Facing South: 12/22/04

[Michael Hoover <hooverm@xxxxxxxxxx>]

keep the x in xmas...  michael hoover

F A C I N G   S O U T H
A progressive Southern news report
December 22, 2004 * Issue 99

Facing South is published 40 times a year by the Institute for Southern Studies and Southern Exposure magazine. For more information visit www.southernstudies.org
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> 'TIS THE GIVING SEASON - Support the Progressive South!
> INSTITUTE INDEX * Holidays in Hock
> DATELINE: THE SOUTH * Top Stories Around the Region
> PERSPECTIVES - Views on the State of Things
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KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE PRIZE - Support the Institute's Work for a Progressive South!

  "Keep your eyes on the prize
   Hold on, hold on."

In times like these -- when the wind blows cold, and prospects for progressive change seem dim -- I take heart in the songs of hope and change the spring from deep in the Southern soil.

This famous freedom movement anthem and other songs ground us. They warm the spirits. And they remind us that no matter how bad it seems, we've been through much worse -- and yet, as always, we rise.

Since being founded by civil rights veterans in 1970, the Institute for Southern Studies has kept its eyes on the prize of a more progressive South.

Our one-of-a-kind research, education and action programs have changed laws and changed lives, bringing us a few steps closer to our vision of a better South and future.

But there's still much work to be done * especially now.

This giving season, I hope you'll keep your eyes on the prize and make a contribution to support the Institute's exciting and effective work for progressive change in the South.

  "The only chain that we can stand
   Is the chain of a hand in hand
   Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on."

At the Institute, we believe that now is our time. Time for progressives to offer a clear vision of a better future. And time to build a thoughtful and informed movement to make that vision a reality.

The Institute's information, ideas and resources for change have made it a critical piece of this movement.

Our widely-read publications -- Southern Exposure magazine and Facing South -- deliver hard-hitting investigations and offer a sorely-needed progressive voice.

Our education and organizing programs -- such as the Southern Voting Rights Project and Peace Research & Education Center -- have informed and mobilized thousands for justice, democracy and peace.

And we owe this success to the support of friends like you.

I hope you will join us in the fight for a progressive future, and make a tax-deductible contribution to the Institute today by visiting www.southernstudies.org, or mailing in the form below.

Together, there's so much we can accomplish. As the songs of Southern struggle tell us, a brighter future is possible * and with hard work and good ideas, may be closer than we think:

  "The very moment we thought we was lost
   The dungeon shook and the chains fell off
   Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on.

Thanks -- and happy holidays!

Chris Kromm
Director, Institute for Southern Studies
Publisher, Southern Exposure

Visit www.southernstudies.org to make a tax-deductible contribution today!
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INSTITUTE INDEX * Holidays in Hock

Percent of Wal-Mart shoppers that do not have a bank account: 20
Percent of U.S. residents who worry about the amount of money they owe: 50
Personal bankruptcies filed in 2003, in millions: 1.6
Change in U.S. average hourly wages since recession "ended" in November 2001: -$.01
Amount the U.S. government is borrowing daily from foreign lenders, in billions: $1.8

"The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender's slave." Proverbs 22:7

Sources on file at the Institute for Southern Studies.
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DATELINE: THE SOUTH * Top Stories Around the Region

DOWN AND OUT IN DISCOUNT AMERICA
Wal-Mart -- the world's biggest retailer -- is operating at full-throttle for the holiday season. Their success is based on luring in low-income consumers with rock-bottom prices. But does the Wal-Mart formula require creating more poverty to thrive? (The Nation, 12/16)
http://tinyurl.com/4fzhb

900 CHILDREN HAVE LOST PARENTS IN IRAQ WAR
Although almost daily official announcements tally the war dead, the collateral damage to the children left behind has not been detailed. But, from Defense Department casualty reports, obituaries and accounts in hometown newspapers, and family interviews, Scripps Howard News Service has identified nearly 900 U.S. children who have lost a parent in the war, from the start of the conflict in March 2003 through November, when a total of 1,256 troops had died. (Scripps Howard News Service, 12/15)
http://www.shns.com/shns/warkids/

MILITARY SEES SHARP DROP IN BLACK RECRUITS
For years, black Americans have formed the backbone of the all-volunteer US army, filling a quarter of its ranks, though blacks account for only 13 per cent of the population. Blacks are more likely to treat the army as a lifelong career; a third of senior sergeants and non-commissioned officers are black. Suddenly, that is changing. (Daily News & Telegraph [London], 12/18)
http://tinyurl.com/4mgxk

ELECTION STUDY FINDS WIDESPREAD VOTE-COUNTING PROBLEMS
A review of election results in a 10-county sampling -- including counties in Arkansas, Louisiana and North Carolina -- revealed more than 12,000 ballots that failed to record a vote for president, almost one in every 10 ballots cast. The unofficial audit by Scripps Howard News Service uncovered malfunctioning voting machines, improperly designed ballots and poor accounting procedures around the nation. (Scripps Howard News Service, 12/20)
http://tinyurl.com/3nv35

CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVES TAKE AIM AT STATE POLICY
Energized by electoral victories last month that they say reflect wide support for more traditional social values, conservative Christian advocates across the United States are pushing state and local initiatives on thorny issues like same-sex marriage, public education and abortion. (New York Times, 12/14)
http://tinyurl.com/3jcla

SOUTH CAROLINA SHOWS HOW TO DRIVE OUT A UNION
Across the South companies have long used bare-knuckled tactics to fight unions. But now a surprisingly detailed roadmap to such tactics has emerged from an unusual court battle between EnerSys and its law firm over $7.75 million in fines the company paid  for 120 labor law violations committed in the
course of its seven-year effort to eliminate a union (New York Times, 12/14 [reg req'd])
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/national/14union.html?oref=login
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PERSPECTIVES - The State of Things

[For this issue of Facing South, we offer a compilation of several recent thoughtful pieces on the state of the nation. We'll be back to a single commentary in the next issue. Happy Holidays!]


HOW DESTROYING SOCIAL SECURITY WILL HURT THE BLACK COMMUNITY by The Black Commentator
The Black Commentator
A big hoax is about to be pulled on the American people in the name of Social Security reform if President Bush and the Republican Congress get their way and send Social Security money to Wall Street.  If this happens all Americans will lose big but African Americans will likely receive the shortest end of the stick.
http://www.blackcommentator.com/118/118_cover_rockeymoore.html

RACE AND ELECTION 2004 by Bob Wing
Many spin doctors would have us believe that the story of the 2004 election turns on evangelicals and moral values. But an examination of the exit polls shows something very different (though not at all new): the centrality of race in U.S. politics.
http://www.counterpunch.org/wing12032004.html

THE IMPACT OF WAR ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN by Lucinda Marshall
Women and children account for almost 80% of the casualties of conflict and war as well as 80% of the 40 million people in world who are now refugees from their homes.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1219-26.htm

DEBUNKING "CENTRISM" by David Sirota
The mainstream media -- and the conservative wing of the Democratic Party -- characterize progressive positions on everything from trade to healthcare to taxes as ultra-liberal. But who's really out of touch with the people?
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20050103&s=sirota

HARNESS THAT ANGER by Howard Zinn
Forget about the "mandate." Most Americans do not want war, and they do want a fairer society. "The people of this country have their own mandate."
http://www.progressive.org/jan05/zinn0105.html
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