Category: Letter From The Editor

Each week, I get a letter or two along these lines: “Enough with the rants about how the war on terrorism is wrong, illegal, and immoral. How about speaking from your lofty perch at the Flyer and sharing your wisdom on how it should be done? How about telling us what you would have done after September 11, 2001 …”

Fair enough. First, I’ve never ranted about the “war on terror” being illegal or immoral. And if you read the Flyer, you know that we supported the invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11. And we were — and still are — in favor of capturing Osama bin Laden and bringing other terrorists to justice.

But, as has been made abundantly clear by numerous sources, this administration used the war on terror to get the war it really wanted — with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. The release last week of a memo detailing the final prewar meeting between Bush and Tony Blair revealed that the leaders discussed ways to provoke Iraq into attacking and that both men also knew that we were unlikely to find WMD.

Which means we were taken to war on lies. The Bush administration cynically manipulated public opinion by implying Saddam was involved in 9/11; massaged “intelligence” that supported war and suppressed or ignored intelligence that did not. Which means tens of thousands of men, women, and children have died needlessly.

And those lies brought us a war and an occupation that have been so mismanaged that they represent a new measuring stick of U.S. administrative incompetence.

But I’m ranting again. Sorry. Thousands of needless deaths do that to me. You want to know what I’d do if I were president? I’d listen to Representative John Murtha and pull American troops out of harm’s way immediately, and out of Iraq by the end of the year. Then I’d go to the United Nations and admit that we screwed up. And I’d ask for help, especially from other Middle East countries. I’d put the special forces units that had been tied up in Iraq on the hunt for bin Laden and other terrorists. I’d bring the National Guard back home, where they’re supposed to be, so they can help us secure our ports and borders and assist with disaster relief.

And I’d stop ranting.

Bruce VanWyngarden, Editor

brucev@MemphisFlyer.com

Half a million people rallied in Los Angeles last Saturday to protest an immigration bill passed by the House of Representatives. A hundred thousand marched in Chicago. Tens of thousands more gathered in Denver, Phoenix, and Milwaukee.

House Resolution 4437 is intended to “strengthen enforcement of the immigration laws and to enhance border security.” Parts of the bill make sense, but what has so many people up in arms are provisions in the bill that would make the United States’ 11 million illegal immigrants instant felons, subject them to immediate deportation, and levy harsh penalties for Americans who employ or assist illegal aliens.

It is simply nonsense to imagine that we can solve our immigration issues by deporting 11 million people. Children of undocumented immigrants who are born here are U.S. citizens. This bill would separate families and punish millions of hard-working people whose contributions to our economy and culture (and tax base) are immense. The Republicans behind this bill know how absurd the provision is, but they are playing to their red-meat base, using the immigration issue as a potential “wedge” for the 2006 elections — in much the same way the party used gay marriage in 2004. Only 36 Democrats voted for the bill. Sadly, included in that number were four Tennessee Democrats, including Memphis’ own 9th District representative, Harold Ford.

Raúl M. Grijalva, an Arizona congressman, put it succinctly: “I am ashamed of the Republican leadership for bringing this bill to the floor. … It includes penalties for employers, but no provisions allowing them to attain needed employees. It criminalizes immigrants, but provides no solutions for a legal venue for entry.”

Fortunately, in the Senate, wiser heads have prevailed. A coalition of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to strip out the harsher elements of the bill, clearing the way for undocumented workers to seek citizenship. This is a good omen. The immigration issue is too important to be allowed to become a political football for demagogues and opportunists.

Bruce VanWyngarden, Editor

brucev@MemphisFlyer.com

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: The attacks of 9/11 changed everything; oceans won’t protect us anymore; Iraq is the world’s center of terrorist activity, and we’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here. Oh, and it’s my job to protect you, and the world is better off without Saddam.

That, in a nutshell, was President Bush’s speech in Cleveland Monday on the occasion of the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. And that is almost precisely the speech he gave on the first and second anniversaries of the invasion. You could look it up.

It’s like Bush is playing the Bill Murray role in Groundhog Day. Thankfully, polling numbers indicate that a vast majority of Americans have heard the rhetoric too many times, and they simply don’t believe it anymore. And how could they? It’s demonstrably false — all of it.

The 9/11 attacks united the world in sympathy for America, but we quickly squandered it by using the attacks as an excuse for invading Iraq. Most Americans have figured out that fighting them “over there” does not preclude having to deal with an attack here. And they know that since, oh, the invention of ships, oceans have never protected us from attack.

It’s even arguable whether or not the world is “better off” without Saddam. Ask the family who’s lost a son or daughter to combat if they’d make that trade again. (Not that Bush or any of the other chickenhawks running this fiasco would know anything about that kind of sacrifice.)

The Flyer has opposed this war from day one. We’ve “stayed the course,” if you will. But we, unlike the president, understand that stubbornness is not leadership, inflexibility is not strength. Americans were once fooled by this administration’s emotional manipulations and false patriotism, but no more. They have tired of the incompetency, the cronyism, and the hollow rhetoric. They’ve heard enough. They want it to stop.

And it’s about damn time.

Bruce VanWyngarden, Editor

brucev@MemphisFlyer.com

Oh God, hear my prayer and deliver me from those of your servants who think you like them better than you like me.

I’m speaking, oh Lord, of folks like state senator Ophelia Ford, who declared that God is using little ol’ her to illuminate the flaws in our elections. And Mayor Willie Herenton, who sees those who might doubt such a view as atheists. And George W. Bush, who believes God told him to invade Iraq and thereby create hell on earth in the Middle East and bankrupt my country. (Bush’s God is, of course, a different God from the one telling suicide bombers to blow up a bus and kill 42 innocent people, all of whom no doubt thought they were being used by their God to fulfill another mission — getting home to their families without being blown to bits.)

And deliver me, oh Lord, from Jerry Falwell, who issued the following statement last week: “Reports began circulating across the globe that I have recently stated that Jews can go to heaven without being converted to Jesus Christ. This is categorically untrue.”

Well, thank you for straightening that out, Jerry. So your position is basically: “Sorry, Jews, about that whole burning-in-hell-for-eternity thing, but, hey, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.”

I can’t take any more of this pompous insanity… Wait … What’s that I hear? … A deep voice? Oh, my heavens!

I hereby declare that God is moving my fingers as I type these words, using little old me for the purpose of calling bullshit on all this. (Wow, God typed a cuss word!) Here’s what else he told me: Human beings are simple creatures, flawed and ego-driven and prone to delusion. If you truly believe in an almighty God, then you must believe that he moves each of us as he pleases — not as you please. You don’t rank any higher with God than that homeless guy outside Walgreen’s who says he used to be the bass player for Booker T. and the MG’s. (When you give him a buck, he does say “God bless you,” by the way.)

So in closing, God told me to tell all of you to quit claiming you have some sort of special direct connection to him. And that I should remind you to love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. Amen.

Bruce VanWyngarden, Editor

brucev@MemphisFlyer.com

Thanks to Three 6 Mafia’s Oscar-winning song from the Memphis-made movie Hustle & Flow, the whole world now knows how hard it is out there for a pimp.

And it seems to be equally hard out there to get a handle on the reaction to the song. It’s like a musical Rorschach test. Pundits and critics have used the tune to make any number of socio-economic and artistic points. Liberal columnist Robert Schlesinger, for example, complained that the song urged sympathy for a profession that shouldn’t get any. “Try a little tweaking,” he wrote. “Suppose the song had been called ‘It’s Hard Out Here for a Wife Beater’?”

Others, such as MSNBC columnist Helen A.S. Popkin, lavishly praised the tune. “‘It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp’ is pure crunk, a growing rap genre from the South that often features gritty lyrics and danceable beats,” she wrote. “It’s a nomination that truly deserves to take home the prize.”

Locally, Hustle & Flow director Craig Brewer celebrated the song’s win as a triumph for his hometown and likened it to Isaac Hayes’ Oscar win for “Shaft” more than 30 years ago.

Commercial Appeal columnist Wendi Thomas, on the other hand, was appalled at the song’s misogyny and embarrassed by the image of Memphis that its lyrics and performers presented to the world. She even wrote that she hoped the song wouldn’t win.

But win it did. On Monday morning, the front page of The Commercial Appeal featured a large photo of Three 6 Mafia at the Oscars ceremony, decked out in formal tuxes and grills. (Whether that photo appeared on the front page of any of the other four daily papers now being published around town, I can’t say. But that’s a socio-economic subject for another day.)

What the win means, if anything, for Memphis in the long run is also difficult to predict. But if you reread the quotes I cited above, you’ll see that it’s actually possible for all of them to be right. Which surely proves something — or nothing — except maybe that it’s also hard out there for a critic.

Bruce VanWyngarden, Editor

brucev@MemphisFlyer.com

Governments are a bit like rhinos. They’re big and slow, but once they get up a head of steam, they’re powerful and hard to stop. Our cover story this week is about some folks who stopped a rhino.

Last November, the Mid-South Fair board, which manages Libertyland, abruptly announced that the venerable park had been losing money year after year and would be closed. The equipment and rides would be auctioned off. End of story. Thanks for the memories.

Not quite.

Denise Parkinson and a few other diehards formed a group called Save Libertyland. Why, they wondered, shouldn’t the citizens of Memphis have a voice in any decision to kill off a community-owned nonprofit organization? The fair board stonewalled them. So did city officials. Mayor Herenton wasn’t interested. Parkinson was dismissed as a nostalgic “stay at home mom” by Commercial Appeal editor Chris Peck in an editorial about Save Libertyland’s efforts. (I should have warned Peck; Denise used to work as a Flyer copy editor and she’s a force of nature, not to be underestimated.) Parkinson’s ragtag guerrilla force kept making noise — and phone calls to amusement-park developers, politicians, fair board members, city officials, and, yes, newspaper editors.

Then a funny thing happened: The “done deal” got derailed. With legal help from U of M law professor Steve Mulroy, it was discovered that the Mid-South Fair’s lease on Libertyland had expired 10 years ago and the rides were probably city property, not the fair board’s. It was also revealed that potential investors in Libertyland who had tried to contact city and fair board officials had been ignored. All of a sudden, saving Libertyland didn’t seem so quixotic. The property auction was canceled.

The fight isn’t over, not by a long shot. Libertyland, with its 500 summer jobs for Memphis youth and its 1909 carousel and 1912 Zippin’ Pippin coaster, may never reopen. But two park operators who specialize in turning around failing theme parks are submitting proposals to the city. And if the rhino isn’t dead, it’s at least stalled in its tracks.

Bruce VanWyngarden, Editor

brucev@MemphisFlyer.com

President Bush once famously promised us that he would be “a uniter, not a divider.” If there has ever been a more egregiously unfulfilled promise in the history of American politics, I’m not aware of it. Until this week, that is, when at long last, the president did it. He brought us together. All of us.

Sean Hannity agreed with Alan Colmes. Ed Bryant agreed with Harold Ford Jr. Hillary Clinton agreed with George Pataki. Lou Dobbs agreed with Joe Scarborough. Liberals, conservatives, and libertarians were in total alignment. The religious right even agreed with leaders of the religious left.

So how did the president do it? How, at long last, did Mr. Bush bring us all together? By standing behind the single stupidest decision of his presidency (and that’s saying something), namely, allowing the state-owned company, Dubai Ports World, to buy the contract to run the ports of New York, Newark, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, and Miami.

Why is everyone in agreement that this is foolish? Here are four reasons: Because two of the 9/11 terrorists were from Dubai; because Dubai has a history of laundering terrorist money through state-owned banks; because Dubai was one of three countries to recognize the Taliban regime in Afghanistan; and because it now appears that the federally mandated 45-day investigation into any deal in which a foreign country is allowed to run American ports didn’t happen.

And why on earth would the Bush administration approve such a deal? Here’s a shocker: It appears to be a case of money and cronyism. Turns out that Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose agency heads the federal panel that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale to Dubai Ports World, was formerly chairman of CSX, a rail firm that sold its international port operations to Dubai Ports World for $1.15 billion in 2004.

Another connection, according to a report in the New York Daily News, is David Sanborn, who runs DP World’s European and Latin American operations and who was named by the president just last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration.

For this administration, it’s business as usual — it’s always about the connections and the cash. That, and keeping us safe from terrorists, of course.

Bruce VanWyngarden, Editor

brucev@MemphisFlyer.com

As we went to press, news outlets were reporting that Harry Whittington, the man “sprayed” by Vice President Dick Cheney, had suffered a minor heart attack. This put something of a chill on the initial joking reaction to the incident proffered by everyone from Jay Leno to press secretary Scott McClellan.

“Peppered” became “shot.” “Badabump” became “Uh-oh.”

It was the theme of the week for Republicans. They began by putting indicted Representative Tom DeLay on the House subcommittee that oversees the Justice Department, which is — wait for it — investigating DeLay’s partner in crime, indicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. DeLay replaced former Republican congressman Duke Cunningham, who resigned when he was caught accepting bribes. I think they call that a circle of jerks.

Badabump.

You couldn’t make this stuff up. And there was more: A government report on Hurricane Katrina revealed that the White House knew New Orleans was being drowned a day earlier than it had previously admitted; Scooter Libby testified that Cheney had “ordered” him to leak classified information; Paul Pillar, the CIA’s national intelligence officer for the Middle East from 2000 to 2005, said the administration misleadingly used data to assemble a case for the invasion of Iraq; Abramoff revealed to Washingtonian magazine that he and the president had met on more than a dozen occasions and that he had the photos to prove it. (The president says he “didn’t know” Abramoff — who raised $100,000 for Bush’s campaign and who was in the White House 200 times during the first 10 months of his administration.)

Finally, the GAO issued a report stating that the administration had spent $1.6 billion on PR to promote its policies. And that’s not even counting the free PR they get on Fox News every day.

Well, maybe you can make this stuff up. Somebody sure is making up something. Where’s Oprah when you need her? She sat disgraced author James Frey down and made him come clean on his “memoir,” A Million Little Pieces. Frey has now agreed to retitle his book 617 Regular-sized Pieces.

Badabump.

Bruce VanWyngarden, Editor

brucev@MemphisFlyer.com

P.S. Tim Sampson’s Rant is on page 65 this week.

In his column last week, Flyer senior editor John Branston pointed out two intriguing headlines. The first was from the Detroit News: “Milder weather cuts heating bills.” The second, from the Nashville Tennessean, was similar: “Natural gas bills to shrink as utility cuts rates again.”

Intrigued, I did a search of newspapers around the country and found the same news elsewhere. To name just a few: a 21 percent rate decrease in Denver; lowered rates from Ohio’s two largest natural gas providers; lower rates in North Carolina — all because of milder weather and/or lower natural gas prices.

So what gives here in Memphis? After being hit with “sticker shock” in December (double my November bill), I lowered my thermostat for January (one of the mildest on record), and yet my January MLGW bill was just as high as December’s.

Here’s another puzzler: Half of a small duplex (about 800 square feet) that my wife and I own sat empty in January. We turned the thermostat down to 55 degrees. The MLGW bill for that unit was $264, as high as it was for December, when it was occupied.

It’s become a ritual in the Flyer office: When the utility bills arrive, we try to outdo each other with amazing MLGW stories. It’s like utility-bill poker:

“I was gone on vacation for two weeks with the heat turned off, and my bill is still 50 percent higher.”

“Oh yeah? Well, I’ll see your 50 percent increase and raise you another 20 percent — and you can see your breath in my apartment.”

May I suggest that the City Council make at least a token effort to get to the bottom of the most talked-about issue in Memphis. High utility bills are devastating the poor and stretching middle-class budgets to the breaking point. Businesses are losing profit margins. People are upset. Meanwhile, all around the country, utilities are lowering rates. Can we not ask Joseph Lee and his well-paid execs to stroll over to council chambers and proffer an explanation as to why Memphis’ publicly owned utility cannot do the same?

It’s called turning up the heat, folks. And in this case, it’s a good idea.

Bruce VanWyngarden, Editor

brucev@MemphisFlyer.com

We, and all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Six months after Roosevelt uttered those words, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Over the next four years, FDR and Winston Churchill led America and its allies against the combined forces of Germany, Italy, and Japan, the gravest threat to freedom the world has ever known.

President Bush calls himself a “war president,” so let’s see how he measures up. Then: an enemy composed of the massive and well-equipped armies, navies, and air forces of three world powers. Now: an enemy network of scattered terrorist cells led by a frail, aging Muslim living in a cave.Then: Enemy weapons included missiles, tanks, submarines, bombers, fighter planes, battleships. Now: Enemy weapons include machine guns and improvised roadside bombs in Iraq; the threat of a stealth bomb exploding somewhere else.

Then: Enemy prisoners were treated according to the Geneva conventions. Now: Enemy prisoners are held indefinitely, taken to secret prisons, and subjected to abuse. Then: Americans were asked to sacrifice by rationing gasoline and other vital supplies. Fighting was done by those who volunteered or were drafted, regardless of income or status. Corporations geared up to produce war materials. Now: Americans pay higher prices for gasoline. Fighting is done by an all-volunteer Army composed of young people from lower-income families and the National Guard. Corporations gear up to reward shareholders with enormous profits from higher gas prices, war profiteering, and tax cuts.

Then: Led by its charismatic president, the country united as one and rose up to defeat the threat of world dictatorship. Now: Led by a president who can barely smirk his way through a complete sentence to prescreened audiences of supporters, the country is bitterly divided over the war, economic policy, and constitutional issues.

And why is that? Simple. While our soldiers are dying on their feet every day, too many of our political “leaders” are living quite happily on their knees.

Bruce VanWyngarden, Editor

brucev@MemphisFlyer.com