The Breath's rhythm is ceaseless, And abundance my cape. Still, knowing that my privilege allows So much more time, space and laxity for my existence than for the others', I chafe.

My struggle is dedicated to those impinged upon By the circumstances of this blindly stupid society. Captives cannot be grateful for my striving; Even their breath is not yet promised.

November 28, 2006

Talk of the Nation, January 11, 2005 · Haste makes waste; look before you leap; stop and think. These are warnings we've heard since childhood. But what about, he who hesitates is lost? We look at snap judgments and the powers of unconscious thought, with Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink.

Guest: Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker writer; author, The Tipping Point; latest book is Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Listen to the interview at http://tinyurl.com/ya6auf or just take the Implicit Associaiton Test at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

How courageous are you about truly exploring the ways bias and prejudice appear in your life??

Good luck and safe journey.

Something we'd be well-served to do, is to come to our senses about how we really wish to identify as a people. Our history cannot be changed. Some of it surely, we wouldn't change. Still, it seems a certainty that our children, given the choice would *never* identify with the disgusting choices made by Christopher Columbus (and the entirety of the Middle Passage, Trail of Tears and beyond,) all for the sake of repaying a debt - or worse to enhance the legacy of personal property.

"This was the great cultural encounter initiated by Christopher Columbus. This is the event we celebrate each year on Columbus Day. The United States honors only two men with federal holidays bearing their names. In January we commemorate the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr., who struggled to lift the blinders of racial prejudice and to cut the remaining bonds of slavery in America. In October, we honor Christopher Columbus, who opened the Atlantic slave trade and launched one of the greatest waves of genocide known in history."

- Jack Weatherford http://tinyurl.com/vjqhb

Having been both raised in a similar tradition about this day to celebrate the Pilgrims' feasting gratitude, we've also since reconsidered that history as told by Howard Zinn and James Loewen. Somehow, Primary and secondary schools to this day, prefer to teach American children that the Mayflower's arrival at Plymouth Rock expressed the 'will of God' on behalf of a newly chosen people (forget the tribe of Judah.) A mighty nation formed with warm human exchanges of gifts and a peace treaty making way for the manifest destiny of a host of white people.

It suits me to say, I believe alternate truths about the Mayflower's story, that make me squirm with discomfort. Those truths speak of unspeakable attitudes and deeds toward groups of aboriginal people throughout both American continents. Prior to the Mayflower's arrival at Plymouth Rock, gratitude flowed from the lips of King James as he gave thanks to "Almighty God in his goodness and bounty towards us" for sending "this wonderful plague among the savages," (Loewen, "Lies My Teacher Told Me," 1995.) That plague - small pox often as not, or measles, influenza and bubonic plague - sufficiently cleared this enormous territory of her native inhabitants as to leave us with ample room for our self-aggrandizing rewriting of history. Millions died as our ancestors brought pestilences from Europe, while any remaining we subdued to our appetite for land and wealth. *Plagues from God* launched our pride and joy in claiming this nation, so we bow our heads with thanks as we settle to stuff ourselves with more food than is decent to consume.

On days such as Columbus Day, Thanksgiving Day even Independence Day, I shrink for shame and marvel at our collective inability to tell the truth to our children, or even to ourselves. Ours has been - and continues to be a nation of greed and aggression, aptly punctuated by celebrations of gluttony and consumerism.

Happy Black Friday America. Rouse yourself now from that food coma, and Shop 'til you Drop. This is the American Way!

[yippeee...here comes Santa Claus!]

http://tinyurl.com/m9v7m - you tube trailer

Once home, I had to shake off an aggravation I should have been able to predict, since by now, there weren't really any surprises.

This Pastor Becky Fischer has a passion for introducing children whose years span first speech to pre-adolescence to:

- concepts of Satan loose in the world - the need for even the youngest children to struggle incessantly for their spiritual lives - the need to prepare for all out warfare to wrest Satanic authority and return it to Jesus and God - ongoing condemnation of any who "don't love Jesus" and to actively set oneself apart from those aren't "believers"

Now. My personal version of Christianity is utterly in the vein of "Good News." No struggle, it's all about Love, Kindness, Generosity, Forgiveness, Longsuffering, Joy, privacy in prayer - justice for the oppressed and disenfranchised, discovering God in all who refer to seeking Divine principles.

There's room for really anyone in the Christian faith I'm personally acquainted with. My guard-hairs stand up with all this talk of warfare, fighting sin and destroying sinners.

In my personal comprehension of "sin" some behavior is symptomatic of dysfunction if not indeed of mental illness. In that event, healing and/or illness management is called for. In the scriptures, Christ teaches us to love the sinner (though not the sin.)

If the person is not sick, there's truly no sin. Truly in this regard, Christ would likely tell the supposed clergy to, "physicians heal thyselves!" Then he'd set out to love the sinner into redemption. None of this warfare crap ...

What a loss, and what a gift he gave to American civilization and journalism.

http://tinyurl.com/yjryg8 [article by the International HeraldTribune]

http://tinyurl.com/tmklc [video footage of his reflections on covering VietNam]

1705 - Virginia defines any child, grandchild, or great grandchild of a Negro as a mulatto.

1790 - Congress restricted naturalization to "white persons" (Naturalization Act.)

1830 - Trail of Tears (thousands of Native Americans are forcibly relocated from east of the Mississippi River to Oklahoma - many die en route.)

1832 - Homestead Act encourages a flood of squatters to invade Indian lands in the midwest. Decimation of the buffalo. Plains INdian tribes are forced to relocate to government reservations.

1845 - Manifest Destiny/war with Mexico, "White superiority and innate racial difference have become common sense and are invoked not only against Native Americans, Mexicans, and African Americans, but also to rationalize the taking of overseas territories."

1859 - blacks as citizens, without voting or sitting on courts

1882 - Chinese Exclusion Act

1886 - Virginia declares every person having one-fourth or more Negro blood shall be deemed a colored person.

1887 - Dawes Act breaks up collectively owned Indian lands and redistributes it to individuals, allowing "surplus" land to be sold to whites. "The Indians are entitled to the enjoyment of all the rights which do not interfere with the obvious designs of Providence," (Lewis Cass, Secretary of War for President Jackson.)

1899 - Rudyard Kipling's "White Man's Burden" justifies expansion - colonization as noble . "Racial superiority has become more than common sense....[giving whites] a moral imperative to govern inferior peoples, a mission preordained in the hierarchy of races. ... segregation and mass immigration from Europe and Asia, debates over citizenship and social fitness at home and in the new territories"

["From the first prerequisite case in 1878 until racial restrictions were removed in 1952, fifty-two racial prerequisite cases were reported, including two heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.  Framing fundamental questions about who could join the citizenry in terms of who was White, these cases attracted some of the most renowned jurists of the times. . . . . " Ian Lopez Haney, from White by Law, 1996.)]

1905 - African Americans demand equal rights (W.E.B. DuBois and the Niagara Movement "until we get these rights we will never cease to protest and assail the ears of America - for all true Americans." The Niagara group gives rise to the NAACP.)

1907 - Federal govt collects data on naturalization

1909 - NAACP founded

1910 - Virginia changes Negro percentage to 1/16th.

1910 - idea of "The Melting Pot" (only white Europeans are allowed to blend in the melting pot, immigrants of color are merely allowed to be wood for the fire)

1911 - Universal Race Congress - a thousand people from 50 nations convene at the University of London to counter the budding eugenics movement (W.E.B. DuBois and Franz Boas, are present.) The collective's statement declares "An impoartial investigator would be inclined to look upon the various important peoples of the world as, to all intents and purposes, essentially equal in intellect, enterprise, morality and physique." The work has little ultimate impact.

1911 - scientific race theory analyzing race distinctions between immigrants (slum-residents seen as "biological destiny"_ people of color naturally became poor)

1913 - Land laws discriminate against Asians - first alien land law passed in California making "aliens ineligible to citizenship," and to owning or leasing land - no racial language used, but applies only to Asian immigrants, giving white farmers an unfair advantage. Loopholes allow Japanese to continue farming until 1920 (when a ballot initiative bars them altogether.)

1917 - Arizona alien land laws passed, (then Washington and Louisiana in 1921, and nine other states by 1950. In 1956, Californinia rescinds, Wyoming and Kansas rescinds in 2001-2, Florida/New Mexico still have alien land laws to this day...)

1915 - Leo Frank (a Jew) pulled from jail and lynched for murdering a white girl (black people wonder, "are Jews black??"

1917 - Asiatic Barred Zone Act

1920 - the White Primary rules are the norm throughout southern states, as "private institutions not governed by federal oversight"

1920 - Census Bureau, "one drop rule" (anyone with any black ancestry at all would be counted simply as black.) Lawrence Wright, "One Drop of Blood," July 24, 1994, The New Yorker.

1921 - National Quota Act, passed in a time of swelling isolationism following World War I.

1922 - Takeo Ozawa, Supreme Court rules that naturalization is limited to "free white persons and aliens of African nativity," thus legalizing pervious practice of excluding Asians from citizenship. (Japanese are not legally white because science classifies them as Mongoloid rather than Caucasian. Less than a year later, the court contradicts itself by concluding that Asian Indians are not legally white, even though science classifies them as Caucasian, declaring that whiteness should be based on "the common understanding of the white man." Racial restrictions on naturalization are not removed until 1954.)

1924 - Johnson- Reed Act favors immigrants from "Nordic" lands (captures several decades of racialized, anti-immigration sentiment and policy...an explicit preference system shaping American demographics and immigration policy until the '60s, and until NOW.)

1924 - Congress passes Immigration Exclusion Act, barring all immigration from Japan. Protests held throughout Japan. July 1 declared "Day of Humiliation."

[A taxonomy of Whiteness: "From 1907, when the federal government began collecting data on naturalization, until 1920, over one million people gained citizenship under the racially restrictive naturalization laws.  Many more sought to naturalize and were rejected. ... a number of cases construing the "white person" prerequisite reached the highest state and federal judicial circles, and two were argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in the early 1920s.  These cases produced illuminating published decisions that document the efforts of would-be citizens from around the world to establish their Whiteness at law. ... Applicants from Hawaii, China, Japan, Burma, and the Philippines, as well as all mixed-race applicants, failed in their arguments.  Conversely, courts ruled that applicants from Mexico and Armenia were "white," but vacillated over the Whiteness of petitioners from Syria, India, and Arabia." Lopez, White by Law.)]

1924 - Virginia Racial Purity Act ("one drop rule") As historian James Horton notes, one could cross a state line and literally, legally change race.

1924-1926 - Eugenics model identifies the "Win Tribe of Virginia," Arthur Estabrook and Ivan McDoogle (Mongrel Virginians: A Study in Triple Race Mixture)

1924 - KKK "Klonvocation" in Hamilton, New Jersey (largest Klan gathering in the northeast)

1930 - Mexicans added to census (defined differently at various times) nativists lobby to classify them separately on the census, limit their immigration and reinforce their distinctness from whites. During WWII, Mexican labor grows and Mexicans are again classified as whites!! (In the '70s they're reclassified as "Hispanics." hmmmmm.)

1934 - Indians base membership on blood degree - (Indian Reorganization or Wheeler-Hower Act) - helping to entrench race in tribal membership. Desire for federal recognition drives tribes to subjugate sovereignty and historic openness to others, follwoing govt guidelines based on "blood" degree. (In 1991 the BIA, Bureau of In dian Affairs or "Bossing Indians Around" inventoried 155 federally recognized tribes in 48 states: 4 out of 5 condition membership on proof of blood, ranging in amount from 1/2 to 1/64th. Since tribal switch to lineage vs "blood degree" many have lost federal recognition ...)

1934 - U.S. housing programs benefit whites only. Start of federally subsidized housing (low-cost loans opening up home ownership to millions of Americans for the first time.) Coincidentally, nonwhites are locked out of homebuying by national appraisal system. Post WWII restricted suburbs see European "ethnics" blending together in suburbs and minorities "marked" by urban poverty. Contemporary results include segregated communities and substantial wealth gap between whites and nonwhites.

1935 - Minorities denied Social Security/excuded from unions. The Social Security Act exempts agricultural workers and domestic servants (predominantly African American, Mexican, and Asian) from receiving old-age insurance, while the Wagner Act, guaranteeing workers' rights, does not prohibit unions from racial discrimination. Nonwhites are locked out of higher-paying jobs and union benefits such as medical care, job security, and pensions. (They have the greatest need for these provisions!)

1950 - UNESCO Statement on Race. After the Holocaust (and Nazism,) the UN again declares that race has no scientific basis - calls for an end to racial thinking in scientific and political thought: to no avail.

1952 - End of explicit language in naturalization law

1954 - Legal segregation ends in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. Beginning of the Civil Rights struggle in the United States, culminating in the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

1962 - Sickle cell proven to be unrelated to "race." Sickling of cells is linked to protection from malaria, not to skin color.

1967 - Laws against mixed marriage are invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court, ending Virginia's oppression with ongoing observation of its Racial Purity Act of 1924.

1968 - LBJ moved to remove language of race from Federal Housing policy (Fair Housing Act)

1972 - Human diversity is mapped (Richard Lewontin studies show that 85% of all human variation can be found within any local population - and 94% within any continent. Therefore our entire species is much more similar than we appear.)

1974 - Lau v. Nichols guarantees bilingual education. (Special instruction to ensure "equal access" of curriculum to immigrant students.)

1977 - Govt definition of race/ethnic categories (they're arbitrary, inconsistent, and based on varying assummptions: Black is defined as a "racial group", while White is not! "Hispanic" reflects Spanish colonization, and excludes non-Spanish parts of Central and South America. "American Indian or Alaskan Native" requires "cultural ID through tribal affiliation or community recognition" which is a condition of no other category. The categories are amended in 1996, an "Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander" is added.

1985 - Minorities lead nationwide union campaign. SEIU for low-wage worker organizaiton, predominantly Black and immigrant janitors. Justice for Janitors Campaign 2000. Struggle for living wage, full-time work, and ongoing health coverage.

1994 - Black-white wealth gap. Today, the average white family has eight times the wealth of the average nonwhite family. Even at the same income level, whites have, on average, two to three times as much wealth. Whites are more likely to be segregated than any other group, and 86% of suburban whites still live in places with a Black population of less than 1%. Today 71% of whites own their own home, compared to 44% of African Americans. Black and Latino mortgage applicants are 60% more likely than whites to be turned down for loans (regardless of ability to repay them.)

2000 - Census allows more than one race. Race is to this day, important to politics and social policy...

This one about Saiou's Horse, has sometimes helped me to keep getting out of bed each day, and putting one foot before the next despite seeming futility.

[The following material comes directly from a web page by Fabien Gandon, "Japanese Sayings." http://tinyurl.com/y4om7e ]

"Romaji: Ningen banji saiou ga uma Literally: Humans everything `Saiou' horse Meaning: All human affairs are like `Saiou's horse; One's fortune/luck is unpredictable and changeable Notes: Saiou ga uma refers to an old story about a man and a horse, where what at first appears to be good luck turns out to be bad luck

I got a couple of replies to this article relating the story of Saiou ga uma. It appears that it was an old Chinese folk take about an old man called Sai (the -ou, also read as okina, means 'old man').

The story goes that one day his horse broke down the fence and ran away. When his neighbours heard, they commiserated with him over his misfortune, but he said `How do you know this is not really good luck?'. A few days later the horse returned, bringing another horse with it. However when his neighbours congratulated him on his good luck, the old man said `How do you know this is really good luck?'

Sure enough, some while later Sai's son falls while riding the horse, and breaks his leg. However this turns out to be good fortune when all the young men of the village are ordered to join the Emperor's army. Sai's son doesn't have to go since he has a broken leg."

http://www.pbs.org/race/000_G...

1. Race is a modern idea.

Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide people according to physical distinctions but according to religion, status, class, even language.

2. Race has no genetic basis.

Not one characteristic, trait or even gene distinguishes all the members of one so-called race from all the members of another so-called race.

3. Human subspecies don't exist.

Unlike many animals, modern humans simply haven't been isolated or around long enough to evolve into separate subspecies or races. We are one of the most similar of all species.

4. Skin color really is only skin deep.

Most traits are inherited independently from one another. The genes influencing skin color have nothing to do with those influencing hair form, eye shape, blood type, musical talent, athletic ability or forms of intelligence.

5. Most variation is within, not between, "races."

Of the small amount of total human variation, 85% exists within any local population - e.g., Italians, Koreans or Cherokees. About 94% exists within any continent. Two random Koreans may be as genetically different as a Korean and an Italian.

6. Slavery predates race.

For much of human history, societies have enslaved others, often as a result of conquest, even debt, but not because of physical traits or a belief in natural inferiority. Due to a unique set of historical circumstances, ours [in the United States] was the first system where all slaves shared similar physical characteristics.

7. Race and freedom evolved together.

The U.S. was founded on the radical new principle that "All men are created equal." but our early economy was based largely on slavery. The new idea of race helped rationalize thy some people could be denied the rights and freedoms that others took for granted.

8. Race justified social inequalities as natural.

As the race idea evolved, white superiority became "common sense" in the U.S. It helped justify slavery, Indian conquest, the exclusion of Asian immigrants, and the taking of Mexican lands in spite of our belief in democracy and freedom. Racial practices were institutionalized within U.S. government, laws, and society.

9. Race isn't biological, but racism is real.

Race is a powerful social idea that gives people different access to opportunities and resources. Our government and social institutions have created advantages that disproportionately channel wealth, power, and resources to white people. This affects everyone, whether we are aware of it or not.

10. Colorblindness will not end racism.

Pretending race doesn't exist is not the same as creating equality. To combat racism, we need to identify and remedy social policies and institutional practices that advantage some groups at the expense of others.

http://tinyurl.com/tl23h

The Leonid meteor shower is at its best this weekend (Nov. 17-20, 2006). Its traditional “peak” -- the time when you can expect to see the most meteors -- comes on Thursday and Friday nights. A second peak may occur on Saturday night. The Moon will be new on the 20th, so there will be no moonlight to interfere with the celestial fireworks.

The Leonids are named for the constellation Leo because they all appear to “rain” into Earth’s atmosphere from that direction. However, the meteors can streak across any portion of the sky, so you do not have to look toward Leo to see them.

The best time to look is after midnight, when your portion of Earth begins to turn most directly into the meteor “stream” -- the tiny bits of comet dust that cause the shower. They vaporize as they streak into the atmosphere, creating the bright streaks of light known as meteors or shooting stars.

-- Damond Benningfield

The taser-event seems to have lasted 7 minutes, a duration that most would consider equivalent to TORTURE, eh? This country ceases NOT to declare itself an oppressor of any that clings to dignity and self-determination. Not long ago, these were ways to express American individuality. Now, American individuality's seen as the qualities of fear and forfeit of personal freedoms. Sheesh - well, that's an understatement, I'm furious, and too tired to take it further right now.

http://tinyurl.com/y2vnhu - "Tasered Student Claims Racial Profiling"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?...

http://tinyurl.com/y9535h

This morning I awakened to an NPR story describing the "dumping" of an elderly woman, onto the streets of Skid Row, by a Kaiser Permanente hospital. I immediately thought of my mother, in her later years, and can easily imagine her having had just this misfortune - despite her intellect; despite having been a Marine veteran; despite having served this country with a full career at the CIA; despite having medical benefits; ... My mother as long as I can remember, could barely manage her life. As she became a senior, all bets were increasingly off.

Had I not busted a hump to get Mother placed in a retirement community where her whereabouts were ever known, she would certainly have been evicted from her apartment and as homeless as the woman of this horrendous tale. Trust me, it was only a sense of decency and justice that moved my actions toward Mother at that point in our lives. Our relationship was hardly warm or close. In fact, it was more intense and conflicted - hard to say who was more pathological, she or myself. No doubt we would both claim the other!

Anyway, had I not acted at a critical moment (and been fully supported by my incredible husband and life-partner,) I'm certain she'd've been as homeless as a wild animal in her dotage. More so would my brother, who had spent years to that point, tagging along with her in her increasing decrepitude. They were always a kinda "two-fer" particularly in their family dysfunction. [His, by the way, is another story with a miraculous ending - so far.]

A thoughtful reader might suspect my mother and brother were mentally ill - and I'll weigh in to support that suspicion. They just never managed to land substantial clinical diagnosis, that *might* come packaged with psychiatric and social supports. Not that in this time, the mentally ill have any such protection against homelessness. The mentally ill have been swelling the streets and prisons since our beloved President Reagan came to power and launched his national movement of Deinstitutionalization. Here me now, Ron Reagan has been brutal toward all who are both sick and destitute. I WILL NEVER FORGIVE HIM FOR THAT - and tend to believe that his long years of suffering with Alzheimers might come close to justice if he had died alone and homeless ... (I can only pray that God Herself will have pity on his pathetic soul, because I'm that angry)

The American value of "I have mine; and let them pull themselves up by their bootstraps" is about as stupid, greedy and EVIL as human beings can be. We seem to worry much more over whether people are having abortions, sleeping with same-sex couples, or smoking pot, than whether poverty and illness are overtaking our streets and lives. We need to wake up and follow the teachings of the Jesus of the Beatitudes and of Matthew 25:

"41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' 44 Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' 45 Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Soen-sa said, "What color is this rug?"

"Blue."

"Is it quiet or noisy?"

"Quiet."

"Who makes it quiet?"

The student shrugged his shoulders.

Soen-sa said, "You do. Noisy and quiet are made by your thinking. If you think something is noisy, it is noisy. If you think something is quiet, it is quiet. Noisy is not noisy, quiet is not quiet. True quiet is neither quiet nor noisy. If you listen to the traffic with a clear mind, without any concepts, it is not noisy, it is only what it is. Noisy and quiet are opposites. The Absolute is only like this."

- Stephen Mitchell, from "Dropping Ashes on the Buddha"

There's absolutely no reconciling the process and realities of war with anything we associate with goodness.

I heartily recommend this tune for your listening pleasure!

-----

http://www.worldwar1.com/sfci...

Christmas in the Trenches

by John McCutcheon

My name is Francis Tolliver, I come from Liverpool. Two years ago the war was waiting for me after school.

To Belgium and to Flanders, to Germany to here I fought for King and country I love dear.

'Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung, The frozen fields of France were still, no Christmas song was sung

Our families back in England were toasting us that day Their brave and glorious lads so far away.

I was lying with my messmate on the cold and rocky ground When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound

Says I, "Now listen up, me boys!" each soldier strained to hear As one young German voice sang out so clear.

"He's singing bloody well, you know!" my partner says to me Soon, one by one, each German voice joined in harmony

The cannons rested silent, the gas clouds rolled no more As Christmas brought us respite from the war

As soon as they were finished and a reverent pause was spent "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" struck up some lads from Kent

The next they sang was "Stille Nacht." "Tis 'Silent Night'," says I And in two tongues one song filled up that sky

"There's someone coming toward us!" the front line sentry cried All sights were fixed on one long figure trudging from their side

His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shown on that plain so bright As he, bravely, strode unarmed into the night

Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man's Land With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand

We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave 'em hell

We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home These sons and fathers far away from families of their own

Young Sanders played his squeezebox and they had a violin This curious and unlikely band of men

Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more With sad farewells we each prepared to settle back to war

But the question haunted every heart that lived that wonderous night "Whose family have I fixed within my sights?"

'Twas Christmas in the trenches where the frost, so bitter hung The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung

For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war Had been crumbled and were gone forevermore

My name is Francis Tolliver, in Liverpool I dwell Each Christmas come since World War I, I've learned its lessons well

That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame And on each end of the rifle we're the same

© 1984 John McCutcheon - All rights reserved

-----

You might like to see the story described in prose: http://www.worldwar1.com/temp...

"The Christmas Truce," by Henry Williamson

"Veterans Day is the American name for the international day called Armistice Day or Remembrance Day. It falls on November 11, the anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended World War I. It is both a federal holiday and a state holiday in all states. All major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice. Armistice Day was first commemorated in the United States by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919, and many states made it a legal holiday. Congress passed a resolution in 1926 inviting all Americans to observe the day and made it a legal holiday nationwide in 1938."

----- My mother was a marine during WWII; father served in the air force; my Uncle Dale served under the command of General Patton during WWII; my grandfather served in the army during WWI ... There's always been next to *no chance* I'd consider joining military forces.

One of my vivid memories involving the matter of proliferating the numbers of our military veterans, is the day my brother was drafted into the army.

On that day, I fell asleep on the sofa. I was eleven years old or so. I dreamt:

[in my dream the phone rang (in fact the phone was actually right near me while I slept,) and I answered, "Hello?"

The stranger's voice was that of a woman, and she said, "Hellooooooooooo...(continuously, very creepy - and didn't stop until she issued a blood-curdling scream that also seemed endless.) Then I woke up, in a cold sweat.]

My brother went to VietNam pretty much directly from his basic training. Fresh out of high school. No funds for college, and little inclination for it. He and I wrote to one another pretty much the entire time he was there. Once home, he really said very little about his experience - but you and I both know he's haunted by that war to this day.

But he came home - and with his body intact, if not his soul.

Ever hear of Project 100,000? Like today's Defense Department, McNamara's military was about as cynical as can be about the matter sending "our own" to face death on the battlefield. The draft, when done to send all but our privileged citizens - wealthy sufficient to effectively dodge such draft, is about as exploitive a policy as ... well human slavery.

McNamara and LBJ couched the project as as way to "rehabilitate" those citizens who would otherwise function to work in worthless jobs. This was a kind of "on the job" training. Isn't that nice? (Project 100,000 was a necrotic blight on The Great Society.)

http://tinyurl.com/y4cvq6

http://tinyurl.com/y7akaw

http://tinyurl.com/y7hnp7

"More and more people in our time are disconnected from religious institutions, at least for part of their lives. Others are religious and find themselves creating a family with a spouse from another tradition or no tradition at all. And the experience of parenting tends to raise spiritual questions anew. We sense that there is a spiritual aspect to our children's natures and wonder how to support and nurture that." (Speaking of Faith Newsletter, November 10, 2006)

Krista Tippett's programming on NPR exploring FAITH as universally human interest and concern, is a wonderful focus for us in these times. With all the so-called politics of "family values," "moral majority," and other, more polarizing concepts used for political influence, so many of our citizens have turned-back on our source of personal power, courage, strength and compass for justice.

With this post, I'm hoping folks will reflect on stories about how we learn to tap into our spirituality, from the wings of faith and the lessons of the oral tradition, generally parental stories and example.

For example, my mother offered very little to me along the lines of thought about the Divine, the hereafter, the miraculous, etc - in fact nothing whatsoever. She did though, instill in me a profound appetite for social justice and antiracism. Those matters were content for daily exchanges between she and I. She constantly reigned in any sense of entitlement, privilege and self-aggrandizement she detected as potential flaws of my character. Her adage "the road to heaven is paved with good intentions," rings in my ear to this day. More I cringe to remember her saying "stop fishing for compliments," whenever I sought her approval for an accomplishment.

My father on the other hand, spoke to me daily about the possible spiritual/mystical implications of daily events upon which I reported to him. He always spoke to me of a divinity that was as present as the wind, rain, wildlife, vegetation. More germainely he counseled me daily to interpret carefully and compassionately the glories and miseries of relationships both inside and outside our home.

Dad always reminded me of such notions as, "Thoughts are things, so mind your thinking;" "Every problem is an opportunity for God to both provide assistance, and to let us discover our own capacity in life;" "Forgiveness heals;" "The universe is actually unobstructed when we live fully in the spirit." His instruction was almost always based in an emphasis on Love, Hope and Forgiveness.

My father orchestrated my religious education at the Washington church, St Stephen and the Incarnation, where he was a paid choir-member (his vocal skills led him once to audition for the Metropolitan Opera, but that's another story!) This was the church that brought together my mother's secular but passionate thrust for justice and my father's mysticism and spiritual love and music. In fact, Mother's love of Jazz was at a time elevated in the Episcopal mass with the monthly jazz masses that brought her to worship.

St Stephen's parish history is glorious for me to revisit at http://www.saintstephensdc.or...

-----

What are your stories of learning to live the life of spirituality and faith, or of secularism or humanism? [You really might further, like to leave your stories at the Speaking of Faith website, so that Krista Tippett will have a wealth of fodder for that installment of her programming.]

Happy spiritual reminiscences! - Andrea

But in the name of freedom, people have done a lot of damage.

I think we have to build a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast in order to counterbalance.

Because liberty without responsibility is not true liberty.

We are not free to destroy."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Voting rights in America Test your knowledge about key figures and events in voting history

1. Who was Susan B. Anthony?

- Part of a small band of women who vehemently opposed women being granted the right to vote, arguing that they were intellectually inferior to men and should confine themselves to wifely duties

- A crusader for voting rights for women

- The first woman to cast a vote in the United States

2. When the Constitution was ratified in 1788, who was allowed to vote?

- All adults 21 and older

- All men

- White men who owned property

3. How were blacks in the South kept from voting for many years?

- If they didn't have jobs, they were barred from voting

- They were required to present a written note from a doctor stating that they were of sound mind

- They were required to pay a poll tax to vote

4. When did women win the right to vote?

- 1890

- 1905

- 1920

5. Residents of what jurisdiction were given the right to vote in presidential elections in 1961?

- Washington, D.C.

- Puerto Rico

- Guam

6. How did the Voting Rights Act of 1965 clear the way for blacks to vote?

- It gave the federal government power over all elections in the United States

- It outlawed literacy tests, poll taxes and other tactics used to keep blacks, particularly in the South, from voting

- It required all localities to keep voter registration records

7. When was the voting age lowered to 18 from 21?

- In 1971

- In 1946, after World War II

- In 1870, when blacks were given the right to vote under the 15th Amendment

(submit responses and see correct answers)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8...

http://tinyurl.com/vhksg

-----

Something in me couldn't conceive of *not* voting when I turned 18. Admittedly, at 18, I'm not sure I had any understanding of government policy. Presently, my comprehension possibly makes me dangerous with every election cycle.

What amazes me is that from 1971's 26th Constitutional Ammendment, this nation broadened the right to vote to include 18yr olds. I suppose, because we as a nation send those folks to fight wars when we deem it fit to do so. (Someday, we'll give Puerto Ricans - also serving in our Military - the right to vote in presidential elections.)

Over a very short period of time really, from the '20s to now, we've seen fit to legally grant women (1919,) african americans (1965,) and 18 year olds (1971) all the right to vote. People have struggled, even died to secure that right.

I humbly feel it is my duty as American citizen to find my way to the polls on Election Day. It seems to me, the first duty of anyone who's "PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN."

-----

"Why You Should Vote"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?...

That same voice actually happened on an earlier night this week - I hadn't given it another thought (or memory) until last night...

By the way, I'm one of those folks who believes in and sees what I call "ghosts." Who knows what the phenomenon represents scientifically - really that's not interesting to me.

What seems important to me is, the *meaning* of these experiences. For example, once when I was a neo-adult, I was with friends at a George Harrison/Ravi Shankar concert. You might imagine, like so many in that audience, I might have been under the influence of THC!

No matter, I had one of those connective experiences that has been with me the rest of my life so far. I had some sort of panic attack while standing in line to get beverages for myself and my friends. Fleeing that line, I actually fainted, knocked my head on the floor as I fell, and remember folks actually stepping over me on their paths to wherever they were going - not helping me.

Suddenly AN ANGEL - I believe this was truly an angel, came from some direction other than where I was heading, and helped me from the floor. He then, without saying anything of consequence guided me to my seat in that enormous auditoriaum (it was on of those stadium venues designed to house enormous numbers of people, and this event was packed.) It wasn't easy for me to even think about where I was seated, I so disoriented. This guy simply, and swiftly got me to my seat and then dissolved into the crowd without speaking.

I'll bet others have thoughts about inexplicable apparitions. Will you share them? (Please be respectful, as this represents one of the most tender and meaningful ways to discuss mysterious occurances!)

You might be interested to visit: http://www.mythopedia.info/gh... "towards a theory of ghosts: plasma and psychospheres"

The New York Times tells Styron's story at the following site: http://tinyurl.com/yypmo7

My first awareness of William Styron, was on viewing the film "Sophie's Choice" which absolutely blew me away. A masterpiece of drama, the story explores Holocaust survivorship and leaves viewers stunned and gasping.

It turns out that Mr. Styron was well acquainted with depression and mental illness, which naturally has further interest for me.

As always, I'm very sorry to learn that another really important citizen has crossed over into the realm of American ancestry. May he rest in peace.

-----

Styron's work includes:

Lie Down in Darkness (1951)

Set This House on Fire (1960)

The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967)

Sophie's Choice (1979)

This Quiet Dust, and Other Writings (1982)

Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (1990)

Once I spent a great deal of time with an eccentric young man, bicycling, canoing and camping about the land. He used to goad me into doing the strangest things.

The thing I'm remembering is hopping onto and quickly off again from a slow moving freight train. If he could be believed, he did this with sufficient routine as to consider persuading me to do join 'im in that foolishness. A truly *bad* idea, given being the life-long and total clutz I am to this day.

Anyway David, the friend in question (I'm certain he's nowhere near a computer, though I've long lost track of him and couldn't swear by it,) used to love all things Hobo. He made me aware of the quite elaborate lexicon of Hobo Marks that have since captured my waking and sleeping imagination.

Check out a sample here:

http://www.slackaction.com/si...

With only a little web exploration you can come up with myriad more of these symbol-gems!

Enjoy the day.

Nothing strange in her behavior, though she's sometimes a little mopey after being so long home alone (John's away in the DC-Baltimore area on business.) Well! Apparently she hadn't been quite so alone ...

Unloading my burden, (don't get me started on all the *stuff* I carry around when working) I stepped my usual path through the first floor of the house. Once in the living room I stopped cold. There lying in front of the television cabinet, was an opossum, looking quite worse for the wear, surrounded by its own feces and spots of blood on the rug.

Geez - okay Andrea, think this through. Gathering my steele as quickly as I could, I started gathering supplies to bundle this poor beast and launch into cleanup. Great first order of business at the end of a long day, eh?

Anyway, once I was prepared to gather this critter with plastic bag, I saw that the opossum was clearly breathing - flanks rising and falling prominently. Alright. Then I grabbed an old towel, and thinking better of it got John's new work gloves - those teeth looked really impressive.

Soooh, at last, gloves donned and with the old towel, I scooped up the opossum and carried it to the front door. It dropped lovely dollops of black tarry possum-poop along the way (thank you fella.)

Left the guy on the front porch, wrapped nicely in the old towel and returned to the business of cleanup, now made more expansive by an act of kindness. Now it stinks to high heaven with the combination of "I'm dead Opossum smell," poop, and Pet Fresh anti stain products which has a horrendously strong anti-stink stink.

Fed Gracie - and I couldn't eat if my life depended on it now. Just minutes ago, I stepped out to check on my opossum friend's status, and guess what?

IT'S GONE!! Nothing there but my old towel.

Here's the message from the totem web-page I referred to for the Bat the other day. (I love the final line, "Congratulations and welcome home." Yeah, great ...):

http://www.sayahda.com/cyc3.h...

"The Opossum

The opossum is a crafty animal that shows us how to play different roles. It knows when to act, when to hide, and when to show its true colors. Opossum is a master at recognizing truth as well as falsehood. When it wants attention it gets it. When it wants to be left alone it plays dead. It is a strategic animal that knows how to mold each situation according to its needs. It has the ability to decode hidden messages and read between the lines.

A supreme actor, the opossum can be aggressive or submissive depending on the situation. The opossum knows that each situation has commonalties as well as differences and reflects on them carefully before it responds. This links the opossum to the energies of practicality and ingenuity.

Always full of surprises and unpredictable opossums are masters at playing dead. When the time is right they can suddenly spring back to life. Playing dead is a self induced state in which the heartbeat actually slows and the pulse becomes minimal. This ability serves to confuse many predators giving the opossum an escape from life threatening situations.

Opossums are nocturnal and raise their young in a pouch on their mid section. The young are born blind and rely on their feelings to guide them to their destination. They learn to sense their way around at an early age developing strong instincts by the time they reach adulthood. These instincts are complimented by their inherent ability to disguise themselves. The opossum is a multi-faceted actor that continually changes its appearance. It does not allow its emotions to consume its actions and partakes in the game of life with strategic maneuvers. Part of what the opossum teaches to those with this totem is emotional and mental stability.

The opossum is a craftsman in the art of appearances. When it appears in your life it is telling you to wake up and pay attention. Things are not what they seem to be. By observing your actions, reactions, thoughts and feelings, deeper insights emerge. This emergence leads to self-empowerment. Congratulations and welcome home!"