General

This article by Trevor Hogg for FlickeringMyth.com reflects a pretty an excellent, accurate interview.  If any of you are interested in the meanderings of an old cameraman, click here:

http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2012/09/daring-ideas-haskell-wexler-talks-about.html

In response to the September 19 LA Times article headlined ‘NORTHROP TO SHED NEARLY 600 JOBS,’ I submitted this letter:

“Northrop Grumman will be firing 600 workers.  This action is described with various soft phrases, such as ‘trimming the payroll,’ and ‘necessary to compete in a cost-conscious marketplace.’  Shedding workers is how the Times headline describes firings.  Shedding is a soft, natural process hardly reflective of the true meaning to the unemployed decent skilled workers and their families.”

On September 21, Paul Thornton, Letters editor, informed me that my letter had been scheduled for publication, but that cuts had been made “for space.”

I am pleased the Times printed my letter on September 22, however I was surprised because it was not what I had sent:

“Re ‘Northrop to shed nearly 600 workers,’ Business, Sept. 18

Northrop Grumman Corp. will be firing 600 workers. This action is described with soft phrases, including “trimming the payroll.” Shedding workers is how The Times’ headline describes the firings.

Shedding is a soft, natural process hardly reflective of the true meaning to the unemployed, decent skilled workers and their families.”

Questioning the revisions, I wrote:

“You have deleted these eight LA Times-quoted words from my Northrop-Grumman 600 letter: ‘Necessary to compete in a cost-conscious marketplace.‘

I can only assume you had a problem with the content as the letter is well below the 150 word limit. Perhaps your news editor, Davan Maharj, should have edited that phrase from the original article on the LA Times front page, as that is the source of my quote.

I had hoped that including those words would provoke public conversation about how ‘marketplace‘ priorities are in conflict with the desire of willing and well-equipped workers to be productive. I am confident that these ‘marketplace versus human values’  issues will excite that conversation somewhere else.”

In a Colorado courtroom, attorneys explore the psychology of James Holmes, doctoral student of neuroscience.  They ponder the type of plea to make, insanity or mental illness.  Psychiatrist Lynn Fenton and the authorities of UC suggest some kind of mental disorder about which they should have been more vigilant.

The Wisconsin Sikh shooter Wade Michael Page was part of extremist groups who thrive on hatred and fear of the other.  Thus far, the army has not questioned whether, in Page’s case, it should have been more vigilant.
Page, unlike Holmes the doctoral student, went from high school into the army.  He is a qualified parachutist, and received a National Defense Service Medal.

An army buddy said Page talked about “racial holy war.”  The military trained Page in “psychological operations.”

One terrorist is a university student working on his neuroscience doctorate.  He had access to an AR15, Glock 40 Cal, and a Remington 870, plus trip wire and explosives capable of blowing up an apartment building.

Although the army vet terrorist was armed only with a semi-automatic handgun, he was trained to kill with little weapons as well as big ones, like the Hawk missile.

(more…)

After receiving thousands of replies to “SLEEPLESS IN HOLLYWOOD” for Huffington Post, I wrote this LETTER TO OSHA (Click To Read).

If it weren’t for Amy Goodman and Democracy Now, this important speech by a young woman would die in the deaf ears of those who can ignore her question, “Are you here to save face—or save us?”

The President awards Bobby Dylan the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor for contributing to the national interest and to world peace.

Obama oversees regular war meetings dealing with what the NY Times calls a “Secret ‘Kill List.’”

Deep behind those extra-dark sunglasses is our Bobby Dylan — the Bobby Dylan who wrote “Masters of War.”

That song and Bobby Dylan are worthy of the Medal of Freedom as it denounces war and sings for world peace.

Haskell Shooting (arrow) / Photo Credit: Larry Kapson

Obama came to Chicago, his hometown.  G8 was supposed to be there, but he decided it was wiser to meet with world money people in the seclusion of Camp David.

Arriving in Chicago for NATO, he stayed in a hotel rather than at home, for “security.”

Chicago Tribune: “IMPASSE WITH PAKISTAN OVERSHADOWS AFGHAN SECURITY ACCORD.”

When Obama welcomed world dignitaries to Chicago, he said his primary concern was about the “critical transit” of NATO war supplies into Afghanistan.  Pakistan closed these ground routes after US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Should it seem strange to us that the President of the United States speaks in Chicago to world leaders about roads going from Pakistan to Afghanistan?

He welcomed the leaders of 27 countries to see the beauty of Chicago, the architecture, the Outer Drive, the Lake, the vibrant people—this in a Chicago which was basically shut down, under siege, with over 20 major streets closed to all traffic.  Where are the people?  It’s bizarre.

Perhaps, as the President urged the highest leaders in the world to clear Pakistani-Afghan roads for NATO’s lethal military weapons, Chicago authorities could have permitted the foreign visitors and Chicagoans to move around our streets in peace.

Pakistani-Afghan roads open for the military, Chicago roads closed for the people?

Million Hoodie March for Trayvon Martin
Haskell Wexler Interviews
Pershing Square Los Angeles
March 26, 2012

It took a month and a half and nationwide outrage to arrest the vigilante murderer of Trayvon Martin. The Million Hoodie Marches for Trayvon exposed how racism is part of the International policy of naming of “The Other” as OK to kill.

I’m going over to my daughter Kathy’s house tonight to celebrate the first day of Passover. I said “celebrate” even though God did a bad thing. He put a plague on the Egyptian people, and I guess Israeli Jews celebrate that because God did it for a good thing – he freed Israel from slavery. So I guess God can do bad things to some of his people because he thinks it’s for his good cause. And he is a Jewish God who noticed the blood of the lamb on our doors. Good we signed up with Him.

Tonight I will feel sorry for the Jews who, in the desert, couldn’t eat bread the way they used to, but had to eat unleavened bread. But what the hell, they were out from under the Pharaoh’s slavery. Maybe some of them were even sorry that God had to kill some regular Egyptians who were their friends.

I have a suggestion for my American compañero Jews who may not have any lamb blood available: put a poster saying “99%” on Jewish houses, and be certain that every other house, shack, tent, or inhabited cave in the world has the sign up so God, if he needs reminding, will know we are all God’s children.

Travyon Martin

One month ago in Sanford, FL a 17-year-old African American teenager was murdered.  The murderer is known to police; except for the murder, no crime was committed.

Immediately after 9/11, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said preventing terrorist acts is now more important than punishing crimes after the fact.

Nationwide, police forces, with the cooperation of Homeland Security, effectively deputized all citizens to report any suspicious or perceived untoward behavior.  The iWatch program has published a bizarre list of normal human activity which could be viewed as “suspicious behaviors and activities” that you should report.

The underlying reticence of the authorities to treat murder as murder is a demonstration of the plague devastating our legal and, yes, moral sanity.

How is this justified?  First, it is “the other.”  This can be race, nationality, religion.

Then, we’re given the definition of the other’s bad intentions toward us.  Then, knowing those intentions are hostile, we take the sports idea that a good offense is the best defense.  Preemption is the fancy word for aggression, to destroy the other for what you believe or are told is in his mind.

A public kept constantly in fear will easily forfeit its rights to authorities who designate themselves as security.

These attitudes towards domestic self-defense and preemption parallel our foreign policy.

Some kind of murder is okay, depending on who does it and who’s murdered.

Like racial superiority, technologically advanced killing devices indicate who should be in charge.

When we deny that warfare is mass murder, we will never learn what Sean Penn’s character in Dead Man Walking said:

“Killin’ is bad.  If I do it, if y’all do it, or if the government does it.”

Martin Luther King Jr. said justice delayed is justice denied.

It’s important to know the way Trayvon Martin’s murder is being dealt with is critical to understanding where our country seems to be going.