[imc-st.louis] Open Letter to America by Rev. Yearwood , All Power to the People.: Forward Far & Wide

[Ben]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Open Letter to America by Rev. Yearwood , All Power to the 
People.: Forward Far & Wide
Date: 	Thu, 6 Sep 2007 14:07:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: 	Tina Richards <tina at grassrootsamerica4us.org>
Reply-To: 	tina at grassrootsamerica4us.org
To: 	westbywest at riseup.net



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Grassroots America, A Non Profit
*September 6, 2007*


*An Open Letter to America: All Power to the People*

By Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr.
President of the Hip Hop Caucus
September 6, 2007

On July 1, 2007 I sought the support of regular Americans after 
receiving notification from the U.S. Air Force Reserve that they were 
threatening to discharge me on the basis of behavior that, in their 
words, is "clearly inconsistent with the interest of national security." 
The behavior in question is my outspoken opposition to the occupation of 
Iraq and the inadequate and inhuman response to the tragedy of Katrina.

As a result of the outpouring of support I received from all over the 
United States and from around the world, the Air Force backed down. 
Thanks to my brothers and sisters in the movement, I will end my service 
with the honorable discharge that I earned. I am eternally grateful, and 
evermore committed to taking on the powers that be for the powers that 
ought to be.

At first, when I informed the Air Force that I would fight their 
harassment, they threatened me with deployment to Iraq, or even prison 
time. Then with the tremendous circulation and widespread publishing of 
my first Open Letter, the Air Force realized if they were going to 
challenge me, they would have to challenge thousands of Americans from 
across the nation outside of Robbins Air Force Base in Georgia, on my 
hearing date.

Even now, after all the pain we have been through as a nation these last 
years, the reaction of the Air Force shows that when we are organized in 
the face of a government that does not represent us, we the people have 
the power.

Mine is the third case in which the military has backed down when the 
people have challenged their attempts to silence dissent. When former 
Sgt. Adam Kokesh spoke out after risking his life in Fallujah, Iraq, the 
U.S. Marines threatened him with a "less than honorable" discharge but 
backed down after many came out in support of Adam. When Marine Sgt. 
Liam Madden spoke out about this "war of aggression" in which war crimes 
were being committed, the Marines threatened him but again backed down 
when they saw organized opposition. The military now knows they will 
feel the wrath of the people if they threaten veterans who speak out 
against the occupation of Iraq.

The anti-war movement truly supported me in my case against the Air 
Force, which as a young African-American minister was so empowering to 
me personally that I pledge to increase my opposition to the U.S. 
occupation of Iraq. I pledge to continue my work in solidarity with the 
Iraqi people who are resisting U.S. occupation. I will not let the media 
spin that portrays all Iraqi resistors as insurgents linked to Al Qaeda 
and other terrorists groups, silence my moral support for the good 
people in Iraq who are fighting to free their land.

Indeed, I have just returned from a trip to the Middle East where I 
visited with Iraqi refugees. As a person of color, I have no issue with 
my brothers and sisters in Iraq. I also have no issue with the U.S. 
troops who serve with honorable intentions and so often join the 
military under the poverty draft. My issue is with the Bush 
Administration and our co-dependent Congress.

These are the six ways I see to oppose the U.S. occupation of Iraq: 1. 
Speaking out and creating an echo chamber of opposition; 2. 
Participating in acts of civil disobedience; 3. Joining the economic 
boycott led by the Iraq Moratorium beginning September 21st; 4. Casting 
your vote at the polls; 5. Giving direct aid to humanitarian programs 
for Iraqi refugees and internally displaced; and, 6. Counter-recruiting 
campaigns.

All these methods become effective when a critical mass of people is 
mobilized. The anti-war movement in the U.S. has yet to reach that 
critical mass. The critical mass that is necessary to have a real 
anti-war movement can be achieved by mobilizing those who are most 
oppressed by the U.S. government. We must link the struggles of the 
oppressed in the U.S. and in Iraq.

The displaced Katrina survivors and the displaced Iraqis is a good place 
to start. But it must go deeper than that. Literally, the money that was 
supposed to go to levees in New Orleans was diverted to the war in 
Afghanistan. The money that is being spent to kill Brown people in 
Baghdad is being diverted from programs that educate Black people in the 
U.S. For example, for what the State of North Carolina has sacrificed in 
war spending in Iraq, they could have provided nearly 600,000 students 
four-year scholarships at public universities.

I pray that our movement finds the strength of character to listen to 
the very oppressed for whom we claim to speak, and let the voices, ideas 
and actions of the oppressed drive a movement that can finally grow to 
that critical mass.

For Future Generations,
Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr.


/Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. is the President of the Hip Hop Caucus, 
//www.hiphopcaucus.org/ 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=5q5yiecab.0.7e8tybcab.fs87y4bab.4966&ts=S0275&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hiphopcaucus.org%2F>/. 
The Hip Hop Caucus is a national, nonprofit, non-partisan organization 
meant to inspire and motivate those of us born after the '60s civil 
rights movement. Rev. Yearwood is also a member of Iraq Veterans Against 
the War, //www.ivaw.org/ 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=5q5yiecab.0.af8tybcab.fs87y4bab.4966&ts=S0275&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ivaw.org%2F>/./



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-- 
Ben West
westbywest at riseup.net
http://savetheinternet.org