Why we have never, probably will never, eliminate White (or any) Privilege: nearly all of those who have privilege, nearly all of we who have privilege, want peace and Justice in the world, want the best for our underprivileged sisters and brothers. We are simply unwilling to personally pay the price for that. If I have a loaf of bread because I stole the resources for it from my neighbor I have incited violence in the world in two ways by having that loaf of bread. 1. I have stolen what is his. 2. I have what he needs for himself and his family in truth or at least psychologically. Had it been done to me I would be incited to rage and violence, and so would you be. Even if in no way did I physically steal the resources from my neighbor that still leaves the incitement that my hoarding what he needs for himself and his family for a decent life rightly incites, rage and violence. White Privilege, all privilege, is, equals, superior material power. Superior economic power. Those in power, we in power, all of us that have resources that billions of people on Earth do not have, we are those of privilege. It is not the 1% in America, or the .1%, as we try and convince ourselves. It is at least the top 20-50% or more of us in America that are grotesquely over privileged. It is we that are making certain that the Earth becomes more and more violent. All of us that have the resources that billions on Earth are craving are the rich young man that Jesus spoke of. And we turn from his example and lie to ourselves for 2000 years now that he did not mean that we, each and every one of us, were to give all that we had, all that we have, to the poor, so that we all were materially equal, exactly as we would expect every group of well brought-up toddlers to be. But we refused to heed Jesus Direction, to be like a toddler. Are you okay with that? Is your privilege worth the price to you of a world in Unstoppable violence and death spiral? Not me. Used to be, no more. Injustice, no peace. More than a chance, a rule of nature. Injustice, no peace. Injustice, no peace. Injustice, no peace.
7.17.2016
***** Why we have never, probably will never, eliminate White (or any) Privilege: nearly all of those who have privilege, nearly all of we who have privilege, want peace and Justice in the world, want the best for our underprivileged sisters and brothers. We are simply unwilling to personally pay the price for that. If I have.......
When I was a child Hornets built a nest in the slide in our backyard. They never bothered me until I went poking them, assaulting them, with........
When I was a child Hornets built a nest in the slide in our backyard. They never bothered me until I went poking them, assaulting them, with a broom one day. They stung the hell out of me. I have never faulted the Hornets for that. I thought they were invading my property. The reverse was true. Our house adjoined a many Hundred Acre Nature Preserve. I was the invader. I was the colonizer. I built my life on the privilege that I took from them.
### To those of us confronted by our sisters and brothers in uniform: We have a 100x greater Duty incite, to encourage, to applaud any decent, to express appreciation for any humane, dignified behavior on their part, then we do to antiviolently place our selves in the way of any bad behavior. Morally, there........
### To those of us confronted by our sisters and brothers in uniform: We have a 100x greater Duty incite, to encourage, to applaud any decent, to express appreciation for any humane, dignified behavior on their part, then we do to antiviolently place our selves in the way of any bad behavior. Morally, there is nothing they can do that stops them being our beloved sister or brother actively in our soul, unless and until we become the violence, ignorance and hatred that we purport to stand against. Strategically, anti violent struggle throughout history, as rigorously studied by Erica Chenoweth, does not succeed until the people in uniform come on to the side of the revolutionaries. For the sake of all creation now, think. Is our priority on throwing a righteous tantrum, or on maybe securing a slightly better future for everything?
7.16.2016
??? I don't know if everybody feels this way, or if I'm the only one. My suspicion is the latter. In any case, Jesus, and people like him, Gandhi, King... Those are the people I wanted to be like when I grew up. They're still......
??? I don't know if everybody feels this way, or if I'm the only one. My suspicion is the latter. In any case, Jesus, and people like him, Gandhi, King... Those are the people I wanted to be like when I grew up. They're still the people I want to be like. It has nothing to do with whether anyone would know. I don't care if anyone knows that I like fresh blueberries, I just like them. People like Jesus, King, Gandhi, my biological father, those are the kind of people I always wanted to become. That remains the case. There's no other kind of person I want to be. I don't know why. But that's how it's always been for me. It seems that that's profoundly odd.
It seems to me the Millennials have had it. It seems to me they realize that voting for b*******, can't eliminate a future of more b*******.
It seems to me the Millennials have had it. It seems to me they realize that voting for b*******, can't eliminate a future of more b*******.
Somebody please clue me in. I mean, why the hell would non Highly Educated whites (substantially employable at decent wages) not, I repeat, not, want Trump? He's a straight-out fascist. He's a white supremacist. He.....
Somebody please clue me in. I mean, why the hell would non Highly Educated whites (substantially employable at decent wages) not, I repeat, not, want Trump? He's a straight-out fascist. He's a white supremacist. He addresses them like they are the most important, whereas the Liberals have made it clear they are the least important for decades now, they think he will change the game to give them power. He will. What's not to understand?
***** None of the world’s top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they use
7.15.2016
Sunday’s police riot in Baton Rouge: Anti-brutality protests met with brutality
### "As recently as two years ago, Wiesel called Israel’s attacks on Gaza, which killed hundreds of children, entirely the fault of Hamas, who were practising “child sacrifice” and “barbarism.” His inevitably lofty moral justifications for these actions rang ... dubiously... It’s interesting that pro-Israel (or at least not anti-Israel) critics of Israel, such as American Jews Peter Beinart or Max Blumenthal, didn’t hesitate to critique........
### "As recently as two years ago, Wiesel called Israel’s attacks on Gaza, which killed hundreds of children, entirely the fault of Hamas, who were practising “child sacrifice” and “barbarism.” His inevitably lofty moral justifications for these actions rang ... dubiously... It’s interesting that pro-Israel (or at least not anti-Israel) critics of Israel, such as American Jews Peter Beinart or Max Blumenthal, didn’t hesitate to critique Wiesel even moments after his death. They objected to his refusal to raise questions about anything done by Israel’s governments (“I must identify with whatever Israel does — even with her errors”) and about his full-throated support for U.S. wars endorsed by Israel against Iraq or Libya, and his opposition to a U.S. peace with Iran." https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/07/15/elie-wiesel-was-the-beacon-who-lost-his-way-salutin.html
### In case you would like to understand how I am investing my life these days. This rough submission at this link, rather lengthy, has been turned into a two-part article in an........
### In case you would like to understand how I am investing my life these days. This rough submission at this link, rather lengthy, has been turned into a two-part article in an extremely admirable local publication called Streetsense which is a vehicle for raising issues of the poor and homeless in the DC region and providing ethical source of income for the homeless who sell the papers after buying them at a hefty discount.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jxl9xoHVT-o4d0qkONPJ1cIh3vefxD1fNyHMugw6HOE/edit?usp=drive_web
7.14.2016
Israeli army blows up three Palestinian wells in occupied Hebron
7.13.2016
### My current sense is I will work for and vote for Jill Stein. I have thought it a virtue to compromise for the greater good, my entire life. I have to face that this is similar to compromising with a less virulent form of cancer. I need to stand with health. I need to stand with goodness and virtue. Don't you too?
### my current sense is I will work for and vote for Jill Stein. I have thought it a virtue to compromise for the greater good, my entire life. I have to face that this is similar to compromising with a less virulent form of cancer. I need to stand with health. I need to stand with goodness and virtue. Don't you too?
7.11.2016
Revolutions do not succeed until the men and women in uniform join the revolutionaries. We deserve the suicide we are headed toward if we ignore that.
Revolutions do not succeed until the men and women in uniform join the revolutionaries. We deserve the suicide we are headed toward if we ignore that.
### Part of an article I submitted to a local paper: 2008 was just a mere symptom, the tip of the iceberg, to a much more immense problem that began in the eighties if not before. For 30 plus years now America, by every objective measure, has become a country that supports the dreams and needs of a smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller elite group. Our region, our City, our country is no longer for all of us, just for the few, and fewer every month. We.......
### Part of an article I submitted to a local paper: 2008 was just a mere symptom, the tip of the iceberg, to a much more immense problem that began in the eighties if not before. For 30 plus years now America, by every objective measure, has become a country that supports the dreams and needs of a smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller elite group.
Our region, our City, our country is no longer for all of us, just for the few, and fewer every month. We in the DC region have little if any time left to decide if we are going to let that stand or if we are going to immediately, aggressively, make our region with liberty and justice for all of our sisters and brothers, not just the fewer and fewer. All.
Baton Rouge, Minneapolis, and Dallas brought a terrifying Clarity to me Sunday, and to many many leading thinkers as well I see from their articles on Monday, that we have all but become a country that by policy, politics, economy and policing is a country of, by, and for the 20%, and functioning to pacify, control, defend against and contain the 80% of us. “Miniature police States,” Chris Hedges said many of our cities have become. When we allow ever dwindling living wage jobs, dwindling affordable housing, and dwindling environmental decency what else could they be or become?
I think this is by design of the wealthiest Among Us who lack the compassion to care for the majority, just for themselves and the few around them. But more than that I think it is due to the triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism Dr. King warned us 50 years ago were already destroying us. He said our “thing oriented Society” would not last. We have not repented, we have accelerated.
Whatever the cause, neither America nor our region are for many of us anymore but for an ever and ever smaller elite few.
Washington DC is the heart of our country. If we stand with courage and compassion and face this now, we might still be in time for the rest of the country to follow our lead.
Will we in Washington DC and the region any longer accept an America that is no longer of, by, and for all of the people? Will we individually and collectively find and live the Revolutionary courage to make it what it should be and to turn from, the ultimate disaster we are otherwise headed to?
***** Chris Hedges, the politics of Terror. ### I'm realizing this morning that things are probably decades more advanced than I had realized. For the poor and folks of color the cities are already mini police States. I just hadn't seen it that clearly. Chris Hedges today. The mega wealthy have been building their Elysiums for a long time.
Greenspan admits Iraq was about oil, as deaths put at 1.2m
7.10.2016
Video, black woman shot in Dallas, shielded by police. ### IF ANYONE DARE EVER DISCRIMINATE AGAINST OUR SISTERS AND BROTHERS IN UNIFORM INSTANTLY THEY WILL OUT THEMSELF AS A VIOLENT, BIGOT, HATER, AND I'LL INSTANTLY UNFRIEND.
### Our men and women in uniform have been put in an impossible situation because we f****** liberals haven't had the balls to do anything to stop the death spiral of this country for the last 40 years. They are our victims. We are the villains. We have much to repent for. Much to pay for. Soon it will be too late for us to start.
### Our men and women in uniform have been put in an impossible situation because we f****** liberals haven't had the balls to do anything to stop the death spiral of this country for the last 40 years. They are our victims. We are the villains. We have much to repent for. Much to pay for. Soon it will be too late for us to start.
7.09.2016
How the World Fell Out of Love with ObamaIn countries key to the president’s legacy, people express profound disappointment in a man from whom they expected great things.
Knocked out. My strength and stamina are so much better than they were several years ago. I couldn't believe that, as the doctors said, eventually my body would recover, but it seems to have done so. It still ...
### Knocked out. My strength and stamina are so much better than they were several years ago. I couldn't believe that, as the doctors said, eventually my body would recover, but it seems to have done so. It still has limits and it looks like three or four days in a row all day in near hundred degree effective heat pedaling a 200 pound bicycle plus me is one such limit. 15 plus hours sleeping so far today in a cool room. I can't complain but I sure detest losing the time from work.
Criminalizing the hustle: Policing poor people’s survival strategies from Eric Garner to Alton Sterling
http://www.salon.com/2016/07/08/criminalizing_the_hustle_policing_poor_peoples_survival_strategies_from_erin_garner_to_alton_sterling/
''The disappearance of jobs has sparked political anger, feeding opioid addiction, alcoholism and early death, and, among the commentariat, fomented bewildered discussion about the state of white working class people. But the disappearance of work hit black people first and hardest, decimating industries at the very moments when African-Americans, after centuries of marginalization, had only just got their foot in the door.
In the Baton Rouge area, says Spence, the minority male unemployment rate in 2014 was 2.7 times higher than for whites.....
The contemporary era of policing and mass incarceration emerged precisely to confront black people with limited or no access to formal work. As the sociologist Loïc Wacquant puts it, “in the wake of the race riots of the 1960s, the police, courts, and prison have been deployed to contain the urban dislocations wrought by economic deregulation and the implosion of the ghetto as ethnoracial container, and to impose the discipline of insecure employment at the bottom of the polarizing class structure.”''
7.08.2016
I'll vote to slow the Carnage, I'll vote for Hillary, I'll vote to keep Trump away from destroying the Supreme Court for Generations. As things stand now this is how I'll vote.
I'll vote to slow the Carnage, I'll vote for Hillary, I'll vote to keep Trump away from destroying the Supreme Court for Generations. As things stand now this is how I'll vote.
7.07.2016
Philando Castile Was a Role Model to Hundreds of Kids, Colleagues Say
7.06.2016
Zionists infiltrate, pervert, Egyptian government. Israel and Egypt enjoying 'Best Times Ever'
Jewish Settlers, Attacked, Needed Help. A Palestinian Doctor Didn’t Hesitate.
7.04.2016
The reality represented by July 4th is this: protecting slavery and antagonism toward Native Americans was inseparable from the lofty ideals promulgated by the founding fathers. Yes, the one percenters of 1776 sought “freedom” from a colonial master. But accurately understanding our history makes it clear that the “revolution” was not against colonialism per se. Rather it was to swap the masters at the top of the colonial pyramid from those who lived in England to those who lived in Virginia, Maryland, New York, South Carolina, Georgia and the rest of the 13 colonies. ........
What I fight for, I don't fight because I think I can win. I fight to win, but I don't fight because I think I can win. I fight because it needs to be fought. All throughout history that I admire have done the same.
What I fight for, I don't fight because I think I can win. I fight to win, but I don't fight because I think I can win. I fight because it needs to be fought. All throughout history that I admire have done the same.
7.03.2016
When I allow the pain of my own concerns to become the focus of my attention then my life is more painful than joyful. When I overcome that and redirect ......
When I allow the pain of my own concerns to become the focus of my attention then my life is more painful than joyful. When I overcome that and redirect my focus to the pain of others then my joy outweighs My Pain by far. They are always both there but the proportions, the joy hugely outweighs any concern I have for my pain. That's the magic of loving. ''I have learned the paradox that when I love until it hurts, there is no more hurt, there is only more love.'' Teresa of Calcutta
***** It was only about a year ago I came across a thought that had never occurred to me. People of color are the color of Earth, natural. People like me without color of the freaks, the color of death, bones.
It was only about a year ago I came across a thought that had never occurred to me. People of color are the color of Earth, natural. People like me without color of the freaks, the color of death, bones.