| Number 75 | June 23, 2000 |
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This Week:
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Greetings, Whoa! So much catching up to do after taking a week off. I am still struggling with computer problems, so the fact that you are reading this is a minor miracle. If anybody wants to donate a computer to Nygaard Notes, or the $500 it would take to buy one, feel free to contact me at any time! One thing that happens when I take a week “off” (it was not a vacation, but was filled with Social Security research and writing, plus various attempts at computer repair) is that I have to leave out a lot of comments that I would have made on things that were in the news during the interim. Summer is like that, though. There will be a few more “Notes-Free” weeks before the snow falls if I get my way. Welcome to the many new readers who have come on board in the past two weeks, and thank you to the “old” readers who recommended the Notes to them! I hope you enjoy the Notes, and I welcome your comments. Post them on the Nygaard Notes message board if you want the world to see them; E-mail me directly if you don’t. ‘Til next week, computer willing, Nygaard |
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For some reason, maybe because I took last week off, this week there are two “Quotes” of the Week. (Don’t worry; the editor said it was OK.) “Quote” #1:
“Quote” #2:
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In an attempt to give Nygaard Notes readers some motivation to jump in and help build the momentum of activism on the issue, I here offer SIX reasons to oppose the death penalty (adapted from the website of Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty): 1. INNOCENCE. The death penalty allows no room for error. Innocent people have been and will be executed as long as human beings are the ones making the decisions and not God. Can you live with this knowledge? 2. RACISM: When the race of the VICTIM is white, the perpetrator is at least four times more likely to get the death penalty. 82% of all persons executed since 1977 were convicted of killing white people, despite the fact that more than 50% of all victims of violent crime are people of color. 3. NO DETERRENCE: Even death penalty proponents now concede that executions do not deter others from committing murder. In fact, murders committed by people hoping to be caught and executed are on the increase. 4. A POLITICIANS TOOL: Politicians claim they are tough on crime by supporting the death penalty. But what about preventing violent crime? Over 94% of all criminal justice dollars are spent after the crime instead of on prevention. 5. PUBLIC OPINION: When offered thoughtful alternatives, the majority of Americans do not support the death penalty. 6. COST: On average, it costs six times as much to kill one person as it costs to incarcerate that person for life ($3.2 million versus $600,000 in Florida, for example). More than half the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. If you look at the wealthy, industrialized countries of Europe and North America, the United States stands alone as a state that continues to execute its citizens. There are numerous organizations working to change this, and now a bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate “to institute a moratorium on the imposition of the death penalty at the Federal and State level until a National Commission on the Death Penalty studies its use and policies ensuring justice, fairness, and due process are implemented.” The bill, S. 2463, the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2000, was introduced on April 26th by Senator Feingold of Wisconsin and Senator Levin of Michigan, with Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone signing on as a co-sponsor on May 16th. While a moratorium is not abolition, it may at least save some lives and - who knows? - maybe the Commission will be able to admit that the death penalty really is incompatible with the “justice, fairness, and due process” that are supposed to be at the core of our legal system. In any case, this is a bill that readers may want to support in an active way. To contact your senator, visit www.senate.gov on the Internet, or call the Senate switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Be sure to contact the three co-sponsors and tell them you love them, but also call your own senator and tell them to also become a co-sponsor; be sure to tell them why. If you need any more information, or if you want to get more actively involved, call Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty toll-free at (800) 973-6548. Or visit their website at www.cuadp.org; it includes links to about 30 other groups, domestic and international, that are trying to end this practice of state murder. |
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The New York Times reported on June 21st that “The Senate endorsed an aid package of nearly $1 billion tonight to help Colombia equip and train security forces to combat drug traffickers in a country where the narcotics trade and guerrilla insurgency support each other.” Despite the Times’ implication that the guerrillas’ links to the drug culture set them apart, in fact every institution in Colombia - certainly including the military - deals in and profits from drugs, and our mostly-military aid package is bound to make things much worse in every way. Nevertheless, official approval of the aid package is almost sure to follow this week’s Senate endorsement. If that happens, hopefully the date will live in infamy, but whether it does or not depends on those U.S. citizens who care about human rights. Some of us are old enough to remember the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which was the historic 1964 vote that basically authorized the United States to undertake a massive escalation of the war in Vietnam. Perhaps the lack of a specific precipitating event will prevent this week’s vote on Colombia from being remembered with the same vividness, but the gruesome implications are reminiscent of that fateful commitment on 1964. The “attack” on U.S. warships which prompted the Gulf of Tonkin resolution probably never happened, but that didn’t stop President Johnson from accusing the North Vietnamese of “open aggression on the high seas against the United States of America.” The American people believed his claim, or at least those who counted believed it, and off we went into the mad aggression that history calls the Vietnam War. The millions of needless deaths and the untold suffering that continues in that country to this day was jump- started by the phony Tonkin Gulf incident and fueled for years by a brainless fear of something called the “domino effect,” which said that if we were to “lose” Vietnam, then the rest of Asia would surely “fall” to international Communism. Jump ahead 36 years and listen to Senator Paul Coverdell of Georgia, speaking this week in support of the Senate vote on aid to Colombia: “Colombia is the heart of the drug war, and we'd better get on with it. If we lose in Colombia, then we lose everywhere.” Dominoes, anyone? Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, the White House drug policy director, made the following delusionary comment on the vote to send a billion-plus dollars to Colombia: “The Senate's work is a crucial step toward final Congressional approval of the package that will greatly enhance counterdrug efforts in Colombia and neighboring Andean countries in their struggle against illicit production and trafficking, and drug-funded criminal organizations.” Don’t look now, Mr. Director, but one of the main “drug-funded criminal organizations” you’re so worried about is the recipient of the U.S. aid package of which you are so enamored. It was barely a week ago that General Rosso Jose Serrano, Colombia’s police chief, resigned amid a great wailing and gnashing of teeth by his friends in the “anti-drug” establishment. Serrano's “steadfast dedication to the anti-drug crusade will be sorely missed,” said Donnie R. Marshall, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, adding, “He is truly a hero.” Uh huh. Never mind that coca production in Colombia has quadrupled over the past four years, or that Colombia has the worst human rights record in the western hemisphere, and maybe the world. He’s a hero. As long as there is a demand for a highly profitable substance like cocaine, there will be a supply. Free-market theory predicts it, and that’s what we’re seeing in Colombia.As long as the U.S. buys cocaine, Colombia will sell it. The Senate nonetheless defeated an amendment offered by Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone that would have diverted a big chunk of the money away from the doomed-to-fail military strategy in Colombia and toward drug treatment here in the United States. This tells us that there must be some other motivation behind the aid package, which will make Colombia one of the largest recipients of U.S. aid in the world. The danger of a guerilla victory, perhaps, with the possibility of an economy in service to its people rather than U.S. multinationals? I would have to agree with the comment of Republican Senator Slade Gorton of Washington (with whom I don’t agree much), who said in opposition to the senate action: “There has been no consideration of the consequences, cost, and length of involvement. This bill says, let's get into war now and justify it later.” If you are interested in making it more difficult for our leaders to “justify” this criminal war policy, you may want to contact some activists who are working on the issue. Here in the Twin Cities, folks can contact the Anti-War Committee: www.angelfire.com/mn/cispes/calendar.html 612/872-0944. Folks in other states and countries can contact the Colombia Support Network: www.colombiasupport.net/ or phone (608) 257-8753. |
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I enjoy quoting the late, great journalist I.F. Stone, who said that he enjoyed reading the New York Times because he liked to look and see on which page they would publish the front-page stories. His words came to mind this week when I found what I consider to be a front-page story squirreled away on page 13 of the Star Tribune (Newspaper of the Twin Cities!), with the same story appearing on page 12 of the New York Times (“All the News That’s Fit to Print!). “U.S. Health Care Ranks 37th in WHO Survey” read the headline in the Star Trib on June 21st, and “Europeans Perform Highest in Ranking of World Health,” said the Times on the same day. The “radical and ambitious” report from the WHO (World Health Organization) was particularly interesting - and important - because it went beyond the standard measurements such as life expectancy, infant mortality, and fertility. It did look at those standard measurements, but it also looked at such things as the fairness of the distribution of health care resources, the disparities in access between different socioeconomic groups within countries, and the relationship between a country’s potential for providing care and its actual performance. This nuanced look at health care is useful in evaluating the performance of our own country, because it attempts to go beyond absolute numbers - which can be deceiving - to assess the priority that each nation gives to the health of its people. Is the United States performing up to its potential? When one considers that the United States ranked Number One in amount of money spent per capita on health care, yet ranked 37th overall in the functioning of its health care system, one might begin to wonder. The Times headline was interesting, as well, for the fact that the United States lags behind not just the majority (if not all) of European nations in the performance of our health care system. Other countries that rank above the United States include Dominica, Singapore, Colombia, Japan, Morocco, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. Readers may have already begun to see the commercials that are being produced by American conservatives portraying Canada’s health-care system as a dismal failure but, yes, Canada’s system also ranks above the U.S. in the WHO study. The story in the Times appeared on the “International News” page. Apparently the poor performance of the U.S. health-care system is not a domestic issue. Hmmm.... What were the crucial stories in the news on the 21st that crowded out the report on the state of our nation’s health? The front page of the Times was dominated by a human interest story about Al Gore’s college years (“Al Gore’s Journey: A Test of Character”). The local paper used the front page to inform readers that “something of a friendship appears to have blossomed” between Al Gore and Jesse Ventura, “the nation’s most colorful, unpredictable governor.” (The headline: “Gore and Ventura: Just Two Regular Guys - Really?”) As a final note, it is worth pointing out that the Star Trib found no room at all to report on the major policy speech given by the vice president on June 20th announcing his plan to have the government give away $200 billion to citizens to invest in the stock market (or wherever they wish to). This is the biggest single spending initiative proposed by any candidate this year, but the Star Tribune elbowed it out to make room for its hard-hitting report on the “two regular guys.” |