letters
TO THE EDITOR
LANE PEACE SYMPOSIUM
notes from the riverside
BY MARK HARRIS
Skyping with the
Preacher
The vulnerability of our nation’s Trayvons
W
hat the bleep? Oh, a Skype from the Preacher. A
moment later the Skype phone rang, I adjusted
for video and audio. The Preacher was rocking
Ysaye Barnwell: “For each child that’s born a morning
star rises and sings to the universe who we are. We are
our grandmothers’ prayers. We are our grandfathers’
dreamings. We are the breath of our ancestors. We are
the spirit of God.”
“Let’s talk Trayvon” he opened.
I had been clearing blackberries so I was in a prickly
mood. “Sure,” I said. “How do you tell the difference
between inexcusable stupidity and racism, between willful
ignorance and deliberate malice, however unconscious?”
“Well,” he said, mimicking congregational sermon response. “In our
neighborhoods, a child couldn’t walk home without being known on sight in a
four-block radius by at least one adult per block. Didn’t need no guns. We used
knowledge, we passed on wisdom, not fear. We treated each others’ children as
if they were our children. At the very least we would ask, ‘Who is your family?
Are you lost, can I help you get home?’ We didn’t mean send him to heaven. Can
I get an Amen!”
Amen! “That was to protect them from people who were from outside of the
community, including police offi cers who were proven Klansmen,” he said.
“So,” I asked, “you’re saying Zimmerman’s sin was not treating one of our
children as one of his children? Or if that’s a stretch, at least treat Trayvon the
way we would treat a child we didn’t know? And asking questions and offering
assistance? Kind of a Platinum Rule thing: Do unto others the way they want to
be done unto, even if, especially, if that’s better than you?”
“Right” he nodded. “Philippians 2: 2-3. Fulfi l ye my joy, that ye be likeminded,
having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other
better than themselves.”
“But further,” he said, “sin is willful disobedience. The history of the South is
supportive of institutional and structural racism. This makes the Trayvons of the
world uniquely vulnerable. Killing a potential Martin Luther King Jr., a potential
Paul Robeson, a potential Beethoven, is simple self-defense to white supremacy.
Many avowed racists are capable of making exceptions for specifi c favored minority
individuals, but not for ‘uppity’ others they don’t know, or the larger group. So
Zimmerman can mentor and befriend some black youth and some black people,
but see Trayvon as an enemy alien. He is obeying tradition. What some people call
racism, others call tradition.”
“So since you don’t even have to be white to support white supremacy,”
he said. “Zimmerman becomes a pawn of a larger social structure. Thus,
like (prosecutor ) Angela Corey said in the CNN interview, it is to that larger
structure we should pay attention. See the white supremacy chess game, not
just the players”
“How are the Trayvon’s in your community treated?” He asked.
“Don’t ask. Not well,” I responded.
Mark Harris is an instructor and substance abuse prevention coordinator at LCC.
4
APRIL 19, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
Democracy in the U.S. is in danger. Corporations have been elevated to
a status above natural people. Over the last 125 years, through a series of
decisions, the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are persons with
constitutional rights. The end game of these rulings is two-fold. The fi rst is to
limit the ability of democratically elected representatives to pass legislation to
protect the general welfare of their constituents. Every time a constitutional
right is granted to corporations there is a corresponding loss of citizen power.
The second is to replace the role of people in government with the infl uence
of corporations.
Corporate managed democracy in the U.S. is the joining together of
Wall Street fi nance capital and the military industrial complex in the politics
of empire. Wall Street loans money to the U.S. government, which defi cit
spends to fi nance military production and war. Perpetual war brings profi ts
for all involved. The social welfare gains of the 20th century are casualties.
Unemployment rises, homes are foreclosed and inequality reaches historic
levels. Health care, education and social services are defunded and the
prescription offered by corporate managed democracy is privatization.
What can be done? Two recent movements offer hope. The Occupy
movement has identifi ed the corporate controlled military industrial/fi nance
complex as the culprit and the Move to Amend movement has identifi ed
corporate constitutional rights as the vehicle used to create corporate managed
democracy. Both are working to build broad scale social movements focused
on challenging corporate rule and creating people powered democracy.
On April 20-21, the Lane Peace Center’s fi fth annual Peace Symposium/
Democracy Convergence is bringing the best of our nation’s grassroots
democracy activist to LCC. These include David Barsamian of Alternative Radio,
David Cobb of Move to Amend, Ms. George Friday of the Bill of Rights Defense
Committee, Ben Manski of the Liberty Tree Foundation for Democratic Revolution,
Max Rameau of Take Back the Land, and David West of the Potawatomi Nation.
Day One will be a series of keynote talks and day two a series of workshops on
organizing to create democratic social movements. The symposium is free and
you are invited to attend. For information and registration go to: www.lanecc.
edu/peacecenter or e-mail peacecenter@lanecc.edu
Stan Taylor, Ph.D.
Lane Peace Center
THE PLAN WON’T WORK
BEN LINDER’S LEGACY
The April 12 cover story about the Stahl-
DeFazio forest plan was enlightening about
its potential environmental consequences
and political considerations. But if the idea
is to replace the huge federal timber receipt
payments to the O&C counties that peaked
in the early 1990s, it seems to me that the
more critical problem with the plan is that
it won’t work.
The federal government never paid
the counties based on the acreage or board
footage that was cut on the O&C lands; it
shared with the counties the revenue it gained
from selling the timber to the forest product
industry, and that is also the Stahl-DeFazio
concept. Problem is, by the mid 1980s when
the massive federal cutting began, there
were 2.1 million new single-family homes
being built each year. That declined slightly
over the ‘80s, but rebounded to the peak of
2.2 million homes in early 2005. Timber is
purchased to make lumber. Lumber must
be sold to make money, and its sale price
is based on demand. At the end of 2011
there were about 700,000 housing starts
in the U.S., and so far in 2012 it appears
there will be even fewer. That means that,
at best, timber sold from the O&C forests
would command a price of no more than a
third of the prices paid at the peak of O&C
payments to the counties; and in those days,
the harvest included valuable old growth.
At those prices, in order to replace the
county revenue from the good old days,
the “trust” would have to cut down all of
the timber in the “management” half in
about fi ve years, and then there would be
no revenue stream for decades to come. So
what is the point?
David C. Force
Eugene attorney
April 28 marks the 25th anniversary
of the death of Ben Linder, a mechanical
engineer from Portland who in 1983 went to
Nicaragua to work on hydroelectric projects
that today provide energy to the community,
schools, clinics and campesinos. While
working on a small dam in the remote northern
region of San José de Bocay, performing the
miracle of transforming “water into light,”
Ben and two other Nicaraguan co-workers
were killed by Contra forces armed and paid
for by the U.S. government.
In 1984, I had the opportunity to meet
Ben in Nicaragua while I was at the national
university. Ben, like myself, was one of many
thousands of young volunteers from the U.S.
and other parts of the world who wanted
to witness and contribute to the rebuilding
process in Nicaragua following the triumph of
the Sandinista revolution over the repressive
Somoza dictatorship. It was a time of amazing
hope, dreams and struggle; it was a time of
unnecessary war, pain and suffering.
When I met him I was moved (and
a little jealous) by his enthusiasm as he
described the work he was doing and how
truly happy he was in Nicaragua. I was
intrigued by the simplicity and perfection
of his work and the difference it could
make in the lives of poor farmers who were
trapped in a war zone. Both Ben and I were
deeply opposed to U.S. policy, yet Ben
had a unique ability to rise above that and
dedicate himself to improve the lives of the
poor. Ben was not trying to be a hero; he
sincerely wanted to make a difference in
making the world a better place.
Ben gave his knowledge, energy, humor
and love to Nicaragua and the world — let
us follow his example and celebrate the life
and mission of Ben Linder. Please join us
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