[NYTr] All Power to the People: USAF Backs Down on Threats Against Rev Yearwood

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Kevin Zeese 

An Open Letter to America: All Power to the People
 
By Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr.
President of the Hip Hop Caucus

September 6, 2007
 
On July 1, 2007 I sought the support of regular Americans after 
receiving notification from the U.S. Air Force Reserve that they were 
threatening to discharge me on the basis of behavior that, in their 
words, is "clearly inconsistent with the interest of national
security." The behavior in question is my outspoken opposition to the
occupation of Iraq and the inadequate and inhuman response to the
tragedy of Katrina. 

As a result of the outpouring of support I received from all over the 
United States and from around the world, the Air Force backed down.  
Thanks to my brothers and sisters in the movement, I will end my
service with the honorable discharge that I earned.  I am eternally
grateful, and evermore committed to taking on the powers that be for
the powers that ought to be.
 
At first, when I informed the Air Force that I would fight their 
harassment, they threatened me with deployment to Iraq, or even prison 
time.  Then with the tremendous circulation and widespread publishing
of my first Open Letter, the Air Force realized if they were going to 
challenge me, they would have to challenge thousands of Americans from 
across the nation outside of Robbins Air Force Base in Georgia, on my 
hearing date.
 
Even now, after all the pain we have been through as a nation these
last years, the reaction of the Air Force shows that when we are
organized in the face of a government that does not represent us, we
the people have the power.
 
Mine is the third case in which the military has backed down when the 
people have challenged their attempts to silence dissent.  When former 
Sgt. Adam Kokesh spoke out after risking his life in Fallujah, Iraq,
the U.S. Marines threatened him with a "less than honorable" discharge
but backed down after many came out in support of Adam.  When Marine
Sgt. Liam Madden spoke out about this "war of aggression" in which war
crimes were being committed, the Marines threatened him but again
backed down when they saw organized opposition. The military now knows
they will feel the wrath of the people if they threaten veterans who
speak out against the occupation of Iraq.
 
The anti-war movement truly supported me in my case against the Air 
Force, which as a young African-American minister was so empowering to 
me personally that I pledge to increase my opposition to the U.S. 
occupation of Iraq.  I pledge to continue my work in solidarity with
the Iraqi people who are resisting U.S. occupation.  I will not let the 
media spin that portrays all Iraqi resisters as insurgents linked to Al 
Qaeda and other terrorists groups, silence my moral support for the
good people in Iraq who are fighting to free their land.
 
Indeed, I have just returned from a trip to the Middle East where I 
visited with Iraqi refugees.  As a person of color, I have no issue
with my brothers and sisters in Iraq.  I also have no issue with the
U.S. troops who serve with honorable intentions and so often join the 
military under the poverty draft.  My issue is with the Bush 
Administration and our co-dependent Congress. 
 
These are the six ways I see to oppose the U.S. occupation of Iraq: 
1. Speaking out and creating an echo chamber of opposition; 
2. Participating in acts of civil disobedience; 
3. Joining the economic boycott led by the Iraq Moratorium beginning
September 21st; 
4. Casting your vote at the polls; 
5. Giving direct aid to humanitarian programs for Iraqi refugees and
internally displaced; and, 
6. Counter-recruiting campaigns. 
 
All these methods become effective when a critical mass of people is 
mobilized.  The anti-war movement in the U.S. has yet to reach that 
critical mass.  The critical mass that is necessary to have a real 
anti-war movement can be achieved by mobilizing those who are most 
oppressed by the U.S. government.  We must link the struggles of the 
oppressed in the U.S. and in Iraq. 
 
The displaced Katrina survivors and the displaced Iraqis is a good
place to start. But it must go deeper than that.  Literally, the money
that was supposed to go to levees in New Orleans was diverted to the
war in Afghanistan.  The money that is being spent to kill Brown people
in Baghdad is being diverted from programs that educate Black people in
the U.S.  For example, for what the State of North Carolina has
sacrificed in war spending in Iraq, they could have provided nearly
600,000 students four-year scholarships at public universities.
 
I pray that our movement finds the strength of character to listen to 
the very oppressed for whom we claim to speak, and let the voices,
ideas and actions of the oppressed drive a movement that can finally
grow to that critical mass.
 
For Future Generations,
Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr.
 

[Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. is the President of the Hip Hop Caucus, 
http://www.hiphopcaucus.org .  The Hip Hop Caucus is a national,
nonprofit, non-partisan organization meant to inspire and motivate
those of us born after the '60s civil rights movement.  Rev. Yearwood
is also a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War at //www.ivaw.org
Rev. Yearwood serves on the board of Voters For Peace at
http:www.VotersForPeace.us ]