Jarrett-Carter.com

So apparently, the “victim” in the Duke Lacrosse scandal is planning to write a book. What in the hell for, no one will ever know for sure, but you would think that one failed attempt at playing on public empathy would’ve have taught Crystal Mangum a lesson.

This girl single-handedly set black folks back for the entire winter of 2006. Everything that we could have lamented about rich, privileged white southern collegians went out of the window, and we had to begrudgingly face the fact that while they may like black strippers, they aren’t about the business of raping them.

While it may be sick to think and sicker to say, it might have been better for the country were it actually true. It might have lent itself to a more honest discussion about the witches brew of race and class in America. It might have forced white folks to honestly hear the complaints of black folks, not out of necessity, but out of guilty conscience. It might have forced black folks to take a more substantive approach to voicing our concerns, instead of responding with generational rage and emotion.

It might have forced everybody to really sit down and hammer out definitions on what “guilty,” “not guilty,” “rich” and “poor” mean in this country.

Well, it probably wouldn’t have caused all of that, but it would’ve meant a lot more than the “I told you so” and “well, what about the times when ya’ll did do it?” platforms that resulted.

The problem with this book, which her managers fail to realize, is that she has no credibility from either demographic who would imagine reading it. No one views her as a victim, no one views her as a fallen and risen hero. She’s just a liar and stripper. That’s all we know about her, and really, that’s all we care to know about her.

Perhaps in the near future, our bleeding hearts could stand to discuss what led a mother of three and college student to a life of stripping, prostitution and causing national uproar. But that’s a discussion for another racial crisis, not for a book club.

It’s hard to listen to Democracy Now! and not become a depressed, cynical conspiracist against the American government. But it appears cyncism and consipracist ideology might have a reasonable place in the discussion of America’s current war, as a new book recently profiled on the radio show might have the proof of American corruption and its resulting consequences.

Ron Suskind’s “The Way of the World” outlines alleged instructions from vice-president Dick Cheney to forge a letter linking the Iraqi government to al-Qaida. The supposed author of this letter, former head of Iraqi intelligence Tahir Jalil Habbush, is also alleged to have received $5 million dollars from the U.S. government to keep quiet about the letter that launched the world’s most ambiguous war.

To be clear, this book isn’t a collection of personal theoretical frame work as inspired and influenced by American media. The information contained in the work was collected through in depth, verifiable interviews with intelligence officials from the United States and Great Britain, officials with first hand knowledge of the deceptive measures taken to sway the United States’ fears and spur us to action.

Since the early days of the global war on terror, it’s certain that plenty of information has come out with the ability to indict the Bush Administration on a number of war crimes, false statements, and murder. The question is and always has been, what are we going to do about it?

The way of the today’s world is to do absolutely nothing.

Usually books come out that logically present a problem and dance around the potential solution. That goes for fiction as well as non-fiction. I first heard about famed attorney and author Vincent Bugliosi’s book The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder this morning on Democracy Now!

I’ve never been so amped to get a book, that appears to have real answers and paths to achieving them.

It’s one thing for everyday citizens to know something is wrong with the way we live and the world around us. Occasionally, you get a piece of work that pulls the veil up a little bit, and only for a little while. But when I heard the passion and heat of Bugliosi as he vividly provided documentation and examples that implicate George W. Bush as the principal suspect in the death of thousands of American soldiers, I’ve never felt so informed, or empowered.

The truth is that all the virtues laid out in the constitution that governs this country have been manipulated to become convenient commodities. When it comes to imperialistic business enterprise, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are all in how they are interpreted, and if those interpretations can increase the bottom line.

Information mediums have been crafted and filtered to fit an evil agenda, one that jeopardizes the health and well being of all of us. None of us knows what is coming, but we can all agree that its getting closer. And we’re not going to like when it gets here.

This book is one of the few mediums that has the wherewithal and possibility to empower people’s better judgment. To say collectively, “this is not cool,” and to get up and do something about it. I’m only one man with one voice, but if my one voice can be the beginning and continuous impetus for a growing dialog, then I have served my time well.

Please, go get this book. Read it carefully, and decide what role you can play in bringing an end to governments that seek to obliterate all hope for true democracy and healthy international relationships. Decide that enough truly is enough, and every day of your life, you will do something to bring about a better change for your children.

Please.

Our lives depend on this moment. Make the most of it.