Risk Rap

Aids Awareness Day: Silence is Death

2011-12-01T08:20:00.001-08:00

Today is Aids Awareness Day. The organizations and people who have tirelessly worked to rid the world of this terrible plague is expected to announce that the scourge of Aids has peaked and that it is believed that in the struggle to manage, control and eradicate Aids the tide has turned. Some believe that the total eradication of Aids is within reach and could someday soon become a reality.

I remember when the Aids virus came to the attention of the general public. It was first called "the gay influenza" because of the preponderance of infection within the gay community. I also recall a news broadcast that identified the first Aids carrier into the United States. If I remember correctly it was reported that a Scandinavian Air steward had the unfortunate distinction of being carrier 001. A convenient scapegoat that supported the narrative of the disease as transmitted and carried by promiscuous gay lifestyles.

As the plague of Aids grew it devastated the gay community. Young beautiful men in the prime of their lives withered away to become living cadavers as the HIV virus ravaged their bodies. Caregivers and doctors fought to combat the disease but its cause and cure remained a mysterious enigma that baffled and perplexed researchers as the toll of is devastation mounted.

Friends, lovers and families were ripped apart by death and ignorance. Bigoted intolerant beliefs were voiced that the disease was God's retribution visited upon Sodomites for their sinful behaviors. The vibrant gay communities of Castro and Christopher Street were besieged within by the virus and from the outside by the rising vitriol and condemnation of the gay lifestyles. The growing virulence of anti-gay bigotry paralleled the rising death toll of Aids victims. The mysterious terror of the disease permitted public opinion to elevate the sin of homosexuality from a "misdemeanor nuisance crime" to a capitol offense. Many believed the ghettoization of the gay communities was a rational response to quarantining Aids. Bigots preached that God's Divine Retribution would snuff out Aids as the last gay man succumbed to the virus confined within the walls of their profane ghetto.

Medical science, social service and compassionate empathy of caregivers turned the tide and public perception concerning the nature, causes and treatment for Aids. Today we understand that this disease is not a gay affliction but is a virus which attacks the body's immune system. HIV can be passed on through infected bodily fluids, most commonly via sex without a condom or by sharing infected needles, syringes or other injecting drug equipment. Aids afflicts people of all social class, color, nationality and is particularly prevalent in the Third World where unprotected sex is common.

Aids Awareness Day brings us full circle about the need to be vigilant in seeking understanding and practicing intentional compassion. Our ignorance and our willingness to blame a segment of society as the cause and curse of Aids made us all complicit in the victimization of sufferers. It also make us defacto carriers of the disease by enabling the politics of intolerance and exclusion by erecting a wall of silence around the steeples of bigotry. Silence is death. May our voices and prayers always be heard in affirmation of all life.

Selah

Lavender Light Gospel Choir: Be Encouraged

World Aids Day

Scripture Reading: Mark 5

Then They Came for Me

2011-03-07T14:01:00.000-08:00

The ones shouting loudest with greatest vehemency for liberty are ironically the proponents of its gravest threat. Rep. Peter King, the Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee has scheduled hearings on the radicalization of the US Muslim community and its threat to the homeland. Mr. King said the hearings are the result of a growing concern by law enforcement officials that the US Muslim community has not been cooperative in rooting out the home grown terrorists multiplying within their midst. In service to liberty's highest ideals, the ever vigilant Mr. King looks to initiate an assault on the civil liberties of our brother and sister Muslim citizens.

A group calling themselves The Liberty Alliance are in full support of Mr. King's ethnic profiling and the grave threat it poses to the civil liberties of all citizens. Mr. King's committee hearings will be a resplendent grand standing platform for him to play to the basest prejudices of his constituency and stoke up the fear of American angst already overloaded with a symphony of terrors. Muslims, like the LGBT community and illegal aliens, labor unions and teachers make convenient scapegoats for the myriad problems confronting the nation. Mr. King and The Liberty Alliance would like us to believe that labor unions have plundered the wealth of the nation. Teachers have destroyed the schools. The poor have bankrupted our federal treasury while the LGBT and foreigners continue to undermine the true American Judeo-Christian culture by defiling the purity of its heritage.

Its a grand irony to witness self styled libertarians mobilized into action to attack civil liberties and right to privacy of their fellow citizens. They clamor for disclosure and transparency with the diabolical refrain, "if they have nothing to hide, they have nothing to be afraid of." Such seditious thinking undermines the spirit of liberty. It is a direct assault on a society governed by laws and its citizens shielded by due process and protected by a Bill of Rights. These democratic virtues once distinguished America as the shinning city on a hill. Now The Liberty Alliance denigrates it with an Orwellian platitude believing civil rights to privacy and due process are covers for terrorist cells that must be dispensed with at all costs.

It is not difficult to divine that Peter King's committee will encourage a number of informants to come forward to meet a specified quota for stool pigeonry. A legion of rats and informants are the armies of despots not agents of democracies. But these are the same Real American Freedom Fighters who led the charge against American Muslim's right to build a mosque in the shadow of Ground Zero. Ask them about religious tolerance and the freedom to worship as guaranteed in the US Constitution and they'll concede the point with the promise to serve Halal meals and build a mosque with extra capacity at Gitmo.

The ones shouting the loudest for liberty do indeed pose the greatest threat to it. The libertarians who opened the door to 527 llcs have turned Lady Liberty into a common prostitute hiring her out to the highest bidder. The zealots waving the Constitution with the fervor of a Red Book sprouting Maoist, forms a reactionary vanguard eager to deny the very same sacred civil liberties and rights to fellow citizens in their deranged constitutional republic of unfree and unequal citizens.

Despots and non-democratic societies do not offer or practice universal rights, freedoms and liberties for all its citizens. Pitting one group against another, scape goating, delineating special classes of people or dual classes of citizenship are hallmarks of repressive societies. Mr. King's committee hearing of racial and ethnic profiling divides citizens and denies the constitutional rights and liberties for Muslims. This is apartheid. Gov. Walker's and Chris Christie's attack on labor unions and teachers as the source of our economic debasement obfuscates systemic inequities and masks the identities of the perpetrators who plundered the wealth of this nation. The economic elites are trying to beat the rap by forcing their public elected shills to make the working people of America pay the price for their own victimization.

Peter King's sons of liberty are complicit agents of enslavement to the power and privilege of corporate oligarchs; hiding behind the billowing smoke of America's civic strife and brewing internecine struggle. They are gravely mistaken in believing that they are safely ensconced behind the golden walls of their enclaves the piles of cash allowed them to build to protect themselves from the seething masses. Mubarak nor Gaddafi's moat protected strongholds could protect them from the volatile tide of history.

Peter King opening up hearings on radical Islam and its role in creating home grown terrorism is of course just in time for the 2012 election. It will provide some red meat for rabid Teabaggers screaming for blood. Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin and other righteous Falangist Crusaders can use the grist of Peter King's xenophobic fear mill to paint our Mau Mau loving President and any progressive opponent a Fifth Columnist for the new Caliphate they are working to establish in the last stand of the land of the free and the home of the brave.

You Tube Video: James Cagney, Yankee Doodle Dandy

Risk: tolerance, politics, civil liberties, Bill of Rights

Economic Recovery Gathers Steam

2011-03-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

Private-sector employment increased by 217,000 from January to February on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report released today. The estimated change of employment from December 2010 to January 2011 was revised up to 189,000 from the previously reported increase of 187,000. This month’s ADP National Employment Report suggests continued solid growth of nonfarm private employment early in 2011. The recent pattern of rising employment gains since the middle of last year was reinforced by today’s report, as the average gain from December through February (217,000) is well above the average gain over the prior six months (63,000).

The fears of a jobless recovery may be receding but the US economy has a long way to go before pre-recession employment levels are achieved. As we stated previously the economy needs to create over 200,000 jobs per month for 48 consecutive months to achieve pre-recession employment levels. The six month average of 63,000 is still well below the required rate of job creation for a robust recovery to occur. The Unemployment Rate still exceeds 9%.

The February report is encouraging because it points to an accelerating pace of job creation. The post Christmas season employment surge represents a 30,000 job gain over January's strong report that triples the six month moving average. The service sector accounted for over 200,000 of the job gains. The manufacturing and goods producing sector combined to create 35,000 jobs. Construction continues to mirror the moribund housing market shedding an additional 9,000 jobs during the month. The construction industry has lost over 2.1 million jobs since its peak in 2008.

The robust recovery in the service sector is welcomed but sustainable economic growth can only be achieved by a robust turn around in the goods producing and manufacturing sectors. Service sector jobs offer lower wages, tend to be highly correlated to retail consumer spending and positions are often transient in nature. Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises (SME) is where the highest concentration of service jobs are created and the employment figures bear that out with SMEs accounting for over 204,000 jobs created during the month of February.

Large businesses added 13,000 jobs during the month of February. The balance sheets of large corporations are strong. The great recession provided large corporates an opportunity to rationalize their business franchise with layoffs, consolidations and prudent cost management. Benign inflation, global presence, outsourcing, low cost of capital and strong equity markets created ideal conditions for profitability and an improved capital structure. The balance sheets of large corporations are flush with $1 trillion in cash and it appears that the large corporates are deploying this capital resource into non-job creating initiatives.

The restructuring of the economy continues. The Federal stimulus program directed massive funds to support fiscally troubled state and local government budgets. The Federal Stimulus Program was a critical factor that help to stabilize local government workforce levels. The expiration of the Federal stimulus program is forcing state and local governments into draconian measures to balance budgets. Government employment levels are being dramatically pared back to maintain fiscal stability. Public service workers unions are under severe pressure to defend employment, compensation and benefits of workers in an increasingly conservative political climate that insists on fiscal conservatism and is highly adverse to any tax increase.

The elimination of government jobs, the expiration of unemployment funds coupled with rising interest rates, energy and commodity prices will drain significant buying power from the economy and create additional headwinds for the recovery.

Macroeconomic Factors

The principal macroeconomic factors confronting the economy are the continued high unemployment rate, weakness in the housing market, tax policy and deepening fiscal crisis of state, local and federal governments. The Tea Party tax rebellion has returned congress to Republican control and will encourage the federal government to pursue fiscally conservative policies that will dramatically cut federal spending and taxes for the small businesses and the middle class. In the short term, spending cuts in federal programs will result in layoffs, and cuts in entitlement programs will remove purchasing power from the demand side of the market. It is believed that the tax cuts to businesses will provide the necessary incentive for SME’s to invest capital surpluses back into the company to stimulate job creation.

The growing uncertainty in the Middle East and North Africa is a significant political risk factor. The expansion of political instability in the Gulf Region particularly Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia; a protracted civil war in Libya or a reignited regional conflict involving Israel would have a dramatic impact on oil markets; sparking a rise in commodity prices and interest rates placing additional stress on economic recovery.

Political uncertainty tends to heighten risk aversion in credit markets. The financial rescue of banks with generous capital infusions and accommodating monetary policies from sovereign governments has buttressed the profitability and capital position of banks. Regulatory uncertainty of Basel III, Dodd-Frank, and the continued rationalization of the commercial banking system and continued concern about the quality of credit portfolios continue to curtail availability of credit for SME lending. Governments are encouraging banks to lend more aggressively but banks continue to exercise extreme caution in making loans to financially stressed and capital starved SMEs.

Highlights of the ADP Report for February include:

Private sector employment increased by 217,000

Employment in the service-providing sector rose 202,000

Employment in the goods-producing sector declined 15,000

Employment in the manufacturing sector declined 20,000

Construction employment declined 9,000

Large businesses with 500 or more workers declined 2,000

Medium-size businesses, defined as those with between 50 and 499 workers increased 24,000

Employment among small-size businesses with fewer than 50 workers, increased 21,000

Overview of Numbers

The 202,000 jobs created by the SME sectors represents over 90% of new job creation. Large businesses comprise approximately 20% of the private sector employment and continues to underperform SMEs in post recession job creation. The strong growth of service sector though welcomed continues to mask the under performance of the manufacturing sector. The 11 million manufacturing jobs comprise approximately 10% of the private sector US workforce. The 20 thousand jobs created during February accounted for 10% of new jobs. Considering the severely distressed condition and capacity utilization of the sector and the favorable conditions for export markets and cost of capital the job growth of the sector appears extremely weak. The US economy is still in search of a driver. The automotive manufacturers have returned to profitability due to global sales in Latin America and China with a large portion of the manufacturing done in local oversea markets.

The stock market continues to perform well. The Fed is optimistic that the QE2 initiative will allay bankers credit risk concerns and ease lending restrictions to SMEs. A projected GDP growth rate of 3% appears to be an achievable goal. The danger of a double dip recession is receding but severe geopolitical risk factors continue to keep the possibility alive.

Interest rates have been at historic lows for two years and will begin to notch upward as central bankers continue to manage growth with a mix of inflation and higher costs of capital. The stability of the euro and the EU's sovereign debt crisis will remain a concern and put upward pressure on interest rates and the dollar.

As the price of commodities and food spikes higher the potential of civil unrest and political instability in emerging markets of Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America grows. Some even suggest this instability may touch China.

The balance sheets of large corporate entities remain flush with cash. The availability of distressed assets and volatile markets will encourage corporate treasurers to put that capital to work to capitalize on emerging opportunities. The day of the lazy corporate balance sheet is over.

Solutions from Sum2

Credit Redi offers SMEs tools to manage financial health and improve corporate credit rating to attract and minimize the cost of capital. Credit Redi helps SMEs improve credit standing and demonstrate to bankers that you are a good credit risk.

For information on the construction and use of the ADP Report, please visit the methodology section of the ADP National Employment Report website.

You Tube Video: John Handy, Hard Work

Two Americas

2011-01-19T05:24:00.000-08:00

Bill Maher recently did a bit on the eco-friendly packaging of Sun Chips. In its desire to get down with the Go Green marketing trend, Frito-Lay developed a bio-degradable bag. It was hoped the new package would alleviate some of the toxic burden traditional polyethylene packaging places on landfills. It was a great idea and a small sign of forward progress in developing environmentally friendly waste management solutions for our conspicuously consumer centric throw away society. Seemed like a good idea until Frito-Lay started to get negative feedback from its customers on its packaging. The crescendo of noise the crackling bags made was too much for the sensitive ears of Sun Chips consumers. In deference to their clients wishes Frito-Lay scrapped the eco-friendly packaging and returned to the old polyethylene bags.

Its amazing how a small inconvenience compels us to to cede the pursuit of the better path. The paths that affirms our better nature and sustains life is abandoned because it is burdensome or makes too much noise. It pesters our ears, it hectors our comforts. We prefer to down our cholesterol in the silence of compliant bags rather then suffer the annoyance of a deafening crinkle to protect the environment and save the planet. We take the easier path that confirms the adage "have it your way". In America the personal "my way" is the only way. After all this is America and that is what freedom is all about. My way or the highway. Can I get an Amen?

During the holiday season the big stink was about the Transportation Security Authority (TSA). The news was flush with reports of travelers outraged by how TSA personal were overly intrusive and overstepped the bounds of decency and deportment as they screened exasperated airline passengers trying to board planes. Travelers became angry and ornery complaining about the violation of their person and as they screamed violent threats at TSA personnel if they "touched their junk".

I find it a bit curious that the response to this egregious violation of personal liberty fails to call for the repeal of laws that codify the erosion of our freedoms. In its stead we learn states are busy passing privilege and immunity laws that confer special rights to certain classes of citizens. The Arizona Immigration law that was enacted earlier in the year burdens Latinos with proving they belong to be living amongst us. Its a pathway to a softer kinder Apartheid that codifies a bifurcation of citizenship and the value and validity of a persons humanness. In its wake the value of liberty and our humanity both plummet.

The notion of Two Americas is not new. Its just that the glaring injustice threatening our society is becoming too stark to ignore. This pernicious sedition is the gravest threat undermining our democracy. It is a greater threat then any attack Al Qaeda could ever mount on America. In 1962 Michael Harrington wrote "The Other America". It was instrumental in publicizing the pervasive poverty that existed in America. In response to the growing threat poverty and the cultural and economic fissure it created between the of "haves and have nots," the Johnson Administration initiated a war on poverty. The Great Society legislation was enacted to insure that a social safety net would catch any citizen from being swallowed by the great divide. Today such notions are condemned as socialistic and unAmerican.

While the richest 1% of American's continue to amass great fortunes for themselves gobbling up a disproportionate amount of income the much greater proportion of our countrymen sees its standard of living erode as the Two Americas drift further apart. The well off cash their fat dividend checks from a roaring stock market that has less to do with the economic development of America then the self enrichment of capitalist speculators. The greatest irony is that as they sit atop their piles of cash they remain convinced that their riches confirm the greatness of America and that their wealth is why America remains great.

When President Obama took office the country was in a terrible state. Two wars were raging, unemployment was spiraling upward, foreclosures were throwing millions of Americans out of their homes and an epidemic of small business bankruptcies was a plague ravishing Main Street USA. During times like these you would think patriotic minded citizens would come together to aid the country in its dire hour of need; but the GOP led a virulent opposition whose single goal was Obama's failure. Their obstructionism added distance to the divide and America suffers for it. The ugliness of the debates concerning Health Care Reform spurred the creation of a political dialog that delegitimatized governing institutions. It made the ability to reach consensus impossible and prompted threats that Second Amendment solutions would be considered to remedy ill considered legislation.

In the aftermath of the Tucson Massacre, we dusted off the old debate about gun control and wheeled it it on to center stage again. Many believe that the mentally ill murderer should have not been allowed to purchase a semi-automatic Glock and the 30 round clip that served to enlarge the scope of Jared Loughner's terrible carnage.

All are thankful for Gabrielle Gifford's miraculous recovery from her head wound. All hope for a speedy and full recovery of the thirteen wounded and offer condolences to the six citizens whose lives were senselessly ended. But all don't believe the availability of guns should be restricted. In fact many believe that had more citizens been armed the death toll of innocents would not have been as great because it would have included Jared Loughner before he could finish his grim work. I'm not so sure. I believe it more likely that a widely armed citizenry encourages wanton barbarity then the well considered promotion of dispassionate civic discourse.

Differences of opinion are critical to a healthy society. The ability to have dialog and assimilate differences in a shared consensus in service to country is what makes democracies the best form of government.

If we are a people who prize freedom we cannot be complicit accomplishes in ceding our liberties. We must be vigilant missionaries seeking to enlarge the pallet of liberty for all people. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best, "All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality" Affirming a respect for our shared humanity, equal rights of citizenship and sense of duty to one another in service to our country and democratic way of life is how we breech the walls that divide us and bridge the fissures that separate. These are the characteristics of why a nation becomes great and protecting them serves to maintain the greatness of its people. It is how out of many becomes one. It may require that you put up with the annoying noise of a loud crinkling bag of wind but the savory delight of the bread of freedom is well worth it.

You Tube Music Video: Max Roach, Abby Lincoln, Freedom Now Suite, We Insist

Risk: democracy, civil liberties, culture, consensus

Hope Boasts

2011-01-16T05:54:00.001-08:00

Some condemn hope.

They say its just a platitude.

Hope don't work out.

Its an opium of the masses.

A mass delusion,

for masses of people

securely set

in a comfortable
state of mass

denial.

They laugh at the prospect of hope.

They decry its idea.

Hope is for dreamers.

Hope is not practical;
its but
metaphysical meanderings,
and escapist
existential posturing.
Dread is the dough
of a better bread.

Psychiatric shamans
say there is no future in hope.
They chuckle and wink
when hope is articulated in prayer.
The learned call it
a healthy catharsis.
The intrepid
believes it
a lame excuse

absolving

personal responsibility

affirming a
deluded reliance

on a supernatural

unseen power.

"Hows that hopey changey thing workin fer ya",

she mocked.

They persecute

the prophets of hope;

crucified
on heinous crosses
of the prevailing
thought of the age,
made from the
common wood
group think,
near sightedness,
cynicism,
ideology
and the
staid doctrine of
fundamentalist
dogma.

Silly idealists,

mouthing
empty slogans

of phantom
expectations.

Worse yet
filling others
with notions

of greatness
or

a wee bit

of transcendence
from the poverty of
their weary situation.

Surely a future regret in the making.

A dour disappointment in waiting.

The product of an
overactive imagination,

a religionists fantasy

for dim witted

shallow thinkers.

But
there are times

when

hope
is all that
I
have left.

To borrow a phase
from gun loving zealots,

you'll have to pry
the last vestige
of hope

from my
wave-less brain

and dislodge it
with a scalpel
from my cold

unbeating
heart.

So
permit me to boast.
When I lay prostrate
and crumbled
from the crush of life
and awful fate
is about to deliver
the coup de grace
to my ill spent life,
I'll be holding
on to hope.

Its really
the only thing
I have left
and will not
permit
hope
to be
taken
away.

You Tube Music Video:

Jackson Johnson, Hope

For
MLK Day
2011

010111

2011-01-01T05:19:00.001-08:00

friends
splendor
service
abundance
beauty
faith
love
happiness
goodness
fascination
challenge
achievement
creativity
sensuality
peace

May you find some of these and more during 2011
peace and prayers to all the beloved

You Tube Music Video: Crowfoot

Risk: life

***

Welcome Kwanzaa

2010-12-30T05:08:00.001-08:00

We welcome the arrival of Kwanzaa. People of good will everywhere welcome this opportunity to bring more light into a world shrouded in darkness. Kwanzaa celebrates community as a vessel to receive and dispense the flow of hope and service required to minister and serve others. It is a wonderful reminder on the importance of community and excellent opportunity to strengthen the bonds of the individual within communities.

The Seven Principles

Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together.
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (Faith): To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

We welcome Kwanzaa and wish its celebrants an enriching and transforming experience.

You Tube Music Video: Herbie Hancock, Don Cherry, Kawaida, Kamali

Risk: holiday, culture, faith

Emmanuel: God Is With Us!

2010-12-25T04:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday as I was out with Tritty I met my neighbor on the road walking with his son. My neighbors son moved to Boston and had become a pediatric heart doctor. He was always a very fine boy and he had grown into a very fine young man. He had recently become a father and he asked us to stop by to see him. I asked him what he had named his son. He answered Matthew. It gave me reason to pause because my nephew Matthew passed away seven years ago a few days after Christmas. After a third relapse Matthew succumbed to Leukemia at the tender age of sixteen.

Later that evening my family gathered at Matthew's home for a wonderful Christmastide celebration. The house was packed with the aunts, uncles and children of four families. The food, drink, music and gifting created a festive air of joy but the mirth of the season is always tempered by Matthews absence and the association of his death with Christmas. This time of year is particularly difficult for Matthew's father. They were exceptionally close and my brother-in-law carries Matthew's absence in a somber heart that seems to grow a bit larger this time of year. As the evening passed I related my story about meeting my neighbors son on the road that day and the appearance of Matthew. This news uplifted my brother-in-laws spirit. He smiled and said "thats Matthew letting us know he's around." Matthew continues to be a real presence in the lives of those who knew him and loved him. In a most real sense he continues to dwell with us.

Emmanuel, means God is with us. God dwells with us. Many believe this to be patented nonsense. They point to the endless string of calamitous events and abhorrent tragedies that plague humanity. If God was loving why does the Benevolent One allow such misfortune to befall his children? If The Omnipotent One is all powerful why does he not come to their aid? If God is the embodiment of love why does the power of evil and the treachery of man seem to multiply and grow laughing in the face of an impotent God? I must admit as a person of faith it can be difficult to answer these questions. Asked in the spirit of truth they are not easily dismissed. A Pollyannish response is not sufficient to halt the eroding power of pessimism, the ambivalence of fatalism and the cynicism it voraciously breeds.

What is our answer?

We have sifted through the rubble strewn streets of Port-Au-Prince.We have extracted our beloved ones from their prisons of concrete and twisted rebar. We worked until utter exhaustion overcame us. We labored in the fervent hope that our exertions would not be in vain to find and liberate one more soul awaiting deliverance. We administered inoculations to ward off the plague of cholera. The awful stalk of the grim reaper has been arrested. The indiscriminate threshing of souls has abated. The construction of new dwellings arise out of the rubble to house those saved from the prisons of concrete and the sickle of disease.

America's wars rage on. The conflict has mercifully ended for some combatants. Some will experience the joy of a reunion with families, others will find rest in an eternal heavenly peace. A fragile peace reigns for yet another day on the Korean Peninsula. Dispassionate reason has cooled the temper of belligerence as blessed ones continue to witness for peace to end the abomination of these unjust wars.

The egregious ecological wound of The Gulf of Mexico is beginning to heal. The good work of vigilant environmental stewards deeply engaged in the work of restoration remain in attentive loving service to our gracious Mother Earth.

The economic distress of the unemployed has been salved with government service and the kindness of family and friends.

The plight of the evicted has been eased. The foreclosures on millions of families has peaked, homes have been opened to those seeking a places to live, shelter workers keep the light of rooms brightly burning so the those in need of a bed may find one.

Sudanese huddling on the windswept desert of the Great Rift Valley, Mexican immigrants crossing hostile borders of the Sonoran desert and the terror stricken LGBT community will come to realize that it will get better. That their situation is not hopeless. The ardor of intolerance will abate and the peace of reconciliation will reign on the throne of understanding and acceptance. All will find sanctuary.

Israeli's and Arabs with a dogged determination come to the table yet again to talk about the prospects for peace in Palestine.

Missionaries of hope spread the message of peace and reconciliation.

Healers without borders doctor to the distressed.

Carpenters are building hospitable habitats for the homeless.

Teachers are reaching troubled children and adults most needing to hear kind, thoughtful instruction.

Emmanuel! God is with us. Yahweh is forever faithful. The Beneficent One moves across the trouble waters of time to unite Gods Children in a single river of humanity, where justice flows and the Good Shepard finds all lost sheep. Allah softens the hearts of the zealous. God informs a sober reason to the obstinate. The Holy Spirit swaddles all in a blanket of divine love. The Prince of Peace is with us.

As I walked through the doors for Christmastide services I was asked by a church brother if I would sit in with choir. Like the Prophet Samuel I heard the call and answered "here I am." It was a special unanticipated grace to process into the church on Christmas Eve. The Lord asked me to make a joyful noise and walk with him on this Holy Night. It is a blessing to walk with the Lord as a real presence.

After the nights services as I was leaving the church I witnessed two brethren sitting side by side in the now empty pews. They were father and son. About the time that Matthew died, the boys mother, the mans wife passed away after a heroic fight against cancer. As they sat in the presence of their God, father and son were present for each other. I imagined them also to be in a rapturous communion and loving embrace of their very present mother and beautiful wife.

Emmanuel!

God is with us.

Our expectant hope is realized.

The Word has been made Flesh.

God has broken through.

God remains ever faithful.
God dwells with us.

A good and present helper

guide our hands

open our hearts.

Selah

Christmas 2010

You Tube Music Video:

Soul Stirrers, Were You There

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Advent Meditations: The Armor of God

2010-12-23T04:43:00.000-08:00

Dearly Beloved,

I love St. Patrick's Breastplate. It conjures an image of a Pentecostal Baptism, a total immersion in the love, light and truth of the Holy Spirit.

St. Patrick is bound in unity with Christ. This unity is central to the wellness of his spiritual condition and wholeness as a functioning human being. St. Patrick's Breastplate is more then protective armor. It seems more like an epidural layer of skin that allows the exchange of spiritual energy between St. Patrick and his higher power. This two way exchange is a transcendent flow of spiritual energy that breaths life into St. Patrick, energizing his daily walk and life in Christ.

God is not a sequestered remote deity but an omnipotent force that fills the universe that St. Patrick inhabits. Christ beside me, Christ in front of me, Christ behind me, Christ within me reveals a spiritual being perfectly centered, completely swaddled by the loving grace of the Holy Spirit.

St. Patrick understands his relationship with Christ is more then a walk. God is the other half of St. Patrick's heartbeat. He is bound through God to all creatures and all creation as one in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

Wishing all a blessed Christmastide as we offer the Lord's Peace and our prayers to all God's Beloved.

Selah

You Tube Music Video: Blind Boys of Alabama, Just A Closer Walk With Thee

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Advent Meditations: The Silent Word Pleads

2010-12-22T04:36:00.000-08:00

"Tent City"
James Romberger

Dearly Beloved,

"Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them." (Ephesians 5:11)

Paul's words still resonate to a world bereft of truth. We prefer the staid condition of denial over acceptance, dumbfounded silence to confession, blind delusion to reality, a fumbling amnesia to steadfast mindfulness. We prefer to suffer the consequence of deception then to break the mendacious chains of hypocrisy. A world drowning in a sea of illusion condemns the life raft offered by truth tellers. They beheaded John the Baptist, crucified Jesus, assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. and now the world heaps scorn on today's notorious prophet of truth, Julian Assange.

Paul's words ring with the clarity of a clanging warning bell. He pleads and exhorts the beloved to be faithful to the truth, not accomplices to deception; either in things done or maintaining an idle muteness of complicit silence. We are called to witness to truth, in truth, in how we engage the world and how we perceive ourselves. Failure to do so makes us confederates to deceit in open rebellion to truth. We become abomination of sinfulness if we continue to walk the path of the untruthful.

Pilate asked the condemned Jesus "What is truth? The embodiment of love and light stood before the most powerful man in all of Israel and he could not recognize the truth staring him in the face. Jesus is the mirror we hold up to truthfully examine ourselves and to reflect on the world to determine how we can faithfully engage it in service to truth.

When Pilate asked the question "What is truth?" Jesus stood silently before him. Truth needs no justification. As we sojourn on to Christmas, to once again behold the truth of the "Word Become Flesh" enthroned on a cradle of hay, we are reminded of the lyrics of What Child Is This:

Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.

The silent Word pleads with us to open our ears so as to engage the world with an open heart. In the deafening silence the truth speaks.

For this reason it says,
“Awake, sleeper,
And arise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on you.”
Ephesians 5:14

Selah

Peace and Prayers to all the Beloved.

You Tube Music Video:

Andrea Bocelli & Mary J Blige - What Child Is This

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Advent Meditations: The Twelve Promises

2010-12-21T14:38:00.001-08:00

Dearly Beloved,

At the beginning of AA Meetings The Twelve Promises are sometimes read. The Twelve Promises are considered half of what is referred to as the 12 and 12. The first 12 refers to The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. The second 12 are The Twelve Promises. We are taught that if you do the step work suggested as a program for recovery in the Twelve Steps you get to realize the promises of sobriety as outlined in the Twelve Promises. The 12 and 12 along with the Big Book are the Gospels of AA, the canonical bedrock of a rich and divinely inspired recovery literature that has been and continues to be a miraculous grace for those suffering from the disease of alcoholism and drug addition.

The Tenth Promise states, "that we will intuitively know how to handle situations that once baffled us". When I was an active alcoholic challenging situations would often baffle me. Seemingly small inconveniences or the tiniest uneven ebbs and flows of daily living would empower my resentments. I would perceive these tiny bumps as personal affronts provoking an emotional response of rage and anger. My denuded spiritual condition crippled me. I was unable to dispassionately step back, be still, rationally consider circumstance and think a solution through and the proper manner of response to elicit a preferred and wholesome outcome. My rage and anger was toxic. It was a poison that infected my relations with people and did enormous damage to myself and to those who loved me.

My spiritual sickness made sure my anger was always stoking red hot. The Third Promise states that "we will comprehend serenity and know peace". Being still is a precondition to comprehending and knowing serenity is only possible with the clarity of sober thought. The clarity of sober thought was made possible for me when I took up the armor of God and wrapped myself firmly in the truth of a recovery program. Keeping sober by doing the step work allows me to live in the serenity as one in the unconditional loving unity of the Holy Spirit.

I offer prayers to all the still sick and suffering that they may find a way to recovery and for those in recovery may they enjoy the grace of one more day of sobriety and the promise of an abundant life.

Selah

Peace and prayers to all the beloved,

You Tube Music Video: Kirk Franklin, Why We Sing

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Advent Meditations: Go Tell It On The Mountain!

2010-12-20T10:02:00.001-08:00

Dearly Beloved,

The suicide of Tyler Clementi was more then a personal tragedy for his family, friends, those that loved him and the greater LGBT community. It was an event that forced America to hold up a mirror to itself and take a long honest look. It provided an opportunity for a nation that professes to uphold cultural tolerance and civil liberties for all its citizens to truthfully search its heart to determine how well America upholds these sacred ideals. I believe America found itself wanting.

The practice of self examination is not one of America's strong points. We are much more comfortable living a life of convenient denial. The military practice of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) codified the plausible deniability of institutional ambivalence. It sequestered the need to act to address a nagging injustice. It held the truth hostage so as not to suffer the consequences of an inconvenient truth. It revealed a country in deep state of denial refusing to shatter the myths and the untruths it believed about itself. It pandered to the ugly fears and violent temperament of intolerant zealots that unleashed waves of hateful vindictiveness against the marginalized and most vulnerable. A lie in service to a myth creates and perpetuates a culture of delusion. It allows all citizens to hold tight to our national deceptions, celebrating broken ideals with the untruth of meaningless flags.

America took an important step this weekend with the repeal of DADT. The personal truth of who we are as individuals is now aligned with open and truthful institutions. This landmark legislation corrected a legislative injustice by addressing an institutional discrimination. America must be a place where civil rights for all citizens lies beyond compromise. That is the easy part. Now the hearts of American's must change and learn to accept the justice that the repeal of DADT upholds.

God apportions equal amount of love to all his children. All are accepted, none denied the grace of light God asks us to walk into. All are fully enfranchised citizens in God Kingdom. The Perpetual Potentate governs over all in perfect justice. The People of the Way are called to be upright citizens in the City of Light. Citizenship requires the beloved "to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patients, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Ephesians 4:1-3)

God is a radical affirmation of self, free to live in the unity of the Holy Spirit as we have been called. We are called to speak our truth to the power of earthy principalities as we are called to be the truth in the living power of God. Our freedom compels us to "Go Tell it on the Mountain".

The earthly principalities may have lost the exquisite melodies of Tyler Clementi’s music; but the earthly silence is a resounding reminder to weave harmony into a cacophonous world crackling in ugly dissonance. Tyler’s violin may now lie entombed in its case; but it continues to implore us to sing the sounds of joy, enlightenment, revelation, and transcendence to those who refuse to listen to the symphonies of understanding, acceptance and appreciate the celebration of love. The beautiful music Tyler created and brought into the world will forever resonate from the highest peaks of joyous affirmation to the lowest valleys of pedestrian dread. The melody of his life will always be with us. This Advent we sojourn to the mountain to sing the wonderful harmony of Tyler’s life. We pray with expectant hope that those refusing to listen and those most needing to hear will open deaf ears and join the earthly chorus of all the beloved singing in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

absolution is sweet
vindication better
affirmation divine

Selah

Peace and prayers to all the beloved,

You Tube Music Video: Mahalia Jackson, Go Tell It On The Mountain!

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Advent Meditations: An Abundant Life

2010-12-18T09:58:00.000-08:00

Dearly Beloved,

Jesus Christ is referred to by many names in the Bible. I believe its a reflection of the omnipresence of The Holy Spirit. The Omnipresent One simultaneously manifests itself in a multitude of guises. The One Who Cannot Be Known is known only in part because the essence of the Omnipotent One is only understood and perceived as a subjective truth to the individual beholding the goodness of the Lord.

My favored image of Jesus Christ is The Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd is ever mindful, ever watchful, ever vigilant, ever present and always faithful. A sure and present helper to all the beloved. Jesus Christ as The Good Shepherd is revealed in the Gospel of John. John writes that The Good Shepherd has come so that we may have life, and live it abundantly.

I celebrate the idea of an abundant life. I believe that the abundant life that Jesus promises is not marked by a life that is rich in the possession of things. I believe that Jesus is calling the beloved into a richer communion of relationship with God and with one another. Such an understanding of abundance seems to undermine the Calvinist capitalist ethos of a life based on hard work and acquisition.

Today the prosperity theology of TV Evangelists stand on this precept as the driving principle of the Gospel of Jesus. Empowering the individual with a richness of material things will enable them to confer blessings upon others. I am uneasy about this definition of an abundant life. I think it panders to my selfishness and feeds my sense of radical entitlement at the expense of connected community and individual responsibility.

I believe the abundant life Jesus asks us to live is a life marked by the richness of wholesome relationships. An abundant life honors the sacredness of relationships. It abhors exploitation and greed. Its principle aim to affirm spiritual wellness. Its work seeks to build and maintain relationships by fortfying the foundations of trust.

The sacramental life that Jesus calls us to is based on service to one another. It is found in the everyday common transactions of human relations. Our experience of God is found in the earthly transactions when brothers and sisters offer a willing hand, an eager ear and an open heart to fellow human beings.

I heard a Bishop once say to love wastefully. I take this wisdom to mean to be fearless in your witness by casting your love upon others expecting nothing in return other then to connect with another in the unity of unconditional love. Such richness is a treasure that moths cannot eat nor rust defile. Investing time, talents and being present for others is the joyous experience of a sacramental life. It is the perfect return of a life lived in rich abundance.

The Good Shepherd calls for the lost and found to gather as one. Led by love the spiritual wellness of all the beloved are affirmed and celebrated in the unity of this Holy Spirit.

Selah

Peace and prayers to all the beloved,

You Tube Music Video: Lead Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven

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Advent Meditations: Without Doubt There Can Be No Faith

2010-12-17T09:03:00.000-08:00

Dearly Beloved,

I am enjoying the opportunity to participate in this Advent discussion.   It helps me to clarify and articulate for my own edification an understanding of my faith. This self examination if done faithfully in service to truth can lead to the wonder of personal discovery and the miracle of divine revelation.

One revelation I experienced yesterday was that my astute self pronouncements seemed to convey too much certainty and not enough doubt. As Kierkegaard says "there can be no faith without doubt." Me thinks I have too much certainty. I pray that the Lord save me from the mindset of despair and release me from my dogma of blind acceptance and unequivocal certainty. Inert dogma is a dead faith. The Lord invites us to enter a ceaseless examination of ourselves in a continuously changing relationship to God. Too much certainly halts the journey of discovery. Without movement no spiritual growth can occur. Doubt is the mother of knowledge and a deeper spirituality. I know I need more doubt and I thank God for leading me to the discovery of this personal truth.

The paradox of knowing versus believing finds parallel in the raging debate between science and religion. To me the impassioned participants in the debate both eagerly lob bombs of stale dogma. Both seem beholden to an intractable mindset of a theology infused with fundamentalist certainty.

The exponents of science condemn the religious as imprisoned by a set of beliefs based on myth and superstition. The skeptics posit it is nothing more then old world thinking that ascribes explanation of things to supernatural causes. The metaphysical spheres are existential fictions created by an over active imagination. The rationalists assert that history has built up civilizations store of knowledge and that rational inquiry and a scientific method has replaced the need for a Biblical exegesis.

The defenders of the faith counter that the rationalists use the "religion of science" to understand and interpret the natural world.    Some assert that belief is incompatible with science and in fact the scientific critique of religion confirms the tenants of their belief that they are being crucified for their faith as foretold by their interpretation of their Holy Book.

Intractability beholden one to a world solely colored by subjective truth. Pure subjectivity inhibits the discovery of the unknown and the possibility of receiving the revelation of deeper objective truths.

Openness is a precondition to receiving. Openness connects all the yearnings and subjective desires of earths inhabitants, aligning them with the objective truth of the unconditional love of a dispassionate, "I AM THAT I AM" God.

‘Without risk there is no faith. Faith is precisely the contradiction between the infinite passion of the individual’s inwardness and the objective uncertainty. If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe.   If I wish to preserve myself in faith I must constantly be intent upon holding fast to the objective uncertainty, so as to remain out upon the deep, over seventy thousand fathoms of water, still preserving my faith.’ Søren Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript.

Scientists who shun experimentation and the pursuit of the unknown truths it can reveal will never experience the joy of discovery. The faithful, content to define God as a caricature of their fundamental understanding will never experience the divine mystery of revelation.

As a person of faith I believe my God is big enough to incorporate and assimilate rational inquiry. My faith demands that all Gods Children fully employ their critical faculties to experience and know the paradox of the depth and breath of the "One Who Cannot Be Known." As we sojourn on along the infinite plain of time the paradox of "The Infinite One" is our map and sure guarantee of our safe arrival at journey's end.

Selah

Peace and Prayers to all the Beloved,

jbm

You Tube Music Video: Thomas Dolby, She Blinded Me With Science

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Advent Meditations: The Prayers of the Righteous Availeth Much

2010-12-16T08:35:00.000-08:00

Dorothy Day

Dearly Beloved,

"The prayers of a righteous man availeth much", so says Sean Connery to Harrison Ford in one of the Indiana Jones films.

Sean Connery is quoting an exhortation from James about the power of prayer and the need to articulate our desires and condition to others and to God so that the goodness of truth may become manifest in the here and now.

The great American Quaker Rufus Jones writes about the power of corporate prayer as a kind of "soul force". Jones a friend to Mahatmas Gandhi borrowed the term Satyagraha, a Sanskrit word that means "holding firmly to the truth". Satyagraha is a powerful form of prayer that speaks truth to the divine and earthly powers. It insists that the truth of goodness, the rule of justice and the power of love reign supreme as the guiding principles in all human relations.

Soul force is a powerful agent for change. Its power knocks down the towers of repressive principalities as it builds the social justice foundations of better nations. Soul force helped birth the modern India nation state. Soul force informed a sensibility that ended Apartheid in South Africa and helped it to reconcile and heal the nations deep wounds after its demise. Soul force transformed the culture of America through the adoption of civil rights laws. The prayers of the righteous do indeed availeth much.

Our personal prayers help us to articulate our desires, form clarity about our needs, communicate those needs, engage dialog to understand implications of our desires, discern terms and conditions, design strategies and plans to achieve desires and come to terms with eventual outcomes. Based on truth prayer bridges pedestrian desires with a divine wholeness that places the individual at the center of God's universe. It opens up the possibilities and potentials of a connected self to God, family, friends and a supportive community united in common purpose.

We don't always get what we pray for but God's wisdom has elevated the condition of the communicant by placing him in a supportive community of prayerful stakeholders affirming the unity, goodness and truth of the beloved made one in the Holy Spirit.

The Word has become Flesh.

Selah

Peace and prayers to all the beloved,

jbm

You Tube Video: Manu Dibango, Soul Makossa

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Advent Meditations: The Heavenly City

2010-12-15T12:43:00.001-08:00

Lovers

Dante's Inferno

William Blake

Dearly Beloved,

In Mark's Gospel, Jesus advised to render to Caesar what is his. I always understood that to mean that Jesus was commanding us to separate our political aspirations from our spiritual lives. It seemed to suggest a partition between the worldly matters of life and the heavenly considerations of the spirit.

The principalities and powers Paul writes of in Ephesians 1:21 suggests that the two have been joined. The lexicon of power and the nomenclature of principalities certainly informs a political sensibility to the role of faith. The public ministry of Jesus as an active agent that heals the sick, feeds the hungry and gives sight to the blind is further codified in James admonition of faith without works is no faith at all.

St. Augustine in the City of God squarely addresses the conundrum of bifurcation of the rendering to Caesar while serving God. Augustine's cosmology created two states, one earthy, one heavenly and it was only through the good office of a Holy See that the separation is justly reconciled.

This Socratic thinking finds root in Plato's Republic, suggesting that the best form of governance can only be achieved through an enlightened philosopher King who understands the perfectness of God's good truth. This allows The Holy See to understand divine truths and be the best arbiter of earthy justice to reconcile a broken earthly city with the perfectness of the heavenly spheres.

Theocracies run counter to the democratic ideals that flowered during the Age of Enlightenment. St. Augustine's ideas have been used throughout history to justify the repression of religious tyrants and fascist dictators. To this day the debate continues as fundamentalists curse the blessing of secular democracy to impose the narrow truths of their personal deity.

The good news is that the ministry of The Righteous One lives on in the hearts of men and women of good will all over the world. The Children of Light keep the hope of Christ alive. They are the sure and present helpers whose work repairs the breech to traverse the bridge linking the Earthy and Heavenly Cities. Uniting all the beloved in the inclusive community and unconditional abundant love of the Holy Spirit.

Selah,

Peace and prayers to all the beloved,

jbm

You Tube Music Video: Shirley Caesar, Sweeping Through the City

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Advent Meditations: Holy Mysteries

2010-12-15T12:42:00.000-08:00

Dearly Beloved,

Jesus Christ always seemed a paradox to me. He was of the world yet not from it. Fully man and fully divine. The Son of Man and the Son of God. The One existing at the foundation of the world and being the begotten One from the womb of a woman to become One of a Triune in the Holy Trinity.

The paradox of Jesus Christ is profoundly manifested in his ministry. A King born to poverty. A Brother to the excluded and marginalized. A Healer to the broken. A perfect sacrifice willingly offered to the ambivalence of a self seeking world.

The Prince of Peace comes into the world wielding a sword to turn children against mothers and fathers is the most frightening paradox of all.

Our Muslim brothers and sisters will tell you that the literal definition of Islam is submission and its practice is freedom.

All Jesus Christ asks of us is to let him share the load of our burdens. Our failure to heed this call is the greatest paradox of all. Like Charles Dickens character Morley's Ghost, we refuse to loosen the chains of steadfast selfishness condemning us to lives of terrible privation. Its by letting go that we gain. Its is by letting God that we empower ourselves.

Welcome the paradox of a peace that passes all understanding. Guided by nothing more then the light of Christ in our hearts more will be revealed to the People of the Way as we sojourn on to Canaan.

Selah

Peace and prayers to all the beloved.

You Tube Music Video: Elmer Gantry, On My Way

jbm

Advent Meditations: Prisoners of Hope

2010-12-15T12:38:00.000-08:00

Greetings to all the beloved on this Third Sunday of Advent.

May the joy of Christs Peace be with you today and always.

Mark this day as a day of the jubilee. We have been ransomed from the prison of sin. The heavy burden of our debt has been forgiven. We are fully restored. We have been made whole to live in the freedom of Christs Peace.

When the trials of life seem to conspire against us. When the burden of living seems that it is about to crush us. When the many intricate and complex problems that engulf our emotional and mental capabilities seem to sap our physical abilities and our spiritual will to continue; these are the times when the daily bread of hope is our only sustenance. All we are called to do is to engage our problems. One at a time, one day at a time. Put one foot ahead of the other one step at a time. In the homeless shelters I am always amazed to witness the miracle of the beloved rising from a nights sleep. They stuff their worldly possessions into plastic glad bags then board the bus to confront the challenge of another uncertain day. It is a remarkable demonstration of courage and poignant example of hope.

Today is the day of our deliverance. Ours is the joy of the redeemed. We are the inheritors of hope to live in the abiding love the Infinite One abundantly confers upon the beloved. Our joyous hope overflows as we travel along The Way of Holiness. This pathway leads us through a fertile place that once was marked by our devastation. It was filled with the emptiness and calamity of our sin. This parched place was transformed and made alive as we became prisoners of Christ. The trail of our tears have watered gardens of sustenance. We blessed captives now travel as Pilgrims of Hope; leading God's Children of Light to the fullness of a life in Christ.

Faith guides the People of The Way along the well lit pathways that safely lead to places of peace, fulfillment and abundance. The light of Christ lights the way to our liberation from want and sin. The Lord's light makes our steps sure.

Selah

Peace and Prayers to all the Beloved.

You Tube Music Video: Mavis Staples, Eye On The Prize

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Advent Meditations: Courage to Change

2010-12-15T12:31:00.001-08:00

Dearly Beloved,

This morning comes the distressing news about the suicide of Mark Madoff, the son of convicted swindler Bernie Madoff. Suicide is always an unsettling way to leave the world. A conscious decision to bring an abrupt end to ones life is startling in its finality and disturbing to loved ones left behind. It often condemns the bereaved to a lifetime of pain, apprehension, confusion and guilt from the unanswered questions that will forever remain unresolved.

Suicide seems to be the ultimate insistence of ego and will. The anxiety and pain being experienced by the person overwhelms their emotional and mental capacity to deal with it. They lack the ability to accept life on life's terms. They cannot accept their inability to control the people, places and things in their life. Life on life's terms becomes an unbearable task. The world refuses to conform to their expectation of how things should be. Succumbing to the belief that they will never find any solace or peace they end their life in an attempt to forever rest in peace. Ultimately suicide is a kind of failure to truthfully assess oneself, identify problems and summon the courage to make the necessary changes to address them.

In the rooms of AA we use the Serenity Prayer to help us deal with challenges and problems. One line from the prayer asks to "give me the courage to change the things I can." The courage to change requires a deep commitment to acceptance of life on life's terms, not the terms as I like them to be. Courage to change requires the ability to be fearlessly honest with ourselves about our shortcomings and the steps we must take to address our problems.

The courage to change requires deep trust in a higher power. Acceptance of the fact that I can't control everything in my life is truly liberating. Letting go and letting God take control allows me to focus on changing the things I can and develop a plan to change them. Doing the work to make the necessary changes is the next step of personal recovery and restoration. Doing the actual work to address my problems is the grace of courage my Higher Power confers upon me as I undertake the journey of recovery.

Friends and family of Mark Madoff will surely search for answers to his self inflicted death. They will ask why. They'll ask if he only could reveal the depths of his pain perhaps we could have helped. If only he could summon the courage to change?

We offer prayers to the family and friends of the dearly departed.

GodSpeed beloved.

Selah

Peace and prayers to all the beloved,

jbm

You Tube Video: Wizard of Oz: Cowardly Lion

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Advent Meditations: The Empty Chair

2010-12-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

Dearly Beloved,

Today the recipient for the 2010 Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to Liu Xiaobo. Mr. Xiaobo could not be present to accept the award because he is a prisoner in a Chinese jail. Mr. Xiaobo is a writer, educator and life long human rights activist. The Nobel Committee believes Mr. Xiaobo's life and work to be exemplar of the ideals of human rights and global peace. Mr. Xiaobo was imprisoned for advocating that his country should be more mindful of human rights and become more democratic. Mr. Xiaobo was not allowed to come to Oslo to receive the Peace Prize. This years Peace Prize was conferred to an empty chair.

The empty chair may be fated to be the metaphor of our time.

It is said that a prophet finds no honor in his own country. It is also said that China may have lost an opportunity to show commitment to human rights and the clemency of justice by ransoming their captive to allow him to collect his well deserved prize. So much impassioned enmity inflamed in the name of peace. Those who are wagging tongues, shaking fists and pointing an accusatory finger at China for desecrating the hollowed pursuit of peace should look into the mirror and dislodge the splinter from their own eyes.

We can't absolve China for its lax accords on civil rights. Nor can we overlook the continued prosecution of America's two wars or the incessant drumbeats for another against Iran. Our ears cannot shut out the screams of entrapped Palestinian's clinging to a vapid life in peace starved Gaza as our eye's behold the unending horror of the Grim Reaper threshing his way through the rubble of Port-Au-Prince with a cholera infected sickle. Our dread consumes us contemplating a divided nuclear Korea burying the prospect for peace in the false refuge of fearful bunkers and the horrific prospect of the slaughter of innocents commencing again as caravans of saber wielding Junjaweed take aim at Southern Sudan.

In Ephesians, Paul speaks of the man made malady of separation of the circumcised and the uncircumcised. We are all exiles from the peace of Zion, foreigners to the promise of the covenant until we embrace the covenant of peace by removing the barriers that separate us. The walls that cleave the unity of the beloved is the father of conflict. It is through the unity of the Holy Spirit that the exiles are called home to Zion to build the Kingdom and firmly reestablish The Prince of Peace on an earthly throne.

On Friday nights I attend a Men's meeting. We sit in a circle to share our experience strength and hope as beloved brothers. In the middle of our trusted circle we place an unoccupied chair. At the beginning of the meeting the leader will say;

"The empty chair in the middle of the room is saved for the still suffering alcoholic. It is there to remind us that he will always have a place in this room if he has an honest desire to recover. "

The Good Shepard is forever faithful! The empty chair is miraculously transformed; always to remain open as a necessary condition for communities of hope. Those moved by the spirit will arrive at these well lighted places. Welcomed as a lost brother, the wounded wanderers will be tended to, nursed and nourished; so long as they carry a desire for restoration and light of hope within them. They too shall know peace.

The empty chair may be fated to be the metaphor of our time. It remains unoccupied, welcoming Liu Xiaobo to claim his welled earned rest and restoration in the Peace of the Lord.

Emmanuel!
The Prince of Peace
Dwells with us
Dwells within us
Dwells all around us
My peace I give to you.
My peace I leave you.
Not as the world giveth.
Do not let your hearts be troubled
Saith The Prince of Peace

Selah

Peace and prayers to all the beloved,

jbm

You Tube Music Video:
John Lennon, Give Peace and Chance

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Advent Meditations: Immediacy of Grace

2010-12-09T06:46:00.000-08:00

Dearly Beloved:

How I hope to one day say with total honesty "your grace is sufficient for me." What is sufficient? When is enough enough? When do we grasp the wisdom of "it is what it is?" "I am who I am." When do we realize or come to an understanding that hardships and challenges are opportunities for transformation and growth. That success and victory is not a final destination but a starting point to share the blessing with others. Living into the knowledge of that liberty is true freedom. Engaging the circumstance is being in a state of grace that the Quakers call a sacramental life.

Reinhold Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer offers us a tool to stay in the moment "accept the things I cannot change". An honest encounter with the immediacy of experience through thoughtful Christ centered engagement is all that is asked from God's children. The immediacy of experience is the nexus of a Zen moment where grace is perceived and accepted or overlooked and not received. Its like Yahweh standing outside of Abraham's tent peeking inside asking him to come out an live into his calling.

This morning I find myself comfortably inside my tent. Imprisoned by my character defects I feel compelled to jump ahead to Ephesians later chapters to critique the paradox of acceptance with the moral degradation of slavery and the lesser status conferred upon women. But perhaps the better course is to stay in the now and choose to "stay alive in Christ" by realizing the blessing to engage Paul's epistle on the 10th day of this Advent season. Yahweh calls, imploring me to put on my shoes, wrap a scarf around my neck and get out into this frigid December day. Thanks be to God for another opportunity to experience the cold of this brilliant new morning.

Selah

peace and prayers to all the beloved,

jbm

You Tube Music Video: Blind Boys of Alabama, Amazing Grace

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Advent Meditations: No Man Is An Island

2010-12-08T07:42:00.000-08:00

Dearly Beloved,

We are called into communion with God in the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit unites all God's children in a community of spirit bound by love. Thats the good news.

Isolation and retreat into carefully constructed personal silos undermines that unity, that spirit of community. As a person in recovery I have learned that my disease of alcoholism constantly works to undermine my sobriety. It "prowls around like a roaring lion seeking to devour me". It wants to isolate me to make it easier to weaken my emotional health and spiritual condition. Alone I am at terrible risk of succumbing to the lies and deceptions I tell myself. If I remain isolated and shut myself off from others my self delusions will eventually anoint my disease with sovereignty over my spirit, mind and body. This will have terrible consequences for myself and for the people that are part of my life.

John Donne writes that "No man is an island" and the remarkable insight offered by the 17th Meditation is that our human imperfections or our wounds provide us compassionate insight into the distressed condition of our brothers and sisters. It allows us to understand others and offer them a hand of assistance so that all may be healed and affirmed as one in unity with The Holy Spirit. Perhaps we don't hear or understand that the bell tolls to rise us from the solitary places our minds and bodies retreat to in the hope of finding a false refuge. But God calls us to live free in the liberty of hopeful communities sharing a fearless communion that is only achieved in trusted service and loving unity with others.

The peal of John Donne's wisdom reaches across four centuries to resonate in the hopeful ear and stir the open hearts of the beloved. "Any man's death (distress) diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."

Selah

peace and prayers to all the beloved,

jbm

You Tube Music Video: Dennis Emmanuel Brown, No Man is an Island

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Leaking Visions of a New World Order

2010-12-07T06:45:00.001-08:00

Every once a while an event happens that shifts the prevailing scheme of things. Julian Assange's dump and release of US State Department cables (CableGate) for global distribution on WikiLeaks is such an event. It radically alters existing convention and the public's general perception of normalcy, acceptability and protocol. It brings into question the motives and interests of nations and their leaders. It squarely plops an 800 pound gorilla on the sofa in everyone's living room and provokes questions that naggingly insist answers. Asking leaders about duplicity, conflicts of interest, distortions, fabrications, fibs and outright lies all done in the national interest. It is how a new Weltanschauung is cast and forged to conform to the needs a new world order. The sun has set on the American Century. Blessedly, America's days as a self righteous post Cold War marauding superpower are coming to a close. The WikiLeaks disclosures gives us some insights into the thinking and banter world leaders engage as they move the Chess pieces across the board on the great global game of new world order.

There are moral considerations and ethical arguments to be made on each side of Mr. Assange's incendiary action. CableGate raises complex multidimensional issues of national security, informed citizenry, the protection of information, its public disclosure and citizens right to know. The natural tension between the simultaneous need for confidentiality and transparency is a reality of our complex and interconnected world. The management of these issues have escalated to become a preeminent dilemma of our time. This raises significant challenges to democratic societies and the governance structures of both public and private institutions. It threatens institutional sustainability and undermines institutional capability to function in highly interdependent stakeholder ecosystems. The risk of seeking pathways to safely navigate the virtual minefields of a digitized global world is great and continues to grow.

The most impassioned issue raised by CableGate is the ethical violation of stolen property. The cables were not Mr. Assange's property and what gives him the right to publish and violate diplomats right to confidentiality and privacy? His actions could endanger diplomatic relationships, compromise government initiatives or derail delicate negotiations. Do governments have a right to privacy? If so, what information needs to be classified as secret and confidential? If all documents are secret then the designation is meaningless and government nothing more then a ruthless leviathan lording over a clueless citizenry.

Another critical question CableGate raises is who is served by the publication of these cables? Certainly American citizens in whose interest the State Department purportedly acts benefits from the added transparency. US citizens must admit there is a certain level of comfort in being able to track the satchel of an Afghanistan Vice President stuffed $52 million of taxpayers money through the U.A.E. Customs.

Detractors of CableGate assert that the leaks are a danger to America and its citizens. If so why is the public aggrieved and who exactly is the "aggrieved public"? Soldiers and servicemen fighting in Afghanistan? Does State Department Cables provide tactical and strategic information on troop deployments? Highly doubtful. More likely it is the special interests enriching themselves at the public troughs by cutting deals to shamelessly engorge themselves as insidious war profiteers. Better to ask why our country has placed our young servicemen and woman at risk in wars that makes little sense and accomplishes nothing.

Another set of critical questions CableGate raises are "Do citizens have a right to truth? Is access to information meaningful? Does the information help citizens of democratic societies understand the actions and motivations of their government? Why do diplomats pursue certain course of action and who is profiting from the course of action pursued? These are critical tenants citizens require to make informed decisions in a democratic society and CableGate certainly supports the notion of information empowerment for citizens.

Arguing the contrary one must ask "is it better to be mislead and be lied too in the name of propriety and protocol then to be victimized by the truth? I'll take conviction in a court of truth and pray for a life sentence every time.

If you believe that the public can't handle the truth or needs protection from it; imagine yourself living near a nuclear power plant and it was leaking radiation into your drinking water. Would you like to know about it? What if disclosure led to wide spread panic? I believe that truth and transparency always serves to discover and determine the best course of action to pursue.

CableGate has also shed damaging light on the power exercised by private corporations and the commercial control and open access and free availability of information. Amazon's cloud computing service had no silver lining for WikiLeaks. After the CableGate dump it shut down the WikiLeak due to the unacceptable risk posed by denial of service attacks mounted by computer hackers. This was followed by PayPal's closure of WikiLeaks donation solicitation account. Was PayPal's motive purely patriotic? Where they just pissed at WikiLeaks or were they at risk of aiding and abetting a subversive organization that risked prosecution under certain provisions of THE USA PATRIOT ACT?

Academic freedom may have also taken a blow due to CableGate. This weekend, Columbia University warned its students not to download or distribute WikiLeak cables because it may affect future employment opportunities with the State Department. Government employees were also warned not to read or access the cables because they had no security clearance to do so. If they were caught accessing the leaked cables it could cost them their jobs. Even though the cables are published in great detail everyday by newspapers throughout the world, government employees must be careful not to notice for risk of losing their employment. This is truly a Kafkaesque dilemma for some, a divine comedy for others and a growing political drama for everyone.

I'm still not sure that Cablegate is what it purports to be. As the old saying goes and the cables affirm nothing is ever as it seems. I find it most improbable that a Private First Class sitting at a PC in Baghdad could download the Iraq War Logs and throw a great superpower into a first class crisis of the new world order. I liken the leaks to the past practice of "special unnamed high placed sources" leaking inside information to the liberal mainstream media outlets. Its done to float trial balloons about new government directions. They do it to test the waters of public sentiment to new ideas, or change in policy course or potentially damaging information to see how the public reacts. Not one to be of a conspiratorial mindset, I perceive CableGate in this light. As expected the public reaction thus far has elevated our collective sense of outrage to a heightened level of ambivalence.

In many respects Iraq War Logs supports the construction of a new narrative about an exit strategy from Iraq and Afghanistan. The revelations of wastefulness, corruption and back room deal making with a full caste of sordid characters reinforces the public perception about the uselessness of these wasteful and expensive misadventures. The cables may prove to be the documentary evidence of America's Waterloo and CableGate may be seen by future generations as the historical high watermark of an expired global empire.

As the Iraq and Afghanistan War Logs helped to prepare the public psyche for an exit strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq; CableGate helps construct a narrative surrounding the need to "cut off the head of the snake in Iran". These cables implicate Arab States in a desire to undermine the apostate Persians and abrogates Israeli culpability as the driving force behind an attack on Iran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the cables psychological warfare. I don't doubt for a second that atomic weapons in the hands of Iran is a dangerous development that needs to be mitigated. That does not mean that we should employ bombers to destroy Iranian nuclear processing facilities. This would only create an environmental disaster and political crisis that further destabilizes the region. It would secure the enmity of new generations of Muslims and no doubt stoke the escalation of the Crusade against Islam.

In the Far East,China's growth as a world super power and ascending rival to US dominance makes for compelling reading. Here its no surprise that cables assess a strengthening China, its growing nationalism and military readiness. Reading these cables against the backdrop of rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, China's complicity in helping North Korea ship nuclear materials to Iran and the changing sentiment in the US concerning the largest note holder of government bonds may prove to carry grave consequences for harmonious US/China relations. The cable revealing China's ambivalence toward its North Korean surrogate state is laid bare as long as it can secure preferred trade agreements with a unified Korea.

The revelations offered by Pakistan's leaders about support for the Taliban and a growing concern about the safety of their nuclear arsenals raised the possibility of a US military move to quarantine or neutralize Pakistani weapon systems. Though so far India seems to come off unscathed by the cables it must be heartening for India's leaders to know that its budding friendship with the US may encourage a move to disarm the nuclear capability of its northern antagonist and the worlds sole Islamic atomic state.

These WikiLeaks offer up a brand new narrative for an emerging new world order. The damaging realization of the spillage of confidential proprietary discussions and dialogs between world governments and the mishandling of those documents diminishes the stature of US federalism. The undermining of federalism and its suitability as a governance structure for the new millennium foreshadows the growing antagonism of global corporate entities like Google and the nationalistic government of the People's Republic of China augers an era of conflict between statism and corporatism.

CableGate is a deliberate attempt to have institutions open up with greater transparency and construct a democratic narrative that force governments to change. Mr. Assange's avowed goal is to, "allow governments and institutions to become more transparent or force them to become more opaque" Depending on the what side of the fence your sitting on, openness and transparency benefits the public interest. The struggle for democracy requires the open access and the free flow of information.

In the digital age denial of free, open and equal access to information is tantamount to fascism. Withheld, it will encourage people to rise up demanding the means to pursue conscious enlightenment. This may spur political activism that demands institutional accountability, and the practice of democratic governance based on constitutional principles. Failing that once free citizens will be forced to accept the meager lies and obfuscations of leaders and power elites whose self interest is the sole interest of government.

So as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tries to plug the leaks in a failing dike system, we cannot content ourselves to live with our heads buried in the sand, filling our minds with reality TV reruns of Jack Ass Three and Bristol Palin bustin a move on Dance Fever. I've heard it said that the best way to influence the future is to invent it. Mr. Assange has given us a world of insights and a basic tool set to start constructing a foundation for a new world order.

You Tube Music Video: REM, End of the World As We Know It

Risk: diplomacy, international relations, governance

Advent Meditations: I've Seen the Light

2010-12-06T09:46:00.000-08:00

Dearly Beloved,

I still struggle with the concept of grace particularly after watching a few hours of Harold Camping.

I'm of the mind that grace demands faith, watchfulness, sobriety, vigilance, engagement and acceptance.

I believe grace is visited upon us a million times each day. Yet we perceive, understand and grasp very few moments and opportunities to live into that grace because we fail to be present as a witness and recipient of its manifestation. When it appears we need to recognize its restorative potential and accept the gift to correct our path and become whole.

I often wonder about Paul on his way to Damascus. He gets struck by a lightning bolt of grace. Yet if he had no faith as he was struck could he receive grace? Perhaps the lightening bolt was not grace but revelation. Can one receive revelation while not being in a state of grace? Certainly a question better left to medieval theologians.

Paul certainly made up for lost time and grabbed the opportunity to live into the grace offered. His poetic apologetic "your grace is sufficient for me" has always deeply resonated within my soul as a conscious state of grace to which I aspire.

As Paul states understanding our imperfections and weaknesses allows us to accept the blessings of grace. Hubris and pride are the avowed enemies of grace. Accepting grace keeps us rightsized in due proportion to the shortcomings of mortals standing before and reaching out to the perfection of the divine.

Selah

peace and prayers to all the beloved

jbm

You Tube Music Video: Cash, Perkins, Lewis, I Saw the Light

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Hunting Bear with Radiohead

2010-12-06T06:39:00.000-08:00

Some of fearless ones are fanning out into the woods. Others are huddled in smartly constructed camouflaged blinds. These self styled eco-warriors brave the cold and the discomforts of inclement weather. They keep a watchful eye over the stale remains of Dunkin Donuts, bagels and bacon grease they cleverly scattered outside their deadly bivouac. These bold ones eagerly finger the barrels of their high powered rifles palming the smooth wooden stocks with warm naked hands. They itch to squeeze the trigger but discipline and fortitude inform the vigilance of these sentinels of sustainability. They philosophically muse about restorative balance and the paradox of killing in order to survive. Another day has broken over the New Jersey Highlands. The hunt for bear is on. Let the mammalian cleansing begin.

Risk: bears, environment

Advent Meditation: Something In the Air

2010-12-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

Dearly Beloved,

The emanation of the power floating in the air is an interesting sociological observation by Paul in Ephesians. He may be tuning in to what German Classical philosophy referred to as Zeitgeist and Weltanschauung.

I understand one is the spirit of the age and the other is the consciousness of the age. The Zeitgeist or spirit of the age is the external political, social and cultural mores. The reified stuff floating about the air that is the result of and characterizes our actions.

I understand Weltanschauung to be our collective understanding or worldview of a particular culture or society.

Christians are often encouraged "to be in the world not of the world". It is particularly popular admonition with fundamentalists.

That is a huge challenge particularly in an age when the private and public domains of our lives are less separate and the social demands of living require individuated pursuit of self interest. The call for Christian community and ecumenical acceptance for all God's children to live fearlessly into the oneness of the Holy Spirit is continuously undermined by the political, economic and culture Zietgiest of the age.

Unfortunately the Weltanschauung of our age seeps with fear, suspicion, greed, aggression and unrestrained egoism.

Paul is writing in an age at the height of the Roman Empire. Conquest, slavery, exploitation and bifurcated class of humanity set amidst the grandeur of urban civilization, opulence and learned culture are striking dislocations. As Isaiah asks that we live into a calling to heal and reconcile that breech.

But the devil is in the details and the better angels of ourselves can only be found in the execution of a life well lived.

Selah

peace and prayers for all the beloved,

jbm

You Tube Music Video: Thunderclap Newman, Something In the Air

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Advent Meditation: In the Fullness of Time

2010-12-03T09:58:00.000-08:00

Dearly Beloved,

The evening of the first Sunday of Advent I spoke at an AA meeting. During my talk, I recounted a meditation from that morning. Sitting in the pews of St. Alban's at the 8:00 service, I witnessed the lighting of the first Advent candle. My mind wandered and as I began to imagine the eventual lighting of the 4th candle I meditated on the word expectation.

In the rooms of recovery an expectation is referred to as a resentment in waiting or a future resentment. Expectation removes us from the present and losing sight of the here and now is a dangerous place for an alcoholic to inhabit. The day to day, in the day, one day at a time is how we get to where we need to go. So we give time, time. Time to stay on life's path, one day at a time. Time allows us to live the journey. Time allows for us to experience the realization of the grace of discovery and growth. One step at a time, as long as we remain sober, we receive the grace and enjoy the blessing of an abundant life promised by our Good Shepard.

Paradise is now. The fullness of time is in the here and now. If I get to witness the lighting of that 4th candle of Advent that will be that days miraculous blessing.

Selah

peace and prayers to all the beloved,

jbm

You Tube Music Video: The Chambers Brothers, Time Has Come Today

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Baggin Bears in Jersey

2010-12-03T06:28:00.000-08:00

Locked and loaded their going for bear in New Jersey's Highland Region. The Highlands is one of the states last stand of expansive underdeveloped woodlands and critical watershed that provides drinking water to over two million state residents. The Highlands is also the preferred habitat and home to most of the states black bears. But starting Monday, the Highlands will become a deadly killing ground for the lovable species as the state appeals court threw out a suit brought by two animal rights groups to halt a six day bear hunt.

Environmental Commissioner Bob Martin signed off on this year's hunt, saying it's needed to help control a growing black bear population. The agency estimates the state's black bear population at 3,400, up from 500 bears in 1992.

"The Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy is full of scientific flaws and outright fabrications," APL contends. "In their zeal to hold a recreational trophy hunt, the council has slapped together a scientifically sloppy, self-contradictory document that pretends the hunt is necessary when in fact, the science does not support a hunt."

The suit filed by the Animal Protection League (APL) contends that the scientific assessment of the bear population and its environmental impact is flawed and its findings are biased. The suit also alleges that proponents of the hunt, The New Jersey Outdoor Alliance made illegal contributions to Gov. Chris Christie's election campaign. The New Jersey Outdoor Alliance disputes the claims made by the APL and issued a response that appears on the Ammoland website.

During public hearings comments ran 3 to 1 against the bear hunt. Public opposition to the hunt has been vocal and considerable. If the voice of the public counts for nothing why go through the charade of soliciting public comments? A recent public hearing on the expansion of the El Paso Corp gas pipeline through the Highland region had a similar tenor to it. Of the twenty of so citizens and groups who spoke at the meeting not one supported the expansion of the pipeline. Local residents and groups affected by the El Paso expansion initiative are concerned that their opposition to the project is falling on deaf ears of regulators and government officials responsible for green lighting the project. If the project is a fait accompli regardless of public criticism why solicit public comment and go through the motions of participatory democracy?

The Highlands Commission was formed to determine how the resources of the region are managed and how the area will be developed. The Highland region is a critical watershed area and a vital open recreational space for an overwhelmingly urban state. The Highlands Commission is the stewardship body chartered to reconcile the competing interests of a complex community of stakeholders. The immediate needs of wildlife preservation, smart development and long term sustainability of an environmentally stressed ecosystem will require effective engagement of all Highland Community stakeholders. Governor Christie's slate of nominees to to the Highland Council is being criticized as too pro development. This may auger well for stakeholders like El Paso Corp but it may have deadly consequences for endangered bears and other species struggling to hang on in an increasingly hostile environment.

You Tube Video: Junglebook, Bare Necessities

Risk: environment, bears, sustainability, water, open spaces, democracy

Triumph of the Willful

2010-12-02T06:21:00.000-08:00

This little ditty on NPR this morning about the Smithsonian Exhibit, Hide and Seek, an exhibition of Gay portraiture. Seems Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor and Bill Donahue, President of the Catholic League is upset that taxpayer money is being used to showcase what they consider to be unacceptable art. Here's the link:

Gay Portraiture Exhibit at Smithsonian.

Smithsonian Hide and Seek Website.

Its a doubled edged sword when government underwrites the creation of art. Exhibitions can confer a type of sanction that promotes censorship in service to state sponsored propaganda. From my perspective that is not the issue at stake here; but if you listen to the audio Bill Donahue condemns museums as "liberal elite institutions". Mr. Donahue probably considers Hide and Seek as the latest subversive initiative by Obama's Politburo to undermine American Family Values.

Mr. Donahue, still smarting from Andreas Serrano's Piss Christ gets off his best shot in America's escalating culture war by asserting that "working people, like himself, (read real Americans) don't go to museums. He says they go to WWF wrestling matches." He sarcastically suggests that perhaps government funding of the arts would be better spent underwriting WWF ducats for the masses. Beholden to his dogma, Mr. Donahue fails to recognize the difference between pedestrian commercial camp and artistic pursuit. He confuses the spectacle of bread and violent circus with aesthetic encounter, discovery and contemplation.

Mr. Donahue's insistence that his position should be viewed in the same light as Muslims reaction when depictions of the Prophet Muhammad appear in visual art presentations is disingenuous. Muslims prohibit all visual representations of the Prophet Muhammad. The same prohibitions of promoting visual images of Jesus Christ is not a common practice of Christian denominations. Secular democracies also do not sanction fatwas and post bounties for jihadists to take out apostates and infidels. That is a unique blessing of secular societies that fundamentalists, religious zealots and Mr. Donahue fail to perceive.

File this one under the dumbing down of America Series, Triumph of the Willfulness.

Walt Whitman: Calamus Poems

You Tube Music Video: Aaron (Gay American) Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man

Risk: culture, censorship, homophobia

Season of Light: Hanukkah

2010-12-01T06:19:00.000-08:00

Hanukkah reminds us to bear faithful witness to the miracle of hope. The lamp burned for eight days on oil sufficient for one. Yahweh is the author of all hope. Its light will never be extinguished as long as we remain mindful to tend the candles and trim the wicks by vigilantly guarding against cynicism, pessimism and hopelessness. Hanukkah commands us to stand firm in resolute faith. Celebrate Hanukkah, meditate and rejoice in the light of hope. Darkness is banished. Yahweh is forever faithful.

Thanks be to God.

Selah

You Tube Video: Lich'vod Hachanukkah -Chaim Nachman Bialik - Chanukah song

Risk: pessimism, cynicism, hopelessness

Black Monday

2010-11-29T06:16:00.000-08:00

Americans are waking up this morning to one hell of a Thanksgiving hangover. As the USS George Washington plies the waters of the Yellow Sea daring North Korea to "make our day"; we are barraged with the news that the King of Bahrain and the House of Saud is urging us to take out Iran's nuclear reactors. Wikileaks is spilling the beans about America's hypocrisy and disingenuousness of empire while the plutocracy is concerned that Black Friday wasn't black enough to keep their fat dividend checks flowing. Our abandoned and ill led armies continue roaming the deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq like lost Bedouin in search of a pesky phantom jin that only materializes to harass, kill and maim our unsuspecting and vulnerable young soldiers. The European Union is loaning $160 billion to Ireland's banks so institutional investors can be made whole and the Irish people can labor the rest of their lives to pay off the debt. This is getting Wall Street a bit nervous and may drive up interest rates threatening the portfolios of well healed investors and choking off our elusive economic recovery. But as Sean Hannity is fond of saying, "don't let your hearts be troubled", cause Palin bagged a Caribou last night on Sarah's Alaska and Cyber Monday is here and nirvana at Amazon is just is just a few clicks away. Party on Garth.......

You Tube Music Video: Donald Byrd, Change

Risk, stability, peace, economy

Sense of Gratitude

2010-11-25T06:31:00.001-08:00

This year I have decided to focus on developing a sense of gratitude. The world is full of real bad stuff happening to too many people and its easy to let the darkness of our times cast long shadows of resentment, anger and ill will over our outlook on life. So today as I travel to a relatives home to gather for our national day of thankfulness I choose to leave resentments at home and cultivate a sense of gratitude.

I'm grateful for my eyes. My sight allows me to perceive the million graces The Almighty abundantly confers upon the inhabitants of the good earth each and every day. My eyes help me to discover the pressing needs of others and respond to it. My eyes help me to discern light from darkness, distinguish the forest from the trees and eschew pedestrian views to behold a beautiful vista. My eyes are a pathway to my soul moving me to contemplate the good, forsake the bad and move against evil in service to truth.

I'm grateful for my ears. The grace of hearing permits me to listen. My ears alert me to the cries of my brothers and sisters and enables me to understand our shared human condition. My ears tune my spirit to the chords of exquisite music and the natural symphonies of Mother Earth's angelic chorus of singing birds, heaving oceans, the majestic pause of silent mountains and the fleeting rush of the swelling wind are all divine voices singing the joyful hymns of life.

I'm thankful for my sense of smell. Graciously my nose breathes in the inviting aroma of a lovingly prepared home cooked meal, the wholesome scent of baking bread wafting from the door of the corner bakery, a briny snort from the boundless sea, the rich compost of the deep woods after a soft summer rain, the bouquet of an infants hair and the perfume of a lovers embrace.

I give thanks for my ability to touch. Hands engaged in productive work and gainful employment is a blessing absent from too many Thanksgiving Day tables this year. We yearn to connect and the sense of touch invites our ability to feel. Feeling is the father of empathy and the mother of compassion. Caring for our animal friends we live in communion with all sentient beings. As we touch one another and allow others to touch us; the hardest of hearts is softened, the most grievous wounds are healed to liberate the sensual yearnings dwelling in the deepest recesses of ourselves. Feeling allows us to become fully present, fully aware and fully alive in the celebration of what it means to be fully human.

I'm thankful for my sense of taste. As Sinatra croons "from the brim to the dregs" the wine of our lives may not all taste good but it all flows clear and true. Sample, savor and learn. Taste and see the glories of the Lord's banquet so abundantly placed before us. The bitter herbs, the sweet cakes, the leisure repast, the fortifying meal and unrequited hunger is the daily bread of being human. Pause to consider those that are lining up for the tenth Thanksgiving Day meal in Afghanistan and Iraq and pray that the awful rations of war fed to our young soldiers be supplanted with the good manna of peace.

Perhaps we loose our sense of gratitude because expectations of ourselves and others always seems to come up short of the mark. Imperfection is our most endearing quality. It informs our ability to forgive transgressions, form bonds of friendship and unconditionally love each other. I remain grateful for the sense of my imperfection as I overlook your imperfections and remain ever hopeful that you will learn to love me for mine.

Happy Thanksgiving.

You Tube Video: Jean Ritchie, Shady Grove

risk: resentment, gratitude, peace, metal health,

Leaky Reactors, Cyber Terror and Police States

2010-11-23T07:59:00.000-08:00

This is how the world ends
This is how the world ends
This is how the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper
The Hallow Men TS Elliot

A few interesting news items recently passed without much notice. Two nuclear reactors located in the Northeast had to be brought offline due to operational failures. The Vermont Yankee reactor sprang a leak and had to be shut down. The other incident occurred at the thirty six year old Indian Point reactor located about twenty miles north of New York City. The cause of the problem at Indian Point was a transformer fire. Both reactors are owned and operated by Entergy and mirror similar problems at the Excelon operated Oyster Creek reactor located in south central New Jersey.

These incidents are endemic to aging nuclear power facilities. These plants came on line during the the 1970's and are now approaching the half century mark of service. When these plants were commissioned it was believed they would have a shelf life of 40 years. As the expected useful life span of these facilities approach regulators routinely grant extensions to the operators. Operating these facilities past that point heighten potential risk factors. As nuclear reactors age, the stress on these complex systems and containment facilities raise risk factors heightening the potential of system failure that lead to catastrophic events.

Leaky plumbing at the Oyster Creek nuclear plant is the culprit in poisoning the Cohansey Aquifer with 180,000 gallons of tritium contaminated water. Regulators and environmental officials assert that the level of radio active isotopes in the water supply that serves South Jersey and parts of Philadelphia is well within acceptable levels for human consumption. I guess that all depends on your definition of human; but I and many others remain skeptical on the subject of drinking radioactive laced water.

The aging nuclear infrastructure of the United States is a growing cause for concern. The nuclear power industry was halted in its tracks in the 1980's by a strong No Nukes environmental movement. At the time it was generally understood that the cost of catastrophic risk and the industries inability to solve the long term problem of disposal and management of nuclear waste turned the public against the industry.

The Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania and the disastrous meltdown at Chernobyl in the Russian Caucuses led to a moratorium on new plant construction in the United States leading to the actual abandonment of plant construction in the Washington and New York. It created a capital market crisis as the fear of defaults on WPPSS revenue bonds spread to cast long shadows on the entire Muni Bond market. The state of New York stepped in to purchase the facilities of Long Island Power in order to make bondholders of the closed facility whole with tax payer money. It was kind of like socialism for investors.

While most of the world has continued to build nuclear plants to address growing energy needs; the United States has not built a nuclear plant since the 1980's and has lagged the world in using nuclear power to address energy needs. Sentiment on the desirability of nuclear power is beginning to change. The Pickens Plan, former VP Dick Cheney's secret meetings to develop a national energy strategy, the Gulf Oil Spill, the need to reduce dependence on foreign oil and the growing acceptance that the burning of fossil fuels is slowly cooking the planet has placed nuclear power back on the table as a viable component of America's energy portfolio.

China is committed to building 100 nuclear power plants to wean itself from its crippling dependence on coal. The United States is charging hard to keep up with its fast growing Asian competitor in a 21st Century nuclear power race. The aggressive pursuit of nuclear plant development will increase the power and control of corporate entities charged with their construction, management and on going administration. To accomplish a dramatic build-out in nuclear infrastructure large areas of land situated near a plentiful water supply will need to be secured. Environmental impacts, regulatory oversight and public transparency will be sacrificed at the alter of cost efficiency, expedience in implementation and security to protect the vulnerable facilities against the pervasive armies of terrorists that lurk in the shadows near every nuclear plant.

The controversy surrounding the collusion of government and business to exploit the Marcellus Shale natural gas vein is an instructive model of what we can expect from the stakeholders pursuing an aggressive campaign to develop Americas nuclear power infrastructure. The dismissal of regulatory controls, the eminent domain of corporate interests, the opaque wall that shrouds risks factors and hides the environmental degradation resulting from the practice of fracking and the sacrifice of watersheds and aquifers to the expeditious extraction of natural gas are some of the documented behaviors of a wanton corporate will imposed on the body politic. Tragically this near sighted perspective willfully sacrifices the sustainable ecology of communities to the sole purpose of the profitable extraction of resources to serve shareholders of private corporations. The nature of the nuclear beast will require that its interests be enforced by courts of law guided by extreme prejudice and protected by police battalions, state guard units and private security groups in the name of national security interests.

The recently discovered Stuxnet computer virus is an indication of how the stakes are being raised in the nuclear power shell game. The launch of a successful cyber attack on a nuclear facility anywhere in the world is a real game changer. Self deluded uber patriots act more like real pinheads if they believe that the destruction of Iran's nuclear power capability is a harbinger for Middle East peace or enhances the security of either Israel or the United States. A nuclear event in Iran or North Korea are real game changers for the course of human history and the well being of humanity. A clandestine service that can take out Iranian nuclear reactors can also be deployed to take out a reactor that is twenty miles north of New York City. Or consider the consequences of a summer heat wave ravaging the citizens Philadelphia dying of thirst because the water supply is contaminated with radiation. The extent of civil unrest would be extreme overwhelming the local law enforcement and judicial capabilities. If these bleak scenarios come to pass, Americans will be pining away for the good old days when a quick feel up at the airport by a TSA gendarme is fondly recalled like a high school make out session. The pernicious yoke of marshal law under the nuclear challenged corporate security state will be incessant in practice and swift, sure and dire in its execution.

You Tube music video: No Nukes Concert 1979: Doobie Brothers Taking it to The Streets

Risk: democracy, energy policy, nuclear power, civil liberties

The Fall of Prince Charles

2010-11-18T14:15:00.001-08:00

Charlie Rangel you stayed one term too long. Twenty terms in office has taken its toll on you. You have courageously fought for the marginalized in our society and have brilliantly served your constituency and country. But like Brett Favre you didn't know when to call it quits. You could have gone out on top like a champion of the people you so ably represented during your four decades in public office. Now your left to tramp through the morass of pedestrian politics to defend your reputation and salvage a bit of your integrity.

I didn't think it was wise decision to run for reelection during the last midterms. I thought it was motivated by a selfish ego. Your alleged indiscretions and misdemeanors have made you the poster child for all overreaching politicians and their supercharged sense of entitlement. As Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee your oversight to pay taxes on Dominican rental properties, improper use of mail privileges and your expansive portfolio of rent controlled apartments showed you to be a master exploiter of the numerous ways politician lose touch with the mission of service and the means by which they shamelessly serve themselves by using the power of their office.

Mr. Rangel you did your party and your president a disservice by running for reelection. This country needs new fresh ideas, youthful energy and representatives unsullied by the graft and excess privilege taking endemic to political careerists. Yesterday, a panel of your peers on the House Ethics Committee convicted you of numerous policy offenses and conduct unbecoming a congressmen. They did you and the country a huge favor. The swift dispatch of justice helps our country avoid the political theater of a national trauma that a Republican controlled and Tea Party inspired Committee hearing would orchestrate for the American people.

During your last campaign I recall some Eyewitness News video of you strolling down 125th Street followed by a courtier of staffers and hangers-on. As you waded through your adoring constituents they obligingly parted as if to make way for a royal prince. As you passed by you pointed with extended arm to individuals as if to say to each "'I see you and you are mine, you are mine and you are mine."

Clearly the good Bonnie Prince Charlie is beloved in his principality. Mr. Rangel has faithfully served the people of the 15th District of New York and brought home some major bacon. He has fought hard for the marginalized and working people to codify social justice as a law of the land. But as he pointed to exuberant constituents anointing them with a royal recognition I could not chase the thought of you holding leases on four rent controlled apartments. Given the national nightmare of home foreclosures and rising homelessness I couldn't help but think of the families displaced from affordable housing by Mr. Rangel's gluttonous pursuit of a radical entitlement. All the good work Mr. Rangel accomplished does not excuse a mindset that allows one to rationalize behavior that shuts out needy families from affordable housing. It's an example of how power and privilege corrupts the best men and a symbol of all that is wrong with America and the leaders we chose that brought us to where we are today.

Thank you for your service Mr. Rangel.

You Tube Video: Bobby Womack, Across 110th Street

Risk: democracy, corruption, politicians

Operation Bristol Sashays On

2010-11-18T14:12:00.001-08:00

Bristol Palin is tap dancing her way into the hearts of Americans. The Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) gamboling Gidget seems poised to surpass the celebrity status of her political superstar Momma Grizzly in Chief Sarah. Despite consistently low scores Bristol and her dance card partner Mark Ballas tip toe over the competition each week due to the outpouring of support from devoted fans of Sarah's sashaying youngster.

Last night to the chagrin of discerning DWTS affectionados, Bristol and her partner dispatched the elegant and clearly more talented Brandy and Maxwell to the loser circle. DWTS judges awarded Brandy and Maxwell higher scores then Bristol and Mark. In response to this misjudgment of the liberal mainstream media machine, Palin's peeps overloaded the telephone banks and text message tally boards with a landslide of support for Bristol's bouncy ballet. The will of the electorate would not be denied. The voice of the people will be heard and heeded.

The well oiled machinery of the Tea Party is suspected of stuffing the ballot box to aid Bristol, Sarah and ultimately country through the precise execution of Operation Bristol.

Operation Bristol is an example of the dangers of plebiscites and a good lesson about the perversion of the democratic process and the illusion of democracy. Tea Party zealots text their DWTS votes along party lines failing to consider the dexterity, skill and artful presentations of the other contestants. The pernicious political pursuit of Operation Bristol undermines the honest contemplation of aestheticism and defiles the artistic purpose of art to exclusively serve the bombast of politics. It is the hallmark of fascist culture that dresses up the banality of pedestrian art in service the higher ideals of idealogical purpose. Not that I consider DWTS even remotely connected to art. But you just gotta love those freedom loving, liberty for all Tea Baggers selling out their DWTS vote for a bit of political satisfaction. Operation Bristol is good practice for 2012. Yeah I know all about Woody Guthrie's "This Machine Kills Fascists" slogan on his worn guitar. So in the interest of balance and in service to transparency Bristol should consider a "This Machine Kills Democracy" tattoo across her provocative thighs.

You Tube Music Video: Dizzy Gillespie, Things To Come

Risk: art, democracy, culture, entertainment, politics, political theater

Poor Sarah's Almanac

2010-11-18T14:08:00.001-08:00

I was one of the 5 million viewers that caught Sarah Palin's Alaska Reality TV show last night. As one would expect, Alaska effectively mixed a number of conservative informed Sarahisms with a scripted version of her common man family life. If you consider common having airplanes pull up to your dock to fly you off to Denali for a day, or a luxury RV trucking you around the Alaskan Outback or having a TV studio room in your home so husband Todd can video you for this afternoons Fox News segment, Sarah is pretty much like the rest of us.

As America's foremost conservative political celebrity, Alaska keeps the myth of Sarah alive and well. America's impish sweetheart, Sarah is the adoring girl next door who might become president. Alaska will showcase Sarah in a most positive light to reinforce her connection with the millions of hockey moms and Joe the wannabe plumbers who can't get enough of the Momma Grizzly in Chief. The segment I watched followed Sarah and family through a typical week of quality family time and the demanding work political celebrity requires. Last nights segment showed Sarah and Todd scaling Denali, navigating cravasse laden glaciers, baking cookies, RVing around with the extended family (while ignoring each other as they texted on Blackberries) fishing for sockeye and watching momma grizzles (brown bears actually) defend their young. Alaska combines image interlaced with conservative messaging that is produced to give Sarah's countrymen reason to pause to consider what her role will be in America's most compelling tale of political theater.

I'm will attempt to record some of Sarah's comments from the show that capture the spirit and thoughts of this great political thespian.

The following Sarahisms were spoken last night:

On a journalist who rented a house next door to write an unflattering book about Sarah.

"He spies on us. So Todd built this fence to block his view. See how easy it is to keep the undesirables out." If only Sarah were governor of Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and California. Maybe we can make her Viceroy of Southern Territories, Prefect for The Gadsden Purchase.

Returning from a day of flying over Denali with family, disembarking plane and going into the house.

Said Sarah to her youngest daughter, "See the nosy journalist neighbor trying to get a good look at us. He was stuck in his house all day while we were out having fun." Girls just wanna have fun.

On a gate that blocks access to upstairs rooms for baby Tripp.

"See this gate, it keeps boys out of upstairs bedrooms." Kinda like closing the barn door after the horse got out?

On watching a mother brown bear chase off another brown bear getting too close to her young cubs.

"See how the momma grizzly protects the future of the species." If only the oil companies would be so concerned.

On Todd landing a sockeye during their fishing expedition.

"Thats the way it should be. A man brings home the bacon to his family." Whats TLC, Fox and Sarah's PAC get paid with, chopped liver?

On Todd when he was video taping Sarah for a Fox News segment.

"Todd don't speak much. He's a man of few words but when he speaks he really got something to say. His words carry real weight. Still waters run deep." So the First Iron Doggin Dude can actually speak! No Comment.

When Sarah was rock climbing, her progress was momentarily halted.

"I got to keep going. Nobody is going to rescue me." At least she was attached to a safety rope. Thats more protection offered the millions of people falling through the cracks of America everyday.

Can't wait till next week.

You Tube Music Video: Northern Exposure Theme

Risk: political theater

Puddenhead Wilson and the Jersey Doughboy

2010-11-18T13:59:00.001-08:00

When Joe Wilson belched his infamous catcall "lair" during President Obama's address to a joint session of the legislature, he revealed himself to be a poor example of a mature adult. Puddenhead Wilson's emotional outburst may have played well with die hard Obama haters, indeed the next day his campaign war chest swelled by a million dollars; but it also sent a terrible message to America's youth that its acceptable to disrespect your teachers, coaches, police officers or parents if you disagree with what they are saying. The fact that his campaign coffers swelled with contributions as a result of his offense compounded the power of the negative message it sent to youths and to the perpetrator himself. Awarding Puddenhead Wilson for his bad conduct only encourages him to repeat his offensive disrespectful behavior. It also sends a very poor message to America's youth that bad behavior is OK and childish emotional outbursts may in fact find reward from enabling adults.

New Jersey Governor and emerging GOP superstar Chris Cristie, recently revealed himself to be a poor role model for the youth of America when he told a gathering of students that teachers greed was to blame for the lack of supplies and educational resources available for public schools. The Governors injection of politics into his presentation to Trenton students is a bit ironic. In his crusade against the teachers union, Christie has charged educators with using school children as "drug mules" to carry the message about the danger of funding reductions for public education. It would seem that the good Governor Christie needs to deliver a couple of kilos of his own to his adoring fans in the Tea Party and his financial backers in the GOP.

Putting partisan politics aside Christie's message to public school students is extremely damaging. The public schools are under incredible pressure. All social institutions are engulfed in severe challenges and are fully engaged in crisis management mode. America's public schools are not exempted from these pressures. The complex confluence of political, cultural and economic factors plaguing society are acutely manifested and constantly working to undermine the public school system. Governor Christie's political rant to students throws gasoline on a combustible pile of institutional challenges confronting teachers and administrators. Like Puddenhead Wilson, the Jersey Doughboy gives tacit approval and encouragement for students to question the authority and motives of their teachers. Christie has just provided under-performing students a ready made excuse for failure and disruptive malcontents a lit match to throw onto a gasoline soaked pile of kindling encircling our public schools.

Christie's partisanship places the context of his egregious mismanagement of the Race to the Top DOE grant in a new light. Perhaps Christie's $400 million blunder was an intentional action to reduce resources to the public schools to undermine greedy teachers and their gluttonous union. Why would Christie enable the funding of whip cracking greed driven drug mule drivers? And like his killing of the DOT funded ARC tunnel project, Christie enhances his conservative street cred by punching the construction unions in the nose and telling the socialist government in Washington to spend its money elsewhere.

Like Puddenhead Wilson, Christie is cashing in on his actions and is building a nice portfolio of economic and political capital for himself. His remarks about the greedy teachers provide a convenient cover and solemn absolution for the grand practitioners of greed and avarice that have led this country to the brink of fiscal insolvency, cultural destitution and political bankruptcy. Christie's narrative of blaming the needy plays well with large contributors who will be moved to put good 527 Corporation resources at his disposal to underwrite his political rise.

Christie's midterm election barnstorming tour in service to the GOP booked him on a coast to coast tour that even his hero Bruce Springsteen would envy. Though Christie's mojo clearly failed in helping Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina win election, the Jersey Doughboy's political stock has risen so quickly that he felt compelled to send out a few tweets to deny he would run on a ticket with Sarah Palin for president in 2012.

So New Jersey is stuck with the doughy mess of big money winner take all partisan politics of Christie's ideologically driven governorship for at least the next two years. Enjoying popular support for now, Christie's considerable body mass currently displaces enough water to ride the wave of Tea Party conservatism. But if the fickle citizens of New Jersey make a slight left turn off Exit 16E on Thunder Road, Christie's fortunes will drop faster then a lead sinker placed into the rancid brew seeping to perfection in a gaudy Royal Dalton Tea Pot.

You Tube Music Video: Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run (Live Acoustic Version)

Risk: political, labor unions, public education, consensus

Michele Bachmann's Fistfull of Subpoenas

2010-11-14T14:51:00.001-08:00

Michelle Bachmann recently advanced the idea that the new congress needs to go to Washington with a hand full of subpoenas to fully uncover and punish the criminal behavior of the Obama Administration. Why does she want to do this? Why does the Chairwoman of the Republican Tea Party Caucus think this is a good idea?

During President Clinton's second term the GOP's extreme partisanship led to impeachment proceedings and severely hampered the effectiveness of our government and its Chief Executive. This distraction may have made some political hay for Republicans but crippled our Chief Executive's ability to focus on and deal with the growing terror threat Al-Qaeda was preparing to launch against our country. The GOP's actions provided support, aid, cover and comfort to the terrorists and heightened our country's vulnerability to attack. Perhaps we should investigate their activities and motives for effectively becoming a Fifth Column for the Evil Doers?

Earlier in the year, Ms. Bachmann's suggested to Chris Matthews that we should investigate the UnAmerican activities of congress and senate members to root out and expose those who hate America and are actively working for its destruction. I'm not so sure about this; it may lead to the mass imprisonment of the Republicans who obstructed President Clinton's ability to perform his duties as Commander and Chief. With the GOP gone it would be impossible to form a consensus to effectively govern the nation so I'm kinda lukewarm on this one. After all President Obama and the ruling democrats rely on the good will of the loyal opposition GOP party to show the country that democracy works and that we can all get along.

But because I don't think Ms. Bachmann's idea is a good one doesn't make it bad. After all I'm coming from a pretty partisan place myself. So in the spirit of consensus building I'm trying to understand why she would propose such a thing. Though its a dangerous and scary place to visit, I have tried to get inside Ms. Bachmann's mind to understand her reasoning why she thinks the congress should spend the next session investigating members for crimes against the republic.

I have comprised a list of 13 reasons as to why Michele Bachmann and the Tea Party may think this is a good idea for the country. Please feel free to add your own.

1. Because its fun to shut the Federal Government down (ask Newt Gingrich)
2. It will heighten partisanship to levels yet unseen
3. Obstructionism is their preferred style of governance
4. Dissent is dangerous to a democracy
(America is long over due for another round of McCarthyism)
5. Enemy combatants sitting in congress must be imprisoned
6. It will demonstrate reactionary street cred
7. Sean Hannity thinks its a good idea
8. Rush Limbaugh thinks its a great idea
9. Glenn Beck tearfully pleads to show no quarter to "Wilsonian Reprobates"
10. Compromise/consensus forming is for sissies
11. Its how Michele Bachmann Mans Up and shows her pair
12. It plays well on Talk Radio and to the rabid dogs in the TP howling for fresh meat
13. 2012 GOP can say we did our best under trying circumstances now give us the White House and Senate. We'll finish the job. Rove calls it the Coup de Grace campaign. A final silver bullet to the head of the democrats, democratic consensus and Federalism paid and financed by serious 527 money.

You Tube Video: Edvard Grieg, In the Hall of the Mountain King

Risk: consensus, governance, democracy

Forth Estate Crosses Over

2010-11-14T14:38:00.000-08:00

There is this program that runs on the WE Cable Network. It's called Crossing Over with Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards is a psychic medium. He stands in front of a live gathering of 75 people and tunes into psychic vibes emanating through the audience. The vibes are messages from deceased loved ones who have crossed over the Acheron. The dead are keen to communicate warnings, good wishes and assurances to assist living loved ones on how to navigate the tricky vicissitudes of life. During the show, Jonathan walks about the room picking up on celestial chatter and begins to relay and interpret a soliloquy of the dead like a macabre game of supernatural telephone. Jonathan Edwards asks his audience to suspend all disbelief as he bestrides the nexus of the metaphysical spirit world and the pedestrian reality that most earthlings inhabit.

The most common messages the dead channel through Jonathan seek to absolve the anxiety and guilt of the tormented living. Crossing Over is popular because it offers its audience an absolution, confirms personal cosmology and rationalizes the pursuit of desires by affirming the consequences of decisions as a self fulfilling prophecy. It safely places its audience in a self validating cosmic echo chamber. Its an ongoing morality tale with only happy endings and unfortunately only a tenuous connection to authenticity and objective truth.

The state of the news media industry is very much like Crossing Over. The Forth Estate once thought of as an objective arbiter, information dispersant and truth seeking medium it is now chosen and consumed as a branded version of reality.

The devastating earthquake that buried Haitians in heaps of rubble unleashed global battalions of news teams to cover the event. Many of the news crews from large established networks beat first responders to the scene. In some cases the arrival of news teams actually held up the arrival of rescue teams and supplies because the airfield and crowed airspace could not accommodate all the traffic. The news teams were forced to hole up at the airport because blocked roads prohibited them from going anywhere. I recall Robin Roberts and the GMA News team dodging fork lifts and supply trucks left with nothing more to do then to urgently interview themselves. Correspondents were reduced to ghoulishly opining about the tragedy while eagerly mugging for the cameras with contorted faces to portray the human tragedy unfolding beyond the range of their cameras.

GMA's presence added nothing and in fact inhibited rescue efforts. I thought of all the drinkable water these crews consumed could have been used to quench the thirst of Haitians dying from dehydration. Thankfully the GMA News team soon left after spending a self indulgent weekend at the airport. Their moral outrage registered and attempt at ratings grab accomplished. Their contribution to shedding light on the scope of this tragedy and placing it in a larger context of its meaning to the global community of nations was lost in deference to the tragedy's emotional impact on GMA reporters. For GMA the subjective condition of the emotional distress of their media stars had become the story. Their viewers must have figured that if GMA's News celebrities were hurting this story must be big.

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta was an example of how a newsman became part of the story in a positive way. I recall with great admiration watching a camera crew following Dr. Gupta as he walked amidst the rubble of Port-Au-Prince. He learned of the location of a hospital and went to investigate how it was delivering services to the injured. Upon his arrival Dr. Gupta discovered the make shift hospital was little more then injured people being placed in the hallway of a building. The dead were being stacked outside by a wall surrounding the compound. The hospital had no doctors, nurses, beds or supplies. The facility lacked water to clean wounds or salve thirst. What the hospital did have was a constant stream of wounded arriving in greater numbers desperate for any type of care. The scale of the quake, the massive amounts of injured victims and the overwhelmed capacity of the hospitals ability to respond was reported in stark clarity.

Dr. Gupta was overwhelmed by parents cradling their broken children. Dr. Gupta a licensed medical doctor took off his correspondent hat and put on his stethoscope. He honored his Hippocratic Oath and started treating babies and the wounded with whatever he could cobble together. Dr. Gupta was no longer a journalist but was now a doctor. He asked that the cameras stop rolling so he could perform his duties as a doctor. I'll never forget the look on Dr. Gupta's face. It spoke volumes about the desperate conditions he was confronting and the firm resolve that he would perform his duties as a trained physician under trying almost impossible circumstances.

We could understand Dr. Gupta's crossover from journalist to doctor. It was proper and correct response as a human being but as a journalist all objectivity had been lost and in many respects Dr. Gupta had become the story in a constellation of a million stories emanating from the epicenter of one of the great human tragedies of the past century. This is a departure from the norm of real time documentary reportage. I can't tell you how many documentaries I came away from cursing the producers and cameramen for doing nothing to prevent the baby wildebeest from being consumed by the lion pack or for failing to offer a family of refugees in Darfur a bottle of water or a ride on their jeep to escape the marauding Janjaweed.

News Corps, network media division Fox News belies the myth of the monolithic liberal mainstream media and its claim of balance in its marketing handle. Fox News may offer a fair presentment of the news to its conservative viewership but its claim of balance that suggests the inclusion of a liberal perspective in their news product is specious.

Fox News really came of age following 9/11 and the growing conservative drift of the nation. Its useless to posit weather Fox News created the conservative drift or developed programming to market to this political demographic; but the political inclinations of Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch have always been decidedly conservative. At its founding in 1996, Fox News started differentiating itself from the liberal mainstream media by supporting the Republican impeachment drive of President Clinton, effectively setting the stage for its partisan approach to reporting the news. In many respects its unabashed partisanship was a game changer in how news and information was being packaged, positioned and delivered in the emerging narrow casting market paradigm. Its sentiment not very different from the golden days of yellow journalism practiced by William Randolph Hearst.

Liberals and progressives have criticized News Corp for its lack of objectivity and balance. Many believe it to be the official party organ of the Republican Party and its compromised coverage is more akin to propaganda then news. I believe this to be true as well. Fox News has countered that it provides both news and opinion. Fox News employs many of the leading conservative voices. Karl Rove, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee are senior GOP members on the payroll of Fox News. They regularly appear on shows hosted by Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity who are conservative celebrities in their own right. The trick is discerning what is news and what constitutes opinion and editorial content. The line that demarcates them is increasingly a fine one.

Even the innocuous news blurbs scrolling along the bottom of the TV screen seep in partisanship. Some may report objective facts like the closing level of the Dow or the latest sports score. These little factoids appear alongside pieces that consistently reinforce the conservative credo of the network. Its also a practice for commentators like Karl Rove to opine on stories covered on news segments. The pundits impassioned analysis of the story leaves the listener little room to doubt the interpretation as a validation of the viewers conservative political sentiments and ideological disposition. The ability to distinguish fact from opinion becomes increasingly lost in these clouds of obfuscation.

As the model of creating, packaging and marketing partisan news the advent of Glenn Beck as a political entertainer is symptomatic of the maturation of the industry. Glenn Beck's show is more of a political reeducation camp that tries to provide low information voters and political neophytes with a more robust framework to understand the history and philosophy of conservatism. Beck extends the Fox News portfolio of infotainment products.

Beck's role in encouraging the formation of the Tea Party expands the footprint of News Corp. Some may consider this crosses the line into political activism but I believe it to be a highly developed form of call and response direct marketing. Beck's incessant rants about the imminent collapse of American democracy, the downfall of free market capitalism and the advocacy of the purchase of gold to hedge against these terrible prospects has attracted the sponsorship of gold marketers and other fear merchants living large and minting major coin in the time of terror.

Fox is not alone in this sin. CNBC profited from the pre-crash market run-up and had a vested interest in fueling market speculation and excess. The business channel owned and operated by NBC took some heat on this issue in the wake of the market meltdown. During the market run-ups and the creation of the numerous market bubbles CNBC was taken to task for its roll as a biased shill in creating a risk averse mania that fed into the speculative orgy. The encouragement of reckless behavior would cost investors and Main Street citizens a good portion of their retirement savings.

Jon Stewart took on CNBC celebrity Jim Cramer for his role in stoking unhealthy speculation. The claim of caveat emptor is not a sufficient disclaimer to absolve CNBC of this perceived wrong doing. Information and data is the fuel that powers the capital market engine and viewers perceived CNBC to be a critical channel for this type of decision support data and analysis. As animated red bulls flashed across the TV screen screaming "buy buy buy" the speculative urge feeding the demon greed of Cramer's viewers jumped at the prospect to secure easy profits and pushed the execute button to route a flood of orders to E-Trade.

Media outlets were not alone in profiting from the conflict of interest in their business model. The rating agencies Moody's, Standard and Poors and other issuers of financial health assessments were roundly criticized for a business model that accepted fees from companies to determine their investment ratings investors use to judge safety and soundness of the companies securities. Investment banking institutions like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley ran into trouble for trading securities that they advised their clients to hold in investment portfolios. Large commercial banks have also been called on the carpet for the inherent conflict of interest in their mortgage lending business that integrated mortgage underwriters, originators, servicers, securitizers and investors under a single roof.

Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission has given corporations a megaphone to direct enormous amounts of capital and influence on Americas political culture. The exponential growth of the political industrial complex places media companies on the cusp of an emerging market. News Corp occupies a well defined franchise in the vortex of this growth industry. News Corp will be the predominant media channel attracting politically sponsored advertising from 527 corporations to advocate issues central to the conservative agenda. The market for political theater is strong and growing and News Corp has one of the hottest theatrical properties in celebrities like Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck.

If Fox News bends and packages information with selected editing in support of political narrative; Andrew "NAACP" Breitbart and James "ACORN" O'Keefe edits news to create a false narrative to affirm ideology. The omnipresent multi-channel digital world and the need for consistent real time affirmation justifies entrapment and libel as fair game in the political narrative. The specious political ethics of radical entitlement, means justify ends, medium is the message and relativistic ethics is the next step of an ideologically mature ,technologically enabled infotainment industry. The self affirming echo chamber that verifies fact and swears to any truth is blessed with selective amnesia and a self correcting mechanism of a highly refined subjective fact checker informed by extreme prejudice.

Jon Stewart use of satire and exaggeration to make a lager point of clarified and reified truth is old school stuff. In the Age of the Avatar, the real, the imagined, the intended and the manifested get confused in the digital clouds of form, delivery and content. The medium is the message, the network is the computer and Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity was a marketing event to stake a claim on the market of moderation. No doubt a highly educated discerning market segment with lots of disposable income. Its only downside its getting a little long in the tooth.

The Forth Estate is rapidly evolving due the dramatic changes in technology, market structure, business model and consumer consciousness. The role of the free press and the constitutional protections it enjoys in a democratic society is under siege and on the verge of bankruptcy. The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and LA Times are old media institutions struggling to stay financially solvent and culturally pertinent. Time will tell of their ability to evolve and create a sustainable business model that will be validated by a market economy. We have learned that truth, disclosure and transparency are not priceless assets but virtues that must support a sufficient p/e ratio to to survive in a capitalist economy.

The past few weeks we've had a few First Amendment martyrs. Rick Sanchez, Juan Williams and Keith Olbermann learned that the sword was more powerful then the pen. The more important lesson that managers could remove them on the whim of executive fiat if they failed to demonstrate restraint of pen and tongue. In actuality the removal of these gentlemen from the news desk was more of a business decision then a violation of their right of Free Speech.

As we enter the second decade of our two wars on terrorism even the embedded journalists rolling through the distressed hamlets of Iraq and Afghanistan are getting a bit war weary. Like a captive hostage the embeds could not help but to identify with their chauffeurs. The brave soldiers driving the Humvees' were always in control of what the embeds saw, was responsible for their safety and quickly became the reporters best friend born of dependency, admiration and the comradeship that develops during war.

We need to take a cue from Jonathan Edwards. He is the real shaman of our time. Blessed with unique skills to help his audience to realize that self affirming connection is only possible by crossing over and taking suggestions from the well placed authorities residing in an unseen mysterious supernatural world.

You Tube Music Video: Tom Waits, Lie to Me

Risk: First Amendment, free speech

Say It Ain't So Keith

2010-11-07T17:44:00.000-08:00

Everybody knows the story about Shoeless Joe Jackson. When the infamous Chicago "Black Sox" star Shoeless Joe emerged from the courtroom after admitting his guilt for taking money to throw the 1919 World Series, a boy implored his hero to uphold the integrity of the game by asking, "say it ain't so Joe." A newspaper account reports that a shame filled Shoeless Joe admitted his guilt to the crestfallen young fan before walking away through a raucous crowd. The next day, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis kicked Shoeless Joe out of the game and forever banned his name from inclusion in the Hall of Fame. Such are the wages for unscrupulous cheaters.

On learning the news about Keith Olbermann's suspension from MSNBC I feel like that young adoring fan. I refuse to believe that my favorite news commentator would violate the sacred tenant of a free press and compromise his integrity by making financial contributions to candidates running for public office.

The reported amounts of dollars Olbermann reportedly contributed to 3 democratic congressional candidates is minuscule. Citizens are limited to a contribution ceiling of $2,400 per candidate and Olbermann allegedly hit that limit in support of two candidates from Arizona and one in Kentucky.

Its hard to believe that Olbermann would compromise his integrity for such a paltry sum. If these allegations are true, the greater irony is that as a result of his ill considered action, the priceless value of Olbermann's nightly critique of reactionary republicanism is now jeopardized. The risk of losing a vital and robust voice of progressive politics on a major cable channel is a real possibility. This one really hurts.

Some have offered a defense for Olbermann by pointing to Fox News extreme partisanship and financial support of Republican candidates. Rupert Murdock reportedly made a $1 million contribution to the Republican Governors Association and point to Glenn Beck's Tea Party activism or the use of GOP leaders like Karl Rove and Sarah Palin as paid political commentators. This argument misses the point about Olbermann's trespass. Like the Juan William's dust-up after his termination from NPR, Olbermann's transgressions falls into the same category. Olbermann violated a term of his employment that prohibits news reporters from making contributions to political candidates. In my mind that's a fair rule if a network wants to maintain a semblance of objectivity. We expect news professionals of Mr. Olbermannn's stature to uphold a level of integrity that protects the sacred mission of the free press in a free society. Edward R. Murrow would expect nothing less. Olbermann's violation of the rule prohibiting contributions to political candidates goes to the heart of a compromised free press. With no transparency or disclosure, Olbermann's actions has demeaned the MSNBC brand by compromising its ability to present the news without fear of favor. There is no equivocation or quid pro qou when it comes to upholding the standards of excellence for ethical behavior.

We know where Fox News stands in its political deposition. We also know the space that MSNBC tries to occupy. Fox's shameless partisianship is not the issue. Fox's corporate rules of behavior and standards of ethics for employees is not the issue. The issue is MSNBC's standards of ethics for its employees and how they enforce those standards when they are broken. If Mr. Olbermann violated that ethical standard he should in all good conscience resign from MSNBC.

Please, say it ain't so Keith. Please.

You Tube Music Video: Ludwig Von Beethoven: 9th Symphony, 2nd Movement

Risk: free press, ethics, disclosure, transparency

Wecome Diwali

2010-11-05T09:26:00.001-07:00

Today marks the arrival of Diwali. Diwali is widely celebrated by the Hindu, Jain and Sikh religions. Diwali, known as the Festival of Light, is commemorated over five-day period around the mid point of the autumn season.

Diwali speaks to the timeless human desire for victory to triumph over evil. Diwali celebrants light lamps in the hope that goodness continues to illuminate our hearts and homes to assure that the light of goodness remains ascendant over the darkness of evil. Diwali asks everyone to be stewards of goodwill by mindfully tending lamps to eradicate the darkness of evil and light the way for the spirit of truth revealed and made manifest in the good light of divine love.

We welcome the season of Diwali and wish all celebrants a most meaningful and spiritually fulfilling experience.

Selah

You Tube Video: Origin of Diwali

Risk: darkness, light, good, evil

Job Creation Proceeds at Turtle Pace

2010-11-05T08:10:00.001-07:00

Slow and steady may win the race but the pace of job creation by the US economy continues to move along at turtle speed. For the 20 million unemployed and underemployed people the pace of job creation remains painfully slow as revealed by ADP 's National Employment Report for October. During the month, private sector employment increased by 43,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis. ADP also revised its employment report for September stating that the economy lost only 2,000 jobs rather then the 39,000 it had previously reported. After an upward revision of 37,000 less jobs lost during September, during the past 60 days the private sector has produced 41,000 new jobs. For the worlds leading economy with a GDP of almost $15 trillion the lackluster growth in job creation is a troubling indicator of an anemic jobless economic recovery.

The October report arrests the September decline in job growth that reversed seven consecutive months of positive job creation. During that time the economy averaged employment gains of 34,000 new private sector jobs per month. This rate of job creation does little to reduce the negative overhang a 10% unemployment rate is having on economic growth. A stabilized and expanding labor market is a key ingredient for a sustained economic recovery. Over the past three years the economy lost over 9 million jobs. For a robust recovery to occur the economy needs to create 200,000 jobs per month for the next four years to return the job market to its pre-recession levels.

As we reported last month the expiration of the Federal stimulus program will force state and local governments to layoff workers. Sluggish job creation continues to pressure depleted unemployment funds and the expiration of benefits for many of the unemployed is draining buying power from the economy.

Soft consumer demand threatens retailers and leisure industry segments and has a spillover effect on the housing market. Joblessness is a principal factor in mortgage defaults and contributes to the growing inventory of foreclosed properties held by banks. The ADP report indicates that during October the US economy shed an additional 23,000 construction jobs. It is estimated that it will take 24 months for the housing market to absorb the existing inventory of foreclosed properties. A healthy turnaround in the construction industry will move in step with the improvement in the housing market conditions.

A sustained recovery will require sector leadership by Small and Mid-Size Enterprises (SME) as principal drivers of job creation. SME's sector strength has traditionally been in the construction, specialty retail, leisure and service sectors. Among these segments only the services sector continues to be a consistent driver for job creation.

Macroeconomic Factors

The principal macroeconomic factors impairing recovery are the continued high unemployment rate, weakness in the housing market, tax policy and deepening fiscal crisis of state, local and federal governments. The results of this weeks mid-term election and the return of congress to Republican control will encourage the federal government to pursue fiscally conservative policies that will dramatically cut spending and taxes for the small businesses and the middle class. In the short term spending cuts in federal programs will result in layoffs and cuts in entitlement programs will remove purchasing power from the demand side of the market. It is believed that the tax cuts to businesses will provide the necessary incentive for SME's to invest capital surpluses back into the company to stimulate job creation.

Highlights of the ADP Report for October include:

Private sector employment increased by 43,000

Employment in the service-providing sector rose 77,000

Employment in the goods-producing sector declined 34,000

Employment in the manufacturing sector declined 12,000

Construction employment declined 23,000

Large businesses with 500 or more workers declined 2,000

Medium-size businesses, defined as those with between 50 and 499 workers increased 24,000

Employment among small-size businesses with fewer than 50 workers, increased 21,000

Overview of Numbers

The 45,000 jobs created by the SME sectors reverses a decline from September and offsets the 2,000 job cuts by large companies. The strong growth of service sector jobs is a positive development. However the continued softness of goods producing segments and manufacturing continues to indicate the continued decline of US industrial capacity. The strong rebound in services may be the result of the expanding practice of companies utilizing outside contractors to fill human capital requirements. These types of jobs may mask an underemployed and transient labor pool forced to accept work at lower wage scales.

The stock market continues to perform well. Yesterdays announcement by the Fed to pump $600 billion into the banking system may allay bankers credit risk concerns and ease lending restrictions to capital starved SME's. Despite a projected GDP growth rate of 2%, ADP's employment figures indicates that the economy continues to dwell at the bottom of an extreme down economic cycle. The danger of a double dip recession still lurks as a possibility but is becoming more of a remote possibility. Interest rates remain at historic lows and inflation continues to be benign but its danger grows as a weak dollar continues to flounder forcing oil prices to climb while government debt levels continue to spiral upward. The balance sheets of large corporate entities remain flush with cash. Analysts estimate that over $1 Trillion in cash swells corporate treasuries remaining underemployed on lazy corporate balance sheets. The low interest rate environment has allowed companies to pursue deleveraging strategies considerably strengthening the capital structure of corporate America. To the dismay of politicians and the unemployed, economists speculate that deployment of this cash is still a few quarters away from finding its way into the real economy.

Solutions from Sum2

Sum2 offers SME’s the Profit|Optimizer to help them manage risk, devise recovery strategies and make better informed capital allocation decisions.

For information on the construction and use of the ADP Report, please visit the methodology section of the ADP National Employment Report website.

You Tube Video: Theme from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Risk: unemployment, recession, recovery, SME

Evacuate to Where?

2010-11-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

Tomas, a dangerous tropical storm is bearing down on Haiti. No doubt, Tomas carries with it the potential to drop dangerous amounts of rain as it makes its way across the distressed Caribbean nation. The millions of refugees living in tent cities in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake are now threatened again by potential flooding and landslides caused by the threat of torrential rains.

In response to the threat, government officials have issued a Code Red warning and advise the people living in the tent cities to evacuate. Evacuate to where?

The distressed situation of the Haitian people approaches biblical proportions. It would seem that Moses himself has raised his rod against them to deliver pestilence, plague and destruction on this vulnerable island nation. As Tomas approaches the defenseless people of Haiti, it threatens to wash them away in torrential rains, forever swallowing them in an avalanche of mud. Let us pray that the entombment of tent city refugees in the good earth of Haiti is not the final solution to this humanitarian nightmare.

The call to evacuate? Evacuate to where?

You Tube Music Video: Charles Mingus, Haitian Fight Song

Risk: environment, refugees, natural disaster

Thank You Tea Party

2010-11-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

America wakes up this morning to a new political reality. America has turned a decidedly shade of reactionary red. We thank the Tea Party for showing us the way back to a dead past.

We thank you for your activism and energy. We thank you for the passion. We thank you for your professed love of country. We thank you for showing us how to spend the piles of corporate money on disgusting attack ads in service to our great democracy. We thank you for reminding us that the US Constitution is America's most precious asset even if you sometimes miss the point about what it actually says.

We thank you for returning the country back into the hands of the GOP. After two years of living under the fascist hell of the dictatorial regime of Barack Obama the endurance of the people could suffer it no longer. We long to enjoy the freedoms that tax cuts for the rich, corporations freed from regulatory shackles and the old time religious revival of laissez-faire capitalism offers as the only way to assure the social uplift of all citizens.

The GOP thanks the Tea Party for returning the country to their control. The GOP appreciates the Tea Partys expeditious return to their local districts so Republicans can get on with the serious business of government. The serious business of government is working seriously with serious business people with serious money to address the serious problems of these serious constituents. In all seriousness the GOP will tirelessly labor to solve the serious problems for these serious constituents.

The nation thanks you for the lively political theater you presented during the election. Your eccentric cast of characters,dressed like Nazi enacters,wacky witches, militant militiamen, Adolph Hitler lookalikes and long dead patriots in tri-corner hats added some much needed levity to the weighty matters confronting the nation.

We thank the Tea Party by supporting a field of candidates that had the courage to publicly speak their convictions to raise the specter of prejudice and fear. The Tea Party's religio-political fundamentalism raised the fear bar to heights that dwarfed even the three lanterns glowing in the Old North Church. Like Paul Revere before them, Tea Party patriots road across the land alerting kin and countrymen to the dangers of secularism, homosexuality, recalcitrant Islam, liberal government, Charles Darwin and evolution, foreigners or any Mexican immigrant idling too close to our southern borders.

The Tea Party has given us pause to reconsider our addiction to caffeine fueled government spending and a lavish lifestyle and choice of coffee as national drink. If you pardon the French, chai is now the preferred brew du jour. So with pinky up we lift a tiny cup to celebrate the day by swilling a mouthful of Red Rose with the fervor of an Afghani, Ottoman or Brit.

Thank you Tea Party. Thank you.

You Tube Music Video: Sly and the Family Stone: Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself Again

Risk: consensus, political, pluralism

Comin Round the Mountian

2010-11-02T10:23:00.001-07:00

John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,
places to play in and pray in,

where nature may heal
and give strength to body and soul alike."

John Muir, The Yosemite

Last night I attended a public meeting in Ringwood on the proposed plan to upgrade the capacity of a natural gas pipeline through 16 miles of North Jersey's pristine and endangered Highland woodlands. Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. a subsidiary of El Paso Corp has filed a Letter of Intent with Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC) to extend the swath of its pipeline grid with the Northeast Upgrade. The meeting was chaired by FERC and its purpose was to solicit feedback on the pipeline upgrade known as the 300 Project.

A FERC representative declared the meeting open and outlined the purpose of the meeting and the process the agency will use to evaluate El Paso's application to extend its footprint in the region. The FERC representative then introduced an El Paso project engineer who took the audience through a brief power-point presentation on El Paso and the proposed pipeline upgrade project. The meeting was then opened to comments from attendees.

Numerous people rose to speak. Representatives from the Sierra Club, local environmental groups, residents and public citizens voiced concerns about the 300 Project. Not one spoke in defense of the project. Many of the speakers raised the issue about the need to conduct a comprehensive environmental impact study. The proposed pipeline extends way into western Pennsylvania and is key delivery platform for natural gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale region. The Marcellus Shale project has recently gained some negative notoriety from the recent Josh Fox documentary Gasland and the use of the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Fracking involves the use of water mixed with chemicals, pumped underground into the shale formations to release the natural gas entrapped between the sedimentary layers. Though the 300 Project does not involve natural gas extraction or the practice of fracking many speakers spoke about the lack of sufficient end to end regulatory oversight and the unsuitability of regulatory silos to effectively deal with the environmental, social, economic and cultural risks posed by the project.

The regulatory response to the risks posed by the pipeline goes to the heart of the many questions Americans are wrestling with at the polls in today's Mid-Term Elections. The Tea Party/GOP believes government is too big, regulation impedes economic growth and natural gas extraction is key to energy independence. The progressive response is that corporations cannot roll over communities, regulatory safeguards align the interests of stakeholders, environmental stewardship is key to a sustainable future and non-fossil fuel based renewable energy sources need to be encouraged and promoted.

The speaker from the Sierra Club stated that his membership is not opposed to natural gas. The Sierra Club views it as a key source of energy but also stated that the impact of its extraction and transport must be assessed within a larger context of risk factors confronting a complex ecosystem of community stakeholders. He stated that the 300 Project posed unacceptable risks to the protected Sterling Forest Highlands watershed. In the absence of a meaningful comprehensive Environmental Impact Study (remember BP's Deepwater Horizon boilerplate EIS stated their environmental protection plan would carefully monitor the risk to a non-existing sea lion population) the unknown dangers it posed to underwater aquifers supplying water to 4 million people remained unanswered. He also spoke of the aesthetic degradation to The Appalachian Trail, Monksville, Ramapo State Forest and Ringwood Manor.

Coincidentally, much of the area El Paso chose for the proposed pipeline expansion is on public land. The Highlands, Sterling Forest and Ringwood Manor comprise a portfolio of public land assets that are protected by a public trust. Many people worked long and hard to protect these vital natural lands and El Paso is leasing them on the cheap. The political disposition of New Jersey Governor Christie is an ideal dance partner to enable El Paso's unfettered access and use of these public lands. I would not be surprised if Christie is in negotiations to sell these priceless assets to a private equity firm eager to mortgage the future of these irreplaceable watershed resources.

As an avid hiker I am in love with the North Jersey Highlands. As a citizen of America's most densely populated state the escape the woodlands offer is a most welcomed respite from the crushing confines of urbanity. Hiking the Appalachian Trail or bounding along the rocks of the Ramapoughs allows one to gets lost in thoughts and become thoroughly moved by an intimate unbreakable connection to the natural world. When I mount a rise to be confronted by the clear cut of a gas pipeline "comin round the mountain" I'm reminded that the dear value of solace offered by nature is an endangered species. I must pick up my step and heighten my resolve to protect the natural graces for succeeding generations. Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir would expect nothing less.

When I am traversing through the woods I am anointed with a spiritual grace Mother Nature freely offers and abundantly confers on any communicant. As I cross the speaking streams and walk wooded paths carpeted with golden leaves the immediacy of being alive in a rich wellness and holy balance with nature alights our human divinity. The highlands is where we get our water to drink and fills our soul with a natural food vital for our survival as human beings.

You Tube Music Video: Ramblin Tommy Scott, She'll Be Comin Round the Mountain

Risk, environmental, regulatory, energy

A Better Way: Vote for the Greens

2010-11-02T03:46:00.000-07:00

It was the summer of 75. I was going into my sophomore year in college. I just switched my major from business to political science and I was standing in front of a shopping mall on the outskirts of Boston getting signatures to secure ballot status in the State of Massachusetts for the Social Workers Party (SWP) Presidential candidate Peter Camejo. That afternoon as I dodged shopping carts, roller skating kids and big finned cars spewing black emissions from leaded fueled V8's, I secured over 300 signatures from fellow citizens in support of a ballot listing for a socialist candidate for president. I did so by engaging my fellow citizens in an appeal to their democratic sentiments. I explained to each person who stopped to listen that their signature was an authorization to grant ballot status for the candidate. Signing the petition was not an endorsement of the candidate or his views or an indication that they would vote for him. The petition solely conferred ballot status to the candidate so that his views may be represented in the democratic market of ideas and voted on. Most people readily if not eagerly signed the petition. All felt it was critical that all opinions needed to be heard. For many it was a passionate defense of the democratic process and a celebration of their commitment to the ideals of a democratic republic. I doubt weather today's voters would be so approachable. The ability to listen with an open mind or being amenable to signing a petition to grant ballot status for a socialist candidate is rapidly disappearing from America's political culture. Pluralism is under attack. It is being hunted down and eradicated like a species of animal unfit to live in a democratic landscape meticulously manicured by the Glenn Beck's and Rush Limbaugh's of the world. Times have certainly changed.

In the interest of transparency and in the spirit of full disclosure I feel the need to admit that I have always been a registered independent voter ever since I was eligible to vote. At the age of 54, I have been an active voter for 36 years and during that time I have rarely missed an opportunity to exercise my right and fulfill my responsibility as a fully enfranchised citizen in a democratic republic.

Like those who signed my petition back in 75 I consider it a privilege and duty to participate in the electoral process. I always believed that free and open elections were a distinguishing characteristic of America. I consider voting a bedrock right that must be exercised to assure that democracy endures. The US Constitution and The Bill of Rights remain the surest guarantor of our democratic freedoms and can only be defended by celebrating our enfranchisement through the consistent practice of voting.

The right to vote was hard won. It was the a fruit of liberty watered with the blood of revolutionaries. It was the full promise of liberation made to former slaves wrested from the peace won from drinking a long draft of wine pressed from the grapes of wrath. Women right to vote was finally won well after the century mark of our republic finally securing true universal suffrage for all citizens. When I vote I believe myself to be honoring the hard fought and dearly won suffrage victory of those who went before. I scratch my head at learning that Meg Whitman only recently realized that healthy democratic societies requires its citizens to participate in the electoral process. The growing preponderance of retired multi-millionaire businesspeople running for office is a curious development. This new breed of politician comes before the electorate speaking about the poverty of the systems political values. Emboldened with a perverse freedom from want these candidates approach politics as the next step in an enterprising career move. Flush with cash channeled from their personal version of the American dream they testify to the sanctity of laissez-faire democracy and are willing to use a portion of their treasure to keep hope alive for a very very select few.

During my 36 year voting career in national, state and local elections I usually vote for third party candidates. I do this because I believe that the duopoly of our political system does not provide sufficient options for a differentiated choice between the two ruling parties. I vote for progressive third parties because I believe it important that we break the stranglehold of the two party system. A precondition to breaking the control of the duopoly is to alter the political psychology of American voters. This takes education, enhanced transparency and the visibility and honest engagement of third party candidates, not their demonization. I try to vote for the person over party and I have voted for a Republican or two over the years. If a third party candidate is not running for office I more then likely vote Democrat because I believe them to be a closer match to the political interests of my social position and political aspirations.

The expansion of choice, the delineation of positions, the articulation of differing visions and approaches to problems are important to the health of a democratic society. The people who signed my petition for SWP ballot status knew and respected the importance that all voices need to be heard. Some as I recall even expressed a dislike for socialism but voiced a love of democracy. By signing the petition they demonstrated their commitment to cherished democratic ideals was greater then their political prejudices; believing that all voices needed to be heard and fairly judged by an open and free electorate.

The deep abiding respect for Americas democratic culture is in dire jeopardy. The sickening video of a Ron Paul supporter stomping on a woman carrying a banner in support of his opponent has become an iconic symbol of American politics. Last week, unlicensed security personnel for Sarah Palin's handpicked Alaska Senate Candidate Joe Miller, handcuffed and forcibly restrained a reporter who dared to ask Mr. Miller a question. These incidents are being played out against a backdrop of virulent attack advertisements playing in continuous loop on all media channels. The unending stream of personal attacks demonizes the candidates that feature fantastic claims framed by blatant lies in service to a narrow ideology that protects the power and privilege of special interests.

Or consider the surreal parade of "I Am You" candidates. These non-professional politicians speaking the hard truths political correctness refuses to utter, make comical faux pas that reveal damning personal virtues like witchcraft, Nazi affectations, knuckleheadism, opportunism and scoundrelism. This off putting political theater erodes our faith and confidence in democratic process.

One can imagine the enemies of democracy gleefully advancing the careers of the political cretins presenting themselves as viable candidates. These dangerous Fifth Columnists actually endanger democracy. They are so off putting that the electorate will revile from the choices, like in Nevada which allows the voter to pull the lever for none of the above. In fact an insidious Republican PAC is running ads aimed at Latino voters in the Southwest. The ads advise Latinos to boycott the election and vacate the right to vote because the Democratic Party has abandoned them. The advertisement concludes that not voting is the best way to send a message to the Democrats.

One also needs to evaluate and consider the big money moving into the campaign on behalf of the two major parties. The source of "big money" is big moneyed interests. The Supreme Court decision of Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission has unleashed a tsunami of corporate money into the electoral process. The money is buying favor from our elected representatives. Lots of this money is flowing into the campaigns of Tea Party backed candidates who are running under the well worn moniker of Republicanism, exposing the sham masquerade of their avowed independence.

Big money is instilling fear and favor into politicians of the established parties. Donkeys and Elephants are eager to avoid the scorpion sting of big money finance vehicles and are just as eager to mainline the addictive smack of big money contributions. One can argue this has degraded and devalued the significance of our vote but I am here to assert that the value of our vote has never been greater.

Free people deserve more then a choice between the lesser of two evils. If we value our democracy we must not squander our votes on candidates whose interests are antithetical to our own. The Green Party offers a vision and solutions that are not beholden to the special interests that have a stranglehold over our political institutions and economic system. The political pornography polluting our airways is clogging the arteries of our body politic. America can no longer suffer the paralysis of government engendered by extreme partisanship or the promulgation of fear promoted by intractable power elites. America is in desperate need for a cure the lesser of two evils cannot provide. The greater or lesser evil can only be avoided by voting for a progressive candidate not bought or controlled by those who continue to thrive off the misery of our broken system. The back and forth swing of a pendulum that oscillates between the radical conservatism of the Republicans and the ineffectual liberalism of the Democrats united in service to a common master needs to come to a blessed end. America can break with this cycle. A vote for Green is a vote for the sustainable future of a more democratic and just America.

The Ten Key Values of the Greens

Social Justice
Community-Based Economics
Nonviolence
Decentralisation
Future Focus/Sustainability
Feminism
Personal and Global Responsibility
Respect for Diversity
Grassroots Democracy
Ecological Wisdom

You Tube Music Video:

Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, This Land Is Your Land

Part 1: Tea Party Fundamentalism

Part 2: Damnation of the Democrats

Risk: democracy, elections

Damning the Democrats

2010-10-29T09:04:00.001-07:00

A few days after President Obama took office I remember him emerging from a meeting at the Pentagon. The summit was arranged to brief the Commander In Chief on the progress of the wars and to assure the nation that the new president was in-sync with his generals and admirals charged with running the war. Emerging from the highly publicized meeting America's new war time president stated "as long as the generals take care of what they have to do, we'll take care of what we have to do." I found the statement to be unsettling. It implied that the new administration would not alter the course set by the previous administration insuring that the inertia of Bush's policies and strategies would continue unabated. On another level Obama's statement also seemed to suggest an abdication. I get nervous to think that the Commander in Chief has ceded civilian control of the greatest military force the world has ever known. The decision to pursue war or enjoy peace is too delicate a matter to be left to the decisions of an entrenched military-industrial bureaucracy. The abdication of assertive control, weather its born from the desire to get along, build consensus or a deep seated need for acceptance has been a disturbing custom of Obama's presidency and the prevailing characteristic of the Democratic Party.

Obama's easy surrender to established protocols, processes, precedents has been a hallmark of his presidency. It exemplifies the failure of the Democratic Party's oppositional legacy to Republican rule during the two previous Bush Administrations. At every turn, the Democrats gave in to the Republican conservative legislative agenda with little or no dissent. The Patriot Act, the blind march to two unnecessary wars, the dismantling of government oversight and regulatory controls on business, the slavish submission to Republican led expenditures or tax cuts in service to corporate welfare and the tepid lip service to the struggle for social justice made the democrats complicit accomplices in America's dramatic conservative swing.

The democrats failure as an oppositional force to counter the reactionary juggernaut of neo-conservatism has emboldened the reactionary impulses of the ruthless power elites. Threatened by economic distress and disintegration of our political institutions, Americas ruling plutocracy has spawned a malevolent Tea Party movement to crush any progressive populism that may arise to counteract their social position, economic power and political sovereignty. The democrats adamant refusal to stand firmly against the destructive impulses of xenophobia and virulent nationalism has allowed an ugly chorus of fear to become our new national anthem. The resentful voices of suspicion, intolerance and exclusion grows ever louder each day as emboldened Falangists and neo-fascists take center stage on a surreal commercial production of American political theater.

In defense of President Obama his presidential campaign and his administration have expressed a deep desire to pursue a political consensus. This sentiment is admirable and the ability to form a consensus is an absolute and critical virtue to the health of a democratic society. The freedom to express differing opinions, voice dissent, air grievances, petition, ability to listen, interest to hear, converse, change opinions and assimilate these competing impulses to form a consensus to express the common will are what makes democracies imperfect yet the fairest expression of governance. Mr. Obama has sought to pursue and build consensus with an opposition Republican Party that has been nothing short of obstructionist since the democrats assumed control of the Executive office. Rush "Country Firster" Limbaugh said it best "I hope he fails" set the tone and sealed the intractability of Republicans and any possibility of bipartisan cooperation to deal with the critical issues confronting the nation.

Last summers spectacle of town meetings designed to initiate a national conversation on Health Care Reform devolved into a partisan shouting match and an opportunity for the formation of the Tea Party galvanized by propaganda about a socialist takeover of the economy, death panels, and the idea that President Obama was a fascist dictator. At this point President Obama still took the opportunity to sit down with the leadership of the GOP in a televised discussion to initiate a dialog. The Consensus Builder in Chief was rebuffed again. The democrats responded by killing single-payer and backing down on universal health coverage. The watered down health care reform bill accomplished an extension of coverage for more, but not all Americans and eliminated preexisting conditions as a disqualification for coverage while also extending the power of insurance companies by making it mandatory that all tax payers purchase health insurance.

This reform is not a significant ground breaking legislative event. President Obama and the democrats should have recognized early on the inability to work a compromise with the obstructionists in the Republican Party. As is the case with Cap and Trade legislation, rescinding Don't Ask Don't Tell, ending the Iraq and Afghanistan war, financial services reform, TARP and the economic stimulus bill; the GOP, "Party of No" has done everything in its power to derail the efforts of the democratic party to address the deep problems confronting America. The Democratic Party should have leveraged its control of the legislative and executive branch of the Federal Government to push through a program for a new America. The pressing circumstances of history required decisive leadership and bold ideas to address the complex problems confronting America. FDR's "New Deal" or Johnson's "Great Society" were ideas accompanied by innovative legislation to solve systemic problems. The democrats tepid response acquiesced to the conservative demands of the GOP. The Blue Dog Democrats yelped and barked louder then any rabid GOP hound subverting a robust game changing legislative response to the problems confronting America.

The democrats would again demonstrate their timidity in how they responded to the Gulf Oil Spill. If the free falling economy was the equivalent of economic Armageddon the Horizon Deep Water catastrophic oil spill was its environmental equivalent. In each case President Obama fashioned piece meal responses designed not to offend "free market evangelists" for fear of being accused of over reaching. Both instances provided opportunities to mobilize the nation and its significant resources in these titanic tests of national resolve. In both instances the cojones challenged donkeys failed to seize the reins of state to wield its power. I am still shocked by images of Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein pulling the strings on Timothy Geithner like a marionette to exact concessions during the banking crisis. Or consider the high profile of BP CEO, Tony "I want my life back" Hayward mounting a $50 million PR campaign to quell any concerns that the benevolence of corporate capitalism will eventually "set things right." The Republicans turned this into President Obama's Katrina with Bobby "don't spend no stim in Louisiana" Jindal taking the EPA to court for declaring a moratorium on deep water drilling. And the fattest of fat cats Republican Mississippi Governor Haley "rebuild the casinos first" Barbour shaming Obama to spend a portion of his non- Martha Vineyard family vacation swimming in the pristine waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It was a PR disaster for President Obama because he failed to act with the resolve or manner of a strong decisive leader.

But now as the midterms approach the democrats must answer to a crumbling alliance of constituencies that they have taken for granted and failed to help. They are unable to see constituents as anything other then a demographic voting block devoid of a face, personality or soul. The democrats see stereotypes not people. Labor unions are blue collar voters that now approximate 7% of registered voters. This year the democratic controlled legislature failed to act on Card Check legislation that would protect the right of labor unions to vote and organize non-union companies. Another important constituency of the Democratic Party is the LGBT community. The military said it would comply with the decision of a California District Court that overturned Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Incredibly, President Obama's Attorney General appealed the decision and asked the court to reinstate Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Teacher unions are also big supporters of the Democratic Party, but many democrats support school vouchers and Charter Schools and seem unconcerned that financial and institutional support of public schools continues to erode. Working class families and woman are under severe distress as unemployment rates approach 10%, home foreclosures rise , spiraling cost of living increases spike, the cost of sending kids to college slip out of reach and a marked erosion in quality of life and expectations for a secure future and comfortable retirement evaporate. The democrats did little to solve these pressing problems save the offer of cheap lip service that they understand their pain. Charlie Rangel secure in the refuge of his four rent controlled apartments will not feel the cold experienced by a homeless mother and her children this winter; nor will Hillary Clinton lose any sleep worrying about deploying Chelsea to fight an incomprehensible war in Afghanistan.

This mid term election democratic candidates are running away from their unpopular president. They will run on a platform of tax cuts and appear as local election district manifestations of gun toting patriotic Christophanies. The poverty of a party with no conviction of principle is made plain. Having no principles, Democrats have not offered a true alternative to reactionary Republicanism. Nearsightedness has robbed them of a vision for a new republic. They offer no demarcation with the broken policies that preceded their rule. The hallmark of their governance has been the complete compromise with an recalcitrant opposition; content to administer a broken and corrupt apparatus rather then chart a new path. The democrats remain shining examples of self serving politicians retuning to office on mythical inertia to secure rent controlled apartments while public housing remains an endangered and dear want for many. They believe themselves to be righteously led by the presiding shame of a president made possible by an epic civil rights struggle who cannot muster the fortitude or conviction to extend the equal right of marriage for one of his liberal constituencies.

We deserve better.

You tube Music Video: Les McCann, Eddie Harris, Compared to What

Risk: democracy, two party political system, liberalism

Life in the Time of Cholera

2010-10-29T09:01:00.001-07:00

The nightmare unleashed by the earthquake in Haiti boarders on the surreal. We are simultaneously drawn into the epic disaster that repulses and threatens to overwhelm our sense of empathy and compassion. The outbreak of cholera compounds the suffering of the Haitian people as the unfolding tragedy escalates into an unimaginable spectacle whose severity, scale and complexity daunts comprehension.

The heroic efforts of the Haitian people assisted by aid workers, foreign governments and NGOs have diligently engaged the urgent mission to combat the carnage wrought by the disastrous earthquake. The efforts to rescue, resuscitate and rebuild a nation entombed by the earthquakes rubble and a crippling legacy of poverty and underdevelopment must now also battle cholera in the multi-front war against this disaster.

It is believed that the earthquake killed an estimated 230,000 people, injured 300,000 and made 1,000,000 homeless. It is estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged.

Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. Its ability to respond to the cholera outbreak is severely compromised due to the lack of administrative capability and an infrastructure to provide potable water, waste disposal and deliver medical services to the distressed population.

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the absence of simple remedial medical care let thousands of minor untreated wounds fester. Tiny cuts grew into major infections, turned gangrenous and required amputation of arms and legs. These amputations could have been avoided with a timely treatment of simple antiseptic and a band aid. The inability to quickly extract the trapped, the blockage of debris strewn roads, the disruption of water, flattened hospitals and the nonavailability of trained medical personnel transformed a patient with a minor treatable injury into an amputee. Haiti is now a nation of amputees.

As the threat of the cholera plague grows, the growing desperation of a desperate people in a desperate situation also grows. In the absence of simple and timely remedies small treatable wounds becomes terminal. The world can ill afford to abandon the ravaged people of Haiti to scavenge the countryside and roam through the rubble strewn streets of Port-Au-Prince in search of a cure for a nations ailments. Life in the time of cholera in Haiti does not have to be long lived. The timely delivery of small and simple treatments can repress this growing nightmare and put an end to this ongoing human tragedy. The required aid to remedy this festering wound on the body of humanity is tantalizingly close and we must not allow it to remain just out of reach for those dying from the want of a cure.

To help please consider supporting the work of Doctors Without Borders.

You Tube Music Video: Rara Music

Risk: humanity

Juan Williams Gets A Raise

2010-10-29T08:59:00.001-07:00

The dismissal of Juan Williams from his correspondent position at NPR is a watershed event. Conservative pundits will be screaming about First Amendment rights and the abuses of government controlled media. Mr. Williams was fired by NPR for violating guidelines on a statement he made as a paid commentator on Fox News "The O'Reilly Factor." When asked about the racial profiling of Muslim's Mr. Williams stated:

"I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country," Williams said Monday. "But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

At first glance it seems to be pretty innocuous stuff. Mr. Williams citing his unease at seeing a woman of the veil on an airplane is well within his First Amendment right to do so. The fact that I consider Mr. Williams fear to be based on a prejudice that prejudges someone based on appearances is beside the point. Its synonymous with police officers stopping motorists on interstate highways because of their race. The crime of driving while black should not be sufficient to infringe a persons right to privacy or impede their safe passage. Mr. Williams has the right to express those fears and prejudices and I will defend his right to do so.

Mr. Williams employer NPR also has a right to require that employees conform to certain guidelines that support the mission of a public news organization. NPR requires that its employees refrain from making public editorial pronouncements on public media outlets. It is understood that editorializing correspondents may injure or cause harm to the NPR brand as a trusted source of objective reporting. As such NPR is well within its right to protect its franchise by removing Mr. Williams from his position as a correspondent. Professional athletes and corporate executives all have clauses in their employment contracts that stipulate unbecoming conduct that hurts the company franchise is grounds for dismissal. NPR exercised that clause.

What is interesting about this event is the contrast of journalistic standards practiced by NPR and Fox. NPR receives some government funding and was originally chartered to assure that radio broadcast services would be available to the smaller rural markets ignored by commercial radio. Recently NPR programming consists of thoughtful up market features that has less mass appeal for profit oriented radio media outlets. Its news programing, All Things Considered and Morning Edition offered in depth reportage that is thoughtful, fair and balanced. It strives to be objective and for the most part is.

The contrast with Fox News is striking. Belying its marketing handle of "fair and balanced reporting", Fox News is anything but fair or balanced. I find Fox News to be a consistent platform for the conservative movement and as such it's reporting is hardly objective. Its commentators routinely express an opinion on the news that is editorial in nature. Fox News has built a profitable franchise on its editorial positions and its assemblage of commentators (Rove, Hannity, Beck, O'Reilly, Palin) that eagerly express the political bias of its corporate parent News Corp. Fox News correctness has been vindicated in the marketplace of ideas as its corporate sponsors and large viewer ship endorses its editorial positions.

The complex amalgam of the commercial viability of media channels, the branding of ideas, news as objective reportage, editorialism as a media commodity and the subtle distinction of opinion versus news are issues laying at the heart of Juan Williams dismissal from NRP. Though fired from NPR for expressing an opinion that NPR thought unfair and hurtful to Muslims, Fox News awarded Mr. Williams a $3 million contract to expand his presence with the fair and balanced network. Clearly the free market of ideas confirms that Mr. Williams prejudice and intolerance toward Muslims advances the commercial interests of Fox News.

Its alarming that the value of prejudice and intolerance is rising and that major corporate brands like News Corp find it so intrinsically linked to it he price of its stock as a publicly traded company. Truly a disturbing example of bankruptcy of the free market of ideas.

You Tube Music Video: Mott the Hoople, All The Young Dudes

Risk: free speech, commercial media, objective reporting, prejudice

We Deserve Better (Part 1): Tea Party Fundamentalism

2010-10-22T03:59:00.000-07:00

You hear it all the time. All the candidates running for office are horrible. The democrats and republicans both stink. But this guy ain't as bad as the other guy. "He is the lesser of two evils". So we make our choice based on two evils. We deserve more then the lesser of two evils.

When you think about it, a lesser evil is still an evil. Even if its a lesser evil, the essence of its nature will soon enough turn on us as it seeks to actualize the essence of its nature. It brings to mind Aesop's Fable of the scorpion and frog. The scorpion comes to a river that it can't cross and calls on a passing frog to let it ride on its back to the other side of the river. The frog was suspicious because it knew of the scorpions venomous nature but finally relented and let the scorpion mount its back for the ride across the river. When they were halfway across the river scorpion delivered a fatal sting to the frog, dooming them both. As the deadly venom took its hold, the frog asked the scorpion why it delivered its sting that would destroy them both? The scorpion answered "it is my nature to sting." In a nutshell that is the nature of evil. It will eventually deliver its sting. So if we want to be safe we must avoid evil whenever we can. This is most true when we are considering political candidates.

In many respects The Tea Party has done this country a favor. They have energized the country by reigniting passion back into the political process. Their raucous demonstrations and appeal to populist sentiments has served to remind America of its activist heritage and the many protest movements that have been central to the creation of our republic. America, the great democratic experiment, is the result of a history of struggle to claim and extend democratic rights and privileges to all citizens. The great social justice struggles that fought for universal suffrage, women rights, living wages and labor laws, civil rights, environmental protection and antiwar movements are important chapters in America's story that are often neglected and too often forgotten. The Frederick Douglas admonition that "power concedes nothing without demand" is a keen wisdom that Tea Party activists have taken to heart.

The Tea Party has adamantly asserted that the elite class of professional politicians is beyond reformation. The political elites cannot change their nature. The Democrats and Republicans are well beyond redemption. A more astute truism has never been spoken. Here the Tea Party rhetoric diverges from their practice because they advocate support for GOP candidates. So the first lesson we can learn from the Tea Party is to do what the Tea Party says "don't trust either party," not what they do, support the GOP.

I am convinced that both parties are totally bought and controlled by big money channeled through K Street lobbyists doing the bidding of large corporate interests. The final nail in the coffin was Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. This decision has altered the democratic scales of our Republic. They have been dis proportionally tipped against the individual citizen. The law of the land has codified this inequity by protecting the right of deep pocketed corporate institutions to purchase the favor of political elites that rule America. This will further strengthen the entrenched class of the two party monopoly. This leaves the citizen to content themselves in the illusion that America is still a participatory democracy. Dressing up in Minuteman costumes to pretend we are racing off to meet the dreaded enemies of our republic; and proclaiming an intention to water the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants makes for amusing political theater in a land where the value of one man one vote is severely distressed.

Here the mendacity of the Tea Party's populism is made clear. Tea Party candidates are the principal recipients of corporate money. This money finances expensive media campaigns that flood the airways of critical electoral districts with advocacy ads in support of Tea Party sponsored candidates. This money is also used to attack liberal Democratic Party opponents. The populist claims of the Tea Party are bankrupted by the heaps of corporate gold flowing into their campaign war chests. This prompts conservatives to parrot "global warming is a liberal fiction" and "God placed oil on this earth for our use and its our divine right to extract it." They condemn government regulations as an assault on the economic liberties expressly protected in the Constitution. It is as if they believed the natural resource of the land was theirs and not the property of a faceless global corporate entity.

We can also be thankful to the Tea Party for revealing how the core values of conservatism are put into practice. Property rights trump all rights. Militarism and nationalism is our salvation. Tolerance is the hallmark of ignorance. Compromise and negotiation is a sign of weakness and consensus born from a democratic process must be repressed. The stridency of their pronouncements seep with homophobia, Islamophobia and insistence on closing the southern border and eradicating illegals within our midst expresses deep cultural and racial fears born from an eroding cultural supremacy.

The geopolitical reality of the changing demographics of America's ethnic and cultural landscape fuels a desire to arrest the democratic political process. The populism of the Tea Party is based on summoning the support of the declining population of Caucasian America. They give voice to the anger of the ebbing dominance of a demographic group; screaming, crying and cursing its economic, political and cultural pain. Barack Obama manifests the threat in a stark contrast of black and white. He fuels the fear that gives pointed political focus to the racial aspects of Tea Party politics. The nations first Afro-American President conveniently offers cover to an undercurrent of racial animus prevalent in Tea Party slogans and images.

The Tea Party's professed love of the Constitution is disingenuous. I ask where was their righteous outrage as Bush and the Republicans violated some of the basic tenants of the Constitution. Most were out front cheering him and his fellow Republicans on. Their support of positions that deny the basic civil rights to the LGBT community; the clamoring silence concerning violations of privacy rights under the Patriot Act; the failure to recognize religious freedom and the right of Muslims to build mosques; their practice of advocating the selection of circuit judges on the basis of ideological commitment to the GOP and the endorsement of torture and unlimited imprisonment without due process for enemy combatants in the war on terror are examples of their disdain for constitutional protections and basic human rights.

Fundamentalism is a strain of thought that is psychologically appealing in a complex world with no easy answers. With fundamentalism the cosmology is all figured out. There is no need to ask any questions because the answers are self evident truths that confirm the ideology before the question is asked. The Tea Party raises the US Constitution with a fervor that rivals any Bible thumping Born Again Christian or Quran fueled Taliban operative. I heard a Tea Party member once advance the idea that no new legislation can exceed 30 some odd pages in length because that was the length of the original US Constitution. This thinking fetishizes the Constitution. It believes the original document to be a holy tablet that the Founding Fathers brought down from the highest peak in the Appalachian Mountains. It fails to take into account that the United States of 2010 is a vastly different place then it was when it emerged on the world scene as the first democratic republic in the late 18th Century. This fundamentalism fails to remember that some of the original framers of the Constitution were slave holders, considered people property, disenfranchised women and perceived Native Americans as savages and worthy targets of genocide to annex their lands for the new and growing republic. No the reality of the 21st century nation state and the rights and responsibilities of its citizens in an interconnected global ecosystem has evolved and is vastly different from the time when the Constitution was authored. The foresighted crafters of our Constitution sat through a sweltering Philadelphia summer and sweated out this hollowed document through intelligent compromise and a respect for consensus and the democratic process. It is a vital lesson lost on Tea Party zealots content to wave copies of the document as some righteous proof of their love of country while they profane the spirit and enduring truths of the Constitutions essence.

The Tea Party's political fundamentalism is mirrored in many respects by the religious fundamentalism held by many of its members. If the Constitution anoints true believers with political righteousness, religious fundamentalism provides theological justification for a social agenda advanced with nasty intolerance, celebratory bigotry and cultural exclusion. Religious fundamentalism has long been the cornerstone of the conservative movement. They attack secularism as an obscene manifestation of the liberal welfare state. It threatens civil liberties for everyone as it seeks to exclude the full rights citizenship for all citizens. It is a dangerous foil aimed at the heart of public education. It is a tool employed by education reformers to underfund school programs, transfer monies to charter and private schools and transform humanities based curricula. It seeks to replace science in our public schools with stories from the Bible. Evolution, natural selection, and big bang theories are replaced with creationism and a 6,000 year old world that was created in 6 days. Civil law and cultural mores will be guided and enforced by a moral code of prohibitions written 3,000 years ago to bring order to a nomadic tribal people assembling the nation of Israel.

The future competency of our nation and its ability to compete in a complex world is at stake. America cannot hope to maintain its leadership in the world economy if it allows science to be politicized, its schools to crumble and a segment of its people not fully enfranchised with the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. The greatest danger is the installation of a bifurcated society where well to do Judeo-Christian Caucasians are in a position to purchase the best education, access health care services and enjoy a full pallet of rights and freedoms not available to the growing stable of "others" lawfully excluded from their rightful inheritance of citizenship.

The Tea Party has crystallized the choice in the coming election. Beware of the Bible thumper. Beware of the Constitution waver. The stridency of Tea Party proponent's and their religio-political fundamentalism may stand like "Old Hickory" on a timely quote from their sacred tomes but resorting to such a defense reveals an inherent weakness in their argument. No dialog, no consensus, no possibility of arriving at a democratic resolution to problems. Tea Partyer's may offer factual recitations from the books but no understanding and less truth can be found in pronouncement of their words.

You Tube Music Video: Art Tatum, Tea for Two

Risk: Constitution, secular democracy, education, civil rights

By the Waters of Babylon

2010-10-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

By the rivers of Babylon we sat

and wept when we remembered Zion.

Psalm 137

It was the last concert ever to be held at Giants Stadium and the first time I would see Bruce Springsteen live. Situated between the exits 16E and 16W on Jersey's own Thunder Road me and my friends arrived early to tailgate at the Meadowlands Stadium complex. We gobbled subs and washed them down with exotic bottled water imported from Long Island. We amused ourselves by watching the growing parade of Bruce fans cramming the highways that slowly inched toward entry gates granting license to plow through carousing crowds to search for a parking space. As a fiercely proud and life long resident of the Garden State this occasion was long overdue; but catching The Boss at the last concert at Giant Stadium made it extra special and worth the wait.

I grew up not far from the stadium. Fifty years ago I lived in a house on the rise on the western edge of the Meadowlands on Orient Way in Rutherford. As the crow flies it may be a mile and a half from the splash of asphalt I was now standing upon. As a child I remember being in awe at the vista that laid outside the window of my room. To a young lad the vast expanse of a seemingly endless grassland stretching beyond the bounds of my peripheral vision was my idea of a wild and untamed jungleland. I remember hearing tales of bottomless pits of hungry quicksand eagerly awaiting an opportunity to swallow unsuspecting little boys unfortunate enough to wander into the infinite expanse of tall reeds, thick grasses and towering bulrushes. Thinking back it was probably a story my parents told me to warn a young child off from the thought of a solo expedition to explore the intricate and dangerous swamp of rivers and rivulets weaving together the beautifully complex riparian ecosystem.

Half a century ago it was a common sight to see cars parked along the dirt roads that lined the tidal pools and estuaries of the Overpeck, Berry Creek and Hackensack River. The brackish waters of the Meadowlands sustained a rich biodiversity. It nourished interdependent communities of crabs, mussels, clams, fish and mammals that would grace Sunday afternoon dinner tables of intrepid trappers and fishermen that happily spent the day harvesting the bounty of the rich urban aquaculture. I would often imagine the sight of the ancient ones, engaging in the same activity, who centuries ago, situated on the banks of these same tributaries, pulling up nets bursting with fish, blessing the abundance the Great Spirit so richly conferred upon them as their rightful inheritance. As it says in the Old Testament "there is nothing new under the sun."

My salami sub with mozzarella and roasted peppers was going down real good. Bite after bite it just tasted better and better but its good size and over apportionment of spicy meat and rich mootz was filling me up. I feared if I took one more bite it would burst my gut so I had to put it down, wrapped it back up and save the rest for tomorrows lunch.

To know when enough is enough is a virtue that we as a species are hard pressed to understand. If your full from a meal, saving a bit of the sandwich for tomorrows lunch is an example of moderation and a lesson in good stewardship. Nowhere on earth does the glaring examples of overindulgence, avarice, corruption and the pernicious wastefulness of corporate greed manifest itself in such a shocking manner as it does in the Meadowlands Complex. Two stadiums, a race track, an IZOD Center and a commercially bankrupt and aesthetic abomination called Xanadu forms the commercial polyglot known as the Meadowland Sports Complex. It is the finest work of commercial developers, financiers and local governments eager to cash in on ambivalent taxpayers and gullible local townsfolk believing billion dollar stadiums, built atop garbage laden landfills, financed with state bond issues will be sufficient to retain the loyalty of Jets, Giants, Nets and Devils. Desperate job seekers also hope to land a job as a beer vendor allowing them to walk up and down the windy steps of these sacred sports palaces to pay taxes on their earnings to pay back the loans on the stadiums.

When we entered the stadium complex looking for a place for our modest tailgate we wanted a space offering an easy exit from the incomprehensible mess of the parking lot. Unfortunately extracting ourselves and our fellow citizens from the unsustainable commercial, political and environmental mess created by the Meadowlands Sports Complex will be impossible for the many generations of Jerseyites that will follow in our footsteps. Our local governments have ceded stewardship responsibility of the Meadowlands to corporate developers. A corporate manager's idea of stewardship is to extract a maximum amount of profit for shareholders in the shortest time frame possible. Corporations may come and go but the people of a community must remain. Sometimes left to pick up the pieces from the wreckage caused by ill advised development and are tasked to restore the delicate balance of nature with the complex ecosystem of stakeholders. Well considered balance is the cornerstone of effective stewardship and is essential to a community's long term sustainability, wellness and growth.

The Meadowlands is dealing with the wreckage caused by EnCap. EnCap acted like a pernicious organized crime syndicate. It operated with the complicit support of local governments, business associations and sophisticated private equity investors that conspired to loot public treasuries, steal public lands, and secure licenses to dump toxic waste into the delicate Meadowlands ecosystem. The Meadowlands Sports Complex should be considered a white collar crime scene. Xanadu, yet another needless mall of America is an aesthetic abomination. It remains unoccupied and sits like a useless heap of garbage as another crass commercial scar on a once pristine riparian ecology. Where crabbers would gather on afternoons to harvest a natural bounty; the garish presence of Xanadu now presides like a festering scab, concealing a cancerous tumor, implanted by the toxic greed of EnCap, metastasizing in the gooey mush of the meadowlands good earth.

When they broke ground on the Sports Complex in the early 1970's they discovered that highly toxic mercury levels polluted the water and earth in wide swaths of the development zone. The pollution was the remnants of a long departed manufacturer. The remedy was to encase the mercury in a plastic sheet. The mercury poisoning forever altered the delicate ecology of the meadowlands leading one to believe that this would make current developers and planners more sensitive to the ecological impact of development. But the anti regulatory mindset that has pervaded government and business partnerships has opened the door for environmental assaults as exemplified in this most recent example by EnCap.

As show time approached, the parking lot was growing more crowed. The growing party of revelers spread out their tables, coolers and barbecues to celebrate the momentous event. As the smoke from the fires rose into the air I recalled a vivid vision from my youth. One evening as I peered out my window, I witnessed the night sky frame a line of fire extending to the outer reaches of my vision. The conflagration consumed the reeds and tall grasses of the meadowlands. The flaming horizon was an electric line of agitated orange that reached ever upward. The fire danced against the ghostly backdrop of the lighted Manhattan skyline. The combustible apparition of angry flames appeared to threaten the looming silver skyscrapers lining The Avenue of the America's.

The image of that fire will always haunt me. It heralded the drastic turn in the nature of the meadowlands. The fires were clearing space for the industrial parks, land fills and new commercial enterprises desperately needed for the rapidly expanding American economy. The waterways and aquaculture of the meadowlands were incompatible with the economic needs of our changing nation. Clean water, vibrant stocks of fish, rich flora, birds and mammals were something we willingly sacrificed at the alter of economic progress. Today during these austere times, when the gods of economic progress have seemingly abandoned us; we should make it a point to visit the empty malls and walk through the unoccupied office spaces purchased with the sacrifice of our natural environment to the fickle gods of economic progress.

Fire and water is an eternal dance of opposites that continuously engages a dynamic dialectic heralding a harbinger of change that always moves to restore a balance in the cycle of opposites. The fire of development that consumed the meadowlands of my youth may now be snuffed out by the waters of a changing time seeking to restore a sustainable balance for future generations. This will indeed please the Great Spirit.

You Tube Video: Bruce Springsteen: Oh Mary Don't You Weep No More

Risk: sustainability, environment, commerce

Artwork for this post is by Susan K. Arnold, By the Waters of Babylon.

This post is written in participation for Blog Action Day. Theme is water.

Tea Party Serves Up Witches Brew

2010-10-14T13:28:00.001-07:00

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
MacBeth, William Shakespeare

Shakespeare could have written these words to describe America's deteriorating political culture. Spoken by three witches as they wait to deliver a message to Macbeth, it accurately captures the foul stink of ideas espoused and tactics employed by Tea Party candidates and the tacit acceptance of their supporters as fair rules of engagement. The repugnant swill served up by the Tea Party and the alarming rise of a growing citizenry eagerly lapping it up at the Party's public demonstrations and civic events is a disturbing indication of America's radical rightest shift. The concoction offered at the filthy troughs by Tea Party candidates is a mixture of demagoguery, character assassination, blatant lies, bigotry, intolerance and xenophobia. They shout Anti-Federalist slogans, denounce Obamacare and the "socialist president" living at the White House as a fascist dictator. Hoisting Don't Tred on Me flags, while tramping about in costumes dressed like Minutemen, Ben Franklin, Betsy Ross and Hitlerian likenesses of Obama they would make for amusing political theater if it were not for the seriousness of the threat to democracy these misguided people pose.

The Tea Party articulates a steady stream of fear, loathing and mistrust. It effectively creates a fog of obfuscation to cloak the identity of its well financed backers allowing them to hide behind layers of opaque corporate structures. As of September 1, over $200 million was raised by Conservative groups to purchase issue oriented ads that attack liberals and support positions of conservative candidates. Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS, has raised approximately $65 million from anonymous backers and he is strategically deploying it in districts and campaigns to fuel the conservative juggernaut and regain the House and Senate for the GOP. This is the genie the Supreme Court unleashed with its Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Its a genie that Karl Rove knows how to tame and use to do the bidding of his corporate masters. These funds do not include the amount of direct funds raised by candidates. In hotly contested campaigns like Nevada Senate election, Tea Party endorsed Sharonn Angle has raised over $14 million during the third quarter alone. In Delaware Christine O'Donnell raised close to $3 million in the two and half weeks since winning the Republican primary. Big money from well financed backers are flowing into the political coffers of Tea Party candidates. Following the money trail will more likely then not lead to a well carpeted corporate headquarters belying the purported "populist" agenda of the Tea Party movement.

Teabaggers are the shock troops, the populist covers for powerful global institutions that are salivating to carve up and consume the distressed assets of America that are up for sale and available to the highest bidder. America has hospitals, shopping malls, auto manufacturers, bridges, water pipelines, toll roads, shipping ports, offshore oil leases, minerals begging to be liberated from National Park dungeons, vast public school networks, community banks, military contracts, natural gas waiting to be fracted loose, toll roads, lots of distressed mortgages and millions of foreclosed homes weighing like a lead sinker on banks balance sheet yearning to be turned into a liquid asset. These are the real prizes at stake in America's election. The Tea Party's professed love of liberty and the constitution is useful only in so far as its expressed in their unquestioned commitment to laissez-faire capitalism. Get government out of the way, no regulations, no taxes, no protections, no minimum wages and no unions. This is the cornerstone and common mantra of conservatives that opens the door to monied interests to snap up unencumbered assets on the cheap without any restrictions. It is the continued plundering of America.

Our revulsion to the repugnant statements of Tea Party candidates makes one wonder if they are engaged in a deliberate attempt to heighten our antipathy to the political process. Christine O'Donnell now well known coy TV ad of "I'm not a witch."; Tea Party congressional candidate from Ohio Rich Lott's bumbled pronouncement, "I am not a Nazi"; New York Gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino's statement "I don't want homosexuality taught in schools"; and Sharron Angle's assertion that "We must oppose the Sharia Governments of Dearborn Michigan and Frankfort Texas" seem to be comedic inanities spoken by political demagogues playing to the lowest common denominator of their low information voting constituents. Unfortunately, I don't find humor in a thug exposing his homophobia, a dimwitted shill advancing religious bigotry clothed as "righteous intolerance", a US congressional candidate aggrandizing Nazism or a Sarah Palin wannabe obfuscating critical issues confronting this nation with the affectations of her ego. One must pause and ask why are these ideals emanating from the Tea Party movement. It clearly expresses an ideology that is antithetical to the constitution and represents a virulent political strain that threatens civil rights and personal liberty. Teabaggers espousing and supporting Paladino's homophobia, smiling at O'Donnell's witchery and winking at Lott's Nazi fantasies detract attention from serious candidates offering political alternatives like Laura Wells, the Green Party Gubernatorial candidate for California who was barred from participating in the political debate and was later arrested for trespassing at a post debate party. This is a hair on fire moment for America.

It is a huge mistake to dismiss these comedic political pawns as the current election cycle's candidate de jour. Big money is laying big sums on the line to support and control these candidates. The Tea Party and the big hidden money of the GOP is casting a bewitching spell on the electorate. MacBeth's regicide is small change compared to Karl Rove's intent to deliver a deathblow to democracy. Rove is mixing a special Tea Party elixir just for the occasion.

"Double, double toil and trouble,"
Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches' mummy; maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark;
Root of hemlock digg'd i the dark;
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,—
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingrediants of our caldron.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

You Tube Music Video: Donavon, Season of the Witch

Risk: democracy, constitution, elections

Restoration

2010-10-09T03:47:00.001-07:00

My heart aches each year as we approach Columbus Day because it marks the anniversary of the death of a young man who my family and I deeply loved. The young man's parents are long standing and very close family friends. We went to college together when their son was born. He was the first child of our inner group and we witnessed and experienced the arc of his life from cradle to grave. So it is together in sadness that we share the arrival of this unfortunate day.

When we are confronted with the death of our children we are compelled to search for reasons. In earnest we ask questions and adamantly seek answers from a seemingly remote God whose silence leaves us feeling abandoned and confused. We throw up our arms and shake our fists at an ambivalent cosmos that stares us down with an infinite blackness that mirrors the condition of our soul and the depth of our pain. Anniversaries bring us back to the terrible moment when we learned of our beloved's passing and all the feelings of dread, violation and terrible pain of that moment are relived again.

I remember coming home on that terrible day. I was standing by the sliding glass doors looking out on a beautiful autumn day. My wife was not home and I asked my daughter where she was. My daughter answered that my wife went to Aunt Sharon's house and at that very moment the phone rang. It was my wife who in a stream of tears delivered the news of our young friend's death. I collapsed onto a seat that was fortunately open at my side. It was as if an invisible locomotive knocked the wind and an ability to stand right out of me.

This death was not the first family member or close friend of mine to have died but it was one of the most painful. Our friend's vitality, his exuberant youthfulness, quixotic smile and potent life force were central to his identity and qualities that made us feel that his living presence would always surround us. When that life was quelled we are shaken by the realization that youthfulness is not an immutable truth that protects anyone from death.

The next year two days after Christmas my nephew passed away after a lifelong battle against Leukemia. My nephew was only 16 at the time of his passing, but God and his family filled his life with the knowledge that he was deeply loved. My nephew fought the disease courageously and faithfully since he was 5 years old. During his life he had three major occurrences of the disease and after the third occurrence the Lord saw fit to call his beloved son home.

My nephew's parents relied heavily on their faith to carry them through his sicknesses and implored God to heal their son. They prayed incessantly and faithfully to have the Lord restore their son’s health. It was not to be.

We question what purpose is served by the death of children and how could a benevolent God fail to answer our fervent prayers and allow this to happen? Those left behind remain haunted by our loved ones painful absence. We question our ability and effectiveness as parents and the meaning and necessity of a continued walk in the graceful light of God's sure and abundant love that seemingly has abandoned us.

I believe our best response to these terrible instances of life is to continue a practice of a prayerful and sacramental life. There are many types of prayers. We petition the Beneficent One for things, we ask for guidance and strength, we give thanks, we ask for insights, clarity of thought, peace for the soul, restoration, revelation, protection and help for loved ones, and hope for the sight to perceive the daily grace that abundantly lights the pathways of our daily lives.

If prayer articulates our intentions and desires a sacramental life communicates that intention with firm action by binding devote love in response to the needs and human frailty of others. This connection helps fill the vacuous void left by the death of beloved family members and friends. It is the way we affirm the living power of unconditional love and anoint ourselves and others with the restorative balm of God's sure presence during times of devastating tragedy, keen want, pointed vulnerability and consuming fear. The presence of The Deliverer is the outstretched hand, listening ear and kind heart open and ready to give and accept love. This sacramental dance nurtures us, uplifts others and keeps the memory our dearly departed close and ever fresh in our minds and hearts. It empowers us to live and feel the love that we hold in our hearts for our children that have passed. It emboldens our spirit. It brings to life the vitality of our children that have gone before us and allows the gift of their life to be a life force and real presence in the life of others.

If we continue to ask God for something and it is not given we need to assess the larger context of our desires and gain a deeper understanding of what it takes to achieve them. Maybe its time to create new life strategies and seek to discover new pathways to live out our life's calling. Perhaps God is telling us it is time to begin to explore other solutions to our problems.

I think that is what God may be telling us when our children cross the River Jordan. Blessed with an understanding that our life must now be lived in a different context we become open to the possibilities and “newness of life” that Jesus Christ promises. The Good Shepard promises an abundant life. I pray that all God's children may enjoy that promise of abundance by generously sharing it with others.

For all the dearly departed and those who remain.

Peace and Prayers

You Tube Music Video: Stevie Wonder, Ribbon in the Sky

Risk: restoration, recovery,wellness, faith

ADP Jobs Report: Reversal of Fortune

2010-10-07T12:17:00.001-07:00

ADP has released its National Employment Report for September. During the month, private sector employment decreased by 39,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis. After an upward revision of 10,000 new jobs created for August, the September numbers are a reversal from employment trends that seemed to be stabilizing by arresting two years of employment declines. For seven consecutive moths the economy was creating average employment gains of 34,000 private sector jobs. The September numbers reverses that trend and raises concern about the strength of the economic recovery.

A stabilized labor market is a key ingredient to a sustained economic recovery. Over the past three years the economy lost over 9 million jobs. For a robust recovery to occur the economy needs to create 200,000 jobs per month for the next four years to return the job market to its pre-recession levels.

The Federal stimulus program that directed funds to state and local governments to help stem layoffs has now expired. This will result in further belt tightening by local government agencies and will result in layoffs of employees to meet the fiscal restraint imposed by the poor economy. This will exacerbate the unemployment problem and further impede the buying power and tax revenues. This will continue to hurt the retail industry and local governments sales tax receipts.

The reduction in the government work force is symptomatic of the reconfiguration of the economy. During the past decade government employment increased dramatically. Its pairing down will put added pressure on the private sector to incubate new industries to drive the recovery. Manufacturing and the growth industries of the past decade will be hard pressed to create the level of job creation a robust recovery requires.

The ADP report indicates that since its peak in January of 2007, construction employment has lost 2,297,000 jobs. Construction trades along with credit marketing, retailing, community banking and services supporting these sectors have been dramatically weakened and downsized in the wake of the recession. The private sector led by small and mid-size enterprises (SME) will need to incubate growth industries to create jobs and lead the country out of the doldrums of the flailing economic recovery.

Macroeconomic Factors

The principal macroeconomic factors impairing recovery are the continued high unemployment rate, continued weakness in the housing market, persistent deflation concerns, tax policy and deepening fiscal crisis of state, local and federal governments. The economic impact of the Gulf oil spill was immediate and dramatic to the local aqua-cultural industries, fishing and regional tourist industries. The long term effects of the spill on the ecological communities of the Gulf is yet to be determined. The geopolitical uncertainty of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, persistent worries about Iran's nuclear program and the sovereign debt crisis of the weaker EU member states are persistent concerns weighing on capital market participants.

Highlights of the ADP Report for September include:

Estimates non-farm private employment in the service-providing sector decreased by 39,000.

Employment in the goods-producing sector declined 45,000

Employment in the manufacturing sector declined 17,000

Construction employment declined 28,000

Employment in the services sector rose 6,000.

Large businesses with 500 or more workers declined 11,000

Medium-size businesses, defined as those with between 50 and 499 workers declined 14,000

Employment among small-size businesses with fewer than 50 workers, declined 14,000

Overview of Numbers

Job loss in the SME sector is troubling. SMEs are the backbone of the construction and retail industries and the continued weakness of these sectors weighs on their ability to become a driver of consistent job growth. The continued deterioration of the financial health of SMEs and their ability to marshal resources from depleted balance sheets and limited credit lines may be impairing the ability to mount an effective response to the dire economic conditions.

Despite the backdrop of the stock markets stellar performance during September, ADP's employment figures indicates that the economy continues to dwell at the bottom of an extreme down economic cycle. The danger of a double dip recession still lurks as a possibility. The balance sheets of large corporate entities are flush with cash. Some analysts estimate that over $1 Trillion in cash swells corporate coffers. Some economists speculate that deployment this cash is critical to the economic upturn and still a few quarters away from finding its way into the real economy.

Solutions from Sum2

Sum2 offers SME’s the Profit|Optimizer to help them manage risk, devise recovery strategies and make better informed capital allocation decisions.

For information on the construction and use of the ADP Report, please visit the methodology section of the ADP National Employment Report website.

You Tube Video: Van Halen, Ice Cream Man

Risk: unemployment, recession, recovery, SME

Social Democracy and Regulation

2010-10-07T12:15:00.000-07:00

Last year during the height of the banking crisis I remember Larry Kudlow stating that the US market has a choice. It could pursue the EU model of high regulated markets producing low consistent returns or the American model of less regulation and volatile cycles of high risk and potentially higher returns. If the sole focus of government was the peace of mind and well being of investors Mr. Kudlow's observation would be valid. Government however must consider a larger community of stakeholders in its scope of concern. Regulatory oversight, the harmony of capital and labor and the incubation of an economic culture that is favorable to and supportive of SMEs are the critical questions confronting all governments particularly those in developed economies.

The EU's social democratic economic models embody the best and worst aspects of these issues. The social democratic state attempt to combine entrepreneurial impulses of capitalism with the management and administration of social welfare for all its citizens. Democratically "elected administrators" use the apparatus of the state to facilitate and manage the competing interests of capital and labor, free markets and regulation while seeking to balance an entrepreneurship friendly culture with long term sustainability.

Yesterday a toxic tsunami of aluminum sludge coated 16 square miles of pristine Hungarian countryside. It is a telling example of a severe risk event that confronts modern life. A lassiaz-faire approach to the event is not viable and offers no solace to those harmed by this assault. Communities cannot be asked to suffer a market response that promises to correct the problem of the next instance of this event. The construction of better berms and the implementation redundant protection devises to safeguard against this risk for the future is little compensation to those who were killed, injured and lost property or livelihoods as a result of MAL Zrt poor risk management practices.

Better to suffer a regulatory initiative that is based on an understanding of an economic ecosystem as complex and inhabited by competing interests of diverse stakeholders. The ecosystem including the shareholders of MAL Zrt, residents of the surrounding communities, plant workers (also community residents), small businesses (SME) and down stream farmers making a living on arable land and access to clean water all have a stake, albeit competing, in the safe operation of the plant. The possibility that the toxic sludge may find its way into the Danube poses a threat to the water supply of other eastern European nations. This elevates this catastrophic event to other EU jurisdictions. The inter-dependencies and interconnectedness of the pan-regional and larger global economy requires vigorous regulatory safeguards, mitigation initiatives and enforcement response.

The true cost of this event is potentially staggering. It supersedes the narrow interest and economic value of shareholders rights and capital invested in MAL Zrt. Bad economic behavior exemplified by BP's Horizon Deepwater failure to install redundant protective devises to keep production costs to a minimum, ended up costing BP shareholders and Gulf Coast stakeholders dearly.

State intervention in markets and the reemergence of managed economies is a reality of the global economy. The "managed economy" of the Peoples Republic of China places western style "free market" economies at a disadvantage. The managers of the PRC efficiently deploy and manage capital, effect trade and market protections and scrupulously manage currency valuation. It has created enormous social wealth for China and has contributed to its rapid rise as a preeminent world power. China's rise requires better coordination of private capital and government to marshal a competitive market response to the challenges posed by managed economies to free and open markets of western democracies. The massive pools of capital deployed by sovereign wealth funds of oil producing regencies and the growing insurgency and power of underground economic activity also pose significant challenges to the viability of unregulated markets.

America's free market model that eschewed regulation since the 1980's evolved into a mercantile economy with a weakened economic base. The outsourcing of manufacturing infrastructure loosened free market impulses that left in its place a debtor nation whose warped economy depended on housing/commercial real estate construction (collateral creation/securitization), credit marketing, retailing and a service sector that was designed to support the new economic paradigm. It is a model that has proven itself to be wasteful, costly and unsustainable.

Deregulation has led to the dislocation of the capital markets from the real economy. It has contributed to the massive disparities in social wealth and a crumbling infrastructure. Milton Friedman's mistaken belief that free market impulses would preserve infrastructure investment has been proven incorrect. Ironically this has added to the government's burden to provide social assistance to segments of the population disenfranchised from economic participation. Some believe that the basis for the prosecution of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are economic stimulus programs designed to keep the economy going due to the vacuum created by the loss of manufacturing.

China's example nor the resurrection of the soviet socialist model is not a desirable alternative for western democratic capitalist societies. Centralized control and state economic planning is rife with inefficiencies. State run economies threatens liberty, stifles innovation and encumbers economic dynamism. The virtues of capitalism (innovation, dynamism, liberty) needs to be encouraged and blended into the new economic reality of a highly dependent and interconnected world that requires cooperation, coexistence, sustainability, fair asset valuation, and the equitable sharing of resource and responsibility. SME's are at the forefront of innovation, value creation and dynamism and will play a leading role in the creation of new social-political values as sources of sustainable growth and wealth in the emerging economic paradigm.

You Tube Music Video: Chevy Chase and Mike Myers: I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover

Risk: regulatory, capitalism, sustainability

Brother Sun, Sister Moon

2010-10-03T15:46:00.000-07:00

Today is The Feast of St. Francis. St. Francis is known to many and venerated by some because of his ministry that sought to balance a profound personal spirituality with a universal connectedness to the natural world. At its heart, St. Francis faith honored the divinity of all life that sought a human experience that embraced a practice of stewardship as an expression of gratitude to protect and honor our sacred connection to nature. St. Francis is know for an honest humility and a deep respect for all of God's creatures as his way of practicing a sacramental life. St. Francis' prayer, Brother Sun, Sister Moon is a wonderful example of his humility and deep gratitude for the vast and interdependent universe of which humans are but a small part. We honor St. Francis on his feast day and give thanks for his life and blessed example.

Most High, all-powerful, all-good Lord,

All praise is Yours, all glory, all honour and all blessings.

To you alone, Most High, do they belong,

and no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your Name.

Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is the day through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor,
Of You Most High, he bears the likeness.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
In the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,
And fair and stormy, all weather's moods,
by which You cherish all that You have made.

Praised be You my Lord through Sister Water,
So useful, humble, precious and pure.

Praised be You my Lord through Brother Fire,
through whom You light the night and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.

Praised be You my Lord through our Sister,
Mother Earth
who sustains and governs us,
producing varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs.

Praise be You my Lord through those who grant pardon for love of You and bear sickness and trial.

Blessed are those who endure in peace, By You Most High, they will be crowned.

Praised be You, my Lord through Sister Death,
from whom no-one living can escape.

Woe to those who die in mortal sin!

Blessed are they She finds doing Your Will.

No second death can do them harm.

Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks,
And serve Him with great humility.

You Tube Music Video:

Dionne Warwick: What the World Needs Now

Marvin Gaye: Mercy Mercy Me

Pete Seeger: Where Have the Flowers Gone?

Risk: nature, stewardship, sustainability, respect

Elevated Terror Threat for LGBT Community

2010-10-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

The Department of Homeland Security needs to raise the terror threat level to Severe Bloody Red. The escalation of attacks, intimidation and threats against the LGBT community is on the rise and taking a bloody toll. The most recent consequence of escalating harassment have resulted in the tragic suicides of two young teenagers and the curiously deranged and dangerous social media stalking of a gay university student leader by an assistant attorney general from the State of Michigan. These attacks pose a clear and present danger to the physical safety and emotional wellness of the LGBT community. It exemplifies the prevailing climate of intolerance and bigoted hatred exponentially spawning in the polluted vitriol of America's political culture. It is clothed in the righteous banality of religious fundamentalism. Justified with the certainty of theological platitudes and enforced with the zealous sword of biblical scripture. It presents an extreme risk to the civil liberties of all citizens. It assails our right to freely associate, compels behavior and demands conformity of thought and adoption of a common belief system. It is a grave and looming threat to our democratic way of life.

Tyler Clementi was a college freshman at Rutgers University. Tyler, a gifted musician, diligent student, good friend and loving son jumped off the George Washington Bridge after Dahrun Ravi, his roommate of three weeks, surreptitiously videoed a sexual encounter Tyler had with another male and broadcast it on a social media site. To ensure the video attracted wide exposure, Mr. Ravi Tweeted to his followers that they should log on to the live stream. The horror and shame of being victimized by a vicious hate crime and personally violated in such a manner was too much to bear. Mr. Clementi chose to end his pain by taking his own life.

Understanding this event as the result of a misguided college prank gone wrong or an unfortunate consequence enabled by the misuse of powerful social media technologies misses the point. To do so would absolve Mr. Ravi's distorted and heinously warped value system. His punitive glee in perpetrating the offense. His demonstrative lack of capacity to feel empathy or acceptance of his roommates sexuality. His failure to recognize his right to privacy. His lack of any sense of compassion. Mr. Ravi's prurient pursuit of degradation and defamation of his hate crime victim and his intent to do extreme harm to Mr. Clementi is evidence of his deep rooted and socially acceptable homophobia that is shared with many people.

It is curious that one would expect that as a person of color, Mr. Ravi would have a heightened sensitivity to the poison of prejudice and the destructive capacity of hate crimes. Trying to understand Mr. Ravi's motives for his action is an impossibility for anyone to fathom save himself; but one can surmise that as a person of color Mr. Ravi may have experienced a situation where he was cast as "the other". The other is always an uncomfortable and dangerous geography to inhabit. The alien outsider, one who stands apart and is different from the dominate ethnic, racial, creed or sexual orientation is usually cast in shrouds of suspicion, fear and ridicule. Perhaps Mr. Ravi's attempt to revile an LGBT person because of their sexuality was an attempt to gain acceptance with his classmates by victimizing Mr. Clementi in league with other straits? Mr. Ravi gets a pass and is welcomed into the inner circle as one of the good ole boys whose prejudices, fears and bigotries mirror the dominant culture. The price of admission for Mr. Ravi was the death of his roommate.

The other disturbing factor in Mr. Ravi's assault was the use of social media technologies. Many youths enabled with powerful communication platforms like You Tube, Facebook and Twitter have a difficult time perceiving the boundaries of private and public life. The domain of the public persona and private life has become obscured and confused by the ethical vagaries and accessibility of a multichannel digital life. Since the time of their birth, today's youth have been totally saturated, empowered and enraptured in the world of digital technologies and media. It has become the necessary open source to project your ego, display your passion and live out your angst as a real time avatar. The reality of interpersonal connections and human skills erodes in a universe of self seeking holograms guided by a radical social ethos to project power through the aggressive pursuit of self will with the ultimate objective to seek aggrandizement and demand instant gratification. Mr. Ravi used that power to devastating effect.

Mr. Ravi may believe that his technical prowess provided him license to pursue the character assassination of his victim. Questions will arise about the harm these social media technologies can cause. Many believe the power of the technology is to vast and dangerous for teens and children and provides tools for stalkers, predators and criminals to aid their enterprise to exploit others to do harm. A great example being the recent clamor about Craig's List and its promotion and support of child prostitution and sexual slavery. The proliferation of online bullying, sexting and other pernicious uses of social media technologies are problems with no easy solutions. No doubt these are real concerns but it is not the inherent nature of the technology that is at fault it is the values and intent of the users of technology that are cause for concern.

The problem is not about having too much freedom, or having access to enabling technologies we don't yet know how to tame. Twitter, Facebook, and blogging sites empower the user. Like the Luddites of old who believed machines were enslaving them the crux of the matter lied in the intent, use, control and deployment of the technology. These technologies are powerful tools to enlighten, cultivate, uplift and empower individuals but it can also just as easily be used as tools to harm, denigrate, enslave and oppress. Its all about human values. The values of a society that believes it has the license and the moral conviction to defame and destroy the lives of others because they have the means and tacit consent to do so is terrorism. The fact that one can quote Leviticus, or find the appropriate passage from the Quran or St. Paul does not justify nor confer the right to "righteously" expose, denounce or shame a perceived moral depravity in a secular society.

That brings us to the other tragic suicide, 13 year old Asher Brown, returned home from school last week, walked into his closet and used a handgun to end his life as a result of being terrorized by his Middle School classmates in Houston. Classmates of Asher bullied him and taunted him about his perceived homosexuality. On the day Asher took his own life, he admitted to his parents that he was gay. It is startling and comforting to learn that Asher felt safe enough in his own home to admit his sexual orientation to his parents. Asher's mother and father accepted their son's sexuality and did not scorn or condemn him. They continued to unconditionally love and embrace their son as all good parents do.

It is unfortunate that the boy's tormentors did not share the same understanding and practice the acceptance of Asher's parents. Children live and emulate what they learn from their parents and communities they participate and live in. If children are prisms of the families and communities that create them the bullying behavior and bigoted hated must have been a keystone of Asher's tormentors homes. Public education is under sever pressure. Homophobia and bullying is not on the curricula of the public school system. Tolerance, diversity and secularism are values that public schools try to promote and are often the ideals that are derided by indidivuals and institutions that condemn public schools as propagators of these "liberal values". In response to their abhorrence to these unsavory ideals they choose to home school their children and teach them to fear Ungodly secularism, be wary those who are different and condemn the sinfulness and moral depravity of same sex relations. Demonizing homosexuals and preaching distrust for people and persons who may not look or think like you do is fertile ground for a violent reaction to express the pent up fear and resentment of the alien and reprobate other.

Since No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the public school system has been directed to be a "value neutral" institution. It is pressured to reform its curricula to better reflect the prevailing conservative culture that demands creationism be taught as a science, Darwinism is dangerous and unionized teachers are fonts of liberal ideology that needs to be silenced. The learning experience in the public school system has devolved into a mundane exercise of preparatory drills to take commercially developed state examinations. Teachers and institutional effectiveness is quantitatively measured by a students ability to retain a series of specious facts. The quality of the educational experience, love of discovery, pursuit and exchange of ideas, respect for diversity and different points of view are lost in the "value free" world of pedestrian test taking and fact retainment. Had these children been schooled in the value of tolerance and the reality of diversity or had time and opportunity to interact with other children unlike themselves, the fear and resentment of Asher may have been lessened and the young boy may still be with us.

The crowning jewel in this trinity of hate has to be the State of Michigan's Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell. Mr. Shirvell has engaged in a cyber bullying of University of Michigan Student Assembly President Chris Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong is openly gay and was elected by the university's student body to represent them. This has not sat well with Mr. Shirvell a University of Michigan alumnus and a fundamentalist Christian. Mr. Shirvell has started a website, Chris Armstrong Watch where he unleashes a consistent homophobic fueled diatribe against Mr. Armstrong's alleged "radical homosexual agenda".

As a private citizen, Mr. Shirvell closely peruses Mr. Armstrong's Facebook page to pick out posts and photo's that raise his ire and uses the material as grist for his Chris Armstrong Watch website. The accompanying comments and altered reproductions of Mr. Armstrong photo's scream about his elitism, sexual degeneracy and Nazi like political tactics Mr. Armstrong employs in service to the advancement of a radical homosexual agenda.

This is truly frightening stuff. A state Assistant Attorney General scouring Facebook pages and setting up a blog site dedicated to attacking and undermining a student leader because of his sexual identity is sickening and comes dangerously close to the abuse of office which I understand Mr. Shirvell was relieved of today. Mr. Shirvell defends his actions on the grounds that he is exercising his rights of free speech as a private citizen. Driven by his Christian fundamentalist faith and a reactionary political ideology, Mr. Shirvell's political fixation and strident personal vilification of Mr. Armstrong are classic Rovian attack politics. Mr. Shirvell stands shoulder to shoulder with James O'Keefe and Andrew Breitbart. All three have shown a disdain for the truth, law and private rights of their targets in pursuit of a radical right wing agenda.

The values of a society that believes it has the right and the moral conviction to defame and destroy the lives of others because they have the ideological conviction, means and tacit consent to do so is the definition of tyranny and its pursuit is terrorism. The US Constitution protects all citizens from zealots emboldened by personal truths derived from their holy scrolls. A secular democracy protects the civil rights of its citizens and frees them from the righteous tyranny of others. The Constitution stipulates that there is a single law of the land and it is a violation of civil rights and a crime to expose, denounce or shame a person based on a theological interpretation of moral depravity. The Constitution is the final arbiter and surest protection of individual liberty for all; damning the psychological culture of extreme political egoism advanced by Shirvell, Breitbart and O'Keefe.

Character assassination and appeal to the baser instincts of fear and loathing help propagandists to demarcate the lines that separate groups, reinforce prejudice and make dialog and the formation of consensus all but impossible. Consider if you will a government administration populated with individuals with the temperament of Shrivell, O'Keefe and Breitbart. America would be ruled by a government that edits reality to conform to their ideology. It would propagate a political narrative that blindly pursues ideology by running rough shod over the personal life of citizens while resorting to character annihilation and entrapment tactics. It would truly be an embodiment of an Orwellian nightmare.

The terror threat must be raised. Terrorists are harming our citizens. The world will miss the gracious presence of Asher's beautiful smile. Asher will never anoint another with the promise of renewal again. The dear gift of youthful transformation is now lost to a world deeply in need of a rebirth. The precious resource of Asher is squandered and silenced by those clinging to the old ways of ugly bigotry. Asher's spirit will remain with all who loved him and venerated by all who respect individual liberty.

We have also lost the exquisite melodies of Tyler Clementi's music. Tyler's silence will never weave harmony into a cacophonous world crackling in ugly dissonance. Tyler's violin now entombed in its case will never sing the sounds of joy, enlightenment, revelation and transcendence to those who refuse to listen to the symphonies of understanding, acceptance and appreciate the celebration of love. The beautiful music Tyler created and brought into the world will never be heard again. Tragic that the wonderful harmony of Tyler's life was quieted by the deaf ears of those refusing to listen and most needing to hear it.

Rest in peace beloved.

Youtube Music Video: Janine Jansen, Lark Ascending

Risk: LGBT, civil rights, constitution, free speech

The Blue Beams

2010-09-12T21:49:00.000-07:00

Two Blue Beams
rise in the twilight
from the dark recesses
of the wounded metropolis

astral projections
paint night clouds
in looming hues
of temporal intent

declarative beams
affirm a bold portent
of an insistent will
and timeless aspirations

one thrusting light
projects wanton determination
bequeathed from unhealed wounds
of a lacerated city

the other casts fervent hope
onto the vast celestial sea
boldly etching upon the heavens
an earnest nations highest ideals

each pillar of light
reveal the dual nature
fixing our place
in a turbulent universe

the brighter light
affirms the beneficence
of liberties eternal grace
so divinely conferred

received by a higher self
accepted with gratitude
the gracious anointing
of freedoms rich abundance

ride this beam of angry cries
conjure ghosts from a dead past
channel a full measure of resent
the light of restoration is quelled

stirred from nagging agonies
nursed righteous indignation
untreated wounds fester
the weak blue spire cannot heal

a bleak azure apparition
screams for selfish retribution
heed this dire admonition
a promised fury of
full demonic dimension

the rankled city
yearns to come together
united in communion
around these lights

drawn to the blue flames
like swirling moths
unconscious of what
compels shock and awe

earnest yearnings
flutter to exhaustion
struggle toward the light
aspire to heal
in the inviting glow

transcending the fissures
of our fractured nation
the waning resolve
of a national will

a restless Zeitgeist
cannot be repressed
nor will it relinquish
its will to manifest

a city's fondest hopes
entombed in collective memory
is foretold again
around these bold lights

entranced by the light
a solemn urban campfire
transfixed and sealed
we speak our hearts

holding hands
gnashing teeth
we bite into
our bent knees
tucked up
to sullen chests
heavy hearts
bear pains of loss
dreary tears wash
ash stained cloths
crumpled photos
dear bereavements
of fading memories
and expired hope

resolve is renewed
in bursts of pride
incendiary nationalism
suppress dissent
and pummel thoughts
of perceived sedition
pump iron fists
zealous sledgehammers
forged with conviction
in kilns of
righteous indignation
infected with
emotional hangovers
from prurient
tribal diatribes

these sweet sentiments
swing between the polls
of the vast pendulum's arc
along a narrow celestial scale

too and fro
angst and expectation
ebbs and flows
in this astral assignation

the heavenly helix
a set of blue axles
for a modern version
of Ezekiel's Wheel

the rung-less vertices
of our Jacob's Ladder
invites all citizens
to climb again

ascend this pathway
in the company
of our better angels
arrive transfigured
renewed once more

build new cities
for transcendent destinations
new Edens await pioneers
to courageously explore

fearless pilgrims
sojourn onward
moving to secure
liberty for all

conscious stewards
of the blessed good earth
celebrate diversity
of all the beloved

descending back
to an expired past
is a ridged stasis
anchored in Hell

witness flitting
nostalgic phantoms
pathetic pantomimes
of historical fictions

The greatest light
abhors a hells decent
spiraling upward
resolving to vacate
past resentments

The downward path
of the lesser light
tethers us to a place
we cannot leave

the dancing helix opens
a blue portal to heaven
we don angels garb
to wing ever upward again

transcendence calls
traverse with angels
touch the luminescent hem
of God's divine robe

Selah

You Tube Music Video:

Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring , Simple Gifts

NYC
9/11/10
jbm

Laying 9/11 at the Alter of Democracy

2010-09-11T08:13:00.003-07:00

That day has arrived again. In a very real sense it is a day that has never left us. We remember our incomprehension of how benign jetliners could transform into vehicles of mass murder. We remember our astounded shock as we witnessed the compelling images of those trapped above the gaping mortal wounds of the WTC Towers cascade downward after a decisive leap of death. We remember the indomitable Towers crumbing into broiling clouds of toxic dust rumbling through the canyons of Wall Street engulfing the spires of Bankers Trust and Trinity's dark steeple. We remember the confusion of the civic turmoil that erupted throughout the besieged city and the depths of terror that rang our soul from an unseen force of wanton power and ambivalent devastation. We remember the heroic bravery of first responders who gave the last full measure of their devotion in service to others. And we remember our shared egregious grief, the broken hearts and the traumatized families whose sense of loss will never fully dissipate.

For nine years we have weaved the bits of steel from the wreckage of that day into our national DNA. 9/11 has truly transfigured our nation and its people to a depth that we find difficult to comprehend or understand. We have entered two wars, ceded civil liberties and fed the beast of fear a diet of suspicion, mistrust and agonizing vulnerability. We have let this fear express itself as an emotional response that quickly acts to salve immediate pain with force of will then allow a more deliberate and considered course of action that fully expresses the resolve, fortitude and ideals of a free people.

We believe that the terrorists attacked us because they fear us. They fear a nation and a people that cherish freedom and prize liberty for all. The cornerstone of those liberties are the freedom to think, express, associate and worship according to the dictates of ones own conscience. No authority or government institution will abridge those freedoms nor compel any individual to associate, act, think or worship in a manner antithetical to their personal beliefs or values. Tyrants, despots and authoritarian governments compel belief and extract tribute of action by demanding conformity to ideology and submission to self serving authority. They idealize the use of force foregoing dialog and negotiation as a way to convey ideas and forge consensus.

The tool of terror is the way of tyrants. Terror compels the terrorized to acquiesce and submit to wanton authority at odds with personal liberty and freedom. Is not Pastor Terry Jones, "Burn a Quran Day" nothing more then a form of terror aimed at Muslims, a maligned and vulnerable minority? Why do many believe it is perfectly suitable to ascribe the status as "less then" for Muslims seeking to build the Park51 Mosque on the grounds that their religious affiliation excludes them from building a house of worship too close to the hallowed ground of the WTC? Prohibiting the rights of a people because of their religion is a Taliban like mindset that all lovers of freedom should abhor. The propagation of the belief that the construction of the Park51 Mosque is a monument intended to commemorate the martyrdom of terrorists is a vile lie and a pernicious attempt to advance a reactionary political agenda.

Can the United States extol religious bigotry by celebrating intolerance? Do we applaud compelled fealty and submission by profaning Holy Books and sacraments of religions and faith traditions that are not our own? Do we deny the full and equal rights of a group of citizens that are somehow deemed less then or not fully enfranchised to enjoy and exercise the protections of a full palate of constitutional freedoms? The United States cannot allow itself to sink into the morass of intolerance, bigotry and exclusion. It runs counter to the central ideals of a democratic republic and the very essence of what distinguishes the United States from the forces of terror that seek to destroy it.

Creating national emblems of fetishistic icons to express our grief is not the correct response to the 9/11 attacks. Chunks of steel from the downed towers, bits of damaged flags or falsely ascribing a sanctity to a two block radius around the WTC site turns grief into a fetish that will forever enslave the will and endlessly torment the soul. This nation cannot cling to its illness, it must restore and strengthen its democratic character by building alters to liberty through the practice of tolerance by jealously guarding and joyously celebrating civil liberties for all.

Let the burning of the Quran be an indictment of ignorance, bigotry and religious intolerance. Let the building of the Park51 Mosque be a monument to the strength and hope of a free people that proclaims America as a light to all nations.

Our prayers for peace, restoration and life affirming abundance to all affected by 9/11 remain steadfast.

Selah

You Tube Music Video: Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings

Risk: democracy