There is no one in this country more emblematic of the change in Americans' attitudes toward the Iraq War than Cindy Sheehan. Let's make sure that Time Magazine at least considers her for 2005 Person of the Year.
Nominate Cindy Sheehan for Time Magazine Person of the Year - Pass it on! I did the deed today and found it easy and a pleasure to state why. - Ed Click <http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2005/walkup/talkback.html#form> here to vote. Thanks to <http://www.mikehersh.com/> Mike Hersh for the idea and the link. Lots more really good stuff at <http://makethemaccountable.com/> MakeThemAccountable.com. Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com Philosophical question: If a Bush commits a crime and no one hears about it, has a crime really been committed? *** CounterPunch - Nov 19/20, 2005 http://www.counterpunch.org/chestnut11192005.html Her Father Taught Her Well Condi Rice's Disdain for the Civil Rights Movement By J. L. CHESTNUT, Jr. Mr. Eugene Robinson, a black reporter for the Washington Post, interviewed Secretary of State Condi Rice during her recent flight from Washington to Alabama, and wrote a newspaper column about the experience. Mr. Robinson's revealing observations about Ms. Rice and her family coincide, at least to a point, with what I have said several times on my radio show. However, I know more about the Rice's family relation to the civil rights movement and the black struggle than Mr. Robinson because I was in Birmingham during the tumultuous civil rights years. Mr. Robinson wrote that the parents of Ms. Rice did their best to shelter their only daughter from Jim Crow racism. The truth is they did a helluva lot more than shelter Ms. Rice. They misled her about the justice of the civil rights movement, misled her about the courage of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, misled her about the greatness of Rev. Martin King and misled her about all the dedicated people risking their lives in the streets and jails in Birmingham. Ms. Rice and most upper middle class blacks in Birmingham were misled in the 1960s about the black struggle and they were taught that the civil rights movement represented what black folks should not to do. Ms. Rice's father, a prominent pastor in Birmingham, looked down on Shuttlesworth and his small working class congregation, and publicly called them "uneducated, misguided Negroes." But, in 2005, a life-size statute of Shuttlesworth stands majestically for all the ages in front of the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum. Rev. Rice's monument is his daughter's high position in a Republican administration that has 2% support in black America. That is poetic justice personified. On the flight from Washington, Ms. Rice told Mr. Robinson, "I've always said about Birmingham that because race was everything, race was nothing." So, 40 years after her father denounced us, Ms. Rice reduces segregation, the movement, all the deaths and sacrifices to one word, "nothing." In a sense, she is in 2005 where her father was 40 years ago. I have a feeling she would spit on the grave of King and on all those brave souls whose life and death sacrifices put her where she is now. Robinson pointed out that Ms. Rice showed no visible emotion when speaking about her friend Denise McNair, one of the four young girls murdered in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in 1963. Robinson said such an experience would have left a deep scar on him. I don't think it would have left a scar on him if he, like Ms. Rice, had been taught over-and-over not to identify with certain black people and certain black causes. Ms. Rice was taught serious piano lessons and ballet in stifling, racially segregated Birmingham as one way to be identified above the uncouth black masses demonstrating in the streets. My dear wife speaks with disdain about white people, particularly Southern whites, who exalt blacks like Rice for downplaying the terrible toll of racism, past and present. Every ranking black official in the Bush Administration fits that mold and is a replica of Rice. 40 years ago, Bull Connor and George Wallace called King and Shuttlesworth irresponsible and applauded Rice's father and others of his ilk as "responsible moderate Negro leaders." In truth, they were sell-outs who avoided attacking racial segregation and claimed "separate but equal" were sufficient. If the plight of black people had been left to the tender mercy of those black leaders that Bull Connor and George Wallace called moderates, we wouldn't be able to vote today or even rent a room at a racially segregated Holiday Inn. If our fortunes in 2005 are left in care of the Rices, our votes will matter less and less and we won't be able to afford a room at the local motel. Let there be no doubt that while white Alabama celebrates Ms. Rice, there is much reserve and distrust in black Alabama about the second black Secretary of State. Also, let there be no doubt why. [J.L. Chestnut, Jr. is a civil rights attorney in Selma, Alabama. He is the founder of Chestnut, Sanders and Sanders which is the largest black law firm in Alabama. Born in Selma and, after graduating from Howard University Law School, he began practicing law in Selma in 1958. He started as the only black lawyer in the town and has been challenging the establishment since then. His law firm now owns two radio stations in Selma and Mr. Chestnut hosts a radio talk show three days a week touted as the most popular radio show in south and central Alabama. He is the author of "Black in Selma" with Julia Cass (1989 Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and writes a weekly column called the "Hard Cold Truth". He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/13227663.htm Posted on Tue, Nov. 22, 2005 Chorus grows demanding clemency for condemned Crips founder DAVID KRAVETS Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO - The Rev. Jesse Jackson and celebrity activist Bianca Jagger added their voices to the chorus demanding clemency for Stanley Tookie Williams as the Crips co-founder's attorneys urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for the second time to cancel William's Dec. 13 execution. Jackson said he met and prayed with Williams during a 90-minute meeting at San Quentin State Prison, telling the condemned man, "We are going to fight for you and we are going to win. He told me that his work here is not finished." Williams, 51, faces death by lethal injection for murdering four people in 1979 - a Whittier convenience store clerk and three people at a Pico Rivera motel less than two weeks later. He denies his guilt, and has asked the California Supreme Court to reopen his case, alleging shoddy forensics wrongly connected him to three of the murders. Along with asking Schwarzenegger to commute Williams' death sentence, his lawyers submitted what they said were signatures of 32,000 people supporting the clemency request. They said that Williams, who has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize as an anti-gang activist, could do more for society alive than dead. "It would be more consistent with the true goals of law enforcement and of society to acknowledge the value of Stanley Williams' personal redemption and, more importantly, the value of his message to the youth of this state and this great nation," attorney Peter Fleming Jr. wrote. As many as 45,800 people have registered their support for clemency on the SaveTookie.org Web site. Only 32,000 of the names were submitted to Schwarzenegger because the numbers kept growing by "thousands per day," said Jonathan Harris, one of Williams' clemency attorneys. Williams first urged the governor to commute his sentence two weeks ago. Monday's petition was a rebuttal to a letter Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley sent to Schwarzenegger last week demanding that the execution go forward. Cooley told the governor that Williams "does not deserve your sympathy, leniency or mercy," and in his letter included gruesome details of the murders and bloody pictures of the victims. Williams has gained backing from Hollywood and civil rights supporters, who rallied outside San Quentin on Saturday. Bianca Jagger, the former wife of Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, joined Jackson in visiting Williams Monday at the prison just north of San Francisco. "The only reason to killing him now would be revenge when we should be pursuing redemption," Jackson said in a brief telephone interview before his visit, adding he's asked Schwarzenegger for a meeting. "Clemency is about mercy." Under the California Constitution, the governor has the discretion to commute a death sentence. Two condemned inmates before Williams asked Schwarzenegger for clemency and the governor declined both requests. Williams has been nominated five times for a Nobel Peace Prize and four times for the Nobel Prize for literature for his series of children's books and international peace efforts aimed at curtailing youth gang violence. --- Editors: David Kravets has been covering state and federal courts for more than a decade. ### http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/11/20/BAGJRFRFS81.DTL San Francisco Chronicle SAN QUENTIN Crowd at prison urges clemency for killer Crips founder has written kids' books promoting peace - Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, November 20, 2005 More than a thousand people gathered at the gates to San Quentin prison Saturday morning to denounce the death penalty and ask the governor to have mercy on Stanley "Tookie" Williams, who is to be executed next month. Among those calling for clemency for Williams was Calvin Broadus, better known as rap star Snoop Dogg, who wore a "SaveTookie.org" T-shirt and gave a speech, saying the Death Row inmate's call for peace inspired him to change his gang-banging ways. "I didn't get this from someone that was on the streets, or my father -- I got it from Stan, a brother that was locked up on Death Row," Snoop Dogg, 33, said to loud cheers. "Stanley Williams is not just a regular old guy -- he's an inspirator. He inspires me, and I inspire millions. "His voice needs to be heard." Williams, 51, was convicted of four murders in 1981. The first was the killing of Albert Owens in a 1979 robbery of a 7-Eleven store. He was also convicted of killing Yen-Yi Yang, 76, his wife, Tsai-Shai Yang, 63, and their daughter Yee-Chen Lin, 43, during a robbery at a motel. He is scheduled to be executed Dec. 13. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has the power to grant him clemency. Williams has maintained his innocence. He admits he helped organize the Crips gang in Los Angeles but says he has since changed his ways. He has authored a number of children's books in an attempt to steer African American youth away from the violence he helped unleash. The works are used in classrooms worldwide and have earned Williams five nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. Many at the rally said Williams' work at promoting peace in underprivileged communities should earn him the right to live. "The biggest loss to the community if Stan is killed will be the loss of lives, the loss of hope," said Barbara Becnel, a Williams supporter who co-authored the "Tookie Speaks Out" series with him. "If Stan can't be forgiven, then no one can." Hundreds of members of the Nation of Islam came to the event, many distributing the latest issue of the group's newspaper, the Final Call, which has a cover story headlined "Stop Tookie's Execution." "For those who don't live in the black or brown community, you don't live the effects of gang violence, but I do," said Minister Tony Muhammad of Los Angeles. "Killing him destroys the hope of rehabilitation, destroys the hope of redemption. I see guys who were Bloods and Crips all the time, who are now practicing the peace protocol of Stan." Zachary Williams, a seventh-grader from Oakland, said he read Williams' books and now looks at him as a role model. "He encouraged me not to do some of the things my friends do," Zachary said. "I thank him." The rally was peaceful, with signs calling for clemency, tables with literature and Williams' autobiography for sale, and music blaring from large speakers. A recently released hip-hop song from an album called "Redemption, Hip Hop to Save Stan 'Tookie' Williams" played before the speeches began. A single called "Free," featuring a number of rappers, including Frontline, Paris and Dead Prez, drew applause from the crowd, even some tears, as the artists sang out the Sacramento number of the governor and urged people to call and ask that he grant clemency. A number of sheriff's deputies and police officers patrolled the event on motorcycles. Prison guards looked out at the crowd from behind the cast iron gates that lead to San Quentin. The attorney general's office, police and victims' family members are urging the governor to let Williams die by lethal injection. Los Angeles prosecutors have called him a "cold-blooded killer" who has not taken responsibility for his crimes. Snoop Dogg, also a former Crips member, wanted to visit Williams during his trip to Northern California but was denied access because of his criminal record. All visitors were denied access to the prison on Saturday, and a number of people who couldn't visit their loved ones joined the rally instead. Snoop Dogg, who now does youth outreach, closed the rally by asking everyone to hold up their hands in a peace sign. "We love you, Stanley," Snoop Dogg said. "Keep your head up, O.G. (original gangster)." E-mail Leslie Fulbright at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Page B - 1 URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/11/20/BAGJRFRFS81.DTL ©2005 San Francisco Chronicle ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> DonorsChoose.org helps at-risk students succeed. Fund a student project today! http://us.click.yahoo.com/LeSULA/FpQLAA/E2hLAA/7gSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
