MOVE and Race Part 2

"If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities"--S.R. Krishnan

I am guessing that most of the people who are familiar with MOVE are quietly puzzled as to how what started out as a mostly black Organization with philosophical strains of the 1960's “black power” embedded into it’s core has attracted so many in the white community into it’s midst.

What is it that would drive youngish whites to abandon their establishment values and concerns in order to arduously pursue a course of radicalism that they fail to completely understand and is seemingly fraught with danger?

The answer, I believe, has more to do with the elements of authoritarian structures than racial ones, but nevertheless the issue of race stands out as the first and most obvious indication that something has gone terribly awry, somewhere, in somebody’s quest for the American dream.

What usually begins as an expression of teen angst, limited political or historical awareness, infused with white guilt, can in the case of MOVE, lead to a life-long relationship with a cult that will pillage potential and rot the soul. A quest for certainty that will be found, but only in the most damaging of ways, dei sacrifucium intellectus.

It kind of goes without saying that no one, black or white, joins MOVE because things are going well in there lives. And whatever noble efforts or philosophical insights one may have before signing away ones life to the cult, will find that such gestures of genuine good will will fade away slowly from one’s life only to emerge later on as psychodrama, plagiarized emotions, and adherence to a stupid mythology.

The goal of MOVE’s leadership is the mental crippling of those in their charge without regard to race. An army of un-questioning troglodytes willing to do whatever they are told without moral pause. The searing reality of MOVE’s limited success in this regard can be traced directly to it’s pointless confrontations with authorities, the lack of regard for their children, and the trail of blood and death that emenates from MOVE’s wake.

So while race is a factor, the overarching issue is one of manipulation. There is no one who is essentially wired improperly and pre-ordained to enter into a cultish situation.

A prominent psychiatrist who has laboriously studied the issue makes the observation that: "no single personality profile characterizes those who join cults. Many well-adjusted, high-achieving persons from intact families have been successfully recruited by cults. So have individuals with varying degrees of psychological impairment."

I think that I can say without hesitation that nobody who “joined up” with MOVE would expect that they would be considering John Africa a God and his word sacrament, or that clouds are not water particles, but were instead natural manifestation of pollution. Does the vegan, radical environmentalist who falls under MOVE’s influence even consider that in a few years he/she will be eating raw eggs, plenty of meat, and participating in what amounts to the neglect of animals?

I am guessing not, but that is what happens, the question is, how does this occur?

If we reject the notion that only psychologically defective individuals succumb to mind control, we must use a new model to explain what happens when ordinary people follow the what the rest of society would consider a filthy rabble straight down the path to hell

Leaders of MOVE, like other authoritarian sects employ age old thought reform methodology that evolved from, incidentally enough, centuries-old Arabic mind control systems that we see most evidently in the terrorists that we are currently at war with. As scary as this is, what is even equally terrifying is that cults members who are “true believers” will carry out altruistic killings if these deaths are seen as a means to advance the causes of the group. I see the murder of John Gilbride as an example of this kind of savage devotion with regards to MOVE.

Another trend of totalitarian entities is the shifting of devotion from the original tenets of the group to the established leaders. This manifestation is particular relevant to MOVE being that the “bible” of the group is under lock and key and doled out sparingly, making the leaders of the group the unquestionable arbiters of truth within the group. These leaders are held above reproach and see themselves as being above and beyond their respective supporters and younger MOVE members who dare not question what they are told.

Whites in MOVE have something more to prove than do their black comrades. For as the direct benefactors of the “system” they are eyed with more suspicion. Their ignorance and white guilt is cynically exploited to the point that MOVE ends up with Caucasian zombies who must constantly and consistently prove there loyalty. Education is tossed out, language is altered, any sense of self-concern must be wiped away in order for their to be acceptance and acceptance is the key.

MOVE is a group of rebels. Rebels just dying to fit in.

MOVE and Race Part 1

One of the first slurs hurled in my direction by my former MOVE “family” after leaving the group was that I, in my traitorous act, had become a racist.

And we all know what that means.

To be a bigot in our society is to be the scum of the earth. The concept brings to the mind images of drunken neo-Nazis and genetically suspect Klansmen attempting to resurrect some kind of imaginary, racially pure, utopia.

At the time this invective was being hurtled at me via cyberspace I laughed off the attacks as desperate and vile ad-hominem with no basis or merit to be had.

After all, I spent years laboring to “Free Mumia”, had lived with black people, considered black people “family”, and would confront and despise bigotry wherever it reared it’s head.

But after nearly two years of being out of MOVE and after plenty of reflection, research, and the facing of some cruel realities, I have come to realization that there was some truth in the “Tony Allen is a racist” attacks. Just not in the way that people would think.

Unknowingly, unwittingly, and despite all of my well intentioned activism, while in MOVE I was helping to prop up and make excuses for, hatred. Not just against whites, but against blacks, the opposite of what I thought I was doing.

Allow me to explain.

MOVE is known as being a predominantly “black” sect. And while it is true that the majority of people who carry the last name Africa in MOVE are black the majority of it’s supporters and the vast majority of the cult’s recruits after 1985 have been white. White, middle or upper middle class, and from solid families. How this phenomena came to be will be explained later. What I want to expound upon in this article in plain terms just how MOVE the issues of race and class are played out within MOVE’s authoritarian structure and do so to the detriment of the blacks within the group, especially the children.

Everyone knows that MOVE’s rhetoric is oozing with racial overtones, accusations, and hyperbolic equivocations. One very recent example is when MOVE compared the Nazi holocaust of Jews with the perceived persecution of Mumia Abu-Jamal. This is of course nonsensical propaganda, and very bad propaganda at that.

But there are far more nefarious things going on behind the scenes of MOVE than the crude construction of rotten ideals, there is also the implication of these ideals.

It is known that MOVE does not educate their children, or at least not their black children.


While in MOVE, I saw with my own eyes, girls who had two and three children of their own, struggling to read “The Cat in the Hat”. These unfortunate victims of MOVE’s contempt for the life of the mind could barely write their own names and knew only enough math to get them in and out of a store with only a fair chance of not getting ripped off. They were all black.

Another child in MOVE, this one white, and younger than these young mothers by at least half, was being tutored by professional educators, participated in swimming competing filled with other white kids and even took dance classes. He also lived in a large well kept house in the fantastically expensive suburb of Cherry Hill New Jersey.

This is the reality of MOVE. The one that everyone especially likes to ignore.

There is more to this however than just an Orwellian twist of a utopia turned upside down, there is the fact that many a well intentioned white, rogressive, “revolutionary” is sanctioning this enforced climate of ignorance, and do so knowingly.

The question that begs to be asked is whether such a brazen disregard for the future of these children would exist if they were of another race?

Would the Rotunda for example allow for a group that does this to white children a forum from which to spread their brand of toxic anti-intellectualism?

Do such questions even need to be raised? Don’t we know the answers already.

More to come on MOVE and race...

The Rotunda "Debate"

What follows is an email exchange between myself and Gina Renzi, the person who has repeatedly allowed MOVE to use the Rotunda for their events. She makes her case and I make mine, and I leave it to the reader to decide who makes a better case.

On a side note I never heard from the University Provost who is said to oversee the Foundation Arts which in turn runs the Rotunda. What a shock.


Gina,

Again you allow an Organization know to be violent, homophobic, virulently anti-choice...essentially Nazis with dreadlocks, back to the Rotunda to recruit and fundraise. Disgusting.

-Tony Allen


Mr. Allen,

I do not agree with everything that MOVE does, nor have I ever claimed to personally support or not support them. I do, however, support an open forum for expression. You, just like they, can certainly speak your mind and plan an event here or possibly at another venue to do so. The event on July 15 is open to the public, and welcomes questions. The 7pm event will be preceded, in fact, by a Q & A with MOVE. I fully encourage you or your colleagues to be present and state your case, in public, against them, if you would like. I understand if you cannot personally attend, but why not send supporters to do so? If you are interested in exposing MOVE in some way that most media or other outlets have not, then why not take every public chance (aside from email and blogs) to do so? Forgive me if you already do this, or if this is not your mission.

-Gina

Gina,
It is easy to fall back upon the "open forum for expression" isn't it?

No sense of moral or ethical responsibility.

Whatever gets you through your day I guess.

But, for those of us who have been adversly affected by MOVE, things are not so subjectively plain.

Neither do I understand how allowing MOVE to use the Rotunda as a forum for recruitment and fundraising fits into the mission statement of the Foundation Arts.

If you had bothered to read my website or blog you would understand why I would not attend a MOVE program. The first thing MOVE's leaders did when they found out my family and I were leaving the group was to issue threats. And than, after we spoke out publicly my family again was threatened by a number of MOVE supporters via email. Finally, I had to ban comments from my blog after yet another MOVE supporter used it to make physical threats against me.

Free exchange indeed.

If I or someone else who actually knows what MOVE is about were to show up and attempt to speak out we would be shouted down, threatened, or worse. Your position of supposed neutrality is in fact not the case. By allowing MOVE a pulpit to preach their revisionist view of history and warped conception of reality you are assisting them in their vulgar, fascistic, endeavors. Any group that practices the forced rape of children, murders public servants, and threatens with violence its critics does not need to be given a place from which to ply their trade of hatred. There are plenty of street corners for them to occupy and that is where they belong if not in jail. Again I would encourage you to read my blog and website as it is pretty clear that you have not done so.

-Tony


Mr. Allen

Nothing is easy in this situation.

Point blank. You don't know me personally. I see your reason for being angry, disgusted, disappointed, what have you, at my refusal to cancel the July 15 event, but just as you might think, incorrectly so, that I have not considered cancelling their event, I think that one should take advantage of an open forum with a group that one opposes strongly. Perhaps my previous message was unclear. I was not saying that you personally should attend. I was using that as an example. I have looked at your blog; I do recall your messages to me from the past; I DID state in my previous message that I understand why you personally cannot attend.

You attack my neutrality, but I don't agree with the fact that you cannot mobilize people to show up at MOVE events and pose the hard questions that need to be asked in such a setting. Why can't you mobilize via anonymous emails sent from IP addresses that cannot be traced? Forgive my simplicity. I do not purport to know your personal situation from any vantage point but that of an outsider, and I am sorry if I am proposing actions that cannot be taken because of security reasons. I understand your statement that people showing up in a public forum and criticizing MOVE are at risk, but then how does a group deflate? How is the public truly made aware?

If there is no public debate, folks need to look at MOVE info, make a choice, and look at your evidence and make a choice. I know that. I just don't see how they'll be exposed, truly, especially to those who don't have internet access to read your blog (yes, I know--those with access can print it out for those without access). To get back from off of that tangent and answer a question in your most recent email, the MOVE event is not listed on The Rotunda's site because we're having problems with our server. For some reason, only half of the changes I try to load actually do make it to the remote server. gina

-Gina

Gina,

I think what we have here is your misconceptions about what MOVE is. Whether that is because of the way the group has been presented to you, or through anectdotes or your own personal experiences with the group, nothing can cover up that MOVE is now and has been a violent blight upon the community.

To presuppose that one could have an "open forum" with a group such as MOVE is misguided idealism at best and plain and simple ignorance at worst.
It is a matter of indisputable fact that MOVE is a group that has unleashed violence upon those that has gotten in the groups way and has left a wake of death and deception and destruction in it's wake. MOVE is not a group that one can simply sit down with and hash out differences with in any kind of civil manner.

Your oblique defense of your own purported neutrality is insulting, whether intentional or not.

Why should I have to "mobolize" through "anonymous" means people to challenge MOVE on it's lies? Why would you invite a group where someone would feel sufficently nervous to have to resort to such tactics? That is the more appropriate question .
Secondly, if you were somehow interested in a dialogue about MOVE than why offer such a one sided event?

I would have to say as an answer to your question that the public is "largely" aware of what MOVE is, paticularly those residents who remember the flames searing up from the Cobbs Creek area. Those who may not know are the Penn students who are unwittingly being led into a MOVE recruitment festival being held under your supervision and with your blessing. And trust me, having participated in dozens of such events, that is exactly what they are. And there is of course the money issues as well.

MOVE certainly wont "deflate" if otherwise responsible and apparently inteligent persons such as yourself provide MOVE a forum, a very respected forum at that, which to spread their warped and deluded conceptions.

Having studied dangerous sects or to use the modern vernacular of "high demand groups" such as MOVE. I can assure you that for many who get caught up in sect do not do so via an intellectual journey as you might assume, but rather as a means of a quest for certainty in an uncertain world. Someone could come and challenge and refute every one of MOVE's lies and there would still be those attracted to the group in through personality. You are providing a forum for all of this and you are allowing them a place to raise funds to continue to do what they do.

And in case you forgot, these are some of MOVE's noble activites.

-The forced rape and marriage of girls at the onset of puberty
-The use of children as human shields in violent confrontations with authorities
-The use of this aforementioned "victimization" as a means of recruiting new adherents and securing finances
-The destruction of a black working class neighborhood
-The murder of one police officer and the wounding of dozens of others

I have read your defense, but you fail to convince me. My position remains steadfast.

-Tony


Gina,

One other topic that I believe cuts to the heart of the issue is just how does a MOVE event fit into the "Foundation Events" mission charter? Nobody has yet to explain that one to me and as someone who is in a position of at least representing some of the concerns of MOVE's victims I think an answer is called for.
So what gives?

-Tony

FOP Protests French Consulate

(From Philly.com)
Local FOP protests naming of street after Mumia Abu-Jamal in France

Lloylita Prout

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 gathered outside the French Consulate in Center City today - Bastille Day - in a noon demonstration to protest the naming of a street in a Paris suburb after Mumia Abu-Jamal.

"We're hoping that as a result of having our peaceful demonstration here today, the public would realize [what's been done], they'll call the French Consulate and they'll ask them politely to please, please just change the name," said Bobby Eddis, president of Lodge 5, one of 30 police officers from Philadelphia and the region who participated in the two-hour protest in the 1600 block of Market Street.

The officers handed out flyers to officer workers and other passerbys explaining the demonstration and seeking support to change the street name.

On April 29, the city of of Saint-Denis named a street after Abu-Jamal, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.

Abu-Jamal is on death row, awaiting an appeal of the case.

Because of the Bastille Day holiday current representatives of the consulate were not immediately available for comment.

However, Daniele Thomas Easton, the former consulate in Philadelphia, said the decision by Saint Denis to name the street was "a decision done locally, not at all a reflection of how French people may feel or the French government."

Easton, who said she was speaking as a private citizen and not on behalf of the consulate, said Abu-Jamal was seen by the French as a "poster boy for the death penalty."

"I think most French people would not know the details (of the Abu-Jamal murder case)," said said in a phone interview. "Most French people would feel angry about any police force being shot."

MOVE Raises the Dead to Attack the Media

(Pic Of Officer Daniel Faulkner)


As if MOVE has not embarrassed itself enough in the past couple of weeks with it’s semi-literate rants and failed protests, they now resolve to pour salt in their own wounds by again attacking Stu Bykofsky.

With all due respect to Stu, he is not exactly on the par of say Woodward and Bernstein. He is a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, which means his opinions are his product. Still, he is a respected member of the journalistic community in Philadelphia and certainly does not need me to come to his aid when he is being slandered and defamed by MOVE.

I am writing this out of my own personal disgust and disdain with MOVE’s continued and ongoing war upon the truth, common sense, and the memory of an innocent police officer.

To read MOVE’s entire “response” to Bykofsky, by all means visit the Mumia website, which MOVE uses as a means to propagate it’s cheap invective. I won’t quote the whole MOVE article verbatim here, but will mention that it is signed by a “Nick Africa”. An interesting fact considering that “Nick Africa” was the nickname of Frank Africa, the nephew of John Africa who died on May 13th 1985. MOVE is simply at it’s old tricks of using names of deceased MOVE members in order to confuse people as the amount of members the group has. A macabre tactic indeed, but when has MOVE shown any respect for the dead (or the living for that matter).

In order to sift through MOVE’s collage of excrement I will offer a section of their statement in bold followed by my italicized response.

“ In his original column, Bykofsky said that "Mumia is a convicted criminal". In our response we asked how does he know Mumia is a criminal, just because he was convicted?

Usually being convicted of a crime is a good start insofar as identifying someone as a criminal.

"Being convicted of crime does not necessarily make a person a criminal, and the proof of this is in all those people who have been released from prison because they were found innocent after having spent years in prison because they had been convicted of crime and found guilty, labeled criminal."

The key point here being that “all those people who have been released from prison because they were found innocent” is that they were found to be innocent. And even those amount to a very small percentage of the overall prison population. Mumia has had at his disposal some of the greatest defense attorneys and arguably the most successful public relations effort of all time dedicated to securing his release. Yet he remains in jail because that is where the facts demand that he belong.

"This happens too many times to be ignored, so how can Stu Bykofsky, a journalist, ignor it and just arbitrarily, and conveniently perpetuate this witch hunt against Mumia Abu Jamal, and try to rope the public into this conspiracy as well. He does this because he's a conniving government sympathizer--right or wrong, while disguising himself as a voice for and of the people."

There is no witch hunt being perpetrated against Jamal. There is an effort to combat the misinformation as offered by his misguided and often cynical supporters. I don’t know Mr. Bykfofsky, but I do know MOVE members and supporters and if any group of people fit into the category of hack it is the latter. Perhaps what motivates Mr. Bykofsky is a sense of moral outrage at justice denied.

Bykofsky is not God, he is not omnipotent, he does not know all, and he does not know Mumia Abu Jamal is guilty of anything, let alone murder.

But he does know that Mumia was found guilty by a jury that Jamal helped to empanel. He does know that the multitude of appeals offered by various defense teams has left Jamal’s conviction intact. I am sure he has reviewed the evidence and trial transcripts, documents which do nothing but show Jamal to be the killer that so many know him to be.

"Stu Bykofsky is a confused, pompous, judgmental, arrogant, full of hate racist, and he is a liar. He deliberately omitted any portion of our response that would throw into question this government's trying to kill Mumia, despite all of the overwhelming evidence of Mumia's innocence."

Never mind the ad hominem attack. I am sure that Mr. Bykofsky has thick enough skin to not be bothered by MOVE’s vicious and pointless insults. Did Stu edit his own column? I am sure he did. This complaint comes from MOVE however. The same group that threatens the lives of it’s critics and has shut down whole message boards in order to keep people from criticizing the cult. This complaint on the part of MOVE is rank hypocrisy at it’s lowest.


He's also trying to hide, cover-up the fact that this government's persistence in trying to kill Mumia, when his innocence is not just a question but an overwhelming probability, is an attack on JOHN AFRICA. LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA!!

John Africa is dead so I guess there is no long living for him and I guess it is also similarly difficult to attack him, but leave it to MOVE to write and say stupid things.

Truthfully, if the government was so dead set upon killing Mumia they would have found a far more compelling way to do it. After all, since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970's only three people have been executed.

Here again MOVE gets its own propaganda mixed up. In past statements MOVE has repeated without pause that Jamal is 100% innocent. Now in this latest missive it is stated that his innocence is a “overwhelming probability”. Which is it? Can MOVE not even get it’s own bullshit straight?

Bykofsky is misusing his position as a journalist to deliberately trick the public into supporting the legal lynching of Mumia, an innocent Black man, by this White racist government. All in keeping with the new world order, a back-to-basics America in the spirit of 17, 18, & 19th centuary legalized sl avery of the Black man, and all men of color. Bykofsky is also pushing for Mumia to be excuted because, just like this government, Bykofsky would like to destroy JOHN AFRICA too. LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA!! FOREVER!!>

Note to MOVE. The whole “white racist” government bit is getting a little bit played out. Is Philadelphia not a city with a black mayor, dozens of black government officials, a black police commissioner, a number of black city council persons and black senators?

America’s “original sin” of slavery is well noted, but it should also be noted that in the “17, 18, 19th centuries there was tremendous agitation to end chattel slavery and improve the plight of African-Americans. The 19th century ended with the emancipation proclamation, a constitutional amendment ending slavery in this country forever, and saw a war that was fought at least partially to free the southern slaves that cost millions of lives.

How any of MOVE’s revisionist and ignorant views of history translate into an attack on Bykofsky’s view on Jamal escapes me as I am sure it does anyone else who has some kind of grip on reality.

After all, this is the same bunch that compared the geonicide of some 6 million jews with the continued incarceration of a convicted and obvious cop-killer.

Disgusting.

The Foul And Scary Truth About MOVE

“Political language - and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists - is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind”
-George Orwell

(Picture of MOVE's Truths Being Played Out On Osage Avenue)


It is a kind of not often enough spoken fact that all “faiths” are not created equal. For the sake of this blog we will consider MOVE to be a “faith” of sorts although plenty of other adjectives might be more appropriate, but this the one to which I will address at this point.

Truth. Objective or subjective is the currency that anyone who is serious about politics or life in general. And with that being the case there are agreed upon notions of what “truth” is. Without turning this into an epistemological exercise in Socratic philosophy I will employ the concept of truth in it’s conventional definitions and than contrast that with the notion of truth employed by MOVE.

For MOVE, “truth” is ever changing and very personal. For example, what MOVE leader Alberta Africa says is the truth. It doesn’t matter whether she says that the sky is purple with pink polka dots. What she says goes and is therefore the “truth”. Question that “truth” and you will find yourself in the middle of a very ugly and disturbing situation. Push someone like Alberta to far and you may find yourself in a bullet ridden car on a rainy night dead as a doornail.

John Africa claimed that clouds for example were not, as any modern scientist would tell you, condensated water droplets, but instead were clouds of pollution. John Africa said it, so it was the “truth”. And there you have it.

The same pattern of stupid and authoritarian proclamation exist to this day. Another yarn spun by John Africa was that John Lennon was killed because the late Beatle expressed an interest in meeting with the meglamonical Africa. An unlikely scenario given Mr. Lennon’s rather contentious relationships with “gurus” in the past.

That is the terrible reality lies within a violent authoritarian cult and it did not begin and will not end with MOVE.

MOVE’s concept of “truth” is an integral part of it’s propaganda endeavors. It allows them the moral certainly to lie and lie and lie again all without any shame or remorse. John Africa taught MOVE people that “what is necessary is right and what is right is necessary”. This is the kind of Machiavellian logic that allowed for Kissinger’s ecocide of Southeast Asia and the establishment of realpolitik as the only politics that matter here at the beginning of this new American century.

But MOVE was never so ambitious. They applied their subjective morality principally in keeping order over their charges in order that they preserve the bourgeois leaders comfortable.

For inscribed in John Africa’s teachings (the ones we have access to) are the blueprints for death and destruction and offer a rearview perspective upon the group’s savage bloodletting of the past.

I will give an example.

My posthumous friend, John Gilbride, who was savagely gunned down by assailants (more or less) unknown, was not only a victim of a vicious murder, but was just the latest in a long line of MOVE’s victims who was caught up in a wave of violence and death that had began back in the early 70's but had yet to break and fall back. It is a fact that John is not the first and unfortunately will unlikely be the last.

What helped paved the way for John’s demise was MOVE’s dogged commitment to spreading the “truth” about John. As it was however, none of these “truths” were what they were advertised to be. John was no abuser as MOVE claimed. He was no deadbeat. He was no violent sociopath. He left that kind of muck to MOVE, they were awash in it, and if my observations are correct, still are.

But people believed MOVE’s “truths” about John. Shamefully, I fell for some of these myths as they were told and told again in a way that would make Nazi propagandists proud.

It was not enough however for MOVE to spread “truths” about John. No sir. They had to defame and verbally assault the man’s entire family. No one was safe from their rhetorical barrage and MOVE had no shame in their attacks and no one on that side of the equation cared to distinguish fact from fiction.

All it took was for a MOVE leader to say something was true and so it was. Living deities who could tell no lies, with malice towards none, and only the fire of truth and the protection of life to guide them. Bullshit of course, but it makes for good press in the Indy media.

So the moral of the story is to be wary of unchecked power, even if it seems to emanate from unlikely sources. MOVE leaders do exert undue and damaging amounts of power over their charges. The group is a haven for child rapists and psychopathic killers. Deny it someone. I challenge you.

If there is justice in America than they will be given the Manson treatment anytime soon.

Go And Hear MOVE Members Lie About MOVE

The following was posted July 5, 2006 on the Mumia website:

LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA!!!
LONG LIVE REVOLUTION!!!
ALL YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT MOVE
GET THE ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS
FIND OUT ABOUT MOVE FROM MOVE

JOIN US FOR A Q&A WITH MOVE MEMBERS AND A FLEA MARKET AT THE ROTUNDA 40TH & WALNUT STS., FROM 12:00PM TIL 4:00PM ON SATURDAY JULY 15TH
ALSO, MARK SATURDAY AUGUST 5TH ON YOUR CALENDAR. WE’RE DOING A PROGRAM FOR THE MOVE 9 ON THAT DAY. IT MARKS 28 YEARS OF UNJUST IMPRISONMENT FOR THE MOVE 9. THE MOVE 9 BECOMES ELIGIBLE FOR PAROLE SOON AND WE ARE INTENSIFYING OUR CAMPAIGN FOR THE RELEASE OF OUR INNOCENT FAMILY MEMBERS
FOR MORE INFO, CONTACT MOVE AT
610 499-0979 or onamovellja@aol.com

The truth will only be heard at the Rotunda on July 15th if it falls out of the sky.

Sadly, I will be unable to attend what will surely be a day of enlightenment and hardy revolutionary ardor, I do have some questions that I would like to be answered.

Why does MOVE force 11 and 12 year old girls to become “married” and impregnated (and not necessarily in that order)?

Why does MOVE threaten the lives of it’s critics?

How is it that an Organization ostensibly dedicated to protecting “life” can consistently be linked to acts of violence?

Why does the group continue to cover-up information pertaining to the murder of John Gilbride?

Of course these are just a few questions one could have for MOVE members, I am sure there are many more that could and should be asked, but something tells me they wont be.

Another question worthy of being asked is exactly why is MOVE again being allowed to use the Rotunda as a forum for recruiting and fund-raising?

The Rotunda is, according to it’s mission statement, dedicated to bridging together the people of West Philadelphia and the greater Philadelphia area with University of Pennsylvania students.

How exactly MOVE fits into this equation is a question to be asked of the “Foundation Community Arts Initiative” which “maintains” the Rotunda and is “supported” by the University itself.

It is a question that I will be putting to the Vice-President Provost herself and I encourage others to do likewise. She is Dr. Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum and she is the one who oversees the Foundation.

She can be reached at:

Office of the Vice Provost for University Life
University of Pennsylvania
3611 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6222
Phone: (215) 898-5337
Fax: (215) 573-5611
cade@pobox.upenn.edu

Stu Bykofsky Takes on MOVE/Mumia

Stu Bykofsky | Readers have the write stuff

YOU KNOW what I like?

Letters that call me a genius, that praise my perceptions.

You know what I like better?

Letters that argue with me.

Here are excerpts from a few, with my responses in italics:

Re: "Some ideas for the French, who just love our criminals" (5/25):

We know that because you're an American Patriot, it's hard for you to understand anything that's not dictated to you by your government's propaganda, but you need to try to stop and think about this - the U.S. is the U.S., France is France, and not the U.S.

When are you people gonna get it thru your heads you don't control the world. There's a whole world out there outside of the U.S., full of people who have their own cultures, their own way of life and they haven't asked for, nor do they need, the U.S. dictating to them how to think and how to live.

Look at how you're trying to trash Saint-Denis because they named a street after Mumia Abu-Jamal. Talking about Saint-Denis had riots, like that is a blight on the character of those people and the reason why they would do such a thing like name a street after Mumia, who, to quote you, is a "criminal."

One thing is for sure, however, that is you don't know nothing about Mumia Abu-Jamal, but you do know a lot about being unfair, even though you are Jewish and you and your people are always crying about the Holocaust, expecting people to be sympathetic with you over Adolf Hitler and Nazis, but here you are being the Adolf Hitler, the Nazi, trying to kill off Mumia, a Black man, just like Hitler tried to kill off Jews, your people.

- Nick Africa, for MOVE

Only a Mumidiot sees a parallel between a cop-killer who got a trial - plus endless appeals and who is alive 20 years after the crime - and the mass murder of innocent civilians, Jews among others.

I'm not even going into the fact what my opinions about Mumia Abu-Jamal are because that seems to be a little beside the point here because you seem to exert more hatred toward the French than toward Mumia.

It seems a bit pompous for you to be the judge after who streets should be named.

- Tim Ianna, Turnhout, Belgium

They are free to name streets for cop-killers. I am free to criticize.

Re: "Battle of the Border" (4/17):

You make it sound so simple: Illegal immigration is wrong! Think about that the next time you're sitting at home, which was probably built by illegal immigrants. The next time you go to enjoy a meal, think about the people that picked the vegetables, butchered the meat, cooked the meal, cleared the table and washed the dishes after you left. I would bet illegal immigrants played a big role in getting your meal.

Illegal immigration is necessary, that's why we live so well in the U.S.

- Manuel R. Murillo, Fort Worth, TX

You don't know who built my 30-year-old condo, but I doubt it was illegals. You know what's "necessary"? LEGAL immigrants. I'm all for them.

Re: "Smoking ban in Philly? Don't hold your breath" (4/6):

When you go out to dinner and pay the high prices that you can expect today, the last thing you want to smell is tobacco smoke as you introduce yourself to your filet mignon.

Where are the rights to breathe clean air? Who, Stu, should have these rights? The smokers or the nonsmokers?

- Glen Kozemchak, Wyndmoor

Since most restaurants already ban smoking, Glen, there's no shortage of choice for nonsmokers. This will be a moot point if Mayor Street signs the anti-smoking bill on his desk.

E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns:

http://go.philly.com/byko.