A couple of entries ago I took Vermonter Peter Galbraith to task for continuing to support the war in Afghanistan, and specifically for supporting the proposed troop increase. I was pretty pointed about it and alliterated to spitting on him.
This week Peter Galbraith was officially fired from the UN for publicly stating his belief that the elections in Afghanistan were not clean. He also came out in opposition to the proposed troop increase.
I am very glad Mr. Galbraith has publicly stated his position, and I retract my literary spittle. What I don't understand is why he supported the war and the troop increase publicly a week or so ago and now has made a 180 degree turn.
It is extremely problematic when people working in government spout the party line. How can anyone trust government when it's public voices are dishonest? You can't have a "party line" and have honest government at the same time. People need to be able to express what they really think. How else can there be reasoned critical thinking in government?
So Mr. Galbraith I apologize for my rudeness in as much as your newly revealed position is not that of a warmonger. I just wish you'd spoken up sooner in your official capacity. Lives might have been saved.
01 October 2009
Sometimes my own process amazes me. I identified my lack of future vision in my last entry. I seem to have worked that through because I am now into house drawings and site plans, town regulations and looking for free stuff on Craig's list.
The act of naming what is in the way often serves to move me forward through the obstacle. Naming the blockage helps me to digest it and get past it, not by avoiding it but by integrating it.
I am into my second week of news fasting. It's not a 100% fast, more like 95%, but not reading all that depressing information certainly has improved my mood!
The next thing I want to have happen is for some wonderful progressive business to become enamored of my radio show and become a sponsor. Hold that vision for me folks!
Posted by Baruch at 6:38 AM 0 comments
20 September 2009
I just read an article in the Burlington Free Press, a pretty horrible Gannet newspaper here in Vermont. It’s about Vermonter Peter Galbraith, who works for the UN and is one of the warmongers encouraging continued war in Afghanistan. What a disgusting example of a human being, justifying all this killing with all these ideological lies. Pah. I spit in your face Peter Galbraith. Your willingness to support the imperial US war machine makes you a disgusting corrupt lying warmonger.
I start out each morning fresh and quickly remember the lying and killing and destroying that is going on. I am enraged, and either I just feel that rage or I tamp it down and end up depressed. I need to channel the rage in a different way. I’m working on it.
Seeking a home, wanting a home, needing a home, and yet struggling with the whole idea of tomorrow. I am able to design and build a hybrid earth ship/straw bale home in Vermont. I have a place, with good people, on gorgeous land. I have the design in my head, I just need to get it on paper. It is doable. And yet I feel blocked because I am having a hard time believing in tomorrow. I can manifest anything but I have to believe in it, and right now I am acknowledging how hard it is for me to see much of a future. I’m working my way through this, I will keep you all posted.
Posted by Baruch at 9:33 AM 1 comments
14 September 2009
Last night's radio show was a lot of fun, and yet another example of ways to respond to societal insanity with love.
With all of the racist anti-Obama "stuff" floating to the surface lately (note: I do not think all opposition or criticism of Obama is race related, there are plenty of really good reasons to criticize and hold his feet to the fire) the level of discourse in the US is sinking to a new low for my lifetime. People marched in Washington DC this weekend because they don't want to extend health care to the poorest among us, while saying nothing about trillions spent on war and "bailing out" financial institutions. the blindness in all that is astounding.
I do get it that people are scared and are reacting from their fear, but they are being pumped full of that fear by the extremist right wing pundits. It's ugly. I also get it that Obama is, primarily, another corporate player doing mostly all the wrong things. I think he's doing a terrible job of bringing the change he was elected to bring. That being said I am disgusted by the racist ranting and demagoguery aimed at him and his family, and de facto at every other "non-white" person in the country.
So last night when the PMP Band showed up to play I was really thinking about how to somehow address these issues during the radio show. I talked about it with a couple of the band members. We didn't come to any conclusions, but they played great music including some songs that hit right on the topic of people getting along. More than that, PMP embodies the kind of inter-racial harmony that we know is possible. The band members vary in skin tone, and it's not an issue. It's almost silly to even write about it because it IS a non-issue, as it should be.
The music was tight and hot and loving, and definitely moved me literally and figuratively. The show is available to download, and PMP just put some videos up on YouTube so those are available too. Go to Paradigms and check out the September 13 show.
Posted by Baruch at 8:16 AM 0 comments