Ray McGovern speaks truth to power

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 01/28/2018 - 3:40pm

Please excuse the short post. I was afraid this would be buried and unseen as a comment, and I found this speech on foreign policy and racism insightful. (17 min)

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccsPkebs71I]

Ray McGovern is a member of (VIPS) Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.
He was speaking at the Conference on U.S. Foreign Military Bases, held Jan. 12 - 14, 2018 in Baltimore, MD. Early in his speech is this stanza from the poem The Naulahka

Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan
brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the
Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of
the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the
East."

I hope you find the speech and post meaningful.

Tags:

Racism

War

McGovern

Vote

Comments

Submitted by Steven D on Sun, 01/28/2018 - 4:25pm

Thanks

Ray's a great guy. Met him briefly once.

—

"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 01/28/2018 - 4:49pm

He sure is doing good work

@Steven D

I often see him on RT and similar shows. Lately with Bill Binny.

I caught this piece on the lighter side you might enjoy (6 Min)
George W. Bush Returns Cold Open - SNL

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpkRFHSpvGI]

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by mimi on Sun, 01/28/2018 - 5:09pm

Of course, he is right to remind folks to face their

own white supremacy, but why so late? I would say it's time to ask some non-whites (outside the US) to remind their own 'brothers' to not get bought by or to not sell out to the same folks they claim to fight against, white supremacist corporate and military powers. But that's something that's too racist to say in public. So, shoot me. Right now of course it's time to face white supremacy, because they are staring at you point blank as the new normal ... fox who guards the hen house.

I think it might be more urgent to understand how white supremacy in form of the IT corporate power crushes the dissent and livelihoods of non-white poor people and white truthdiggers. How about this:

[video:https://youtu.be/EBFFtoXF8Xw]

We live in the present and so I think we should understand the information warfare against alternative media outlets.

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 01/28/2018 - 5:48pm

I think it is the foreign policy slant

@mimi

...and yes people of all races can be bought and sold, as well as act for their own greed.

Because greed seems to be the root doesn't it? Like the man with the stone heart.

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by mimi on Mon, 01/29/2018 - 1:58am

I listened to the video again, well rested,

@Lookout
it's Monday morning hours here, and I admit that my complaints about McGovern's speech being too late - for my own taste - has more to do with me having lived with these issues since the 1967, and asking 50 years later to face your own guilt and your own duties to confront both guilt and moral duties with regards to your own race vis a vis the other race, makes me feel very tired.

McGovern spoke "truth to power" and it had meaning. He did what he could and that's respectable. My experience is that even if you do what you can to acknowledge guilt and duties to "peak into the bubble and let the pus out" (as he says in his speach) - it will not change the very personal feelings about "the other race, the other culture, the other attitudes" etc all people of all walks of life expose at times with various levels of sophistication.

Most people are silent, I believe, not out of greed, but out of fear losing their jobs, being attacked for their words, losing their capability to help their loved ones to survive etc. (imo it's not greed wanting to survive). I like the Baldwin letter to Angela Davis McGovern quoted, but can't help asking, where was a white American poet or writer to write the same to Angela Davis? Was there one? I don't know, just asking.

And let's say there were white Americans, who spoke up for Angela Davis like Baldwin did at the time she was in prison, would it have changed anything? Your race and sex stay the same, acknowledging what you are and what you are born into and feeling guilty over your own race's sins, is not a matter of "not knowing the truth" but a matter of "not wanting to see yourself as part of your own race and its history". It's painful, so people avoid it. Who am I to blame someone else for avoiding what I myself would want to avoid as well (if I could), just to not have to think about it and to not feel the pain? Does it make me a better person, a darker or a whiter person, if I start blaming my pigmentation's culture? Don't you wish your skin had no pigments?

I guess I am confused, since 1967 and it doesn't end.

Submitted by Lookout on Mon, 01/29/2018 - 6:58am

I live in a capitalist society...

@mimi

Does that make me guilty of the sins of capitalism? I guess in part. My country is an imperialistic war monger. Do those sins rest on me? I think in part.

I've dealt with race a long time too. Remember I live in Alabama where racism is still alive and well as evidenced by Sessions. We are all racists and sexist to greater and lesser degrees. Facing up to and coping with those issues is a personal struggle for us all.

What was illuminating to me was the idea that our racism drove our foreign policy like the notion the A bomb was okay to use on little brown people. In my essay a couple of weeks ago on MLK - Dr King matured to see he needed to work on a poor peoples campaign - not a black poor person, but all poor people. Learning to see ourselves as members of the family of (wo)men I think is a wise position to work toward.

Guilt is counter productive. Cast it off. Get on with living and helping people along the way.

#2.1 it's Monday morning hours here, and I admit that my complaints about McGovern's speech being too late - for my own taste - has more to do with me having lived with these issues since the 1967, and asking 50 years later to face your own guilt and your own duties to confront both guilt and moral duties with regards to your own race vis a vis the other race, makes me feel very tired. McGovern spoke "truth to power" and it had meaning. He did what he could and that's respectable. My experience is that even if you do what you can to acknowledge guilt and duties to "peak into the bubble and let the pus out" (as he says in his speach) - it will not change the very personal feelings about "the other race, the other culture, the other attitudes" etc all people of all walks of life expose at times with various levels of sophistication. Most people are silent, I believe, not out of greed, but out of fear losing their jobs, being attacked for their words, losing their capability to help their loved ones to survive etc. (imo it's not greed wanting to survive). I like the Baldwin letter to Angela Davis McGovern quoted, but can't help asking, where was a white American poet or writer to write the same to Angela Davis? Was there one? I don't know, just asking. And let's say there were white Americans, who spoke up for Angela Davis like Baldwin did at the time she was in prison, would it have changed anything? Your race and sex stay the same, acknowledging what you are and what you are born into and feeling guilty over your own race's sins, is not a matter of "not knowing the truth" but a matter of "not wanting to see yourself as part of your own race and its history". It's painful, so people avoid it. Who am I to blame someone else for avoiding what I myself would want to avoid as well (if I could), just to not have to think about it and to not feel the pain? Does it make me a better person, a darker or a whiter person, if I start blaming my pigmentation's culture? Don't you wish your skin had no pigments? I guess I am confused, since 1967 and it doesn't end.

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by mimi on Mon, 01/29/2018 - 11:08am

thx. your words resonate and make sense to me

@Lookout

Dr King matured to see he needed to work on a poor peoples campaign - not a black poor person, but all poor people. Learning to see ourselves as members of the family of (wo)men I think is a wise position to work toward.

yes, so true. It's a journey for all of us, for some more bumpy than for others, but it's where the journey ends and that is good so, unless it ends in war. And we don't want that to happen.

Thank You, I really appreciate your comments and essays a lot.

Submitted by Lookout on Mon, 01/29/2018 - 11:57am

...and you as well

@mimi

I appreciate your comments and perspective too. Always glad to "see" you.

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by Wink on Sun, 01/28/2018 - 5:34pm

one for the C99 archives. n/t

—

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 01/28/2018 - 5:49pm

I found it worthwhile

@Wink

Glad you did too.

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by randtntx on Sun, 01/28/2018 - 8:16pm

Well,

he is shaking things up a bit isn't he? The construction of that talk was deliberate, meticulous, and though he had a seemingly cheery demeanor, the content was quite stone cold scary serious. Thanks for posting it. I would have missed it.

Submitted by Lookout on Mon, 01/29/2018 - 7:00am

Glad you liked it

@randtntx

It was well constructed and had meaning. I thought his point at the end was interesting. People don't like to see police attacking gray haired older folks.

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by janis b on Sun, 01/28/2018 - 8:40pm

I was particularly moved by McGovern’s inclusion of Baldwin’s

letter to Angela Davis.

James Baldwin
November 19, 1970

Dear Sister:

One might have hoped that, by this hour, the very sight of chains on black flesh, or the very sight of chains, would be so intolerable a sight for the American people, and so unbearable a memory, that they would themselves spontaneously rise up and strike off the manacles. But, no, they appear to glory in their chains; now, more than ever, they appear to measure their safety in chains and corpses. And so, Newsweek, civilized defender of the indefensible, attempts to drown you in a sea of crocodile tears (“it remained to be seen what sort of personal liberation she had achieved”) and puts you on its cover, chained.

…

We need more James Baldwins and Muhammed Alis, and McGoverns. Individuals with depth and humanity and the gift of expression to replace all the drivel on tv.

Thank you for this video.

Submitted by Lookout on Mon, 01/29/2018 - 7:02am

ain't that the truth!

@janis b

We need more James Baldwins and Muhammed Alis, and McGoverns. Individuals with depth and humanity and the gift of expression to replace all the drivel on tv.