Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

By Ivan Eland
We frequently mourn the loss of charismatic figures-for example, John F. Kennedy, Princess Diana and now Ronald Reagan-without really making an honest assessment of what they contributed to society and history.     
Although President Ronald Reagan should be mourned for being a pleasant and optimistic person who articulated many admirable American ideals, the actual policies of his administration, on balance, were harmful to the  republic. That verdict is especially true in the foreign policy arena.
In the wake of Vietnam, Watergate, double-digit inflation and unemployment, the Iranian hostage crisis, Ronald Reagan rode to the  nation’s top office on the American public’s disillusion with government.
Yet upon taking office, in an Orwellian baitandswitch, he gave us more of the same under the veil of folksy rhetoric about getting the government off the backs of the people. In foreign affairs, Reagan’s government activism may have done the most damage. He attained a significant accomplishment-the greatest of his presidency-by negotiating the first arms control agreement with the Soviet Union that actually reduced the number of nuclear weapons. But Reagan’s wasting of billions on his “Star Wars” missile defense fantasy did not single-handedly topple the Soviet Union and win the Cold War, as conservative zealots would have us believe.
Although “Star Wars” research and development and the additional Russian missiles that would have been needed to overcome the system were expensive, they were only small portions of the massive superpower defense budgets. No crash Soviet buildup to counter “Star Wars” was evident, and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev dismissed it by saying correctly that he could build offensive missiles faster and cheaper than the United States could build complex and expensive defenses.
Moreover, the Soviet “Evil Empire” was overextended many years before Reagan ever took office. The Soviet Union had been spending much more on defending the realm than its dysfunctional socialist economy could handle.
The decrepit economy necessitated Gorbachev’s opening of the system, but once that started, the whole creaking structure collapsed. Rather than trying to accelerate the Soviet Union’s decline by driving it to match evermore profligate U.S. defense spending, a smarter and less costly U.S. strategy would have been to allow the U.S.S.R. to overreach and assume the exorbitant costs of administering ever more conquests in non-strategic areas of the Third World. In fact, Reagan did the opposite-using the Reagan doctrine to attempt to roll back communist gains in the developing world.
Reagan is given credit for ensnaring the Soviet Union in its own Vietnam-like quagmire in Afghanistan. Although it seemed like a good idea at the time, U.S. support of the most radical Islamic jihadists against the Soviet occupier ultimately created al Qaeda, one of the few severe
foreign threats to the American homeland in the history of the republic. Osama bin Laden and the jihadists have already inflicted more damage to the United States than the Soviet Union ever did.
Other unintended consequences from Reagan’s macho meddling in remote parts of the world were equally dangerous to American citizens and U.S. constitutional government. Reagan’s secret support for Saddam Hussein in his victorious war against Iran would upset the balance of power in the Persian Gulf region and lead to years of confrontation with, and now a perilous occupation of, Iraq.
The conventional wisdom is that Reagan’s 1986 air strikes on Muammar Qaddafi’s tent in Libya were in retaliation for a Libyan terror strike against a nightclub frequented by U.S. military personnel and that they cowed the Libyan leader from further acts of terror. The reality is quite
different. Upon taking office in 1981, Reagan went after Qaddafi because he believed him to be a Soviet stooge and deliberately provoked him by sending the U.S. Navy into waters and air space claimed by Libya. The Libyan bombing of the nightclub on April 5, 1986 followed another massive U.S. naval incursion in late March 1986 that again downed Libyan aircraft.
After the April 15, 1986 U.S. air strikes, Qaddafi initiated a secret campaign of anti-U.S. terrorist strikes. Those attacks culminated in the horrific destruction of flight Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. Prior to 1986, Qaddafi had only attacked European rather than American targets.
During that same decade, Reagan’s unnecessary military intervention on the side of the Christians in Lebanon’s civil war resulted in retaliation by Islamic factions, which killed hundreds in bombings of the U.S. Embassy  and Marine Corps barracks and resulted in the taking of American hostages.
Although Reagan’s public war on terror was macho, his behind-the-scenes efforts to pay ransom to Iran through arm sales to win the release of those hostages merely caused more captives to be taken. More important, the profits from those arms sales were secretly funneled to Contra
fighters in Nicaragua to circumvent a congressional prohibition on U.S. government assistance toward those guerrillas battling the Sandinista government. The Iran-Contra scandal was in many ways more serious than Watergate because the illegal funding of the Contras circumvented the most important congressional check on executive power-the power of the purse.
In fact, the Iran-Contra affair may have been one of the most serious violations of the U.S. Constitution in American history.
Because of his charisma, “the Great Communicator” may have been one of the most effective presidents of the 20th century-effective at doing the wrong thing and needlessly endangering Americans and people worldwide.
Ivan Eland is Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute in Oakland, CA., and author of the books, The Empire Has No Clothes and Putting “Defense” Back into U.S. Defense Policy. For further articles and studies, see OnPower.org.

Tiffany Schley, the valedictorian of the High School for Legal Studies who was denied her diploma for criticizing conditions at her school, waited patiently with Councilman Charles Barron (3rd from left, in photo) Reverend Herbert Daughtry (far left) and many others, in the Department of Education lobby for a response to their demands.
As we go to press, those demands for an official apology and special presentation of her diploma will apparently be met.  Ms. Schley will receive her valedictorian plaque and diploma from DOE officials who may include Carmen Farina, acting deputy chancellor for instruction, or Dr. Lester Young, Senior Executive, Office of Youth Development and School Community Services, July 1, at House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn.
Earlier in the day, Ms. Schley stood for a very long moment before speaking on the steps of City Hall.   With the New York City press corps in front of her and a throng of supporters covering her back, she stood still and quiet, and then it was explained, she was listening to the ancestors.  “Frederick Douglass once said, ‘If there is no struggle, there is no progress.’ And I have struggled,” Tiffany began. “My mother never lost hope and she taught me how to speak.  I had things to say.  I have opinions and ideas.  But I was afraid to share those opinions.”
At the graduation ceremony, the assistant principal took her speech and returned an edited version for her to read.  Tiffany refused. “I was tired of teachers ignoring me.  Tired of administrators ignoring me.  I knew I had to say what I had to say.  About what was going on in our schools.  About the teachers with the strong accents that we can’t understand. I told about the principal and how he came to the school.  He walks around the school with a bullhorn and a whistle.  He doesn’t want to talk to us.  I told about the law curriculum.  I go to the school for Legal Studies, but for a year, we didn’t have a law curriculum.  The reason why?  Because they had to wipe out the law curriculum to make a double period for math for the tenth graders.  Why?  Because we failed math.  Why? Because we had teachers with strong accents that we told them we could not understand and they did not want to help us. For three years I struggled at this school.  And although people may be offended by my speech, I stand by what I said because it’s the truth.”

The First Bedford-Stuyvesant Children’s Book & Reading Fair, an intergenerational literacy event featuring reading awareness and learning activities for families and young people, will take place Sunday, July 18 (12:00 Noon – 5pm) at Von King Park, 670 Lafayette Avenue (between Tompkins & Marcy Avenues),  with concurrent informative and inspirational workshops (2:00pm – 4:30pm) for parents and caregivers at the Magnolia Tree Earth Center across the street at 677 Lafayette Avenue.
“The Bedford-Stuyvesant Children’s Book & Reading Fair is designed to celebrate reading while promoting the message that ‘literacy is the foundation of learning,” say the publishers of Our Time Press community newspaper.  
“The long-range goal is to help impact reading scores in area school districts.  The short-term goal is to increase awareness of existing reading, literacy and educational resources in the community, like Magnolia, the Brownstoners of Bedford-Stuyvesant, the Child Development Support Center, and many more.”
Schools Without Walls
Von King Park and its neighbor Magnolia Tree Earth Center, are the “schools-without-walls” locations for this daylong event. Local writers and national authors will sign books, neighborhood “Griots” will tell their stories and local residents, including business,  political and civic leaders will read from their favorite works or share life experiences in informal group sessions. The Von King Park open-air amphitheatre will provide the setting for brief presentations and it will also substitute as a large reading room space for readers of all ages. 

Also, while a child’s stroll-along of book characters will be a highlight, the Brownstoners of  Bedford-Stuyvesant workshops for parents and caregivers at Magnolia led by distinguished specialists, educators, parent peers and writers are intended to be just as lively.
In Von King Park, between 12:00 noon – 5:00 P.M., event highlights include storytelling  and “telling our story” sessions, in the Our Time Press Griot Circle with Joan Maynard, executive director emeritus of The Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford Stuyvesant History; noted scholar and African storyteller  Dr. Mary Helen Harden Umolu, chairperson, Department of Mass Communications, Creative & Performing Arts & Speech at Medgar Evers College; Tuskegee Airman John Mulzac (see page 11); artist/sculptor/teacher Otto Neals with art curator Dolores Inniss Carty, Mary Sobers, Jitu Weusi, BaabaSurya and others; origami craft sessions with award-winning paper-folders Karen Bishop and Vernon Isaacs (who is known for his Metro Card creations, among other creations);  face painting by artist/educator Derrick Cross, book giveaways and a stroll-along of book characters and heroes with teen artist Jitu Maat, a protege of acclaimed artist/author Danny Simmons, who also will be present. 

The Patricia Robinson Music School, Von King Park summer program and others will provide ambient in-park or a brief on-stage performing presence.
     Author Book Signings
As of this printing, confirmed authors include:  Sam Anderson, Carolyn M. Davis – also a publisher, Kani Diop (“Eye on Africa”), David Mark Greaves (‘The Sycamore Tree”), Kellie Magnus (“Little Lion Goes to School”), Ansel Pitcairn (illustrator, “African-American Heroes”), Lynnette Velasco (“Zinzi”) and Cathie Wright-Lewis are confirmed to attend.  Among the invited authors are: Dr. lindamichellebaron, Bryan Collier,  George Ford, Wade Hudson, Walter Dean Myers, Angela Pinckney,  Jaira Placide, Javako Steptoe, Phyllis Stickney, Wanda Thomas.
Dynamic Workshops
Workshops for parents/guardians/caregivers (and their children) sponsored by Our Time Press and the Brownstoners of Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Education Committee, will take place in Magnolia Tree Earth Center, currently celebrating 40 years of nature education in the community.   The topics will range from “Are You Raising Winners or Losers?” to “What to do if Your Child is Arrested.” The presenters include Aminisha Black, Our Time Press’ “Parent Notebook” columnist;  Marceline Watler, PhD, Agency for Child Development; Debra Lamb ________, Renee Gregory-Turner, Assistant District Attorney; and Willa Jones, executive director of the Association of Black Social Workers.  Also, in Von King Cultural Arts Center’s Eubie Blake Theater, Marcia Pendelton will lead a seminar centering on reading stage productions with children, acting out scenes, and attending the play together.  Carolyn M. Davis, CEO, Word for Word Publishing, Inc., will explain “How to Get Your Book Published.”  A genealogy workshop is also being planned.

FREE Books, Information and Sharing
Free information will be distributed at the workshops, and in the Park.  The Brooklyn Public Library will distribute Reading is Fundamental books, and provide information on its services. In the Griot Circle, there will be a “kiosk” of materials from the Office of Public Education and Interpretation of the African Burial Ground.  Community-based organizations disseminating  free information and advice will rim the park’s northern quadrant on the Lafayette Avenue side.  Nationwide Insurance, ever a popular and well-received presence at community events,  will provide lessons in “safety literacy” during its distribution of much-needed home safety items. As of this writing Dial, Penguin and Simon and Schuster will provide books.  Scholastic is offering “Read & Rise” materials.  (Free items and gift bags will be given out on a First Come, First Served basis.)

Residents, friends and supporters are invited to join in the initiative by bringing a book and reading in the Park, sharing a story or participating in any of the seven (as of this printing) workshops. Also, elected officials, community leaders and area residents will participate in reading or storytelling sessions with small groupings on the grass, in the amphitheater or in the park’s cultural center.

 “This Book and Reading Fair is a celebration of reading and learning,” says Lemuel Mial, manager of Von King Park. “It is the first event of its kind for this area of Brooklyn, and it has special significance in that it is being held here. Formerly known as Tompkins Park, Von King Park has a library history dating back to 1899; it is the site of one of New York City’s first Free Libraries.  The park also is celebrating 135 years as a community landmark and family destination. It is my hope that this event will be the spark to help create another library here in the Park.”

“So much can be learned about life just by knowing words associated with environment and nature,” says Arthur Sheppard, executive director of Magnolia Tree. “In support of the fair, Magnolia Tree Center is hosting a children’s art exhibition, and parent/child workshops to deliver the message: reading is essential for a child’s growth from a sapling to maturity.”

“Reading is essential  to every aspect of modern-day life,” says Lynnette Velasco, president of Black Americans in Publishing.  “We are happy to join with Von King Park, Our Time Press, the Brownstoners of Bedford- Stuyvesant and other community groups to support programs that promote our best and our brightest, and encourage our children to excel.  This event is not presented for the community; it is presented by the community.  We expect this day to be festive, with the message that while learning is serious business, it can be fun.”

~Conceived by DBG Media, publishers of Our Time Press, the event is sponsored by Magnolia Tree Earth Center, the managers of Von King Park, Our Time Press and Legacy PR in association with the Brownstoners of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Black Americans in Publishing. It is also supported by organizations and individuals,  including, the Agency for Child Development, Child Development Support Corp. with Freddie Hamilton and Mireille Massac,  Bedford Stuyvesant Community Head Start, Bedford-Stuyvesant Health Task Force, Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, Big Deal Books, Bridge Street Prep, Brooklyn Public Library, Central Brooklyn Churches, Brownstone Books,  Long Life Information and Referral Network, Inc., Nationwide Insurance, New Visions for Public Schools, Nichole Anderson, Senior Citizens Centers, 79th Precinct Community Council, Elizabeth Fulcher of the _________,  The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture,  Office of Public Education and Interpretation of The African Burial Ground, The Charter Excellence School,  Walk Tall Girl Productions, The Weeksville Society,  Word for Word Publishing Company, UniWorld Group, advertisers in Our Time Press community newspaper, Brownstone Books plus Scholastic publishing companies.

No vendors are allowed at the Book Fair that day.  If you are interested in supporting or volunteering, please E-mail your request to contactlegacy@aol.com.  For more information, see www.ourtimeathome.com.  Or call 719-574-5427. (See ad in Centerfold for approximate times and refer to www.ourtimeathome.com for Book Fair program and schedule updates.)

By Fr. Miguel d’Escoto

(Counterpunch.org’s Editor’s Note:  Fr. Miguel d’Escoto is a Catholic priest in Managua, Nicaragua.  He was Nicaragua’s foreign minister under the Sandinista government of the 1980s, when the U.S. was arming and supporting the Contra death squads.  Ronald Reagan said of the Contras:  “They are our brothers, these freedom fighters and we owe them our help.  They are the moral equal of our Founding Fathers.”  The following text is drawn from an interview with Fr. d ‘Escoto on the national radio/TV show Democracy Now!)

MANAGUA, NICARAGUA – First of all, let me start out by saying that, of course, Reagan is now dead.  And I, for one, would like to say only nice things about him.  I’m not insensitive to the feelings of many U.S. people mourning President Reagan, but as I pray that God in his infinite mercy and goodness forgives him for having been the butcher of my people, for having been responsible for the deaths of some 50,000 Nicaraguans, we cannot, we should not, ever forget the crimes he committed in the name of what he falsely labeled “freedom and democracy.”
More perhaps than any other U.S. President, Reagan convinced many around the world that the U.S. is a fraud, a big lie.
Not only was it not democratic, but, in fact, the greatest enemy of the right of self-determination of peoples.  Reagan was known as the Great Communicator and I believe that that is true only if one believes that to be a great communicator means to be a good liar.  That he was for sure.
He could proclaim the biggest lies without even as much as blinking an eyelash.  Hearing him talk about how we were supposedly persecuting Jews and burning down nonexistent synagogues, I was led to believe really, that Reagan was possessed by demons.  Frankly, I do believe Reagan at that time as much as Bush today was indeed possessed by the demons of Manifest Destiny.
Of course, as I say this, I’m quite aware that to the people of the Project for a New American Century, that is counted as a big loss.  Because of Reagan and his spiritual heir, George W. Bush, the world today is far less safe and secure than it has ever been.  Reagan, in fact ,was an international outlaw.  He came to the Presidency of the United States shortly after Somoza, a dictator that the U.S. had imposed over Nicaragua for practically half a century, had been deposed by Nicaraguan nationalists under the leadership of the Sandinista Liberation Front.
To Reagan, Nicaragua had to be re-conquered.  He blamed Carter for having lost Nicaragua, as if Nicaragua ever belonged to anyone else other than the Nicaraguan people.  That was then the beginning of this war that Reagan invented, and mounted and financed and directed:  the Contra War.  About which he continually lied to the people, helping the United States people to be the most ignorant people around the world.  I said ignorant, I don’t say not intelligent.  But the most ignorant people around the world about what the United States does abroad.
People don’t even begin to see – if they did, they would rebel.  And so, he lied to the people, as Bush lies to the people today and as they push on, thinking that the United States is above every law, human or divine.  And we took the United States, Reagan’s United States, his government to court, the World Court.  I was foreign minister at that time here in Nicaragua.  I was responsible for that.  And the United States government received the harshest sentence, the harshest condemnation ever in the history of world justice.
In spite of the fact that the United States, since the early 1920’s, has been proclaiming to the world that one of the proofs of its moral superiority as compared to other countries around the world is the fact that it abides by the international law and was obedient to the World Court.
When the United States was brought to the World Court in Nicaragua and received the condemnation, the United States failed to heed the sentence, and they still owe Nicaragua by now must be between 20 and 30 million dollars. At the time when we left government the damages caused by that Reagan war was over $17 billion – and this, according to very moderate estimators of damage, people from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, people from Howard University, from Oxford and from the University of Paris, basically this is the team that was pulled together to estimate the damage.
The United States was ordered to pay for the damage. Bush never even wanted to talk to me about it.  I said, “Well, let’s have a meeting so that you comply with your sentence of the court.”  He said to me in two different letters that there was nothing to talk about.
So Reagan did damage to Nicaragua beyond the imaginations of the people who are hearing me now.  The ripple effects of that criminal murderous intervention in my country will go on for 50 years or more.

Most New Yorkers probably don’t believe what’s happening in downtown Brooklyn. They just cannot understand how a big developer could actually draw up a project that would completely change a community without first consulting the people who own homes, rent apartments, and send their children to school in the area.
It sounds like something that Saddam Hussein would have done in a Kurdish community or the way American troops would treat a Baathist area. These residents cannot believe that their Mayor, their Boro President and their Speaker would support the developer’s plan without first coming to the people who voted them into office.
A television host interviewing State Senator Velmanette Montgomery and Councilman David Yassky thought for sure that these two representatives of the area had been consulted. So when Montgomery remarked that neither the developers nor the elected officials pushing the plan had spoken to her the interviewer clearly thought that she was not being quite truthful. So he turned to Yassky and asked him whether he had been consulted. Yassky, somewhat reluctantly, admitted that no one had as yet spoken to him.
The interviewer was definitely stunned. He expressed absolute amazement that the drawings and plans for the area had been completed and were being presented as a done-deed to the people who live in the community and to the people who were elected to represent them.
Even if the project had been perfect, and improved the community in every way, Bruce Ratner and the politicians owed these residents the respect of consulting with them through the officials who represent them. Ratner would never dare to pull a stunt like this in the communities where Gifford Miller, or Mike Bloomberg have their homes. It just wouldn’t happen, and it shouldn’t be happening in downtown Brooklyn.
It should come as no surprise to these residents that Borough President Marty Markowitz is a major promoter of this project. Marty is absolutely true to form. Quick. Think of something Marty has done in the area of Education, Housing, Homelessness, Jobs, Crime. This Borough President wasn’t elected because of substance. He was elected because he is a great entertainer. In more than two decades as State Senator Marty always put entertainment first with nothing else second. His colleagues in Albany often complained that Marty spent most of his time and energy into arranging his Concerts. So the Ratner project is perfect for Marty. This is his dream. He can move his concerts from Wingate Field to the new stadium where he will strut in splendor in his white tuxedo.
On the other hand Councilwoman Tish James has already proved to be a serious elected official and has passed her first test with flying colors. She never hesitated to support the residents of her community and we do not believe that her predecessor James Davis would have been as steadfast and reliable. Regrettably, most of the politicians who were willing to sign petitions and join the demonstration to prevent Assemblyman Clarence Norman from being indicted for grand larceny and extortion were not there to stand with Brooklyn residents whose community is being hijacked. The message is that although these politicians will join forces to protect each other in trouble, they disappear when the time comes to support voters who are under attack.
There are other troubling messages. Footnotes is always concerned about