Netanyahu is restricting humanitarian aid from reaching the Palestinians, yet our government is his biggest enabler.
“Somebody better investigate soon.”
That’s a lyric in Bob Dylan’s Oxford Town, a 1962 song deploring the relentless murdering of Black people and civil rights activists in the Deep South. The line mocks the refusal of racist officials to punish the white murderers, instead cynically covering up atrocities by promising do-nothing “investigations.”
Six decades later, the depraved ethic of “Oxford Town” is allowing Israel’s indiscriminate carpet-bombing of Gaza, wreaking horror at a genocidal pace on the Palestinian people. So far, some 33,000 Palestinians have been slaughtered, with another 75,000 horribly injured — and two-thirds of these victims are children and women. Hundreds of thousands more face imminent starvation because their homes, cities and entire economy have been blown to smithereens. Adding to the depravity, Israel’s fanatical ruler, Benjamin Netanyahu, restricts humanitarian aid from reaching the Palestinian people.
Yet our government is Netanyahu’s biggest international apologist and enabler! Oh, for sure our officials condemn each of his atrocities, loudly demanding “a full investigation.” But even when investigations happen, they produce no punishment … and no change in our shameful open-ended policy of annually supplying the billions of U.S. dollars and mega-weapons he’s now using to exterminate the innocent men, women and children of Gaza. Thus, the horrendous 2,000-pound bombs he’s dropping on Palestinians bear our U.S. flag.
President Joe Biden said last week that he’s heartbroken by the relentless killing of innocent Palestinians, calling it “unacceptable.” Then he accepted it! Even as he expressed anguish, Biden authorized a shipment of another $18 billion-worth of U.S. bombs and jets to Netanyahu.
Washington keeps sending killer weapons — then, when they’re fired at innocents, we piously demand useless investigations and request (pretty please) that Netanyahu “bomb responsibly.” Gosh, why isn’t that working?
Why Are We Letting Greedheads and Ideologues Kill Our Post Office?
Before there was a USA — before our Constitution was adopted, and even before our 1776 Declaration of Independence — one of America’s best democratic institutions was already delivering for the people: The Post Office.
But it’s important to realize that, for 250 years, this invaluable public service has delivered more than mail. It was — and is — a core element of our national unity. Its network of local employees goes door-to-door, coast-to-coast, six days a week in every ZIP code, physically linking America’s widely dispersed, wildly diverse people into one country. It is a universally popular and essential government service that works!
Yet — as we’ve seen with such other valued public assets as our schools and parks — no flower is so beneficial to the common good that selfish corporate opportunists won’t try to pluck it for their private gain. So for years, corporate profiteers and laissez-faire ideologues have been plucking apart the budget, staff, branches and historic mission of the post office.
Their scheme is to shrivel service, foment public dissatisfaction with the agency, demand evermore cuts in staff and branches — then push for a corporate takeover and downsizing of this universal, nationwide delivery network. It’s not just a piece of government they’re trying to eliminate; it’s the core idea of America itself, namely our people’s can-do democratic spirit and commitment to the common good.
Rather than meekly accepting this corporate retreat from our egalitarian ideals, let’s reassert our rebellious spirit. For starters, we can help the feisty American Postal Workers Union push a “People’s Postal Agenda.” It outlines ways to reinvent and expand the public services that this grassroots network of employees and local branches is uniquely able to provide. For info and action go to apwu.org.
Twice elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Hightower is a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, spreading the message of progressive populism all across the American grassroots.
He broadcasts daily radio commentaries that are carried in more than 150 commercial and public stations and on the web.
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