Miriam, (second try)
Back in the 50's and 60's I recall declaring that there were three
types of people who were totally self centered, self serving, and
stuck up. They were Marines, Texans and Social Workers.
I knew decent young guys graduating from high school who enlisted in
the Marine Corps and when they finished their four year hitch, they
couldn't keep their shirts buttoned because the buttons seemed to
burst off their chests. I met people from Texas who were so pleased
with themselves that they preferred a full length looking glass over
another human being. But the worst, the very, very worst of all were
the Social Workers. I know that they had to have been born just like
everyone else was born. First nasty, disgusting sex, followed by
great labor pains...now it's called contractions, and then there they
were, babies. But Social Workers seem to have simply materialized at
some point, as new adults. 23 years or 25 years old, proudly
presenting their Masters Degree from Stanford, Yale or Princeton. And
in that piece of paper rested all of the wisdom and New World
Thinking. The young social workers of that time even looked down
their noses at the old social workers. Blessed with Absolute Truth,
they went forth to damage the children of the world. And they weren't
any much better with older adults, either. I often wanted to ask, but
was far too polite, if it weren't difficult to work all day with a
corn cob up their butt.
Over the years I have become so much wiser and far more tolerant. I
have met some down right decent Marines. In fact my Brother-In-Law
was such a creature. And so is my eldest son-in-law. Then I met some
really nice young adults, a group of them traveling together. They
were a bit nervous about coming so far out west, thinking there was
great lawlessness out here. We met at a conference and I fell in love
with all of the young women...I was between wives at the time, and I
asked them from whence they came. "Texas!" they beamed proudly.
Later I even had a male friend from Texas. I think the difference is
that these people were, "From" Texas.
Finally, after holding firm to my belief that Social Workers were
really Goblins who grew in the corn patch and took on Humanoid bodies,
I finally met a few who did alter my long established belief. I even
hired a Social Worker for my staff. She was, and still is, a cracker
jack of a woman. I hired her as one of two Braille Instructors. But
her real job was to pull folks out of their crappy attitudes. She was
amazing at it.
Yup. I've come a long, long way toward open acceptance of
everyone...well, almost everyone. In fact, that list is far too long
to post here.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/3/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl,
The other day I was talking on the phone to someone whom I'd recently
encountered on the A C B of New York list. She is in her sixties now. But
when she was young, she went to graduate school to get a degree in
counseling. I'd forgotten, until she mentioned it, how the people with
degrees in social work and psychology, looked down on people who'd gotten
counseling jobs via other degrees. She also reminded me how, years ago,
social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists who were in the
psychotherapy business saw the world through the lens of Freudian
Psychoanalysis. Everything that people did, everything that happened in the
world, even historical events, was seen through that psychoanalytic lens.
You and Roger see all human behavior through a Marxist lens. The
psychoanalytic crowd never noticed the economic and social determiners of
behavior. But the Socialists never think about individual personality
differences. And then there are those who see everything in terms of a
religious philosophy or belief.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2017 6:34 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy] Re:
[blind-democracy] NY meeting: ‘End US embargo of Cuba! Get out of
Guantánamo!’
Miriam,
Sorry if I sound at times as if I'm lumping. I often refer to the Elite, or
the Ruling Class. I understand that our Masters consist of a wide variety
of interests, not always compatible with one another.
But even though they differ on where the nation's resources should be
placed, they do share one thing in common. Profit! Bigger and Richer! And
when that bottom line is threatened, they know how to band together and
mount strong resistance.
But the Working Class, that is, in my book, the rest of us, we can't even
agree if we're Working Class or Middle Class or Upper Middle Class or Lower
Class or...you get the idea.
We have been so disenfranchised, so turned upon one another, so led down the
wrong road by the Corporate Pied Pipers, that we may never come to
understand that we are all being scammed.
Some of us have come to believe enough of the Ruling Class' lies that we
believe we are almost there among them ourselves. Some others of us have
been convinced that we are worthless and should be thankful for the drivel
of money given us out of the kindness of Massah's heart.
Yes, we, the working class, are driven into small groups, and turned upon
one another. But the Upper, Ruling Class is also divided. If we give it
some thought we might figure out how to turn them upon one another, too.
Think Money! If anything will drive wedges between billionaires, it's the
thought that someone is after their money.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/3/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl,
The working class isn't a homogeneous group of people, and probably
won't ever be of one mind since it's made up of individuals, and we
are constantly being manipulated by all sorts of forces. I think that,
unfortunately, people on the left, think in stereotypes, just as people on
the right do.
It's just that the stereotypes are different. I think that how much
people understand, depends on their education. I don't mean formal
education necessarily, or degrees attained. But in order to know
what's happening to you, you need to be able to analyze facts. You
need to know some history, to do some reading, to consider the world
around you.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2017 11:12 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] NY meeting: ‘End US
embargo of Cuba! Get out of Guantánamo!’
I have a sense that the only way we will see an end to the Cuban
Embargo and the return of ownership of Guantánamo to Cuba will be when
we first end the control the Elite Ruling Class has over the American
People.
I understand that there are those who will point out to me that many
working class White Americans believe Cuba to be a real threat to
their "Freedom"...you know, Right to Work(for less) and Return America
to her Greatness(when we had no child labor laws and the right to work
6 12 hour days). But these cries come from brain damaged,
disenfranchised Working Poor Whites. Reasoning with these folk is
like trying to talk sense to an angry Hippopotamus.
And of course, so is attempting to reason with the Corporate
Capitalists who currently rule this Land of the Free and the Brave.
These Elite folk respond to only two forces, Money and Force. This is
why they make certain that our money flows up into their off-shore
banks, and they control the heavy duty weapons of mass destruction and
the bodies needed to protect themselves. So since to match them
dollar for dollar is out of the question, and to arm ourselves and
attempt a violent overthrow, would only end in disaster, and even if
we pulled it off we would only be replacing one violent ruling class
with another, we need to work toward a peaceful coup. While that may
not be possible, it must be our goal. If not, why fuss? Just join
the existing Monsters and try to carve your own little safe corner.
But if we truly care for All People of the World, we will keep
scratching away at an answer.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/2/17, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2017/8114/811405.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 14 April 10, 2017
(front page)
http://themilitant.com/2017/8114/811405.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 14 April 10, 2017
(front page)
NY meeting: ‘End US embargo of Cuba! Get out of Guantánamo!’
Militant/Paul Mailhot
“Solidarity with Cuba is very important at this moment,” Sandra
Ramírez, above, from Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples,
told over
200 people at March 25 Harlem rally.
BY SARA LOBMAN
NEW YORK — “Solidarity with Cuba is very important at this moment,”
said Sandra Ramírez, director of the North American division of the
Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP).
“Cuba and the United States have established diplomatic relations,”
she said. “But the U.S. government still maintains a blockade against
our country, still illegally occupies Guantánamo, and still has
policies aimed at ‘regime change’ in Cuba.
“We will never renounce the construction of a socialist Cuba,”
Ramírez concluded to applause.
The ICAP leader was speaking to more than 200 people from New York
and across the U.S. and Canada at a public meeting at the Malcolm X and
Dr.
Betty Shabazz center in Harlem. The March 25 event was part of a
two-day conference organized to advance the fight to demand
Washington end its 55-year-old embargo of Cuba; get out of
Guantánamo, Cuban territory that Washington has illegally occupied
since 1903; and end all efforts aimed at “regime change” in Cuba. An
article on the conference discussion, debate and decisions will appear
next week.
The meeting opened with a dinner, to the sounds of drumming by
Afro-Boricua Bomba Yo.
The program was co-chaired by Estela Vasquez, an executive vice
president of 1199SEIU healthcare workers union, and August Nimtz of
the Minnesota Cuba Committee. In opening the program, Vasquez
recognized several special guests, including Anayansi Rodríguez,
Cuba’s ambassador to the United Nations; Miguel Barnet, president of
the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC); and members of a
leadership delegation of the Federation of Cuban Women to the U.N.
Commission on the Status of Women.
In addition to Ramírez, speakers included Rafael Cancel Miranda, a
longtime Puerto Rican independence leader imprisoned for more than 25
years by the U.S. colonial rulers; Andrés Gómez, a coordinator of the
Antonio Maceo Brigade, a Cuban-American organization based in Miami
that has organized support of the Cuban Revolution for four decades;
and Juanita Young, whose son Malcolm Ferguson was killed by New York
police in 2000.
Ramírez reminded participants that in 1960 when Fidel Castro came to
New York to address the U.N. General Assembly on behalf of the newly
victorious revolution, downtown hotels insulted and evicted the Cuban
delegation. At Malcolm X’s initiative, the Cubans were invited to
stay at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem. Thousands poured into the
streets to welcome the Cuban revolutionaries.
Turning to the evening’s honored guest, Rafael Cancel Miranda, the
ICAP leader underlined revolutionary Cuba’s support “for a free and
independent Puerto Rican nation.”
In his remarks, Cancel Miranda said that although the United States
“invaded Puerto Rico and still occupies my country, we are going to
fight back until we have ended the colonial slavery of my people.
“And when I say ‘my people,’ I’m also Cuban. I’m Venezuelan. I’m from
Bolivia. I’m from the Caribbean. I’m Puerto Rican from top to bottom,
but I’m all of that too.” He paid tribute to American Indian Movement
leader Leonard Peltier and Black Panther Herman Bell, with whom he
served time in federal prison and who are still behind bars.
“Anybody that stands up and fights is my people,” he said. “You’re
not wasting your time. Fighting for others make all of us more human.
Anyone who has dignity supports the Cuban Revolution,” the Puerto
Rican leader said. “Anyone who cares.”
Responding to the presentation of a bouquet, Ambassador Rodríguez
thanked participants for the “selfless solidarity we have received
all these years. What Cuba has achieved,” she said, “has been done by
the revolution itself, by the Cuban people, a heroic people, a
resilient people who’ve resisted under the most difficult circumstances.
“But we couldn’t have done it without the help, the support, the love
of all of you,” she said. “Particularly here in the United States,”
whose government “has imposed an unjust, illegal, and unfair blockade
against us, which is still there” despite the establishment of
diplomatic relations.
U.S. policy has failed for more than five decades, said Andrés Gómez,
“because of the determination of the Cuban people to defend their
socialist revolution and to continue to fight for a just society.”
Describing the work in Miami by the Antonio Maceo Brigade, which
marks its 40th anniversary this year, Gómez said it was an honor to
be at the conference. “Our job here,” he said, “is to fight to end the
U.S.
policy of permanent aggression against Cuba.”
Juanita Young spoke about the trip she and other family members of
victims of cop killings and brutality took to Cuba last year. They
joined the massive May Day demonstration in Havana, met with a member
of the Cuban Five and took part in other activities.
“If I’d been living in Cuba,” Young said, “I wouldn’t be standing
here talking about the death of my son.”
Pointing to the human solidarity she and others had experienced,
Young concluded, “Cuba, I’ll take you any time. You all need to visit
Cuba, I’m telling you!”
Cultural performances by Bomba Yo and Cuban Latin jazz pianist
Marcello Casagrandi closed the evening.
Related articles:
Workers, youth from 23 countries to join Cuba Brigade
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home
Militant/Paul Mailhot
“Solidarity with Cuba is very important at this moment,” Sandra
Ramírez, above, from Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples,
told over
200 people at March 25 Harlem rally.
BY SARA LOBMAN
NEW YORK — “Solidarity with Cuba is very important at this moment,”
said Sandra Ramírez, director of the North American division of the
Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP).
“Cuba and the United States have established diplomatic relations,”
she said. “But the U.S. government still maintains a blockade against
our country, still illegally occupies Guantánamo, and still has
policies aimed at ‘regime change’ in Cuba.
“We will never renounce the construction of a socialist Cuba,”
Ramírez concluded to applause.
The ICAP leader was speaking to more than 200 people from New York
and across the U.S. and Canada at a public meeting at the Malcolm X and
Dr.
Betty Shabazz center in Harlem. The March 25 event was part of a
two-day conference organized to advance the fight to demand
Washington end its 55-year-old embargo of Cuba; get out of
Guantánamo, Cuban territory that Washington has illegally occupied
since 1903; and end all efforts aimed at “regime change” in Cuba. An
article on the conference discussion, debate and decisions will appear
next week.
The meeting opened with a dinner, to the sounds of drumming by
Afro-Boricua Bomba Yo.
The program was co-chaired by Estela Vasquez, an executive vice
president of 1199SEIU healthcare workers union, and August Nimtz of
the Minnesota Cuba Committee. In opening the program, Vasquez
recognized several special guests, including Anayansi Rodríguez,
Cuba’s ambassador to the United Nations; Miguel Barnet, president of
the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC); and members of a
leadership delegation of the Federation of Cuban Women to the U.N.
Commission on the Status of Women.
In addition to Ramírez, speakers included Rafael Cancel Miranda, a
longtime Puerto Rican independence leader imprisoned for more than 25
years by the U.S. colonial rulers; Andrés Gómez, a coordinator of the
Antonio Maceo Brigade, a Cuban-American organization based in Miami
that has organized support of the Cuban Revolution for four decades;
and Juanita Young, whose son Malcolm Ferguson was killed by New York
police in 2000.
Ramírez reminded participants that in 1960 when Fidel Castro came to
New York to address the U.N. General Assembly on behalf of the newly
victorious revolution, downtown hotels insulted and evicted the Cuban
delegation. At Malcolm X’s initiative, the Cubans were invited to
stay at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem. Thousands poured into the
streets to welcome the Cuban revolutionaries.
Turning to the evening’s honored guest, Rafael Cancel Miranda, the
ICAP leader underlined revolutionary Cuba’s support “for a free and
independent Puerto Rican nation.”
In his remarks, Cancel Miranda said that although the United States
“invaded Puerto Rico and still occupies my country, we are going to
fight back until we have ended the colonial slavery of my people.
“And when I say ‘my people,’ I’m also Cuban. I’m Venezuelan. I’m from
Bolivia. I’m from the Caribbean. I’m Puerto Rican from top to bottom,
but I’m all of that too.” He paid tribute to American Indian Movement
leader Leonard Peltier and Black Panther Herman Bell, with whom he
served time in federal prison and who are still behind bars.
“Anybody that stands up and fights is my people,” he said. “You’re
not wasting your time. Fighting for others make all of us more human.
Anyone who has dignity supports the Cuban Revolution,” the Puerto
Rican leader said. “Anyone who cares.”
Responding to the presentation of a bouquet, Ambassador Rodríguez
thanked participants for the “selfless solidarity we have received
all these years. What Cuba has achieved,” she said, “has been done by
the revolution itself, by the Cuban people, a heroic people, a
resilient people who’ve resisted under the most difficult circumstances.
“But we couldn’t have done it without the help, the support, the love
of all of you,” she said. “Particularly here in the United States,”
whose government “has imposed an unjust, illegal, and unfair blockade
against us, which is still there” despite the establishment of
diplomatic relations.
U.S. policy has failed for more than five decades, said Andrés Gómez,
“because of the determination of the Cuban people to defend their
socialist revolution and to continue to fight for a just society.”
Describing the work in Miami by the Antonio Maceo Brigade, which
marks its 40th anniversary this year, Gómez said it was an honor to
be at the conference. “Our job here,” he said, “is to fight to end the
U.S.
policy of permanent aggression against Cuba.”
Juanita Young spoke about the trip she and other family members of
victims of cop killings and brutality took to Cuba last year. They
joined the massive May Day demonstration in Havana, met with a member
of the Cuban Five and took part in other activities.
“If I’d been living in Cuba,” Young said, “I wouldn’t be standing
here talking about the death of my son.”
Pointing to the human solidarity she and others had experienced,
Young concluded, “Cuba, I’ll take you any time. You all need to visit
Cuba, I’m telling you!”
Cultural performances by Bomba Yo and Cuban Latin jazz pianist
Marcello Casagrandi closed the evening.
Related articles:
Workers, youth from 23 countries to join Cuba Brigade
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home