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Today's Stories January 5, 2006 Gilad Atzmon Sharon Meets His Maker January 4, 2006 Ron Jacobs Pity the Miner: A-Diggin' My Bones Lila Rajiva Terror Hits Bangalore Huibin Amee Chew Why the War is Sexist Pat Williams How the West Turned: Biting the Hands That Steal Linda Milazzo The House That George and Jack Built: Ownership Society Meets the Entrepreneurial Style Nick Dearden The Fantasy of "Even-Handedness": Blair's Cynical Policy on Palestine James Petras Evo Morales: All Growl, No Claws? Website of the Day Rat Out a Lobbyist for Jesus   January 3, 2006 James Ridgeway Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and 9/11: How Much Did the Bush Administration Know? Laith al-Saud Iraqi Intellectuals and the Occupation: an Interview with Dr. Saad Jawad Dick J. Reavis Border Walls: the View from Mexico Joshua Frank Hillary Clinton, AIPAC and Iran Rochelle Gause Inside Rafah: Collective Punishment as Normalcy Missy Comley Beattie How My Mother Went from a Republican to a Screaming Progressive Paul de Rooij A Glossary of Dispossession   January 2, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts A Gestapo Administration Clancy Sigal A Trip to the Far Side of Madness Cindy Sheehan A Tour of Europe: Friends Don't Let Friends Commit War Crimes Alexander Cockburn A NYT Editorial Contemplates Iraq   Dec. 31 / Jan. 1, 2005/6 Patrick Cockburn The Year in Iraq Alexander Cockburn Who Are We to Complain?: a Diary of 2005 Ralph Nader Rumsfeld vs. the Military: a Pentagon of Loyalists and Enforcers James Petras The Politics of Language: "Escalation" or "Retaliation" in Israeli Attacks on Palestinians Peter Montague A Darker Bioweapons Future J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Black Forever: Race, Class and Activism in the South Vijay Prashad My California Vacation: Conversations with Indian Americans P. Sainath Farm Suicides in Vidharbha James Brooks The Spoils of War: Israel's Corruption was Inevitable Eileen E. Schell The Farmer Wants a Wife: Hayseeds and Hickxploitation in the Land of Reality TV Christopher Brauchli Birds of a Feather: George and Vlad Jo Guldi Politics, Gay Marriage and Christianity Fred Gardner America's Only Legal Grower Ben Tripp A Hapless New Year St. Clair / Walker / Pollack Playlists: What We're Listening To This Week Poets Basement Engel, Albert, LaMorticella, Buknatski, Davies, Ford and Bear Dog Website of the Weekend Commit Bloggamy with Dr. Suzy   December 30,2005 Evo Morales I Believe Only in the Power of the People Earl Ofari Hutchinson The Toxic Air in Black America Dave Lindorff Bush's NSA Spying Jeopardizes National Security Gary Leupp Targeting Iran and Syria: Goss Builds Case for Turkey-Based Attacks Ron Jacobs A Dead New Year's Eve Brian Concannon Down in Haiti, the Chickens are Coming Home to Roost Sandra Lucas Inside TeenScreen: the Making of Mental Patients T.W. Croft The Wind Has Changed: Gulf Storms, Fables of Reconstruction and Hard Times for the Big Easy Website of the Day Images of Mass Consumption   December 29, 2005 Norman Solomon Journalists Should Expose Secrets, Not Keep Them Missy Comley Beattie Christmas Without Chase Dave Zirin Over the Edge: the Year in Sports Kevin Zeese Top 10 Antiwar Stories of 2005 Derrick O'Keefe Bolivia and Venezuela Offer an Alternative to Neo-Liberalism Sam Bahour Turning the Page in Palestine, Again Macdonald Stainsby What's Behind Paul Martin's Broadside Against Bush? Bill & Kathleen Christison Let's Stop a US/Israel War on Iran Website of the Day Deconstructing the Democrats   December 28, 2005 Jeffrey St. Clair The Worst Day of Ted Stevens' Life? Lila Rajiva Operation Romeo: Lessons on Terror Laws from India Amira Hass The Humanitarian Lie Joshua Frank Let the Drilling Begin: Iraq's IMF Loan David Swanson Leaking Top Secret Lies Richard Thieme High Time for Torture Paul Craig Roberts Three Books to Wake You Up Website of the Day Conyers Report: "Constitution in Crisis"   December 27, 2005 Evan Jones Whither the National Guard? Uri Avnery The Peretz Shuffle Mike Whitney Pop Goes the Bubble! Gideon Levy Dusty Trail to Death David Swanson Kurt Vonnegut: a Man Without a Country Norman Solomon NSA Spied on UN Diplomats During Push for Invasion of Iraq   December 26, 2005 Lawrence R. Velvel The Usurpers of Our Freedoms Lance Olsen The Toughest Challenge for Intelligent Design Ben Terrall No Holiday Compassion for Haiti's Political Prisoners Scott Boehm Santa Drove a Bulldozer Charlie Ehlen A Vietnam Vet's Appraisal of Bush Tom Kerr The Atheist Dad at Christmas   December 24/25, 2005 Aleander Cockburn The Year of Vanished Credibility James Petras Iran in the Crosshairs: Israel's Deadline Ralph Nader Talkin' About the "I"-Word Lila Rajiva Horowitz's New Project: Begging for Brownshirts Fred Gardner Dialogue with the DEA Ron Jacobs When Impeachment was Taken Seriously Dave Lindorff Xmas Games for a Gitmo World Gary Leupp Happy Birthday Mithras!: the True Meaning of December 25th Saul Landau Bush's Year in Review: a Report Card from Santa John Chuckman A Christmas Tale for Bushtime Dr. Susan Block Merry XXX-mas! St. Clair / Vest / Pollack / Donnelly Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Holt, Jones, Landau, Ross and Albert Website of the Weekend Merry Xmas, From the Beatles   December 23, 2005 John Ross The Corrido of Death Row: Mexico Ends the Death Penalty Chris Floyd Gospel Truth: Bush Hypocrisy, Radical Holiness and Woody Guthrie Lawrence Mishel / Ross Eisenbrey The Economy in a Nutshell Joanne Mariner Bringing Torture into Court: the Loopholes in McCain's Bill Eric Johnson-Debaufre The Trew Law of Free Democracies? Ray McGovern Cheney the Bully; Rockefeller the Coward J. L. Chestnut, Jr. What White America Doesn't Hear Website of the Day BB King: What I've Learned This Year   December 22, 2005 Ingmar Lee The Citizen's Metamorphosis: I Awoke an Object of Suspicion Elisa Salasin Classrooms in Cages Christopher Brauchli Absolut Bush: "I Swear to Upturn and Rear End the Constitution of the United States" Robin Blackburn Rudolf Meidner, a Visionary Pragmatist Evelyn Pringle Dan Olmstead, Autism & the Dangers of Thimerosal Amira Hass A 14-Year Old's Prison Journey: "I Refused and He Hit Me" Francis A. Boyle Iraq and the Laws of War: US as "Belligerent Occupant" Stew Albert The Spies Who Thought We Were Messy Website of the Day How to Reach a Human Voice   December 21, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts One Nation, Under Prosecutors: Presumed Guilty Lila Rajiva A Short History of Radio Free Iraq Joshua Frank Nancy Pelosi's Truth Dave Zirin The Bray of Pigs: Bush Nixes Beisbol Cubano Ramzy Baroud US Image Problem Rooted in History, Not Media Sonia Nettnin Connect the Dots: Decoding Bush's Mumbo Jumbo Ben Saul Torture as Calculated Policy Jonathan Cronin Anniversary of a Handshake: Cherry-picking History in Iraq Patrick Cockburn Iraq Election Spells Total Defeat for US Website of the Day Nixon on Presidential Power   December 20, 2005 Jackie Corr Natural Gas: a Montana Tragedy Earl Ofari Hutchinson Nothing New About NSA Spying on Americans Michael Donnelly "Eco Terrorism": Cui Bono? Gian Paulo Accardo Empire of Shame: a Conversation with Jean Ziegler Pierre Tristam Trifler, Fibber, Sophist, Spy: How Bush Flouted the Constitution Norman Solomon The Foulest Media Performances of the Year Sen. Robert Byrd No President is Above the Law Dave Lindorff Missing Black Boxes in WTC Attacks Found by Firefighters, Analyzed by NTSB, Concealed by FBI Website of the Day FBI's Spy Files: Got Yours Yet?   December 19, 2005 Mike Marqusee The Global War on Civil Liberties Gary Leupp Feds Ask Student: "Why are You Reading that Little Red Book?" Ron Jacobs The Antiwar Movement, the Democrats and the Delusions of Bushworld John Blair Stealing the Golden Shovel: Lessons on Civil Disobedience Gideon Levy Sadism at the Qalandiyah Checkpoint Kevin Zeese The Global War on Civil Liberties Missy Comley Beattie Warnings from a Military Man and Dad Don Santina Ride 'Em Brush Cutter: Cowboy Imagery and the American Presidency Website of the Day A Call for Justice in Palestine   December 17 / 18, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Time-Delayed Journalism: the NYT and the NSA's Illegal Spying Operation Gabriel Kolko The Decline of the American Empire Susan Alcorn Texas: Three Days and Two Nights Werther The Democrats are an Impotent and Tolerated Opposition Party Ralph Nader The Senator Without Guile: Proxmire of Wisconsin Patrick Cockburn Counting Ballots and Bodies in Baghdad Fred Gardner When Prosecutors Deceive: Did the Feds Frame Bryan Epis? Dave Lindorff Spy Scandal Far Larger Than Just NSA Ned Sublette Essence is Gasoline Lee Sustar The Class War Economy Jason Leopold Did Karl Rove Destroy Evidence in Plame Case? Laura Carlsen Report from Hong Kong: Deciphering the Language of Globalization Jeff White Teacher Fired for Talking About Peace? Ray McGovern Torture Between the Lines Chris Floyd Pale Fire: the White Death of Fallujah William Loren Katz Remembering the First Quagmire at Xmastime: Zachary Taylor vs. the Seminoles Rose Miriam Elizalde Mashenka and the Bear: a Tale for Our Time Greg Moses Pinter's Provocation: Self Love in America Heather Gray Privatizing the Social Contract Alison Weir My Bethlehem Experience: the Sequel St Clair / Walker / Pollack Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Landau, Engel and Albert Website of the Day At Least Homeland Security Believes that Mao Still Matters   December 16, 2005 Tom Kerr CNN's Goddess of Vengeance: What's Not to Love About Nancy Grace? Mark Engler The WTO in Hong Kong: Is Market Access the Answer to Poverty? John Bomar When Ollie North Came to Hot Springs Patrick Cockburn Iraq Votes; Now What? Pierre Tristam Iraq, Ourselves William S. Lind The Fine Art of Withdrawal Cyril Neville Why I'm Not Going Back to New Orleans Robert Jensen Monkey See, Monkey Do: Reason, Evolution and Intelligent Design Saul Landau Bolivian Democracy and the US: a History Lesson Website CounterPunch & Dr. Price Vanquish Anthropologist Spies   December 15, 2005 Oren Ben-Dor The Ethical and Legal Challenges Facing Palestine Stan Cox "Agroterrorists" Needn't Bother Joshua Frank Organic Inconsistencies: Federal Food Politics Ben Terrall Waivers for State Terror: Bush and the Indonesian Generals Patrick Cockburn Silence Descends on Baghdad Monica Benderman What Peace Needs Walter A. Davis Fear and Loathing in San Quentin Vijay Prashad Our Torture Problem Website of the Day Hourly Wages After Four Years of "Recovery" December 14, 2005 Patrick Cockburn Iran Poised to Win Iraqi Elections Paul Craig Roberts Lethal Developments Lawrence R. Velvel A Bore Called Bob: On Trying to Read Woodward Wayne Garcia The Summer of Sami John Sugg Preach Peace, Sami; Get Truthful Prosecutors Gary Leupp Bush and the Constitution: "Just a Goddamned Piece of Paper" Ray McGovern Torture: a Defining Moment Alan Maass They Murdered a Peacemaker April Hurley, MD NPR Swallows Bush's Guestimate on Iraqi Dead Kevin Alexander Gray Richard Pryor's Mirror on America   December 13, 2005 Stephen T. Banko, III Heroes Patrick Cockburn America's War So Far: 1000 Days of Getting It Wrong Laura Carlsen What's at Play at the WTO Karl Grossman Nuclear Routlette in the Troposhere: Another NASA Plutonium Launch Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Original Sin Kevin Zeese Report from the International Peace Conference in London Norman Solomon At the Gates of San Quentin Michael G. Smith Ending the Death Penalty Stew Albert California Killers Bob Dylan Song for Tookie: George Jackson Phil Gasper California Murders Tookie Williams: a Report from San Quentin Website of the Day Boot Hill   December 12, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts The Defenders of Torture Lawrence R. Velvel George the Disconnected Jessica Stewart My Husband is at the Gates of Gitmo George Bisharat Busharon: a Fusion of Like Minds Nate Mezmer Killing Tookie Williams: If a Black Man Dies in America, Does It Make a Sound? Earl Ofari Hutchinson Richard Pryor Wasn't Crazy Alison Weir My Bethlehem Experience Seth Sandronsky Thank You, Richard Pryor Patrick Cockburn Iraq: the Beginning of the End Website of the Day Wrestling for Peace December 10 / 11, 2005 Alexander Cockburn All the News That's Fit to Buy Landau / Hassen The Condemned of Nablus Ralph Nader The Widening Wasteland of American Media Linn Washington, Jr The Philly Media and Mumia: When They Don't Bash, They Ignore Bill Christison Apathy, US Culpability and Human Rights Day Mike Ferner The Courage of Jim Loney Elizabeth Schulte Abortion and the Bush Court Neve Gordon / Yigal Bronner Murder in Jerusalem Linda S. Heard Saddam's Trial: Grandstanding in the Theater of the Absurd Ingmar Lee A Kayak Journey to Vancouver Island's Wildest Forest Ray McGovern Lies, Torture and the Six Blind Mice John Chuckman Torture and White Phosphorous: the Moral Hell of Condi Rice John Ryan An Honorary Degree in Child Sacrifice?: Madeleine Albright and US Foreign Policy Dick J. Reavis From Waco to Baghdad Christopher Brauchli Bush's Hired Pens Behzad Yaghmaian Trapped at the Gates of the European Union Aseem Shrivastava The Winter in Delhi, 1984 John Ross Bushlandia in Black and White Ben Tripp War, What is It Good For? St. Clair / Pollack / Vest / Despair Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Hassen, Bear Dog, Ford, Mickey Z, Albert & Engel Website of the Week Burn a Brick for Bush   December 9, 2005 Linn Washington, Jr. Roots of Gitmo Torture Lie Close to Home Dave Zirin / Mike Stark On Seeing Wesley Baker Die Patrick Cockburn Blair Tries to Cover Up $1.3 Billion Iraqi Theft Alexander Cockburn Murtha Returns to Attack; Flays Bush Lila Rajiva Shooting the Mentally Ill Gary Leupp White House Liars on the Defensive Jason Leopold Rove Running Out of Answers, Time Bruce K. Gagnon So These Are the Democrats? Andrew Cockburn Meet Rahm Emmanuel, the Democrats' New Gatekeeper Website of the Day "X-mas Time for Visa"   December 8, 2005 Kathy Kelly Blessed are the Merciful in Baghdad James Petras The Venezuelan Election: Chavez Wins, Bush Loses (Again) William S. Lind Questionable Assumptions: Dissecting the Stategy for Victory Laura Carlsen The Strange Mission of Vicente Fox: Free Trade and Mexico Justin Akers Bush's Border War Thomas Graham, Jr A Nuclear Pearl Harbor in Outer Space? Norman Solomon Rumsfeld's Handshake Deal with Saddam Tariq Ali / Robin Blackburn The Lost John Lennon Interview Website of the Day Pigs at the Trough of War   December 7, 2005 John Ryan Dershowitz vs. Chomsky: a Review of the Harvard Debate Gary Leupp Suicide Before Dishonor in Occupied Iraq Fran Quigley How the ACLU Didn't Steal Christmas Jeremy Brecher / Brendan Smith Bush War Crimes: the Posse Gathers Joshua Frank Bird Dogging Hillary William W. Morgan Rendition, Torture and Democracy Dave Lindorff A Stunning Win for Mumia Abu Jamal Patrick Cockburn Saddam: "Come Visit My Cage" Harold Pinter Art, Truth and Politics: the Nobel Lecture Website of the Day Witnesses to Torture   December 6, 2005 Ron Jacobs No One is Illegal; No One is an Infidel Patrick Cockburn Inside Saddam's Trial: Tales of the Human Meat Grinder Yifat Susskind Death, Politics and the Condom: African Women Confront Bush's AIDS Policy Mike Whitney How Greenspan Skewered America Pat Williams Public Land Should Stay Public Paul Craig Roberts Condi to Europe: Trust Us Website of the Day Debunking Woodward   December 5, 2005 John Walsh The Lies of John Edwards: What Did the Democrats Know and When Did They Know It? Brian Cloughley The Poor Dead: the Relative Value of Human Lives Mokhiber / Weissman The Corporate Crime Quiz Robert Jensen How Big Money Eviscerates the First Amendment Norman Solomon Hidden in Plane Sight: US Media Ignores Iraq Air War Plan Peter Rost, MD An Open Letter to the Justice Department: Pfizer May Have Violated Federal Laws When They Fired Me Lila Rajiva The Torture-Go-Round: CIA's Rendition Flights to Secret Prisons Website of the Day National Day of Counter-Recruitment December 3 / 4, 2005 Alexander Cockburn The Revolt of the Generals Lawrence R. Velvel Iraq, Brains and Lies Rev. William Alberts The Forgotten Christmas Story: Saying No to King Herod Saul Landau Latino Troops Have Parents Ralph Nader Consumerama Paul Craig Roberts Don't Confuse the Jobs Hype with the Facts Mike Whitney Blood Feast: Celebrating Executions in America Allan Lichtman The DeLay Scheme: Blatantly Buying Our Government Dave Lindorff A Sudden Rush for the Exits? Brian Concannon, Jr. Haiti's Elections Fred Gardner Oregon NORML Honors Growers Manuel Garcia, Jr. On Freeing the CPT Carol Wolman Remembering the 60s St. Clair / Vest / Walker / Pollack Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Albert, Engel and Orloski Website of the Weekend Free the CPT   December 2, 2005 Stan Goff An Open Letter to Congress from a Veteran and Military Dad Mike Ferner Beware Iraqization: Melvin Laird, Vietnam and Christmas Bombings Over Baghdad? Christopher Brauchli Bush's Constitutional Kamikazes: Padilla's No-Win Dilemma Niranjan Ramakrishnan Questions for the President Manuel Talens The Chávez Theorem Peter Phillips Death By Torture: Media Ignores the Hard Evidence J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Alabama's Taliban: Judge Roy Moore, Preachers and Dixie Hypocrisy Website of the Day Support the Hampton University Peace Activists!   December 1, 2005 John Walsh, MD The God Gaps Ron Jacobs Hard Rain: Toward a Greater Air War in Iraq? Jenna Orkin EPA's Latest Betrayal at Ground Zero Joshua Frank Howard Dean's Blunt Message: Forget Palestine Tiffany Ten Eyck Rank and File Resistance to Delphi Missy Comley Beattie Home on the Range: Where the Fear and the Animus Play Eli Stephens The Reed and Kerry Show Elaine Cassel A Government Game of "Gotcha" with Jose Padilla Website of the Day Rare Erotica     Subscribe Online

January 5, 2006 Responses from the South and Elsewhere Whistling Dixie Yet Again By HEATHER GRAY After the 2004 elections and with the reality sinking in of another disastrous four years with George Bush, I wrote an article that appeared in counterpunch.org entitled "Whistling Dixie: Bush's Reelection--a Perspective from the South" (November 13-14, 2004). I placed Bush in the context of the southern white male elite that he is. The revealing and poignant responses I received from readers across the country from this article were quite remarkable and I wanted to share them as we go into year six of George sitting up there in the White House. The comments range from sex in the south, to environmental degradation, to the disastrous aftermath of the Civil War. Just to re-cap my article on the election, the introduction was as follows: "The 2004 presidential election results were sobering for millions of Americans. The pundits say that "values" and "morals" were key to the re-election of George Bush and that the Republican rhetoric resonated with the Christian "values" of huge numbers of voters. For those of you not used to the hypocrisy of Christian Evangelical values and morals ­ welcome to the South. You had better start learning about southern history--it's religious, social, racist and economic history--because the nation is now poised to become the South writ large. As writer Gavin Wright said in 1986, the nation was "coming to resemble the economy of the antebellum South when slave owners were ruthless and footloose because their wealth was portable." Most of what the GOP espoused has its roots in the South. George Bush, after all, has tried desperately to become a good southern boy and bow down to his Evangelical base. He likes his guns, he cares nothing about the environment, he wears his religion on his sleeve, he likes the death penalty, he's born again, he lies, he's deceitful, believes government money should be doled out to his friends. All of these are time honored traditions and values among the Southern white elite. For years writers have intimated that the South was rising again. Little did we think this meant that the Southern mindset was to poison the entire country. For those who think that Southern exploitation has been exclusively racist, think again. The Southern plantation elite and its progeny exploit everything and everyone. They have used race as the primary trump card to control the southern electorate and the economy, but they have also used their Evangelical roots to bolster their claims. Let's reflect a little about this because some of us in the south have a lot to say about the white elite in the region." And southerners most certainly did respond and do have a lot to say about the southern white elite, (and, of course, there was the inevitable "I thought all you folks disappeared with the Soviet Union,"), but first I'll start with responses from those above the Mason Dixon line. From Michigan, Tom, who describes himself as '"an angry old man who was an angry young man in the 60s" wrote, "Right on, Heather. I have been telling everyone who will listen here in Michigan about the old Southern Bourbons. Those wily bastards just went underground after Mr. Lincoln's boys in blue whipped their asses. As far as I am concerned, the Slavocracy was the original Evil Empire. As a union man for all my working life, I know why those bastards hate unions--because we insist that all our members be treated with equal dignity, both economically and personally. Just wages? Hell, no. There is a theory that the great de-industrialization of the Northeast and the Midwest was aided and abetted by these latter day Southern Nazis. Wouldn't surprise me. Things really went down hill after they murdered JFK, Bobby, Martin...Those gentlemen believed, as Lincoln did, that a government's sole purpose is to provide the greatest good for the greatest number. I am so angry now for all the boys in blue, both black and white, and all the Vets, like my 83 year old Dad, who fought the Nazis and the Japanese Fascists, both black and white, so that we could remain free. I am angry for the insult to those who marched, bled, and died in the 60s for human rights all across this land! As far as I am concerned, this government as presently constituted, can have no claim on our obedience or our consciences. It is a lawless, criminal enterprise. We have a duty to confront it, to oppose it, in the names of all those who died so that we could be free. " From Maine, I received this gem: "Well said and 'right on'. I am from Maine--the State where the Abolitionist Movement started and the last stop on the 'Underground Railroad' before freedom in Canada. I was taught that the Civil War was fought 150 years ago and that the evil 'Slave Owners' were vanquished from our land--oops....they're back--in fact, they never left. All my youthful experiences came to mind. You see, I was drafted into the Viet Nam War and got stationed in the South. I got there just in time to actually see 'white only' fountains in Bus Stations and 'sit to the back of the bus' and, my real favorite--Churches with 'whites only' on them. I freaked out!!! What I had only seen on TV--the Civil Rights struggle--MLK--and the unbelievable actions of the Southern White Racist Establishment et. al. was actually True! The lynchings, the mysterious deaths of civil rights workers, the fire hoses & dogs turned on peaceful marchers, the arrests and despicable and violent behavior of the Police, the Church bombings of children, et cetera ad nauseam. Now, I am informed by the Media that the Election turned on "Moral Values"!!! Well, as I have told my friends for years, and I would tell anyone today--if these are Morals Values, I don't Want Any!!!" Here's a comment from another disenchanted Vietnam Vet ­ this time from Wisconsin: "As a born and bred yankee, I went to the south, specifically Lake Charles, Louisiana for the work after serving two tours in Vietnam. I come from a small town of under 500 people in northern Wisconsin, and, to say the least, the economic prospects were and still are mighty bleak. The economic prospects of the petrochemical industries were mighty attractive in the early 70's. In the polluting and I must say murderous petrochemical plants in the south, I was well compensated financially, and shunned societially for the accident of my birthplace. and I became sympathetic and allied with the local 'colored' folk-we were almost equally despised, I being slightly more tolerable because of my white skin. I hated the racism. I had done two tours in Vietnam and that experience had turned me against racism forever. I enjoyed your perspective and can relate to it with gut wrenching memoriesYour simple and categorical truths, as I witnessed as an outsider, brought back a lot of memories." All right, now from the SouthI'll start with a comment in reference to the on-going exploitation of working folks in the south. This writer was born in Georgia in a town juxtaposed to Atlanta. Obviously feeling discouraged, he wrote: "You got it right. I'm a 43 year old white male, born and raised in (Georgia). Luckily, I went to college and spent my junior year studying and learning Spanish/Latin American Studies in Mexico. I'm now an ESOL teacher at my old high school. We now have a new low wage worker to exploit- my students' families from Latin America. Sometimes I want to just give up and move to a "Blue" state. I'm not sure how much more I can take. I feel just like a stranger in the land where I was born. I thought for many years we were moving forward, progressing. Now I just don't know." Then there's this rather gripping note from a writer in rural Tennessee. Like many whites and blacks in the South, she likely has a hate/love relationship with the region, but at this point she simply wants out! She refers to the difficulty of openly discussing issues in the closed society of the rural south and of being ostracized by her family for her progressive views. She describes having lived in Tennessee for 44 years and then moving to California for 13 years until she recently moved back to rural Tennessee for family reasons. She said "I have spent my life in learning and research ­ a professional interior designer ­ consultant to Fortune 500 companies in the areas of creativity and learning ­ a futurist, poet, author, have a degree in interior design, am working on a master's in humanistic psychology, and have a D. Div. Of course, everything you say is correct and absolutely true. We are living in an intellectual, psychological, and spiritual gulag. I would never have come back here but for my child and grandchild. My son and I plan to move back to the west, at least, and are even talking about immigrating to Canada. We will have to work hard for another two or three years, but we will definitely not stay here. (Note: In reference to my article's comments about workers being exploited by the southern elite, she expressed concern for her grandchild who she wants to take out of the south.) "(I have no) intention" she said" of allowing (my grandson) to become cannon fodder for some rich, fat, white guy. I was raised in privilege, went to a private girl's preparatory school, was a member of the Junior League, went to the assorted balls, etc. I don't know why I turned out to be so awake, conscious, and aware, given that background. I am different from and vilified by my family. I only know that I have been willing to take extraordinary risks with my life. It has cost me everything, but I quote Maya Angelou when I say: 'Wouldn't take nothing for my journey now.' I think the fundamental difference may be a willingness to ask questions, learn, grow, and become ever larger in spirit. As far as I am concerned, we are in the mid-life crisis of our species and are in the dark night of our soul here in America. We are in for terrible trouble in this country and in this world. It will soon be too late to repair the environment, not to mention the vast human suffering throughout the world. The southeast is filled with a vicious sort of arrogance that is based upon ignorance and a lust for power and control, and too many people appear to be determined not to become more conscious, more informed, much less more compassionate." In my article I referred to the hypocrisy of evangelicals, yet didn't mention "sex" and should have. One the most compelling responses I received was about southern sexual perversion, but before sharing that, here are a few introductory comments. Growing up in Methodist pews as a white Christian in the south and being warned by preachers about any impulse, particularly sexual, I, and many of us young folks, began to think that even 'breathing' was sinful. When these southern evangelicals spew fire and brimstone, it was only later that I learned that I needed to take their commands with a grain of salt, or rather no salt, as there was one heck of lot of licentious hypocritical tidbits going on behind the scenes. Arkansas writer Suzi Parker describes this best in her book "Sex in the South: Unbuckling the Bible Belt." In the forward to her book, that she wisely calls instead "foreplay", Parker writes "The first time a boy told me that he wanted to fuck me, I was sitting on a pew in the First Baptist Church in Russelville, Arkansas, a small town on the edge of the Ozark Mountains. A chubby blond classmate to whom I had never given a second glance in high school passed me a note asking to do that very thing, earning him my contempt and a withering go-to-hell glance. I never spoke to him after that, and I certainly never accepted his offer. But years later, I was amused ­ but not entirely shocked ­ to discover at a class reunion that he had become a minister. That's the South, where what you see is never what you get. Peer behind the hymnals and homilies as I do to find out what really happens when the pastor's not looking. The region is a full-to-capacity carnal playground where the den mother buys dildos, the principal is a swinger, and the preacher is a porn fiend. The region I call home is a surreal bubbling cocktail of unbridled desire, uber-Bible thumping, and unapologetic hypocrisy.No doubt about it,--the South is the nation's premier sexual hothouse, be it on unpaved back roads or in covert country club powder rooms.the deal in Dixie is that everybody does it but no one talks about it.there's one rule of thumb: deny, deny, deny ­ unless the romp was with your own spouse. Even then, sex is considered sacred and off-limits in conversation." Responding to my article was this remarkably revealing note from a former Georgian. It speaks volumes about the hypocrisy in Southern churches and echoes Parker's and my observations. "Speaking of the South," he said, "I was baptized in the First Baptist Church (in rural Georgia, with close affiliation to the Southern Baptist Convention). There, the organist was a homosexual pedophile who committed unspeakable acts literally in the church sanctuary. The pastor was having an adulterous affair with a female church member. I know all this, because I was living in the home of the parents of one of the pedophile's 'willing' victims. When I told my 'father' (who was actually my uncle, but at the time, I didn't know it. He had told me--when I was about 8 yrs. old that 'they' got me out of an orphanage when I was two weeks old, and no one in the world wanted me, and they 'took me in'.), he reacted in his usual scary-mad, ominously threatening manner. At ME! See, one of his 'boys' was actually living with the homosexual pedophile, who had purchased a house two doors away. So, the philandering pastor and the pedophile each were able to indulge their various carnal appetites largely free of scrutiny of one another, because they both knew something about the other! I left my 'home' in Georgia, headed for the Tidewater Bay a few months before my 16th birthday in 1960. I was born a bastard in (South) Carolina. My biological father was a Jew from Texas. My birth mother was a Methodist from South Carolina. I knew nothing of my origins (and still know very little), but the people who 'took me in' were diehard evangelical Southern Baptists. Together with their three sons, we were all taken to services twice on Sunday and for 'Prayer Meeting' on Wednesday night. All revival services, every night. Those fine people knew the truth about me, yet in all the years of their criminal abuse of me, they never flinched from making anti-semitic remarks. The First Baptist Church (was the) home of child abusers, bigots, pimps, pedophiles and a preacher with the morals of an alley cat. Those historical FACTS may not rival the Civil War and Jim Crow, but students of Southern history shouldn't be surprised to learn them. And folks who want to understand the deep-rooted gene pool that produces voters who can't stand to do anything that isn't hypocritical, criminal, or just plain mean and exploitative of others...might profit from Chapter one of 'my story'. It would take a while ("spell") to explain to you how my own personal experience is living proof that the Plantation mentality is indeed alive and well in the South. To those who say 'you really believe THAT', I respond: 'BELIEVE it? Hell, I've seen it with my own eyes! Let me know if you think of anything else I can speak up about! I've got plenty to say. And, being a 100% genuine white-ish bastard, I'm unafraid to tell it, signify it, and let the Hellions loose." When my fellow Georgian sent his note, I was not in the least surprised. He, in fact, offered names and addresses that I did not include here and have yet to corroborate his experience. Nevertheless, sexual perversion in the midst of Southern religious fire and brimstone, along with moral repression, seem a natural blend. In all fairness, not all churches are like that described above, but it's always worth some healthy skepticism. I agree with Parker when she says she'll not leave the South. "Yankees tell me that if I had a good head on my shoulders I'd leave and never look back.Actually, it's very easy to understand. The schizophrenic land of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler slakes my thirsty curiosity more than any big-city Northern romp ever could." She's right. There's never a dull moment below the Mason Dixon line. I'll conclude with a comment from another southerner who was born, he said, on a "dirt farm" in north Alabama. "Thank you for what is perhaps the most insightful analysis I have seen on the present situation here in the South---- By the way I am a 63 yr old white male--- The truth is the truth and you have told it---The other possibility is that the bastards just stole the election." Heather Gray is the producer of "Just Peace" on WRFG-Atlanta 89.3 FM covering local, regional, national and international news. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia and can be reached at hmcgray@earthlink.net.

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