A Nation of Smoke
creen
They ay ero fiddled whil Rome bum d. Well. it ems
America' puffing mok whil th ountry ollaps .
In W hington the talk i all ut y in t mill! ry. nd
trough everyone from the top b s to th low t privat all
admit there are aoo alway have en gay in h military, th
debate wages on.
All the while, the real' ues confronting the country and its
military go undi cus ed: downsizin the military; jo r tion
for former army personnel cau ht in the dow izin; how to
find a peaceful solution to repl e th military a non in Iraq
where at I t 21 persons -many of them clvilians=-di d from
U.S. bombs while the gay deb at occupied the country' how to
withdraw'troop from Somalia and let relief workers do the·
work that i properly theirs.
And the moke-and-rnirrors gam flow r
In Detroit, the school board is getting a lot
discussions on whether or not to pray before m tin ; whether
or not to salute the flag. Out in the chools there i mu h haze
in the heads of the students as there is floating around the board.
Let's ee the board be accountable not for ymbol---as
important they may be. New members of the bard are
�·UAIIlC1erlng their election mome um while the opp ive
conditions of a two-gereeanon-ot miseduca' rr ystcm
unadd d.
T media and the politicians are content to inhale th haze
of non-issues ifth lectorate lets them get away with it. A tion
from the public uch as phone call and lette to W' hington
and physical ence, voiced concern locally will '1 ar out th
- smoke and et us down to the real busin of makin thin
better: jobs, quality education, livable citie ,a rcvitaliz d
economy, �ousing, public transportation ...
ta'
related
the T mp B y area i only
roxima y 13 percent of Flori '
population over 25 percent of '
m1 a1mes 0CCUD'ed in
Tamp
The fire of r ci m in T mpa,
however, been kindled by a on
that re to demm1 radal j tiee for
all peopl. � drowning of Haitian
refu 0 tbe co t of Florida beca
of racist immigration policy' directly
related to the racist burning of
Christopber Wilson.
Tol ration 0 one form of m
only I ds to the rpetuation of otber
manifestations of racism.
We remember that it also in
Tampa, several years ago, where an
African-American baseball tar w
brutally beaten by i white police
officers after being topped for an
alleged traffic violation. Dwight
Gooden of the or Mets w a
victim of a racially motiv ted attack by
Tampa police 0 rs.
The future stability of democracy in
the United Sta hin in part on how
effective racism is eradicate, especially
in its institutionalized formation.
Somehow the message has got to be sent
HARRIS
\'IE\VS & OPINI()N
, ,
While three of ilson' assailants
hav n rrested and charged with
kidn ppmg, attempted murder and
ro ry, it tiU remains to een what
quality of justice will ultimately be
rend red in th urts of Florida in this
The U.S. Department of Justice
hould al bccom involved in this
-matter it is a clear f the
criminal violations of Wilson' civil
righ . During the past 12 years under
the Rea an/B h em, federal authorities
i e in intervening in the
r f these types of
Til . L RID Department of
l.BETTER
<::;::;;:__-___..., TAL..K TO THIS
BROTHER!
�--malia
•
•
10
" SLAVERY
\'& A. CONDIT'ON
lMPOSED UPON INt:>''''DUAL5
OR RAc.es, .
NOT SUFFIClENTL Y ABLE.
TO PROTECT OR DEFEND
\l-\EN\4QE.LVE5. I�
. R; rely 10 thc tw .nti ·th century ha
an Amen 'an military inve 'IOn into a
Third World country een 0
"p pul r" inside the U .. , than the
re e nt inter enti n i nt Somalia
b ginnin D ccmbcr, 1 ( )2.
The b ic i ue eemed impli ti­
cally cl ar t most American.
Th ands of Africans were dyin of
tarvation each day.
The mali T vcrnmcnt \ .. a. in
Oh I know I should
just be happy, but
I just can't hel p
remembering the
story of the Greeks
bearing gl ts
A4f.1!:�f3
.... er n I) IglI In .
'\11 Ri�hl Rl"cn ed
Is U S. concern for Somalia JUs
I
wa
wro
teOCC\ID'eDOe,
Readers Write
Reader angered
byWGP new
COy r:a
Dear Georg Matthew, President
and General Manager WGPR:
Thi letter i written in protest of
the programming provided by this ta­
tion to the African-American com­
munity within your viewer range.
To brag that this tation is African­
American owned aoo operated and to
continually ee programming directed
at the Arab community and the high
percentage of retiglous oriented
programs is a contradiction.
The remove news programming, at
a time when the African-American
community needs a source of new
reporting from an Afrocentric
perspective, is a di ervice to our com­
munity. To air programs uch as "Tar­
z n" and all that it symbolize for
African people, is th highest of in­
sults.
I Th1 is \ a civil appeal to restore
programming to which is, relevant to
I the liberation of the minds of th
African-American community you
are there to serve.
Media and their advertising up­
porters that don't serve the best inter­
est of the African-American
community will no longer be tolerated
and will be targeted for effective civil
response. 0lil
Abdul M. Aqull
The Eye of Heru S1udy Group, Inc.
DR.
MANNING
MARABLE
chao I unable to check the terrori tic
aults fl cal warlords. African na­
ti ccrned paralyzed by their own
problems, and fav red U.S. and
United Nati ns intervention.
A American troop' landed 'at
M adi hu, p !iti ians prai ed "lame,
duck" Pre ident George Bush'
d ici ion. Pre ide nt-clect Bill Clinton
exprc ed hi upp rt.
Clergy claimed that American
military were w rking the II ervice of
G d", b cau e their mission was
de igned pecifically to ave live and
to f tcr humanitarian ervice.
By the beginning of 199 . 17,5
American troop were tationed
through ut S mali .
E J) UBT that the itua­
malia just before American
tr o p arrived wa extremely
U '. prate.
Thr u h ut 19 2, ab ut 3 ,
pic were e timated t have died in
gad i shu alone Ir m gun hot
w unds r shelling. Tbr ughout the
country, a ut 0 ,0 Somali,
primarily women and children,
tarved to d ath. '
tarved in the country ide and domes­
tic dissident were murdered, the
Americans did virtually nothing. The
reason?
Sornalia's geopolitical location on
the Indian 0 ean gave U.S. military
planners an excellent base for possible
intervention into Iran, Iraq and other
Middle East trie . '
Americans were given access to
the air force ba e at the Somali city of
Bcrbera .•
There were al 0 growing economic
con ideration for both Americans
and Europeans.
ORDI TO the
Washington Post, there is consider­
able " peculation that Somalia sits
atop large oil reserves. II Even before
the fall of Siad Barre' regime, major
oil corporations were igning con­
tracts t carry out extensive exporta­
tion.
The presence of U.S. troop would
lead to dome tic tability, one could
rea on, thus permitting oil companies
to pursue their potential profits.
Th American public was t Id that
their ons and daughters in the military
w uld be tationed in the Hom of
Africa for only everal weeks, and
would be withdrawn before Clinton
a umed pre iden y.
B T BY TH MIDD of
January, "Operation Restore Hope"
eemed to be taking on th character
of a perman nt occupation of ho tile
territory.
Relief wor rs in the country ide
egan reporting incre ed inciden of
niper attac .
One unnamed U.S. diplomat told
reporters that as many as "10, U.S.
ALONG THE
COLOR
LINE
../ I E RU and
Mozambique, ac rding t th W rId
F d Pr ram, the humanitarian
"emer n ie s are on par ith
Somalia."
Why C c n Somalia rath r than
the: e other ountrie?
For m re than a decade, the United
t, tcs pump d million of dollars into
the c rrupt di t, t rship of Somali.
I der Siad arrc, While th usands
..
soldiers might have to stay in Somalia
for as long as two years."
There were other alternatives to an
American military invasion, even if
one accepts the "humanitarian"
reasons given for the decision.
The U.S. government could have
allocated the sam amount of money
and resources to fly African troop
from the Organization of African
Unity into Somalia. Or the govern­
ment could have donated the same
funds (\ the United Nations, to create
a humanitarian force which was not
dominated by Americans.
THE AMERICAN invasion of
Somalia was designed not primarily to
save Blacks' lives, but to erve as an
il1usio of U.S. military'power in the
"po t-Cold War" era.
The "New World Order" is based
on the idea of one world uperpower,
the United States, which serves as the
world's policeforce.
The invasion of Panama, the
bombing of Iraq, and the intervention
into Somalia during the Bu h ad­
mini tration, are all illustrations 0
American power over .Third World
nations.
To' end violence and fami ne in
Somalia, we hould call for an
American troop withdrawal. How do
we take away the guns from the
Somali paramilitary for . Why not
a VOluntary, Somali-directed program
of exchange, in which guns could be
returned for employment or participa­
tion in development programs, uch of
economic and ocial reconstruction.
No one's interest are erved by a
long-term U.S. p nee in Somalia.
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