Thinking Outside the Box on Iran...

Thinking Outside the Box on Iran…..
By Brother Tracy Gibson

I have noticed that a great many people in our nation and around the world are concerned about Iran. They see an emerging democracy and are concerned about the birth pains that have cost more than a few lives and the entire supposed ``falsification’’ of an election in Iran (in 2009). I think the real evidence is still out on that. It doesn’t look like the election was fair and free. But I have to hand it to the Iranian people--at least they got out and protested the mess. In America we sat back and tuned into ``American Idol’’ on FOX TV after the falsification of the 2000 AND the 2004 elections. Most of us did nothing. In Iran, they are coming up against an enormously powerful regime that is religiously based, rigid, entrenched and armed to the teeth…. We have all the ``freedoms’’ and just took it all for granted. Maybe we can learn something from the Iranian people. I tell the Americans demonstrating in support of the Iranian people that maybe we should be more concerned or at least AS concerned about the legitimacy and stability of our own present democracy and the further molding, sustaining and maintaining of it. Why? Because we have 45 million people with no health care; most of the money is in the hands of about 5 % of the American population (the most wealthy); unemployment in some hot pockets like Detroit is at 12 % (almost 10. percent nationally, and much higher for Black folk); an unsustainable and unjustifiable Pentagon budget that get passed & approved with little question or fanfare (It is estimated by the Pentagon itself that about 25 cents of every dollar is wasted.); a mortgage and banking catastrophe that has left thousands of Americans without a place for their families to live as their homes are foreclosed on; two, Multi-Billion Dollar plus wars that seem not to be ending anytime soon; a Million Black Men in jail making only slave wages as huge corporations like Monsanto profit enormously from their labor (this may need to be checked and attributed); and a crumbling and faulty educational system that does not take the true diversity of the American citizenship into consideration when hiring teachers and staff or determining curriculums; not to mention an economy that can’t sustain and employ the people while providing quality goods and services at a reasonable price. Do we really have any right to talk about Iran? We have plenty to fight for right here in America without sticking our noses into Iran’s business and trying to manipulate things there. I call on Black Americans to not lose sight of the prize and keep our eyes on it. We don’t have real freedom and justice just because we have a Black President. Let’s roll up our sleeves and work towards creating a much better democracy right here in North America. Don’t be fooled by the twisted stories coming out of any certain other country without listening to the BBC, NPR, PBS and other more progressive sources such as Mother Jones, The Nation Magazine, the Black media and such. Don’t believe the hype. Read more and think more and turn off the idiocy on network & major cable TV while giving way to more mature, whole and humane sources for your news and information……Don’t be so quick to judge when the only homework you have done is to listen to CNN, Fox, NBC or ABC for five minutes. Read some other stuff, including some books on National policy and current news analysis. You will also at least get some background & be generally more informed by buying the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal once in a while…We have meddled in other countries’ business, usually with very bad results, long enough. Some of the attacks we are getting is from this current and prior meddling…(Read Chapter 13 on National Security)….. Just a thought………