Room for all God's miscreants

The new Supreme Court has significantly expanded the rights of religions over the good of all citizens. For this court, the First Amendment "free exercise" clause includes just about anything a religious group chooses to do, no matter how detrimental that might be to the common good. Want to have hundreds at a wedding during a deadly pandemic? Now religious groups have the right to be super spreaders of COVID 19.

That is probably good news for the 40,000 fundamentalist Mormons whose practices of polygamy may now be protected. Other religions groups also have reason to be spiritually joyous. Take the Catholic Church, where the sexual abuse of children has become so commonplace that it is almost part of the religious experience. Thousands of priests have abused children for decades, and their actions have been protected right up to the Vatican. Why couldn't the church now claim that pedophilia is a part of its religious tradition, and as such is protected from criminal prosecution?

Zionists have reasons to celebrate as well. Israel is an important part of the Jewish and Evangelical Christian religions, so wouldn't the apartheid treatment of five million Palestinian now be protected by the Supreme Court? In fact shooting Palestinians, bulldozing their homes and walling them into fetid ghettos has been part of both religions for over a century. Why not celebrate it, along with bigamist Mormons and child molesting Catholics? The new religious freedoms enshrined by the Supreme Court have room for all God's miscreants.

Apple podcasts are now fixed

Searches of Apple Podcasts are now showing Activist Radio episodes. We had some down time, but working with Apple support fixed the issue. Thanks for being patient. If you have trouble finding or playing past episodes of Activist Radio, please let me know. My email is right on https://www.classwars.org

To the North is the empire

July 29

GUEST: Dr. Robin Broad, Professor of International Development at American University and co-author of the new book, The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country From Corporate Greed, talks about taking on giant mining companies and winning.

The Water Defenders - Beacon Press

Sometimes we lose good leftists because they don't think we can win. There is a huge gap between what people know, and what people dare to work for. Many Americans know about Central America, and about the centuries old will of its people to chose how their countries are run. But odds of having Third World peoples actually choosing their own government are mind-numbingly small. To the North is the empire, whose corporations make most of the decisions about domestic as well as foreign policy. 

“The United States appears to be destined by Providence to plague Latin America with misery in the name of liberty.” 

-- Simon Bolivar

The Water Defenders is a story about the community activists who defeated an international gold mining corporation, intent on destroying the drinking water of El Salvador. There are lessons to be learned, not only about how to organize, but also how to be a valuable ally to indigenous activists. And sometimes what works is so improbable that it would have been crossed off by all but the most intent and committed. 

Like in Palestine, I believe in working for human rights and human dignity even when things look hopeless. But this book urges us to try harder, because winning often demands more. Thanks to Robin and John for this valuable story of achieving justice. 

Killing grounds for unvaccinated American fools

Ignorance has its price when it comes to COVID. The areas of the country that steadfastly believe that masks are a government plot and that the virus is a hoax are becoming the killing grounds for unvaccinated American fools. How did such a large number of people decide to put themselves and their families at risk? And how does a responsible society try to undo all this damage? As Mark Twain lamented, "How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again."

But before we congratulate ourselves for not falling pray to poorly thought out conspiracy theories and cretin logic, let's look at our own assumptions. Sure, there are backward areas of our country where lots of people will end up dead. A tragedy, but not our problem.

These hotspots, however, also serve as breeding grounds for the virus, allowing it to continually evolve into something possibly more dangerous. Eventually even those who are vaccinated may fall pray to a newer, more deadly strain. It is no surprise that the Delta variant of the virus emerged from India, a country with a vast underclass that can't afford COVID protection. 

It's like global warming; we will all end up paying for the beliefs of the gullible and poorly informed who still think that our burning planet has nothing to do with oil. Perhaps that will be the reason why our species eventually fails, our inability to work together for the common good.

Fred

What we historically have suffered

July 22

GUEST: Dr. Alice Rothchild, physician, award winning filmmaker and author of several books on Palestine, talks about the intersection between her Jewish background, her career at Harvard Medical School, and her work for Palestinian rights.

We Are Not Numbers

We had a very interesting discussion about how a Jewish person in the US decides to become an advocate of Palestinian rights. It isn't easy. Even as a well respected gynecologist and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, Alice faced daunting hurdles in bringing up the subject of medical rights for Arabs under Israeli occupation. 

It was such a compelling story that I didn't get to the organization that I had intended to talk about, We Are Not Numbers. Alice is on the board of directors for this group, and also serves as a mentor to its young writers. The Palestinian stories are quite fascinating, and provide a window of understanding for those who have never been to the West Bank or Gaza. Good storytelling helps us walk in someone else's shoes. In this case reading helps us understand life in an apartheid state. 

https://wearenotnumbers.org/home/Stories

I think the interview did explore the variety of way that Alice has devoted her life to the concept of "never again." As she describes it, "never again" belongs to the whole world and is not owned by one religion or ethnicity. The Holocaust is a teaching moment for the entire human race, and not an excuse to treat others the way Jews were treated in the Third Reich. 

"We will have to face the reality that Israel is neither innocent, nor redemptive. And that in its creation and expansion we as Jews, have caused what we historically have suffered; a refugee population in Diaspora."  Martin Buber 1949

 

Discovering the huge underclass of Black people in our society

July 15

GUEST: Dale Kretz, Assistant Professor African American History, Civil War and Reconstruction, Race and Slavery, Health and Medicine at Texas Tech University, talks about his recent article in Jacobin Magazine, "Juneteenth Is About Freedom."

Juneteenth Is About Freedom

Dale loves to talk about the historical facts about the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow. It is a complicated story of subjugation and resistance, and of racism and redemption. It is mostly a story that white America does not know.

We have our own story, of course. It has been carefully crafted to let us off the hook for slavery, possibly the most defining event in our nation's coming of age. For slavery doesn't have an aftermath. The effects of slavery are still very much with us, and the proof is the huge underclass of Black people in our society. 

Activist Radio was fortunately able to get Richard Rothstein as a guest last year. His book, The Color of Law - A forgotten History of How Our government Segregated America, informs white people of our government's historic mistreatment of Blacks in America. Rothstein's book is full of surprises, and destroys much of the mythology of white thought on race and equality. 

So maybe having white people researching and presenting the sordid history of Black subjugation in our country is not such a bad thing. For it is whites who don't know about our country's racism. And it is whites, who in their ignorance, often justify further repression. 

Salvation in a troubled time

July 8

GUEST: Jane Hirschmann, author, psychotherapist, and co-founder of Jews Say No, talks about her work as co-chair of the Freedom2Boycott NYS Coalition.

Jane Hirschmann in Truthout

It was a pleasure talking with Jane Hirschmann about her life and her devotion to human rights. "Never again" to Jane means that society should never again allow what was done to Jews during the Nazi era. That means putting human rights first, above religion or national identity. It is simply the belief that all people should be valued, not such a radical concept in a world now dependent on peace for its very survival. Or as Pete Seeger sang it, "We will love or we will parish." 

That's not to say that we should erase our identities. Quite the opposite. But we should try to cherish the humanity in all of us. We seem naturally able to do that with babies. We love them because we can identify with almost every one of their emotions, from delight to screaming rage. And loving a baby fills our bodies with that sweetest of all nectar, the feeling of loving another. 

The fight for human rights offers a similar gratification. Love of all humanity can be a salvation in a troubled time. People like Jane Hirschmann, can show us the way.