I wanted to start with a quick poem
With peace so close everyday
We choose to run the other way
When fear takes control
And weapons take hold
Peace seems so far away
Power and greed are far too strong
Laughing and singing we follow along
Though we cry about lives
We take and deprive
And lead by the an example all wrong
The rich mans not looking
The poor mans just working
The middle is losing its grip
Hold tight you might not slip
Falling once seemed so unlikely
With the war hawks in control
My memory takes hold
History finds its way
Doomed to repeat the day
When war is paid in full
With the lives of our young and old
I am here for my child, I am here for all the children I see suffering. I grew up in a small town in Oregon. My focus in life was not very worldly. I used to think a lot about me and what I could do for me. As I grew older and this "War on Terror" began, my perspective changed. I started to analyze what I was doing to the world personally. How my desires were helping to spread violence and injustice. I started to feel for others.
Eugene Debbs famously said:
While there is a lower class I am in it, while there is a criminal element I am of it, while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
The Bush administration has done nothing good for the world. Their desire to get richer and gain more control over the worlds resources is second to none. While the media like Fox news or NBC report the cheery story of the War. Instead of showing our school system in shambles. Or our corrupt congress and senate that have sold us out. Only one senator had the guts to stand against the Ohio vote. The Democrats did nothing to stop the stealing of this country. AGAIN! \
In the 1990's an 89 year old women named Granny D. walked across the entire country. She was mad about the lack of campaign finance reform. When she got to Washington DC she said this:
Along my three thousand miles through the heart of America, did I meet anyone who thought that their voice as an equal citizen now counts for much in the corrupt halls of Washington? No, I did not. Did I meet anyone who felt anger or pain over those? I did indeed, and I watched them shake with rage sometimes when they spoke, and I saw tears well up in their eyes. The people I met along my way have given me messages to deliver here. The messages are many, written with old and young hands of every color, and yet the messages are the same. They are this. "SHAME ON YOU, Senators and Congressmen, who have turned the headquarters of a great and self-serving people into a bawdyhouse" The time for this shame is ending!!
I will be talking today about our personal responsibility in all of this mess. How if you and I can dedicate ourselves to change it will happen. We have the power to spend our money in places that will help the planet. I dedicate myself to only shopping at places that pay attention to human rights. I pay attention to the places I invest my money as well. How can I protest a war that I am profiting on in my retirement accounts? How can I protest slavery while I by coffee or chocolate that uses children and tosses them into the ocean when they try and escape? I can't, and I don't. I make sacrifices every day so I can walk the walk.
What do you think about when you say "the America I once knew" do you mean the America of the 50's when black people could not vote or eat at the same counter as you. Or do you mean the 60's when a horrible war was fought for control over an imaginary enemy. Or do you mean the 70's and 80's when America strangled Central and South America. Or the 90's when we bombed and sanctioned Iraq and killed a million people. No the America you once knew always was and still is just an idea. A very expensive pipe dream. Once you open your eyes to the truth the suffering seems so new, but the story is old and the motivations are still the same.
We all need to stop thinking about our differences and start focusing on our similarities. The divisions in this country are placed there by the elite to keep us fighting with each other, and not fighting with them. We are all held back by the greed. The average American is losing there grip on the life they thought they could have. The average American is losing their job or working twice as hard to stay ahead. The average American is paying too much tax that goes to the war machine, while the rich that own our companies pay little or no tax, the largest and richest even get corporate well fare. The Average person fears that a health problem could drown them in costs in a literal heartbeat. I say we Blue and Red states are closer then we think. We are just having the wrong fight with the wrong neighbor.
Thinking of the petty differences we have in America while serious issues are killing millions a year. A person starves to death every 4 seconds. Our wonderful media does not point that out on the nightly news. They focus on the WAR ON TERROR or Gay marriage. Things that frighten us or make us mad. The media should be inspiring people to do better, by focusing on the worst of us we all feel more helpless. And on top of the distractions, they lie about anything that suits their needs including taking a country to war!
I will start to look to my brothers and sisters from this moment on and try to communicate better. I am sure we can get past all of the Bullshit the media spews at us if we start talking plainly about our problems. We just need to find common ground. Just listening to people you disagree with and finding where you are similar. They worry for their children; they worry for the future of this country. Like you they have good intentions, most of the time. When you and I show people that we agree on many issues we can start to come together. The 5% of Americans who want war and control make us feel like we are the minority. Just because they have the loudest voice does mean they are right.
Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's chief propagandist, perfected the practice of the Big Lie. He learned -
If you shout a lie loud enough and long enough the people will believe!
We do have a tough road ahead. But when you stand with peace in your heart and selfless desire in your mind you have already won. Those who oppress you, arrest you, fire you, make you go to war, lose. They lose by accelerating their own hellish existence. By helping make the world more apathetic and violent place.
Once we allowed the media outlets to be owned by the companies who profit from war, then all of America is turned into a "company town", where all information comes from and all profit flow exclusively to the controlling companies. Just a hand full of people own almost everything, they own the oil, the banks, your house, you employers and on and on. We must recognize the dollar for what it is; a vote!
This is why we have to show our true intentions every time we have the chance. We must reach out and try to communicate with the other slaves around us. We only get short moments these days to talk with new people. The TV age and computer age are helping to divide us even further. Use the time while in the line at the store to share your heart with people. Don't get stuck judging people before you know them. Maybe that person next to you in line is wearing a Marines T shirt or a peace button because they lost a child in Iraq. Maybe next time you reach out and say hello.
William Penn wrote "To be furious in religion is to be furiously irreligious"
By throwing God into the political ring, our leaders have helped deepen the divides. They know full well what they are doing. Bush has no moral ground to stand on. Killing children over seas and trying to stop abortion at home. But if the church stands with him, he must be righteous?. We will go no where but down if we keep fighting over God.
When the people truly come together the system will fall so quickly. Those who have chosen to keep us in the dark will pay. The light of justice will force them out of there holes. People can only take so much oppression before they rise up. Great change is possible, we just need to believe and work. Everyday more people open there eyes to the truth about this war on terror.
Ask yourself, What good has war done for mankind? Have the great wars of the 1900's stopped oppression? WWI the "war to end all wars" ended in 1918. Have the great wars stopped the killing of innocents? No, never, violence only brings more violence. The children in war torn areas see it first hand, and they don't forget who killed their family, would you?
The War on terror is paralyzing the conversation. Fear is powerful and the warmongers know how to scare us. I try hard to control what I allow into my soul. I turned off the cable news. I stopped buying all of the unnecessary stuff that is helping to destroy the planet. I started having real conversations and trying to figure out a better way.
So what can I do, little me in the sea of lies that we call America?
Martin Luther King Jr. Said: "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others?"
I have decided to do more for people that need. I have decided to build community programs to help people become less dependant on the system of greed. I have decided to run for elected office in my district. I have decided to make a stand whenever I have the chance.
Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number
Shake the chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you
Ye are many they are few!