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September - October 2004
Page One
Introduction One of the primary purposes for the NGWS website and this e-zine is to reveal the interconnectedness of the work of so many world servers around our planet. We strive to speak in ways that are bridging, connecting and inclusive. Today we find ourselves in a place where we realize that our country and our planet are facing a challenge so serious and so dangerous to all our futures that we can no longer walk that "middle path". We can no longer stand silent and watch. We must take a stand and speak out. We recognize that this stand will alienate some of you and we may lose your readership and for that we are truly sorry. It is a risk we feel we must take at such a crucial time in history. The articles in this issue have been gleaned from the past as well from material published elsewhere this month. They all speak eloquently to the issues of today. They speak of the dangers America faces, but, because of the global nature of our world today what effects one of us effects us all. We are the world! You may not be an American but your prayers and meditations can have a powerful effect on the future of this country. If you are an American we hope that you will recognize before it's too late that our freedom, our economy, our environment and our children's future is at stake today. We can no longer stand by and hope someone else will fix it. It is up to us! We hope the words we share with you here will help you realize that you CAN make a difference and must.
This anti-war speech was delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. It is among his least known speeches and he would be killed almost a year to the day after delivering it. Ed. note* - We have inserted the word (Iraq) in parenthesis next to Vietnam, and in place of the word Communism we used the word (terrorism) in parentheses to give a sense of the eerie similarity of these situations. This piece is a short excerpt from a much longer speech that is rich with history and a wonderful education for anyone wishing to get a sense of the trail that led from there to here. Click here to read the entire article... This Madness Must Cease Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam (Iraq). I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam (Iraq). I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours... This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words: "Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese (Iraqis) and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism." I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth... The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of...sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood. This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense... War is not the answer. (Terrorism) will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Let us not join those who shout war and through their misguided passions urge the United States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. We must not call everyone a (terrorist). We must not engage in a negative anti-(terrorism), but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against (terrorism), is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. We must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity and injustice, which are the fertile soil in which the seed of (terrorism), grows and develops. The People Are Important ...A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men. This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept -- so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force -- has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John:
Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says : "Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word." We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The "tide in the affairs of men" does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on..." We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace…and justice throughout the developing world -- a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight. Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter -- but beautiful -- struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history. As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated:
Once to
every man and nation
Though the
cause of evil prosper, To read a printable version of the entire talk Click here
MESSAGES OF HOPE from
“Somehow, on this chasm between the conquerors and those who
resist being finally conquered, the bridges and connections and meetings are
happening that can tear down the walls of separation.”
“Throughout history people have felt powerless before
authority, but that at certain times these powerless people, by organizing,
acting, risking, persisting, have created enough power to change the world
around them, even if a little.”
“Nothing cripples the will like isolation. By the same token, nothing buoys the
spirit and fosters hope like the knowledge that others faced equal or greater
challenges in the past and continued on to bequeath us a better world. Even in
a seemingly losing cause, one person may unknowingly inspire another, and that
person yet a third, who could go on to change the world, or at least a small
corner of it.” http://www.soulofacitizen.org/IMPOSSIBLE/Hopefulquotes.htm
"Let us remember, we are “the
land of the free and the home of the brave.” Free and
brave people are not cowards. They did not become free and
brave by running from fear or by denying it. They do not
respond to terrorism by becoming terrorized. They also do
not try to obliterate it with massive force."
Tom Carney
...What can we do? I am sure
that all of the people on the planet who think of
themselves...as servers of humanity, that are at least
concerned about the welfare of their neighbors and the
planet ask this question of themselves often. I know I do.
The answer I have been getting lately is “Meditate, that’s
what you know how to do.” So, I spend a lot of my time
meditating and thinking about this planet, Earth, this
little ball of dirt spinning around in what certainly
appears to be an infinite universe. I meditate and think
even more about humanity, about the wonder of humanity,
about its role, and place and function on this planet, and
the fact that I can actually sit here and do this. I admit it. A lot of the time I am stunned into an awed silence. I think I know what John Keats was talking about when he wrote On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer,
The Universe, Infinity,
these are ineffable concepts, at which we can only gaze
and about which we can only mutter. And this planet, this
little tiny ball of atoms and electrical connections, what
can possibly be said in our language about the grandeur of
our planet that would even come close to expressing what
it is? Well, nothing, or not much, by me anyway. All of
the greatest poets have forever been trying to reveal the
hidden wonder. They try to write poems to reveal Being.
They resort to metaphor. Occasionally someone comes close,
but the essential truth is never quite touched.
It is, we all agree an
incredible place. As all of us do, I love the planet.
Anyone who thinks, even a little bit, has to be just
amazed at what is going on here. The more deeply one
thinks the more amazed one becomes.
So, I think and meditate
about infinity and nothing. I ponder a lot on the current
physical-dense situation too, and the role humanity plays
in this scheme. I stay in touch. I read and listen. I keep
grounded.
So that I may in someway
affect the course of events, I try to turn my thinking
into practical, even useful thoughtforms that other people
can touch and use. Remember, friends, this is
unquestionably an interconnected reality about which we
are talking, so the notion that one micro meditator
building thoughtforms of beauty and power can affect the
macro course of events is not as improbable as most people
assume. In fact this is the only mechanism that exists
that does affect the course of the unfolding Plan.
Because I engage in this
work, I think that I need to be at least as well informed
about what is actually going on as I am about the
possibilities of what could and eventually will be.
Consequently, I know a little about the current of events
here and there in God’s garden, and, I have to say, the
little that I actually know about what’s happening on the
planet also stuns me. Friends, let me tell you, the
situation on planet Earth is—to use some very nicey, nicey
language—not that great. There are a lot of really wonderful things happening. I know that. However, I think that any rational observer would be upset, even a bit frightened at the unfolding prospects. It’s really pretty bad.
Continue ...
(in printable form)
All You Need Is Love
Love, Love, Love. by Corinne McLaughlin What has happened to the voice of political courage today? Where are the people willing to take a risk and stand for what they believe in? Where are those who stand for what is morally right, rather than politically expedient? Where is real visionary leadership today? Is there a cloud of negativity and fear hanging over the country these days that makes it especially hard for anyone to take a risk of any kind or to speak truth to power? Is this fearful climate a result of 9/11 and the terrorists attacks, or are there deeper forces at work?
The fear-producing culture in America is
eerily pervasive, especially in the media. Fear sells newspapers, movies,
television. We are being scared out of our wits by any number of horrible
stories every day about things that could harm us -everything from deadly
toxins in our food and water, to growing cancer rates, to dishonest
corporate executives losing our life savings. With thousands of crazy
murderers, robbers and rapists (now even in the churches), the NRA sternly
warns us that the only solution is for every citizen to own lots of guns.
Oh, and if you’re a progressive politician, you better not fly in a small
plane, as they have a way of crashing just before a tight election. From the April 2003 Thoughtline on the Arcana Workshops website Published on Monday, March 24, 2003 by CommonDreams.org by Thom Hartmann Marching in the streets is important work, but wouldn't we have greater success if we also took control of the United States government? It's vital to point out right-wing-slanted reporting in the corporate media, but isn't it also important to seize enough political power in Washington to enforce anti-trust laws to break up media monopolies? And how are progressives—most standing on the outside of government, looking in—to deal with oil wars, endemic corporate cronyism, slashed environmental regulations, corporate-controlled voting machines, the devastation of America's natural areas, the fouling of our air and waters, and an administration that daily gives the pharma, HMO, banking, and insurance industries whatever they want regardless of how many people are harmed? This lack of political power is a crisis others have faced before. We should learn from their experience. After the crushing defeat of Barry Goldwater in 1964, a similar crisis faced a loose coalition of gun lovers, abortion foes, southern segregationists, Ayn Rand libertarians, proto-Moonies, and those who feared immigration within and communism without would destroy the America they loved. Each of these various groups had tried their own "direct action" tactics, from demonstrations to pamphleteering to organizing to fielding candidates. None had succeeded in gaining mainstream recognition or affecting American political processes. If anything, their efforts instead had led to their being branded as special interest or fringe groups, which further diminished their political power. So the conservatives decided not to get angry, but to get power. Continue... (in printable form) Thom Hartmann (e-mail: thom at thomhartmann.com) is the author of over a dozen books, including "Unequal Protection" and "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight." www.thomhartmann.com This article is copyright by Thom Hartmann, but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media so long as this credit is attached. http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0324-12.htm Published on Tuesday, June 10, 2003 by CommonDreams.org This is Your Story The Progressive Story of America. Pass It On. by Bill Moyers Text of speech to the Take Back America conference sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Future June 4, 2003 Washington, DC ...What will it take to get back in the fight? Understanding the real interests and deep opinions of the American people is the first thing. And what are those? That a Social Security card is not a private portfolio statement but a membership ticket in a society where we all contribute to a common treasury so that none need face the indignities of poverty in old age without that help. That tax evasion is not a form of conserving investment capital but a brazen abandonment of responsibility to the country. That income inequality is not a sign of freedom-of-opportunity at work, because if it persists and grows, then unless you believe that some people are naturally born to ride and some to wear saddles, it's a sign that opportunity is less than equal. That self-interest is a great motivator for production and progress, but is amoral unless contained within the framework of community. That the rich have the right to buy more cars than anyone else, more homes, vacations, gadgets and gizmos, but they do not have the right to buy more democracy than anyone else. That public services, when privatized, serve only those who can afford them and weaken the sense that we all rise and fall together as "one nation, indivisible." That concentration in the production of goods may sometimes be useful and efficient, but monopoly over the dissemination of ideas is evil. That prosperity requires good wages and benefits for workers. And that our nation can no more survive as half democracy and half oligarchy than it could survive "half slave and half free" – and that keeping it from becoming all oligarchy is steady work – our work. Ideas have power – as long as they are not frozen in doctrine. But ideas need legs. The eight-hour day, the minimum wage, the conservation of natural resources and the protection of our air, water, and land, women's rights and civil rights, free trade unions, Social Security and a civil service based on merit – all these were launched as citizen's movements and won the endorsement of the political class only after long struggles and in the face of bitter opposition and sneering attacks. It's just a fact: Democracy doesn't work without citizen activism and participation, starting at the community. Trickle down politics doesn't work much better than trickle down economics. It's also a fact that civilization happens because we don't leave things to other people. What's right and good doesn't come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for it – as if the cause depends on you, because it does. Allow yourself that conceit - to believe that the flame of democracy will never go out as long as there's one candle in your hand. To read the entire speech in printable form... Courtesy of the Common Dreams website http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0610-11.htm
will spring and summer no
longer come?
An interview with Ervin Laszlo by
Elizabeth A. Debold Ervin Laszlo is a renaissance man for the world of the future. About a decade ago, Laszlo founded the prestigious Club of Budapest, gathering together leading minds in art, science, religion, and culture in order to evolve a new ethic for a sustainable world. After a recent lecture at Yale University, WIE had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Laszlo about his vision for a paradigm shift that could change the future. WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT: You have written that we are in a "macroshift"—where the economic and ecological systems on this planet will undergo a crisis, a total transformation leading to utter breakdown or extraordinary breakthrough. What do you see happening? And how soon do you believe it will happen? ERVIN LASZLO: That's what we don't know. Obviously, you can't keep having more and more people use more and more resources, and have greater and greater inequality in the distribution of those resources, without a breaking point being reached. Right now, for example, with the melting of the ice cap deflecting the Gulf Stream, it's entirely possible that in three years England will have the frigid climate of Labrador, which is at the same latitude. Spring and summer just won't come. The fact of the matter is that we live on a planet where everything is circular—whatever you do to other people or to nature eventually comes back to you. While it has always been like this, we weren't even capable of thinking this way until a couple hundred years ago. An additional factor has to do with the behavior of complex systems: they don't change smoothly. It's impossible to tell, even theoretically, when a complex system is reaching its limit—there are so many feedbacks, so many self‑correcting mechanisms that are operating, But when there is more and more stress, sooner or later you reach a tipping or bifurcation point, and all of a sudden the system just can't correct for it. We have been ignoring the pressure building in the system. As a result, we are facing an "ecol‑nomic" crisis—ecological and economic simultaneously—with potentially catastrophic problems, like climate change and sea level increase, that may threaten our survival. WIE: These are problems of a magnitude and complexity that humanity has never faced before. It's intriguing that as a scientist, you're not looking toward technological solutions but, instead, toward a fundamental change in our thinking. What is this new thinking, and how can it help us? LASZLO: It's about a new worldview with new values adapted to living, surviving, and developing on this planet. The rise of spirituality and the rise of meditation techniques and involvement with inner growth are all part of this phenomenon. And it's already occurring, but it has to be accelerated. Now, you can get to this new worldview by rational or intellectual means. You can get to it intuitively, through art, spirituality, or religion. And you can get there through science. If you took at developments in science, you'll find that science is increasingly recognizing that everything is connected very strongly with everything else. Everything that exists is an open system. Nothing is entirely closed or independent—everything is very sensitively connected. The implications are enormous wherever you took. Continue... (in printable form)
From the Aug-Oct 2004 issue #26
What is Enlightenment?
magazine Alternet editor's Note: This was a speech given at the Inequality Matters Forum on June 3, 2004 at New York University. The following is a group of excerpts from this recent speech by Bill Moyers. To read the full text click here. (in printable form) It is important from time to time to remember that some things are worth getting mad about. I don't have to tell you that a profound transformation is occurring in America: the balance between wealth and the commonwealth is being upended. By design. Deliberately. We have been subjected to what the Commonwealth Foundation calls "a fanatical drive to dismantle the political institutions, the legal and statutory canons, and the intellectual and cultural frameworks that have shaped public responsibility for social harms arising from the excesses of private power." From land, water and other natural resources, to media and the broadcast and digital spectrums, to scientific discovery and medical breakthroughs, and to politics itself, a broad range of the American commons is undergoing a powerful shift toward private and corporate control. And with little public debate. Indeed, what passes for 'political debate' in this country has become a cynical charade behind which the real business goes on -- the not-so-scrupulous business of getting and keeping power in order to divide up the spoils. ...Political donations determine the course and speed of many government actions that deeply affect our daily lives. Politics is suffocating from the stranglehold of money. During his brief campaign in 2000, before he was ambushed by the dirty tricks of the religious right in South Carolina and big money from George W. Bush's wealthy elites, John McCain said elections today are nothing less than an "influence peddling scheme in which both parties compete to stay in office by selling the country to the highest bidder." Small wonder that with the exception of people like John McCain and Russ Feingold, official Washington no longer finds anything wrong with a democracy dominated by the people with money. So what does this come down to, practically? It's why we're losing the balance between wealth and the commonwealth. It's why we can't put things right. And it is the single most destructive force tearing at the soul of democracy. Hear the great justice Learned Hand on this: "If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: 'Thou shalt not ration justice.' " ...There's no question about it: The corporate conservatives and their allies in the political and religious right are achieving a vast transformation of American life that only they understand because they are its advocates, its architects, and its beneficiaries. In creating the greatest economic inequality in the advanced world, they have saddled our nation, our states, and our cities and counties with structural deficits that will last until our children's children are ready for retirement, and they are systematically stripping government of all its functions except rewarding the rich and waging war. ...And they are proud of what they have done to our economy and our society. ...But what they are doing to middle class and working Americans —and to the workings of American democracy—is no laughing matter. ...Let's face the reality: If ripping off the public trust; if distributing tax breaks to the wealthy at the expense of the poor; if driving the country into deficits deliberately to starve social benefits; if requiring states to balance their budgets on the backs of the poor; if squeezing the wages of workers until the labor force resembles a nation of serfs—if this isn't class war, what is? It's un-American. It's unpatriotic. And it's wrong. ...What we need is a
mass movement of people like you. Get mad, yes—there's plenty to be mad
about. Then get organized and get busy. This is the fight of our lives. To read the full text click here... (in printable form) Courtesy of the Alternet News http://www.alternet.org/stories/18954 From Sorting it Out... by Tom Carney ...In the regime of the present un-elected U.S. President Bush this tool of co-opting or appropriating ideas of "light" to cloak schemes of darkness is all but being worn out. Thus we have the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 which cuts and or eliminates numerous budgets for essential programs for children at all levels of the public educational systems. Another example, a slight variation of the theme of this kind of manipulation, can be seen in leaving totally unfunded The Healthy and High Performance Schools Act of 2001. To obscure the assault being made on the environment by these forces, we have actions being taken or proposed under the names of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts. These proposals and actions turn out, on inspection, to promote just the opposite of clean water or air. The following excerpt from an extensive analysis of Bush’s actions regarding clean water will illustrate. “Campaign promises and numerous public pronouncements to the contrary, since the first weeks of his administration, President George W. Bush has taken steps to systematically undermine or repeal the nation’s most important safeguards that protect clean water. He has weakened or proposed to weaken programs that maintain water quality, cut huge sums for funding for clean water protections, scaled-back enforcement efforts, and even proposed eliminating all federal Clean Water Act protections from the majority of the nation’s streams, wetlands and other waters. Individually, each of these measures means dirtier water for many Americans. Taken together, these actions constitute the most concerted effort to dismantle the Clean Water Act since the law was enacted over three decades ago.” http://www.cleanwaternt@igc.org One other example: Under the guise of “forest fire prevention”, the Bush Administration's Forest Service has proposed the "mechanical thinning of conifer" in California’s Sequoia National Monument. “Mechanical thinning of conifer” is the euphemism used to obfuscate the plan to allow logging in these ancient forests. The Sequoia National Monument is home to some of the world's tallest and oldest trees, reaching ages of 3,200 years. It is worth noting that these trees are probably the oldest living things on the dense physical plane on the planet. They reached this advanced age with no mechanical thinning or help of any other kind from the human kingdom. Perhaps we should be studying them to discover the secret of their longevity rather than planning to cut them down in the name of protecting them. From the June 2004 Thoughtline http://www.meditationtraining.org/thoughtline/tl-2004-06.pdf http://innerself.com/Commentary/Take_Back_America_by_Sam_Harris.htmTake Back Americaby Sam HarrisOur nation faces a crisis of democracy. People feel cynical and impotent. Where does our cynicism come from? Is it from Vietnam or Watergate? Is it from the assassinations of the Kennedys and King? Is it from the deluge of negative campaigning...? Or is it from the gnawing sense that money talks, and if you don't have it, you don't have a voice? Whatever its origins, this crisis of democracy has left most of us frustrated, unsure of what to do or whether doing anything is even a good idea. It's About UsWe've heard all the reasons: "You can't fight city hall!" "Voting is a waste of time!" "They're all a bunch of crooks!" "I'm not political." "Good government is an oxymoron." What do we get from all of our complaining? We get hopelessness and a sense of alienation; and, in the process, we lose our sense of vision. "Why dream about how the world could be," we might ask, "when we don't have the ability to change it?" When I spoke about this to a class of graduate students in public health at the University of California in Berkeley, I told stories of volunteers' successes and discussed the healing that was taking place between people and government. As I spoke, I felt a growing uneasiness in the room. "Is there something I've said that has put you off?" I asked. After what seemed to be a long silence, a student raised her hand. "When it all seemed hopeless, we were off the hook," she said. "But if you're right, if individuals can make a difference with their government, that means we might have to do something. That's what is making us uncomfortable." Does the idea of taking back our government make you uncomfortable? I wonder why? Could it be that such an idea intrudes on our false notion that someone else will come to our rescue? I feel it's meant to offer inspiration and show that we are our only hope. Sharing ResponsibilitySome might ask, aren't our elected officials the ones who should take responsibility for the state of our planet and its people including the deterioration of our environment and the poverty of over a billion humans? There are many with whom responsibility can be shared. However, I feel that each of us has helped create the mess we are in through our cynicism and apathy and only we can resolve it. Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart answered the question best when he said, "We aren't passengers on spaceship earth. We're the crew." Continue... (in printable form) Sam Harris is a native Floridian, founder and executive director of RESULTS, an international citizen's lobby whose purpose is to create the political will to end hunger and poverty. Over the last 12 years, Sam has led more than 250 RESULTS presentations and lectured at various universities throughout the U.S. Sam can be reached at: Results 236 Massachusetts Ave. N E., Suite 300, Washington D C. 20002. (202)-543-9340. The above was excerpted with permission from his book, " Reclaiming Our Democracy", published by Camino Book, PO. Box 59026, Philadelphia, PA 19102 Personal Courage Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, psychiatrist and prolific author of the ground- breaking book, On Death and Dying, died Tuesday evening, August 24, 2004, in Scottsdale, Arizona of natural causes. She was surrounded by her family and close friends. She was 78. "Every moment of her life was devoted to dying patients and what they were going through," noted long-time friend Mwalimu Imara, who has been close to her since the beginning of her research. "Her prolonged illness following several strokes only made her even more determined to speak up for the rights of the terminally ill." Her best-selling first book, On Death and Dying, 1969, made her an internationally-renowned author. Even today, her trail-blazing book is required reading in most major medical, nursing, and psychology programs. A 1969 Life Magazine article outlining her work gave further mainstream credibility and awareness to this new way of dealing with dying patients, although her conclusions were quite revolutionary at the time. "People today find it hard to believe that her now commonly-accepted conclusions were quite revolutionary at the time," said her sister, Eva Bacher. "She was always very proud that her work helped to bring the hospice movement into the mainstream in the United States." Always outspoken, her work in challenging the medical profession to change its view of dying patients brought about great change and advanced many important concepts such as living wills, home health care, and helping patients to die with dignity and respect. "She always was, and will continue to be, a strong voice for the rights of terminally ill patients," noted Dr. Gregg Furth, New York Jungian psychologist, a close family friend and supporter. Public services will be held on Saturday, September 4th, at Scottsdale Bible Church, 7601 E. Shea Blvd., 3PM in Scottsdale, Arizona. To learn more about Elisabeth and her work go to http://www.elisabethkublerross.com/ |