Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on November 10, 2011
“No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live. Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined.”
Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on November 9, 2011
The real crisis today isn’t just an economic one. Yes, we are experiencing an economic crisis worldwide of epic proportions. But the reason it is different than any other crisis is its cause: the economic challenges of today rest on the shoulders of the people who have created this catastrophe in the first place, and we can not climb out of it without their help.
I have been saying this in various ways throughout my posts, and today, I just read an excerpt from one of my favorite economists in Jeffrey Sach’s new book called The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity.
If I may quote here, to entice the reader:
“The root of America’s economic crisis lies in a moral crisis: the decline of civic virtue among America’s political and economic elite. A society of markets, laws, and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty, and compassion toward the rest of society and the world.”
I can not stress this enough: the people of this world are crying out to those who have to provide to the rest of us with enough to get by. We are at a crossroads: either we continue to decline as a country, or our fellow Americans must conjure all the conscience they lost along the way toward amassing their fortunes, and apply their thoughts and actions toward repairing our economy. Our lives are at stake here.
I still believe in the basic goodness of humanity. I still believe that people who live in this world, and not in some notion of future hell, will save us from that future hell. You get what you give; “and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” –Paul McCartney
Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on November 8, 2011
What is true? There are now seven billion people on this planet, and the truth is different for each person. For truth resides in the brain: its perception of the world.
In seeking truth, I can tell you that as I get older, I realize there is only one pure truth: and that is creativity. It is expressed in the arts, in music, and in growing things (and I don’t mean a growing economy.) I mean art, not money. Moving money around a myriad ways is not art.
I often think that people who grow up in the 1% families, some of those daughters and sons, will look out over this world and see the disparity, and they will not be thanking their parents for the havoc they have wreaked.
Children always rebel against their parents. It’s just a matter of degree. Sure, some of them won’t care. They will be as insouciant as their parents about the effects of their actions, and they will try to stay insulated from the poor 99% “out there” and they will stay in their little worlds.
But there will be some children of these families who don’t like it, and they are the hope.
So what is the truth? Can I just say: it doesn’t matter what the truth is. It matters only that we are the fullest expression of our God given talents, because God only created us to be witnesses to beauty, creation, artwork. And that’s the truth.
Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on November 7, 2011
writein voting – write in vote
There are at least six states that do not allow write-in votes for President and Congressional seats. Do not let that discourage you from running, because they do allow nonpartisans to enter the race by declaring a nonpartisan or independent candidacy. If you live in or want to represent the following states, you need to find out the processes and deadlines to have your name on the ballot: Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
In Hawaii, congressional candidates must file nomination papers by Tuesday, June 5, 2012 4:30 pm. In order to have your name on the ballot for the general election, you will need to attain one of the two following number of votes during the primary:
1. receive at least ten percent (10%) of the total votes cast for the office for which the person is a candidate at the Primary Election; OR
2. receive a vote equal to the lowest vote received by the partisan candidate who was nominated in the Primary Election for the office.
In Nevada, people who want to run for Congress on the ballot must have a petition signed by enough registered voters. The laws are spelled out on their website, see the Independent Candidate Guide near the bottom of the Nevada Election Information website.
In Oklahoma, December 5,2011 is an important date because Candidates for President must file with the State Election Board. They have three days (Dec 5, 6, and 7th) in which to file. This is just one example of the hoops presidential candidates must jump through to stay on the ballot for a primary election.
Whether you decide to run for President or Congress, make sure you visit each state’s Secretary of State Elections website to learn the requirements for running on the ballot or as a write-in candidate, whichever is necessary.
Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on November 6, 2011
voter suppression – blocking votes – voter registration
How tough is it getting to register to vote? In a recent article in the LA Times, David Savage writes: “And those who seek to register new voters must themselves register with the state and must submit each new registration to a county office within 48 hours — or face fines.”
This describes the situation in Florida, where new laws are tightening voters’ ability to register or cast a vote. Here are some of the effects:
Voting “is a hard-fought privilege. This is something people died for,” said Republican Sen. Michael Bennett of Bradenton, the chamber’s president pro tempore. “Why should we make it easier?” So basically, people should die before they vote?
Florida is a key state in elections, where every vote counts. It is not surprising that the Republican-led legislature would be interested in suppressing the votes of minorities, students, and the poor who generally vote Democrat. In seven states, namely Alabama, Kansas, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin you are required to show photo identification at the polls, so be prepared.
For students who want to vote, “If you’re a resident of the town you live in (have a lease, utility bill in your name, etc.) you can register and vote where you currently live. If you live in on-campus housing you most likely still have residency in your home state (the address on your driver’s license or ID card) and you can vote absentee.” To learn more, go to Register to Vote.
Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on November 5, 2011
The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains.
–Paul Simon, from Train in the Distance
Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on November 4, 2011
Five days ago, I wrote about Jefferson identifying the pursuit of happiness as one of the most important basic rights in a country that respects its citizens.
What strikes me most about the text is that over half of it expresses grievances with the King and his treatment of the new colonies. There is a lesson to be learned here: that if you are unhappy, you must first identify what is bothering you before you can attempt to fix it.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on November 2, 2011
India – activist – Anna Hazare
Every day I learn something new. This morning I found out about a relatively “new” public figure (at least to Northern India) who is protesting the same things in India that we are protesting in this country with OWS: Anna Hazare. And no, he is not a woman.
It seems that India, with its staggering growth in jobs and economy, is still not immune to the same problems the masses are suffering from here. Anna is compared to Ghandi in that fight against corruption.
Give yourself some time to find out about this man. You will be inspired.
For a current story on how Anna Hazare seeks to change elections in India, click here.
Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on November 1, 2011
enchantment – enchanting – politics – Thomas Moore – Benjamin Franklin virtues
I know, I know. It sounds like an oxymoron: enchanting politics. So let me make an argument for why politics could be, and should be enchanting.
The premiere expert in enchantment might be Thomas Moore, author of The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life, among other books dealing with the soul. His definition of enchantment is: “the transhuman voice or music rising from deep within nature or culture that seizes us with awe and spellbinding pleasure.” I have to admit; that’s about as far from how politics makes me feel most days.
Here is the problem: there is no soul in politics anymore. It is so devoid of anything real or essential, that it makes us cringe or recoil or even worse, it angers us.
In a perfect world, a person is called to civil service because he or she feels compelled to care for his/her community. If a politician spoke from his heart, it would stop us in our tracks and make us listen for a change. Instead, they often talk trash about the opponent or the “other party”, they memorize and spout talking points, they go for image rather than substance, and when they don’t know the answer, they fake their way through rather than admitting weakness.
We’re so used to hearing balderdash, we assume it isn’t worth listening anymore.
It is no wonder we are disenchanted with our politicians. They have become disenchanting.
What I would love to see is someone who shares their core sensibilities; what got them into public service and their mission in life as a result. Since politics is about serving community, then how do they see themselves fulfilling their life’s calling? And what makes them think they were called into the limelight to begin their careers as a politician?
Nowadays, when anyone comes out and says that we need to be more responsible or that congress has been behaving badly, we think they’re some kind of hero. It should be the lowest common denominator to have people in congress who speak the truth. Instead, when somebody finally says something that might favor the greater good, we get all excited over them because it’s so rare.
All of us eventually need to become political, if we are to have a life of meaning. If we are so lucky to have a long life, we reach a point of wanting to contribute to society, even if it means being a salt-of-the-earth example to others by striving to be virtuous. Benjamin Franklin worked at becoming a virtuous “full man” by practicing 13 tenets (http://dan.hersam.com/philosophy/franklin_virtues.html). It might be a good starting place for those politicians who seem to have lost their way.
A friend of mine was distraught by my suggestion that politics should be enchanting. She said that community efforts don’t always involve politics. By my definition, anything involving community was political. She gave the example of a man who ran the corner convenience store. Everyone knew him; he often gave kids free food, the parents would let him hold keys for them, he said a cheerful “hi” to passers by, and kept tabs for customers who weren’t holding cash. She insisted that he provided a community service without being political.
The problem is in thinking that politics is somehow separate from community; that it governs the people, and lords its policies over us. Instead, if we realized, as the ancient Greeks did, that a divine spirit held together our communities, we wouldn’t confer so much power to politicians, since they are only a small part of a larger endeavor.
To my friend, I say: from a quiet and reserved place, contemplate the sacred and spiritual aspect of communion. The next time you experience holiness during a community endeavor, you are on your way to bringing back enchantment to political life.
Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 31, 2011
The Great Father above a Shepherd Chief is.
I am his and with Him I want not.
He throws me out a rope and the name of the rope is love,
And he draws me to where the grass is green
And the water not dangerous.
And I eat and lie down and am satisfied.
Sometimes my heart is very weak
And falls down but he lifts me up again
And draws me into a good road.
His name is Wonderful.
Sometime, it might be very soon,
It may be a long, long time.
He will draw me into a valley.
It is dark there, but I’ll be afraid not,
For it is in between those mountains,
That the Shepard Christ will meet me and the hunger
That I have in my heart all through this life will be satisfied.
He gives me a staff to lean upon.
He spreads a table before me with all kinds of food.
He puts His hand upon my head and all the tired is gone.
My cup He fills, till it runs over.
What I tell is true, I lie not.
These roads that are “away ahead” will stay with me through this
life and after.
And afterwards I will go to live in the Big Teepee,
And sit down with the Shepherd Chief forever.
Author Unknown.
