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What
the San Francisco Chronicle had to say about the event:
In
the key of war
San
Francisco Chronicle
Friday, December 10, 2004
The
injustice and horror of the Port Chicago explosion reverberated
through the hall in the debut of a jazz composition at San
Francisco's Regency Center on Wednesday night.
Composer
Marcus Shelby sought to use the power and nuance of brass
and wind instruments to tell the story of how 320 men were
killed and another 400 were injured when a munitions ship
exploded in a spectacular blast on July 17, 1944, at Port
Chicago Naval Magazine in Contra Costa County. Most of the
casualties were African American. The injustice was compounded
when the Navy soon ordered black sailors to resume loading
operations, despite the inadequacies of training and safety
precautions. Some 258 refused, leading to the mutiny convictions
of 50 young black sailors in court martial.
Shelby
pulled it off brilliantly. It was written as a ballet suite,
but even without dancers, the composition brought abstract
life to the aura of war, the tediousness of the physical
toil, the jubilation of skipping out to jazz clubs during
liberty, the awful explosion and the grim job of picking
up the remains of fallen comrades.
It
was not lost on Shelby, or others at the event, that American
military personnel are again being put in untenable situations
by their commanders. Shelby specifically mentioned the Army
reservists who recently refused an order to transport fuel
along a dangerous stretch of Iraqi road because their trucks
were neither armored nor had an armed military escort.
Other
speakers made mention of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's
confrontation earlier that day with soldiers who complained
of inadequate equipment and a "stop-loss" program
that effectively turns volunteers into draftees.
Rumsfeld
maintained a stoic front, but all Americans should be outraged
that soldiers who are putting their lives on the line are
left to scrounge through landfills for "hillbilly armor"
-- such as scraps of metal and bulletproof glass -- to outfit
their trucks in a war zone.
It
is equal troubling to hear Rumsfeld disingenuously suggest
to 2,300 Iraq-bound soldiers gathered in the Kuwait hangar,
"You go to war with the army you have, not the army
you might want or wish to have at a later time." The
fact is, the invasion of Iraq was a war of choice -- this
administration's choice, in defiance of many of our allies.
It was not a response to an attack, or even an imminent
threat to the United States.
Concerns
about the adequacy of troop levels in Iraq have been widely
aired -- and scoffed at by the Bush administration -- ever
since the end of "major combat operations" evolved
into a treacherous occupation.
It
remains a war, by any other name.
"Support
the troops" involves more than a congressional proclamations
and bumper stickers. It means providing those in harm's
way with the equipment and reinforcements they need. It
means honoring the sacrifice of our veterans with a firm
commitment to maintaining decent levels of disability and
survivor benefits.
The
Bush administration is falling short of these obligations.
The voices from that hangar in Kuwait must be heard and
heeded, before they become haunting notes for a requiem
to this war, many years from now.
©2004
San Francisco Chronicle
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