Margaret Kimberley is an especially prescient woman – she sees things
before the rest of us do. Her column, “Freedom Rider,” is the essential
weekly diet of The Black Commentator audience – the soul food that
we must imbibe. She has a conscience, and calls upon the rest of us
to act as if we do, too.
Ms. Kimberley saw clearly the racist nature of the American aggression
against Iraq, a repeat of many aggressions of the past. It seems that
white America cannot change its pattern of behavior when it comes into
contact with non-white citizens of our world. In one of the most significant
commentaries that we have ever published, Margaret Kimberley spoke
to the latest manifestation of the racial pattern, in a May 6, 2004
piece called, “White Supremacy
in Iraq.”
It is sad and terrifying that Americans are so
incapable of empathy and knowledge of people in other parts of the
world. The Vietnamese
didn't want foreign troops in their country and were willing to
fight and die to get them out. Thirty years later Iraqis don’t
want foreign troops in their country and are willing to fight and
die to get them
out. The Vietnamese were also regarded as less than human. We were
told they didn't have the same reverence for life. We are now
told that Arabs are crazed and illogical and that Islam is a religion
that encourages terrorism. It is easy to first demonize and then
torture
people who have been labeled as crazy followers of an evil religion.
The Americans tried to steal a country in Iraq. The same cabal,
the Bush men, stole an election and a nation in 2000, in a flurry
of crime
in Florida. However, as Margaret pointed out in her brilliant article
of March 18, 2004, titled “Vote
Theft in 2004: Deja
Vu All Over Again,” the criminal enterprise had also been hard
at work in Georgia.
In 2002 polls showed Georgia’s Democratic Senator
Max Cleland defeating his Republican challenger, Saxby Chambliss
by 49% to 44%. Not only
did Cleland lose, but by a margin of 53% to 46%. The new computerized
voter machines that also declared a Republican victory in the
Governor’s
race produced no paper verification of results. The losses to
Democrats in Georgia were a surprise, but the system
now in place does not allow for a means of determining if fraud
occurred.
Ms Kimberley explores deeply the subject of the Great Theft,
one that the criminals who stole the White House show every sign
of planning
to perpetrate again. Her February 12, 2004 commentary states
it plainly: “Trust
No One.”
Lest anyone sneer at the paranoid, a quick history
lesson is in order. In 2000 an estimated 57,000 Floridians were removed
from the
voter rolls under the ruse of preventing felons
from voting. The Governor of Florida just happened to be the
brother of a presidential
candidate. The brother wins the state and in the process becomes
President. Political corruption via nepotism is a scenario
usually reserved for
third world nations. If it becomes a reality for an American
presidential election should paranoia be a negative word? Perhaps
all thinking people
should be paranoid and the non-paranoid should be disregarded.
The quickest way to bring anger, tears, and vitriol
to any conversation among Black people is to discuss the state of
Black male and female
relationships. If it is true that men are from Mars and
women are from Venus it must follow that healthy relationships are
difficult to maintain.
Add racism, the economic marginalization of black people,
high rates of black male incarceration, and early death, and we have
the perfect
storm for relationship and marital instability. It is accepted
by too many of us that the stereotypes are true and black men and
women can’t
get along.
Kimberley also addresses the unspoken issue in Black American
politics: how our fellow Americans, Jews, have distorted the
Black Agenda. This
is a long-running conversation, but Ms. Kimberley brought
it up to date, on December 18, 2003, with her incisive piece, “Congressional
Black Caucus, Target of Pro-Israel Lobby?”
The issues raised by this concentration of power
effect more than the election chances of black politicians. The same
forces that give
black politicians pause when dealing with Israel also helped
bring about the disastrous American invasion of Iraq. The neo-conservatives
who run Bush foreign police advocated this war partly on
the premise
that getting rid of Saddam Hussein was good for Israel.
I wonder when someone will experience an epiphany and figure out
that expanding settlements
on the West Bank hurts Israel. I am still not sure how
the end of Saddam’s
regime makes Israelis safe from Palestinian suicide bombers. Instead
the hawks believe that the region’s difficulties are caused by a lack
of Arab “modernization.” Bringing about modernization seems
to mean invading their countries, establishing puppet governments,
taking their
oil and paving the way for American capitalists to make
a fast buck. George W. Bush is so retrograde in his thinking
that in a moment of
delusion I actually missed his father, who on the advice
of Arab allies decided not to remove Saddam Hussein during
the 1991 Gulf War. In contrast,
Bush the younger sees no need for Arab allies. Warnings
of dire consequences from the Arab world went unheeded
and have resulted in the continuing
disaster caused by the American occupation.
Margaret Kimberley’s voice is the most sane one we could muster for
our audience. We’re glad she’s among us.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly
in  . Ms.
Kimberley is a freelance writer living in New York City. She
can be reached via e-Mail at [email protected]. You can read more
of Ms. Kimberley's writings at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/
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