Subject: Yes, I'm a communist! And even "worse", a jewish
      anarchist and an athiest to boot
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 09:25:10 -0600
From: George Salzman <george.salzman@umb.edu>
To: <undisclosed recipients@anywhere.world>
BCC: [the entire list]

Thursday, February 13, 2003
Friends:
      The most virulent e-mail I got after posting my
Call to stop the U.S. government's drive for global domination
in early October 2002 came a few days later. The complete message was:

Subject:
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 11:59:53 +0000
From: Gladys Richardson <yankeebaby24@hotmail.com>
To: George Salzman <george.salzman@umb.edu>

If you are such a communist why don't you just go back to cuba, you fidel loving faggot.

      I wrote back:

Subject: Re:
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 09:39:15 -0700
From: George Salzman <george.salzman@umb.edu>
To: Gladys Richardson <yankeebaby24@hotmail.com>

Gladys Richardson:
      I received the following note:
[included the above note]
      I do not know if it was actually sent by you or by someone using your name.

      In any event, you should know that I am a World War II veteran, 744th engineering Oilfield Battalion, U.S. Army, 77 years of age, a widower since my wife died on April 1, 1981 of breast cancer, just short of our 33rd wedding anniversary, the father of our two daughters and grandfather of five young children. I happen to be heterosexual, have never loved Castro (though I admire a real man with balls who isn't an ass-sucker), and could not go "back" to Cuba, where I have never been, even if I wanted to, which I do not. I was born American, bred American, love the American people as much as I love all people, and am outraged at the destruction of the America I thought I knew by the scum who run the country. I want my America back. I want the world to escape the destruction it is being relentlessly subjected to. As for the know-nothings who during the Vietnam War shouted, "Love it or leave it!" under the banner of the flag, the answer then was "Change it or lose it!" That was a correct response then and it's still correct.

      In a way, it's gratifying to have received the e-mail, whether it was yours or not. It shows that my efforts to make my viewpoint known are not entirely without effect. At least some people are reading some of what I've written.

      The right to speak out freely is supposedly one of the most important rights of Americans, embodied in the Bill of Rights. I want to share with you an e-mail I got just the other day. Here it is:
------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: social darwinism
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 10:08:48 -0700 (PDT)
From: Chris Smith <hypno_paedia@yahoo.com>
To: George Salzman <george.salzman@umb.edu>

I some how stumbled upon your website, and what a nice surprise. The recent essay to stop the US government's imperialism is right on. What scares me though is the social darwinian theory. The theory being that the poor deserve to be poor, etc. I'm wondering how you respond to this. THanks. --chris.

      It’s now four months since my exchange with Gladys Richardson, who has not written me further. In these 4 months opposition to the Bush cabal’s war plans has mushroomed worldwide, and in the United States! Every sane and aware person in the world is adamantly opposed to the threatened attack on Iraq.

      The worldwide demonstrations set for this Saturday and Sunday, Feb 15 and 16 ought to be fully supported by everyone who yearns for a better world. Don’t be misled by the U.S. government’s lies that the U.S. anti-war movement is being programmed -- controlled by -- anti-american leftists. That’s hogwash, a deliberate disinformation campaign. Listen to Professor Michel Chossudovsky lay it all out in his interview on January 26. It’s titled, “War and The Criminalisation of the State”, linked to on the website, http://www.globalresearch.ca under "What's New".

      I believe that worldwide anger at the U.S. government is growing to such an extent that maybe my appeal for an international campaign of tough sanctions against the U.S. might begin to be seen as a way to force it to abandon its plans for military and economic global domination. It would be all the more effective if many other Americans joined in making that call, which is posted at: http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/Discus/2002-09-30CallToStopUS.htm

      The Call starts out as follows:

Introduction
      There is a stark and critical difference between the vast majority of American people and the United States government. It is the ruling governmental clique, the cabal now in power, that is determined to pursue a course of world domination. This cabal is driven by an unquenchable lust for power, privilege and wealth, and, because of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the apparent opportunity to rule the whole world. Ordinary American people are not lusting for global empire. Our ambitions, like those of ordinary people everywhere in the world, are to manage somehow to live decent honest lives, to see our children and grandchildren able to thrive, to be respected for what we are, and to live ordinary lives of dignity -- with their normal joys and inevitable sorrows -- among our families, neighbors and acquaintances, lives of peace, friendship, and self-respect.

      Americans are neither monsters nor fools, although many are very misinformed by the ocean of propaganda of the corporate media and of the government. Nevertheless, far more of us oppose the dictates of the ruling cabal than the mass media reports. This was confirmed by a telephone poll of U.S. senators’ and representatives’ offices reported on Pacifica Radio’s "Democracy Now" program on September 27, 2002. Calls, faxes, e-mails, and letters to these legislative offices were overwhelmingly opposed to the U.S. attacking Iraq, which the ruling clique is clearly intent on doing. This rapidly growing overt popular opposition is being largely, probably deliberately, ignored by the corporate mass media. Unfortunately we do not determine U.S. government policy. The U.S. is in reality not a democracy. It is a plutocracy, governed by money, by an oligarchy of the plutocrats. In this sense it is not our government.

      The ultimate goal of this call to action is to force the United States government to give up both its imperial drive for world domination and its role as universal enforcer of global capitalism. Determined, massive actions by the American people and/or international sanctions that impose economic isolation on the U.S. are probably the most effective means to do this. The focus of this call is, however, limited to possible international sanctions.

      Unless the nations of the world can be mobilized to stop the United States, or we, the people of the United States, act decisively, the lives of hundreds of millions -- or billions -- of people will continue being dehumanized and destroyed, and the biosphere itself -- the source of all life -- will continue to be ravaged. A brief list of possible international actions is proposed in what follows. If a campaign to implement such actions can be successfully initiated -- and that of course is the crucial question -- if it can, then there are ample grounds for believing that the goal will be achievable, not in the immediate future, but within a generation. A livable, humane, sustainable world can be salvaged for future generations.

Sincerely,
George

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