Date: 2024-12-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00021616
US POLITICS
SOCIAL DYSFUNCTION
Chairman Thompson cites 'dynamic terrorism threat' as Black History Month starts with 13+ bomb threats against HBCUs
SOCIAL DYSFUNCTION
Chairman Thompson cites 'dynamic terrorism threat' as Black History Month starts with 13+ bomb threats against HBCUs
Image via Screengrab.
Original article: https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/bennie-thompson/
Burgess COMMENTARY
Bluntly put ... I am pretty disgusted with the 'state' of America ... the so-called United States of America. It seems that there is something dangerously dysfunctional about the way the country runs.
In some ways, the United States has done an amazing job of 'marketing' its values around the world. The brilliance of Madison Avenue advertising in promoting the sale of products has been well known for a very long time, but the idea that the US sells itself in much the same way is less well recognised. The key characteristic of advertising is that it sells the product not that it actually reflects the realities of the product. Same for marketing the USA.
There are many impressive things about the United States but the quality of life is not one of them. For most people in the United States ... at least 80% of the population ... quality of life has declined over the past four decades. While the aggregate metric of economic performance ... GDP and Per Capita GDP ... for the United States is among the best (biggest) in the world, this is a result of a rather small part of the population having most of the income and most of the wealth.
Among all the countries in the world the relationship of happiness to wealth is about the worst!
The basic design of the democratic republic that is the United States is perhaps the best in the world ... but there is something wrong about the way it has been working not just in the last few political cycles but for a long time before that. Maybe it has never worked very well, and has survived simply because the natural wealth of the country is so enormous.
When I first visited the Americas in 1960 when I was still a student, I was impressed by all the things that one would expect ... automatic doors at the airport (Idlewild), skyscrapers in Manhattan, the huge automobiles, the Greyhound bus system. the vast distances and the empty spaces and the uniformly ugly commercial strip development along all the main roads in and out of every town in the country. I was also shocked at the pollution in what seemed like every river in the country ... and nothing being done to clean up the mess.
As a foreigner, I had no idea that the country had a 'race' problem. When I went back to my university setting in the UK, I wrote about the impact that American Apartheid had had on me ... something that came as a big surprise. Some 60+ years later I know there has been substantial progress in American race relations ... but problems have not gone away, but morphed into a different set of problems that are not well understood and to the extent that they are, are being weaponized by different groups in different ways seeking to maintain their power and influence.
At this point in US history, I see the need to address not only the ongoing racial inequities, but also the growing inequality and inequities in all the population. It bothers me that those with power and influence are fanning the flames of discontent where the non-white population is portrayed as taking away jobs and economic opportunity from the white working class when in fact this white group has been disadvantaged by the economically advantaged (mainly white) business and professional classes that has been immensely successful (financially) over the past several decades starting during the Reagan administration.
If America truly falls apart, it will be largely due to what started during the Reagan administration. much of which is now embedded in Republican policy framing and talking points. Meanwhile the majority of the country's population ... white and non-white ... are being exploited in an unconscionable way.
Peter Burgess
David Badash and The New Civil Rights Movement
February 01, 2022
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who also serves as the powerful Chairman of the Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, on Tuesday pointed to the “dynamic terrorism threat landscape” in a statement responding to Tuesday’s bomb threats against four Mississippi Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
Tuesday kicks off Black history month, and as the Mississippi Free Press reports, “More than a dozen HBCUs nationwide have received bomb threats since Monday.”
And just minutes ago CNN reported, “At least 13 HBCUs reported bomb threats Tuesday. At least one of them, Howard University, also received a bomb threat Monday.”
Congressman Thompson in a statement called the recent bomb threats against HBCUs “incredibly disturbing and disheartening.”
“It is not lost on me that these threats are targeting African American educational institutions at a time when we are observing Black History Month.”
“Moreover, this rash of threats against HBCUs put further strain on campuses and communities that were already under great stress, as they try to operate safely during the pandemic. These bomb threats against HBCUs deserve a full investigation, particularly given the dynamic terrorism threat landscape. I have engaged with the FBI and DHS about these threats to HBCUs and am committed to working with HBCU leaders to get them the answers they deserve.”
The Mississippi Free Press published responses from HBCUs that were targeted. You can read them here.
FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES
- Won't be any surprises': Jan. 6 Committee Chair Thompson ... ›
- Fox News and Sean Hannity have a big Jan. 6 problem - Alternet.org ›
- Watch: Bill Barr has spoken with Jan. 6 committee, chairman says ... ›
- Bennie Thompson on 1/6 select committee: 'We'll do this work as ... ›
- Trump wants Supreme Court to read Washington Post interview with ... ›