Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Opinion & Editorial

by Bitterroot Human Rights Alliance Board of Directors: Michael Helling, Bob Scott, Pam Erickson, Char Jones, Janette Raymond, John Schneeberger, Karen Coombs and Sunny Cluff, Hamilton

Gaza Strip is about the size of the central Bitterroot Valley, say from Stevensville to Hamilton. Picture what our lives would be like if there were 1.5 million people living here and a foreign power prevented us from leaving and stopped almost all food, medicine and other supplies from reaching us. Then imagine, if you can, an attack against us by an industrial army equipped with F-16s, bunker buster bombs, cluster bombs, white phosphorus, tanks, bulldozers, night vision, and every other modern military device – an army which sets about destroying our homes, our schools, our gardens, our fields, our commercial buildings, and killing our children as they search for “militants” among us.

What you have pictured is Gaza today – one of the greatest humanitarian crises on our planet. This disaster was not caused by any natural force; it was brought about by the nation of Israel, armed and supported by the USA. The violations of human rights that occurred in Gaza demand our attention. We should not, and must not, be silent. To be silent is to be complicit.

Israel launched its massive offensive against Gaza on 27 December 2008, after imposing for 50 days a total blockade. The tightened blockade was in violation of the prior ceasefire agreed to by Israel (as well as being a violation of Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and Nuremberg Principle VI).

By the time a ceasefire occurred on 18 Jan 2009, Israel had dropped thousands of tons of explosives on Gaza Strip, and destroyed schools, orchards, farm fields, buildings, infrastructure, parts of hospitals, the only flour mill, 40 mosques, and 21,000 homes.

For those 22 days, the entire civilian population of Gaza was terrorized by Israel, the only nation in the Mid East to possess nuclear weapons. The Gaza population remains trapped by Israel, unable to leave and unable to obtain goods from the outside.

Several human rights groups have documented the carnage inflicted by Israel on the trapped population of Gaza. Their figures: a death toll of about 1,350 of which most were civilians including at least 250 children (many of the dead were unrecognizable or are still buried under rubble), and severely injured numbering about 5,450, with about 35% being children. These are mainly large burns and polytrauma patients. Single limb fractures and walking wounded are not included in these figures. An estimated 100,000 people are now homeless.

Specific war crimes were stunning in their brutality and disregard for human life. They are being investigated by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Red Cross, the National Lawyers Guild, the United Nations, numerous national governments (including Spain and Turkey), and dozens of other organizations. They are not isolated incidents, but part of a widespread pattern, too common to be discounted as “collateral damage.”

Consider these words of a three-year old Gaza girl being treated in one of the still functioning hospitals, “The Israel soldier pointed his gun at me. I turned to look for my mother. Then he shot me in the back and the hand.”

She lived, but not so the children of Khaled Abed Rabbo. On January 7, 2009, an Israeli tank leveled its guns at Rabbo’s house and ordered his family to come out. After he, his mother, wife and daughters were made to stand for 5-7 minutes, one of the soldiers opened fire, killing his 2-year-old and 7-year-old daughters, and critically injuring a third daughter, Samar, 4-years old (she is now permanently paralyzed from the waist down).

One of the most thoroughly documented incidents (multiple concurring witnesses and an ongoing public investigation by Human Rights Watch) occurred in the village of Khuza'a on January 13. Rawhiyya al Najar, 37, a Gaza mother, led a group of women from buildings about to be demolished by Israeli bulldozers. All the women carried white flags, and most, including Rawhiyya, were carrying their small children. Without warning, an Israeli sniper shot Rawhiyya dead. Her husband still has her white flag, stained with his wife’s blood.

On January 6, Israel bombed a UN School killing more than 30 women and children sheltering there.

Would Israel really target a UN facility? No, they didn’t target a UN facility; they targeted many, if not all, of the UN facilities in Gaza. They attacked UN schools, warehouses, relief convoys, offices, and the headquarters itself. The attack on the headquarters of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was with white phosphorus, a substance banned for this kind of use, and destroyed $10 million dollars worth of food and medicines. All UN facilities are clearly marked in blue, fly UN flags, and the United Nations had given the Israeli military GPS coordinates of their Gaza facilities so that attacks could be avoided.

Groups investigating Israel’s action during the Gaza offensive are focused on three principle aspects of the offensive, all of which are widely recognized as both illegal under international law and serious violations of human rights, namely (1) Collective punishment - the entire 1.5 million people who live in the crowded Gaza Strip are being punished for the actions of a few militants; (2) Targeting civilians - the Israeli airstrikes were aimed at civilian areas in one of the most crowded stretches of land in the world; and (3) Disproportionate military response – the massive Israeli offensive wrought destruction hundreds (perhaps thousands) of times greater than any damage to Israel.

Israel’s actions are war crimes. Geneva Article 3 states, “Persons taking no active part in the hostilities….. shall in all circumstances be treated humanely...” The Nuremberg Principles define “inhumane acts done against any civilian population” as crimes against humanity.

The role of a human rights organization is to point out abuse regardless of the perpetrators or the victims. We are the voice of the victims. We now raise our voice to condemn the actions of Israel because its actions are the most recent and egregious, and because the U.S. is a staunch ally of Israel and we as citizens bear a responsibility for actions taken by our government in our name. We are in no way attempting to justify violence perpetrated by Palestinian or other Arab groups against Jewish civilians.

Only in this country are Israeli actions not fully reported. Most everywhere else, what Israel does is widely known. For readers interested in further information, we suggest visiting http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/2009123125042229157.html, http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/know/read.php?itemid=7963, and http://www.alhaq.org/etemplate.php?id=421 which describe the incidents we have recounted as well as giving a broader picture of the situation in Palestine.

We in the Bitterroot have a choice: We can pretend that war crimes committed in a distant land are none of our concern, or we can speak up for justice. We can speak up for justice by joining the BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions) campaign directed at Israel. We can ask that military aid to Israel be ended. It is, after all, our tax dollars and our government debts that help pay for Israel’s wars, and our elected representatives that support the Israeli military. As we search our consciences, we should contemplate what a resident of Gaza might think when he or she sees a white phosphorus or cluster bomb marked, “Made in USA.”

The Mark

Dear Editor,

Since my first reading of the Book of Revelations in my youth, I wondered how any one entity, The Beast or the Anti-Christ, could possibly gain control of every person on Earth and mark them as his own. That is no longer a mystery to me. The answer is debt.

Over the last few decades many of the Third World countries have fallen under the ownership of the "Beast."

It is done by the encouragement of the various countries to borrow vast amounts of monies from the World Bank and when the debt becomes too great for any one generation to pay the loan and accumulated interest, the debt is foreclosed on, for that country.

As there is no way to satisfy the debt, the owners of the World Bank require the indentured country to sign over all the natural resources under their domain. ALL NATURAL RESOURCES, the only source of real wealth, land, timber, water, minerals, gold, silver, oil, gas, coal and all hunting and fresh or salt water fishing rights, anything of real wealth or value.

Money is not wealth. Only natural resources are wealth, when acted upon by the labor of men. For without natural resources a country is bankrupt. All commodities and trade necessary for survival come from natural resources: food, water, homes, vehicles, utilities, clothing, etc, etc.

Many of the smaller countries have already fallen into bondage and it would seem that America is about to follow with the other industrial nations.

Of course, the left wing socialists have already laid the groundwork for ownership of all natural resources in America by unconstitutional confiscation, that is timber by the Forest Service, grazing land by the BLM, park and national monuments by the Park Service, all natural resources by the Department of Natural Resources (DNRC). This includes all water and all other lands, highways, ports and harbors, rivers, and inland waterways, etc, etc.

That has been done while the U.S. Constitution specifically limits government ownership to ten square miles for the seat of government, that is Washington D.C., see Section 8 paragraph 17 of the U.S. Constitution.

All privately owned lands are also indentured with property taxes in most states. That is why the four sisters tried to remove property taxes for Montana residents. Property tax cannot be paid without income from natural resources.

Therefore, all natural resources "owned" by the federal government in the various states or by lien through property taxes are also subject to confiscation when our national debt is foreclosed on by the international bankers.

It must be understood that since 1913, the World Bank and its subsidiary bank here in America functioning under the guise of the "Federal" Reserve Bank are PRIVATELY OWNED by several of the wealthiest families on earth who have corrupted the currency in most countries with worthless paper money issued at face value plus its compound interest which becomes the national debt.

Thomas Jefferson voiced the wisdom of the founders when he stated, “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

The new bailout and stimulus packages have brought our nation to the brink of bankruptcy and ready for foreclosure and ownership of all natural resources on planet earth by the international one-worlders. This is in preparation for "the mark," for no one can produce, buy or sell anything without permission to use natural resources for our survival.

What will you do about it? It is past time to decide!

William Koerner
Corvallis

Protect free speech

Dear Editor,

I am writing concerning the article (3-3-09 edition of Ravalli Republic) making claims against certain people and organizations alleging violations of Political Practices laws and pushing the agenda of the Commissioner Dennis Unsworth.

John Cramer wrote: "Unsworth ruled that RCCFE (Ravalli County Citizens for Free Enterprise) was a Wal-Mart 'front-group' that violated campaign finance reporting and record-keeping laws".  The "front-group" quote was directly from Unsworth in a previous article.

If Unsworth can "rule" that we broke some kind of law without a jury of our peers, without quoting the exact citation of law, without a thorough investigation, without a fair trial and without the assumption of innocence, then I guess that makes him the ruler or King. I hope the Montana citizens can see that this type of activity from a public official does NOT fit into the system set up by our Founders. It is wrong for him to do it and it shows he has no understanding of fairness, the Constitution and the law.

He is involved in seeking more and more power through legislation this year and yet he now has the power to be the judge, the jury and the executioner for his department right now. Are we going to make him the Anointed One who can destroy people without due process?

Recently the 9th Circuit Court called one of Unsworth's cases "petty bureaucratic harassment."  In Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church vs. Dennis Unsworth Montana COPP the court charged Unsworth with violating the civil and constitutional rights of the Church and its members. Unsworth's ridiculous claim was that since the Church turned its lights on when a petition was in the building then it had violated the campaign practices laws!

The only thing, probably, that I agree with our present Governor about is that this department needs to be dissolved or made fair and have more oversight. Montana is one of only two states in the nation that does not have a politically balanced Commission of Political Practices. 48 states have commissions that are made up of more than one commissioner to avoid having a single politically motivated appointee making decisions that are an automatic conflict of interest.

Judge Noonan wrote in the opinion that:

"What has happened here is that a small congregation has been put to trouble and expense in order to exercise its right to speak on an issue seen by it to be of vital religious significance. One lesson of history is that small incursions on freedom are to be resisted lest they grow greater."

When the government takes any step to limit free speech I believe they are to be resisted. We either have free speech or we do not and certainly the First Amendment was meant to protect political speech especially. Please pay attention to how Unsworth operates outside of any fairness or restriction. I think it is very revealing about him and his agenda.

Dallas D. Erickson
Stevensville

Support for runway expansion

Dear Editor,

Some groups claim that moving the runway 80 feet east would meet the minimum runway/taxiway separation but would fail to meet the separation from the existing hangers and therefore the airport would still not meet the FAA safety standards. This option is a waste of our local funds and would require local taxpayers to pay much, if not all, the bill. It seems like a very poor plan when you tear out a good runway that could be used as taxiway and build a new runway in its place, then rebuild the old taxiway to the west and I doubt if the FAA would pay for such a runway. This plan was considered several years ago but found to be a bad option and it still is a bad option. The plan that moves the runway 400 feet to the east would meet the safety standards and would be paid for without the use of local taxes. Ramp parking space would be increased, eliminating the need for extra landings and takeoffs. At the present time many jets currently find that they must go to Missoula and park and return to pick up up their clients. Not only can we have a new runway and taxiways, but we will have a great source of gravel that our county roads will need in the future at no cost to the local taxpayers.

Dwain Rennaker
Hamilton

Darwinism won’t go away

Dear Editor,

It’s amazing how the brainwashed masses keep stirring up the controversies of Darwinism, global warming, etc. But large amounts of new information are coming forth to dispute these claims as junk science and hocus-pocus. Let’s examine Darwinism as a case in point:

In the fairly recent past a controversy arose in the Darby school system whether Darwinism or Intelligent Design would be taught. (Why not side by side? Oh, the horror of that thought.) Consequently, it was settled that only Darwin could be taught. This in spite of the fact that the school handbook was quoted as saying, “that students would be taught both side of issues in the school curriculum.” What hypocrisy.

And so it goes. With public school curriculums set in concrete by the liberals in the state department of education, the educrats additionally in the underwhelming Montana Education, National Education Association (that organization being rewarded by President Carter for getting out the votes for him) – the plum handed to them in the form of another huge bureaucratic Department of Education (federal). Their collective policy is the dumbing down of students into robots for the Brave New World of the policy wonks in this new administration.

So what does one expect: “Sex ed” in elementary schools, condoms in high schools, vandalism, Bibles and student prayers expunged, epidemic political correctness, brawls at athletic events, teachers insulted, and assaulted. On and on.

To my knowledge, ID is not taught in any of the western Montana schools. If there are any exceptions that do, inform the Bitterroot Star and I will stand corrected.

Bruce S. King
Hamilton

What stimulus package means

Dear Editor,

What does the federal stimulus package mean to us here in the Bitterroot? On March 3rd & 4th, I attended a series of hearings and meetings at the state capital on the stimulus package funds. Here’s what I’ve learned:

The key goals of this act are to invest in repair and improvement of our state and national infrastructure (roads, schools, bridges, water/sewer systems, etc.) and at the same time create jobs. This infusion of one-time money gives us the chance to do big projects with long-term effects that in the end will save future generations millions of dollars. Think of it as making repairs to your house: money invested in a new roof before it begins to actually leak, saves thousands of dollars in the long run.

Included in Montana’s list of “shovel ready” projects, are many valuable investments in Ravalli County. They include thinning projects that reduce wildfire danger in our woods, road repair and reconstruction, insulating our schools, and city water projects in Darby and Stevensville. State government decides which projects will be funded by this portion of the stimulus package. The governor, our legislators and the County Commission need to hear from you about which projects will serve Ravalli County best in both the short and long term. 

Another portion of the act reduces taxes, including those on personal income. Due to this tax reduction, 97% of us will see more money in our pockets. This is money we can use to buy food, clothes, pay our bills, and take care of our families. The best “bang for our buck” is spending this money locally. When we spend our money at local businesses, they can pay their employees who can continue to support our community.

The only Montana households who will see federal income tax bills go up are those reporting personal income over $250,000 per year. The average income in Montana is $32,000/year.

Since the bill makes funds available for individuals to make energy efficient improvements to their homes, it’s a great investment to consider. Not only will it help by reducing utility bills, but hiring a local contractor to do this work creates jobs in the local construction industry.

Among the bill’s health care provisions, Medicaid spending will increase by as much as $1.5 million in our valley, helping to provide health care for our seniors, disabled, and children. Medicaid money allows older and disabled people to stay in their own homes. Seniors have long been the backbone of our community; we need to be sensitive to the fact that keeping them in their homes adds to the dignity and quality of their lives.  

There are many more provisions in this bill. Used wisely, it will have a real economic impact. For that to happen we must do our best to spend locally and to ensure that projects aimed at Ravalli County are sound investments and employ local people.

For a list of “shovel ready” projects in Montana go to http://www.recovery.mt.gov, click on “Reinvestment Projects.” The entire bill, time line, and updates on spending are available at  http://www.recovery.gov. Information on the funds allotted to Montana is available at  http://www.leg.mt.gov, click on the “Fiscal” button at the top of the page, and scroll down. 

I welcome your input and any questions you have. Please contact me at  kdriscoll@ravallicounty.mt.gov  or call 375-6510.

Kathleen Driscoll
County Commissioner

©2009 Bitterroot Star
This site was Done By Dooney