972. Children,
l. to r.: siblings Phan Thanh Tam (12), Phan Thanh Phuoc (5),
and Kim Phuc (9); their cousins Ho Van Bo and Ho Thi Ting.
(Photo by Nick Ut)

Historical background

In the spring of 1970, President Nixon announced a major escalation of the War in Vietnam--he had ordered the bombing of neutral Cambodia. In response, college students across the country chucked academics and engaged in massive protests.

Like many others, the protests at Kent State University were predominantly peaceful and nonviolent. Predominantly but not entirely. An ROTC building did manage to burn down--how, no one knows, to this day. Units of the Ohio National Guard were dispatched to Kent.

Around noon on May 4, about 1,500 protesters--mostly students--and scores of Guardsmen were standing on a large lawn known as the Commons. A Guard commander ordered the protesters to leave the Commons and disperse. They complied. Most walked up a hill and continued down the other side, heading towards parking lots and a practice field at the bottom. In formation, the troops followed the retreating students, occasionally lobbing tear gas.

The Guard went up the hill and halfway down the other side. Satisfied that the protesters had dispersed as ordered, the Guard commander ordered the troops to turn around and return to the Commons. Up the hill again they marched, moving in the opposite direction from the students.

As they reached the top of the hill, members of one Guard unit--Troop G--in unison stopped, whirled around, aimed, and unleashed a volley of fire at one of the parking lots. They shot rapidly for 13 seconds, firing a total of 67 rounds of .30-06 ammunition, then ceased.

The volley killed four students, one of whom was a no less than 300 yards away. Nine people were injured, some seriously, including one who was permanently paralyzed. No Guardsman was punished for what appears to be a clear case of premeditated murder.

Ohio National Guardsmen with military M-1 rifles, fixed bayonnets

The Commons (foreground) and the hill. Most students and troops
crested the hill to the right of building, Taylor Hall. Here the
students are herded by the troops, marching some distance behind.

A personal note

In the 1970s, as a graduate student, I taught writing courses at the University of Pittsburgh--not far from Kent State University.

I've since forgiven my students for many things; as, I hope, they have forgiven me.

I do remember one of my students saying, or perhaps writing, in I think 1974, "I knew Allison Krause a little. We went to the same school. She always was a troublemaker. She got what she deserved."

Fortunately, uncharacteristically, at that moment I was at a loss for words.

Him--whoever he was--I can forgive. I'll even bet that now he too, if he remembers those words of his, regrets them. But Nixon and Kissinger . . . . If I were a better Christian, perhaps I could forgive them too. . . .

But I'm not.

The Kent State massacre on May 4, 1970, was a defining moment of my life. It made me somewhat wiser, long before I had any wish to be wise; and it made the road I was travelling somewhat harder, as it remains.

First responders.
"Tin soldiers and Nixon comin' / We're finally on our own."

Mary Ann Vecchio, age 14, kneels by the body of Jeffrey Miller

R.I.P. (l. to r.:) Allison Krause, William Schroeder, Jeffrey Miller,
Sandra Scheuer. Nine others were wounded.

New World Notes # 62 features commentary by me, a talk by Jello Biafra--given at Kent State University, May 2005--and 2 songs by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I begin by talking about the first photograph of the National Guardsmen, above.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern) . . .

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/
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Men and War

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New World Notes News

Volume 2, Number 15 -- April 21, 2009

This week in New World Notes, #60 -- April 21 &24:

Men run the world. The world is seriously messed up. Could there be a connection?

Particularly when it comes to war--which seems to be everywhere and never-ending. Do we have so much war because we have so many men running around and--worse--making most of the decisions?

Graphic by Eric Drooker

A number of thoughtful people say yes--and the only real question is how much the problem ultimately is caused by biology (testosterone) and how much by socialization.

I hesitate to latch on to any single "root of all evil." And in this world of Hillary Clintons and Nancy Pelosis and Condoleeza Rices and Tzipi Livnis--to say nothing of Margaret Thatchers, Indira Gandhis, and Benazir Bhuttos--I think we can at least rule out testosterone as the ultimate cause of war. But that doesn't let men off the hook.

Utah Phillips
(All photos: click to enlarge.)

This week New World Notes features three voices, all male, each discussing how the American style of manhood leads to war. The voices belong to Utah Phillips (the U.S. war in Korea), Bruce Springsteen (Vietnam), and George Carlin (Gulf War I). Phillips and Springsteen each tell a story from their personal experience; Carlin discussses broader economic and social forces. In this performance, from the early 1990s, Carlin is as angry, as bitter, and as profane as I've ever heard him.

Song played: Bruce Springsteen, The River (live)

Soon to Come -- Date of first scheduled broadcast [on WWUH] listed:

• April 28 -- The Things They Don't Tell You! (Lies, distortions, and propaganda in your American History textbooks and courses. No wonder you hated History class!)
• May 5 -- Kent State Remembered

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern) . . .

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/
• Fridays, 7:30 to 8:00 AM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT) & http://www.whus.org/
• Saturdays, 7:00-7:30 PM, KRFP-FM 92.5, Radio Free Moscow (Moscow, ID) & http://www.radiofreemoscow.com/
• Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New+World+Notes

Bruce Springsteen