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We are awaiting permission to identify the author. –gm

Dear Editor,

I am afraid that, as an historian, I must respectfully disagree with some of your praise for The Great Debaters. Although I congratulate Winfrey and Washington for bringing the story of a authentic hero such as Melvin Tolson to the attention of the general public, I still must object – strongly – to their “improvements.”

There is a universe of difference – mental, moral, spiritual, and ethical – between defeating a USC debate team (my alma mater, incidentally) in Bovard Auditorium and vanquishing Harvard in Sanders Theatre – the same difference that would hold if the Wiley College football team had actually beaten the Crimson in Harvard Stadium while the film showed them beating the Trojans in the Coliseum.

But the real problem is the question of being true to historical fact. I have no doubt that racists will latch on to the rather cheap melodramatic substitution of Harvard for USC in order to attack the veracity of the movie’s portrait of Jim Crow.

A similar case arose with Anne Frank’s diary. Because Anne’s father removed some of her most intimate entries dealing with sexual matters, the Holocaust deniers declared that the entire diary was a fraud, and a team of scholars had to waste everybody’s time and money performing an exhaustive inquest in order to prove the reality of the diary. So it is important to get the facts right.

Two quick responses from the CounterPunch audience. Both stand clearly on the side of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The first one is short and sharp:

is the rev. wright not a truth sayer? are not his arguments entirely valid here? politically they may be a disaster for obama, proof that all his talk about hope and cooperation is spurious in a racist society.

The second reply opens with a question: was I likening Sen. Obama to Saint Peter when I said that he denied Rev. Wright three times with the phrase ‘as if’? Well, I was thinking about the three denials that are recalled during the Christian holy week. Then the reader turns to liberation theology:

The mostly secular mainstream didn’t want to hear about liberation theology when Latin American Christian base communities were being slaughtered with weapons and training provided by Uncle Sam, and most won’t want to hear about it now. Nevertheless, when it comes to Truth, there is always and everywhere no time like the present.

Thank you for pointing out the parallels between Liberation Theology and the theology of certain African American pastors. And now in the Spirit of the Season, some food for thought from an Arab Christian:

‘Persecution does not make the just man to suffer, nor does oppression destroy him if he is on the right side of Truth. Socrates smiled as he took poison, and Stephen smiled as he was stoned. What truly hurts is our conscience that aches when we oppose it, and dies when we betray it.’ — Kahlil Gibran

To both readers, thank you. Without contradicting anything you have said, I offer an experiment in hope, that an ethic of toleration might be applied toward a more respectful treatment of Rev. Wright than the one we have thus far witnessed from too many parties and players in the Great American Presidential Election Game–gm

Note: Following Thursday’s burning of the American embassy in Belgrade, we were reminded of nearby Albania and a Texas veteran of the Albanian democratic movement. This month marks one full year that Rrustem Neza has spent at the Rolling Plains Prison of Haskell, Texas while federal officials have toyed with his life.

While Neza’s brother has been justifiably granted asylum in the USA, owing to real dangers to his life, brother Rrustem has been treated to the dark side of federal immigration enforcement. Acting with icy indifference to Rrustem Neza’s well being, the feds are now attempting to gain a court order that will allow them to drug the Albanian refugee and throw him onto an airplane. Meanwhile, two children (ages 6 and 8) in East Texas live without their father.

With the weight of these facts in mind, we asked Mr. Neza’s attorney John Wheat Gibson to send us a statement as to why Rrustem Neza should be immediately released to his children.–gm

Dear Editor,

In what kind of society is it necessary to explain why children need their parents? Rrustem Neza’s children do not have their father because der Fuehrer says he must be deported. There is oil and gas in Albania, and
so unserer Fuehrer does not want to embarrass the organized crime syndicate
that controls Albania and Kosovo. Therefore the father of the children cannot be released from prison. Instead, he must die to make sure the oil and gas concessions go to Conoco or British Petroleum instead of some
Chinese company.

The bureaucrats who carry out the orders of der Fuehrer are afraid to exercise any judgment or morality of their own. If they did, it could affect their advancement in the federal bureaucracy. Instead, they chant,
“Zieg, heil!” and “Heil Georgiepoo!”

John Wheat Gibson, P.C.
Dallas

“Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law” (From Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948).

A Texas Civil Rights Review Sunday Sermon.

By Greg Moses

As I was thinking about Palm Sunday’s nonviolent protest, that will demonstrate the futility of attempting to retrace the steps of Jesus, who traveled several days in a row from Bethany to Jerusalem and back, it seemed like a good time to read from the Book of Mark.

One of my cousins gave me for Christmas a wonderful ‘reader’s Bible’ translated by Eugene H. Peterson. Of course, it has the story of people shouting ‘Hosanna!’ as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, unimpeded by any walls or security checkpoints. That was on Sunday. And Jesus returned to Bethany for the night.

On Monday morning, there is a puzzling story about a fig tree. Jesus is hungry. He walks up to a fig tree “expecting to find something for breakfast, but found nothing but fig leaves.” Notes Mark: “It wasn’t yet the season for figs.” So Jesus tells the tree, “No one is going to eat fruit from you again – ever!” The tree withers up and dies.

Then when they all got to Jerusalem, Jesus walked into the Temple and started “throwing out everyone who had set up shop there, buying and selling. He kicked over the tables of the bankers and the stalls of the pigeon merchants.” He scolded the people for turning his “house of prayer” into a “house of thieves.” Then he went back to Bethany again for the night.

As Sunday was a day of celebration, Monday was a day of forthright judgment, ready or not.

Then came Tuesday. Jesus begins the day with a little sermon at the wasted fig tree. Throw your whole life into God, he said. Pray for everything, include everything, “and you’ll get God’s everything.” But especially pray to forgive others, he said. Then they went back to Jerusalem again, this time to teach in the Temple.

It’s a long day of teaching, too. Jesus appears to be in top form, very well prepared. Lots of interesting lessons. He does not promise good times, but there is one student he likes. In the evening, relaxing at the Mount of Olives, he teaches from the image of a fig tree again. The fig tree tells you when summer is coming. So, watch out for signs that God is coming.

One day of jubilation, one day of judgment, one day of forgiveness and teaching. Mark knows how to keep his story sharp. Two fig trees: the one that’s not ready in the morning, and the one that’s early in the evening. As you think about Jesus walking that road between Bethany and Jerusalem, you know which fig tree you don’t want to be, that is, if there’s anything at all you can do about it.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Loui Awawda

11 March 2008

Palm Sunday Procession to the Bethany Gate

BETHANY – On Palm Sunday, 16 March 2008 the local community, joined by
international visitors will process from Lazarus’ Tomb to the separation
barrier, celebrating Palm Sunday and calling for freedom of worship and an end
to the construction of the Apartheid Wall.

Since 1991, Israeli authorities have prevented Palestinian Christians and
Muslims from entering Jerusalem, depriving them of the right to worship in the
Holy City.

With the near completion of the wall and the closure of the gate Jesus himself
would not be able to follow the path he took 2,000 years ago. Participants
will carry olive branches, flags, and banners.

Worshipers will gather at Lazarus’ Tomb at 11:00 am.

---

For Immediate Release

Nonviolent Anti-Wall Protest in Al-Khader- Bethlehem Aria

Bethlehem – Palestine / Friday March 14, 2008: The Popular Committee against
the Wall and Colonization in Al-Khader is organizing a nonviolent demonstration
to protest the construction of the Segregation Wall in the town of Al-Khader,
located west of Bethlehem.

The motto of this demo is: Down the Wall, Palestine holds All

The construction of the wall in this town will expropriate more than 20000
dunams (5000 acres) of the town’s land, which will make life intolerable for
this predominantly agricultural community.

People will congregation will start at 11:45 am by the southern entrance of
Al-Khader- Bethlehem area. The protest will start after the Friday pray, near
the bypass, route 60 where the construction site is.

Join us; Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals to draw the future together
For more information, please contact:
For English; Samer Jaber
For Arabic; Bassam Ghneim

George S. Rishmawi
Coordinator,
Siraj, Center For Holy Land Studies
Beit Sahour, Schoold Street
P.O.Box 48
Palestine
Email: george@sirajcenter.org
Website: http://www.sirajcenter.org