It is my pleasure to have Scriptor Obscura as my guest writer. Her blog is one of several to which I subscribe. I have invited her to be a regular guest and I hope you like her work as much as I do.
He wears his best suit,
she clutches her purse.
He holds her arm as they walk away,
leaving behind his great-great grandfather’s Torah
with its cover of gold thread,
sitting on the mantel.
They don’t speak
as they board the streetcar.
Sitting in the back row,
They hold hands, hardly daring
to look at each other.
At the next stop,
a young Gestapo officer boards,
pistol holstered,
his armband a reminder of
the constant presence of death.
The policeman advances down the aisle,
checking each passenger’s papers.
In the back row,
he can’t breathe
his pulse thunders in his ears
she squeezes his hand.
Then he thinks of it.
He can’t tell her.
“You stupid bitch! You worthless cow!
How could you forget our papers?!
You stupid, stupid woman!
How could you do such a thing?!
You good-for-nothing bitch!”
She stares at him, tears of
bewilderment filling her eyes.
Keep crying, he thinks.
It will be more believable this way.
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For the last several years, Larry Winters (KPFT, Spare Change Show) has played this song during the Holidays. Since we are about to spend our Christmas Day hiking in the Catalina Foothills, we will not be streaming the show. So, here’s Brett Dennen’s song that sadly will remain a Holiday standard forever. Seem’s we will aways be at war somewhere.
kenne
Pilgrims in the parking lot Arteries clogged with blood clots Pushing through the aisles of department stores Neon crosses and Christmas lights Credit card debts and brand new bikes The holidays are here and we’re still at war
The rabbi reads from the testament The banker gazes at the year’s investments Salvation santa’s solicit for the poor Deception of democracy The philanderings of faux foreign policy The holidays are here and we’re still at war
Smoggy skies and fixed elections Injustice strikes from all directions People with their backs against the floor Looking for someone to set us free A king with fists like Mohammad Ali The holidays are here and we’re still at war
A mother knows what is best for you Even though it’s hard to listen Your father knows he can count on you Though you couldn’t count on him
Christopher Columbus knew Vasco De Gama and Magellan too The profits of oppression grow like never before All hail to the captalist thief And mourn your lost ones and covet our grief The holidays are here and we’re still at war
Hurricane waters ravage southern towns And black and brown people are left to drown While the White House and the emergency management agency ignores Victims seek shelter in the Astrodome And the National Guard says “Don’t go home” The holidays are here and we’re still at war
Police officers hassle the homeless Domestic disputes, alcohol and violence The jailhouse opens wide its door A corporation cuts a million employees And the factory is moving overseas The holidays are here and we’re still at war
A mother knows what is best for you Even though it’s hard to listen Your father knows he can count on you Though you couldn’t count on him
Jesus sheds another tear Into a sea of two thousand years Into the eve of a new year once more Tears of joy, resolutions of sorrow Toast to health and wealth tomorrow The holidays are here and we’re still at war
Religious wars and domination World trade and globalization The prices of petroleum soar Lonesome churches are packed with sinners Non-believers and new beginners The holidays are here and we’re still at war
Say a prayer for the less fortunate Prisoners and soldiers you never have met Understand what it is they’re fighting for Say a prayer for your enemies Say a prayer for the victims and their families The holidays are here and we’re still at war
In the spring of 1970, I was completing teaching degree and would be graduating at the end of the quarter at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIU). After the Kent State massacre, like many colleges and universities, SIU shut down. There were demonstrations on the campus and in downtown Carbondale, which lead to calling up the National Guard. As a veteran against the war, I too was in the streets. It was a trying time for college administrations and the country in general – a time I will never forget, etched in my mind by John Filo’s Pulitzer photo.
It is now hard to believe that this Tuesday will be the 40th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre and sadly we still are sending our troops into harms way for false reasons. To learn more about the time forty years ago and since, go to Veterans Today Network where you will learn that we are still seeking the truth after forty years. Additionally, Michael Moore is conducting a Kent State Truth Tribunal daily through Tuesday.
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
By now, most people have probably seen the video, Playing for Change – Stand By Me (over 16 million on YouTube), or seen the music documentary, which demonstrates that music can help bring about change. “Perhaps nothing can do more do connect a planet so divided by war, economics, religion and race than MUSIC!!” (Mark Johnson)
It was just a little over a year ago that I first learned about Playing for Change in a Bill Moyers Journal segment. Moyers began with a line that is still very apropos to today: “All over our country people are hurting. The statistics of unemployment and foreclosures reveal the magnitude of the distress but not the individual experience of people who lose their paychecks one month and their home the next.” He went on to talk about personal dramas being played out. “During lunch, I overheard people at a nearby table talking about the ugliness of our politics, and while I know this, too, is a recurring theme in American history, I tried to imagine how foreign this campaign must seem to the reality of everyday life for the Alvarez family, Willie, Corinne, James, and the others among that “fellowship of suffering” for whom life right now is a series of sighs and a stream of tears. How foreign and fraudulent the politics of sleaze, the polarizing almost savage pursuit of power that strokes the paranoia in us to divide and conquer,” Moyers said. Watching the segment, it became apparent that all this was a lead-in to introducing his next segment – “So it seems a good moment to introduce you to someone of the next generation who hasn’t given up on either our humanity or our future together,” at which time he introduced Mark Johnson.
Although the world is changing, for better or worse, much remains the same. So, in this season of peace and love, I share the transformative power of music again. “Let’s get together and feel all right!” – Peace Through Music.
Like many young men in the 1960’s, I was drafted into the military. Having just received an Associate Degree, before I knew it, I was at Ft. Polk, Louisiana standing with many other dazed young men in the early morning darkness. At twenty-five, I was an old man compared to most, yet equally disoriented. The previous cold January day at the Chicago Induction Center had been the pre-draft physical day for three of us from Naperville. Now being barked at by teenage boys who had only arrived months before us (still too early in the morning for the lifers to be doing the barking), I had no idea that within a year, I would be the only one of the three of us still alive.
We all figured we would be going to Vietnam, and in time, most did. But, I was among the lucky ones receiving other orders, spending 18 months in the South China Sea on the island of Okinawa. Although I was not in Nam, the people I knew, worked with or met while on “The Rock” had the first-hand experience of the war. A STRATCOM (Strategic Army Communication) Tech Controller, by MOS, I communicated daily with my brothers of the faith in Vietnam, many of which worked in trailers out in the jungle. If you get the picture, these guys were “sitting duck” and often were on the air with us when the link was lost — it wasn’t because the channel went down. We all lived by a very special language of survival, which served as the thread to the fabric clothing our very souls. Now some forty-plus years later, it is rare that I hear someone who speaks the language. The fabric is the same, only the clothing designs have changed.
Knowing “Paco’s Story,” I had been looking forward to Larry Heinemann’s reschedule Writers In Performance Series reading. I love Heinemann’s writing, but listening to him read from Paco’s Story was simply priceless – even more so, when during the Q&A, he began sharing his feelings on Vietnam. The following video may not mean much too most, especially the several generations since the Vietnam War. But, for me, he knows how to strike the cores that generate music to my ears. Still, some will always hear the music and continue to pass it on to future generations just as it had been handed down from generations of other young men who had been lied to. Keep the faith!
An elder Cherokee was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, “A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves.
One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
This same fight is going on inside you and inside every other person, too.”
The children thought about it for a minute, and then one child asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.” — Anonymous Author
Springtime – a time for renewal. Nature takes the lead, one we must follow, for we are not separate from nature. How we follow depends on whether we are led by our “I” or “thou.” Make this spring your “thou” spring.
How Do You Find Truth When Each Sides Position is Based On Lies?
Reasonable people agree with the value and importance of truth. But what seems to overtake its value in the Middle East conflict is that the evidence for one position vs. another is accepted as if it had been conclusively proved and therefore moral and just. The outside observer is left confused when each line of thought generates a contradiction.
“I wish I didn’t believe that the events now unfolding in the Middle East are too complicated for unalloyed outrage. I wish the arguments of only one side rang wholly true to me. I am the first to accuse myself of paralyzing moral generosity — the fatal empathy that terrorists prey on. But ambivalence is not the same as moral equivalence, and holy war, no matter who is waging it, makes my flesh crawl.
In Milton’s poem Samson Agonistes, Samson – blinded, in chains — cries out, “Promise was that I / Should Israel from Philistian yoke deliver; / Ask for this great deliverer now, and find him / Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves.” But when Samson shows the strength to shun Delilah, God restores his power, enabling him to pull down the temple and kill the Philistines, though along with himself.”
These are the words of Marty Kaplan, which appeared today in The Huffington Post, titled, “Eyeless In Gaza.”Click here to read the complete article.
There are so many things I want to share, but time doesn’t allow – aren’t you glade.
If you every doubt that we are all connected, just listen to music. You’ve seen it on T-shirts, heard it in songs and read it in literature, “Music, The Universal Language.”
“Music is a form of energy, like the sun.
Music is the voice through which spirits speak,
using a language that is beyond words,
a music that is beyond notes.”
Each day I read various blogs to supplement the daily headlines. Today I read across this on the NY Times Cityroom blog, which showed the above image. Sorry, it’s a hoax. The war is not over, at least not yet.
This morning the “Wizard” reminded me that Richie Starkey is sixty-eight today. “So,” you ask.
Well, I’m sharing this because the only thing he wants for his birthday is for people to pause today at noon, wherever you are in the world, make a peace sign with your fingers and say with a smile, “Peace and Love.”
Many may think this request is silly. Yet, a study published in The Journal of Conflict Resolution in 1988 on an experiment, which began during the war between Lebanon and Israel in 1982, demonstrated that when a group of people feel “peace” is in their bodies, the statistics of the war began to change. This holistic view of the world, when belief is completely aligned, can being about a universal change. While the 1988 study and similar ones since then deserve more exploration in understanding the universal power of belief, they do demonstrate that there is an effect here that’s beyond chance. For more information on the power of belief, you may want to consider reading the best selling author, Gregg Braden.
(On this Memorial Day, I share the following from daughter, Katie Bailey.)
A short story for everyone…..
Shortly after Matt started going to classes this spring at CSU he decided to check out the Air Force ROTC program. As some of you guys know, last spring Matt tried to join the Air Force Reserve. He had to lose about 40 lbs and he did so. He went back to get weighed and measured knowing he was going to make the weight and the recruiter said there is a new rule this year….No tattoos below the elbow that can be seen but if you already have some they can not be vulgar or cover more than 25% of the arm. Matt as you know has a couple of tats below his elbow….one being a cross with Nick’s bday and the other a tribal tattoo down his arm that he got while serving in Saudi Arabia, which was the one in question. He had to get pictures taken so the recruiter could send them to the higher ups to be approved or not approved. A week later she calls and says “No, you can not join because of your tattoo.” Matt, as might have guessed, was pretty ticked off with all the work he had done to lose the weight and to have them say no. Even though he was also prior military service it didn’t matter. So life went on….we moved up here and he talked to the Captain, Major and Colonel here at CSU for the Air Force ROTC program. He then had to lose the weight again and they told him that his tattoo was not vulgar and didn’t cover up 25% of his arm so he should be fine. So he made the weight and joined the Air Force ROTC program this spring. He also decided to join the Wing Walker Pershing Rifle Honor Guard. For those of you that don’t know they are the group of people that honor CSU, UNC, and surrounding areas. Today, they honored soldiers that were lost in battle at the Rest Haven Memorial Garden in Fort Collins. And I wanted to share a few pictures from our chilly morning. I am very proud to be the wife of a man that has the biggest heart I know and sacrifices his time for others!
I’m learning to navigate each day by my hearts intuitive feelings, bridging with my mind to be less judgmental and more forgiving. This is real difficult when so much of today’s news has to do with anger, fear, blame, jealousy, selfish ambition and depression.
This Monday I will join 24 million veterans in remembering those comrades who have lost their lives in war. However, the above-mentioned attitudes are blocking attempts to show real compassion for our heroes in a new comprehensive GI Bill. How can some of our leaders continue to take away the hopes and dreams of service personal, the very leaders eager to continue spending billions to carry on an illegal war in Iraq?
The short answer is, no. What matters is “…the matrix of all matter.” The dictionary definition of a matrix is “…that which gives origin or form to a thing, or which serves to enclose it; the rectangular arrangement into rows and columns of the elements of a set.” A matrix is formed when parallel existences are crossed to create new relationships that allow for a convivial environment. For Max Planck, who most credit the modern use of “matrix”, it was the field of resulting from linking the conscious and intelligent mind. The process of doing this, in which we can exist as one in the universe, is matrixing. That is to say that we continually attempt to alter our surroundings to benefit all existence more and more. This is what matrixing is all about: constantly developing an environment by building upon a past development without having to recreate the original development from scratch.
From an existential view, it is the act of placing one’s self back into the world, becoming unified with all things. To do otherwise is to ignore enough reality, in which that not ignored is distorted in ignorance. Traditional science tends to view humans as separate from the whole and in doing so can result in the repression of a single phenomenon. The act of this behavior is judging. Thou shalt not judge! Placing desires for one thing above existence in the fullness of all it is. By setting up preferences that exclude any of life, we have condemned ourselves to ignorance. If matrixing is the process of living as one in the universe, then the goal of understanding existence is becoming identical with the process. One is closest to understanding existence when most puzzled as to the true nature of the universe.
Yesterday, I received an email from a friend in Brazil in response to one of my blog entries, which I would like to share:
“Although I may agree with you in several aspects, I´m not that optimistic and idealistic. Many consequences (especially those relating to climatic aspects and geo-political chaotic scenarios) won´t be able to be avoided, which will cause an increase in pain and suffering in the world. Tomorrow´s dawn will be a dark one, no matter what we do now. We can only prepare ourselves and make sure the day after tomorrow won´t be even darker —
‘Can you picture what will be
so limiteless and free
desperately in need… of some…stranger´s hand
in a desperate land.'”
Such a feeling is not uncommon in today’s world, which has also been noted by one of today’s most noted writers, Gregg Braden, on the marriage of science and spirituality being the answer to solving problems such as those expressed by my Brazilian friend. Last evening, Joy and I had an opportunity to attend Gregg’s presentation at Unity Houston titled “The Science of Miracles: If You Know the Code, You Choose the Limits!” Can we solve today’s major global problems, which have existed in the past but are now converging into a “perfect storm” scenario for the first time? For Gregg Braden, the answer is Yes!
Image Via Scriptor Obscura
It is now hard to believe that this Tuesday will be the 40th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre and sadly we still are sending our troops into harms way for false reasons. To learn more about the time forty years ago and since, go to Veterans Today Network where you will learn that we are still seeking the truth after forty years. Additionally, Michael Moore is conducting a Kent State Truth Tribunal daily through Tuesday.
kenne
OHIO
By Neil Young
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
Photo Source: The Digital Journalist
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