Another victim of Bush


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Bro. Askia

New Member
TONYAA WEATHERSBEE:
Another victim of Bush?s two-front war
03/25/2003 09:57 AM EDT
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/index.cfm?ARTICLEID=88226&CATID=4


By Tonyaa Weathersbee
Special to http://www.BlackAmericaWeb.com

All Shoshana Johnson wanted to do was learn how to be a chef. I hope she doesn't wind up paying for that modest ambition with her life.

Last week, Iraqi forces captured the 30-year-old Army cook and four other members of a maintenance crew after ambushing their supply convoy. Later, as the disturbing image of Johnson sitting with her ankle bandaged and her eyes darting back and forth was shown on TV, I kept thinking about the unfairness of it all. A black single mother entered the military to learn a skill and managed to get caught in the crosshairs of a war wrought by leaders looking more to dominate rather than liberate.

You can bet that?s not what Johnson had in mind when she enlisted. African-Americans make up 12 percent of the U.S. population, but 24 percent of the armed forces. While Johnson may have been following in the footsteps of her father ? a military veteran ? when she joined the Army. Many other blacks enlist in the military because they don't have the money, the connections, or access to the kinds of support systems would help them successfully pursue a civilian career. Even so the vast majority of these black men and women serve our country proudly.

But the war Johnson and so many young African Americans have been sent to fight isn't about patriotic service to this country ? it?s about serving a political agenda that?s fueled by deception and spin.

While Johnson has been ensnared in the Bush administration?s efforts to wrest control of Iraq from Saddam Hussein, this war increases the possibility that little will be done to free African Americans from the inequalities that push us to disproportionately volunteer for military service. The warning signs are clear. Black unemployment is now slightly more than 11 percent - double the national average. Two months ago leaders of the National Governor's Association told President Bush that they are facing the worse financial problems since World War II ? in all, a $30 billion gap between their revenues and expenses this year. The governors asked Bush for more federal aid. He said no. But two days ago, Bush asked Congress for $74.7 billion to pay the war bill he?s run up. That money however only covers expenses for the next six months ? but will cause the federal deficit to increase dramatically. Dr. William E. Spriggs, executive director of the National Urban League's Institute for Opportunity and Equality, said that while it is too early to pinpoint the exact toll that the cost of this war will have on blacks, it?s important for people to not be cowed by the president?s spin. "Before the war began, he [Bush] presented a budget that had a deficit," Spriggs said. "That was an indicator of his true intentions...that he was willing to run a deficit even without a war. So since he was willing to run a deficit even then, we can't allow him to say that he's going to cut programs or services" now because of the war. "We can't allow that to be an excuse," Spriggs said.

I hope that Johnson and the others who were captured along with her survive their ordeal. I hope she?ll be reunited soon with her family. What worries me is that while she has been made to bear a heavy burden in this costly war, efforts to eliminate the perils many African Americans face in this country are being put on the back burner by Bush. It makes me angry to think that as Johnson?s frightened face is flashed all over the world, the cost of the war that has put her life in jeopardy is being used as an excuse to cut spending on programs that could offer African Americans the chance for a good life beyond military service.

It saddens me to think about just how many black casualties this war will produce ? not among the troops in Iraq ? but among those who are struggling to survive in a hostile economic environment here at home.

Tonyaa Weathersbee is an award-winning columnist for the Florida Times-Union who has appeared on Nightline and BET Tonight. Her commentaries have also been published in the Houston Chronicle, Baltimore Sun and Kansas City Star.

Related links:
http://www.BlackAmericaWeb.com
 
Hype and more Hype....

If Shonna only wanted to be a chef she should have enrolled instead of enlisted. The fact that the military is onlt 25% AA lets me know that we aren't the only ones that enlist for financial reasons. Majority of those that enlist do it for the money and the training, exactly what is wrong with that? It is called using the resources that you have to obtain what you want. More people need to get off their arses and help themselves. But when you enlist you have to know that there is a chance that you will sacrifice your life. That is a risk that you take. you don't want that risk, don't enlist in the military.

I am not buying into the AA media trying to make this war into a racial issue. We all know that many policies that this country has are racist, but this war isn't one of them, and I don't care how you spin it.

And they say only Iraq is usung propoganda...
 

I feel that if you want to learn a skill the military is a great place to get that training, but there is a trade off. I think many people have forgotten that the primary purpose for the military is to provide protection to this nation in just this type of situation. They train everyone that joins the military to fight before any other type of training begins. Blacks, as well as the other races forget this when they hear that the military will pay for college and assist with student loans.

I don't see this as a race issue. No one is forced to join the military.
 
What the L do people think the military is for?! YOU JOIN, YOU FIGHT when they say so. I hate sista got caught up, but if she just wanted to be a chef and not a soilder then go to cooking school, not the military.
 
From News & Observer Thursday, March 27, 2003 12:00AM EST
http://www.newsobserver.com/iraq/

More blacks question war
http://www.coax.net/people/lwf/

Octavia Rainey is concerned.

Sylvester White backs the war.

PEACE VIGIL SET

Local ministers and African-American community leaders plan a prayer vigil for peace at 4 p.m. April 4, the anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., at the Martin Luther King Garden, 1500 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Raleigh.

The event is sponsored by the N.C. Council of Churches, the Wake County Interfaith Alliance and Martin Luther King Committee in Raleigh.

By ANNE BLYTHE AND CHRISTINA HEADRICK, Staff Writers
http://www.newsobserver.com/iraq/

With clippers in hand and a talkative former military man in her barber chair, Marilyn Chaplin cut to the chase when the topic of conversation turned to the war in Iraq.

The barber and veteran did not like what was happening. Not one bit.

"I think it's a war of greed and a war of power," said Chaplin, the mother of a 17-year-old son who practices her craft at Midway Barber Shop in Carrboro. "A lot of innocent people are dying, and they don't know why. ... Life is life. This is legalized murder."

From barber shops to churches, from historically black college campuses to the offices of Raleigh's Martin Luther King Celebration Committee, many in the African-American community throughout the Triangle continue to voice skepticism of and opposition to the war, six days into the conflict.

"I know that there was talk about Saddam having weapons of mass destruction, but we haven't found them yet," said Octavia Rainey, an activist in the College Park and Idlewild neighborhoods in Southeast Raleigh. "Why didn't we wait until we've got a little bit more evidence before we went into war? And it concerns me now that we are in a war and a country is being literally destroyed just to get after one man. Everybody is punished."

Polls taken before and since the conflict began showed that blacks overwhelmingly opposed the war.

In January, a poll of 603 likely voters in North Carolina showed that 69 percent of whites surveyed supported a war in Iraq, compared with 23 percent of blacks interviewed. The margin of sampling error was 4 percentage points.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll taken Sunday showed African-Americans were far more likely to oppose the war than white Americans, and were generally more disapproving of President Bush's handling of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Sixty-one percent of African-Americans who responded to the nationwide poll said they opposed "the United States having gone to war with Iraq," compared with 20 percent of white Americans who participated, according to the Post.

Overall, 72 percent of Americans said they supported military action. The nationwide poll was based on interviews with 580 randomly selected adults and included an oversample of 69 black Americans, the Post reported. The margin of sampling error was 4.5 percentage points.

"All of us can surmise [that black opposition] may have a great deal to do with the number of foot soldiers who are African-American," said Joseph Jordan, director of the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center at UNC-Chapel Hill. "But it's more than that. The neglect of the domestic agenda, the failure to explore all the diplomatic options, and realistically a lot of African-Americans do not feel this government is legitimate -- taken together, I think those reasons provide enough force so that folks are comfortable saying they're opposed to this war."

African-Americans make up nearly 20 percent of military personnel, 30 percent of Army enlistees, and 12 percent of the nation's population.

Since the Vietnam War, when early casualty reports listed a greater proportion of blacks than others in the general population, there has been a belief among many that African-Americans often represent a disproportionate number of battle deaths. By the end of the Vietnam War, blacks were 12 percent of active duty military deaths.

Military officials say blacks are underrepresented among current front-line military units, compared with the general population, and are unlikely to suffer disproportionate casualties.

TV and radio talk shows have dedicated many hours of conflicted conversation to the disproportionate percentage of minorities in the military. This week, callers phoned "The Tom Joyner Morning Show," the nation's most widely syndicated black-oriented morning radio program, to criticize the war, but also to give "shout-outs" of support to family members and friends serving in Iraq.

Many people questioned Bush's request to Congress for $75 billion for the war in Iraq and homeland security when enough money hasn't been allocated to transform inner cities that battle homelessness and poverty.

"Many black people are going into the military for jobs, for college money and for health insurance," said Theresa El-Amin, director of the Southern Anti-Racism Network in Durham.

Support for the war is difficult to find among the brick buildings and terraced walkways of N.C. Central University in Durham.

"Just generally speaking, I don't see how a power like the United States, that has weapons of mass destruction, can dictate to another country, morally," said Nathanial Turner, 21, a junior nursing student from Willingboro, N.J., whose parents served in the military. "... I think we're planting seeds of hatred against America."

Despite their opposition to war, blacks are underrepresented in the peace movement, many observers noted.

Ron Walters, a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland and a regular analyst for Black Entertainment Network, said antiwar demonstrations in the United States have been essentially led by whites. "It's always been true that black folks look on wars as white folks' business and don't get out for protests," he said.

At White's Barber Shop in Raleigh, Sylvester A. White Jr. talks about Iraq with his barbershop clients. White, 63, is pastor of Cedar Rock Baptist Church in Franklin County and an Army veteran.

"An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure," said White, a strong supporter of the war. "When you have an evil regime, you have to do something. ... Our boys are there. We've got to pray and keep them encouraged. My hope is Saddam will soon surrender and we can get in and get out."
 
What Is Opposing The War Is Going To Do?

Just Pray For the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who are doing what they signed up to do.
 
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