Strike to Cut War $200B Day #35/2: St. Thomas with God Now

Saint Diane Wilson continues her Hunger Strike to CUT WAR FUND PEACE FAST $200B , God bless her, in Texas as she cares for biological family in need; as she cares for her Human Family in need.

To me she is and has been probably the greatest activist alive today. We must be eternally grateful to her. Somehow she has found the mercy to work with me, despite how many decades "thick (behind)" her I've been regarding the environment. Her kindness and humanity knows no bounds. She is my greatest living inspiration. Her partnership in this campaign is an honor, privilege and gift I'll never understand, and it will ever be one of my greatest treasures; one of God's great kindnesses, and mysteries to me.

Our brother Saint Thomas (http://prop1.org/thomas.htm) was released from Service yesterday, a mercy by God, having paid an awesome price this last year or so in suffering. I can see him up arguing with God now, protesting something, and occasionally scooting down to do some mischief to interfere with Empire here on earth.

Once Connie finalizes the design, something along the following lines will permanently honor Thomas' service at the White House:
.

.
The photos are from covering Thomas' 28 year vigil at the White House yesterday so his beloved vigil Partner Connie could collect herself; photos thanks to a kind passer-by named Messay (http://flickr.com/photos/34532875@N06/ ).


This 2nd day of the Adjusted Campaign (NewsBlaze: Hunger Strike to Cut War $200B Adjusts Campaign Day #35) for me started out pretty rough. My kidneys (?) ached pretty bad all night trying to deal with significant calories for the first time in a long time; and there is some swelling in my legs; and of course fatigue. But I think there is little permanent damage going on.

God willing I'll be back on Hunger Strike / Occupation Monday through Thursday on the Hill to do my part to cut the Heart out of American IMPERIAL WARMAKING - THE $1 TRILLION WAR BUDGET - before Empire bleeds the little remaining life out of America and global Civilization.

Hunger Strike Day #35: NEWS - Too good to continue; Too bad to stop

CUT WAR FUND PEACE $200B FAST - Campaign significantly altered tonight. I returned tonight to refuge, lugging the 50 lbs of my stuff the 30 blocks to refuge where I expect to be until Congress returns early next week.

I expect to hold at Day #35: I'll accept food and shelter the 3-4 days Congress is off the Hill; and will Fast and Occupy the Hill 24 hr/day the 3-4 days Congress is ON the Hill. I expect. My energy level is extremely low and my mind is not clear, but I suspect that this is how I will proceed.

Why altering the campaign now?

EXTREMELY ENCOURAGING NEWS / CONDITIONS TOWARD THE GOAL OF THIS CAMPAIGN - CUT WAR FUND PEACE:

• The impact on the Congress folks that pass me on the Hill has been far more rapid than I would have expected. Yes, this is just my subjective view but with the News featuring $ Trillion bleeding as far as the eye can see, HIGHLIGHTING the need for FUNDS - the combination of MLK blaring - "A nation that spends more on military than social uplift is facing spiritual death;" the signage highlighting that fact (below), and my intoning it into their ears as they pass - I judge that the issue "framing" - cut MILITARY Entitlements $200B - is penetrating much faster than I'd anticipated. Hence, I see diminishing returns from continuing the 7 day per week Occupation / Hunger Strike. Overkill right now.
  
• Last two days emphasis on State Department signals a dramatic shift from War to PeaceMaking. Hillary Clinton: "Robust diplomacy and effective development are the best long term tools for securing America's future."
• Immediate calls to all relevant Israel/Gaza parties in the Mideast placed by Barack further signals shift from War to PeaceBuilding.
• Obama's Speech comment that extreme might does not permit ABUSE was targeted at Israel!!!! and the US.
  
• Immediate designation of George Mitchell, hero of No. Ireland PeaceMaking fame to solve Israel / Palestine FURTHER signals shift from WarMaking to PeaceBuilding.
• Barack declaration in Inaugural Address committing to clean water, food, education for the poor in poor countries. (central to Plan B 3.0).
  
• Ditto order to shut Guantanamo.
• Ditto order to end Torture.
• Substantial emphasis on Greening America / Slowing Global warming in the Stimulus Plan. Although details not yet sufficient.
• No mention of Nuclear power yet in Barack's plans.
• Al Gore addresses Senate next Wednesday on urgency of addressing Climate Change!!!
  
• And other good news I'm too depleted to recall.

BAD NEWS:

• No sign of a wartime speed campaign to halt Global Warming - Plan B 3.0
• WhiteHouse.gov says cap and trade for carbon. NOOOOO!!!!! TAX SHIFT from Income Tax to Carbon Tax is what is needed!!!!
  
• "Clean" coal figures prominently in Barack's energy plan. NO!!!! There is no such thing, and never will be. VERY BAD NEWS.
• Plan on the new WhiteHouse.gov site calls for 80% reduction in greenhouse gasses by 2050. 30 YEARS TOO LATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Far to frequent allusions to "Entitlements" (Soc Security and Medicare) as the place to cut; NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MILITARY ENTITLEMENTS are the place to cut!!!!!!!!!! WE MUST MAKE THIS PART OF THE DEBATE - IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  

Too good to continue the full Strike / Occupation. I need to get my head clear and digest current and upcoming developments to recalibrate my actions.

Too BAD to stop. Nothing has changed in the need for $200B DOD Budget shift to Plan B 3.0 at WARTIME SPEED, and this is FAR from certain at this moment.

By adjusting the campaign as outlined above I can do my part to keep pressure on Congress, to do my part to ENCOURAGE congress to do the right thing - but for much longer than the 15 days or so I'd otherwise have left. And by holding at Day 35, if I need to ESCALATE the pressure from there I can revert to the full Hunger Strike and Occupation!

(Sorry for all the typos but I'm pretty tired.)

Grandchildren Of Holocaust Survivors Do To Palestinians What Was Done By Nazi Germany.

4 minute video (click here)

1930 GERMANY ALL OVER AGAIN TODAY; ONLY WORSE.

Has a civilization ever saved itself? Not the Sumerians. Not the Jews of Jesus time. Not the Romans. Not the Greeks. Not the Mayans. Not the 1930 Germans, not the pre-Nazi Jews (a pretty freeking smart group, at that).... Apparently the Icelanders (their cows) were grazing themselves out of existence, and reversed course hundreds of years ago, and did save themselves; but that is about it.

If, as I do, you believe in Science, the science is clear - we have weeks or months to mount a wartime speed Marshall Plan to stave off Global Warming sufficiently to save the Greenland and West Antarctic Ice Sheets, which if they go will drown/displace 600 million people, setting in motion unstoppable dominoes of global civilization collapse.

The 1930 Germans were nice people. The had "activists." But they didn't stop Hitter - the bottom line. They didn't get the job done.

What will History write of 2009 Americans? What will history write of 2009 "activists?" What will your offspring say of you?

• We need to cut DOD back $200B, NOW. Who says? Lester Brown, Medea Benjamin, Howard Zinn, Barney Frank.
• We need to shift tax from Income to Carbon by $20/ton / year until 202o, and increase Gas Tax $.40 / yr until 2020. Who says? 1000's of the world's best scientists as summarized in Brown's "Plan B 3.0."

Obama's energy plan is profoundly disappointing in these regards. (see http://whitehouse.gov).

Will we escape the failure of 1930 Germans?

I HAVE A DREAM. AND I, START, HAVE NEVER HAD A DREAM.

It has been amazing to me that never in my life, never in my adult life have I had a dream. Now, I'm not talking about the nighttime type. Sure I have those. I mean the MLK type.

I feel like I've been in the grip of huge dreams my entire adult life, but I've never posessed them- THEY have POSSESSED ME.

Well, on Day #32 or so of the Hunger Strike, as I was lugging my 5o lbs of stuff the 50 or so blocks to the Capitol - bing, there it was - I HAVE A DREAM.

I HAVE A DREAM

I have a dream that -

• Congress will cut $200B from defense and re-allocate it to PeaceBuilding internationally;
• We will rise up to cut carbon emissions 80% by 2020 thereby saving the Glaciers and staving off the 39' sea level rise and displacement / drowning of 600 million people;
• We will replace our value of things, and replace it with a valuing of people;
• We will embrace the poor of the world and eliminate poverty by 2020;
• We will heal the earth planing many millions of new trees and fully protecting existing forests - rain and otherwise;
• We will stabilize world population at 8 billion or less through humane pre-emptive measures;
• We will restore the world's fisheries;
• We will aggressively de-charter or re-charter corporations so as to eliminate their murderious sociopathic destruction;
• And so on.
  

LETTER TO 3 OF OUR GREATEST SHEROES

My beloved sheroes,

I never have expectations of others, for decades now; only of myself. So feel no obligation here. But have I ever sent a more consequential correspondence than this that I send to you three? I don't think so. And I don't know how much longer I'll have the lucidity to correspond on such a grave matter to you three. I pray that you DO find the time to ponder this email deeply. DEEPLY. DEEPLY. Whether you choose to respond is secondary, very secondary.

Yes, I've been drinking water ever since the pot luck evening last wednesday. Why? Because a third sat down and deeply "heard" what I had to say. That, not "agreement," was my condition for ending the Water Strike, from the beginning, to be heard enough by at least three of my Sr. sisters - one had, another did, and then a third. But yes too, this Hunger Strike out in the elements is taking its toll on me pretty rapidly now.

You three have been for over a year now, and remain the only folks I know that could lead the beginning of the end of the cancer that is in final stage of ending Civilization (all of the science as summarized in Plan B 3.0). Do you believe in science? I do.

YOU THREE are the only hope I see for the the beginning of the MIRACLE IT WILL TAKE. Miracle? Has a civilization ever saved itself? Not the Sumerians. Not the Jews of Jesus time. Not the Romans. Not the Greeks. Not the Mayans. Not the pre-Nazi Germans, not the pre-Nazi Jews (a pretty freeking smart group, at that).... Apparently the Icelanders (their cows) were grazing themselves out of existence, and reversed course hundreds of years ago, and did save themselves; but that is about it.

MIRACLE is what it will take to save civilization, including the U.S. - your nieces, nephews, kids world; their kid's world - from the environmental "life support collapse" we are in the final stages of unleashing.... BUT PEOPLE MAKE MIRACLES HAPPEN, OR AT LEAST, THEY MAKE MIRACLES INFINITELY MORE LIKELY. BUT IT COSTS EVERYTHING. HARRIETT TUBMAN, MANDELA, KING, GANDHI, OSCAR ROMERO, JOAN OF ARC, ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, STEVE BIKO, RACHEL CORRIE.... Always has, always will. King, Gandhi, Jesus... didn't kill themselves for us so we wouldn't have to. They died to show us how we too had to live. We are dying from ignoring them.

HERE IS MY REAL POINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of you asked, 'Start, will you end your Strike with us tomorrow?" If your dearest were in a burning building, and objectively it would take a Miracle to save them, you are working on the miracle with all of your life, right? What could get you to stop? ONLY A BETTER PLAN, right?

Sisters, DO YOU BELIEVE WE CAN WIN, WHICH MEANS,
DO YOU THINK WE CAN WORK THE MIRACLE OF $200B OUT OF THE BUDGET THIS YEAR,
WHICH MEANS WINNING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL/CONSCIENCE/EMOTIONAL BATTLE ON THE HILL NOW, DURING THIS TIME OF JAN/FEB/STIMULUS BILL CRISIS?

"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste." Obama. Why does he get it, and we refuse to?

I, START, TOTALLY BELIEVE WE CAN WIN. I REFUSE TO APPROACH THE IMPENDING GLOBAL HOLOCAUST ANY OTHER WAY.

I am not interested in activity, an "action." What Army unit goes to battle just to fight - do to an activity? What successful business spends resource just cuz it seems like a good idea - activity? NONE THAT SURVIVE, OR THAT AMOUNT TO ANYTHING OF HOPE. THEY WORK WITH COURAGE TO CRAFT A VISION FOR SUCCESS, AND THEN THEY FIGHT FOR AND TO THAT VISION WITH THEIR VERY LIVES. I am not interested in straightening the deck chairs on the Titanic - Guantanimo, Gaza cease - fire, arrest Bush.... I WANT TO FIX THEM ALL!!!!

Getting the DOD budget is the beginning of the end. And without the DOD budget WE WILL NOT STOP GAZA, WILL NOT STOP GUANTANIMOS.... With a $1 TRILLION BUDGET DOD WILL CONTINUALLY CREATE $1 TRILLION HELL!!! Everything else is straightening the deck chairs on the Titanic. LET'S GO FOR THE WHOLE THING! WE NEED TO GO FOR THE WHEELHOUSE, NOW, BEFORE THE "ICEBERG" KILLS US.

Will I end the Hunger Strike? Can you show me a better plan for having a prayer of sparking the Miracle of getting $200B now?

I pray that the answer is "yes!!!!"

!!!!! BUT DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME, START. I'M DEAD IF YOU DO. MY ONLY HOPE IS FOR FOLKS TO REALLY, REALLY, REALLY FOCUS ON THEIR DEAREST LOVED ONES - NIECES, NEPHEWS, GRAND NIECES.... ONLY THEN MIGHT THEY FIND THE COURAGE TO FACE THE REAL QUESTIONS:
* CAN WE WIN? "Yes" is the INDISPUTABLE answer.
* HOW MUCH TIME DO WE HAVE? Glacial melting, alone, says - WEEKS, to start leading the wartime speed, global "Marshall Plan."
* WHAT WOULD IT TAKE FROM "ME," FROM "ME," FROM "ME," TO MAYBE, MAYBE, MAYBE, MAYBE SPARK THE MIRACLE?

The best current answer to these questions I, Start, have found so far is Hunger Strike to the Death, or to the Life - demanding Cut War Fund Peace $200B Fast with the posters and audio tracks from King and Lester Brown in Hill Occupation as my weapons to penetrate the latent Humanity and Sanity of my brothers and sisters in Congress, and within the hearts and mind of the few, the very few folks with enough humanity left to respond.

Every second that I take a breath I am open to, and searching myself for a better plan.

Got one? I'm all ears.

"ENTITLEMENTS:" HOW THE FINAL BATTLE IS SHAPING UP

However, will the opposition, we, show up? In time? Willing to do whatever it takes?

"A country that year after year
spends more money on military programs
than on programs of social uplift
is facing ... death"
Martin Luther King, Jr.

VERSUS

OUR OPINION: Kudos for pledge to reform entitlements Grand Forks Herald, ND - Jan 16, 2009

Don’t Forget About Entitlements Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun, NY

Obama Pledges Entitlement Reform CBS News, NY - Jan 16, 2009

Obama pledges to reshape Social Security and Medicare programs? Online Journal, FL

Entitlement Reform? A “Must Do” for Obama Heritage.org, DC

ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC....

Day #32: Too depleted to handle the crowds. Off the HIll until Wednesday A.M.

I've lost too much strength to be able to physically or mentally manage the enormous crowds that were in the Hill by mid day today.

Plus, they are all there just to celebrate MLK and Obama killing themselves for we-the-people, so WE don't have to do shit. Got some good impacts by late morning but then it was SRO and party atmosphere - everyone decked out in clothes that equal roughly one years income for 1/3 of our planetary brothers and sisters.

I expect to be back on the Hill with MLK and Lester Brown Wednesday, sleeping, resting and writing in the meantime.

We are all fools,. The question is: Are you a fool for Life, or are you a fool for Death?