Global
Turning Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday into a national holiday is one of the things that America got right. It's a day set apart from all others, when all generations will pause to think about a great man, his legacy and what it should mean to us.
So far that sounds great, and to a large extent it's what's happened. But I've been around for all of the MLK birthday celebrations so far, and the yearly "celebration of his life" is starting to look in ways like a Disneyized version of both the man and his legacy. The last thing we need today is a romanticized version of Martin Luther King, Jr., much less an idealized version of the struggle that he stood for.
In l945, when Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower toured the former German concentration camp at Ohrdruf, he famously said to an aide, "Take pictures. Take lots of pictures. Some day some sons of bitches are going to try to say this never happened."
So far that sounds great, and to a large extent it's what's happened. But I've been around for all of the MLK birthday celebrations so far, and the yearly "celebration of his life" is starting to look in ways like a Disneyized version of both the man and his legacy. The last thing we need today is a romanticized version of Martin Luther King, Jr., much less an idealized version of the struggle that he stood for.
In l945, when Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower toured the former German concentration camp at Ohrdruf, he famously said to an aide, "Take pictures. Take lots of pictures. Some day some sons of bitches are going to try to say this never happened."
To: Dr. Bob Fitrakis, the editor of the freepress.
I want to complain to you about your article which has been posted by New York Time on Thursday 20th 2011 about Vang Pao was one of the world's most notorious drug dealers. First of all I want to ask you a few questions as follow:
1. How do you know that Vang Pao was a drug dealer?
2. Have ever been with Vang Pao for the last fifty years?
3. Have you ever been in Long Tieng before?
4. Who to believe?
a.) All the American personnels who woked in Long Tieng including the raven.
b.) All Vang Pao military personnels including muself and my friends T-28 pilots.
c.) Albert McCoy and Mr. Poe (Tony).
To me, all the accusations in your article are a big liar, not even one percent true. If you want to know the fact, I suggest you to contact General Craig.W.Duehring, the former Assistant Secretary of Air force who was a raven during that period of time.
I want to complain to you about your article which has been posted by New York Time on Thursday 20th 2011 about Vang Pao was one of the world's most notorious drug dealers. First of all I want to ask you a few questions as follow:
1. How do you know that Vang Pao was a drug dealer?
2. Have ever been with Vang Pao for the last fifty years?
3. Have you ever been in Long Tieng before?
4. Who to believe?
a.) All the American personnels who woked in Long Tieng including the raven.
b.) All Vang Pao military personnels including muself and my friends T-28 pilots.
c.) Albert McCoy and Mr. Poe (Tony).
To me, all the accusations in your article are a big liar, not even one percent true. If you want to know the fact, I suggest you to contact General Craig.W.Duehring, the former Assistant Secretary of Air force who was a raven during that period of time.
Dear Dr. Fitrakis,
My name is Teng Vang. I live in the beautiful state of North Carolina. I happened to read your column dated January 18, 2011 about our leader General Vang Pao.
I am dismay in reading your article. Your article does not reflect your professional degrees at all because apparently you haven’t done any homework and simply wrote what you have heard from others, especially Mr. Tony Poe. Is this the way you as a JD and columnist, editor, etc.. doing???
Please allow me to share some of my “facts”:
1. Your information from Mr. Tony Poe about General Vang Pa was nothing but a lie:
My name is Teng Vang. I live in the beautiful state of North Carolina. I happened to read your column dated January 18, 2011 about our leader General Vang Pao.
I am dismay in reading your article. Your article does not reflect your professional degrees at all because apparently you haven’t done any homework and simply wrote what you have heard from others, especially Mr. Tony Poe. Is this the way you as a JD and columnist, editor, etc.. doing???
Please allow me to share some of my “facts”:
1. Your information from Mr. Tony Poe about General Vang Pa was nothing but a lie:
Good evening Dr. Fatrikis,
In reading your article about General Vang Pao, I have found your article to be baseless, frictional and absolutely irresponsible as a professional. I am a Hmong and many of my extended family members served during the war, and some were very closed to Maj.General Vang Pao. None have ever observed such disgraceful accusation.
As an American, I sense your intention to be nothing more than an act of character assassination to an honorable figure due to questionable reasons. The facts that thousands of Americans today are in jail around the country does not make president Obama a criminal for their crime. Another fact, according to law enforcement report, tons of illegal drugs are floating around the country daily, does not make president Obama and governmental leaders drug traffickers.
It is this kind of unfair and bias writing such as yours which created hatred and human rights violations around the world because people like you abuse your role and responsibility.
In reading your article about General Vang Pao, I have found your article to be baseless, frictional and absolutely irresponsible as a professional. I am a Hmong and many of my extended family members served during the war, and some were very closed to Maj.General Vang Pao. None have ever observed such disgraceful accusation.
As an American, I sense your intention to be nothing more than an act of character assassination to an honorable figure due to questionable reasons. The facts that thousands of Americans today are in jail around the country does not make president Obama a criminal for their crime. Another fact, according to law enforcement report, tons of illegal drugs are floating around the country daily, does not make president Obama and governmental leaders drug traffickers.
It is this kind of unfair and bias writing such as yours which created hatred and human rights violations around the world because people like you abuse your role and responsibility.
The easy violence of empire washes over everything. It washes into our psyches.
I’m thinking about this in connection with the juxtaposition of anniversaries this week: Martin Luther King Day; President Eisenhower’s farewell address to the nation in 1961, in which he sounded the warning about the military-industrial complex; and George H.W. Bush’s bombing campaign that launched the Gulf War in 1991, pounding not only Saddam (our kill ratio was 1,000-to-1) but also the so-called “Vietnam Syndrome” and America’s post-modernist aversion to war, thus re-energizing . . . the military-industrial complex.
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death,” King said in his “Beyond Vietnam” speech a year before his death, sounding a warning that converged with Eisenhower’s. Poke any dark corner of American life and a warning will emerge.
I’m thinking about this in connection with the juxtaposition of anniversaries this week: Martin Luther King Day; President Eisenhower’s farewell address to the nation in 1961, in which he sounded the warning about the military-industrial complex; and George H.W. Bush’s bombing campaign that launched the Gulf War in 1991, pounding not only Saddam (our kill ratio was 1,000-to-1) but also the so-called “Vietnam Syndrome” and America’s post-modernist aversion to war, thus re-energizing . . . the military-industrial complex.
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death,” King said in his “Beyond Vietnam” speech a year before his death, sounding a warning that converged with Eisenhower’s. Poke any dark corner of American life and a warning will emerge.
On December 18, 2010, Cuban President Raúl Castro warned Cubans: the nation faced a crisis. The disastrous condition of Cuba's economy no longer allowed the state any maneuvering room to walk the dangerous “precipice” of inefficiency, low productivity and corruption. Without reforms, Cuba would sink -- and with it the effort of every generation seeking a free Cuba since the first native revolt against Spanish colonial rule.
Cubans understood that since 1959 the Revolution, with all its faults, had safeguarded the nation's independence – national sovereignty. From 1492 (Columbus' landing) through December 1958, foreign powers had decided the fate of Cubans.
By the early 19 th century a " Cuban " had emerged -- not a Spaniard on a faraway island or an enslaved African, but a hybrid product of three centuries of colonialism who sought self-determination -- like the American colonial population in 1776.
Cubans understood that since 1959 the Revolution, with all its faults, had safeguarded the nation's independence – national sovereignty. From 1492 (Columbus' landing) through December 1958, foreign powers had decided the fate of Cubans.
By the early 19 th century a " Cuban " had emerged -- not a Spaniard on a faraway island or an enslaved African, but a hybrid product of three centuries of colonialism who sought self-determination -- like the American colonial population in 1776.
While Washington pundits are talking up a new civility, many progressives are bracing for the old servility -- a bipartisanship that is servile to a corporate elite that is unquenchably greedy and more powerful than ever.
But this is not a time for despair. It’s a time for new activism -- built upon one of the great achievements of the last decade: the rise of independent media.
Every day, millions of people in the U.S. get their journalism from independent news outlets that expose not just the extremist antics of Republicans, but also the corporate corruption among Democrats. These informed Americans -- fearful of Speaker Boehner and alarmed by a White House now administered by a JPMorgan Chase executive -- represent a huge base ready to mobilize in new ways.
But this is not a time for despair. It’s a time for new activism -- built upon one of the great achievements of the last decade: the rise of independent media.
Every day, millions of people in the U.S. get their journalism from independent news outlets that expose not just the extremist antics of Republicans, but also the corporate corruption among Democrats. These informed Americans -- fearful of Speaker Boehner and alarmed by a White House now administered by a JPMorgan Chase executive -- represent a huge base ready to mobilize in new ways.
The New York Times, self-proclaimed "paper of record," failed to record that General Vang Pao, who died Thursday, January 6, was a wretched drug dealer who targeted U.S. troops in Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines for drug sales.
Let's go over the bizarre, Soviet-style, Times obit entitled "Gen. Vang Pao, Laotion Who Aided U.S., Dies at 81." In their ideological analysis, Pao was a "...charismatic Laotian general who commanded a secret army of his mountain people in a long, losing campaign against Communist insurgents." The Times goes on to say he had "almost kinglike status."
They quote a Hmong refugee in California saying "He is like the earth and the sky." They throw in the following quote of the general to his Hmong troops: "If we die, we die together. Nobody will be left behind."
In the New York Times fantasyland, Vang Pao was a patriot and an anti-communist hero. The Times glosses over the fact that Vang Pao was discredited in Laos because he was perceived as a lackey and a tool of French imperialism. He was a sergeant in the French colonial army, the Times tells us, and then he went on to work directly for the CIA.
Let's go over the bizarre, Soviet-style, Times obit entitled "Gen. Vang Pao, Laotion Who Aided U.S., Dies at 81." In their ideological analysis, Pao was a "...charismatic Laotian general who commanded a secret army of his mountain people in a long, losing campaign against Communist insurgents." The Times goes on to say he had "almost kinglike status."
They quote a Hmong refugee in California saying "He is like the earth and the sky." They throw in the following quote of the general to his Hmong troops: "If we die, we die together. Nobody will be left behind."
In the New York Times fantasyland, Vang Pao was a patriot and an anti-communist hero. The Times glosses over the fact that Vang Pao was discredited in Laos because he was perceived as a lackey and a tool of French imperialism. He was a sergeant in the French colonial army, the Times tells us, and then he went on to work directly for the CIA.
The Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio is seeking emergency support in these cold winter months. The Free Press has partnered with the Native American Center for many years for our awards dinner. Your quick donation is needed to keep their much-needed services going for the Native American community and other needy people on the south side, such as: the community food pantry, clothing pantry, the White Bison AA meetings, and health screenings. A couple of hundred dollars would be very helpful to the NAICCO center at this time.
You can send a contribution or become a member of the Native American Indian Center through Paypal from this site:
NAICCO Donate
or send a check to:
NAICCO
P.O. Box 07705
Columbus Ohio 43207
Thank you so much!
Bob Fitrakis
You can send a contribution or become a member of the Native American Indian Center through Paypal from this site:
NAICCO Donate
or send a check to:
NAICCO
P.O. Box 07705
Columbus Ohio 43207
Thank you so much!
Bob Fitrakis
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. lived till he was just 39. He has been dead now longer than he lived.
Sadly, too many who never worked with, or even supported, Dr. King while he was alive and in the middle of the struggle, now engage in rhetorical gymnastics, manipulating Dr. King’s words to conform to their own world view and justify their own ideological and political--even military--agendas.
We would all do well to ignore recent perverse misappropriations of Dr. King’s words with regard to our current wars. If he were alive today, Dr. King would, in my opinion, decry the diversion of resources to unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Not just in words, but in deeds, Dr. King never wavered in his commitment to peace and non-violence.
Sadly, too many who never worked with, or even supported, Dr. King while he was alive and in the middle of the struggle, now engage in rhetorical gymnastics, manipulating Dr. King’s words to conform to their own world view and justify their own ideological and political--even military--agendas.
We would all do well to ignore recent perverse misappropriations of Dr. King’s words with regard to our current wars. If he were alive today, Dr. King would, in my opinion, decry the diversion of resources to unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Not just in words, but in deeds, Dr. King never wavered in his commitment to peace and non-violence.