Today's Stories

March 27-29, 2009

José Pertierra
Gesture for Gesture: How to Free the Cuban Five

March 26, 2009

Paul Craig Roberts
Is the Bail Out Breeding a Bigger Crisis?

Sharon Smith
Another Blow to Labor ... from the Democrats

Neve Gordon
Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's Shame

Patrick Madden
Why the Geithner Plan Will Fail

Gareth Porter
The Big Con on Iraq

Dave Lindorff
Why Do We Need a Health Insurance Industry?

Hannah Safran
The Israeli Resistance: "Ready to be Traitors"

Keith Newell
Will the Cellphone Please Take the Stand?

Todd Chretien
Behind the Green Collar

Nelson P. Valdés
When It Comes to Cuba and the Media Anything Goes

Website of the Day
G20 Meltdown

March 25, 2009

Robin Blackburn
Media Revolution or Mirage?

Conn Hallinan
Europe in Crisis

David Rosen
Sexting: a First Amendment Challenge for Obama

Jonathan Cook
Turkey's Fallout with Israel Deals Blow to Settlers

Dean Baker
Billions More for Failed Banks

Ron Jacobs
Karzai on a String

Russell Mokhiber
Corporate Liberals vs. Single-Payer

David Macaray
Slice and Dice on Card Check

Dave Lindorff
Geithner's Power Grab

Sarah Knopp
LA Teacher's Sit-In Over Layoffs

Website of the Day
How to Create an Animal Rights "Terrorist"

March 24, 2009

Robert Sandels
Obama and Cuba: Real Change or Minor Tweaks?

Harvey Wasserman
People Died at Three Mile Island

Franklin Lamb
Who Tried to Kill Palestinian Ambassador Abass Zaki and Why?

Michael Donnelly
Obama's Team of Losers

Norman Solomon
Denial and Evasion on Afghanistan

Elizabeth Schulte
The Stark Facts About Violence Against Women

John Goekler
The Most Dangerous Person in the World?

Nicole Colson
Is Justice Finally in Sight for Sami Al-Arian?

Global Balkans
NATO's 78-Day Bombing of Yugoslavia: Ten Years On

William S. Lind
Cat-and-Mouse Off Hainan Island

Website of the Day
Video: IDF Fired on Medics in Gaza

March 23, 2009

M. Shahid Alam
Capitalism From the Standpoint of Its Victims

Uri Avnery
Israel's Most Revolting Law?

Mike Whitney
Zombie Economics: Judgment Day for Geithner

Ralph Nader
Bush the Teacher

Brian Cloughley
Tilting at Afghan Windmills

Dave Lindorff
Toxic Bailouts

Amira Hass
The Rules of Engagement in Gaza: Open Fire on Rescuers

Chris Irwin
When Nonprofit Groups Go Bad

Binoy Kampmark
The Celebrity of Celebrity

Michael Dickinson
Tollbridge Over Troubled Waters

Website of the Day
State of the Birds

March 20-22, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
On the Edge of the Volcano

Paul Craig Roberts
When Things Fall Apart

P. Sainath
Slumdogs vs. Billionaires

Robert Weissman
Lessons From AIG

Saul Landau
Sliding Down in Anger: If We Bail Out the Banks, Why Shouldn't We Own Them?

David Michael Green
Obama and the Altar of Greed

Greg Moses
Winter Soldiers Come to Texas

Ron Jacobs
Pakistan in Turmoil: an Interview with Farooq Tariq

Michael D. Yates
A Nation of Immigrants

John V. Whitbeck
Happy New Year, Iran!

Andy Worthington
The Case of Ahmed Zuhair

Linn Washington Jr.
Supreme Test: the Latest Twist in the Mumia Case

David Ker Thomson
Actions: Things to Do Instead of Hailing the Chief

Laurent Jacque
Is the Euro Doomed?

Rannie Amiri
The Middle East's Jittery Monarchies

Reiko Redmonde /
Larry Everest
The Cold-Blooded Murder of Oscar Grant

David Macaray
The Myth of the Powerful Teachers' Union

Kenneth Couesbouc
Where has the Consumption Gone?

Martha Rosenberg
Meltdown in the Drug Industry

Alan Farago
The Recession, the Developers and Baseball

Missy Beattie
Still Waiting for Change

Richard Rhames
Invisible But Not Completely Insolvent

Stephen Martin
Barack and the Jets

Charles R. Larson
Impeach Obama!

David Yearsley
On Bach's Birthday

Lorenzo Wolff
Manic Levity

Poets' Basement
Three Poems by Gary Corseri

Website of the Weekend
Teachers for CEO Merit Pay!

March 19, 2009

Dave Marsh
Sir Bono: the Knight Who Fled From His Own Debate

Paul Craig Roberts
Was the Bailout Itself a Scam?

Mike Whitney
Why Business is Hysterical About Card Check (And Why America Needs It)

Sam Smith
The Economy in Two Eras of Democrats

Harvey Wasserman
The Crash of France's Nuclear Poster Child

Binoy Kampmark
Back Into NATO: the End of French Exceptionalism

Kathy Sanborn
Broken Culture: the Desecration of Iraq's Art Treasures

Christopher Brauchli
Taxing Problems

George Wuerthner
Permanent Damage From Temporary Logging Roads

Diann Rust-Tierney
New Mexico Abolishes the Death Penalty

Website of the Day
Bailout Plan: "Cross Your Fingers and Hope"

March 18, 2009

Michael Hudson
The Real AIG Conspiracy

Paul Craig Roberts
Israel's American Chattel

Nelson P. Valdés
Why Obama's New Cuba Rules Violate the Constitution

Jonathan Cook
Bedouin Villages Left in the Dark Ages

John Ross
The Death of the American Newspaper

Yifat Susskind
Where Are We Leaving Iraqi Women?

Dave Lindorff
Who's Calling the Shots Now?

Frances Moore Lappé
The City That Ended Hunger

Richard Grossman
Beware the Madoff Diversion!

Rev. William E. Alberts
On Being Whole Not Holy

Website of the Day
Three Weeks in Cuba: a Painter's Perspective

March 17, 2009

Michael Hudson
Mr. Bernanke Spreads the Fire

James G. Abourezk
Show Business: AIG and the Posturing Democrats

Harry Browne
Ireland's Blast From the Past

Joanne Mariner
U.S. Human Rights Abuses in the War on Terror

Alan Farago
The National Ponzi Scheme

Dean Baker
Getting Lehman Bros. Wrong ... Again

Peter Morici
Cuts for Autoworkers, Bonuses for Derivatives Traders

Bill and Kathleen Christison
Obama and the Empire

Richard Gott
Victory for the Left in El Salvador

Walter Brasch
Dog Mutilations vs. Cosmetics

Website of the Day
Single-Payer Action

March 16, 2009

Pam Martens
Has a Comedian Just Saved America?

Uri Avnery
The Rape of Washington

Mike Whitney
Bernanke's Witness Protection Program

Ralph Nader
Americans Want Justice for Wall Street Crooks

Nikolas Kozloff
Down But Not Out: the Latin American Right

John Walsh
Redbaiting on the Left

Ron Jacobs
A Call for Common Sense

Binoy Kampmark
The Case of Tim K

Stephen Fleischman
Coxey's Army Will March Again!

Christian Christensen
A 25-Year Misunderstanding: Springsteen's "Born in the USA"

Scott Handleman
Shooting Tristan Anderson

Website of the Day
Clean, Green, Sustainable

March 13 / 15, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
The Parable of the Shopping Mall

Peter Lee
What the Chas Freeman Fight Was Really About

Diana Johnstone
NATO's Global Mission Creep

David Harvey
Is This Really the End of Neoliberalism?

Petrino DiLeo
Inside Obama's Housing Plan: Will Millions be Left Out in the Cold

David Ker Thomson
Tender to the Earth

Eric Ruder
Massacre in Slow Motion: an Interview with Haider Eid on Gaza

Fred Gardner
Cannabidiol Now!

David Yearsley
Music Torture

Saul Landau
How Israel Gives Jews a Bad Name

Laura Carlsen
Drug War Doublespeak

Robert Weissman
We Told You So

John Goekler /
Merle Lefkoff
The Struggle in Saffron

Tom Barry
Imprisoning Immigrants for Profit

Kathy Sanborn
Money Out of Thin Air

Chris Mobley / Leela Yellesetty
Criminalizing Poverty: the Jail Seattle Doesn't Need

David Michael Green
The Perils of Being Right and Wrong

Alan Maass /
Lee Sustar
A Socialist Moment?

Christopher Brauchli
Pity, the Poor Tax Collectors

Richard Morse
Clinton in Haiti

Lorenzo Wolff
Taking It From the Streets: From Springsteen to the Wu-Tang Clan

Poets' Basement
Springate and Johnston

Website of the Weekend
Hear the Buffalo

March 12 , 2009

Sharon Smith
Bottom Feeders at the Trough

Christopher Ketcham
Full Spectrum Penetration: Israeli Spying in the United States

Mike Whitney
Haircut Time for Bondholders

Ray McGovern
Obama Caves to the Lobby

Eric Toussaint /
Damien Millet
The Doublespeak of a Discredited IMF

John Ross
The War is Not Over

M. Reza Pirbhai
Men in Black: Another View of Pakistan

Chris Floyd
Lost Liberty Blues: Prisons, Profits and the Banality of Evil

Steve Early
Why Labor Doesn't Need a "House of Lords"

Quentin Gee
Hiding the Costs of Coal

Website of the Day
Amadee Coral Reef: a Spherical Panorama

March 11 , 2009

Mike Roselle
From Birmingham to Coal River: Why is the Environmental Movement So Timid?

Paul Craig Roberts
The Criminal Injustice System

Henry A. Giroux
Academic Labor in Dark Times

Nikolas Kozloff
The Death Cries of the Salvadoran Right

Norm Kent
I am Patient Number 380206011

Mitu Sengupta
Reforming the World Bank: Different Image, Same Tune?

Ludwig Watzal
The Structure of Israel's Occupation

David Macaray
The Battle Over EFCA Has Begun

William S. Lind
Rounding Up the Usual Suspects

Martha Rosenberg
A Merger From the Folks Who Brought You Vytorin

Website of the Day
American Indicator: One in Fifty Kids are Homeless

March 10 , 2009

Franklin Spinney
What Israeli Peace Process?

Vijay Prashad
What Did Hillary Clinton Do?

Stan Cox
There's No Free Lunch on Your Browser: the Internet's Energy Drain

Zoltan Grossman
Coffee Strong: Listening to the G.I. Voice at Fort Lewis

Reuven Kaminer
Pure and Unadulterated Racism

Jonathan Cook
Memoricide in the West Bank

Dave Lindorff
Business Rules

Brian McKenna
How Anthropology Disparages Journalism

Harvey Wasserman
Is This the End of the Age of the Automobile?

Corey Pein
He Told You So

Website of the Day
AIG and Systemic Failure: $1.6 Trillion in Insured Deriviatives

March 9 , 2009

Pam Martens
Madoff and the Sorkin Affair

Ralph Nader
Too Big...Period

Peter Lee
Meet Gulbuddin Hekmatyar: the US's Worst/Best Hope for Afghanistan?

Mike Whitney
Geithner's Charade

Peter Morici
Fixing the Banks: Treasury's Doomed Strategy

Dean Baker
Why Do We Need a Private Health Insurance Industry, Anyway?

Steve Ault
Kiss Thailand's Tolerance for Gays Goodbye

Stephen Lendman
Guantánamo Under Obama

Farooq Sulehria
Tennis Without Spectators

Belén Fernández
Chávez, a Cockfight and the Caracazo

Website of the Day
How Lincoln Learned to Read

March 6-8 , 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Harlots High and Low

Chris Floyd
Tangled Up in Karl

Uri Avnery
Remember Ophira?

Dave Lindorff
Kiss the Banks Goodbye

Mark Weisbrot
The Crisis vs. the Dogma

David Ker Thomson
Against Work

Phil Aliff
Soldier Suicides

Rebekah Ward
Georgia Injustice: Another Young Life Wrecked

Tracey Briggs
How Capitalism Feels in the Head

Dean Baker
Depression Nostalgia?

Daniel P. Wirt, M.D.
Remove the Handle From the Health Insurance Misery and Death Pump

Carl Finamore
The Recovery Plan: Save Us From Those Who Would Save Us

Wajahat Ali
The Pakistani Monster

David Michael Green
Smart is the New Stupid

David Macaray
The Minimum Wage Revisited

Michael Dickinson
On Financial Fools Day

Susie Day
Line in the Sand

Bob Sommer
Echoes of the Townhouse Explosion

Ben Sonnenberg
No Forgiveness for the Bourgeoisie: Buñuel's "The Exterminating Angel"

David Yearsley
Sonic Fakery in "Slumdog" From the Mozart of Chennai

DC Larson
They're Writing Those Depression Songs, Again

Lorenzo Wolff
Live Truth: Music Sans Headphones

Poets' Basement
Dominquez, MacNeil and Buknatski

Website of the Weekend
The Environment & Obama: a Conversation with Jeffrey St. Clair

March 5 , 2009

James G. Abourezk
This Time It's Mrs. Clinton's Turn

Kathleen and Bill Christison
U.S. Military Aid to Israel

Robert Weissman
Wall Street's Best Investment: Paying for Public Policy

Patrick Cockburn
My Day at the Terror "Charity"

William Blum
Being Serious About Torture...Or Not

Robert Fantina
From Iraq to Afghanistan: Augmentation All Over Again

Saul Landau
The Unseen Crisis

Benjamin Dangl
Striking a Blow Against the Beer Cartel: a Grassroots Victory in Utah

Christopher Brauchli
The New Leaders of the GOP

Website of the Day
The Angola 3: 36 Years of Solitude

March 4, 2009

Marjorie Cohn
Blueprints for a Police State

Mike Whitney
Blowing Up the Economy: How Securitization Lit the Fuse

Ron Jacobs
The Banality of Occupation: the Rand Papers

Ashley Smith
War by Another Name

Joanne Mariner
Obama's War on Terror

Dan Bacher
The California Water Wars: Why It's Not a Conflict Between Fish and People

Mark Engler
Will the Winds of Change Reach El Salvador?

Franklin Lamb
"What's Hezbollah Done for Us Lately?"

Cal Winslow
Slugging It Out in California

David Mandelzys
Apartheid Week

Website of the Day
Guantánamo: the Definitive Prisoner List

March 3, 2009

Conn Hallinan
Ethnic Cleansing and Israel

Fawzia Afzal-Khan
The Long, Dark Night of Pakistan

Brian M. Downing
The Changing Game in Afghanistan

Robert Larson
External Damnation: Companies are Designed for Destruction

Daniel P. Wirt, MD
Single-Payer Health Reform

Russell Mokhiber
Burn Your Health Insurance Bill!

William Loren Katz
Obama, One Ape and Two Newspapers

Kathy Sanborn
The Lazy Man's Guide to the Economic Crisis

Pauline Imbach
A New Start for the World Social Forum?

Christopher Ketcham
The Best Journalism You'll Write is Priceless

Website of the Day
The Surveillance Self-Defense Project

March 2, 2009

Andrea Peacock
A Poisoned Town's Shot at Justice

Paul Craig Roberts
Obama's Budget

Peter Lee
Pakistan Lurches Toward the Abyss

John Blair
Locking Down Big Coal

Peter Morici
Treasury's Flawed Plan for Citigroup

Uri Avnery
10 Ways to Kill Fatah

Michael Donnelly
Resistance to the War on the Wild

Fred Gardner
The Judge Who Ruled Marijuana is Medicine

Sonia Nettnin
Middle East Medical Mission Heroes

Andrew Lehman
A New Deal for the Web

Website of the Day
Pentagon Papers II?

Eric Holder and the Whitewashing of Racism

Tom Barry
Napolitano's Hard Line

Harvey Wasserman
Obama's Excellent Atomic Omission

Adam Turl
The Enemies of Unions and the Lies They Tell

David Macaray
When People are Fired Illegally

James McEnteer
Rush to the Rescue: Limbaugh's Secret Plan to Save the Economy

Website of the Day
The Carbon Casino

Weekend Edition
March 27-29, 2009

The Genius of Ishmael Reed

Writer as Fighter

By WAJAHAT ALI

Ishmael, the son Abraham and Hagar, stands next to Isaac in Western history as the rejected, expelled and cast away heir of a noble and pure lineage.  The “wicked” and unwanted one initially envious of his brother, but ultimately penitent and reverential. However, in Islamic theology, Ishmael rightly takes his place as the forefather of the Arab tribe; the one who selflessly allowed his body to be sacrificed according to God’s will.  The one who rebuilt a new foundation of the Kaba [the black cubed stone in Mecca which Muslims face while praying] with his father Abraham using the old foundations laid down by Adam.  A forgotten, controversial but essential pillar of history binding divergent cultures in his own unique way while reminding them of their shared traditions and commonalities.
 
When hearing Ishmael Reed’s name for the first time, most immediately quote the famous passage from Moby Dick, “Call me Ishmael!”  It’s a knee jerk, automatic reaction.  I’ve seen this happen dozens of times; each time the person chuckles at their own presumed wit.  The name, as used by Melville in his classic novel, warrants further examination.  Ishmael, also referring to one who is “exiled,” orphaned” and “alienated,” serves as the novel’s omniscient narrator, meticulously describing his environment and the actors within them, many times with an incisive analysis of their temperament, characteristics and foibles.  Even though he belonged to the crew, he stood aside – both literally and figuratively – to obtain a clearer, more accurate and diverse perspective of his surroundings.  It should be of no surprise to those who haven’t read the novel to discover he’s the last one standing.

Ishmael, being the genetic forefather of Islam, penetrates the psychology and mindset of Sufis, those oft misunderstood, unorthodox yet wise spiritual detectives. Farid-ud Din Attar, the celebrated 12th century Sufi Muslim poet and author of the allegorical poem Conference of the Birds, expounded on the methodology employed by Sufis who use satire to comment on society.  He likened them to actives members of society who must step outside the circle to gain a clearer, panoramic vantage point. Although this relative positioning greatly increases one’s vision, it inevitably yields a quasi isolation of sorts.  A necessary burden and pain, however, to accurately observe the ills and warts of society – to see what others cannot or are unwilling to see about themselves.  The satirist goes a step further; like a brazen daredevil he bluntly points to the society’s warts and holds a mirror to their face forcing them to confront uncomfortable truths and realities once hidden underneath layers of hypocrisy.

II.

I first met Ishmael Reed in 2001 at U.C. Berkeley. An undeclared senior without a clue, I stumbled upon a “Short Fiction Writing Seminar” offered by three English professors: one of them being Ishmael Reed.  Not knowing any of them, I asked an English Professor, “Which one of these should I apply for?” After telling me the styles of the other teachers, he explained Reed this way: “He is more hands off. He doesn’t employ as rigid a structure as the others. He lets you do it more your own way. You have more freedom with how and what you write.”  I was sold.  I didn’t know this Ishmael person, but oddly his name sounded so damn familiar to me.  I kept saying, “I know I’ve heard this name before but where?”  Also, I just liked the name: Ishmael.  So, based on liking a Biblical and Quranic name and given the opportunity to express myself without authoritarian intrusion, the decision was made.

Obstacles, of course, presented themselves.  It seemed you had to “try out” for these prestigious, elite classes and submit an essay along with a 12- 15 page writing sample. The only sample I had which was remotely close to that length was a 10 page absurd, scatological play written in the vein of Rabelaisian, grotesque realism.  It was called “All this for an Ass?” omnisciently narrated by The Moorish Jester.  The lead characters were two egotistical, aristocratic nobleman named Vienerschneitz and Cockenblock anxiously awaiting the arrival of Gerf, the simple peasant boy with the simple task of collecting the annual taxes – a plebian tribute to the gluttonous rich. Along the way, Gerf, being a simpleton, trades the ducats to a local Gypsy named “Conchita the Gyspy” for an “ass.”  He arrives to royal court with an “ass” in lieu of the ducats; naturally, hilarity and chaos ensues.

I submitted this insane, over the top, completely ridiculous piece along with a hastily written essay, in pen no less, two minutes before the 4 p.m. deadline outside of the English Department in Wheeler Hall.  A week later I found out – much to my surprise – I was admitted.

What occurred on the first day of this 12-student seminar merits some essay space.  Mind you, the whole time I kept telling myself, “I do not belong in here. How did I get in this class? These guys are all serious gunners. I’m just a joker. Ok, play cool. Play cool.”  Reed hands us a photocopied pamphlet which included the final version of T.S. Eliot’s landmark poem The Wasteland along with his previous drafts, scribbles, rough drafts and notes given to him by an unnamed source.

“Who did Eliot dedicate The Wasteland to?” asks Reed.

I knew the answer but kept quiet. Nobody raised his or her hands.

“Hint: he’s also a famous poet.”

Silence. Then a hand goes up.

“Ezra Pound.”

(Surprised) “Yeah. Do you know why?”

“Pound was Eliot’s mentor when he wrote Wasteland. He kept reading and editing Eliot’s earlier drafts giving him feedback and criticism.  Eliot said without Pound, there would be no Wasteland.  So, that probably explains the dedication.”

Reed, taken aback slightly by the fact that I knew this, gave me a nod and a knowing look.  Subsequent classes involved Reed asking about historical figures (like Pound), dynasties (The Mughal Empire), and landmark cultural events, such as the Crusades, which went completely over the heads of my peers; but, due to a wasted, non existent, nerd-social life I was able to identify and acknowledge these references in class. Many times Reed and I would also talk about international cinema and popular multicultural icons during the class to the chagrin of some of my peers who asked me, “How do you guys know all this obscure stuff?”  Intelligence and competence had nothing to do with this, mind you, just awareness of art, history, and life outside of  “mainstream American” culture.

However, things weren’t always this cheery.  Being that my last name is “Ali,” I was “first up” when presenting stories.  “Do I have to share this story?” I asked incredulously.  “Uh, yes” Reed replied matter of factly.  “Um, do I have to read this out loud in front of everybody?”  Reed just stared at me like I was insane - “Yes!”

The first story ever presented in class was my tale entitled “The Mosquito Story,” which in fact was a theatrical monologue (I had no idea) posing as a short story.  It was first person pov of a single, female mosquito complaining about her uneventful sex life and waiting for her first “suck.”  (I had read that female mosquitoes must first suck blood in order to lay eggs.  Without that initial penetration and drink, they can’t reproduce.)  The female voice, as I described it in class, was a “fake ghetto mosquito,” by which I meant one of the many upper middle class, suburban, educated female peers I knew who wanted to act “Street” without ever setting foot on “the streets.”  The rest of the class understood, but Reed thought I was making fake of “urban ghetto” culture.

Regardless, the piece was a hit.  Reed, much to his dismay I later learned, also praised the piece for its language and wit but he underlined (several times) this telling note on my paper: “Next time, easy on the stereotypes.”

Naturally, I was embarrassed, but later understood where he was coming from. Reed, a savvy and sophisticated listener with a cultivated ear for multicultural dialogue, loathes the cheap use, abuse and commercialization of minority voices by an ignorant mainstream media unwilling to even study or talk to the same ethnic groups they are portraying. With my second piece, “Rotunda and Bulbus’s 50th Wedding Anniversary,” a morbid and over the top “children’s story” about 2 ogres who secretly plot to kill one another on their wedding anniversary, I seemed to have redeemed myself.

This piece was even a bigger hit than the first.  Reed told me, “See me after class.” I was terrified.  Reason being I had not been to class in nearly 3 weeks due to 9-11.  As a board member of the Muslim Student Association of U.C. Berkeley, my life, especially for that academic year, forever changed when the two towers fell.  I was no longer Wajahat Ali the goofy student and undeclared English major, I was Wajahat Ali the goofy student and representative of all things Muslim and Middle Eastern. The MSA took a proactive and educational role in leading many diverse student body groups towards mutual understanding and dialogue through a variety of political, cultural, religious and educational programs.  Being a board member, me, and a few other students, were placed unwillingly at the center of the storm.

So, here I am thinking Reed is going to chew me out for being a habitual absentee. Instead, as we walked through the maze that was Wheeler Hall in trying to find his office, he told me, “You’re a playwright. You’re a natural.” I thought the man was nuts. He sat there telling me he wants to pull me out of the class and give me a special assignment: 20 pages of a play.  I begged him to reconsider.

“No, no. You’ll be wasting your time in this class. Listen, you’re a playwright. Write me a play. Write about, you know, about Muslims. Make it about Muslim Americans.”

“But I don’t know how to write…”

“A family.  Make it about a Muslim American family.  You ever read Long Day’s Journey into Night by O’Neil. Yeah?  Do something like that. Ok?  Muslim American family play written by a Muslim American.”

What initially began as a 20 –page project I hesitantly took on just to pass a damn class grew into a professional relationship currently lasting 7 years.  Reed, so impressed by the initial draft of The Domestic Crusaders, decided to invest his own money as the play’s producer and enlisted his extremely talented and dedicated wife, Carla Blank - a noted theatre scholar and director whose new work KOOL is premiering at the Guggenheim in April -  as the play’s director. This 9-11, The Domestic Crusaders will have its New York premiere at the world famous Nuyorican Theater.

What is important, for sake of this conversation, is Reed’s approach to the cultivation of talent and his dedication towards voicing those marginalized voices often portrayed as tawdry, one-dimensional cartoon characters.  Reed never intruded on my voice; he never censored my words, and most importantly he never told me to “white wash,” “mainstream,” or “sugar coat” the play’s very honest and very raw dialogue.

“Say it like it is. You know – use the language. Don’t be afraid. Use the Arabic and the Urdu. Keep it all in there.  All of the culture and religion stuff, yeah, keep it all in there.  Don’t be afraid.” 

That is quintessential Reed.

Reed showed us Eliot’s work to drive home the point that even the heavy hitters and knockout artists need guidance, editing, correction and critique.  No one embarks on the artistic journey alone; those that do never get too far anyhow. Even the titans need a Pound to pound the work into a prime piece without the fat and unnecessary trimmings. Those that cultivate and guide the voice without speaking for the voice – that’s the proper role of a proper mentor. I was lucky enough to learn that valuable lesson from one of the old school literary Jedi Knights: Ishmael Reed.

Reed loves this T.S. Eliot quote and he mentions it often: “Not all ethnic writers are great. But all great writers are ethnic.”

III.

Reed might not agree with my analysis on his style and character. So, let me donate some space to what others, including him, have said about his idiosyncratic literary approach.  A connoisseur of African art, mythology and folklore, Reed likens himself to a Haitian spirit of “Ghede.”  Reed, in his conversations with me, said he invites this comparison because Ghede holds a mirror to the people and shows them their demons, the ones they are unwilling to acknowledge.

The sprit, however, goes by many names and forms.  One of them is “Papa Ghede,” a dark man sporting a top hat with a cigar in his mouth and an apple in his left hand.  He serves as an intermediary between the worlds of the living and the afterlife. His humor is frank, crass and bluntly honest, unadorned with pretentious repression.  His gift, or his curse, lies in his ability to know people by their true intentions, thoughts and shapes.  He also understands the realities of both “worlds.”

Another name is “Gede Nibo,” an intermediary between both worlds but one who “gives voice to the dead spirits that have not been reclaimed.”  Much like those forgotten, silenced, oppressed and muted voices excised from the history books, the narratives, the television talk shows, the radio programs and the textbooks.

According to Yoruba mythology, there is Eshu, one of the trickster-gods, who “plays frequently tempting choices for the purpose of causing maturation.  He is a difficult teacher, but a good one.”   “Eshu evens out the playing field.  Evens the score.  Checks you, puts you in your place.  Allows you to see your potential, as well as how you so stupidly ruin it on a daily basis.”   The following story is an excellent example of how Eshu operates:

“Eshu was walking down the road one day, wearing a hat that was red on one side and black on the other.  Sometime after he departed, the villagers who had seen him began arguing about whether the stranger's hat was black or red.  The villagers on one side of the road had only been capable of seeing the black side, and the villagers on the other side had only been capable of seeing the red half. They nearly fought over the argument, until Eshu came back and cleared the mystery, teaching the villagers about how one's perspective can alter a person's perception of reality, and that one can be easily fooled.”

In playing the role of Ghede and Eshu, Reed, in his unorthodox, combative and highly unique fashion, first coined and named the term “multiculturalism” before it became named and continuously renamed due to the enormously controversial debates surrounding its questioned academic value and scholastic worth.  Reed, along with other ethnic writers, started the “Before Columbus Foundation” to give the “konch” to the silenced tongues.  Under the project’s banner, Reed created the highly respected Annual American Book Awards rewarding a gamut of literary and academic voices that might “slip” under the mainstream radar.  In fact, the ABA recognized Harriet Washington’s landmark work “Medical Apartheid” before the National Book Critics Circle nominated it as a 2007 finalist.  Reed recognizes talent before the talent even recognizes it has talent; he gave Terry “Waiting to Exhale” McMillon the mentorship and encouragement to become a writer when she was still in his writing class.  Reed’s colossal work, the Pulitzer nominated “Mumbo Jumbo,” is so influential that Thomas Pynchon’s “Gravity’s Rainbow” took a stop to give it props.  When analyzing current affairs, Reed’s pen is on point; he was the first one to label Clinton as “the first Black President,” based on his co-opting of African American culture.  Toni Morrison got the credit, but Reed called it first.

Reed says this is all “intellectual combat,” a means for him to use the mind and words as ammunition to battle all the powerful hucksters, shysters, liars, and eloquent hypocrites who speak with forked tongues.  He’s a literary pugilist whose words, like a fighter’s punches, strategically dismantle and knockout adversaries with a swift, unrelenting jabs, hooks and uppercuts.  And, once in a while, a couple of low blows as well.

Some say Reed is an angry mad man swinging wildly and blindly with fists filled with rage and bile at invisible opponents who have long since left the ring.  In essence, they say he’s a shadow boxer taking on demons purely in his own head that are remnants of his overactive, reactionary imagination or hyperbolized manifestations of minor slights and harms foolishly magnified a hundred fold.  The opinion and conclusion belongs to each respective viewer and reader, but what must be marveled at, regardless of your viewpoint, is his prolific and sturdy jab – still punching at the age of 70 without signs of slowing.  He just co-edited a tremendous anthology of American short fiction entitled Pow-Wow showcasing diverse talent such as Mark Twain, Russell Charles Leong, Zora Neal Hurston, E. Donald Two-Rivers and even Benjamin Franklin

Ishmael, the outcast and the exiled, nonetheless emerges as an important narrator for our times.  The Islamic, Biblical, and figurative link – used in fiction, religion and history – to remind us of those unwanted truths and traditions once lost and forgotten. Whether a trickster, a teacher, a satirist, or a pugilist, sometimes the wise ones must stand apart, either alienated by others or by one’s own choice, to pinpoint and diagnose our flaws and demons as a society.  And then, use words and wisdom to help us heal.

And so we return to the first story.

A version of the old story goes that Ishmael, the “wicked” one, ultimately relented, admitted his error, and eventually revered and recognized his brother.  Another version of the story suggests his brother’s people “rediscovered” Ishmael, relented, and finally acknowledged Ishmael’s rightful status.  And yet another version of the story says that Ishmael really couldn’t care less who relented, recognized, admired or acknowledged, and that he simply turned away from all the noise to go do what he knew best.

He was last seen in the ring - fighting.

Wajahat Ali is a Muslim American of Pakistani descent. He is a playwright, essayist, humorist and Attorney at Law, whose work, “The Domestic Crusaders” is the first major play about Muslim Americans living in a post 9-11 America. His blog is at http://goatmilk.wordpress.com/

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