Facing South 88/September 8, 2004

[Michael Hoover <hooverm@xxxxxxxxxx>]

F A C I N G   S O U T H
A progressive Southern news report
September 8, 2004 * Issue 88
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> INSTITUTE INDEX * War By Numbers
> DATELINE: THE SOUTH * Top Stories Around the Region
> PERSPECTIVE * To Whom it May Concern: A Soldier's Last Request
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INSTITUTE INDEX * War By Numbers
Number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq: 1,002
Number killed since President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" in May 2003: 864
Number wounded in the last month: 1,100
Percent of soldiers killed who were from towns with population under 20,000 people: 48
Estimated number of Iraqi civilians killed during the U.S. intervention: 12,798
Sources on file at the Institute for Southern Studies.
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DATELINE: THE SOUTH * Top Stories Around the Region
60 MILLION GALLONS OF TOXIC WATER RELEASED IN TAMPA BAY
In the wake of heavy rainfall, fertilizer manufacturer Cargill Crop Nutrition dumped 60 million gallons of acidic water into Tampa Bay. Widespread kills of marine life are being reported. The water was ironically being held by Cargill to be re-used to decrease waste discharge. Cargill had been warned twice by state agencies that their holding facilities were inadequate. (St. Petersburg Times, 9/8)
http://sptimes.com/2004/09/08/Hillsborough/Spill_corrodes_reputa.shtml

CORPORATIONS CUT POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS
Last year, campaign-finance laws barred unlimited contributions to political parties. Some of the nation's most prolific corporate donors have seized on the restrictions of to largely drop out of the political money race, in favor of more direct political involvement. (Associated Press, 9/3)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/09/03/financial0927EDT0025.DTL

ARMY TO RE-BID HALLIBURTON CONTRACT
The U.S. Army plans to move within months to break up the multibillion-dollar logistics contract that Halliburton Co. has to feed, house and look after U.S. troops in Iraq, and to put out the work for competitive bid. While welcomed by good government advocates, the measure also raises concerns about U.S. intentions to extend military operations; the re-bid calls for 14 new military bases. (Reuters, 9/7)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6163467

GUN MAKERS POISED TO SELL ASSAULT WEAPONS AGAIN
With the federal ban on assault weapons set to expire next Monday, gun manufacturers are marketing military-style firearms and are ready to sell them as soon as Sept. 14, a consumer group said. The 1994 law, signed by President Clinton, banned 19 types of assault weapons but included a "sunset" clause that said it would automatically expire in 10 years if Congress did not renew it. (Associated Press, 9/7)
http://tinyurl.com/4nbak

SMALL DAIRY FARMERS TAKE ON GOLIATH
A revolt among dairy farmers is under way in the piney hills of southeast Louisiana. Several dozen small dairies have organized to upend the sale of a small family-owned milk plant to a subsidiary of Dairy Farmers of America, or DFA, the nation's largest and most powerful dairy cooperative. (Chicago Tribune, 9/7)
http://tinyurl.com/6jzoy

THE LONG SHADOW OF JIM CROW
A new report by the NAACP and People for the American Way argues that voter intimidation and suppression are still alive. Examples included erroneous felon "purge lists" that wrongly disenfranchise voters, and cases of intimidation in African-American and other minority precincts. (PFAW, 9/1)
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/dfiles/file_459.pdf
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PERSPECTIVE * To Whom it May Concern: A Soldier's Last Request
By Brooke M. Campbell
September 3, 2004

To Whom it May Concern, 

I found out that my brother, Sergeant Ryan M. Campbell, was dead during a graduate seminar at Emory University on April 29, 2004. Immediately after a uniformed officer knocked at my mother's door to deliver the message that broke her heart, she called me on my cell phone. 

She could say nothing but "He's gone." I could say nothing but "No." Over and over again we chanted this refrain to each other over the phone as I made my way across the country to hold her as she wept. 

I had made the very same trip in February, cutting classes to spend my brother's two weeks' leave from Baghdad with him. Little did I know then that the next time I saw him would be at Arlington National Cemetery. During those days in February, my brother shared with me his fear, his disillusionment, and his anger. "We had all been led to believe that Iraq posed a serious threat to America as well as its surrounding nations," he said. "We invaded expecting to find weapons of mass destruction and a much more prepared and well-trained Republican Guard waiting for us. It is now a year later, and alas, no weapons of mass destruction or any other real threat, for that matter." 

Ryan was scheduled to complete his one-year assignment to Iraq on April 25. But on April 11, he emailed me to let me know not to expect him in Atlanta for a May visit, because his tour of duty had been involuntarily extended. "Just do me one big favor, ok?" he wrote. "Don't vote for Bush. No. Just don't do it. I would not be happy with you." 

Last night, I listened to George W. Bush's live, televised speech at the Republican National Convention. He spoke to me and my family when he announced, "I have met with parents and wives and husbands who have received a folded flag, and said a final goodbye to a soldier they loved. I am awed that so many have used those meetings to say that I am in their prayers and to offer encouragement to me. Where does strength like that come from? How can people so burdened with sorrow also feel such pride? It is because they know their loved one was last seen doing good. Because they know that liberty was precious to the one they lost. And in those military families, I have seen the character of a great nation: decent, and idealistic, and strong." 

This is my reply: Mr. President, I know that you probably still "don't do body counts," so you may not know that almost one thousand U.S. troops have died doing what you told them they had to do to protect America. Ryan was Number 832. Liberty was, indeed, precious to the one I lost -- so precious that he would rather have gone to prison than back to Iraq in February. 

Like you, I don't know where the strength for "such pride" on the part of people "so burdened with sorrow" comes from; maybe I spent it all holding my mother as she wept. I last saw my loved one at the Kansas City airport, staring after me as I walked away. I could see April 29 written on his sad, sand-chapped and sunburned face. 

I could see that he desperately wanted to believe that if he died, it would be while "doing good," as you put it. He wanted us to be able to be proud of him. Mr. President, you gave me and my mother a folded flag instead of the beautiful boy who called us "Moms" and "Brookster." 

But worse than that, you sold my little brother a bill of goods. Not only did you cheat him of a long meaningful life, but you cheated him of a meaningful death. You are in my prayers, Mr. President, because I think that you need them more than anyone on the face of the planet. But you will never get my vote. 

So to whom it may concern: Don't vote for Bush. No. Just don't do it. I would not be happy with you. 

Sincerely, 
Brooke M. Campbell 
Atlanta, GA 

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This piece originally appeared in Truthout, www.truthout.org. The views expressed are the author's own.
 

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