it's great to be an activist...

but there comes a time when you start to get tired of fighting, when you question if it makes a difference at all, when it may be time to let others, younger, keep the ball rolling...

on the other hand, i remember my friend Father Philip Berrigan & his brother Daniel; what if they had decided to give up? would Vietnam still be a nation in turmoil?

at the same time, i realize that they had a single-minded goal; no, not just to end the war, but to awaken humanity; the conversations were about inhumanity and how it prevented us from moving forward to treat each other in peace.

here we are 40 years later and we still are fighting the foes of humanity; we are battling the false witness of ultra-right, christianist wingnuts who tear down instead of build up; we struggle with proving what is just and fair when they merely come from a power struggle mentality;

i fight with myself daily trying to make a decision that i'm not sure i want to make, but each day as i read about the inequities of healthcare, the discrimination of lgbtq, the economic problems of families struggling to make a life for themselves, and the movement towards a theocratic country and i get closer and closer to that decision - one to get out...

words for today's United States...

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our country.

"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility...."

in this time of crisis with all the forces denigrating and questioning and bombarding us from within, the rest of the world is declaring itself to be back in our corner with the Nobel Peace prize award. they see hope where there has been none for the last several years.

the self-ascribed patriots who live in this country are attacking the very core of its basis and doing it under the guise of their love of country. they are doing everything in their power to derail progress and hope. they avidly state that they want Obama to fail. they openly declare he should be impeached for unknown offenses. they have prediction sites for people to guess when he will be assassinated.

these people hate their country and they are being lead by self-aggrandizing demagogues using the freedom of speech of which they truly believe only they should have. they lie; they cheat; they twist words; and they border on the traitorous with their accusations that others are the turncoats.

they have hijacked the progress of this country. they have worked against the will and promise of the founders of it. they bastardize the words of the founders and ignore their true meaning. worse, they do it in a self-righteous misreading of the worship they portray, their own personal version of judeo-christian dogma at the expense of the true intent of the scripture they spout so often and to the detriment of others with different beliefs.

the quotes that open this post describe more than adequately and with great precision the state we find ourselves in today. the person saying them accurately identifies the force behind the attacks and the situation of the United States and what is happening right now.

sadly, they also give more credence to the George Santayana quote that is always in the right corner of this blog - “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

also, they make the old French adage "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" even truer - the more things change, the more they stay the same....

who originally spoke these words? i would bet certain elements reading them would say Barack Obama, because they would want to use them to discredit him even more.

they would be wrong.

Abraham Lincoln in his Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862 wrote the words.

what has Obama's election wrought?

i realize it's been quite a while since i've done any serious posting. other things have been on the agenda. like, i'm supposed to be in Honduras right now working with some of the schools. needless to say, we've had to reschedule because of the political unrest down there. we're now going at the end of the month. [fingers crossed]

that's part of what actually prompted this question about Obama.

i've been watching the upheaval in Honduras very closely, monitoring the newspapers and radio down there daily.

next, we've seen the ongoing drama in Iran. today, the battling has begun again on the streets. violence has erupted again.

then, the Chinese are cracking down on the Uighars and are fighting daily.

and, in Malaysia the people are up in arms because the government wants to put a ban on teaching math and science in English. they believe that will put them behind the rest of the world.


there are a few underlying signs in Venezuela with the mayor of Caracas on a hunger strike against Chavez and he has threatened to close down over 240 radio stations because of their content.

i can't even get into things going on in the U.S., but there does seem to be an underlying tension and a lot of it is not just the economic situation. that is just appearing to be a symptom.

the country appears to be undergoing a crisis in its anima. many people are questioning what has happened, how we got here and what comes next. some of us are even asking, "is it worth it?"

other areas of unrest in the world keep popping up too.

from what i've been observing, there is one thing that they all have in common. the unrest is coming from the people of each country.

is there something in the recent election of Obama that is in some way working on the conscience of the world?

it's something to think about.

and i'm just asking...

life finds a way...

we have been involved in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan for several years now. we hear about the fighting and the bombings and the killings. we seldom are made aware of normal activities in these countries.

there have been scattered reports on ABC World News from time to time about life in Baghdad becoming more and more normal and the middle class becoming a moving force in the recreation of the country. they are overshadowed by the persistent extremist organizations and movements.

we are also repeatedly told about how backward Afghanistan has become as a result of the Taliban and reactionary Islamic movements that seek to destroy all things Western and amoral.

when i saw the photos below on ParisianBoys par Seb & Fred today, i was not just taken aback; i would have to say i was a bit shocked. it was one of the last things i would have expected to see.






the photo on the right is the winner of Mr. Afghanistan 2009. look at the banner behind the photo on the left. it clearly says it is June 2009. as a matter of fact, the competition was held on June 2nd.

while we are told about the strict requirements of women covering up with burquas and veils, we might expect that something like a bodybuilding competition would be greatly frowned upon by the Taliban, et al. i should imagine this is completely beyond acceptable to the religious sense of the extremists.

yet, as i said in the title of this post - life finds a way.

always...