I WILL NOT "APOLOGIZE", I WILL NOT "RESIGN!"
The recent dishonest, consciously distorted and insulting non-
interpretation of my poem, "Somebody Blew Up America" by
the "Anti-Defamation" League, is fundamentally an attempt to
defame me. And with that, an attempt to repress and
stigmatize independent thinkers everywhere. This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing
zealots who are interested only in slander and character
assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ
from or are in contradiction to theirs .First, the poem underlying theme focuses on how Black
Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being
kidnapped into US chattel slavery, e.g., by Slave Owners, US
& State Laws, Klan, Skin Heads, Domestic Nazis, Lynching,
denial of rights, national oppression, racism, character
assassination, historically, and at this very minute
throughout the US. The relevance of this to Bush call for
a "War on Terrorism", is that Black people feel we have
always been victims of terror, governmental and general, so
we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people who
while asking us to dismiss our history and contemporary
reality to join them, in the name of a shallow "patriotism"
in attacking the majority of people in the world, especially
people of color and in the third world. This is said to us, even as this counterfeit
president has legalized the Confederate Flag in Mississippi.
Could the victims of European Fascism be as frantically loyal
to a regime that would fly a Nazi Swastika over their homes?
So we cannot, in good conscience, celebrate what seems to us
an international crusade to set up a military dictatorship
over the world, legitimatised at base, by white supremacy,
carried out, no matter the crude lies, as the most terrifying
form of Imperialism and its attendant national oppression.
All of it designed to drain super profits bluntly from the
colored peoples of the world, but as well, from the majority
of the peoples in the world. For all the frantic
condemnations of Terror by Bush etc., as the single
International Super Power, they are the most dangerous
terrorists in the world!
Actually, in my focus on various forces of terror Afro
Americans and other oppressed people of the world have
suffered, slavery, colonialism, Imperialism, Neo neo-
colonialism, National Oppression, the ADL disingenuously
makes no mention of my probing into the creators of the
holocaust, e.g., "who put the Jews in ovens, / and who helped
them do it, / Who said "America First"/ and Ok'd the yellow
stars", which of course is a reference to America's domestic
fascists just before World War II and the Nazi Holocaust.
Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention
the poem's listing of some of the Jews across the world,
oppressed, imprisoned, murdered by actual Anti- Semitic
forces, open or disguised. The poem asks "Who killed Rosa
Luxembourg, Liebnecht/ Who murdered the Rosenbergs/ And all
the good people iced, tortured, assassinate, vanished".
The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy
era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs, nor the
assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like 
Liebnecht, Luxembourg. The ADL leaves these things out to try
to make their lies more believable, and also because these
victims of imperialism were on the Left. Happily the Star Ledger published the entire
poem,
though including in a box, supposedly identifying the
offending phrases, my question, "Who Blew Up The
Reichstag?"
as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring
that Jews did it. When it was Hitler's destruction of the Reichstag, that provided the pretext for the general
imprisonment of Jews, after incarcerating Communists, Social
Democrats and Trade Unionists. Why this was done one can
only speculate, but this is the kind of sloppy or
intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find in the
media. It also reflects the kind of unprincipled attack that
characterizes ADL press release.
The Reichstag fire, parallels the 911 Attack, in
that after that "mysterious act of terrorism", which Hitler
blamed on Jews and Communists, the Nazis passed a law The
Reichstag Enablement Act, that gave the Nazis much the same
carte blanche as the Bush administration used the 911 tragedy
to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill and begin
rounding up suspects, even without identifying them. Of
course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror were
never found, though most scholars are certain it was the
Nazis themselves.
Of the other lines of the poem, which the ADL termed
an example of the Hitlerian "Big Lie", and the poet's
"spewing Anti-Semitic venom". The lines, "Who knew the World
Trade Center was gonna get/bombed?" Well now, certainly, even
the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush Administration
knew. I agree with this, and it is everywhere on the Internet
that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany,
France, Russia, England but also Israel. Michael Ruppert of
the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly, "Israeli
security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale
terror attacks. And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the
attacks were going to take place they knew that the World
Trade Center were the targets. This is from British newspaper
the "Telegraph".
In addition there are articles in all forms of media
and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting that the
entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US CIA in
advance, but no action was taken. WHY. They say
they "couldn't connect the dots". The FBI agents in 
Minnesota and Arizona who said that FBI received a report in
1998 that a terrorist organization planned to bring people
to the US to enroll in flight schools. Zacharias Moussoui,
now charged with conspiring in the Sept 11 attacks, was
arrested by the Minnesota agents of the FBI in August 2001
but FBI HQ denied agents request to seek a warrant even to
search his computer. And in a prepared statement by a
Minnesota FBI agent, he blamed legal restrictions but
principally FBI headquarters for impeding a more aggressive
investigation of this man. As for the other agent's attempt
to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks, he was rebuffed when he
made the report, but now FBI HQ says it has not record of
such warning. (See http://www.Truthout.org/docs) There are
other incredible dots on the media, for instance the
stockholders of American Airlines and United, which were the
carriers high-jacked to commit the terror began withdrawing
stock from these companies in August before the attacks.
The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various
attackers is, "Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin
Towers / to stay home that day/ Why did Sharon stay away?" To
infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is
disingenuous slander and character assassination. But I do
believe, as I stated about England, Germany, France, Russia,
that the Israeli government, certainly it's security force,
SHABAK knew about the attack in advance.
My sources were, "Ha'aretz" and "Yadiot
Ahranot" (two
Israeli newspapers) "Al Watan" (a Jordanian newspaper)
"Manar"-TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK. There are myriad references to this in Reuters, Der
Spiegel. The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first revealed
that SHABAK had canceled Sharon's appearance in New York City
that day, Sept 11, where he was supposed to speak at
an "Israel Day" celebration. This was also mentioned in the
Star Ledger, to the effect that Sharon was supposed to visit
the US, but no dates were mentioned. It is the Green Party's Ruppert who makes the most
effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not Jewish
Workers!) but Israeli nationals. He says in his video, "if
what I am showing you is known overtly although the media,
how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence
community know". He goes on, and this seems true to me, It
is "Nonsense" to say the Israelis did it. They were warning
the U.S. hand over fist Ruppert speculates further 1.
The
US did not listen 2.
They needed the attacks" which I leave
to time, as Malcolm X said, Time will tell. But the most stunning revelation is this, again
Ruppert, "We reviewed the list of former tenants of the World
Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site. And there's
the website. It is an alphabetical list of tenants. Scroll to
the very bottom and notice the moving date for the office of
Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia. They were
in the World Trade Center. They must have had Mossad" (or
Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before
September and they broke their lease. The Israelis didn't
pull the attack, but they were smart enough to get their
people out of the way. How come our government didn't do the
same thing for us." (Statement & Quote by George DeCarlo,
Coordinator of Union County Greens, Co Founder of the NJ
Lavender Greens- included in media pkg.) The poem was never saying anything else, i.e., why
didn't the other slaughtered Americans know? I WAS NOT SAYING
ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK, BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND
OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO! There is other
disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks, which my
family and I could see from the third floor bathroom window
of our homes! And certainly one day all this will be
thoroughly investigated. The poem says "Who know why Five
Israelis was filming the explosion/ And cracking they sides
at the notion." I got this story from The Star Ledger, where
it appeared twice, and The New York Times.
The reference to "cracking they sides" or laughing
uproariously while filming the 911 attack, apparently on the
top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of them, stated that that is one of the reasons they did arrest
them, because they were laughing.
Again, these were Israeli Nationals, persons holding
Israeli passports. The Times article even reported on what
their lives were like in Jail. And implied they would be
deported. So this reference is not more of the ADL's "Anti-
Semitic venom" but arrived at merely from studying the US
media. Why those five Israelis were there filming and
laughing I do not claim know. That's why the poem here and
throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO WHO? That
is, who is responsible for this horrible crime and WHY? It is
a poem that aims to probe and disturb, but there is not the
slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism, as anyone who reads it
without some insidious bias would have to agree. Why the ADL
would do this, I can only speculate. I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate
on how an Airplane flying in America, where the pilot has to
file a flight plan before taking off, how can such a plane or
two or three of them file such a route in which they would
travel, and in the case of the planes leaving Boston make 45
degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade
Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged
by US Air Defense Fighters, or brought down by ground to air
missiles? Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters
would normally confront such "rogue" aircraft within a few
minutes! Why was this not done? Let the ADL and the media
investigating me, investigate that! We should know that Bush
and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of
their so called "Axis of Evil" What a not so wild coincidence
that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the
proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far
east, apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and
influence of China. They scream "Bin Laden" and "Taliban" and
destroy Afghanistan, install a puppet president and a shadow
occupation force.
Next in the Axis is Iraq, we should have known that.
With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged
and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants
of "Regime Change" and "Saddam Hussein". No longer is the
madness of crowds being aroused by the "Anti -Terrorist"
campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the
people to a patriotic frenzy, now it is Saddam Hussein. So
forget last month's war and get ready for this month's.
Bush says he wants "regime change" in Palestine, he wants to
oust Arafat, now in Iraq, and he wants to oust Saddam. The
Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea. What is this an
updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitler's
and Bush 1's) New World Order? Regime Change, why? Because these regimes are anti
democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam, they
have "weapons of mass destruction". Well if being anti
democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions
of countries then the United States better watch out because
the Florida coup, which tricked the American people into
accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic.
Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush?
What would be the American People's reaction to such Third
Reich replay?
And as for Saddam having "weapons of mass destruction"
(or mass diversion as some critics say), the US has these
weapons. So do Israel, South Africa, Germany, France, Italy,
England, Russia, and now China, India, Pakistan. How is it
the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such
weapons, but no one else can. The answer to that, of course,
is White Supremacy and Imperialism. And what should be the
growing understanding by the American people and the
democratic people of the world, is what the far right Bush
coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world.
The ADL, by attacking me by distorting what my poem is
saying, is doing its usual ugly, as a well known running dog
of imperialism, particularly by attacking anyone who takes an
independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism
and its attendant ideology political Zionism. As they are
attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy
with Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians
As Anti Semitic, when lst of all Israel and its guiding
philosophy have nothing to do, as categories, with Jews.
(See "Zionism in the Age of the Dictators", Brenner
But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to
hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel. When we criticize US
imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity, maybe
only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots,
perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same
as Judaism. (Op cit Brenner; also "The Dilemma of the Modern
Jew, Prinz".) But this is the trick the Israeli's and their
sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism. Israel (and it's
political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism, as the US
has to do with Christianity. In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a
secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation
of church and state, though Mr. Bush and Mr. Asscraft have
demonstrated they disagree, and Israel outright says it is
a "Jewish State" but if that is so then that explains why it
can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel
and make them 2nd class citizens, in much the same way that
South Africa, a close friend did under Apartheid. (See "The
Crisis of Black Jewish Relations", Brenner & Bloom; "Israel
and South Africa", Stevens & Ellmessi; The "Arabs in Israel"
by Sabri Jiryis, foreword by Noam Chomsky).
The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as
just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false
depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism.
This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations
Frenzied "destroy Iraq regime change "Jones" (a street word
for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting
around us like cheer leaders at a football game! So that US
imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East, the
Arab world into a gas station (See "Bushwacked: A Counterfeit
President for a Fake Democracy", Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little
girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor, she is a
terrorist, but when Israeli Jets, made in the USA, destroy
whole sections of Palestinian cities, bulldoze neighborhoods,
all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance, with
its President, Yasser Arafat, inside sitting in the dark, it
is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder, they
are the terrorists. We are supposed to be intimidated by
demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be
called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a
jr. partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military
domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in
the name of fighting terrorism. It is the ADL, which is actually guilty of what its
leader, Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian "Big Lie", and
ironically it is the ADL, which is "spewing anti-Semitic
venom". The same ADL which became aware of "Black Anti
Semitism", which it had earlier said has never been a threat,
until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO
and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and
condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism. That is when, as
Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRP's
"Smash Zionism" the
ADL smashed SNCC instead. As Israel drew closer to South 
Africa, politically, economically, militarily in the 60's
(Op Cit, above & others) the Black Liberation Movement and
African Nations became more and more guilty, according to the
ADL, of "Black Anti-Semitism".
This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action,
even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle,
and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were
young Jews. The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend
of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake
Decision which challenged & defeated the University of
California's affirmative action as "racist" and was explained
by the ADL as its opposition to quotas. So that the
university's could now enforce a quota on Black students of
none!
This is the same ADL, which in league with the
American Israel Political Action Committee, just a few weeks
ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta, Georgia to defeat
progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney, because
she called for a more balance American view of the
Palestinian -Israeli Conflict. These same forces defeated
in Alabama, another progressive Black incumbent Congressman,
because he too dared to support the Palestinians. (See New
York Times), Amsterdam News, Star Ledger). Very much like the
way Bush touts "Regime Change," recently even hinting at an
attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein, if the American
People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush
juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq.
ADL and their " bagman" AIPAC didn't like these black
politicians stance on Israel, so in a minute and a few
million dollars, they are gone! So now, it's my turn. Using
my poem, Somebody Blew Up
America" they are going to spread
the Big Lie, distort what poem says. Cover the fact that this
poem actually is an attack on Imperialism, National
Oppression, Monopoly Capitalism, Racism, Anti-Semitism. I
challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti-
Semitic in the least. In their press release they say talk
about "Jews being scape-goated throughout history
then "conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti-
Israel propaganda to a new level " (Mr. Foxman, what is the
Arab World? Alan Dershowitz in his "Chutzpah" says the basis
of bigotry is "overgeneralization," so where is the "Arab
World"? Is Detroit included? Asscraft thinks so.
Earlier the press release mentions "the Muslim
World" does that include Lyons Ave., Newark? But then
from "Anti-Semitism" the release goes to Israel, not Jews,
and Israeli Mossad as those victimized. So they fight Anti
Semitism mainly by "defending" Israel. In fact they defend
Israel like Joe McCarthy "defended" the US against Communism.
Included in my package is a communiqué from an Israeli Peace
Organization ": Gush
Shalom", "Israeli Peace Block (see
Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered" (info@gush-shalom.org) This was first published 7/11/2000 as
a press release. "In the past 24 hours, an attack is being
mounted against Gush Shalom. Knesset Member Collette Avital
(Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police,
claiming that cartoons presented on our website
constitute "incitement". And the powerful American Jewish
organization Anti -Defamation League found time, even on
election day, over there, to disseminate a message of
defamation against "Gush
Shalom", which already resulted in
hate e mails being sent our address". In a following message signed by Adam Keller
Gush Shalom Spokesperson. The organization defends itself from an
ADL press releases "expressing outrage at Gush Shalom's
portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian
children in a caricature on its web site, stating that the
image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of
a Palestinian child is abhorrent." Gush Shalom replies,
"Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a
position to make an offer. Should a complete week - seven
days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed
by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr. Barak, we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our
website.
The Gush Shalom statement ends "As for the ADL- an
organization which claims to "counter hatred prejudice and
bigotry" can you truly find no other places to search for
such, with Israeli society in its present condition, except
at our modest website. Was the ADL attacking these Israelis
for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the
continuous murder of the Palestinians. So in Israel itself,
ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone, even Israeli
citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de-
Palestinianize Palestine!
Another communication from Israe(robertoj69@yahoo.com):
This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23, 2002 that begins "URGENT WARNING: THE ISRAEL
GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY" It
goes on, "We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by
US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli
political leadership's enthusiastic support of it. We are
deeply worried by indications that the "fog of war" could be
exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes
against the Palestinian people, up to full-fledged ethnic
cleansing." One striking description of the Israeli Military by
these professors is that in an interview found in Ha'aretz
Sept 19, 2002, Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon describe
the Palestinians as a "cancerous manifestation" and equated
the military actions in the Occupied territories with
"chemotherapy". Certainly the ADL will have to go after
these "Anti Semites" using the "Big Lie" and "Spewing Anti-
Semitic Venom"! And the growing list of progressive
democratic people around the world who will have opinions
about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL,
the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television
program so that we might debate this issue. We can project
the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it. If
not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC
Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark. Why not take a
survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival?
Those who registered and the students brought by schools
could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the
majority of people hearing the poem thought, not just some
shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince
people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli
Imperialism.
I have already gotten a great many communications
praising the poem. A great many E-mail letters and phone
calls not only praising the poem, and the poet for writing
it, but also opposing the attempt to violate my first
amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of
calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites. I have already
said, in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as
demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet
Laureate. And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither. It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been
stampeded by paid liars, and apologists for ethnic cleansing
and white supremacy, bourgeois nationalists and the
dangerously ignorant, to be panicked into joining in the
ADL's slander, belittling my intelligence, and insulting not
only my person, my family, my fellow artists and activists
who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow. But
they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social
political views. By demanding that I apologize to Evil and
Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated
call for me to resign as New Jersey's Poet Laureate, he is
insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect
and who have read and celebrated and valued my work. And that
is a grave mistake, one I am hoping he will correct. "Somebody Blew Up
America!" was written Oct 1, 2001. A
month after the terror attack. Almost immediately I
circulated it around the world on the Internet. In addition,
I have read this poem in Spain, Portugal, Africa, Switzerland,
Italy, Finland and it was translated into German and read on
German radio, at Universities and other venues across this
country. It has become one of the most circulated of my
poems. Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge
Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three
people that I know of. The overwhelming response was an
almost thunderous applause. I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance. So why now and Who, as the
poem asks, is behind it? Perhaps the forces which have
dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as "venom" or
merely "a harangue" (just as they called John Coltrane's
music "Barbaric Yawps") are simply, the Charlie McCarthy
voices for Bush & Sharon's Edgar Bergen's. Empty-headed
devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and
costumed to look like it is real people speaking, when all
the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking
through their mouths.
NO, I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE, I WILL NOT RESIGN. In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still
have not been paid to do. Publicize and Popularize poetry and
poets throughout this state. To set up new venues and new
networks for poetry reading and workshops, in the state's
libraries and schools and other institutions. Hopefully
initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public
Library, its branches and throughout the school system.
Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry,
involving poets of all nationalities, both male and female,
of diverse experience and styles. I have already begun to
enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state,
so that we can network a tour of poets, hopefully beginning
in January, throughout the state. To do this I will be approaching local, county,
state, federal and private funding. And expand our budget
with the cooperation of these other existing programs. We
will ask that poets POET-ON! That they begin to produce at
least one poem or publish a poem monthly, in the most modest
forms, Kinko style, and give them away if they have to. That
they begin to set up readings not only in the places we
mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in
neighborhoods.
We say this because we feel that this state and
indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of
the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can
teach. That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to
do, to bring Truth and Beauty. To be like the most ancient
paradigmythic image of the poet. To be like Osiris and 
Orpheus, whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with
song and story. To illuminate the human mind, and bring light
into the world.
POET ON!