Sharing

How joyful it is to share with one another. What great privilege it is to help and to heal our brothers and sisters in need.

1 Timothy 6:17-19

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Matthew 25:34-36

Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

In this day and age, sharing is always positive...to a point. You are expected to buy into the materialism and commodification of life. While sharing is looked kindly upon, we are expected to have a healthy dose of greediness—though it will be cloaked as necessities.

I recently watched a documentary with some friends called No Impact Man. The movie title was a little misleading as it's really about a family made up of two wealthy couples, with a young daughter, trying to live sustainably and ethically. Living in New York City they slowly and painfully transform into a family that uses a little electricity from a solar, no diapers, nothing plastic, no new possessions, no TV, no caffeine, candles, locally bought food, no cars etc. You get the idea. They begin to invest in a local community garden, they end up spending much (MUCH) more time with their young four year old daughter and they grow closer as a couple. It made an impression on me.

The movie spurned more thoughts throughout this week. I believe we need (and I'm not the first person to say this) that sharing means more than just allowing others to use our resources/possessions, but it also means sharing our time and it means sharing our attention, our love, our mindfulness and care. It also means, really, the cliché "sharing the planet". The more possessions we accumulate, even if it's to share at our own discretion, the less other people have for their own survival. I was listening to some anarchist tapes that were critiquing the waste of Capitalism—how markets dependent upon the wind and whims of demand of the rich and frivolous creates absurd and arbitrary (and potentially useless products). To make my point, one just has to think of the kitchen. How many different tools and small pieces of equipment are specifically designed and sold to perform one specific function...I freely admit that many of them legitimately make cooking, cleaning and storing easier and save time, but generally other generic and generalized tools (such as fork/spoon/knife) can perform the same functions. By refusing to buy and indulge in the clutter, you effectively are refusing to buy into a system that encourages the wasteful creation of dust collectors, bobble-heads and clutter.

Moving on, I watched a video last night showing a firewood making machine. The machine is pretty cool, and it resonates within me some part of pride in the accomplishment of humanity...but what if you look at what's doing, the machine essentially turns a whole tree into stacks of firewood in a matter of a couple minutes. It ultimately disturbed me, because I began to think of how long it took for that tree to grow. The trees the machine was eating through, each probably took a good solid 15-25 years to grow. It took all those years of gaining strength, of weathering rain and sun and providing shade and shelter. And it took us 4 minutes for us to convert it into something for us to consume for our own heat and shelter. I was talking Sam to her, and she pointed out that we need lumber to build houses and to keep us warm. I think this is a very valid point, but at the same time I think we also need to be looking at all the doodads and pointless crap that's made out of wood. Stuff made out of wood that just sits around on a counter, or frames a picture or little fanciful decorations in so many places. And as for houses, countless number of houses go unused and empty even though people are out living on the street. My conversation with Samantha also led to eating meat, and how senseless it has become, and how wasteful and disconnected it is. If you watch this video regarding a slaughterhouse where chickens and cows are processed, like pieces of metal to be shaped into things for us to use. A cow is led into a barrel like chamber, is rattled around and then shot in the head. Then turned upside down and water is blasted into it it's body to clear all waste and blood out of it.

So how do we start sharing? How can we really, really start sharing life with one another..not just our possessions, but something deeper, how can we share our existence with those around us and with those who will come after us (the generations who will come after you). Here are some suggestions, list style! These are just suggestions for you to consider and mull over.

1) Start living a little simpler. When you buy things, ask yourself if you need it. What will it be used for? Can something you already own, be used to perform the same function? Can you make it for yourself cheaper? How often will it be used, who will use it? What are the costs of buying and becoming an owner (will it prevent you from using money for something better, does it come serious harm to a neighborhood/community/nature?)

2) Consider becoming a vegetarian or at the very least, start eating more vegetables and less meat. Don't shy away from reading books like Food, Inc. (a book I believe I own or owned at one point from my first college English class) and informing yourself of the consequences of your eating habits. Read up on how the cow industry uses up and wastes huge tracts of land and pollute waters. Read up on how we kill 1 million chickens every hour in America. Read up on how certain fishes are becoming extinct due to overfishing. Your children, and your neighbor's children, and their children would like to know what eating fish is like.

3) Looking into and consider joining one of the many websites and groups of peoples who are envisioning and creatively rethinking their way of life in the world. People who are trying to share. Here are some people and organizations that I've come across. Check them out, maybe consider signing up or at least looking into.

--Relational Tithe

"RelationalTithe.com is an interactive platform for connecting and meeting needs across socioeconomic and geographic barriers. It is also a place to explore, to meet, to share dreams and ideas, to ask and discuss questions, to learn and to grow together."

--Vittanna.org

"In most countries, student loans just don't exist. The Vittana community is enabling students around the world to get access to higher education for the first time."

--NeighborGoods

"Welcome to NeighborGoods where you can save and earn money by sharing stuff with your friends! Need a ladder? Borrow it from your neighbor. Have a bike collecting dust in your closet? Rent it out for some extra cash!"

--FreeeBay

"FreeeBay is dedicated to gift economy on the Internet. Apart from connecting people to give and get for free, our web site also serves as a library of useful contributions about anarchism, gift economy, and the Internet."

All three of these options have been explored by various strands of Christianity, but the mainline Church throughout history has been far from freely choosing to live out such ideas and ways. I was heartened to have found Relational Tithe, since it came out of (I believe) an even that the Simple Way hosted on Wall St.

I will end here, please know that I love you all and that I'm constantly being challenged. I've been meaning to write a good, solid post and I think this qualifies as one that will engender much thinking and brain buzzing for at least a few days. Please pray for Samantha's (my girlfriend) MCAT exam this Saturday!

In grace and peace,

And Now, for Something Completely Different

Here's a transcript from a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It's worth reading twice. First for the humor, second for the analysis.

Here is the video if you'd rather not read it:

[clop clop]

ARTHUR: Old woman!

DENNIS: Man!

ARTHUR: Old Man, sorry. What knight live in that castle over there?

DENNIS: I'm thirty seven.

ARTHUR: What?

DENNIS: I'm thirty seven -- I'm not old!

ARTHUR: Well, I can't just call you `Man'.

DENNIS: Well, you could say `Dennis'.

ARTHUR: Well, I didn't know you were called `Dennis.'

DENNIS: Well, you didn't bother to find out, did you?

ARTHUR: I did say sorry about the `old woman,' but from the behind

you looked--

DENNIS: What I object to is you automatically treat me like an inferior!

ARTHUR: Well, I AM king...

DENNIS: Oh king, eh, very nice. An' how'd you get that, eh? By

exploitin' the workers -- by 'angin' on to outdated imperialist dogma

which perpetuates the economic an' social differences in our society!

If there's ever going to be any progress--

WOMAN: Dennis, there's some lovely filth down here. Oh -- how d'you do?

ARTHUR: How do you do, good lady. I am Arthur, King of the Britons.

Who's castle is that?

WOMAN: King of the who?

ARTHUR: The Britons.

WOMAN: Who are the Britons?

ARTHUR: Well, we all are. we're all Britons and I am your king.

WOMAN: I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous

collective.

DENNIS: You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship.

A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes--

WOMAN: Oh there you go, bringing class into it again.

DENNIS: That's what it's all about if only people would--

ARTHUR: Please, please good people. I am in haste. Who lives

in that castle?

WOMAN: No one live there.

ARTHUR: Then who is your lord?

WOMAN: We don't have a lord.

ARTHUR: What?

DENNIS: I told you. We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take

it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.

ARTHUR: Yes.

DENNIS: But all the decision of that officer have to be ratified

at a special biweekly meeting.

ARTHUR: Yes, I see.

DENNIS: By a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs,--

ARTHUR: Be quiet!

DENNIS: --but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more--

ARTHUR: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!

WOMAN: Order, eh -- who does he think he is?

ARTHUR: I am your king!

WOMAN: Well, I didn't vote for you.

ARTHUR: You don't vote for kings.

WOMAN: Well, 'ow did you become king then?

ARTHUR: The Lady of the Lake,

[angels sing]

her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur

from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I,

Arthur, was to carry Excalibur.

[singing stops]

That is why I am your king!

DENNIS: Listen -- strange women lying in ponds distributing swords

is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power

derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical

aquatic ceremony.

ARTHUR: Be quiet!

DENNIS: Well you can't expect to wield supreme executive power

just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!

ARTHUR: Shut up!

DENNIS: I mean, if I went around sayin' I was an empereror just

because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me they'd

put me away!

ARTHUR: Shut up! Will you shut up!

DENNIS: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.

ARTHUR: Shut up!

DENNIS: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system!

HELP! HELP! I'm being repressed!

ARTHUR: Bloody peasant!

DENNIS: Oh, what a give away. Did you here that, did you here that,

eh? That's what I'm on about -- did you see him repressing me,

you saw it didn't you?

Monty Python, ever the master of in depth critique has the "peasants" talking much more lucidly, coherently and logically than the self-enamored, authoritative King Arthur. Arthur's logical explanation for his authority, to the audience, is deficient to the point of hilarity. Meanwhile, visually, at the same time, the peasants' work involves working in the "filth" or...basically making piles of mud. This speaks to the unpleasantness of necessary work that fills the life of the peasants while Arthur has the luxury of going on a wild goose chase in search of the Holy Grail (which he never finds). Finally, before their encounter ends, Arthur ends up harassing the peasant for questioning and ridiculing his right to authority.

Mercy Now

This is a cover of a song by Mary Gauthier, performed by Joe Crookston. This song was also covered at the MyPeace Kickoff I helped organize/promote.

Here's Joe Crookston singing, it's a really wonderful song and appropriate for what I cover in this blog.

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

Peace be upon you

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten we belong to each other.

-Mother Theresa

Tomorrow I will be setting up/participating in the Kickoff for the MyPeace Project as part of my volunteering with Oregon PeaceWorks. One thing I will be doing is reading quotes of relatively great people, in order to air out their words and thoughts on peace. The MyPeace project is about equipping the Salem community with a vision of peace, and my job will be to describe small capsules of visions so to hopefully inspire Salemites to imagine and provide their own visions of peace for the city.

I'm only 21 and yet I'm tired of the ranting and raging against injustice. It turns a person bitter, cold and hard. It's true...even the best people become hardened and bent. I don't want to be just anti-war, just anti-poverty, anti-homelessness, anti-injustice, anti-government, anti-tyranny, anti-oppression, anti-hate, anti-ignorance and anti-arrogance...I want to be for something. I want to be for a good news that is the actively the opposite of all the negatives I just described. I want to be pro-peace, pro-life, pro-fulfillment, pro-sheltered, pro-comfort, pro-justice, pro-family, pro-community, pro-compassion, pro-care, pro-love, pro-understanding and pro-humility. We humans are so starstruck by our selves that even the most righteous among us are in constant danger of succumbing to the seductiveness of pride. We are such a difficult species, that the "holier" we become, the more compassion and humility we need.

So instead of getting angry about some news pundit commanding and scaring Christians to leave churches that preach social justice. Instead of getting angry over the fact that in a month America will have been waging a war in Afghanistan for 8.5 years, with little likelihood of ending anytime soon. Instead of getting angry over the rising demonization and

gross exaggerations and condemnations made of generalized people groups like Republicans and Democrats...I'd like to share some other visions of peace. In past posts I've spoken out against what I think is wrong and I will continue to do so, but I'm increasingly learning the value of living out and providing examples of what a righteous life of love looks like. Some successful stories of triumph:

I'll start off with a list I stole from here....(there are some other interesting links in the PeaceWorker archives on the Oregon PeaceWorks website).

· Indian independence achieved
· Buses desegregated in the U.S. South
· Imigrant workers’ rights defended in the U.S.
· Zambian independence achieved
· The Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed
· The Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed
· Freedom won in Ghana
· Democracy established in Philippines
· Latvian liberty won
· Berlin wall falls
· Solidarity wins in Poland
· Ukraine holds onto democratic win
· Milosevic deposed
· Hungary freed
· South African apartheid ended, democracy won
· Women get the vote i

n U.S.
· Anishinabe treaty rights reaffirmed
· Lithuanian democracy established
· Estonian Singing Revolution succeeds
· Czechoslovakia achieves its freedom
· Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty signed in Europe.

...

"Each of the victories listed above occurred not because of governments, but despite governments, which were ultimately dragged along kicking and screaming. That’s the way trickle-up, people-powered peace and justice works. It’s revolutionary. It is the hope of this millennium."

Or consider perhaps, the words of Sister Ardeth Platte who was arrested for hammering on silo lids covering ICBMs in Colorado. This took place in 2002 and she was promptly arrested and was sentenced to two years in jail (in 2003).

She was released in 2005 and contrary to original intentions to keep her in Colorado, she was given permission to rejoin the Jonah House in Baltimore. Maybe it's not a success story in a sense that she was sentenced to jail, but it is a success story for truth and love. I would highly recommend any one of you to read her court transcript, but I'll give you some gems:

The picture is of Sister Ardeth in the Federal Danbury Prison.

I am Sister Ardeth Platte, and to begin with, I want to give gratitude to God for our being able to be present here with you. I give gratitude to you who are seated in this jury. The task before you, I know, is very difficult, and I know the grace of God will be with you, that whatever decision you make as it relates to us, that we will continue to bless you, so do not be afraid to speak the truth of what you believe. I also give thanks today to the prosecutor and judge. I want to forgive the prosecutor for some things, one is when he talks about us as "allegedly" being sisters --

...

I just want you to know that Sister Jacqueline Hudson and I, in our combination of years, have about a hundred years now in religious life in the Grand Rapids Dominican sisters, and Sister Carol has about 37, going on 38 years, so just to speak the truth, we are Sisters

...

Now I say that because what we have done sounds like an extremely dangerous thing, and yet all over the world there are people saying the same thing. There are people who actually believe in what we did. And you are seeing them now by the millions as you turn on your television sets. Also I want to give thanks to our international community and our religious community because of their strength in understanding what we have done all our lives, and that is to study the gospel. We are students of the gospel. We are believers in non-violence. We are believers in truth force. We are believers in love force, and we are believers in soul force, so that's the unit with which we come in our communities. We have formed consciences. We are working every day on understanding what is moral and what is immoral. We are trying to be open to the leading of the holy spirit, the spirit of God.

...

The same time we were committed to do this non-violent civil resistance action, at the same time our sister, Sister Ann Montgomery, had traveled to Iraq , and to Hebron . She has lived in Hebron for more than six years. She has been into Iraq many times. So you will see her name. I want you to know through the years she was personally giving us information as she took medicines and foods and things into the people of Iraq and visiting the children who were dying in the hospitals from leukemia caused from the use of depleted uranium., She was sharing with us in spirit, so that our information was coming firsthand from her and from very many other friends who have been in and out, and a set of at least twenty people who are there right now under the bombs that we are dropping.

I also want you to know that we have Dominican family in Iraq running hospitals and orphanages. Now that's very important because they are our family. They are the family of God. The whole human race really is the family of God. So whatever we do, whatever we do, affects the entire family. It affects the environment.

And so with this in our minds and hearts, we are trying to carry out something that seems so important. This is our faith and background.

We also are citizens of the United States. And we consider democracy very important; in other words, we are persons who will seriously study what is going on in this country, what we are doing as a nation. And we will try to stop crime, we will try to uphold the laws that are also God's laws. So, for more than a year we learned of the planning and the preparation and the threatening of mass murder, of extermination, by the use of nuclear weapons. We heard it, we read it in the paper, we would hear it on television, and we heard that there was a targeting of the people of Iraq . That they were part of seven nations in the axis of evil, and all we could do was think about our brothers and sisters. All we could think about were the babies, the children, who have no defense

...

Now, you heard other people's explanation of what we did, but this is exactly what we did. We went to -- we came to Colorado because here exists the kill chain. That's terminology used by the military. The kill chain from outer space, the use of satellites, the use of the ground receivers, the use of land, sea, and air weapons systems.

The kill chain. And you know it from -- you all know this because you live here and you know Schriever Air Force Base, you know Peterson Air Force base, Cheyenne Mountain, you know Buckley; those are all connected, and then the Minuteman silos, 49 of them

...

Now,we went there to inspect, to expose and to do a symbolic disarmament. Every movement of our body was a liturgy. We processed. We cut the little link in the farmer's field fence. We did not want to injure the farmer in any way. We did not touch the lock that still had the combination on. All they had to do was hook the chain back together.

...

On the side of the concrete lid, we did three more crosses, and on each of the three tracks we did a cross, and what is so important in that is the tracks reminded us of Germany and the people going in to the ovens, and we thought to ourselves God forbid that this cover ever be launched off this site,. that this nuclear weapon of mass extinction, extermination, would ever be used. And yet we realized it's all but being talked about that these will be used.

And it's just like the inspection in Iraq that we did for all to see, to tell every military person that came into our presence, to tell them that it is a crime to threaten to use it. Ever to use it. That it has been declared an illegal weapon of mass destruction.

And in this ritual we recall Jesus carrying the cross and pouring out his blood rather than ever taking anyone's life. When he said, "Peter , put away your sword," and the crosses reminded us of every man, woman and child, soldier, civilian, baby, old people, men, women, who have been killed, hundreds of millions, a hundred million plus over this century. Going into a new century, saying this is not the way of our faith. We remember the millions killed in the past, present and the wars possibly that were going to come.

...

Now, Sister Carol and I live amidst Air Force base personnel for years. The ones who flew the B-52s, the ones who participated in the roles in the Gulf war, just like my dad who was a Navy man. We could go on, all of our families. It has to do with the love of them too.

...

mean we fell so in love with the people with whom we lived that when they came back from the Gulf war and we were there when they went off to war, the squadrons of B-52s, and we were there when they came back, and all I can say is this is what we think about all the time is what they have to do, the injury to them. Not only the physical injuries but the mental and psychological injuries. We are not meant to kill. We are not created by a loving compassionate God to kill. We don't like it in our schools, we don't like it on the streets, and we don't like it massively over God's children any place in the world.

Well, then we took household hammers as the next act.

We each had a hammer, and we symbolically disarmed the site, hammering on the silo cover, on the tracks, and during that time we prayed aloud, "We shall hammer swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, nations shall not take swords up against other nations nor shall they kill anymore.

...

We want to bring about a lasting peace. We want to see justice, a banning of war, total disarmament, all over the world. We want the people in this world to live. Forgive me.

This is a passionate plea. And you might think that this is the soap box, but what this is is a heart and spirit and the cry that this world begin to see that we are brothers and sisters. So this is where we come from. If we have to spend the rest of our life in prison, we will. We have friends right now in the war zone who will be martyrs. We must do more for peace. We must do more for peace, and if our symbolic disarmament action does any good, thank you, God, and if it doesn't, then we must do more. Thank you. Forgive me for crying.

Now, I don't if that made you tear up but sure did make me. Um, those words are a story of triumph in themselves. A triumph of bravery to act prophetically and righteously for peace for a biblical peace, a holy peace against that which can, very realistically, destroy us and be our collective undoing—as a country, as a people, as a world.

There are more stories of the triumph of righteousness, peace and love but I'm going to go to sleep now.

Goodnight you guys,

America's Justice System Part 2

A continuation of this post, American's Justice System.

I posted only 7 posts in February compared to the 10 in January. I'll try to post more, but I can't promise too much.

One quick update. I talked about the Olympics awhile ago, and I just read an article that stated that in the 2012 Olympics, British police will have the power to enter homes and seize posters, and will be able to stop people from carrying non-sponsor items to sporting events. I think it goes without saying that any event that results in the stripping of civil rights and freedom of speech, should be re-examined.

Tonight I'd like to talk about several different things because I've been accumulating stories to share (that's how I come up with a topic).

At the risk of being too scattered I'll be talking about Justice. I'm actually very scattered so I'm going to refrain from delivering too much commentary and just give you story after story.

In order to gather enough evidence against some prostitutes. In Seattle, undercover officers spent $16,835 of tax payers money to buy more than 130 lap dances. During this gathering of evidence, no arrests were made. Now the authorities have started to prosecute the clubs where these officers visited.

In Gastonia, North Carolina. A homeless man held up a sign reading "I'm thinking of cheeseburger". He was arrested. given a misdemeanor criminal citation for violating a city ordinance and jailed. In this town it's illegal for people to beg or offer to work for compensation by "accosting one another or forcing oneself upon the company of another".

In 2001 in Prentiss, Mississippi, Cory Maye's apartment was broken into. Maye, suspecting burglars immediately rushed into his child's room, and while protecting his child, shot three shots towards those entering. The "burglar's" were in fact, actually, the police. The police mistakenly had entered the apartment adjacent to another apartment they had obtained a warrant for. Maye testified that he never heard the police yell or knock, and the police's testimonies do not agree. Unfortunately for Maye, one of his shots killed one of the police breaking into the apartment. As a result he was arrested and charged with murder of a police officer. He pleaded not guilty and self-defense. The jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to death. A judge has since reduced his sentence to life imprisonment, but the injustice is still apparent. The police officer who died was the son of the chief of police and the public defendant did such a horrible job that she was fired by the family. The subsequent public defendant was told by the town hall not to take the case and ended up losing his job after he did. In 2009, Maye's appeal in the Mississippi Court of Appeals has ordered a new trial.

In Minneapolis, Minnesota one family was much luckier. They were awarded $600,000 by the city after a SWAT team broke into the wrong house. The father immediately went to protect his family, thinking they were criminal intruders. Protecting his 3 and 15 year old kids he shot several shots and then got away. No one was hurt despite the SWEAT team firing at least 22 rounds at the family.

During the recent March 4 marches done by a lot of californian students (who were demanding cheaper tuitions and more money to the education system) one op-ed made a noteworthy comparison:

"It costs an estimated $1 million to deploy a soldier to Afghanistan for a year and $49,000 to incarcerate a prisoner for a year in California. The state of California spends less than $10,000 to educate one K-12 student each year. The tradeoff is clear and unjustifiable."

According to the NY Times, 1 in 100 U.S. adults are behind bars. 1 in 30 males aged between 20-34 are in jail, 1 in 9 if they are black. In video on youtube I learned that that there are more 17-18 year old black males in jail than there are in college. In 2000, the BBC reported that 25% of the world's prisoners are kept in American prisons (that's a 10 year old statistic that I believe has remained the same, at least according to wikipedia) even though we make up only 5% of the world's population.

My closing words are this: our justice is not justice. It is a cruelly applied poisonous bandaid that fails to treat the heart disease and brain tumors that trouble our brothers and sisters.

A Different Vision for Life

I wrote this for my Dissent in American Politics class. I just got my grade back, so I'd like to share it with you all:

A Different Vision for Life

In a change of plans, on January 27th 2013, The United States President, along with top Congressional members from both the House and Senate, publicly announced that they would not be parties to the upcoming scheduled World War III. Immediately disappointed and confused Ambassadors from Europe and Asia descended upon the capitol, demanding both explanations and reparations for loans loaned. Stocks for Boeing, Lockeed Martin, BAE Systems, Blackwater Worldwide and other defense contractors teetered dangerously—until a leaked document noted the federal government’s desire to keep their contracts. The document, tediously titled “Tentative Federal Budget for 2014” described the intention to reapportion money for weapons research towards energy and medicine, to recycle bases into parks and public housing and to change vehicles into subsidized scrap metal. It also expressed a wish to amend the duties of army personnel to included “farming”, “teaching” and “space exploration”.

The political leaders were lambasted. Like junkies deprived of their fix, the media and its public exhibited all the signs of withdrawal: anxiety, depression and extreme cravings. And, like rehabilitated addicts, they all came to see the wisdom in abstinence from assured, eventual annihilation.

The process of change began very slowly, yet gradually it was wholeheartedly embraced to the point where the beginning of 2015 saw the rebirth of a very different United States of America. The abandonment of military bases and operations overseas led to a dramatic improvement of the country’s status, image and self-identity. In just a few months, international rivals of the United States found themselves incapable of raping the near defenseless nation due to their own rampant native admiration and inspiration at, what was called, “The Great Transformation”. Impossible humility had disarmed the globe.

Touring Americans surprisingly found themselves pestered not about celebrities, Coke or cowboys but about their vanishing domestic homelessness, hunger and disease. As the infectious spread of peace and prosperity began to overcome both despotic and democratic nations, the once pesky and useless United Nations emerged as a forum for discussion and cooperation. One hundred years after the first Great War, the Great Transformation oversaw the creation of the Casual Union of Nations (C.A.N.). One of the first great CAN endeavors involved using bombs not against humans, but against asteroids during mining missions between Mars and Jupiter. The subsequent leaps and bounds in human civilization were beyond everyone’s serious expectations and imagination. Not long after the personal iShuttle by Apple was released and distributed (at a subsidized price). Suffice to say historians and social analysts agree the new vehicle played a prominent role in the dawn of the new era.

If only. If only our political leaders had the courage to lead in such a way. Perhaps such a future is but fanciful fantasy—an impractical dream. However I do not believe it is naïve, or at all fantastic to abhor the bloodshed and obliteration of millions upon hundreds of millions of peoples. Of the threat of massacre and spilling of blood, I am convinced. I am convinced because our nation leads the world in the development and stockpiling of weapons. I am convinced because of the deep level of integration and interdependency between our government and private arms manufacturers that from our military-industrial complex. I am convinced because neither the Republican Party, nor the Democrat Party will educate, confess to the public—let alone relinquish all together our continuing capacity for mass holocaust. Instead, the need for more and better spending for “defense” is ever enunciated and increased.

One must question the usage of the word “defense”. For example, the only country to ever use a nuclear weapon against another country is the United States of America. In World War II, the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed 150,000 and 75,000 human souls, respectively. Currently, the U.S. has the equivalent of "120,000 to 130,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs." Simple multiplication of the Nagasaki bomb with the lower equivalent alone shows that we have the capability of wiping out our plant 1.5 times over. How can we still be accumulating defense when we have enough to destroy our own planet? Of course this is assuming that every bomb delivered successfully detonated over their target population, and it is also assuming that no other weapons are used. The later point we know is impossible. In the event that a nuclear bomb might be used, it goes without saying that soldiers, planes, tanks and ships would be used. The former fact reveals a certain structural stupidity and dangerous wastefulness. Why spend billions upon trillions of dollars and resources on thousands nuclear bombs that will never be used? These two facts point towards a senseless, gluttonous appetite for weapons and works of death.

More facts are necessary to outline the mere shadow of our appetite for arms. As of a 2008 report issued by the Department of Defense, our country maintains 865 bases overseas and 4,564 bases domestically for a total of 5,429 (PDF file). The total square miles of these bases (45,312.5 sq mi) equals roughly to the size of Pennsylvania (46,055 sq mi). On these lands and in operations around the globe there are 1,411,932 U.S military personnel working, a figure that exceeds the estimated population of San Antonio, Texas (1,351,305 people) by 60,000 thousand people or so.

The official cost for one Trident II missile, a nuclear missile that is launched from submarines, is currently set at $30.9 million. There are two variations of the Trident II missile, one with a payload of 100 kilotons and another with 457 kilotons. These are approximately 6 and 28 times the payload of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. This small snapshot prepares us for the difficult-to-grasp number of $494.3 billion spent on military spending in 2009 or roughly 20% of the Federal Budget—a number which excludes the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and does not reflect the actual amount spent, but only the requested budget size. This can be the low estimate. It is noteworthy to include the high end number, as specified by the War Resisters League, which includes the budgets of Veterans affairs and half of NASA’s budget (that goes towards technology development that is then used by the military)—this number is $1.449 trillion or 54% of the federal budget. The real amount spent on the military by our government probably lies somewhere in the murky middle of $800-900 billion—about the same figure as the entire gross domestic product (at the official exchange rate) of Mexico for 2009.

On the dangers of modern armament development and hoarding of military, one only has to listen to the words of the Commander in Chief and President Dwight Eisenhower (not even Martin Luther King Jr., Mohandas Ghandi or Jesus but the Supreme Commander for the Allied forces of World War II). In his farewell speech towards the end of his term in 1960, President Eisenhower gave an eerie warning regarding the development, stockpiling and maintenance of a standing military:

…we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

The development of our current military-industrial complex has progressed to the point where we have the ability to destroy humanity several times over using an army spanning the size of Pennsylvania, with the population of the size of a small city and the annual budget equaling the GDP of an entire nation. Is this defense? When our country leads the world in increasing the potential for destruction, a destruction so great that it can only be compared to mass suicide, how can we claim to be agents of liberty, freedom and the pursuit of happiness?

Towards the end of his speech, Eisenhower calls for the abandonment of military solutions to international problems, “Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose.” In an age filled with environmental, financial and energy crises far greater than any military danger posed to the America populous, in an age where American citizens are declaring medical bankruptcy and states are considering the abandonment of the 12^th grade, we cannot afford to sustain our military-industrial complex. We cannot afford these weapons of death especially when they are our own undoing. If our future is to contain any shred of decency we must begin to reconsider the purposes of our military and weapons. If we want a future full of breathtaking life, we must stop supporting death. We must preach to our children and soldiers and political leaders a vision of life. We must, for it is only through our advocacy and active movement in support of disarmament and armistice that we can reach this future of life.