Kunnie & McKinney, new moon rising

By Brenda Norrell
October 3, 2007

TUCSON, Ariz. -- "Why are Iraqis still dying?" Africana Studies Director Julian Kunnie asks at the University of Arizona. Wasn't the United States' goal in Iraq to rid the country of Saddam Hussein? So, why is the United States continuing to kill women and children in Iraq?

"Now that Saddam Hussein is dead, why are Iraqis still dying?" Kunnie asks, telling the story of a 13-year-old Iraqi boy who loved soccer. Then, tending sheep, he was killed by a US missile. "Most of his head was torn off."

In his lecture, "The Construction of Destruction: From New Orleans to Iraq," Kunnie asks who has been profiting from the destruction of the floods in New Orleans since the levees broke; who is profiting from the reconstruction taking place after the U.S. bombing of Iraq?

Two hours after Kunnie's lecture, a few blocks down the street in Tucson, former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney calls for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. McKinney calls for the truth of what happened on September 11, 2001.

With trillions spent to maintain the defense of the United States, why was it that the United States' defense system failed four times on September 11, 2001? she asks. McKinney remembers one of the "talking points" she was given, while serving as a Congresswoman. She was told to tell the people of Georgia that the reason for Sept. 11, 2001, was this: "They hate us because we are free." She said that explanation was not good enough for her, or the people.

"The failure of the Bush Administration to protect America on September 11, 2001, constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors," McKinney said, to loud applause, speaking in an outdoor courtyard to a gathering of the Green Party.

McKinney said that she hand-wrote articles of impeachment, remembering Bush and Cheney's words to Tom Daschle, "Don't investigate September 11."

"We have to go wherever the investigation takes us," she said of Sept. 11, 2001. "Silence is not the answer."

"In 2000, the Republicans stole the election," she said. "In 2004, they did it again."

McKinney said the disruption of the voting districts is another indication in the United States that the federal government does not want whites and blacks to come together, because that would result in an agenda for justice and change.

Around the world -- Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, Nicaragua and elsewhere -- people are changing. The United States is the only place where people are not changing, she said.

"We have to become in step with the rest of the world."

When asked about the responses from other Congressmen, she said, "If I succeed then they know that there is life after political death, which really isn't death at all."

"If George Bush can be president, then I can be president, then anyone can be president."

Earlier, at the university, Kunnie spoke of Hurricane Katrina, which he said was really "Hurricane United States." It is the story of police brutality and the refusal to provide water and food to the poor when the waters rose up to 20 feet when the levees broke. It is the story of police murdering blacks on the streets of New Orleans with impunity, and inmates left locked in prison cells for three days in chest-high sewer water.

The story of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane United States, is one of ethnic cleansing and profiteering by the same corporations that reaped the benefits of blood-stained oil in Iraq: Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root, Bechtel, Blackwater, Fluor, Shaw Group, CH2M Hill and the others.

During this time of hurricane, blacks in New Orleans became the so-called "Insurgents," the word used by politicians and the media to manipulate pubic opinion about people struggling to survive.

Where are the billions for reconstruction in New Orleans? Kunnie asks after returning to New Orleans on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

"I was stunned to see the lack of reconstruction." Instead of building homes, FEMA brought in trailers contaminated with formaldehyde. Once sick, the people remained in a city where hospital care is minimal; a city where the poor are locked out of public housing that was not damaged by the hurricane.

"New Orleans is a test case for dismantling public education," Kunnie said, pointing out that charter schools have taken the place of public schools. The failed education system has a direct link to the prisons. Louisiana has the highest per capital rate of people incarcerated, he said.

Oppression and exploitation is what followed Hurricane Katrina. He said it is important to "decode the language," especially words like "Homeland Security." Kunnie said it is important to look closely at the role of Israel when examining countries with nuclear weapons and examine Israel's lobby in the United States.

Remembering the deconstruction of New Orleans and Iraq, he said it is important to remember that 10 percent of the people have 90 percent of the wealth.

"Our children are being destroyed by this system. They can no longer figure out if it is construction or deconstruction," Kunnie said.