Achieving Our Country: Recent News Stories on Black Flag Week...

The promise of the United States,

its vision and ideals, as set forth in its founding documents (the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America) are best understood as "works in progress." The United States' failure throughout its history to live up to the lofty standards codified in those founding documents in no way lessens their meaning, nor their value. The good that the United States has in fact achieved since 1776 has served to reinforce the idea of a country striving, by design, to be better than its all-too-human and very imperfect nature. Most important, those ideals exist as real, true things that We, the People can achieve. It's the hopeful intent of this site to discuss and facilitate ways of actually achieving our nation, and thereby continue to form, as the Constitution exhorts, a more perfect union.

The title ''Achieving Our Country''

is drawn from the famous last sentence of James Baldwin's ''Fire Next Time.'' There, Baldwin called on the saving remnant, ''the relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks,'' to ''end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world.'' The point of invoking James Baldwin, of course, is that he was entirely unforgiving of his country's sins and still looked forward with hope to a better future. A left that fights for the political and economic changes that will ''achieve our country'' is the left that the United States once possessed and needs as much as ever, but is hardly to be seen.
--from a book review: "The New New Left"
by Alan Ryan

07 March 2008

Recent News Stories on Black Flag Week...

March 8th:

‘Lawyers will not accept any deal on judges’ reinstatement’ from International News...

From The Post:

Lawyers to start Black Flag Week
LAHORE: The Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan and other statutory bodies of the lawyers' community have finalised the programme to observe the Black Flag Week starting from March 9.

Also From The Post:

KARACHI: Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has dedicated International Women's Day 2008, being observed on Saturday (today) to party's slain Chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

And...

Munir Malik inaugurates black flag week: The Black Flag Week being observed by all sections of society on the call of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) all over the country from 9th to 16th March to press the demand to restore pre-3rd November judiciary, was inaugurated on Friday in Karachi by Munir A Malik, former President SCBA by hoisting a black flag on Karachi Press Club in the presence of journalists, lawyers and civil society activists.

March 7th:

A tribute blog to the real heroes of Pakistan...

The Emergency Times, An Independent Pakistani Student Information Initiative, posts a video of Aitzaz Ahsan's call for Black Flag Week...

Also from International News:

Lawyers stage sit-in, boycott court proceedings
Karachi

City Courts’ lawyers staged a sit-in on main MA Jinnah Road on Thursday in connection with their ongoing protest week, demanding for the restoration of Justice Iftikhar and other judges of superior courts.

The lawyers took out a procession from City Courts and marched on MA Jinnah Road in the morning, suspending vehicular traffic for an hour during peak rush time. They were carrying placards and shouting slogans against the government.

They stayed away from the court proceedings for the whole day, however, judges were present in their chambers. Oath commissioners and stamp vendors also kept their businesses partially off.

About 300 under trial prisoners were brought at the court but they had to return without the hearing of their cases owing to the non-appearance of lawyers. [read more]

NaiTazi.com has some suggestions of things one can do to support Black Flag Week... for example, 2) Take a picture of yourself, your friends and/or your family holding a black flag or wearing black clothes and send it to blackflagweek@gmail.com. If you are uncomfortable revealing your identity you can have the picture taken from your backside or cover your face before taking the picture. You can also help us by taking pictures of your friends, family members, relatives and others who may not be able to take pictures.

March 3rd

TPS Supports Black Flag Week

From the Guardian: [an excerpt]

Pakistani police have fired tear gas at demonstrating lawyers demanding that President Pervez Musharraf reinstate the deposed supreme court chief justice.
Police in riot gear fired several canisters of tear gas at about 200 lawyers and others who were shouting slogans outside the residence of the ousted judge Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudry.
Many of the protesters picked up the canisters and threw them back at policemen, who retreated before regrouping.
The lawyers had gathered outside the house of the deposed judicial figure after hearing unconfirmed television reports that the government had lifted house-arrest restrictions on his wife and three children.
Chaudry, the country's most senior judge, has been under house arrest along with his family since Musharraf briefly declared emergency rule on November 3. [read more]