Over the last month or so, Tikkun has been publishing a wonderful series of memos, written by concerned and thoughtful citizens to President-elect Obama. Here's an excerpt from one of Rabbi Michael Lerner's recent letters to the President. Furthering my earlier thoughts on what those words "be realistic" are allowed to mean. And fuel for the hopes of us idealists, who still hope to see this new administration help to set in motion changes in paradigm, as well as in legislation.
"People who have bought into the dominant worldviews in American society think of success in primarily material terms....
President Obama, the most important challenge you face is to reverse that notion of what it is to be rational in the contemporary world. You must reject the current vision of “being realistic” and explain to Americans why that notion is based on a mistaken calculation of our interests as Americans and as members of the human race. You must help people understand that the old way of looking at the world, the Old Bottom Line, is dysfunctional and leads to the dissolution of American society and to the destruction of the planet....
Sound like a daunting task? It doesn’t have to be if you turn to the American people...There are already tens of millions of people who share this consciousness, but they have no way of recognizing each other and moving together as a political entity...
(read his very practical suggestions toward this end, and the entire article, at http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/tik0901/frontpage/ml)
Monday, January 19, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
farewell at last
Did anybody else listen to George Bush's farewell speech Thursday night? As with most relevant or breaking news, it came to me in bleeps and blips, between deliveries. I had to watch the whole thing on youtube the next day. But my first reaction, coming in on the middle of it without any introduction, was: they're doing a recap of one of his older speeches, right? This is like, Bush's Greatest Hits? A replay of a speech from what, '02? '04? Because the first thing I hear is a reference to Sept. 11. And what a dangerous place the world is. And how terrorists are the most relevant threat we currently face.
No, it's live coverage, or almost. Wow. It's actually his current speech. It's still here and now. (But not for much longer, thank God.) Here's our Homeland Insecurity, still on full display to the world. Though with some astonishing bits of optimism, it seems, attached to it:
“...leading the world toward a new age when freedom belongs to all nations...expand opportunity and hope here at home...America's air and water and lands are measurably cleaner...decisive measures to safeguard our economy...”
Wow. We're still operating in 2-D. In wishful thinking tied to fearful reaction. In Good and Evil. In black and white. When do we go color – in another month? (No, that's digital.) We go full-color –- back, at least, to a broader spectrum of democracy, humanity, possibility -- in only 3 more blessed days. Oh, let it be so.
And may we all remember more of our individual and collective humanity, in the coming days, as we begin to be relieved of 8 years of defense and discouragement. Our ability both to hope and to act. There are those who have used words like oppression, to talk of the policies and actions of these years, but I can't. We haven't ever known oppression, in this country. We've struggled for rights, freedoms - not for our lives, or our souls. Depression, maybe, we've known. What any healthy soul would experience, were its efforts toward life, sharing, peace and justice so continually suppressed. But we can ascend again from this. We are already ascending from this, in so many local and ground-level efforts. In so many places where we share our humanity, such as it is, within the broken and corrupted American dream, such as it is. We are ascending, and can continue, within and together. Yes we can.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
disarming
"As long as we stay trapped in the paradox of fear, we can't even use our intelligence to save ourselves. We have employed it to serve only our self-destruction.
Only if we disarm our intelligence do we have a chance to find wisdom. And only wisdom can save us."
Robert C. Koehler
(http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/15)
an image of Obama in N.M.
Just came across this in a NY Times article on President Obama's reception among Native American communities. Wish I coulda been at this event - the kinda thing that makes me proud to live in New Mexico:
"When asked about immigration concerns in New Mexico, Obama pointed to a handful of elderly natives in the front row of a high school gym.
“He said, ‘The only real native people in this country are sitting right in front of me,’ ” recalled Joe Garcia, who is president of the National Congress of American Indians. “You should have heard the applause.”"acupuncture for all
Our local paper, The Reporter, gives notice this week that a new acupuncture clinic is celebrating their opening with free treatments on Saturday. Wish I knew more people here to pass the information to. It's called "We The People Community Acupuncture" (www.weacupuncture.com). But their website also connects with a larger network, whose goal it seems is to connect working people all over with the benefits of acupuncture (to which I for one can testify). That site is:
http://www.communityacupuncturenetwork.org/
Here you can look up affordable treatments in your area (Portland, of course, has 7 locations!), and read some hopeful articles on making acupuncture, and "alternative" health care in general, available to all people. Here's an excerpt from one, titled "The Art of the Sliding Scale", by Lisa Rohleder. It's directed at holistic care givers, but it lifts my spirits for sure, to know that a conversation like this is actually going on out there:
"Recent estimates suggest a typical American CEO makes 475 times what a factory worker makes. What people are paid increasingly has no relationship to the usefulness of what they actually do. One of the most important jobs imaginable - caring for young children - is typically compensated at $6 to $10 an hour, without benefits. A sliding scale is not a form of charity. It's a way of acknowledging that life is not fair, and adjusting your business plan accordingly. For a business to be successful, it needs to be based in reality, not in wishful thinking...
The function of a sliding scale in the day-to-day operation of your business is not only to broaden your potential patient base by correcting for certain societal inequalities, but also to reduce stress for you and your patients by separating the issues of money and treatment.
A fine example, in my opinion, of building the new world in the shell of the old. And also of the kind of dialogue I admire the most: affirming the ideal, and inviting others to do so, saving the time that would be used on casting blame for creating more images of justice. I hold this woman and her efforts (at healing, and at conscience-raising) up to the Light.
http://www.communityacupuncturenetwork.org/
Here you can look up affordable treatments in your area (Portland, of course, has 7 locations!), and read some hopeful articles on making acupuncture, and "alternative" health care in general, available to all people. Here's an excerpt from one, titled "The Art of the Sliding Scale", by Lisa Rohleder. It's directed at holistic care givers, but it lifts my spirits for sure, to know that a conversation like this is actually going on out there:
"Recent estimates suggest a typical American CEO makes 475 times what a factory worker makes. What people are paid increasingly has no relationship to the usefulness of what they actually do. One of the most important jobs imaginable - caring for young children - is typically compensated at $6 to $10 an hour, without benefits. A sliding scale is not a form of charity. It's a way of acknowledging that life is not fair, and adjusting your business plan accordingly. For a business to be successful, it needs to be based in reality, not in wishful thinking...
The function of a sliding scale in the day-to-day operation of your business is not only to broaden your potential patient base by correcting for certain societal inequalities, but also to reduce stress for you and your patients by separating the issues of money and treatment.
Making such choices also points to an appealing aspect of social entrepreneurship, which is the power to respond to social problems by creating a kind of alternate universe - your own - which operates by different rules...Health care as a whole is deeply divided along class lines; my practice isn't. The best part of my day is looking around my clinic when it's full of people of all races, classes, backgrounds and ages, all at rest in a rich, shared stillness. Thanks to a sliding scale, I get to spend most of my time in a world where people get the care they need, regardless of how much money they have. And that, all by itself, is valuable to me."
A fine example, in my opinion, of building the new world in the shell of the old. And also of the kind of dialogue I admire the most: affirming the ideal, and inviting others to do so, saving the time that would be used on casting blame for creating more images of justice. I hold this woman and her efforts (at healing, and at conscience-raising) up to the Light.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Zinn and the art of plain speech
Another forward received, that I want to keep channelling into the conversation: Howard Zinn's recent speech, “War and Social Justice”, featured last week on Democracy Now. (http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/2/placeholder_howard_zinn)
Zinn reminds us, in his easily accessible way, of a few of the basics of What It Is right now. Of why the American scene has the concerns that it does at hand. These are familiar statistics, but he gives them their place in the context of inequalities. A step back in perspective that we need a lot more often. For example:
- 40 million citizens of this country, who are doing their best to keep themselves economically stable, still don't have health insurance. Although 1 million members of the military have government-provided healthcare now, and it seems to work pretty well for them. (What blows me away about this statistic, every time I hear it, is that it's only 40 million.)
- 200 of the richest corporations pay no taxes. (I can barely stomach this one, even after hearing it so many times)
I like how he keeps it simple, with purpose. Not so much time wasted on inflammatories or abstracts. A few remarks from the speech that resonated, for me:
“Private enterprise is not going to create jobs.” (Yeah. That wouldn't be in its interest, would it? Hadn't thought of it that way...)
“The thing about war is the outcome is unpredictable. The immediate thing you do is predictable. The immediate thing you do is horrible...truth is, you never know what this is leading to...You know that the present is evil, and you’re asked to commit this evil for some possible future good.”
“We don't have to be a military superpower...We can be a humanitarian superpower.”
“We have an educational job to do about our relationship to government, you know...”Friday, January 9, 2009
a few appointments with hope
There IS a little hope out there. I have voices in my head that want me to censor it - " Be Realistic!" they admonish, which apparently means, give in to fatalism and despair. And they gain strength, and steal mine, any time I tune in to media (which is why I call it "mediation", just like "sedation"). But, I need the hope, because I'm human. And I think others do too. No matter how insignificant or unsophisticated it may look, next to the Real News. These few notes, then, from today's Common Dreams listing:
"Obama Picks a Conscience for the CIA"
www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/09-3.
"Let Justice Roll: National Faith Leaders Call for Lifting Economy by Raising Minimum Wage"
www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/01/09-0.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/08-2
And last, a photo on the site's homepage lifts my spirits, irrationally maybe, but offering proof that yes, this change of administrations really is going to happen...the caption preceding the article reads, wonderfully: "President Bush speaks as President-elect Barack Obama looks over his shoulder", and that's just what it depicts.
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