The State of the Union:
McCain then tasers her. As Winkfein lies on the ground screaming, he orders, “Now put your hands behind your back. Put your hands behind your back or you’re going to be tasered again.”
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May 21. 2009
Hello All,
Before we left Okinawa, we had an interview at the Shrimpo, the daily newspaper, one of two there. The Okinawa Times had an article and picture from our time on the rooftop of the school. The TV crew aired a 5 min news piece Friday on our visit. The interview went very well, the editorship is somewhat progressive and we expect good copy from this.
Before heading to the airport Professor Nobu, a great host, took us to the marketplace. Colorful, exotic and just amazing. The marketeers were most surprised to see an Iraqi and American travelling together and we received great respect and many free samples of food. Smoked pigs intestine, anyone?
We flew back to Osaka where Mr Sato met us and took us by train to Kyoto to address the staff of Japan Peace TV. At that point, KenJi took leave back to Tokyo and Mr MORI translated for me. They showed a Sana production of interviews of Baghdad school boy, aged 12-15, whose fathers have been killed or kidnapped. They also showed the LB piece on the Palestinian protest in front of the Israeli Consulate on Jan 9. My portion of the presentation centered how the war machine is trying to suppress both Mr Salih and my efforts to tell the story at ground level. He has to see the US Army destroy his camera and computers, I have to deal with lawsuits trying to take my raw footage of protest events. Not quite comparable, the point is it is the same source at work.
It went well, and dinner afterwards with another great host, Mr Sato, was lively and well attended. I was extremely tired afterwards, and dropped into my hotel bed.
The next morning, another exchange was made and Mr OgU, another student Arabic translator, took Mr Seiko-san's place and Osamu rejoined us at the newspaper office where we had another interview with the three dailies of Osaka. For an hour and a half, we made a truncated video presentation and spoke and answered questions to the half dozen reporters present. I tried to keep to the point of my attempted civil rights suppression in America and how the war is fought both abroad and at home. One question about Obama, I had to dump on him a little.
Next, we took the bullet train to Hiroshima, about an hour and a half. We were met by Mr Hinada, a high school teacher and two of his former students. He also became my translator. We went to the Peace Museum and I can't describe how moving it was. Every American school child should get a free trip to go there. We videotaped Mr Salih impressions afterwards in front of the ruins of the Atomic Dome on the grounds there. LB should really research getting an Arabic translator in the Iraqi dialect and use this piece and Sana images more.
We then had a forum in an auditorium which I assume was the public library. It wasn't all that well attended, but I got the feeling these were older, more long time peace activists. They showed Sana`s piece on the hospital injured and Aaron in Erbil. I talked on the theme of promoting international human compassion through the use of video images. Again, we went for dinner afterwards and I learned much more about Japan Peace TV, its funding and mission and I will share this with you when I return. Today we train back to Osaka and, I believe, address the University students there. This has been just a tremendous experience. I'm representin` the best I can. We are being treated and received extremely well, still, I look forward to returning, resting and getting back to work.
IS,
EWS
