Author Archives: Becci

The forgotten casualties of war

Posted on by

By Kelly Dougherty
Former Sergeant, Army National Guard
Executive Director of Iraq Veterans Against the War

On Nov. 26, Sammantha Owen-Ewing, one of IVAW’s newest members, the wife of my friend Scott, and a former Army medic like me, committed suicide in her Rhode Island home. Sammantha was only 20 years old, and in that short time had been an Army medic training to become a nurse while stationed at Walter Reed, then became a patient herself in Walter Reed’s mental health ward. In June, she married Scott Ewing, also an IVAW member, and was discharged from the Army. Despite an uphill battle to receive care from the VA, things seemed to be looking up; she was getting settled into life in Rhode Island, planned to continue her medical career, and was becoming active in Iraq Veterans Against the War. Although most of us were never fortunate enough to know Sammantha, she was one of us and we mourn her passing.

sammanthaewing.jpg

Sammantha Owen-Ewing

It is impossible to sum up the life of a person, their personality and how much they meant to the people who loved them, in a few short lines. In her obituary, Sammantha was described as “sweet, thoughtful, and loving. She brought joy to the lives of those around her.” I’m sorry I will never meet Sammantha and my deepest condolences go out to her family. I know that many IVAW members have suffered through depression, PTSD, and other forms of internal anguish, and many of us still deal with these things on a daily basis.

IVAW has set up a memorial fund on behalf of Sammantha Owen-Ewing to help her family offset her funeral costs. We will be accepting donations through the end of December, if you’d like to make a donation, go to www.ivaw.org/memorialfund.

Suicide is a very real threat, especially for veterans. A recent CBS news investigation found that in 2005, veterans were twice as likely to commit suicide as non-vets, with 120 veteran suicides each week. Those of us who are between the ages of 20-24 have the highest rate of suicides, between two and four times higher than our civilian peers. For many veterans, the fighting doesn’t end once we return from a war zone or get discharged from the military.

Sewer politics

Posted on by

This is just the opening of a long and vulgar email sent around today, with email addresses exposed. I recognized many of them, and could tell they’d culled our online list of Network members. We won’t dignify and perpetuate the trash by copying more of it here or identifying their web site. But it’s useful, I think, to know what we’re up against.

*********

Dear American Friend,              

I have attached my “Hillary file” which is culled from the 205+ books and other media that I have on Hillary and Bill. The Clintons are thugs. On the campaign trail in 2007 Hillary and Bill are play acting as the loving, respectful couple – singing each other’s praises on stage and engaging in public affection as they troll for votes.

In order to understand Hillary and Bill, one must first understand the wildly dysfunctional Jerry Springer lifestyle they have lived for 36 years. Hillary has covered for Bill who not only has had HUNDREDS of women, but also perpetrated several rapes and vicious sexual assaults, often involving biting the lips of the women victims. In order to cover up this Jerry Springer chaos, Hillary has often used Sopranos tactics: a secret police and criminal intimidation tactics to harass, intimidate and terrify Bill’s sex victims and girlfriends.

WE’VE HAD ENOUGH “EXPERIENCE” WITH HILLARY; CLINTON BLACK OPERATIONS MUST STOP

**********

We should all do what we can to resist this brand of gutter politics. Ret. Lt Col USAF Bob Ross did. He sent this out in response to the original email:

For starters, I am NOT your friend.

It is people like you who give politics in the United States the smell of rotten eggs. It is you who are irresponsible. Who is paying you? …the same people who “Swift-Boated” John Kerry? The same people who spread the lie in South Carolina about John McCain having a black, illegitimate child and that his wife was a drug addict? The same people who lied about Iraq having WMDs? The same idiots who would have us bomb Iran?

Shame, shame, You are beneath contempt.

Bob Ross
Lt Col USAF Retired

The most powerful black woman in the world

Posted on by

Why can’t I stand the sight of her?
By Candace Allen
The Guardian UK

Candace Allen has spent her whole life cheering on fellow African-Americans who have battled their way to the top. Yet the extraordinary career of Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, fills her only with revulsion and anger. Here she explains why.

I am African-American. We are a sentimental people in the main and we tend to track our own. We are aware of others of colour who cross our spaces. We look around asking: “How did she/he come to be here/there? Is his/her story extraordinary, coincidental or totally banal?”

At 80 years old, my dentist father has been a desegregator all of his adult life, both professionally and domestically. Although raised in Richmond, Virginia, he chose to rear his family up north, first in Boston, then in a Connecticut suburb of New York. When I call him to ask how things are going during the first week of the US Open, he tells me that the Williams sisters are doing fine, as is James Blake, and there are a young boy and girl playing in their first Open who won’t get too far this time but are looking mighty good. Unsaid, I know the nature of the report he’s going to give; unsaid, he knows what I want to hear: stories about black people coming on to traditional white fields of play and not just holding their own but kicking ass and taking names. Smiles, pride, a fist in the air.

So why the viscerally negative reaction, my gut literally roiling with distaste and disappointment, when I look at Condoleezza Rice, the first African-American female to be secretary of state of the world’s one remaining superpower?

She is a powerful woman, often coming first in lists of the world’s most powerful women. Unlike Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey, she is seldom referred to by her first name only: as with Angela Merkel and Margaret Thatcher, she gets both her names. Her eyes, intelligent, usually veiled, often glittering hard, give up nothing. Her hair is now less iron-solid than it was but, as with Thatcher and Merkel, it is generally unmovable. And there is the posture: ramrod straight. The chin is held high even seemingly when notes are consulted, but that is very seldom, because Rice functions in public almost invariably without notes. A woman of impressive intellect – vast, profound and/or well-trained – holding her own, be it among or before the most powerful white men in the world. Again and again, she is generally the only non-secretarial black woman to be seen in such environments. Mercilessly kicking ass, taking names. Ready.

(A cultural footnote: back in the day, before any kind of mixing, before even Motown was heard on white radio stations, African-Americans had a play on the word “ready”. If someone acted a fool, the jibe was: “He/she ain’t ready.” Not ready for responsibility or integration, ie interaction with white folks.)

So why am I so loth to look in her direction? She is not unattractive; our ages and backgrounds are reasonably similar. Yet I must force myself to look at her. She is family, attenuated family, deplored family maybe, but family none the less. I do not have to condone or even explain family misdeeds.

But I take her complicity in what I consider the most disastrous US administration in modern times very personally. I want to take her by the shoulders and shake, if not throttle her. But very much more, I want to know, why? Why the Republicans and these Republicans? Why the rigidity? Why the hubris? Why so little compassion for those less blessed than yourself? So intelligent, so capable… how could you get it so wrong?

Continue reading →

Thank you, Ruth Thomas!

Posted on by

ruth.jpg

Ruth Thomas chats with Jeff Koob at the Free Speech Pay-In outside the courthouse in Columbia in 2004.

Today’s paper featured a front-page profile on Ruth Thomas, the 87-year-old activist and founder of Environmentalists Inc. She has been a longtime member of the Network, and it’s great to see her get the recognition she deserves.

She calls our office about once a month, and I know it will be a longish conversation with her talking way over my head about some environmental crisis or other (this state has so many it’s hard to keep up with it all). She is passionate, very bright, and a force to be reckoned with, as so many hired suits have discovered in hearings over the years.

If ever there were one, Ruth is an argument for cloning. If we had more of her, imagine what we could accomplish.

Be inspired; read Sammy Fretwell’s story in today’s edition of The State.

Becci Robbins

On World AIDS Day

Posted on by

By Becci Robbins

He has full-blown AIDS,” she said. The sound of it, like air escaping.

Full. Blown. AIDS.

The social worker handed over his file, a single sheet of paper with some handwritten notes on it, mostly addresses and phone numbers, which I scanned for clues to what might be coming.

Mark was 41. He had been in Columbia only a few months, since being forced to leave his home in Los Angeles after having grown too ill to care for himself. With nowhere else to go, he had moved in with his sister, who was stationed at Fort Jackson.

It was far from an ideal living arrangement. “Dysfunctional” was the term the social worker kept using. The sister was often gone; Mark was increasingly bedridden. She had an alcohol problem; he had a coke habit. She resented Mark’s intrusion on her life; he, in turn, was humiliated, lonely and raging mad.

After she had left him alone for three days, knowing he was too sick to make it down to the kitchen, Mark had called Palmetto AIDS Life Support Services to ask that someone be sent over to make sure he didn’t “starve to goddamn death” in his upstairs room.

As a PALSS volunteer, that was to be my job. To make sure Mark didn’t starve to goddamn death.

Read the rest of the story

Can I get an amen?

Posted on by

catholic_bible_study_roman_catholic.jpg

A Bible Lesson for Liberals
Rev. Dr. Neal R. Jones
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Columbia

The Rev. Dr. Neal Jones gave this speech/sermon/Bible study at the SC Progressive Summit Nov. 17 in Columbia. It was so well-received, we asked permission to post it here.

***************

Hello, my name is Neal, and I’m a recovering Baptist. One of the reasons I fell in love with Unitarian Universalists and became one is because, unlike any other religious group I have known, they can laugh at themselves. We UUs may be dead serious about human rights and social justice, but we don’t take ourselves seriously. We can tell jokes on ourselves. You may have heard some of them.

A Unitarian Universalist died and came to a crossroad in the hereafter with three signs. One said, “This way to heaven.” Another said, “This way to hell.” And a third one said, “This way to a discussion about heaven and hell.” Without hesitation the Unitarian went to the discussion.

A jet airliner was having serious problems in flight, and it became apparent that the plane might crash. Everyone on board began to pray, except for the UUs. They organized a committee on air safety.

They’ve come up with a Unitarian version of the TV show “Survivor.” Contestants have to drive from Pelion to Pickens with a bumper sticker on the back of their car that says, “I’m a gay, atheist, vegetarian, and I’m here to take away your guns.” Anybody who gets there wins.

Unitarian meetings must be very confusing to visitors. A person speaks and says nothing. Nobody listens. Then everybody disagrees.

What do you call a dead Unitarian Universalist? All dressed up with no place to go.

Why did the Unitarian cross the road? To support the chicken in its search for its own path.

Why is a Unitarian congregation like granola? When you take away all the fruits and all the nuts, all you have left are the flakes.

Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.

Today I want to conduct a Bible study, and our Bible study is about prophets. Who are prophets, and what do they do? Many people think prophets tell the future, but prophets in the tradition of the ancient Hebrews told the truth. It’s informative to look at the etymology of “prophet.” In Hebrew, the word for prophet is “nabiy.” That shares the same root with “nabat,” the Hebrew word meaning “to see, to look intently at.” So one clue to what prophets do is that they help us to see more clearly. “Nabiy” also shares the same root with “nabach,” which means “to bark like a dog.” So a prophet makes a lot of noise to warn us of danger or to wake us up.

Hear the barking of some of the Hebrew prophets:

I hate, I despise your religious festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings, I will not accept them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. — Amos

They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; But they shall all sit under their own vines and fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid. — Micah

The Spirit of God is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. — Jesus

According to the etymology of the word, prophets bark to wake us up so that we can see “what’s going on,” to quote Marvin Gaye. The Biblical prophets were saying, “Wake up, Israel! This is not the way the Creator intended the creation to be. God intended for you to establish peace and justice here on earth as it is in heaven. Modern day prophets, like Martin Luther King, Jr., are saying, “Wake up, America! You’re not living up to your creed. You say you believe that all people are created equal, but you are not practicing what you preach.

We need prophets in every age because we can’t see clearly on our own. We can’t see the forest for the trees. We are born into a particular time and place, and the history of the place becomes our history, and the culture of the times becomes our identity. None of us asked to be born to our particular parents, in our particular communities, attending our particular schools and churches, in 20th century America, but we were. We could have been born at another time and place, but we weren’t. We perceive, think, and act the way we do because that’s the way people of our time and place perceive, think, and act.

Continue reading →

Smoke and mirrors

Posted on by

Iraq 3.0
by Sheldon Richman

One gets the feeling that even the White House realizes the mess it’s made of Iraq. The other day the newspapers reported that the Bush administration has scaled back its objectives rather substantially. We might call it Iraq 3.0. First the plan was to create a democratic paradise which, domino-like, would spread freedom throughout the Middle East. When that didn’t work, the administration shifted to simply bringing some kind of order to Iraq, reconciling the three largest groups – Shi’a, Sunni, and Kurd.

That hasn’t gone too well either. The nearly two dozen political objectives that the military “surge” was intended to accomplish have largely gone unachieved. The violence level may have fallen (one never knows how temporary such things are), but there are many possible explanations for that. One horrifying explanation is that enough ethnic cleansing of neighborhoods and emigration have occurred that less violence is “necessary” in the eyes of the various militias. That presumably is not the sort of peace President Bush had in mind.

So now the strategists in Washington have retooled. The New York Times says, “The Bush administration has lowered its expectations of quickly achieving major steps toward unifying the country, including passage of a long-stymied plan to share oil revenue and holding regional elections. Instead, administration officials say they are focusing their immediate efforts on several more limited but achievable goals in the hope of convincing Iraqis, foreign governments and Americans that some progress is being made toward the political breakthroughs that the intensified military campaign of the past 10 months was supposed to promote.”

Stage magicians call this “misdirection.” If you can’t have the audience look here, you must do something to make them look over there. Voilà!

Continue reading →