And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Workers World" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 22:06:51 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Mumia on Clinton's 'poverty tour'
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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 29, 1999
issue of Workers World newspaper
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FROM DEATH ROW, MUMIA COMMENTS ON CLINTON'S "POVERTY TOUR"
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
As summer bakes the land, American President Clinton began
his poverty tour, the first of his presidency into the
poorest pockets of American life, where American dreams sour
into grim nightmares. The president of the wealthiest nation
on earth visited the Appalachians, the southern California
neighborhood of Watts, and, among other poor and depressed
areas, the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, home of
the Oglala Sioux Nation.
For most commentators, the Clinton trip was proof of his
compassion for the poor, as his tour attracted intense media
attention to some of the nation's poorest communities. For
others, it is striking that a man who ran his first
presidential campaign using the line, "I feel your pain,"
took almost eight years to show that he knew such places as
Pine Ridge Reservation, Watts and the Appalachians even
existed.
Perhaps the "pain" he felt was that of the bulls and bears
of Wall Street.
Further, other than one day's media fascination, of what
use is the attention of a lame duck president who has less
than 20 months in his office left? What will he do to these
depressed and ailing communities of red, black and poor
white folks to bring them up to scale? What does he propose
to do that will transform the 75 percent unemployment among
the Lakota people on Pine Ridge?
In a word, nothing.
His effort was little more than a White House photo op,
and an appeal to U.S. business to exploit the natural and
human capital of the areas. But this is also the president
of the NAFTA agreement, the international trade pact that
opened the door to capital flight south of the border, where
labor is cheap and plentiful. Would business choose labor
that must be paid minimum wage, or opt for those who will
accept only pennies to work?
There is another reason why this a-day-with-the-poor tour
was a travesty. The trip to Pine Ridge was made by an
American president, and nary a word was said about its most
famous former resident, Native American political prisoner
Leonard Peltier.
Were it not for his fervent supporters, who shouted from
the periphery, the proud name of one of the Lakotas' bravest
warriors, Leonard Peltier, would not have been mentioned.
For Clinton, the president in search of a legacy, a simple
signature on a piece of paper setting Peltier free would
have been an act that spoke for generations. Instead, ever
the politician, he issued words and walked away, ever in
search of another handshake, another crowd, and yet another
photo op.
Column written 7/9/99, c 1999 Mumia Abu-Jamal
- END -
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
UPDATES: CAMP
JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/
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