Steven's Big Head My World & Welcome To It Puter Talk Games People Play Outrageous Reality	April 1999 Like something I said? Hate something I said? Do you think I should "go back to Russia"? Do you think that Bill Clinton should be impeached for killing over 500,000 children in Iraq? Don't keep it to yourself! Send me an email. And then hopefully after a while, I will give you a way to post your views directly on this site... It's Not Heavy, It's My Life... This diary is filled with all sorts of heavy stuff. Does that mean I am a dull, depressing, morbid person? Absolutely! Nah, just kidding --- I think. I don't know...maybe you should ask my wife. I'd give you her email address, but she might not like that. So you can send me an email and I will pass it on to her to reply to if she so desires. But bunches of people do seem to think I can be a funny guy. Here is a letter I wrote to the Chicago Tribune at the start of the NATO war against the people of Serbia. It was entitled "Bombs for Peace": Dear Chicago Tribune: I strongly agree with your statement from "NATO air strategy under fire" (page 1, March 29): "it appeared increasingly unlikely that Clinton and NATO could achieve their stated goal of a workable peace agreement through aerial bombing alone." Well, of course not! As a long-standing member of Active Peace Through Active War, I have long understood that we cannot have any sort of peace at all without war, and without a Total War at that. Aerial bombing can never be enough. For a violence-besotted people to want peace, they must experience war to its fullest. The United States, an already-peace loving country, must on the other hand be careful to avoid experiencing war itself. APTAW therefore recommends the following steps be taken against Yugoslavia: 1. Infiltrate Special Operations commandos to plant anti-personnel devices (aka, land mines) throughout Serbia and Montenegro. This will minimize US casualties but "bring home the war" to Yugoslavians. The advantage of using land mines is that even after peace has been achieved, casualties will persist, reminding everyone that war is never far from hand -- so play nice! 2. Triple the elevation at which the F-117A stealth bombers fly. This will ensure that these secret, expensive and fragile aircraft will not be shot out of the skies. In addition, at the increased elevation, it will be impossible to pretend to any accuracy of target penetration. The consequence will be widespread panic and devastation, bringing about a much quicker end to the war. All compassionate and moral human beings want and need to live in peace. It is unfortunate that we must sometimes act in ways that are totally devoid of compassion and morality to achieve that peace. If we desire, however, a lasting and active peace, we must today kill in an active and long-term fashion. Sincerely, Steven Feuerstein General Commander, Active Peace Through Active War, Chicago Chapter They didn't print it. It is true that I spend lots of time (too much time) worrying about stuff, feeling guilty, wanting to fix the world, feeling helpless, getting VERY VERY angry at all the a**holes who run things and are willing to let many, many people suffer and die to keep them rich. But I also have a jolly good time in my life. Lately, the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) started up its Spring season, so I don the black uniform of a referee on Saturdays and help kids enjoy the most wonderful game of soccer. My son, Eli, plays on a team. He recently returned from a ten-day Spring Break vacation in Bordeaux in France (he is a very lucky guy!) and is now VERY excited about soccer. And, damn, he is good! Click here is see a picture of him looking very long in his soccer uniform. He is growing like the proverbial weed. He has developed excellent footwork, can put on a serious burst of speed and has a "big foot" (both literally and figuratively; he is definitely taking after his size 14 Dad in the foot department). When I am not traveling, I spend lots of quality time with Mercury, my African Grey. She is a very funny and also annoying creature; she will be like having a two-year old child in our family for the rest of our lives (they can live to 50-60 years of age). She is currently in the process of learning a new phrase. She does this gradually. A few weeks ago she started growling along the lines of GRRR-OGH-GRR-AHK-AHK. That has evolved into WICKY-WICKY. In another week or so we might be able to discern what it is she is saying (repeating, that is, from our vocabulary). So far we have been very lucky; she has not picked up any of the emphatic curses hurled around the house from time to time (especially by Eli; I have warned him that is she does start screaming four letter words, he will be cleaning her cage for the rest of his life, natural or otherwise). Hey, I spend quality time with my wife, too! We recently saw Cookie's Fortune, a fine movie that detonates assumptions about families, especially the skin color of families. We also rented Bullworth so that Eli could watch it. If you have not seen that movie, please rent it immediately. Talk about "speaking truth to power". Man, they tell it like it is in that movie. OK, gotta go and get something or other done. But as a final gesture to the beauty of the world around us and the welcoming arms of spring in Chicago, I offer this glimpse from our backyard. Chicago Tribune Diversity? The Chicago Tribune is the "newspaper of record" -- at least in Chicago. They of course would like to insist that they offer a wide variety of views in their editorial pages and balanced coverage of the news. Yeah, right. I write lots of letters to the Tribune (a number of them are in this diary page -- perhaps I will set up a TribWatch section in my site soon). I have had a pretty darn good track record of getting letters published, too. Until lately. About two months ago I got really pissed off about the way the Tribune wrote about the situation (past and present) in El Salvador. I engaged in direct correspondence with reporters and editorial folks on the issue, definitely irritating ("offensive") at least one. And oddly enough since that time I have not had a SINGLE LETTER PUBLISHED. Am I paranoid? Perhaps. Is it possible that George Langford, "ombudsman" for the Chicago Tribune (GLangford@tribune.com), has passed the word that I am to be passed by? Anything's possible. I do know that Mr. Langford has very pointedly ignored my requests for a comprehensive list of columnists who write for his paper. I have a strong suspicion that there is a real dearth of left perspectives, especially principled support for abortion and feminism by female columnists. It is hard to know for sure, though, unless I can see a full list and research the views of the individuals. He has ignored my request. I did put together an interesting display of the "ethnic" or "racial" diversity of so many of George's favorite columnists, which you can see by clicking here. No More Gun Laws!? April 28, 1999 Dear Chicago Tribune: The most terrifying thing to me about the massacre at Columbine High School is the response of our so-called leaders. A front-page article in the April 25 issue of the Tribune talked about how our state Senators and Representatives feel like they don't know what to do. And Tom Daschel, head of the Democrats in the U.S. Senate said in response to President Clinton's upcoming push for more gun control laws that there are already lots of gun control laws and he is just not sure that more laws are the answer. And what gun control laws do we have? Primarily the so-called Brady Bill, which is a very tame law requiring background checks, among other things. It was the most Congress could pass in the face of the overwhelming flow of lobbying dollars from the NRA. It is so tame -- or should I say lame -- that it doesn't even cover gun sales at gun shows. This means that the purchase of guns in this country remains essentially unregulated and uncontrolled. I have this very sickening feeling that the politicians in control of the Senate and House (from Springfield to Washington, DC) have already worked out the "spin" on this event: we have tried gun control laws and they don't seem to work. Maybe what we need is more teen counseling and the right to carry concealed weapons. I hereby predict that at the upcoming NRA convention in Denver Charlton Heston will go on the offensive. He will use the massacre as "proof" that gun control is not the answer, that fully arming our population is the only thing that will make us safer. In perhaps the most devastating irony and tragedy for our children, I believe it is possible that the Columbine killings could prove to be a crucial turning point against gun control, unleashing the most barbaric elements of our society. Return to top A Culture of Death 4/27/99 4:45 Am I woke up this morning consumed with this thought: In the United States, we revel in and are consumed by a Culture of Death. I had never really looked at this way before, but once I did, it seemed so obvious to me. Consider: *** We spend $300 billion a year, more than the rest of the world combined, to create weapons and maintain a military organization. You can call it the "department of defense", but it is all about death. Think about the hundreds of thousands of people who spend virtually their entire adult lives designing, constructing, testing and using things for killing. *** We tolerate the killing of our youth at an alarming pace. The Littleton, Colorado "massacre" is on the minds of everyone, but isn't that largely because it is being pushed so hard by the media and because all the students are "white" (whatever that really means)? 13 young people killed. That is a tragedy -- and it is a tragedy that happens every day in every city in our country. Thousands of children die each year from gun and other forms of violence, but mostly they are not "white". They are black, brown, yellow, red -- and at best we just don't really care. *** We let gun manufacturers drench our country in killing weapons. We all know what's going on: the NRA and other wealthy gun-lovers pay off our "elected representatives" to guarantee the flow of profits. It's not about the Constitution. If that's all it was, we could pass a law saying everyone can own a gun -- but just one gun, low-caliber, have a good time shooting paper targets and deer. *** We have turned war into a game. The Pentagon has been particularly clever about this, but they couldn't do it without the active collusion of the media, especially CNN. Killing people in far away lands now resembles nothing so much as a video game. We've got these really cool-looking stealth planes (that aren't really so stealthy and can't fly in the rain) and we've got really smart bombs that can fly down the chimney and into the pants of any dictator (but in fact they're rather dumb and they kill lots of civilians -- we just don't hear about that). We try to hide our glee at killing by turning out in droves for movies like Saving Private Ryan, by talking really, really loud about humanitarian concerns, but that's all fundamentally BS. *** We (those lovely Founding Fathers and their descendants) built our country on slavery -- and we have never escaped from that legacy. Slavery is, of course, a living death. "Give me liberty or give me death!" You say that slavery has been abolished for over 100 years? Yeah, and until the 1960s and massive protests by former slaves and direct descendants of slaves, we had "Whites Only" signs on everything good in this country. Now we got rid of the signs, but we create economic structures that virtually guarantee the continued enslavement of millions of people. *** For many, many people around the world, the face of America is the face of Death. Either through outright war even if we never declare it or through more "subtle" means (including devastating embargos, blockades, CIA special ops, IMF programs, etc.) the United States has equaled in the recent past and equals Death today for people in Vietnam, Cuba, Serbia, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Grenada, Panama, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Chile, Somalia, United States itself, Laos, Cambodia, Puerto Rico, Japan, South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Brazil, the Koreas, Indonesia, East Timor, Burma, Russia. *** The Cold War ends, there is talk of the Peace Dividend, but at the same time, the US works actively to weaken and ultimately destroy the United Nations, the best guarantee of world peace we have today. So now it is 1999, we are the supreme military and economic masters of the world, and yet we are still spending $300 billion a year on plans and weapons to kill, maim and dominate other human beings (including many of our own citizens or captive peoples, like the Cherokees and Puerto Ricans). And it is about to get lots worse. Clinton is about to push for another broad antiterrorist bill that would repeal the Posse Comitatus act of 1878, which stops the government from using members of the armed forces as domestic cops. The Pentagon will use Kosovo to prove that we need to spend MUCH MORE money on Death in order to protect...what? Protect Kosovars? Protect Democracy? *** Even though most Americans are not killers with their hands, we allow our government to kill others and do not challenge it or stop it. Since we do live in a democracy, these people kill in our name and on our behalf. So in that sense, we (especially those of us who benefit from the death and destruction) are killers. Look at Kosovo. In March, at the insistence of "NATO" (read United States), Serbia and the KLA were dragged to the negotiating table. Now, it has been very clear that the KLA has wanted open war all along. It has also been clear that the United States was aching for a green light to attack Serbia. In the negotations at Rambouillet, the Americans very openly pressured the KLA to just sign the damn agreement regardless of what it says and what they believe so that all the blame could be put on the Serbs and bombing could start. This was reported fairly openly in the media, as though it made perfect sense and was not a total abomination of human spirit. The Clinton Administration had already threatened to bomb, had already put its plans in place to bomb, and they were not going to let some two-bit operation like the KLA get in their way. And we tolerate it. *** Corporations pollute the hell out of our country and world, killing hundreds of thousands (well, millions of people, really) in slow, painful ways that can't be traced back to them -- and then they totally and shamelessly co-opt Earth Day and urge us all to pick up litter and recycle. It is up to us, individually, to make the difference -- and meanwhile the shit pours out of their factories and into our rivers and water tables and air, and we die. We die especially if we are poor. And because we have also decided to let corporations be treated legally as "persons" (though really they are "super-human" because they don't die from generation to generation and wield enormous power), they get to take over the means of communciation and education in our society and drench us with mind-numbing advertisements that drive us back to their products, and the death associated with them. *** Most Americans are working longer and harder and for less pay than twenty years ago. A tiny percentage of Americans are awash in money and using it to make more money and pay off our politicians -- and extend their lives, work to hold death at bay. But for most Americans, life is shorter and more brutish than it has been for decades. We live simply to get by, feed our families, try to keep our children safe from the gun- and desperation-driven violence that infests so many communities. This is called life, but in reality it is simply a waiting for, an ever-weaker fighting off, of Death. *** Don't get me wrong, I realize that Death is inevitable, that Death is not evil in and of itself. But to revel in Death, to promote it, to bring it upon others prematurely and with intention, ah, now that is evil. *** We are ready to let our politicians move larger and larger numbers of people into prison in this country. Two million people and counting -- and our prison system is a modern horror. Even though prisoners are under the care of our government, of us, since it is a democracy, we can't seem to provide these prisoners with basic care and protection. Enter prison, and you will face almost certain rape and bodily harm, unless you yourself are doing the raping and hurting and killing. And in any case, it is costing "the taxpayers" too much, so we will privatize prisons, we will exploit prisoners as captive, cheap or free labor. We will bring the profit motive into prisons, just like we have brought the profit motive into hospitals and power utilities and government. And that profit motive will cast aside concern for life and usher in a more and more intense devotion to Death. Return to top Four Point Plan April 22, 1999 Dear Chicago Tribune: Your 4/22/99 editorial calling for comprehensive registration of firearms is a fine idea, but it doesn't go far enough. Millions of people in this country are disgusted with the wide availibility of and resulting tragedies from high-powered weapons. Millions of dollars are also lavished by the NRA on our "representatives", however, to make sure that our "constitutional right to bear arms" is not violated. Here's what I say: let's stop all this infighting by Americans! Let's respect the constitution and not infringe on a person's right to bear arms. Let's just be so much more sensible about the arms you can bear. Here is my four point plan: 1. Everyone passing a security check can own a gun. You pick the gun you want: a revolver, a rifle, whatever. But you get just one. 2. The only guns which can be sold legally in this country are low-caliber, non-automatic weapons. You want to shoot at paper targets? Kill a deer? You don't need an AK-47 to get job the done. 3. All guns must be registered and owners of those guns are held responsible for any crimes committed with those guns. 4. Tightly regulate all gun sales. No more "gun swap meets" at hotels that sidestep regulatory review. I believe that the above points could not possibly conflict with anyone's interpretation of their constitutional rights. They will greatly reduce the availability of guns and the deaths that result from those guns. Sure, criminals will still be able to get "the hard stuff", but that's no reason to let every Tom, Dick and 18 year old Harry have one, too. Return to top What About Turkey? (with help from Ali Abunmiah, www.abunimah.org) April 16, 1999 Dear Chicago Tribune: While NATO bombs Serbia and Kosovo, NATO member Turkey is stepping up its own campaign of ethnic cleansing and repression against its large Kurdish population, whose only crime is the desire to speak its own language, be true to its culture and live undisturbed by aggressive Turkish state nationalism. In just the past few days, the latest Turkish offensive into Kurdish "safe haven" in northern Iraq has killed over 44 Kurds. Turkish authorities have banned a large peaceful rally called by Turkey's only legal Kurdish party, nd which was expected to draw tens of thousands of people to the city of iyarbakir in southeastern Turkey. In recent days, Turkish authorities have wounded up hundreds of Kurdish political activists. Why does Turkey get away with its brutal cultural, political and military epression of the Kurds in its own territory, and its frequent illegal incursions o Iraq? The reason is very simple: Turkey remains, after Israel, the United tates' favorite in the region. Turkey buys most of its weapons from the US, ncluding the F-16s and attack helicopters it uses to burn Kurdish villages. What can we conclude other than that ethnic cleansing is just fine by Madeline Albright as long as it is conducted by a NATO country, and with the blessing of the world's "policeman"? Return to top Buy CITGO! I don't usually go out of my way to advertise for a corporation, but I am going to do it this once -- and in any case anyone is wondering, I am not getting paid to do it. Did you know that CITGO is owned by the national Venezuelan petroleum company? I am often bedeviled by the question of where I should buy my gas. Most of the energy companies are truly disgusting entities. Shell Oil colludes actively with the Burmese government to kill and torture people to ensure the flow of oil from that country. Exxon destroys the environment and refuses to pay up. Chevron is lovey-dovey with the Nigerian military, relying on them for muscle, supplying them with transport. ETC. Now, Venezuela is one of the founding countries of OPEC. They have enough natural resources (namely, oil) to ensure that everyone is fed, clothed, housed and educated -- well. Decades of the most revolting corruption and necessarily-corresponding military repression have, however, devastated the vast majority of the Venezuelan population. Many lives in awful shacks on the sides of mountains and barely scratch out an existence. I know. I have seen them. At the end of last year, the citizens of Venezuela finally rose up democratically and elected Hugo Chavez, a former coup leader, who has pledged to root out corruption and return Venezuela to its people. He may turn out to be a dictator in disguise, but somehow I doubt it and he sure has overwhelming popular support. So buy CITGO, and help the people of Venezuela create a real democracy and a truly equitable society. Return to top	Return to Diary Index It's Not Heavy, It's My Life Chicago Tribune Diversity? No More Gun Laws!? Culture of Death Four Point Plan What About Turkey? Buy CITGO!
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