I've been reading the new book by Munia Abu Jamal. You remember that he is
the black Philadelphia journalist who was framed for killing a whie police
officer and condemned to death, was on death row for years and years, and
eventually, after a great deal of work on the part of his supporters, was
resentenced to life in prison. He has been writing and doing radio pieces on
Prison Radio since the 80's, and this book is a collection of what he's
written up through 2014. The first few pieces are thoughts about his own
case. But the rest is commentary on events as they occur. Carl, I know you
must have heard him on Democracy Now many times so you remember how
intelligent and articulate he is. His material is thoughtful and perceptive.
It seems that all of the people whom I have encountered since I began having
time to do all of this reading in 2007, all of them who are independent and
caring, come to similar conclusions about where we are in this world and
where we appear to be heading. And people like Munia Abu Jamal, Chris
Hedges, and Noam Chomsky have so much information in their heads. They are
highly educated and the education comes from their own efforts and openness
to facts and ideas.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2015 11:02 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] And one more thing: The dentist and the dead lion
There is a common thread running through all those self appointed murderers
and the puffed up dentist. Each has determined that they are superior to
all life around them. The man who stands up in a theater or charges into a
school or a shopping mall, and opens fire is no different than the Super
American White Male Middle Class Professional Dentist who believes he has
the right to murder an old Lion. We can deny it all we want, but there is a
serious sickness in our society. Sure, it's running ramped around the
Globe, too, but here in America it is our problem to confront and deal with.
We pulled onto the Ferry dock yesterday with our truck windows down, taking
in the clean, warm air. A van pulled up next to us. On the back window was
a sign that said, "No worries. We place our lives in God's hands".
and in the back seat were three young children playing their video games.
What we heard was the sounds of bombs, machine guns, and bloody screams.
Mom and Dad sat happily in the front seat, probably handing all that noise
and anger and game play...killing...off to God to deal with.
I'm sure these folks would assure me that their children know the difference
between games and real life. But I remember how I was programmed to think
about those Geeks in Viet Nam back in the 60's.
And how many of our white sisters and brothers feel about their black
counterparts. There is murder and violence within our culture, and we are
playing Make Believe, that it doesn't exist, that we can tell the
difference. And then a cop leans into the front seat of a car and shoots a
Black man in the face. A man whom he'd pulled over because he had no front
license plate. Or the cop who suddenly went off the deep end when a Black
woman refused to put out her cigarette.
And as bad as these actions, and others go, what is worse is the violent
reaction by outraged citizens. We seem far better at retaliating with like
violence, rather than working together to figure out what is wrong in our
culture that is creating a more and more violent society.
To me, the dentist and the random gunner are no different. Both are
festering pus under our flesh.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/30/15, Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 7/30/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Think about this. We hear about nine people being murdered in aAh yes, the wonderfully soft, luxuriant mink coat of bygone years.
church or several people killed in a movie theater and we are very
upset because we are able to see the victims and the killers as
individuals. We relate to the situations personally. But we do not
live in perpetual outrage over all of the people killed by our drones
or the Palestinians murdered every day by Israelis with our
complicity because we just canpt conceptualize hundred and hundreds
of people as individual human beings. We learn about the hubris of
one American who feels it necessary to kill an old, well known lion,
but we are not angry at the people who torture animals for profit in
our own country. When animal rights people began talking about the
immorality of raising and killing minks for their fur coats, I never
gave it a thought.
I
even bought a mink coat. That the ways in which the animals were
raised and cared for was torture, just didn't phase me one bit. So
for years animal rights activists have been trying to show us what
happens to animals on these farms, on factory farms, in laboratories,
and slowly, very slowly, I began to understand. So now our government
calls the people who called the torture to my attention, terrorists
and they are imprisoned and some of them are put in solitary
confinement.
Miriam.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl
Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2015 12:19 AM
To: blind-democracy
Subject: [blind-democracy] The dentist and the dead lion
What sort of sport is luring a rather tame lion out in the dark of
night and killing it with a bow and arrow. Was it the joy of the
kill? The excitement of knowing the old lion did not die at once,
but suffered before death? Or was it just the thrill of an arrogant
American "Wanna Be", looking to be a "Somebody"?
Frankly, I hope this great sportsman finds his dental business as
dead as a rotten molar. You think I would let his dirty hands in my
mouth?
Does this sad example of an American First Class Citizen think he is
so Goddamned Special that he can just go off killing for the pleasure
of killing? Is this what our grand nation is breeding?
When are we going to stop calling killing a sport? Maybe a fun sport
would be to trick this sad excuse for a man out of his house some
dark night and then kick the crap out of him.
Now I 'm not suggesting chopping off his head and sticking it up over
the fireplace.
Carl Jarvis
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Joseph HH - Avaaz.org" <avaaz@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2015 11:22:21 -0400
Subject: Re: The dentist and the dead lion
To: "carjar82@xxxxxxxxx" <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
Dear friends,
A 13-year old lion named Cecil was just lured from a park in Zimbabwe
where he lived under legal protection, shot with a crossbow and
rifle, then beheaded and skinned. The hunter who paid over $50,000
for the kill is a dentist from Minnesota.
Experts say lions could be extinct in the wild in our lifetime, and
the US is partly to blame. The number of lion trophies imported by
American hunters has skyrocketed, doubling between 1999 and 2008, and
there are no sanctions in the US for hunters like the dentist who
killed Cecil, because lions aren't listed under the Endangered
Species Act despite a recent government recommendation.
Right now, the Fish and Wildlife Service is considering a petition to
list lions as endangered, and a massive outcry from across the
country could speed up the process and start saving lions now. Sign
now and recruit others to join on Facebook, Twitter, and everywhere
else:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/us_list_endangered_african_lions_b/?blJLi
bb&v=62
544
Can you imagine the African savannah completely devoid of lions? It's
a depressing thought, but defending lions like Cecil also isn't even
just about altruism; Cecil was a major tourist attraction at Hwange
National Park, and a few days of his photo being taken by tourists
was more lucrative for Zimbabwe than the one-off price paid for his
head.
Countless other tourism jobs across southern and East Africa depend
on the existence of these incredible animals.
Listing the African lion under the Endangered Species Act wouldn't
immediately create a ban on American hunters traveling to Africa to
hunt lions, but it would establish a stringent new permitting
process, whereby any hunting could only happen in closely monitored
programs that also support lion conservation. It's the first step
toward any real, ambitious plan to save the world's lions, and
frankly it's outrageous that it hasn't happened already.
It's past time we respond to this dramatic scenario with dramatic
action, starting by listing lions as endangered. If everybody also
finds one friend to join them, we can double the strength of our
demand. Sign here and let's make sure Cecil's death wasn't in vain:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/us_list_endangered_african_lions_b/?blJLi
bb&v=62
544
Scientists warn that we're living in an era known as the sixth
extinction, an acceleration of habitat and species loss from
urbanization, climate change, and aggressive hunting. Large mammals
like lions are some of the most vulnerable; their rates of
reproduction lag far behind the rate they're being hunted and
poached.
But our movement is accelerating too, and every day Avaaz members
worldwide are propelling hopeful and ambitious policies forward to
build the world we love, a world where African lions continue to
roam.
With roaring hope,
Joseph, Rewan, Mia, Andrew and the whole Avaaz team
More information:
Cecil the lion's killer revealed as American dentist
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbab
we/1176 7119/Cecil-the-lions-killer-revealed-as-American-dentist.html
Zimbabwe's 'iconic' lion Cecil killed by hunter
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33674087
African Lions Face Extinction by 2050, Could Gain Endangered Species
Act Protection
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/african-lion
s-face-
extinction-by-2050-could-gain-endangered-species-act-protection/
African lion (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
http://www.fws.gov/endangered/what-we-do/african_lion.html
Scientists Warn 'Sixth Extinction' May Be Underway
http://time.com/3929419/scientists-sixth-extinction
Avaaz.org is a 41-million-person global campaign network that works
to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape
global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many
languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team
is spread across 18 countries on 6 continents and operates in 17
languages.
Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/highlights.php/?footer";> or follow us on
here: http://www.facebook.com/Avaaz or twitter here:
http://twitter.com/AvaazThis message was sent to carjar82@xxxxxxxxx.
To change your email address, language, or other information, contact
us
here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/contact/?footerWant to leave this list?
Send
a
message to unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxx, or click here:
https://secure.avaaz.org/act/?r=unsub&cl=8110036077&email=carjar82@gm
ail.com
&v=62544&lang=enTo
contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to
us via the form at http://www.avaaz.org/en/contact. You can also call
us at
+1-888-922-8229 (US).
Was it Queen for a Day where the winner received a ten thousand dollar
fur coat? Maybe some other give away early TV program. But when I
stroked the super soft fur on Missus Arnold's mink stole and oohed and
aahed, mother later told me how many little mink gave their lives so
Missus Arnold could strut her stuff. And yet, even proclaiming such
slaughter to be barbarian, I went about my life without much thought
regarding the cruel treatment these, and other little helpless
animals, underwent in order to bring pleasure to Human Superior.
Right now, this very morning, I deleted about ten or twelve cries for
help in saving everything from wolves to trees to the air we breathe
and the water that is running down to a trickle. I'm sympathetic and
stretch my meager energies and resources as best I can, but it's not
nearly enough. Too many of us are on a very slow learning curve. A
major part of it is having to first undo all that our society has
built in. My attitudes toward Gays. My unrealized, unspokan
prejudices toward Blacks, Asians, Indians, and yes, even toward women.
I had to accept that I was a womanizer, and with that mind set it was
impossible to accept women as equals. All of it and more had been
dumped inside my head before I was old enough to begin sorting it out.
And I'm still in the process. At one place in my life I just gave up
and tried embracing Jesus Christ. For a very short time this solved
all my problems. Just take it to the Lord! In other words, go into
deep denial. All problems are dumped into God's perfect hands. Bull!
Once I realized it was me, down inside, that had to deal with what
went on inside my head, and no God was around to dump on, or lean on,
I began to make real progress.
It's hardf for me to believe that, as a born again Christian, I told
my church brothers and sisters, all White folk, that we should just
bomb the hell out of those Geeks and wipe Veit Nam off the face of the
map. That was how badly I had been damaged by our wonderful superior
american culture. And by the way, I feel no shame, no guilt over who
I was back then, any more than I will feel shame ten years from now
over what I have been today. Just so long as I am growing.
Carl Jarvis
