Tag: politics

Yom HaShoah

is May 2nd, it’s the day set aside by Jews to remember the victims of the Holocaust. On Monday ( 4/28 ) the California Legislature passed Assembly Concurrent Resolution 83, recognizing this week as Holocaust Memorial Week and urged all Californians to reflect on the Holocaust, those whose lives were lost in it, honoring those who survived it, and committing ourselves to meaningfully acting to insure it never happens again…

It was a lovely ceremony with stirring speeches and calls for action. The Chamber full of Holocaust survivors who have made California their home. The phrase “never forget” was said multiple times.

Yet, as they spoke, and I type this, thousands are being killed. In Darfur, Rwanda, Tibet, Ukraine ,aamongIndigenous populations around the globe. While we remember the horrors that were what are we doing to prevent those occurring today? Why do we turn a blind eye to the suffering of our fellow humans? The United States has more than once been referred to as a City upon the Hill, a beacon to the rest of the world, it seems though that we shine too bright, and cannot see the rest of the world dazzled as we our with ourselves.

I’m not writing this to be pessimistic, the pessimist has already given up, he mentions atrocities and pain only to confirm and justify his inaction. No, I mention this so that while we remember we might consider how we can prevent. I alone cannot do anything to stop the genocides across the world. I am small and powerless while potentates and Great Nations do as they please. But, I can be a small light. With my actions, small as they may be, I can make a statement one that I can share with my friends and family in the hopes that through my example they will be inspired to make small changes in their lives. I don’t flatter myself in thinking that my small ripple will ever become a wave. My stand is only a testament to myself, a single finger pointing and loudly declaring that “This is Wrong.”

Voting, It’s what’s good for America!

In states all over the Union today is the primary. Here in California there is another hour until the polls close. I urge all Citizens who have not voted yet to go out and do so. We protect our democracy by participating in it! I don’t care who you vote for just do so!

Squandering of America Part 1

Robert Kuttner’s new book is so dense with information that I couldn’t do it justice with a simple one paragraph review when I’m done with the book. Actually, I don’t know if I’ll ever finish the book, as at times it can be incredibly depressing how far our country has fallen. The most alarming issue that Kuttner raises is the control of big business in our politics, and how many of the problems behind the issue won’t even come up in debate, so fringe have the ideas of controlled and regulated markets come, despite how well they served our country in the post WW2 era. Why has this happened? Kuttner blames the successful marketing campaign of rich elites on Wall St. and in the Republican party to unload more and more on the american people while keeping more and more for themselves. I wish I could explain it as well as he does but you only have to read the first 100 pages for it become clear that at this point the average American worker is making less than s/he did 1o, 20, and 30 years ago, while her/his costs have continued to rise unchecked. Kuttner is optimistic though, that the changes aren’t permanent that it is only a matter of viewpoint and politics both of which can be changed, and that it is becoming clear to many that de-regulation was not the panacea  it has been touted to be by insiders, but that it will take a new politics and largely new politicians to do it, ones that aren’t in thrall to big business.

More to follow!

Two More Books off the List… Oh, look there’s still a Library here…

Yesterday I finished reading The Israel Lobby and American Foreign Policy by Two Guys. I didn’t finish the book but I am done with reading it. I should have just picked up the original article these two wrote. I don’t need a 400 page, immaculately researched, and backed up book to tell me that Israel gets a free pass here in the United States. Turn the news on and you see it does. As do all our other brutal but anti-terrorist friends in the world.  Is this going to change anytime soon? Probably not, the book quotes innumerable politicaians and organizations that all say the same thing, “The Israel Lobby is the most powerful in Washington”, and “They control the public discourse relating to Israel and the Middle-East in this country”. That is a depressing thought, it is also depressing to think that even bringing up the topic of a bias in American discourse towards Israel gets you immediately labeled a new anti-Semite. So I guess that is what I’m going to be looking forward to, when I say that Carter is right and what is going on in Israel and along the West Bank is Apartheid and there is no excuse for it in a democratic country. There is also no excuse for anyone who thinks that it is okay to do so, regardless of the reasoning behind it. Racism is Racism, Hate is Hate. You don’t get rid of it by building walls around it, or killing it.

Enough of the depressing, soul wrenching dump we call the Middle East.

I also just finished Hardcore Zen by Brad Warner. I liked the book, but then Buddhism appeals to me Zen in particular because there is no religiousness about it. It’s a practice and it’s solely concerned with the here and now, this existence. If more people were doing that instead of getting weepy eyed and hopeful about what might happen after were dead, the world would be a better place. I didn’t need all the talk about the punk scene in the 80’s but that’s Warner’s life and this is his book… So he can do what he wants. Stripping all the bull out of practice though, I liked that. Also the talk about Godzilla rocks, he needed more of that and less of Ultraman, who likes Ultraman?

In conclusion, if you’re interested in learning about Zen Buddhism without all the ritual and formula and tricky words, without all the baggage you should pick up a copy of the Hardcore Zen.  If you need all the references to back up what you already knew about American foreign policy towards Israel pick up the first book and flip to the back, there is pages of it. Oh, and pointing out the truth doesn’t make you a bigot. Some people just don’t like the truth… Screw them.

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