Letters to the Editor, June 28, 2004

God Loves us all and He wants and will save us all. AMEN

Jenniro

Palestinian Madonna in Flowing White*

By Genevieve Cora Fraser

A Palestinian Madonna

In a mantle of white

Faced the brute force

Of Israeli state terror

Tonight inside the sanctuary

Oh her home soldiers aimed

Their assault rifles and roamed

Troops of muddy boots

On pristine Arabic tile

With babe in arms

Another hid behind

She proudly faced them

Stood her ground

As they prowled around

And plunked themselves

Down an ambush

For her tired husband

Who left for work at 4

Before dawn to stand

At the checkpoint

Waiting, tired, hungry

Anxious to get to hospital

Tanks had been roaming

Snipers shooting children

Throwing stones

A doctor made criminal

For treating his patients

Like humans deserving

His care a colleague

Had been shot

Attempting to get

To a man in need

Of an emergency

Operation made to wait

He gestured and said

Please, I must get to my patient

You see he has a bad heart

That doctor is no longer

A surgeon his shoulders

Shot he fell and broke

His hands as they kicked

Him aside for provoking

The Almighty Wrath

Of a 21 year old

Israeli in charge

Of enforced waiting

Mandated to delay

Entry Exit

Submission

In all matters

To Israeli Will

Is required the penalty

For impatience

Is corporal punishment

Possible internment

Or death the doctor

Is out his wife waits

Wondering

As the soldiers

Eye her Semite beauty

Draped in white she shudders

And prays for deliverance

From her enemies

Israelis kill to prove

Their Right to Kill

They rape to defile

Her husband

Is at hospital

She tells them

They will wait

What has he done

That deserves

An unprovoked

Raid he has treated

All with respect

Never held a gun

Never harmed

A key scrapes

Inserted the bolt

Pulls back

As the soldiers

Cock their weapons

She screams

And sees red

*The story is a composite inspired by photos, articles, conversations with Palestinians and a story I heard from members of the American Friends Service Committee who spent time in Palestine with a man who can no longer practice surgery. It is dedicated to the noble citizens of Nablus whose ancient city is being devastated and lives victimized by Israeli State Terrorism once again.

Two Palestinian girls arrested by Israelis

I can't even imagine the anxiety sadness and anger that is in the hearts of the girls' families. Not to mention the terror felt by two fifteen year old girls finding themselves in prison. Can you imagine the outrage expressed by Mr Bush etc if these girls had been Israelis arrested by the Palestinians The Israeli soldiers should remember their relatives who were arrested by the Nazis also maybe as children and then see if they are still able to arrest Palestinian children and take them to prison in their pajamas

Janice Keenan

Dear President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Phillippines:

My name is Isosceles Aquino Bardoquillo, I already wrote a letter addressed to you and email to all of our government agencies, congressman, ambassador, I was looking for help concerning the kidnapping of my wife and her jail term and my jail term but I did not received any because yesterday we went to the philippines embassy to have custody since we are facing difficulties in this crime and to our life since i am already terminated from my job. and the company is now lock the accommodation me and son is now on the street, We slept last night in Deira Park, Dubai (UAE), but my son is having a problem since he is just 3 years old and the climate here is very hot.

Please we are human, Why the embassy do this to us if i did not need any help i should not come to them but please help us we are just human being and i do not have anything now please understand. I am in a hunger situation do not worry let me die but my son at least you are a president save him.

Please contact Us thru our friends:

009717690389 or 009713608116

Or ask the embassy why they did not accept my application for custody while i am looking for a job. why?

This is inhuman to let us leave on the street and the weather is very hot we are getting harder to breath.

We just ask this internet cafe at least this Indian owner feel pity about my son. But where is my pillow Filipino? where is the embassy?

Please understand our situation I might be going to jail again or perhaps die since i received any message from these criminal treating our life. We are scared, depressed and hungry.

Please help me, help my son.

Isosceles Aquino Bardoquillo

Sam Hamod responds to Ann Wayland's Commentary (Al-Jazeerah, June 24, 2004 Letters).

1. A review is the opinion of the reviewer about a book, show, movie or article; the reviewer chooses what he or she wants to highlight.

2. The statements I made in my review were backed up with comments about Bosnia, Rwanda, Palestine and other matters such as Monica and his immoral and sleazy behavior.

3. I quoted some Hollywood bigshots that told me he was "sleazy,"--as it turns out, he was sleazy and a liar as well.

4. Clinton was, and is, pro-Israel and was not an honest broker on the Middle East--I said this, and the facts back it up and his blame against Arafat was nothing but a dodge for his unbalanced position on Palestine/Israel.

5. Much of what Clinton says is self-serving and after a while, while reading the review copy I had, I felt I was reading fiction to make Clinton look better than he actually was--that's why I said it was fiction, and not very good fiction at all.

6. Am I disgusted with Clinton as a leader and his alleged honesty--yes, because he did not lead our country upward, but downward instead.

7. Clinton besmirched the office of the presidency with his immoral and lying behavior--I said that, and his book did not change my opinion on that--in fact, it showed he still doesn't realize what damage he did to the honorable office of our presidency (although , I also pointed out that GWB is worse, "the worst president in American history" according to Helen Thomas, and I agree with her).

Iraq War Costs So Far

The $151.1 billion that will have been spent through this fiscal year on the Iraq war could have paid for comprehensive health care for 82 million U.S. children or the salaries of nearly three million elementary school teachers. According to one study cited in the 54-page report, the war and occupation will cost the average U.S. household at least $3,415 through the end of this year.

Roy Ennis

The Law of the Jungle

Once upon a time, in the deep jungle, lived a Lion and a Monkey... One day the Monkey, tired of the Lion always taking the LION'S SHARE, and seeing that such injustice represented a danger to all the species of the jungle, demanded JUSTICE... The Lion, yawning and stretching, said, "You would have to have paws and sharp teeth..." Then the Monkey, who was very clever, devised a plan: He would go to the costume store, and look like a lion...

When the Lion saw him, noticing that the new lion wasn't a match for him, and fearing COMPETITION, killed him on the spot --before the indifferent look of the little animals of the jungle... And that's how the Law of the Jungle was re-established one more time...

NOTE: Other monkeys survived him...

Orlando Fernandez

Domestic Spying by Military Intelligence to be legalized

The transition from NORAD to Northern Command is being sold as a natural extension of NORAD and missile defence. But in the United States, the real thrust is clear from Department of Defense documents, namely for Northern Command to support military assistance to civil

authorities:

The US Department of Defense is looking for the right to gather information from and about Americans (and of course Canadians and the rest of the world), without having to tell them that they are doing so.

Without a public hearing or debate, Defense officials recently slipped a provision into a bill before Congress that could vastly expand the Pentagon's ability to gather intelligence inside the United States, including recruiting citizens as informants, and exempt the work of Pentagon military intelligence from the Privacy Act.

We're all Abu Ghraibis now...

http://www.911review.org/Wiki/NorthernCommand.shtml