[Peace-discuss] missed opportunity to reach the community around Obama

[C. G. Estabrook]

I'm not sure about the first sentence, but the rest of this
is, wretchedly enough, true.  The war was properly described
at tonight's meeting as a racist war (the continuation of
which, we should be clear, Sen. Obama supports).  Although the
source of the war is not racism, it's racist in two ways: (1)
Americans are mobilized to kill and torture Arabs (and
Muslims -- often the distinction is not made) by racist
appeals about what Arabs/Muslims have done to us, and how
despicable they are; and (2) an American underclass,
disproportionately indexed by race, is recruited to do the
torturing and killing.  --CGE


---- Original message ----
>Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 19:33:57 -0500
>From: Karen Medina <kmedina at uiuc.edu>  
>Subject: [Peace-discuss] missed opportunity to reach the
community around Obama  
>To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>
>We did miss an opportunity to reach the community around 
>Obama. We could have pointed out that the sons and daughters 
>of minority Illinois residents are being heavily recruited to 
>join the military. My brothers and sisters are dieing in 
>Iraq. They are being asked to kill Iraqi citizens. They are 
>being asked to torture people. They are being asked to go 
>into a place where they will see people suffering. They will 
>see Iraqi people -- women and children in need of the basic 
>things to keep them alive, like food and water and medical 
>attention -- and not be able to help. Those military 
>enlistees will live in constant fear of attack, not knowing 
>if they will be hit by friendly fire; and if they are, they 
>cannot be sure that their government will lie to their 
>parents about what happened. They will be asked to follow 
>orders that will put innocent people in harm's way. My 
>brothers and sisters from right her in Illinois will come 
>back changed if they come back.
>
>-karen medina