ZGram - October 2, 2002 - "Only in America!"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

October 2, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

This ZGram comes in two parts.

Part One gives you the first few paragraphs from a New York Times 
article, dated September 29, 2002, titled "New Jersey's Unrepentant 
Poet of Indignation" by Matther Purdy.

Part Two gives you the actual "poem" - another bone of contention 
between Blacks and Jews.

Here I want to say that the Zundelsite welcomes any controversy that 
exposes 1) censorship attempts by Jewish individuals and groups, and 
2) the unsolved questions of 9/11.

Having said that, however, I want to state that, as a writer - and 
having spent more than half of my life in the service of respect for 
words as tools of thought - I don't consider this so-called "poem" 
good writing or even adequate writing.

I pity this society that gives out awards for such muck.

Part One - The introductory paragraphs as they appeared in the New York Times:

[START]

By MATTHER PURDY

NEWARK -- JUST before Gov. James E. McGreevey introduced Amiri Baraka 
last month as New Jersey's new poet laureate, the celebrated and 
controversial activist writer said he warned the governor this might 
happen.

"I said, 'Governor, you're going to catch a lot of hell for this,' " 
Mr. Baraka said. "He said, 'I don't care.' I said, 'If you don't 
care, I don't care.' "

Mr. Baraka still doesn't care.

But the governor suddenly does. Political turmoil has found the last 
virgin turf in New Jersey public life: the poet laureate.

The governor has demanded that Mr. Baraka resign because a poem he 
read at a poetry festival 10 days ago said Israel had advance 
knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Baraka is refusing to resign. 
The governor's aides say Mr. McGreevey cannot remove Mr. Baraka from 
his two-year term, since he was selected by a committee of poets and 
cultural aficionados. State law gives that group the power only to 
select, not oust, laureates.

Besides, poets are usually ignored, not censored. "A sticky wicket," 
said a State House aide, apparently practicing for the laureate's 
job, should it open up.

In his offending poem, entitled "Somebody Blew Up America," a litany 
of massacres and oppression, Mr. Baraka refers to five Israelis 
filming the attacks, and asks:

Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed
Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers
To stay home that day
Why did Sharon stay away?

[END]

Part II:  Here is the actual "poem" - you be the judge:

[START]

Somebody Blew Up America

	By Amiri Baraka

	They say its some terrorist,
	some barbaric
	A Rab,
	in Afghanistan
	It wasn't our American terrorists
	It wasn't the Klan or the Skin heads
	Or the them that blows up nigger
	Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row
	It wasn't Trent Lott
	Or David Duke or Giuliani
	Or Schundler, Helms retiring

	It wasn't
	The gonorrhea in costume
	The white sheet diseases
	That have murdered black people
	Terrorized reason and sanity
	Most of humanity, as they pleases

	They say (who say?)
	Who do the saying
	Who is them paying
	Who tell the lies
	Who in disguise
	Who had the slaves
	Who got the bux out the Bucks

	Who got fat from plantations
	Who genocided Indians
	Tried to waste the Black nation

	Who live on Wall Street
	The first plantation
	Who cut your nuts off
	Who rape your ma
	Who lynched your pa

	Who got the tar, who got the feathers
	Who had the match, who set the fires
	Who killed and hired
	Who say they God & still be the Devil

	Who the biggest only
	Who the most goodest
	Who do Jesus resemble

	Who created everything
	Who the smartest
	Who the greatest
	Who the richest
	Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest

	Who define art
	Who define science

	Who made the bombs
	Who made the guns

	Who bought the slaves, who sold them

	Who called you them names
	Who say Dahmer wasn't insane

	Who? Who? Who?

	Who stole Puerto Rico
	Who stole the Indies, the Philipines, Manhattan
	Australia & The Hebrides
	Who forced opium on the Chinese

	Who own them buildings
	Who got the money
	Who think you funny
	Who locked you up
	Who own the papers

	Who owned the slave ship
	Who run the army

	Who the fake president
	Who the ruler
	Who the banker

	Who? Who? Who?

	Who own the mine
	Who twist your mind
	Who got bread
	Who need peace
	Who you think need war

	Who own the oil
	Who do no toil
	Who own the soil
	Who is not a nigger
	Who is so great ain't nobody bigger

	Who own this city

	Who own the air
	Who own the water

	Who own your crib
	Who rob and steal and cheat and murder
	and make lies the truth
	Who call you uncouth

	Who live in the biggest house
	Who do the biggest crime
	Who go on vacation anytime

	Who killed the most niggers
	Who killed the most Jews
	Who killed the most Italians
	Who killed the most Irish
	Who killed the most Africans
	Who killed the most Japanese
	Who killed the most Latinos

	Who? Who? Who?

	Who own the ocean

	Who own the airplanes
	Who own the malls
	Who own television
	Who own radio

	Who own what ain't even known to be owned
	Who own the owners that ain't the real owners

	Who own the suburbs
	Who suck the cities
	Who make the laws

	Who made Bush president
	Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying
	Who talk about democracy and be lying

	Who the Beast in Revelations
	Who 666
	Who know who decide
	Jesus get crucified

	Who the Devil on the real side
	Who got rich from Armenian genocide

	Who the biggest terrorist
	Who change the bible
	Who killed the most people
	Who do the most evil
	Who don't worry about survival

	Who have the colonies
	Who stole the most land
	Who rule the world
	Who say they good but only do evil
	Who the biggest executioner

	Who? Who? Who?

	Who own the oil
	Who want more oil
	Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie

	Who? Who? Who?

	Who found Bin Laden, maybe they Satan
	Who pay the CIA,
	Who knew the bomb was gonna blow
	Who know why the terrorists
	Learned to fly in Florida, San Diego

	Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion
	And cracking they sides at the notion

	Who need fossil fuel when the sun ain't goin' nowhere

	Who make the credit cards
	Who get the biggest tax cut
	Who walked out of the Conference
	Against Racism
	Who killed Malcolm, Kennedy & his Brother
	Who killed Dr King, Who would want such a thing?
	Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln?

	Who invaded Grenada
	Who made money from apartheid
	Who keep the Irish a colony
	Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later

	Who killed David Sibeko, Chris Hani,
	the same ones who killed Biko, Cabral,
	Neruda, Allende, Che Guevara, Sandino,

	Who killed Kabila, the ones who wasted Lumumba, Mondlane,
	Betty Shabazz, Die, Princess Di, Ralph Featherstone,
	Little Bobby

	Who locked up Mandela, Dhoruba, Geronimo,
	Assata, Mumia, Garvey, Dashiell Hammett, Alphaeus Hutton

	Who killed Huey Newton, Fred Hampton,
	Medgar Evers, Mikey Smith, Walter Rodney,
	Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel
	Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed

	Who put a price on Lenin's head

	Who put the Jews in ovens,
	and who helped them do it
	Who said "America First"
	and ok'd the yellow stars

	Who killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebneckt
	Who murdered the Rosenbergs
	And all the good people iced,
	tortured, assassinated, vanished

	Who got rich from Algeria, Libya, Haiti,
	Iran, Iraq, Saudi, Kuwait, Lebanon,
	Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine,

	Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo
	Who invented Aids
	Who put the germs
	In the Indians' blankets
	Who thought up "The Trail of Tears"

	Who blew up the Maine
	& started the Spanish American War
	Who got Sharon back in Power
	Who backed Batista, Hitler, Bilbo,
	Chiang kai Chek

	Who decided Affirmative Action had to go
	Reconstruction, The New Deal,
	The New Frontier, The Great Society,

	Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for
	Who doo doo come out the Colon's mouth
	Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza
	Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro
	Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus
	Subsidere

	Who overthrew Nkrumah, Bishop,
	Who poison Robeson,
	who try to put DuBois in Jail
	Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin, Who frame the Rosenbergs,
	Garvey,
	The Scottsboro Boys,
	The Hollywood Ten

	Who set the Reichstag Fire

	Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed
	Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers
	To stay home that day
	Why did Sharon stay away?

	Who? Who? Who?

	Explosion of Owl the newspaper say
	The devil face cd be seen

	Who make money from war
	Who make dough from fear and lies
	Who want the world like it is
	Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national
	oppression and terror violence, and hunger and poverty.

	Who is the ruler of Hell?
	Who is the most powerful

	Who you know ever
	Seen God?

	But everybody seen
	The Devil

	Like an Owl exploding
	In your life in your brain in your self
	Like an Owl who know the devil
	All night, all day if you listen, Like an Owl
	Exploding in fire. We hear the questions rise
	In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog

	Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell
	Who and Who and WHO who who
	Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo!

[END]

(Source:  http://groong.usc.edu/baraka.html )