Francis A. Boyle Law Building 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave. Champaign, Ill. 61820 USA 217-333-7954 (voice) 217-244-1478 (fax) (personal comments only)
----- Original Message ----- From: Jeff Blankfort To: undisclosed-recipients Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2005 1:46 AM Subject: Why You Should Boo Illinois The University of Illinois which will be playing North Carolina on Monday night for the National Collegiate basketball championship is one of many US sports team, college as well as professional, that has adopted the name, and created crude caricatures as mascots, of Indian nations which were decimated or totally eliminated in order to make the US what it is today, the greatest threat ever to the future of our entire species. In this essay Prof. Francis Boyle puts this omnipresent example of US racism in its proper perspective. The names of sports teams have been changed, the most notable being when Stanford University responded to criticism and changed the team name from Indians to Cardinal (sic). Jeff http://www.counterpunch.org/boyle03302005.html March 30, 2005 The Racist Mascot from Urbana-Champaign Why You Should Boo Illinois By FRANCIS BOYLE The self-styled "Fighting Illini" of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are on their way to the NCAA Final Four in St. Louis with their racist and genocidal sports teams mascot, Chief Illiniwak, still in tow. In his "Year 501: The Conquest Continues" (1993) Noam Chomsky suggests an apt metaphor for such American Indian sports mascots that I will elaborate upon here in order to conform to our local and most peculiar rites on this campus: Suppose the Nazis had won the Second World War. Sixty years later, a prestigious German state university has a mascot for all of its sports teams and sports fans by the name of "The Rabbi." Basically what happens is that a student from the White Aryan Youth League dresses up in an authentic costume for an Hasidic Rabbi, complete with the curl-locks and beard. The sports teams collectively call themselves "The Fighting Jews", and the school's band is called "The Marching Jews." All the sports fans in town wear jackets and t-shirts with pictures of The Rabbi prominently displayed on them. And most cars have Rabbi stickers planted all over them. A year ago the University's Board of Trustees ran out of town on a rail a courageous and principled Chancellor who had the temerity to publicly suggest that the time had now come to "retire" the Rabbi. So of course there is a heated campaign on among the students and alumni to "Save the Rabbi!" This German state university plays its soccer matches over at the Nuremberg Stadium in front of an audience of about 75,000 White Aryans , almost all of whom are wearing pro- Rabbi images and clothes. At half-time the Marching Jews take to the stadium floor and begin playing what they purport to be Jewish sounding music along the lines of Fiddler-on-the-Roof. Then all 75,000 White Aryans rise as one and shout in unison: "Rabbi, Rabbi, Rabbi, Rabbi" gesticulating wildly and working themselves up into a feeding frenzy. One lone faculty member sits there in protest shouting "Racist Rabbi!" and everyone in the vicinity proceeds to throw garbage at him. Finally, the moment these ardent White Aryans have all waited for has arrived. The Rabbi runs out onto the arena floor from among the Marching Jews,proceeds to the center of the Nuremberg Stadium, and dances the Hava Nagila while the Marching Jews play on and march into an intricately choreographed maneuver that they all brag about and take special pride in that culminates with the band being organized into a swastika. So the Rabbi continues to dance the Hava Nagila while the Marching Jews form themselves into a swastika..By now all 75,000 White Aryans are hysterical, shouting, screaming and yelling: "Rabbi, Rabbi, Rabbi." This semi-religious spectacle that the Nazis are well known for staging, especially at the Nuremberg stadium, goes on for a good ten minutes. It all concludes with everyone joining hands to sign Deutschland Uber Alles, with the Rabbi leading all 75,000 White Aryans in the song. Then the Rabbi proceeds to dance the Hava Nagila out of the stadium followed by the Marching Jews. Everyone goes wild, clapping and cheering. This Rabbi ceremony brings tears to the eyes of many drunken alumni and students who had started several hours beforehand getting inebriated on schnapps and good German beer at pre-game tailgate parties.. When it is all over, a visiting law professor from another country asks his host at the soccer match what this spectacle was all about.Without missing a beat the former Dean of the Law School turns to his guest and says:"We are honoring the Jews." Whom the Nazis had just exterminated 60 years ago, so of course the memory of the Jews needs to be honored by this spectacle at every home soccer match and basketball game. The Illiniwek Indians were ethnically cleansed out of Illinois about a century before that. These are the real "Little Eichmans." Be sure to "boo!" and root against them in St. Louis. Francis A. Boyle, Professor of Law, University of Illinois, is author of Foundations of World Order, Duke University Press, The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence, and Palestine, Palestinians and International Law, by Clarity Press. He can be reached at: fbo...@law.uiuc.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/private/deathpenalty/attachments/20050403/e9f6b55f/attachment.htm From j_som...@gmx.net Mon Apr 4 14:03:59 2005 From: j_som...@gmx.net (Joerg Sommer) Date: Tue Aug 16 12:15:44 2005 Subject: [Deathpenalty]death penalty news --- CONN. Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20050404130257.03396...@mail.stusta.mhn.de> death penalty news April 4, 2005 CONNECTICUT: Don't Exempt Teens From Death Penalty I wish I could understand justice and the American way. It seems the U.S. Supreme Court opened up a can of worms concerning the execution of teenagers. The court seems to think its OK for teenagers to commit violent crimes that result in death, but not be old enough to pay for their actions. Listen, if they're old enough to do the crime, then they are old enough to receive the just punishment. Do they honestly believe that Christopher Simmons, who at the age of 17 abducted a woman from her home and bound and gaggled her, then threw her in a river, deserves not to be punished to the full extent of the law? Or that Kevin Hughes, who raped and killed a 9-year-old girl when he was 16, does not deserve to meet his maker sooner than expected? Or that Lee Malvo, who at the age of 17 was convicted of killing at least two people in the sniper slayings, does not deserve to be put out of his misery? Then justice must be blind. Christopher Simmons even bragged about his crime. We must send the right message to all criminals, regardless of age. If you do the crime, you will be punished accordingly. Craig L. Terry Gales Ferry (source: Letter to the Editor, The Day)
