Summer Post

I'd like to apologize to my readers for some time has indeed passed by.

Every Friday for the past three weeks I've been gardening down the street at the Charles Street Garden. People in the sunnyvale community can grow food there in plots, but I've been volunteering at the Food Forest part...which involves growing planting/nurturing/weeding/watering plants in permaculture (permacultural?) plots. It's pretty cool too because the food grown there is donated to local charities that feed folks.

I've been reading books as well...two books that especially struck me was The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed , both by Ursula Le Guin. I liked the second so much I bought it (for a whopping $0.10 from Amazon, hoorah!)

The plot of the second book is brilliantly creative and well written. It involves a genius physicist named Shevek and two worlds that revolve around each other (both being the other's moon). One world, Annerres is an anarchist world while the other Urras is split up into nations and having authoritarian and capitalists systems. Anyways...I highly recommend it if you like science fiction at all and would like some good thinking fiction that goes by pretty fast.

As for right now, I'm currently in the middle of Ammon Hennacy's The Book of Ammon. It's a good read, but because it's like his diary (and was published when he was in his 60-70's) it's pretty long.

Two things that I wanted to share (I know I'm not following the structure I had outlined for myself in earlier posts). I just learned today that Erik Prince is a staunch Roman Catholic who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Focus on the Family, Calvin College and Christian Freedom International: who are described as "an American human rights organization based in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, whose stated mission is to "help those who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ."

Erik Prince is the founder of Blackwater, now known as Xe. It is one of the biggest private security firms...which is fancy language for "private army". They essentially are in the mercenary business and have enormously benefitted from contracts with the federal government and other nations. The company has been heavily involved all around the world and is especially notorious for it's corruption/murder/raping of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan (which led to them changing their name).

I also just wanted to quickly share the story of a man named Adam Montoya. The 36 year old male was imprisoned for counterfeiting. He recently lost his life due to (wait for it) hepatitis, HIV and cancer. The only medication he was allowed was some "over the counter pain reliever" despite his many recorded pleas for medical assistance and pain relief. Story link

---Moving onto some more positive things--

There was a quote from The Dispossessed that went along the lines of:

"Excess is excrement, ... Excrement retained in the body is a poison."

...and such words coincides with this awesome video and story of a woman in Portland who lives in an 84 square foot house (size of a parking spot) in the backyard of one of her friends. Watch the video. You'll smile and be inspired. She did it to save money and have more time. It really makes you wonder about getting rid of "stuff".

Finally, to end this post I would like to share a lovely story of a german missionary priest named Sebastian Obermaier. The guy helped build churches, build health centers (acted as a doctor when he first arrived in the area), built a hospice, a shelter for rape and sexual abuse victims, low-cost senior housing, HIV treatment centers and schools (approximately 30 schools and 30 churches). Pretty humbling to read.

In grace and peace.

A little overdue—by like 4 weeks

I feel like making a regular structure to my posts where I still start out with presenting current event news pieces, both good and bad, followed by short snapshots of noble persons and then progress to subjects that may or may not be related, but I otherwise feel the need to express and communicate. I've become compelled to do this because I otherwise tend to get very distracted and go all over the place.

Current News

Associated Press just reported that according to recent congressional estimate, nearly 4 million US citizens will have to pay a penalty of $1,000 for not buying health care coverage. The reason for them not buying the coverage is because they will not be able to afford it. Unfortunately this will mean paying 1k to old Uncle Sam.

On April 17th, there was a Neo Nazi rally in Los Angeles. About 40-50 members of the National Socialist Movement (a self-acknowledged white supremacist neo nazi group) marched in Los Angeles. Violence erupted when the overwhelmingly larger group of anti-nazi protestors began throwing branches, rocks etc. at the Nazis. Police made a number of arrests of the protestors.

On the subject racism, just two days ago, a man shot up a bookstore while yelling "White Power!".

It's troubling to acknowledge that racism is still alive and well in America. It's troubling too that people use physical differences as a mean to differentiate between cultures...which in the grand schemes of things, are incredibly small in comparison to what we hold in common.

Also, a recent development though a little differently than American racism (although its a subject which still has racial and cultural undertones)...is the amendment Israeli Military order #1650, which "could soon stipulate that residents of the West Bank without I.D. cards may either be expelled from their homes or jailed for up to seven years." This would also affect foreign born residents in the West Bank who are involved in peace movements. This means that the Israeli military will essentially be empowered to immediately deport any non-violent foreign resistors who might be protesting the demolition of houses or ill treatment of Palestinian civilians.

Note: It is important to know that 60% of the populations currently residing in Palestine are aged 19 and younger. Whatever your beliefs regarding the justification of the treatment of the Palestinians because of their insistance to use rockets/violence to further their goals...the brutal, savage and inhumane treatment of children and non-violent resisters is never justified.

Noble people

Albert Schweitzer

I first saw a bust of Albert's face outside of Chapman University library. I had forgotten about him until more recently when I was interviewing Peter Bergel of Oregon PeaceWorks and he remarked that he had grown up in Orange, CA and his parents had been ardid followers of Albert (and had founded an organization in his name in Orange). Small world. Anyways, Albert is a crazy man. He was a great organist and had the potential and possibility of becoming one of the best organists in his time—however his dive into theology led him down the road towards a position of philosophical-scientist (theologian and doctor). He eventually ended up in Gabon where he established a hospital and worked with his wife and others to treat Gabonese. He also wrote the The Reverence for Life for which he got the Nobel Peace Prize in the 50's. Here is a quote from there

"Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which man ceases to live thoughtlessly and begins to devote himself to his life with reverence in order to give it true value. To affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward, and to exalt the will to live.

At the same time the man who has become a thinking being feels a compulsion to give to every will to live the same reverence for life that he gives to his own.[....] This is the absolute, fundamental principle of ethics, and is a fundamental postulate of thought.”

— Albert Schweitzer

A moving philosophy. He also created some music that is a mixture of J.S. Bach and Gabonese music. I actually got a CD of Lambarena music from Jeani. It was a pretty funny coincidence to have both Peter and Jeani talk to me about Albert within the span of a week. Very funny and a little strange.

Connie Blackwell

A pretty awesome story. A 20 year veteran nurse (a grandmother too!) couldn't tolerate seeing people go without care and so decided to open up a clinic with some other nurses. They've helped premature babies, kids who have gone deaf from hearing loss and kids who need physicals for sports.

Subject of Today: —will be dealt with in coming posts.