The following is a take off on Yip Harburg’s Brother, Can You Spare A Dime.  However, it is been adapted to reflect today’s current situation of those who helped “build a nation” and now being pushed cast aside as criminals.

They used to tell me they were traveling to the land of freedom, and so I migrated with the others.
When there were vegetables to be picked, Or when there were loved ones to be cared for,
When there were homes and offices to be tended, Or when there was construction to be done,
I was always there, day and night, sad or happy, right there on the job.

They used to tell me I was traveling to the land of freedom, with happiness and security ahead.
So why should I be standing in shackles, denied basic human rights, waiting for injustice?

They used to tell me I was traveling to the land of freedom, with happiness and security ahead.
So please tell me what I did wrong, why I am being called a criminal,
So please tell me what I did wrong, for simply working for a better life for my loved ones and myself?

Once I helped feed a nation, I toiled long backbreaking hours with little to show,
Once I helped build a nation, I cleaned your offices and I tended your lawns with little to show,
Once I helped build a nation, and now I am in jail, told I was a criminal when just hours before I helped build a nation,
Brother, Why Can’t You Spare Me These Raids?

Once I built a road, so that many loved ones could shop, could visit and could earn a living,
Once I built a road, and now that is done, and now I am in shackles in ICE detention,
While my loved ones ask of where I went, and what did I do wrong in help building a road?
Once I helped build a nation’s infrastructure, and now I am in ICE detention, told I was a criminal when just hours before I helped build a nation,
Brother, Why Can’t You Spare Me These Raids?

Once in our festive best, gee we looked swell, full of that Melting Pot Dream, (more…)

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Voting is on the mind of the general public these days, obviously.  Some people are wrestling with who to vote for, while others wonder if voting really matters at all.  Both are legitimate perspectives.  It’s your democratic right to vote or not vote, despite what frightened liberals have been saying.  Voting is not the entirety of democracy.  It does, however, dominate our perception of democracy every election cycle.  In Connecticut, voters are privileged by our “blue state” status.  Therefore, progressive and independent voters should make the most of it.

Click here for the whole commentary on the NEW and improved HIMC website!

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What does victory feel like?  What does it look like?   How is it measured?  Can you taste and smell victory?  Americans talk constantly about winning and the words we use contain phrases and words that reference sports and competitive activities.  Our words betray us as a flat two dimensional culture that regards winning as the highest aspiration we desire.  We show the world a fist pumping thumbs up gesture as the epitome of American worth.  This more than any other attribute is what the world see us as.  We need to be number one or we feel worthless and defeated.  George Bush and his paper cut out minions started two wars based on lies because they envisioned an easy victory.  Shielded by the bravery of being out of range they devastated a people and ancient civilized culture all for the glory of victory.
John McCain is blinded by the same juvenile fantasies that he was raised with.  He wants to win so badly that he deceives his own spirit.  The Surge in Iraq has nothing to do with the drop in violence.  What has occurred is the same result from a strategy we employed in Viet Nam.  The war in Viet Nam by 1969 was a morass of combat, murder, drug addiction and corruption.  We were not winning, we were staying alive for each other.  We employed a program called the Cheui Hoi.  It was simply a pay off to any enemy combatant who switched sides.  We established Kit Carson scouts who worked out with American units.  They were paid salaries to lead us to the enemy caches and avoid ambushes.  We did not know if we could truly trust someone who had been killing us.  Some were double agents.
The Sunni Awakening in Iraq is the same strategy.  We are now paying the men who killed us a monthly salary to not kill us.  We are paying Moqtada’s Shiite army to lay low.   The American tax payer is funding not only it’s own military, but also the mercenary contractors like Blackwater and the Iraqui insurgents.  Can we buy victory?  Gen. Petraeus and the glory hounds are blinded by the arrogance of American technical superiority.  They kill from afar and dismiss the deaths of women and children as “collateral damage”.  There is no honor in this and no courage is displayed by men who shy away from the battlefield.  John McCain is safe in the rear with the gear now and finds it easy to send mine and his own children into the fire for some false sense of victory.  I guess it is harder to stay home and raise your children, fund your schools and libraries properly and teach your children how to be responsible adults.  It is easier to pull the trigger than it is to play the guitar or read to your kids.
Dave Ionno
Veteran for peace

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Check out this montage of Hartbeat Ensemble’s scathing new satire about the so-called war on poverty, “Rich Clown, Poor Clown, Beggar Clown, Thief.”  Plays this weekend and next at 233 Pearl St. in Hartford.

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Over the years I have heard my share of complaints about the rhetoric that leftists use in newspapers and flyers. When Workers World produced podcasts from its recent public forum titled “Karl Marx was right: capitalism is rotten and doomed” it did occur to me that some people would think it sounded over the top. Not that I think it’s an untrue statement, but I know that some people bristle when leftists actually use words like “capitalism” or refer to Karl Marx being right about just about anything.

But I feel much better today because I saw some headlines in the mainstream media that were far more jarring than anything I’ve seen in the socialist press.

I count this as the most offensive headline of 2008:

“Nation’s Rich Fielding Brunt of Crisis”

[Continued at Two Good Hands]

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Free all-day gathering for activists and the curious!

Saturday, November 8^th 12pm-11pm
Co-Sponsored by the Area Radical Reading Group of Hartford, Hartford Food Not Bombs, and the Hog River @ Collective, this all day event features panels on diverse topics such as feminism, anti-racism, anti-capitalism, radical queer politics, and domination of all kinds and their relationship with contemporary anarchist practice. We still see mostly misinformation and distortion as norms when people talk about anarchism or anarchist-inspired projects. This event seeks to dispel some of these myths, as well as build bridges between activists throughout the region by engaging in dialogue about this diverse movement—and, perhaps more importantly, what anarchism can offer other activist perspectives towards the creation of a free and egalitarian world. Thus, this event is not just about anarchism, but centered on strategies to create justice and resist structured inequality.

Activist groups throughout New England will be tabling and holding panel discussions throughout the day. This will be followed by a free community dinner provided by Food Not Bombs (from 7-8). Finally, we will finish the event off with music by local groups dedicated to social justice.

For more information please see www.myspace.com/spotlightonanarchism, call 860.978.3562 or email hartfordfnb@gmail.com.

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Check out Hartbeat Ensemble’s new play, “Rich Clown, Poor Clown, Beggar Clown, Thief” Thursdays through Saturdays until Nov. 1 at their new performance space in the Pearl Street Arts Center, 233 Pearl St., Hartford. Enjoy slapstick song and dance while swiggin’ on a little somethin’ somethin’ from the cash bar. And don’t miss cameo appearances by the last eight U.S. Presidents.

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One interesting feature of the public discussion of the economic crisis: before October 2008 when was the last time that you heard the corporate news media, or for that matter any mainstream U.S. politician, use the word “capitalism” much less attempt to explain what it means. Like a fraternity of magicians, those whose livelihoods depend on its secrets seemed always to want to keep the public in the dark. And perhaps never naming the thing also contributed to the sense of its universality. [Continued at Two Good Hands] »

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Today at 11:30 the CT Supreme Court ruled IN FAVOR of same sex marriage - 4 in favor, 3 against. Read the official ruling here. (Under Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health)

There will be a RALLY celebrating this victory at 5:30 PM on the north steps of the Capitol (facing Bushnell Park). Click here for info on the rally, from Love Makes a Family.

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Check out the second letter and see if it doesn’t ring true.

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