News and thoughts on the beginning of Seder

Happy Sabbath everyone.

I'm sorry I've been gone so long. This month has been much worse than the last, a whole four posts. I'm ashamed.

Me and Sam visited The Canby House, an Intentional Community just south east of Portland. It was pretty neat-o. If you would like to hear about the experience, please comment!

If I have any readers who frequently visit but don't comment, please do feel free to voice your thoughts!

So much has happened since I last wrote:
The Healthcare Bill has been passed and signed

There's been increasing revelation and discovery of the Pope and the Vatican's involvement in covering up and hiding rampant widespread child abuse (and I mean depressingly rampant to the point where jokes made by disillusioned folks about priests and boys are increasingly blunt reflections of reality In this NY times article, the Pope's failure to defrock a priest resulted in 200 boys being molested

Bombs were blown in the Moscow underground metro

Bombs were also blown in Athens, and Greece seems to have secured a financial security through the Europe Union (temporarily at least) --video

Censorship of the Internet has been called for by the former head of NSA and measures similar to China are being discussed/implemented in Australia and The EU

In Pennsylvania, a 12 year old boy will be tried as an adult for the murder of his father's fiancé and her unborn child. The prosecution will be able to push for life imprisonment. The boy's actions were committed when he was 11.

In Michigan, members of a Christian Militia were arrested on charges of conspiring to attack the local police. They have been charged with sedition. Their website is chilling.

Lastly, Wikileaks has been dogged and hounded by our intelligence agencies

There's so much for me to talk about I don't know where to begin. As a person who has serious issues with our country's justice system and laws, I see huge problems in trying to get life imprisonment for a child. Regardless of his actions. Learning about the arrests of the Christian militia members makes me depressed. The scripture has been and continues to be twisted into a call to violence, I just, can't understand it. The corruption and molestation through the Catholic Church is disheartening and alarming. How could such a cover-up happen? Why would one cover them up? Why would no actions be taken? I would highly recommend one read this article, by Sinead O'Connor (an irish, catholic singer) on the situation

To Irish Catholics, Benedict's implication -- Irish sexual abuse is an Irish problem -- is both arrogant and blasphemous. The Vatican is acting as though it doesn't believe in a God who watches. The very people who say they are the keepers of the Holy Spirit are stamping all over everything the Holy Spirit truly is. Benedict criminally misrepresents the God we adore. We all know in our bones that the Holy Spirit is truth. That's how we can tell that Christ is not with these people who so frequently invoke Him.

The passage of the Health Care bill troubles me. Yes, I am gladdened and overjoyed that many more individuals will be able to have healthcare. I imagine many people will have less physical and psychological suffering and the bill undoubtedly will save lives. This is most important. However it's shortcomings are still daunting and the fact that such a compromising bill (many, many individuals on all political spectrums have pointed out that it is a corporate handout—a win for American corporatocracy) was passed with immense difficulty does not give me hope for the future when these shortcomings will be needed to be addressed.

Internet censorship and Wikileaks are really the same topic. Australia has taken steps similar to China in regulating the content the Internet and the EU is taking similar steps. The methods are performed in the name of eradicating online child pornography, but a closer look reveals a power hungry powers capable of much more. In Australia for example some sites to be banned have turned out to be political dissenters and political opposition to those in power. In America, the call for regulation was just voiced by the ex-head of NSA who sees danger in entities such as Wikileaks.

What is Wikileaks you might ask? :their website:

From wikipedia:

wikileaks is a website that publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive governmental, corporate,organizational, or religious documents, while attempting to preserve the anonymity and untraceability of its contributors. Within one year of its December 2006 launch, its database had grown to more than 1.2 million documents.

In three years Wikileaks is said to have leaked more pertinent, newsworthy documents than any major media company has in the last 30 years. They have produce such valuable leaks as the Guantanamo Bay procedures and treatment of detainees. The army and the pentagon view Wikileaks as a threat (as reported by the NY times) and most recently, after leaking some documents related to diplomatic relations between Iceland and the U.S., people who work for Wikileaks were harassed and interrogated. If I were to say that Wikileaks is perhaps one of the greatest examples of transparency that my generation yearns, and which the internet makes possible. A couple days ago they published a leaked CIA memo addressed to Western Europe. You can download the pdf here, it makes an interesting read. In it, the CIA describe domestic conditions which allow for continuing military support for the war in afghanistan:

Public Apathy Enables Leaders To Ignore Voters. . .

The Afghanistan mission’s low public salience has allowed French and German leaders to disregard popular opposition and steadily increase their troop contributions to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Berlin and Paris currently maintain the third and fourth highest ISAF troop levels, despite the opposition of 80 percent of German and French respondents to increased ISAF deployments, according to INR polling in fall 2009.

It goes on to advise European governments to emphasize the suffering of women under the Taliban in order to garner support for NATO presence in Afghanistan. The words are true enough. Public apathy allows governments to do whatever they want, and despite general unrest the public generally will swallow what it is fed, wholesale without question. If our government's involvement in spreading propaganda and blatant manipulation of other countries' foreign and public policy doesn't irk you, then perhaps this will. One of the most recent acquisitions of Wikileaks will be fully published on April 5th. It is said to include a video of the US military shooting and killing journalists and civilians.

SO!

What does this all mean? What does one do? I usually will throw my hands up in exasperation. I am unable to stop the CIA from arrogant interfering in other countries, or unjust laws and courts that would put a child in prison for life. I am unable to change the hearts of Christian Militia members or the Vatican and I am unable to pay for the healthcare of the remaining 22 million Americans who will still be uninsured under the new healthcare bill.

About what I can only, seriously change is myself. Here are some thoughts of mine...very arbitrarily and abstractedly:

Become real friends with those in the community:

With neighbors, with those who are involved in public service–be it the postman or the garbageman. Do not shy away from purposefully befriending those who are in power—be they policemen or public officials (this will be a challenge for me). Become friends with those involved in local news reporting, bet they the newspaper or bloggers. Become friends with those who are involved in local relief such as food banks and shelters. Hang out where younger kids are, hang out where older folks are. Become friends with the homeless, the poor and the drug addicts. Don't forget to be involved in a church as well. Full and total, real integration into the community. One of the biggest causes for injustice in my opinion is the denial of a person's importance and humanity and this only happens when people do not KNOW each other. By submersing oneself into the lives of merely knowing and acknowledging the existence of those who surround us, we start to create and make connections where there should be. One of the greatest and worse part of the American myth is the unabashed spirit of individuality. On one hand this is a great strength, enabling us to push ourselves to accomplish great feats, on the other hand is has left us, Americans, feeling disconnected from one another.

My second and last idea for tonight, is the importance of knowing how and where to allocate one's own resources. While browsing the website Jesus Manifesto (highly recommend it if you are interested in Jesus, and creative Justice) I came across this comment by a person named "destroyideas":

We need to change our priorities. Consider looking at purchases through how much labor you expend to buy this. A $20 widget seems cheap until you consider it's about 2-hours of your life to pay for that. And then consider what the maker of said item spent to create the item. A necktie might take 2-hours to make by hand, or half an hour by machine. How much is the laborer's time worth to you? Keeping in mind they have to use their time buy other things they need/want.

This kind of wisdom is incredible valuable. It introduces a radically refreshing perspective to the traditional "keeping up with the jones'" idea. I would add that we must look at the purpose of our purchases, and the amount of resources that went into making them.

On that note, I will end. I have so much more to say, we've been talking about interesting things in my Dissent class regarding racism and women's rights and I will have to come back to them later.

For now may you be blessed with peace,

and grace