-Caveat Lector- RadTimes # 78 - October, 2000 An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities. "We're living in rad times!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: --------------- --Crackdown On "Democracy Now!" [Pacifica] --'Big Brother' Could Soon Ride Along in Back Seat --147 arrested at parade standoff [Columbus] --Tribes, activists can use Columbus dispute to teach their history ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Begin stories: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crackdown On "Democracy Now!" By Amy Goodman Introductory Note from Michael Albert: I received a long letter today sent by Amy Goodman to the Pacifica Board. The letter, included below in full, reveals Pacifica's efforts to curtail Democracy Now. For those who don't know her, Amy Goodman's work embodies meticulous care, huge talent, outrageous courage, and tireless audacity. The show she hosts, Democracy Now!, is one of the few effective sources of honest analysis and reporting in the United States. Over the past few years Pacifica's authorities have coercively transformed a people's network into a nearly mainstream structure. They have claimed to be trying to increase Pacifica's progressive outreach, but even Pacifica' s authorities can't expect anyone to believe that attacking Democracy Now! is progressive. Cutting off Democracy Now will sunder Pacifica's ties with its progressive listenership and its current donor base. The intent of the actions can only be to replace Pacifica's progressive audience with a more upscale and mainstream one. In short, Pacifica's leadership wants radio content that will get them invitations to hobnob with CEOs of the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. So what should be done? Amy Goodman and Democracy Now should be supported to the full extent that their listening public and the entire progressive community can manage. Whether this means inundating Pacifica's board members with dissenting opinions by email and faxes, organizing together to demonstrate at Pacifica stations or affiliates, or even organizing at the board members' dwellings and workplaces, is up to you. But the point is to make crystal clear to these people that mainstreaming Pacifica is not going to increase its "owners" status and power, but will instead bring misery and shame upon them. Pacifica's dissolution is sordid and impermissible. It should call forth whatever dissent is required to convince the Pacific Board to change its tune. For a start, if you are in the area, please attend protests outside local Pacifica stations in support of "Democracy Now!" (Details at: <http://www.mediademocracynow.org> Then, consider communicating with the folks listed below... Pacifica National Board Bessie Wash, Pacifica executive director phone: (toll free) 888-770-4944 x348, [EMAIL PROTECTED] David Acosta, chair Phone: (713) 926-4604, FAX: (713) 921-2780, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ken Ford, vice chair Phone: (202) 822-0228, FAX: (202) 822-0369, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lynn Chadwick, former executive director, now "consultant" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dr. Mary Frances Berry, former chair, now Board member Phone: (202) 337-0382, FAX: (202) 376-7558, [EMAIL PROTECTED] June Makela, at-large member Phone: (212) 673-9225 or (212) 768-1831, Fax (212) 673-9225, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Frank Millspaugh, WBAI Phone: (212) 741-0839, FAX: (212) 924-7409, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Bob Farrell - KPFK Phone: (323) 299-3800 X 255, FAX: (323) 299-3896, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lee, Bertram M Phone: (202)965-6223, 965-6224 John M. Murdock Phone: 202-861-0900, FAX: 202-296-2882, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Michael Palmer, KPFT Phone: (713) 840-6646 or (713) 960-8583, FAX: 713-960-8583, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Karolyn Van Putten, at large member Phone: (415) 771-1160, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wendell L. Johns, WPFK Phone: (202) 752-8193, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Andrea Cisco, WBAI [EMAIL PROTECTED] Pete Bramson, KPFA [EMAIL PROTECTED] Rabbi Aaron Kriegel, KPFK [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tomas Moran, KPFA [EMAIL PROTECTED] Rob Robinson, WPFW [EMAIL PROTECTED] Leslie Cagan, WBAI [EMAIL PROTECTED] Beth Lyons, WBAI [EMAIL PROTECTED] Valerie Chambers, KPFT [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---- Amy Goodman's Letter To: Pacifica Executive Director Bessie Wash and Board of Directors From: Amy Goodman Cc: Personnel File Date: 10/18/00 A few days ago, I was given a shocking memo from Pacifica Program Director Stephen Yasko and Pacifica attorney Larry Drapkin. In the 3-page memo, Yasko listed a series of Pacifica policies and work rules that I was ordered to immediately adhere to or face "disciplinary actions up to and including termination." Yasko handed me the memo during a meeting in the law offices of my union, AFTRA, at a gathering that my union representatives and I had been led to believe was meant to resolve a series of escalating conflicts which have erupted in recent months between Yasko, Executive Director Bessie Wash, myself and the Democracy Now! staff. In fact, union officials dissuaded me two weeks before the meeting from filing a formal grievance against Yasko and Pacifica for harassment because they had been led to believe Pacifica wanted to resolve these conflicts amicably.Instead, we were suddenly faced with this list of "ground rules" and the threat to fire me. My union lawyer accused Yasko and the Pacifica lawyer of acting in bad faith, immediately cancelled the meeting and approved the filing of a formal grievance. I have now filed grievances against Pacifica management charging harassment, gender harassment, and censorship, among other violations of the union contract. Several of the new "rules" target me with restrictions not applied to other Pacifica employees, and are outright attempts to curtail my constitutional rights of free speech. Some rules go against the very principles of community radio on which Pacifica was founded, while still others will have the effect of hampering Democracy Now!'s ability to reach the widest possible audience. Given their timing and seen in their totality, the ground rules are a transparent attempt to retaliate against me for seeking union representation in a management-labor dispute, a right protected by the National Labor Relations Act. But in my opinion, there is something far bigger than a mere "work rules" dispute involved here, something which should deeply concern the Pacifica Board, our listeners and the greater community radio listenership. It is the desire of management to reign in and exert political control over Democracy Now! It intensified this summer when Pacifica Executive Director Bessie Wash had our press credentials pulled after we brought Ralph Nader into the Republican Convention to be interviewed and do color commentary. Management's action made it much more difficult to cover the Democrats in the same hardhitting, confrontational way we had reported on the Republicans, especially when it came to our focus on corporate control of the Conventions. This punishment was such an unprecedented act that it prompted my co-host and award-winning veteran journalist Juan Gonzalez to write an official protest to Steve Yasko, the new program director, the content of which Yasko never responded to. Our election project, "Breaking With Convention: Power, Protest and the Presidency," was a milestone in Pacifica National Programming, encompassing the largest expansion of audience in Pacifica history. We engaged in an unprecedented collaboration with community public access cable tv stations as well as satellite television, beaming Democracy Now! into millions of homes across the country. Instead of building on that collaboration and continuing the televising of our radio program, and despite meeting and exceeding every stated objective for the show--i.e. audience growth, fundraising, new listeners, groundbreaking programming--Democracy Now! is being subjected to a withering assault by Pacifica management. The motivation is blatantly political. Democracy Now! is a hardhitting grassroots program that is not afraid of tackling controversial issues day after day in the Pacifica tradition. We are not only being censored for our critical coverage of the Democrats as well as the Republicans, but for giving voice to a growing grassroots movement that fundamentally challenges the status quo--people fighting sweatshops, police brutality, prison growth, and corporate globalization. On September 14, Steve Yasko called me to a meeting with Pacifica General Managers. KPFK Manager Mark Schubb, expressed his repeated criticism that audiences don't want to hear graphic details of police brutality before breakfast, or as he said last year "before I have my coffee." He criticized our coverage of Mumia Abu-Jamal, East Timor and questioned why I asked Spike Lee about his affiliation with Nike. Pacifica's Chief Financial Officer weighed in with her criticism of American prisoner Lori Berenson in Peru, (we had just aired an exclusive interview with her that received widespread national press.) After the meeting, Yasko took me into the hotel lobby and shouted, "I am your boss! I am your boss!" I'm being subjected to a concerted campaign of abuse and harassment by Pacifica management. Despite repeated appeals to Executive Director Bessie Wash, there has been no redress. Yasko regularly makes new demands on me and Democracy Now! with wild outbursts of unprofessional yelling and screaming. This has happened during a period when Democracy Now! has been unique in radio by reporting extensively on the refusal of the Commission on Presidential Debates or many in the corporate media to provide fair coverage and inclusion of third parties. It has also happened during a time when Democracy Now! is growing in audience, in media coverage, and in fundraising from both listeners and foundations. That is, we are growing in all the areas the Pacifica board says it is concerned with. Just as the presidential campaign reaches its climax, we are confronted with new restrictions and threats. Among those new work rules are a requirement to provide Yasko each Friday "a list of possible shows the following week and a short status report on each," adding we must "determine the topics of at least three shows the preceding week." Yasko notes that "the Administrative Council (of Pacifica) stated that the show does not sound like breaking news either to the station staffs or the listeners." Are we living in the same world? Our show breaks more national news, as measured by actual press coverage in the mainstream media, than perhaps any show in Pacifica history, e.g., Chevron in Nigeria, the Lori Berenson interview, Seattle WTO coverage, Nader at the Republican convention, Tulia, Texas, East Timor, etc. etc. But instead of congratulations and kudos for our many accomplishments, Pacifica has clamped down and threatens me at every turn with dismissal! As I write this, Yasko is forging ahead with imposing two new producers on Democracy Now! with or without the consent of co-host Juan Gonzalez and me. The two producers--our only producers-- are the heart of this show. It is clear from all of management's actions, they are using this opportunity to change the political direction of the program. This is the first time that we have been clearly told that our consent is not necessary. In his memo, Yasko goes on to demand, "All use of volunteers on Democracy Now! must cease immediately." Why?! Volunteers have always played a pivotal role in Democracy Now! and are the lifeblood of Pacifica. For violation of this ban or any of the other dictates management has laid down, I am threatened with dismissal! Take this section from the Yasko memo: "To establish an appropriate balance between your programming obligations and any speaking engagements and related travel, you are not to accept any speaking engagements without first informing the Foundation and obtaining approval. It is also important to know whom you are speaking to." This is an outrageous intrusion into my personal life and an illegal attempt to control my right of free speech. Given the many large and enthusiastic audiences I am often invited to address, I would think Pacifica would be glad for the positive publicity. Instead, Yasko demands veto power over when I speak and whom I speak to, and he tries to camouflage the crackdown with concern for my welfare or statements such as "you are, of course, a valued voice in spreading the word of our mission, programs and goals." I am so valued that he is ready to fire me if I don't follow unethical and illegal orders. Yasko should be worried less about where I am speaking and more about why our Ku satellite system suffers avoidable catastrophic foul-ups, an area he oversees. I thought the Pacifica board had learned from the bitter battle in Berkeley last year that attempts to silence free speech are the last things this network wants to revisit. But apparently not. Maybe the stakes are too high in this presidential election year to permit too free a press -- even at Pacifica. I truly hope that is not the case. I plead with those of you on the board who still remain dedicated to the grand mission of Lew Hill to reject this poorly disguised attempt at censorship of Democracy Now! and of me personally. Please direct Steve Yasko to cease his harassment and retaliation against me immediately, and Pacifica's attempts to exert political control and undermine the editorial independence of this hardhitting grassroots program. We are not NPR. We are not US government media. We are not the corporate media. We are Democracy Now!: The Exception to the Rulers. Sincerely, Amy Goodman Host, Democracy Now! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Big Brother' Could Soon Ride Along in Back Seat <http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32083-2000Oct7.html> By Alan Sipress Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, October 8, 2000; Page A1 A New York highway agency is tracking cars that have electronic tollbooth tags for the latest on travel speeds and traffic jams. In the Washington region, transportation officials want to monitor drivers talking on cell phones as they drive the Capital Beltway as a way of measuring congestion. And an Alabama-based company has developed equipment that "sniffs" passing cars to identify which radio stations motorists have chosen. These "intelligent transportation systems," as they've been named, may help solve traffic problems and be a boon to marketers, but they also raise fear of a new threat to privacy: the idea that drivers could soon be leaving electronic footsteps whenever they leave home. "We could end up with an utterly pervasive monitoring of travelers' movements," warned Phil Agre, a professor of information studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. While the public has begun to confront the hazards posed by unfettered access to information about individuals' medical profiles and Internet use, privacy advocates say there is still little recognition of the newest frontier: travel and location information. "We are moving toward a surveillance society. Soon, government and private industry, often working in concert, will have the capability to monitor our every movement," said Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "While the technology is growing at light speed, the law that governs how the data can be used is developing at the speed of tortoises." At a time when traffic is outpacing efforts to expand highways, new technologies promise a once unimagined ability to manage rush hour, respond instantly to crashes and eliminate backups at tollbooths. They also offer police new tools to catch scofflaws such as red-light runners and locate witnesses, and they provide businesses with immensely profitable ways to reach prospective customers. Electronic toll programs, such as E-ZPass in the Northeast and the Dulles Toll Road's Smart Tag, are often linked to individuals' credit card accounts and are compiling ever more data about when and where specific drivers are traveling. Transit "smart cards" collect similar information about riders. Cameras are increasingly being used to snap photos of cars that run red lights, evade paying tolls and speed. Closed-circuit television cameras for monitoring highway traffic continue to proliferate and, as their resolution improves, could be combined with an evolving technology that automatically matches individual occupants' faces to their driver's license pictures. Automobile makers are introducing on-board navigation systems that allow vehicles to be tracked, and technology is evolving for monitoring the location of cell phones. Engineers predict that cars will soon be manufactured with embedded transmitters that allow them to be tracked. The growing number of high-tech systems for tracking vehicles and archiving information about their travel patterns "is unwittingly bringing us closer than ever to the Orwellian vision of the ever-present Big Brother," wrote analysts Bruce Abernethy and Andrew Kolcz in a recent cover story for Traffic Technology International. "It's an issue of great concern," said Larry Leibowitz, chief executive of Inductive Signature Technologies, who will be chairing a panel on privacy this month sponsored by the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. "It gives the government the ability to tell where you're sitting at dinner." He said people should be concerned about whether their records would be subpoenaed in divorce and other lawsuits, and about whether this information would be exploited by overzealous police. A 1996 survey by Priscilla M. Regan, of George Mason University, found that Americans overwhelmingly preferred that high-tech transportation systems collect only anonymous information, such as overall traffic counts. They cautiously accepted the collection of some personally identifiable information, such as license plate numbers, but objected to such measures as videotaping inside their cars. More than two-thirds were worried about who would see the information. "If they start giving the information away for advertising or selling it, that bothers me," Chuck Stievenart, 39, of Fredericksburg, Va., said recently. "We get enough junk already. Now I'll probably be on someone else's list for junk." Said Kimberly Hayek, 29, of Arlington: "As a single woman, I have to worry. I have been stalked before. I figure I don't have any privacy. I don't like it." The agencies and companies behind these high-tech systems say they use a range of safeguards, including letting travelers choose whether to participate. In San Antonio, for example, 53 automated readers arrayed along city streets follow the progress of 60,000 cars with transponders. All the motorists are volunteers. Both officials of the Dulles Toll Road and the agencies that offer E-ZPass  used on highways, bridges and tunnels in six states from Massachusetts to West Virginia  say travelers can choose not to buy the tag and instead pay cash at tollbooths. Some systems try to limit the amount of personally identifiable information they collect. For instance, Transcom, a traffic management organization, has set up automated roadside readers in the New York area to track cars with E-ZPass tags. But tag numbers are scrambled so they cannot be traced to their owners. Likewise, a spokesman for Mobiltrak, the Alabama company that developed the radio "sniffer" system, said its purpose is to take a random sample of passing cars and supply that general information to advertisers. He said the equipment does not determine specifically which vehicle is tuned into which station. But in low-traffic areas, it could be easier to identify individual cars. A third safeguard used by some systems is the practice of collecting data about large groups of vehicles rather than specific cars. Maryland and Virginia officials developing the program to track cell phone use have said, for instance, they will simply follow the energy pattern generated by thousands of phones. They stressed that they will not be able to monitor phone calls or identify specific callers. Some initiatives do not store the information at all. Transcom officials, for instance, collect E-ZPass readings to remain abreast of highway congestion but do not keep them. But other transportation agencies do store personal information, especially those that bill travelers for using electronic payment such as E-ZPass, Smart Tag and Chicago's I-Pass, as well as Metro's smart card. These agencies assure their customers that the data are not provided or sold to businesses and only released under subpoena or court order except in emergencies. Police have turned to E-ZPass records several dozen times. In the most celebrated case, investigators probing the kidnapping of New Jersey millionaire Nelson Gross, a former state Republican chairman, used E-ZPass information in 1997 to track his BMW across the George Washington Bridge. His car was found in Manhattan, and his battered body was soon discovered nearby. Agencies and companies developing these high-tech systems have repeatedly guaranteed that measures for easing traffic will not be merged with those for policing, such as red-light cameras and photo enforcement of speed limits. They fear motorists will reject programs such as electronic toll systems and traffic cameras if they believe these will be used to issue tickets. Indeed, the deployment of red-light cameras, for instance, has met with decidedly mixed reviews, including in Virginia. Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) cited privacy concerns in vetoing a bill that would have expanded their use beyond Arlington and Fairfax counties. The trepidation is not universal. "It's not like they're getting your DNA or your medical records. You're in your car, and you're in public," said Chris Wingo, 28, of Northwest Washington. Others want a say over how the information is used. "There's so many unknowns with this new burst of the information age," said Leslie Honing, 35, of Arlington. "I feel like I need some control over that." Privacy advocates insist that Congress set some legal parameters. Regan, of GMU, said laws alone are not enough. Limits on collecting and archiving individual information must be built into the systems themselves: "Once you've collected the information, you're continually trying to keep it under wraps, and there's constant pressure to let it out." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 147 arrested at parade standoff <http://insidedenver.com/news/1008para2.shtml> Vulgar words, tense confrontations greet Columbus Day march, but peace prevails Sun, 8 Oct 2000 by Ann Carnahan, Sarah Huntley, and Todd Hartman Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writers Weeks of tension came to a head Saturday as hundreds of Indian protesters faced off with police in a downtown intersection, interrupting the much-ballyhooed Columbus Day parade for an hour. Nobody was hurt, but the day was marked by vulgar verbal exchanges between Italian-Americans and American Indians, tense confrontations and the arrests of 147 protesters. Protesters shouting "No more Columbus Day," poured a line of red liquid across the parade route to represent the blood of their ancestors. They carried signs reading, "Your celebration is my pain" and "Why not Mussolini?" Others locked arms and moved forward. Women were at the front of the protest line, a tactic aimed at keeping police from using force. The 475 police officers along the parade route, some in riot gear, showed restraint but kept their hands close to their nightsticks. A half hour into the standoff, police began arresting those who sat down in the street. Some of the women were cuffed with plastic wristbands as they were led into sheriff's buses a block away at 15th Street and Tremont Place. Some who weren't cuffed raised their fists in the air. Afterward, the 25-minute parade continued without incident. "Today was a model for free speech," Denver Mayor Wellington Webb said later. "I'm proud that today was peaceful, proud that individuals lived up to the responsibility to go to a higher moral plane." Marchers and protesters found common ground in noting the day was a success because there was no violence. "We had our parade and they had their protest and nobody got hurt," said parade organizer George Vendegnia. "We got our heritage back after nine years." But Ted Roy, security chief for the American Indian Movement, said it won't be a complete success until Columbus Day is abolished. C.M. Mangiaracina, another parade organizer, said the event will be back next year and will likely be named after Columbus, unless the federal government changes the name of the holiday. To make his point, he said he would be going to a department store today to buy some jeans at its Columbus Day sale. "Our community has been absent on the social landscape for too long," he said. "We're back." AIM leader Russell Means promised to unveil a new strategy by Wednesday for combating plans for a parade next year. "I'm sorry, but the day of Gandhiism and Martin Luther King tactics is over. I'm not going to put up with this any longer," Means told a crowd at the City and County Building after he was released from custody. "We are going to outsmart them. Believe me, it's very simple." The Indians assert that Columbus was a slave trader and mounted genocide campaigns against their ancestors. Last month, the sides agreed there would be no protests if there were no mention of Columbus, but parade organizers later disavowed the deal. All the protesters were released Saturday after being processed on misdemeanor charges of loitering and failing to obey officers. This was the first such parade in Denver since the parade was scuttled in 1992, when Indian activists confronted Italians as they prepared to march. Estimates on the number of protesters Saturday varied wildly, but it was far fewer than the 3,000 to 3,500 at the 1992 parade. This year's parade drew a hodgepodge of spectators. "I want to see a riot," said William Kuhnhofer, 52, of Denver. "That's why most of these people came here. They don't care about Indians and Italians." Kuhnhofer said he was disappointed in the peaceful outcome. Several paradegoers pushed babies in strollers. Glenn Peterson, visiting from Des Moines, Iowa, brought his 17-month-old grandson but decided to leave after the standoff began. "Isn't it a shame children can't even go to a parade anymore?" he said. An hour earlier, Italians gathered in the streets, blowing up balloons, lifting bales of hay onto the bed of tractor-trailer trucks and watching traditional dancers from St. Anthony's Society. A vendor set up shop on the corner of 14th and Welton streets with balloons, cotton candy and American and Italian flags. Nearly every new arrival was greeted with a handshake, a hug or a kiss. Rosalyn Mancini-Juhl of Denver stood behind a metal barricade, holding a single red rose that someone gave her. She was there to celebrate her childhood tradition. "The Italians always had a parade when I was a young girl," she said. "In school, Columbus Day was always quite a holiday for us." Agnes Carrado, waving a small Italian flag, said she wasn't concerned about the possibility of violence. "Not at all," said Carrado. "I think they (the protesters) did us a favor, really. More people, more Italians, showed up." Parade organizers took steps to head off controversy when a pair of marchers showed up with a Columbus banner that read, "He came in the name of Christ." Worried that the size and the message would incite the protesters, a parade marshal asked the pair to move to the back of the parade, which they reluctantly did. The parade started promptly at 10 a.m. as limousines, trucks, flag-waving marchers and motorcycle clubs rolled down 15th Street. Eight minutes later - as the arrests began - it came to an abrupt stop. "It's about celebrating genocide," said Ellen Klaver of Niwot, as she was loaded into a paddywagon. Klaver, who described herself as European-American, said she has been arrested twice before in acts of civil disobedience. "Don't be ignorant," one of the arrested women shouted to a crowd of Italians leaning over a barricade to watch. "You're the one who's going to jail; let's talk about ignorance," someone shouted back. Throughout the protest, the smell of pine filled the air, as Indian women burned incense that they said they brought to purify the event and keep protesters safe. Those arrested cooperated with police. One officer helped a protester whose hands were tied, stopping to pick up the cellphone that had fallen from his pocket. One protester tried to spark dialogue with the Italians. "You guys are the greatest artists in the world," he yelled. "You don't need Columbus. Pick a true hero. Pick Michelangelo. Pick da Vinci." "Oh, go away," a woman in the parade shouted back. As Means and activist Glenn Morris were arrested, the crowd applauded loudly, some in support of them, others in support of their arrest. The arrests ended and the parade resumed to a mix of cheers and jeers. Not all the parade marchers could contain themselves as they walked past protesters cursing them and holding signs comparing Columbus to Hitler. Some motorcyclists in the parade gunned their engines, drowning out the shouting. Others returned angry gestures with uniquely Italian gestures of their own. After the parade, the Italians gathered at a park in northwest Denver to celebrate. "We will not be intimidated by the mayor or Russell Means," said Ron Damiana, as he headed to the park. At the City and County Building, demonstrators lined the steps to await the release of those who had been arrested. "We're saddened by the things that have occurred today, but we are not going to walk away," said Kaweah Red Elk, an AIM member from Colorado Springs. "If it takes my son and his children and their children, if it takes 500 years, that's the way it will be." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tribes, activists can use Columbus dispute to teach their history by Deborah Frazier Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Russell Means and Glen Morris were taught that Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, the same thing that every other American student learned And they listened as their teachers . Columbus was a hero and told of his bravery. But Morris, an Osage, and Means, an Oglala Lakota, heard the rest of the story from their parents - the slavery and murder, verified by Columbus' journals. For Means, 61, and Morris, 45, leaders of the opposition to Denver's Columbus Day Parade, the debate has become the perfect "teachable" moment - a public venue for the lessons their parents taught and the rage that forged the American Indian Movement. "If there's a positive in this racist mess, we get to educate the world," said Means, who was born in South Dakota and remembers his first-grade teacher saying he'd never learn because he was Indian. A year earlier, his mother had taught him to read and write. "With Columbus, there's the view from the boat and there's a view from the shore that's not taught," said Morris, an associate professor at the University of Colorado at Denver."In my classroom, both are taught." He wants people to learn about how Columbus needed gold to pay the journey's debts and, when little gold was found, he took hundreds of Indians back to Spain as slaves. Ask Morris, the academician activist, or Means, AIM's most visible and charismatic leader, and they will tell you that the Indians who survived the trip were paraded, nude, through Seville in 1495 and sold. On later trips, Columbus supervised the rape, torture and killing of Indians for sport, and the sailors used the dead as dog food, they say with fury and footnotes. "Indian children have been taught that Columbus was a hero," said Means. "We say he was lost, we found him and that's how the genocide started." Means lives in Arizona. He will have two of his 13 children, Nataanii Nez, 9, and Tananka Wanbli, 15, with him at the parade. "I teach my children the entire story," said Means. Means and Morris believe that Columbus pioneered not only the slave trade, but laid the groundwork for American policies toward Indians - annihilation assimilation, relocation and race hatred - that endure until today. And that's the lesson Means and Morris want to teach America, the lesson of persistent racism. They take their teaching seriously. Means, who has been the voice of Indian rights for three decades, has poured "blood" - soluble red paint - on Denver's Columbus statue, appeared in movies and been the voice of Pocahontas' dad in the Walt Disney movie. In his autobiography, Means chronicles growing and selling marijuana and burglarizing drug stores, trials and acquittals for fights and AIM activities, including murder charges. He ditched drugs and alcohol, ran for president on a ticket with Hustler publisher Larry Flynt, cut a few records on his own label, and enrolled at a treatment center for anger management. The one consistent theme in his life has been Indian pride. And his theatrics have opened opportunities for Indians. Morris, by comparison, is an eloquent Harvard-educated lawyer who left the courtroom for the classroom. He grew up in Missouri, Denver, Kansas and Arizona. As a student, he met Means in the 1970s during the siege at Wounded Knee, S.D. Former students and the young Native Americans who crowd around him today at social, religious and AIM gatherings will join the parade. "The people who remain blind to this issue are driven by fear," said Morris. "We are driven by hope. This is our homeland. The hope springs from the land." And, he said, the protests have taught the public more each year. "This year, no one is defending Columbus," said Morris. "The discussion is about rights of the parade, not about whether Columbus was a great guy. That was not the case in 1992." ====================================================== "Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control." -Jim Dodge ====================================================== "Communications without intelligence is noise; intelligence without communications is irrelevant." -Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ====================================================== "It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society." -J. Krishnamurti ______________________________________________________________ To subscribe/unsubscribe or for a sample copy or a list of back issues, send appropriate email to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. ______________________________________________________________ <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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