My daily blog of progressive politics, faith, photography, and my life in Upstate New York.
"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you angry." - Aldous Huxley
"Golden light skims azure bay, Dense air heavy with laurel. Windless dusk smears to night, Sonorous pool in a sheltered grove."
Though this world is turbulent, there are still days and places where we can be afforded some tranquility. When this happens, it is right to rest from the tribulations and striving of being in the world and to take advantage of what is offered.
Sometimes it will be the peaceful feeling of sunset, when the blazing sun becomes reconciled with the horizon and a sense of acceptance lingers in the air.
At other times it will be the chance encounter with a secret place - perhaps a grove of trees that promises a mysterious comfort.
In such private places, we can often find peace. Such stillness can even be precious, as when we notice the deep voice of a stream which we were always too busy to hear before.
Indeed, sometimes we are so worn out by our daily activities that we forget to notice our need for recharging.
Renewal is a profound tonic. With sanctuary and rest, we can prepare to go forth again.
- From Deng Ming-Dao's book "365 Tao, Daily Meditations"
photos byJude Nagurney Camwell all rights reserved
CBS news correspondent Kimberly Dozier, author of the book "Breathing the Fire" which chronicles events and her experiences after having nearly been killed on Memorial Day in 2006 by an explosive device while reporting in Iraq, asked Arianna Huffington a question on Facebook yesterday. I'll let her comment and question stand on its own. I think it shows just how complicated, indeed, is the question of where the U.S. needs to go on Iraq. It goes far beyond anyone's given ideology, political posturing, and respective choice of Presidential candidate.
It's fairly obvious that the news network's front-line correspondents do not wish to be used for anyone's political purpose in this Presidential campaign season. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have used the Iraq war as a political tool and have treated the mainstream media..sometimes with success, disappointingly... as little more than their personal stenographers. It's happened for so long now...with far less success lately on the Bush administration's part .. that I think we've become perhaps too suspicious about the reporters who lay their own lives on the line every day to report what's actually happening on the ground.
Ms. Dozier asks the owner of the Huffington Post:
"Question for you -- I've been reporting that security is improved for Iraqis thanks to the surge in Iraq, but that US military commanders themselves say the situation is still 'reversible,' and that most everything else has failed to catch up, and could turn the situation south in an instant, like the government's failure to start integrating some 100,000 Sunni awakening fighters in Iraqi majority Shi'ite forces...(they've only integrated 10%, despite heavy US pressure, and the Americans are actually only aiming to integrate up to 30%...so what happens to the 70,000 other Sunni fighters?)...
If I report the success of one part, and ALL those other caveats...how does that get turned into "the mainstream media buys into the propaganda that taking out Saddam was the right thing at the right time?" I never reported that!
I've frequently been misquoted on my book tour on other subjects, so I'm a little over-sensitive about this one."
I know it's not a great analogy, but have you ever been the one person in a dysfunctional family situation who's held everything and everyone together...knowing all the while that once you backed away, all hell would break loose again because you were never, in reality, able to fix what was broken on your own?
Well, it sounds like that's the military in Iraq today.
Perhaps the reason the military - and the Surge- is the only part of the Iraq war being placed in focus by the major networks is because someone sitting behind a desk at corporate headquarters has been pressed into not telling the whole story...while our best war correspondents risk, and in the case of CBS' cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan, lose their lives.
There's an interesting show on Mike Collins' Charlotte Talks/WFAE/90.7FM this morning on community-based organic gardening around the nation and bringing rainwater-harvesting systems to community gardens.
If you missed it, a link to an archived recording of the show is HERE. From the WFAE website:
A conversation about organic gardening, creative watering and local food. We'll be joined by Don Boekelheide of the Urban Ministry Center. The center has received a grant to install a cistern to help water the organic vegetable garden there. We'll talk about how that will aid in producing more local food and the many ways this garden helps the homeless, who also work the garden. Other experts join the panel to discuss general organic gardening tips.
"If I were a dictator determined to control the national press, 'Organic Gardening' would be the first publication I'd squash, because it's the most subversive. I believe that organic gardeners are in the forefront of a serious effort to save the world by changing man's orientation to it, to move away from the collective, centrist, superindustrial state, toward a simpler, realer one-to-one relationship with the earth itself."
- from "The Whole Earth Catalog", 1969
Read a few pages about organic gardening from Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma"
Kucinich Bringing Back Impeachment This Week - Capitol BriefingSource: blog.washingtonpost
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich has written:
"This Thursday evening I will bring a privileged resolution to the House with a single Article of Impeachment of President Bush for taking our nation and our troops to war based on lies. We owe it to our troops who even at this hour stand as sentinels of America because they love this country and will give their lives for it. What are we willing to do to match their valor and the valor of their successors? Are we at least willing to defend the Constitution from the comfort and security of our Washington, DC offices?"
Raw Story has an article here. And more here (Updated information)
The idea of impeaching President George W.Bush, as I know I don't have to tell too many of you, is a reasonable idea to which the mainstream, by design, has a nasty kind of allergy. Although many progressives see the reason behind it, most unfortunately (and always to my dismay), there are many who think they have to have the same "impeachment allergy" that pollutes the commerce-owing mainstream.....although when it was about Bill Clinton's sex life, the allergy was soothed by the medicine that ratings and dollars bring in with stories about sex. Sending troops wantonly into harm's way with lies and deliberate misleadings isn't sexy enough for the mainstream. Besides...much of the mainstream media fell for and into those lies and misleadings.
Our election-minded representatives won't act until citizens guide them..nearly force them to do so. The question is, will they? I believe that Dennis Kucinich has a truly great heart and, I'd imagine, a pretty clear conscience. There aren't enough great hearts and clear consciences in D.C. The mainstream media isn't in the business of guiding your conscience. They report the news that will fit the most profitable business model.
"A tiny group of Republican senators continues to block a vote on an important bill to increase American spending on AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world. Their obstructionism has deprived President Bush of a legislative achievement that could help him spur other industrialized nations to contribute substantially more money as they meet to discuss global issues in Japan this week.
But better late than never. It remains important to blast through the legislative roadblock and bring this broadly supported bill to a vote on the Senate floor, where it is sure to prevail on the merits. [..]
[..] If necessary, Senate Democratic leaders should undertake the potentially time-consuming task of forcing the bill to a vote. "
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Nearly Three-quarters of World's HIV/Aids Cases are in Africa
Ofeibea Quist-Arcton/allAfrica.com
A cemetery in Lusaka, Zambia, is running out of graves because so many are dying of Aids. Some 40 million adults and children worldwide are living with HIV/Aids and 28.1m of them are in Africa. HIV/Aids is the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa. There were 3.4m new HIV infections in the region during 2001 and 2.3m Africans died of Aids in that period.
I dedicate these excerpts from the poem "Boston" by the great Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) to all who still have the Spirit of '76 in their hearts...no matter where they live..regardless of their country of origin.
In the days before these States were united, a culmination of events stemming from the well-crafted expression of long-held feelings of inequality and civil discontent resulted in what's known today as The Boston Tea Party:
"Bad news from George on the English throne: 'You are thriving well,' said he; 'Now by these presents be it known, You shall pay us a tax on tea; 'Tis very small,--no load at all,-- Honor enough that we send the call.' "
"Kings shook with fear, old empires crave The secret force to find Which fired the little State to save The rights of all mankind.
But right is might through all the world; Province to province faithful clung, Through good and ill the war-bolt hurled, Till Freedom cheered and the joy-bells rung."
The great thinkers and writers of the day inspired a web of communities and provinces to come together in common cause.
Today's "war-bolt" need not be facilitated by violence and the unnecessary shedding of innocent blood, but instead by the strong force of our greatest ideals; our greatest ideas; our common goals; our love for equality; our seeking fairness in trade and workers' rights; our respect for business conducted with social responsibility and a close eye on human rights; our caring for our fellow man and woman; ever pushing others up when they cry for freedom; ever-vigilant to keep our own hard-won freedoms secured.
We create the world in which we live each and every new day.
232 years ago, a small group of thinkers created this small imperfect miracle. She's not a miracle that will survive without our willing and loving participation.
If you're a U.S. citizen, remember what - and who - enabled us to be here today creating this new world. Rededicate your personal causes, whatever they may be, to the common cause of all men and women for the right to live their lives in harmony with one another...free of oppression...with equal opportunity...secure and cooperative in their own communities and in the world.
Right is might throughout the world. Let it ring. Happy 4th of July.
Chris Bowers of Open Left, in a post about the Netroots' collective complaint about Barack Obama's recent handling of FISA and the national media's opinion that speaking out will benefit the Progressives only if it doesn't result in any reduction of financial/volunteer efforts on his behalf:
".... being told to shut up and empty your wallet feels more like a mugging than a convincing fundraising ask. Campaigns are no more entitled to small donors and free volunteers than they are to voters. Rather, campaigns have to earn those volunteers and donors by inspiring people to give their time and money."
Reading Mr. Bowers' post, I have to ask myself, "Where is the imagination of the national media?" Aren't there ways to hold the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee accountable that won't result in his electoral defeat? With the sidelining of the 527 arm of MoveOn.org and other influential voices of the strongest progressives, someone's going to have to be free to speak their minds in a nation that has always prided itself in being the land of freedom of speech, freedom of will and spirit, freedom of gun-ownership, freedom of religion, freedom of this, freedom of that.....
I ask you, most realistically, what happens to the firm believers in "freedom of" when their leaders and the national media pundits who love (and are paid well) to talk themselves request that the believers just shut up?
I spoke about Hillary Clinton's rise toward unity last March. Despite the mainstream media and blogosphere's hand-wringing for the past four months, I've felt that Hillary Clinton embraced the idea of unity all that time through small signals and gestures... despite her strong will to be top of ticket.
I think the idea came through in a big way today in Unity, N.H.
It's become increasingly obvious that this team of once-rivals should go with the momentum while the mo is the mo that it is.
I've been making this case for a long time at Daily Kos and have gotten the kind of reception you'd expect from people who were hoping passionately for an Obama nomination.But that time is good and gone and now it's time to realize that these two strong candidates not only get along just fine and appeal to disparate groups of voters, but that Bill Clinton is no threat (a fear-mongering talking point of the parrots of cable news), but is rather a very good politician to have on your side.
Michael Kinsley: Help Me Write a Book Source: Huffingtonpost.com Tags: Bill Gates, Capitalism, Charity Organizations, Gates Foundation, Michael Kinsley, Philanthropy, Business News
"A Conversation is a web experiment designed to produce a book -- a collection of essays and commentary on capitalism, philanthropy and global development -- to be edited by us and published by Simon and Schuster in the fall of 2008. The book takes as its starting point a speech Bill Gates delivered this January at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In it, he said that many of the world's problems are too big for philanthropy--even on the scale of the Gates Foundation. And he said that the free-market capitalist system itself would have to solve them.
This is the public blog of a private website where a group of invited economists have spent the past couple of weeks criticizing and debating those claims. Over the next couple of months we'll be posting much of that material here, in the hopes of eliciting public commentary."
In his NYT op-ed column on June 18th, Thomas Friedman writes:
"Iraq has become one of those subjects that so many people now come to with so much emotional scar tissue that it is very hard to have a sober discussion about the actual situation there today. So much is colored by how you feel about George Bush or whether you were for or against the war. As a result, what we do next in Iraq — how and why — is barely getting discussed in the presidential campaign."
Notable progress" has been made in Iraq despite persistent problems, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday at an international summit to promote peace in the violence-wracked country.
"If we were asked to use just one word to describe the situation in Iraq today, I would choose the word 'hope,' " Ban said at the Stockholm, Sweden, conference. "Iraq is stepping back from the abyss that we feared most."
Yet Iraqis continue to suffer from terrorism, sectarian violence and criminality, he said, and "essential services are still sorely lacking.
Forced displacement and human-rights violations remain problems, particularly for women and minorities, he said, but the level of violence has declined from that of 2006 and part of 2007.
"There is new hope that the people and government of Iraq are overcoming daunting challenges and working together to rebuild their country after years of war, neglect and dictatorship," Ban said.
Confusing leadership in the United States has been a problem since the war began. American citizens were asked to sacrifice nothing. Life went on in this nation as if nothing was happening of any great significance on foreign soil. Public protests and critics of the Bush administration's rush to war were either ignored or buried in the back pages of American newspapers. There was enough guilt to go around. Factors involving mainstream media, certain bloggers willing to sacrifice truth and reality to score cheap political points, extreme partisanship and fear-mongering in the halls of Washington, D.C, the discouraging rubber-stamps and roadblocks from so many Republican Senators and House Representatives...each played a part in the emotional scarring that Mr. Friedman, whose own judgment disappointed me many times over the past few years, now humbly talks about.
None of it was a U.S. soldier's doing nor was any mistake a soldier's fault.
There has been a disturbing lack of leadership at the very top - from those in the U.S. Executive branch who were charged with solemn responcibilities to the American people and who failed miserably. For these past five excruciating years during which our soldiers have sacrificed life and limb in Iraq, the Bush administration - often adamantly - failed at every step to reasonably explain to the American public what victory might look like when it was achieved. Seeing them making excuses and moving the "victory" goalposts at every convenient political juncture for the sake of empowering one political party is, for me, unforgivable.
Why did the Bush administration take the American public for fools? Didn't they realize that you can only fool the people for so long?
Bottom line, Mr. Friedman is right.
It's high time Americans got a glimpse of the reality on the ground in Iraq and it's high time our leaders trusted and respected the intelligence of each and every American and start talking about Iraq in a way that intelligent people can actually understand. President Bush has appealed to the pariotism in each of us in a disrespectful manner in that he's asked us citizens to take too much on faith alone. This isn't a church. It's a nation of people who, from the time of our nation's founding, has existed on the basis of each soul having an opportunity to make crucial and informed choices. As Robert McClure, Senior Associate Dean of the Maxwell School at Syracuse University said in 2001 about being an intelligent patriot:
"If democratic citizenship involves both rights and responsibilities, then patriotism is found on the responsibility side of the equation. Patriotism is a citizen’s duty—a debt owed—to the larger community, ….not an individual prerogative reserved for personal use. In a democracy, patriotism is part of our responsibility to protect and defend one another, because — if for no other reason than the most self-interested of reasons — it is the national community that bestows and protects our individual rights."
In my own activism, I've acted because I owe a debt to the soldiers who've taken and followed the command of their Commander-in-Chief on faith and in loyalty to the larger American community and the U.S. Constitution. A quote was on my blog's sidebar from the time the Iraq war began: "This blog, out of love and respect for our citizens who serve in the armed forces, supports the brave men and women who do their duty for this nation. This blog does not support the current policies of G.W. Bush. May Providence grant us all the wisdom to know the difference. "
AP photo from March, 2004 - Yes, that's our President George Bush mockingly looking for WMD under his desk. The old joke has gone rancid. He doesn't seem to know it yet.
Iraq is more than just a mess that our poor and deceptive leaders got us into. And it certainly isn't a joke.
"...in an interview [today] with Ned Temko of Britain's Observer, [President] Bush actually joked that he was "still looking" for the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that were the main reason he gave to the public for going to war.
I believe that Barack Obama and John McCain are going to have to talk about the gains achieved because of the surge in Iraq. I want to hear no political posturing from either side because, after shock and awe in 2003, there was a four-year blunder of historic proportions and Obama's claim to having been against the war from Day One, although noble in its own light of judgment, doesn't really matter anymore, to be quite honest. We are where we are. John McCain should take no great pride in having championed this war, voting with the Republicans for the four years for which his party can only claim a wrong course of action in U.S. Foreign policy. Fast-forward to "the surge" and some gains can be claimed...but for how long? Is maintaining the few gains achieved in the past eight months considered to be what victory looks like as we amble toward an end game (still with no time-frames in legislation)? Are those gains enough? We know, from experience, that whenever we've left a city like Mosul or Basra or Fallujah, we've left a vacuum for militia groups and oil smugglers to fill. If we pull our soldiers out one brigade at a time, how long will it take for the vacuum caused by their leaving to be filled with those who would cause the Iraq government to lose a grip on their fragile situation?
How long do we keep this up?
I am expecting to see a meaningful and respectful debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. Anything less will surely disappoint.
"Poverty is not created by the poor. It is created by the system.
Poverty is an artificial imposition on people.
Once you fall outside the system, it works against you.
It makes it very difficult to return to the system.
How do we change this? Where do we begin?"
- Professor Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, speaking at the 2008 MIT commencement ceremony.
In his best-selling book, "Banker to the Poor", Nobel Peace Prize-winner Professor Muhammad Yunus talks about the role of business in promoting social reform. He was head of the Rural Economics Program at the University of Chittagong when he began to feel that the words included in his teachings seemed empty when he saw people in his nation of Bangladesh starving all around him. He consciously decided to take time away from teaching, launching an action research project while living among rural villagers. Taking all he'd learned about the way they lived and understanding how the existing economic/power structure held them back and kept them from being able to meet their basic needs, Professor Yunus created innovative business model that blended the power of the free markets with a humane, egalitarian set of ideas that helped alleviate poverty, inequality, and other social problems...particularly among women in his country. He designed a credit delivery system to provide banking services targeted to specifically benefit the rural poor. Starting his Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Professor Yunus wished to show that a goal of prosperity and lasting peace can't be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Micro-credit is the means by which Profeesor Yunus has proven, through his great caring, economic expertise, and ingenuity, that not only does microlending help once-destitute people rise to be able to feed their families and succeed in building better communities, but also that development from the grassroots up will serve to advance democracy and human rights.
He recently told a group of graduating students at MIT that the choices those grads make about their careers will decide the fate of mankind, even though they are not actually aware of it. He asked them, rather than simply committing themselves to being creative when thinking about their future careers, that the students decide be a socially conscious creative generation.
An Excerpt from the Commencement speech:
[...] Your generation can bring a breakthrough in changing the course of the world. You can be the socially-conscious creative generation that the world is waiting for. You can bring your creativity to design brilliant social businesses to overcome poverty, disease, environmental degradation, food crisis, depletion of non-renewable resources, etc. Each one of you is capable of changing the world. To make a start all that each one of you has to do is to design a business plan for a social business. Each prototype of a social business can be a cute little business. But if it works out, the whole world can be changed by replicating it in thousands of locations.
Prototype development is the key. In designing a prototype all we need is a socially-oriented creative mind. That could be each one of you. No matter what you do in your life, make it a point to design or be involved with at least one social business to address one problem that depresses you the most. If you have the design and the money, go ahead and put it into action. [...]
The Commencement speech can be seen here [MIT.edu]
I'm dedicating this year's Fathers Day post to Tim Russert.
As a Catholic with a lot of Irish in me and a solid base of Catholic upbringing and Jesuit education, I connected with Tim's public persona. I didn't know him. I wish I'd had an opportunity to know him. I recall passing him in the hallway at the 2006 Clinton Global Initative meeting in Manhattan while he was on his way into a room to interview President Clinton and thinking to myself, "Wow...that's Tim Russert." He was obviously in a hurry to get to his destination, so I never did get to talk with him. If I'd only known he'd be taken from us so soon, I'd have sat and waited, hours if necessary, until he came out and I could tell him just how much he'd meant to me, a political blogger, in his work as a political journalist. I admired his spirit, however, both in a personal and a public sense.
What I did know of Tim in a personal sense was taken, in good part, from what he gave all of us in his wonderful book about his father, of whom he lovingly referred to as "Big Russ."
I especially enjoyed Tim talking about his faith and how his father helped to shape the faith that would last his whole life through.
In his book "Big Russ & Me" which, incidentally, has remained on my Dad's bedside table ever since I gave it to him for Father's Day a couple years ago, Tim talked about the faith of his father in times of sorrow...faith in the seen and unseen:
"From time to time my parents would bring me with them to a wake, where the custom was to have an open casket. When my paternal grandparents died, I watched as Dad reached into the coffin and tearfully squeezed their hands in a final gesture of farewell. At the funeral the coffin would be sealed, and that required a different kind of faith as we sent the deceased on his or her way to their eternal rest."
Tim's childlike brilliance and humor would show through his writing in the same Chapter he'd written on Faith. Speaking about his time spent as an altar boy, he humorously recalled:
"There was a brotherhood among the altar boys, and we used to share stories of which priest liked the bigger serving of wine. There was also mischief, or at least talk of mischief. If you had a friend who was receiving the host, you might take the patten, the little golden plate, and accidentally hit him in the throat. Most of the joking centered on the wine, and some of the boys were known to have raided the priest's supply closet - but I'll never tell."
I trusted Tim Russert because of the common faith we shared. Week to week, Sunday after Sunday, he seemed to have never lost the magical spark of childhood while some others in his professional field and many out here in our respective private lives had obviously lost the manual on getting past all the little daggers and pitfalls that life often mercilessly throws in front of us.
When Tim's favorite rock singer Bruce Springsteen sang the words:
"Show a little faith....there's magic in the night.."
.....I happen to think that Tim and I took a similar message away from that well-known and well-loved line. Faith is a light that guides us through darkness. About this life we share, Christian writer Frederick Buechner has recommended: "Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. Touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are sacred moments and life itself is grace."
Tim was a touch of grace for me and for many others who only were able to know him from what they learned about him each and every Sunday morning.
God knows I'll miss him.
Tim, this one's for you.
______________________
To my own Dad:
1958
Here's me with the most honest and decent man I have ever known (and a loyal and die-hard Yankee fan to boot):
Happy Father's Day, Dad.
How I loved being
.......serenaded by you.
Me and Dad Niagara Falls, N.Y.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express."
- Joseph Addison
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Christmas 1965 Me with brother Peter and Dad
Wishing a Happy Fathers Day to every loving father, and a very special Fathers Day to my own Dad..
My deepest sympathies go out to Tim's father, who Tim lovingly called "Big Russ", Tim's wife, Maureen Orth, and Tim's son, Luke, who lost his Dad just a couple days before Father's Day.
From MSNBC:
WASHINGTON - Tim Russert, NBC News' Washington bureau chief and the moderator of "Meet the Press," died Friday after a sudden heart attack at the bureau, NBC News said Friday. He was 58.
Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s "Meet the Press" program when he collapsed, the network said. He and his family had recently returned from Italy, where they celebrated the graduation of Russert’s son, Luke, from Boston College.
Daily Tribune [Detroit]: Hairdresser found dead Source: dailytribune.com This story is haunting me this morning. What happened to Jeremy Waggoner? I'm not the only one wondering if this brutal murder may have been a hate crime. From atdetroit.net: "Does anyone know what happened to Jeremy Waggoner?" You can see a video at this site.
Update 10:45 am: "JohnBerk" at DiscussDetroit writes
"Just received this e-mail:"
"A gay man has been murdered in the Detroit area and Triangle Foundation needs your help to solve this crime and bring justice for him and his family.
Jeremy Waggoner, a 37-year-old Detroit resident, was murdered early this week. Jeremy, a stylist at the Michael Angelo Salon in Royal Oak, was well-known and deeply loved.
On Tuesday, June 10, 2008, Jeremy Waggoner’s body was found in a grassy field on Detroit’s eastside. He was brutally bludgeoned and possibly stabbed. Police are not sure whether Jeremy was killed in the grassy field or at another location and his body then dropped off. Few details of the murder, including the possible motive, are known at this time. His green 1997 Mazda MPV has not been found. If anyone has information about the murder of Jeremy Waggoner, please contact Melissa Pope at 313-909-3634 or via e-mail at melissa@tri.org. All calls are confidential.http://www.tri.org/
UPDATE Sat, Jun 14:
- "Information sought in the murder of Jeremy Waggoner in Detroit" - Mark Maynard.com
- "Gay American Heroes Foundation: Gay man murdered in Detroit" - [Miami Herald]
Gay Murder in Detroit, Jermey Waggoner 37 year-old openly gay hairdresser, suffered violent death June 10, 2008.
Another HERO to be remembered on the Gay American Heroes National Memorial?
Police have not at this point, classified this as a hate crime, but through our experience in these cases we believe it has the distinct signs of a hate crime!
The Rev. Patrick Howell, S.J., in a special report to The Seattle Times, gives us his insight regarding a part of the reason why, as he observed on a recent trip, there are so few homeless people living on the streets of Istanbul:
"We saw a few beggars in Istanbul, but the homeless, if they exist, were not visible to us. Our Turkish hosts, most of whom had completed college degrees in the U.S., said, "Tight family ties and the Muslim faith mean that no one is left out. We don't have homeless like Chicago or San Francisco or Seattle would have." The Prophet Muhammad said, 'One who sleeps while their neighbor is hungry is not one of us.'"
Rev. goes on to say, "Though Turkey is a constitutionally secular society, it supports the Muslim faith by building mosques and paying the salaries of the Imams. Out of a total population of 70 million, it has only 100,000 Christians and 25,000 Jews."
Rev. Howell ends with a saying by Rumi, the great Sufi mystic, scholar, and poet:
"There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled. There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled. You feel it, don't you?"
The 2004 Onondaga County Music Educator's Association's All-County Music Festival presented the song "Whose Garden Was This?" My son was in the festival chorus you'll hear in the video I've created. I was struck not only by the beauty of the song, but by the message itself.
Songwriter Tom Paxton reminds us that there are countless ways in which we take nature for granted...and soon, if we continue to ignore the warning signs of climate change, it may be too late.
Lyrics:
Whose garden was this? It must have been lovely. Did it have flowers? I've seen pictures of flowers, And I'd love to have smelled one.
Whose river was this? You say it ran freely? Blue was its color? I've seen blue in some pictures, And I'd love to have been there!
Chorus: Ah, tell me again; I need to know. The forest had trees; the meadows were green, The oceans were blue, and birds really flew. Can you swear that was true?
Whose grey sky was this? Or was it a blue one? Nights there were breezes? I've heard records of breezes, And you tell me you've felt one?
Please listen to Jeremy Symons, Executive Director of the Global Warming Campaign for the National Wildlife Federation, speak to you about the first vote held on Global Warming in the U.S. Senate in three years. Unfortunately, even with all of the discussion about the perils of Global Warming, it's taken this long for the message to start getting through to our Senators. This week legislation was blocked, but the stage has been set for 2009 when we'll have a new President and key Democrats who will help to eventually pass legislation to protect our life on our planet and to protect our economy.
I was thinking about writing a post to attempt to convey to you how I'm feeling now that the Democratic primary race has finally come to a conclusion and Hillary Clinton has graciously offered her support to Barack Obama.
I thought I'd wait and let you read what I consider to be a post that reflects many of my own feelings, even if I didn't start out as a Hillary-supporter. Tom Watson is a Clinton supporter who's leading his fellow Democrats to become unified and ready to win in November. In his post, I think he shows wisdom, passion for change, deep respect for all candidates, and strength of character. We should all aspire to be as generous in spirit and committed to win. Read what he has to say:
Twenty years after his death, Bobby Kennedy's wife tells NBC's Tom Brokaw that not only was she in love with Bobby, but that she was in awe of him.
It's hard to believe that it's now been 40 years since we lost Bobby.
Video of Ted Kennedy's voice delivering the closing part of the eulogy at the funeral of his brother Bobby, using excerpts from Bobby's famous speech to the students of a South African university in 1966.
The young mother set her foot on the path of life. "Is this the long way?" she asked. And the guide said: "Yes, and the way is hard. And you will be old before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the beginning."
But the young mother was happy, and she would not believe that anything could be better than these years. So she played with her children, and gathered flowers for them along the way, and bathed them in the clear streams; and the sun shone on them and the young Mother cried, "Nothing will ever be lovelier than this."
Then the night came, and the storm, and the path was dark, and the children shook with fear and cold, and the mother drew them close and covered them with her mantle, and the children said, "Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come."
And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead, and the children climbed and grew weary, and the mother was weary. But at all times she said to the children," A little patience and we are there." So the children climbed, and when they reached the top they said, "Mother, we would not have done it without you."
And the mother, when she lay down at night, looked up at the stars and said, "This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage.
Today, I 've given them strength."
And the next day came strange clouds which darkened the earth, clouds of war and hate and evil, and the children groped and stumbled, and the mother said: "Look up. Lift your eyes to the light. "And the children looked and saw above the clouds an everlasting glory, and it guided them beyond the darkness. And that night the Mother said, "This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God."
And the days went on, and the weeks and the months and the years, and the mother grew old and she was little and bent. But her children were tall and strong, and walked with courage. And when the way was rough, they lifted her, for she was as light as a feather; and at last they came to a hill, and beyond they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide. And mother said, "I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them."
And the children said, "You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates." And they stood and watched her as she went on alone, and the gates closed after her. And they said: "We cannot see her but she is with us still. A Mother like ours is more than a memory. She is a living presence......."
Your Mother is always with you.... She's the whisper of the leaves as you walk down the street; she's the smell of bleach in your freshly laundered socks; she's the cool hand on your brow when you're not well. Your Mother lives inside your laughter. And she's crystallized in every tear drop. She's the place you came from, your first home; and she's the map you follow with every step you take. She's your first love and your first heartbreak, and nothing on earth can separate you. Not time, not space... not even death!
Tomorrow Jenna Bush will be married. This video is dedicated to her life and travels. As a mother whose child had not yet wed, I can just imagine the mixed emotions of Jenna's mother today. Music by Harley West; video by my good friend "Woodrow" Williams.
I don't share Andrew Sullivan's strong personal disliking for Hillary and Bill Clinton. The strong adjectives he uses to describe both Bill and Hillary Clinton as "frauds", quoting others who classify Hillary as "narcissistic" and "hungry for power" (as if every Presidential candidate isn't), and Hillary and Bill as "shameless" for competing.
His choice of what to blog about often sends jabs a-flying at New York's feisty Senator. His lending of any credence to any meaningful power behind the Limbaugh smoke-and-mirrors "Operation Chaos" leaves me scratching my head. Dream-scenarios about Obama grace his recent front page. His lending of the aura of any respect to a blogpost where Bill Clinton is substituted for Jeremiah Wright in a negative attack-analogy is one of the most pathetic tributes to Hillary-hate that I've seen.
I haven't read his blog in a while, but I liked his recent idea about a fusion-ticket, so I decided to read more of what he had to offer. As a person who's remained neutral since John Edwards suspended his campaign, I have to say that I'm bowled over by Mr. Sullivan's startling lack of objectivity.
But a blogger isn't required to be objective, is he?
Still, I think Andrew's all-too-happy report about African Americans sticking it to the Clintons is a major tribute to what ails the Democratic party right now. Here's the not-so-nice things Mr. Sullivan had to say on the subject:
"Here's what now seems obvious: African-American voters killed the Clinton candidacy. It is a fitting end to the Clintons' campaign and an almost Shakespearean coda to their career. The Clintons were exposed in their long-running exploitation and reliance on minority votes. No group was more loyal to them than African-Americans; and in the end, like everyone else, African-Americans realized that the Clintons are frauds, disloyal to the core, cynical to their finger-tips, and finally, finally, returned the favor."
To read this, one would think that any politician who eventually became a beloved leader has never exploited anyone or pandered to any group before in all of America's history. How much would it hurt Mr. Sullivan to admit that African Americans saw an African American who was becoming more and more inspiring and popular by the day and decided that they were going to support him because he reminded them of themselves and their own personal struggles? But, no-o-o-o. Framing their pride and joy in voting for an African American who has the potential to be a great leader has to involve sullying Obama's "narcissistic", "power-hungry", and "shameless" competition.
Please. About his theory on African Americans crushing Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Sullivan gushes, "How wonderful. How poignant." (That's just creepy). Who's exploiting African Americans here?
What the perpetuation of this theory does, however, is to underscore Mr. Sullivan's own reasons for believing a fusion-ticket will be what carries the Democrats over the finish line as winners in November. If the voting public puts any stock in the race-issue as Mr. Sullivan himself is framing it, there will be natural race-based animosity. A brief review of our Anthropology 101 and Sociology 101 textbooks will show you it's true. I believe the last thing Mr. Obama would want is to have the Democratic voters who've supported Mrs. Clinton believe that it was African-Americans, as a group, who'd willfully denied her the nomination they'd so heartfully desired to see. Putting Mrs. Clinton on the ticket (if Obama gets the nomination) will bring Obama closer to his own stated desires...to bring all people together (begining with Democrats who he'll need to come out in as large numbers as possible) in a country where too many have bought into racial stereotypes and Hillary-hatred....the kind that started irrationally and has grown into a myth ... the very kind that I see Mr. Sullivan most unfortunately promoting in his analysis.
There's a lot of people who've looked up to Mr. Sullivan and his views. I think it's obvious that I'm disappointed in the way he's used his prominence to perpetuate this line of thought.
Here's my reply to a top-rated diary at Daily Kos this morning (title: "Yes to Unity. But Let's Not Go Overboard") :
Diarist wrote:
.... a "unity ticket"...doesn't help Obama or his supporters, nor does it help Clinton and her supporters, and frankly, it does little for the party when all is said and done..."
A unity ticket with these two fantastic candidates, each with solid support within their own unique camps forming coalitions for common goals, encouraging a much more solid voting bloc in November...
I just can't see anything more positive.
I came from the Edwards camp and, like the Edwardses, I have remained neutral since John Edwards suspended his campaign. I have tried to keep a clear eye on this race since then.
I love what I believe this country should (and could) be. That is my priority. Second priority for me is party. Then only after those first two priorites do I concern myself with which candidate should represent the party.
I know that Daily Kos has become strong Obama territory and, while passion about a candidate is often commendable, too much passion can cause us to forget our nation's direction and our party's unity. We don't want to give the other side an inch this time. I want the Democratic ticket to suck every bit of oxygen out of the room so the other side suffocates.
The road to beating the Republican this time must be paved with our ability to set emotion aside and realize just how excited the Democrats of this nation are about both of these candidates.
When one nominee's chosen, we want to maintain the level of excitement we've seen throughout this primary season!
The typical citizen doesn't care about so many of these internecine quarrels and attacks. They care about changing the direction in wich the Republicans have taken this country.
I'd be all for a Unity (the astute Andrew Sullivan calls it a "fusion") ticket.
There have been some responses to my comment and I have replied to each one. I hope you'll go to the link and read on. Maybe join in?
In Rangoon, where monks and civilians were clearing the streets of debris, a man who refused to be identified added:
"Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians? They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity."
Insein Prison (pronounced like "insane") is located in Yangon Division, near Yangon (Rangoon), the old capital of Burma. It is run by the military junta of Burma, the State Peace and Development Council, and used largely to repress political dissidents.
The prison is notorious worldwide for its inhumane and dirty conditions, abusive techniques, and uses of mental and physical torture.
How you can help the struggling cyclone survivors in Myanmar: A number of charities have launched appeals to help the Burmese in the wake of this weekend's cyclone. You can donate online to the American Red Cross, www.redcross.org or to Oxfam's emergency fund, www.oxfam.co; Save the Children, www.savethechildren.org ; and for citizens in the UK, to Christian Aid, www.christianaid.org.,
In 2007, suicides among active-duty soldiers reached their highest level since the Army began keeping such records in 1980, according to The Washington Post. Last year, 121 soldiers took their own lives, nearly 20 percent more than in 2006. Attempted suicides or self-inflicted injuries in the Army have increased since the Afghanistan and Iraq wars began.
Last year, about 2,100 soldiers injured themselves or attempted suicide, compared with 350 in 2002, according to the U.S. Army Medical Command Suicide Prevention Action Plan.
Because I volunteer as a community counselor, I am well aware of the needs of many fellow citizens in my own community. I wanted to make my readers aware of a fairly new 24-hour national suicide/crisis hotline based here in Upstate New York (Canandaigua) and created specifically for veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan (all other veterans are welcome, also). It's staffed by mental health professionals who know how to assess and respond to crisis situations for veterans at risk of suicide, and incorporates the best practices and research findings in suicide prevention and intervention with the goal of reducing suicides among veterans nationwide.
The phone number is 1-800-273-TALK. It's the only national suicide prevention and intervention telephone resource that is funded by the federal government. In addition to the national hotline, the Department has established a website, at http://www.mentalhealth.va.gov to provide information on suicide prevention awareness.
In yesterday's Times-Picayune there was a story about the increasing number of calls coming in to the Canandaigua-based hotline.
The warning signs of a potentially suicidal person can be seen here at the American Asssociation of Suicidology. On the same page you can also read how you can help someone in your life who may show the danger signs.
Don't hesitate to call or to give this number to a veteran if you know one who's struggling with life upon his or her return from war.
You may be the barrier between life and death for this person.
Blogger Tom Watson rightly, in my opinion, points out the insulting, cruel and inappropriate nature of this comment that was posted underneath one of ABC News' Jake Tapper's blogposts comparing Hillary Clinton and her candidacy to the euthanization of the racehorse Eight Belles after she'd tragically broken her two front ankles during the Kentucky Derby race:
Tom Watson says: "...over at Jake Tapper's they're green-lighting comments like this one:"
Comment that was posted at ABC News website: "This race parallels the nomination race as the one HRC picked lost to Obama's pick..now the only question remaining - since HRC will finish second to Obama - should she be put down because she is broken down, lying old hag?"
It's an appalling comparision and comment that has since been deleted (probably because it was being pointed out as such by the public). Jake Tapper has updated his blogpost, defending his comparison and telling readers that he isn't making light of Eight Belles' death. I think he invited this kind of commentary from the public by perpetuating goofy superstition and using the death of a lovely, regal creature as a political stick for any idiot to poke in the eye of their political opponent. I think that anyone..especially Obama supporters.. who wish to make hay (pun intended) out of this unfortunate and tragic death at Clinton's expense will be judged according to how much the individual loves horses. If Obama dares to joke about it, he'll look like a horse's ass (pun intended, and I don't suspect that Obama would be so tactless even though many of his most-rabid online supporters have been).
My comment at Tom Watson's blog reads as follows:
I was heartsick over Eight Belles. As I watched the whole thing unfold before my eyes yesterday, I saw the one picture next to the other - one owner of the swift and lovely horse who'd won the race cheering joyously -- and the deep sorrow upon seing the other beautiful animal laid low..broken and dying...
..it was a bit too much for me. I'm passionate for all horses. Once I'd learned Eight Belles had died, I could no longer join the others in sincerely cheering for the winner.
I am sad to see these comparisons being made to the Democratic candidates. It could, however, be a foretelling, that when one of them wins (bear in mind it's going to be inevitable) and we hear the cheering throng, there will be the other passionate half among many of whom will be turning the whole thing off as I turned off the overwhelming and strange emotional spectacle yesterday.
The only remedy to turning off the passionate supporters of either candidate that I can see is a situation where the losing Democrat gets the chance that poor Eight Belles will never have...to be resurrected as a running mate for the winner.
If only Eight Belles had gotten the opportunity to rise once more to claim life once again...the fact of having lost the great race notwithstanding.
Posted by: Jude | May 04, 2008 at 12:53 PM
As much as the two Democratic candidates choose to avoid the topic and their respective impassioned supporters reel and rebel at the very thought of their candidate taking second spot, the beating of John McCain after such a divided season with the race being so consistently close is going to have to take a Unity ticket. I've never been more convinced than I am now. Whether a nominee is decided upon in June or August, it matters little now. When it came down to Superdelegates deciding the nominee for us, we Democrats passed the point where the party will be free from major damage without Democrat-Unity '08. I've been saying it for quite some time. Andrew Sullivan's talking about the practicality of what he calls a 'Fusion Ticket' today.
My cartoons from early March:
UPDATE:
In fairness to Jake Tapper (whose comment can be seen below), my headline shouldn't have read Hillary Used Badly in ABC Eight Belles Comparison.
My focus on the sad analogy (which is, indeed, a comparison in nature, albeit not made by Jake directly) was more about the type of comments I was seeing underneath the blogpost rather than about the actual content of the post itself.
I have changed my headline and apologize for making it sound as if Jake was making the horrid analogy himself. He wasn't. He was providing facts about a sitution that I'm sure he and his editors knew was relevant to what may someday be looked back upon as a story that will have become political lore.
I'm sounding off about the people who support either Obama or McCain who'd use this to do intentional political harm to Hillary Clinton and walk over the dead body of a noble creature in order to complete the process. It's the side of politics (and people) that I surely wish would change, but there will always be ugliness. As much as people at Daily Kos passionately support Senator Obama in this race, I give them credit because even THEY heavily criticized anyone who tried to build upon this analogy with any seriousness yesterday.
While I'm here updating, as much as I love animals, I firmly believe that PETA's most recent politicization of the Eight Belles incident is just too opportunistic. Another political boot-mark on the body of the horse.
Once again, I didn't mean to mislead readers about Jake Tapper or about ABC. I pride myself on fairness. This season's been rough on this Democrat...and many other Democrats. My apologies for an untentionally misleading headline.
For God so loVed the world,
....That He gAve
.........His onLy
........BegottEn
.............SoN
................That whosoever
....Believeth In Him
.......Should Not perish,
.....But have Everlasting life."
- John 3:16
A Message From Jude
Welcome to Iddybud Journal
Bill Clinton: A Call To Action
President Clinton describes how we all can make a difference in the lives of others, leading us through the broad spectrum of CGI's efforts to enable and affect change. From the global leaders and CEOs of the Annual Meeting to the college students and future leaders of CGI U, CGI seeks to empower every citizen with the ability to take substantive action against the world's most pressing problems.
Go to http://MyCommitment.org
Father, Mother, God
Thank you for your presence
during the hard and mean days.
For then we have you to lean upon.
Thank you for your presence
during the bright and sunny days,
for then we can share that which we have
with those who have less.
And thank you for your presence
during the Holy Days, for then we are able
to celebrate you and our families
and our friends.
For those who have no voice,
we ask you to speak. For those who feel unworthy,
we ask you to pour your love out
in waterfalls of tenderness. For those who live in pain,
we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.
For those who are lonely, we ask
you to keep them company.
For those who are depressed,
we ask you to shower upon them
the light of hope.
Dear Creator, You, the borderless
sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the
world that which we need most--Peace.
go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
as far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story.
avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. if you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. but let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.
be yourself. especially, do not feign affection. neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass. take kindly to the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. you are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. and whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. with all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Iddybud is a descendant of American patriots, membership to DAR pending, a descendant of a family member who lost another dubious American Presidential election in 1876, so you might understand why she took Selection 2000 to heart.
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Gay Murder in Detroit, Jermey Waggoner 
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