Cottonmouth Press

It is early Wednesday morning, and I have just learned that Warren Jeffs, the 51-year-old prophet in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, has been found guilty of assisting in a rape. I know that, all day long today, the various talk radio stations will be abuzz with this topic. People will debate the rightness and wrongness of  the religious practice of polygamy: specifically, whether it is right to assign young women to be the wives of older men, or men they do not love.

It is a conundrum. The question is lodged firmly in that crack of the First Amendment we call “separation of church and state.” And that tipping point  has been growing ever more contentious in the past 20 years because so many cases have come to the courts of our land with the separation clause used as either a hammer or a sewing needle.

Here is what I mean. All across the South, and in some other states, people and the courts have grappled with the question of whether the Ten Commandments should be placed in public buildings. Some say no because that is a religious set of laws. Some say yes because the Ten form a base for our system of jurisprudence.

In many states, the question has rung out, do school boards have the right to promote Creationism in school textbooks where a sizeable number of parents want their kids taught Evolutionary Theory. Some say yes because the story of Adam and Eve is the first chapter of our human story, as told in the Holy Bible. Others say no because they believe that first chapter is a fairy tale, and to teach it as science is to set our children’s learning back by thousands of years.
 In many states, the religious community has been a rancorous nuisance when scientists want to conduct stem cell research. The current government imposes its Christian view that an embryo is a full human, and it halts that research.
Does the state have the right to impose its religious view on the rest of the nation, which may or may not benefit from stem cell medicines?

Enter Warren Jeffs. He and his followers have religious beliefs that play out as extreme against the 21st century backdrop.
I watch Big Love, um, religiously, you might say, for two seasons now on HBO. I feel that eery sense of life imitating art when I see the photos of the  real-life FLDS girls huddling together in long braids and prairie garb: Why, they look just like the women on the fictional TV show!  Only this is real and the state is imposing its rule of law on a group with its own laws: religious laws.

I am not supporting the marriage practices of the sect. Far from it.
How awful that women are married to total strangers three times their age, then “reassigned” to other husbands when the old men die. Ickkk!

I just wish this nation could find a consistent policy where church and state intersect.
I would like to see the church stay completely OUT of the way where stem cell research is concerned and where the teaching of science is concerned. I would like the state to buzz off where people’s rights to consensual sex and marriage are concerned.

 I wish this nation would FOLLOW THE CONSTITUTIONAL DIRECTIVE: No government shall establish a religion for the people to follow, and that means no imposing of Christianity on those who do not want it and no imposing of the state’s will on religious practices. Yes, even when they seem disgucting to us and raise our eyebrows. The state can offer other avenues of escape and comfort to people who want out of a religion, but in my view, both the church and the state should stay on their own sides of the playground.

Posted by Gita under National | No Comments »

As some of you may know about me, I have deep family ties in Jena, La.  Both my parents were born and raised there, and I still have a lot of relatives there.  I am white, and I am appalled at the conduct of the powers that be in perpetuating a dual system of justice in Jena.  As you can imagine, I’m Googling the news for Jena every day.

Reed Walters, the Distric Attorney of LaSalle Parish, La., has an op-ed that just appeared in the New York Times online for publication in tomorrow’s paper.  In it he attempts to explain the decisions he’s made as a prosecutor in the Jena 6 case.

While some who are inclined to agree with him might find his op-ed an articulate and convincing self-defense, its omissions are glaring.

Here are a few excerpts from Walters’ op-ed:

Conjure the image of schoolboys fighting: they exchange words, clench fists, throw punches, wrestle in the dirt until classmates or teachers pull them apart. Of course that would not be aggravated second-degree battery, which is what the attackers are now charged with. (Five of the defendants were originally charged with attempted second-degree murder.) But that’s not what happened at Jena High School.

Fine, Mr. Walters, but that doesn’t explain why they were first charged with attempted second-degree murder.  The blatant overcharging of these kids is a huge part of what set this whole thing off.  That you subsequently came to your senses and found slightly more appropriate charges is too little, too late.

Now, about those nooses:

I cannot overemphasize how abhorrent and stupid I find the placing of the nooses on the schoolyard tree in late August 2006. If those who committed that act considered it a prank, their sense of humor is seriously distorted. It was mean-spirited and deserves the condemnation of all decent people.

But it broke no law. I searched the Louisiana criminal code for a crime that I could prosecute. There is none.

Point taken.  But the fact is that these morons were barely punished at ALL.  Maybe that’s not your fault, but it’s part of the overall narrative here.

And I’ll bet the Louisiana criminal code has something to say about pulling a shotgun with a pistol grip at a convenience store, yet the white dude who did that wasn’t prosecuted - hell, he wasn’t even arrested.  Instead, the kids he pulled the gun on were charged with second-degree battery, assault, disturbing the peace and theft of the weapon after wrestling it away from him in self-defense.  Why?  Because the white guy felt “threatened.”

And what about Justin Sloan, the guy who attacked one of the black students with a bottle at a party?  Charged with simple battery and given probation.

Yes, “Free the Jena 6″ has become a rallying cry around this whole sorry mess, but I’m not sure even the protesters believe the six should get out of jail free if they were involved in the attack on Justin Barker.

It’s just that so many others ought to be going to jail as well.

Mr. Walters, I certainly hope that there are enough fair-minded people in Jena that they will find someone to challenge you in the next election, someone who won’t bring further shame on Jena.  I can only hope you’re feeling that fear and that’s why you’ve finally decided to attempt to explain yourself.

But it’s too late for that.  It’s time for you to find another line of work.

Posted by Tracey under National & Regional | No Comments »

Today, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University. To introduce him, Columbia University president Lee Bollinger called  Ahmadinejad a “petty and cruel dictator.”
Wow. It’s not often that a guest speaker gets that kind of intro.

Not that I am complaining. When I first heard Ahmadinejad deny the Holocaust my head exploded. When I came to, some hours later, I needed intensive pampering with massages and interesting fruits and drinks to regain my strength.
I always have that reaction when someone denies the Holocaust. (Doesn’t everyone??)

You see, I had family members in the death camps. Several died there almost immediately because they were under the age of 10; a couple survived.
I know: I saw the blue ink numbers that were tattooed on their arms.
Once you see those numbers, your head explodes everytime someone (Louis Farrakhan, for instance) denies the Holocaust.
Don’t take my word for it, though.
As Bollinger pointed out to Ahmadinejad, “The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history.”
But hey, if Holocaust denial isn’t enough of a reason for you to dislike Ahmadinejad, here is another one. He has questioned the events that took place on 9/11. And if that’s not enough, he defended his nation’s executions of homosexuals.Then he denied that there were gays in Iran.
“In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who’s told you that we have this,” he said to the Columbia audience.
So was Columbia University wrong to allow Ahmadinejad a venue to speak?
In my view, absolutely not.
That is one of the things that differentiates a democratic university campus from one in a fascist nation, or, for that matter, from Bob Jones University.
Much as I despise Ahmadinejad, I strongly believe that universities are forums for open and free exchange of ideas, for discussions, for debates.
I know that several lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, criticized Columbia for allowing Ahmadinejad’s appearance.
They were wrong to do so. Censoring those whose views we dislike is a bad path to go down. Giving the American people, and especially students, the chance to make up their own minds is risky.
But I believe it’s one of the prices of freedom.

Posted by Gita under National | No Comments »

The Bush administration is beating the war drums again, and this time the target country is Iran. Amid the growing buzz to that effect, a group of Peace protesters marched on the nation’s Capitol this weekend. We have nothing if we do not have hope that we can somehow make our government listen to the voices of reason.

How to maintain hope in this time of many plagues (environmental disasters around the corner, a president who lies to the people and condones torture and domestic spying, a national debt that will cripple us for the next three generations and the threat from Al Qaeda on every side)?

I cannot answer for you. But the answer came for me this weekend (as I carried my M-Peach sign down Pennsylvania Avenue) in the form of five new friends, each of whom inspired me to believe again that the spirit of goodness is alive in America. It often happens at protest rallies and marches that you get caught up in the moment and feel a rush of happiness because those around you share your beliefs. That’s a commonplace.

However, the five people I met over the past weekend were exceptionally hard workers in the Progressive community. Aaron is an environmentalist teaching others about sustainable energy and earth-friendly practices. He blogs at www.poweringdown.blogspot.com Grace is a healthcare worker in North Carolina who created a free health clinic for state employees and their families.
Diane, who had never practiced civil disobedience before this Sept. 15 march, rushed the barricades in front of the Capitol in solidarity with Iraqi War Vets and was taken to jail (all 90 pounds of her) for the night. She emerged the next morning not chastened but glowing from the experience of talking all night to veterans about their commitment. She and her husband, Dan, are going to show their photos from the march to friends and also show them a documentary, “Why We Fight.”  They are building a Peace movement in Cleveland.

Annie, who has the energy of a tsunami when she’s revved up about a cause, is a MoveOn organizer in Florida. She is building grassroots activism a stone’s throw from a major military base in a “red state.”

What struck me when talking to these and other new friends at the Peace and Impeachment rally was that they do not, and will not, give up. Even when faced with overwhelming odds, like a government hell-bent on expanding war into Iran, they have dug in their heels and they are working harder than ever.

As Grace said to me this morning over coffee in downtown Washington, D.C., “Never give up. Never stop. Period.”
That gives me hope and strength in this time of cholera.

M-PEACH

Posted by Gita under National & Uncategorized | No Comments »

My parents were born and raised in Jena, La.  Until very recently, my grandmother lived there (she now lives near my parents in another state), and I still have aunts, uncles and cousins in Jena.  I have spent lots of time in Jena over my 41 years, most of them as a child.  I even lived there and attended middle school for a short time in the late 70s while my family was moving.  So the Jena 6 situation has really hit home for me and my family.

Most of my family are pretty apolitical - I’m the raging lefty in the family.  A phone call from my mother today has gotten me concerned.  From what she said, there’s starting to be a bit of a panic in Jena over the bus rides planned for Mychel Bell’s court hearing.  Jena has barely over 3,000 people, and my mother said that 40,000 people are expected to come into town for the rally.  I can’t vouch for that figure, but I know that bus rides are being organized from all over the country (including here in Nashville) and that the Jena Six has become quite the cause celebre on African-American talk radio (as well it should).

Adding to the fear is that anywhere African-Americans gather to support their own, the KKK will also put together a contingent, and my mother said the Klan is planning to rally there too.  I haven’t seen this reported online anywhere, and I hope it’s not true.

But if it IS true, this little town, crappy as it is, is a powder keg, because no matter how peaceful everyone intends to be, all it takes is one or two loose cannons to get something very tragic started.  A town the size of Jena simply can’t sustain that kind of crowd to start with, let alone a clash between KKK members and pro-civil-rights protestors.  (Of course, most white people in Jena, especially the older ones, are laying all of this at the feet of the “outside (black) agitators” like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.)

My mother is begging her older sister to leave town and stay with my family for a few days, but my aunt won’t budge.  I told my mother I didn’t expect people to rampage the town and burn down homes, but the town is so tiny (as a kid, I would routinely ride my bike from one end of it to the other) that it wouldn’t take much for nastiness near the courthouse or in the city park to spill into neighborhoods.

If there IS serious civil unrest, blame for it will lie at the feet of one person - District Attorney Reed Walters.  None of us can look inside his heart and know whether he’s a racist.  But we can all look at his actions and conclude that he is exceedingly stupid, perhaps even more stupid than Mike Nifong in North Carolina.  From his threats to the students to “end your life with the stroke of a pen,” to his egregious overcharging of the students, to his failure to similarly charge whites who committed similar crimes, to his failure or refusal to explain himself, he has created a vacuum of common sense that has allowed accusations of racism to take hold.  Racist or not, he’s so arbitary as to have the appearance of a racist.

This is Jena’s loss of innocence, its not-so-peaceful introduction to the 21st century where most of the rest of us live.  Jena has always been so insular, so small, so white and so segregated that it has been allowed to wallow in its pre-1960 mindset for all this time.  Things like this don’t happen in Jena, because everyone knows their place, or at least they USED to.  (According to my grandmother, the problem is that these kids are Katrina evacuees.  She didn’t use the word “uppity,” but you can read between the lines).

I am hoping against hope that things can remain peaceful in Jena and that justice will somehow be done.  I also hope that Jena will emerge from this a town in which its few African-American residents will no longer be content to live “over in the Quarters” if they don’t want to or be subjected to a dual system of justice.

I hope for the sake of my mother and the rest of my family that Jena comes out of this a better place.

Posted by Tracey under Regional | 1 Comment »