james
Full Member
Posts: 62
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Post by james on Nov 5, 2005 13:20:32 GMT 4
Thats what where all searching for is it not?
The common ground we can all stand upon and do somthing right for a change
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DT1
Moderator
You know, it's not like I wanted to be right about all of this...
Posts: 428
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Post by DT1 on Nov 5, 2005 19:03:39 GMT 4
I have a vague idea that I need help developing... Simply stated,the cleanup of this planet and safe destruction of nuclear plants(and weapons)should be a HUGE industry. My wife and I were watching"the deadliest catch",the crab-fishing show.And we got to talking about how bad off the industry is,with smaller catches every year.She wanted to know what these men would do for a living ten years from now,which (clumsily)brings me to my point. If we spent one third of what we give the Pentagon to kill people on cleaning up this horrible mess we have made...-The transition from fossil fuels to more viable,unlimited energy sources will be painful,incredibly expensive,and it HAS TO be done.Should have been started back in the seventies.The first,and most difficult part will be to pry our government's grubby paws out of the petrolium cookie-jar.Our dependance on oil is,literally,killing us.And it has to end.It will,anyway-one way or the other. What I have in mind is like the Civil Corps back in the thirties.this would have to be grassroots,as the only green our government leaders have any use for is money. One Stealth Bomber=all toxins removed from the rivers in a small state. Just a daydream,perhaps. but it is a pleasant one. sorry I rambled.
Ideas,anyone?
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Post by Humbeld on Nov 9, 2005 0:17:29 GMT 4
Our dependence on oil is, literally, killing us.
You just summed it up, in a nut shell Now what are we going to do about our oil dependence, It is a personal question not one for the government there all about supply and demand you'll see no change there, my friend
Change starts in the living room not the board room, what's in your wallet people a dozen different different credit cards charged to the max for the excess that is American culture, if so welcome to materialism and the Evil It breeds.
The solution is up to US
The problem has nothing to do with 'Them'
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DT1
Moderator
You know, it's not like I wanted to be right about all of this...
Posts: 428
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Post by DT1 on Mar 18, 2006 11:27:18 GMT 4
As I understand It ,I am at Solutions;Save what's left;post message- .Well, here goes...
ANTI-WAR PROTESTS PLANNED ACROSS THE WORLD Published: 3/18/06, 1:26 AM EDT SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - An anti-war rally in Australia kicked off what was expected to be a wave of global protests on Saturday, as campaigners marked the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq with a demand that coalition troops pull out.
Around 500 protesters marched through central Sydney, chanting "End the war now and "Troops out of Iraq." Many campaigners waved placards branding President Bush the "World's No. 1 Terrorist" or expressing concerns that Iran could be the next country to face invasion.
"Hands off Iran," read several placards carried by protesters.
"Iraq is a quagmire and has been a humanitarian disaster for the Iraqis," said Jean Parker, a member of the Australian branch of the Stop the War Coalition, which organized the march. "There is no way forward without ending the occupation."
Paddy Gibson of the pressure group Students Against War said the "deepening crisis" in Iraq would only get worse if coalition troops stayed. "The longer this occupation continues, the more destabilized that country becomes."
Opposition to the war is still evident in Australia, which has some 1,300 troops in and around Iraq. Visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was heckled by campaigners in Sydney this week, who said she had "blood on her hands."
But Saturday's protest was small, compared to the mass demonstrations that swept across the country in the buildup to the invasion - the largest Australia had seen since joining U.S. forces in the Vietnam War.
In Tokyo, about 2,000 people rallied in a downtown park, carrying signs saying "Stop the Occupation" as they listened to a series of anti-war speeches, said Takeshiko Tsukushi, a member of World Peace Now, which helped plan the rally. Tokyo police were unable to immediately confirm the number in attendance.
"The war is illegal under international law," Tsukushi said. "We want the immediate withdrawal of the Self Defense Forces and from Iraq along with all foreign troops."
Japanese Prime Minister Junchiro Koizumi is a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led coalition in Japan and dispatched 600 troops to the southern city of Samawah in 2004 to purify water and carry out other humanitarian tasks. The Cabinet approved an extension of that mission in December, authorizing soldiers to stay in Iraq through the end of the year.
But public opinion polls show the majority of Japanese oppose the mission, which has been criticized as a violation of the country's pacifist constitution. Many say the deployment has made Japan a target for terrorism.
Demonstrations were also expected across Europe.
"We will continue until we see the last general running for a helicopter on the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad," read a statement from Stop the War Alliance, which is organizing a rally outside the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece.
In London, Scotland Yard police headquarters said streets around Piccadilly Circus in the heart of the shopping and theater district would be closed as up to 100,000 people planned to march through the capital. Britain has about 8,000 troops in Iraq.
Demonstrations "Against the Occupation of Iraq" were planned Saturday in several Spanish cities, including Madrid and Barcelona.
In South Korea, which has the third-largest contingent of foreign troops in Iraq after the U.S. and Britain, up to 3,000 demonstrators were expected to gather Sunday at the main train station in the capital Seoul. In Malaysia's largest city, Kuala Lumpur, a rally was planned outside the U.S. Embassy on Sunday, as part of the international anti-Iraq war movement.
(Mod's note)
What next? I fear to hope.. We either restore our nation to the Constitution upon which it was founded, bring the corporate wardogs to heel, and pull humanity itself from the crumbling precipice that is ,for us at least, Krilosek,the storm at the edge of the universe translated,regardless of our faith, the end of all things... or we will not. If someone reads these words of mine a thousand years from now they will know what I have always believed, That love is stronger than hate. At this moment,the coin of fate flips in the air. It's up to us.Each and every one of us.
come on and SHINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on May 20, 2006 19:54:10 GMT 4
Shedding Light On EvilSaturday, 18 December 2004, 6:53 pm Opinion: Paul Levy www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0412/S00204.htm Whether we see evil in the terrorists or in George W. Bush, I simply cannot imagine anyone would dispute that the face of evil has emerged in this world of ours. There is something about looking at evil, however, that is very different than when we passively witness something that we remain unaffected by. No one can see evil and stay untouched. To quote the great doctor of the soul, C. G. Jung, who to my mind has the deepest insight into the nature of evil of anyone I've encountered, "The sight of evil kindles evil in the soul- there is no getting away from this fact...the wickedness of others becomes our own wickedness because it kindles something evil in our own hearts." In dealing with evil we have to recognize that it is not something we can see and remain separate from, as if we are safely in the audience, out of harm's way. When we see evil, something inside of us gets ignited and set aflame. At the sight of evil, to quote Jung, "Indignation leaps up, angry cries of 'Justice!' pursue the murderer, and they are louder, more impassioned and more charged with hate the more fiercely burns the fire of evil that has been lit in our souls." When we see evil, if we react with moral indignation, cocksure of our own innocence and righteousness, this itself is an expression that we ourselves have become infected by evil and have become a conduit for evil to act itself out through us. To quote Jung, "True, we are innocent, we are the victims, robbed, betrayed, outraged; and yet for all that, or precisely because of it, the flame of evil glowers in our moral indignation." When we see evil it triggers a resonant darkness inside of us, as if we have secretly recognized a part of ourselves. It is important to recognize that we could not look at the face of evil and see it unless we had that very same evil in ourselves. We wouldn't be able to recognize it otherwise. It is then a question of whether we can integrate what has gotten triggered in us, or do we inwardly dissociate from our own darkness, imagining it to be separate from ourselves, and project the evil 'out there' onto some 'other.' Projecting the shadow like this, to quote Jung, "strengthens the opponent's position in the most effective way, because the projection carries the fear which we involuntarily and secretly feel for our own evil over to the other side and considerably increases the formidableness of his threat." The nature of this world is such that if we project out our own darkness, the world will shape-shift and provide convincing evidence that the evil really does exist out there, which simply confirms to us our delusion in a never ending, self-generating feedback loop. To the extent that any of us have withdrawn our projection of the shadow 'out there' we have begun, to quote Jung, "the only struggle that is really worthwhile: the fight against the overwhelming power-drive of the shadow." For as Jung points out, every person "harbours within himself a dangerous shadow and adversary who is involved as an invisible helper in the dark machinations of the political monster. It is in the nature of political bodies always to see the evil in the opposite group, just as the individual has an ineradicable tendency to get rid of everything he does not know and does not want to know about himself by foisting it off on somebody else." Both the individual as well as the body politic have a tendency to project the evil outside of themselves. An individual projecting the shadow outside of themselves actually feeds into, supports and helps to create the shadow projection of the greater body politic. We are all complicit in what our country is doing in Iraq. We all share in the guilt. The bombs dropping on innocent civilians have our names on them. We are not separate but interconnected and interdependent beings, all part of the greater world community. To quote Jung, "Since no man lives within his own psychic sphere like a snail in its shell, separated from everybody else, but is connected with his fellow-men by his unconscious humanity, no crime can ever be what it appears to our consciousness to be: an isolated psychic happening." This collective guilt, what Jung calls "guilt by contagion" belongs to everyone, there is no getting away from it. To again quote Jung, "the murder has been suffered by everyone, and everyone has committed it..we have all made this collective psychic murder possible..in this way we are unavoidably drawn into the uncleanness of evil; no matter what our conscious attitude may be. No one can escape this." The evil that is playing out on the world stage is something all six billion of us are mutually creating and 'dreaming up' together. This is to say the evil that is incarnating in our world is something we are not separate from but are all playing roles in and collaborating with. To quote Edmund Burke, "Evil can only happen when good people do nothing." By being a 'dreamed up phenomenon,' the evil that is appearing in our world is a full-bodied reflection, in living, breathing color of the evil inside of ourselves. It is as if an inner process happening deep within the collective unconscious of all of humanity has gotten externalized and projected outside of ourselves, which is to say that it has gotten 'dreamed up' into materialization. If the evil that is manifesting prompts enough of us, however, to recognize that it is a mirrored reflection of a part of ourselves and we self-reflect, we can collaboratively metabolize the evil in such a way that it catapults us into a collective expansion of consciousness. Jung says it is only those among us who are self-reflective who have "the realization of the immense and overwhelming power of evil, and of the fact that mankind is capable of becoming merely the instrument [italics mine]." The realization of our potential susceptibility to self-deception that could lead to unwitting acts of evil serves as a psychic immunization, so to speak, and creates true humility which itself is a safeguard against evil. This is why, to quote Jung, "The true leaders of mankind are always those who are capable of self-reflection." Jung points out that "only relatively few individuals can be expected to be capable of such an achievement, and they are not the political but the moral leaders of mankind." Compared to the moral leaders of humanity, Jung points out that the "so called [political] leaders are the inevitable symptoms of a mass movement." When there is a mass unconsciousness, such as there is in our country right now, the political leaders literally get 'dreamed up' to be the embodied outer reflection of this collective inner unconsciousness.If we refuse to look at our own darkness and continue to try and destroy the evil we perceive to be outside of ourselves, we fall prey to it and unwittingly become an agent of evil. If we fight evil in our habitual way, which is to try and murder it, we ourselves become a murderer. (Interestingly, one of the inner meanings of the word 'Satan' is 'murderer') By fighting evil we become possessed by it. Is this the meaning of Christ's teaching "resist not evil"? It is like in wrestling with the devil, the devil penetrates into our body, pulsates through our very cells and incarnates itself in, through and as us. To deal with evil as it manifests in the world we have to be able to look at and embrace the evil inside of ourselves. To quote Gandhi, "The only devils in the world are those running around in our own hearts- that is where the battle should be fought."If we refuse to look at the evil inside of our own heart, however, our refusal itself just feeds the evil. If we look away and allow evil to get acted out, thinking that we are innocent, we are unconsciously colluding with evil. To quote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, "One who passively accepts evil [by allowing it to happen] is as much involved in it as the one who perpetuates it." The evil that is playing out in the world today is a deeper, archetypal energy that has been re-enacted many times throughout human history. Yet what is unique about our current situation, to quote Jung, "is not that present-day man is capable of greater evil than the man of antiquity or the primitive. He merely has incomparably more effective means with which to realize his propensity to evil. As his consciousness has broadened and differentiated, so his moral nature has lagged behind. That is the great problem before us today: Reason alone no longer suffices." It has become clear that our rationality alone cannot resolve our world crisis, something else is needed. It is like we are at an event horizon in the process of the expansion of consciousness itself. To quote Jung, "we need the illumination of a holy and whole-making spirit- a spirit that can be anything rather than our reason." We are living in an extremely dangerous time, but it is also a time of great opportunity. To quote Jung, "We are living in what the Greeks called the Kairos- the right moment- for a 'metamorphosis of the gods,' of the fundamental principles and symbols. This peculiarity of our time, which is certainly not of our conscious choosing, is the expression of the unconscious man within us who is changing. Coming generations will have to take account of this momentous transformation if humanity is not to destroy itself through the might of its own technology and science." The unleashing of atomic energy, Jung continues, "..has given the human race the power to annihilate itself completely. The situation is about the same as if a small boy of six had been given a bag of dynamite for a birthday present..the danger that threatens us now is of such dimensions as to make this last European catastrophe [World War II] seem like a curtain-raiser." To quote Jung, "For, as long as Satan is not integrated, the world is not healed and man is not saved. But Satan represents evil, and how can evil be integrated? There is only one possibility: to assimilate it, that is to say, raise it to the level of consciousness..[this is a state] in which the devil no longer has an autonomous existence but rejoins the profound unity of the psyche. Then the opus magnum [the 'great work' of alchemy] is finished: the human soul is completely integrated." Evil can't stand to be seen, though, for once it is seen and made conscious it loses its omnipotence and autonomy, as it can no longer act itself out through us. Our task, as Jung reminds us, is "making the darkness conscious." As each of us recognizes and integrates our own darker halves, we liberate the energy that was bound up in the compulsion to unconsciously act out and dream up our darker side in the outside world. Instead, this archetypal energy of the shadow gets assimilated into the wholeness of our personality and becomes available for the expression of creativity and love. We need to understand the nature of the "beast" we are dealing with when we are confronted with evil. The fact that the way we are dealing with evil is itself the very thing that propagates evil is showing us something. Evil is revealing something to us. This is why Jung refers to Satan as "the godfather of man as a spiritual being," by which he means that Satan can activate in humankind a process of spiritual awakening that would have been impossible without his intervention. Similarly, Jung points out that Lucifer was "necessary and indeed indispensable for the unfolding and completion of the divine drama." Interestingly, one of the inner meanings of the word 'Satan' is the 'shadow of the Lord.' As Jung points out, "We like to imagine that God is all light, but St. John of the Cross has the truly psychological notion of the darkness and the seeming remoteness of God as an effect of the divine presence." In other words, shadows are an expression that light is nearby. Whether the evil that is wreaking havoc on our planet right now will destroy us or further the evolution of our species and awaken us to deeper levels of our being is totally up to us. The key is if enough of us become the aforementioned moral leaders of humanity and look in the mirror (whose inner meaning is 'shadow holder'), self-reflect and recognize our complicity with the darkness that is playing out in our world. Self-reflection is the very best service we can do for the divine and the highest way for us to love God. Self-reflection is a true retrieval of our soul- it has an integrating effect, as it is a gathering together and a re-collecting of what had previously been projected out, divided and separated by the dis-integrating effect of evil (the inner meaning of the word 'diabolos' is that which separates and divides). To quote Jung, "Self-reflection or- what comes to the same thing- the urge to individuation gathers together what is scattered and multifarious, and exalts it to the original form of the One, the Primordial Man. In this way our existence as separate beings, our former ego nature, is abolished, the circle of consciousness is widened, and because the paradoxes have been made conscious the sources of conflict are dried up." Jung recognized that whenever evil appeared in an individual's personal process, some deeper good always came out of the experience that wouldn't have emerged without the manifestation of evil. Could the same thing be true on a collective scale? Could the evil that is coming out of hiding in the shadows and becoming visible for all who have eyes to see be the harbinger of a deeper process of collective realization that is becoming available to us because of its emergence? Jung openly wonders whether "in this very power of evil God might not have placed some special purpose which it is most important for us to know." With the appearance of evil it is like we are invited and even prodded to participate in an evolutionary quantum leap in and of consciousness itself. A doorway has opened up for us to collectively snap out of our imagined identities as 'separate beings' and realize that we are all interconnected, on the same side and part of a greater whole. The inner meaning of the word apocalypse is 'something hidden being revealed.' We are experiencing the revelation of the hidden God, the deus absconditus, the dark side of God. Will we not recognize what the 'shadow of the Lord' is revealing to us and continue to unconsciously act it out and destroy ourselves? Or will the evil propel enough of us over the edge to self-reflection, precipitating a mass spiritual awakening unimaginable until this moment in history? Evil is a true quantum phenomenon, in that it contains both of these possibilities in potential, and how it will manifest depends on how we interact with it. Fighting the devil is radically different than loving God. The choice is truly ours. ************* Paul Levy is a spiritually-informed political activist. He can be reached at paul@awakeninthedream.com. Please visit his website at www.awakeninthedream.com, where his article "The Madness of George Bush: A Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis" is available. Please feel free to pass this article along to a friend if you feel so inspired. © Copyright 2004.
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Jun 7, 2006 16:38:09 GMT 4
To make a difference Begin WithinGreetings and glad tidings, Recently, while searching for a quote on Gratitude, I came across a site titled '43 Things' - a collection of all the wishes, dreams and all other things people want to do in this life - organized to reflect the most popular possibilities. Entering the keyword 'Gratitude' pops up a list of related dreams on '43 Things'. You might be surprised to find which wish tops the list. It is simply this: To make a difference. Indeed, to touch a life so deeply, so purely, that you feel a change, a shift, a difference. What is the secret to making this dream a reality - to truly make a difference? I believe it is this: Begin Within. That's right. Within is where it all begins. Imagine - by being grateful for YOU a quick shift takes place, a change is noted and voila! You've made a difference! An entire world is now immersed in Love and Gratitude - your world, of course. A much larger shift is happening right now - a shift in human consciousness, accelerating our ability to make change in the world - to make a difference. Now ... Imagine what might happen as we begin to instantly manifest our dreams, desires and imagined lives? Imagine co-creating from a (k)new view, one that's clear, heart-centered, and in harmony with our world family. Imagine being connected with others disciplined in using Gratitude - who believe all things are possible and are prepared to help you help themselves help everyone else prosper, thrive and enjoy life! That's a big, Big, BIG difference, for sure! This is our vision for World Gratitude - a 42 day world-wide gathering of hearts and minds alike, dedicated to co-creating a world we wish to see and BE ... to make a world of difference! In fact, you might like to read a few comments collected from our gathering family at World Gratitude: "I am thrilled to have connected with a whole community of like minded souls. I am excited about the community support. For years, I thought I was alone. Three years ago, I hoped and prayed for just one friend who thought like I did. Now, I have surrounded myself with dozens of like minded people and my life is amazing. Thank you for one more facet of this fascinating journey on planet earth. Walk in peace, with grace and love!" - Kat "...I can easily picture 100,000 or more of us networking and sharing our dreams. Like you, ... many creative thoughts come to my mind daily especially since the original Go Gratitude site was launched. The ideas never seem to stop, and they are usually for other people--not for me-- which makes me feel so inspired." - Songbird "I have traveled the world since I was 2 years old. My soul remembered every path I walked on, changed continents, languages, cultures but I kept asking myself : "WHERE IS HOME?" Today I was meditating when the answer passed my heart: Home is in the center of Gratitude."~ Cristina "You have created a beautiful space for us to share ourselves and where we can learn from each other - a place where our highest self can come through and awaken us to our divine nature. Thank you everyone!" ~ Rene Since it is our desire to open the way for everyone to come and play, we have now implemented a new, non-monetary Gateway into World Gratitude. We have also re-designed the site to make it more user-friendly. So even if you visited it before, it will be worth your while to check it out again. We encourage you to consult your heart to determine which Gateway into World Gratitude is right for you. www.WorldGratitude.com/join.html Remember - our 42 day adventure begins on June 14th - though you may begin connecting today! To enter World Gratitude, click here: www.WorldGratitude.com Thank you to all for joining with us as we create a world wide wave of Gratitude. Thank you for the letters and emails that warm our hearts and wet our eyes as we see the difference we make. Thank you for playing your part in changing our world ... first by believing it possible, then intentionally experimenting with the Master Key of Gratitude, and NOW gathering to co-create World Gratitude. What an exciting time to be alive ... and making a difference in the world with YOU! in Love and Gratitude, Stacey Robyn and the ground crew of Go Gratitude p.s. perhaps we might check-mark "Make a difference" as happyning and let '43 things' become '42' ... hmmm Speaking of Shifts:IONS has extended an invitation to join their Shift In Action program! You will enjoy live tele-seminars, web media, magazines, CDs, and books designed to help you shift consciousness and create positive change in the world. Included in this trial-offer is a copy of Dean Radin's 'Entangled Minds' - only $1 for the first month. I joined ... perhaps you will, too. To sign on, or for more info, click here: www.noetic.org/SIA/ShiftInActionLP4.html On Home and Gratitude:How can I express my Gratitude for the gift of a new life? I have crossed into a world where only Love is real, and yet I have not moved at all. I will stand here for a moment and extend this Gratitude to the One that has brought me to the Home I never left except in my imagination. I am that Gratitude now. - James Twyman, 'The Art of Spiritual Peacemaking' available today at: www.ArtofSpiritualPeacemaking.com
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Jun 12, 2006 16:59:43 GMT 4
Don't like the brutal reality of the world we live in? What if you could change your/our world through the power of your thoughts? Many of us know this to be true; we're just waiting for the rest of you to catch up and become hep to the huge amount of power humans can wield. Thoughts are pure energy and can be directed; you do it every day, consciously or unconsciously, most of the time we do this with adverse effects. The following video gives a description of how conscious co-creation is the nature of reality - the genie view of the universe. Yours in the Light, Michelle The Secret Of Conscious Co-Creation (Video)tinyurl.com/jg73h
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Aug 5, 2006 16:31:13 GMT 4
The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community By David Korten Yes! Magazine Summer 2006 Issue By what name will future generations know our time? Will they speak in anger and frustration of the time of the Great Unraveling, when profligate consumption exceeded Earth's capacity to sustain and led to an accelerating wave of collapsing environmental systems, violent competition for what remained of the planet's resources, and a dramatic dieback of the human population? Or will they look back in joyful celebration on the time of the Great Turning, when their forebears embraced the higher-order potential of their human nature, turned crisis into opportunity, and learned to live in creative partnership with one another and Earth? A Defining Choice We face a defining choice between two contrasting models for organizing human affairs. Give them the generic names Empire and Earth Community. Absent an understanding of the history and implications of this choice, we may squander valuable time and resources on efforts to preserve or mend cultures and institutions that cannot be fixed and must be replaced. Empire organizes by domination at all levels, from relations among nations to relations among family members. Empire brings fortune to the few, condemns the majority to misery and servitude, suppresses the creative potential of all, and appropriates much of the wealth of human societies to maintain the institutions of domination. Earth Community, by contrast, organizes by partnership, unleashes the human potential for creative co-operation, and shares resources and surpluses for the good of all. Supporting evidence for the possibilities of Earth Community comes from the findings of quantum physics, evolutionary biology, developmental psychology, anthropology, archaeology, and religious mysticism. It was the human way before Empire; we must make a choice to re-learn how to live by its principles. Developments distinctive to our time are telling us that Empire has reached the limits of the exploitation that people and Earth will sustain. A mounting perfect economic storm born of a convergence of peak oil, climate change, and an imbalanced US economy dependent on debts it can never repay is poised to bring a dramatic restructuring of every aspect of modern life. We have the power to choose, however, whether the consequences play out as a terminal crisis or an epic opportunity. The Great Turning is not a prophecy. It is a possibility. A Turn From Life According to cultural historian Riane Eisler, early humans evolved within a cultural and institutional frame of Earth Community. They organized to meet their needs by cooperating with life rather than by dominating it. Then some 5,000 years ago, beginning in Mesopotamia, our ancestors made a tragic turn from Earth Community to Empire. They turned away from a reverence for the generative power of life - represented by female gods or nature spirits - to a reverence for hierarchy and the power of the sword - represented by distant, usually male, gods. The wisdom of the elder and the priestess gave way to the arbitrary rule of the powerful, often ruthless, king. Paying the Price The peoples of the dominant human societies lost their sense of attachment to the living earth, and societies became divided between the rulers and the ruled, exploiters and exploited. The brutal competition for power created a relentless play-or-die, rule-or-be-ruled dynamic of violence and oppression and served to elevate the most ruthless to the highest positions of power. Since the fateful turn, the major portion of the resources available to human societies has been diverted from meeting the needs of life to supporting the military forces, prisons, palaces, temples, and patronage for retainers and propagandists on which the system of domination in turn depends. Great civilizations built by ambitious rulers fell to successive waves of corruption and conquest. The primary institutional form of Empire has morphed from the city-state to the nation-state to the global corporation, but the underlying pattern of domination remains. It is axiomatic: for a few to be on top, many must be on the bottom. The powerful control and institutionalize the processes by which it will be decided who enjoys the privilege and who pays the price, a choice that commonly results in arbitrarily excluding from power whole groups of persons based on race and gender. Troubling Truths Herein lies a crucial insight. If we look for the source of the social pathologies increasingly evident in our culture, we find they have a common origin in the dominator relations of Empire that have survived largely intact in spite of the democratic reforms of the past two centuries. The sexism, racism, economic injustice, violence, and environmental destruction that have plagued human societies for 5,000 years, and have now brought us to the brink of a potential terminal crisis, all flow from this common source. Freeing ourselves from these pathologies depends on a common solution - replacing the underlying dominator cultures and institutions of Empire with the partnership cultures and institutions of Earth Community. Unfortunately, we cannot look to imperial powerholders to lead the way. Beyond Denial History shows that as empires crumble the ruling elites become ever more corrupt and ruthless in their drive to secure their own power - a dynamic now playing out in the United States. We Americans base our identity in large measure on the myth that our nation has always embodied the highest principles of democracy, and is devoted to spreading peace and justice to the world. But there has always been tension between America's high ideals and its reality as a modern version of Empire. The freedom promised by the Bill of Rights contrasts starkly with the enshrinement of slavery elsewhere in the original articles of the Constitution. The protection of property, an idea central to the American dream, stands in contradiction to the fact that our nation was built on land taken by force from Native Americans. Although we consider the vote to be the hallmark of our democracy, it took nearly 200 years before that right was extended to all citizens. Americans acculturated to the ideals of America find it difficult to comprehend what our rulers are doing, most of which is at odds with notions of egalitarianism, justice, and democracy. Within the frame of historical reality, it is perfectly clear: they are playing out the endgame of Empire, seeking to consolidate power through increasingly authoritarian and anti-democratic policies. Wise choices necessarily rest on a foundation of truth. The Great Turning depends on awakening to deep truths long denied. Cultural Turning The Great Turning begins with a cultural and spiritual awakening - a turning in cultural values from money and material excess to life and spiritual fulfillment, from a belief in our limitations to a belief in our possibilities, and from fearing our differences to rejoicing in our diversity. It requires reframing the cultural stories by which we define our human nature, purpose, and possibilities. Economic Turning The values shift of the cultural turning leads us to redefine wealth - to measure it by the health of our families, communities, and natural environment. It leads us from policies that raise those at the top to policies that raise those at the bottom, from hoarding to sharing, from concentrated to distributed ownership, and from the rights of ownership to the responsibilities of stewardship. Political Turning The economic turning creates the necessary conditions for a turn from a one-dollar, one-vote democracy to a one-person, one-vote democracy, from passive to active citizenship, from competition for individual advantage to cooperation for mutual advantage, from retributive justice to restorative justice, and from social order by coercion to social order by mutual responsibility and accountability. Global Awakening Empire's true believers maintain that the inherent flaws in our human nature lead to a natural propensity to greed, violence, and lust for power. Social order and material progress depend, therefore, on imposing elite rule and market discipline to channel these dark tendencies to positive ends. Psychologists who study the developmental pathways of the individual consciousness observe a more complex reality. Just as we grow up in our physical capacities and potential given proper physical nourishment and exercise, we also grow up in the capacities and potential of our consciousness, given proper social and emotional nourishment and exercise. Over a lifetime, those who enjoy the requisite emotional support traverse a pathway from the narcissistic, undifferentiated magical consciousness of the newborn to the fully mature, inclusive, and multidimensional spiritual consciousness of the wise elder. The lower, more narcissistic, orders of consciousness are perfectly normal for young children, but become sociopathic in adults and are easily encouraged and manipulated by advertisers and demagogues. The higher orders of consciousness are a necessary foundation of mature democracy. Perhaps Empire's greatest tragedy is that its cultures and institutions systematically suppress our progress to the higher orders of consciousness. Given that Empire has prevailed for 5,000 years, a turn from Empire to Earth Community might seem a hopeless fantasy if not for the evidence from values surveys that a global awakening to the higher levels of human consciousness is already underway. This awakening is driven in part by a communications revolution that defies elite censorship and is breaking down the geographical barriers to intercultural exchange. The consequences of the awakening are manifest in the civil rights, women's, environmental, peace, and other social movements. These movements in turn gain energy from the growing leadership of women, communities of color, and indigenous peoples, and from a shift in the demographic balance in favor of older age groups more likely to have achieved the higher-order consciousness of the wise elder. It is fortuitous that we humans have achieved the means to make a collective choice as a species to free ourselves from Empire's seemingly inexorable compete-or-die logic at the precise moment we face the imperative to do so. The speed at which institutional and technological advances have created possibilities wholly new to the human experience is stunning. Just over 60 years ago, we created the United Nations, which, for all its imperfections, made it possible for the first time for representatives of all the world's nations and people to meet in a neutral space to resolve differences through dialogue rather than force of arms. Less than 50 years ago, our species ventured into space to look back and see ourselves as one people sharing a common destiny on a living space ship. In little more than 10 years our communications technologies have given us the ability, should we choose to use it, to link every human on the planet into a seamless web of nearly costless communication and cooperation. Already our new technological capability has made possible the interconnection of the millions of people who are learning to work as a dynamic, self-directing social organism that transcends boundaries of race, class, religion, and nationality and functions as a shared conscience of the species. We call this social organism global civil society. On February 15, 2003, it brought more than 10 million people to the streets of the world's cities, towns, and villages to call for peace in the face of the buildup to the US invasion of Iraq. They accomplished this monumental collective action without a central organization, budget, or charismatic leader through social processes never before possible on such a scale. This was but a foretaste of the possibilities for radically new forms of partnership organization now within our reach. Break the Silence, End the Isolation, Change the Story We humans live by stories. The key to making a choice for Earth Community is recognizing that the foundation of Empire's power does not lie in its instruments of physical violence. It lies in Empire's ability to control the stories by which we define ourselves and our possibilities in order to perpetuate the myths on which the legitimacy of the dominator relations of Empire depend. To change the human future, we must change our defining stories. Story Power For 5,000 years, the ruling class has cultivated, rewarded, and amplified the voices of those storytellers whose stories affirm the righteousness of Empire and deny the higher-order potentials of our nature that would allow us to live with one another in peace and cooperation. There have always been those among us who sense the possibilities of Earth Community, but their stories have been marginalized or silenced by Empire's instruments of intimidation. The stories endlessly repeated by the scribes of Empire become the stories most believed. Stories of more hopeful possibilities go unheard or unheeded and those who discern the truth are unable to identify and support one another in the common cause of truth telling. Fortunately, the new communications technologies are breaking this pattern. As truth-tellers reach a wider audience, the myths of Empire become harder to maintain. The struggle to define the prevailing cultural stories largely defines contemporary cultural politics in the United States. A far-right alliance of elitist corporate plutocrats and religious theocrats has gained control of the political discourse in the United States not by force of their numbers, which are relatively small, but by controlling the stories by which the prevailing culture defines the pathway to prosperity, security, and meaning. In each instance, the far right's favored versions of these stories affirm the dominator relations of Empire. The imperial prosperity story says that an eternally growing economy benefits everyone. To grow the economy, we need wealthy people who can invest in enterprises that create jobs. Thus, we must support the wealthy by cutting their taxes and eliminating regulations that create barriers to accumulating wealth. We must also eliminate welfare programs in order to teach the poor the value of working hard at whatever wages the market offers.
The imperial security story tells of a dangerous world, filled with criminals, terrorists, and enemies. The only way to insure our safety is through major expenditures on the military and the police to maintain order by physical force. The imperial meaning story reinforces the other two, featuring a God who rewards righteousness with wealth and power and mandates that they rule over the poor who justly suffer divine punishment for their sins.
These stories all serve to alienate us from the community of life and deny the positive potentials of our nature, while affirming the legitimacy of economic inequality, the use of physical force to maintain imperial order, and the special righteousness of those in power. It is not enough, as many in the United States are doing, to debate the details of tax and education policies, budgets, war, and trade agreements in search of a positive political agenda. Nor is it enough to craft slogans with broad mass appeal aimed at winning the next election or policy debate. We must infuse the mainstream culture with stories of Earth Community. As the stories of Empire nurture a culture of domination, the stories of Earth Community nurture a culture of partnership. They affirm the positive potentials of our human nature and show that realizing true prosperity, security, and meaning depends on creating vibrant, caring, interlinked communities that support all persons in realizing their full humanity. Sharing the joyful news of our human possibilities through word and action is perhaps the most important aspect of the Great Work of our time. Changing the prevailing stories in the United States may be easier to accomplish than we might think. The apparent political divisions notwithstanding, US polling data reveal a startling degree of consensus on key issues. Eighty-three percent of Americans believe that as a society the United States is focused on the wrong priorities. Supermajorities want to see greater priority given to children, family, community, and a healthy environment. Americans also want a world that puts people ahead of profits, spiritual values ahead of financial values, and international cooperation ahead of international domination. These Earth Community values are in fact widely shared by both conservatives and liberals. Our nation is on the wrong course not because Americans have the wrong values. It is on the wrong course because of remnant imperial institutions that give unaccountable power to a small alliance of right-wing extremists who call themselves conservative and claim to support family and community values, but whose preferred economic and social policies constitute a ruthless war against children, families, communities, and the environment. The distinctive human capacity for reflection and intentional choice carries a corresponding moral responsibility to care for one another and the planet. Indeed, our deepest desire is to live in loving relationships with one another. The hunger for loving families and communities is a powerful, but latent, unifying force and the potential foundation of a winning political coalition dedicated to creating societies that support every person in actualizing his or her highest potential. In these turbulent and often frightening times, it is important to remind ourselves that we are privileged to live at the most exciting moment in the whole of the human experience. We have the opportunity to turn away from Empire and to embrace Earth Community as a conscious collective choice. We are the ones we have been waiting for. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- David Korten is co-founder and board chair of the Positive Futures Network. This article draws from his newly released book, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. Go to www.yesmagazine.org/greatturning for book excerpts, related articles, David's talks, and resources for action. Source: www.truthout.org/issues_06/072606EC.shtml
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Aug 8, 2006 14:37:32 GMT 4
Kucinich Introduces Legislation to Abolish All Nuclear Weapons t r u t h o u t | Press Release Thursday 27 July 2006 Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) gave the following floor speech today on legislation he is introducing to abolish all nuclear weapons: "In the Hindu religion Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the preserver, and Siva, the destroyer, exist simultaneously and represent the multiplicity of God. Today, we are going to be called upon to determine which of the principles - creator, preserver or destroyer - shall work through each of us.
"If we continue to pursue nuclear proliferation embodied in the nuclear agreement with India we will be open to the principles of destruction. At this moment when world tensions are rising and violence is cycling wider, we need to take the direction of preserving the peace, and creating a new opening through the abolishment of all nuclear weapons.
"August 6th, 2006, will mark the 61st anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, which obliterated the city and killed about 140,000 people. Today, 30,000 nuclear weapons remain in the world. Many nuclear weapons are deployed. Any use of nuclear weapons would result in unthinkable devastation. The only way to prevent nuclear destruction is to abolish all nuclear weapons.
"To accomplish this I will be introducing legislation today." Today, Kucinich introduced legislation, HR 950, to abolish all nuclear weapons. The Kucinich resolution states: "That the House of Representatives calls upon the President to initiate multilateral negotiations for the abolition of nuclear weapons." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- India Could Make 50 Warheads Under Nuclear Deal With Bush By Justin Huggler The Independent UK Thursday 27 July 2006 The US House of Representatives was set to vote yesterday on a nuclear deal with India that threatens to fuel a nuclear arms race in Asia. The deal, a centrepiece of the Bush administration's foreign policy, comes as the US is pressuring Iran and North Korea to halt their nuclear programmes. Under the deal, the US will sell India nuclear fuel and technology for civilian purposes, in exchange for India putting most of its reactors under international safeguards. But a former head of Indian intelligence has said publicly the deal will allow India to produce 50 more nuclear warheads a year than it can now, by freeing up existing uranium reserves for military use. The vote in Washington comes days after satellite photographs revealed Pakistan is building what analysts believe is a large reactor capable of producing enough plutonium for 50 warheads a year, a discovery which has led to fears of an intensified nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan. US congressmen were yesterday trying to attach last-minute conditions to the deal with Delhi to prevent India from using it to enlarge its nuclear arsenal. But the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, said his country would accept no new conditions. There were angry scenes in the Indian parliament as opposition parties said the existing deal already gave up too much control over India's nuclear programme. The deal is at the heart of attempts by George Bush to forge a strategic alliance with India as a counterweight to the rising power of China. It has also been touted as a major environmental initiative, since it will enable India to shift away from reliance on fossil fuels to satisfy the growing energy demands of the world's second fastest growing economy. But observers are now warning that behind the environmental claim lies a deal that will allow India massively to increase its nuclear arsenal. India currently produces most of its electricity from coal power stations, and its demand for oil is expected to rise. Delhi wants to invest in nuclear power, but India has very limited sources of uranium to fuel its reactors, and has been barred from buying nuclear fuel from other countries because it developed the nuclear bomb in defiance of international calls for non-proliferation. Under the new nuclear deal, the US will exempt India from its own laws banning any nuclear dealings with countries that do not submit to international inspections, and sell it nuclear fuel and reactors. In return, India is to place 13 of its existing reactors under international safeguards. SOURCE:www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072706C.shtml************************************************** Military Industrial Complex Plans For Unending War "It is a conviction that war is not an answer to human conflict any more than cannibalism is to human hunger." — Bruce Kent International Peace Bureau President at centenary reception, Berne, 1991 US Plans $4.6 Billion in Middle East Arms Sales Reuters Friday 28 July 2006 Washington - The Bush administration spelled out plans on Friday to sell $4.6 billion of arms to moderate Arab states, including battle tanks worth as much as $2.9 billion to protect critical Saudi infrastructure. The announcement came two weeks after the administration said it would sell Israel its latest supply of JP-8 aviation fuel valued at up to $210 million to help Israeli warplanes "keep peace and security in the region." The United States also rushed a delivery of precision-guided bombs requested by Israel after launching its airstrikes against Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon 17 days ago, The New York Times reported last week. In the newly proposed sales to Arab states, UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter gunships worth up to $808 million would go to the United Arab Emirates, while AH-64 Apache helicopters worth as much as $400 million would go to Saudi Arabia. Bahrain would also get Black Hawk helicopters, valued at up to $252 million. Jordan would get a potential $156 million in upgrades to 1,000 of its M113A1 armored personnel carriers. Javelin anti-tank missiles valued at up to $48 million would go to Oman under the deals put forward by the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which administers U.S. government-to-government arms sales. The $2.9 billion Saudi deal involves the sale of 58 older-generation U.S. M1A1 Abrams tanks that would be modernized. Also, 315 Saudi-owned, newer-model, Abrams tanks would be improved with such things as air-conditioning and infrared sights for the commanders as well as the gunners. The project's prime contractor would be General Dynamics Corp.'s Land Systems business unit of Sterling Heights, Michigan, the Pentagon said in a notice to Congress required by law. Vehicle "teardown" and final reassembly would be carried out in Saudi Arabia, the notice said. The upgraded configuration is known as the M1A2S, in which the S stands for Saudi. "The proposed sale and upgrade will allow Saudi Arabia to operate and exercise a more lethal and survivable M1A2S tank for the protection of critical infrastructure," it said. It also would keep a substantial number of tanks in the region that have "a high degree of commonality" with the U.S. tank fleet, the Pentagon said, referring to interchangeable parts. Notices of proposed U.S. arms sales are required by law once they top certain value thresholds. They do not mean a sale has been concluded. Congress may block a sale if both houses pass resolutions of disapproval within 30 calendar days of formal notification. SOURCE: www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072906C.shtmlBanking on War www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080206Z.shtmlWilliam Rivers Pitt writes: "It is, at bottom, all about profit. We sell the weapons, which create warfare, which justifies our incredibly expensive war-making capabilities when we have to go in and fight against the people who bought our weapons or procured them from a third party. This does not make the world safer, but only reinforces the permanent state of peril we find ourselves in."
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Aug 18, 2006 12:12:26 GMT 4
Empty Envelopes for Empty Promises How to Awaken Sleeping DemocratsThe simplicity of this action is beautiful. In reality we have been left with the choice of two parties to vote for and many believe that the Democrats are our only hope to turn the United States around. That may be so in the reality in which we live. However, over and over the Democrats have caved when they could have taken the initiative to drive out the Bush regime. They have had a myriad of opportunities to redirect our country toward a strong and moral leadership which takes care of its own citizens' needs and concerns and to correct the mismanagement, failure, and blundering of our foreign policies. Since the flow of money is all that seems to get their attention, I ask that you consider using the following method to finally get the attention of our Democratic Representatives at all levels of government......MichelleEmpty Envelopes for Empty Promises
How to Awaken Sleeping DemocratsBy Steve Bhaerman With each new revelation of criminality, hubris and incompetence on the part of the Bush Administration, there is one thing I find truly amazing: While the Bush approval numbers now hover a couple of degrees above freezing, at a time when courage and leadership are being called for, the Democratic Party leadership isn’t taking the call. Consider how few Democratic Senators stood against the abuses of the so-called Patriot Act, or have stood with courageous Sen. Russ Feingold in his call to censure Bush. Or how the Dems have failed to extract us from an immoral, illegal and ill-conceived war. If the Democrats are the firewall between a proto-fascist regime leading us backward into neo-feudalism, then God help us. Well, as the saying goes, God helps those who help themselves, and I may have a self-help formula for the millions of us suffering from “outrage fatigue” and ready to play “lead the leader.” I call it the Empty Envelope campaign, and here’s how it works: As the Democrats are gearing up for a campaign year where they are hoping to regain control of Congress, let’s send the Democratic Central Committee empty envelopes instead of donations—empty envelopes for empty promises. You use can use the letter below, modify it as you like, or write your own original letter in place of or in addition to my letter. The important thing is that it’s not an e-mail, but a genuine mailed letter. If it’s returned to them in one of their own envelopes, all the better. You can even mark the envelope “contribution enclosed” so that they’re sure to open it. And the contribution you are making is far more valuable than money. It is a call for courage, vision and integrity from leadership that has lost its way. Now you may be a little reluctant to do this, particularly since there are indeed some Democrats you want to support, and a change in the composition of Congress will certainly be an important strategic step toward turning around the entire ship of state. No problem. Just earmark your contribution for the Progressive Democrats of America, an organization that has at the very least shown willingness to confront the illegal war and election fraud. Be sure and tell the Democratic Party leadership that your contribution has gone elsewhere. Even if you’re not a Democrat by affiliation—if you’re a Green, a Libertarian, Republican or independent—you can still send an empty envelope and a note. You can look at those in charge of the Democratic Party as complicit “Republican Lites” or intimidated and abused “enablers.” Either way, they need to know that we are out there either to support them if they choose to be courageous, or support ourselves if they choose not. If indeed they are getting pressure from the “top” to play nice with our corporate rulers, they need to have even more pressure from the grassroots up saying essentially that we’re mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. Imagine the impact of getting 250,000 empty envelopes. Or half a million. Or a million. Or ten million. Will that get someone’s attention? Well, if they’re still sleeping after all that, we can just consider they’ve been “put to sleep.” But the good news is, we’re still awake, and more of us are awakening every day. May we the people—those willing to come front and center and be adults in the matter of the “low-jacking” of America—recognize ourselves and grow in power. If you like this idea, please copy and circulate this article, or send it to every email list you have. Circulate it, and send your heartfelt contribution in the form of a non-contribution—snail mail only! Please remember to be kind, after all, real people will be reading the letter. Do it today, and feel free to not contribute again and again until they get the message. • • • Howard Dean, Chairman Democratic National Committee 430 S. Capitol St. SE Washington, DC 20003 Dear Dr. Dean: This is the time of year when Americans make contributions to their political party, so here is my contribution: An empty envelope, to represent empty promises. Yes, I know it isn’t easy being a party out of power, but here’s the funny thing. The Democrats represent the values of a majority of Americans, and yet they are the “minority party.” Why is that? Perhaps it’s because too many Democrats—particularly the Democratic Party leadership—have been unwilling to provide those things the American people need and desire most: Courage, vision, integrity and authenticity. Perhaps this is because this leadership doesn’t trust the awareness and maturity of the American people. If that’s the case, maybe getting enough of these letters will convince you otherwise. Perhaps it is because the leadership simply lacks these qualities, in which case it might be time to step aside and let the bolder ones take over. We thought that bolder one might have been you, Dr. Dean, but we must have been mistaken. America faces not only an enemy overseas, but an enemy at home in the form of rule of, by and for corporations. This is no mere abstraction or idle rhetoric. The drug and oil companies, the petro-food companies, the Halliburtons, all have more to say about what our government does or doesn’t do than any million of us. In the past, the Democrats have been at the very least, a check on the unchecked power of capitalism. But now, the party seems to have devolved into little more than a final resting place for progressive votes, and has failed to defend the American people and our Constitution against the forces of what can only be called fascism. A small but growing group of candidates have shown the courage to stand up to election fraud, an illegal war, and the frightening attempts on the part of this Administration to create a police state. I will continue to support these people by making a contribution to the Progressive Democrats of America, and I have urged everyone else I know to do the same. What will it take for me to make a financial contribution to the Democratic Party itself? Here are just a few courageous and visionary steps you and the Party leadership can take: • Acknowledge the war in Iraq was a legal, moral and tactical mistake and stand for ending it now. • Stand for a foreign policy that shows we know the difference between being hated around the world and being respected. Loudly and boldly declare a congruent plan for weaning ourselves from oil. • Stand for a true Voters Rights Amendment to the Constitution which guarantees open access to voting machines, paper trails, and Publicly-Financed Campaigns. This is the only way to take corporate lobbyists out of elections, and put the people back in. • Acknowledge and investigate charges of voter fraud in Ohio and Florida in 2004. Remember, unanswered perpetrations tend to embolden the perpetrator. • Help America move into the new millennium by standing for transparency and problem-solving instead of hedging and ideological positioning. It’s time for working together across ideological lines to confront the ethical, environmental and economic issues that 80% to 90% of Americans agree need to be handled. Being the true party of the “center” in this sense is not about wimpy compromise, but about imaginative leadership. • The Democrats need to have a clear and compelling plan for what they would do instead. The current gang in power have pretty much guaranteed us a future of never-ending warfare, loss of civil liberties and virtual police state powers, growing gap between rich and poor, environmental destruction, and privatization of everything—including the “truth.” If you can’t come up with something more appealing than that, then why would any swing voter swing your way? Millions of Americans have now awakened to the nightmare that the precious dream of our Founding Fathers is in grave danger. We have votes that don’t count. We have a media suppressing truth and enabling lies. We have a regime that uses intimidation to make illegal actions “legal.” We have a political system so run by money, that our “representatives” can no longer represent our interests, or the interests of the commonwealth. We now face the greatest crisis—and opportunity—our country has ever been faced with. Do we devolve into neo-feudalism kept in place by a Big Brother police state? Or do we confront the “monster” we have created with our own fear and apathy, boldly tell the truth, and call on all Americans to come together, work together and stand for the moral principles (not the religious dogma) our country was founded on? If we can do this, we won’t have to worry about imposing “democracy” on recalcitrant Middle Eastern regimes, people worldwide will come run-ning and shouting “I’ll have what they’re having!” The time for muddling in the middle is over. I have faith that the people of America will be both relieved to hear the truth spoken, and inspired to act with conscience and imagination. Do you have that faith, Dr. Dean? Are you willing to lead, and encourage the real leaders within the party? It’s time for America to wake up, wise up and grow up. For more from Steve Bhaerman, aka Swami Beyondananda, visit www.wakeuplaughing.com. Source: www.sentienttimes.com/06/apr_may_06/envelopes.html
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Sept 12, 2006 16:47:08 GMT 4
Satyagraha 100 Years Later: Gandhi Launches Modern Non-Violent Resistance Movement on Sept. 11, 1906Friday, September 8th, 2006 September 11th 2006 has a special significance. It not only marks the fifth anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington, it also marks 100 years to the day that Mahatma Gandhi launched the modern nonviolent resistance movement. We speak with Gandhi's grandson, Arun, about "Satyagraha." [includes rush transcript] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 11th 2006 has a special significance. It not only marks the fifth anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington, it also marks 100 years to the day that Mahatma Gandhi launched the modern nonviolent resistance movement. Gandhi called it "Satyagraha." The date was September 11th, 1906. Speaking before 3,000 Indians gathered at a theater in Johannesburg, Gandhi organized a strategy of nonviolent resistance to oppose racist policies in South Africa. Satyagraha was born and since then, it has been adopted by many around the world to resist social injustice and oppression. Gandhi used it in India to win independence from the British. The Reverend Martin Luther King used it in the United States to oppose segregation and Nelson Mandela used it in South Africa to end apartheid. Today, we mark 9/11 by looking at Satyagraha. We speak with Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and co-founder of the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Memphis Tennessee, which promotes nonviolence in conflict zones around the world. Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. Born in South Africa under apartheid, Arun moved to India in 1946 to live with his grandfather. He remained in India until the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. Arun Gandhi spent the next thirty years as a journalist in India. In 1991 he co-founded the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Memphis Tennessee, which promotes nonviolence in conflict zones around the world. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RUSH TRANSCRIPT This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution. Donate - $25, $50, $100, more... AMY GOODMAN: Arun Gandhi joins us from Rochester, New York, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and co-founder of the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Memphis, Tennessee, which promotes nonviolence in conflict zones around the world. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Arun Gandhi. ARUN GANDHI: Thank you very much. Thank you very much for having me on your show. AMY GOODMAN: Can you define Satyagraha for us? ARUN GANDHI: Satyagraha is the pursuit of truth. My grandfather believed that truth should be the cornerstone of everybody's life and that we must dedicate our lives to pursuing truth, to finding out the truth in our lives. And so his entire philosophy was the philosophy of life. It was not just a philosophy for conflict resolution, but something that we have to imbibe in our life and live it all the time so that we can improve and become better human beings.JUAN GONZALEZ: And the spread of the concept and the movement around the world, looking back now at its impact, could you talk about how it spread and the impact it's had on social change around the world? ARUN GANDHI: I think it has had a tremendous impact, as you just said in the introduction. So many people around the world have used nonviolence as a way to resolve a conflict that they faced in their lives. And they continue to use it everywhere all over the world there. And I think, in a way, nonviolence is our nature. Violence is not really our nature. If violence was our nature, we wouldn't need military academies and martial arts institutes to teach us how to kill and destroy people. We ought to have been born with those instincts. But the fact that we have to learn the art of killing means that it's a learned experience. And we can always unlearn it. And I’m always reminded of a very pertinent statement that my grandfather made. He said, “Violence will prevail over violence, only when someone can prove to me that darkness can be dispelled by darkness.” And I think that's what we have to remember and try to imbibe in our lives there, that we can never overcome violence with more violence. We can only overcome violence with respect and understanding and love for each other. AMY GOODMAN: Arun Gandhi, can you tell us what your grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, did 100 years ago today? ARUN GANDHI: Well, as you said, he met in the theater with more than 3,000 Indian people, because they were victims of prejudices in South Africa and all kinds of unjust laws were enacted to oppress them and suppress them. And he realized that this was not right and that we should not submit to these things and should not live with this. And so he got the people together and explained to them that we have to resist this kind of injustice, and we have to do something about it. We should not just submit to it and live with it. And people were wondering, how can we resist with the state so powerful, and we don't have any weapons, you know, because every time, even today, when somebody talks about resistance, everybody thinks in terms of weapons and war and fighting. And that's when grandfather explained to them that we don't need any weapons of mass destruction. We have the ability to respond to this nonviolently and with self-suffering. And that's what he encouraged the people to do. And they came out into the streets with love for the enemy. You know, grandfather didn't tolerate any hate for the enemy or any anger for the enemy. He said nonviolence has to be complete nonviolence. We have to have love and respect for the enemy, and that is the only way we can overcome them. And that's what he showed in his work. And I am amazed that the prime minister of South Africa, General J.C. Smuts, later on he admitted that grandfather was the greatest. He called him a saint, and he said, “It was my misfortune that I had to be against him,” you know. And it was that kind of feeling of reverence and awe that he inspired even in his opponents. And I think that's what we have to remember and try to make it a part of our lives, because violence is destroying us. You know, we're seeing violence growing every day in our streets, in our homes, in our towns, in our cities, in the world itself. Everywhere we turn, we see violence and hate and prejudice and anger and all of these negative emotions that are destroying humanity. And we have to wake up and take note of this and try to change our course, so that we can create a world of peace and harmony where future generations can live happily together. JUAN GONZALEZ: For some of our younger listeners, especially, who may not be aware of the specific ways in which your grandfather carried out his movement, especially in India, could you talk about some of the tactics used or the key moments in the fight for Indian independence? And also I’d be interested in your perspective on how you see how India today is either carrying out -- whether people are either carrying out or have forgotten much of the lessons of Gandhi. ARUN GANDHI: Well, nonviolence is something very powerful, and the power behind it is not weapons, but the support of the people. And grandfather had this knack of picking on issues which really affected a lot of people everywhere. And therefore, he was able to get people to come out and join his movement.Now, to give you an example, the salt march that took place in 1930, when he announced to the nation that he was going to defy the salt laws enacted by the British and defy the British government, even the Congress Party members who were his supporters began to doubt and wonder: “How can you destroy the British empire by defying the salt laws?” And, you know, everybody ridiculed the whole idea, and even the British ridiculed the whole idea, and grandfather remained steadfast there. But the reason why he picked on the salt law was that that was one law that affected everybody, Hindus and Muslims, rich and poor. Everybody across the board were affected by that law. And when he decided that he was going to march 247 miles to the sea -- JUAN GONZALEZ: And if you could explain why that law was so oppressive to the Indian people. ARUN GANDHI: Because the British had decided that they were going to take the Indian salt back to Britain and refine it and repackage it and sell it back to the Indian people at about 20 times the price, and, you know, enormous taxes were imposed on salt. And India had been impoverished by the British colonialism and imperialism. And people were very poor. And this kind of tax on salt, something that everybody needs every day, was totally unjust, and therefore, grandfather decided to defy this. And when he marched that day, began the march, 247 miles to the sea, you know, it just caught the imagination of the people. And millions of people poured out into the street. And even if they couldn't participate in his march, they did things in their own cities to defy the British. And the response was so tremendous that the Congress doubters also began to see the wisdom of it, and the British government were taken completely by surprise. And I think that was the turning point in the freedom struggle in India. From that point onwards, the British lost their hold over the country. And it just went down to ultimately giving independence to the country there. AMY GOODMAN: And in your work in the Middle East, Arun Gandhi, how have you applied Satyagraha? ARUN GANDHI: Well, I had the opportunity to go there in 2004. And as it turned out, I was the last foreigner to have meet Yasser Arafat and to have spoken to him. And the message that I took to the people in the Middle East is that this kind of violence that you are committing is not beneficial to you or beneficial to anybody. You are only destroying a whole generation of young people and not achieving anything. And lately, after 2001, after the terrorist attacks here, everybody in the West has been looking at suicide bombers as terrorists. And so, instead of gaining sympathy for the cause of the Palestinian people, you are only, you know, gaining more anger and frustration, and people are branding you as terrorists, and you are losing the battle there. So I tried to suggest to them that they should take, you know -- reexamine their whole procedure and see what they can do nonviolently to achieve their goals. I suggested to them that Napoleon, the greatest military general that the world has seen, has written in his book that the general who holds the initiative has better chances of winning the war. And I said in this case, you are not holding the initiative at all. It is the Israelis who are holding the initiative, and they are making you do things that they want you to do, and that can justify more violence and separation of your people. JUAN GONZALEZ: What was the response of President Arafat, who had spent his whole life in armed resistance, basically, to free his people? ARUN GANDHI: Well, one of the questions that he asked me was, well, suppose you were given the leadership, what would you plan to do? And I said, look, I can't give you an offhand answer to this question, because it needs to be studied properly. I need to be here. I need to understand the problems here. But one thing that really comes to my mind here, I said I had just been to Amman, Jordan, where I had met with more than half a million refugees, Palestinian refugees, who were living for more than a decade in awful conditions. And they were frustrated and angry, and they wanted to come back to Palestine and live a peaceful, normal life there. And I told -- AMY GOODMAN: You have ten seconds. ARUN GANDHI: I told Mr. Arafat, I said, suppose you were to go there and lead this half a million people, men, women and children, in a march to Palestine, and no armaments or anything, just say that we are coming back to live in peace and harmony in our homeland, can the Israelis kill so many people and live with their conscience? I said the whole world would wake up and stop this action. AMY GOODMAN: Arun Gandhi. I want to thank you very much for being with us. I hope to see you in Memphis on January 11th, on our Breaking the Sound Barrier tour. And I want to let our listeners and viewers know, on Monday, the movie Gandhi will play all over the country, on the 100th anniversary of Satyagraha. Source and to view: www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/08/1349257
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Sept 21, 2006 16:28:57 GMT 4
Take Action National Call-in Day for a Department of PeaceSeptember 21stThe National Congressional Call-in Day for a Department of Peace is today, September 21st, at high schools and colleges across the country.Join us by taking action now! Everyone, student or not, can call and write your Members of Congress. September 21st is celebrated across the globe by individuals, organizations, and nations as the International Day of Peace. On this day, the Student Peace Alliance will collectively engage our elected officials in dialogue about the Department of Peace and Nonviolence Bill currently in the US House and US Senate. A national call-in day is an effective means for students across the country to express to elected officials their support for a Department of Peace. On the National Call-in Day students will organize at campuses and schools across the country to call their elected officials. Students will speak to House and Senate staff about the importance of peace and how the Department of Peace will fund peace-building initiatives throughout our nation and globe. On September 21st, the Student Peace Alliance will be joined by the larger campaign for a Department of Peace in calling on our elected officials to stand with us in support of a Department of Peace. This will be the first collective national Student Peace Alliance action. Let’s make a statement on Thursday that we are an alliance that acts locally with a strong national impact. Special note on Senate Anniversary: September 22nd is the first anniversary of the bills introduction into the Senate. Please be sure to contact your senators today and tomorrow. Both senate sponsors are retiring this year so we need a new sponsor to introduce the legislation next year! Take Action Now! www.thepeacealliance.org/content/view/29/139/ Let us know you called! Click here: www.thepeacealliance.org/track_events/calls.htm**************************************************** Student Peace Alliance "The Student Peace Alliance advocates the Legislation for a Culture of Peace through education and grassroots action" Objectives• Lobby for the Legislation for a Department of Peace • Create Cultures of Peace on campuses and in communities BackgroundThe Student Peace Alliance formed in March of 2006 as a group of local student initiatives spreading across the country in support of the legislation for a Department of Peace. Students and youth have been organizing, educating, and lobbying in support of a Department of Peace in Vermont, New Jersey, Minnesota, California, and in Massachusetts- where the first official Student Peace Alliance chapter was formed at Brandeis University. The Student Peace Alliance is currently active on 15 campuses. The Student Peace Alliance is a youth embodiment of what is at the very heart of this emerging movement, virtue and justice. About UsStudents and youth in our country and abroad are drastically affected by violence. The impact of violence is far from discrete. As it seeps through the media into our homes, communities, and our streets, it is directly tapping everyday lives. While we recognize the inspiring effect of programs worldwide, we believe that these peaceful nonviolent initiatives must be thoroughly researched, funded, and articulated at the national level. Source: www.thepeacealliance.org/content/view/186/163/**************************************************** The Legislation Overview and Need Endorsements Co-Sponsors The Bills Solutions at Work Statistics on Violence For More Information Go To: www.thepeacealliance.org/content/view/84/111/*************************************************** ORGANIZATIONAL ENDORSEMENTS Amnesty International
American Muslim Voices
Global Exchange
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Peace Action
Pax Christi
September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
and many more...
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Oct 6, 2006 2:17:19 GMT 4
OCTOBER 6, 2006 NATIVE AMERICAN HEALING CEREMONY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HEALING OF MOTHER EARTH: "WHEN NATURE COMES TOGETHER"10/05/06, 6:06 PM EST, USA Dear Readers: I just received this alert through my network of planetary 'Lighted' Ones. Won't you consider joining in this ceremony through prayer, meditation, or whatever is sacred to you? The manifold power of our minds is exponentially increased when we join together. This is the meaning of the words: "When three or more gather in my name" Please adjust your time zones accordingly. Thanking You In Advance, MichelleDear Ones, I have found a website that I think may interest you: The site contains the story behind a Native American ceremony that will be performed on October the 6, 2006 at 11:00 PM. Eastern Daylight Time in the U.S.A. At that time they invite the world’s inhabitants to participate in the ceremony in an effort to protect the environment from man’s intervention. They do not ask for any contributions and they are not selling anything. All they are asking is for 15min. of your time to think about what you can do to help save us from ourselves. www.regp.com/nativeamerican/index.html That's 5:00 pm, Hawaii time 8:00 pm, California time 15 minutes, guys. I'm going to do 4 rounds of Tsalagi at that time, focusing on the elements and directions, and sending my intentions to all of them. The story on this web page moved me to tears: For the Beings that can not access the internet....October 6, 2006, I will perform a ceremony called “When Nature Comes Together“.The ceremony will be performed at 11:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time in the United States of America. The ceremony will be 15 minutes in duration. Any individual, world wide, may participate by going outdoors and think about what you personally can do to protect nature from the harm mankind has imposed. If for some reason you are unable to physically go outdoors, have someone obtain something from nature such as a stone, a stick, or some dirt or sand to hold in your hand. The timing, of 11:00 PM EDT is very important; therefore, make sure your area corresponds with the time in the United States.The story behind the ceremony is as follows: In the early 1830’s, nine Native American medicine men, known as the council, gathered to discuss the recently signed Indian Relocation Act and how it would affect all Native Americans in the eastern United States. After the second day of discussions, the men retired for the evening. That night all nine men reported having a dream that had nothing to do with their reason for being there. When they met on the third day as each council member discussed their “dream”, they soon realized that each one of them held a piece to a prophecy. The prophecy was that Man would turn his back on Our Mother and for many years would hurt her. Then at some point in the future he would realize what he had done to her. When mankind finally reached the point that they saw the danger of their actions they would try to save her from their self-destructive actions. At this point, a person would receive three signs from Our Mother. After receiving the third sign, he or she would have three full moons to inform people about the ceremony and to perform it. Our Mother, or nature as we refer to it, was considered one of the same by the council. They believed that the Great Spirit, who created everything, also created Our Mother to feed, clothe and shelter us. They also believed that everything is a part of nature and all things contained a spirit. As you can imagine, this prophecy was very disturbing to the council. They could not understand how man, a part of nature, could turn its back on nature and what the Great Spirit had created for them. I became involved in this ceremony because a distant Grandfather of mine, named Small Hand, was the one whose family was to receive the three signs. Over the generations certain family members have been told to look for the signs and keep its secrets. My Great Grandfather, Paws Like Bear, told me, Gray Hawk, the prophecy and the signs to look for and out of respect for him and my ancestors, I am keeping my word. The following are the three signs. The First Sign - You will meet a woman that you have seen in a dream. When you meet her, something unusual will happen and Our Mother will show you her name. The Second Sign — On the day the woman is to be married, you will see her and her husband’s namesakes together. And the Third Sign — One day you will see the namesakes of the woman, her husbands and yours all together. On July 3, 2002, I realized I had received the first sign. I met my son’s new girlfriend and the moment I saw her I realized I had seen her in a dream twelve years earlier. When I tried to take her picture, my auto focus camera kept focusing in on a female Cardinal sitting on a branch about twenty feet behind her. This should not have happened since she was closer and much larger than the bird. After three tries, I put down the camera and under my breath I asked the bird to leave. The bird left and I gave the girl the name Red Bird. Two years later, I received the second sign. Red Bird and Red Turtle (my son’s name) were getting married. The morning of the ceremony I got up at sunrise and while having a cup of tea in the parking lot of the hotel, I spotted something across the parking lot under a Pine tree. When I went over to investigate, I spotted a female Cardinal and a painted turtle with red stripes under the tree. On July 19, 2006, I received the third and last sign. I was looking out my kitchen window and I spotted a female Cardinal sitting on a branch at the edge of the woods. As I watched the Cardinal, it flew to the ground next to something in the grass. I picked up the binoculars and saw that it was a turtle. Out of nowhere, a Hawk landed next to them. The third sign had appeared since my Native American name is Gray Hawk. The ceremony I will perform is simple. The Mothers of Red Bird and Red Turtle and another woman of my choosing will each take a lace made from a deerskin. The women will braid the laces together and then place the braided laces between the couples clasped hands, while the other end of the braid is buried in the in the ground. The laces represent an umbilical cord from Our Mother Earth carefully constructed into a braid by the mothers and attached to their children. The third women’s deerskin lace in twined with in the braid represents all the other mothers of the world. By performing this ceremony we are bringing mankind back to nature/Our Mother where we belong. Then I will ask the participants if they will help protect and heal Our Mother, and teach others to do the same. Once all have agreed, the ceremony is over. I am not so naïve as to think that everything will dramatically change overnight once the ceremony has taken place. All my ancestors are hoping for is that mankind will join together and help heal what we have harmed in the last century. Although these men were quite astute, I am sure they could never have imagined our world as it is today. On a personal note, they have handed me the monumental task of getting the word out about this ceremony. To do this, I have decided to spread the word as they once did. Long ago a message would have been carried by runners from camp to camp or from tribe to tribe. I have decided to follow my ancestor’s traditions by using you, the citizens of the world as my runners through e-mail to get their message out. At the end of this letter I have written a generic e-mail you can copy and paste to your mail to simplify things. All you have to do is send it to your contacts and it will be up to them to decide whether they want to visit this site. As I see it my greatest hurtle will be getting this message out to those who do not speak English. So for those of you out there who are bilingual please help me by finding a website that will carry this message to all around the globe. Unlike our ancestors long ago modern man knows a protective layer surrounds the earth known as the ozone layer. The rain forests around the world supply most of the oxygen we breathe. We also know that water, which is the lifeblood of this planet, can not be reproduced, so what we have is all we get. Our ozone layer is weakening; we are destroying the rain forests; and polluting our air and water. These are the global problems we all face. Please help and be part of the solution, not the problem.In closing I would remind you that the men who had these dreams respected and loved Our Mother Earth. These men had the foresight to see that it would take the combined effort of the world community to save Our Mother. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. If you decide to participate in the ceremony it will not cost you any money, it requires no special skills, and its only requirement is fifteen minutes out of your busy lives. This time is to be spent in a positive way, thinking how you can do something, however small, to help the situation. Also I am not affiliated with any environmental group or organization, so if some one contacts you for a donation on my behalf or on behalf of the ceremony, please contact your local authorities. Sincerely, Donald Loock, Native American name (Gray Hawk) Please copy the paragraph and URL below and forward, so the message can reach as many people as possible:Dear, I have found a website that I think may interest you: The site contains the story behind a Native American ceremony that will be performed on October the 6, 2006 at 11:00 PM. Eastern Daylight Time in the U.S.A. At that time they invite the world’s inhabitants to participate in the ceremony in an effort to protect the environment from man’s intervention. They do not ask for any contributions and they are not selling anything. All they are asking is for 15min. of your time to think about what you can do to help save us from ourselves. www.regp.com/nativeamerican/index.html
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DT1
Moderator
You know, it's not like I wanted to be right about all of this...
Posts: 428
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Post by DT1 on Nov 23, 2006 12:27:33 GMT 4
A Message From John Fitzgerald Kennedy On November 22, 2006Submitted by BuzzFlash.com by Brent Budowsky My fellow Americans: On November 22 four decades ago I left you, and for those of you who think of me, let me ask a personal favor: reflect for a moment on the world we lived in, the things we believed in, the deeds we did, and the Nation we left in trust for you. I was born as America was winning the First World War, was young when America won the Second World War, and was President when America was winning the battle of ideas that led to our victory in the Cold War. History teaches lessons; here are some I pass on, to you. I was the younger generation, within the great generation. I was never comfortable with that term, great generation, because what makes America America, is that every generation can be great. Some are, some aren't. It was up to us. Now it is up to you. When I was a young man, we faced and we defeated the challenge of fascism. When I was President in middle age, we met the challenge of communism. Had I lived long enough, I would have been with you, when the last brick was torn down from the Berlin Wall, where I once stood as the leader of America and the leader of the free world. On that day, I was with you in spirit, there were tears of joy and cheers of triumph from every corner in heaven. To those of you who are young in 2006, now it is your world, now it is your time, now it is your day to dream and your world to build. On those days you are surrounded by cynicism and war, by anger and chaos, do not let anyone tell you otherwise. It is your day to dream. It is your world to build. We did it. You can do it. Make us proud. When I was a young man and fascism was on the march, my entire family, my entire country, my entire generation answered the call. It was not easy. It was hard. But the magic of our moment and the reason for our victory was clear: we were in it together. My brothers and I signed up for the war. My sisters signed up to do their part, in their way, in Europe and America. Even Dad finally got into the spirit, a little bit late, as I told him at the time. When I was fighting in the South Pacific we not only won great victories but made friends that lasted for life. When my brother Joe flew that last mission over the English Channel, we mourned when we lost him, but we were proud and we knew the price for freedom was high. My message is this: every American belongs to a proud and great family. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. Do not let anyone divide you from each other. We are all in the family of America. We are all in this together. So long as you remember this, you can climb any mountain on earth, and when you stand together and share the view from the summit, you will know that it was worth the effort. Years later I stood at the gates of the Berlin Wall, and looked out to hundreds of thousands of Berliners with hopes in their hearts and stars in their eyes. Think back on those days: the foot of Soviet communism on the neck of Eastern Europe. The danger of nuclear extermination in the air. Little children in America were taught to hide under their desks in school, as though they would not be incinerated if the radioactive bombs fell. Little children under communism grew up to fear the knock on the door, in the dark of their night, when Mom and Dad could disappear. But we triumphed; America triumphed; freedom triumphed. The world became a much better place. The young children in America no longer had to hide under their desks. The children in Europe no longer had to fear the knock on the door in the middle of the night. And I ask you: how many countries did America invade to achieve these great goals? Sure, we threatened war over Berlin. Yes, we built the greatest military arsenal in the history of the world. But it was the Russians who invaded Eastern Europe, not us. It was the Russians who blockaded Berlin, not us. It was the Russians who built that Wall not to keep people out, but to keep people in. My message is this: you have allowed the military to deteriorate with some very badly chosen decisions, and you will have to rebuild it. Life is unfair. You made your mistakes. Now fix them. But: always remember that our great weapon is not the power of our shock and awe bombing, or our preemptive wars. It is the great truth of the power of our ideas. We must always be militarily strong, but the force of our ideas is always more powerful than the reckless use of force. Remember: sometimes it takes more courage to champion the cause of peace than to bang the drums of war, and always America is strongest when we align ourselves with the highest aspirations of those who's hearts and minds should be joined with ours. For the last six years, for the first time since 1948, the United States of America has been totally absent from leadership in the search for Middle East peace. Totally absent from the courage and vision to dare to offer a generation of young people throughout the Middle East a true hope for a better life. Those who have taken such reckless risks for war, have not even initiated the smallest steps for peace. This is unprecedented. This is wrong. We must never surrender diplomacy to those who wish us ill. We must never surrender the streets to the suicide bombers and those who pray on anguish, humiliation and poverty. We must always offer a better way and take the same risks for peace, we take for war. Remember: we negotiated with our enemies from strength, and offered the world the hope of a nuclear test ban treaty and the freedom from fear of nuclear extermination. We built the Alliance for Progress to promote opportunity throughout our hemisphere. We championed the Peace Corps to create goodwill and hope throughout our world. We worked through the problems of the United Nations and made it work for our country, and our values. We created the NATO alliance for security. We valued the Nuremberg rules and the Geneva Convention. We trusted the Organization of American States. We understood that international institutions and international agreements serve our interests and form a major bedrock of global security. We were strong, and never negotiated out of fear. We were smart, and never feared to negotiate. We were tough, and stood behind our troops. We were wise, and sent our great leaders to represent our country in the world's institutions. John Bolton can point his finger at a map, but can never imitate the greatness of Adlai Stevenson staring down the Russians at the United Nations when the fate of the world hung in the balance over Cuba. We were not perfect, but we never defined America's greatness by how much torture we could commit, how much fear we could create, or how much we could spy on each other. We used the bully pulpit to win the battle of ideas, not to act like a bully and alienate the world. We made our mistakes, you bet we did. But we stepped up to the plate, and admitted them. We learned from our mistakes, and did better the next time. We screwed up the Bay of Pigs, but saved the world from nuclear war when we were wise, as well as strong, to remove those missiles from Cuba. We believed in social justice, civil rights, a rising tide that would lift all boats. We knew that in America, everyone should lift their eyes to the sky with hope and nobody should be excluded, embittered or left behind. We knew that in America, we were all in this together politically, economically and morally. We knew that this spirit gave America our truest power in the world. To those of you who are young in America in 2006 do not believe the dividers, the haters, the pessimists. To those of you who are young around the world, always remember that we Americans make our share of mistakes, but we truly believe we are a beacon of hope, and when things go wrong, we set them right. When you look around the world in 2006 you see problems, dangers and challenges from many directions but they are no greater than the problems, dangers and challenges we faced in our day. War, chaos, instability, hunger, death, fear, environmental degradation, poverty, disease exist in every generation and always will. Hope, courage, strength, vision, wisdom, truth, valor, daring, generosity and boldness exist in every generation, too, and will always triumph so long as we remain true to ourselves. I cannot give you a five point program for every problem you face. That is your job. But I will tell you this: if you always remember the things that make America a special place, you will always rise to the challenge, and the world will stand with you. If you remember the things we tried to do, the things we did, and the legacy we handed to you, you might find some light on the stormy sea. In the meantime we are up here, Franklin, Eleanor, Bobby, Martin, Abraham, my brother Joe, the guys who landed at Normandy, the dreamers who started the Marshall Plan and left footprints of the Peace Corps, the early test pilots who gave their lives for the dream of touching the moon and cheered when we got there, the heroes who wrote our great Declarations and Emancipations and the words that were born in blood but lived to move the world. We are all up here together, rooting for you, cheering for you, hoping in some way to lift you, inspire you, and help you have your triumphs, as we had ours. I never promised it would be easy, I promised it would be hard, but I know you can do it, and I am with you, always. A BUZZFLASH.com GUEST CONTRIBUTION Brent Budowsky served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit. Left goverment in 1990 for marketing and public affairs business including major corporate entertainment and talent management. He can be reached at brentbbi@webtv.net.
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DT1
Moderator
You know, it's not like I wanted to be right about all of this...
Posts: 428
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Post by DT1 on Jan 7, 2007 15:44:18 GMT 4
Please follow the link,and spend a few minutes with one of the best public servants we have ever had,Mr.Al Gore. www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=al_goreIMHO,while not perfect by any means,he has many qualities (Intelligence,Vision, a Consience) that are glaringly absent in GWB... When I think that this man could have been my President, Should have been my PresidentI just want to hang my head and cry... Dear readers,please consider all of the catastrophic successes that could have been avoided, by common sense...95% of the doings of the American Government would not be classified,hidden away from public view. The Constitution would not be stuck to a nail in the west-wing bathroom. 911 would never have happened. Iraq would not have been ground into the dust for a pipeline. The Treasury would not have been looted. The USA would not be beholden to any foriegn government,or corporation. We might have been able to drink water from the kichen sink without a second thought. It might not be 65 degrees in January. Oh, and half a million Iraqis and three thousand and six American soldiers would not be dead...
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