[PeacePolitical Blog] An Editorial by the Editor

A CALL FOR A CHANGE IN LEADERSHIP

Surely any extraterrestial beings, or Being if you prefer, looking at Earth from afar with 'benevolent watchfulness' and hoping for Peace On Earth, must have superhuman powers of patience to have let the human race run the bloody course it has taken and continues to take -- up to the present moment.

In recent decades, we have had the ability to see the Earth from afar ourselves, and the pictures sent back of the tiny blue-green planet have made us realize how marvelous and relatively unique it is. Although the peoples of Earth have never even approached a capability of unified planetary self-governance, a system of treaties and international laws has grown up that effectively organizes the affairs of nations with respect to each other -- as long as there is willing participation and compliance, by the most powerful nations, at least.

The current Bush administration has led the U.S. in a unilateral disavowal of this system of laws and treaties -- moving the world backwards toward the rule of brute power and force -- not for the benefit, even, of the people of this country, but for the benefit of the few, the rich, the powerful members of multinational corporations and de facto political conglomerates (or 'alliances').

The voters of the U.S. expressed very clearly their disapproval of the actions of this administration last month (November, 2006) in the midterm elections which turned out the Republican majorities of both houses of Congress and by continuing to give President Bush a 'vote of no confidence' in the form of increasingly low (approaching an unprecedented low) level of approval and popularity. Yet, even in the face of this, Bush's dogged determination and dedication to his own particular hope and views of the war in Iraq tends to be seen as an admirable trait of character and leadership.

Given this set of circumstances, the nation faces a truly challenging dilemma.

We need to fashion a workable way to resolve a disparity between the President, administration, and the people by whose consent the elected officials, including the President and his appointed administration, are allowed to govern. In the British parliamentary system, a call for resignation could be initiated by the legislative houses and, by tradition, the chief executive would be bound to honor their vote.

It is well-known that the resignation of Richard Nixon was essentially assured once the leading members of his own party told him that it was time to go peaceably and voluntarily. The position of George W. Bush is much closer to this circumstance than acknowledged. The members of the Baker-Hamilton review commission have recommended a scaling back of the war in Iraq and increased use of diplomacy, especially with Iran, Syria, and of course, Israel, to find ways to bring political incentives for resolution of the conflicts in the region, including Palestine. This would be a dramatic change in course from the U.S. military dominance (including their support of the Israeli military) in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other key points in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Such a dramatic change of course, urged by Republican as well as Democratic leaders (including those who have seen long-standing service within their respective parties and with previous administrations of both major parties), may well require a change of leadership at the highest level -- namely the President and Vice-President.

It would appear that a rational analysis of the current situation, as we enter into a new year, suggests that a more formal call for such a change in leadership may be in order. Stay tuned, and remember, you heard it here first.

Rick Mitchell, Editor

Fwd: Against All Odds -- Living and Rebuilding in New Orleans

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Here is the story of a New Orleanian who is re-building his life very close
to Mt. Nebo Baptist Church, a CSC church.

 

New Orleans Times-Picayune

 


AGAINST ALL ODDS


Robert Green lost his mother and granddaughter when his house floated away
near the Industrial Canal breach during Hurricane Katrina. But he has
returned, a pioneer, encouraging his neighbors to come home.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

By Bruce Nolan

Staff writer

Crossing into the Lower 9th Ward over the Claiborne Avenue bridge, you can
see Robert Green's two new FEMA trailers down below and off to the left,
planted stark and alone in a literal flood plain scraped flat by Hurricane
Katrina.

There used to be a thick residential neighborhood there. Now, even the
rubble is mostly gone.

Katrina had no ground zero, but the few blocks of Tennessee Street just off
Claiborne long ago took on a macabre, worldwide celebrity. This is the place
presidents, visiting royalty, clergy and ordinary tourists come to gaze into
Katrina's malignant heart.

And now, at 1826 Tennessee St., Green has returned to his property to start
life anew.

He is the first in his neighborhood to do so.

And it is here that he holds court as greeter, mayor and counselor.

Green waves to contractors who honk as they rumble past with loads of
debris. More important, he chats with former neighbors who drive by. They
renew acquaintances, share plans.

Given the desolation of the place, there is an astonishing amount of
traffic. Besides the contractors and tourists -- who still come, although in
lesser numbers -- Green says there is a constant trickle of former residents
cruising past, checking their neighborhood for some sign of returning life.

Just now, that would be Green.

Green is eager to tell them how he navigated the FEMA red tape to get his
trailers -- for himself; his developmentally disabled cousin, Hyman
Sheppard; and his two grown daughters, Ariel and Arien, who are students at
Southeastern Louisiana University and Baton Rouge Community College,
respectively.

Sheppard, 61, who communicates very little and hums with an incessant,
contented tone, has swept clean what remains of their driveway. Soon, says
Green, perhaps they'll put out a few chairs.

They have been there since Friday -- not long enough to have developed a
daily rhythm. But Green's cell phone buzzes frequently; old friends and
neighbors hear he's got a trailer on Tennessee Street. They want to hear
about it. They tell him they'll drive by.

On the morning of Aug. 29, 2005, the 1800 block of Tennessee Street was a
thickly settled neighborhood of long-term homeowners. Green, now 51, had
lived there 38 years. Everybody knew everybody, knew their kids, knew where
they went to church.

Katrina smashed the community to pieces, and killed several neighbors up and
down the block for good measure.

A quarter mile from Tennessee Street, the deadly hurricane blew open the
flawed eastern floodwall of the Industrial Canal. A torrent bulldozed
through the neighborhood, knocking homes into one another and grinding them
into rubble before swallowing the kindling.

Struggle to survive

In a memorably harrowing Katrina story, Green and his brother Jonathan
hauled their family onto the roof as the house flooded beneath them. The
house lifted off its foundation and floated free down the street. On the
exposed roof, Green and his brother frantically sheltered Sheppard, their
sick and elderly mother, and Green's three toddler grandchildren.

When the floating house collided with another a few blocks away, the Greens
tried to transfer their charges to a safer roof nearby. One by one, Green
tried to move his grandchildren to the roof next door. Horrified, Green saw
his 3-year-old granddaughter, Shanai, and her 4-year-old sister, Shaniya,
topple into the water.

Shaniya surfaced and was saved; Shanai did not.

A few hours later, Green's mother, Joyce, 74, died quietly on the roof, with
the storm raging around her.

After that, the family was split between Tennessee and Texas. Later, Green
and Sheppard took an apartment in Algiers.

Friday, they spent their first night back on Tennessee Street.

"Nights are not scary, exactly," Green said. "Let's say spooky. There's not
a light around here."

During the day, there's the constant rumble of traffic a few blocks away on
North Claiborne, as well as the heavy trucks and cars cruising past bearing
old friends and acquaintances.

Resource of hope

Green has taken to handing out photocopies of names and phone numbers of
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials who helped him get his
trailer. Standing at curbside, leaning into car windows to chat, he
dispenses welcome and encouragement.

He also has a pattern book of house plans. Asked about the future, he flips
it open to a page showing a three-bedroom, 1,400-square-foot home elevated
high on piers. He has applied for Road Home money; no interview yet.

Nearer term, he hopes to rebuild his former income as a tax-preparer. Tax
season is nigh; he hopes old clients will be looking for him. That's another
reason for putting out the word that he's back on Tennessee Street, he said.


More good news: Shaniya, 5, and Shamiya, 3, the two grandchildren he shared
the storm with, will spend Christmas with him, he said, and perhaps the
summer.

That would be wonderful, he said.

Then once again they could walk the neighborhood as they used to, no matter
what it has since become.

 

--
"[W]e love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving... I would believe only in a god who could dance. And when I saw my devil I found him serious, thorough, profound, and solemn... Now I am light, now I fly, now I see myself beneath myself, now a god dances through me. Thus spoke Zarathustra."
-- Frederich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, First Part, ca. 1883.