The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.27           August 11, 1997 
 
 
The Great Society  

BY HARRY RING
Also, they love imperialism -Air Force training material for "low intensity conflict" included a 1988 document on "understanding" Latin Americans. The Miami Herald summarized: " `The Latin American sees time as abstract,' feels little sense of urgency, happily defers to a higher authority for decisions and measures success by the amount of physical labor he can avoid, the paper said." They claim it's no longer in use.

Quick, the fire hose - A fourth grade class in Ridgewood, New Jersey, decided to do a play about the notorious Nike and Disney sweatshops. They collected material and wrote the play. During rehearsals, the principal ordered it canceled. Ten-year-olds, she said, couldn't grasp the issues. The play, she noted, didn't show "all the good things these corporations do."

Too late? - One of the angry Ridgewood students wrote the principal a letter of protest. Queried by a reporter on why he felt so deeply about it, Han Park quietly responded: "These workers are not being treated like humans. They're like dolls being bitten by dogs who are the bosses."

Economics I - Don De Vivo, a U.S. investor in Vietnam, seems gratified that the Vietnamese "are starting to understand that foreign investment isn't just money coming in. Investors want to take out more than they put in. That is known as profit."

It stinks less? - The Immigration Service seems a bit touchy about angry charges of racist, inhumane workplace raids to scoop up undocumented immigrants. Declared a migra spokesperson: "Don't say raid. The official term is worksite enforcement action."

The `civilizers' - With Judaism Israel's state religion, the transportation ministry is extending segregated bussing into parts of Jerusalem. The buses - men in front, women in back - meet the demand of ultra-Orthodox Jews for separation of men and women in public. The segregated buses will have signs, "Religious Line." There will be separate entrances for men and women.

The crooks are behind bars? -Correction Corp. of America (CCA), the country's biggest private prison outfit, is creating a company to market stock in prison property. Investors' money will buy nine CCA prisons and lease them back. "Sale" of the nine prisons will give CCA a bundle for further expansion.

Togetherness program - The U.S. prison population hit a record peak of 1.3 million in 1996, intensifying overcrowding. The federal pens were 25 percent over capacity. Overcrowding in state prisons, which hold the greatest number of inmates, ranged from 16 percent to 24 percent.

In touch with this world -Wiley Drake, the Orange County minister who was hauled into court for permitting an unlicensed homeless tent site in his church's parking lot, put it tersely: "It's all about it being against the law to be poor and homeless."

Book him - Last we heard, a homeless man, 65 and in a wheel chair, had spent 75 days in the emergency room of the Arecibo Regional Hospital in Puerto Rico. The hospital sought a court order requiring the Dept. of the Family to take charge of him. The department had said it didn't have the money necessary to relocate him in a foster home.  
 
 
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