FLASHPOINTS RADIO
produced by Dennis Bernstein
Saturday Sept 29, 2001 - Start Audio 
SPECIAL BROADCAST: SF PEACE RALLY
-00:00 Dennis Bernstein at the peace rally in Delores Park, SF.. Amelia Gonzales Garcia: now w Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange.. Medea: tomorrow stand with the Afghan women, at Chabot College 2-4PM Hayward, at Hesparian and Depot, for more info call 415-255-7296.. the attacks in NY/DC.. a criminal act, by an (international) criminal group.. a crime against humanity.. we don\'t want them martyred in combat.. we want them brought to justice in the courts.. we feel for any child dying anywhere.. we\'re saying PLEASE DON\'T GO INTO A MILITARY RESPONSE THAT WILL LEAD TO MORE SUFFERING AT HOME AND ABROAD.. Dennis: about the one-sided reporting even by NPR.. Medea: yes, and I\'m encouraged by the change in the polls.. the majority of the public now says: DON\'T KILL INNOCENT CIVILIANS..
.. Dennis: the Bush administration has stepped back.. Medea: yes, in part because of the movement we are building.. also the international community.. we had a bomb threat at Global Exchange.. a bad economic state.. yesterday I met an engineer driving a cab.. afraid it\'s going to get worse, unless we make a stand, and say NO.. we have to act like responsible global citizens.. MEDEA: PLEASE COME AND JOIN US, BRING YOUR FAMILY.. AT CHABOT COLLEGE IN HAYWARD 2-4PM SUNDAY SEPT 30
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Company of Prophets (music)
Penny Rosenwaller (Middle East Childrens Alliance) the most important thing we can do is connect with the people of the Middle East.. we don\'t see Afghani people.. look at our fear, that keeps us from caring.. seven people killed by the Israeli military in Gaza.. Penny witnessed 150 people thrown out of their houses in the middle of the night, and their houses destroyed.. as a Jew i want to say NOT IN MY NAME.. the problem is not Arab/Jew.. it is a military occupation of another people\'s land.. about house demolitions.. no notice usually.. you have to get out quickly as possible.. mounds and mounds of rubble.. so demolished that you couldn\'t even tell where the homes had stood.. this is what occupation.. we have to stop it.. Palestinians are connected to us just like the Israelis.. catch Penny\'s Slideshow at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck, Berkeley, 7PM Sunday Sept 30.. a benefit for the Middle East Childrens Alliance..
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-00:00 --start third audio file Interview with Lee Mun Wah, filmmaker *The Color of Fear*.. of StirFrySeminars.com.. call for more info 510-420-8292..
-07:00 Dennis Bernstein reads Langston Hughes, Daybreak in Alabama
When I get to be a composer
I\'m gonna write me some music about
Daybreak in Alabama
And I\'m gonna put the purtiest songs in it
Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist
And falling out of heaven like soft dew.
I\'m gonna put some tall tall trees in it
And the scent of pine needles
And the smell of red clay after rain
And long red necks
And poppy colored faces
And big brown arms
And the field daisy eyes
Of black and white black white black people
And I\'m gonna put white hands
And black hands and brown and yellow hands
And red clay earth hands in it
Touching everybody with kind fingers
-08:50 Amelia with Noelle Hanrahan at a march and rally in support of the women of Afghanistan.. Noelle: 350 people in attendance.. Amelia: where are you? Noelle: We\'ve just reached the finish point (in Santa Rosa, California).. Noelle: people in wheelchairs.. universal support.. at the Federal Building.. Amelia: any mention of hate crimes? Noelle: some women of color were afraid to come..
-14:00 Dennis Bernstein interview with a SF Arab-American father of three, whose grandson was threatened at school.. Grandson: at the bus stop a boy came up and said, \'we gonna bomb your house\'.. Mom called the school.. they got mad, I think I think i still feel safe at school, the teachers are there to help me and I have lots of friends to help me.. Dennis: does this make you afraid to go to school? Grandson: Not really but it does sometimes.. he is 11 years old, in 7th grade, likes science, wants to be a doctor.. Dennis: thank you..
-17:40 Dennis
now w Grandfather: Somebody attacked me about 11 years before.. in Sacramento.. (gives details, shows cut on neck to Dennis) I was falling down.. when the police came they were gone.. 2 boys, teenager and white boy, they let them go.. Grandfather: about Islam.. about the Koran.. everybody scared too much.. I went to buy a gun to protect myself.. some media there.. they said why you buy a gun?.. they laughed.. read the Koran.. Islam is against terrorism.. 47 years complete in this country.. Philidelphia.. a Pakistani immigrant.. the biggest jihad is you fight for your own self.. to fight against injustice, that is (the meaning of) jihad
-25:40 interview w Esmeralda Sanchez, who works at Marshall Elementary in San Francisco.. about the effect that all this violence, and replication in the media, is having on the kids.. Esmeralda: one boy drawing pictures of all this violence.. giving him nightmares (Ed: although allowing children (or adults) to draw or paint anything they want to express after witnessing human tragedy or other intensity of emotion is most always a good idea, helpful for everyone\'s healing).. Esmeralda: TV not acting responsibly or honestly during this crisis.. let the children speak, let them do their artistic stuff.. let them know it\'s ok to be scared.. ask how will letting my child witness this violence on TV, how will this affect my child? [ref: Kill Your TV dot com] we need to find alternative ways of finding out the truth.. turn off the idiot box.. it has never been good for us
-36:00 interview w Pakistani man, student of Gandhi, and the Buddha, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Pakistani man: we are all people who were shocked by what happened Sept 11.. we are more shocked by the belligerance.. war is going to kill more innocent women and children.. we need to make sure democratic regimes remain stable.. Pakistan could be destabilized.. Dennis: what would this mean to the region? to the U.S.? Pakistani man: would make the situation worse.. push Pakistan to a greater degree of fanaticism.. we do not want that.. Let us look at the history of Afghanistan.. nobody from Alexander down to the British (and the Soviets).. has been able to conquer Afghanstan.. if we go in now, we may be repeating the blunders of the last 5000 years
-41:20 Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Childrens Alliance.. Barbara: I asked the almost 15,000 people here today where they heard about this event.. Almost all said KPFA.. Thanks to KPFA.. Dennis: the alternative response to war? Barbara: about the economic crisis.. the stocks of the armament makers are skyrocketing.. Barbara: We have to have a longer memory than we have.. what has been happening with the race baiting, hate crimes.. has been going on for years.. with the Mexican community.. people who come here to do our work for us, pick our vegetables.. wash our floors.. it drives me nuts.. but this didn\'t just start two weeks ago.. Amelia: about the INS asking for more money..
-45:20
Barbara: We already have in place some really horrific laws.. about the LA8.. rounded up in the middle of the night, held naked for two days.. for selling a newspaper.. expressing a (different) political view about Palestine.. about the civil rights movement.. the African American man dragged to his death in Texas.. Barbara: WE HAVE TO LEARN THE HISTORY .. NO MORE BUSINESS AS USUAL.. Dennis: In 1997 over 300 black churches were burned down.. no culprit in 300 church burnings.. how can that be?.. Barbara: we need to be honest with ourselves.. the Palestinian issue needs to be peacefully resolved.. when all sides are heard, and honored..
-48:00
Barbara: Howard gets mad at me when I make this remark.. but I have to say.. if our peace movement here would take a real look at.. until the issue of Palestinian statehood is resolved.. there will never be peace in that region.. an opportunity we have now to address this issue.. not the whole problem, but a big piece of it.. Amelia: What is ahead of us? Barbara: For me, it\'s not about hope.. I am the least hopeful person in America.. I had a wonderful dinner with Allan Ginsberg, shortly before he died.. I asked him, where\'s about \'hope\'? He jumped up in this restaurant in North Beach, almost spilled his food, and shouted \"F*!& HOPE! It\'s not about \'hope\', it\'s about getting up everyday and..\" (audio continues)
-51:00 Barbara Lubin: WE DO NOT WANT TO ATTACK INNOCENT WOMEN AND CHILDREN ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.. WE CAN NOT BE NARROWLY FOCUSED AT THE TIME.. BRING IT ALL TOGETHER..
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speech by.. (no review available. please feel free, to email us one)
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-### End today\'s show.. today\'s review by john lionheart
Flashpoints Radio Sept 25: UK journalist Robert Fisk; Feminist poet Robin Morgan
Tuesday, Sept 25, 2001 - Start Audio
-00:00 Dennis Bernstein w news headlines from Robert Knight in New York City.. 1/3 of New Yorkers according to a poll favor internment camps for those \"sympathetic to terrorist causes\".. 50% opposed
-05:00 Dennis w Robert Fisk, a award-winning reporter for the London Independent.. Fisk: this part of the world (Middle East) has suffered from terrorist actions.. Irishmen murdered by South Lebanese militiamen, the killers flown to sanctuary in the U.S. by Israel.. 17,500 Lebanese civilians killed by Israeli military in 1982.. crimes against humanity.. 1,800 massacred in Sabra and Shatilla.. Fisk: I don\'t remember any candlelight vigils in the U.S or Europe for them.. I don\'t remember any memorial services.. this is not a war against terrorism, this is a war against America\'s enemies.. Dennis: about Israel strategies.. Fisk: the moment the Palestinians continue to resist occupation, they automatically become \'terrorists\'.. (about American officials) without any understanding or compassion for the Middle East.. urging that the U.S. should start bombing around the country, around the region.. absolutely obscene.. an innocent country, Lebanon.. on the verge of economic breakdown.. attacks could have earthquake responses here.. IF it\'s bin Laden, and I\'m waiting for the proof from Powell.. IF it\'s bin Laden.. he did it because he wanted an American reaction so.. brutal that Arab people overthrow Mabarak, the Saudi regime.. Fisk: In 1842, 16,500 English (4,500 soldiers and officers, 12,000 women, children and servants) left Kabul (reference).. attacked by Afghans wielding knives and axes.. killed every Englishman and woman except one.. hacked them to death.. Britain lost four wars.. Soviets lost 62,000 men.. Afghanistan not a country, but a collection of tribes within borders drawn by others.. Fisk: as the days have gone by, it has become clear.. America does not want to attack *all* sources of terror.. about ordinary civilians around the world.. what are we westerners being asked to sign up to?.. a vehicle for the reimposition of massive American power.. European powers already extremely skeptical.. what happens if we take over Afghanistan?.. nation-building again?.. the crimes against humanity in New York and Washington.. have we thought this through? do we know what we\'re doing? we can fund.. the Northern Alliance.. are we going to turn them into a government? are we planning to decide who their government should be?.. if we are, i think the people who are being asked to support this war should be told about it.. Dennis: about oil, about pipelines? Fisk: the Saudis who helped create the Taliban.. had plans for a pipeline.. about Saudi Arabia\'s connection with the Taliban2.. (discussion).. Dennis: what about the \'second wave of terror\' here in this country, attacks on Arabs and others.. Fisk: It is infantile.. We have a whole history.. we\'ve had 30 years of movies that portray Arabs as rapists, murderers, child molestors.. reminds me of the worst propoganda.. like the Nazis made about the Jews.. the message coming from Hollywood appalling.. about the movie made in Israel 30 years ago, portraying Arabs as slave traders, child molestors, rapists.. if movies were made in Hollywood, and they never should be, ever, that portray Jews as they portray Arabs, there would be a revolution.. but when it comes to Muslims, they can be portrayed in the most grotesque ways.. Fisk: I was in Brussels when these crimes against humanity took place in NYC and DC.. WHY did this happen? (he was attacked for asking the question).. those who want to prevent this discussion.. will happily talk about Islamic terror.. but then why is the Middle East a dangerous place for Americans?
-32:00 Noelle Hanrahan: about the songs banned by Clear Channel.. music break: Peace Train by Cat Stevens.. \'Peace Train\' is another \'targeted song\' by the altogether creepy radio conglomerate, \'Clear Channel\', banned either because it is promotes peace or because Cat Stevens converted to Islam.. [you can email a POLITE! reminder to Randy Palmer, Clear Channel guy at Investor Relations, that censorship negatively impacts both freedom *and* profits]
-36:20 Noelle Hanrahan w feminist poet, former editor of MS. Magazine, Robin Morgan.. Robin: we have to think outside the box.. (the government) gearing up for a \'jihad\'.. looking for ways to address the rage on the Muslim streets.. Robin is author of The Demon Lover: on the sexuality of terrorism.. Robin: we can (only) name 5-10 women involved in terrorism worldwide.. [it\'s a guy thing].. why? it comes back to the [perceived] \'eroticism\' of violence/ terror connected to [erroneous concepts of] manhood.. it affects absolutely everything.. entertainment, rhetoric, parenting, sexuality as defined by patriarchy.. when you examine the profiles of men involved in terrorism.. they are as human as the boy next door, e.g. Timothy McVeigh, Ted Bundy.. well educated, too.. it reminds me of Joseph Campbell\'s \"The Hero\".. Robin: when women reach a point of outrage, they march.. at the edge of human suffering.. part of it is a drive to make the people with their foot on your necks see how you feel..
-43:00 Noelle Hanrahan w feminist poet Robin Morgan: (more discussion of the roots of terrorism, and real actions we can take to end it forever) Robin\'s latest essay, Ghosts and Echoes, written Sept 18, 2001, an excerpt:
As a woman I have no country
As a woman I want no country
As a woman my country is the whole world
If this is treason, may I be worthy of it..."
For a email copy of Ghosts and Echoes send an email to: robinmorgan2001@aol.com
-54:30 End today\'s show.. -today\'s review by john lionheart
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