A Sad Irony

Terry Leichner

August 28 near Denver

It seems appropriate to ask today where the new freedom riders will come from? Where will the voices cry out against the despair of disparity and hate come from? Who will do more than march and rally? Where will those who think the dream possible come from? Where will the opposition to continual wars come from?

 Obama will go to the anniversary gathering and speak with his usual eloquence but his words will pale to those of Dr. King. They will pale because once again we look at using weapons of war to enforce our nation's dominance. They will pale because poverty, incarceration and hate have prevailed as politicians continue to strip human rights from us.

 

The irony of the first black President speaking is he intends to start another military action at the same time he comes to honor Dr. King.

 

 

We Know This - Kerry Sold Out

The people of this nation should reflect on our history before we declare a moral high ground that John Kerry just attempted. His repetitive "we Know" about the occurrences of nerve agents used in Syria may be a good oratory gimmick but Kerry forgets his very own actions in a war killing over a million Vietnamese. A war he used his oratory to condemn at a Congressional hearing in the spring of 1971.

Kerry knows this nation used Agent Orange to defoliate jungles. He knows Agent Orange has affected generations of Vietnamese with birth defects and cancers. He knows countless brothers in arms have been affected by Agent Orange. He knows our government denied, denied, denied those effects making it too late for many of the veterans to survive.

John Kerry knows first hand this nation used napalm not only against enemy combatants but also against civilian populations in the villages that erupted into flames burning bodies of children and their mothers. He knows the American troops referred to the bodies as "crispy critters".

John Kerry knows the American troops carried white phosphorous rounds in grenade launchers and they were used against enemy combatants and any civilian populations that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He knows "willie peter" rounds were commonly used. He knows the effects of those rounds burning through skin and bone and the difficulty of treating the wounds.

John Kerry knows these weapons were used despite Geneva Convention legalities. He knows first hand as an officer in the American military. He knows first hand from the stories of his fellow troops in Vietnam Veterans Against the War and those without any affiliation. He knows and he found it immoral to continue. And he spoke out against it in front of the Fulbright Committee of the U.S. Senate.

John Kerry also knows troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are exposed to depleted uranium rounds fired by their own military. He knows the chemical path of DU in every region of the world it has been used. He knows white phosphorous and a rebranded form of napalm has been used in Iraq and Afghanistan.
 
John Kerry knows the loss of innocent lives from American drones and gunships. And he knows he has been complicit in covering up the horrific visions of those attacks. He knows this President has intimidated and imprisoned any whistle blower daring to bring the truth of atrocities to the attention of the people paying taxes to carry them out.

John Kerry knows the US is the only nation to use atomic weapons against civilian population centers. He knows the results of radiation poisoning that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Effects every bit horrific as the images he references in his pleas to use military force in Syria for "moral" reasons. John Kerry knows these things are irrefutably fact. He knows but doesn't recall them in his rush to violence and more war. He says he's sick of war but he pimps another military action by this nation saying we can't allow fatigue to keep us from acting. 

John Kerry knows there are hidden agendas beyond the moral call for action he requests. But he won't tell the American people what they are.

John Kerry knows children go hungry and starve in his nation.

He says it's common sense...because he says it is. Members of the American military's leadership don't all agree it is.

Americans must decide who the"thugs" are. They must decide if we truly have a legacy of a moral high ground or if we are culpable for similar atrocities against humanity.

John Kerry knows we stand on shaky moral ground as a nation with a history of continuous wars and occupations lacking legality and morality. And he knows we are a "party to turning a blind eye" over and over again whether it's the US or the Israelis in Palestine.

John Kerry knows but fails to accept responsibility.

John Kerry knows the nerve gas used against Iran in a war against Iraq was supplied by his own nation. And a blind eye was turned as our dictator in Iraq used nerve agents against Iran and later against his own people in Kurdish areas.

What John Kerry doesn't seem to know is the meaning of hypocrisy.

What Kerry does know ...he sold out for power and fame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fifty Years Later - August 28, 1963

Thinking back fifty years to the March on Washington brings sad memories of a dream lost. Or more accurately, a dream stolen.  The dogs and water hoses have been replaced by the Patriot Act, pepper spray and tear gas. The faces of the new police force are obscured in riot gear. Often they hide their names to avoid their victims complaining about their brutality.  At least we all knew it was Bull Connor perpetrating the brutality in the ‘60s.

The war on poverty has been lost to the rich bankers and Wall Street hedge fund brokers. Democracy has been lost to Citizens United, the Koch brothers, the political action committees not having to reveal their identities and politicians too afraid to vote against the money men who fund their campaigns.

Activists like Malcolm X, Daniel Ellsberg and even Martin would likely be labeled as terrorists and be “detained” in today’s world.  The “freedom riders” would be serving long prison terms in the “prison industrial” complex. The soldier reporting the My Lai massacre could face the same treatment Bradley Manning has faced.

Christians, Muslims and other religious types have forgotten the messages of love and tolerance and replace them with fanaticism, intolerance and hate towards any group unlike them. Their charity comes at a price. Their hope of spiritual afterlife requires the secret handshake. All others are the enemy. All others must convert or pay the price for their heresy.

The patriarchal rule must be protected even if it means the rape, battering and enslavement of mothers and daughters. Religions remain the flame that fans the global wars killing billions. They are the self-appointed keepers of morality professing their love of life while using violence to thin the herd.  Their leaders feel entitled to worshipping flocks and immune from prosecution whenever they violate a member of the flock.

America elected a black President and got one more puppet of the rich.  The “hope” has turned to despair. The reality has been, even as the man carries out the bidding of the masters of war, masters of money and masters of power, his color has caused the overt return of Jim Crow. Voter suppression laws flourish in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling the Voting Rights Act is no longer needed. The bigots openly talk about the need to have fewer voters come to the polls rather than encourage full participation in the alleged democracy.

The media has long ago been bought by corporate interests to carry out their agenda. Independent media may have more outlets but lives in relative obscurity as mindless reality programming and constant violence permeates every home via the television, internet and Androids. All no longer made in this nation but made and assembled in nations fostering poverty wage workers.  In truth they are slaves of corporations without souls.  The media has indeed become as Marshall McLuhan predicted. It’s the message, doctored as the power brokers demand.

Americans look forward to the first female president but pin their hopes on the wife of a President who pushed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, from government assistance and created the labor killing treaties such as NAFTA. But, she has become her own person. Acting as Secretary of State she directed the continuation of foreign policy highlighted by immoral occupations and escalation of drone attacks. She continued the gutless pandering to AIPAC and Zionism while ignoring the apartheid of the Palestinian people.

If Martin and his group of civil rights workers attempted their march today they might very well be denied a permit in many cities just as they were in Selma and Birmingham. They would look out on a nation still taking part in illegal wars, a nation still singling out people of color in its policing and incarceration, a nation with an ever increasing level of poverty….a nation still full of racial hate.

There have been no voices to fill the void left by Martin and Malcolm. No voices to carry out the dream. Only rhetoric without actions. Those who do speak out lose out to concerted efforts to destroy their reputations by a state controlled media.

My generation was going to bring great change but was coopted by the material world and fear. The apathy and hopelessness filters down to the following generations. Basic rights are given away for a false sense of security.  Happiness is a warm gun and popping a pill for whatever causes stress. Kids are not allowed to feel disappointment, lose a game or walk home with friends. Playing must have adults supervising and interfering with every aspect.  Stranger danger and other fears are imposed. Tests are more important than actual learning.

Some say we are the wealthiest nation on the planet. At what price? Most of us are one check away from financial disaster. Debt servitude assures the corporate masters unions will not prevail. Poverty wages and multiple jobs just to survive are no longer the exception. They are the norm. Now our children will either have the doors of colleges shut to them or be in so much debt on graduation they will join the ranks of wage slaves.

This is a dire outlook. And nothing has been said about global warming, pollution and environmental disaster because denial is easier and more convenient. Fifty years ago Martin Luther King talked about a dream but if we don’t wake up that dream will only be a nightmare of delusions and foolishness. I believed in the dream in 1963. After participation in my immoral war, the dream took a big hit. But I thought it could be rescued. 

Fifty years after the march on August 28, 1963 I take solace in those who never quit the struggle for human rights. Despite all the negativity there remains a flame inside that can’t be extinguished by those who have chosen the path of greed and excess because there are humble souls who doggedly carry on.  Despite the despair there remains hope Martin, Malcolm and Gandhi were right to stand up against the riptide of the powerful oligarchy. Or, as Bob Marley sang, “stand up for your rights”.

The Charade of Parades, Memorial Day Does Not Honor our Dead

Memorial Day is just another flag-waving bullshit holiday to glorify war while we make believe we give a shit about those we sacrificed to the military industrial complex. If people want to commemorate wars let them get into the head of some of us grunts and hear the real stories of war. Never happen.

Nope we'll make believe my squad leader who threw a grenade into a bunker with women, children and the crying baby I hear in my nightmares was something of a "hero" because a short time later he got killed by a sniper while he was screaming at me to fire my weapon. How's that for a war story?

And then there will be those who think they're being kind by "thanking me for my service". What service were they thinking about.....the times we burned villages down and left a trail of "crispy critter" kids with the napalm strikes we called in? Or the brutal beating of the female prisoner followed by an in the field "water boarding" followed by the eventual killing by Naval Intelligence as we stood around or walked away from the scene? Yeah, those good times of service need a hearty thanks from the American people. If only they could share those good times in the middle of the night with some of us.

I'm writing a piece about cancer. No, not my prostate cancer. The cancer of war that has been killing me long before the recent events of my life. A friend sent me a feel good quote from Buddha suggesting we shouldn't mourn our past but live in the here and now. Good cognitive behavioral health guideline. One of the many things we in psych tell our patients living with horrific trauma because we don't want to "open the can of worms" called PTSD. 

I guess I'd say to Buddha and all others ...if we, the combat veterans, don't mourn the past....who the hell will? I don't see the American public stepping up to mourn the "collateral damage" of our wars. Hell, they won't even accept responsibility for what their government has perpetrated and perpetuated. I heard some old flag-waving bastard on the route of the local Memorial Day parade telling a reporter it's necessary we commemorate our war heroes so we don't repeat the past.

Really? What fucking world does he live in? Oh, yeah, he lives in that revisionist world of veterans and American exceptionalism that conveniently overlooks the war crimes and atrocities committed by far too many "brave" troops. And who is he kidding about not wanting to repeat the history? That is exactly what we've done since the end of World War I. Smedley Butler eloquently speaks about war being a "racket" following his thirty plus years in the USMC after WWI. His words remain as relevant today as then. We've seen war after war and have yet to learn the lessons of history and continued to repeat it. We continue to sacrifice our youth at the behest of old men in politics doing the bidding of the masters of war.... big corporate interests. And it doesn't matter if they're liberal or conservative. They've all sold us out.

These traitors who wrap themselves in the flag make sure they make speeches and show up for press opportunities at these patriotic "holidays". They want us all to believe how much they care. And every day there are 18 suicides of veterans. Every day there are over 50 sexual assaults by military personnel on military personnel. The military hides it using the acronym of MST. What the hell is that? Mountain Standard Time?? No, military sexual assault. Not rape when it is rape but MST. Not sexual harassment but MST.

Let us not fool ourselves Memorial Day means anything to the majority of Americans other than a day that extends a weekend used for trips to tourist traps, mountains, lakes or barbecuing on the back porch. Let us not fool ourselves the American people have any long term interest in the wounded warriors who face a lifetime of pain and medical care that takes far too long to obtain and comes with huge emotional  toll.  Americans don't give a damn about those nightmares running through the combat veteran's brain like a horror movie stuck on infinite rerun mode.

On Monday there will be jet flyovers and uniforms galore hanging out at veterans' cemeteries. And there will be honor bestowed on too many men and women who's only claim to heroism is their deaths in combat. The missing stories for too many are the stories of raping the civilian population, killing innocent men, women and children and hiding behind "I was just doing my job".

War is insanity and horror. Making days to remember the dead of our wars is a sham unless we reflect on why we keep doing  the same thing repeatedly with the same result. Unless we come to accept some responsibility for what we've done to the citizens of other nations we've called "enemy".  Unless we realize we're being played by the racketeers Smedley Butler so eloquently wrote about. When he came to understand the only original thoughts he had came after his discharge from the Corps. 

I no longer give deference to the national anthems, presentations of colors or the contrived holidays merely endorsing and glorifying our immoral wars. I owe the truth about wars to my sons, my grandchildren and future generations. They won't get the truth at the parades and the phony charade of "honoring" those who sacrificed for "freedom" in wars encouraged by the rich to increase their already obscene wealth.

Sorry. Memorial Day is a weekend I have a great burning hate for. It comes from true experiences in a faraway land we had no moral reason to be in. From witnessing the atrocity of war.

Traitors of the Beltway

The traitors in Congress, the Presidency and the Supreme Court continue their ruthless path to subject the American people to tyranny and the American people continue to sleep walk. Much is being made of the IRS investigating special interest groups with conservative backgrounds, the spying on news agencies already in the pocket of the mainstream politicians and the failure to stop a terrorist act in Libya killing an ambassador touring a volatile region of a country in chaos.
These aren't burning issues in the world beset with poverty, hunger and life threatening issues of daily living. These are diversions by politicians unwilling to do what's right, what's moral and what's needed. People die of reasons related to poverty every three or four seconds and what do these fools focus on? Their  continued oppressive tactics have been going on well before Obama, well before Bush and dating back to the days of Washington and Jefferson. Spouting the words freedom and justice the three branches of this government give only lip service to the true ideals of freedom and justice. These stooges wouldn't understand either if they were slapped in the face with them. What they do understand is maintaining the oligarchy.
The phony outrage of ultra-right politicians and their well funded organizations such as the Tea Party and Karl Rove's shadow political action groups is laughable and total hypocrisy. They conveniently forget recent history when the Joint Terrorist Task Force harassed young activists prior to the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York. They conveniently forget the thug tactics of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI to destroy the Black Panther Party, the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and several other groups demanding social and political change and the end of a disastrous war.
I have personal memories of phone tapping because I was a local organizer of VVAW. The FBI went to a friend's home in Billings asking about my whereabouts when I left Denver. The friend reported them having a recent photo they took from a file folder. They attempted to have me arrested for being AWOL from the USMC. I was discharged six years before their visit to my friend's home in 1976.
The spying and harassment of citizens by governmental agencies intent on preventing dissent is as old as this nation. Those in power will always attempt to keep the citizens from protest. Their purpose is to stop freedom of speech and call it law enforcement. Ask Martin Luther King's family about their tactics. Ask the Civil Right's Movement leaders about this law enforcement.
The suppression of dissent is a very important issue but we should not be fooled by the current outcries because the obvious political action committees empowered by the Citizen's United decision and plenty of money from those intent on stealing elections have no intention of protecting free speech. The outcries and hearings are diversionary attacks on the black man in the Presidency. The fanatics who have taken over the GOP are traitors who only want to block any progress this nation needs to better life for the poor and the working class in the country.
The phony outrage of AP about intrusion into their reporting is actually coming from a news agency quite willing to allow the "embedded" reporters during the Iraq occupation. Where was their outrage when the Bush administration stomped on the freedom of speech for the press at a time of an illegal war? Where was the outrage when Rumsfeld and Cheney called any news agency questioning their policies traitors?
Where was the outcry to prosecute the thieves of Wall Street and the "too big to fail" bankers? Where is the call for the IRS to go after corporations evading taxes while they make record profits year after year? Record profits while at the same time the wealth gap reaches record levels between the richest 2% and the working class, the poor and the disappearing middle class. Even the squeaky clean image of Apple, Inc. can't avoid the tax evasion on 42 billion dollars profit in a three year period. The 42 billion was only a partial profit the company gained thanks to tax laws skewed toward the rich. At the same time the Congress has plans to make "small cuts" to the food stamp program. For those denied food stamps because of the cuts there's nothing small about them.
If we doubt our government has become the terrorists and the traitors compare the harm of Bradley Manning's revelations of war crimes in two wars of occupation to the constant tyranny of the minority in the US Senate and the obstructionism of the House of Representatives. Consider the harm done to the electoral process caused by the Supreme Court's Citizens United case. Consider the routine revocation of  basic freedoms by the alleged "liberal" President Obama. Consider the ever growing "unmanned" killing and spying via drones.
While the manufactured scandals consume the government, jobs, crumbling infrastructure, increased poverty, disastrous environmental events caused by climate change (created by failure to reduce our carbon imprint) and a litany of other problems go unattended like they have far less importance than the beltway scandals touching few lives.
If we define traitor as betrayal of our nation, we can only conclude our own government fits the description. All three branches. The irreparable harm done to the American people and people around the world by the actions and decisions are stark evidence. But, if the American people want an end to  the betrayal, they must step out of the shadows of fear and stand up for themselves

A Note to My Grandson on Your Graduation

You have reached one of life’s milestones. You are a graduate of your high school and now move on to the next path of your life’s journey. Congratulations for all the work and time you’ve spent to get where you’re now at. And may you find the future bright and hopeful.

I hope you will always take the path of your heart. There seems to be a notion the world is bad because it often seems we see only bad in the media. Evil, violence and the outrageous gets headlines. I hope you see past this notion and understand there is more good in our world than the evil so often represented in mass media.

I hope you will find your own truth and not allow the many false truths others may try to impose upon you. This will demand you listen to your heart and determine what is morally acceptable. Remember Howard Zinn’s history tells stories conveniently dismissed by others unwilling to admit the flaws we Americans have had throughout our history. Patriotism does not mean blind acceptance of the actions of our government. We have the responsibility to be informed citizens. We need to question the actions of those who buy the power of government.

Mark Twain is an author who questioned the things we do in the name of patriotism. I hope someday you will read his WAR PRAYER.

I hope you understand Rosa Parks and so many others fought long and hard to reach equality. In my childhood the truth was blacks, Latinos and women were less than equal to the white male establishment. Rosa Parks did much more than just sit in a “white only” bus seat. Her entire life was one of following her heart and objecting to oppression.

As I watched your graduation I noticed the large number of Latino, Chicano and Hispanic names of students graduating. Besides the family history of my family you have a family history of Hildalgo. Keep in mind even today people of color face incredible hardships because of racism’s discrimination. As Zinn points out it was the Europeans who stole the lands of the indigenous peoples and the people long residing in Spanish speaking areas of North America.

Cesar Chavez and Corky Gonzales are only two voices for your brown brothers and sisters of the past and present. Their truths are different from  the ruling culture of this nation. And their struggles continue today with the young people of your class of 2013.

I hope you have come to realize heroes aren’t athletic men hitting game winners. Heroes and heroines are people who put the needs and welfare of others before themselves. They’re people who follow the moral path. The path of their heart. I’ve met many heroes and heroines. Not one of them played professional sports. How could we compare highly paid athletes to a woman like Kathy Kelly who has spent her entire life as an adult working for peace and justice for all people? How does a touchdown compare to her going to Iraq with medical supplies and other life saving supplies in defiance of our government’s irrational sanctions which were causing hundreds of thousands to die? Most of them children.

I hope you won’t allow those in power to paralyze you in their attempts to make us fear our world. Courage is not being without fear. It is recognizing fear but still doing what is right and moral. Again, the path of your heart. Governments promoting fear hope to create willingness to give up essential freedoms and rights. Beware of giving up your freedom to be safe. Benjamin Franklin once said doing so will result in having neither one.

I hope you have come to realize the joy of the material things you have and will get is only temporary joy. The joy of loving friends and family will bring you true wealth. Falling in love with a soul mate will make you rich. This isn’t saying we should allow the wealthy to continue the economic injustices they perpetrate. Poor wages, sweat shops and enslaved children and adults making our shoes and clothes are symptoms of the injustices imposed by the wealthy. The gap between the wealthy and the working class and poor has reached record levels because of criminal actions by Wall Street brokers and too big to fail bankers. The chase for money and wealth is a disease causing much of the evil we have in our world. War is one of the major symptoms.

I don’t say you and all working people shouldn’t aspire to have security and a living wage. But life is more than material bounty. Look at the mountains to the west. They represent the grandeur of nature. And to live the path of our hearts we must commune with nature. And to commune with nature means we have to cherish our environment and stop the abuse of nature through pollution and destruction. Abuse that will lead to the destruction of Earth. It’s abuse fueled by short-sighted tycoons who refuse to change. Instead they deny there’s a problem and continue the rape of the environment for resources that can’t be sustained.

I apologize that my generation failed the generation of your father and your generation. We once said we would bring a change that would bring peace and justice. Instead we sold out to materialism and apathy. We allowed corrupt politicians and the rich who fund them to have power that goes unquestioned and without significant challenges. But there remain many of my generation who have idealism and live that path of the heart. They just need more help to challenge those who have power and abuse it.

I know this time of your life is to be celebrated, grandson. And believe me I do celebrate your life! You are part of the hope we have in our world. Go forward with joy and determination, my grandson. You are loved and admired. Work to be strong. Learn from failures and make them opportunities to change. Question the accepted knowledge and accept others with unconditional love in your heart.

Love yourself so you can love others. Forgive yourself so you can forgive others. If there’s only one part of the Christian Bible you decide to read, make it the Sermon on the Mount. It summarizes the path of the heart.

Wishing you great peace and with love,

Your grandfather.

Suffer The Children....Shame on Adults

"Something's happening here.
What it is ain't exactly clear.
There's a man with a gun over there.
Telling me I got to beware." -Buffalo Springfield

What it is ain't exactly clear but what is clear are the lies and hypocrisy of adults professing to give a damn about the children of this world. From abusive parents, neglectful schools, uncaring social services, eager recruiters for war, Congressmen/women more worried about large stakes contributions to the Pope it is clear children have little importance other than using them as public relations tools.
We can make believe we care about children but why do we continue to allow them to be victims of killers with guns? Why have we failed time and again to implement even the most reasonable and less intrusive forms of gun controls that pale in comparison to the controls in the rest of the world? Why do we continue to allow old men and women to take us to war and sacrifice our youth to failed policies and immoral goals of our wars? Why do we allow children in far away places to be enslaved in sweat shops so we here in America can wear stylish clothing?
We know the sacrificial offerings of children adults implement but turn our eyes away in guilt and shame. Or apathy and the desire not to know about what we do to our children of this world. Since my time in Vietnam I've witnessed the sacrifice of children to the sins of adults. I personally saw death by bombs, death by napalm, death by mortars and artillery, death by gunfire and death by chemicals in a war lacking moral reason.
Since my personal witness I've viewed thousands of photos and videos of the casualties of wars that inevitably include a huge number of children's bodies mutilated by adult implements of death. After so many dead bodies it numbs the mind to the real stories of each individual child killed. The question "Why?" continually runs through my head. Why do we allow this to happen?
The classic adult response to the carnage of children occurred just recently when the families of children killed in the Newtown grade school went to Congress to plead for gun control. They were handing out photos of their beloved children to remind Congress of the moral mandate to do something to control the sale of high powered guns to anybody who wants them. A female Congress person quickly passed the group with the statement, "I'm good" as she refused to take the photos of the dead children the parents were handing out as a reminder of our failure to protect all children.
"I'm good"? How can she be good with the daily carnage of kids from the shores of America to the shores of Africa and Asia? But she represents a culture that's ok with daily violence against children and one that encourages our young to be violent. She represents a culture where those that can afford a good education live in gated communities, go to sheltered schools and have little interaction with those living in stark poverty. The poor get the worst school buildings, largest classes and most out of date learning materials. They're graded by inane political tests meant to "measure" teacher efficiency. They only measure the obvious. If you're poor, hungry and living in gang afflicted neighborhoods learning doesn't occur easily. To add insult to injury the rich school districts doing well in the proficiency tests get rewarded with extra tax dollars while the poor districts get punished.
In war torn nations, ripped apart by sectarian strife, 15th Century type culture keeps young girls and women from going to school. India has daily stories of young women raped by gangs of adult men who seldom face prosecution for their crimes. In fact, the families of the victims are more often ostracized than the predators. One of the latest rapes involved a five year old girl. The response from authorities remains unconcerned.
In Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and numerous other nations the American need for consumer goods leads to child slave labor. The esteemed Apple computer company has most of it's computer hardware put together in such sweat shops. The Jordanesque Nike athletic shoe company has long used the slave labor in nations outside the U.S., the largest buyer of their expensive shoes.
Even in the religious community we find the hypocrisy of concern for the child. The Roman Catholic Church has become notorious for its constant refrain of the intrinsic evil of abortion but continues to back peddle and evade responsibility for pedophiles posing as priests. The new pope, Francis, recently reaffirmed the Church's position against American nuns who he feels put too much emphasis on social justice issues and not enough on the abortion issue. Maybe the good sisters have a clue about the one out of every five children being malnourished and want to do something about it? Maybe they see poor children in every city they serve living without homes, adequate clothing and going to over populated classes?
If the Catholic Church is righteous why haven't they looked at the fact this planet can no longer sustain population growth at the rate it's going right now. The Church's response to this has been loud opposition to all forms of contraception leading poor families to have more children than they can sustain. Leading to hunger and starvation. But at least they didn't prevent child bearing or commit abortion.
The Church also shows its social consciousness by not allowing its relief workers to distribute condoms in HIV ravaged nations. Children born with AIDS seems more important than protection against the HIV virus.
The truth about the Church remains the ugly misogyny it practices in most everything it does. Its obsession with controlling the sex lives of the people, especially women, has reached obscene levels. Its total wealth, hidden around the world and in the Vatican itself, belies the piety and righteousness the Church claims to have . How many children the Church claims to love could the Church feed, clothe and house if it only followed the teachings of Christ? It's clear the Church loves power much more than children or social justice. It's clear the issue of abortion is one way of exerting power over women who still remain faithful to a failed institution.
But, we should not just point fingers at the Catholic Church. We need only look around the world at most of the alleged followers of Christ and other prophets to see their wealth. Huge shrines in forms of cathedrals and mosques rise up in the skies while on the ground millions starve. Money, money, money seems to be the first tenet of the religious communities. Their NGOs coerce and ignore cultures impoverished by violence, drought and the rape of natural resources unless "their way" is followed. Too often the alleged charity work being done has hidden agendas. Too often there are strings attached. The overall results continue to affect the children of the world most.
It's a damn lie the adults of this world care about children. We need only look at the conditions of children around the world to affirm this dirty little secret. The care for children professed by far too many is simply lip service. Ask the people of Haiti. Ask the continent of Africa. Ask the parents in our nation's poor urban areas.

The Only Thing to Fear is Fear Itself...Not Anymore

When did it become ok to shut down an  entire metropolitan area of a U.S. city to hunt a murder suspect? Are Americans now supposed to fear for our lives everytime a murder takes place. Even one as widely publicized as the Boston bombings?
Descriptions came from citizens in Boston metro of military style occupation of their neighborhoods. There was even mention of tanks being used. Seriously? In a nation that just days ago allowed its Congress to shoot down the benign background check law we're supposed to quiver in fear whenever a murder occurs? This nation that relishes the violence of gunplay and shoot-outs wants the citizens to stay indoors, don't let anybody but an uniformed officer enter, close your blinds, hide, live in fear?
The "Prince" has won. Or rather princes. We're all supposed to suspend life because two idiot terrorists chose to murder at one of the iconic sporting events, the Boston Marathon. So, the terrorists have won the infamy they sought for themselves and whatever cause they claim to represent. They win, we lose. Big governmental surveilance and policing wins. If we thought we lived in a police state before we've not seen anything yet.
Which makes me wonder, where's all the policing and surveilance been in the neighborhoods of Chicago and others that have daily body counts? The neighborhoods of color should be so lucky as having the security shown in the pursuit of two murderous fanatics. Wouldn't it be nice if parents in these neighborhoods could feel their children are safe?
And it astonishes me the mass media has been allowed to perpetrate the scare tactics, false rumors and just plain awful journalism. Almost like they've become complicit in keeping the citizenry terrified for the militaristic police forces and federal agencies. We witnessed an alleged expert in criminal behaviors come on the air spouting his "sources" told him the bombers were men with brown skin, the code for Arabic terrorists. Turns out the bombers were as lily white as the racist commentator. But now there is said to be Islamic connections. There's supposed to be more than one bomb in the city. Does this make them different from Timothy McVeigh?
So all sporting events, all train traffic and even all air travel is shut down. We're supposed to believe the two are so sophisticated in their criminal activity they have to shut the city down. So why were they so easily spotted on video? Why has every action they've taken seemed more like hate filled amateurs violently acting out than a terrorist cell planning on the destruction of the entire city of Boston?
In the past Americans were told not to allow fear to overcome us. Told the criminals win if we allow them to keep us from carrying on our daily lives. Now every time there's a threat we're supposed to hide in fear and trust our militarized police forces will protect us. And pray their stray shots during fire fights don't kill one of us. Or their high speed chases don't run us over.
Living in fear is living only a part of life. The world is dangerous and there are numerous predators lurking in all parts of our world. I witnessed Vietnamese villagers carry on living their daily lives in spite of American and Viet Cong/North Vietnamese troops constantly intruding on their safety. They kept living their lives in spite of daily bombings. The same was witnessed by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fear is crippling and leads to dependency on "others" to protect us. Especially those who wield far too much power over us already.
I don't give a damn about the two killer brothers responsible for their heinous acts of terror on children and innocents. I don't give a damn about their motivations. They won't get any of my sympathy. No, instead, it angers me that a nation would allow two killers with hate in their heart to cripple a major metropolitan area the way these two were allowed to do.
It angers me they've given the para-military police and federal agencies constantly wanting to usurp our rights more opportunity to do just that. And it gives me a strange feeling when I watch a largely white neighborhood told to stay out of their streets for the entire day cheering the hundreds of heavily armed police, federal agents and others to take down one single person once they finally do. I thought of the word "lemmings" as I watched that scene.
It angers me that the same strength of force can't be brought to the poor neighborhoods of gang and drug activity to bring justice to the moms and dads who stare helplessly when their children are shot down by stray gunfire of the gangsters. It angers me that we should applaud the forces of police power but do nothing to condemn the politicians that leave us all vunerable to the gunfire of fanatics and criminals because they fear the power of the death dealers like the NRA. It angers me to see Obama talk about the grief of the dead from such crimes as these but how little he says about the dead of the neighborhoods of color living through decades of war brought to them by gangsters armed by the death dealers associated with the NRA.
Our fears are only increased by what we perceive as terrorism but we hardly blink at the larger causes of death brought on by our own neglect of those less "worthy" of our attention. We hardly blink at the stripping of our basic rights as citizens every time there's one of these highly publicized crimes. There should be terror in our minds at this prospect of constantly living in fear of gangsters, terrorists and politicians more than willing to take our rights.
There will be no freedom when we allow this fear to rule us.

There Is No Justice with American Exceptionalism

How does anyone justify killing an eight year old child? Or a 29 year old woman loved by many? Or a college exchange student from China? Or the maiming and wounding of nearly 150 humans?
The bombing at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 13 is one more atrocity committed by criminals with hate in their hearts. No  cause justifies these type of actions. And the President is right to demand justice for the victims and survivors of the bombings. We need to capture the criminals responsible and bring them to justice.
On the same day there were 55 humans killed by bombs in Baghdad. A day before there were numerous dead from a bomb in Mogadishu, Somalia. The victims and survivors of these bombings also deserve justice.
And if we truly want justice in this world shouldn't we seek justice for the children killed in Baghdad, Fallujah, Basra, and uncounted villages throughout Iraq from the years 2003 to the present day? Or the innocent humans killed in Afghanistan from the year 2001 to present day? Or the innocents killed by drones for years in both countries and other nations we have allowed deadly drones to search out targets?
Where is the justice for the dead children of Palestine killed by a Zionist government armed by American weapons cheaply priced? Or the dead children of Israel killed in reprisal attacks? Where is the justice for idealistic young people like Rachel Corrie, ran over by an Israeli Caterpillar as she attempted to stand up for justice?
Where is the justice for the children of Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and all the many African nations under the spell of tribal genocide? Many killed by criminals securing weapons sold by American arms manufacturers.Where is the justice for children killed in Serbia, Estonia and all the other divided nations of the former Yugoslavia? Or the children of Vietnam still suffering the effects of American Agent Orange dropped in the 60s and 70s?
Since September 11, 2001 the millions of humans killed as a result of American wars seem exceedingly more than enough retribution for American lives lost in the terrorist attack of that day. We Americans fail to see the dead of other nations killed in our name for no good reason. We demand justice when it's our citizens, our brothers and sisters killed. We think an American life to be exceptionally more important than any other life.
The American people are mostly good people. They have the same desires of peace and security for their families as most people in the world have. Unfortunately, American exceptionalism blinds us to the true suffering of most humans outside our borders. Especially "third world nations". Nations populated by people of color in the majority.
The tragedy of Boston scars us all but pales in comparison to the tragedy of bombs falling on populated neighborhoods of Baghdad and Fallujah. The Aurora theatre massacre, the Newtown massacre and all the repeated atrocities over the past 20-30 years in this nation are nowhere close to the ongoing tragedies of nations most Americans can't find on a world map. Americans are so prone to PTSD because our traumatic events happen so infrequently compared to the majority of the world. Haitians live in a constant state of trauma. The "lost boys" of the Sudan had culture shock when they migrated to the U.S. because they didn't face daily trauma.
These thoughts don't mean to diminish the loss of American lives to criminal acts such as Boston or Aurora. But American exceptionalism has blinded us to the larger perspective of the world's suffering. We've been blinded to how much of the suffering our own governmental policies cause. Perpetual wars for phony justice are sold to us like car commercials. Only our troops matter. The collateral damage of our wars is hidden from us by the media that seems to be at the beck and call of the government.
To bring justice to our dead children we must bring justice for all dead children killed by the violence of wars, greed and power. We can't allow borders or national flags to prevent us from being citizens of the world first. Christ and all other prophets didn't see borders and national flags as barriers to justice for all. We simply need to follow their teachings for the justice we seek.

Uncle Tom and the KKKongress

I hesitate using derogatory terms that are widely known as racist but dammit, Barack Obama is about as much an Uncle Tom as I've ever come across in my life. Just look at his record of kow-towing to the white dominated financial sector of this nation.Look at his proposed cuts in Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. This is a President that has done just about everything the Klanish likes of Mitch McConnell and John Boehner could ask for. He's responsible for more violations of human rights than his hawkish predecessor, Dubya Bush. He's lied time and again on the campaign trail only to do exactly the opposite once elected. He first ran on the concept of "hope" and ended up making those who fervently supported him look like "dopes".
In my days of rage and activism I aligned myself with black brothers and sisters including members of the Panthers. I came to understand how harmful the term "uncle Tom" could be but also understood why some came to be called a "Tom". When you're doing the bidding of the white power structure at the  cost of communities of color and the poor and disabled in this society as a person of color, you are a "Tom". The term originates from the servile character in the rewrite of Harriet Beecher Stowe's book UNCLE TOM. In the book Tom was a hero saving other slaves from the oppression of slavery but once Hollywood got hold of the book it turned Tom into the servile character doing the bidding of his "master". A typical white revision of a black hero into the acceptable white version of a black man.
It's difficult to call Obama a Tom because the man has been the target of such racist hate. There have been ten times the number of threats against his life than any other President. No other President has faced the number of Senate filibusters as Obama's administration has. No other President has had judicial and other appointments refused as often as Obama has. From the beginning the hate mongers and racists such as McConnell and  Boenhner, Lindsay Graham, Michelle Bachman and so many others have publicly stated they intended on blocking anything Obama proposed that would make him look good and enhance his re-election. The only things that seems to be missing are the white hoods and burning crosses. The new Jim Crow is real and Obama has become the symbol of the reason why the racist white oppressors have come out of the wood work.
So what's Obama's response to the racists? He meekly offers compromises that throws the baby and all other weak members of the American society under the bus to appease them. He's become a well educated tool of the white masters. He's become the epitome of an Uncle Tom.
I have worked with the poor for over 25 years. They struggle to buy food, stay in livable housing and get the health care they need. Their entitlement is poverty under Medicaid or Medicare. These are not the people who are ripping the system off. We need only look to Wall Street and the banksters that caused the financial crash of 2008 to find the true entitlements. Too big to fail and free of prosecution these criminal with the complicit Congress and Presidency continue to practice the same toxic practices that led to the 2008 crash. They just moved from housing to other areas.
If we want to find the welfare queens/kings we need only look to the criminals in the medical field who work the Medicaid and Medicare systems to fraudulently take millions in fees for care not given. We need only look at the monstrous end of life industry that puts the elderly through tortuous procedures having no chance to enhance the quality of their lives but certainly enhance the banking accounts of the frauds who claim to be care-givers.
Who's to blame? We must look at the Congress and President in collusion with the Supreme Court allowing the corporate world free rein while continuing to oppress the poor and middle class. The Congress remains an exclusive white male club that only allows token representation of women (making up 51% of the population) and people of color. Looking at the hateful words and the faces of the weekly news shows on Sundays, we constantly see the ugliness of our Congress. Far too often we hear code words of racism. Far too often we hear lies and misrepresentations of why this nation is so much in debt. Far too often we don't hear anything about the spending on wars and the military. And far too often we see racist white men who could easily be mistaken for Grand Wizards of the KKK.
So it baffles me why the good 'ol boys hate OToma. He has given them 90% or better of what they and the corporate bosses want. It simply comes down to the color of his skin in the Presidency. It doesn't sit well with the racist base of the Congress and the corporate boards. Look at the CEOs of the largest corporations and there are very few people of color. Very few women.
The sad conclusion is Barack is an "uncle Tom" that has overlooked the racists and sold out people of color, the impoverished, liberals, progressives and activists hoping to bring true change. He's overlooked the Klanish types who somehow got leadership in Congress to be a token in a powerless Presidency. His theme of hope has turned into a sad discouraging hopelessness for those in need. He has betrayed those who are most in need of hopeful progress.

When Tomas Got His Gun

The story of Tomas Young is one of the forgotten warriors of American wars of occupation.Wars that are illegal and immoral and do nothing to bring honor to this nation. Wars that disgrace our concept of democracy and the false belief that we give a damn about the troops.
Americans want their troops to come home to waiting families, all smiles and joy. They want to hear how it was an honor to "serve" their country. And now they're expected to ease back into civilian life and pick up where they left off.
Remember all those yellow ribbons on the bumper sticker with the words "SUPPORT THE TROOPS"? What did they actually mean? They mean about as much as someone coming up to a combat veteran, tortured by the memories of carnage, to say "thank you for your service". Do you really think that's what they want to hear? Do you think a veteran of combat wants thanks for killing other humans, for witnessing the death of children and other innocents, for seeing good friends killed and maimed? Maybe Americans could ask us how they might help. What we need. Patronizing bullshit slogans do nothing for the welfare of returning troops. Parades last an hour or so and then what?
For all those who think men like Tomas Young are going to be taken care of because it was part of the nation's promise, get real. I always ask the patriotic flag waving war mongers if they're going to be there for the troops paralyzed or missing limbs in twenty years. Will they still be around to cheer the veteran with a TBI and the nightmares of PTSD?
Tomas Young is the new Johnny Got His  Gun. If we could we would put him off in some obscure room hidden away from the rest of us. He reminds us of what we have done in our zeal for wars. He reminds us there are horrible costs to the glory of war.
Tomas enlisted just days after the attack of 9-11. His intent was to go to Afghanistan to fight against those who attacked his country. Instead in 2004 he went to Iraq. He went to a war based on lies and illegal and immoral. Only a short time after entering Iraq he was shot with his spine severed. He was paralyzed from the waist down. On his return to his country he found inadequate and overwhelmed care at the VAMC. On one occasion he went to a VA ER with a swollen and painful arm. He was given narcotics for the pain and sent home. The swelling was caused by a clot that dislodged and caused a stroke. That caused Tomas to lose control of his upper torso. He could no longer feed himself or clothe himself. His life went from bad to worse.
Today Tomas has stated he will "go away" in the near future. He's tired of the struggle that will be unchanged for the rest of his life. His doctors give him no hope of improvement. Tomas intends on refusing nutrition and fluids. He intends on killing himself.
There will be some who will condemn this decision. Let them be in Tomas' situation for a week. Let them face the hopelessness of a body they can no longer control and pain that is constant. I understand his decision completely. I've spent the last 40 years with one foot in the here and now and one foot living and reliving the 13 months of my war. The images are horrific and they never change. What I did and what I saw will never change. There were many times I thought eating a gun was the best way to end the moral and emotional agony. Now, my body has started to fail me and those thoughts are back. I can only imagine the agony Tomas has had to endure. I can understand his decision. I wish him peace.
For those who have failed to carry through on the promises made to the sons and daughters you sent to your senseless wars, I curse you. From the Congress and Presidents to the comfortable rich and middle class ....I curse you. All you who have let yourself forget the veterans of your stupid wars deserve to burn in hell. Many of you consider yourself righteous and spiritual but you lie to yourself. Like Dylan sang in his masterpiece, MASTERS OF WAR, I will rejoice the deaths of all you who have been part of the killing fields of war. And those who remained silent are as guilty as those who demanded the wars go forth in all their death and destruction.

March 19, A Day of American Shame

What was accomplished? Ten years ago today George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Colin Powell started the war in Iraq after blatantly lying about Saddam Hussein having "weapons of mass destruction". Nearly 4500 Americans died by the time the war was declared over. Millions of Iraqis have been killed as a result of the war starting. Most died as a result of American arms, many died due to the sectarian violence the American occupation created. Thousands upon thousands of the Iraqi victims have been children.
American occupation of Iraq was a matter of the Cheney Cabal wanting to control the oil in the ground of Iraq. It has the second largest oil reserves in the world and Cheney and his stooges were salivating. The largest American embassy was built. Schools and hospitals were built and paid for by American taxpayers but never used. Billions after billions were spent every month to support the war. Paul Bremer lost approximately 8 billion dollars in cash sent to Iraq for expenses to work with local Iraq leaders. He also decided native Iraqi seeds should be replaced by American seeds courtesy of companies like Monsanto. Depleted uranium has left a trail of health problems wherever we used it. And we used it everywhere. The symptoms of radiation poisoning were among the signs found in local areas of Iraq where the weapons of DU were used. Childhood cancers and birth deformities skyrocketed in number wherever the DU was used.
We can't understand the cost to the Iraqi people unless we have family in Iraq. Dr. Dahlia Wasfi has family there. She saw the costs up close the two times she journeyed to Basra to visit family. She continues today speaking about the costs of this unnecessary and illegal war. This immoral war.
We can understand the costs to American troops who faced multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. PTSD, TBI, MST and horrible physical wounds are the costs. Poor care due to lack of funding is the cost. The military hides behind the acronyms. They don't like to say MST (aka Military sexual assault) is rape perpetrated against female and male troops by troops in their own branch of the military. The don't like to say post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will cost this nation in multiple ways costing billions of dollars. They don't like to say traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the signature wound of the two wars and will affect the lives of young men and women for the rest of their lives.
At the time of the war's start millions marched in the streets around the world in protest. Once it started the bulk of the American peace movement seemed to wilt away in a depressive state. Only a mother, Cindy Sheehan, seemed to revive the movement temporarily. Young veterans like Kelly Daugherty and Garrett Reppenhagen saw the truth and organized to oppose the war. Old veterans like Bill Perry, Stan Goff and Dave Cline spoke out and organized opposition. The religious community failed to respond with few exceptions. Student movements were non-existent with few exceptions. The immorality of the war was seldom challenged by most Americans.
The mainstream media followed along like pet dogs to be the megaphones for the American occupation. They got in bed with the military by means of "embedding" themselves with units. But only units the military wanted them to be with. Their reports were boosterism and jingoism. Dhar Jamail was the true voice of the war. He reported on Fallujah and other atrocities of the war. He refused to  embed. Dhar and a few brave whistle blowers exposed the torture chambers of the American government. Water boarding was highly publicized but rapes and brutal physical assaults were hardly mentioned except by reporters such as Dhar. Water boarding was not new. I saw it used on a patrol in Vietnam against a female informant who balked in taking us to a suspect enemy hiding place.
Americans have been told our war is over in Iraq. Ask the Iraqi people if that's the case. We left behind a puppet government afraid to leave the security of well entrenched compounds. In the streets there's chaos with lack of security, lack of electricity, lack of potable water and an ever increased risk of danger to women. Sectarian violence and fanaticism by religious zealots makes it dangerous for any female to journey outside the home without male companionship and without her head covered.
The tragedy of our war in Iraq hits hard here in this nation but it hits much harder in Iraq. Iraqis can truthfully say they were better off under the boot of Saddam Hussein than under the alleged democracy we imported. A people that once loved the American people now look at us with suspicion and anger for what we brought them. And reports from criminals like Dick Cheney stating they'd "do it again" and admitting they wanted Iraqi oil can only make this nation seem criminal and immoral. This nation will never admit the war was illegal just as it never admitted the illegality of Vietnam.
March 19th should be a day of shame for Americans. Not a day to look back in triumph and satisfaction.

Connections to Polarize the 90%

So, just heard about someone I know making a remark the reason a family member couldn't get disability was because "they" only give it to blacks. Yikes! Really?
Here's the facts. Whites on disability outnumber blacks by a 3-1 ratio even when we consider the astronomic unemployment rates for black males. Even when we consider the astronomic wealth disparity between whites and blacks. Even when we consider the percentage of blacks admitted to universities versus whites.
What does this say about us? Maybe we are a racist country? Could be. Since Obama was elected President threats against the Presidency were ten times greater than all other Presidencies. Weapon purchases increased dramatically both times the man was elected. The number of filibusters in the US Senate broke records of all previous Congresses. The number of economic "crises" created by Congress since Obama's elections are unheard of. Never before has simple budget approval for the government to pay its current bills been held up by Congress for political reason. This action resulted in the reduction of the US government's credit rating for the first time in history. Why? Remember back before the first inauguration of Obama, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner stated their primary goal was to make sure he was a one term President. A group of GOP Congress members met before that inauguration to plot the strategy of obstructing anything that might make him look good.
Is this racism or politics of angry white men who lost an election?  Why has there been more racially motivated threats and crimes since the man was elected? Why did we see white voters standing in line at their precincts with Obama monkeys on their shoulders?
What's even more telling about the visceral reaction to the black guy being in the White House is by all accounts he's done everything the bankers, brokers and right wing could ask for to ensure the status-quo of the rich staying rich remained in place. He's compromised most of his promises made during his "dream" campaign of 2007. He's alienated even the liberal and progressive base that helped elect him. He was re-elected more out of the fear Romney would be so much worse than confidence he would actually bolster the middle class or champion liberal causes.
Looking at this time of history reminds me so much of the days of the civil rights movement in the late 60s. There is a "new" Jim Crow happening throughout this nation. Code words, overt racist remarks made among white only groups and subtle and not so subtle ways of perpetuating discrimination are easily found everywhere I go. And this racism does not only pertain to the black community. Latinos and Arabic communities have the same stories. Communities of color know there's racism in America.
Voter suppression directed at the communities of non-whites and identified Democratic whites is a repeat of the days of the toll tax and literacy testing that prevented blacks from participating in elections. Targeting of the voting rights laws by states and now in the Supreme Court are attempts to bring us back to the days of segregation. "Illegal" immigration laws are pretense to protect the nation's borders. If that's so why do those laws seem to target only humans with brown skin?
History demonstrates the white aristocracy in this nation has constantly used race as a way to keep the poor and middle class distracted and polarized. But it's not just race. Gay rights, women's control of their own bodies, claims of welfare cheats only in poor communities and religious fanaticism are all used as wedge issues to polarize those not in the upper income brackets. In all the internecine bickering and fighting the poor and middle class have not called out the rich for the incredible disparity of wealth. The richest 2% of Americans hold over 40% of all the wealth. The wealthiest10% in this nation hold 80% of the total assets of wealth.
Companies like Exxon, BP, Goldman-Sachs, Citibank and Chase pay little or no taxes. In fact some of the companies making the greatest profits actually get tax rebates or refunds! The typical American worker pays close to 28% of their income in taxes. That's before paying into health benefits..if available....Medicare and Social Security. Tax loopholes allowing the wealthiest to avoid paying anything, outsourcing jobs but still reaping great profits and all the other government give-aways aren't called welfare. A couple on disability making less than 20,000 each year, living in squalor, eating poorly, unable to get preventative health care are accused of leeching off the taxpayers. They're called welfare queens and resented by some who "work for a living".  Who's really the welfare leeches?
So, this rant drifted from racism to economics. It is necessary to see the connection and the manipulation. The poor and middle class are pitted against each other through hateful issues like racism to obscure the deplorable behavior of the plutocrats. They seek to strip all power, financial and political, from the masses. They want to indenture the masses with debt and dependency on working in jobs that barely keep them in homes, buying food and buying on credit. They control the mainstream media. That gives them the power of controlling the information. The power to plant the seeds of hate and consumerism.
If we fail to challenge comments that are palpably racist,sexist or anyway disparaging and polarizing we only play into the plan of the oligarchy that has stolen our democracy and the freedoms alleged to be included.

Random Thoughts Number.....hell I don't know...they're random!

Just a few random thoughts for the day.
My wife came back from a Catholic mass and told me the Knights of Columbus in all their regal glory came to present 924.00 for the parish school. Really??? They spend that much for their costumes making believe they are some royal guard of Christ. These are men in the Catholic Church who refuse to understand Columbus was a participant in the slaughter and enslavement of all the indigenous people he and his minions came across. He was about as Christian as Satan himself as he killed, tortured and enslaved a peaceful population of people. He stole their land and possessions in his obsessive need to bring a large bounty back to his queen.
So why do men in the 21st century continue to honor such a man? Why does the good Christian Catholic church allow and endorse this sect of men who also refuse to view women as their equals?
Another thought occurred to me about the new Pope. He professes to care about the impoverished and most in need. Does this mean he will take some of the huge wealth of his church to a pawn shop or auction to get the money needed to feed the people? Does this mean he will look at the epidemic HIV in parts of  Africa and tell the Catholic NGOs and other representatives to provide condoms to help stem the epidemic? Will he look at the Catholic NGOs running health care institutions....like the Sisters of Mercy....or mercenaries...:? Will he demand they cease the harassment of the poor to pay the over-inflated hospital bills? Will he demand they stop charging the poor more for their medical care than any other population group because they lack insurance? I think not.
Another thought. There's a lot of discussion about new spending on mental health care here in Colorado. Thanks in part to the repeated slaughters of children and innocents by crazed killers wielding assault rifles, politicians (and the NRA) have decided the mentally ill need some attention. Of course few are stating the mentally ill are at least ten times more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrate violence. It's the alleged sane among us that are killing wives, children, bosses and any who have pissed them off. It's the negligence of adults who ignore the wars in the hoods of the poor that have gone on since the 60s. They're black and brown kids, so who gives a damn?
But blaming the gun violence and culture of violence on the mentally ill is easier than addressing the reasons for the constant killing or limiting access to assault weapons like most other civilized nations.
I wonder if all this money will go to treating the mentally ill in need of expanded services or if the local centers will carry on with the ineffective care of just providing pills and the discrimination against those without benefits.Working in the field, I sincerely doubt the money will improve the level of care or go to pay staff better or increase staff and lower case-loads.
Ok, another thought. Do the people realize they've been duped into austerity and draconian cuts to programs to help the poor and middle class? Research for TBI has been delayed because of the sequestration initiated by the neo-cons in Congress and acquiesced to by the liberals. Do the people realize state governments are being controlled by these rich neo-cons and they intend of giving the rich 1-2% large tax cuts at the expense of the middle class and poor? They intend on dismantling Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security at a local level as much as they can. They intend on taking over elected local governments like the city of Detroit and replacing the government with "managers" of the neo-con governor's choice. Managers who just happen to have thousands of dollars of liens on his own home. OOPS....how'd that happen? But surely he will bring Detroit out of financial hell better than the elected mayor and city council. Just has to break a few union agreements, take away from the poor and redistribute the wealth and power to the rich. And chase those black folks out of the city.
So, my racing thoughts and tangential thinking really disturb me. I think something's happening here. What is is ain't exactly clear. There's a man over there who tells me "beware".......while we sleep there are dark forces who intend we'll sleep less peacefully and have great anxiety in our lives. They intend on making the majority of us their economic slaves that never question the system of oligarchy. Or is that just paranoia?

Goodbye to Facebook

This past week I closed my facebook account. Why? Because FB has become a tool of consumerism and the very world I want to see changed. It consumes time but does little to help affect the changes we need to bring peace and justice to our world. Too many copy and paste news items that are already available to any who seek the truth. Too many box themselves in to only one perspective and fail to understand there are forces needing our attention in person not online. So, there was a choice to spend my time online seeking approval of my thoughts or to venture out into the world and let my voice be heard and to listen to other voices while I look the person in the eye. That's called face to face.

Welcome Jackson Conrad....grandson

Welcome to the world, Jackson Conrad...my newest grandson. I hope the world will become a better place because of you. I hope we will make it a better place for you to live. Some say we should not bring children into a world so hateful and violent. One where 1 of every 5 or 6 children live in poverty and go to bed hungry. One where war seems perpetual. One where humans fail to honor the glory of nature and instead have brought us to the brink of destruction through pollution and horrible ignorance of the environmental damage we do. It is a dangerous world and one that truly needs change. One that needs true peace and justice for all. One that needs true democracy and true freedom.
So, Jackson, we leave a world for you that needs your help when you're able to help. May you grow up with a moral view of the world. A view that doesn't allow all the negatives to overwhelm you. May you become a person who resists against the tyranny and oppression of the materialistic world of corporate and governmental corruption. May you see others as your brothers and sisters and like another JC find joy in humility and helping others.
I wish I could have helped bring a better world to you, grandson. But, I think the world will be better because you have arrived.

Imagine (Again)

Every so often I feel the need to re-post what I wrote 7 plus years ago...and sadly still relevant.

Imagine (Written August 22 05)

Can you imagine what it would be like to see them come up to your door?
In uniforms and grim looks on their faces, and your child in the war.
Can you imagine how it must feel when they say those five words?
We regret to inform you…do you hear anything but those five words?
Can you imagine telling your husband or wife your child is gone?
Your child whose birth gave your greatest joy is gone.

I’m sitting here in the middle of the night wondering how someone could question a mother or father who lost a child to this war. How could someone in good conscience accuse a mother of politicizing the death of their child? Have we grown so disconnected with our humanity we can’t imagine the day a parent sees the dark colored car drive up to their street, up to their house and uniformed men emerge?
If you’re a parent, maybe you can imagine hearing those five words. It’s your greatest nightmare. You lie awake at night wondering where your child is at tonight.
You hate hearing the phone late at night. You hate seeing strange dark cars in your neighborhood. You can’t stand the newspaper or television news.
Then imagine the five words. Will you hear beyond them? Will you know before they say them?
Then there will be telling the rest of the family. You tell it over and over again…you child is gone. You want to scream out insanely. How can they be gone!!!!!?
Imagine the memories of your child first walking. The first words from their lips. The first worrisome cold. How can they be gone?
Imagine when you watched them swim, or skate or play baseball or football. Imagine playing basketball with them in the driveway in the fall as the leaves turned gold. Imagine the graduation and the joy in their face.
Imagine the day they leave your house to enter boot camp. The next time you see them their hair is short and they seem different and changed.
Imagine the last flight you see them off at the airport. The last phone call from the place of the war. The last letter.
Imagine the day when, with a broken heart and empty soul, you follow the dark hearse with your beloved child inside a casket. Imagine the numb feeling as you get out and see the burial plot where your child will be lowered into the earth. There will be words from the Bible, the Torah or Koran. They don’t bring your child alive.
There will be family all around you but you’ll be as lonely as you’ll ever be. They’ll hand you a triangle in red, white and blue like it will replace your child or there is something there to comfort you.
Imagine the final moments as the casket is lowered into the ground. The thought of your child leaving this earth before you rips at your heart. You hear over and over the words of sympathy and comfort and they are arrows that smash into your spirit in reminder of your child.
Then everybody leaves, you’re alone with only the terrible thoughts of the death of your child. You wonder how it really happened. You wonder if your child suffered. You wonder if they died alone. Death for you would be a welcome thing instead of these thoughts you have.
Imagine after the first month or so, everybody seems to think you’re able to be yourself again. They’ll never understand you’ll never be yourself again; you’ll never be whole again. Your child is gone and each day is a struggle to get up and each day the sorrow begins again.
Imagine returning to work and seeing the looks and the avoidance of some and the overbearing presence of others. They don’t know.
Imagine going to the grocery store and seeing a child with a smile like the smile of your child. You want to scream out your child is gone!! They’ll look the other way to avoid the sadness you hold in your heart.
Imagine the silence between you and other family members. You’re left to think of the moments of each day when your child would get up, go to school, return from school, go to a friends, eat dinner, go to practice, get ready for bed. Each moment so damn precious and you failed to recognize it at the time.
Imagine hearing a song and becoming tearful because it was your child’s favorite. Seeing a book and the memory of discussing the plot and characters with such joy.
That’s all I can do. Imagine it. My mom and dad feared it each day of 1968. They imagined it but they never heard those five words.
I imagined my sons being that dead child as I sat here this late, late night. My heart ached from just the thought of it. I had memories of them swimming and running. I remembered the day of each birth. I remembered reading Mark Twain or Watership Down to them.
All those memories of my children came flooding back to me and I couldn’t really imagine how gut wrenching awful it would be to hear those five fucking words!!!
“We regret to inform you….”

Random Thoughts (from Facebook)

 
My wife and I are both RNs caught up in the constant struggle to provide compassionate and appropriate care to the most severe and persistently disturbed people in our community struggling with mental health issues. A struggle made all the worse by big pharma and big insurance.
Americans are constantly rejecting the single payer method of health care used in Europe and Canada. They want to believe the American health care system is the greatest system in the world. They want to believe they have "choices" in their health care. We're either naive or stupid!
Every day we are forced to deal with private companies acting as alleged case managers to control costs of government funded health care such as Medicaid and Medicare. They create formularies for medicines that are often slanted toward certain drug companies. They deny payment for drugs prescribed by the doctors of patients and force the patient to accept drugs that may cause severe side effects leading to muscle contractions, diabetes, excessive cholesterol, higher risk of strokes and heart attacks and assorted other health problems. And the private companies who are in truth, insurance companies, base medical decisions on how much they can save for themselves. How much profit they can make in deciding what care, what drugs patients are allowed.
So it begs the question of how much choice in our medical care do we really have? And why do we allow private insurance companies to run up costs to our care by creating a third party for profit between us and our doctors?
Recently I had labs done. They were routine labs for an old guy like myself. I got the explanation of benefits from the insurance company extolling how much I saved because I had insurance. They showed the total costs of the basic lab tests I had done were over 500 dollars but I didn't pay anything and the lab company was paid less than 1/4 that five hundred dollars based on a "discount" paid to the provider lab company. I also noticed my blood had been sent to the lab company's California lab when I know of at least 10 offices here in Denver owned by the same company. I use the company as a RN to send my clients to for their labs.
I fill out purchase orders for the same labs I had done and the actual costs of the tests are about fifty dollars. But if I had no insurance the costs of those labs would have been that five hundred dollar charge.
Another example is the charge my doctor sent to the insurance company for my physical was absurdly high. The insurance company invoked the "discount" rate for payment to my doctor. He ended up getting paid half the charge his office sent to the insurance company. I ended up paying a 25 dollar co-pay. That discounted payment was the true price the doctor should have received. Without insurance I'd have paid the higher price charged by my doctor if I could have afforded to even gone to him for a preventative care physical.
That's the game. Doctors over-charge so they actually get a fair payment for their services. A psychiatrist charges 280 dollars for a 45 minute session and gets 25 dollars in co-pay and the discounted payment of 125 dollars. Total payment 150 dollars for 45 minutes. Unless the patient is medically indigent (uninsured). Then it would be the full 280 dollars.
If you follow this out, you come to realize the doctors and insurance companies play a game that artificially inflates the cost of medical care for all of us. And I'm not even talking pharmacy costs yet.
So, this is the greatest medical care in the world as opposed to the care in the rest of the developed world? So why do Americans die at younger ages, have the highest infant mortality rates in the developed world? Why do Americans rate the lowest in all aspects of outcomes in their medical care and pay close to 20 times more than these "socialist" nations with single payer health care? Why does 1 out of every 5 or 6 children live in poverty and lack medical benefits? Why do we still have 48 million without benefits? Even after the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is implemented, why will there stil be millions without benefits?
This isn't the greatest medical care in the world. This is the biggest medical scam in the world. Inflicted on, apparently, the most misinformed patients in the world.

　


While we fight the battles caused by polarization, hate, racism, sexism, anti-GLBT rights and rejection of basic human rights (and the list goes on and on), it would behoove us to remember the true war melts down to the issue of economics. The haves and have-nots. The wealth disparity of rich and poor. Elitism as opposed to poverty. When we look at what fuels the polarization, inevitably we'll find the rich are the culprits funding it. The masters of war and those that would be king want us afraid, indentured and dependent. As long as we continue the internecine battles promoted and exploited by the plutocracy we give them the power they constantly seek.

　


So...when the politicians finally come up with their "gun control" laws do we think there will be any legal sanctions about occupations of nations, weapons supply to Zionist apartheid, rocket and gatling gun equipped drones, five hundred pound bombs or cruise missiles? Does the death of a young, unarmed Palestinian crossing the artificial barrier between a ghetto and an alleged "free" land equate with the death of a young child in a white suburban neighborhood? Are the deaths of young men in a gang infested area of South Los Angeles or Chicago's housing projects equal to movie-goers in Aurora?
Does the violence of poverty and injustice have a connection to a culture of violence that allows guns to be so freely available? Does the hypocrisy of politicians bought off by rich lobbyists have any connection to the sustained violence in this nation? Does the trade of more weapons around the world than all other nations combined have a connection to mad-men with automatic weapons and 30 round clips killing children and any other human they can find?
What's worse, a five hundred pound bomb indiscriminately dropped on a neighborhood in Fallujah or the hand gun deaths of kids in an American high school? What's more insane...the military budget consuming 56% of the budget or cuts in mental health care, care for the poor and children or ignoring the issues of returning veterans? Do the choices and priorities of elected politicians have a connection to the violence in this nation?
All the rhetoric and impassioned talk about curbing the gun violence in America is a ruse. The laws and sanctions being suggested are like band aids on an arterial bleed. Unless we make the connections leading to the problem of our cultural violence this nation will continue to bleed out.

　


When I returned from Vietnam I ended up homeless for six months. It meant living on the streets, finding shelter at the library, bus stations and other public places. Cops would wake me up in the bus station. They would do sweeps of the restrooms to make sure the homeless didn't loiter. The shelters were always scarce in those days. And the few shelters here in Denver were dangerous places, places filled with despair . I remember always being tired, always depressed, my feet always hurting, the cold always biting to the bone. I remember being downtown and watching the American landing on the moon. I didn't marvel at the accomplishment. I laughed in scorn that a nation could spend billions on such an endeavor while I roamed my city in the darkness of night along with countless other homeless.
Today, many of my clients are homeless. There are more shelters but there are more homeless. Governments from city to federal try to hide them more than they try to help them. These are the "untouchables" of America. More and more they are families and veterans. More children are becoming homeless. And our response to our homeless Americans is to stigmatize and ignore. We're all guilty of looking away as we pass them on the streets.
If I had one wish about the way we approach the homeless it would be that every elected official spend a week on the streets without resources. That every politician would have a special "moon landing experience" like I had.

　


I'm beginning to think all the "moments of silence" and all the "spontaneous memorials" for victims of our American violence aren't going to have enough hours in the day or flowers and teddy bears to go around. Maybe contemplation and real problem solving would serve us better.

　


You know the gun freaks who think they need to be armed for some stupid ass revolution they think they'll start against some bogus UN government run by Karl Marx will die and there will be no one to pry their guns from their cold, dead fingers. When all their wells are polluted by the chemicals of big oil and gas, when all their forests are dead as a result of opportunistic bugs and diseases, when all their oceans have finally become total sewage and all their air kills humans all their guns won't mean a damn thing. Their guns didn't help them in NOLA during Katrina. Didn't help them when Sandy destroyed so much of NYC and other Eastern seaboard areas. They can't shoot the super storms caused by the melted ice of the Artic and Antartica or the destroyed rain forests of Brazil. It's only a matter of time until their guns will be held in their cold, dead fingers. Most likely won't be anyone to pry their toys from those fingers, though.

　


As the sun sets in the west here in Denver, the GOP whines they didn't get a good deal and might just send us over the fiscal cliff. Question....didn't they accomplish that in 2008 when they crashed the economy? Or was it the two wars they started without raising the taxes needed to pay for them? Not to mention the human costs they managed to inflict. Don't know about the rest of the progressive community but I applaud the GOP for refusing the sell out deal Obama and Biden brokered. It's time to draw the line in the sand and let the GOP show their traitorous colors of elitism. John Huntsman was correct in stating the GOP is devoid of a soul. The actions of the GOP stooges clearly show they have no concern for the middle class or poor in this nation. They are bought and paid for by the likes of the Kochs, Edelstein, big oil, big pharma and the military industrial complex. They fail to realize how much 2000 dollars extra a year will impact the average family. Hell most of them haven't been in grocery store in years except to campaign. They don't worry about healthcare because they have "government" insurance paid for by the tax payers. Don't suppose their hate for big government extends to the freebies of insurance and pension they get from big government.
There really are no word to describe the detestable behaviors of the likes of Cantor, Ryan, Boehner and McConnell. Nor are their words to describe the sell out of Obama and the Democratic leadership.

　


My wife's best friend won't go out with her this week because the election has shown Americans have become "faithless and immoral". WTF??? My wife is the kindest person I know. She believes in Catholicism but isn't a zombie that accepts the dogma without thoughtful consideration. She stayed clear of politics with the friend to maintain the friendship. But because of my willingness to oppose the Church the friend knows we are two of "those people".
The zombie Catholic sect that believes the dogma of the misogynists is willing to elect a man who is a blatant liar, a ruthless job-killer, a war-monger and truly immoral. Why? Because he and his Opus Dei running mate are saying they will oppose all abortion, gay marriage and the right of "moral" employers to refuse insuring women who choose to use "THE PILL".
The local archbishop sent a letter wailing freedom of religion is in jeopardy if certain politicians are elected. And the zombies all fell in line. Apparently including the "friend".
This thinking is why I will not return to the Catholic church. Yeah, I know there are the progressive and liberal groups in the Church but they refuse to directly oppose Papal authority. I tell my patients to leave abusive relationships if the abuse has no chance of stopping. Why think the abuses of the Papal authority will ever stop? Yeah, I am a heretic.
This is the sad fact of political debate in this nation. We can't talk with one another. We propagate hatefulness instead. We see whites at "Ole Miss" riot when the black guy wins. And had he lost would there have been riots from the other side?
Most folks dismissed the poignant thoughts of a man horribly abused by police, Rodney King. When the cops were found not guilty of their crime riots began. Rodney appealed to all of us when he asked "can't we all get along?"

　

Some of the new age folks tell me the end of the Mayan calendar would herald a new age of peace and harmony. I can tell that's coming by watching the parents in Newtown bury their six and seven year old children or hearing about two deaths caused by someone pushing a human off a subway station wait area into the path of the oncoming train. Or the brutal rape of a woman on a bus in India by six men. Brutal enough she died from the horrific physical trauma. Or the continued budget of this nation giving the military more funding than most of the other programs combined. Or the jailing of Bradley Manning for speaking the truth.
Yep, as we approach the new year I can feel a new age coming for sure.

　

If we want to honor the children killed by the insanity of violence, we must connect their deaths to the social conditions fomenting that violence. It isn't just about guns, it's about a culture of violence we've allowed to percolate for decade after decade. It's about failing the oppressed, the addicted, the mentally ill while providing obscene amounts of tax money on militarism and prisons. Year after year mental health budgets are cut while year after year the military budget grows. Year after year prevention programs disappear while more and more prisons are funded.
To those who prefer calling the mentally ill wackos, nuts or loons, I say shut the fuck up until you understand psychosis, mania, major depression, auditory and visual hallucinations, delusions and personality disorders. You have no clue how parents of children struggling with mental health issues have to fight to get treatment. How some professionals tell them to give up parental rights in order for their children to get placed with social services. Or allow them to be imprisoned because jails and prisons provide more care than any other institutional entity in most states.
It's the failure of a culture when time after time children are slaughtered. A government that condones killing children as collateral damage of their wars shouldn't be surprised when there are mass killings at home. A culture that allows childhood to be tainted on a daily basis with images of brutal killings from television to movies to video games shouldn't be surprised children grow up with violent tendencies. Proliferation of weapons intended only to kill other humans can only lead to the horrible fact this nation has more gun deaths than any other nation in the industrialized world. By far.
If we want to honor the children, maybe we should think about changing their role models.....us adults.

　

We want to think we love our children but if we stop and think about it there is an ugly truth about the way children are treated around the world. Child soldiers, child prostitution, child slavery, child abuse are affecting millions of our children. When I worked with adolescents at a mental health facility the stories of abuse were horrific. Beatings and sexual abuse were a given for most of the girls. Beatings and often sexual abuse were givens for most of the boys.
It's always the same when we lose children we don't expect to die or be abused. There's outrage and horror. But then it recedes and we forget. We seldom think about the disenfranchised children enduring the daily horror, though. Who speaks for them?

　

I don't want to diminish the deaths of 20 young children and 6 adults to another American madman toting semi-automatic weapons to shoot his prey. I have grandkids close to the age of the children killed. I'd be enraged and bereaved beyond description.
I do have to agree with a young veteran friend who asks the question why these children warrant so much of our attention when there's been so many thousands upon thousands killed by other American armaments. Where was the outcry when our bombs killed entire villages and whole blocks that were inhabited by far more children?
Where was the outcry for the children of Fallujah, a city battered by multiple American assaults of artillery and bombs? Where's the outcry for the children killed all too often in drone attacks by American and Israeli military?
Where's the outcry for the youth sent to the failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Oh people will say there's a difference between all those I mention and the children in Newtown, CT. No, there's not. They all have one thing in common. Far too many victims are children and the weapons used are predominately sold by American arms companies.
If it is people who kill people then we need to look at the means by which they are killing them. And, without a doubt, there is a culture of violence that permeates this nation from the time of childhood until we die prematurely or of old age.
The enduring image of my war was the day I walked through a village the day after a napalm bombing. There was a smell of ham from the incinerated pot belly pig but there was also the smell of burned human flesh. As I found out as I got deeper into the village, it was primarily the burned flesh of infants, young children and mothers. How does another human grasp such a scene? How do we reconcile the dead children with our sense of morality?
At least once or twice a year, we find ourselves asking the same questions. Why do we allow the children to be killed without acting to change the culture of violence we've allowed? And that goes without asking why we allow the children of foreign lands to be butchered at the hand of those using "our weapons".
All the cretins and apologists for the NRA will try to justify the continued availability of assault weapons as a right of all Americans under the Second Amendment. They decry any attempt to control deadly weapons used to kill our children. And we refuse to identify them as the terrorist organization they are. They don't give a damn about our rights. They only care about further promoting the violence culture so their masters, the weapons industry, continue to reap huge profits on the backs of those massacred by their implements of death.
If the past is any indication, the deaths of the 20 children and 6 adults on December 14, 12 will only join the massacres at Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora's theatres and all the other tragedies caused by a person, usually male, who has some deranged or psychotic impulse to kill and ready access to weapons to carry out that impulse. There will be weeks of reaction but when it comes time for courage and action very few will stand up in the halls of Congress, the White House or state legislatures.
And that makes us a nation willing to sacrifice the potential of young lives simply to maintain the means to carry out the violence so deeply steeped in the American psyche

　

If only Americans felt the same compassion for the innocents killed by automatic weapons, cluster bombs, artillery shells, rocket fire, napalm, white phosphorous, bunker busters, drones and all the other multiple ways that we, the people, have been complicit in using.
If only they understood parents around the world feel the same agony and grief as those who lose children at the hands of killers here in the U.S.. Does it matter if the child is Jewish, Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist or Sikh? Does it matter what the race of the child is? Does it matter if the child is shot by a cartel in Mexico or by a gang in Chicago?

　

When the history of this time is written it will be the Boehners, McCains, McConnells, Cantors, Grahams and their simple minded weaseling friends who are portrayed as the traitors of the American people. But it will be Obama and his presidency that will be seen as war criminals along the lines of George W. Bush, Henry Kissinger and Ronald Reagan. Yes, Ronnie had wars few Americans knew about. Obama will be seen as the president that imprisoned young soldiers for revealing ugly truths about his military actions and those of his predecesor. He will be the black president that was responsible for stripping away the civil rights of all Americans in the name of national security. While we would like to believe our brave new world of social media revolutionizes our world, the revolution may well be the ability of government to intrude fully into our thoughts and ideals in a way no other government has ever been able to in the past. The priorities of environment and peace and justice have once again taken the back seats of the bus. The Zionists of Israel continue to enslave Palestinians as the American government feeds them the tools to do so. Obama and every other president has failed to acknowledge the correlation between that slavery and the one here in this nation or the gulags and ghettoes the Jewish people escaped. And don't buy the bullshit there's no comparison because there's no gas chambers. Death is simply dealt out in more sophisticated ways with weapons made in the USA. Or by starvation or buldozer. Why do we think ourselves the land of the free or a nation of justice when there is so much to contradict these beliefs?

There's a tendency to think rape is confined to female victims but that's really not the case. Over the last 28 years working in emergency rooms and adolescent units I discovered over half the males I worked with had been sexually assaulted. And many don't report assaults due to the stigma involved just as most women don't report it. Rape is rape regardless of who the victim may be. We really need to understand what causes such rage and hate to inflict such horrible pain and suffering on other humans. The outrage toward the rape and killing of the woman on a bus in India should be world wide. And we must remember her male friend was also a victim.
Please don't misunderstand, I'm well aware of the culture of hate toward women that goes far beyond rape and murder. I just want us to remember not all men are rapists and not all are free of rape.