It was a Nuremburg moment. Fueled by the 911 "terrorist attack," Ohio State University graduates, their families, and friends were mostly in the same frame of mind as Germans after the burning of the Reichstag: they were all geeked up for simple-minded nationalistic jingoism which Resident George W. Bush supplied. The Selected One dotted the i on a big-ol' script Ohio so big that Osama bin Laden could read it.

I ran into Yoshie Furuhashi at Hempfest on the Saturday before the June 14 graduation/indoctrination to the New World Reich rally. As usual, she was in hyperactivism mode. I did manage to catch the following words: "wouldya like to be a alternativecommencementspeaker at the turnyourbackonbush rally, bring your soundsystem?" I agreed to Yoshie's request as I always do. After all, she's being honored at Community Festival this year for her energetic and consistent activism at OSU this past year.

AUSTIN, Texas -- There' some stiff competition in the Stupidest Thing Said Yet department about the swoon in the financial markets. But among the heavy contenders we must surely count those who are now saying they know who's responsible, and it is us.

According to this theory, you, me and Joe Doaks made Ken Lay do it. Came as a surprise to me, too. Naturally, as a liberal, I just love guilt, so I was ready to sign right up for this one, but try as I may, I can't get it to make a lick of sense. Nevertheless, several of our heavy ponderers and The Wall Street Journal's editorial page insist that we did it.

It seems "we," a word they use rather promiscuously in my opinion, were seized by greed and folly in the '90s. "We" were so stupid we thought stock markets only went up, and "we" are whining like children only because "we" don't understand that in the big, tough, he-man world of capitalism, we must take risks.

Who you callin' "we," white man?

Let me count the ways this one is a crock. It's not as though the 1990s are exactly lost in the mists of time here. Children

Your abolition wardrobe is now available via the web, thanks to Bexley’s own national crusader for alternatives to the death penalty, Abe Bonowitz. His catalog of T-shirts, caps, buttons and bumper stickers can be found on the website for his organization, Citizens United for Alternative to the Death Penalty, www.cuadp.org. Prices are very reasonable and may help the organization stay alive. If you are in the Cleveland area, you may have seen the story and photo about Abolition-Wear in the June 9 Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine. Their photo caption read, “Order your fashion statement before Ohio’s next execution on August 27.” Please help Abe gather original copies of the CPD Sunday Magazine: Send to: CUADP, PMB 297, 177 US Highway #1, Tequesta, FL 33469.

Just like Resident Bush interchanges the arch-enemies Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, the former representing pan-Islamic fundamentalism and the latter pan-Arab secularism, the U.S. government’s campaign against terrorism relies on the slogan: “Any Arab will do.” In the government’s unending quest to track down the CIA’s former Al Qaeda assets, they’ve apparently gone to randomly picking up any Arab national who is a political activist. Federal authorities arrested Ahmed Benzouda on May 30 at his Urbana, Illinois apartment. Benzouda is a Moroccan citizen, just graduated from the University of Illinois’ Urbana-Champaign campus, and was in the country on a student visa set to expire in August 2002. While at the campus, Benzouda, a secular anti-authoritarian, anti-Islamic activist, participated in the Israel divestment campaign and Palestinian solidarity events.

A strong, spirited and resilient assemblage of anti-war protesters gathered at Kent State University on the anniversary of the students killed and wounded 32 years ago on May 4th. A crowd estimated just under 1000 people combined efforts to commemorate those lost in similar anti-war efforts over three decades ago with a crystal clear statement against the Bush Administration’s self-declared “war on terrorism.” The rally and protest march resoundingly rejected the war in Afghanistan and any expansion of war with resounding chants of “NO MORE WAR IN OUR NAME…LET THEM NOT HAVE DIED IN VAIN.” Over and over the chant repeated, just to the side of the site where Ohio National Guardsmen shot K.S.U. student protester Allison Krause dead in 1970. Respects were paid to all involved on that horrible day in history. Most of us there made another pledge on this day in history (in part)….