Monitor Radio: (1) context on Lebanon. (2) wealth in America.

[SophieZ]

It's your world. Understand it!
The Monitor
July 23, 2006

Today's Guests:

-- ALI ABUNIMAH on the conflict in Lebanon
-- BETSY LEONDAR-WRIGHT on the US racial wealth divide


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<> 6:00 pm CST -- HEADLINES

UPDATE from last week's story: As we told you last week, while we talked with Norm Stockwell the crowd was swelling in the main square in Mexico City. But, we didn't know how big it would be. According to Norm's update, the crowd last Sunday demanding a vote-by-vote count of the presidential election was up to 1.5 million people, "the largest gathering in Mexican political history."

"U.S. Could Take Lessons from Mexican Voting Process"
by Norman Stockwell, Saturday, July 22, 2006, Madison Capital Times (Wisconsin)
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0722-26.htm


<> ~ 6:10 pm CST -- ALI ABUNIMAH on the conflict in Lebanon



Monitor co-host Mark Bebawi will discuss background and context of the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah with our guest, Ali Abunimah. He is a full-time researcher in social policy at the University of Chicago.

A writer and commentator on Middle East and Arab-American affairs, Abunimah's articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Financial Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Jordan Times, Lebanon's Daily Star and Ha'aretz, among others. He is a frequent guest on local, national and international radio and television, including CNN, MSNBC, Fox, the BBC, PBS and many others. Abunimah lectures frequently at colleges in the United States.

He was born in the United States and grew up in Europe. Both of his parents are originally from Palestine. He received his BA from Princeton University and MA from the University of Chicago. Abunimah travels often to the Middle East.

His recent book contributions include "No Justice, No Peace," in "The Anti-Capitalism Reader," edited by Joel Schalit. New York: Akashic Books, 2002; "The US Media and the New Intifada" (with Hussein Ibish) in "The New Intifada," edited by Roane Carey. New York: Verso Books, 2001; "The Palestinian Right of Return" (with Hussein Ibish), Washington, DC: ADC, 2001; "The Media's Deadly Spin on Iraq" (with Rania Masri) in "Iraq Under Siege" edited by Anthony Arnove. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2002 (Updated Edition).


<> ~ 6:35 -- BETSY LEONDAR-WRIGHT discusses the US racial wealth divide



Monitor co-host Pokey Anderson welcomes Betsy Leondar-Wright back to the show, to continue our discussions of wealth disparity and class in America. Betsy has co-authored a new book, "The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide."

Betsy has been communications director at United for a Fair Economy for nine years. A long-time economic justice organizer and researcher, she is also the author of Class Matters: Cross-Class Alliance Building for Middle-Class Activists (New Society Publishers, 2005.) She is a co-author of UFE’s report, “The State of the Dream 2005: Disowned in the Ownership Society,” and co-editor of The Wealth Inequality Reader (Dollars and Sense, 2004). She lives in Boston.

BOOKS:
"The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide," by Meizhu Lui, Barbara Robles, Betsy Leondar-Wright, Rose Brewer, and Rebecca Adamson, with United for a Fair Economy

"Class Matters: Cross-Class Alliance Building for Middle-Class Activists," by Betsy Leondar-Wright

WEB SITE:
United for a Fair Economy http://www.faireconomy.org

QUOTE:
“‘ America is a meritocracy’, my father always told me. The harder he worked, the more money he got: clear cause and effect.
But my father had a legacy that he couldn’t see, a legacy he only got because he is white. He was a World War II-era veteran, and bought his first house with a Veterans Administration mortgage, which almost all veterans of color were denied. His parents got Social Security old-age benefits when the program excluded domestic and agricultural workers, which meant that most people of color did not qualify.
Of course effort and talent make a difference in climbing the staircase to prosperity. But for most white men, the staircase has been an escalator powered by public assistance. Historically, for people of color, the escalator has been broken or has run backwards.”

--- Betsy Leondar-Wright


CO-HOSTS: Mark Bebawi and Pokey Anderson
ENGINEER: Byron Jackson

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July 16
-- LEE TIEN of Electronic Frontier Foundation on NSA Spying
-- MATT PASCARELLA covers the aftermath of the Mexican election

July 9
-- Former CIA agent MIKE SCHEUER on the "WAR ON TERROR"
-- Community radio journalist NORM STOCKWELL on the election in Mexico

July 2
-- MARJORIE COHN on the Supreme Court, Bush and Guantanamo
-- JOHN GIDEON on the fight for transparent elections

June 25
-- CHALMERS JOHNSON on The Big Picture

June 18
-- BRAD FRIEDMAN on verifiable elections
-- Journalist GREG PALAST