Hi all -
words of warning from a soldier president, miscellaneous links and another new poem from Margaret Randall .
Shalom/salaam, Chris
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
--
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), U.S. general, Republican politician, president. April 16, 1953 ( The Chance for Peace, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States , 1960)
cannot do everything, but I can do something. I must not fail to do the something that I can do.
- Helen Keller
The handling of last week's protests in New York City heightens fears for democracy in the US. See Bethany Yarrow's letter or at Orion Online. " So, for those of you who told me that the rally was amazing, I am glad to hear it. But on 3rd Avenue it was clear that we are no longer living in a world, or a country, at peace; and for the first time in my life I am afraid not just of war, but of my own government, for the utter disrespect of those who have their hands on the reins of power, for us -- the people they supposedly represent -- and for our basic liberties."
Alice's Looking Glass
Erase or twist meaning,
teach a language of death.
Label dead children
collateral damage
especially when black or brown
or of cultures we do not understand,
no memory on our hearths.
Subvert the big words:
democracy, freedom,
American Way of Life.
Erase Hiroshima and Nagasaki
while building fear
of Weapons of Mass Destruction
in countries we've been taught to hate.
Usurp the names of peoples:
Apache Long Bow Helicopter.
Once stolen for college football teams
now used to denote the tools of war.
Use pride of conquest
to rape identity.
Magic loses its power
in the games the powerful play.
Convince us
waving the flag is more American
than the freedom to know, debate, dissent.
Until we all fall crashing
through the Looking Glass
to a place
where tomorrow ceases to exist.
--Margaret Randall Albuquerque - February, 2003
If you missed the interview with Michael Lerner on CBC's The Sunday Edition this morning, you should eventually be able to hear it at their archives. He was prevented from speaking at the rally in San Francisco last Sunday because one of the sponsoring organizations felt he was too "pro-Israeli." This development deeply shocked me, because Michael Lerner is an outspoken critic of the Israeli government's policies and a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights. So I went in search of more information. You can read more about the controversy at the Common Dreams web site, , and you can find out Rabbi Lerner's views, "from the horse's mouth," (see esp. this link). I find that Tikkun Magazine has just about the most even-handed coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian situation to be found anywhere.