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The Buffalo News
Dissin' the Senecas with a Colorful New Same Old Same Old
by Michael I. Niman
It's no secret that when you buy a can of Coca Cola, the can costs far more
than the tainted water it holds. In the same vein, footwear companies often
spend more to advertise their wares than they spend to manufacture them.
Today's market is all about the triumph of hype over substance. Hence, it
should surprise no one that beneath all the hype surrounding last Sunday's
debut of the new improved Buffalo News, was the same tired old Buffalo News.
The much awaited multicolored polka dotted dog was finally, amid great
fanfare, out of the cage. But all it did was dart to the nearest hydrant.
I'm not one to expect much from The Buffalo News, but I was greatly
disappointed to see that paper's first crispy color cover marred by racist
reporting. The cover story, touted by News Editor Margaret Sullivan as an
example of her paper's "enterprise reporting," focuses on the disparity in
wealth in the Seneca Nation. It's good reporting based on solid research.
The problem is that virtually all of The News' complaints against the
Senecas also apply to their neighbors in the United States. So one really
has to ask, why start out with a series attacking a neighboring nation for
the same evils practiced without criticism right here in the US?
The article, which threatens to be a series, starts out with an editor's
praise of its authors, who report on "a nation deeply split between rich and
poor, powerful and powerless." Sound familiar? It should. Because it's
us. And this is where such reporting should begin - with introspection,
instead of sanctimonious condemnation of a captive nation emulating our
economic model.
This would be especially apropos, since The News, owned by the world's
second richest person, serves one of the United States' poorest cities. In
essence, the paper itself embodies everything it condemns in the Seneca
Nation.
The article opens by describing "a couple dozen Seneca merchants" who
"earned an estimated $162 million last year." Just so readers understand
what the number represents, they explained that this is equivalent to what
the Neiman Marcus department store chain, with 62 locations in 24 states
earned in 2002. Yeah, we got it. It's a lot of money. They quickly
juxtaposed this with the fact that "nearly one third of all Senecas live in
poverty."
This is all legitimate, and under other circumstances, I'd be praising the
News for taking such a strong position against the greed of an unabashed
capitalist market. The fact is, however, that they never followed the lead
of other American Newspapers such as the Philadelphia Enquirer, writing the
same story about growing economic disparities in their own community or
country.
The $162 million dollars earned last year by "a couple dozen" Senecas, for
instance, pales in comparison to the approximately $3.5 billion dollars that
the News' owner, Warren Buffet, "earned" during each of the last eight
years.
And yes, the poverty rate among Senecas is around 30%. And this is
shameful. But the poverty rate in Buffalo, according to the pre-Bush II era
2000 US census, was 27%. So why the sanctimony? It gets worse. On the
East Side of Buffalo, the poverty rate is over 50%. And things certainly
haven't gotten better under Bush. Suddenly the Seneca numbers have a new
context.
The News reports that the child poverty rate among Senecas is between 39.8%
and 41.6%. The poverty rate for families with pre-school children in
Buffalo, by comparison, is 43.3% overall and 65.3% on the East Side. Again
- why launch a new regrooved newspaper attacking the Senecas for problems
that are more severe in the Buffalo News' own community?
You also can't write this story devoid of history. The US forced this model
upon the communalistic Senecas after invading their territories, forcibly
dismantling their economic system. The construction of both elite and
impoverished classes among the formerly egalitarian Seneca is an
all-American construct.
Yes, the current distribution of income in the Seneca Nation is inequitable.
But consider this - The Buffalo News' owner, Warren Buffet, "earns" more per
year than all of the workers in Buffalo combined (see actual numbers below).
In this light, examine this line from The News' article: "Those [Seneca]
mini-mart barons and others refuse to formally share their new millions -
even if the sovereignty that allows them to make their fortunes belongs to
all Senecas."
Given The News' new found communism, doesn't this condemnation of the Seneca
elite also apply to Buffet, who's wealth is protected by an American
sovereignty that belongs to all Americans? Or, more to the point, when
should we expect our checks?
Here are some numbers: Buffet's net worth increased by $27.9 billion from
1996 to 2004. This is an annual average of $3.48 billion per year. Buffalo
had 223,437 in 2000, earning $14,991 apiece for a grand total income of
$3.34 billion. Michael I. Niman's previous columns are archived at
www.mediastudy.com.
> http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Editorials/03OpOPN
62051504.htm
>
> Hard Lessons From Poetry Class:
> Speech is Free Unless It's Critical
> by William Hill
> © 2004 News-Journal Corporation
>
> Bill Nevins, a New Mexico high school teacher and personal friend, was fired last year and classes in poetry and the poetry club
at Rio Rancho High School were permanently terminated. It had nothing to do with obscenity, but it had everything to do with
extremist politics.
>
> The "Slam Team" was a group of teenage poets who asked Nevins to serve as faculty adviser to their club. The teens, mostly shy
youngsters, were taught to read their poetry aloud and before audiences. Rio Rancho High School gave the Slam Team access to the
school's closed-circuit television once a week and the poets thrived.
>
> In March 2003, a teenage girl named Courtney presented one of her poems before an audience at Barnes & Noble bookstore in
Albuquerque, then read the poem live on the school's closed-circuit television channel.
>
> A school military liaison and the high school principal accused the girl of being "un-American" because she criticized the war in
Iraq and the Bush administration's failure to give substance to its "No child left behind" education policy.
>
> The girl's mother, also a teacher, was ordered by the principal to destroy the child's poetry. The mother refused and may lose
her job.
>
> Bill Nevins was suspended for not censoring the poetry of his students. Remember, there is no obscenity to be found in any of the
poetry. He was later fired by the principal.
>
> After firing Nevins and terminating the teaching and reading of poetry in the school, the principal and the military liaison read
a poem of their own as they raised the flag outside the school. When the principal had the flag at full staff, he applauded the
action he'd taken in concert with the military liaison.
>
> Then to all students and faculty who did not share his political opinions, the principal shouted: "Shut your faces." What a
wonderful lesson he gave those 3,000 students at the largest public high school in New Mexico. In his mind, only certain opinions
are to be allowed.
>
> But more was to come. Posters done by art students were ordered torn down, even though none was termed obscene. Some were
satirical, implicating a national policy that had led us into war. Art teachers who refused to rip down the posters on display in
their classrooms were not given contracts to return to the school in this current school year.
>
> The message is plain. Critical thinking, questioning of public policies and freedom of speech are not to be allowed to anyone who
does not share the thinking of the school principal.
>
> The teachers union has been joined in a legal action against the school by the National Writers Union, headquartered in New York
City. NWU's at-large representative Samantha Clark lives and works in Albuquerque.
>
> The American Civil Liberties Union has become the legal arm of the lawsuit pending in federal court.
>
> Meanwhile, Nevins applied for a teaching post in another school and was offered the job, but he can't go to work until Rio
Rancho's principal sends the new school Nevins' credentials. The principal has refused to do so, and that adds yet another issue to
the lawsuit, which is awaiting a trial date.
>
> While students are denied poetry readings, poetry clubs and classes in poetry, Nevins works elsewhere and writes his own poetry.
>
> Writers and editors who have spent years translating essays, films, poems, scientific articles and books by Iranian, North Korean
and Sudanese authors have been warned not to do so by the U.S. Treasury Department under penalty of fine and imprisonment.
Publishers and film producers are not allowed to edit works authored by writers in those nations. The Bush administration contends
doing so has the effect of trading with the enemy, despite a 1988 law that exempts published materials from sanction under trade
rules.
>
> Robert Bovenschulte, president of the American Chemical Society, is challenging the rule interpretation by violating it to edit
into English several scientific papers from Iran.
>
> Are book burnings next?
by Robert Scheer
What a wonderful image of democracy and tolerance the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has presented to the world by allowing same-sex marriages. At a time when elements of the U.S. military machine have perverted homosexual acts into a form of torture, the sight of responsible and joyful gay adults freely choosing the commitment of marriage could not be more timely.
The lesson is that freedom is indivisible. In Massachusetts, it is up to the individual and not the state to define the essence of the human experience when it comes to love and marriage. It should make us proud patriots that the battle for freedom has won new ground and that full human rights are sacred in at least one state of the nation that claims to lead the free world.
Yes, human rights, for unless homosexuals are granted full civil rights, no other rights are secure. Hitler proved that by exterminating the "abnormal ones," whose pink triangles marked them for death, alongside the Jews. Homosexuals were a favored target of the Taliban goons in Afghanistan, who routinely crushed gays to death under a wall of stones. And they were once interned in camps in Fidel Castro's Cuba.
Sexual fascism the violent denial of the fundamental right of human beings to define their essential nature in an open and accountable manner is at the heart of totalitarianism, whether in an Islamic, a Christian or a Marxist context.
Yet, despite living in a democratic society, we are not immune to exploiting sex as a means of social control. U.S. sodomy laws until last year's Supreme Court ruling in a Texas case made gay sex between consenting adults illegal. At the same time, the U.S. prison system practically institutionalizes male-on-male rape as a form of punishment and intimidation.
And now comes the scandal of Abu Ghraib, which appears to go far beyond a few reservists on an S&M power trip.
Because of the severe psychological consequences of sexual humiliation for conservative Muslims, U.S. military jailers have been routinely stripping Arab prisoners and taking nude photos of them in camps and prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo. According to Seymour Hersh in the May 24 New Yorker, this practice was not devised by deranged reservists at the bottom of the military hierarchy at Abu Ghraib but came from the top from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
"Rumsfeld and [Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen] Cambone & expanded the scope of [a top-secret intelligence-gathering program], bringing its unconventional methods to Abu Ghraib. The commandos were to operate in Iraq as they had in Afghanistan. The male prisoners could be treated roughly, and exposed to sexual humiliation," reports Hersh, relying on insider intelligence sources. The Pentagon denies it authorized abuse but has admitted to having a policy of routinely allowing prisoners to be stripped naked and in other ways humiliated.
If the goal in Iraq was really to win hearts and minds to the American model of democracy, why would Rumsfeld impose such a shortsighted policy of torture? Was this ends-justify-the-means cynicism or just an act of desperation to save a tragically stupid war?
In the end, the irony is grim: The U.S. military bans openly gay soldiers but apparently does not effectively screen out heterosexual sadists. Meanwhile, at home the president tries desperately to make an election-year issue out of preventing free adults from civilly consecrating same-sex partnerships.
Unfortunately, there are many in this country, at least in the political class, who claim to support the rights of the individual abroad while struggling to limit them at home. Yet, as with classic images from earlier civil rights movements, such as that of a poised black girl walking to school through a jeering crowd, the dramatic scenes of joy and love now unfolding in Massachusetts are likely to be looked back upon by future generations with a "what took us so long?" relief.
Bush has condemned the Massachusetts high court for tampering with the "traditional values" enshrined in the Constitution. But we should be grateful for such tampering, or we would still have slavery and women still would not be allowed to vote.
---------------------------
Published on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times
Robert Scheer writes a weekly column for The Times and is coauthor of "The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq"
Dear MoveOn member,
It's time to raise the stakes in our demand that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld be fired. We need your help today to put a powerful new TV ad on the air.
We now know Rumsfeld personally approved a policy that "encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners," violating their fundamental human rights under the Geneva convention.1 Our new ad will help make sure everyone in the country knows about Rumsfeld’s direct responsibility for the prisoner debacle, but to air it we need your help. Here's the script:
The screen pans slowly up the Statue of Liberty, ultimately revealing that her head is hooded. The narrator says:
"They said we were going to Iraq to bring American values: democracy, liberty, justice. But something has gone terribly wrong."
"It's been reported that Donald Rumsfeld initiated a plan that encouraged the physical coercion and sexual humiliation of prisoners, violations of international law. Rumsfeld has placed the men under his command in even more danger."
"Why hasn't George Bush fired this man?"
Click here to help us put this ad on the air:
https://www.moveon.org/hooded/
New evidence of Rumsfeld's responsibility for the torture at Abu Ghraib prison is surfacing daily,2 and on Tuesday his top deputy admitted seriously miscalculating the Iraqis' willingness to put up with the American occupation.3 Yet President Bush still refuses to remove Rumsfeld from his post.
Although Bush has apologized to the world for the torture, every day Rumsfeld keeps his job sends the opposite message -- that Americans don't mind all that much.
Every day Rumsfeld stays, Iraq grows more volatile, increasing the danger to our troops. Every day he stays, Iraqis who work with us are killed, recently including the president of the Iraqi Governing Council. And every day Rumsfeld stays, potential terrorists harden in their anger toward America. Yet, in the face of this snowballing disaster, Bush's posture boils down to an arrogant "so what?".
It's time to make our demand for accountability impossible for Bush to ignore. We're taking our campaign to the next level, beginning with this TV ad. We'll also run radio and print ads soon, and next week we'll hold constituent meetings with dozens of key Senate and House offices, calling for Rumsfeld's ouster.
Michael Berg, whose son Nicholas was recently beheaded in Iraq, said: "I can't stand even more than those murderers who took my son's life, those who sit and make policies to end lives and break the lives of the still living."4
We need your help today to jump-start our campaign to fire Rumsfeld. Click here to help get our ads on the air:
https://www.moveon.org/hooded/
Every time we ask for your help, you step up. Thank you, more than we can say.
Sincerely,
--Carrie, Joan, Noah, Peter, and Wes
The MoveOn.org Team
Thursday, May 20th, 2004
Footnotes:
1. THE GRAY ZONE, How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib, by Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker
2. These recent stories reinforce this:
Soldier Says Intelligence Directed Abuse
2 Generals Outline Lag in Notification on Abuse Reports
Officer Says Army Tried to Curb Red Cross Visits to Prison in Iraq
Officers Say U.S. Colonel at Abu Ghraib Prison Felt Intense Pressure to Get Inmates to Talk
3. Washington Post: U.S. Faces Growing Fears of Failure: Wolfowitz Concedes Errors as Damage Control Continues
4. Statement of Michael Berg, father of Nicholas Berg, to the U.K.'s Stop The War Coalition, May 16th, 2004
George Bush has failed our country. And my top priority between now and November is making absolutely certain that the American people hold him accountable.
This administration will say anything to avoid responsibility for the massive mistakes it has made. But John Kerry will not let them hide -- and you can help by contributing to his campaign now:
http://www.democrats.org/support/kerry/contribute.html
George Bush cannot be trusted to tell the truth. He misled us about Iraq and his administration's paranoid secrecy cuts the public off from information about our government's actions. He would not testify under oath to the September 11th commission -- and could not even meet the commission in private without Dick Cheney's supervision.
He cannot be trusted with our safety. George Bush has thrown away 60 years of America's moral leadership in the world and left us in weak isolation. He has stretched our military dangerously thin by rushing into Iraq, and by sending National Guard and Reserve troops to join them, left our homeland unprotected.
And George Bush simply cannot be trusted with our future. The millions of jobs lost have weakened our economy. More Americans are sick because he has failed to help the tens of millions of us who have no health insurance. And his attempts to divide us by race, gender and sexual orientation are weakening the fabric of our society.
The first step in making America strong again is electing John Kerry. And today the famous fundraising bat is in your hands to help Senator Kerry take his message to the American people:
http://www.democrats.org/support/kerry/contribute.html
We had a spirited primary season this year. But the differences between any of the former Democratic candidates are nothing compared to the fundamental difference between the Democratic agenda and the right-wing ideologues who are destroying this country.
John Kerry will restore American values and our nation's traditional purpose in the world. And the millions of engaged citizens who will participate in this election will revive our democracy. That work is already beginning with organizations like Democracy for America:
http://www.democracyforamerica.com
With your help, we can take our country back -- and take back the White House in 2004.
Sincerely,
Governor Howard Dean M.D.
Dear MoveOn member:
As America learns more about the prisoner abuse scandal, it's becoming clear that the path to the crimes committed at Abu Ghraib prison began at Donald Rumsfeld's office in the Pentagon. According to an article in the New Yorker magazine, a policy put in place by Secretary Rumsfeld
"encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq." [1]
Despite this horrible scandal and the cascading failures of U.S. military policy in Iraq, President Bush says that Rumsfeld is doing "a superb job." In the absence of presidential leadership, Congress must step in and hold the administration accountable.
Please call your Senators and Representative today and tell them to call on President Bush to fire Donald Rumsfeld.
Senator Ted Stevens
Washington, DC: 202-224-3004
Senator Lisa A. Murkowski
Washington, DC: 202-224-6665
Congressman Don Young
Washington, DC: 202-225-5765
Please let us know you're calling, at:
http://www.moveon.org/callrumsfeld.html?id=2849-642605-XnLHJyLHwnhQ73n9INbP3Q
President Bush approved a policy that the Geneva Convention wouldn't apply to suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. When the war in Iraq started to go badly, Rumsfeld extended these aggressive interrogation policies to Iraqi prisons. According to the current issue of Newsweek,
"It was an approach that they adopted to sidestep the historical safeguards of the Geneva Conventions, which protect the rights of detainees and prisoners of war. In doing so, they overrode the objections of Secretary of State Colin Powell and America's top military lawyers - and they left underlings to sweat the details of what actually happened to prisoners in these lawless places. While no one deliberately authorized outright torture, these techniques entailed a systematic softening up of prisoners through isolation, privations, insults, threats and humiliation - methods that the Red Cross concluded were ‘tantamount to torture.’" [2]
High-level officials in the Pentagon were sent from Guantanamo Bay to Iraq to implement the more aggressive policies, and it appears that command of the prison was placed in the hands of military intelligence
officers. Techniques that had been approved only for suspected al-Qaeda terrorists were suddenly applied to Iraqi prisoners (up to 90% of whom were mistakenly detained, according to the Red Cross) [3].
Despite the eagerness of the Bush administration to blame the torture at Abu Ghraib on a few rogue soldiers, it is now clear that real responsibility lies at the top of the chain of command.
As the Commander-in-Chief, it's President Bush’s job to decide who runs the Pentagon. If he won't take the steps that are needed to restore American credibility around the world, Congress needs to use its power to convince the president to do the right thing - whether it issues a
clear public call for the Secretary's resignation or whether it uses other leverage to force the Administration’s hand.
Please call your elected Representatives today and ask them to do the right thing, for America’s sake.
Thanks for making these important calls,
- Carrie, Joan, Noah, Peter, and Wes
The MoveOn.org team
Tuesday, May 18th, 2004
[1] http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?fact/040524fa_fact
THE GRAY ZONE, How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib.
Seymour M. Hersh, 5/24/2004, New Yorker
[2] "The Roots of Torture: The road to Abu Ghraib began after 9/11,
when Washington wrote new rules to fight a new kind of war."
John Barry, Michael Hirsh and Michael Isikoff, 5/24/04
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4989422/site/newsweek/
[3] Red Cross: Iraq Abuse Widespread, Routine
Alexander G. Higgins, 5/10/04. For AP story on this report, see:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040511/D82G3F9G1.html