Justice in America

In this country, we seem to believe that there were a group of geniuses who lived in the 1700's who invented the very best system of government that could EVER be created and therefore we should not ever conceive of changing it.
And it was perfect... for them.

An example of this is the justice system which states that a person should be tried by a jury of one's peers. This was established in order that a member of the ruling class would not be judged by ordinary folks, but by the members of their own group who could then take measures in the interests of their group. So, for example, if a person representing the interests of the ruling class was to do something like murder a person who was not of that group, but was considered threatening to the group as a whole; a jury made up of peers from the ruling class would obviously not see such a murder as a crime.

On top of that, the system is also rigged so that the attorneys defending the murderer get to help pick who's going to be on the jury to try to ensure that the jurors who are selected have the same values as the defendant. But there is no consideration given to see that there are jurors who are peers of, and have the same values as the victim.

I do not advocate violence toward a murderer freed by such a flawed and unbalanced system. The only argument those who are happy with its verdicts have is "It's the best system we have." Unsaid is "And it works for us, so why change it?".

But it's like being served a plate of manure in a fine restaurant and being told "Enjoy it, it's the best we have." Blame the system, not the participants. And realize that it's the system itself that must be changed.

So, if you see George Zimmerman on the street, don't let your karma get mixed up with his. Just nod at him and say "Trayvon Martin" to his face. A couple dozen people a day doing that for the rest of his life will be justice enough to keep a man imprisoned in a free society.

Our Way of Life

Back in 1947, President Harry S Truman stated “At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one. One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guaranties of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression. The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms. I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.”

At the present moment here in 2013, our way of life is based on the will of the House of Corporate Representatives, the Supreme Court Jesters, and the Senate of Perpetual Re-Election. They rely on the politics of fear and divisiveness, distortion of the press, talk radio, and the suppression of the right to vote.

I believe it must be the duty of the American people to resist this subjugation by highly financed individuals, corporations, and paid lobbyists. Influencing the government should be the right of every citizen by use of their vote, in fact if you ARE a citizen, voting ought to be mandatory! There’s no reason why voting and tax paying should not be treated in exactly the same way, maybe even on the same form. (I’d have no problem moving Election Day to April 15^th). However, going in to visit a congressperson should NOT be readily available to corporations, lobbyists, or be the exclusive club privilege of billionaires. If members of Congress truly represent the people they serve, let’s see them post their appointment books on their web pages so the world can see who they’re taking meetings with. Let’s give the government back to the people.

Spaceship Earth

We are all in the same boat, with the same rights and responsibilities. But if you decide to name someone as Captain, don't be surprised if others do not bow down and follow along. We all arrive on Spaceship Earth as Captains.
Those who forsake their birthright and decide to follow another who they perceive to be more than their equal are deluded as to the meaning of life.

COLUMBUS DAY

On this day, the United States celebrates the anniversary of the 1^st wave of European invasion to land on the shores of Turtle Island. Thus began the Big Lie, taught to millions of schoolchildren. 

Cristobel Colon, a former pirate operating against the Spanish crown, got his hands on maps that were obtained from his late father-in-law. His father-in-law, a Portuguese who had spent considerable time in Africa, procured the maps from African sailors who had traveled to lands that lay to the west. Colon posed as a Genoan explorer in order to get funding from the very queen whose ships he had been plundering and sets sail, knowing exactly where he was going. He arrived in the Western Hemisphere (which was already home to upward of 112 million people and included the biggest city on the planet - present-day Mexico City), and is given credit for having “discovered” it. Colon brought with him a host of diseases that ran rampant through the Native population, reducing it by nearly 95%, committed acts of genocide, and began the transatlantic slave trade. 

So today Americans take a day off and hold parades and department store sales in honor of a genocidal killer, slaver, and pirate who was a faux Italian.

Enjoy your holiday.

October 4th

October 4th is a fitting day to remember troops who are fighting a questionable battle in Afghanistan. It seems we have been at war quite a bit on this day throughout history. In 1777, colonial forces battled the British at Germantown, five miles north of Philadelphia, and we fought them again in 1812. In 1918, World War I was ongoing; in 1943, World War II was in full swing; 1952 saw war in Korea, and in 1964, Vietnam. Not to mention all the wars fought against the Indigenous Nations of this hemisphere.

According to US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, there have only been 10 years in the entire 236 year history of the United States where the country was not militarily involved somewhere ( 1796, 1797, 1826, 1828, 1829, 1830, 1845, 1897, 1977, 1979). We have fought wars with or had military interventions in: England, France, Mexico, Spain, French Polynesia, Algeria, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Greece, Indonesia, Argentina, Peru, Canada, Fiji, Samoa, China, Turkey, Nicaragua, Japan, Uruguay, Panama, Paraguay, Angola, Columbia, Taiwan, Korea, Egypt, Haiti, Chile, Brazil, Philippines, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Syria, Ethiopia, Morocco, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Soviet Union, Croatia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Greenland, Netherlands, Iceland, Italy, Vietnam, Lebanon, Thailand, Laos, Israel, Zaire, Cambodia, Iran, El Salvador, Libya, Grenada, Chad, Bolivia, Liberia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Sierra Leone, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Somalia, Macedonia, Central African Republic, Albania, Congo, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Tanzania, East Timor, Serbia, Nigeria, Yemen, Cote d’Ivoire, Georgia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Pakistan, Uganda, and Afghanistan

Also, in what some would consider an act of war, on this day in 1927 workers began defacing the sacred Paha Sapa (Black Hills) in the Lakota Nation in clear violation of the Treaty of Fort Laramie, signed in 1868 which exempted the region from white settlement forever. In a clear insult to the indigenous people, the huge head of George Washington was sculpted onto the face of the sacred mountain, to be followed later by Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt.

We need to find better alternatives to resolve disputes. People have long memories, and with today’s technology, those memories are getting longer and more precise. You cannot send in your troops or defeat a nation in an armed conflict and expect them to roll over quietly and go away; or forget. Their descendants will take up the fight, and it will continue forever unless both sides can come to an agreement.

There are conflicts in the Middle East that have been ongoing for thousands of years; there are still resentments from both World Wars, as well as Vietnam. The Korean War really never ended. And today, we are stirring the pot again in Afghanistan and Pakistan, creating yet more multi-generation conflict. Young people on both sides are being killed because old people in their country are clinging to the thought that they can beat the other side into complete and lasting submission. But history has proven again and again that it never happens.

Despite that, politicians still campaign by puffing out their chests and saying that we can crush anyone in the world and they will go away. Mitt Romney was proud last night to state in the presidential debate that he will not cut the defense budget. We have massive poverty in this country, yet our defense budget is six times China’s and more than the next top twenty defense spenders combined.

It is simply time to stop.

And if you really think people are prone to lie down like sheep, ask any Lakota this question. Who owns Mount Rushmore?

Independence Day 2012

On this day, in 1776, 236 years ago, British colonists who had settled here on Turtle Island along with subjects of several other Eastern Hemisphere nations, decided to revolt against their King and establish their own Nation on land belonging to other Nations.

The revolt, long in coming, was triggered by a royal decree issued on October 7, 1763. King George III had approved treaties with the Indigenous people that defined the Appalachian crest as the boundary between whites and Indians. However, many settlers, in violation of these treaties were continuing to move beyond the established settlement and onto Indian land. In his decree, the King ordered settlers beyond the crest to leave, and required royal permission to buy any more land from Indians.

The final spark came in 1773 when Boston merchants, who had been smuggling Dutch tea from Holland and making a fortune by selling it cheaply, were angered by a move by the British government to cut the price of legally imported British tea even lower, thus ending their illicit operation. This culminated in the Boston Tea Party, where colonists disguised as Mohawks, destroyed a shipment of British tea in an attempt to maximize their own profits. 230 years later, a group of their descendants, interested in elevating personal profit over the good of the nation, would adopt the name Tea Party.

Indian nations fought on both sides of the American Revolution, drawn in by promises from both sides that their sovereignty would be respected. Those who aligned with the British crown were told that they had sacrificed that sovereignty by picking the wrong side; and those who aligned with the colonists were similarly treated. Case in point, in 1779, American President George Washington sent 5000 troops under General John Sullivan into upstate New York with orders for “the total destruction and devastation of [the Indian] settlements and capture [of] as many prisoners as possible”. Washington, in an act of genocide, made no distinction between those who had been allies of the British and those who had been his allies and had helped him to win the war.

Despite the fact that we have a great love for this land, there is nothing on this day for Indigenous peoples of this land to celebrate. This is a celebration by a former British colony that they, unlike other former British colonies where the indigenous people eventually regained control of their land (Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, India, Malta, Sri Lanka, Fiji, etc.), were able to maintain control and reduce the indigenous to a minority population. As a person of Indigenous descent, while I like fireworks as much as the next man, this is not a day that symbolizes freedom to me.

Also on this day, in 1826 - President Thomas Jefferson died at Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia after holding more than 700 people in slavery during his lifetime. Upon his death, his will specifically freed only five slaves. The rest, which he had used as collateral to support a lavish life style, were sold to pay for Jefferson’s debts. On that same day, President John Adams died in Braintree, Massachusetts. His dying words were “Thomas Jefferson survives”, not knowing Jefferson had died a few hours earlier.

Five years later, in 1831, President James Monroe died in New York City.

And in 1946, the United States granted independence to the Philippines, after having “bought” the nation from Spain in 1898 for $20 million and fighting a three year war against the Native Filipinos.
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The Game

We are caught up in a game. A game as sinister, insidious, and complex as The Matrix.

Today’s issue is just another aspect of that game, a game we cannot win.

The game is rigged in favor of 1% of the population and we are continuously being led to believe that if we take care of the 1%, the 1% will take care of the rest of us. They call this trickle-down economics. Sort of the kind of trickle-down you might get being on the first floor of a two-story outhouse.
But the way this game is played, the crimes they commit in the name of profit are considered good, and the situations you might be forced into are considered crimes.

If your family is starving and you steal a loaf of bread, you will go to jail. Because you are taking from the corporations that produce, distribute, and sell that bread. But if they force-feed cattle and poultry with chemicals and animal by-products and people get cancer, who goes to jail? They can lie, cheat, and steal millions of dollars from the people and be fined a few thousand for doing so, a mere slap on the wrist. But if you go down to their offices, stand on a public sidewalk and protest, you’re going to jail.

Freedom of speech in this country has been forced to take a back seat to freedom of greed.

And this is all part of the game, and we are the unwilling players. In many areas where most people live these days, you aren’t allowed to grow your own food. You can’t raise chickens in the cities or the suburbs, and in some places you can’t even have a garden. You can’t go out and hunt; and you might even need a license to fish. You have become a dependent of the supermarket. Feeding your family the way your ancestors did is now criminal.
But here we have a much greater crime being committed, a crime against Nature, a crime against the Earth itself, and nobody’s going to jail.
Why? Because it benefits the 1%. Anybody who has ever watched a detective show knows that when a crime is committed, if you want to find the perpetrator, you see who benefits, you follow the money.

Who benefits from fracking? Who benefits from destroying the planet, from these pipelines ripping through communities? Certainly not the community? Not even society at large! Just a few people and the only money trickling down from them is to the politicians and media they paid for to try to convince us that this is a GOOD thing.

You’ve seen the commercials. Smartly dressed woman tells you that we don’t have to go overseas to find energy, it’s right here in North America. She says North America because she’s talking about Canada. And she tells you how they will create thousands of jobs. That part is true even though she’s only talking about temporary employment. Because they need folks to tear up the Earth and build pipelines from Canada down to the Gulf of Mexico where they want to load the tankers to ship their products to China.

Where is the benefit to society as a whole? Where is the benefit to the Earth? We are destroying the water table, causing earthquakes, and disrupting communities for what?

The people with deep pockets who have a financial interest in keeping things as they are. They have gotten Congress to exclude them from things like the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, in order that they can make huge profits from activities such as fracking, or to call it as it is, hydraulic fracturing of the Earth by pumping water and chemicals into the ground at high pressure. They won’t disclose what’s in that chemical cocktail. The say it would give unfair advantage to their competition. As if their competition doesn’t already know. But those chemicals end up in your water, your garden plants, your trees….

Indigenous people were able to maintain the environment here for CENTURIES, by taking the next seven generations into consideration when making decisions. These fat cats, and their paid cadre of less-than-reputable pseudo-scientists, don’t even care about the next seven days. These are the same folks who go around screaming that the government is too big. Primarily because OUR government occasionally gets in THEIR way when they find ways to make a buck at the expense of the rest of us. They want to dismantle all the agencies that protect us from them. Do you see any good in that?

Well the corporations do. Not only do they make a tremendous amount of profit, much of it tax-free thanks to loopholes their lobbyists managed to get put into law, so not even the government gets any, but all the problems they cause open up new avenues of business. We destroyed your water? We’ll sell you water. Not the natural stuff you used to drink. This stuff will be better… comes from a laboratory, same one where we’ve been genetically engineering your food! If an earthquakes destroy your home, we’ll sell you a new one. But until that happens, you’d better buy some earthquake insurance. A policy we know how to weasel our way out of if an earthquake actually happens.

Are we getting screwed? It’s all part of the game.

The game is designed to maximize the profits of the uber-wealthy. Not to benefit society as a whole. This business model is one they learned from drug dealers. First, they give you a taste of the product, maybe even for free. Then once they got you hooked, you will pay every single month for the rest of your life to keep getting what they’re selling. If you don’t believe me, look at your monthly bills. You pay for electricity, gas, some of us are already paying for water. These are all taken from resources that belong to all of us. You pay for television, some of you pay for radio. Television used to be free, using the public airwaves. They took it off those airwaves so you’d have to pay for it. Now we have satellite radio. Your tax dollars paid for those satellites the media companies use. Every industry in this country is working toward getting income from you on a monthly basis if they haven’t gotten it already, and at the same time, trying to figure out how to do it without hiring you as a full-time employee. This is not a sustainable business model.
Which brings me back to sustainability. This is for now, the only planet we’ve got. Creator might not let us have another one if we can’t take care of the one we’ve got. Think of this as the Garden of Eden…

So, what do we do?

Let me close by paraphrasing a Republican President.

We are engaged in a great effort, testing whether this nation, and we as a people can long endure. We have come to preserve and protect the Earth so that we all might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it is for us here today to be dedicated to the great task before us. That we here highly resolve that we shall have a new birth of freedom, -- and that this land of the people, will be owned and managed by the people, on behalf of ALL the people.

Otherwise we may indeed perish from the Earth.