Last Thoughts on Aug. 3 Election

Well it's down to the last few days before the BIG election Aug. 3. I'm grateful for everyone who has endorsed or supported my write-in campaign against Harold Ford Jr. for the U.S. Senate, and I thank everyone for your votes.

I also urge everyone to vote, if you haven't already, for Steve Cohen for Congress (U.S. House Dist. 9) and Steve Mulroy for Shelby County Commission (Dist. 5). Both are being viciously attacked by opponents who do not seem to care about facts or integrity in politics. Both are progressive candidates who deserve to win their races.

Back to HFjr. All the national attention has been on the political downfall of Joseph Lieberman in Conn. Lieberman has lost support of liberal and progressive Democrats and is now BEHIND in the the polls to his Democratic challenger, Ned Lamont. Even the NYT has now endorsed Lamont! Why? Because Lieberman has been a major supporter of the Bush Administration and has provided the necessary votes to allow the GOP domestic and foreign policy agenda to proceed.
Why hasn't there been a similar backlash against Tennessee Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr.? His record supporting Bush and the GOP is almost identical to Lieberman's! Why are TN Democrats still supporting Harold Ford Jr., while Democrats in other states are standing up to the DLC and the Democratic "leadership" in DC and turning against conservative DINOS (Democrats in Name Only) and supporting progressive Democrats??? When will the TN Democratic Party wake up? Why are TN Democarts supporting a CONSERVATIVE republican governor, Phil Bredesen, who doesn't have a progressive/liberal bone in his corporate body? The former Republican governor was more progressive/liberal than Bredesen?

Well, after this election folks, I may be jumping ship. As I said in the Memphis Flyer interview, I am embarassed to be part of the TN Democratic Party, and I"m weighing the options: Socialist Party or Green Party? I'd rather join the Socialist Party, but the Green's are more organized and have a larger political presence nationally and even in TN. But I am a SOCIALIST, becuase I support ECONOMIC and political EQUALITY, and I oppose the concentration of "private" wealth and power. We can have no true Political Democracy without economic democracy.. MARX WAS RIGHT!

So I am a Democratic Socialist who is giving up on the hope that the Democratic Party could be the party in our two-party political machine to use to fight for social and economic justice.

But the next immediate battle will be in November. We must try to stop the anti-gay Amendment 1 in Tennessee, and hope the Democratic Party will do something useful and fight this unjust Amendment, which most Democrats in our state legislature VOTED FOR! The Democratic Party in TN is making a big mistake by pandering to anti-gay Christo-fascists. Gay people are leaving the Democratic Party! Some are supporting the Republicans ("why not? they are no worse?") and some are joining the Green Party or other "third parties" which support equality for gays and lesbians.

76 Percent of Tennessee are BIGOTS

This is very bad news! We expect the TN anti-gay marriage amendment to pass in November but was hoping we can limit it’s support. I want to leave TN, the South.. Hell this country! (Another State court, Washington, has also struck down gay marriage rights!) We’re loosing in the courts now, and the homophobic people of this country don’t think we should have the same civil rights they have... (support is growing, among young people, but it will take a couple of decades for the old bigots to all die off and leave us alone..)

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Poll Shows Support for Marriage Amendment -- A Mason-Dixon poll conducted for the Chattanooga Times Free Press shows strong support in Tennessee for the so-called 'gay marriage' amendment to the state constitution - that effectively bans gay marriage by constitutionally defining marriage as between a man and woman. 76% of respondents said they would vote for the proposed amendment, while only 15% of respondents said they would vote against it and 9 percent were undecided.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

State voters embrace ban on gay marriages
By Ashley Rowland Staff Writer

Complete poll details are at tfponline. com

More than three-fourths of Tennesseans support an amendment to the state constitution that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, according to a poll of registered likely voters taken earlier this month.

Seventy-six percent of respondents said they would vote for the proposed amendment, which will be on the ballot this fall. If approved, the amendment effectively would ban gay marriage.

Fifteen percent of respondents said they would vote against the amendment, and 9 percent were undecided.

"Every place that this has gone on a statewide ballot, it has passed overwhelmingly," said Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of Washington, D.C., which conducted the survey for the Times Free Press. "I don’t see any reason why it won’t pass overwhelmingly in Tennessee, and these numbers seem to back that up."

A total of 625 Tennessee voters were interviewed by telephone July 17-19 for the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Support for the amendment was strongest among men and residents of East Tennessee, where 81 percent of respondents said they would vote for it. Seventy-two percent of residents in Middle Tennessee and 74 percent in West Tennessee said they would vote for the amendment. One of the amendment’s backers said he isn’t taking those numbers for granted.

"I still don’t think the issue is on the radar screen for most people," said state Sen. David Fowler, a Republican from Signal Mountain and president of the Family Action Council, which supports the amendment. "When asked about it, there are more people that support it than don’t, but I would say the vast majority aren’t aware that the issue will be on the ballot yet."

The head of a state gay rights group questioned the results of the Mason-Dixon poll. Chris Sanders, head of the Tennessee Equality Project, said Tennesseans don’t support a ban on gay marriage as strongly as residents of other Southern states.

"I think Tennessee still has momentum toward supporting marriage equality in Tennessee," he said.

I'm "Left Of Left" (Memphis Flyer Article)

This week's Memphis Flyer has an article about me Left of Left: Protest Candidate Jim Maynard Offers An Alernative to Harold Ford Jr.

I want to thank Leftwing Craker for his endorsements, even though he says I only have one issue. Read the Flyer article or go to My Website and you'll see that I have many issues besides gay rights: universal health insurance, getting out of Iraq, separation of church and state... things progressive Democrats are supposed to stand for...

GAY ACTIVIST/SENATE CANDIDATE CHALLENGES HAROLD FORD JR. TO DEBATE

Dear Rep. Harold Ford Jr:

Like many of your former supporters, I’ve been dismayed by your recent attacks on the civil rights of gays and lesbians, and I have a few questions I would like for you to answer in a public forum to explain your position of the rights of LGBT people.

(1.) Do you believe that gays and lesbians should have ALL of the SAME civil rights as every American?

(2.) Do you agree with civil rights leaders Rep. John Lewis, Rev. Joseph Lowery, and Coretta Scott King, among many others, that marriage is a civil right and that gays and lesbians should have all the rights of civil marriage?

(3.) Do you agree with the Platform of the Democratic Party that:

"We Support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families."

“We repudiate Bush's divisive effort to politicize the Constitution by pursuing the "Federal Marriage Amendment."

(4.) Why did you cross party lines in 2004 and 2006 to vote with REPUBLICANS and GEORGE BUSH to write discrimination against gays and lesbians into the U.S. Constitution, when the Democratic Party Presidential Nominees were campaigning AGAINST this anti-marriage Republican Amendment?

(5.) Do you agree with these statements from Howard Dean, the Chair of the Democratic National Committee:
“As Democrats, we believe that every American has a right to equal protection under the law and to live in dignity. And we respect the right of every family to live in dignity with equal rights, responsibilities and protections under the law.”
“The Constitution was written to guarantee basic rights to all Americans, not deny them to some...The GOP touts “family values,” Democrats value all families.”

(6.) Do you take a more conservative position than Republican Sen. John McCain, who does not support the Federal Marriage Amendment on the grounds that it infringes on “states rights”? If a conservative Republican can be opposed to “gay marriage” and the FMA, why can’t you? Why are you going to the RIGHT of John McCain?

(7.) Since civil marriage is a legal institution, and separate from the religious institution of marriage and religious beliefs about marrage, please specify why gay and lesbian couple should be denied the same legal rights of civil marriage as heterosexual couples WITHOUT REFERING TO RELIGION, GOD OR THE BIBLE.

Which Side is Harold Ford Jr. On ?

Harold Ford Jr.
"I will continue to be pro-family, including supporting a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, without taking away the civil rights of gays and lesbians." Harold Ford Jr. "
My Faith as My Guide" on HaroldFordjr.com

According to Harold Ford Jr. marriage is NOT a civil right!  This is the same position as George Bush, the Republican Party, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, etc...

VS.

Rep.  John Lewis (D-GA)
"It is time to say forthrightly that the government's exclusion of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters from civil marriage officially degrades them and their families.  It denies them the basic human right to marry the person they love.  It denies them numerous legal protections for their families.  This discrimination is wrong...I've heard the reasons for opposing civil marriage for same-sex couples.  Cut through the distractions, and they stink of the same fear, hatred, and intolerance I have known in racism and in bigotry." (Boston Globe, 11/25/03)

Rev. Joseh Lowery, Civil Rights Leader
"When you talk about the law discriminating, the law granting a privilege here, and a denying it there, that's a civil rights issue.  And I can't take it away from anybody." (ABC News, 3/13/04)

Carol Moseley Braun
"I believe this is a civil rights issue...It seems to me that if people want to marry a person of a different race that's no diffferent than somebody wanting to marry someone of the same sex." (Democratic Debates, Des Moines 11/24/03)

Rev. Peter Gomes, Havard University Chaplain
"To extend the civil right of marrriage to homosexuals will  neither solve nor complicate the problems already inherent in marriage, but what it will do is permit a whole class of persons, our fellow citizens under the law heretofore irrationally deprived of a civil right, both to benefit from and participate in a valuable, yet vulnerable institution which in our changing society needs all the help it can get." (Boston Globe, 2/4/04)

Coretta Scott King, Civil Rights Leader
"I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the civil rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'  I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother-and sisterhod for lesbian and gay people." (Reuters, 3/3/98)
 
Democratic Party (DNC):
""We Support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families."

We repudiate Bush's divisive effort to politicize the Constitution by pursuing the "Federal Marriage Amendment."

Howard Dean, Chair of the DNC:
"As Democrats we believe that every American has a right to equal protection under the law and to live in dignity.  And we must respect the right of every family to live in dignity with equal rights, responsibilities and protections under the law." (July 6, 2006)

"The Constitution was written to guarantee basic rights to all Americans, not deny them to some. ..The GOP touts 'family values,' while Democrats value all families." (June 2, 2006, National Stonewall Democrats Convention)

NOTE:

In 2004, Harold Ford Jr. pledged to LGBT Democrats in Memphis that he intended to vote AGAINST the Republican anti-marriage amendment.  He cited his support off the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), signed into law by President Bill Clinton, which made amending the Constitution unnecessary, and that the issue should be left to the states.  Two days later, he broke his word by voting with the Republicans for it.  In July 2006, he joined with 202 Republicans and 34 House Democrats to support the Republican anti-marriage amendment again.  He has made his support for the federal marriage amendment--and a similar amendment to the Tennessee Constiution--a centerpiece of his Senate campaign.

HAROLD FORD JR. IS ON THE SIDE OF GEORGE BUSH, THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, PAT ROBERTSON, JAMES DOBSON AND JERRY FALWELL.

I AM ON THE SIDE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, HOWARD DEAN, CORETTA SCOTT KING, REP. JOHN LEWIS AND REV. JOSEPH LOWERY.

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON??
JIM MAYNARD FOR U.S. SENATE
(WRITE-IN)

VIEW THE ONLINE AD AT:
Which Side is Ford Jr. On?

HAROLD FORD JR. SUPPORTS REPUBLICAN AGENDA!

Yesterday, Harold Ford Jr. voted with 202 Republicans and 34 Democrats for the anti-gay “Federal Marriage Amendment,” which will write discrimination against gays and lesbians into the U.S. Constitution.

Today, Harold Ford Jr. voted with 221 Republicans and 39 Democrats to stop the judiciary branch of our government from ruling on the constitutionality of the “Under God” Pledge of Allegiance.

Along with the “flag-burning” amendment (which Ford says he supports and would have voted for), the anti-gay marriage amendment and the Under God Pledge amendment are part of the Republican “American values agenda”, their agenda for uniting Christian fundamentalists to vote Republican in this year’s elections.

It looks like Harold Ford Jr. supports the Republican Agenda to deny gay and lesbian Americans EQUAL CIVIL rights, and to tear down the “wall of separation between church and state” (Thomas Jefferson).

Unlike Harold Ford Jr., I support equal civil rights for ALL Americans and the SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. If you support the Republican “American Values Agenda” vote for Harold Ford Jr., if you support the equality for ALL Americans under the SECULAR Constitution of the United States, vote for me.

JIM MAYNARD FOR U.S. SENATE
Write-In Candidate

Yesterday he voted with the republicans against gays, and now he votes with them against the judicial branch of government to destroy the separation of church and state!

The 'Cue: Liberal helpings of slow-smoked Memphis Politics: Ford Jr. Votes With Republicans Again

HAROLD FORD JR. SCREWS GAYS (AGAIN!)

Once again, Harold Ford Jr. votes for the Republican anti-gay "Federal Marriage Amendment". Harold Ford Jr. has crossed party lines once again to support the Republican Right's attempt to write discrimination against gays and lesbians into the U.S. Constitution.

The Democratic Party Platform supports equality for LGBT families, and equal rights for gays and lesbians. Why does Harold Ford Jr. not support the platform of the Democratic Party?

Why should progressive Democrats support conservative Democrats who vote like Republicans? Tell me how voting for Harold Ford Jr. and him getting elected to the Senate will further progressive political action, gay rights, womens rights, etc??
It will not. Don't reward Harold Ford Jr. for his anti-gay votes on Aug. 3 or in November!

It wasn’t just Harold Ford Jr. EVERY TN DEMOCRAT IN THE U.S. HOUSE VOTED WITH THE REPUBLICANS TO WRITE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST GAYS AND LESBIANS INTO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION! We are not proud of the Tennessee Democrats today, they have failed to stand for social justice and equality, they have failed to defend our Democratic Values Democratic Values

Do Harold Ford Jr. and Gov. Phil Bredesen Represent "Democratic Values"??

Last week DNC Chair Harold Dean condemned the New York appeals court ruling reaffirming a ban on gay marriage as “bigoted” and inconsistent with Democratic values. “As Democrats, we believe that every American has a right to equal protection under the law and to live in dignity. And we respect the right of every family to live in dignity with equal rights, responsibilities and protections under the law.”

The platform of the Democratic Party states: “We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families” and “We repudiate Bush’s divisive effort to politicize the Constitution by pursuing the ‘Federal Marriage Amendment’.”

Yet, Rep. Harold Ford Jr., a candidate for the U.S. Senate, supports the very same anti-gay amendment to the Constitution the DNC condemns as “bigoted”. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen supports a similar amendment to the Tennessee constitution which the chair of the DNC says is “inconsistent with Democratic values.” The only conclusion is that neither Harold Ford Jr. nor the Democratic Governor of this state represent Democratic Values!

Progressive Democratic voters do have a choice in the Aug. 3 election. Vote for real “progressive” candidates, not political opportunists who sacrifice “Democratic Values” to win elections. Ask for a paper ballot to WRITE-IN your vote for a real progressive democrat.

Jim Maynard, Write-In Candidate
U.S. Senate

Repubicans & Christian Nationalism

Many "moderate" Republicans continue to believe that there is hope in their struggle to win the GOP back from the evil clutches of the Christian Religious Right. Give it up! Rudi Giuliani, one of the darlings of the "moderate" Republicans, has been traveling around the country supporting radical Christian Right Repubs, including Rick Santorum in PA, Ralph Reed in GA, and Asa Hutchinson in AR.

The fact is that the Republican Party, even the "moderate" country club rich Republicans, depend upon the Christian Right to win elections. The CR is one of the largest voting blocks in the country and they have won considerable poliitcal power in the Republican Party. Despite the attempts of "moderate/centrist/conservtive" Democrats to win them over, the Christo fascists are very faithful to the GOP, and the GOP continues to pander to them with "value issues" like the anti-gay marriage amendments, etc. And we can blame the "moderate" Republicans for going along with the Christo-fascist campaign to turn the United States into a theocracy.

In her book, "Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism," author Michelle Goldberg examines how gay marriage has become "the mobilizing passion for much of the religious right." The book also charts how Christian fundamentalism is supported by Republican patronage and how under the Bush administration, it is increasingly shaping many aspects of public policy. Read all about it at
Democracy Now

DNC Chair Dean Blasts N.Y. Court Decision on Gay Marriage

Howard Dean has been doing a pretty good job of redeeming himself on gay and lesbian civil rights.
After his poor decision to go on the 700 Club and misstate the Democratic Party's platform on marriage and gays, he spoke at the National Stonewall Democrats convention and has publicly condemned the Bush/Republican anti-gay "Federal Marriage Amendment" as well as the recent New York court decision against gay marriage. The DNC has also been improving its outreach to the LGBT communty during Pride events and providing more support to the Stonewall Democrats.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean called the rationale used
in a decision by the New York appeals court reaffirming a ban on gay
marriage "bigoted and outdated."

In a release issued last week, Dean characterized the decision as inconsistent
with Democratic values.

"As Democrats, we believe that every American has a right to equal
protection under the law and to live in dignity. And we must respect the
right of every family to live in dignity with equal rights, responsibilities
and protections under the law," the former Vermont governor wrote.

Raw Story

Who is Racist in the Shelby County Democratic Party?

Accusations of racism have been thrown at white Democrats by some black Democrats in the Shelby County Democratic Party. I find this ironic, since white Democrats have no chance of getting elected the overwhelmingly black voting districts, and as one important figure in the Shelby County Democratic Party told me about running in a largely black race, "a white candidate would not be taken seriously."

Many black Democrats are upset at the likely prospect that a WHITE JEW (Sen. Steve Cohen) may win THEIR Congressional House Dist. 9 seat, vacated by THEIR representative Harold Ford Jr., who is now pandering to white conservative rebel-flag waving rednecks across the state to win the Republican Senate seat. (Yes, this is the same BLACK politician who voted for the corporate anti-poor consumer bankruptcy bill and the big Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and all those poor black people's Estate Taxes.. wait, there are NO poor black people to benefit from that estate tax cut is there??)

Black Democrats support a black mayor who panders to WHITE Republicans and businesses.


There is Rep. Henri Brooks who recently told gay lobbyists in Nashville that gays were not a "significant' constituent in her district and that she was elected to represent BLACK CHURCHES. (Her Republican opponent, Novella Smith Arnold, actually took the time to return the Stonewall Democrats questionnaire, which was not even sent to her, and answered all our questions “ASBOLUTELY”! No response yet from Henri Brooks). SO I URGE REAL PROGRESSIVES TO VOTE FOR NOVELLA SMITH ARNOLD for County Commissioner, District 2, Position 2).

Black leaders, including the Tri-State Defender, are attacking Sen. Steve Cohen because he is a WHITE JEW!

Call me a racist is if you want, the problem with the Shelby County Democratic Party is not racist white liberals, it is conservative, fundamentalist, African-Americans who do not share the values of the Democratic Party's platform, which includes equal civil rights for gays and lesbians (including CIVIL UNIONS and the same rights as married couples), women's reproductive rights (yes, that includes the right to abortion). They do not respect the CONSTITUTIONALLY MANDATED separation of church and state, which means this is NOT a Christian nation, and people have the right to practice their religion NOT impose it on everyone else.

So spare me the "white racist" label please... those who support the Christian Right (both the Black Democrat wing and the White Republican Wing) are the bigots!

Courts Rule Against Gay Marriage..

Well this was a bad day for gay civil rights. The Court of Appeals in New York fuled 4-2 that the state's law allowing marriage only between a man and a woman was constitutional, thus killing the hope of gay activists that New York would be the next state to legalize gay marriages. In Georgia, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the ban on gay marriages (and civil unions) approved by three-quarters of voters in 2004, did not violate the state's single-subject fule for ballot measures.

While some gay rights activists have been talking positive about the movement for gay marriage, touting recent public opinion polls which show more acceptance, I am not optimistic at all. We are stalled in the courts, and public opinion is still overwhelming against our civil right to marry.. and in most states and the South, the Democrats and Democratic politicians f are running away from the issue and embracing Christo-fascism. It doesn' look good at all...

Now Tennessee will join about 20 other states an pass a constitutional amendment writing discrimination against gays in to our constitution.. with the support of Democrats and Republicans!

I'm getting very depressed...

We must fight the losing battle, however, and support the Vote No on 1 Campaign

World Overcomers Denigrate Statue of Liberty & U.S. Constitution

The “Statute of Liberaton Through Christ” at World Overcomers Church in Memphis has made it into the New York Times
here is the article, worth reading to see how dangerous this church is, especially their “Apostle” Alton R. Williams. This cult believes that this is a “CHRISTIAN” country, founded by “Christians” and that the government must follow the Word of God in the Bible! And they are not alone, most “Christians” probably agree with them!

Here is the link to the Statute of Liberation through Christ website


Notice that there is a store with merchandise coming soon... Interesting... What did Jesus do to those “money changers” in the temple??

Here is a link to the World Overcomers Church


If you click on their Petition on the Federal Marriage Amendment, you can read all about homosexuality and what God’s Apostle Alton Williams (GOD), says about it...
And get ready.. They WILL be putting more full page ads in the newspaper to support the anti-gay marriage amendment in TN... So who is starting the collection to counter it???

Why is it that the most right-wing, conservative, extremist churches are the BIGGEST and RICHEST churches in town???

Put Away the Flags
by Howard Zinn
Published on Monday, July 3, 2006 by the Progressive  


On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?

These ways of thinking -- cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on -- have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.

National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica and many more). But in a nation like ours -- huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction -- what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves.

Our citizenry has been brought up to see our nation as different from others, an exception in the world, uniquely moral, expanding into other lands in order to bring civilization, liberty, democracy.

That self-deception started early.

When the first English settlers moved into Indian land in Massachusetts Bay and were resisted, the violence escalated into war with the Pequot Indians. The killing of Indians was seen as approved by God, the taking of land as commanded by the Bible. The Puritans cited one of the Psalms, which says: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession."

When the English set fire to a Pequot village and massacred men, women and children, the Puritan theologian Cotton Mather said: "It was supposed that no less than 600 Pequot souls were brought down to hell that day."

On the eve of the Mexican War, an American journalist declared it our "Manifest Destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence." After the invasion of Mexico began, The New York Herald announced: "We believe it is a part of our destiny to civilize that beautiful country."

It was always supposedly for benign purposes that our country went to war.

We invaded Cuba in 1898 to liberate the Cubans, and went to war in the Philippines shortly after, as President McKinley put it, "to civilize and Christianize" the Filipino people.

As our armies were committing massacres in the Philippines (at least 600,000 Filipinos died in a few years of conflict), Elihu Root, our secretary of war, was saying: "The American soldier is different from all other soldiers of all other countries since the war began. He is the advance guard of liberty and justice, of law and order, and of peace and happiness."

We see in Iraq that our soldiers are not different. They have, perhaps against their better nature, killed thousands of Iraq civilians. And some soldiers have shown themselves capable of brutality, of torture.

Yet they are victims, too, of our government's lies.

How many times have we heard President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld tell the troops that if they die, if they return without arms or legs, or blinded, it is for "liberty," for "democracy"?

One of the effects of nationalist thinking is a loss of a sense of proportion. The killing of 2,300 people at Pearl Harbor becomes the justification for killing 240,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The killing of 3,000 people on Sept. 11 becomes the justification for killing tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And nationalism is given a special virulence when it is said to be blessed by Providence. Today we have a president, invading two countries in four years, who announced on the campaign trail last year that God speaks through him.

We need to refute the idea that our nation is different from, morally superior to, the other imperial powers of world history.

We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation.

Howard Zinn, a World War II bombardier, is the author of the best-selling "A People's History of the United States" (Perennial Classics, 2003, latest edition). Email to: pmproj@progressive.org

© 2006 The Progressive

Harold Ford Jr.'s Second Chance

The House of Representatives is going to be voting on the anti-gay “Federal Marriage Amendment” the week of July 17.

In 2004, Rep. Harold Ford Jr. crossed party lines to vote FOR the Republican proposal to write discrimination against gays and lesbians into the U.S.Constitution.
Although he stated that he thought the issue should be left to the states, he voted for the Republican amendment anyway.

Memphis Stonewall Democrats urges everyone to contact Rep. Harold Ford Jr. and ask him to stand with the Democratic Party, and Republicans like Sen. John McCain, and oppose the “Federal Marriage Amendment.” Keep discrimination out of the U.S. Constitution!

Representative Harold Ford
Democrat of Tennessee, District 9
325 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 16306
Phone: 202-225-3265
Fax: 202-225-5663
Website:
Ford Website
E-mail Rep Ford
email: rep.harold.ford.jr@mail.house.gov

Memphis Stonewall Democrats Endorse Cohen & Mulroy


MEMPHIS STONEWALL DEMOCRATS ENDORSE COHEN AND MULROY FOR AUG. 3
ELECTION

The Memphis Stonewall Democrats endorse Steve Cohen for U.S. Congress
(House District 9) and Steve Mulroy for the Shelby County Commission
(District 5).

“Because of the commitment of these two candidates to social justice
and equality for all Americans, Memphis Stonewall Democrats urges our
members and progressive voters to support the campaigns of Steve Cohen
for Congress and Steve Mulroy for County Commission,” states Jim
Maynard, Vice President of Memphis Stonewall Democrats.

You can donate and volunteer for Steve Cohen for Congress at:
Cohen for Congress

Steve Mulroy for County Commission at:
Mulroy for District 5

Remember to vote for Steve Cohen and Steve Mulroy on August 3!

Memphis Stonewall Democrats is affiliated with the National Stonewall
Democrats and committed to working through the Democratic Party to
advance the rights of all people regardless of sexual orientation or
gender identity.

Memphis Stonewall Democrats
P.O. Box 42041
Memphis, TN 38174
Email mphsstonewalldem@yahoo.com
Memphis Stonewall Democrats