Re: Clinton and Peltier

[Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Is it not interesting how no one on this list would have expected Clinton
to do the decent thing and free Peltier, but that when he did not I almost
felt myself gagging with disgust.

Clinton of course lives on.  His wife is a candidate in waiting.  That do
no doubt is the source of his present pragmatism.

Anyone care to report on the demonstrations???

regards

Gary




At 11:45  21/01/01 -0500, you wrote:
>clinton was our second postmodern president. Reagan was the first. I mean
>that they were both all image and surface, good actors.
>
>Clinton's dealing with racism was all media. there was never any real
>substance to his actions.
>
>I called the Whitehouse myself, but never had any illusions that he would
>free Leonard Peltier. Clinton was not about to confront the FBI, nor was he
>ever about to confront racism.
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>
>To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <warriornet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2001 10:02 AM
>Subject: Clinton and Peltier
>
>
> > Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), July 9, 1998, Metro Edition
> >
> > 'Tough stuff'; Clinton winds up yearlong dialogue on race relations
> >
> > The format was more controlled, the talk more sober. But as President
> > Clinton conducted the third and final forum of his yearlong dialogue on
> > race Wednesday, he found that the end was much like the beginning - plenty
> > of consensus about the challenges facing a multi-ethnic America of the
>21st
> > century, but few solutions.
> >
> > "This," Clinton said, "is tough stuff."
> >
> > The panel urged Clinton to use his high office to remind Americans that
> > integration is still an admirable goal. Clinton called for "a vocabulary
> > that embraces America's future" while acknowledging the nation's past
> > errors on race - starting with the first ones against American Indians.
> >
> > "We need to know when we are making distinctions," Clinton said. "And then
> > we need to 'fess up to the fact that at least, when it comes to Native
> > Americans, that if we don't do something fairly dramatic, the future is
> > going to be like the past for too many people."
> >
> > Included on the panel was Sherman Alexie, an American Indian poet and
> > author who compared the plight of indigent Indians with Third World
> > conditions. "I didn't have running water until I was seven years old," he
> > said. "I still remember when the toilet came. There are no models of
> > success in any field for Indians. . . . An Indian has not sat on this kind
> > of panel before."
> >
> > Clinton told him that his grandmother was one-quarter Cherokee and agreed
> > that the "paternalistic" U.S. policy toward Indians was "pathetic and
> > inadequate."
> >
> > But Alexie referred to Clinton's self-identification later in the hour,
> > when discussing how people "are always talking about race," though in
> > "coded language."
> >
> > "Nobody talks about Indians. What they will do is come up to me and tell
>me
> > they're Cherokee," he said provoking laughter from Clinton.
> >
> > ===
> >
> > THE KANSAS CITY STAR, January 21, 2001, Sunday MID-AMERICA EDITION
> >
> > American Indian activist denied pardon
> >
> > MARK WIEBE; The Kansas City Star
> >
> > The court system has rejected his appeals for a new trial. The  U.S.
>Parole
> > Commission has rejected his requests for freedom.
> >
> > Now American Indian activist Leonard Peltier - serving two life  sentences
> > at Leavenworth for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents -  can add
>President
> > Clinton to that list.
> >
> > On Saturday, in the last two hours of Clinton's presidency,  Peltier
> > learned that he would not get the clemency he had sought. His  name was
>not
> > on the list of 140 Americans who received executive  pardons or
> > commutations. . .
> >
> >
> > Louis Proyect
> > Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/
> >
> >