March 29, 2007

You know that blog entry below from my niece Audrey is such a lovely reminder that we can do something after all about this prolonged war. I have been ambivalent because I don't know if bringing the soldiers (someone said that "troops" is a stupid word, as in, is one of them a "troop"?), because I am not sure that leaving now will not produce a chaos that will expand from Iraq to middle east and on to the whole world. I wait a bit to decide my "way" and, in the meantime, pray for those young men and women serving "their country" as they do believe, and especially dear Zachary Darras my grandson who is about to embark to Iraq where he will be driving a striker and using all kinds of new technologically sound war instruments.

There is a book that has been circulating belonging to Mane Judy called, The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering, that addresses, in its way, this standing together for purpose. For revolution? As does Audrey, Anne Lamott suggests a day for the standing when we can all be there together. I'm with her. Let's have that day. And everyone of us stand together on a corner or in a field. I'll check back with Audrey and Anne L. I'll let you know time and place. I'll be there.

If you would like to read this book, send me an "e" and it is on its way to you. Love and all that.

Audrey's Letter to the Editor

Editor,

The President’s current strategy for the 4-year old war in Iraq, presented to the American people last week, calls for an increase of troop levels from 140,000 to 160,000. A little over a year ago, in 2005, the US implemented a ‘troop surge’ increasing levels to 160,000 and the violence increased! Are we really supposed to believe it will work this time?

Thousands of US troops have been killed, tens of thousands will suffer their wounds for years and/or lifetimes, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi have died, and even more are flooding neighboring nations as refugees from the violence. And each day the killing is worse than the week or month before.

The cost of this war to-date is around $400 billion dollars. The US is borrowing, on foreign markets, 2 billion dollars a day to pay for the current record-making levels of debt. 2 billion dollars a day not spent on schools, or healthcare, or senior care, or alternative energy development. This is our government, folks, and we’re the ones who’ll have to pay it back.

Every Tuesday, from 5:00 - 6:00 p.m., at the corner of Grinnell & Main Streets, a group of citizens gather to publicly stand for peace and call for an end to this war.

As I have invited people to join us on Tuesday, I am told that vigils such as these are not effective, so why bother. I am told, one person can't make a difference, why bother. I have even been told there is nothing we can do about the war in Iraq.

Why do we stand, every Tuesday, 5:00 – 6:00 PM on Main Street? We stand because we are Americans and Americans will not be long fooled. We stand because, under our God, we are all brothers and sisters and we believe Thou Shalt Not Kill your brothers and sisters. We stand because we will not tolerate geopolitical resource grabs bankrupting the moral and financial fabric of our nation, and our souls. We stand to show we do not agree with, or support, or will continue to allow these actions to occur in the name of our nation. We stand with tens of thousands of Americans who held similar events across our country last week, and with the millions of people around the globe who protest the US occupation of Iraq. We stand because ‘silence is approval’ and we do not approve.

We stand for peace and when we stand we are joined by the spirits of Mohandas Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Sister Helen Prejean, and the many more who refused, in the words of Dr. King, “to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.” We stand and we do not stand alone. We know one person can make a difference, indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Audrey Malan
655-2282
redearth@wavecom.net

This from the IFX blog: Always excellent

March, 2007 - Equality Degraded?

Beware of those promoting equality through the degradation of others. To borrow from a strategic saying, this is not a zero-sum game. Thinking the only way to win is at the expense of someone else may be missing a much larger reward.

Maybe it would help to consider some common team sporting events. Every competitive sport has the concept of us vs. them, but in team sports there is also the much stronger concept of individuals working together at the best of their ability to help the team achieve a goal.

The human race is a team sport that some attempt to add a false us vs. them component. All humans are actually on the same team but instead of encouraging all of the players to become their best, some of the players think they can appear taller by subjecting and degrading other team members. This action only hurts the team, even those doing the degrading, to the point the team is much less able to achieve any goal.

Think about any oppressed group (ethnic, sexual, religious, etc.) and how they try to achieve equality. Do they focus their efforts on directly breaking their bonds or do they focus on attacking and degrading the people that in some way represent the bonds? One of these ways brings more degradation and oppression.

Try something different by building up, encouraging and affirming those around you. Maybe then it will be possible to see how things automatically become more equal at a much higher level and the team becomes better able to achieve goals previously thought to be impossible. Link at IFX Group. http://www.ifxgroup.net/index.htm

A Question about Capitalism

Am I the only one who sees Capitalism as evil? As evil as Communism badly administered? The rich get rich and the poor stay poor under Capitalism. The products are made more cheaply every year so that the profit is larger for the stockholders. No one seems to worry about the purchasers or the people who worked to make the product. THE BOTTOM LINE they say.

Once, it was explained to me by my only wealthy beaux. I just use my money as my tool, my shovel. It does the work and I am paid for that work. Okay, fine. And maybe Capitalism properly administered would be tolerable. Not so now. We in America subsidize our farmers and fruit and coffee growers so that they can sell their products more cheaply than those of the third world who have no subsidation. How does the World Bank work? If you are rich, if you privatize, including your water, then we will loan you millions to upgrade your economy, (ah but don't privatize your oil). Just fuck the natives. They don't vote anyway. Put your trash heaps and sewers near the poor, "they don't vote anyway."

One more thing: Support the dictators or corrupt presidents if they take good care of their wealthy. If as in the case of Cuba the rich are run off by a movement to upgrade lives of the poor, then put an embargo on them and keep trade away.

Too simplistic? Educate me. Instruct me in why the white collar crime is punished differently than the blue collar crime. Let me know why we can snicker at cocaine but send the crack users to jail, to the poor man's jail. I don't know much about this. I only want to learn more. Seems wrong somehow.

Tell me I am wrong. I'd love to hear about it. I know that I don't know much about economics. Let me know. Thanks.