Cafe Now

Traffic Rerouting--www.debismith.blogspot.com

2007-05-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

Another traffic rerouting. I'd love to get to Cafe Now more often, but it just isn't happening these days. It's taking me forever to get my blogs the way I want them. It'd be easy if I didn't have so many different personalities.

What I'm currently thinking, and obviously that is want to change, Cafe Now will be the place I write my observations, ponderings, and things I like to contemplate or recommend.

And for now here is where I'll be posting current published writings. It'll probably mostly consist of my ongoing profile series for my local newspaper, but it'll be something new at least once a week, which is more than I can say for any of the other stuff.

Electronic Intelligence

2007-04-13T23:07:00.000-07:00

My ipod reads my energy. I'm sure of it. Tonight, after two days of agonizing over my taxes that are due in three days, I took a break to do some of the dishes that've been piling up. Wanting to listen to some music, I got out the ipod, put it on shuffle, donned the headphones, and got to work with the sponge, soap, and day old dishes. What's the first song my ipod decides to play? Out of 1669 songs that my husband and I have loaded since getting it three months ago? Taxman. By The Beatles. No shit.

The second song was from Rodrigo Y Gabriela, a group that I've been listening to, almost exclusively, for the past few months.

It'd be a bit disconcerting if it weren't so fascinating and coincidental.

It reminds me of an email I got a couple months ago from a man I interviewed. Jordan Pease, the director of the Rogue Valley Metaphysical Library. One day, while working feverishly on the article that profiled him, Jordan sent me an email:

Hi-
You’ve got to try this if you haven’t already. It’s called “20Q” and it’s an amazing Artificial Intelligence Technology (AI) demonstration website in the form of a guessing game.

Players think of something and answer 15-30 questions about it (yes, no, maybe, unknown, etc) and the computer will guess correctly nearly every time you play!

It is downright spooky how accurate it is, especially with such seemingly vague questions. They claim it’s 80-98% accurate, and so far I’d agree.

20Q.net Try it.

Maybe my ipod has some of the same inherent intelligence. Yeah, a pretty whacko proposition. But the fact that Taxman was the first song it played has me wondering.

When a library closes in a community . . . does it make a sound?

2007-04-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's closure of the Jackson County Library System in Southern Oregon, due to lack of funding, is the largest ever shuttering of libraries in the history of the United States.

The doors at Ashland's public library were locked at 5pm on Friday, April 6th.

In a staged protest/sit-in--proposed by several young library patrons
and carried out with the help of supportive adults--a large group of
young people, ranging in age from 5-16, refused to leave the
library until Malcus Williams, an officer with the Ashland Police Department showed up (as part of the plan) to escort them out.

The following is a video I shot and edited for the local newspaper.

Tomãs Lockwood: Living in the Great Outdoors

2007-03-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

This is the video that accompanies the Daily Tidings profile on Tomãs Lockwood, published by The Daily Tidings on 3/21/07

Tomãs Lockwood has lived outdoors, by choice, for 24 years. Believing that the earth is his home, he doesn't consider himself homeless and prefers being referred to as an outdoorsman.

In this video, Tomãs talks about riding the rails to Ashland, why he picks up litter, why he's not homeless, and some of his thoughts on panhandling.

The two halves of god

2007-03-02T11:04:00.000-08:00

I just had an epiphany and had to come write it down before it slips away. Not sure I should share it publicly, but here goes.

I was sitting on the toilet-- yes, epiphanies can happen anywhere--and I picked up the Sept/Oct 2006 issue of Spirituality & Health that a doctor friend loaned me. I'm reading an article by Louise Danielle Palmer titled: Empowered by the Sacred.

It's an article about the "living mystic" Andrew Harvey and I've just finished reading the 7 aspects of the "Great Death" that he teaches about. The author of the article then writes:

In the course of evolving as a species, we have discovered one-half of the God-power within us: the power to destroy.

And all of a sudden it came to me that this is why the bible seems to describe two completely different gods. It's something people rarely attempt to explain and understand, but remains a glaring inconsistency nevertheless.

If God is truly within, and not something outside and over us, then she/he/it (Holy Sheheit, the middle h being silent, as a group of us laughed about a number of years ago) is evolving right alongside/inside us and/or because of us. And whether a parable, prophecy, or just an interesting story, the bible shows us how God/we evolve from being judgemental, vengeful, and destructive to forgiving, compassionate, loving, and creative.

When I imagined, in a very brief flash, asking God/The All/Source if this was true--the impression that came back was of a bunch of gleeful beings jumping up and down saying, "yes, yes, yes, that's it!"

I was stopped in my tracks when I read the above words "we have discovered one-half of the god-power within us," now I continue reading the paragraph to find out what comes next:

...Now, Harvey believes, we must embody the other half: the power within us to create.

Now that I write it down, it seems so simple and obvious that I wonder that it felt so epiphanous. Maybe everyone else already knew this, but I'd never thought of it this way. The thought/revelation gave me goosebumps, and it's something I want to spend some more time pondering.

Blog Maintenance

2007-02-27T19:34:00.000-08:00

Okay, doing a little housecleaning here. Putting the writing links on the sidebar. Next up is adding to my quote blogs. I've had piles of books/scraps of paper/magazines/etc., that I want to pull quotes from--really good quotes. Damn, there's just so much I want to do.

And then . . . maybe some good ole fashioned blogging? Imagine that.

Cafe Sometimes and Other Writings

2007-01-16T01:31:00.000-08:00

Maybe Cafe Now wasn't a good name for a blog that I only get to once in a while. Maybe I should have called it Cafe Sometimes.

Thing is, I took a paid writing gig and haven't had the time to get here and write my little meandering thoughts and observations. Thought the least I could do to nurture the place was to post some of the pieces I've been writing for my local newspaper. They're mostly profile pieces of some of the unique and interesting people that make up our vibrant little community of Ashland.

I offer some of them here as glimpses into what it means to be human in a world that seems to be increasingly uncertain.

Ely Schless: Inventor
Pam Derby: Compassionate Listener
Tish McFadden: Musician, Teacher
David Gall: Postman
Bill and Shirley Patton: The Patton Tree

The Year's Most Underreported Story(s)

2006-12-23T00:46:00.000-08:00

From Geov Parrish, Working for Change

The Year's Most Underreported Stories

Siberia's permafrost is melting: Why is this an important story? Because Arctic permafrost, which in Siberia covers endless miles, contains massive amounts of methane. The melting soil releases the methane into the air, where it is now expected to massively and irrevocably accelerate global warming. It's a process that has already begun, but just. This massive climate bomb literally has the potential to end civilization. Its discovery should have not only been the year's top story, but an impetus for all humanity to unite in a common struggle for survival. Maybe in 2007. Or 2009, when someone who believes in science occupies the White House.

Driving Mr. Booth

2006-11-20T21:13:00.000-08:00

A very rough cut/trailer of a movie I hope to one day complete: Driving Mr. Booth

A View From New Zealand

2006-11-17T14:59:00.000-08:00

Most of the responses I get to my essays are from the U.S., but I usually also get a handful from Down Under, Britain, lots from Canada, the Middle East, and sometimes from even more remote locales. By and large the feedback is positive. (Maybe too much preaching to the choir.) Anyhow had an interesting dialogue recently with an expatriot now living in New Zealand. Comes across as a bit shrill, but then again maybe we here in America are all just a bit too anesthetized as we muck about the mess we've made/inherited/allowed/ignored... Thought I'd post the exchange here, she makes some valid points worth considering.

Pardon the odd formatting, as I've yet to figure out how to deal with the bugs that attend copying/pasting of other docs, emails, etc.

Her First Email

I read your column on Common Dreams. It, among others, sparked this column that will appear in our newspaper on Saturday, Nov 25. I thought you’d be interested.

The breast-beating from the left-wing commentators in the United States has been deafening. Don't hate us! they cried to the world. It's that jerk in the White House! Now that we've finally noticed, we'll fix things! Just watch the midterm elections!

It was all a bit too facile, not to mention a few decades late. The US has elected only two presidents with a conscience in 30 years - Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. And Americans didn't actually like either one much, certainly not as much as they like George W in the days following 9/11.

The rest of their leaders have been scum like Richard Nixon, who hired a couple of aides named Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld to run his own little dirty war. You might remember it: Vietnam.

The same thugs came back to run the Iraq fiasco, and still Americans - or at least a few left-wing commentators - want us to think George W is some recent aberration. He isn't.

They also seem to think the latest Iraq war is a one-off. Don't they recall the dress rehearsal in 1991? And who do they think invented Saddam Hussein to begin with?

Saddam started out as just another in a long line of bloodthirsty dictators the US has been propping up for 50 years or more on every continent except that big island to our left.

Why on earth should anything change now?

Americans get the leaders they deserve. And one of the reasons they get such jerks is that so few of them give a damn. The midterm elections saw 40 percent of registered voters turn out. That's 40 percent of those registered, not those eligible to vote. That's considered standard for congressional elections. They get a little more excited about presidential elections, but not much.

So if most don't vote, and the few who do elect the same old thugs, why on earth should the world expect anything in America to change? Not only do Americans not care about running roughshod over the rest of the world, they don't even care about each other. One glance at the ever-widening gap between the immensely rich (a list that contains Bush I and II, along with many in Congress) and the poor proves humanity's in fairly short supply in the world's richest democracy.

Having said that, if so few vote, can you really call America a democracy any more?

Deborah Sloan, news editor of the Manawatu Standard, is a dual US-New Zealand citizen. She escaped from the US in 1988.

My Response (perhaps a touch defensive)

Hi Deborah,

Thanks for writing. Just want to clarify a couple things. I don't consider myself a left wing commentator. I'm more a 41 year old stay at home mother who has been finally starting to pay attention to what's going on in my country, and because of my country--and as I've said before, am ashamed. Periodically I write pieces that Common Dreams chooses to print. The purpose behind my pieces is to try and wake others. I'm sorry that I, and others more competent and supposedly "responsible" than I, don't do a better job of owning up to our history. And to the way we are/have been creating havoc all over the world (although most of my pieces have something to do with that, some in more detail than others). However, my purpose will continue to be trying to wake the slumbering masses. And in my opinion, it means first waking them to what's going on NOW. Not what's transpired in all these tens-if not hundreds-of years past that've brought us here. If my house caught on fire I wouldn't waste time standing in the hallway explaining to my children why it caught fire, or the meaning or consequences of the fire. That can come (necessarily so) after we've safely escaped (and hopefully put out the fire).

I'm curious what your deeper thoughts are regarding these midterm elections. I can say that I'm guardedly hopeful. Yes, there's A LOT of work that needs to be done. Yes, many of us consider this two party system we have to be a farce. Just "one party posing as two." But it certainly feels like people are starting to pay attention. And like they sent a message yesterday. Better late than never is a horrible cliché here, but it's true. And it's a better turn of events, or at least appears to be so, than what could have happened. Especially considering the vote tampering that must have occurred in some places. In your opinion, what is the predominant view from New Zealand? And how would you suggest we change things? And surely New Zealand isn't perfect? (Although there's been many times these past few years I've thought our family should escape there as well. But hanging around a little while longer and doing the odd little bits I can to try and help everything from going completely up in smoke is appealing as well.)

Thanks again for writing,
Debi

Her Response

Debi: I have been trying to think of an optimistic response for you. I cannot find one. The rot in America began long ago, and just because the Democrats are now in power in Congress doesn’t mean the killing will stop in Iraq in the power vacuum the US has created (and was told it would create – remember the French and Germans that Rice kept calling “Old Europe”, when everyone castigated the French, calling them cowards, and ordered freedom fries? Remember that?); it doesn’t mean the US-manufactured landmines and cluster bombs will stop killing children in Cambodia and Afghanistan and Lebanon; it doesn’t mean the US will all of a sudden start backing the United Nations and, god forbid, pay its annual dues so the only hope most of the world has for peace can operate; it doesn’t mean Americans will stop spending billions on botox and divert that money to house the half-million war veterans who are homeless in America, not to mention the suffering thousands of schizophrenics …

It’s pointless to continue. The list is endless. And I see no hope that America will ever come right. It’s why I left nearly 20 years ago, and lately I’ve been looking pretty far-sighted, as more and more Americans flood into New Zealand.

Is New Zealand perfect? Of course not. But neither is it a super power that can run roughshod over the rest of the world without a thought, quite frankly, setting up a real possibility for world instability avoided since WWII. And New Zealand does a damn sight more for its downtrodden than the US does. We don’t have homeless shelters because we have state housing and a decent social welfare system, even though we haven’t anything like America’s wealth. Hospital treatment is free to everyone, because the people think it’s important. And doctor visits and medicines are heavily subsidized by taxes. Rich and poor attend the same public schools and private schools are few and far between – and little cachet is attached. And while there is disparity between Maori and Europeans, it is nothing like the intractable divide between blacks and whites. Our parliament includes poor and rich alike, and our prime minister is a woman (of little money), as is our chief justice. And when fewer than 90 percent of New Zealanders vote in an election, it’s considered a scandal. A scandal.

I appreciate what you and others are trying to do, but I don’t think you will wake the slumbering masses. They certainly didn’t look up from their fast-food trough for this past election, the numbers show. So the wealthy and powerful of America will continue to bully the rest of the world with impunity.

Deborah Sloan

Dear World

2006-11-02T20:17:00.000-08:00

(Published by Common Dreams on 11/2/06)

Dear World,

How are you doing? What have you been up to lately? Sorry it's been so long since I've written.

I was actually in the middle of writing an open letter to President Bush when I thought of you.

I was asking him, respectfully of course, about his insistence that Senator John Kerry apologize for his botched joke. Perhaps you've heard of all this nonsense? You must think we're pretty ridiculous. I mean look at all that's going on in the world, and all Bush and his friends (including a mostly compliant media) want to talk about the past couple of days is a poorly thought out and delivered joke. Big deal. I'm sure that Kerry, a veteran himself, meant nothing disparaging against his fellow soldiers, past or present. Anyhow, I was asking him why he would insist Kerry apologize for a stupid joke when he himself so stubbornly refuses to apologize for anything/everything he has done wrong the past five plus pretty botched years of his presidency. Things that have had consequences of such greater magnitude that, to say the least, it boggles the mind.

Like refusing to apologize for not taking those pre 9/11 warnings seriously. Refusing to apologize for sitting in a classroom reading a story about a pet goat for seven long minutes after learning that the country was under attack. Refusing to apologize for the lies he told and cooked intelligence he used to start a war of aggression against a sovereign nation. He continues to bullheadedly refuse to apologize for all the miscalculations that have been made since, at every turn along the way, in that illegal war. Refuses to apologize for all the thousands and thousands and thousands of stolen Iraqi lives. Refuses to recognize, and then apologize for, the fact that his lies and deceptions have also directly led to the deaths of over 2800 (to date) brave men and women from the United States.

(By the way, speaking of bad jokes, what about those not so funny wmd jokes Bush told that one time?)

I could go on and on with all the things that I would suggest Mr. Bush apologize for. And I'm sure you could think of a bunch more to add. Yet even just one of the things already mentioned are more egregious, by far certainly, than Kerry's blunder and would be enough to win a debate regarding who has more to apologize for, don't you agree? But this joke thing is just more political slime slinging anyway. I wish I could say that everyone here can see that. That it's obviously just a rerun of an overused play from a tattered and pathetic book that never should have been used in the first place. Unfortunately I can't say that, but I do suspect that with the redundancy of the plays being called, eventually (hopefully sooner rather than later) enough people on the other teams will figure it out and take advantage of it and counter with better and more effective plays. Or maybe the management of the Bush team will get canned. Or both. We can hope. One thing is certain, right now we desperately need change at all levels and in all divisions.

Anyhow, while in the middle of my letter/argument to Bush, I remembered reading something a while back that he'd told author Mickey Herskowitz. Herskowitz was hired in 1999 to ghost write George's autobiography (and was later replaced after he didn't show Bush in the most flattering light--surprise, surprise).

"He told me that as a leader, you can never admit to a mistake," Herskowitz said. "That was one of the keys to being a leader." (Of course, the whole "leader" moniker, as well as the "President" one, are debatable.)

Thus I realized, it would most likely be a waste of my time entreating Mr. Bush to apologize. (Yeah, I know--duh.) But, I do want to say it again for emphasis, albeit a bit differently: What a shame to our country, and a sham he is, to make so much about Kerry's stupid joke, considering all the mountains of damage done and lives wasted that he and his cronies have authored.

Apparently, according to Bush, I'll never make it as a leader, as my letter to you is mostly just one big apology. An apology from an ordinary, increasingly appalled and ashamed, American citizen.

There is so much to be sorry for. Especially so the past five years of Bush's presidency. Sorry that he and his administration didn't heed the warnings regarding an impending terrorist strike within the US. Sorry that he used the awful events of that day to justify a global and "long" (seemingly unending) war on terror that has, by all accounts, only increased terrorism. Sorry the good will that was directed at us immediately following 9/11 was so quickly squandered. Sorry that the will of hundreds of thousands of people around the world, saying no to war, went unheeded and unappreciated. I'm so sorry that we couldn't stop the war machine from its costly (yet so profitable to the warmakers) and oh so deadly crawl across Afghanistan and Iraq. Sorry that so many many innocent people were crushed in its path. Sorry that we invaded a country, under false pretenses, destroying its beauty, culture, infrastructure, lives.... Sorry that we then had the audacity to authorize no bid contracts for the rebuilding of it to the very people who destroyed it.

I'm sorry that we don't seem to appreciate the sickening absurdity of it all.

I'm sorry that our "leaders" don't seem to care about being good stewards of the earth. Sorry that they laugh in the very real face of global warming. (Especially since the US is such a big contributor.) I'm sorry for the very real problems around the world that they, and by extension-we, continue to ignore. Sorry that the focus continues to be mostly only in areas of the world that are abundant in valuable resources or that are deemed important for strategic reasons. Sorry that these reasons usually, if not always, have nothing whatsoever to do with humanitarian causes/crises.

Sorry that it might appear that we all, the people, permit these things, though I do hope you realize that appearances can be deceiving (maybe you've noticed that we have some issues with the integrity of our voting system).

I'm sorry for the exasperation and frustration and justified anger that you must feel when you observe our actions, and the actions of our government. I'm sorry for all the sleepless nights you might experience because of the big ass bully storming through your neighborhoods. (And, just to loudly clarify, I'm not referring to the mostly good men and women in uniform who are on the ground in these neighborhoods). I'm sorry that our current leadership is the bully. And that I and my fellow countrymen and women have so far failed to reign that bully in.

I'm sorry for all the things I don't know, and therefore can't act upon. And for all the things I do know and don't act upon.

I realize now that Bush and I are very much alike in one way. We both have many more things to be sorry for than we can list here.

Yes, I'm writing to tell you how sorry I am. But also to tell you that I'm not alone in my sorrow. I want you to know that there are many of us here, more than any of us probably realize (and coming from all walks and political persuasions)--who can't believe the scope of what has happened to our country--and because of our country--in such a short time. But an apology is fairly meaningless if there is no growth, no learning, no wisdom gained, no change in behavior, right? I know that. So, I'm here to tell you that we are intent on changing the direction of our country. There are far more of us who want to get along with each other and our neighbors than don't. I'm certain of that. So please hang in there with us as we go through these turbulent times. It's sort of like the teenage years in some ways. I know I feel a bit like a teenager here as I write to you. Yes, we know we have a lot to work on. And yes we know we have some growing up to do. And hopefully on November 7th you'll see an example of us doing just that. (Then again, if you don't, please remember that looks can be deceiving.)

Hope to write again soon. Take care.

Love and hugs,

Debi

Time

2006-09-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

Busy, busy, busy. So much to do, so little time. Like being in an army of ants marching to and fro, to and fro. So busy and confident that what we're doing is vitally important. And that our little universe is all that exists...

And what is time anyway? Besides an odd construct of human beings? Invented to help us measure and mark the passage of our days?

The baking of bread. The programming of TIVO (which I don't have but include so as to be, well, inclusive). The number of candles on a birthday cake. Airplane departures. The end of class. Due dates for library books. Time to get the teeth cleaned. The oil checked. The pap. The mammogram. The prostrate (another thing I don't have, but do want to be inclusive here!). Time to rise and shine. To watch the news. To have a glass of wine. To make dinner. To call a friend. Or mail that birthday gift. Time to get to soccer practice. To the movie. Time to plant the bulbs. The tomato starts. The seeds of change...

Time to move on to what I was really planning on writing.

But, not before making a note to myself:

Hey Debi, perhaps you should come back here at some time and revisit the above? Expand upon it? Write about all the ways time insinuates itself into our lives--like nothing else, perhaps, comes close to doing. About how we've created time only to end up becoming slaves to it...

Time to check in with my son who has just walked in the door. Or not. I guess it's time for him to check in with his new girlfriend.

Ah yes. Time.

I've been wanting to come here and write about so many different things. It's an interesting conundrum actually. The more you experience (whether good or bad)--the more you have to write about, but less time to write about it. The less you experience (whether good or bad)--the more time you have to write about it, but less to write.

Is that true? (I just sort of made it up as I was going along.) But maybe it's worth a consideration. When we're reading what someone else has written, is it possible that we are only getting the middle of the road account? Because the people really in the thick of it don't have time to make an accounting? Maybe the accounting we're getting is either from those moderately in the thick of things, or from the bystander's perspective? Leaving out--not all the time of course, but often I would imagine--the perspective we most need to hear, read, see, understand?

Maybe I'm wrong, I haven't given it a great deal of thought. But I'd like to.

Been away from the Cafe for a few days. Was here on the computer for so long with the last couple writing projects, and with trying to respond to emails regarding them (which I enjoy and consider important, but which is also a somewhat daunting and time consuming task), and with trying to stay up to date on current events, and... Well, I just sort of felt toxic from spending so much time here at the computer.

Time at the computer. Maybe I should take a picture. Always nice to add a little visual right?
Anyhow, so much of my time has been spent here at this little desk, sitting on this hard little chair, squinting in front of this little monitor, skrying for meaning, that I've needed to detox a bit. (Not to mention all the other things/people I've been neglecting lately.)

Yesterday was a rewarding case in point. In the amount of time I WASN'T on the computer I was able to take apart my malfunctioning (for over a year now) toaster oven. And fix it!! I'd figured I would just have to buy a new one. But with a screwdriver and a little resourcefulness, I was able to save $50, a small little chunk of landfill space, resources, air/water quality, transport fuel (whether to buy a new one or transport the old one to the landfill), etc. Lots of things saved and gained by just taking the time and initiative to try and figure it out on my own. And a good lesson for the kids who were watching. It was so much fun in fact that I'm thinking about hanging a shingle, and fixing other people's broken appliances. It's not the first time I've fixed something like that. But my favorite was probably that time a few years ago when my husband was laid up with a broken leg and I fixed the washing machine. That was REALLY rewarding. I had to take the whole thing apart. And when I put it back together and it worked? Wow. What fun. There've been other times. A pencil sharpener. Light fixtures. What have you. Maybe it's a calling. We'll see.

Interestingly, I was even able to accomplish this with only a mediocre result on that 7th grade math assessment I took (before asking my daughter to take it) yesterday.

There were 25 questions. I got 17 correct. Which, according to the evaluation, meant I was likely to exceed Grade 7 standards. Oh joy! Actually you can miss more than half and still be expected to likely meet Grade 7 standards. This math thing is a whole other subject for another day.

What the test taught me was that I don't remember how to measure angles.

But if my life--up to this point, and beyond my public education--had required that I know how to measure angles then I'm confident that I would be able to do it easily. It's just that my life, all 23 years post testing, has not required it. Or I've figured out how to do something another way. I should build my own house. Then I'll learn lots of things.

Like I said, it's a subject for another day.

And it looks like it's going to be another day before I get to write any more, as it's time to go pick up my car (wish I didn't have to as it's car free day here in Ashland). After all, it was time to get the brakes replaced.

Till next time,
Debi

Loose Change--2nd Edition

2006-09-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

Can't seem to post the video itself here, without it blinking obnoxiously. So here's a link to the updated version of Loose Change, brought to you by Dylan Avery, Korey Rowe, and Jason Bermas.
LOOSE CHANGE, 2nd Edition

It's interesting to note that, to date, it's been viewed by 1,776,869 people. And rated by 10,678.

Must See Documentary

2006-09-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

9/11 Press for Truth.

I've been hesitant to post the above video link here. I'm sure the filmmakers would prefer that you support them by paying for the dvd. But it must be seen.

Consider ordering a copy, then share it with your friends and family. Have a community showing. Check out the official showings of the film. If nothing else, head over here and make a donation.

Check this Out.

2006-09-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

The Coincidence Theorist's Guide to 9/11.
Lots of questions. And links.

An End to Our Illusion

2006-09-12T08:21:00.000-07:00

Published by Common Dreams on September 11, 2006

There are moments in history when the fabric of everyday life unravels, and there is this unstable dynamism that allows for incredible social change in short periods of time. People and the world they're living in can be utterly transformed, either for the good or the bad, or some mixture of the two.--Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Tony Kushner

There are several images burned into my memory from that day.

My husband's heavy work boots.

My father-in-law in his underwear.

The steel blue of the sky.

The oddness of that plane flying into the building.

People jumping.

Towers falling.

It had started off as such a beautiful morning. Not quite the end of Summer. On the cusp of Fall.

Cusp: a point of transition, as from one historical period to the next. A turning point.

Cusp. Amazing how one word can say so much.

Our family was just the other side of a cusp, having moved to Southern Oregon just the previous month. It had been a complete leap of faith. After selling our home in Washington State three years prior, with the intent to move to Ashland, we'd ended up chickening out and floundering about. However, we eventually realized that even though it made very little sense financially, we really wanted to live in Ashland. Even if it meant living in a hovel. One of my favorite quotes, this one from John Burroughs, became our mantra, "Leap and the net will appear."

So here we were in Ashland, post leap, on a beautiful morning in September. My in-laws, who'd been very concerned (an understatement) regarding our decision to move were in town for a visit.

The first thing I remember about this morning was my husband, clad in his heavy work gear and boots, blasting into our bedroom. I immediately knew something bad had happened. There was his demeanor of course, but there was also our "no shoes in the house" policy that he was breaking.

"There's been an attack on the World Trade Centers. I just heard it on the radio when I left for work," he gasped.

I jumped out of bed. The door across the hall was open and I saw my father-in-law, a big man, sitting bleary eyed on the edge of the bed. He'd heard. I'll never forget the image of him sitting there. I don't ordinarily see him naked to his shorts, not even swimming trunks. But there he was, bare chested, in grey cotton boxers trying to rub the sleep away from his eyes. It's funny the things you remember.

The only tv in the house was in that room, and even though it hadn't been hooked up to cable, I got busy trying to get some sort of reception. We were desperate for news, to know what was happening, for understanding.

"Why would they want to do this to us?" my father in law asked.

The immediate response that came to my mind was: Why wouldn't they? Considering the way we meddle in everyone else's affairs (and this was pre-9/11 meddling), considering the way we consume 40% of the world's resources yet represent only 5% of the population, considering the way we create--because of our rampant consumption--about 1/4 of the world's greenhouse gasses yet refuse to sign the Kyoto protocol, considering there are 2.8 billion people who live on less than $2 a day and struggle desperately to meet their basic needs for water and food and medicine and...Why wouldn't someone want to do this to us? In fact, it's downright amazing that they haven't done it before.

These were the thoughts running through my mind and leaking by little bits out of my mouth.

We decided to move the television to the living room. We found a cable there that ran outside and up the wall to the roof, ending there and unconnected to any service but somehow enabling us to get a bit of scratchy reception . It was hard to determine at first if what we were seeing was live or was a replay. We soon realized though that the footage of flight 175 flying into the south tower was a replay. And that the horrifying footage of people jumping was live. As was the south tower falling. And then the north. As was the bright blue sky suddenly turning grey and black with thick smoke and ash.

How can so much life and meaning and existence and concrete and steel and elevators and commodes and computers and copy machines and file cabinets and desks with pictures on them...just be pulverized and cremated so quickly? In less than 12 seconds? How can this happen? How is it that we can sit here in the comfort of our living rooms, on a beautiful September morning, witnessing it?

Yes, it proved to be a cusp moment. A turning point from one historical period to another. A turning point for each of us as individuals, for our nation, and because we create such a big footprint--for the world.

In one brief moment, so much--more than we can even begin to imagine or detail here--was lost.

My original intention here was to write about the 9/11 truth movement. I've been wondering what the truth was ever since that fateful morning. I have so many questions. Questions that started the moment--was it Ari Fleischer? Condoleezza Rice?--said to us on that ashen day, "We never imagined that anyone could/would use airplanes as missiles. That we could be attacked like this." I couldn't believe, even on that day when I didn't yet know of all the evidence supporting my gut reaction--that they hadn't imagined or planned on how to deal with just such an attack. It just felt odd. Not quite right. Like when you run into your child leaving the kitchen and they've got bits of chocolate on the side of their face and under their finger nails and they say, even before you ask, "I didn't eat anything." It just smelled funny.

And things continued to smell funnier and funnier. Not funny like ha ha. Funny like bad. That-smell-makes-me-ill kind of funny. Smells that really intensified in September 2002 when Neil Mackay, in his article for Scotland's Sunday Herald, directed us to look at the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), and the document they authored in September 2000: Rebuilding America's Defences: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century which is where we find the now famous line: Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event--like a new Pearl Harbor.

Five years after 9/11, the questions have only multiplied.

I'm just another regular person in a long line of regular people trying to understand. Just another regular person who spends time worrying about her kids, her marriage, what she's supposed to do in life, what happens in her name, what happens in her country, what happens in the world. Just another regular person spending a great deal of the time left over--after doing the laundry, swishing the toilet, trying to stretch a limited amount of income to cover groceries and the rent and classes for the kids and car insurance (not even considering being able to afford health insurance), sharing meals with friends and family, in search of the next great swimming hole...,--just another regular person trying to figure out what really happened on that fateful day in September. Asking questions regarding the day that was such a catalyst for so much.

Questions like these:

Why would our own government not be insistent on getting to the bottom of what really happened?

Why would they resist a formal investigation?

Why would they label anyone daring to question the "official version" as "aiding and abetting the enemy?"

What about those 19 hijackers anyway? Named so conveniently just three days after the attacks.

Why would it take a committee of grieved widows to demand an investigation?

Why does the "official version" not address or attempt to explain the collapse of WTC Building 7?

Why did NORAD not respond according to protocol?

What about the war games being carried out by the military the morning of 9/11?

Why did Bush continue reading about a pet goat if the nation was under attack?

Why was the evidence removed from the scene of this most heinous crime and immediately shipped overseas?

What about all the put options on American Airlines and United made prior to 9/11?

Why were Iraq and Saddam Hussein implicated when it was clear that they had no ties to 9/11?

Why did we ignore Saudi Arabia when they were the supposed home of most of the supposed attackers?

Why has Bin-Laden not been brought to justice?

What about the Bin-Laden/Bush family ties?

These are just a few of the questions. There are many more. And I had intended on detailing them here because part of me believes that in order to see where we are going we need to understand where we are and what brought us here. There are plenty of websites dedicated to trying to uncover the truth regarding 9/11. And they are worthy of a look. Questioning, is not, nor never should be, considered a fascist or terrorist trait. If something is the truth, it should be able to hold up to any kind of scrutiny. So we should, each and every one of us, question away.

But something within is begging me to put aside these questions for the time and give voice for a moment to the other part of me who believes that it's just as important, if not more so, to consider what kind of world I want to live in, what sort of world I want my children to inherit, to imagine it and work towards it. The events of 9/11, and those that have followed, force us to consider this.

9/11 was a crisis moment. Crisis, however awful and painful, creates change. Change creates opportunity. 9/11 was a moment we did not ask for. But it does offer us an incredible opportunity for change. Wouldn't the victims of that tragic day, suggest no less? Perhaps the question we most need to be asking is what kind of change do we want that to be? What kind of lasting and beautiful memorial can we create in honor of all those who have lost their lives, not only on 9/11, but in the wars born of that fateful day?

One of my favorite tunes at the moment is Michael Franti's I Know I'm Not Alone. This past week the San Francisco Chronicle ran a piece on Franti regarding his music and observations following a personal tour of Iraq and Palestine:

What surprised him most was the lukewarm reaction from the locals he got to the first song he played, "Bomb the World," an anti-war tune that includes the lyrics, "We can bomb the world to pieces / But we can't bomb it into peace."

"People told me afterward that they didn't want to hear songs protesting the war," Franti says. "They wanted to hear songs to make them laugh, dance and get on with their lives."

He went on to say regarding his new album Yell Fire!:

"I guess I took my cues from people on the street in Baghdad," he says. "I didn't want to make depressing music."

This reminded me of something I'd heard Julia Butterfly Hill say a few years ago. Julia had come to Ashland to give a presentation and said that perhaps the most effective way of bringing about needed change was to show people how rewarding and fun it can be. That perhaps it would be most effective, as Gandhi once said, to Be the Change.

Yes, there are questions. Questions that we deserve truthful answers to. But in the end it's what we the people, what humanity as a whole, imagines this world can be that will be the final truth of 9/11. It is the cusp we are on. It is our turning point. There is no question that we are being transformed, it's up to us though to decide if it's for the good. What will we choose?

Personally, I'm going to record a new image onto the tape of that morning. It is going to be a towering memorial. A memorial to our common humanity. To all that binds us. Not a physical building, but a flame that will continue to grow brighter and brighter as we come to more fully realize our true nature. As we come to fully realize that we are all connected. The caption on this image will be the words (if he doesn't mind) of Zen Buddhist Monk, Thich Nhat Hanh--We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.

Peddling Phony Links--Iraq & 9/11

2006-09-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

Another great animated cartoon by Mark Fiore
Phony

Aiding the Terrorists

2006-09-07T07:47:00.000-07:00

Bush's Tactics Aid the Terrorists
Matthew Stannard, San Francisco Chronicle 9/7/06

"When you have media organs viewing fear-mongering as a payday, senior politicians seeing fear-mongering as sound political strategy, and terrorists considering fear-mongering as a victory unto itself, where are citizens expected to find a voice of reason?"--Matthew T. Felling, Center for Media and Public Affairs

2006 State of the Union

2006-09-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

Bush's January 31, 2006 "The Enemies of Freedom" State of the Union Address, edited down to just the scare words. All clips are shown in the exact sequence they aired and only once each. How much longer is this tactic going to work for him?--www.belowgroundsurface.org

belowgroundsurface.org

Dave Lindorff on Impeaching the President

2006-09-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

Impeaching the President--An 8/25/06 NPR Here and Now interview with Dave Lindorff.

Dave Lindorff's top ten reasons to impeach President Bush (From his website: This Can't Be Happening:

10 Reasons to Impeach Bush...And One Reason Why the Cowardly Democratic Leadership Shouldn't Be Afraid to Do It

As prospects grow for a Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives, and perhaps even the Senate, this November, the idea of impeachment is gaining attention. Yet even as polls show increasing numbers of Americans supporting the idea of removing Bush from office before the end of his term, Democratic Party leaders keep backing away.

This is not simply bad politics. It is cowardly, wrong and dangerous.

Let's look at the facts.

President Bush has committed grave offenses against the Constitution and against the people of the United States. Among these offenses are:

1. Initiating a war of aggression against a nation that posed no immediate threat to the U.S.--a war that has needlessly killed 2500 Americans and maimed and damaged over 20,000 more, while killing between 50-100,000 innocent Iraqi men, women and children.

2. Lying and organizing a conspiracy to trick the American people and the U.S. Congress into approving an unnecessary and illegal war.

3. Approving and encouraging, in violation of U.S. and international law, the use of torture, kidnapping and rendering of prisoners of war captured in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the course of the so-called War on Terror.

4. Illegally stripping the right of citizenship and the protections of the constitution from American citizens, denying them the fundamental right to have their cases heard in a court, to hear the charges against them, to be judged in a public court by a jury of their peers, and to have access to a lawyer.

5. Authorizing the spying on American citizens and their communications by the National Security Agency and other U.S. police and intelligence agencies, in violation of the First and Fourth Amendments and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

6. Obstructing investigation into and covering up knowledge of the deliberate exposing of the identity of a U.S. CIA undercover operative, and possibly conspiring in that initial outing itself.

7. Obstructing the investigation into the 9-11 attacks and lying to investigators from the Congress and the bi-partisan 9-11 Commission--actions that come perilously close to treason.

8. Violating the due process and other constitutional rights of thousands of citizens and legal residents by rounding them up and disappearing or deporting them without hearings.

9. Abuse of power, undermining of the constitution and violating the presidential oath of office by deliberately refusing to administer over 750 acts duly passed into law by the Congress--actions with if left unchallenged would make the Congress a vestigial body, and the president a dictator.

10. Criminal negligence in failing to provide American troops with adequate armor before sending them into a war of choice, criminal negligence in going to war against a weak, third-world nation without any planning for post war occupation and reconstruction, criminal negligence in failing to respond to a known and growing crisis in the storm-blasted city of New Orleans, and criminal negligence in failing to act, and in fact in actively obstructing efforts by other countries and American state governments, to deal with the looming crisis of global warming.

Each one of these offenses (and it is not meant to be a complete list) would be sufficient on its own to require the president’s removal from office, and in some cases, where an actual statutory crime can be charged, his subsequent indictment and trial. Together they cry out for impeachment and removal.

What Happened to Our Sons?

2006-09-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

"What happened to our sons?" A question soulfully and poignantly posed by Michael Franti in his song I know I'm Not Alone , and in his movie by the same name.

It's a song I keep returning to again and again the past few weeks.

Funny, as I'm typing this another song of Franti's is playing on my local NPR station.
See You in the Light from his new album (which also includes I know I'm Not Alone)--Yell! Fire.

Fear Factor

2006-09-05T09:23:00.002-07:00

Interesting read over at The New Republic this morning.
Fear Factor
by John B. Judis

What is clear is that, once the arrests were made, the Bush administration used the threat to stoke public fears about "Islamic fascism" while portraying itself and the Republican Party as the only ones capable of quieting these fears.

Leaving us with the concern that--

...by hyping the danger--as he had previously done with the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction--Bush administration officials create the possibility that the public, when it sees through the administration's attempt to manufacture hysteria, will turn cynical and not take seriously the need to remain vigilant in the face of a genuine threat from abroad.

To Fear or Not to Fear?

2006-09-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

In regards to my previous post regarding blogger problems and the article I'd been agonizing over, I'm happy to report that Common Dreams published my revised version of it today:

To Fear or Not to Fear?

I'll admit it. I'm afraid.

Afraid for my children. Afraid for my country. Afraid for the world...

My fear makes me wonder which part of the "long war" we'll be in when my son turns 18 two short years from now. It makes me wonder what kind of world he and my daughter might inherit. It makes me wonder about ALL the lives, whether barely an adult or mature in years, being risked for an illegal and immoral war of aggression (with another one looming on the horizon). It makes me wonder why we put up with the shredding of our constitution. With the demise of freedom and liberty and truth at home. It makes me wonder about all the innocent men, women, and children dying this very moment because of our current brand of "advancing freedom." It makes me wonder about all the nasty--present and future--repercussions of BushCo's "freedom agenda."

These are just some of the questions my fear makes me ask. It feels like a healthy fear though. The kind that begs difficult but important assessments and further questioning.

Like questions about another kind of fear...the kind used as a means of control. "In their remarks to the American Legion convention this week in Salt Lake City, President Bush and his Cabinet members have made it clear that their efforts to boost the administration's poll numbers and, more important, to maintain Republican control of Congress this November will be based on a campaign of fear." --Salt Lake Tribune, 8/31/06

In order to maintain their slippery grasp on power, this administration continues to use the only tool it's ever had in its cabinet. Fear. And this is the kind of fear we need to address if we are to heed Edward R. Murrow's passionate dictum--channeled again this week by Keith Olbermann--We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason.

Are we being driven by the wrong kind of fear? Does the following description fit?

The motives offered for such a deliberate programme of scaremongering vary, but hinge on the potential for increased social control that a mistrustful and mutually fearing population might offer to those in power. In these accounts, fears are carefully and repeatedly created and fed by the mass media and other sources-through the manipulation of words, facts, news, sources or data, in order to induce certain personal behaviors, justify governmental actions or policies (at home or abroad). --Wikipedia on culture of fear/constructed fear

Are we allowing ourselves to be manipulated and controlled, and into sacrificing precious liberties and freedoms and lives along the way, by fear? By carefully and repeatedly created fear perhaps?

This is not the first time history has dealt with the idea of "constructed fear" or of fear in general being used as a means of controlling the masses. The following example--an interview with Nazi leader Hermann Goering by Gustave Gilbert and documented in his 1947 book Nuremberg Diary--though perhaps familiar, is particularly compelling:

We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.

"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war..? Naturally, the common people don't want war, neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."

"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good," Goering replied, "but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

Goering says it doesn't matter what we the people think or say, because we are easily brought to the bidding of the leaders through fear. Using fear is the secret to their power.

What if we, the common people, were to fully comprehend this? And act upon that comprehension? What would happen if we were to cut this power supply? By refusing to be manipulated any longer by fear?

Of course we want to have freedom and democracy and security for ourselves and others. Of course we don't want madmen or madwomen running around wreaking havoc all over the world, creating terror because of their own narrow and radical world-views, ideologies, and agendas. (Hmm...)

But if we are not to be considered by history as having been fully suckered by fear into an age of unreason--we must ask ourselves if more and more war is reasonable. If sacrificing more and more lives and money and resources and freedom--for a "freedom" that really isn't, for a "security" that really isn't, for a "democracy" that really isn't--is reasonable. We must ask if it's reasonable to drop more and more bombs, with our names written on them--literally, on thousands and thousands of innocent men, women, and children in foreign lands. If it is reasonable for there to be more and more gain for those few who believe in, profit from, and promulgate war as the only way--a war, by the way, that is fomenting terrorism rather than neutralizing it.

Do we really want this? Or this?

Do we the common people really believe that this is the reasonable way to establish security for ourselves and to advance freedom and democracy and peace for all? Is this the best we can imagine?

And if not, what can we the common people--aside from personally and collectively choosing not to be ruled and controlled by fear, do about it? If we recognize that we have a different kind of fear in common--a justified fear regarding our family, country, and world--what can we do?

For starters: We can demand an end to our illegal occupation of Iraq, and not stop until we achieve it. We can demand true and verifiable election reform. We can demand impeachment. Yes, impeachment. We can demand war crimes trials. We can demand serious media reform. We can demand political reform--including issues regarding campaign finance, getting lobbyists out of our government, and term limits. We can envision a world we the common people want to live in, and we can achieve it.

Yes, the list might seem daunting, especially when we realize it's just a beginning. But if we desire it, and have the will, we can achieve many things together.

After all--unless we allow ourselves to be herded by fear into an age of unreason--it is NOT the leaders of this great country who determine the policy.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.

--Franklin D. Roosevelt

Blogger Difficulties

2006-09-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

(Blog update 9/6/06: Due to continued pinging difficulties, the post mentioned herein--Cutting the Power Supply--has been deleted.)

Having a great deal of difficulty with blogger and html on a previous post: Cutting the Power Supply. I pinged ORBLOGS with a blog update a couple days ago, and it didn't work. They looked at the source and discovered a big html problem with the earlier article. Said it was probably due to Blogger's WYSIWYG editor. I tried to edit the html. Some things improved, others got worse. Especially following the Goering quote where my writing continues on but in a quote format that I can't get it out of.

I've spent so much time on this article, writing it, submitting it for publishing, not getting it published, rewriting it, resubmitting it, not getting it published. Putting it on my own blog. Having my own blog not like it. Worked all day today, rewriting it again (it's a passionate topic if you haven't guessed) and resubmitting it. Too tired at the moment to do any more here regarding the sloppy looking former version than make note of the problems regarding it.

If someone else publishes the newest version, I'll post it here.