Salon Weekly
~ In 4 Color-Coded Sections:
- Table Notes
- Announcements
- Articles
- Books, Reviews, Films, Magazines
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................................................... Section One: Table Notes ............................................................................ (Note: these notes were taken at the table and have NOT been approved or corrected by the speakers. Reader
beware of inevitable misunderstandings and misrepresentations. E.B.)
At the Table on Wednesday, 12/6/06
Clark Eckles, Shari Able, Judy Cirillo, Mary Biehn, David Rosenberg, Linda Gruber, Adrienne Cooper, Bill Messer, Klara Apro, Steve Sunderland, Himavat Ishaya, Mr. S., Gerry Kraus, Marvin Kraus, Mira Rodwan, Mr. G., Karen Vossler. Karenvossler@webtv.net
TOPICS
Last week’s video on IRS/Fed. Res.
Films
Free Press: Enquirer’s new policies: unedited letters on their website
Iraq Study Group report (didn’t get to this one.)
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Judy: I went to the School of the Americas protest. It was very interesting: 20000 attendees. Near Cols. Georgia. Protest at Ft. Benning. In the late 80’s there were several religious killed in Central America. Since then they have had many complaints against the School. Still teaching violent tactics; 50% of their students from Columbia. They learn to disappear people who are against US economic interests, calling them “Communist sympathizers”.
Press did a blackout of the story. (Steve said there was not one mention of it in the NYTimes! Not even briefly, on the back pages. Wow. Ellen)
15 people climbed the fence and were arrested.
Unbelievable how many people have been killed.
Then I saw a program about how terrible our Fed. Prison system is.
Bill “Iraq for Sale” is playing at UC tomorrow at 8, Fri at 7:30, at the Main St. Cinema at the new University Student Center. $4 for no students.
Mira MoveOn.org is urging people to see “An Inconvenient Truth” on Sat. Dec 16, houseparties. Go to MoveOn.org to host a houseparty. (We will be having one here, I believe, at 6:00 pm. Come! Ellen.)
Marvin you can get the report of the Iraq Study Group, online. Google “Iraq Study Group Report”.
FILM REVIEW
Bill on the movie Babel. One of the more amazing movies I’ve seen in the last several years. Similar to “Crash”. What is really different from Crash is that it spreads the complexity globally. Offers accurate glimpses on other social conditions, and they feel authentic. Extremely well acted. Has fine actors. Thin coincidental threads connecting the various stories. Quite amazing. Tokyo, San Diego, Mexico, Morocco, … I walked out of it feeling I was in a place needing for it to keep working on my. How difficult it is to make sense of one another, even people who grew up together. Sometimes, human connections crossing boundaries.
Steve … a shining jewel, the life of a deaf teenager. Exquisite lives of pain … compassion as the ultimate medicine.
ENQUIRER’S NEW POLICY: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Anti-Muslim Hate Letters
Steve you can comment on any article in the paper and be published online. Immediately.
In the “forum” section online, there are a number of editorials by David Wells on “How much free speech can you tolerate?” No editing of readers’ responses. This morning letter by a Muslim civil rights atty. Seven letters came in hateful of Muslims. I wrote in objecting. Hate messages can be organized and sent directly to the newspaper. Surprising levels of vitriol. …made me rethink, what are the limits of free speech? We as a salon need to write in and balance the argument.
Gerry According to the supreme ct. the first amendment right is not absolute. Frankfurter says you cannot cry “fire” in a crowded theater, panic the people. You cannot speak in a manner in which other people will be hurt by it.
David I’m just curious how the Enquirer typically seems a very censored journal. What are their motivations?
Steve Scripps Howard is moving away from paper newspapers towards e versions only.
David I am suspicious because they have always been censoring… Also I prefer we give our energy to CityBeat.
Shari re. Gerry’s point about crying “fire” in a crowded theater. Any kind of vitriol message on the internet can not be compared to shouting fire.
Mr. S: I think hate speech has always been protected. KKK can have rallies. There are many open forums on the web.
Bill the courts have restricted free speech: obscenity, libel, and speech likely to cause imminent harm or criminal behavior. The reason we have protections for speech, is not to protect agreeable speech. It is odious speech that must stay protected. As soon as you start censoring that you shut off knowledge. The solution to bad speech is more speech
Gerry: what about the OJ Simpson book that was withdrawn from being published?
Steve: do we feel that hateful speech should be moderated in our local paper.
Karen V: sticks and stones…words can never harm me. Hate speech is someone emoting about something that bothers them. If you suppress their expression there will never be healing. The constitution is there to protect our rights. If you try to suppress their ability to express themselves, it will come back on you… We want to know the hateful stuff so we can heal it.
Judy What if someone writes hateful things in the paper, and others agree and they gather together to throw a bomb in a mosque…
Steve … a student can write a complaint to the president of UC against me that is ok, but if he writes in the Enquirer, “I have a socialist liberal Jew professor…” then we have to ask… I am worried about using the newspaper to organize hateful action.
Bill Bronson’s column has been hateful like that for years.
David if you start censoring … If we’ve learned any lesson in the last fifty years of foreign policy is that when you try to suppress something it comes back to bite you in the ass.
Steve … the religion, skin color, political position to discredit me.
David the people who get the most “speech” is those who have the most money today. That’s what I am so suspicious of this Enquirer thing. Whoever has the most money, their words get out there. Except for the internet.
Bill there are so many poor who have no access to the internet.
… Huckleberry Finn…great American novel. Often banned from the Right. Now is being banned by the left because of the use of the “n” word. In PA the NAACP is split over this.
Steve do we as liberal thinkers stay stuck in this rhetoric or …do we try and alter the discourse so we can risk eliminating some words or expressions that are hurtful to some.
Shari how would you have an open forum and yet have it edited? If it is o pen, it is o pen.
Steve there are lots of solutions to Who should be the editor? But Can we change this dialog to say we’ve reached the point when using hate speech is SO injurious that we as liberals want to say This is not permissible.
Shari then it is not an open forum.
Steve I am opposed to the use of the N word and the open forum of the newspaper online. I don’t think we should censor Huck. Finn. But teach it in a context of compassion.
Bill where can you actually lift the rock and see the ugly hate underneath? Until you see the hate, you cannot make a response.
Judy Can’t the paper be sued if someone tells an actual lie? What about the online forum. I think the only response is that you write a letter yourself.
(Ellen suggested we send the talking stick around the table...)
Marvin Steve can have his recourse in the internet t hing…can respond in writing in the same forum. … I have questioned whether the Enquirer would be the one that’s responsible. they are just offering a board where you can say whatever you want. I don’t think the Enquirer is liable.
Third, I like what Bill said. We want to know who are these people are
Himavat I belief that the healing is starting, when ever the hate words show up. Something happens. I have faith that whatever ends up happening is for the healing.
Steve: I have had enough of hate speech…anti Semitism, sexism, racism, homophobic comments for a lifetime. I don’t need another lesson in tolerance on this kind of language. I greatly appreciate the freedom to express ourselves here.
Karen re. libel and slander. If someone calls you what you are and says it is bad, it might turn into a good thing after all. I struggle over labels, hate, anger. I’ve been called everything from pinko liberal to paranoid whack job in my life. Friend who is a preschool instructor. Lives bond Hill. Is white. Had been married to a black man, has a biracial child, has a sister who is gay and a minister. One day she was complaining about her neighbors, two women with a bunch of kids. Trampling my flowers… pit bull. I asked, “Are they black?” She said, “I won’t go there.”
Asked how I am. “I am getting a new landlord…” … She said, “Might be nice having two gay guys upstairs.” I felt, Arrrgh.
I am nervous. I am struggling. It needs to be healed. …
I still think healing needs to take place. Need to hear it.
Shari in my opinion you cannot have freedom of speech and also editing and suppression. Have to take your pick.
Gerry the case before the Supreme Court on segregation of schools. The liberals are now using the arguments FOR integration that were used fifty years ago by those against. …
Mr. S I don’t want to see the suppression of any words and ideas. …it is the thoughts … it is a dysfunctional society. And I love pit bulls.
Mary seems to me the Newspaper is not the right forum for this. Don’t know what right forum…
Judy Karen’s point is good. We all have prejudice. You are recognizing yours, a great thing.
Mr. G I can’t win here. There are t wo diff. kinds of speech. One is the kind here at the table; the other is institutional. Re. institutional, there is no such thing as free speech. It is always speech for money.
Adrienne: I am tired of this topic.
Klara I hate the Enquirer; boring.
Linda I am concerned along with Steve. Brings up, How define a civil society? What is it that we have… the hate people are raised with. Much of the planet is being raised on nothing but hatred. …all the personal attacks on TV. Fox, CNN, there is so little beyond personal attack. Also agree that Newspaper is not the right venue for a free for all.
Mira I have always been able to step in others’ shoes… when I see or hear people putting down another person or group I think, “they don’t know them.” When I do imagine, for instance, pedophiles, I believe there is something we need to understand about them. AIf we whitewash…because it is so uncomfortable to deal with, nevertheless I want there to be safety. If we have safety, I can say what I think and feel. Have a sister in law who has survived with self esteem intact, who has suffered worse than me. I wish there were moderating influences at every forum.
(Ellen, p.s.: my thought is that the correct response to “bad” speech is “more” speech. I intend to find the blog at Enquirer.com and post my own response to the anti-Muslim letters. Urge you to do the same. See Steve’s letter below in the blue Articles section.)
IRS AND FEDERAL RESERVE
(I introduced the topic and SAID I don’t understand h ow the Fed. Works, whether we need it or not, what the consequences of abolishing it would be. Can’t be for that until I do. Looking for a way to find out. Marvin has a friend who heads up the local Fed. Reserve Bank of Cleveland office...might be able to get her to come to the Salon. Would be great! Ellen)
Karen (Karen is a tax resister.) I have a degree of biology; … FDA officer… massage therapist for last 20 years. Filed bankruptcy at one point. … I had been filing but couldn’t pay my taxes. I thought I only owed $100. But in bankruptcy they were listed as a creditor. They had no idea what I owed them… the conjured up a huge number based on my previous FDA salary. Penalties… I kept being unable to pay them.
Saw Al Carter video, about income tax not being legal. He made it sound simple to get out of the system. If I went along with IRS I’d be a slave the rest of my life.
You enter a contract when you file your return. Only if you file are you liable to pay them. If you have no assets,… they will go and investigate you, make you seem very bad. A case, Loyd Long… he won against the IRS. He claimed he was not shown why he had to file a tax return.
I decided it was either be a slave or be out of the system. I chose to fight them. I w rote letters asking what I was required to file, what law said…
They never made suit against me to get a judgment to take my house; no charge of failure to file. Only took me to court to get my records. They staged an auction of my house. I went, told all the attendees, the truth. Auction in ’91. The lawsuit for records in ’92. Ended up dismissing it.
You don’t want to hire a lawyer to go into court with you against the IRS. The lawyer is an officer of the court. I stood up to them myself.
Eventually, the people who bought my house at auction from the IRS, took my house. Tricky things like, “Did you bring your books and records with you today?” and you must answer, “Yes” but not to hand them over. … transactional immunity.
… I never wanted to be a lawyer. But I had the courage of my convictions. …
From 92 to 96 I got to live in my house. Finally I got evicted. I appealed. The IRS had already got to the circuit court.
I then appealed that. One judge agreed with me, two did not, so I lost.
…then took a 42 suit against. …
this Aaron Russo movie is a blockbuster. It sings to my soul, the info. I know to be true. When I first started talking about it people would run for cover. But now people are starting to get t he idea.
I was without family, so it was not so hard for me to do civil disobedience. … We the people have rights given to us by God … we created the state. The federal gov’t was never supposed to be in your life and mine. Only mint money (which it does no longer), rep. us to the world, house the military to protect our shores. Never supposed to be involved in our lives.
NPR… a lot of propaganda, … all these companies are grabbing up the genomes and patenting all these things, which means they will own our bodies. I hope the Sup. Court says nobody can patent the human genes. There are a l ot of things we have to wake up to.
The IRS has left me alone since ’92.
Bill I was not offended. I do want to address… “Under God” does not appear in the constitution.. “the creator” appears in the Declaration of Indep.
Mr. X: I have it on good source was because he and Robert Kennedy were putting in process the disempowerment of the Fed. Reserve. He got killed for that.
Ellen I am concerned: I want to learn about the Fed.
Gerry let’s find out how you can learn about the Fed.
Karen: you can write me email karenvossler@webtv.net
And please put “Salon” in subject line so I won’t think it is spam.
(See last week’s Weekly for notes on the movie, link to I ts web site, and Eric Russo’s comments and advice for action.)
~ End of Table Notes~
Hugs to everyone,
Ellen
Section Two: Announcements
A friend sent me this great holiday gift source that helps you do more than
just buy a gift.
(Salonista) Teagan
Christmas Shopping for a Good Cause!
Do your Christmas shopping at Ten Thousand Villages in O'Bryonville on
Thurs. December 8th!!! For 70 years, Ten Thousand Villages
has supported the work of literally tens of thousands
of artisans in over 30 countries in Asia, Africa,
Latin America and the Middle East, making them one the
largest fair trade organizations in North America.
On December 8th they are giving 20% of their proceeds
to Engineers Without Borders at the University of
Cincinnati, to support their water project in a
village in Nyando, Kenya. Just mention you're
shopping to support EWB and enjoy all their beautiful
trade!
www.tenthousandvillages.com
Ten Thousand Villages in O'Bryonville
2011 Madison Road
10am - 7pm
==================================
AND...
Ten Thousand Villages benefits MUSE, Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir on
Sat. Dec. 9
We in MUSE are grateful once again to partner with 10,000 Villages. We invite you to join us to shop (all day) this Saturday December 9, at 10,000 Villages. Cincinati is fortunate to have this fair trade store where everyone benefits when you make a purchase--the collective of creative artisans from around the world, you, and MUSE. (from Cathy Roma, director)
Mental Health for the Holidays [Every Thursday in December, 5:50- 7:30 pm]: Holistic psychologist Ellen Bierhorst offers an open group, “Surviving and thriving during the holidays: December Mental Health Institute at the Lloyd House” for support and education around common problems and individual issues, including: holiday blues, overeating and overdrinking, family reunion and anniversary issues, parenting, loneliness, insomnia and more. Couples and families welcome. $10. Drop-ins welcome. No appointment necessary. The Lloyd House, 3901 Clifton Avenue, Cinti. 45220. Parking on Lafayette Avenue. More info @ 513 221 1289, ellenbierhorst@lloydhouse.com, & http://www.lloydhouse.com
This is an opportunity to have access to Ellen in a freely affordable way, for those who would love that, but don’t feel like or can’t afford a full-dress psychotherapy appointment. It most likely will be a small group—could be just you and me. Feel free to come to one or all of the Thursday evening sessions.
Clifton Crime Prevention Meeting Mon. 12/11
(protect property values and quality of life in Clifton- ellen)
Hello to you,
As you may be aware, there has been an increase in crime in the Clifton Gaslight District. I recently joined the CTM Safety Committee hoping to help in some way. The committee has been working with CTM and the police on strategies that might be implemented to help resolve/reduce crime in our neighborhood. One KEY issue, of course, is community involvement!! To that end we are holding a SPECIAL CTM Meeting on Crime Prevention Monday December 11th from 7:00-9:00 at the Clifton Rec Center. Police representatives from District 5 will be there and possibly members of City Council. Topics will include:
· Lighting – options for increasing; exploring efficiencies
· Citizen Involvement – Citizens on Patrol, Block Watch, staying informed, other creative solutions
· Personal Safety – safety tips; reporting crime
· Access Controls –
· Other Crime Concerns and Issues
· Action Steps
Given that the meeting is very soon and the safety committee is very small, we decided to try to elicit help from Cliftonites we know to get the word out. So, as a representative of the committee, I'm asking whether or not you would be willing/able to (spread this message-ed.) to neighbors or other friends who live in Clifton.
I hope you will be able to help us spread the word so that we get a big turnout on Monday.
Thank you VERY much (in advance)!
Amanda O'Bannon
Tri-State Treasures
Tri-State Treasures is a compilation of unique local people, places, and events that may enrich your lives. These treasures have been submitted by you and others who value supporting quality community offerings. Please consider supporting these treasures, and distributing the information for others to enjoy. And please continue to forward your Tri-State Treasures ideas to jkesner@nuvox.net.
Information about Tri-State Treasures and how to submit Tri-State Treasures is at the bottom of this email. Please help me by providing all basic information and formatting your submissions as described below.
Sincerely, Jim
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Send A Card To Men & Women Soldiers: Go to www.letssaythanks.com & pick out a "Thank You" card. Xerox will print it & send it to a soldier who is currently serving in Iraq. You don't pick out the soldier, but it will go to a member of the armed services. An honorable goal for everyone we know to send one or more cards; for every soldier to receive several cards. And it's free.
Click for Free Soup: Please keep clicking http://www.chunky.com/clickforcansvote.aspx to get thousands of can of Chunky soup donated to the Cincinnati freestore foodbank. Bookmark the site & vote everyday. Tell your friends, even if they're not Bengals fans.
Video to DVD: Do you have those pesky videos that you wish were DVD's? Well wish no more. For $15 a piece you can convert your VHS tapes to DVD's. (non-copy right protected material only, please). Contact Suzanne Beckner @ 513.721.2234 for more info.
Billy Harper Quintet @ Friday Jazz at the Hyatt [Friday 8 December @ 8-12 PM]: The world renowned Billy Harper Quintet. For fans of great music & original jazz, this is a show not to be missed. $30 cover; $15 Jazz Club Members; $5 CCM & NKU Jazz studies students; under 18 years old admitted free; bring ID. At the Sungarten Room, Hyatt Hotel Cincinnati, 151 West 5th Street, Downtown Cincinnati, OH 45202. $1 parking across the street at the corner of 5th & Race. Live internet broadcast for $10. More info @ 513.579.1234, waltb31@fuse.net, & www.jazzincincy.com.
Olfactory Fact & Fiction: Demystifying the Human Sense of Smell [Saturday 9 December @ 10 AM]: Aromatherapy? Human pheromones? Come explore one of the most primitive yet interesting of human senses. The Association for Rational Thought presents Robert Frank from the University of Cincinnati. They guarantee this talk won't be a stinker. <groan> At Molly Malone's Restaurant (no charge), 6111 Montgomery Road, Pleasant Ridge, Cincinnati, OH 45213. More info @ www.cincinnatiskeptics.org.
Luminaria: Harmony of Light [Saturday 9 December @ 5-7 PM]: Luminaries will light the paths of Washington Park, with lights in the trees in honor of Over-the-Rhine's Music Hall Square. This year's event has been expanded to represent the diversity of the OTR community. In addition to the hot chocolate provided by Kaldi's Coffeehouse, organic spiced cider provided by Wild Oats, & scrumptious cookies from Take the Cake, you may enjoy: Nast Trinity Gospel Choir, & New Thought Unity Center Choir, Words of Wisdom from former Mayor Roxanne Qualls, Vice Mayor Jim Tarbell & his harmonica, Stories from InkTank, MUSE Women's Choir, & St. John's Unitarian Choir. 3CDC's Development Director for Over-the-Rhine & the Drop Inn Center's Director will share a few words. If you want to help set up luminaries, arrive to Washington Park @ 3 PM; bring your children; Girl Scouts & Boy Scouts will lead children in making ornaments to decorate the Luminaria Winter Solstice tree. Presented by Western & Southern Financial Group. At Washington Park, Cincinnati, OH 45202. More info @ 513.240.9571, Lydia@irhine.com, & www.iRhine.com.
31st Annual Memorial Hall Holiday Sale [Sunday 10 December @ Noon - 4 PM]: Nine nationally renown Cincinnati-area artists present this annual Cincinnati tradition for holiday shoppers looking for quality, artistic, unique gifts. Pottery by Allan Nairn, Greg Seigel, Joyce Clancy, & Mike Frasca. Batik art work & scarves by Arnelle Dow. Wood turned vases & sculptures by Bob Winland. Loom woven 18k gold jewelry by Stuart Golder. Hand-made paper art works by Margaret Rhein. Hand-painted silk clothing by Kymber Henson. Free, refreshments, live Jazz trio performance. At Memorial Hall,1225 Elm Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202. More info @ 513.662.9382 & paperpeg@cinci.rr.com.
A Holiday Fantasia [Sunday 10 December @ 3 PM]: Relax as you bask in the holiday glow of the Cincinnati Metropolitan Orchestra, singers, & chorus. Hear wonderful music of Christmas & the holiday season. Program includes music from Polar Express, Greensleeves, Feliz Navidad, & much more. Concert is free, donations are welcomed. Free parking in lot or parking garage. At Seton Performance Center, 3901 Glenway Avenue, Price Hill, Cincinnati, OH 45205. More info @ 513.941.8956 & www.GoCMO.org.
Community Conversation: Courageous Listening [Wednesday 13 December; light refreshments @ 5:30 PM; conversation @ 6-8 PM]: Building action networks. Join our gathering to consider youth, community, & violence. What gifts can we bring to address these issues? Is youth violence a public health issue? What’s possible? Let’s move from isolated concern to networks of action. Please join us. Youth and adults together. Sponsored by Woman’s City Club with National Conference of Community & Justice, & First Unitarian Church. At Carl H. Lindner Family YMCA, 1425 Linn Street (1 block south of Linn & Liberty), West End, Cincinnati, OH 45214. More info @ 513.751.0100 or wcc@womanscityclub.org.
Continuing Treasures:
Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers [thru - December 8; see website for evening show times]: Almost daily screenings of this powerful, important documentary about the profiteering that permeates the Iraq war. If you haven't seen it, you should. This is important stuff for an informed public to understand. In the final speech of his presidency, Dwight D. Eisenhower warned "we must guard against the... militaryindustrial complex" through an "alert and knowledgeable citizenry." This documentary describes what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war. Director Robert Greenwald takes the viewer inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows, & children who have been changed forever by profiteering during the reconstruction of Iraq. "Iraq for Sale" describes the connections between the huge profits made by private corporations in Iraq and the decision-makers who allow this to happen. $2 for UC Community with ID; $4 for general public. Not rated; 75 minutes. At Tangeman Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45220. More info @ 513.556.0943, butlerjc@ucmail.uc.edu, & http://www.uc.edu/mainstreet/tuc/tuc_theater_3.html.
Americans Who Tell the Truth [thru 10 December @ 10-5 Mon-Fri & 1:30-4:30 Sat-Sun]: An exhibit of portraits by Robert Shetterly of Americans, past & present, famous & ordinary. Each painting includes an engaging quote from the person portrayed; writers, artists, labor leaders, environmentalists, political activists, reporters, & politicians; some of the “truth tellers” of our society. Shetterly is native to Cincinnati who now resides in Brooksville, Maine. Free. At Studio San Giuseppe in the Dorothy Meyer Ziv Art Building, The College of Mount St. Joseph, Delhi & Neeb Roads, Delhi Township, Cincinnati, OH 45233. More info @ 513-244-4314 & www.americanswhotellthetruth.org.
Christmas Yet To Come [thru December 23]: World premiere. Know Theatre transforms Dickens’ classic story into a contemporary, cutting edge rock musical where the cutest little girl is Christmas Past and a gorgeous drag queen is Christmas Present. Christmas Yet To Come will feature live rock music, intense narration, and pop modern dance. In collaboration with Cincinnati’s most exciting contemporary dance company, Exhale Dance Tribe. At Know Theatre of Cincinnati, 1120 Jackson Street, Downtown Cincinnati, OH 45202. More info & tix @ 513.621.2787, info@knowtheatre.com, & www.knowtheatre.com.
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Tri-State Treasures is compiled by James Kesner.
Fanchon Shur: two new dance pieces: Thurs. Dec 14
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Come join me for my two most recent works performed for the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor at their Feast of Blessed Frances Schervier.
The first, "Totems of Tolerance," unites the three Abrahamic faiths into an interweaving prayer of souls. This piece is danced by Renee Henry, Michelle Bump, and Chad Benjamin Potter. The second, and one certainly not to miss, is the regional premier of a tribute dance highlighting the life mission of Frances Schervier performed by Karen Wissel and Chad Benjamin Potter.
This will be an enriching evening of movement and music as we celebrate and remember the courage and stamina of Mother Frances Schervier.
I hope to see you there,
St. Clare Chapel for the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor
December 14th, 2006 at 6:30p
60 Compton Rd, Cincinnati, OH <http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=60+Compton+Rd,+Cincinnati,+OH>
(513) 761-9040
Fanchon Shur
Director, Growth in Motion,Inc
www.growthinmotion.org
4019 Red Bud Ave.
513-221-3222
fanchon@fuse.net
Residential Space at the Lloyd House
Available: Third floor room with double bed size sleeping loft, closet. Bathroom just outside door. Shared: kitchen (with 3 other housemates), living room, grand piano, gym, sauna, meditation/yoga room. Shared: monthly house expenses... $350. Lovely historic Victorian, warm multicultural community of adults (over 25). No smoking. No pets. Ellen 513 221 1289
Section Three: Articles
Contents:
- Steve Sunderland’s letter to Enquirer blog re. Anti Muslim expression there
- Wall St. Journal piece on Muslims, Air Travel, etc.
Steve’s Letter to Enquirer Blog on Anti-Muslim Vitriol
What continues to amaze me is that most people who are commenting on
Muslim behavior have never met a Muslim, American or otherwise. I
believe that if conversations were started, questions asked, and
relationships built between Muslims and non-Muslims, the overt
prejudice we read in this paper would be greatly reduced. Teachers,
parents, and community and religious leaders can make a very big
difference in reducing fears and increasing trust. Such action is
needed now.
Steve Sunderland
Peace Village
Wall St. Journal Piece on Muslims, Air Travel, etc.
“This story recently appeared as op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. I’m not taking sides here, but sending this out as a reminder that there are always 2 (or more) sides to every story. Do I believe that there is anti-Muslim prejudice in America – certainly. But I also believe that unscrupulous enemies take advantage of this to further their own agenda. This is all part of the dance of war – how tragic and wasteful. Most every American I’ve met just wants to be safe and free. And we all suffer when there are still people in the world that are neither.”
David Rosenberg
On a Wing and a Prayer
By DEBRA BURLINGAME (Sister of one of the 911 pilots killed...see below. Ellen)
December 6, 2006; Page A16
Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Those are the words that started it all. Six bearded imams are said to have shouted them out while offering evening prayers as they and 141 other passengers waited at the gate for their flight out of Minneapolis International Airport. It was three days before Thanksgiving. Allahu Akbar: God is great.
Initial media reports of the incident did not include the disturbing details about what happened after they boarded US Airways flight 300, but the story quickly went national with provocative headlines: "Six Muslims Ejected from US Air Flight for Praying." Yes, they were praying -- but let's be clear about this. The very last human sound on the cockpit voice recorder of United flight 93 before it screamed into the ground at 580 miles per hour is the sound of male voices shouting "Allahu Akbar" in a moment of religious ecstasy.
They, too, were praying. The passengers and crew of flight 93 lost their valiant fight to take back the plane just one hour and 20 minutes after it pushed back from the gate. Until the hijackers stormed the cockpit door, they were just a handful of Middle Eastern-looking men on their way to sunny California. So, yes, let's be exceedingly clear about the whole matter. Some 3,000 men, women and children are dead because the unassuming people on those airplanes did not look at them and see murderers. Or dangerous Arabs. Or fanatical Muslims. They saw a few guys in chinos.
* * *
In five years since the 9/11 attacks, U.S. commercial carriers have transported approximately 2.9 billion domestic and international passengers. It is a testament to the flying public, but, most of all, to the flight crews who put those planes into the air and who daily devote themselves to the safety and well-being of their passengers, that they have refused to succumb to ethnic hatred, religious intolerance or irrational fear on those millions of flights. But they have not forgotten the sight of a 200,000-pound aircraft slicing through heavy steel and concrete as easily as a knife through butter. They still remember the voices of men and women in the prime of their lives saying final goodbyes, people who just moments earlier set down their coffee and looked out the window to a beautiful new morning. Today, when travelers and flight crews arrive at the airport, all the overheated rhetoric of the civil rights absolutists, all the empty claims of government career bureaucrats, all the disingenuous promises of the election-focused politicians just fall away. They have families. They have responsibilities. To them, this is not a game or a cause. This is real life.
Given that Islamic terrorists continue their obsession with turning airplanes into weapons of mass destruction, it is nothing short of obscene that these six religious leaders -- fresh from attending a conference of the North American Imams Federation, featuring discussions on "Imams and Politics" and "Imams and the Media" -- chose to turn that airport into a stage and that airplane into a prop in the service of their need for grievance theater. The reality is, these passengers endured a frightening three-and-a-half hour ordeal, which included a front-to-back sweep of the aircraft with a bomb-sniffing dog, in order to advance the provocative agenda of these imams in, of all the inappropriate places after 9/11, U.S. airports.
"Allahu Akbar" was just the opening act. After boarding, they did not take their assigned seats but dispersed to seats in the first row of first class, in the midcabin exit rows and in the rear -- the exact configuration of the 9/11 execution teams. The head of the group, seated closest to the cockpit, and two others asked for a seatbelt extension, kept on board for obese people. A heavy metal buckle at the end of a long strap, it can easily be used as a lethal weapon. The three men rolled them up and placed them on the floor under their seats. And lest this entire incident be written off as simple cultural ignorance, a frightened Arabic-speaking passenger pulled aside a crew member and translated the imams' suspicious conversations, which included angry denunciations of Americans, furious grumblings about U.S. foreign policy, Osama Bin Laden and "killing Saddam."
Predictably, these imams and their attorneys now suggest that another passenger who penned a frantic note of warning and slipped it to a flight attendant was somehow a hysterical Islamophobe. Let us remember that but for their performance at the gate this passenger might never have noticed these men or their behavior on board, much less have the slightest clue as to their religion or political passions. Of course, that was the point of the shouting. According to the police report, yet another alarmed passenger who frequently travels to the Middle East described a conversation with one of the imams. The 31-year-old Egyptian expressed fundamentalist Muslim views, and stated the he would go to whatever measures necessary to obey all the tenets set out in the Koran.
The activist Muslim American Society (MAS) issued a press release within hours of the incident, demanding an apology and announcing a "pray-in" at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. Standing just a short distance from the Pentagon, where five years ago black plumes of smoke from the crash of American Airlines flight 77 could be seen for miles, the assembled demonstrators complained that African-American Muslims, accustomed to "driving while black," must now cope with the injustice of "flying while Muslim." This brazen two-step is racial politics at its worst; none of the imams are African-American. MAS, which teaches an "Activist Training" program with lessons on "how to talk to the media," must have been thrilled when one cable news outfit, suckered by the rhetoric, compared the imams' conduct to that of civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her bus seat in the face of institutional racism. One wonders what the parents of the three 11-year-olds who died on flight 77 -- all African-American kids on a National Geographic field trip -- would make of this stunning comparison.
Today, MAS Executive Director Mahdi Bray says his organization wants more than an apology. He wants to "hit [US Airways] where it hurts, the pocketbook," and, joined by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), will seek compensation for the imams, civil and federal monetary sanctions, and new, sweeping legislation that will extract even bigger penalties for airlines that engage in "racial and religious profiling." An investigation by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties is underway. Not incidentally, it is the "fatwa department" of MAS that pushed for segregated taxi lines that would permit Muslim cab drivers at the Minneapolis airport to reject passengers carrying alcohol.
* * *
Here's what the flying public needs to know about airplanes and civil rights: Once your foot traverses the entranceway of a commercial airliner, you are no longer in a democracy in which everyone gets a vote and minority rights are affirmatively protected in furtherance of fuzzy, ever-shifting social policy. Ultimately, the responsibility for your personal safety and security rests on the shoulders of one person, the pilot in command. His primary job is to safely transport you and your belongings from one place to another. Period.
This is the doctrine of "captain's authority." It has a longstanding history and a statutory mandate, further strengthened after 9/11, which recognizes that flight crews are our last line of defense between the kernel of a terrorist plot and its lethal execution. The day we tell the captain of a commercial airliner that he cannot remove a problem passenger unless he divines beyond question what is in that passenger's head and heart is the day our commercial aviation system begins to crumble. When a passenger's conduct is so disturbing and disruptive that reasonable, ordinary people fear for their lives, the captain must have the discretionary authority to respond without having to consider equal protection or First Amendment standards about which even trained lawyers with the clarity of hindsight might strongly disagree. The pilot in command can't get it wrong. At 35,000 feet, when multiple events are rapidly unfolding in real time, there is no room for error.
We have a new, inviolate aviation standard after 9/11, which requires that the captain cannot take that airplane up so long as there are any unresolved issues with respect to the security of his airplane. At altitude, the cockpit door is barred and crews are instructed not to open them no matter what is happening in the cabin behind them. This is an extremely challenging situation for the men and women who fly those planes, one that those who write federal aviation regulations and the people who agitate for more restrictions on a captain's authority will never have to face themselves.
Likewise, flight attendants are confined in the back of the plane with upwards of 200 people; they must be the eyes and ears, not just for the pilot but for us all. They are not combat specialists, however, and to compel them to ignore all but the most unambiguous cases of suspicious behavior is to further enable terrorists who act in ways meant to defy easy categorization. As the American Airlines flight attendants who literally jumped on "shoe bomber" Richard Reid demonstrated, cabin crews are sharply attuned to unusual or abnormal behavior and they must not be second-guessed, or hamstrung by misguided notions of political correctness.
Ultimately, the most despicable aspect about the imams' behavior is that when they pierced the normally quiet hum of a passenger waiting area with shouts of "Allahu Akbar" and deliberately engaged in terrorist-associated behavior that was sure to trigger suspicion, they exploited the fear that began with the Sept. 11 attacks. The imams, experienced travelers all, counted on the security system established after 9/11 to kick in, and now they plan not only to benefit financially from the proper operation of that system but to substantially weaken it -- with help from the Saudi-endowed attorneys at CAIR.
US Airways is right to stand by its flight crew. It will be both dangerous and disgraceful if the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation and, ultimately, our federal courts allow aviation security measures put in place after 9/11 to be cynically manipulated in the name of civil rights.
Ms. Burlingame, a director of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, is the sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame III, the pilot of American Airlines flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
Section Four: Books/Magazines/Reviews
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From Mike Murphy: Ellen et al --I have too much going on today [out of town visitors, plus some incidental construction on the building that I am tangentially involved in], so I apologize but I will not be able to attend the discussion group (re. the Saturday at 3 pm. book discussion at the Lloyd House. You all are invited. ellen)
BTW, I have on order a new title, 'The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community' by David Korten. Might wanna google on it. I've heard really good things about it, from near and far. If we move on from the present 'Alternatives' to Economic Globalization” book(which, tho a bit dry, is quite reliable and inspiring), I suggest 'Turning.' (We are also simultaneously reading The War of Art by Steve Pressfield. ellen)
So... I know you are out there. What are YOU reading? Please write and tell me. so if you are shy, I’ll print it anonymously. Just write! ellen
The Lloyd House Salon (usually about 12 people) Meets on WEDNESDAYS at 5:45,
EVERY Wednesday, 52 WEEKS/YEAR come hell or high water, as my mother used to say.
We of the Lloyd House Salon gather in a spirit of
respect, sympathy and compassion for one another
in order to exchange ideas for our mutual pleasure and enlightenment.
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Our Salon blog is a promising interactive site: http:lloydhouse.blogspot.com
Also, we have an Interactive Yahoo Salon group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LloydHouseSalon
For Pot Luck procedures including food suggestions, mission and history visit
http://home.fuse.net/ellenbierhorst/Potluck.html .
You are invited also to visit the Lloyd House website: http://www.lloydhouse.com
> To unsubscribe from the Lloyd House Potluck Salon list, send a REPLY message
> to me and in the SUBJECT line type in "unsub potluck #". In the place of #
> type in the numeral that follows the subject line of my Weekly email. It
> will be 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7. This tells me which sub-list your name is on so I can
> delete it. Thanks! ellen bierhorst
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