Adult bullies rarely
do their own dirty work now. The 1% have plenty of obedient servants to stand
out front for them with loaded guns or police batons. The Security Men approached a
mature, kind woman in our small group and commanded her to not hand out one
single flyer. Like most bullies, they approached the smallest person in our
group. The security guys did not even talk to the 3 men. The Security Men ordered that our group of 4
would be "forcibly removed" and arrested if necessary. Why would we be considered so threatening to Rockwell
CEO Clay Jones and the President of this University?
Our group of four listened in silence to Mr.
Jones glowing PR presentation about the fine role that Rockwell plays in the world
market and in our home town. The President
of the University introduced the speech as "a dialogue where we invite students
and the public to explore important issues".
Clay Jones allowed 3 people to ask questions at the end of his speech. One was a professor that asked how Mount Mercy
Students could be best prepared for jobs at Rockwell. One man, who said that he held two jobs, one
with Rockwell and one at Mount Mercy offered gratitude for his job. One African immigrant working on an M.B.A.
provided the only shred of critical inquiry; He asked Clay Jones how the USA
could change our foreign policy to foster the development of more friends and
allies in the world, instead of our present path that seems to mainly create
more enemies. Clay Jones was very
dismissive of such a question. Clay
Jones stated that we have enemies, "because we are wealthy, and our enemies are
envious; Our foreign policy has nothing to do with it". Jones then stated that
the only way to deal with a dangerous world with all of these enemies was to
make sure that we build up a stronger military force. Two of our four had to step out and get fresh
air as an antidote to such rank hubris, nationalistic entitlement and total
intellectual blindness .
We had witnessed a speech that this University said was selected
to "represent the values of the Sisters of Mercy ."
As I noted at the beginning of this article, I
am writing this essay as if it is a conversation with friends. This local conversation has national and
global implications. Since the one page flyer below was forcibly censored, the
300 or so people at the lecture hall were all prevented from even seeing this
alternate information. As my friends,
would you readers please counter this gross censorship by sharing the one page
flyer below with friends in your community?
The Mount Mercy Security Men stopped it from getting it into the hands
of a few hundred people. You readers,
can distribute this flyer below and get it into the hands of millions. Op Ed News has great social media
connect/forward options. Thank you for
your help. Peace.
Here is the one page flyer that was censored at
Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on March 20, 2012;
Rockwell Collins Information Brief
In 2011, Rockwell
Collins generated sales revenue of $4.8 billion dollars. During the decade of
active global warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq, Rockwell experienced
double-digit revenue growth. Defense contracts represent about half of Rockwell
income. Rockwell Collins in
Cedar Rapids is one of the largest proponents of drone warfare and production of surveillance drones now deployed over
U.S. civilian airspace. It is documented
that thousands of civilians including women and children are killed as
"collateral damage" in Drone airstrikes in active war zones and other areas of
clandestine conflict. According
to field generals, residual hate generated by drone strikes activates the
number of committed terrorists exponentially.
If you think this kind of warfare makes you safer , then it is time to do
some serious research and know the facts. Drone Warfare is commanded as Virtual Reality
from computer stations at airbases in the USA, so that violent war can
proceed with no U.S. casualties. That makes endless global war much easier to "sell" to the
U.S. public. It is important to note that the primary purpose of Rockwell
Collins as a private corporation is to sell more goods and produce wealth for
their stockholders. There is no real connection to the human pain, misery,
death and destruction on the "other side" of a fuzzy drone computer
image. Drone warfare is the most unaccountable war model in U.S.
history, and thus it's the most dangerous form of war in human history. Drone
warfare provides an expanding market for Rockwell. The "detachment from
reality" in drone warfare also makes it possible for Rockwell staff to
"psychologically detach" from the real human effect of their work.
Military
industrial corporations generate billions
from the war industry. Our nation went from a treasury surplus to 16 trillion dollars in national debt
during our decade long "War on Terror ". As President Dwight D. Eisenhower observed,
every dollar spent in the military/industrial complex is a dollar removed from
education, U.S. infrastructure, health care and other real needs of common
citizens. It's time to evaluate our core values and priorities as a
nation. The huge intellectual capital
of the thousands of Rockwell engineers could be converted to peaceful,
productive and humane technology in the areas of energy, communication and
transportation, but the incentive for Rockwell to spend millions to lobby
Congress for more war sales is
very strong. War sales provide
Rockwell with a much greater profit margin, as there are no cost controls or
accountability with our public funds. The Department of Defense is the only U.S. agency that does not require
audits on expenditures. The gates
are wide open for war profiteering. The Pentagon admits huge systemic waste. It is the responsibility of concerned citizens to demand change in this system.
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