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December 26, 2001
John Chuckman
In
Praise of the Unspeakable
Sam Bahour
2002:
Year of the Twos
December 25, 2001
Jennifer Loewenstein
Israel's
Human Rights Record
December 24, 2001
Sam Bahour
It
Happened One Morning
Yair Khilou
Why I Resisted
Being Drafted into the Israeli Army
Michael
Chisari
War
as Diversionary Tactic
Cockburn/St. Clair
Enron
and the Green Seal
December 21, 2001
Tom Turnipseed
War
Good for Bush
John Chuckman
The
First Victim in the
War on Terror
December 20, 2001
Lawrence
McGuire
Killing
Other People's Children
Miriam Rozen
Foundation
Without Representation?
Kenneth
Roth
A
Letter to Rumsfeld on
Military Tribunals
William Blum
Casualties:
Theirs and Ours
December 19, 2001
Marjorie
Cohn
Don't
Pre-Judge John Walker
Sam Bahour
Palestine
and You
December 18, 2001
Shahid
Alam
Clash
of Civilizations?
Carl Estabrook
Who
Opposes This War?
December 17, 2001
Edward
Said
Mahfouz
and the Cruelty
of Memory
December 16, 2001
Amira Howeidy
Dangerous By
Definition?
Bahour
and Dahan
Zinni's
Doomed Mission
December 15, 2001
John Isaacs
Bush's 12
Lumps of Coal
for Christmas
Dana Cook
The
Execution of bin Laden
Yusuf Agha
Tale of the
Tape:
Osama Gump?
December 14, 2001
Don Atapattu
A Conversation with
Norman
Finkelstein
December 13, 2001
Trojanow and Hoskote:
Nonsense
Mantras of Our Times
Dr. A.
Tajudeen
Afghanistan
and Zaire
Michael Williams
Prohibit
Prohibition
December 12, 2001
Jack McCarthy
Hitchens,
Walker
and Osama's Tape
Laura W. Murphy
Ashcroft's
Jihad
Shahid
Alam
Race
and Visibility
December 11, 2001
Joshua Orton
University
of Wisconsin
Won't Aid FBI Interviews
Philip
Farruggio
Cleansing
the Nation's Soul
Robert Fisk
Why I Was
Beaten
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
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About 9/11
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Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
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and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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December 27,
2001
New Year's Resolution:
Consumers
Unite!
by Philip A. Farruggio
Confucius said: "you succeeded because you tried again".
When will we realize that from the 9-month-old baby to the 99-year-old
in the nursing home, we all share one connection: as consumers!.
We all consume, thus we have the numbers. It's time to organize
behind that banner, behind that cause.
Let's forget all this gobbly-goop about
being a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green, Reform, Right
to Life etc. A long time ago, the "powers that be"--aka
the fat cats, the elites, the rich guys--created this "two
party system". It was a scam, a con, a shell game. What
it did was divide the country into two. It polarized the political
process into "column A or column B". And they took
turns (whoever was in power at the time) tapping into this scenario.
Case in point: the Gulf War. Bush Senior was "the man"
then, so all the Repubs favored "Desert Storm". At
first the Dems were cautious. When push (or is it Bush?) came
to shove, everyone lined up to send our troops and our new high
tech weapons into the desert. That was the end of the so called
"peace dividend". Then, a few years later, when ole
"Billy Boy" was carrying the gauntlet, the reverse
occurred concerning Kosovov- the Dems rallied round the flag,
and the Repubs offered dissent- until of course they acquiesced.
("Let the carpet bombing begin!")
The American public must stop buying
into this deadly and foolish game! We must begin thinking as
consumers first. When our 5 major oil companies increased their
after-tax profits from 19 billion in 1999 to over 44 billion
in 2000, as fuel prices increased, need I say more? Where was
the outrage in Congress? Where was our President going on television
demanding action for consumers who "Shelled" (and Exxoned)
out hard earned cash?
Here in Florida, as power bills go up,
James Broadhead, CEO of Florida Power and Light made $36.7 million
in compensation for year 2000. That's 36.7 million for one man
to earn as countless "working and poor and retired stiffs"
pay more and more each month - to a legal monopoly! Yes, a legal
monopoly. In most areas of Florida there is no competition for
electric power. There is also no competitive cable television.
We see our rates increase each year, while services decrease.
Its time to think as consumers first.
Then we all can join together, irregardless of past political
affiliations, shouting "I'm mad as hell and not gonna take
it anymore!" We should form Consumer Clubs and meet regularly:
at private homes, libraries and community centers. Once each
local group decides what issue to address, the process begins:
letter writing, phone calling, e-mails and attendance at local
government meetings "raising a stink"!
Just imagine for a moment (indulge me
willya). Just imagine if the congressperson in your area suddenly
got a call from his or her local office: "there are 40 people
at my desk demanding that you introduce a bill charging a windfall
profits tax on the U.S oil and power companies. These people
are really agitated about paying higher prices, and etc. etc.
etc..." When will we realize that the number one priority
of most politicians is to be re-elected? They "blow with
the wind".
What if at a future city council meeting
40 or 50 or even 100 people show up, demanding to be heard. They
then look the council in the eye, and say "enough over development
of our fair town, causing traffic and congestion and accidents
and overcrowded schools. Change the zoning laws, or rather, enforce
the current ones. Stop this overgrowth!" Do you think maybe
they'd get the message?
I don't know about you, but when I eat
a tomato, I don't want to bite into a flounder. If consumers
nationwide actually got agitated, and pressured their representatives,
perhaps we'd have laws mandating the labeling of all genetically
engineered foods. They have them in Europe. Only as consumers,
united from issue to issue, can the concept of democracy begin
to take hold. Only then can we use the power we share, the numbers
we have, to pressure the "caretakers" of this asylum
to treat us with dignity. So, leave the "labels" for
the soup, and other genetically altered products. Unite, as consumers!.
Philip A. Farruggio is a Port Orange, Florida small businessman,
independent progressive writer and radio talk show host. He can
be reached at Brooklynphilly@aol.com
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