U.S. Still Massacres Liberty
May 4, 2008 > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays No Comments |
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Student Memorial Day
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Kumakaia: Traitor PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Trabelman: Troublemaker HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “The child is a chief to fondled by the parents.” HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those addending too small a degree of it.” (Thomas Jefferson) WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — BioWillie.com WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Always on My Mind PODCAST OF THE WEEK — Peace Research Institute BLOG OF THE WEEK — Willie’s God! (Texas Monthly Feature - May, 2008) 
May 4th, 2008: If Laura Berg isn’t a hero of yours, she should be. Berg is a psychiatric nurse at the Veteran Affairs Hospital. Last year she sent a letter to the editor of The Alibi, a newspaper in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In it, she asserted, “We need to wake up and get real here, and act forcefully to remove a government administration playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious deceit”For saying this, she was threatened by the Office of Veteran Affairs and the Federal Bureau of Investigation with a witch hunt: a charge of sedition, inciting rebellion against the government.
The FBI impounded her office computer, and blocked her access to private files for the Iraqi War Veterans she treats.
The poison of hate and incompetence which has bled from Bush, Cheney and the cabal of right-wing mafiosa that have hijacked the Constitution has now leeched to nearly every corner of free-thinking this country has to offer. Any sane person has to worry about whether we survive the final months of this despot. There is a ray of hope. US Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico became furious over this, and shredded a few FBI managers, who meekly returned her computer. His office released a statement in which he said that it was shameful that the government had to be reminded of its own regulations — those in the Constitution. The Office of Veteran Affairs was forced to write her a note of apology, though the note told her that in the future she should not identify herself as a VA nurse.Less than a week after receiving this note, Berg was on the radio, and opened with, “Hi, I’m Laura Berg and I’m a VA nurse.” Berg has just earned the PEN/Katherine Anne Porter First Amendment Award.May 4th, 1970: KENT STATE MASSACRE – Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on anti-war protesters at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others. Read more …
HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — May 4th
- 1626: Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on what is now Manhattan island
- 1776: Rhode Islane declares independence from England (two months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted)
- 1780: American Academy of Arts & Science is founded
- 1886: At Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an eight-hour workday turns into a riot when a bomb explode, killing 11 and wounding 66
- 1961: “Freedom Riders” leave Washington DC for New Orleans to challenge racial segregation on buses and in bus terminals
- 1979: Margaret Thatcher becomes prime minister of England
- 1989: Lt. Col. Oliver North is convicted of shredding documents and two other crimes (and acquitted of nine other charges) stemming from the Iran/Contra affair (the 3 convictions are later overturned on appeal)
- 1994: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign an historic accord on Palestinian autonomy that grants self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho
- 1998: Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was given four life sentences plus 30 years by a federal judge in Sacramento, Calif., under a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty.
- 2000: Londoners elected their mayor for the first time.
- 2006: A federal judge sentenced Zacarias Moussaoui to life in prison for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
BORN ON THIS DAY — May 4th
- 1796: Horace Mann, educator/author/editor
- 1820: Joseph Whitaker, founded Whitaker’s Almanack
- 1825: Thomas Huxley, scientist/humanist/Darwinist
- 1924: Dennis Weaver, actor
- 1928: Maynard Ferguson, jazz trumpeter
- 1929: Audrey Hepburn, actress
- 1938: William J Bennett, U.S. Secretary of Education
- 1941: George F Will, political analyst
- 1959: Randy Travis, country singer
- 1979: Lance Bass, singer (’N Sync)
- 1994: Alexander Gould, actor (Weeds)
