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(cont. Homeless Vets)
Is extreme poverty among returning Iraq war veterans evidence that a crime of major proportions has been committed by the society which sent the vets off to war, way over there?
Maybe it ought to be, but, of course, it is not criminal, because it’s not against the law to be poor in the richest country on earth. Nor has any law been violated just by the existence of homeless war veterans living on the mean streets of the American homefront. Nor has homeland security been compromised by this growing presence of veterans without shelter. Nor has our sense of outrage been stirred up, because very little has been reported about this problem “on the down low.”
The majority of returning veterans seem to comply with our social norms of stability and orderliness; they strive for success in whatever way they can. But a few vets — not most, but a growing, awful number — are not success stories. They are no longer heroes for whom we hold up bright yellow ribbons. Somehow these few complicate our pretty picture of the hometown heroes who return and fill our local newpapers with heartfelt human interest stories. These are throwaway vets whom we’d rather not hear of, for they shatter the norms of what a truly good society should value and cloud our vision of justice.
No official crime committed, so no one to accuse, try, convict and imprison for aggravated assault and battery on our collective national pride. Yet, our sense of patriotism frequently does not include the postscript of what happens to our boys, and now girls, when they return home to face economic degradation, joblessness and the resultant mental anguish. The feelings of pride dim considerably when the racial, ethnic and class status of the returning vets materializes in some ugly aspects of civilian life.
Certainly the current heads of the Pentagon cannot be solely blamed for this tragedy, nor the current commander in chief, for it has existed under past administrations as well.
But our top political leaders can be blamed, for they have the resources to help fix the problem. If $500 billion-plus can be projected in Bush administration military budget outlays, surely someone can find a few extra bucks to help our one-time heroes. But our leaders won’t do it. They hardly ever do.
When the politicians have responded to vet homelessness, it’s often been with dehumanization and warehousing in mind.
For instance, huge homeless shelters of 800–900 men are not uncommon in New York City. Some of those shelters are set aside for veterans only. Many of the shelters are located in the city’s abandoned National Guard armories in dreary places in Harlem, Brooklyn and the Bronx. The city has hired private security outfits to patrol these armories on 24/7 basis. Some actually look like prisoner of war camps for the homeless vets! Next time you’re in the Big Apple, visit an armory. You’ll learn a lot about what our society actually thinks of some of its once heroic veterans.
On the other hand, we the people must take part of the blame. Unlike veterans of the ugly war in Southeast Asia a generation ago, we have learned again to really love and celebrate our Iraq war veterans and praise them for their valor and sacrifices. But then in schizoid fashion, we turn our backs while some of them are forced to re-enlist in the Grand Army of the Poor — that growing army of the unemployed, the insane, those sick vets with strange diseases picked up in war that the veterans hospitals claim are unrelated to war, and of course, the hungry, the cold and the homeless. Some don’t even have “three hots (meals) and a cot” to sleep on. Instead of barracks cleanup, they have garbage can raids. They make the rounds of faith-based soup kitchens, where they hear worn-out sermons from well-meaning religionists who know lots about heaven, but very little about how the U.S. “market-oriented” system works to produce and warehouse the poor as it enshrines the avarice and wealth of the few.
It all comes down to an unpatriotic scenario of pain and insult for our once brave young men and women. Iraq war veterans sneaking around outside cafes, lurking in bleak alleys, transit stations, all-night spots and byways, waiting for a space in a shelter that’s already full. The jails become a place of warmth and fellowship where a vet goes for limited, incarcerated joys. Crime gets the veteran jail time away from the streets. Crime brings vets shelter behind bars. Crime becomes a way to get back home to a place of rest, on lockdown. Jail guards now guard some of our once heroic ex-guardians who fought our battles. Keys thrown away — just another crazy, criminalized veteran produced by just another crazy, imperialist war, way over there.
Dr. A.S. Mahdi Ibn-Ziyad served in the U.S. Air Force, 1961-1969. He is adjunct professor of criminal justice at Rutgers University, and co-chair of the Philadelphia Area Black Radical Congress.
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Vocal protesters gather in N.J., across U.S. for 5th anniversary of war
Thursday, March 20, 2008
By Trish G. Graber
and Lucas Murray gcnews@sjnewsco.com
TRENTON On the five-year anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, Sue Niederer stood outside the Statehouse with a purpose.
"For the knock on the door that every parent gets," she said. "That's why I'm here."
Niederer, whose son, Lt. Seth J. Dvorin, died in Iraq in February 2004, held a sign with a photo of the Army veteran and bold black letters that read, "President Bush You Killed My Son."
The Mercer County mother joined about 70 demonstrators in Trenton Wednesday to protest the Iraq War and call for the troops to be brought home immediately.
Protesters in the crowd held signs that read, "Five Years Too Many," and "Invest in America, Not War in Iraq." Others wore black armbands that said, "Stop the War, Iraq Moratorium, Bring the Troops Home."
"Hopefully we'll convince someone that the war is not working," said Joe DeLengyel, of Middlesex County.
The protest came after a morning speech by President Bush who said the battle in Iraq has been longer, harder and more costly than anticipated, but that the 2003 invasion was necessary.
"Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision," he said. "And this is a fight America can and must win."
Since 2003, nearly 4,000 troops have died, roughly $500 billion has been spent, and Americans have become increasingly concerned about the financial state of the country.
"The system is collapsing around us partially because of this war," said Deb Huber, of Hunterdon County. "We're broke."
A large part of the demonstration focused on the amount of money spent abroad. Protesters chanted, "Money for jobs, not for war."
"The only reason we attacked Iraq is because of the huge reserves of oil," said Allen Goldberg, of Mercer County.
Maureen Glover, whose cousin died in the war, called the situation "an absolute disaster."
She held part of a banner strung with the pictures of fallen soldiers from New Jersey, which she put together to put faces and names to the numbers of soldiers lost. Like many Americans, she said she is looking toward the next administration to halt the increasing tally of those killed in the line of duty.
"Hopefully a president will get in that will really get them out," she said. "Instead of just saying they'll get them out."
The protest was one of several demonstrations held around the state to mark the five-year anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.
Dozens of protesters assembled throughout South Jersey calling for an end to military operations in Iraq. In Mount Holly, representatives from NJ Citizen Action led a candlelight vigil outside the High Street office of Republican Congressman Jim Saxon Wednesday night.
Earlier in the afternoon, a handful of protesters assembled in the rain outside the Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden calling for an end to operations in Iraq.
"The war is taking the money and resources out of the mouths of babes in this country," Mahdi Ibn-Ziyad said. "It's killing babes in Iraq and our troops to the tune of 4,000 thus far."
Ibn-Ziyad, a Democrat challenging incumbent congressman Rob Andrews, D-1st Dist., of Haddon Heights, said he's looking to "stop the madness of this war immediately" and to refocus government spending to rebuild crumbling Camden City.
"We need to do this now," Ibn-Ziyad said. "We need to end the war now. We need to bring the troops home."
Echoing sentiments among many protesters, Rutgers-Camden student Stella Bonaparte said she feels the war has gone on five years too long. The urban studies major suggested the dollars going toward military spending would be better used elsewhere.
"We've got so many problems we really need to be dealing with in this county," Bonaparte said. "It seems like we have trillions and trillions of dollars to go out to countries and bomb them, yet we have no money to invest in our cities and our infrastructure."
Nick Bovino made the trip to Camden from Cherry Hill to voice his displeasure over the way the war has been handled. While he disagrees with the reasoning behind the war, Bovino said the support of those in uniform should be unwavering.
He said the troops should be equipped and supplied as best as the country can provide and be afforded the best medical care possible when they return.
"They're not discards," Bovino said. "They're our friends, our relatives, our neighbors. We're not at war with our own people."
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(continued SJ Super delegates)
For starters, the early South Jersey supporters of Senator Obama were given no credit at all for their ardent campaign and get out the vote labors leading up to and past the February 5th primary. Could the reason be that now that Norcross and his submissive political cronies have come aboard the Obama train, the media some how conveniently forgot the early endorsements of Camden City Councilman Gilbert "Whip" Wilson, Senator Adler and several other local SJ elected officials?
A meeting last month at Camden's Kaighn Ave. Baptist Church showcased solid reformist Democratic support for Senator Obama; support that had been in the making since at least late November in preparation for the New Jersey primary. Wilson, Adler and the others were there. None of the Norcross crowd, Mayor Faison and State Senator Redd in particular, bothered to attend. These reform minded South Jersey Democrats who are not --- out of groveling, abject necessity, beholding to the Norcross machine --- caught and acted on the Obama campaign's sense of optimism, inspiration and hope. They did it of their own will without prompts, pomp and drama. They deserve big credit for their early idealism.
I just pray the sense of idealism spawned by Senator Obama and his sloganeering about change continues. Often when the establishment type political pragmatists (with their hardened ideological strictures) get involved with the politics of change, the sense of political idealism flees afoot, ran off by an ugly confrontation between the conventionalist notion on the reality of what is vs. the change agent's perspective on the possibility of what should be. That's the "as is, status quo ante", old guard, "business as usual" types who really can't stomach too much change. Compared to the normative crowd of hard working people, the poor, the left-out, the peripheral, the powerless. the dispossessed, the alienated and marginalized masses demanding the full breath of social and political change.
One is a retrograde throwback to a hopeless and failed past, while the other holds out the sense of what the African American philosopher, Dr. Cornel West, (taking his cue from Dr. M.L. King, Jr.), calls revolutionary hope for the future.
Senator Obama, in his "audacity of hope" has appropriately appropriated (but not plagiarized smile) those ideas of abundant hope and moved them out of the realm of mere lofty platitudes once prophetically uttered at the 1963 March on Washington, and onto the presidential stage of the 21st century. In so doing he has inspired millions who want change, not the tired, worn out politics of the usual. The tired laments of the gradualists in politics who move ever so slowly with barely noticeable incremental fixes for a broken, alienated system.
Let's pray then that hope, plus grace, plus mercy, and commonsense does not flee as we divergent Democrats unite across the ideological divides and go forward.
Dr. Ibn-Ziyad, 2/22/2007
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(continued Dem, Republican face similar hurdles)
Zeitz, a history professor, is seeking the Democratic nomination to oppose 14-term U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-4th of Robbinsville. Glading, a prison minister, is seeking the Republican nomination to oppose U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, D-1st of Haddon Heights.
So far, they are the only candidates to announce they are seeking their parties’ nominations in their respective districts in the upcoming June 3 primary.
Both would be considered huge underdogs against experienced and well-funded incumbents in the general election, yet both describe their relative political inexperience as a potential advantage when taking on so-called “career politicians” like Smith and Andrews.
“I fundamentally believe that Congress should be made up of teachers and carpenters and regular people,” Zeitz said last week. “No one should have a Congressional seat for three decades. You can’t help but stop relating to your constituents.”
Glading will almost surely face Andrews, who is heavily favored to win a Democratic primary contest against challenger Mahdi Ibn-Ziyad of Camden.
“I think people are ready for change, and I think it’s time for a new face and a fresh voice who can bring news ideas to the Washington beltway,” Glading said Thursday.
Smith disagreed and described himself as a more effective representative due to his lengthy experience and track record.
“I love this job now more than ever,” Smith said. “I’m more enthusiastic, and I’m more effective. I know how to put together bipartisan coalitions, and I know how to take an idea and bring it to fruition and get it passed into law.”
Smith said he planned to campaign on his record of tackling big and small issues for his constituents. Among the accomplishments he cited was the passage of a law to increase funding available under the veterans GI Bill as well as a law to better track and research autism cases.
“I give as much attention to things like that as I do the big issues,” Smith said. “For me, if one person walks into my office with a problem, it’s my problem, too, and we do everything we can to try to find a solution.”
Bill Caruso, spokesman for Andrews’ re-election campaign, said the congressman would campaign hard on his record and ideas for improving the country.
“Congressman Andrews looks forward to presenting the voters with a positive campaign based on his record and his ideas to make the country better,” Caruso said in a written statement. “As he always does, he plans to work hard and take no one’s vote for granted.”
Glading has served as the director of the Moores-town-based Saints Prison Ministry for the past 20 years. The group ministers to inmates in prisons across the country and also assists some convicts after their release.
Glading said he first became interested in running for Congress in order to provide a Republican choice for residents. He noted that Andrews ran unopposed in the district in 2002 and 2006.
“Rob may be a nice guy, but I find his voting record to be atrocious and his legislative record to be even worse,” he said. “I think we disagree on 75 to 80 percent of the core issues.”
Zeitz, who most recently taught history at Cambridge University in England, also presented himself as a polar opposite of Smith on most issues, including the war in Iraq, abortion, stem cell research, health care and the economy.
He vowed to raise more than $1 million in campaign funds in order to spread his message of change and attack Smith’s support of Bush administration policies.
“This is a moderate district, and the congressman has shown he’s way out of the mainstream,” Zeitz said. “He represents everything that Bush represents.”
According to the latest Federal Election Commission finance reports, Zeitz raised $97,301 through Dec. 31 last year, while Smith raised $268,653. Smith reported a total of $405,006 in cash on hand. Zeitz reported $82,766.
Information on funds raised by Glading was not yet on file with the election commission. Andrews raised $1.1 million in campaign funds last year and had $2.3 million in cash on hand, according to commission reports.
Seton Hall political science professor Joseph Marbach said defeating incumbent congressmen like Andrews and Smith represented an almost insurmountable challenge.
“It’s definitely a real David and Goliath battle,” Marbach said Friday. “The return rate for incumbents in the House is something like 92 percent. It’s unbelievably high.”
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(continued Democrats to lead on religious issues)
Enter U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., with a demonstrably muscular approach to a faith that matters. No, he is not Muslim as his campaign handlers are quick to point out in trying to overcome the Republican spin-masters who attempt to deceive naive voters about his background.
Obama is a member of a nationally famous Afro-centric Christian church in Chicago. A church whose views on foreign policy matters may at times differ from those of Obama, as for instance Obama's stance on Israel and its relations with the Palestinians.
In South Jersey, we have heard nothing from the Episcopalian congressman, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., on topics that intersect religion and politics, particularly with respect to the war in Iraq. Rather than Andrews' religious quietism, I think a good solid religious and moral view would be: We should stop the war tomorrow, bring the troops home to safety and use a sum equal to the $487 billion or more expended on that war since 2003 to end economic injustice for those at the bottom of the economic heap in areas such as Camden, one of the poorest cities in America.
Andrews on wrong side
Apparently, my own religious and moral stance on the war compares favorably with many in Andrews' own faith tradition. I am a Muslim and progressive Democrat in agreement with Episcopalian progressives on the war issue. We want an immediate end to it.
Key figures in national Episcopal church circles have denounced the war in Iraq. The Rev. O.C. Edwards, the Episcopal Church's chairman, the Faith and Order Commission of the National Council of Churches USA, Bishop Chris Epting, deputy to the presiding bishop of the national Episcopal Church USA, and the Episcopal Peace Fellowship have come out against the war.
Contrary to the peace-minded sentiments of key national Episcopal sources, in 2002 Andrews was among the 81 House Democrats who voted in favor of authorizing the invasion of Iraq.
In May, Andrews voted with the GOP and Bush and against the House Democratic majority, on HR 2206, the bill that would provide funding in Iraq "without setting withdrawal deadlines for troops," which anti-war Democrats had sought.
To my mind, being prophetic in religion is to be radically progressive politically.
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