SECTION SEVEN

The Blacklisted Journalist Picture The Blacklisted Journalistsm

COLUMN FORTY-THREE, MARCH 1, 1999
(Copyright © 1999 Al Aronowitz)

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THE DARWIN AWARDS

From: "BIFF-MarkX Theatrical Productions"<biff_markx@hotmail.com>
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com
Subject: Darwin Awards
Date: Sat, 16 Jan 1999 21:03:29 PST

Just came across your March 1998 lit page. Wonderful stuff, by the way. At the bottom, I found the Darwin Awards to which I admit I've had access for a long time, but don't recall ever taking credit for their publication. I can't help but be curious who YOUR Mark Tenniswood is (through whose courtesy you received the Awards posting). I guess I don't suppose that you have record of where you got that submission, but it would be remiss of me to not at least ask. Respond if you've the inclination. I look forward to perusing other back issues of The Blacklisted Journalist.
Mark Tenniswood ##

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CORDLEY COIT SAYS THANKS AND MORE

To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 04:27:33 -0600
Subject: Thanks
From: cordleycoit@juno.com (Cordley G Coit)

. . .About me i was black listed in the sixties, Sylvia Warren can tell you why. In the fifties I ran with Kay Johnson and Chester Anderson. I was around the Village when you were. Remember Luke and Ellen Faust they were big buds until Ellen ran off with Zimmermann, who I thought was an embarrassment, when I'm wrong. . . Then went to work on Mad Ave made my loot and got out in '65, went to Europe and got clued. I'm inside the Morgan thing but outside because I'm looking for the truth. Since I have no money no one cares much about what I say or write. I do know that Clear Broadcasting just bought Jay Corp. That means the Bush boys are making their run with S&L money they stole back when and hid in the M-1. The Christians are about to learn a lesson, remember what Pat Choate did to We the People? Bush will lead them up the path with all the money in world backing him. Got a bet going with Pete Boyles on how long he stays working in Denver unless he leaves the Bush Boys alone. We can all be unemployed together. It's who signs the marching orders not who yells them out, Bush is an errand boy, a very dangerous one. Be well. . . Cordley Coit ##

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SHE SAYS WEBERMAN IS A FREAK!

Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 23:56:56 -0800 (PST)
From: "Jennifer L. Brice" <j_brice@yahoo.com
Subject: A. J. Weberman
To: Al Mr

Dear Al,

I know that you do not think much of Bob Dylan as a person, but honestly, A. J. Weberman is just as big a freak, when it comes to Bob, as Kenneth Star (aka Inspector Shithound) is, when it comes to our President. Honestly, looking through someone's garbage! Go get a life!

Jennifer L. Brice
http://www.geocities.com/soho/atrium/2735

P. S. Glad you have finally been able to post your latest columns. ##

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THE LITERARY RENAISSANCE

Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 20:59:46 +0000
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com
From: Marlon <mjm@centrum.is>
Subject: literary renaissance

HELLO AL

i have been checking out yr columns

enjoyed reading them will have to print them out

i enjoy reading in bed but not with the computer

i have seen a couple Bridges to Babylon gigs with The Rolling Stones and shit yes blew me away too. i been listening to this band for 30 yrs. and fucking amazing on stage they are better than ever. they are scheduled to play here in Reykjavik,Iceland and we are looking forward to the event.

Ron Whitehead, Birgitta Jonsdottir, and i commenced work in New York on organizing a week long poetry/music event in Reykjavik the year 2000. Ron will be here next month for further work on this event and gigz including Birgitta Jonsdottir, Frank Messina, Sneak Attack , GAK and myself.

In Every Disaster Lies The Seed Of Success.

ViVa,

Michael Dean Odin Pollock
The Literary Renaissance
North Atlantic Chapter
Reykjavik , Iceland ##

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E FROM CHINA

From: wenca@mail.sc.cninfo.net (Publishing User)
To: blackj@bigmagiccom
Subject: =?gb2312?B?u9i4tDogSEFQUFkgSE9MSURBWVMh?=
Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 12:39:31 +0800

Dear Al,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, thanks for your still remembering me---your Chinese friend who keeps reading your wonderful Web-site Beat series and learnt a lot, so helpful to his beat project. I had said to you when I visited you in your Elizabeth home that it would be welcome and can arouse much interest the world over if all these articles can be published in the form of book. I understand something difficult to do so, still I hope and I believe it can come true. I am OK, nothing fresh, you know the campus life here is routine as it is. What urges me to do is the Beat Mind, to finish my writing on Beats. Anything new about beat movement in the States and the rest of the world, please inform me by email. Stay in touch.

best wishes also to Ida.

Wen chu-an ##

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APPEAL FOR VOTES

From: "wax ringo" <wax-ingo@excite.com>
Subject: with a little help from my friends
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 08:54:05 PST

with a little help from my friends

i know you have had a hard day, then this will be fun for you!

Hello folks if you don know me let me introduce myself. My name is WAX RINGO. I will get to the point. I have a web site and i have a feature i call the "Song Survey." i will save you the trouble of visiting it by asking you to tell me your favorite:

Beatles song and album
and or
Nirvana song and album

if you don much care for either group, simply ignore this message, i just want to get votes so my site can be what the people choose.

you can vote for more than one song or album

i thank you for your time and if you can help me out, i would greatly appreciate it.

thanx again

WR

-----waxes best bands page-----
http://www.angelfire.com/hi/revolver66 ##

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U.S. THREATENS ROLLS ROYCE OF POT

From: "Turrall, Jolyan M" <jolyan@blacklisted.free-online.co.uk
To: "'info@blacklistedjournalist.com'"
Subject: What's the point?
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 13:18:53 -0000

Hi,

I've just been reading an article in the Guardian Newspaper today, it details an invitation by the Government of the Caribbean island of St. Vincent, to the US Government to assist in the eradication of the cultivation of what is reputed to be the best Marijuana in the world! The mission is only capable of success by the use of helicopters air lifting 120 troops and deploying them via ropes in to these inaccessible regions of the mountains interior. A similar mission in 1996 resulted in over a million plants being destroyed.

Well you might say that if the Government of St. Vincent have requested this help, it must be causing a problem which they cannot deal with. When you scratch the surface the truth appears in the form of poverty and human pain. The cultivation of these 'Rolls-Royce' plants is a means to an end for some 7,000 farmers who are able to sustain a living, school their children and stay out of the country's immense unemployment and poverty crisis, as a direct result of their farming activities. These farmers even have a support group as part of the 'Committee for Concerned Citizens.' The fact that these farmers have continuously gone back to this industry of agriculture indicates a lack of other choices for earning a living. Also this will only cause another two years of poverty and pressure for survival in a troubled country, which can only cause an increase in crime, until new crops grow. This intervention by the US will cost them $50,000, the farmer's support group have written to Clinton and have been refused a meeting with the St. Vincent Prime minister to discuss the spending such funds in job cultivation as an end to such industries. The St Vincent PM issued a statement saying that the Government cannot show any sign of support for Marijuana cultivation. If it were to, the US has threatened to stop issuing visas and remove support for the island's ailing banana industry and actively effect the banana trade with the European Union.

Excuse me, but just who do the US Gov. think they are swinging their size 12 boot about the place, this sort of heavy handed approach is what leads to revolution as it nearly has in the past with south and Central America.

Mr Bongo Shaka, spokesman for the Farmers Support Group, has said that this operation could not have come at a worse time when Christmas makes extra demands on finances on top of bills and the children's schooling.

So the world now has to be brought into line with the US Government's rules, whether or not these create severe hardship or not, or face a school yard style disciplinary action which also creates severe hardship. Catch 22 if I ever heard it!

I am interested in the fact that Clinton is threatening action of the European Union. I didn't know that the US was in the EU! Also the UK is currently on the brink of accepting Marijuana use for the ill as a form of pain relief! Surely a wise solution would be to aid the St. Vincent farmers in a organised and policed production of the finest product for use with this new acceptable use, thus solving two areas of pain and distress, both cancer sufferers etc. and the farmers of St. Vincent!

If only our world leaders were wise leaders!

Spare a thought for the St. Vincent farmers.

Jolyan Turrall
Tel. +44(0)171-830-6828
jolyan@blacklisted.free-online.co.uk ##

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U.S. SCHOOL FOR ASSASSINS

Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 23:07:37 -0500
From: The Axels <axels@orn.net
Subject: Article

Poets need to care. Just got home. This is what I was doing on Sunday in Georgia.

Brett

Brett Axel adds his voice to those asking for the closing of the SOA

On November 22nd, 1998 I was taken into custody by the Military Police in Columbus Georgia along with over 2300 people whose consciences overwhelmed their respect for the letter of the law and whose fear of the threat of six months in Federal prison could not douse their horror at the atrocities we were protesting.

We were students, veterans, clergy, professionals, lay people, and more, all united by a worthy common goal:

To ask for the closing of The United States Army's School of the Americas, unaffectionately called, "The School of Assassins."

More than 200,000 civilians including women and children have been tortured, raped, and murdered by Latin American military trained by this school. They rape and torture and kill because they are taught that it is an effective deterrent for future dissidents.

It is.

It would discourage me.

I would not have been 1000 miles from my home and family demonstrating against the SOA or anything else if I ran the risk of being tortured, raped, and killed.

I would drink government approved sodas, eat government approved burgers and crap on government approved toilets, giving no indication of displeasure, if I was living under such threats.

But even in the face of such oppression, good people in Colombia stand up and die.

Good people in Guatemala stand up and die.

And in Haiti and in Bolivia, El Salvador and Chile, good people sacrifice their lives for their sisters and brothers.

Encouraged by actor Martin Sheen, singer Amy Ray, and the thousands of humanity minded people willing to take the risk with me, I crossed the boundary line onto Ft. Benning.

With our attention on 6 murdered Jesuit priests, 4 American nuns raped and murdered, assassinated peace-maker Arch Bishop Romero, and so many thousands of men, women, and children, we crossed the line.

Because we love our country and we respect the law, we crossed the line.

Because first, our beloved country crossed the line between humanity and barbarism, we crossed the line.

Carrying crosses marked with the names of victims of SOA graduates, we crossed the line. Gaining strength from the spirit of Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Ghandi, we crossed the line into the arms of the military police.

Last year 600 crossed and were arrested.

Many were arrested and some of them were priests and nuns themselves.

Sending priests and nuns to prison showed the country how serious the military was about holding on to their indecency.

That after spending six months in prison, so many of those priests and nuns as well as teachers and students, waiters and truck drivers, were gathered at the entrance of Ft Benning ready to cross again told them how serious we are too. Dead serious. Not all of us, perhaps, ready to die for our convictions, but grateful that what the United States Military is practicing in Latin America they have not yet turned on their own people here, you bet your ass, we crossed the line.

The military was prepared with lies and diversions on Saturday, but we were not moved.

On Sunday they were prepared with 26 buses ready to process the arrests of up to 1200 people.

I carried the cross of Ita Ford, a nun who was raped and murdered in El Salvador by alumni of the School of the Americas. It was an honor to be taken into custody in her memory. It would have been an honor to have spent six months in prison in her name. I'd like to think I would have spent each day praying for her, for her family, and for the poor people of El Salvador whom she loved.

But none of us were prosecuted. Over 2300 crossed. We were so many that it must have looked like a river of compassion flowing through the Ft Benning gates. We were so many that the buses could not carry us all in two trips. So many that they were not prepared to deal with us and had to let us go.

You can be sure that they will be better prepared next year. On Saturday, they will tell us lies and give us distractions. On Sunday they will have 100 buses and be ready to arrest 5000. I would like them to be overwhelmed again. I would like them to face a procession of people 20,000 strong. Or 50,000: the number of men stationed at Ft Benning, or 250,000: the number of people killed by SOA's graduates. And when they come out with their lies, I'd like us to be prepared also.

This Will Not Be Good Enough!

"The atrocities against humanity which we continue to assert never occurred, we assure you have been thoroughly corrected and will never happen again. You win. Now please leave." -- The SOA, near future

For the same reason
One of the Nazi's old
Death ovens cannot
Have its gas jets
Replaced with air
Conditioning vents
To be used as a ball pit
For toddlers to play in
This institution's legacy
Has made it a symbol of evil
Beyond sanctification.
Nothing less will be acceptable now
Than dismantling the school
Of the Americas
Leaving no brick
On top of another.

Brett Axel

For more information about the SOA and how to help to bring about its closing, visit the SOA Watch web site at: http://www.soaw.org . ##

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