[R-G] Fwd: Open Message from a Bethlehemite Palestinian* to the American people...

[Tom Childs]

Dear Subscribers,
I've been buying groceries from this Palestinian for over a decade now
at his Arabic Foods store up here in B.C. Canada.
It's always more than a grocery shop when picking up a 1/4 lb. of sheep
cheese, as there're always mini-history lessons about Middle Eastern
conflicts.  He sends out his last minute thoughts here on the last days
before the U.S. federal election...  Forward  for your perusal.
Best regards,
Tom
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   ------ Forwarded message from: <hkawas at msn.com> ------
 
October 28, 2004
 
Open Message from a Bethlehemite Palestinian* to the American people
including our Arab American community members
 
 
You are in the midst of a massive brain-washing campaign conducted by
the institutions of the US government, the mainstream media and the
multinational corporations. The objective of this campaign is to divert
your attention from the real issues facing your day to day life to the
abstract notion of WAR ON TERROR that creates a new boogeyman (after the
fall of the first boogeyman the Soviet "evil" empire). So please allow
me to suggest to you what are the real issues at stake during this
election and what are some ! of the consequences of your vote.
 
- If you believe that the US empire should control (by all means and
using any pretext) the world's natural resources, including oil
reserves,
 
Then vote for George W. Bush or John Kerry.
 
- If you believe that the International Monetary Fund should dictate
(under the name of democracy)the policies of the poor nations worldwide
and decide which government should rule over them in service of the
empire and not for the welfare of the indigenous people of that
country,
 
Then vote for George W. Bush or John Kerry.
 
- If you are a racist and believe that an American life is the only
life that is worth weeping over and that any other life is not worth to
be mentioned let alone valued,
 
Then vote for George W. Bush or John Kerry.
 
- If you support the immediate massive profits of multinationals over
the future of the environment, the planet and the future of your
children,
 
Then vote for George W. Bush or John Kerry.
 
- If you think that your government should determine the fate of the
people of Chile, Colombia, Vietnam, Iran, El-Salvador, North Korea,
Grenada, Panama, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Eastern Europe, Philippines,
Iraq, Argentina, Sudan, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Haiti and Palestine (to
mention just a few), and if you think that the people of these countries
do NOT deserve to determine their destiny (which is by the way against
US president Wilson's declared principles of January 18, 1918),
 
Then vote for George W. Bush or John Kerry.
 
If you are a masochist who can take the pain of unemployment, no
universal medical care, no decent welfare programmes and no decent
pension plan, and at the same time support the spending of hundreds of
billions of dollars on wars that kill your fellow human beings,
 
Then vote for George W. Bush or John Kerry.
 
- If you think that the Iraqi people are savages and do not deserve to
be treated as human beings, and that the two wars and the murderous
sanctions in between them that killed one and a half million Iraqi
people were justified,
 
Then vote for George W. Bush or John Kerry.
 
- If you want the US empire to continue its military, economic and
political support for Israeli occupation, oppression and war crimes
against the Palestinian people,
 
Then vote for George W. Bush or John Kerry.
 
- If you want to be hated even more around the world, and jeopardize
the future of your country, your children and grandchildren,
 
Then vote for George W. Bush or John Kerry.
 
- If you want to be party to the war mongering of the Empire which uses
and distorts Christianity and all other human principles, and if you
want to oppose all the humanitarian teachings that promote love,
equality and respect for human life,
 
Then vote for George W. Bush or John Kerry. 
 
- And if you want your country to become the new supremacist empire in
which the government institutionalizes racial profiling, enslaves people
and discriminates against people of colour,
 
Then vote for the traditional parties who have been leading your
country down the road of neo-fascism.
 
If you decide to vote for one of the two evils just because that one is
allegedly the lesser evil, don't expect any decent person to value a
soul that chose evil. The lesser of two evils is EVIL nonetheless.
 
 
Who should you be voting for?
 
If you value and love  Justice, Peace, Freedom, Democracy, Humanity,
Decency, the environment and our planet before profits and self
interest, you will be voting for the messenger of the people, Ralph
Nader, who dedicated all his life to promoting the interests of ALL
humans and OUR environment.
 
Even if Nader will not win the election this time, you will be voting
your conscience and you will empower yourself and give hope for a real
change in the near future. Also you will be reclaiming your humanity in
the eyes of the people of the world.
 
For the sake of our future as human race, I hope you choose not to
shoot yourself in the foot and not to shoot us (the people of the third
world) in the heart.
 
And finally if you vote to continue the US aggression, occupation and
globalization, be sure that the people of the world will escalate and
globalize their Intifada, resistance and struggles for freedom and self
dignity.  In that case, please, please do NOT ever ask why the world
hates AMERICA.
 
Yours truly
Hanna Kawas
 
A citizen of this Empire-traumatized World  
 
* The author was born in Bethlehem, Palestine in 1948, the year of the
Palestinian Nakba. He is the chairperson of Canada Palestine Association
www.cpavancouver.org and the host of Voice of Palestine, Vancouver,
Canada www.voiceofpalestine.ca 




--
Tom Childs - Audio/Visual Resources
Douglas College Library
New Westminster, B.C. Canada
T: 604 527-5187 - Library
T: 604 524-9316 - Lulu Island
E: childst at douglas.bc.ca 
U: BCGEU Local 703
W: http://www.globaljustice.ca 
   
     "There's no way to delay, that trouble comin' everyday."
                                    --Frank Zappa