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July 4, 2002
Chris Floyd
Jungle
Fever:
Bush's Bolivian Mercenaries
July 3, 2002
Francis Boyle
The Death
of the Oslo Accords
Mokhiber / Weissman
Cracking
Down on Corp. Crime
Robert Jensen
Lynne
Cheney's Primer
Behzad Yaghmaian
An Alternative
to the G-8s Africa Initiative
Toward a Global AIDS Fund and a Living Wage
John Borowski
Public
Schools Under Seige
Norman Madarasz
Brazil,
the Workers' Party and the Financial Times
July 2, 2002
Leah Wells
The Wedding
Was a Bomb
CounterPunch Wire
Trial of
the SOA 37
Edward Hammond
Bombing
the Mind:
The Pentagon's Drug Warfare
Sam Bahour
Ramallah
Occupied:
Uninvited Guests Become Neighbors
July 1, 2002
Norman Madarasz
Brazil's
Triumph
June 28/30, 2002
Kathleen Christison
The True Story of Resolution
242 or How the US Sold Out
the Palestinians
Cockburn / St. Clair
Death,
Juries and Scalia
Tarif Abboushi
Bush's
Double Standard
on Israel
N.D. Jayaprakash
Seething
with Rage:
The Palestinian Saga
Michael Yates
Taking
the Pledge:
Teachers and the Flag
Stephen Zunes
Bush's
Speech a Setback
for Peace
Walt Brasch
The Pledge
v. The Constitution
Cockburn / St. Clair
Strikers
as Terrorists?
Tom Ridge Calls Longshoremen
June 27, 2002
Ralph Nader
Reclaiming
Our Commons
Neve Gordon
Jerusalem
Under Attack
Robert Jensen
Alternative
Futures
David Vest
Darryl Kile's
Great Day
Gary Leupp
The Loya
Jirga Joke
Rahul Mahajan
Arafat
Says US Needs New Leadership; Calls for Fair Elections
June 26, 2002
Robert Fisk
Sharon as
Bush Speechwriter
Mokhiber / Weissman
Brokerman
June 25, 2002
Dave Marsh
The RIAA,
Library of Congress and the Web Pirates
Uri Avnery
Reform
Now!
Bahour / Dahan
Bush:
Off with Arafat's Head
Walt Brasch
Bush:
the Compassionate Exerciser
June 24, 2002
Bernard Weiner
Talkin'
About the F-Word
David Bates
Portland
Gets Dicked:
Cheney Does Oregon
Jo Freeman
Will
the War on Terror Follow the Path of the Cold War?
Tom Gorman
The Only
Thing "Generous" is the Propaganda
Bezhad Yaghmaian
Caught
Between Borders
in a Borderless World
Ben Sonnenberg
Ted
Hughes' Spell
June 22/23, 2002
Douglas Valentine
Sex,
Drugs & the CIA
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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Reviews of Gore:
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Independence
Day
July 4, 2002
Independence
Day and the Working Poor: Freedom from Poverty and Charity
by Philip Farruggio
This Independence Day we may choose different
ways to show our patriotism. Some of us will carry flags on
the SUV as we drive (frequently) to the gas pumps. Some will
wear flags on our clothing, or hang them from porches and balconies.
Larry Piffany, of Ormond Beach, Florida, will reveal his patriotism
through actions, not just symbols.
Piffany, 50, is a carpenter, a craftsman.
Since 1983 he has divided his working time between free lance
woodwork and his real "calling" in life: building
homes for those less fortunate than himself. Piffany is a part-time
job site coordinator for the Volusia Habitat for Humanity. This
organization gets little press, yet actually builds new homes
for those previously unable to afford one. Besides that, Piffany
still finds time to do voluntary carpentry work for his church
group, The United Methodist Volunteers In Missions. This work
has taken him to remote places like Guyana, Nicaragua, Honduras
and Belize. During the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in 1999,
Piffany flew to Honduras and Nicaragua to help build homes for
some of the victims. On top of that, he paid out of pocket,
1/3 of the expense. The balance was underwritten by his church,
obtained soley through private donations. Larry Piffany seems
to put his money, plus his hammer and nails, where his mouth
is.
Last month Piffany and his "significant
other", Linda Kaladjian, spent 10 days in Jamaica under
the hot and humid tropical climate, to help construct a new
home for a family in need. Kaladjian, a family mediator by profession,
volunteered her time, albeit that she had absolutely no construction
experience or skills whatsoever--just a big heart and a wallet
deep enough to afford the trip. The couple used $1600 of their
own savings to take the trip to Brownstown Jamaica. There they
and eight other good samaritans, helped the aforementioned family
in need build a small but sturdy new dwelling. Under the rules
of the Jamaican Habitat for Humanity organization the family
fit the criteria: a) they were employed, b) they were living
in substandard housing, and c) they had already completed the
required "sweat equity hours" (volunteer work). Piffany
and Kaladjian had to travel 90 minutes each morning to get to
the location, and visa versa at day's end. Yet, 10 days later
the group of good souls saw the product of their "labor
of love": a 400 sq. ft. new home. "By U.S standards
perhaps a bit too small" offers Piffany, "yet this
sturdy home with 2 bedrooms, a living room , kitchen and indoor
bathroom is a palace to these folks."
Is this the way things have to be? Do
our citizens and those abroad have to rely exclusively on the
charity of others to build new dwellings for those in need?
What role, if any, should the local, state and federal govt's
play? How about joint cooperative efforts of goverment and organizations
like Habitat for Humanity? Why must these groups continually
have to beg for what Tennessee Williams referred to as the
"kindness of strangers'? This writer offers a more viable
and expansive solution. Let's tax the very people who should
be underwriting such bold endeavors: the super wealthy and
the powerful corporations. How about a small income tax surcharge
on those earning in the top 1%? Then we raise the corporate
tax rates (which, by the way, have been continually lowered
since the early 60's) a wee bit to put some cash into this kitty.
With all this new found money, local
governments can use the power of "eminent domain"
to buy slum properties from landlords (wasn't feudalism grand?)
and work with Habitat (and other proven successful groups),
to fix up or rebuild on these properties. What occurs next is
the real beauty of this plan. The local government then offers
these "slum tenants' the right to own the apartment or
house they were previouly renting. The government aka the community,
is willing to put up the down payment for this transfer of
property, and underwrite the newly formed mortgage. Or, if some
local banks decide to get a conscience, they can voluntarily
hold this newly created mortgage at rates 50% lower than usual.
Either way, the former tenant (now owner) would be paying a
monthly interest rate, using today's figures, of around 3-3.5%
to have equity--to have a stake in the community, in the future!
That is how we can transform substandard neighborhoods into
flowing communities- by giving people a chance to own their
property. That, dear friends, is the opposite of Communism--
rather Capitalism in its originally intended purified state.
Larry Piffany is not a political animal--he's
too busy, unfortunately, to get as involved as he would like.
Yet, why must our society, the richest most advanced in the
world(supposedly) have to rely mostly on "the kindness
of strangers"? Why must the Larry Piffany's and other good
souls have to pay their own way to be able to then help those
less fortunate? Why shouldn't groups like Habitat for Humanity
get a bigger piece of the government cow, while those "corporate
welfare" clients get at best some "skimmed milk"?
Piffany states he does what he does " to demonstrate to
those more in need than myself that I will never forget about
them."
Isn't it time for our government, through
citizen demand, to demonstrate as much? After all, we all are
"our brother's keeper". Let's close the corporate
run "zoo" and start building "palaces".
Philip Farruggio,
son of a longshoreman, is "Blue Collar Brooklyn" born,
raised and educated (Brooklyn College, Class of '74). A former
progressive talk show host, Philip runs a mfg. rep. business
and writes for many publications. He lives in Port Orange, FL.
You can contact Mr. Farruggio at e-mail: brooklynphilly@aol.com.
Today's
Features
Chris Floyd
Jungle
Fever:
Bush's Bolivian Mercenaries
Francis Boyle
The Death
of the Oslo Accords
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