I’ve Been Thinking…

The quandary the left always finds itself in is the one touched upon in the last post. We are a group of independent spirits who believe in the rights of all and who honor ask that humanity honor the individual. We don’t expect everyone to agree with us and we don’t force people to do so with weapons. By nature we are desirous of peace and have compassion for other beings. We are the meek in the biblical statement: And the meek shall inherit the earth.

Although most of us are secular we show a greater morality, one born of compassion and love for our fellow man. We don’t need to tear down others to feel better.

Wow, it would seem we are the Christians following the path of Christ which by the way was his message. He didn’t tell people to worship him. And we are being martyred by the right wing who play on fear, anger, hatred and the darkness of men’s hearts. This is a dangerous game they play. But they don’t care. That’s the whole point, they don’t care about other people. “I’ve got mine, screw you,” should be their catch phrase.

So how do we fight them? How can we retain our ideals (which President Obama represents) and not be bullied and allowed to move the agenda of caring for each other forward?

Whether we like it or not the crazies are right about one thing – we do live in a predominetly Judeo-Christian culture. It was after all Christian religious zealots who founded this place and their desire for religious freedom really meant the brand of crazy Christian zealotry you found yourself most attracted to. Just as they had slaves working in their field they gave long detailed speeches on the meaning of equality and freedom for all (meaning white men).  It is only through the compassion and higher minded idealists like Lincoln that our society moved forward and sadly, Lincoln paid with his life.

In the Christian tradition there is no spiritual warrior despite the invented version by way of Evangelic Christianity. Goodness, (represented by Christ) holiness and God (represented here on earth by Christ) choose self-sacrifice over gathering a militia and fighting the Romans or any such military option. It’s not the Jews or the Romans who murder Christ but the Christians who follow Christ’s command to not intervene, hide him or fight for him. Just as the Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, taken peacefully by the merciless Nazis. The Jews choose the path of kindness and disbelief. The level of evil was unimaginable. And I believe we are in a similar situation. I don’t think people realize the level of evil that seeks to oppose and destroy this world. The root of this evil is greed and selfishness. It is so deeply rooted in American culture and revered by those who identify with the right that it has become the shadow self of our culture and it has been leading us down the path of total self-destruction for the past 30 years. Fighting this trickster is difficult because on that side the only law is really the law of black magic so aptly stated by Aleister Crowley (I know some think he’s gray, but this law is the line that takes one to the dark side): Thou will is the whole of the law. Meaning one can do anything to anyone in anyway if they want to. The only thing that matters is the individuals own will. One could say Karl Rove and Dick Cheney are the best example of this ideology in action. It’s the whole, “The ends justify the means,” philosophy we as school children had come to understand as wrong, because it is wrong. But this notion, which has always been embraced by the dark side, Hitler, Pol Pot, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney (how many innocent Iraqi people have died during this war? We don’t even count them in our tallies which is horrifying), is a bully pulpupit one that leads to a bloody trail. How many of us protested the war in Iraq? I know here in Los Angeles I was at protests that had literally over a million people, bigger than any protest I’d ever seen, yet it was barely reported at the time. And if the media said there were a million people in New York double or triple that amount, which would be more accurate from my years of protesting and seeing how the media reports on the Lefts agendas to do horrible things like stop wars and eliminate Apartheid.

I personally would have no compunction about fighting these people hard and taking the chance to my own health. I’ve been knocked down by police at Anti-Apartheid protests and seen angry mobs loose control while being in the frightening middle of it. But I’m a parent now and it’s not fair to my daughter that I should have to put my life on the line to protect her rights as a human being.

So back to the central question of how to fight the darkness. Besides meditation, logic and being active in letting your Representatives know how you feel. I think we need to rethink the Christian paradigm. In ancient cultures there was always the way of the warrior, one who fought to protect his/her people and honor. There was no judgment made about who one was fighting, it wasn’t about having God on ones side (although I’m sure they prayed all the same) it was about very simple things like protecting resources so ones people didn’t starve, protecting women and children and elderly people from being slaughtered by an invading army.

But this path of the spiritual warrior was really over by the time of the Roman Empire which instead of acting in defense, took on the strategy of conquering everyone and making them Romans. In other words they took an offensive position as defense to their empire which is the model for all empires, ours included. But these empires collapse eventually, Portugal, Spain, Italy, England no longer can afford this stategy like a giant crazed amoeba absorbing everything in its wake until it bursts, this strategy wastes the resources of its people and often the lives of many soldiers and expands to the point of sustainability until it fractures and falls to pieces. Does this sound familiar to you? Yes, we’re there.

So how can one fight the evil bullies of this world without becoming one? This is the eternal quandary which has fractured and divided the left and given tremendous power to the right for years. Their unifying platform is self-interest at any expense. Ours is not so easily defined other than: Equality, justice and compassion for all beings. The later can be, and is, not just broad but interpreted in many ways with many factions fighting for equality and justice, asking for compassion and help for the less fortunate. Everyone on our side has a passion for one particular cause or another as there are so many ways people step on others.

The only answer I can think of is to not engage with the darkness, to do what’s right and fair allow the world to see how much better things are when goodness and compassion prevail and allow the self-serving to realize the sky didn’t fall and perhaps Medicaid and Medicare (government programs many of them use) really aren’t so bad. I mean Reagan talked the same nonsense about it being socialism, even communism back in the 60s and I think most people at this point would say he sounded like a paranoid nut job at that point (in retrospect.)

Best wishes,

Denise

I’ve Been Thinking…

Readers…

Hey Everyone,

I’m posting a bunch of e-mails I’ve gotten from people who have things to say from global warming to the domestic issue of healthcare reform.

Global warming is my “thing.” As for effective organizations, I like the Union of Concerned Scientists, the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC), Rainforest Action Network to name a few. There are a number of good ones. Follow up on previous email…. One of the sticky wickets for people who are concerned about global warming is that both studies and experience show that the “catastrophe” narrative exhausts and overwhelms folks into putting their heads in the sand. Feeling helpless, they decide to believe the fossil-fuel-funded deniers and not worry about it, or, buy a compact fluorescent light bulb and feel like they have done their part. 

This reader recently went to a conference on the subject and I’ve asked her to write a post detailing the newest science. Hopefully, we’ll get that soon.

And on healthcare reform:

Here are some links for you to post regarding the Bill HR676:
http://www.healthcare-now.org/

And this is a summary of the bill:

The United States National Health Insurance Act (Expanded and Improved Medicare
for All Act) (H.R. 676), is a bill submitted to the United States House of
Representatives by Representative John Conyers Jr., D-MI, which as of March 31,
2009 has 74 recorded cosponsors. It was first introduced, with 25 cosponsors, in
2003,[1] and reintroduced each session since then. The act calls for the
creation of a universal single-payer health care system in the United States, in
which the government would provide every resident health care free of charge. In
order to eliminate disparate treatment between richer and poorer Americans, the
Act would also prohibit private insurers from covering any treatment or
procedure already covered by the Act. The bill is currently in the House Energy
and Commerce Committee, as well as the Committees on Ways and Means, and Natural
Resources. John Dingell (D-MI), former chair of the Energy and Commerce
Committee, has each session introduced a bill with a similar title (“National
Health Insurance Act”) H.R. 15, which was first introduced in 1933 by his
father, John Dingell, but which does not provide for universal health care.
H.R. 676 has drawn significant attention beginning in July 2007 because of the
release of the Michael Moore documentary Sicko which focuses on the status of
health care in the United States, which is the only developed country which does
not have universal health care.[2][3] The DVD edition of the film also included
a segment (Sicko Goes To Washington) promoting the bill.[4][5][6]
[edit] See also
• Canadian and American health care systems compared
• Health in France
• Health care reform
• Healthcare in the United Kingdom
• Healthcare-NOW!
• Medicare (United States)
• Progressive Democrats of America
• Single-Payer Action Network Ohio
[edit] References
1. ^ H.R. 676
2. ^ Insuring America’s Health: Principles and Recommendations, Institute of
Medicine at the National Academies of Science.
3. ^ The Case For Single Payer, Universal Health Care For The United States,
John R. Battista, M.D. and Justine McCabe, Ph.D.
4. ^ American Health Care Reform.org
5. ^ Towards Universal Health Care
6. ^ Universal Health Plan is Endorsed The Boston Globe August 13, 2003
[edit] External links
• H.R. 676 – Information on the act from the Library of Congress Database
• Congressman John Conyers, Jr., sponsor of the bill, official U.S. House
website
• HR676.org – A grassroots effort to inform the public about H.R. 676
Retrieved from 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Health_Insurance_Act
Categories: Healthcare reform in the United States | Medicare and Medicaid
(United States) | United States proposed federal legislation                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
In regards to the markets it was always my original feeling that there would be the major crash and then another bookend crash. My biggest fear is that Obama is just helping to reconstruct the same market that crashed and not enough is being done to fundamentally change it for the better. If the game is played the same way, with the same rules and the same mistakes it will just fall to its knees over and over until it is eventually restructured. I hope President Obama is just trying to stabilize things until he can get in there and do the surgery needed to really make the markets work. Those changes are pretty radical by wall street standards and would require not just major regulations and rule changes but also require companies to play by the same rules every other US citizen plays by: for example, if I can’t move to France than why can IBM move to China? Why should they (if they are a US company) be able to move jobs anywhere that’s cheaper. I’d like to live somewhere cheaper and make a higher profit too. Can I stop paying taxes, put my money in Swiss banks and move to France legally? No. So why can US companies ship jobs overseas? Why isn’t making butt loads of money good enough? This notion of constant growth is not only a falacy but dangerous. It is driving this bizarro world new economic model and basically its aim seems to be to turn the world back to a feudal peasant vs. royal class. This is causing so many other dominoes to fall like the reliance on a middle class that these corporations need in order to stay in business. They are actually driving us all into the poor house and themselves out of business because no one is willing to look long term at the big picture. And this mentally has also driven us to the state we are in with healthcare and global warming and nearly every other mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. It’s time to think long term and stop the crazy squirrel disease that has been eating away at the capitalist brain for the past 30 years. Ethics and morality have to come back into play in regards to business. That old expression “it’s just business,” is just b.s. Nothing can be separated out like that, everything is connected.

Best wishes and many blessings to all you good super brilliant people (check out IQ poll results pretty impressive group I must say),

Denise

P.S. I read a study that said people with high IQs and highly educated people were more likely to believe in psychic ability. Interesting, it was opposite of what most people would assume. I think its because the more you know, the more you know you don’t know anything, and you also can understand when someone takes a leap past logic that they couldn’t possibly have done without something else unexplainable by ordinary means.

Readers…