Bill Bennett’s Book of Cracker Virtues

Taking a page from his Book of Cracker Virtues, Texas trained philosopher William Bennett this week performed a little thought experiment where genocide by means of abortion might be used to bring down the crime rate. Of course it is appalling how Bennett’s mind plays around with the souls of black folk, one moment imagining a whole peoples aborted, but such is the nature of the souls of white folk, flying right through the concept of genocide without noticing the horrific criminality in that.

In Bennett’s concept of the American crime rate, of course, genocide never counts. Neither does theft of labor. With these two great and obvious categories of crime dismissed, the souls of white folk may then be quite easily imagined to have worked their way to Democracy in America by means of honest trade, fair elections, and saintly patience, never bothering no one, and only occasionally dismayed by inappropriate displays of ingratitude.

The logic of the club is how W. E. B. Du Bois once punned it. And everywhere one looks, that logic holds like double epoxy. Of course, the USA Senate is the ultimate club in both senses of the term, with its predictable traditions of genocide, labor theft, war, and today’s nominee as Supreme Court Chief Justice who need not even bother to produce his work product as understudy to a civil rights bashing attorney general.

Or how about those grand juries? About half of white America is cheering the Travis County Grand Jury for yesterday’s indictment of the House Majority Leader. But where was anybody last month when that same Grand Jury no-billed a white police officer who shot an unarmed Latino in the back? That killing wasn’t even considered a tiny bit criminal. And that story barely made state news. But politicians taking money from Sears? My god, that sounds like a felony for sure.

So anyway, thanks again Bill Bennett for teaching your Intro to Cracker Virtues class again this Fall. Your instructions serve as an indispensable refresher course to the criteria of educational excellence that continue to dominate the definition of American intelligence. And your civics of justice remind us what the heart of the American system sounds like as it continues to make such a small world of us all, from Biloxi to Baghdad alike.

GREG MOSES is editor of the Texas Civil Rights Review and author of Revolution of Conscience: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Philosophy of Nonviolence. His chapter on civil rights under Clinton and Bush appears in Dime’s Worth of Difference, edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair. He can be reached at: gmosesx@prodigy.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLARIFICATION

ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH

We published an article entitled “A Saudiless Arabia” by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the “Article”), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the “Website”).

Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism.

As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi’s lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website.

We are pleased to clarify the position.

August 17, 2005

 

Greg Moses writes about peace and Texas, but not always at the same time. He is author of Revolution of Conscience: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Philosophy of Nonviolence. As editor of the Texas Civil Rights Review he has written about racism faced by Black agriculturalists in Texas. Moses is a member of the Texas Civil Rights Collaborative. He can be reached at gmosesx@gmail.com