28 March 2013

Will We Wake UP

Dear Folks,

When will we as a people wake up? Women came out of their slumber in the late l9th century and early 20th and gained the vote. Slowly,  feminine power and consciousness is improving human life on every count. In the l950s and l960s blacks led by Martin L King awakened a nation to know their just needs. Blacks led by Obama are helping all of us awaken to everyon 's potential.

Now something more grounded and profound must happen for every human being in the United States. We must become united with a common voice that cries out in publications, on our streets and corporate and government offices: "WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF CORPORATE POWER; TOGETHER AS A NATION OF CITIZENS WE WILL WITH OUR COLLECTIVE MIGHT BRING YOU DOWN NON-VIOLENTLY."

Consider these fact:
  1. That an entire Republican party is in the wealthy pockets of corporations. 
  2. Note that no matter what we know as practical and wise behaviors and policies are being thwarted by corporate power. For example, the Dobbs-Frank Law that helps control financial excesses and the bill's most important aspect, the Consumer Protection Agency are being seriously compromised by corporate lawyers and lobbyists. 
  3. Consider that even the massacre of 27 people including 20 children in Sandy Hook Elementary School is not moving Congress to institute a meaningful gun control because of the power of not just the NRA but especially by the gun manufacturers of which the NRA is their puppet.
  4. Consider that the most important issue confronting our nation and the world is the environmental danger, which if not attended to in the next couple years with significant controls and manufacturing innovations will overshadow all of the above concerns. Mighty power by the very companies who create this problem, particularly the oil companies that are the wealthiest entities in the history of humankind are fighting these necessary changes.
  5. Consider finally that the only political entity in the present western political world that does not believe that humankind is responsible for global warming is our Republican party. 
In a recent Sunday evening session entitled "Taming Capitalism Run Wild,"  Bill Moyer interviewed Professor Richard Wolfe, the author of "Democracy at War," and "Occupy the Economy."  Wolfe, looking at our present national situation, stated bluntly that in the history of human society, pressures of immense significance pile up that are so  damaging to ordinary folk, that a mighty collective force usually arises to heal the damage. He feels strongly that this is now the time for this to happen, first of all here in our country as a world leader then in the world at large.

Consider the significance of the world "economy" especially in the light of our environmental concern. I recently learned from one of our wise Power Politics persons, Gus Wilhelmy, that both economy and ecology (nature as one entity) come from the same root,the Greek "oikos" and "eco," both of which, according to Webster's, means "house," "settlement," "village."  We are born into a cosmic family, the universe and we live in one of her units, "mother earth" or "Gaia" as the Greeks call her. We all live in this earthly home, " which we must love as well as practically care for in an "oikonomic" way.

When and how will each of us rise to this challenge. Start at least by calling Congressional leaders, Go to www.contactingthecongress.org     John G

25 March 2013

THE WORLD GREATEST ISSUE

DEAR FOLKS,

I WRITE  THIS IN CAPS FOR A REASON. IT HAS DO WITH THE ONLY ISSUE THAT COUNTS, ALONG WITH POVERTY. STARVATION IN ANY FAMILY IS A COSMIC  CRIME. SO IS EVEN MORE THE WOUNDING OF MOTHER EARTH.  THIRTY YEARS FROM NOW WE WILL NOT ASK ABOUT ANY OTHER ISSUE ON EARTH EXCEPT THIS ONE. THE DAMAGE WE WILL THEN EXPERIENCE IS UNIMAGINABLE IF BIG MOVES ARE NOT MADE NOW.  LIGHTS ARE SUDDENLY TURNING ON IN THIS REGARD. THE PRESIDENT HAS FINALLY DECLARED HIS CONCERN IN HIS INAUGURAL ADDRESS AND IN HIS STATE OF THE NATION. EVEN THE REPUBLICAN REP ASSA HAS JOINED IN SHOWING CONCERN.  MEANWHILE OUR GAS, COAL AND OIL INDUSTRIES ARE STILL POURING BILLIONS INTO FIGHTING THIS ISSUE. WE ALL NEED TO WRITE REPS, STATE AND NATIONAL.  VAST NEW CONTROLS AND A WORLD-WIDE GREEN INDUSTRY ARE THE ANSWERS. LET US ALL SURVIVE TOGETHER. -  JOHN G 

Chris Hedges


Posted on May 14, 2012

Dear Folks, Here a person who knows our country as a war correspondent and as a son of an evangelical father. In the first he shows the addiction of war and the second the addiction of narrow and dangerous minds. John G

By Chris Hedges

In Robert E. Gamer’s book “The Developing Nations” is a chapter called
“Why Men Do Not Revolt.” In it Gamer notes that although the oppressed
often do revolt, the object of their hostility is misplaced. They vent
their fury on a political puppet, someone who masks colonial power, a
despised racial or ethnic group or an apostate within their own
political class. The useless battles serve as an effective mask for
what Gamer calls the “patron-client” networks that are responsible for
the continuity of colonial oppression. The squabbles among the
oppressed, the political campaigns between candidates who each are
servants of colonial power, Gamer writes, absolve the actual centers
of power from addressing the conditions that cause the frustrations of
the people. Inequities, political disenfranchisement and injustices
are never seriously addressed. “The government merely does the minimum
necessary to prevent those few who are prone toward political action
from organizing into politically effective groups,” he writes.