Letters from Our Readers

Jahan Chowdhry, BAR Comments Editor

21 Oct 2020

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This week Third World unity, police brutality in Democrat-run cities and the failures of the presidential debates were on your minds. We share your letters for “The ‘Non-Aligned Nations’ Realign,” “Feuding With Donald Trump Is Not Police Reform,” and “Freedom Rider: Left Out of the Debate.”

“The ‘Non-Aligned Nations’ Realign” by Wilmer Leon III argues that there is a renewed unity among Third World nations towards building a post-Western world order.

Phillip William Zyrski writes:

“This has been going on for a long time now. The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) nations resented the actions of George Bush Senior and Junior, Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama. Wars in Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Somalia and even tensions with Lebanon, Iran, Russia and China had all of the NAM nations outraged and inspired them to work closer together with each other and they joined various organizations such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and applied to other organizations such as BRICS.”

In “Feuding With Donald Trump Is Not Police Reform” points out the hypocrisy of Democratic mayors who criticize the president’s law and order rhetoric but do nothing to check the violence of their own police forces.

Chris Herz writes:

“Basically, the Patriot Act and other legislation since 2001 has rendered police, especially in urban areas, beholden to what is called ‘Fusion Centers.’ These are parts of the Department of Homeland Security. So all the localities get to do is pay the wages -- and the damages. The police can thus be maintained indefinitely in a state of mutiny against their former political leadership.”

Elena Marie Bridges writes:

“They work together to do this. Bad kabuki that most wouldn’t buy if it weren’t for Americans thinking that advertising PR and propaganda trump history and facts.”

Pete Murphy writes:

“End qualified immunity, require professional liability insurance, provide independent review boards with teeth, and maybe the protests will stop.”

“Freedom Rider: Left Out of the Debate” by Margaret Kimberley questions the purpose of the presidential debates and the Democratic opposition to Trump if neither take into account the needs of country’s masses.

Reg Callaway writes:

“Kimberley makes good observations like she always does. To be an American means to suffer all manner of trauma which people of other civilized countries do not have to endure. In reality, the US stands alone as the world's largest trauma center where millions of citizens are triaged into the sick ward because of the numerous injustices they suffer throughout their lifetimes. For many, death would be the preferable prescription. No other major country sets its population up for such outcomes.

“Kimberley's key points highlight where the US stands on the socio-economic scale. In the worst of the worst category of living, the US holds solid leads. Name the area of concern and the US garners a deteriorating position.

“At the end of the day, elites set the stage for the American misery. I will venture to say the largest transfers of upward wealth in human history occurred during the past 12-years. This action caused the middle class and the poor to be defenseless against the state and financial predators. The result has been the rapid disintegration of half the American population. That means approximately 150 million people were thrown to the wolves under the leadership of Obama and Pelosi. And Pelosi still has a job and she wants a repeat.

“Unconscionably, Pelosi is busy holding the public hostage on the next round of stimulus so her rich donor friends can eke out more wealth from the vulnerable so the American misery index can break new ground in the wrong direction. I am not so sure her digging in her hills on a deal with the GOP is to stymie Trump but I think it is to court donors. Her contempt for the American public is a major contributor to why the minimum wage has lagged far behind other civilized countries, for instance. Yet, her district in California will vote her back into office in the next few weeks so she can continue the state's war against the public.

“As if it were some kind of Stephen King nightmare novel, we keep voting in people like frau Pelosi (Freddy Krueger?) that work against our interests once they hold office. That needs to end. The false illusion of the perennial ‘lesser evil’ trope that keeps popping up its head every four years is hard to break so we are stuck with a sick system that should be put out of its misery.

“As Kimberley alludes to, a radicle dynamic is needed that challenges the elite structures that are sucking the lifeblood out of each of us. I posit a new unambiguous people-focused Bill of Rights is needed foremost now. It's unremarkable we still cling to a slave Constitution document that does not work for most Americans.”

A serious opposition to whoever wins the White House has to be concerned with the needs of the working-class and poor. Opposing poverty and racism with a program of peace and jobs will be important.

Jahan Choudhry is Comments Editor for Black Agenda Report. He is an organizer with the Saturday Free School based in Philadelphia, PA.

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