'JUST SAY NO' TO BUSH REGIME
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
[Col. Writ. 8/25/04]
Soon, the legions of pinstripes will besiege New York, followed by a phalanx of thousands of black-uniformed, automatic-weapons wielding police. The RNC (or, as I like to call it, the Repressive Nation Collective) is coming to town, and the people are under strict orders to sit down and shut up.
It has always befuddled me, that people who claim fealty to the First Amendment, always look to the State, to grant them the 'right' to assemble, to march, to dissent.
New York's judges have predictably denied several groups permits to converge in New York's famed Central Park, ostensibly to protect the grass!
This is madness.
One of the many groups that is organizing in opposition to the RNC confab is Not In Our Name, which has brought together many folks prior to the Iraq War, and wants to bring over a million people to the Big Apple to protest the Bush Regime's last 2 1/2 years of disaster.
There are doubtless many things for folks to say 'no' to, but how about listing a few?:
The Iraq War based on a lie;
The threat of 'war without end';
The erosion of civil rights because of the mis-named 'Patriot Act.'
Stolen Elections;
The wrongful denial of voting rights to tens of thousands of folks;
The state repression against Arab-Americans, Muslims and South Asians;
To police repression, brutality and racial profiling;
To rampant globalization ....(As I said, just a few things).
For many Americans, the nation's economic policy (one also due to the neo-liberalism of the Clinton era) causes anxiety and deep concern about how things are going, what with the government's support of job out-sourcing.
What bothers others is the very idea of smug imperialism, and the nation putting its super-nose into the affairs of other countries, all over the earth.
America has really been an empire for generations, running the affairs of other, subject nations, like Mexico, or Colombia, or Panama, for the better part of a century. Those nations, far from being true sovereigns, have been seen as little more than America's "back door."
Yet, while the US has been an empire, it rarely wanted to openly state this. Some Americans, with memories of Britain or Rome, are uncomfortable with this idea. Those are the kinds of folks who should make their feelings known, not just to the administration, but to the world. They should come to New York to say, in a loud, unmistakable voice: "Not In Our Name."
They should be in the streets of New York on August 29th, until September 2nd, to Say "No!" to the Bush Regime; to War Without End; to American Imperialism!
[For More Information: Contact Not In Our Name;
On the web: www.notinourname.net
By phone: 212-760-1722
Or by mail: Not In Our Name/IFCO, PO Box
20221, Greeley Square Stn., NY, NY 10001.]
Mr. Jamal has worked w/NION back in 2002. Read his latest book: WE WANT FREEDOM: A Life in the Black Panther Party, from South End Press (www.southendpress.org ); Ph. #1-800-533-8478.
© copyright 2004 by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
All rights reserved.
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