Mar 1, 2003

Shredding the Bill of Rights

In a full-page ad in The New York Times, Feb. 25, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) pointed out that Attorney General John Ashcroft ram-rodded through Congress the USA Patriot Act in Oct. 2001 with sweeping new FBI powers to spy on the people in the name of fighting terrorism.

Okla. needs ‘books not bombs’

As a high school student in an Oklahoma public school system, I appreciate your coverage of the Oklahoma teacher’s rally on Feb. 12. (2/22) The nation needs to know that many states are cutting back on education because of budget shortfalls. Instead of wasting money on war, President Bush needs to offer relief for such states so that the youth of America are not neglected.

It’s dirty, and it’s deadly. When you coat a shell with it, it slices through armored plating as if it was cheese, turning tanks, buildings and bomb shelters into exploding incinerators. It causes cancer among people who breathe its dust, or touch it. It causes horrible birth defects among the babies of pregnant women who breathe it or touch it. It causes a host of chronic ailments and sicknesses among returning troops.

The mass media are bombarding Americans with proclamations that the global revulsion to George Bush’s policies is “anti-American.”

Forty years ago this year, the Equal Pay Act was passed. In 1963 women working full-time, year-round were making just under 60 cents to a man’s dollar. It was still legal to separate the want ads into “Help wanted, Male” – where the engineering, lawyering, medical, and scientific jobs were found – and “Help wanted, Female” where the nursing, teaching, cleaning and typing jobs were found.

On Jan. 16, the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University released a 67-page report with a grim message: racial segregation has returned to U.S. schools at levels not seen for three decades. The report has implications for contemporary activists, such as those in Lewiston, Maine, who recently demonstrated against racism. Its findings are of a piece with rampant onslaughts of discrimination and division throughout the world.

Pittsburgh, Pa., has produced an astonishing number of Black music legends – Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Billy Eckstine, Eubie Blake, Earl Hines, and Errol Garner, to name just a few.

NEW YORK – This year’s Rock the Vote Awards couldn’t have been more timely. With a stated goal of “protecting freedom of expression and empowering young people to change their world,” the group used this star-studded evening Feb. 22 to speak out against censorship and war.

DEARBORN, Mich. – Almost 200 union activists filled United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 600’s hall to hear union leaders speak out against Bush’s war on Iraq. The panel included many leaders of union locals, leaders of the Michigan labor movement and leaders of international unions. It was moderated by Julie Hurwitz of the National Lawyers’ Guild.

SAN FRANCISCO – En la manifestación más grande en tiempos recientes 300 mil llenaron la Plaza Civic Center el 16 de febrero aquí reclamando la paz. “Dejen que las inspecciones trabajen,” fuel el lema que se oía de los oradores y los manifestantes.