Ah, my blog!
Been a long time since I've entered anything. Seems social media has taken the place I once had for blogging. Does anyone still blog?
The world has changed very little since last time. The politicians remain the bought off whores of the Koch brother types. The rich get richer while the middle class is rapidly becoming a myth. The poor are chastised and cast out for being a drag on the "system". The heartless, vacuous "system" where success is measured by the accumulation of wealth and material things. Starving families, homeless humans, never-ending war, slaughters around the world, school shootings and police brutality all flourish in this "system". We seem to have a "systemic plague". A plague of disparity of wealth. A plague of the rich being able to ignore the incredible wasteland they leave in their paths to accumulating more and more.
Polarization of ideas and ideologies keep the people from acting against the true villains. Main stream media is the tool of the rich and powerful to subdue the masses. We have become narcotized and desensitized to the reality of life's horrors. Created by those we allow power.
But, no one seems to care. Why should I? Why should you?
Tuesday, January 27
Saturday, July 19
Sick of Religion
Sick
of religion. Sick of the priests, ministers, deacons, rabbis, mullahs and all “leaders”
of churches claiming their god is the only god. Claiming their god is the god
of peace of love. Sick of the pontificating, self-righteous men who teach our
daughters sickening dependency and self-loathing. Sick of the self-appointed,
self-aggrandizing moral leaders who push the children of the world into
violence and hatred toward all who disagree with their religion’s “morality”.
Sick
of Zionists armed by this “Christian” nation’s deadly weaponry maintaining
apartheid in Palestine. The alleged “chosen people” claim they will never
forget the holocaust, the ghettoes and brutality inflicted on them. But their
actions of brutality, killing of children and deliberate and systematic purge
of the indigenous population of Gaza and the rest of their apartheid ghettoes
clearly show they have forgotten. They claim self-defense when they kill
children who throw rocks in defiance of occupation. Children facing automatic
weapons and armored vehicles. Zionists forget the Jewish resistance in the
ghettoes of Warsaw and other European cities. They claim the right of an eye for an eye but
refuse to look in their moral mirrors to see the foolish tyrants they have
become.
Sick
of ayatollahs claiming they are the guardians of Islamic belief and morality
while they plot to kill innocent children of each other’s followers and the “infidels”
they alone define. Sick of their hatred of women. Their fear women may try to
become equals of men. Sick of the Sharia law being used to oppress and degrade.
Sick of fanaticism leading the young to sacrifice themselves in suicidal killings
of others. Sick of children being indoctrinated to hate.
Sick
of the holy wars and jihads in the name of the gods and saviors the religious masters
claim to be moral. Sick of the hate and evil carried out in the name of the
gods. Sick of the false idols being used for deviant acts of brutality,
oppression of the weak, racism and discrimination against gays. Sick of
evangelicals using Christ’s words to justify their malevolence. Sick of Catholics crying about discrimination
when five men on the Supreme Court carry out the Catholic agenda through overt
distortion of justice. While they continue to endorse their Knights of Columbus
and overlook the symbolic insult of Columbus to the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Sick
of the cowards who hide behind their “love” of god to carry out their evil acts
against other humans. Sick of politicians using their gods to enrich themselves
and impoverish the already impoverished. Sick of them closing each deceitful
speech with “God bless America”.
Sick
of this “Christian nation” constantly falling back on their god and Jesus to
justify the perpetual wars and attempts for world domination. The American
exceptionalism, manifest destiny and god’s will does not exempt “we the people”
from the responsibility of the evil done in our name. Citing “In God We Trust”
doesn’t forgive the atrocities done in his name.
Sick
of religion. Sick that it has been the driving force behind history’s worst
atrocities. It has wreaked more havoc and chaos in the name of gods and idols
than the evil of nationalism and capitalism. Sick of religion’s attempt to
control rather than enhance the world it claims to love.
If
I were a praying man, I would pray all the false prophets and their mindless
followers get to meet their “kind and loving” gods and saviors. I would pray
they meet their maker and true judgment and justice is meted out to them for all
their sins against the world they have lived in. I would pray they get to
journey to the hell they so fear and have caused so many to endure on this
earth. I would pray for final justice to be given to those who have so bastardized
the teachings of the true prophets.
These
are the thoughts of a true heretic and infidel who reject the teachings of
false messengers of the religions of this world I live in. Someone who has a
palpable dislike for the disease called religion.
.
Monday, May 26
Write On
As I review my blog I see I repeat the same sentiments over and over. I guess it seems an effort of an fool who should give more energy to other things in life. I guess it's just a fruitless waste of keystrokes. I've been doing this for a long time and things seem to have gotten worse. Oppression has grown. The rich have gotten richer. The poor, poorer. Wars still rage on despite promises they will come to an end. So where will be the next place we send our sons and daughters to die?
I write so I don't act out the anger that boils inside me. Writing is one way to resist. Who care who reads this. I know it's not going to be read by more than one or two people, if that many. But resistance each day is necessary. We can't allow the oligarchy to overrun the rest of us. We have to speak out. We have to protest the obvious injustices and oppression of so many. We have to keep pointing out their isn't a democracy when only two parties funded by the super rich are our only choices. We have to point out corporations AREN'T people despite what the justices of the sham court of the US tells us. We can remain silent or speak out. Writing is one way for me. And so I'll continue to do so.
I write so I don't act out the anger that boils inside me. Writing is one way to resist. Who care who reads this. I know it's not going to be read by more than one or two people, if that many. But resistance each day is necessary. We can't allow the oligarchy to overrun the rest of us. We have to speak out. We have to protest the obvious injustices and oppression of so many. We have to keep pointing out their isn't a democracy when only two parties funded by the super rich are our only choices. We have to point out corporations AREN'T people despite what the justices of the sham court of the US tells us. We can remain silent or speak out. Writing is one way for me. And so I'll continue to do so.
More Random Thoughts from Facebook
I've been absent from my blog while posting way too much on Facebook. So, here's some of those thoughts over the last months since I last posted. Still far left of left but that's who I am. Peace
Memorial Day 2014
1. Face it veterans, you got suckered into wars that you want to believe meant something in providing freedom for the people of the world and protecting your homeland but once they used you left you to your nightmares and wounds like a hitchhiker on a lonely road. Your family and friends may care but are constantly frustrated and infuriated at the maze of bureaucracy meant to drive you and them away. The care-givers care but are so overwhelmed they become casualties themselves.
Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Independence Day are what you get along with statuary and walls in DC glorifying all the wars that killed and maimed so many humans. And what lessons have we learned? We have learned to make better weapons and contrive better ways to kill one another. We've learned to ignore history and repeat the same insanity over and over.
Every time I see a politician using his/her military experience as a gimmick to get elected I want to vomit. It's the callous act of sociopaths that glorify the violence of war to garner personal gain. But what the hell, I'm just one of those tools of war they want to shut up or hope dies so they can forget the reality
May 24,14
2. I wake up early and listen to smug economists tell me the job market is improving while all around me I see the older worker get laid off simply because they earn too much and might use health insurance too often. Never mind their vast experience. I see kids with college degrees burdened with huge debt working for Wal-Mart and other service industry jobs. They are encouraged to use state and federal benefits to meet the essential needs their jobs fail to finance. I see infrastructure crumbling all around the empire while the rich claim there's no money. But they pony up for the Pentagon, Big Oil (aka as Big Polluter), Big Pharma and the healthcare system so atrociously dysfunctional. Oh for the day these smug talking heads have to subsist on the same finances as one of my mental health patients. Oh for the day the politicians have to search for a place to stay on a cold night, homeless and without food. My angry mind constantly contrives such scenarios for the rich and clueless. Maybe I should take a pill.
May 23, 14
3. As the "memorial day" approaches the stores bombard our mailboxes with sales. The grocery stores put out ads for grilling and gluttony ...isn't that every holiday...and the flags will fly in the baseball parks and other sporting events. Some teams will wear fatigue uniforms to "honor" the "heroes".
I just wonder how the Vietnamese celebrate the upcoming weekend. I wonder how the Iraqis commemorate our memorials. How do the Afghans see us? How do the Palestinians see this nation that has fallen lockstep behind Zionism and provided so many weapons to kill kids throwing rocks or people encamped in the ghettos of the Israeli apartheid?
We want to believe the fairy tale of democracy and justice being the hallmarks of this nation. But we allow elected stooges bought by the likes of the Koch brothers and ultra-conservative groups of whites to rob us of our freedom. We allow a "supreme" court to call the most predatory corporations "people" so they can buy our government and keep us enslaved with debt. We don't care we're spied upon every day in every way. NSA, CIA, FBI are allegedly the "good guys". Cops with hate and malice in their hearts protect and serve who?
Call a demonstration of democracy and see how much freedom you get. You get the freedom to have chemicals sprayed in your eyes and have pain holds used to "subdue" your "violence" of actually acting out your "free" speech.
As the old blues song said, "If you're black get back. If you're brown, stick around. If you're white, alright." Jim Crow is alive and doing well today every bit as much as he was in the days of MLK and Malcolm X. It's just manifested in different and maybe more subtle ways. Subtle, if you're freaking dense.
Do I hate my country? No, I want it back. I want the real peace and justice promised. I want us to be honest and understand why "they" hate us. The highest form of patriotism has to be citizens who question leaders that fail them and fail the world.
Citizenship has responsibilities. We can't accept the notion we lack power. We can't accept the "dumbing down" of our children. We can't allow our foods to be manipulated chemically for profit. We can't accept the continued dependence on the internal combustion engine and fossil fuels that kill the planet.
We have become narcotized by media and the pharmaceutical companies. Every emotion and feeling of discomfort and anger isn't a disease to be treated. Our children acting like children isn't a mental health issue requiring a pill.
And war is pure and simply the failure of a nation's elected officials to do the right thing. And there isn't any indication Americans are any more exceptional than any other human on the planet. We are simply more blessed and we waste our blessings in pettiness and gaudy consumerism rather than share with those who are in dire straits and lack the essentials needed to live their lives.
As brothers, Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, say ...."actions must match our words". Or if we choose to be religious, we must ask if Christ would follow the path of "American Exceptionalism"?
There.....I'm done.
May 22, 14
4. If veterans and their advocates think the VAMC scandal is anything new, they forget history. From the public hangings of vets demanding to get paid by George Washington to the Bonus Army to Agent Orange to Gulf War Syndrome to the current veterans treatment at the VAMC this nation has shown it can cheer and wave flags for those about to go to war but turns a deaf ear and blind eye to the carnage and suffering the wars create. Don't tell me "thanks for your service" or "welcome home"!!! Those platitudes ring hollow given the failure of this nation to prevent wars and their tendency to constantly desire violence and force. Our history shows war after war being politically inspired and without merit. Again, I refer to Smedley Butler's words ....."war is a racket". The winners have never been the veterans or the people of this nation. No, the winners have always been big corporate interests of the military-industrial complex. Always. So, for memorial day this year as I do every year I'll remember the senseless deaths of veterans and innocent victims of wars. Don't thank me for being part of this. Don't memorialize the war dead if you don't intend on working for an end to war.
May 22, 14
5. One thing guaranteed about Memorial Day and Veterans' Day....the corporate world will use veterans to sell anything while claiming to give a damn about veterans and politicians will wrap themselves in the flag and claim to give a damn about veterans. Neither group gives a damn. The corporate world continues to benefit from the wars the vets die in and the politicians use veterans as political fodder for reelection. Take a close look....the care of veterans is a can that has been kicked down the road by both parties since Vietnam and beyond.
Mumia Abu Jamal commented when Obama was elected Obama would become the "black guy they blame all the white guys' problems on". He didn't see Obama being a revolutionary or a change agent. Not a big fan of Obama but blaming him for the decades of neglect toward veterans' care post war is absurd. The pious Tea Party types, the old school GOP and all the other right wingers have wrapped themselves in the flag for years while screwing the vets at every turn.
Congress has constantly underfunded the VA and the benefits for new vets. They're always one or two wars behind. But, by God, on these days of memorializing wars and those who took part, these flunkies are always proclaiming their thanks for service and welcome homes.
May 22, 14
6. I'm making no excuses for the current VAMC lacking in the care of vets but I've tracked the bureaucracy since the 70s. For the same people who ignored the veterans returning from the current wars to express their outrage today is total hypocrisy. Where the hell were they when Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld were treating veterans as interchangeable parts to be disposed of when broken? Where were they when Jeff Lucey and so many others couldn't get adequate care early in the wars? Where were they when a VA nurse kept sending letters about Walter Reed's atrocious care and condition? It took an ABC reporter more than a year later to expose Walter Reed. Bitch all you want about the current VAMC but put the responsibility where it belongs. It took years of neglect and underfunding by the Republican Senators and Representatives for the VAMC to continue the failing of all veterans. And the old blowhard, John McCain, claims to care about vets but he was just as culpable as any in DC for these failings.
To add to the VAMC commentary....where are all the yellow ribbons now that 2.5 million young vets have been deployed and returned to the US? It was all good when we sent them off to the phony Bush wars but now all that cheerleading is a forgotten memory. Now more people care about the next Voice winner or who's doing what in the celebrity world. Mark Twain's WAR PRAYER always comes to mind as we head into Memorial Day, the phony holiday of a war addicted nation.
May 21, 14
7. A professor friend told me about a student who planned on joining the military for the "adventure".. I say he should join Dr. Gino Strada in Sudan to help with the kids having heart failure because their strep throat goes untreated. Or the other EMERGENCY hospitals treating kids losing limbs because they pick up an American cluster bomb-let that failed to detonate. Fuck adventure....try humanity!
May 20, 14
8. The oligarchy want us to believe the choice between one plutocrat of one party over another plutocrat of the other party is democracy. They stir us up about gay marriage, abortion and contraception, Benghazi and sex scandals by one or the other sides while they steal our pensions through 401ks and other market based rip-offs. They steal our kids through their foolish wars. They steal our homes through their own corruption and their unwillingness to pay their fair share. They steal our jobs by exporting them to slave camps around the globe. They steal our souls through mind numbing media that tells us nothing about the rest of the world and little about our own nation or communities. They steal our bravery through constant fear mongering of terrorism or some other bogus attack upon our way of life. They steal our voices with militarized cops trampling basic rights of assembly and free speech. And they steal our courage with oppression against any who might expose them for the true terrorists, criminals and frauds they are.
May 17, 14 9. Sometimes it seems our arrogance lets some think Western medicine will surely find a cure for dying of old age. Or could it be that Western medicine has made it an industry to maintain life regardless of its quality?. The problem of this great desire to live a long life is the total disregard for elders in a youth obsessed culture. And, we baby-boomers can't complain since we are the generation most responsible for the obsession. Now we ask why ageism is so prevalent? Maybe we set that stage as well. As for me, I'm incredibly surprised I'll make 65 this month unless the random hand of death gets me first. Always figured I'd never make 30. I was a prime candidate to off myself. Then I met Pam. But I sure as hell don't want to stick around as a test tube for the end of life industry!
May 15, 14
10. Was thinking back on some songs of my generation that have really made me think or struck an emotional chord. One by Crosby, Stills and Nash, FIND THE COST OF FREEDOM, is a five or six stanza song that sends me back to my war almost every time I hear it. Another by Dylan, MASTERS OF WAR, captures my rage. Thinking about this because a student wants to write a song about a presentation I gave on my war experience. It led me to thinking about the music that helped keep me going during the years. So many folks like Seeger, Phil Ochs, Edwin Starr, Marvin Gaye, Gil Scott-Heron, Woody Guthrie, Country Joe, Richie Havens, Odetta, Buffy Saint Marie, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary....et.al. gave voice to dissent and protest that so many of us needed for inspiration. Thanks to the musicians and artists who give expression to the noble causes.
May 2014
11. So, one tragic incident occurs with an edible pot product and the entire US corporate media blows it up out of all proportion but every day there are deaths by DUI, violence stemming from over use of alcohol and the chronic effects of addiction to alcohol. And, yet, we still get a constant bombardment on how cool it is to drink booze?? And fear tactics that reckon back to that oldie but goodie, REEFER MADNESS. One more example of governmental and media stupidity.
April 2014
12. So, here's the way things work in police departments. First they get beacoup money to arm themselves with military style weapons and body armor to fight that ever mysterious war on drugs. Then for every call they have their SWAT or whatever they call their goon squad on standby. If it's a mentally ill or homeless (often one in the same) person they encounter, they immediately fear for their lives and after one or two commands confusing the person about what they did, they use that person for target practice. Or a vet with a gun to his own head threatening to off himself is considered a danger to cops so they logically have a sniper shoot him or just open fire point blank. Then, once word gets around about their murders, protesters come out and .....yippee ki ay MF....time to shoot pepper spray from behind the turtle suits of body armor at the protesters. It's damn hard being a cop nowadays with all the lowlife homeless and crazy ass vets and protesters.
March 2014
13. Amerika Inc., which has sucked 50 billion plus in handouts from tax payers, would rather destroy the economy and people's lives than give an increase in minimum wage. Not even a living wage. They'd rather give jobs to slave camps overseas to demonstrate they won't share their obscene profits with the workers who toil in fear and poverty. The truth is giving more salary to workers means more spending and a stimulus to the economy but the idea increased wages will cost jobs is only true because the "bosses" don't want workers having power or a living wage. The loss of jobs is due to the traitorous corporations, using handouts and tax breaks to enrich themselves, refusal to share their wealth. Imagine a well paid workforce. It could mean workers had the ability to alleviate the onerous debt that enslaves them!!
14. Jan 2014
You know there is a story about the swinging lifestyle in today's DENVER POST. I suppose it should bother me but I really don't care. No more than I care about a husband or wife cheating on one another. At least the swingers are up front with their inability to maintain a monogamous relationship rather than lying and keeping their spouse in the dark. I've been married over 40 years. I obviously like monogamy. I was lucky to find my soul mate. But those who need to swing or practice polyamory or whatever to feel completed don't bother me. I see them as searching for love and intimacy just like the majority of us. And let's face it...monogamy is about a 50% failure if divorce rates are any measure.
I see the religious fanatics, the duck callers and all the right wingers appalled about men loving men and women loving women but they're fine with spending trillions to kill other humans because they have a strange notion some group or the other is going to come here and steal their way of life. They hate the gays but don't blink a bit to see children starving or workers losing any semblance of financial support when they've lost jobs to slave labor.
I'm just too old, I guess, to throw stones at humans trying to find ways to love one another or just enjoy the acts of love without ever imposing on me. Yeah, I know the Bible sez all that stuff while Kind David had how many wives??
I'm not naïve enough to think some are coerced into the swinging lifestyle. I'm sure 99% have been women. I'm sure the porn trade is rife with coercion and terrible abuses. I worked with adolescent girls and boys for a number of years. The sexual abuse they reported when I did the initial evaluation with them kept me up at nights. Sex is always going to be used as something to control someone Something to exert power over someone. And the idea that some terrorized victim is showing love by means of sex is an absurdly vile notion. But, the same terror is found in monogamous relationships. I've also worked with battered spouses on many occasions. Their stories in their own ways are just as awful and disturbing as any that have kept me up at night wondering how we humans can do these things to one another. And usually I end up thinking of my own actions when I was 18 and 19. I end up thinking of the ultimate evil thing a human can carry out. Take a life. How twisted is it to train young people to hate groups of other cultures in order for them to kill them?
I guess this whole post is rambling but I want to boil it down to the notion I can't be upset with those folks looking for love and intimacy when I put it in perspective of all the evil carried out in our world. Sorry, just can't.
15. Strange how we'd be violating someone's freedom of religion by calling them out for their hate-speak against gays. The righteous phonies lambast the critics using words like "political correctness" but use their own "Christian correctness" to excuse their hate. Let's not be misled. It was in my lifetime the same alleged followers of Christ called miscegenation a sin against God and excused their racism as a religious freedom. The righteous Christian seem to always have the answers for all of us whether we want them or not. And if we don't want their "righteous" answers then, by God, we're all going to hell. Let me tell you....if I had the choice of being in the heavenly sanctum of the "righteous" like Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and the Quack Dynasty leader or the choice of hell with the likes of Mark Twain and other atheists and anarchists there would be no choice. I'm going to hell!
16. December 20, 2013 While spending the last four days in a flu driven psychosis a weird thought came to me. How many females have taken automatic weapons, shotguns, bombs and other lethal items to a school with intent to kill innocent kids? Or to shopping malls, Naval Yards, churches, military bases, Afghanistan villages or movie theaters? Is that a relevant thought or just part of the flu??
17. November 26, 2013 The politicians say food stamp programs are unsustainable like all other entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid?). But they never mention the unsustainable wars, the unsustainable corporate welfare in form of tax breaks and tax-payer giveaways to corporate farms. The entitled few always look upon any program meant to demonstrate humanity or actually paid for and earned by the average worker as excessive government. And then they go off to their villas and mansions in gated communities paid for by their often illegal or unethical dash for cash. Subsidized and bailed out by the taxes actually paid by that average worker. They cry wolf whenever they're called out saying those who do so are trying to start a class warfare. That's the thing about the true entitled few.....they accuse any opposition group of us lowlifes of the exact thing they actually do and are.
18. November 17, 2013 An example of being a slave to debt is working in the healthcare system and knowing every day, no matter how caring you try to be, no matter how much you try to use your skill as an advocate...you're still participating in the big pharma-medical treatment plan putting profit above prevention and recovery. It's working in a profession where you realize every day how stupidly insane it is to worry about someone's insurance coverage paying for necessary care. How stupidly insane it is every man, woman and child doesn't have the right to medical care. How stupidly insane medical professionals don't focus full attention to medical care. And going to work every day is a struggle. Not because of our patients but because of our broken system.
19. November 9, 2013 I thought about the vets parade but couldn't manage to do it. What in God's name deserves a parade? Which war should we choose as righteous? We should be reflecting on the insane losses of our brothers and sisters because they, like we who survived, believed we would serve a higher cause. We were betrayed by the masters of war, the captains of capitalism who drained our blood and efforts to fuel their greed and corruption. Don't fucking thank me for my service this weekend. None was provided. My participation didn't further the cause of democracy or the betterment of the world. If anything, it helped bring the anger of others against this nation for the blood lust of the leaders we allow to be elected time after time.
20. October 8, 2013 I can't remember a time during my 65 years on this planet when so many traitors were allowed to have the power of governing this nation. It speaks to how we've become U.S.A., Incorporated. How we've allowed the foxes to guard our henhouses. Think the term "traitors" too strong? How else can the betrayal of all the values this nation allegedly stands for be described? How else can we describe the betrayal of hope and freedom for the vast majority of humans around the world?
21. September 21, 2013 Obama complains about the GOP holding his party hostage like it's something new. But let's be realistic, both parties are held hostage to their rich corporate daddies dictating what they should do if they want reelection. And the poor, middle class and upper middle class are held hostage to these heartless, gutless immoral politicians who love to wave the flag and have us sing "America the Beautiful" to assuage our worries. But, in truth, if we're to define traitorous we only need look at what's happening in Washington D.C. in the halls of the alleged government. They are the puppets of the rich and elite who have only one allegiance. Greed. And, apparently, it will take a total collapse of the economy and government before the people of this nation are willing to march on the bastards to throw them out. When the mainstream rag, TIME, has a cover suggesting there will be another financial collapse the time of reckoning could be very soon. Sadly, if past history is any indication, there will be a large number of people taking up arms and making it a Darwinian struggle of survival and selfishness. Or put simpler ...."I got mine, fuck you". Hope I'm wrong.
22. Sept 11, 13
On Jan 31, 1968 I was a first hand witness of children killed by chemical warfare, Mr. President. They didn't writhe in pain at the time my company reached them. No, by then they had become "crispy critters"....humans charred beyond recognition by napalm dropped by U.S. jets. On that Jan '68 day my company commander decided a village would be destroyed even if it meant those kids were to die. Is that part of the 7 decades of American stability throughout the world?
And when people think of Vietnam they should think of DOW Chemical's Agent Orange still inflicting pain on the Vietnamese people generations later. That agent was part of that American stability.
And on this day, September 11, we will remember the Twin Towers being destroyed, killing over 3000 lives in New York City. But will we remember the overthrow of Allende and imposition of Pinochet in the 70's caused by the arrogance of Henry Kisssinger? A coup fully supported by this nation against a democratically elected leader that didn't bow down to the American exceptionalism. A coup leading to tens of thousands killed or tortured.
Watching the overt hypocrisy and outright lies of an American President is getting old for me. Being in my 60s, I've seen it so many times I've almost grown desensitized to it. Almost. I'm glad to say it still outrages me to see a country I love be the bully and most violent nation in the world over the last 7 decades of what is described as American stability by the current liar-in-chief.
There's an old folk song with the refrain, "when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?". It seems to never grow old.
23. June 13 If we live in the greatest nation in the world why is it reflected in being the largest provider of military weaponry in the world? Why not the nation that exports peaceful interventions? Why does the greatest nation have 50 million citizens without healthcare benefits and probably another 50 million with inadequate healthcare? Why do we put 52% of our budget into the military and continue to cut programs that educate our children, feed the poor here and around the world and protect the most vulnerable? It seems greatness as measured by the government, selected by big corporate interests, is who's the greatest bully on the block.
24. December 18, 2012 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.
25. December 15, 2012 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.
26. November 8, 2012 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?"
27. October 6, 2012 Saw a bumper sticker saying "I'm Catholic and I vote". Next to it was a Romney/Ryan sticker. On a Cadillac with an elderly woman getting out of the car.
I couldn't help wonder if the elderly lady was a recipient of Medicare. Then I thought about how many of the "greatest generation" I know that seem to think they have "theirs" and don't give a damn about the young.
Spent time down in The Villages in Florida for a family funeral. It was filled with well off whites who hated Obama for irrational reasons. They seemed oblivious to the suffering of others as they rode their golf carts out to the multitude of courses or to the array of expensive restaurants. Their greatest fear seemed to be "socialism" as represented by Obama. They feared they might have to share.
My dad was a blue collar member of the "greatest generation". He'd give anyone the shirt off his back. He died as a result of his work's toxic conditions many years ago. He was a union stewart. He walked picket lines. He worked hard for companies who failed to return his loyalty.
I look at those people in the Villages and think my dad would be ashamed to be included in their version of the greatest generation.
As a former Catholic, the elderly lady in her Romney Cadillac represents all the reasons I left the Church. Mindless devotion to the dogma doesn't make it moral.
28 October 5, 2012
Dammit! Once again I find myself defending Obama because of the overt racist comments coming from Romney's campaign. Code words like "lazy" coming from bigots like John Sununu. Code words insinuating and directly saying Obama doesn't have the intelligence. Inferences by Rush Blowhard he used affirmative action and other racially motivated devices to get into Harvard and get passing grades. These cowardly racists use their bullypits to spout hate against people of color and where is the mainstream press calling them out? I lived during the days of lynching and Jim Crow. During the Civil Rights movement. The level of racial hatred then was much more overt and accepted but what is happening today is an insidious and none too subtle attempt to return to those days using the "black Presidency" as the way to do it. While I will never be an Obama supporter, I am sickened by the racist attacks. And we have to know the racism directed toward him certainly "trickles down" to all people of color.
It's one thing for ignorant crackers living in the hateful cesspools of community bigotry to be saying these things. But, the calculated and cynical use of race-baiting by the likes of Rove and Romney, Sununu and Blowhard to access power is even worse. They rant about Obama being un-American or a threat but it is they who are the traitors who have allegiance only to the "white brotherhood" of American elitists. They may not wear hoods or burn crosses but they are only a more sophisticated group of Klansmen with the grand wizards men like the Koch brothers.
I deplore the policies of Obama but the use of his Presidency to bring the ugliness of racism into public view without objection makes us complicit in the hate.
Memorial Day 2014
1. Face it veterans, you got suckered into wars that you want to believe meant something in providing freedom for the people of the world and protecting your homeland but once they used you left you to your nightmares and wounds like a hitchhiker on a lonely road. Your family and friends may care but are constantly frustrated and infuriated at the maze of bureaucracy meant to drive you and them away. The care-givers care but are so overwhelmed they become casualties themselves.
Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Independence Day are what you get along with statuary and walls in DC glorifying all the wars that killed and maimed so many humans. And what lessons have we learned? We have learned to make better weapons and contrive better ways to kill one another. We've learned to ignore history and repeat the same insanity over and over.
Every time I see a politician using his/her military experience as a gimmick to get elected I want to vomit. It's the callous act of sociopaths that glorify the violence of war to garner personal gain. But what the hell, I'm just one of those tools of war they want to shut up or hope dies so they can forget the reality
May 24,14
2. I wake up early and listen to smug economists tell me the job market is improving while all around me I see the older worker get laid off simply because they earn too much and might use health insurance too often. Never mind their vast experience. I see kids with college degrees burdened with huge debt working for Wal-Mart and other service industry jobs. They are encouraged to use state and federal benefits to meet the essential needs their jobs fail to finance. I see infrastructure crumbling all around the empire while the rich claim there's no money. But they pony up for the Pentagon, Big Oil (aka as Big Polluter), Big Pharma and the healthcare system so atrociously dysfunctional. Oh for the day these smug talking heads have to subsist on the same finances as one of my mental health patients. Oh for the day the politicians have to search for a place to stay on a cold night, homeless and without food. My angry mind constantly contrives such scenarios for the rich and clueless. Maybe I should take a pill.
May 23, 14
3. As the "memorial day" approaches the stores bombard our mailboxes with sales. The grocery stores put out ads for grilling and gluttony ...isn't that every holiday...and the flags will fly in the baseball parks and other sporting events. Some teams will wear fatigue uniforms to "honor" the "heroes".
I just wonder how the Vietnamese celebrate the upcoming weekend. I wonder how the Iraqis commemorate our memorials. How do the Afghans see us? How do the Palestinians see this nation that has fallen lockstep behind Zionism and provided so many weapons to kill kids throwing rocks or people encamped in the ghettos of the Israeli apartheid?
We want to believe the fairy tale of democracy and justice being the hallmarks of this nation. But we allow elected stooges bought by the likes of the Koch brothers and ultra-conservative groups of whites to rob us of our freedom. We allow a "supreme" court to call the most predatory corporations "people" so they can buy our government and keep us enslaved with debt. We don't care we're spied upon every day in every way. NSA, CIA, FBI are allegedly the "good guys". Cops with hate and malice in their hearts protect and serve who?
Call a demonstration of democracy and see how much freedom you get. You get the freedom to have chemicals sprayed in your eyes and have pain holds used to "subdue" your "violence" of actually acting out your "free" speech.
As the old blues song said, "If you're black get back. If you're brown, stick around. If you're white, alright." Jim Crow is alive and doing well today every bit as much as he was in the days of MLK and Malcolm X. It's just manifested in different and maybe more subtle ways. Subtle, if you're freaking dense.
Do I hate my country? No, I want it back. I want the real peace and justice promised. I want us to be honest and understand why "they" hate us. The highest form of patriotism has to be citizens who question leaders that fail them and fail the world.
Citizenship has responsibilities. We can't accept the notion we lack power. We can't accept the "dumbing down" of our children. We can't allow our foods to be manipulated chemically for profit. We can't accept the continued dependence on the internal combustion engine and fossil fuels that kill the planet.
We have become narcotized by media and the pharmaceutical companies. Every emotion and feeling of discomfort and anger isn't a disease to be treated. Our children acting like children isn't a mental health issue requiring a pill.
And war is pure and simply the failure of a nation's elected officials to do the right thing. And there isn't any indication Americans are any more exceptional than any other human on the planet. We are simply more blessed and we waste our blessings in pettiness and gaudy consumerism rather than share with those who are in dire straits and lack the essentials needed to live their lives.
As brothers, Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, say ...."actions must match our words". Or if we choose to be religious, we must ask if Christ would follow the path of "American Exceptionalism"?
There.....I'm done.
May 22, 14
4. If veterans and their advocates think the VAMC scandal is anything new, they forget history. From the public hangings of vets demanding to get paid by George Washington to the Bonus Army to Agent Orange to Gulf War Syndrome to the current veterans treatment at the VAMC this nation has shown it can cheer and wave flags for those about to go to war but turns a deaf ear and blind eye to the carnage and suffering the wars create. Don't tell me "thanks for your service" or "welcome home"!!! Those platitudes ring hollow given the failure of this nation to prevent wars and their tendency to constantly desire violence and force. Our history shows war after war being politically inspired and without merit. Again, I refer to Smedley Butler's words ....."war is a racket". The winners have never been the veterans or the people of this nation. No, the winners have always been big corporate interests of the military-industrial complex. Always. So, for memorial day this year as I do every year I'll remember the senseless deaths of veterans and innocent victims of wars. Don't thank me for being part of this. Don't memorialize the war dead if you don't intend on working for an end to war.
May 22, 14
5. One thing guaranteed about Memorial Day and Veterans' Day....the corporate world will use veterans to sell anything while claiming to give a damn about veterans and politicians will wrap themselves in the flag and claim to give a damn about veterans. Neither group gives a damn. The corporate world continues to benefit from the wars the vets die in and the politicians use veterans as political fodder for reelection. Take a close look....the care of veterans is a can that has been kicked down the road by both parties since Vietnam and beyond.
Mumia Abu Jamal commented when Obama was elected Obama would become the "black guy they blame all the white guys' problems on". He didn't see Obama being a revolutionary or a change agent. Not a big fan of Obama but blaming him for the decades of neglect toward veterans' care post war is absurd. The pious Tea Party types, the old school GOP and all the other right wingers have wrapped themselves in the flag for years while screwing the vets at every turn.
Congress has constantly underfunded the VA and the benefits for new vets. They're always one or two wars behind. But, by God, on these days of memorializing wars and those who took part, these flunkies are always proclaiming their thanks for service and welcome homes.
May 22, 14
6. I'm making no excuses for the current VAMC lacking in the care of vets but I've tracked the bureaucracy since the 70s. For the same people who ignored the veterans returning from the current wars to express their outrage today is total hypocrisy. Where the hell were they when Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld were treating veterans as interchangeable parts to be disposed of when broken? Where were they when Jeff Lucey and so many others couldn't get adequate care early in the wars? Where were they when a VA nurse kept sending letters about Walter Reed's atrocious care and condition? It took an ABC reporter more than a year later to expose Walter Reed. Bitch all you want about the current VAMC but put the responsibility where it belongs. It took years of neglect and underfunding by the Republican Senators and Representatives for the VAMC to continue the failing of all veterans. And the old blowhard, John McCain, claims to care about vets but he was just as culpable as any in DC for these failings.
To add to the VAMC commentary....where are all the yellow ribbons now that 2.5 million young vets have been deployed and returned to the US? It was all good when we sent them off to the phony Bush wars but now all that cheerleading is a forgotten memory. Now more people care about the next Voice winner or who's doing what in the celebrity world. Mark Twain's WAR PRAYER always comes to mind as we head into Memorial Day, the phony holiday of a war addicted nation.
May 21, 14
7. A professor friend told me about a student who planned on joining the military for the "adventure".. I say he should join Dr. Gino Strada in Sudan to help with the kids having heart failure because their strep throat goes untreated. Or the other EMERGENCY hospitals treating kids losing limbs because they pick up an American cluster bomb-let that failed to detonate. Fuck adventure....try humanity!
May 20, 14
8. The oligarchy want us to believe the choice between one plutocrat of one party over another plutocrat of the other party is democracy. They stir us up about gay marriage, abortion and contraception, Benghazi and sex scandals by one or the other sides while they steal our pensions through 401ks and other market based rip-offs. They steal our kids through their foolish wars. They steal our homes through their own corruption and their unwillingness to pay their fair share. They steal our jobs by exporting them to slave camps around the globe. They steal our souls through mind numbing media that tells us nothing about the rest of the world and little about our own nation or communities. They steal our bravery through constant fear mongering of terrorism or some other bogus attack upon our way of life. They steal our voices with militarized cops trampling basic rights of assembly and free speech. And they steal our courage with oppression against any who might expose them for the true terrorists, criminals and frauds they are.
May 17, 14 9. Sometimes it seems our arrogance lets some think Western medicine will surely find a cure for dying of old age. Or could it be that Western medicine has made it an industry to maintain life regardless of its quality?. The problem of this great desire to live a long life is the total disregard for elders in a youth obsessed culture. And, we baby-boomers can't complain since we are the generation most responsible for the obsession. Now we ask why ageism is so prevalent? Maybe we set that stage as well. As for me, I'm incredibly surprised I'll make 65 this month unless the random hand of death gets me first. Always figured I'd never make 30. I was a prime candidate to off myself. Then I met Pam. But I sure as hell don't want to stick around as a test tube for the end of life industry!
May 15, 14
10. Was thinking back on some songs of my generation that have really made me think or struck an emotional chord. One by Crosby, Stills and Nash, FIND THE COST OF FREEDOM, is a five or six stanza song that sends me back to my war almost every time I hear it. Another by Dylan, MASTERS OF WAR, captures my rage. Thinking about this because a student wants to write a song about a presentation I gave on my war experience. It led me to thinking about the music that helped keep me going during the years. So many folks like Seeger, Phil Ochs, Edwin Starr, Marvin Gaye, Gil Scott-Heron, Woody Guthrie, Country Joe, Richie Havens, Odetta, Buffy Saint Marie, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary....et.al. gave voice to dissent and protest that so many of us needed for inspiration. Thanks to the musicians and artists who give expression to the noble causes.
May 2014
11. So, one tragic incident occurs with an edible pot product and the entire US corporate media blows it up out of all proportion but every day there are deaths by DUI, violence stemming from over use of alcohol and the chronic effects of addiction to alcohol. And, yet, we still get a constant bombardment on how cool it is to drink booze?? And fear tactics that reckon back to that oldie but goodie, REEFER MADNESS. One more example of governmental and media stupidity.
April 2014
12. So, here's the way things work in police departments. First they get beacoup money to arm themselves with military style weapons and body armor to fight that ever mysterious war on drugs. Then for every call they have their SWAT or whatever they call their goon squad on standby. If it's a mentally ill or homeless (often one in the same) person they encounter, they immediately fear for their lives and after one or two commands confusing the person about what they did, they use that person for target practice. Or a vet with a gun to his own head threatening to off himself is considered a danger to cops so they logically have a sniper shoot him or just open fire point blank. Then, once word gets around about their murders, protesters come out and .....yippee ki ay MF....time to shoot pepper spray from behind the turtle suits of body armor at the protesters. It's damn hard being a cop nowadays with all the lowlife homeless and crazy ass vets and protesters.
March 2014
13. Amerika Inc., which has sucked 50 billion plus in handouts from tax payers, would rather destroy the economy and people's lives than give an increase in minimum wage. Not even a living wage. They'd rather give jobs to slave camps overseas to demonstrate they won't share their obscene profits with the workers who toil in fear and poverty. The truth is giving more salary to workers means more spending and a stimulus to the economy but the idea increased wages will cost jobs is only true because the "bosses" don't want workers having power or a living wage. The loss of jobs is due to the traitorous corporations, using handouts and tax breaks to enrich themselves, refusal to share their wealth. Imagine a well paid workforce. It could mean workers had the ability to alleviate the onerous debt that enslaves them!!
14. Jan 2014
You know there is a story about the swinging lifestyle in today's DENVER POST. I suppose it should bother me but I really don't care. No more than I care about a husband or wife cheating on one another. At least the swingers are up front with their inability to maintain a monogamous relationship rather than lying and keeping their spouse in the dark. I've been married over 40 years. I obviously like monogamy. I was lucky to find my soul mate. But those who need to swing or practice polyamory or whatever to feel completed don't bother me. I see them as searching for love and intimacy just like the majority of us. And let's face it...monogamy is about a 50% failure if divorce rates are any measure.
I see the religious fanatics, the duck callers and all the right wingers appalled about men loving men and women loving women but they're fine with spending trillions to kill other humans because they have a strange notion some group or the other is going to come here and steal their way of life. They hate the gays but don't blink a bit to see children starving or workers losing any semblance of financial support when they've lost jobs to slave labor.
I'm just too old, I guess, to throw stones at humans trying to find ways to love one another or just enjoy the acts of love without ever imposing on me. Yeah, I know the Bible sez all that stuff while Kind David had how many wives??
I'm not naïve enough to think some are coerced into the swinging lifestyle. I'm sure 99% have been women. I'm sure the porn trade is rife with coercion and terrible abuses. I worked with adolescent girls and boys for a number of years. The sexual abuse they reported when I did the initial evaluation with them kept me up at nights. Sex is always going to be used as something to control someone Something to exert power over someone. And the idea that some terrorized victim is showing love by means of sex is an absurdly vile notion. But, the same terror is found in monogamous relationships. I've also worked with battered spouses on many occasions. Their stories in their own ways are just as awful and disturbing as any that have kept me up at night wondering how we humans can do these things to one another. And usually I end up thinking of my own actions when I was 18 and 19. I end up thinking of the ultimate evil thing a human can carry out. Take a life. How twisted is it to train young people to hate groups of other cultures in order for them to kill them?
I guess this whole post is rambling but I want to boil it down to the notion I can't be upset with those folks looking for love and intimacy when I put it in perspective of all the evil carried out in our world. Sorry, just can't.
15. Strange how we'd be violating someone's freedom of religion by calling them out for their hate-speak against gays. The righteous phonies lambast the critics using words like "political correctness" but use their own "Christian correctness" to excuse their hate. Let's not be misled. It was in my lifetime the same alleged followers of Christ called miscegenation a sin against God and excused their racism as a religious freedom. The righteous Christian seem to always have the answers for all of us whether we want them or not. And if we don't want their "righteous" answers then, by God, we're all going to hell. Let me tell you....if I had the choice of being in the heavenly sanctum of the "righteous" like Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and the Quack Dynasty leader or the choice of hell with the likes of Mark Twain and other atheists and anarchists there would be no choice. I'm going to hell!
16. December 20, 2013 While spending the last four days in a flu driven psychosis a weird thought came to me. How many females have taken automatic weapons, shotguns, bombs and other lethal items to a school with intent to kill innocent kids? Or to shopping malls, Naval Yards, churches, military bases, Afghanistan villages or movie theaters? Is that a relevant thought or just part of the flu??
17. November 26, 2013 The politicians say food stamp programs are unsustainable like all other entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid?). But they never mention the unsustainable wars, the unsustainable corporate welfare in form of tax breaks and tax-payer giveaways to corporate farms. The entitled few always look upon any program meant to demonstrate humanity or actually paid for and earned by the average worker as excessive government. And then they go off to their villas and mansions in gated communities paid for by their often illegal or unethical dash for cash. Subsidized and bailed out by the taxes actually paid by that average worker. They cry wolf whenever they're called out saying those who do so are trying to start a class warfare. That's the thing about the true entitled few.....they accuse any opposition group of us lowlifes of the exact thing they actually do and are.
18. November 17, 2013 An example of being a slave to debt is working in the healthcare system and knowing every day, no matter how caring you try to be, no matter how much you try to use your skill as an advocate...you're still participating in the big pharma-medical treatment plan putting profit above prevention and recovery. It's working in a profession where you realize every day how stupidly insane it is to worry about someone's insurance coverage paying for necessary care. How stupidly insane it is every man, woman and child doesn't have the right to medical care. How stupidly insane medical professionals don't focus full attention to medical care. And going to work every day is a struggle. Not because of our patients but because of our broken system.
19. November 9, 2013 I thought about the vets parade but couldn't manage to do it. What in God's name deserves a parade? Which war should we choose as righteous? We should be reflecting on the insane losses of our brothers and sisters because they, like we who survived, believed we would serve a higher cause. We were betrayed by the masters of war, the captains of capitalism who drained our blood and efforts to fuel their greed and corruption. Don't fucking thank me for my service this weekend. None was provided. My participation didn't further the cause of democracy or the betterment of the world. If anything, it helped bring the anger of others against this nation for the blood lust of the leaders we allow to be elected time after time.
20. October 8, 2013 I can't remember a time during my 65 years on this planet when so many traitors were allowed to have the power of governing this nation. It speaks to how we've become U.S.A., Incorporated. How we've allowed the foxes to guard our henhouses. Think the term "traitors" too strong? How else can the betrayal of all the values this nation allegedly stands for be described? How else can we describe the betrayal of hope and freedom for the vast majority of humans around the world?
21. September 21, 2013 Obama complains about the GOP holding his party hostage like it's something new. But let's be realistic, both parties are held hostage to their rich corporate daddies dictating what they should do if they want reelection. And the poor, middle class and upper middle class are held hostage to these heartless, gutless immoral politicians who love to wave the flag and have us sing "America the Beautiful" to assuage our worries. But, in truth, if we're to define traitorous we only need look at what's happening in Washington D.C. in the halls of the alleged government. They are the puppets of the rich and elite who have only one allegiance. Greed. And, apparently, it will take a total collapse of the economy and government before the people of this nation are willing to march on the bastards to throw them out. When the mainstream rag, TIME, has a cover suggesting there will be another financial collapse the time of reckoning could be very soon. Sadly, if past history is any indication, there will be a large number of people taking up arms and making it a Darwinian struggle of survival and selfishness. Or put simpler ...."I got mine, fuck you". Hope I'm wrong.
22. Sept 11, 13
On Jan 31, 1968 I was a first hand witness of children killed by chemical warfare, Mr. President. They didn't writhe in pain at the time my company reached them. No, by then they had become "crispy critters"....humans charred beyond recognition by napalm dropped by U.S. jets. On that Jan '68 day my company commander decided a village would be destroyed even if it meant those kids were to die. Is that part of the 7 decades of American stability throughout the world?
And when people think of Vietnam they should think of DOW Chemical's Agent Orange still inflicting pain on the Vietnamese people generations later. That agent was part of that American stability.
And on this day, September 11, we will remember the Twin Towers being destroyed, killing over 3000 lives in New York City. But will we remember the overthrow of Allende and imposition of Pinochet in the 70's caused by the arrogance of Henry Kisssinger? A coup fully supported by this nation against a democratically elected leader that didn't bow down to the American exceptionalism. A coup leading to tens of thousands killed or tortured.
Watching the overt hypocrisy and outright lies of an American President is getting old for me. Being in my 60s, I've seen it so many times I've almost grown desensitized to it. Almost. I'm glad to say it still outrages me to see a country I love be the bully and most violent nation in the world over the last 7 decades of what is described as American stability by the current liar-in-chief.
There's an old folk song with the refrain, "when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?". It seems to never grow old.
23. June 13 If we live in the greatest nation in the world why is it reflected in being the largest provider of military weaponry in the world? Why not the nation that exports peaceful interventions? Why does the greatest nation have 50 million citizens without healthcare benefits and probably another 50 million with inadequate healthcare? Why do we put 52% of our budget into the military and continue to cut programs that educate our children, feed the poor here and around the world and protect the most vulnerable? It seems greatness as measured by the government, selected by big corporate interests, is who's the greatest bully on the block.
24. December 18, 2012 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.
25. December 15, 2012 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.
26. November 8, 2012 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?"
27. October 6, 2012 Saw a bumper sticker saying "I'm Catholic and I vote". Next to it was a Romney/Ryan sticker. On a Cadillac with an elderly woman getting out of the car.
I couldn't help wonder if the elderly lady was a recipient of Medicare. Then I thought about how many of the "greatest generation" I know that seem to think they have "theirs" and don't give a damn about the young.
Spent time down in The Villages in Florida for a family funeral. It was filled with well off whites who hated Obama for irrational reasons. They seemed oblivious to the suffering of others as they rode their golf carts out to the multitude of courses or to the array of expensive restaurants. Their greatest fear seemed to be "socialism" as represented by Obama. They feared they might have to share.
My dad was a blue collar member of the "greatest generation". He'd give anyone the shirt off his back. He died as a result of his work's toxic conditions many years ago. He was a union stewart. He walked picket lines. He worked hard for companies who failed to return his loyalty.
I look at those people in the Villages and think my dad would be ashamed to be included in their version of the greatest generation.
As a former Catholic, the elderly lady in her Romney Cadillac represents all the reasons I left the Church. Mindless devotion to the dogma doesn't make it moral.
28 October 5, 2012
Dammit! Once again I find myself defending Obama because of the overt racist comments coming from Romney's campaign. Code words like "lazy" coming from bigots like John Sununu. Code words insinuating and directly saying Obama doesn't have the intelligence. Inferences by Rush Blowhard he used affirmative action and other racially motivated devices to get into Harvard and get passing grades. These cowardly racists use their bullypits to spout hate against people of color and where is the mainstream press calling them out? I lived during the days of lynching and Jim Crow. During the Civil Rights movement. The level of racial hatred then was much more overt and accepted but what is happening today is an insidious and none too subtle attempt to return to those days using the "black Presidency" as the way to do it. While I will never be an Obama supporter, I am sickened by the racist attacks. And we have to know the racism directed toward him certainly "trickles down" to all people of color.
It's one thing for ignorant crackers living in the hateful cesspools of community bigotry to be saying these things. But, the calculated and cynical use of race-baiting by the likes of Rove and Romney, Sununu and Blowhard to access power is even worse. They rant about Obama being un-American or a threat but it is they who are the traitors who have allegiance only to the "white brotherhood" of American elitists. They may not wear hoods or burn crosses but they are only a more sophisticated group of Klansmen with the grand wizards men like the Koch brothers.
I deplore the policies of Obama but the use of his Presidency to bring the ugliness of racism into public view without objection makes us complicit in the hate.
Monday, September 2
A Sad Irony
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 20
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”.
Sunday, May 26
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.
Wednesday, May 22
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
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
Monday, May 20
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.
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