/=-=-=-=-Click Here & Support Our Sponsor-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=\ Dial 800-555-TELL. Instant updates - One free call. Sports, stocks, driving directions...& much more! http://click.topica.com/aaaa2vbz8SnrbAjwjxa/Tellme \=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=/ __________________________________________________________________________ The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 8 December 2000 Vol. 4, Number 99 (#495) __________________________________________________________________________ How Many Holocaust Deniers Does It Take to Change A Lightbulb? Fascists To Again March In Skokie Jewish Defense League (press release), "Mobilize to Stop the Ku Klux Klan," 6 Dec 00 Art Golab (Chicago Sun-Times), "Jewish group says it will stop KKK rally," 5 Dec 00 Michael J. Jordan (JTA), "Twenty-two years later, Skokie again a dirty word," 5 Dec 00 Art Review: Jesse Hamlin (San Francisco Courier), "Painting The Tensions Of the South: Travis Somerville's work struggles with white guilt," 6 Dec 00 Rightwing Quote of the Week: What's Worth Checking: 5 stories -------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOW MANY HOLOCAUST DENIERS DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHTBULB [The material below was recently published on <alt.revisionism>, the usenet news group that acts as a magnet for the Holocaust Deniers. -- tallpaul] Q: How many Holocaust Deniers does it take to change a light bulb? A: 1000. One to change it; 999 to furiously deny that it was changed. A: None. The Denier crowd never accomplishes anything positive. But a thousand of them would be lined up to claim the Jews stole the bulb. A: That's another typical Holohugger commie Jew smear! A: Why are you Holohuggers always asking about JEWISH lightbulbs? Why don't you ever ask about all the German lightbulbs that were broken after WW II? Why don't you ask how many lightbulbs British bombers broke in Dresden? Why don't we ever hear about broken Palestinian lightbulbs? A: Oh, Gawd. There they go again. First it was extortion to get our money for the so-called Holocau$t. Now they're trying to make us feel guilty to give them money to buy lightbulbs! A: None. Why should we revisionists change the bulb after some Holohoaxer broke the bulb so that nobody could see him molesting little boys in the dark? A: Go do your own lightbulb-changing, silly Hoaxer. I don't have the time or energy to do it for you. A: I want: Detailed schematics of the bulb and light socket; The name of the manufacturer of the bulb; The provider of the electricity; A sworn affadavit from Thomas Edison that lightbulbs are to be used to produce light; A graph showing standard usage and failure rates of common lightbulbs; A major article describing how electricity works. In addition, I want you to wet your finger and stick it in the socket. A: Why do you Holohuggers keep calling us Lightbulb Changers. We've never claimed that we want to Change lightbulbs. We're Lightbulb Replacers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- FASCISTS TO AGAIN MARCH IN SKOKIE Mobilize to Stop the Ku Klux Klan Jewish Defense League (press release) 6 Dec 00 Return to Skokie On November 15th The Jewish Defense League learned that The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and the National Alliance plan on holding a joint march and rally in Skokie, Illinois on December 16th. Twenty two years ago, when the Nazis originally marched on Skokie, The Jewish Defense League promised to never again allow these Nazi cretins to march on Skokie. The Nazis have only one purpose for marching in Skokie (which they refer to as "Jewtown"): To insult the memory of the Six Million victims of Nazi murder and to torment the survivors of the holocaust who now reside in Skokie. This is a clear and obvious affront not only to the Jewish community, but to all people of conscience. For this reason we all must act. The JDL is calling on all Jews, regardless of there personal politics, to put aside all of their differences, which are dwarfed by this outrage, and act together to prevent this event from occurring. The JDL also calls on all people, regardless of their religion, race, or position, to join with us in protesting this despicable and cowardly action on the part of our nation's most vile racists. The JDL will not allow these Nazis to invade the community of Skokie to preach their message of Jew-hatred and genocide. The JDL absolutely and without reservation disagrees with those who would argue that these panders of hate, violence and ignorance are protected by the 1st amendment; we will not respect any law that would allow such a flagrant and boorish abuse of our cherished freedoms. The memory of the Six million, and the Laws of Torah allow us no other position. The JDL vows to prevent these Nazi thugs from marching on December 16th, or on any other day, and we will act, peacefully if possible, forcefully if we must, to uphold the dignity and honor of our silent and undefended six million dead. In the words of Danny Kaye in his role as a Holocaust survivor in the movie Skokie: "The next time they come, we should meet them with bats." For further information: Dr Jonathon Epstein, Director Jewish Defense League of the Midwest 330-607-8360 Email: Midwest <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Eastern US <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - - - - - Jewish group says it will stop KKK rally Art Golab (Chicago Sun-Times) 5 Dec 00 A militant Jewish organization is threatening to use force to prevent a planned Ku Klux Klan rally in Skokie Dec. 16. In a statement released Monday, the Jewish Defense League said it is mobilizing members from across the country to stop the KKK from rallying in the suburb, which has a significant Jewish population. "We will use whatever means are necessary to prevent this march," said Chicago Chapter Chairman Ian Sigel. "We will act peacefully if possible, but forcibly if we must, to prevent this rally." Skokie and Cook County Sheriff's police say they will keep the peace. "We are putting together a plan to ensure that whatever occurs on Dec. 16 will be peaceful and to ensure that all individual liberties are protected and no one gets hurt," said Skokie Police Sgt. Mike Ruth. The JDL demonstration was sparked by a "white pride rally" announced in November by a KKK chapter from Wisconsin. The KKK applied for a permit for 40 people to hold a demonstration from 1 to 3 p.m. Dec. 16 at the Cook County Courthouse in Skokie. At least one other organization had notifed police of plans to counterdemonstrate at the KKK rally, Ruth said. Several Skokie religious and civic groups are planning a "Peace and Harmony" rally for the following day. "We are asking Skokians and our friends to stay away from the courthouse and show the Klan our hatred for their ideas by ignoring them and instead joining us at the `Peace and Harmony' rally on Sunday," said Mayor George Van Dusen. He said showing up at the Klan rally "not only draws media attention but also gives members of the Klan the personal satisfaction that they want." Sigel disagreed. "Hiding in some church basement having a feel-good meeting accomplishes absolutely nothing, because they're singing to the choir," Sigel said. Sigel said the death of a black man dragged by a pickup truck in Texas and shootings last year in West Rogers Park were motivated by hate groups like the KKK. "They aren't just talk; they are dangerous. They should be labeled a criminal organization, and as far as we're concerned they shouldn't be allowed to speak." - - - - - Twenty-two years later, Skokie again a dirty word Michael J. Jordan (JTA) 5 Dec 00 NEW YORK -- For many American Jews, the word "Skokie" stirs up memories of the 1978 First Amendment case that upheld a neo-Nazi group’s right to hold a rally in that Illinois community, home to numerous Holocaust survivors. The episode even spawned a movie, starring Danny Kaye. So it may be precisely to capitalize on Skokie’s symbolism that the Ku Klux Klan plans to demonstrate Dec. 16, on Shabbat, in the Chicago suburb some of them describe as "Jewtown." The KKK event, announced by the Mercer, Wis., chapter, will be held on the steps of the Cook County Courthouse. As the courthouse is county property, a local Skokie permit is not necessary. Thirty to 40 Klansmen and other white supremacists from the region are expected to attend. Outraged, Chicago Jewry is reacting. "History has shown us that evil and hateful words, if unchecked, all too often lead to evil deeds and hate crimes," said Richard Hirschhaut, Midwest regional director for the Anti-Defamation League. "We have to raise our voices against those who would divide our community and attempt to sow fear," Hirschhaut said. "Even the most pathetic sociopath who spews a message of bigotry and hate ought not be dismissed as unimportant, lest their message reach and potentially influence others." The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago and local Skokie Jews have thrown their support behind a "Peace and Harmony" rally that the Skokie Commission on Human Relations has scheduled for the following day. Hirschhaut said he succeeded in dissuading the Evanston Ecumenical Action Council, comprised mostly of Christian denominations, from confronting the Klan. Instead, the council agreed to join the Sunday rally. The ADL also is endorsing another reprise of "Operation Lemonade," a four- year-old project that, like a walk-a-thon, cleverly raises money based on each minute a hate group demonstrates and donates it to organizations that work toward neutralizing such groups. There are only 2,000 to 2,500 card-carrying KKK members in the entire United States, said Hirschhaut, who has a 1-inch-thick file on the Mercer, Wis., chapter leader, Michael McQueeney. Skokie -- now home to large communities of Asians, Latinos and blacks -- is still scarred by a shooting spree in the region 17 months ago. A follower of the white-supremacist World Church of the Creator gunned down the African American basketball coach of Northwestern University and a South Korean college student, and injured nine Orthodox Jews on their way to synagogue. The coach, Ricky Byrdsong, and two of the Jewish victims were Skokie residents. Holding a post-KKK counter-rally is an "approach that makes a lot of sense to us," said Michael Kotzin, executive director of the Jewish federation. "The circulation of hate, no matter how small and marginal, is a legitimate concern and there’s going to be a reaction from the Jewish community – and from the friends of the Jewish community." But not all Jews are satisfied with peaceful responses. The Jewish Defense League, founded by the late militant Rabbi Meir Kahane, says it intends to block the rally, "peacefully if possible, but forcibly if we must," the group’s local leader told the Chicago Sun-Times. On its Web site, the JDL vows to "uphold the dignity and honor of our silent and undefended six million dead," and calls on "all Jews, regardless of there [sic] personal politics, to put aside all of their differences, which are dwarfed by this outrage, and act together to prevent this event from occurring." "We will not respect any law that would allow such a flagrant and boorish abuse of our cherished freedoms," the group declares. Such a declaration concerns Hirschhaut, Kotzin and Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen, who say it will surely attract even more media, generating exactly the sort of publicity the KKK is seeking. "We are asking Skokians and our friends to stay away from the courthouse and show the Klan our hatred for their ideas by ignoring them and instead joining us at the ‘Peace and Harmony’ rally on Sunday,’’ Van Dusen was quoted as saying in the Sun-Times. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anti-Defamation League denounces church protest Michelle Firmbach (Exeter News-Letter) 19 Nov 00 EXETER -- The Anti-Defamation League has condemned the demonstration planned for Monday in Exeter by members of what it calls the "virulently homophobic" Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church. Diane Kolb, associate director of ADL's New England Region, said she hopes her group's condemnation will encourage others to speak out against members of Westboro Baptist Church. "We have issued the statement condemning the attitude and the behavior and the opinion of these folks," Kolb said. "The position of ADL is that we must counter hate speech with more speech so we have been working with all of the groups that have been targeted to encourage them to speak out. We are supporting whatever action or inaction that they feel is appropriate for their school." The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is an organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry. Rev. Fred Phelps, 71, will lead his anti-gay crusade into town on Monday to protest Phillips Exeter Academy's decision last May to allow gay and lesbian faculty and staff to serve as dormitory parents. The church also plans to protest against PEA alumnus Gore Vidal, an American novelist, playwright, and essayist well known for his attack of sexual norms. The group claims Vidal advocated jail for its members for picketing the funeral of an openly gay student beaten to death in Wyoming in 1998. The ADL recently issued a report titled "In Their Own Words: Fred Phelps & The Westboro Baptist Church." The report examines so-called "hateful" remarks the church in Topeka has made over the last decade. While putting a public face on its crusade against homosexuality, the ADL contends in the report found on the organization's Web site that Phelps and the church have issued hate literature attacking blacks, Jews, other minorities and Christians with "great force." The ADL maintains members of the church have staged protests at many non- gay events in some cases, targeting mainstream public officials and government entities that Phelps believes to be encouraging homosexuality. The Westboro Baptist Church spreads its message using faxed fliers and news releases that are often posted on the group's Web site. "Fred Phelps has made patently clear his mission of targeting gays with hateful rhetoric and public demonstrations," said Robert Leikind, executive director of ADL, New England region, in a written statement Friday. "What is less widely known about Fred Phelps is that he and followers of the Westboro Baptist Church have also attacked Jews, blacks and Christians. He and his church continue to spread vile rhetoric against many groups." Portsmouth resident Tracy Singer said those who have a problem with the pastor's thinking need to stand up to him. "Do you know what I would say to him if he came to town?" Singer asked. "I'd tell him he's wrong; God does love everybody, even him with his hateful ignorant view and we'll pray for his soul." Instead of attacking a person for his or her race or sexual preference, Singer said his focus should be to denounce pedophiles. "The focus about who needs to be a role model for others is distorted. It is about who has a healthy mind and a healthy heart," she said. Singer pointed to how many men of organized religious organizations have been accused and convicted of sex crimes against children and young adults. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ART REVIEW: Painting The Tensions Of the South: Travis Somerville's work struggles with white guilt Jesse Hamlin (San Francisco Courier) 6 Dec 00 In Travis Somerville's painting "Boy in the Hood," Malcolm X wears the white hood of the Ku Klux Klan. "Hymn" depicts Martin Luther King Jr. crowned with white dogwood blossoms that hover over a patch of scribbled blood-red paint. "God Save the South!," the Confederate anthem, is written across his mouth in baby blue Old English lettering modeled on the original sheet music. The surface is scattered with red gestural marks and snapshots of white folk. "I'm taking images and phrases that can be considered negative, juxtaposing them with more positive images and letting them play off each other," Somerville says. "I think it changes the meaning of them." He's a Southern white boy whose potent new paintings probe the cultural and emotional complexities of the place that produced him. They're on display at San Francisco's Catharine Clark Gallery tomorrow night, the first Thursday of the month, when downtown galleries stay open late. "Who better to save the South than a person like Martin Luther King?" says Somerville, 37, the son of a liberal Episcopal minister who was run out of Clarkesville, Ga., in the '60s for joining the civil rights movement and refusing to bless a podium where racist Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox was to speak. "There's a lot of guilt being a white Southerner," says the artist, an Atlanta native who studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art and the San Francisco Art Institute. "I didn't want to seem to apologize with this work because that would've been too easy. I felt I had to just jump in there and in a way make in-your-face-type work." In these pictures, Somerville explores the legacy of slavery and bigotry through the eyes of a native son with a deep affection for the place he still considers home, even though he's lived here for 15 years. He calls this series "Song of the South," the title of the 1946 animated Disney film based on Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus folktales. Narrated by a fictional former slave who speaks in dialect, the book and the film were harshly criticized in the 1960s for their stereotypical portrayal of African Americans. Somerville uses the film, which he adored as a child, to explore the world he grew up in. The Uncle Remus characters Brer Rabbit and the Tar-Baby appear in several pieces, painted into unexpected and often ironic settings. " 'Song of the South' was really important to kids in the South because it related to them," says Somerville, who didn't pick up on "the underlying racism" until later in life. "It's loaded with all kinds of stuff." As a kid, he loved "that it was half real and half animated. It was this whole fantasy world you could be in as a real person. So I started thinking I would take these animated characters and put them with portraits of real people and juxtapose them in that way." In "Book Learnin,' " Brer Rabbit confronts the Tar-Baby, the "X" of the Confederate flag crossing him out. The picture's collaged-on canning labels and faded wallpaper recall Somerville's rural upbringing. Hovering at the top are portraits of his favorite Southern writers: William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Truman Capote, Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams and Harper Lee. The image is based on a Reconstruction-era poster depicting seven black Southern congressmen whose faces float above a plantation scene and the caption "From the Plantation to the Senate." Somerville loved the composition and "started thinking about seven images that related to me on a personal level." He painted in the Remus characters when it struck him one day that "the Uncle Remus tales are part of every kid's growing up in the South. It's part of the literature. These writers grew up with the Remus tales as well. It was the idea that these people came out of this (culture) and rose above it." The X-ed out Brer Rabbit was a comic jibe at cartoon painting and a comment on "not being able to see 'Song of the South' anymore. It's not considered politically correct." Somerville paints these energetic pictures on big architectural blueprints that offer a maplike underlying structure to "all the chaos that's going on on top of it," he says. His affection for Robert Rauschenberg's art can be seen in these improvised collage paintings, which use found images and old sheet music picked up at rummage and estate sales. The photos of anonymous people "add a personal history to it, even though it's not mine." The huge "This Land Is My Land" riffs darkly on Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act, which forced Indians from Georgia, Alabama and other Southern states to land west of the Mississippi River. Thousands died along the way. Here, Jackson is gagged by a red bandanna stuffed with feathers. A toothy Brer Bear pops his head into a romantic black-silhouetted landscape -- where a lynching noose hangs from a tree. Lithographs depicting Jesus' hands and feet at the 12 stations of the cross form a border across the top. "The South is a beautiful, beautiful place," Somerville says, where "all these horrible things have happened." The picture also includes the sheet music to "A Connecticut Yankee." "I went to my last year of high school in Connecticut and experienced more racism there than anywhere in the South," Somerville says. He hopes the paintings get people thinking about race on their own terms. "I'm putting all these things together and letting you figure it out." -------------------------------------------------------------------------- RIGHTWING QUOTE OF THE WEEK: For those who believe that fascism is only a thing of the past From: "Ward Cleaver" <Zyklon-B für [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Newsgroups: alt.flame.niggers,soc.culture.african.american,alt.revisionism, alt.talk.royalty Subject: Re: Hurt nigger feelings Date: 3 messages on 8 Dec 00 [Ellipses in the original] GOOD for the patient! EVERYONE must do the same! Do not allow filthy niggers in your presence, in the operating room or your hospital room! Dogs are not permitted in the operating room, why should niggers be allowed in? If I ever go into the hospital and find out that niggers touched me or were present in my room or the operating room I will go back and off every fucking one of them... That's a promise...... Missed my post "Carry this in your wallet" did ya?? Fucking nigger, I am ready to die already. I choose death before I choose to accept the filthy nigger animal blood or body parts, or even filthy nigger health care...... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT'S WORTH CHECKING stories via <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/story7/> Tom Tugend (JTA), "Skinheads in U.S. shul attack receive up to 15 years in jail time," 3 Dec 00, ""Five skinheads who attempted to firebomb a synagogue in Reno, Nev., one year ago have been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison." <1981.txt> David Prather (Huntsville [Alabama] Times), "Our heritage is more than racist generals and bad causes," 6 Dec 00, "What is this Confederate heritage I am supposed to be celebrating? I've been pondering that question the last few weeks after reading about the dispute they are having in Selma about whether to keep a monument to Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate general and world-class racist, on city property. A defender of keeping the statue, a reverend no less, said 'We should never be ashamed of our heritage, but we should be ashamed of those who are.' Well, shame on me, because I'm heartily ashamed of Forrest, one of the early leaders of the Ku Klux Klan. And I don't see much to be proud of when it comes to the South's attempts to tear asunder our more perfect union." <1982.txt> Kevin Osborne (Cincinnati Post), City may charge KKK to guard cross on Square," 7 Dec 00, "Cincinnati officials are having their attorneys review whether they can charge the Ku Klux Klan for tens of thousands of dollars the city has spent over the years for police to guard the Klan cross at Fountain Square." <1983.txt> Cincinnati Post, "Vigils held daily for Klan's cross," 4 Dec 00, "Greater Cincinnati churches are taking turns hosting silent prayer vigils three times a day at Fountain Square to protest the Ku Klux Klan cross." <1984.txt> Editorial (Cincinnati Post), "Hate and the holidays," 2 Dec 00, "This holiday season, it appears, will once again bring the KKK to Fountain Square. We don't know why the leader of a 'church' in a tiny town in the northeastern corner of Indiana feels compelled to bring the KKK's message of hate to the heart of Cincinnati, particularly at this time of year. Frankly, we don't much care. He deserves no bigger audience here than he would get in his own home." <1985.txt> * * * * * In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. __________________________________________________________________________ FASCISM: We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget. 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