HEADLINES AS I WRITE:
14 troops killed in IRAQ today; 71 in last 21 days; 978 Iraqi security and civilians in last 21 days; millions displaced from their homes by BUSH's continuing war; war profits at an all time high.
I would not classify myself as an activist ,as I've mentioned before. I am a humanitarian. However, these times we live in certainly come with a call-to-action for all of us to THINK, QUESTION, EXPLORE NEW IDEAS and GET INFORMED enough to be the shapers of our future. We must be willing to let go of our party loyalties and do some fresh thinking "outside the box" of politics for the good of all people --- for the survival of our world. There is time, but it is ticking away. In futurist and filmmaker, Joel Barker's pioneering work on the Five Regions of the Future, he again reminds us of a very important TRUTH:
"We can and should shape your own future, because if you don't, someone else surely will." --- Joel Barker, futurist
Every day we are watching our futures be shaped by government officials that have lied, cheated and worked as terrorists in their own right. This shames me to admit it. I grew up with pride in my country and belief in its leaders. HOWEVER, the situation in IRAQ and other miseries we have caused or ignored in recent years, has fostered a wake-up call for my consciousness. How about you? Current affairs have been a catalyst for seeing how much of our current system of government is deeply broken and how much each of us plays into it through our desires for more and more, our consumerism, our indifference, our inattention ---- perhaps, most of all, how much we take it for granted, never thinking about what impact how much of what we have has had on others in the world or that in an instant, we could lose what most of us treasure. It makes me ache, knowing I too am a contributing part of our brokenness.
I have to ask again, WHAT HAVE WE BECOME?
There are many to blame, but lets acknowledge the role of the most powerful leader in the world. We have a President that wants to defend a "human embryo" for reasons that defy science, but doesn't mind having his own hands dripping in the blood of tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers of his ill-conceived war without conscience. He apparently has no care about the countries he destroys and the millions that are displaced by his pig-headed right to power. ...and what about us? Why do we turn a blind eye? I heard President Bush talk in the last couple days, wagging his finger at the extremists, while seemingly describing his own actions too, never acknowledging how the terrorists have gotten so desperate in our escalating use of military might and force at his command. Is it not extreme to go to war on false pretenses, recognize the flaw, defy all sound military counsel, ignore the will of the people in our democratic country and insist failed policies must continue not with sacrifice from your family, but with the sacrifice of other people's children, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. Isn't this extreme? Isn't it extreme that no one questions or holds him accountability for any of his failings? He gets way too much credit for the few times he rhetorically takes responsibility --- but there are no consequences. How does our system allow this kind of incompetence and the array of public blunders in nearly every aspect of foreign and domestic policy with out consequences. In business, he would have been removed immediately --- in the military justice, wouldn't he been removed from his command? In domestic justice --- the kind you and I receive --- he would be locked up for eternity or sentenced to death. It is clear that all of us and the future of our children is being not only mortgaged by the ongoing saga of failed policies with no end in sight ----- our future is also being shaped by the actions, inattention and inaction.
WAKE-UP Everyone! The KEY INGREDIENT
The last of man's freedoms as Viktor Frankl told us in his classic, Man's Search for Meaning is to choice our attitude...to choice our way. It is time, my friends, to wake-up! How do we get started waking-up --- get informed. Look at your own span of influence. Look at what you can do right where you are. Here are is a valuable resource you may find helpful in your own personal awakening:
Moments of Insight at the Global Dialogue Center...
(Free to the world - no charge)
OUR GEO-POLITICAL CRISIS and YOU with John Perkins, New York Times Bestselling Author, The Secret History of the American Empire (Buy the book) and Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (Buy the book). John's new book hit the NY Times its first week out. This 6- episode mini-podcast series is a primer to world affairs, highlighting "pearls and gems" from The Secret History... It is informative and also hopeful with lots of ideas about what you can do no matter where you are in the world. He talks of about lessons from ASIA, LATIN AMERICA, MIDDLE EAST and AFRICA and helps us think through how we can change the dream of our future and change our world. It is designed for "instant one-touch play" or you can download it as an MP3 to share with family and friends.
Today, as I write, I grieve with the world for 12 more US soldiers lives gone and the millions of civilians that are dead, maimed or displaced from their homes. How scared the women and children must be, yes?
Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
www.globaldialoguecenter.com
I have come to the conclusion that our country has taken the direction it has because it is dying: as a nation, and, more importantly, as an idea. The United States of America was, after all, created as a set of ideas which comprised one grand idea: a government, and a people, dedicated to the rule of law; a law which sprang from the people themselves, which respected the rights given to every human being by God, and which the people and their representatives continually modified according to their changing needs and perspectives, in order to produce the best, happiest, most just society the world had ever seen: a model for other nations to emulate.
Sadly, tragically, our country has never lived up to these grand ideas, but that, in itself, could never bring about what we are seeing today in this country. We are witnessing the betrayal of all these ideas, and many more besides, because we, ourselves, no longer believe in them. And because we no longer believe in the ideas which founded us, the country they created is ceasing to exist before our very eyes.
Most Americans would protest that we still, as a nation, espouse these ideals, but that is untrue. We have replaced these ideas with selfish desires and lusts, retreating into a craven need for stability, conformity and security. That's why a leader like George W. Bush can so easily control us with fear, the age-old tool of control all dictators, throughout history, have used. A nation founded on the principles I have outlined requires a people of courage, and we have allowed our courage to ebb away over the decades and centuries. That is partly because we have been manipulated into believing that courage refers only to the willingness to die in battle. Sadly, that is the lowest form of courage. The highest form, and the form we most need, is the courage to LIVE, and live as free people who take responsibility for their actions and convictions, and hold to those convictions regardless of how much we are villified and opposed by those around us, and without striking out against those who persecute us.
I would like to believe that we may yet turn the direction of our country around, but a country that has lost faith in the ideas which founded it cannot save itself overnight. We seem destined to go down to destruction even though we may witness a horrific bloodbath - a new civil war - far worse than the first one. It will start, and is indeed starting, as a political war, but will end as a racial and ethnic war like the one that devastated Yugoslavia, but on a much larger scale. Many will think that such a war will set the country aright in the end, but I'm afraid the civil war will be the final death throes of this country. Within a decade, the country that was the United States will no longer exist.
Posted by: James M. Buels | June 28, 2007 at 09:24 PM
Hi James,
First, nice to see you again. You left a lasting impression. I remember all your posts on our 24seven board about John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Many of those people have stayed connected at the Global Dialogue Center --- contributing in many new and different ways to help save our nation and the world --- giving the best they have to do good for all people.
Sadly, your writing seems so very true and beautifully expressed. These past three years have certainly been an eye-opener. The levels of greed and corruption have been hard to watch and the reality seems to be setting in with more and more people, don't you think? Yet, we sit here paralyzed, helpless to hold any of our leaders accountable. They do what they want because then can.
There is still a ray of hope, don't you think? I talked with John Slobada from the Iraq Body Count Project in the UK a year or so ago --- I remember him envisioning a tipping point that we might reach just in time to save ourselves. I know in my lifetime, I've not seen anything like this --- perhaps, it happened but I wasn't awake enough to notice.
I agree the realities are a call-to-action for personal responsibility. I am trying in my own way to live by my convictions doing what I know how to do --- Perkins' inspired me about this, noting that we all have different skills and spans of influence. Obviously one of your great contributions is being able to offer perspective for others to think about with your clear writing.
Debbe
Posted by: Debbe Kennedy, Global Dialogue Center | June 29, 2007 at 12:10 AM
Hello, Debbe!
Yes, there is still a ray of hope, but it seems to be fading fast. I feel more hopeful today, though, than I have been in some time. I discovered a website called FOAVC (Friends of an Article V Convention). They have organized to promote a national convention under Article V of the Constitution to restore our civil liberties and create amendments to the Contitution that will change the course of the nation. Not a moment too soon! As I wrote on one of their forums tonight, I am absolutely certain now that the American fascists who back this president will stop at nothing to maintain themselves in power, even if they have to destroy our institutions, government, economy and people to do it!
Posted by: James M. Buels | June 29, 2007 at 08:33 PM