Children of the Torn
[col. writ. 11/18/09] (c) '09 Mumia Abu-Jamal


Several months ago, a commentary was written on the children of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, where judges sold their very freedom for private profit.

Two prominent county judges (Messrs. Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan) allegedly made millions of dollars by sending kids to a private facility (Pa Child Care) in which they had a financial interest, as opposed to state institutions from which they would've received nothing.

How could such a thing happen? How could it have happened for years?

It happened because, in part, people both allowed it to happen, and they wanted it to happen.

Children were sent to juvenile joints -- for months! -- for playing hooky, for being late, for breaking curfew, and the like.

And most people said nothing, did nothing and some even praised this judicial example of "zero tolerance."

One woman, Sandra Brulo, the former chief of the county's juvenile probation department, asked about the increasing detentions, told a county commission looking into the scandal, "The judge is the final say", adding that most folks simply didn't want "to question the judge." And so they didn't, while dozens, then hundreds and then thousands of kids were sent to detention.

Nobody wanted to rock the boat.

It's enough to say it was illegal for judges to privately profit from the juvie prison system, but the Pa. Juvenile Act (the statute governing this area) made what these judges did illegal as well.

That's because most of these transfers to detention took place without legal representation, and the code [§6337] states lawyers "must" be provided for kids, unless a parent or guardian affirmatively waives such counsel -- in court. According to Brulo, in many cases, orders for detention were signed by the judges before the hearings even began!

Moreover, in 1966, in Kent v. U.S., the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the right of juveniles to have counsel, just like adults.

For years, in Pennsylvania, this meant nothing.

What use is the constitution when there's money to be made?

--(c) '09 maj

[Sources: Strupczewski, Leo, "I Had 'Nowhere Else to Go', Official Tells Luzerne Pane," Legal Intelligencer, 11/11/09, pp.1 10.; Tit. 42 Pa. Consolidated Statutes § 6301 et seq., § 6325: Detention of Child; § 6337: Right to Counsel; § 6311: Guardian Ad Litem for child in court proceedings; Kent v. U.S., 541 (D.C.) 1996.]

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Another Civil Rights Lawyer Heads Off To Jail,
While Bush and Cheney Face Not A Single Charge

EXCLUSIVE: Civil Rights Attorney Lynne Stewart Responds to Court Ruling Upholding Conviction and Ordering Her to Prison

Raygun Gothic Rocketship, Burning Man 2009

Okay, so it wasn't a real rocketship. But people enjoyed going aboard, and on "Launch Night" it put on one helluva show.

Note To Architects:

Outdoor structures, and the sun,
have a sense of humor.

Please Don't Thank Me For My Service -
Veterans Day 2008, Veterans Day Any Year
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Please_do_not_thank_me_for_my_service.vp.html
Written by Hal Muskat (of Veterans For Peace)

I'm thinking right now of The Wall in DC. Of trips to the Armory with my dad, a WWII vet. I'm thinking of those two hundred names and faces I can't remember, eighteen and nineteen year old boys from my Basic Training company, KIA before their 20th birthdays. I've seen their names on that wall while looking for my own.

Every time I hear, "Thank-you for serving!" I want to reply, "Fuck You!"

For which of the following are you thanking me:
a) learning how to do field abortions on "pregnant gook girls";
b) Being part of a military that is responsible for millions of deaths in Vietnam;
c) Refusing orders to Vietnam;
d) Participating in the GI Movement;
e) Thinking for myself;
f) Not thinking for myself;
g) Following or not following orders?

As a member of the United States Army from 1965 - 1970, I was NOT defending America, our allies, your families or friends. America was NOT being attacked by the Vietnamese, much in the same way that America is NOT being attacked by Iraqis.

I for one, do NOT thank current soldiers for their service in Iraq or Afghanistan! I thank and honor those who repudiate this nation's militarism. I thank Iraq Veterans Against the War for their thought, action and lives. I thank those veterans who organized and testified at the IVAW Winter Soldier Hearings last year and who continue to give witness to atrocity and mayhem. ivaw.org/wintersoldier/testimony

On Veteran's Day, I salute, in addition to IVAW, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace, The National Liberation Front of Vietnam, WWII Allied Forces led by General Dwight Eisenhower; Resistance fighters against the nazi's throughout Europe; Resistance movements from South Africa to South Harlem, from Philadelphia to Nicaragua where my government spent millions attempting to overthrow a democratic government who's president had the nerve to be critical of the United States.

I do salute those who choose to defend America. Go get the bad guy, McCain will tell you right where he is, but why thank anyone for killing tens of thousands of civilians cause you can't find the right cave and invaded the wrong nation? Should I thank today's soldiers for being lied to and believing in that lie? Perhaps their "good intentions" deserve a salute?

On this Veteran's Day, I again salute those veterans, from the armed forces of all nations who use their training, intelligence and compassion to seek ways in which our governments can find peace without increased militarization of the globe and our ways of life.

You may thank me, and I'd be honored, for my resistance to imperial war, for my support of the National Liberation Front of Vietnam, for my continued activism that nourishes my soul and gives me reason to live and create.

Just don't blindly thank me for anything you don't know about.

Perhaps that's why I can't seem to find my name on that Wall in a waking state.