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Basking in the reflection of the rows of thousands of white headstones at a cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, standing before a crowd of White Supremacists, warmongers, and elite media microphones and cameras, during the Memorial Day observance, G. W. Bush made the following pronouncement.  He called all those killed in previous and current American wars [sic] heroes who “did not want war,” but “heeded the call to serve,” blah, blah, blah. 

Although we might discount the need to get killed, according to his definition, Bush is a true anti-hero.  That is, according to fellow millionaire (or it is billionaire?), Paul O’Neil and fellow propagandist for Empire Condoleeza Rice (who, in 2002 said, “fuck Saddam we’re taking him out”), Bush wanted war.  Further, Bush, like Cheney, Rumsfeld and the other Chicken Hawks, “hung up” the phone when Uncle Sam called them to be cannon fodder for war. 

In American cartoons and popular movies, we know who the hero is, because he – nearly always – wins in the end.  But our heroes do not just win, they conquer and vanquish through acts of redemptive violence.  Be it Bugs Bunny, Bruce Willis, or modern treats from Japanese animators, generations of Americans have been told “good triumphs over evil” and “good guys fight.”

So Bush is an anti-hero … even putting aside any pretense of seeking redemption through violence in Iraq.  Bush, Wolfowitz, Feith, and others all exclaimed the need to send others to invade and slaughter in the Middle East, to “strike first,” i.e., for someone else to strike first.  But no matter … it is not as if our Bible reader in Chief ever cared about the sin of hypocrisy.  What matters most to G. W. Bush and other Imperialists is the anti-hero value of obedience, while they fawn for the cameras, and hand out medals to fellow liars and hypocrites like George Tenet. 

Spare the Rod and Limit the Humiliation

Of course, Bush is alone neither in his hypocrisy nor in his lust for abuse and violence.  And while he urges Christian soldiers to continue their rape of Fallujah, bombing of Baghdad, and Torture in Tikrit, the next generation of vigilant control-freak anti-heroes is bred and cultivated across the country – nurtured by parents and school administrators and legislators who insist on the virtue of “corporal punishment” aka public beating, humiliation, empathy erasure and obedience training.

Although most states have outlawed the barbarism (or is it Calvinism?) called state-administered corporal punishment in public schools (aka child abuse), as their last legislative session ended, the former slave-state and home of the White Supremacist/Christian-centered Blackwater Mercenary Corporation, North Carolina, voted down a bill seeking to end one more the legacy of slave-ownership.  Two, White male (surprise!) members of the legislature recalled with fondness their beatings at the hands of teachers and principles.  One said that he was “beaten like a mule,” the other claimed that he benefited from the beatings … I would dare say that Hitler said the same. 

When I brought up the topic of hitting children to my mothers of my students, a few (child-beaters) vehemently defended the practice with trite quips like “time-outs don’t work” and “you have to discipline the child to teach them right from wrong.”  Of course, what these ladies, who insisted that they never left marks, did not realize is that they have a slave-owner mentality.  That is, these women, great-grand children of slaves, have internalized an ideal about obedience and the ills of creativity that was literally beaten into their ancestors.

It Is a Mindset Thing

When pressed on the illogic and horrific nature of corporal punishment and the impropriety of hitting any child, much less one’s own, these mothers came back with an anticipated retort – “I can do whatever I want to my child …”  What more justification would a slave-owner give?  On the other side of the coin, the children of slave-owners, now serving in State Houses, working as school principals, or running the empire, see that punishment, obedience, and violence are good things for your children, and will be carried out and perpetuated against yours, but never against theirs!

In one of his many lectures, Guyanese historian, Dr. Ivan van Sertima, tells us words to the effect that our people need to know our history.  Before audiences in various parts of the world, this author of “They Came Before Columbus” and student of the great Cheikh Anta Diop, Dr. van Sertima explains how Black Africans created the dynasties of Egypt (Kemet – the Land of Black People) sailed around the globe hundreds of years before Europeans, charting the stars with technology that Europeans later borrowed and imitated.  Van Sertima presents evidence that we, Black Africans, developed advanced metallurgy, established universities in Spain, created mathematics and developed scripts which our people shared with Arabs, Europeans and Amer-Indians. 

Why is any of this important?  As Dr. van Sertima recalls, upon hearing these suppressed truths of human existence and a short list of the great deeds of our ancestors, many people especially of the American Diaspora will tell Dr. van Sertima that, for the first time in their lives, they have a sense of pride and self-worth. They realize that they are the progeny of a great and mighty people.  What difference could self-worth, or knowledge that Columbus neither discovered America nor risked sailing westward from Europe through uncharted waters (he had an African map!) make to a child or a people who are otherwise told that they are nothing, invented nothing, and looking nothing like Jesus (the archetypal hero)?

Property Ownership, and the Divine Duty of Lumpenprole

Recently, the British announced that Prince Harry won’t go to Iraq.  Surprise!  Though Fox News explained that Harry is an officer and competent to “lead” his tank unit, we are told that the British military commanders decided that Harry would be a target for the terrorists and hence only increase the risk of injury or death for his fellow soldiers. You see, it is not all Americans, Brits and other hajji killers who are “targets” for the "ragheads", only the rich and famous children of privilege are targets.  Well, we certainly would not want the wrong kind of people to be in combat in Iraq, would we?

As should be painfully clear to everyone in the United States, no well-bred European or White child of privilege and wealth is foolish enough to put themselves in the path of a landmine, rape the helpless at gunpoint, or risk limb and life in an imperial war.  That mentality was abandoned in WWI.  Now they call upon the dupes to become “heroes” while the parents of wealth and privilege cut back on social services, cripple our economy via de-industrialization and debt schemes, and destroy public schools through overcrowding, under-funding, and over-testing.  For those who would think otherwise, they might consult Malcolm X who would add, “you lost your mind” if you think that they care about you! 

Although the reality of the latest imperial war is costly, perhaps we can still save some.  I leave you with one more example.  Last week, while two of Bush's heroes were heeding the call (a father in Iraq, a mother stationed in Fort Benning, and then shipped out to Iraq), their four year-old was executed. One American anti-hero and champion for corporal punishment, beat the baby to death – obedience lesson administered, mission accomplished.  Apparently these Black parents of three and the grandparents of the boy were convinced that the best thing three young ones could ever have in the United States is a life of servitude to an anti-hero and parents who forego freedom to join a gang of thugs with brilliant toys of destruction.  Unfortunately a four year-old boy learned this first hand, being whipped with a belt for two days, then punched and bludgeoned to death.

Could this child of nothing expect more? 

What about a child of princes, pharaohs, university makers, ship builders, linguists, engineers, traders, inventors, surgeons?

BC Columnist Dr John Calvin Jones, PhD, JD has a law degree and a PhD in Political Science. His Website is virtualcitizens.com. Click here to contact Dr. Jones.