Life, Love, and Liberty

I quote a story that appeared in Next Left Notes below:

Berwyn, IL - November 2, 2007. Over 70 students participated in a sit-in against the Iraq War on All Saint’s Day, Thursday, November 1st. It began third hour when dozens of students gathered quietly in the lunchroom at Morton West High School and refused to leave. The administrators and police became involved immediately and locked down the school for a half hour after class ended. Students report that they were promised that there would be no charges besides cutting classes if they took their protest outside so as not to disturb the school day. The students complied, and were led to a corner outside the cafeteria where they sang songs and held signs while classes resumed.

Despite a police line set up between the protestors and the student body, many other students joined the demonstration. Organizers say they chose November first because it is the Christian holy day called the feast of All Saints and a national day of peace. They wrote a letter and delivered it to Superintendent, Dr. Ben Nowakowski who was present at the time, stating the reason for their protest.

Deans, counselors and even the Superintendent tried to change the minds of a few, mainly those students with higher GPA scores to abandon the protest. The school called the homes of many of the protestors. Those whose parents arrived before the end of school and took their students home, or left before the protest ended at the final bell, received 3-5 days suspension. All others, an estimated 37 received 10 days suspension and expulsion papers. Parents report that Nowakowski stated those who are seventeen will also face police charges.

Parents who are frantically trying to spare their child’s expulsion flooded the school yesterday to file appeals on the matter. So far, Superintendent Nowakowski has held firm on the punishments. They are expected to find out the results of the appeals on Tuesday. Parents and students report and the school’s videotape shown to some of the parents confirms that the students were non-violent in their action and there was no damage to property.

The protest came on the heels of a recent incident on October 15th, when a student reported hearing that another student had a gun on campus. The story of the eyewitness was deemed unreliable and the school was not locked down. Later that week (October 19), the Berwyn police, acting on a tip arrested one of the youths originally questioned for gun possession and he allegedly confessed to carrying an unloaded semi-automatic handgun that day. All these issues, plus the expected announcement of whether uniforms will be established in the school should make the next Board of Education meeting on Wednesday at 7:00pm at the Morton East campus very well-attended.

See the link below for the Superintendent’s statement on the matter:
http://www.jsmortonhs.com/news/contentview.asp?i=203515

For letters or phone calls of support, please see information below:

Dr. Ben Nowakowski, Superintendent
District 201
2423 South Austin, Cicero, IL 60804
bnowakowski@jsmorton.org
(708) 222-5702

Mr. Lucas, Principal
Morton West High School
2400 S. Home Ave.
Berwyn, IL 60402
jlucas@west.jsmorton.org
708-222-5901

Mr. Jeffry Pesek, President
Board of Education, District 201
3145 South 55th Avenue
Cicero, IL 60804
708-802-1863

For the rest of the Board Members see:
http://www.jsmortonhs.com/board/default.asp?c=4867

For parent contact:
Pam Winstead 708-749-3163, serp@comcast.net

Alma Moran 708-717-4202, qtalmita@yahoo.com

Adam Szwarek 847-587-8849, tsq9743@aol.com

Chicago Indymedia: http://chicago.indymedia.org/

There has been a petition put together, so please sign it. It’s available at this link.

Also, check out one of Arthur Silber’s passionate posts on the issue here.

I don’t have very witty titles for my sections in this digest time, but I was feeling tired and not especially full of wit. I do have some good links though

War, War, and More War

The Fruitcake Trade by Charley Reese

“This is How They Really Feel”
They Met the Resistance in Iraqby Mike Ferner

This piece talks about a documentary that two journalists made about the armed resistance to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. They interviewed actual fighters and the documentary is basically the insurgents telling their stories without having their identities revealed for security reasons. I wasn’t too surprised that many — if not all — of the fighters described themselves as nationalists who felt oppressed or subjugated by the U.S. military presence. You can view a trailer for the documentary here . I have been following and criticizing the Iraq war during its entire duration, as well as protesting against it happening in the first place , so I am excited that investigative journalism has resulted in such an interesting sounding documentary.

Go Ahead On — Start WWIII by Gordon Prather

An attack on Iran by the U.S. could start a third world war with Russia and China backing the Iranian nation. I hope like I’ve never hoped before that I am not right, but I believe it very likely that martial law or some kind of extremely increased repression against the populace by the American government will commence after another terrorist attack on American soil. The attack on Iran could well be the trigger for it.

The Bureaucracy, the March, and the Warby Tom Engelhardt

Busy Bush Has Time to Run the World by Sheldon Richman

Iran, World War III, and the Madness of President George by Doug Bandow

Lots of Laughs

Political Scientists Discover New Form of Government by the The Onion

Cultural Reform - Women

Report on Detention/Abuse of Women in Iraqi Prison Camps by admin of the Feminist Peace Network

Horowitz’s Strange Summons
Conscripting Feminism into the War on Terror by Yifat Susskind

Your Weekly Dose of Economics

Capitalism Is Not Freedom, and Socialism Is Not Love by Glen Allport

The Dream That Was America — or — Moscow on the Potomac by Robert F. Hawes Jr.

Behold! The Bliss Watch List To hell with the FBI’s million-strong Terrorist Watch List. Here is your killer alternative by Mark Morford

One of the best Morford columns in recent times. I’ve been told that he actually registered the domain name blisswatchlist.com too. As some of you may know, Morford was one of my first political influences. He’s no left-libertarian anarchist in some respects, but he gets it right on some important issues. Like how an open hearted attitude towards sexuality is vitally necessary

The Goal Is Freedom: Virtue versus Legal Obligation by Sheldon Richman

Is it a virtuous and great moral act if you give because you’re forced to? As all such redistribution of wealth schemes based on taxation (i.e. money taken at the point of a “gun” because you go to jail if you don’t pay up) entail. One caveat I’d add is that I’m not in favor of dismantling state aid to the poorest elements of society before changing the fundamental context in which they exist. In other words: the first functions of the state to disappear should be the ones that serve to concentrate wealth and make it harder for non-privileged people to make ends meet.

In a stateless economic order, there will be much higher levels of overall wealth and it would be more widely dispersed. Another way of putting it is that the corporate domination and heavy concentration in the American economy is not a product of a genuine free market order.

See Kevin Carson’s article — available as a pamphlet from Red Lion Press — titled The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand for more. And if you are interested in a study that has empirical data to support the contention of free market advocates that the market disperses power, then check out New Left historian Gabriel Kolko’s book titled The Triumph of Conservatism, which is a revisionist history of the Progressive Era that purports to show the dominant trend at the turn of the century was decentralization of economic power, and that the government regulation that came into existence during that era was designed to cartelize industry on behalf of big business interests. In other words: to make it easier for those dominant business interests to maintain their profits and market share in the face of growing competition.

Anyhow, I’ve said enough for now. Check out my website, Life, Love, and Liberty, for future posts on this issue.

A small sampling of links this time.

Mass Murder in the Horn of Africa

War, Foreign Policy, and Empire: A Changing Political Dynamic

Big-Game Hunting in Iraq

Ann Coulter: Nuke Them!

It’s Not Easy Being A Frotteur

Rachel Kramer Bussel’s Hot Hot and Multifaceted Photographs

And congratulations to her for having her picture slated to appear in
print. See below:

Big in Poland and Italy

Looking for an uplifting song? Check out “Time to Say Goodbye” at

Absolutely Beautiful

Or go watch it on the YouTube site by clicking this link.