 NEW JERSEY
POET LAUREATE
10/
..I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE, I
WILL NOT RESIGN!
...... The recent dishonest, consciously
distorted and insulting non-interpretation of my poem,
Somebody Blew Up America by the
Anti-Defamation League, is fundamentally an
attempt to defame me. And with that, an attempt to
repress and stigmatize independent thinkers everywhere.
This trashy propaganda is
characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested
only in slander and character assassination of those
whose views or philosophies differ from or are in
contradiction to theirs. First, the poem underlying theme
focuses on how Black Americans have suffered from
domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel
slavery, e.g., by Slave Owners, US & State Laws,
Klan, Skin Heads, Domestic Nazis, Lynching, denial of
rights, national oppression, racism, character
assassination, historically, and at this very minute
throughout the US. The relevance of this to Bush call for
a War on Terrorism, is that Black people feel
we have always been victims of terror, governmental and
general, so we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as
the people who while asking us to dismiss our history and
contemporary reality to join them, in the name of a
shallow patriotism in attacking the majority
of people in the world, especially people of color and in
the third world. This is said to us, even as this counterfeit
president has legalized the Confederate Flag in
Mississippi. Could the victims of European Fascism be as
frantically loyal to a regime that would fly a Nazi
Swastika over their homes? So we cannot, in good
conscience, celebrate what seems to us an international
crusade to set up a military dictatorship over the world,
legitimatized at base, by white supremacy, carried out,
no matter the crude lies, as the most terrifying form of
Imperialism and its attendant national oppression. All of
it designed to drain super profits bluntly from the
colored peoples of the world, but as well, from the
majority of the peoples in the world. For all the frantic
condemnations of Terror by Bush &c, as the single
International Super Power, they are the most dangerous
terrorists in the world! Actually, in my focus on various forces of
terror Afro Americans and other oppressed people of the
world have suffered, slavery, colonialism, Imperialism,
Neo neo-colonialism, National Oppression, the ADL
disingenuously makes no mention of my probing into the
creators of the holocaust, e.g., who put the Jews
in ovens, / and who helped them do it, / Who said
America First/ and Okd the yellow
stars, which of course is a reference to
Americas domestic fascists just before World War @
and the Nazi Holocaust. Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood
mention the poems listing of some of the Jews
across the world, oppressed, imprisoned, murdered by
actual Anti- Semitic forces, open or disguised. The poem
asks Who killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebnecht/Who
murdered the Rosenbergs/ And all the good people iced,
tortured, assassinate, vanished. The ADL apparently is not outraged
by McCarthy era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs,
nor the assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders
like Liebnecht, Luxembourg. The ADL leaves these things
out to try to make their lies more believable, and also
because these victims of imperialism were on the Left.
Happily the Star
Ledger published the entire poem, though including in a
box, supposedly identifying the offending phrases, my
question, Who Blew Up The Reichstag? as
if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring
that Jews did it. When it was Hitlers destruction
of the Reichstag, that provided the pretext for the
general imprisonment of Jews, after incarcerating
Communists, Social Democrats and Trade Unionists.
Why this was done one can only speculate, but this is the
kind of sloppy or intentionally slanderous journalism one
can often find in the media. It also reflects the kind of
unprincipled attack that characterizes ADL press release.
The Reichstag fire,
parallels the 911 Attack, in that after that
mysterious act of terrorism, which Hitler
blamed on Jews and Communists, the Nazis passed a law The
Reichstag Enablement Act, that gave the Nazis much the
same carte blanche as the Bush administration used the
911 tragedy to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill
and begin rounding up suspects, even without identifying
them. Of course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag
terror were never found, though most scholars are certain
it was the Nazis themselves. Of the other lines of the poem, which the
ADL termed an example of the Hitlerian Big
Lie, and the poets spewing Anti-Semitic
venom. The lines, Who knew the World Trade
Center was gonna get/bombed? Well now, certainly,
even the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush
Administration knew. I agree with this, and it is
everywhere on the Internet that not only was the US
warned repeatedly by Germany, France, Russia, England but
also Israel. Michael Ruppert of the Green Party has
issued a video stating clearly, Israeli security
issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale terror
attacks.
And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the
attacks were going to take place
they knew that the
World Trade Center were the targets. This is from British
newspaper the Telegraph. (Copies of these
documents available with this statement.) In addition there are articles in
all forms of media and of course the Internet confirming
or suggesting that the entire Imperialist world knew and
had warned the US CIA in advance, but no action was
taken. WHY. They say they couldnt connect the
dots. The FBI agents in Minnesota and Arizona
who sd that FBI received a report in 1998 that a
terrorist organization
planned to bring
people to the US to enroll in flight schools.
Zacharias Moussoui, now charged with conspiring in the
Sept 11 attacks, was arrested by the Minnesota agents of
the FBI in August 2001 but FBI HQ denied agents request
to seek a warrant even to search his computer. And in a
prepared statement by a Minnesota FBI agent, he blamed
legal restrictions but principally FBI headquarters for
impeding a more aggressive investigation of this
man. As for the other agents attempt to warn
the FBI HQ of these attacks, he was rebuffed when he made
the report, but now FBI HQ says it has not record of such
warning. (See Truthout.org/docs)
There are other
incredible dots on the media, for instance the
stockholders of American Airlines and United, which were
the carriers highjacked to commit the terror began
withdrawing stock from these companies in August before
the attacks. The
most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers
is, Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin
Towers / to stay home that day/ Why did Sharon stay
away? To infer that I am accusing Israel of
committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and
character assassination. But I do believe, as I stated
about England, Germany, France, Russia, that the Israeli
government, certainly its security force, SHABAK
knew about the attack in advance. My sources were,
Haaretz and Yadiot Ahranot
(two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a
Jordanian newspaper), Manar -TV and the
website of the Israeli security force SHABAK. There are
myriad references to this in Reuters, Der Spiegel.
The Israeli newspaper Yadiot
Ahranot lst revealed that SHABAK had canceled
Sharons appearance in New York City that day, Sept
11, where he was supposed to speak at an Israel
Day celebration. This was also mentioned in the
Star Ledger, to the effect that Sharon was supposed to
visit the US, but no dates were mentioned. It is the Green Partys
Ruppert who makes the most effective case for the 4000
Israeli workers (Not Jewish Workers!) but Israeli
nationals. He says in his video, if
what I am showing you is know overtly although the media,
how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence
community know He goes on, and this seems true to me, It is
Nonsense to say the Israelis did it They were
warning the U.S. hand over fist
Ruppert
speculates further 1. The US did not listen 2. They
needed the attacks which I leave to time, as
Malcolm X sd, Time will tell. But the most stunning revelation is
this, again Ruppert, We reviewed the list of former
tenants of the World Trade Center at the on-line Wall St
Journal site. And theres the website. It is an
alphabetical list of tenants. Scroll to the very bottom
and notice the moving date for the office of Zim
American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia. They were
in the World Trade Center. They must have had
Mossad (or Shabak- AB) input because they
vacated one week before September and they broke their
lease. The Israelis didnt pull the attack, but they
were smart enough to get their people out of the way. How
come our government didnt do the same thing for
us. (Statement & Quote by George
DeCarlo, Coordinator of Union County Greens, Co Founder
of the NJ Lavender Greens- included in media pkg.)
The poem was never
saying anything else, i.e., why didnt the other
slaughtered Americans know? I WAS NOT SAYING ISRAEL WAS
RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK, BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND OUR
OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO! There is other disturbing facts
surround the hideous 911 attacks, which my family and I
could see from the third floor bathroom window of our
homes! And certainly one day all this will be thoroughly
investigated. The poem says Who know why Five
Israelis was filming the explosion/ And cracking they
sides at the notion. I got this story from The Star
Ledger, where it appeared twice, and The New York Times.
The reference to
cracking they sides or laughing uproariously
while filming the 911 attack, apparently on the top of a
truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of the
Ledger articles. In fact, the State Police, who arrested
them, stated that that is one of the reasons they did
arrest them, because they were laughing. Again, these were Israeli
Nationals, persons holding Israeli passports. The Times
article even reported on what their lives were like in
Jail. And implied they would be deported. So this
reference is not more of the ADLs
Anti-Semitic venom but arrived at merely from
studying the US media. Why those five Israelis were there filming
and laughing I do not claim know. Thats why the
poem here and throughout continuously chants the question
WHO WHO WHO? That is, who is
responsible for this horrible crime and WHY? It is a poem
that aims to probe and disturb, but there is not the
slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism, as anyone who reads
it without some insidious bias would have to agree.
Why the ADL would do
this, I can only speculate.
I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate
on how an Airplane flying in America, where the pilot has to file a flight plan before
taking off, how can such a plane or two or three of them
file such a route in which they would travel, and in the
case of the planes leaving Boston make 45 degree turns
south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade Center and 90
minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged by US Air
Defense Fighters, or brought down by ground to air
missiles? Having
been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters would
normally confront such rogue aircraft within
a few minutes! Why was this not done? Let the ADL and the
media investigating me, investigate that! We should know that Bush and his
Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their
so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild
coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the
route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from
Saudi to the far east, apparently to oppose the spiraling
economic growth and influence of China. They scream
Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy
Afghanistan, install a puppet president and a shadow
occupation force. Next in the Axis is Iraq, we should have
known that. With no real proof at all again the people of
the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911
are hyped with chants of Regime Change and
Saddam Hussein. No longer is the madness of
crowds being aroused by the Anti
Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil
figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy,
now it is Saddam Hussein. So forget last months war
and get ready for this month's. Bush says he wants regime
change in Palestine, he wants to oust Arafat, now
in Iraq, and he wants to oust Saddam. The Axis projects
Iran next and then North Korea. What is this an updated
version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers
and Bush 1s) New World Order? Regime Change, why? Because these
regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case
of Saddam, they have weapons of mass
destruction. Well if being anti democratic were a good
rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then
the United States better watch out because the Florida
coup, which tricked the American people into accepting
Bush as President is anything but democratic. Should we
let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush? What
would be the American Peoples reaction to such
Third Reich replay? And as for Saddam having weapons of
mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics
say) The US has these weapons. So do Israel, South
Africa, Germany, France, Italy, England, Russia, and now
China, India, Pakistan. How is it the US and its allies
(except the Chinese) can have such weapons, but no one
else can. The answer to that, of course, is White
Supremacy and Imperialism. And what should be the growing
understanding by the American people and the democratic
people of the world, is what the far right Bush coven
wants is a military dictatorship of the world.
The ADL, by attacking me by
distorting what my poem is saying, is doing its usual
ugly, as a well known running dog of imperialism,
particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent
position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its
attendant ideology political Zionism. As they are
attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not
happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the
Palestinians
As Anti Semitic, when lst of all Israel and its guiding
philosophy have nothing to do, as categories, with Jews.
(See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators,
Brenner.
But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to
hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel. When we criticize
US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity,
maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian
Zealots, perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism
is the same as Judaism. (Op cit Brenner; also
The Dilemma of the Modern Jew, Prinz.) But
this is the trick the Israelis and their
sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism. Israel
(and its political Zionism) has as much to do with
Judaism, as the US has to do with Christianity.
In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a
secular nation and by law theoretically enforces
separation of church and state, tho Mr. Bush and Mr.
Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree, and Israel
outright says it is a Jewish State but if
that is so then that explains why it can discriminate
against its Arab people living inside Israel and make
them 2nd class citizens, in much the same way
that South Africa, a close friend did under Apartheid.
(See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations,
Brenner & Bloom; Israel and South Africa,
Stevens & Ellmessi; The Arabs in Israel
by Sabri Jiryis, foreword by Noam Chomsky)
The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as
just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely
false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian
Terrorism. This is absolutely in tune with the Bush
administrations
Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change
Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction)
that the administration is chanting around us like cheer
leaders at a football game! So that US imperialism can
transform the whole of the Middle East, the Arab world
into a gas station (See Bushwacked: A Counterfeit
President for a Fake Democracy, Baraka)
So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl
blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor, she is a
terrorist, but when Israeli Jets, made in the USA,
destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities, bulldoze
neighborhoods, all but destroy the Palestinian Center of
Governance, with its President, Yasser Arafat, inside
sitting in the dark, it is the Israelis who are victims
and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or
young woman or even elder, they are the terrorists. We
are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the
Anti Defamation League (who shd be called the Anti Anti
Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr. partner of the
Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can
commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name
of fighting terrorism.
It is the ADL, which is actually guilty of what its
leader, Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big
Lie, and ironically it is the ADL, which is
spewing anti-Semitic venom. The same ADL
which became aware of Black Anti Semitism,
which it had earlier said has never been a threat, until
Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and
the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and
condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism. That is when, as
Stokeley Carmichael says in the APRPs
Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead.
As Israel drew closer to South Africa, politically,
economically, militarily in the 60s (Op Cit,
above & others) the Black Liberation Movement and
African Nations became more and more guilty, according to
the ADL, of Black Anti-Semitism.
This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action, even
though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle,
and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were
young Jews. The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae
(friend of the court brief) in the historic and
reactionary Baake Decision which challenged &
defeated the University of Californias affirmative
action as racist and was explained by the ADL
as its opposition to quotas. So that the
universitys could now enforce a quota on Black
students of none!
This is the same ADL, which in league with the American
Israel Political Action Committee, just a few weeks ago
sent millions of dollars into Atlanta, Georgia to defeat
progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney,
because she called for a more balance American view of
the Palestinian Israeli Conflict.
These same forces defeated in
Alabama, another progressive Black incumbent Congressman, because he too dared to support the
Palestinians. (See New York Times, Amsterdam News, Star
Ledger).
Very much like the way Bush touts Regime
Change, recently even hinting at an attempted
Assassination of Saddam Hussein, if the American People
rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush
juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq. ADL and their "
bagman" AIPAC didnt like these black
politicians stance on Israel, so in a minute and a few
million dollars, they are gone!
So now, its my turn. Using my poem, Somebody
Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big
Lie, distort what poem says. Cover the fact that this
poem actually is an attack on Imperialism, National
Oppression, Monopoly Capitalism, Racism,
Anti-Semitism. I challenge ADL to show anywhere in
this poem that is Anti-Semitic in the least. In their
press release they say talk about Jews being
scapegoated throughout history
then
conspiracy mongers of the Arab world
have
taken Anti-Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr.
Foxman, what is the Arab World? Alan Dershowitz in his
Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is
overgeneralization, so where is the
Arab World? Is Detroit included? Asscraft
thinks so.
Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim
World does that include Lyons Ave,
Newark? But then from
Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel, not
Jews, and Israeli Mossad as those victimized. So they
fight Anti Semitism Mainly by defending
Israel. In fact they defend Israel like Joe
McCarthy defended the US against Communism.
Included in my package is a communiqué from an Israeli
Peace Organization : Gush Shalom,
Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti
Defamation League Answered (info@gush-shalom.org) This was first published
7/11/2000 as a press release. In the past 24
hours, an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom.
Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge
a complaint with the police, claiming that cartoons
presented on our website constitute
incitement. And the powerful American Jewish
organization Anti Defamation League found time,
even on election day, over there, to disseminate a
message of defamation against Gush Shalom,
which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our
address.
In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush, Shalom
Spokesperson. The organization defends itself from an ADL
pres release s expressing outrage at Gush
Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a
killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web
site, stating that the image of Barak standing on the
bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is
abhorrent.
Gush Shalom replies, "Still after consulting with my
fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer.
Should a complete week seven days pass in which
not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli
armed forces which are answerable to Mr. Barak, we would
remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website.
The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an
organization which claims to counter hatred
prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other
places to search for such, with Israeli society in its
present condition, except at our modest website. Was the
ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or
criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of
the Palestinians. So in Israel itself, ADL is still
covering for and attacking anyone, even Israeli citizens
themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to
de-Palestinianize Palestine!
Another communication from Israel (robertoj69@yahoo.com). This signed by 95 Israeli
Academics (copy included in pkg), Sept 23, 2002 that
begins URGENT WARNING: THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT MAY
BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes
on, We members of the Israeli academe are horrified
by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the
Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support
of it. We are deeply worried by indications that the
fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli
government to commit further crimes against the
Palestinian people, up to full-fledged ethnic
cleansing.
One striking description of the Israeli Military by these
professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz
Sept 19, 2002, Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon
describe the Palestinians as a cancerous
manifestation and equated the military actions in
the Occupied territories with chemotherapy
Certainly the ADL will
have to go after these Anti Semites using the
Big Lie and Spewing Anti-Semitic
Venom! And the growing list of progressive
democratic people around the world who will have opinions
about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the
ADL, the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well
I challenge the ADL to set up a national television
program so that we might debate this issue. We can
project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and
discuss it. If not that then why not a forum or debate
some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in
Newark.
Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the
Dodge Festival? Those who registered and the students
brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken
to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem
thought, not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism
who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are
the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism.
I have already gotten a great many communications
praising the poem. A great many E-mail letters and phone
calls not only praising the poem, and the poet for
writing it, but also opposing the attempt to violate my
first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game
of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites.

I have already said, in answer to what Governor McGreevey
is quoted as demanding that I apologize
and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate. And I have said
repeatedly that I will do neither. It is unfortunate that
Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars, and
apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy,
bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant, to
be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander,
belittling my intelligence, and insulting not only my
person, my family, my fellow artists and activists who
know all this is just the feces of a very small cow. But
they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social
political views. By demanding that I apologize to Evil
and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically
motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet
Laureate, he is insulting the broad group of people who
know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and
valued my work. And that is a grave mistake, one I am
hoping he will correct.
Somebody Blew Up America! was written Oct 1,
2001. A month after the terror attack. Almost
immediately I circulated it around the world on the
Internet.
In addition, I have read this poem in Spain, Portugal,
Africa, Switzerland, Italy, Finland and it was translated
into German and read on German radio, at Universities and
other venues across this country. It has become one of
the most circulated of my poems.
Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry
Festival that I got negative response from three people
that I know of. The overwhelming response was an almost
thunderous applause. I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance. So why now and Who, as the
poem asks, is behind it? Perhaps the forces which have
dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as
venom or merely a harangue (just
as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric
Yawps) are simply, the Charlie McCarthy voices for
Bush & Sharons Edgar Bergens.
Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and
painted and costumed to look like it is real
people speaking, when all the time it is
imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their
mouths,
NO, I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE, I WILL NOT RESIGN. In fact I
will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still
have not been paid to do. Publicize and Popularize poetry
and poets throughout this state. To set up new venues and
new networks for poetry reading and workshops, in the
states libraries and schools and other
institutions. Hopefully initiated and given paradigm
right here in the Newark Public Library, its branches and
throughout the school system. Therefore giving more of
our citizens access to poetry, involving poets of all
nationalities, both male and female, of diverse
experience and styles. I have already begun to enlist
coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state, so
that we can network a tour of poets, hopefully beginning
in January, throughout the state.
To do this I will be approaching local, county, state,
federal and private funding. And expand our budget with
the cooperation of these other existing programs.
We will ask that poets POET-ON! That they begin to
produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly, in
the most modest forms, Kinko style, and give them away if
they have to. That they begin to set up readings not only
in the places we mentioned but also in parks and
restaurants and in neighborhoods.
We say this because we feel that this state and indeed
this nation and this world is desperately in need of the
deepest and most profound human values that poetry can
teach. That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet
to do, to bring Truth and Beauty. To be like the most
ancient paradigmythic image of the poet. To be like
Osiris and Orpheus, whose job it was to raise the Sun
each morning with song and story. To illuminate the human
mind, and bring light into the world. POET ON!
Amiri
Baraka©2.10.2002
photos of speech/press conference return to
amiribaraka.com
.http://www.amiribaraka.com/speech100202.html
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