Rock Island’s War Zone

First Ward Alderman Terry Brooks has delineated an area west of 15th Street to 12th Street and South of 9th Avenue  to 18th Avenue as a “war zone.

Apparently it is news to many of the residents who don’t read The Argus or Quad City Times newspapers. A drive through the neighborhood on August 20 seemed to indicate there was no evidence of a “war.”

Children were out on the streets, some adults were sitting on their house porches, teenage boys were playing basketball, young girls were walking up and down the streets. Three white women, in the largely African American neighborhood, were walking down 12th Street with babies in two strollers.

Two houses displayed our nation’s flag, and one house apparently still kept its July Fourth decorations. The many churches in the neighborhood -–between four and six--seemed calm outwardly. No one seemed to have disturbed the construction materials at Hawthorne Irving School south of 9th Avenue.

In the lower end of Longview Park, across from 15th street—the east end of the “war zone”—adults and children seemed to be enjoying the summer evening.

Two homes displayed a local Realtors  “For Sale” signs. I wonder if this declaration by Alderman Brooks is helpful. Will it help property values or start a panic by homeowners to sell before prices drop in the “war zone”?

We all act stupidly on occasion

Saying some people act stupidly does not necessarily mean they are stupid. I know I have acted stupidly on occasion—unthinkingly and irrationally-–which resulted in consequences I did not desire or need.

The endless number of commentators who have taken umbrage to President Barack Obama’s remarks that the arresting officers in the Harvard professor’s home “acted stupidly” seems to indicate they never have.

Well they can now join the club. The recent comments of Glenn Beck, O’Reilly, Dobbs, Limbaugh who are intelligent enough to earn thousands of dollars to display their arrogance, have spoken unthinkingly and irrationally on the Gates–Crowley affair—that is, stupidly.

Reform health insurance or health care?

It is unconscionable that in this 21st Century when 72 percent of the American public favor a single payer health system, when 60 percent of bankruptcies are related to the inability to pay health bills, when 20,000 to 22,000 people die each year for lack of proper medical assistance, when 47 to 50 million American citizens are without health insurance, we still have some legislators more interested in saving profits of health insurance companies instead of saving lives.

Many of these same legislators criticize others for not acting " consistent with the values of the American people." Daily some legislators continue to bicker over costs and their fear of “government control” and balk at bringing this nation in line with the 33 other industrialized nations which have health budgets that provide health care for all their citizens.

Even Cuba ranks higher than the U.S. in delivery of providing health care to all its citizens. France’s “socialist” system rates the highest in quality of health care; while, we spend the most money and rank about 34th. It is shameful to admit to our relatives in other countries that most of us are denied the same health care coverage legislators have in Congress.

Our legislators surrounded by corporate lobbyists worrying about the "losses" the health insurance industry will suffer is no reason to continue to let more citizens die ( an average of 412 a week) in the U.S. for lack of health care. Meanwhile, our young men and women are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan supposedly defending "our way of life."

Their governments are meaner than ours?

Any of us who wish to believe that the Iranian administrative government lacks our "American values" needs to see the PBS program "Get Up, Stand Up: The Story of Pop and Protest" which aired June 23, and was a reminder that governments local and national beat protesters even in the U.S.

During the years of the struggle by workers to form unions, the civil rights struggle in the South, the student protests against the Vietnam war, the protests in Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago our governments at the local, state and national levels (through such organizations as the FBI) used whatever means necessary to subdue American protesters. Regarding "clean" elections one just needs to review what happened in GWB's elections first in Florida and again in Ohio later.

Listening to the talking heads and some of our leaders, one is led to believe that the Iranian government (which has had only one war in recent years when they were invaded by Iraq--with the help of the U.S. funding both sides) is ruthless. They kill more protesters than we do. They subvert human rights more than we do. They corrupt the election process more than we do. They threaten to create nuclear bombs more than we do (we really don't threaten since we already have thousands). They are more of a threat to our country than we are a threat to them.

So what do you think our President says on the day drones kill innocent citizens in Afghanistan and Pakistan? He is "appalled and outraged" at the Iranian government. He seems to forget how our own governments deal with peaceful protesters here (students shot and beaten on college campuses, strikers beaten and killed, civil rights workers beaten, maimed and killed, journalists arrested and beaten at the recent Republican convention and at a past Democratic convention in Chicago).

The President states, "No iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to peaceful protest of justice." Yes, citizens of the world watch what happens here and wonder why we believe we are better off protesting wrongs here than they are protesting their government there.

Life is full of contradictions. No wonder we are befuddled and ask: "Why do they hate us?"
One answer: Because our government can be meaner than theirs...

Doctor Killer Should Be Tortured

Scott Roeder called The Associated Press from the Sedgwick County jail, where he's being held on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the shooting of Dr. George Tiller one week ago.

"I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal," Roeder said. When asked by the AP what he meant and if he was referring to another shooting, he refused to elaborate further.

There should be no doubt in the minds of the proponents of waterboarding that Roeder will provide useful information if he is tortured.

Columnist Charles Karuthammer and local columnist former Judge Donald O’Shea are proponents of torture. They claim information elicited by torture is useful to prevent future terrorist attacks.

The Justice Department says it takes Roeder’s threats seriously, but doesn’t know if what he says is credible. It is time to get the truth: the killer needs to be tortured.

Do Some White Males Lack Empathy?

It wasn’t until President Lyndon Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court and confirmed by the Senate was the white male dominated court changed.

Most people of color, and particularly women, probably understand what President Obama’s nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor meant when she suggested a Latina woman judge “would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

Of course, that much quoted remark has caused some white males to suggest Sotomayor is “ethnically insensitive” ( Charles Krauthammer) and also “racist” ( Patrick Buchanan among others).

Some white males have even question Sotomayor’s neutrality in the cases she has judged, and claim she is, therefore, “unfit” to serve on the highest court in the land.

Newt Gingrich recently backed off from his early assertion that Sotomayor is a racist. But overly sensitive Buchanan still remains apoplectic. He concludes, as a result of Stotomayor’s remarks, affirmative action needs to be trashed. Glen Beck, Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh are just a few others who seem to have no understanding of the meaning of "empathy."

In our male dominated society, however, if history is our guide, it will be along time before the likes of Buchanan will understand what Sotomayor was implying in her much quoted remarks.

After all, it wasn’t until 1924 that a white male dominated Congress decided that Native Americans, who had to prove they were born here, were allowed to become U.S. citizens. Fortunately a white male dominated empathetic Supreme Court upheld that decision.

Will new schools improve students' grades?

This evening a friend of mine got into a discussion with proponents of the school tax referendum on the April 7 ballot. Their contention is that the tax increase will bring in funds to build new schools which in turn will attract good teachers and also will have the side benefit of keeping property values up.

My friend argued that this was pure speculation and would not guarantee "good" teachers. He said there were plenty of good teachers in the system already. The proponents argued that good teachers are attracted to new facilities; and was one of the reasons why good teachers leave for Pleasant Valley and Bettendorf schools.

My friend countered that recent statistics showed the drop out rate in the Iowa school system had slightly increased in the past year. He pointed out that in developing countries, to which we outsource so much business, seemed to be educating engineers and computer technicians even though they were being taught in schools that were not as well equipped as ours or the new ones as being proposed.

The proponents were not easily dissuaded. They still insisted that new schools would definitely boost property values. My friend was left wondering if they were really concerned whether the schools would produce educated students with "good" teachers.