BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO

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I publicly wept when they looked at me.

More than 6,500 young men and women fed into the military meat grinder since 9/11.

Come prepared to cry when you stare into the faces of the snuffed.

Always Lost: A Meditation on War plays at the Nevada Legislature in Carson City through May 3.

The name comes from Gertrude Stein who once opined that "war is never fatal but always lost."

I could not disagree more with the former.

I prefer the obviously accurate opinion of Jeannette Rankin, the only member of Congress to vote against both world wars: "You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake."

She paid dearly for speaking truth to power.

Western Nevada College Prof. Marilee Swirczek started this as a class project a couple of years ago.

It's since gone national.

The Wall of the Dead displays individual names and photos of U.S. warriors killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It also provides some recognition of the several hundreds of thousands of brown people wasted by our very red war machine.

Dallas Morning News photographers David Leeson and Cheryl Diaz Meyer were embedded with U.S. troops and in 2004 won a Pulitzer Prize for their professional jeopardy.

Their shots include the butcher-shop gory face of a U.S. soldier trying to stop his own bleeding and a brown little kid with a bloody abdomen hopscotched by bullet wounds.

Prof. Swirczek said she feared that the child's photo might be too much for U.S. minors viewing the work.

No.

Truth must hurt.

At the Tribune's centennial celebration a few years ago, I asked the paper's owners to give it to me if they ever wanted to again make it a major factor in the market.

When Randy "Take No Prisoners" Frisch was editor and publisher a quarter century ago, people lined up at news stands all over the region just to see whose ass we were kicking.

I never got to make a formal proposal, but one of the things I would have included involved "Brown Paper Wrapper Thursdays."

Among the taboo topics, I would have printed in living and not-so-living color the goriest, sloppiest, most sickening shots of war I could find.

You can get them all over the web, but generally not via U.S. corporate media which sanitize mankind's follies to look like the gleaming kitchens of TV soap commercials.

The writings of Army Specialist Noah Pierce, late of Minnesota, are featured in the grateful dead exhibit.

"My anger destined me to hell...Now I drink and cry...Don't want to die. Don't want to live but should be dead. I'm already in hell. Two tours in Iraq."

The handsome young soldier took his own life in 2007.

You may read more of his profound poetry in the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/

May he rest in peace among earthquakes.

Be well. Raise hell.

WEB EXTRAS...

...LAGNIAPPE (a little something extra)

HONOR YOUR DON. Keep sending comments supporting legendary Nevada photographer Don Dondero (1920-2003) for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame.

His life's work appeared worldwide, including this newspaper.

Enlist in the campaign to install Big Don.

Please send me your memories and endorsements via e-mail or to P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.

The Barbwire got the late RGJ columnist Guy Richardson elected last year.

Let's go for a repeat.

BARBWIRE.TV. Support the return of community TV to these parts.

If last year's elections didn't convince you of the need, the 2013 legislature certainly will.

Join up. You may donate at ReSurge.TV or contact me.

This is important. Thank you.

VOTE FOR THE LUCKY 13, the most powerful Nevadans of 2013. Send nominations to <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>

Last year's rogues gallery will be linked to the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/

LET'S GET IT ON. E-me to get on the Barbwire News bulletin list for information not filtered through corporate lenses.

I broke a bushel of major stories last year which the above lead item will very probably top.

Turn on, tune in and tell a friend.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

____________

Andrew Barbano is a 44-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez Committee, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Daily Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Smoking Guns... Muhammad Ali: Winning against earthquakes Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 6-7-2016 Sparks Tribune ADIOS AND THANKS FROM THE CURATORS, 2016 MEMO FROM MERILEE 4-18-2013 Thank you so much!! We're hoping that all the great news coverage (front page this morning in the [Carson City Nevada] Appeal with a photo of [State Senate Majority Leader] Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas) will send us an angel. We exist entirely on donations and will run out of money in June. Might have to make some very hard decisions regarding the existence of the exhibition. But it's been an honor to see this idea of personalizing the longest wars in our history take root in my classroom and bring awareness and healing across the nation as long as we could. In that light, we especially appreciate your column, Andy.... Look through the guest book while you're at the exhibition. We have nearly four years of guest book comments in our office — what an American story those comments reveal — Amy (Roby) and I cry a lot in our office each time we receive a new batch. My class set out to create a humanities exhibition — something that would provoke visitors to think about the costs of war, both personal and collective, and also provoke discourse about the role of a civilized society in the modern world, and our obligations to each other as human beings in that civilized society. We wanted to explore the role of the artist in society, in this case, my students as literary artists. We never imagined the chord we would strike in the hearts of Americans across the country. We are amazed, daily, at the diverse — all positive and grateful — reactions to the exhibition. So we set out to make the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts personal to just us — a class of 40 people — and we ended up reaching across America. As a classroom teacher, that is the highest service — to see students apply their skills and knowledge in the world. Now my students know that they can make a difference. It's been my honor. Marilee Swirczek Professor Emeritus, English/Creative Writing Always Lost: A Meditation on War Project 775-445-4243; Fax 775-445-4472 Western Nevada College 2201 West College Parkway Carson City, NV 89703 We have three names: the name we are given at birth, the name we are called, and the name we make for ourselves. —  from the Midrash There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare. —  Sun Tzu [aka Sun Wu], Chinese general (6th century BCE) United States Army Specialist Noah C. Pierce Dec. 5, 1983 - July 26, 2007 (Oxymoron alert) Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2002-2006 Been home a year and a half physically. Mentally, I will never be home. Two tours in Iraq (handwritten on a fishing map from home) Friends    Was it right? Was it wrong?    I don't know My anger    destined me to hell, Now I drink    Now I drink and cry Relive my life when asleep    So many dead So many killed    Now I question God is it disbelief    or is it fear I don't know    Don't want to die Don't want to live    but should be dead I'm already in hell Two tours in Iraq    I feel bad for the kids Can't blame them for begging    Can't give them anything They beg for more    This one is different He is seven    I let him sit next to me in the    Bradley I give him water    He gets me food It's great compared to the MRE's    No English No Arabic    Yet we still understand each other    then it's time to leave. He wraps his    arms around me crying    I say it will be OK I still wonder if he is War is the continuation of politics by other means. —  Prussian Major Gen. Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1831)   ...and more ammo... We Don't Need No Education The continuing Barbwire series The Post-Dated Recession: Pay me now or pay me later Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-6-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune The Post-dated Recession By Joshua H. Silavent / Daily Sparks Tribune / 5-3-2011 Union decline and rising inequality in two charts by Colin Gordon Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012 Used in journalist Mark Robison's extensive Hard Labor: Nevada unions tout role in helping workers, firms, economy (Sunday 2 Sept. 2012 Reno Gazette-Journal, page one, Reno Rebirth section of the print edition). Union men Jim Burrell, Paul McKenzie and Guy Louis Rocha did the movement proud. Not included in the RGJ online edition. WOMEN AND UNIONS — ORPHAN MAJORITIES The Barbwire Labor Day column Reno Gazette-Journal / 9-3-2012 Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row. The winning entries Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune Click here to view the show on your desktop RED flags flying low over Sparks Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune The wrath of self-righteous racism Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Government contacts Nev. congressional delegation Nevada Legislature State of Nevada Secretary of State Carson City Clark County City of Las Vegas Douglas County Reno City Council Sparks City Council Washoe County Commission Washoe Registrar of Voters The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?   The Dean's List    The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites. RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006 The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL Barbwire / 11-30-2008 Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry Barbwire / 8-3-2008 Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here? Barbwire / 6-15-2008 The 2008 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners The price of a piece / 6-17-2007 Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007 The Lady in the Red Dress 10-28-2007 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries ...and more ammo yet Barbwire Corporate Welfare Archive Barbwire Corporate Propaganda Archive Cabellyup.com

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Copyright © 1982-2013 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 44-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to the Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

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