ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF GIFFORDS

In the spirit of nonpartisan national mourning for our slain and wounded citizens, the community gathering announced for 12 PM Jan. 11, 2011 has been postponed until Friday.

Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst and Congressman Tim Bishop released details for a more formal and inclusive event below:

In light of the tragic event that took place in Arizona over the weekend and the discussion that has ensued regarding the current “tone” of public discourse throughout the country, communities nation-wide are responding with commitments to be more respectful and civil in expressing their opinions and in their treatment of others.

In support of this important movement to shine a light on our own actions and make a conscience effort to wield our treasured freedoms with more tolerance and grace, you are invited to participate in a “Coming Together for Civility” event Friday, January 14 at 9:00 a.m. on the steps of Southampton Town Hall.

The goal of the event is two fold:

(1) To express our sympathies together as one community regarding the tragic events that took place over the past weekend in Arizona and;

(2) To make a public commitment to civility within our own community regardless of personal beliefs or party affiliation.

A wide spectrum of community leaders will attend including elected officials, fire and police chiefs, EMS leaders, VFW leaders, local ministers, school representatives and more. The event will also be open to the public, so please share this invitation with your memberships, friends and neighbors.

If you do plan to attend, kindly alert my office so we can plan accordingly.

I hope to see you on Friday!

Sincerely,
Anna Throne-Holst
Supervisor
Town of Southampton
116 Hampton Rd
Southampton, NY 11968
Ph: (631) 283-6055
athrone-holst@southamptontowny.gov

Zellner Blog: PEACE IN POLITICS

The attempted assassination of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords reminds me of growing up in the South where violence seemed to be as American as cherry pie.

Children in the Bible belt were to be seen, not heard. Our little world was separate from adults for the most part except for the occasional housekeeper or baby sitter. When company came for dinner, children sat at a separate table, often waiting for adults to eat before we were fed.

When chicken was fried, we got necks, backs, the feet and occasionally chicken head. Someone somehow ate all parts. Depression gripped the South and food was not to be wasted. I didn’t know what second-class citizens were but we younguns were definitely that.

Religion, philosophy and politics were discussed, if at all, out of earshot of children because, “Little pitchers have big ears.” Infidelity, violence, and scandal of any nature were discussed in hushed tones - never in the open, like today. Our little ears, however, were full of everyday violence like the public lynching out from nearby Dothan, Alabama. When I was five, special trains brought five thousand whites to watch the murder of a black man. Children were encouraged by their parents to stick forks in the charred flesh of the victim after he was dragged through the streets behind a pickup.

Daddy’s “nervous breakdown” became the Zellner’s hushed up scandal. Methodist ministers didn’t have emotional problems. An “eccentric” bachelor uncle or maiden aunt locked away in Southern attics, wearing Confederate gray or antebellum gowns, ubiquitous in literature, shows that mental disorder was something to be ashamed of. The prevalence of mental illness made appearance paramount. Frantz Fanon explained imperialism and the resulting mental disorder among oppressed people. Thorough study of the mental illnesses of oppressors has not been attempted.

Dad’s KKK membership was, no doubt, the cause of his breakdown. He was trying to be a minister of the gospel while practicing racial discrimination. Although his Klan connection was never mentioned, Dad’s dilemma, like the American one, was professing one thing about race while doing another. Half the population lording over the other half, taking the best of everything while leaving the rest to make do on scraps, was bad business indeed. Dad also concluded that holding black people down also impoverished white people. Rich people, happy to let poor white trash do the dirty work, laughed at both. They had always controlled blacks through terror, slavery being maintained only by a constant state of violence against the enslaved. One human enslaving another is an act of war.

The rhetoric and reality of violence and war, consequently, permeates our history and our politics. Sarah Palin, however, should apologize for placing crosshairs over the district of Congresswoman Gifford. Ms Palin defended herself by saying she is only playing politics as usual. Making herself the victim, she claims she suffered a “blood libel,” an insult to Jews who actually suffered.

Listen tonight to our great President Obama as he binds the wounds inflicted in Tucson. His political style is the opposite of the current crop of rightwing haters. With real commitment we can all work together to bring peace to politics.

Bob Zellner January 12, 2011

Invitation to Town Hall Meeting honoring Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 9, 2011

Invitation to Town Hall Meeting honoring Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford –
Southampton Town Hall
12 Noon, Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2011
 – Bob Zellner asks you to save the date.

My friend Bob Filner, Democrat, who represents my brother Douglas Zellner in San Diego, remembers his fallen colleague. “Gabby Gifford’s is a good legislator and a good friend. We work closely together as U.S./Mexico border Congress members. We pray for her full recovery."

Filner, a supporter of the nonpartisan Congressional Faith and Politics Institute lead by John Lewis, faulted incendiary talk radio programming as contributing to a climate that may have encouraged today's violence. "I … believe the violent context of the recent election is responsible for this tragedy," he said. "Many of us were physically threatened by those who believed they were ‘right’ and we were ‘wrong’ – we were ‘enemies,’ rather than sincere people with different opinions. Their incendiary talk – given legitimacy by equally incendiary talk shows – makes violence an acceptable political tactic. Violence as acceptable – bolstered by easy access to guns – made this tragedy almost inevitable. Let us all resolve to recommit ourselves to what is truly exceptional about America – that we conduct our politics with debate and respect, not violence.”

Congressman Bob Filner and I have accompanied Senators and Congress Members to Selma, Alabama each year to protest violence in politics (like that visited upon John Lewis of SNCC and citizens seeking the vote for African Americans.)  Attendees include then Senator Barrack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, James Clyburn, Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist and other prominent leaders.

My experience with President Obama and Congressman John Lewis leads me to address this plea those who use violent rhetoric in political debate. “Please prepare in advance an obituary for victims of your hate.  Does your incitement to violence load the gun for some unbalanced shooter?  Are you giving someone in the shadows permission to kill?”

Bob Zellner
phone: 631 680-3483
email:  bob@bobzellner.com

Waiting for the Second Coming . . . of Obama

The first time he came he could walk on water.  Now, some are wondering whom he is carrying water for.

Is Obama carrying water for the rich people and the establishment he ran against?  Or is he simply overcompensating for being called a radical and a socialist?  The opposition has repeated that big lie so often and so loudly that it becomes believable to millions of otherwise sane people.

Ironically the more our President moves to the center trying to prove that he’s no radical, and certainly not a socialist, the more the right wing tea party Republicans move the center to the right. They’ve played this cynical game as long as I can remember when a real loser of a Senator, McCarthy of Wisconsin, learned he could flush a covey of liberals simply by waving a paper and bellowing that liberals were communists.

People who understand socialism know that Barack Obama is not a socialist.  He is a centrist in every sense of the word.  Moreover, he’s a centrist with a rightward lean.  Europeans laugh when right-wingers call Hillary and Barack leftist.

A cartoon depicting a right-winger and a left-winger holding signs, had one saying, “I hate Obama.  He’s a socialist.”  And the other, “I hate Obama.  He’s not a socialist.  The recent midterm bloodletting begs the question - did running away from the dem record of achievement save any seats? No.  Democrats could not possible have lost more seats and we may even have been able to save some.  Independents might have given Obama and the Dems credit for at least standing their ground.  But when Democrats ran away from their own accomplishments, how could independents and middle of the roaders stick with Obama, “the change artist.” 

Adding insult to injury, far right Republicans gearing up for 2012 are now promising, “CHANGE.”  Ignoring the fact that they obstructed every effort to save the country, cynical Republicans trumpet, “Obama couldn’t get the job done in 18 months, give us a chance and we will do better.”
Maybe one reason for Democratic capitulationism is the fact that liberals, progressives and left radicals failed to maintain pressure on Obama to do the right thing and stand up to the crazies.  The administration also incredibly turned its back on young people, failing to assign anyone in government the task of continuing the mobilization that was so important to Obama’s victory.

The political spectrum in this country, after more than a century of red baiting, has now shifted so far to the right that the Republican Party itself is proving to be too liberal.  Their tigers, Rush Limbaugh, Beck, Palin and Bachman, egged on by numerous crazies – the Delaware witch, etc. are so addicted to blood and political mayhem, that the tigers they’ve unleashed are likely to tear their handlers.  Tan Man and mainstream Republicans are hanging on to the tiger’s tail for dear life.  To mix the metaphor, will Dr. Frankenstein control the monster or vice versa? Old-line Republican leaders don’t seem to have the guts to stand against their crazies.

Do we, Mr. President?

Lead us Obama and we will have your back.  We are whom we have been waiting for but we do require a leader.  If you chicken out, and we chicken out, how long will it be before corporate fascism runs America from behind the Oz curtain?

We fell into this predicament because we were happy and relieved to see Obama elected. From jump we should have been on him to do the right thing.  The things he promised during the campaign. We dare not make the same mistake between now and the presidential election in two years.

Bob Zellner
Southampton, NY.

Obama letter number 2, November 31, 2010: EAGLE, TURKEY OR JUST PLAIN CHICKEN?

Dear Mr. President,

When we called you a change artist we didn’t mean that YOU would change, we thought you were out to change the way politics are played.  Were we wrong?

Like Dr. King we are dreamers, but I never dreamed it would come to this – that we are leading you.  Why is it not the other way around?  Even crass politics requires you to LOOK like you are leading and putting up a good fight.  Nobody faults a politician for acting like a general to his army of supporters.

I don’t mean a violent fight, of course, because we touted you as the first nonviolent president - at least one with some understanding of the nonviolent movement.  I remind you, however, that we practiced nonviolent DIRECT ACTION.  There was nothing passive about it.

You are disappointing us, Sir, and I don’t mean the ones who gave up on you early, just waiting for an excuse to leave.  We stayed when you escalated an unwinnable war claiming young lives to prop up Karzai and his criminal “family.”  We stuck when you gave up public option prior to negotiations on health care.  We swallowed hard when you didn’t close Guantanamo and failed to advocate strongly for repeal of don’t ask, don’t tell.  We are the millions of long suffering supporters like the lady at town meeting who said she was exhausted defending you.

Do you intend to rain on this parade?  Boy scout training teaches that a drip can kill a spark but a deluge cannot douse a conflagration.  We hope you are not the drip putting out our spark.  Remember HOPE?

As our champion confronting the giant, did you forget to pick up some rocks, maybe left your slingshot at home?  Nonviolence is good, but this is ridiculous!  In the movement we turn the other cheek, but we don’t ray our principles.

Even Jesus, the Prince of Peace, got mad.  He believed in direct action.  When he plaited a whip - look out scribes and Pharacese! And for God’s sake don’t be changing no money over at the temple!

Has politics become so cynical that a fighting spirit in defense of principles no longer plays well?  It would be great for your base, and might even gain the respect of Independents and some moderate Republicans.  As a radical, a progressive and an activist, I can’t help admiring heartless rightwing Republicans and crazy tea heads.  They close ranks and fight for their cause.  Tea partiers, to the small extend they are working class, should be organized by Democrats, not the lying right.

If Progressives don’t stand for something, will we stand for anything?  You and your aids have given up on each political fight, even before taking the field.  Unlike little David, your political advisor, Axelrod, went out to meet Goliar and Co. with his hands up.  Weeks ago he said tax cut extensions for the richest 2% was on the table.  We knew then that you were going to give it to them.

We can only imagine the confab he had with Tan Man and General McConnell.

Axelhead:  Well fellas, what was it you unwashed, stinking, skin wearing barbarians wanted?

Boehner mumbles something about chicken crap.

Axelhead:  Oh, uh, you want to extend tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires?  Well, uh, my president certainly wants to get along and not be overly partisan.  We can probably, uh… work something out…. I’ll get back to you.

Well, Mr. President, we will stay tuned and see what you work out.

Sincerely,

Bob Zellner

50 Years Later: Where Do We Go From Here? Part Two by Ira Grupper

Sisters & Brothers:

       Justice delayed is justice denied.  I was part of a group that looked over cases and then encouraged filing complaints with metro, state and federal agencies. We were dissatisfied with the long time between intake of a complaint and resolution, and with the eventual outcomes as well.  

       The problem is not individual, but structural, and political.  The tasks of outreach, alternative dispute resolution and targeted case management are not accomplished when budget is limited and the big dogs, running in the tall grass, seem less than enamored of prosecuting potential political party donors?

       Mediation and conciliation agreements, prized by federal, state and municipal enforcement bodies, objectively favor corporations and government agencies at the expense of complainants.  The company or government agency just says: we ain’t done nothin' wrong, but we promise never to do it again.  Further, we'll agree to make the aggrieved party, the complainant, whole, and we'll give back pay and promotion.

The Kafka-esque irony is that conciliation agreements are a joyous outcome for enforcement agencies, since there is not enough money and staff to litigate the complaint avalanch.  Irony number two - the discriminated-against also view agreements as victories, having neither the money nor the years to wait while the processes lumber on.

       I was at the 50th anniversary of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Raleigh NC this past April.  As a SNCC veteran, I thought Attorney General Eric Holder, spoke eloquently about the Justice Department’s newfound energy in enforcing anti-discrimination laws.

       Ironic isn’t it that on September 24 of this year the Department of Justice’s FBI component broke into seven homes and an office belonging to activists in the peace and justice community in Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan?  The eleven subpoenaed activists will have to testify before a federal grand jury — where they are not permitted to have a lawyer with them.

       In the 1970’s and 1980’s I was involved, here in the U.S., in support of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.  Using the logic of the recent raids, I could have been imprisoned way back then, under the support for terrorism laws.  After all, Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress were put on the terrorist list by then-President Ronald Reagan.  Did that make me a terrorist? 

Let’s return, specifically, to the KY Commission on Human Rights. Months ago at a conference on disability, organized by the Kentucky commission we tonight honor.  I asked how many commissioners ever filed “commissioner’s complaints.”  The commissioner with the longest tenure, I think it was eleven years, responded:  “What is a commissioner’s complaint?”

 I was shocked.  Commissioners have the right, no, the duty, to file complaints, in their names, against offending companies and agencies.  This disgusting dereliction of duty, from my experience, is no better or worse than at all the other agencies.

       Some commissioners aren’t cognizant of the two roles commissions must play - enforcing the law, AND using their good offices to bring about an egalitarian climate.  Commissioners and citizens must understand this. I teach at Bellarmine University, and students in one of my classes are here, in the audience.  Why isn’t this audience packed with hundreds of students?  Is it lack of funding that prevents federal, state and local agencies from going into the high schools and colleges to explain why we need enforcement agencies?  What would Rev. Martin Luther King say about this?

       To conclude: The historic work of the KY Commission on Human Rights needs to be better funded, and expanded…You now know that I am an unrepentant hellraiser.  My motto is, and I have cleaned it up and made it gender-neutral:  If you grab them around the neck, their hearts and minds will follow.

Four little girls were murdered in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 by racists who bombed the church where they were attending Sunday school.  We must never forget their sacrifice, their martyrdom, and the supreme price paid by James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Mickey Schwerner, Medgar Evers, Viola Liuzzo, Herbert Lee, Vernon Dahmer-and so many more.

       They, and hundreds of thousands of freedom fighters, over many years, are to be thanked for the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights.  We can pay homage to the precious collective memory of the fallen in battle by creating a climate where companies and agencies that discriminate don't just get slapped on the wrist, but get the living defecation knocked out of them.

Then, and only then, will fifty years of the KY Commission on Human Rights be the landmark we all shall cherish. 

Thank you.  

Ira Grupper

50 Years Later: Where Do We Go From Here?

Part one of a two part guest blog from, Ira Grupper, my hell raising friend and comrade in the movement for forty years.

Sisters & Brothers:

Where the KY Commission on Human Rights needs to go depends on its past history, and how its work comports with the work of city and federal agencies. 

The 1960s saw masses of African American people, with participation and solidarity of other minorities and decent white people, rise up and bring down enforced racial segregation, Jim Crow--apartheid made-in-the-USA.  De jure discrimination and segregation, at long last, were outlawed.

This struggle was a war, producing casualties, with participants jailed, beaten, fired from jobs, and even murdered, forcing authorities to make certain concessions.  Among these were a series of laws giving everyone, regardless of color, the right to vote, the use of public accommodations, and access to fair housing and employment.

The Movement inspired other so-called "protected classes," to demand justice.  Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, women, the disabled, older people, lesbians and gays--were on the move. They had fought for dignity and rights all along, but the Movement provided inspiration and demonstrated what a cohesive militant people's force can accomplish.  Federal, state and municipal enforcement agencies, like the KY Commission on Human Rights, were created as a response.

These agencies had to contend, in the 1960s, with a society wherein the rich profited by exploiting the poor — a society that kept Black and white people apart.  White workers accepted their own exploitation by internalizing that, as badly off as they were, at least they weren't Black.  Inheriting the detritus of the war on the poor and the non-white back then, the agencies had to develop rules and regulations to try to root out unfairness at the workplace, and otherwise. 

       Today, approaching 2011, have these government agencies succeeding in creating a climate where discriminators fear paying a high price for their actions?  Sometimes, yes.  Usually, no.

During the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan dismantled protections won during the Civil Rights Movement.  He appointed Clarence Thomas to head the EEOC and do the dirty work of gutting enforcement, of destroying equal opportunity.  Mr. Thomas was rewarded for his nefarious deeds by being appointed to the US Supreme Court.

       How are things today?  Marcelles Mayes, president of the Metro Disability Coalition here in Louisville, recently told me:  “Even with passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, so many disabled are unemployed or under-employed.  For the severely disabled generally it’s 75%, and for the blind and visually disabled it is 91%”.  As recession wreaks havoc on poor and working people, millions of Americans are further prevented by racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, and anti-disabled bias from access to the workplace. 

Where do unemployed teens wind up, to an alarming degree?  They wind up in prison resulting in drastically rising incarceration rates with a devastating racial breakdown. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the KY Commission pushed for restoration of voting rights for ex-inmates as proof that the penal system has faith in its rehabilitation program?  

TO BE CONTINUED: Read part two next week on Zellner Blog.

Thank you.  
Ira Grupper:  irag@iglou.com

The Calling

       As a veteran of the civil rights struggles of the 1960s I was honored and privileged to work, walk and go to jail with the bravest and most inspiring people our generation produced.   It was a pivotal chapter in American history; whatever we thought we were doing and achieving, we did made a difference. We were front line troops, (mostly) young women and men putting our own bodies on the line to break the back of deep discrimination and injustice. Some made the ultimate sacrifice, their blood watering roots of freedom’s tree marking the beginning of a new kind of life for all Americans.

       Young people ask if the Freedom Movement really changed things in a basic way because schools teach only the most rudimentary information.  It’s hard to remember or learn how bad things were.  Without our struggle, the reinvigorated women’s’ movement, gay rights, laws against age and disability discrimination would not have arrived when they did.

       This important history is passed along through stories of that wonderful era. But the stories are supposed to inspire, not put us to sleep fifty years later. Rocking chair congratulations can come later.  Alone among the major civil rights organization of the sixties, the NAACP continues to flourish and function.  SNCC, CORE, SCLC and the Urban League are extinct or quiet. Every activist in every field should be a paid up member of the NAACP. There’s still work to be done!

       Help me deliver this blog to Americans of good sense and heart, especially young Americans. Please know that just as I and my sisters and brothers in struggle felt called to ACT, that calling is sounding for you today.  Rosa Parks once challenged me, “Bob when you see something wrong, you have to dosomething.  You must take action.”

       For young Americans, new chapters of these stories continue to play out: poor people are excluded, as are gays, the disabled, young people and people of color.  As Dr. Maya Angelou, supporting the Spike Lee, Barry Brown movie, Son of the South, from my book, The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement, said, “This film should be made because hate is once again becoming an acceptable form of public discourse.”

       Decisions affecting humans and our planet are made for the profit of a few while harming the many. Education policy and practice, meant to lift us up, funnels people into becoming sleepy consumers of culture and products, leaving us stripped and empty.  Seventy percent of our economy depends on rampant consumerism funded mostly by credit.  We don’t make things anymore, shipping jobs to poor non-unionized workers around the world.

       It’s time. It’s more than time. In fact, it’s getting very late. Join me in exploring not just the great stories of the past, but finding the opportunities to write some new stories that are desperately needed today. Stories of hope, courage, imagination and struggle. That same call that moved us back in the day still resounds today. Can you hear it?  Will you heed it? 

Bob Zellner

November 1, 2010