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Obama brings a new America into being?




By Charles P. Henry
Special to The Bee
Sunday, Nov. 09, 2008 | Page 1E

......Neither McCain nor Obama said one word about redistributing wealth to those most in need – the growing numbers of poor people (the highest in the developed world). Can we really expect peace and prosperity while maintaining a permanent underclass? Can we afford to put more of them in jail when we already have the largest prison population in the world?

Let's remember all of Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream. It didn't stop with the content of the individual's character. Many like to freeze King's legacy in place at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. Yet King moved beyond individual prejudice to tackle what he called the triple evils of militarism, racism and poverty. Electing Obama and ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq give us a head start on the first two. Let's not forget the third. After all, they are linked. Racism and war have been major causes of global poverty. Let America be America."

Charles P. Henry is a professor and chair of African American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author and editor of seven books and dozens of articles on black politics, public policy and human rights.
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11/09/2008
The new Congress is different from the last one as far as the balance of power is concerned, but its fear of the pro-Israel lobby will be unabated. True, the influence of the Zionist Evangelicals will be much diminished, but AIPAC is alive and kicking, and its kicks will be as painful as ever.The new doorkeeper, who bears the ringing Israeli name Rahm Emmanuel (Rahm means high, Emmanuel means God with Us), is the son of an Irgun underground veteran. Rahm grew up in a Jewish home, speaks Hebrew and rushed to the aid of the Israeli army during the first Gulf War. I don't know his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but he certainly will not block the path of the Israeli Prime Minister to the President.There is no chance for progress towards Israeli-Palestinian peace without American pressure on the Israeli government. That has been true for decades, and that remains true today. So America and Israel will stick together to the bitter end, as they have proven in every Israeli-Palestinian war so far! But that end together may be sooner than they think, because of recent developments. We shall see!
Ted Rudow III,MA

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Sunday, Nov. 09, 2008


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11/09/2008 06:54:35 PM:
In recent history America was even making pennies out of aluminum when copper was scarce.--And of course paper coinage is quite a modern invention in fairly recent history, which came in with the invention of paper and printing press. Nevertheless, for the past few years the world has continued to drift dreamily along, still believing in the power and value of the American dollar, supposedly backed by the power, worth and word of the American government. So that, since America went off both the gold and silver standard and no longer has to exchange either for her dollars, the world has continued to drift dreamily along on pure faith in the paper tiger of America, the Green Paper Pig, the dollar, and that it's worth what its government says it is worth! When actually the dollar is really worthless and without any intrinsic value whatsoever with no backing or redeemability in coinage of actual value such as gold and silver! If you think that past generations and cultures were foolish for worshipping gods of gold and silver and wood and stone, give a second thought to modern man who has been worshipping gods made only of paper, and very thin paper at that, for a good many years now! But he's now beginning to lose faith in his paper gods, these worthless currencies, and they're beginning to fall! They'll soon be worth so little they'll be cast away as worthless, and only things, services, goods, products and materials of actual value and usefulness will be considered of any worth.
Ted Rudow III,MA