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(This is a copy of what I just mailed to the band and crew I work with to pay my rent, dear friends of mine who I have worked closely with for the last two years.)
Dear friends,
I was horrified after looking at naacp.org and finding out what the 6/10/04 show is about in Washington, DC.
It is a celebration of murder, torture, rape, terrorism, genocide, and eugenics. And those of you who know me will understand that I find this booking to beyond repugnant to every human value I hold and that I know you hold, too.
The NAACP makes a terrible mistake by supporting the US military. It is a result of the American tragedy of slavery, lynching, and today's apartheid that African Americans often choose work in the US military to prevent starving in the civilian world and must deny complicity in oppression around the world for the sake of their own survival.
I will not be there on June 10th. Consider this information I offer to you.
This is terribly wrong. You do have a choice as a human being.
It is the NAACP's 29th annual tribute to the US military and Air Force with a special reception by Lockheed Martin, one of the 5 largest defense contractors getting our treasury dollars instead of impoverished US civilians.
"The NAACP salutes all branches of United States military in an awards ceremony highlighting the U.S. Air Force.
"The awards dinner is acknowledged in the 2003 Congressional Record for its long-standing tradition of honoring Department of Defense, military and civilian, men and women who continue to serve the Nation proudly in the War on Terrorism. The evening’s highlighted entertainment will be provided by (my band/employers)"
NAACP Tribute to the Armed Services
Yes, applauding the same US military that has:
killed over 11,000 civilians in Iraq alone.
has thousand of people in torture prisons around the world and kills prisoners.
invaded Iraq in an illegal war that got Nazis hung at Nuremberg.
is working with thousands of mercenaries including SOUTH AFRICAN DEATH SQUADS in Iraq.
overthrew democratically elected Aristide in a US coup against Haiti in 2/04 after the PENTAGON PROVIDED 20,000 NEW M16s TO THE TERRORISTS WHO KILLED MANY POOR STARVING HAITIANS. THE US MARINES KIDNAPPED ARISTIDE AND FLEW HIM AND HIS US-CITIZEN WIFE TO CENTRAL AFRICA.
trains and arms terrorists around the world for decades to overthrow governments.
slaughtered hundreds of women and children in Fallujah alone in 4/04.
as been PREVENTING DEMOCRACY around the world for sixty years.
Maybe you've been busy lately and don't know what the US gov't and military is doing to the world around you. It's called mass murder, rape, and torture. Same as always.
Look at the photos of the thousands of dead children the US military has killed in Iraq and Afghanistan alone and then pay your tribute to the US military.
Since the obvious apparently needs to be stated, I will not work on shows that you might do paying tribute to:
the Klu Klux Klan
the Nazi Party
the Hezbollah
the al Queda
the Mafia
If you should take engagements with any of these murderous organizations, please know well in advance that you will need another audio engineer.
I can give you all the information on this topic you can bear to look at but, as you might already know, it is difficult to look at the shattered bodies of women and children, old folks, and men who are the victims of the US military. It is nauseating and heart-rending. But I do it every day to know what 'my government' is doing in my name and to bear witness to injustice and incomprehensible suffering at US hands. It is the only way I can live with myself.
Some of you may choose to look away in denial as your own coping strategy. We all do only what we are able to handle in these tragic times.
But I expected better from the NAACP.
peace,
(my name)
Amnesty Lashes Out at War on Terrorism in Annual Rights Report
Wednesday, 26 May 2004
World: Amnesty Lashes Out Against War On Terrorism In Annual Rights Report
By Kathleen Knox
A “war on global values.” That's how Amnesty International is summing up the past year in human rights. In its annual report released today, the London-based human rights watchdog says governments and armed groups have produced the most sustained attack on human rights and international humanitarian law in 50 years. And it says the policies pursued by governments in the U.S.-led war on terrorism have actually made the world a more dangerous place.
Prague, 26 May 2004 (RFE/RL) -- In its annual report, Amnesty International says human rights came under sustained attack during the past year.
The human rights watchdog blames the armed groups who were behind such deadly attacks as the Madrid train bombings in March and the destruction of the United Nations' headquarters in Baghdad last summer.
But it also says governments around the world continued to undermine human rights protections in the name of security and the U.S.-led war on terrorism."We have seen the United States and the United Kingdom and their allies fight a war in the name of destroying weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."
Irene Khan, Amnesty's secretary-general, said the global security agenda promoted by the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush is "bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle.”
Speaking in an audio news release, she said, "Looking back over the past 12 months, what I see is a war on global values -- a war that is being fought on the one hand by armed groups that are ready to go to any extremes of inhumanity to attack ordinary people, and on the other side we see governments which have shown an equal zeal in attacking human rights and global principles. In between, ordinary people are paying a heavy price in terms of their human rights and in terms of their lives."
Specifically, the Amnesty report criticizes Washington for the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and possibly Afghanistan, and for its opposition to the International Criminal Court.
And it says the Iraq war "virtually paralyzed" efforts by the United Nations to hold states to account on human rights.
Khan says the war in Iraq also diverted attention from other human rights hot spots, such as Chechnya and Congo -- and from other pressing problems, like poverty or the proliferation of small arms.
"We have seen the United States and the United Kingdom and their allies fight a war in the name of destroying weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But the real weapons of mass destruction are small arms and light weapons, not nuclear weapons, not chemical, not biological weapons. These small arms and these conventional weapons kill 500,000 people every year," Khan said.
The report makes grim reading, cataloging rights abuses around the world.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
(Just so you realize that the US military abuses its own troops horribly, not just everyone else in the world at the end of its guns.)
Army Kept Whistleblower in Locked Ward
By Mark Benjamin
United Press International
Published 5/25/2004 4:37 PM
WASHINGTON, May 25 (UPI) -- The Army kept a soldier whistle-blower in a locked psychiatric ward at its top medical center for nearly two weeks despite concern from some medical staff that he be released, according to medical records.
The Army then charged him nearly $6,000 for the stay at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, billing records show.
Last summer Goodrum asked for an investigation into the death in Iraq of a 22-year-old soldier in his 212th Transportation Company. He was also quoted in a United Press International article about poor medical care at Fort Knox, Ky., that helped spark investigations in Congress.
Goodrum was named the 176th Maintenance Battalion's "Soldier of the Year" in 2001. He has received a host of awards, including the combat action ribbon, and positive reviews from superior officers.
"They are definitely retaliating against me," said Army Reserve Lt. Jullian Goodrum, a 16-year veteran of the Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
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