Confessions - reflection...

I just finished reading John Perkins - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.

Perkins is now a dot-org "dedicated to changing the world" and the book has 592 cusomer reviews on Amazon. Hmmm...

Perkins said he was going to write this book 20 years before he did - why is that? Hmmm...

Why does he tell the story now - to "change the world" or hmmm...

Here is the most truthful part from his book in my opinion:

"It would be great if we could blame it all on a conspiracy, but we cannot. The empire depends on the efficacy of big banks, corporations, and governments - the coporatocracy - but it is not a conspiracy. This corporatocracy is ourselves - we make it happen - which, of course, is why most of us find it difficult to stand up and oppose it. We would rather glimpse conspirators lurking in the shadows, because most of us work for one of those banks, corporations, or governments, or in some way are dependent on them for the goods and services they produce and market. We cannot bring ourselves to bite the hand of the master who feeds us."

My thought is that he had not yet accumulateded enough personal wealth to feel secure about his financial future. Now that he has enough - he can tell us peasants the story. Hmmm...

He was happy to make the big bucks as a corporatist but you shouldn't be. End of story.

As John Lennon once said about us in "Working Class Heroes" -

There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill

A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me

Perkins is telling us that there is no "room at the top" - other than that he seems to say that we're "still fucking peasants as far as he can see " - wouldn't it be better if we could have grown old with John Lennon - not John Perkins.

Silencing the opposition...

Today is the third Friday of January 2008 and another Iraq War Moratorium Day.

The war is a horrible waste of humanity and treasure - but things are actually much bleaker than any thinking citizen can contemplate.

In America, the Presidential "selection" process has just started. One might expect that citizens would get the opportunity to hear from all of the candidates - far right, middle, and far left - blue, green, orange, whatever, but that would be incorrect. Kucinich was excluded from the Iowa debates by the AARP - one of the nations largest insurance companies and since then Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich have been silenced by the media giants - Disney and General Electric.

Both of these candidates offer ideas outside of the narrow corporate and party boundaries. And both were deliberately excluded from broadcasts over the people's airwaves with the major political parties helping to silence them. What, you say?

What about the group vying to be the leader of the "free world" - those who were allowed to speak and claim to want to be President? Did any of them speak out about an insurance company, a network, or their party excluding candidates from a discussion of ideas?

No... and the silence is deafening.

These are the "leaders" who want us to believe that they will actually "preserve and protect the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic"?

Here was a golden opportunity for a civics lesson - a lesson in democratic leadership.

Candidates Obama, Clinton and Edwards said NOTHING about Kucinich being barred. Apparently they consider that maiming an opponent and disenfranchising his/her voters is a better path to victory rather than educating and explaining why he or she is the best candidate.

These actions speak louder than their words about how far we've come from being a democracy of free citizens.

I searched for news about this and Kucinich is right - you won't see it on the networks, you won't see it on public television, Amy Goodman wrote a piece about it but that just might be the total coverage. Why would we let the corporate owned mega-media decide who gets to speak to the American people?

For a far-ranging in-depth interview with Dennis Kucinich that will give you a small inkling of how different he would make our country if he were President read this post by Chris Hedges.

And...ho hum the totally asleep at the wheel masses - don't notice? Don't care? Don't what?

We the people or we the sheep?

Right speech...

A friend called me last Monday and asked me to appear and speak at a session to be held by our Congressman. I'm to ask him to support impeaching the powerful folks who sit in the people's white house.

Now here is a challenge for me - use "right speech" to communicate with my powerful and arrogant Congressman who suffers no fools and frequently vents his anger at the people he supposedly represents...

As you can see, I'm not off to a good start.

Optimism...

It is a blessing to see the New Year and start it off with an optimistic and joyful outlook.

This wondrous message comes from Vietnam survivor - Thich Nhat Hahn and his book Interbeing - Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism:

"Aware of the suffering created by attachment and intolerance, we are determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist teachings are guiding means to help us learn to look deeply and to develop our understanding and compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill, or die for."

Let us all be optimistic that America will declare itself to be a nation following this guideline.