Author Archives: Judith Gayle

The Little Wave

All we are saying is give peace a chance
–John Lennon

Describing this week in figurative terms, let alone literal, is a challenge, but I think there’s a metaphor that will do: smack it on the backside and hold it up into the light, it’s arrived! Yes, I’m talking about the outlines of a nuclear deal with Iran, but I’m referencing a bigger delivery, as well, a larger birthing. Despite duplicitous legislators and ideological governors, despite desperate measures and terror for terror’s sake, despite unconscious behavior and the worst of fear mongering, we seem to have finally pushed past the last barriers of resistance to create that new thing we’ve been longing for: shift in consciousness.

Iran is in the foreground of the news today, and in order to understand what’s occurred, it’s important to discover who these people are. Too many of us think of Iran as the bookend to Iraq, a troublesome and zealous nation bent on destroying America that ‘compassionate conservative,’ George W., consigned to the Axis of Evil (along with Iraq and North Korea). That pronouncement came after decades of demonizing, the dot on the exclamation point of might-makes-right rejection from the western world, but — thankfully — it didn’t end there.

Does anyone remember the hush of shock, followed by cry of outrage and disbelief, when candidate Obama suggested that he would engage Iranian leadership in discussion with no ‘pre-conditions’? As unthinkable as wanting to take one of the Bush twins to the prom! It was considered a major stumble in his presidential aspirations, the musings of a naive, cloistered academic, unsuited for the rigors of leadership (and quite likely a shill for Islam, playing to the great unwashed diversity of American culture).

Now that the President has achieved the outline of agreement with the Iranians to curtail nuclear weaponization — a deal even the most cynical have called remarkable — what was whispered to be his Waterloo, to grab a quote from HuffPost Hill, has now become his Munich. Munich was the place, pre-WW II, where Britain’s Neville Chamberlain made a deal with the Germans, misreading Hitler’s ambitions and abandoning the Czech cause in a desire to avoid war.

Chamberlain is the name war hawks drag out to prove that cutting deals with bad guys only makes you a loser, so you can bet it’s being bandied about today as yet another major mistake and crime against Americanism as perpetrated by the (shill for Islam, unwashed diversity, yadda) black guy, along with his other accomplishments (as outlined here by unabashed liberal and Obama-admirer, Barbara Streisand.)

It can’t be over-emphasized how gloriously empty and misunderstood a moment this is on the right. Conservatives — who have used the Hitler analogy with no there, there for six-plus years — have found enough resonance with a pacifistic stumble in the past to scare the bejesus out of the faithful, although only the old farts and FOX News remember who Chamberlain was (review the paragraphs above if you are not an old fart).

But come — as we gaze at this slippery, new thing we’ve birthed — let us reason together. It’s been thirty-five years since the Iranian revolution and the ouster of American influence, its shift toward radical ideology and purity exacerbated by the fierce isolation of its shunning. Thirty-five years of sanctions and resentment, cold and hot wars with its neighbors, and demonization as a rogue state by much of the civilized world. That’s a long time to hold your head high and wait for a place at the table.

This is, after all, Persia we’re talking about. Its history as an empire is proud, its cultural contributions to art, literature, language and architecture impressive, its population young, multi-ethnic, urban and well-educated. It is not an Arab nation, and its practice of Shi’a Islam (less than 20% of the Muslim religion) makes it the stronghold for this branch of Islamic teaching. I think it’s easier to understand Iran, given its early dominance of the Middle East, as one whose history defines its nationalism. Even pushed to the edge of the herd, it is old, celebrated, and demands respect.

Iran has received very little respect since it ousted the American-backed Shah in 1979. Recreating itself within an ideological template didn’t help, putting theocracy before state and aligning with the hard-edged terrorist groups that had sprung up as Israel became more powerful. So if Iran seems a bit cranky on the world stage, that’s a no brainer. That “Death to America” is as common a salutation as “Have a nice day” shouldn’t come as a surprise to us, given the part we’ve played in reducing its power in the world, ridiculing its religion, insulting its governance, and providing uncompromising support to Israel, tolerating its undeclared nuclear capability, estimated at over 200 warheads.

Not that Iran is one of the good guys. When thinking of Iran, I keep a picture of Neda — the lovely young philosophy student cut down during Ahmadinejad protests in 2009 — close at hand. Her death, captured on video and posted on the web, not only galvanized the election protests but became a point of realization about what social media could do for political causes.

Iran is a military dictatorship governed by radicalized religion, and has no problem whatsoever removing offending citizens to dark holes of medieval torture and pain, or violating the civil rights of women, gays, or those intent on rocking the boat of their hard-line Islamic Republic. Not good guys at all, but insulated and embattled as they have been, how could they have grown into anything else?

Yet now, with the Internet making the world smaller, and an increasingly youthful population wanting to enter the 21st century, the Ayatollah seems amenable to a deal. It should be noted that for much of those thirty-five years Iran had been deemed a danger to the world, punctuated by decades of semi-hysterical warning that they were on the verge of producing nuclear bombs and obliterating the free world. Nothing was up but the rent. Reports that they’ve been two or three months from a bomb for the last dozen years or more are bunkum.

Even now, there is some question as to whether or not Iran really wants nuclear capability, although that seems — let’s be candid — reasonable enough when a nuclear-armed Israel is as dedicated to Iran’s collapse as Iran is to Israel’s. Me, I’ve always thought it was ridiculous to try to prevent Iran from obtaining what so many others had, especially in its own defense. Even now, with outlines of an agreement in place, it seems to me a second-best choice to trying for normalized relationships — although that will have to wait for stability in the region.

Historically, there remain only two ways to stop Iran’s nuclear possibilities: obliterate it or come to the table. For over three decades, the fear-base of the human ego and rampant nationalism erected unscalable barriers against the reasonable option, as a disapproving free world squinted over a great ideological chasm at a defiant Iran. This week, seems to me — against all odds and despite other less altruistic military policies — Obama earned his Peace Prize.

A word about John Kerry as first lieutenant in this enterprise: a man who would have been president if voting shenanigans in Ohio and voting irregularities elsewhere had been effectively challenged. I can think of no job so thankless as trying to herd the various factions of the Middle East into agreement on ANYthing, and, judging by his tireless enthusiasm and work ethic, no legislator is so underappreciated for his service to country.

As fellow veterans, Kerry and John McCain had a close friendship and working relationship years ago, which — sadly — I doubt exists today. McCain has joined John Boehner, who spoke this week from Israel, where he’s visiting with fellow uber-conservatives, echoing the Ted Cruz talking point that frightens children: the world is on fire. And although no one is going to argue that things are safer now than they’ve ever been, it’s more likely that the sensibilities of neocons and war hawks are threatened by smoke and flame, lacking the unquestioned support needed to keep America’s military might exceptional and the war machine oiled.

Foreign policy has moved the needle over the years, our modern version starting with Teddy Roosevelt’s “speak softly and carry a big stick.” Everybody focuses on the big stick portion of that ideology, especially since Teddy was a man’s man, a warrior, and yet it was the speak softly portion that indicates a level of non-aggression that was internationally trusted in a new century. We were just another fledgling nation.

Two wars later, we failed to heed Ike’s warning about the rise of the military-industrial complex — it was perhaps too little, too late — which created a multi-headed hydra that continues to grow in fits and starts. Yet even St. Ronnie the Reagan had limits as he dealt with the crumbling Communism of the 1980s. At this point, center-stage, everyone but the right-wing can see that Obama’s tendency to non-aggression has coupled with Ron’s no-nonsense “trust but verify” to provide new options in foreign affairs.

Will we be frightened out of the possibility of successful nuclear agreement with Iran by the chattering class? Every potential presidential candidate on the right (save a silent Rand Paul) has joined a bevy of old paradigm conservatives jonesing for the “bomb, bomb Iran” scenario. Can we get some perspective by remembering that most every military intervention the Republican Party proposed in the past decade was wrong, and still is?

Will we recall that George W. Bush will go down in history as the man who lit the Middle East on fire to recover non-existent WMD, bought favor with the nation’s treasure, tortured and conquered and broke faith with America’s values, and then stepped away to paint pictures of his feet in the shower? Will we remember that the war in Iraq didn’t pay for itself in the first months, and that they didn’t greet us with flowers in Baghdad? Will we take note of millions dead and nations decimated?

Then let’s agree that a fresh plan to deal with this worrisome issue of nuclear armament isn’t just welcome, but necessary. Let’s agree that the Iranians aren’t really interested in eating our children, and that their young citizens are at least as savvy as our own. Let’s assume that giving them an inch, in terms of sanction relief, is not the equivalent of a mile. Let’s realize that our ability to trust them is as much a leap of faith as is their ability to trust us.

Let’s celebrate a new path forward in a process that has not only been thirty-five years stalled, but unthinkable until now. And — pardon me! — the “don’t do anything stupid” policy of this administration (despite some failures in that regard) speaks to curtailing a level of hubris and military bullying that the majority of citizens, aware of troop exhaustion and our apparent inability to meet the needs of today’s returned vets, find welcome. Just knowing that military intervention is no longer our primary response in how the U.S. does business is a major step in soothing my heart.

Now both the U.S. and Iran have to sell this experiment in peace-making at home. Both face harsh criticism from their hard-line. Republican obstruction is already building walls against this process, and if you believe, as I do, that this is a moment when we must try with all our might to lift up civil discourse and attempt to solve our nuclear challenges, then contact your congress-persons and urge them to support this agreement. Few things have been so important to the peace of the planet and future possibilities of working together to restore balance. Go here to find your legislator.

So: sea change, evidence of a wave of attitude that has brought forth the birth of our new bouncing baby something or other, still blinking against the light and wondering what all that pushing was about. There are other signs — lots of them.

The name Mike Pence will go down in history as one of those governors who stepped on a land mine and saw his higher political ambitions self-destruct like exploding fireworks. Illinois joined a number of other states — mine included — in passing a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, effectively occulting gay rights, and was met with a shit-storm of pushback from not just the LGBT community, but states and businesses determined to boycott such outright bias. One nationwide enterprise responded to pleas from some of their employees by providing interstate transfers and moving allowances.

The Illinois tourist industry was immediately put on high alert, and a defiant Pence walked back his defense of the law. Four days later it was ‘fixed’ to provide guarantees of civil liberties to gay and other diversified citizens. A similar law was passed in Arkansas a day later, but reading the tea leaves, their governor threatened a veto. The bill was quickly amended to provide protections for all.

It should be mentioned that although there was immediate response from activists, it was the business class that got under the skin of state leadership and made it evident that such action would no longer be tolerated. Mind you, this was not a protracted exercise, dawdled over — this was news on Monday and rectified by mid-week.

Just as it’s taken years of pecking away at FDR’s laws and policies to create our nation as unresponsive to those without wealth or influence, you and I began pecking away at the policies that held us hostage to unethical governance over a decade ago. Some of us woke up early in the game, and some are just awakening from their apathy now, but it is our collective baby steps that have brought a change in how we think of these things.

We can find hints of progress all around us, when we’re aware that they’re there. Like an Easter egg hunt, these philosophical adjustments are not hard to spot when we know what we’re looking for. As I’ve spoken of before, animal abuse is in decline, with outrage plummeting Sea World revenue and prompting the end of elephants at Ringling Brothers. Ending animal cruelty — which some of the greatest minds of the 20th century considered the criterion upon which civilization must be judged — is not directed just toward big critters, either. Over 50,000 chickens were rescued, rehabilitated and placed in sustainable situations in California last month.

Change is everywhere. Wages for low-paying industry are being revamped, food production is being rethought, and climate has reached a level where it is no longer ignored. There is push for a new understanding of police procedures, Elizabeth Warren has awakened the youngsters to issues of financial exploitation, and immigration — while fought tooth and nail on the right — will find its proper place sooner, rather than later. These changes are inevitable.

And while the religious have (momentarily) received protection against having to provide means to those things that insult their religious principles, like birth control or abortion, others of us — like those against the death penalty for ethical reasons — have no voice whatsoever in the use of revenue to prosecute (often wrongly) and institute state-sanctioned murder. But bit by bit that is changing as well.

Here is a window into how these baby steps work. The American Pharmacists Association has joined the ranks of doctor, nurse and anesthesiologist associations asking its members to take a stand against providing drugs for execution. According to the board member who drafted the policy, which passed unopposed:

“Changing policy often takes two to three times through the process to bring everyone on board,” Fassett told The Huffington Post. “I was optimistic — cautiously so. But it was as close to a slam-dunk afterwards. Once we had a voice vote, it was clear that the majority of the delegates agreed with the policy.” […]

“Every major organization of health care providers who could potentially be asked by the state to join their execution team now have a uniform goal against this,” he said. […]

“When you’re out by the ocean and the tide finally starts to come in, you think, ‘Which of all those waves is the most important? The first wave that breaks? The last wave to roll in?’ I’m glad we added our little wave to the tide.”

The tipping point for the Pharmaceutical Association came when a group called SumOfUs partnered with “Amnesty International, the NAACP, the National Council of Churches, Reprieve and other groups. They sent a letter co-signed by 31 human rights organizations and religious denominations, to the pharmacists’ association, asking it to take a stand against pharmacists participating in executions.”

A non-profit with over 5 million members, SumOfUs.org describes itself as “a global movement of consumers, investors, and workers all around the world, standing together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable and just path for our global economy. It’s not going to be fast or easy. But if enough of us come together, we can make a real difference.”

They — we — have proved it so. And each political issue we wrestle correlates to a personal one, a matter of insight and growth and willingness that shapes not just our outer world, but our inner world as well.

This new thing is our baby, asking us to see the world differently, to think outside the polarity box and value one another. We made it with the great yearning of our hearts, pushed forward by extraordinary astrological influences, fashioned in painful awareness and determination to overcome the downward spiral of democracy. It is pinned into our future, shaped by our changing consciousness, on days like today — marked by an eclipse that, as Eric mentioned, changes everything and sets what’s new into motion — accomplished by our baby steps in social consciousness and activism, and … yes … hope and change. It is designed from our belief in our selves, our love for one another and our beautiful planet, held in place by our highest aspirations.

Adding our little wave to the swelling tide, then — and with Resurrection Sunday close at hand, reminding us of the power of Love incarnate — let’s cradle this new thing, made from our expanding heart and bathed in the Light of a new paradigm, and pledge to begin again.

All In The Family

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By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

“There is only one perpetrator of evil on the planet: human unconsciousness.”
–Eckhart Tolle

Sandwiched between eclipses, the energy this week has been as jumpy as an irregular heartbeat. What is striking about the week’s news is that much of it came bubbling up from under the radar, catching us off guard. Dismaying accounts from Yemen and Tikrit, from the halls of Liberty University to the inner sanctum of Congress, topped off with jarring news from the French Alps, gave us all pause.

This week a plane full of unsuspecting souls lost their lives in collateral damage to ‘suicide by mentally disturbed co-pilot.’ Information discovered at the gentleman’s home revealed that he had been considered by medical staff unfit to work, but withheld evidence of his psychological issues from his employers and colleagues. Nobody second-guessed this tragedy or saw it coming. May all who are not here to answer the questions that will linger rest in peace.

Not to be flip, perhaps someone should search the files of the first presidential candidate, Ted Cruz, for similar evidence before anyone gets in the clown car with him. Ted announced his candidacy to an obligatory audience at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University on Sunday, revealing his delusion to the nation, although there is method in Ted’s madness. Very little method, however, in Donald Trump’s, who has gone on birther-attack against Canadian-born Ted, grumpily accusing him of stealing his political slogan (the same one that he himself stole from prior generations).

Trump is so clueless to cultural issues it’s a wonder he’s managed to hold on to his daddy’s money all these years, or maybe that very insensitivity to all but his own interests is why he has. Most everyone knows these two characters are “absolutely unfit to run for office,” especially Cruz (as California Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown asserted so definitively in response to questions about his candidacy on “Meet the Press” last Sunday).

It appears that, as Will Pitt tells us, “The 2016 Republican presidential race is officially underway.” Unofficially, of course, it’s been underway since the black guy took office. I’m going to quote Pitt here, because it’s too snarky to miss. Snark, I find, cuts right to the chase. It’s the kind of shorthand that captures so much more than just the facts:

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Ted Cruz is – to all intents and purposes – the true demon spawn of Joe McCarthy, Phyllis Schlafly, several small rocks and an under-watered cactus that nobody ever really loved… and now he is going to be in my kitchen for at least a year. Life is not fair, and this is not a just and decent world, and if I ever needed affirmative, irrefutable proof of this, now I have it.

I know just how he feels. I must admit to having the same response to a glimpse of Ted’s faintly sad choir-boy visage as I had to Stephen King’s evil clown, Pennywise, in his novel It, the only King book I ever had to put down for several weeks in order to collect myself for a marathon run at the ending. Perhaps it’s from early scarring of the religious kind.

Raised in a fairly liberal church, I remember a visit to a relative’s small, backwoods Southern Baptist meeting house that not only confused but distressed me. What had at first seemed kindly, was not. I was alarmed by the pulpit pounding and the sobbing tone in the preacher’s voice, the hell-fire and brimstone business that was calculated to make us all sit up straight and pay attention, the blanket energy of joylessness in the room. These people were, my mother explained later with a sniff, “holy rollers,” although I now know they were only a pimple on the posterior of the fledgling evangelical movement. Even at the age of five or six, I knew this was not a place for me.

An article at the Daily Beast contained this line, which rings like a gong to those who have developed an ear for this level of rhetoric: “It’s a tic in the vernacular of the evangelical subculture Cruz hails from to think of extravagantly passionate sincerity as evidence of honesty and probity.” I find that even here in the Pea Patch, people are wary of Ted. His kind of American dream feels very unAmerican.

Cruz is a Dominionist, anointed by his preacher father as the Messiah who has come to raise up the church, save America, and divvy up the spoils of war to the righteous. I wouldn’t kid you. You may recognize this schism as Sarah Palin’s preference, allowing no separation of church and state. Dominionism is theocracy, the same rigid and tyrannical system we abhor in Iran, only wearing a Jesus happy-face and dressed in capitalism.

The fact that we can’t actually discuss this out loud remains the most ridiculous part of our human family delusion, here in the United States. CNN recently did a piece on atheism that revealed an enormous chasm between what is factual and what is emotional about this topic. We have a long way to go before we can have that conversation without hard feelings and hate-speak. To illustrate, retired legislator Barney Frank has only now revealed his atheism. It was safer, he decided, to let his much-demonized sexuality out of the closet than his religious preference.

I linger on this topic because it will not go away soon, and because, as cartoonist Mark Fiori warns, “As a cartoonist, I really hope Senator Cruz stays in the race as long as possible. As a citizen, I hope he flames out instantly. Even though Cruz is good fun and has such crazed views he’s a made-for-satire candidate, the real story is the dark (and not-so-dark) money that will be poured into this campaign.” Strap in, kids, bumpy road ahead as we face off against a form of consciousness that celebrates fear as godly, and God as fearful.

Moving along, with Netanyahu’s big win behind him, Israel’s shift to the right has put the tiny nation’s vulnerability in the spotlight as nothing has for the last forty years. Revealing eroding approval for Palestinian apartheid and illegal building in the territories, the liberal Jewish lobby, J Street, has made it clear that they do not approve Bibi’s administration and do not consider him their spokesman. This is akin to the Red Sea parting, representing both sea change and generational shift.

John Boehner, planning his trip to visit his new BFF Bibi later this month, gave a news conference in which he asserted that he was “shocked and baffled” by the Wall Street Journal account that Israel had spied on U.S. negotiations with Iran. I believe that might be the very definition of ‘ingenuous.’ Every kid that ever watched an “NCIS” re-run on Turner Broadcasting knows that Mossad spies on everybody.

With the Saudis strafing in Yemen and the Iranians fighting in Tikrit — the Americans supporting both in a kind of schizophrenic frenzy against radicalized brutality — things have become very confusing indeed, a drama likely to ratchet higher. You can’t really tell the players without a scorecard now, and our predictable and annoying dynamic duo, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, jumped on the collapse of Yemen like a duck on a bug, pointing back at Obama’s ‘failed foreign policy.’ Each opportunity for boots on the ground excites this pair like porn, and as consequence, its been a stimulating decade for them. Imagine where we’d be today if we’d rushed to the aid of every country that has succumbed to the (r)evolutionary cadence of the Pluto/Uranus factor in recent years.

While I think it’s true that America must lead — mostly because it has accustomed other nations to suppose it must, weakening their own natural defenses and authority — we simply don’t have the resources or the stomach to police the world any longer. And while few on the left are entirely happy with Obama’s foreign policy, given his hesitation to remove our footprint from the Middle East, his dependence on drones, his national security issues, yadda, those on the right of the political spectrum seem to display so little understanding of the actual issues, the thought of handing them the reins of government chills to the bone.

We can witness that kind of “love it or leave it” mindset in the howl of outrage that met news that Bowie Bergdhal, the soldier traded for Taliban captives, has finally been charged with military crime. That Obama traded for him at all, given his transgressions, enraged the conservative warrior-class, who would likely have let him remain caged forever had they had their druthers, and even now blame him for deaths not entirely his fault.

Bergdahl — who, like so many others, entered the Army on a waiver — will face one count of desertion, and another of misbehavior before the enemy. If viewed through the compassionate lens, he could end up with only time already served (five years in captivity) followed by dishonorable discharge. If the amped-up military mind of the right-wing has its way, of course, he could serve a life sentence for his ‘cowardice’ and be damned lucky not to face a firing squad. This is, after all, the American way: the duty-before-dishonor way General George Patton would demand of a warrior nation. With so much casually overlooked in the fog of war, I doubt Bergdahl’s betrayal of the ‘band of brothers code’ celebrated by the military will be.

While we prefer to sweeten our mythology with talk of heroes and patriots, the push to recruit “dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy,” as infamously pronounced by Henry Kissinger decades ago, became something of a problem during the early years of the longest war in U.S. history. As the Afghan occupation wore on, the quota for warm bodies was accomplished with a pared-down selection process that issued waivers for earlier transgressions; in Bergdahl’s case, an ignored release from the Coast Guard.

Within short order, it seemed evident that if this man was not entirely a conscientious objector, he was at minimum a deeply disenchanted soldier, desperate for an opportunity, according to lawyers, to blow the whistle against what he’d witnessed at his outpost. It’s a conundrum what happened after he wandered away, but I doubt that those of us who eschew war misunderstand the heartfelt rejection of the circumstance that drove him to leave.

A soldier who applied for and received status as a CO explained the process on Democracy Now, and I was startled that the superiors to whom he applied had no idea such a thing was even possible. During the Vietnam war, a close friend became a CO and spent his service obligation emptying bed pans and such. He had genius-range mentality and might have served his country in any number of other more effective ways had American military machinery not been intent on punishing him with ‘demeaning’ activity.

We punish. It’s who we choose to be. But are we so co-opted by the workings of the military-industrial complex and asleep to the corporate aggression that keeps the cogs of commerce turning war to profit that we no longer even TRY to mend this addiction to warfare? Bergdahl’s father, advocating for his son, wonders as well:

“I’m sorry, how can we teach two generations, at least, of children in this country that we have zero tolerance for violence, but we can occupy two countries in Asia for almost a decade? It’s schizophrenic. And no wonder this younger generation is struggling psychologically with the duplicity of this, the use of violence. The purpose of war is to destroy things. You can’t use it to govern.”

Humans have an ability that other species appear not to have. No, I’m not talking about man’s dominion over the natural world, I’m talking about humankind’s confusion over which path is appropriate, which plan is reliable, which direction is preferable. Everybody has a different opinion. If we were ants, all receiving the same essential signals, we would all be working productively toward some similar goal, but instead we’re all — as Eckhart Tolle tells us –“victims of the collective manifestations of insanity that lies at the heart of the human condition.”

We are subject to the distorted perceptions of our earthly senses and we’ve made quite a mess of it. But Tolle tells us that the ego — fixated on ‘fear, greed and the desire for power’ — is destined to dissolve:

” … and all its ossified structures, whether they be religious or other institutions, corporations or governments, will disintegrate from within, no matter how deeply entrenched they appear to be. The most rigid structures, the most impervious to change, will collapse first.”

In his book, A New Earth, Tolle goes on to explain the pain-body which aligns with our victim consciousness, often responsible for our unconscious response to stimulus. We can translate that into a vibrational resonance that pulls things into our experience, like a Karmic magnet. When recognized, the realization that something other than our higher self is creating our reality becomes a deal-breaker, loosening illusion’s grip. When we become aware, then, we can begin to carve away what is not real, not authentic, changing our pattern. Unless we change our pattern, we cannot evolve into the new thing we so desire.

All these people we’ve discussed today — the Saudis and the Yemenis and the Dominionists; Ted Cruz and Donald Trump and Joe McCarthy; the gung-ho soldiers and Henry Kissinger? All family. All cousins, as Eric would say. Not just members of the human family, but part of Maya, the delusional consciousness of form that so often blindsides us. A Course In Miracles would tell us there is only One Son — us. Tolle says there is only One Consciousness — us. That will become our truth only when we realize and inhabit it.

Beginning with the witness of our own little slice of consciousness, then, we can begin to free ourselves from pattern, and hold a similar vision of freedom for our brothers and sisters. The more we observe our selves, the more we are able to observe and discharge (lose the charge toward.) When things are as confused and confusing as we find them today, stepping up into freer form and larger view can eliminate pain, if we will allow it.

As members of one consciousness then, what we bring to understanding today not only changes how we see things, but how things will be seen. That can look very dire, as it appears right now, but Tolle tells us we’re destined to evolve in these extraordinary times, and quickly. Here is the rest of the quote begun at the top of the page, giving us a — simple, Tolle says, but not easy — template for a healed world, a way to view the news of the day and the drama of the moment, a prayer for the whole of our human family:

“There is only one perpetrator of evil on the planet: human unconsciousness. That realization is true forgiveness. With forgiveness, your victim identity dissolves, and your true power emerges — the power of Presence. Instead of blaming the darkness, you bring in the light.”

Here and Now

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By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

“All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal.”
— John Steinbeck

Disquieting things happened this week, things that make you go “hmmmm!” Appropriate, I suppose, for a tense and chaotic period ending with a solar eclipse, super-moon and the equinox, all stacked on one another. Sounds like celestial fireworks to me, punctuating a sea change of some sort, although we may not have more than a glimpse of it.

Of the political arenas bubbling with possibility, some are vast. In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu and his Lukid party came so close to losing the race for re-election that the incumbent Prime Minister found it necessary to show too much of his hand, particularly the race card he’d stashed up his sleeve. Charging Arab-Israelis with a threatening blitz of Obama-inspired left-wing partisanship, he called upon the right-wing — particularly its hard-liners and settlers — to get out the vote, sweetening the pot by pledging to refuse a two-state solution. When the cards got counted, Netanyahu had won the game.

Now comfortably re-elected, he’s tried to walk back that statement, but the bad blood between the administration and Bibi has already stained the relationship, and will continue to strain the bond between Americans and Israel. Up to this point, the public had accepted that the Israelis were making an attempt to come to some international resolution of the “Palestinian problem,” so while questioning appropriate action and the level of brutality aimed at democratically elected, if hostile Hamas, they have given Israelis a lot of leeway in addressing their security issues.

With a long history of cutting Israel slack, the public has given them a pass on aggressive behavior in the territories (as explained last week, taken not in defense against attack, but in occupation as blatant as those of the Western democracies Israel chooses to emulate) and shielded them from United Nations censure. Now, with Bibi having come clean about his intention regarding the peace process itself, he may find he has fewer allies than he thinks. His policies of apartheid have rankled in recent years, but much was overlooked in Israel’s lethargic pretense of finding a peaceful solution. No more.

As quoted in a McClatchy piece: “The average American should be concerned not just because our ally’s leader came all the way to Congress to give the president the finger,” said Khaled Elgindy, former adviser to Palestinian peace negotiators and a fellow at the Brookings Institution, “but they’re thumbing their nose at the international consensus on how to resolve this conflict.”

Skittish as a March hare, FOX News made much ado of Obama’s not calling Bibi to congratulate him, although Secretary Kerry already had. Obama did call late this week, with news that the U.S. will be reassessing its Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The international desire for a workable two-state solution will not be surrendered easily, and perhaps Netanyahu’s lip service won’t be tolerated either.

Even if America finds some way forward with Bibi, the UN may be playing a larger role anyway, given that Europe appears to be similarly miffed with Israel and the settlers’ sanctioned push into contested areas. It’s apparent to all players that an already conservative government has just shifted sharply to the right. For many of us, such news comes with the increased throb of war drums not far off in the distance. Listen to what retired legislator, fire-breather (and secular Jew) Barney Frank has to say about this situation. He’s concerned that Bibi’s stance will contribute to anti-semitism, on the rise in Europe.

Meanwhile, as the world waits to see if Obama can corral congress-critters into anything other than a Mexican stand-off, the vote on Iran sanctions has been put off until April, giving Kerry more time to dicker with a supremely cautious Iran. No one is actually expecting a deal, with Jerusalem apparently as tightly polarized as the U.S. and many of the others watching. With extraordinary and largely unnoted hypocrisy, while Israel’s nuclear weapons cannot (by decades-old presidential agreement) be spoken of in less than hazy euphemism, Iran’s possible acquisition of same must be bellowed into the night as world-ending and demon-inspired, something to scare the children.

There are other things I’d like to mention today, like Diane Feinstein’s going after the quiet insertion of an anti-choice clause in John Cornyn’s human trafficking bill, telling him that (all but one) Dem women would be opposing it — again and again — because “This isn’t your reproductive rights. And by ‘your,’ I mean men.” I’m not always in DiFi’s camp, but she’s got my respect on this issue. The bill has been voted down several times now, Dems holding the line against 60 votes.

Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell is stalling the confirmation vote of Attorney General candidate Loretta Lynch until the trafficking bill is passed. This activity is called ‘holding hostage’ in some camps, although a Republican senator from Illinois said this week that “refusal to pass an anti-human trafficking bill with anti-abortion language was akin to refusing to abolish slavery in the 19th century.” In the eye of the beholder, I guess.

Wait! Was that an admission that slavery wasn’t only a Bible-approved, kindly conceived and benign financial arrangement? Oh hell, probably just a bad metaphor. I find it difficult to give a pass to people who are so tone deaf to these issues that they approve an anti-abortion rider that would require victims of sex trafficking to ‘prove rape’ in order to acquire abortion funding.

As for highly respected Loretta Lynch, she’s waited more than 4 months now, with the Pubs delaying the process at every turn, even though they have truly heinous things to say about retiring Eric Holder. (DO open and read this stunningly embarrassing statement by Missouri’s Lieutenant Governor, to get a sense of just how dark this mid-section of America presents itself. This statement reflects a cynical manipulation of bias, and if truly his own opinion, a remarkable lack of intelligence.) Even Rudy Giuliani has called for Lynch’s confirmation, identifying her as a stellar candidate.

This week the Republicans offered up their own budget, capable, they say, of paying off the debt within ten years, something a leading Dem has called ‘budget quackery’ and even one of their own calls ‘hooey.’ It would be good to discuss all that’s at stake in this dreadful echo of Paul Ryan’s past offering, but since it IS so preposterous — austerity for the poor, good (make that great) times for the one percent — you won’t have trouble finding detailed rants wherever your reading pleasure takes you.

I’d like to touch down briefly on the Clown Car Project — a run-down of those thinking of running for president — because it’s simply bizarre, and makes even our surreal political process of moment less freaky. Like Donald Trump (reported in a snip by Huffpost Hill under the title, STFU) launching an exploratory committee because, “I am the only one who can make America truly great again!” Or our old friend Rick Santorum, who has never actually STOPPED running in the minds of his followers. Open this link to get a sense of those minds, making things Boehner and McConnell do and say seem only mildly irrational. Yes, they’re out there, and if Rick decides to play, they’ll come along. (By the way, you’ll want to visit the Barney Frank link above, if you haven’t already, to hear what he thinks of a Warren presidential candidate as opposed to the inevitability of Hil.)

I read a righty blog this week and learned that Ted Cruz scaring a three-year old by telling her the world is on fire was peanuts compared to Libertards everywhere scaring Republican children with mythological climate change. And seriously, folks, when Glenn Beck warns that you should run from the Republican party because they’re not good people (read that too left of center, complicit with establishment government and mean to Ted Cruz) you have to accept the fact that the wackadoodles have permanently inhabited an alternate reality in which many of us are unwelcome. Beck has the 4th largest radio audience in the U.S., remember — some 7 million listeners — just in case you were laughing too loudly.

There are other tweaked realities out there as well, inviting us to get swallowed up like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole of fear and dread. I read all the time about how there’s never been anyone as brutal and callous as ISIS — as dangerous and inhumane as this radical Islamic collection of gangsters — and wonder if anyone remembers the Holocaust. The Roman Empire. Wonder if they’ve read the travails of Shin Dong-hyuk, who escaped from the North Korean gulags to tell us that MUCH worse than ISIS horrors are every-day events in L’il Kim’s empire.

I wonder if the readers of such frightening articles about the Islamic radicals know they’re being played, not just by the political parties that want to sway their opinion but by ISIS itself, which can only earn street cred as it makes a name for itself by intimidating its enemies.

So here we are, the 2012 energies newly behind, just beginning to dig through the rubble, already exhausted from the ride. One of the channels I appreciate, Patti Cota-Robles of Tucson, has been preparing for these very days and these kinds of challenges for over twenty years. She says this about these fractured times:

We will not experience another March Equinox with a Solar Eclipse until 2053. That does not even include how long it would take for a Super New Moon to be figured into this alignment.

The power and might of this unprecedented influx of Light will be greatly intensified during the Super Full Moon Lunar Eclipse on Passover which is April 4th, and the celebration of Easter which will be on April 5th. From that point on, the Light on Earth will increase exponentially through the remainder of 2015, thus paving the way for Humanity and ALL Life on Earth to be Initiated into a Higher Order of Being.

Under normal circumstances the synchronicity of the Equinox, a Solar Eclipse, and a Super New Moon occurring at the same time would be very powerful, but there is nothing normal about what is happening on Earth at this time. We are truly in uncharted waters.

Due to the monumental shifts of energy, vibration, and consciousness that have occurred over the past few years, Humanity en masse is now able to withstand higher frequencies of God’s Light than ever before. This is allowing the I AM Presence of every man, woman, and child on Earth to actually raise the frequency of vibration within our Earthly bodies the maximum we can withstand in every 24 hour period. This facet of our Ascension process is accelerating the purging taking place within each of us, so that everything that conflicts with the Harmony and Balance of God is being pushed to the surface to be transmuted back into Light. From outer appearances this process makes it look like the World has gone amuck. But that is an illusion.

This purging process is necessary in order for us to tangibly manifest the patterns of perfection for the New Earth.

Take or leave the concept of a New Earth — consider, perhaps, a renewed one — the notion that we are at that point in the purging where everything that seems impossible to deal with is visceral, challenging our good humor, overwhelming our senses and inviting surrender. But surrender to what, that’s the question.

Surely not to defeat. Not to continued warring and escalation of fear and anger. Not to unloving policies and for-profit solutions to every problem, especially when half of this nation’s children are food insecure. That’s THIS nation we’re talking about, not to mention all the rest of the world’s youngsters who are destined to die with swollen bellies due to famine, war and the fear that there ‘isn’t enough.’

If we are to take a new world into a new paradigm of understanding, if we are to re-create ourselves and our culture in a loving, tolerant manner, then we’d better begin to invest in those things that will bring it about. Yes, the personal is political, but we must start even more simply — with our thoughts, with our breath, with our decisions.

Can’t we discuss what isn’t working without insisting that those who have created it thus are ‘bad?’ Can’t we name those things that are wrong, even wrong-headed, without being afraid that we’re perpetuating negativity? Can’t we defy death by loving life? Can’t we?

Let’s begin by being mindful of the powerful vibrational use of our “I AM” declarations. We can begin by bringing the dynamics of awareness to everything we see around us: food, art, environment, conversation, politics, finance. We can begin by using our power of appreciation and gratitude to modify the energy that lean times and fear of lack provide us. We can start taking the baby steps that keep us focused on positive change, that begin to vibrate the whole of creation in a wash of new energy and determination.

Patti CR recommends using the powerful energy of the Violet Flame when thinking of those things so in need of transmutation, balance and renewal. She tells us that things we consider political — like justice and government and industry and economy — are all subject to the same transformative exercise as are the internal experiences of increased compassion, mercy and love.

To leave behind what is old, we must allow it expression, to be recognized and discarded.

Sounds like the long passage we’ve just made, doesn’t it? Here on the weekend when spring renews us, the new moon compels us and the eclipse initiates a new cycle of energy, let’s begin to reshape the world with love, right here — and right now.

The Vision For A Healed Tomorrow

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By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

It’s been a surprising week, one that continued to underline the differences between our sociopolitical polarities in bold cartoon-like strokes, making it obvious that we’ve finally reached that point where something’s gotta give. So this week’s happenings were surprising, but not shocking, considering our understanding that this last hit of the 2012 energies needed to solidify itself in some final paroxysm in preparation for a new set of astrological variables.

For instance, it can’t be much of a surprise that the Ferguson cop-shop and court system are dissolving, given the content of last week’s Department of Justice report. The offensive judge who milked citizens for millions was replaced when the Missouri Supreme Court took over all municipal court activity. Highway Patrol and St. Louis County cops took over policing of the city as the internal process of re-thinking began. Reforms to the Ferguson police force started slowly at the beginning of the week, with pundits on the right protesting innocence of wrong-doing as employees were removed, but things began to speed up with the high-profile resignation of Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson.

That evening we were handed surprise: two police officers, standing outside the Ferguson station where a group of peaceful protestors had gathered, were shot (one in the arm, one in the face; both have since been released from the hospital). The right went ballistic with supposition about the protesters, but it turned out the shooter was not among them, but separate. FOX declared the shooter a thug, of the darker persuasion, of course. “Thug” is now a dog-whistle word referencing black youth.

The left supposed that might be true, given the unattended rage and frustration of the younger citizens, but also suggested that it might have been a right-wing shooter undermining both peaceful protest and the progress made the last few days within various factions of the community regarding police presence and policy. As I write, the manhunt continues, but it can’t be denied that exploited Ferguson citizens were forced to yield the higher ground to explosive violence in the kind of tit/tat exchange that’s been going on for months.

This was also the week when 47 Republicans told Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini that any agreement Iran negotiates with the United States isn’t worth a damn, if they have anything to do with it (which they plan to, once they get rid of the black guy). Joe Biden, as president of the Senate, went after them in a tizzy fit, rebuking them for suggesting that the Commander-in-Chief cannot follow through on his commitments and outlining the dire circumstances that such a failure might produce. Unfortunately, they represent the variables war hawks like best, and because we’ve allowed the press to paint Biden as a buffoon rather than a heavy-hitter (which he is), his condemnation was lost in the echo chamber.

The remarkably naïve letter, signed by a number of seasoned Pubs who should have known better, is the work of a freshman senator who decided the Iranians shouldn’t count their chickens when it comes to normalizing relations, since he and his Bagger buddies have no intention of creating a working relationship with them. This happened in the same week that the United Nations Security Council announced its discussion of pulling sanctions for the first time in more than a decade should there be a deal struck on Iranian nuclear production.

Any deal negotiated by John Kerry would not be legally binding — meaning it could be overturned by another president — but the removal of sanctions by the UN just might be, making the reversal of U.S. participation even more difficult in the future. Discussion among senior leadership in France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany has direct impact on the on-going negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. UN countries remain unyielding in their agreement that Iran must provide strict accountability on nuclear materials, but it also establishes safeguards against piling on more crippling sanctions unless the Iranians break agreements.

Since these Pubs evidently consider themselves the center of the universe, such legitimacy would do little to stop so brash a group of radical politicians as those 47, who are behaving as though they not only have a right to dismiss conventional procedures but a mandate from God. Didn’t John Boehner just prove that, muscling Netanyahu into position to spread the gospel of nuclear fear? After all, this is Iran we’re talking about. This is evil incarnate. This is the goad that will bring about the beloved Apocalypse and return Jesus to Jerusalem.

I suspect there are more than enough of those 47 signers who believe that scenario, as Christian rote, without examination. The rest believe in the awesome war profits and kick-backs contractors enjoy during war time, punctuated by the chest-thumping and patriotic hoo-haw that seems to rise, like fever, in the public sympathies when we put ‘boots on the ground.’

And let’s not forget that the Baggers have no respect for the United Nations, believing it at best, an assault on American exceptionalism, and at worst, a conspiracy to establish a new world order called Agenda 21, which includes denial of property rights, gun control and worse. (This has always seemed to me the essential argument when people say there IS no difference between the two political parties. They may behave similarly within the system they inhabit, but — trust me — there is a wide chasm in how each sees reality.)

Let me segue back to last summer, when those of us in swing states were being assaulted by a barrage of political commercials, 24/7. Since the Pea Patch is in Southern Missouri, close to the Arkansas border, we were treated to short, Disneyesque clips of a young man billing himself as a “Combat Veteran for Congress,” a farm boy with a Harvard law degree who talked ‘country’ and did not bother to hide his ambition for power, giving a personal pledge to stop Obama from ruining his nation. The first time I saw fresh-faced Tom, wearing his flag lapel pin and promising to rip the nation from the hands of the betrayers, I told my son, “Houston, we have a problem. This guy’s all about snake oil and ego defense, but I’m afraid he’s a true believer!”

I got that one right, for sure, but you don’t have to trust my instincts on this. In three short months, Cotton has made his name and more. As an article in Salon, referring to young Tom as an über-hawk, details:

Tom Cotton, Arkansas’ new GOP senator, is already establishing himself as one of the leading doomsayers and fear mongers in Congress, which is no small feat. Indeed, by acting as the driving force behind a provocative open letter to the leaders of Iran and helpfully informing them that any deal reached with the Obama administration over their nuclear program will ultimately be subject to the Senate’s review, Cotton has already made himself a hero to the neoconservative right. In fairness, though, that wasn’t the hardest thing to do: Cotton’s earlier warnings of a (completely fictional) alliance between Mexico’s drug cartels and ISIS, as well as his rant in defense of Guantánamo Bay, had endeared them to him already.

I’m not sure what it is about Yell County, Arkansas, where Tom was born and raised, but you may have heard of it before. Remember the movie classic True Grit with John Wayne winning an Oscar for his self-parody as Rooster Cogburn? If you do, I’m sure you recall the pain-in-the-ass heroine of the piece, a young girl who valued only her own opinion and introduced herself to everyone, as if defining the rationale for her superiority, by announcing “My name is Mattie Ross, of Near Dardanelle in Yell County.”

I’m featuring Senator Cotton this week because he’s going to be with us, like it or not, at least until 2021. That’s a long time to suffer this kind of rash arrogance and skewed reality. Just like young, determined Mattie, pain-in-the-ass Tom is so sure of himself and his radical quest to “protect the Constitution” (as he reads it) that he decided to take on not just the Iranian theocracy but all the citizens of the world who are nurturing hope for peace talks that would prevent a conflict setting the fractured Middle East ablaze. All except the hard-liners in Iran, that is, who don’t want anything to do with a nuclear compromise and would just as soon get about the destruction of The Great Satan, and its 53rd state, Israel. (D.C. and Puerto Rico hold honorary titles of 51st and 52nd.)

So there you have it, the radical right of both nations joined in a bond for warfare, winner take all. And if it isn’t clear by now that the Republican party — having already outlined its determination that nothing will do but an Iran without any hint of nuclear capability, even for energy purposes — is counting on taking over eventually and making sure that such a war occurs and as soon as possible, it should be painfully obvious. Key word: painfully.

When I first read about Tom’s letter to the Iranian government, coming as it did on the heels of Netanyahu’s unauthorized visit, I will admit a sense of shock. That’s two strikes against the authority of the executive in a matter of weeks.

Nothing like this has happened before in American history. No group of politicians has ever crossed the boundary into international territory designated for only the nation’s president, and of course, no group of politicians has been so blatantly disrespectful of a president in my memory. There can be little doubt that such a blow against (perceived enemy) Obama has ramifications in the future as other presidents negotiate internationally, with the wall now broken that unified the American system of governance by branch.

I wasn’t surprised, then, when a front page like this one from the New York Daily News called the 47 Republicans traitors, because to my mind, interfering with an active peace process certainly fits that bill. I hesitated, however, when I was sent a link to the White House petition asking that they be charged with treason. While I do believe their action borders on criminal, I pulled that punch, deciding to wait a bit to see what developed.

Within hours, however, it seemed clear enough to me that not only was the Pub party loudly defending its actions but Red state governors and presidential wannabes were quick to climb on board this speeding train. No hesitancy, no apology, nothing but defiance and justification for the fear-consciousness and power-grab that produced it, including the old “don’t make me hit you” defense: that Obama was responsible for the letter because he didn’t jump the shark and invite (a contentious) Congress into the dialogue with Iran.

That was enough for me. I decided that it was necessary to turn up the volume about the coup the Pubs have been running since they took control of both houses of congress. While I don’t think there is enough “there” there to prove the signers traitors to their country, they’re certainly traitors to the peace of the planet (and its climate health and racial health and fiscal health, yadda ad infinitum). I signed the petition because I want a larger and louder response from this administration.

Polls show that a majority of citizens are as disturbed by this development as I am, so there is already bedrock disapproval of breaching leadership boundaries, influenced, I hope, by the obvious scorn aimed at the Republican party from a world-wide audience that includes the Iranians. We haven’t been this embarrassed internationally since You Know Who was in office. Obama suggested that it was the Repubublicans that had embarrassed themselves, proving, once again, that he really is a mild mannered reporter.

When I first looked at the petition it had already collected some 80,000 signatures. Only 100,000 are needed to earn a formal response from the Administration, and the cut-off point of this petition is one month: April 8th. When I checked today, there are over a quarter-million signatures. If you wish to join this movement for accountability, you can find the petition here.

The We, The People petition has no power except that given by the Obama administration in promising to respond to those concerns. But it seems to me that THAT is what is required to call this situation to the attention of more than the political wonks who follow these things carefully, or casual viewers who don’t. Obama had already mentioned the fact that the letter created strange bedfellows of Iran’s war mongers and our own, but that’s not enough. He’s in a “position,” of course — the same one he’s been in since he was elected.

I’ve never known a president to have to be more careful of his steps on the tightrope of public perception. What can he say about this Republican assault on his authority? “They’re fucking with me again, folks,” isn’t going to win him much sympathy, since we still stick to the false equivalency that one side is just as Machiavellian as the other. No, we need the public to make this call, to decide enough is enough. To smack the Pubs on the nose with a newspaper and send the message that they’ve overshot their mark. And make no mistake, it’s war they’re after. That simply cannot continue to be what defines humankind in the animal kingdom.

By the way, I’m not going to explore the kick-start of another cold war this week, based on Russia’s new military capabilities and enhanced weaponry. FOX News got over-stimulated on Friday with this news, which they see as a foray back into well-known territory, but this is painting a fresh face on old business. Just wars and rumors of wars. And rumors of Putin’s death are a bit hasty, as well.

Continuing a war mentality as the way to pull on the fiscal thread that connects our world cultures has to be examined now. Decisions must be made and they must come from our ethical center, our spiritual understanding, rather than represent food-chain consciousness. Either we remain torn by conflict and enamored by death, or we choose life and embrace that healed vision of ourselves found in the ‘happy dream.’

I’m not a punishment person. From what I understand about the universe and the human condition, carrot/stick reward and punishment may be our lowest level motivator, but it has also created this ridiculous black/white scenario we find ourselves in today. Punishment teaches us fear, instructs us in how to lie to avoid pain and humiliation, and requires us to shove guilt deep within our emotional-body, hindering our relationship to self and others, our growth and contentment. Just about all of the activity of punishment across this globe of ours can be blamed on our (mis)understanding of the Divine.

I love Christianity in its highest form of unconditional love and harmlessness but what we experience as Christianity is more often the patriarchy of religious dogma. Like the conservatives thrusting a stick into the spokes of the peace process, religion does likewise with the practice of actualizing Christ-consciousness which is the epitome of peace.

Yesterday, something really fine happened regarding God and love and spiritual thought versus religion. Neale Donald Walsch has written a new book, God’s Message to the World: You’ve Got It All Wrong. His message is similar to that stated above, that those things we think God expects of us are what we’ve learned to expect of one another, keeping us looping in that punishment/reward consciousness, complicated by what A Course in Miracles calls “attack/defend” behavior. If you would like to read some of the book, the first chapters are available to you here.

In what Walsch calls an Evolution Revolution, he asked people to make copies of a document, 1,000 Words That Would Change The World, and distribute them on Awakening Day, March 12th. Over a half-million copies of the information found their way into libraries, parks, restaurants. Changing our minds about God, whom we have created in our own image, allows us to become more than we allow ourselves to be today. And — much like broadcasting the concerns I wrote about today in a louder voice — getting the word out to those who have been suffering from long-term issues of self-judgment and guilt can benefit from such a great big megaphone!

Eventually, Walsch wants those who are in agreement to buy his book and “leave it” somewhere where they think someone might pick it up and read it. This seems to me a kind of tithing effort, salting larger understanding into the population. Yesterday, a half-million bits of information found their way out into the mainstream. If even one percent of those who read them began an inner dialogue and expanded their consciousness in some loving and meaningful way, enormous progress in the relief of human suffering was made!

In terms of politics as personal, and vice versa, here’s what Walsch has to say:

Right now our species is living a collective global nightmare. Your individual life is part of that nightmare — whether you are, yourself, living unhappily or not. More important, it is those who are not living unhappily (or who actively choose not to) who are the only ones who can turn our continuing global nightmare into the dream that our species has always envisioned. That means you.

There’s that ACIM “happy dream.” In fact, what Walsch writes won’t surprise those of us who have investigated the spiritual realms, but it’s a system breaker for those who think that they must earn their way into Heaven and are subject to punishment when they disobey. This is indicative of what Walsch calls separation issues, a form of suicide consciousness: a great wound in need of healing which represents the biggest Chiron project I can think of and the kind of compassionate mind-change it will take to Shift the Era.

So what to do? We have the choice for creating tomorrow. We have the ability to turn fear into forgiveness and collaboration. We have the megaphone, if we want to pick it up. Look around you. We’ve already begun that journey.

In closing, I try to include a positive bit of news each week, something to lift our spirits. Here’s that bit for this pivotal week: the Utah state legislature has passed a new law, with the approval of the LDS church, protecting LGBT folks from discrimination. If the Mormons can get on board with a loving, inclusive action like this, despite their religious hesitations, then that’s the ball game, boys and girls. The Shift is well begun and tomorrow is in our hands and our hearts — it’s up to us.

Parallels, Déjà Vus And Do-overs

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By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

“If Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons, this could presage catastrophic consequences, not only for my country, and not only for the Middle East, but for all mankind,” adding that, “the deadline for attaining this goal is getting extremely close.” — Bibi Netanyahu, addressing a joint session of Congress in 1996

As we prepare to spring into daylight savings time, if not spring itself — and complete the signature energies of the 2012 astrology, culminating in the the final Uranus/Pluto square — it would be good form to huddle around the campfire in our parkas and mittens to assess where we find ourselves now. Uranus always picks us up and drops us somewhere else. Combine that with the bone-grinding transformational abilities of Pluto, and we should all be much different critters than we were just a few years ago.

Uranus acts as the harbinger for change but should not be such shocking energy, given its regularity in our human experience. Humankind is, for the most part, complacent in its affairs, long-suffering in order to maintain even the most meager comfort zones. When Uranus comes along to blast us out of that nest, it’s likely that we’ve already outgrown it like a too-tight shoe, but one we think we can’t do without. Pluto, on the other hand, works below the surface, eroding and reshaping the platform we stand on to prepare us for a new iteration of experience. If our consciousness reflects what we know, by the time a Pluto transit finishes with us we know a lot more than we did before.

In simplistic terms, then, regular Uranus/Pluto transits provide us a kind of shocking but necessary growth-spurt. Comparing the 1950s with the ’70s, for instance, leaves us with no question that something shook the culture like a dog with a bone, providing it with a very different outlook on both the world and itself. Our current challenges of both politics and culture, then, should be representative of where we’re headed in the near future.

Should be. What a concept! Truth was a little easier to sort out in the 1960s. Journalism was yet to be a commodity bought and paid for, and because history repeats and repeats and repeats, we at least have a template to review as we face what appears to be a series of interesting parallels. Let’s take the recent performance in front of both the Congress and, via media, the American people by Israeli Prime Minister (and incumbent candidate) Benjamin Netanyahu.

Invited without prior White House approval by House Speaker John Boehner, who has been somewhat reckless (read that puffed, toad-like) in defending his right to exercise such congressional overreach, Netanyahu gave an impassioned speech warning against the horrors of a nuclear Iran. It was essentially the same speech he’s given over the course of decades, twice previously to the American Congress, and — as Obama rightly assessed it — offering nothing new.

Israel’s Prime Minister gave the de facto “be afraid, be very afraid” speech, emotional and manipulative, and it brought the Republicans to their feet in wild applause some forty times in forty minutes. Bibi’s references to biblical history were made to order. As Huffpost Hill put it, “Benjamin Netanyahu told Congress that the goal of keeping Iran at bay is a charge of biblical proportions, making it only the 502,743rd thing Republican lawmakers think God wants them to do.”

A number of prominent Democrats refused to be strong-armed into attending the speech, including Al Franken and Elizabeth Warren. Both cite the timing of the speech, coinciding with the coming Israeli vote, and the manner in which it was arranged, while pledging solidarity with Israel proper. Associated with the right-wing Lukid faction, Bibi has come under fire at home as well as on these shores for his war-mongering in the face of Iran/American nuclear negotiation, threatening the relationship with this nation.

Even the former chief of Mossad (2002-2010) Meir Dagan has criticized his theatrics, telling the press prior to the speech that “the person who has caused the greatest strategic damage to Israel on the Iranian issue is the prime minister.” And Bill Moyers offered a harsh indictment of both the incident and Netanyahu’s motives, focusing on the presence of Jewish gazillionaire, Sheldon Adelson, in the gallery of Congress — not to be ignored, since Mrs. Adelson evidently dropped her purse from the second story onto the head of an unsuspecting Democrat. A perfect dot on the exclamation point of the money-man’s presence in Washington, given Adelson’s propaganda machine in Israel, promotion of Neocon principles, and funding of conservative U.S. candidates with an avalanche of both tracked and dark contributions.

For our purposes, the Moyers piece is Must Read, as well as this one by Professor Marjorie Cohn, offering information on another of those manipulative historical moments when emotion rather than facts seized public sensibilities. A day prior to his congressional speech, Netanyahu addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), refreshing their enthusiasm with references to the Six-Day War, in which Israel defended itself against aggressions from Egypt, Syria and Jordan, and laid claim to the Palestinian territories, which it holds to this day.

The entirety of that narrative — much like the early, highly fictionalized book of Israel’s beginnings by Leon Uris, Exodus — has been mythologized, ignoring the troublesome facts that Israel itself was the aggressor in ’67, seizing Palestinian lands with a level of brutal militarism that smacks of both genocide and war crime. Long hidden, actual facts are now available to those who wish to examine them. Proofs of such claims are irrefutable in the confessions of Israeli soldiers of that time, one of whom asks a question that could surely be asked today: “Are we doomed to bomb villages every decade for defensive purposes?”

Still, you won’t find that discussion in mainstream media, and while Israel no longer enjoys a Teflon coating against criticism, largely due to its heavy-handed policy of apartheid in the occupied territories, nor an overly sympathetic relationship with this presidential administration, the American people are easily persuaded by lofty rhetoric. A CNN poll found that Bibi gained some ground in popularity this week, and it can’t but help the Israeli cause that scenes of senseless brutality from the Boston Marathon bombing are filling the airwaves today. It’s hard to beat back the pathos of carnage and dying children.

The good news is that the polarity between those who favor more sanctions on Iran to halt the peace process and those who see that as hawkish aggression hasn’t changed the politics a whit. And while it can be argued that there are more of us looking carefully at the part that Israel plays in its own troubles fifty years later, it’s not yet enough to require a dramatic level of honesty and self-assessment from either their government or our own, in enabling them as war-makers, not peace makers. I wonder how many of us thought about the early occupations when the Towers fell and the question echoed: Why do they hate us? Maybe one of the reasons they hate us is because we looked the other way in 1967.

Another blast from the past that can’t be ignored is the Department of Justice report that leaves little to the imagination regarding police activity in Ferguson Missouri and indeed, the entirety of St. Louis County. I don’t want to say I told you so, but I did, and remain bewildered that some 49 percent of those polled this week think that cops treat whites and non-whites the same. I think it’s pretty clear that, regarding race, we’re still color blind, not in a good way. The conservative faction of the Supreme Court has made that even more problematic, of course, siding with those who presume the nation to be post-racial. That, as well, is a choice in belief and, much like Mr. Netanyahu’s version of the Six-Day War, both cynical and manipulative.

Last August, scenes of smoke and fire and snarling dogs, baton-wielding police facing off against a sea of dark faces (and dotted by the occasional pale one) were reminiscent of grainy black-and-white images flashed on television sets around the nation in 1965. If this issue of black exploitation and denial of civil rights didn’t bring Selma to mind, then this season’s award-winning movie of the same name, produced by Oprah Winfrey in time for the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the King marches, certainly did.

While we’re on the topic, then, let me manipulate your emotions a bit by including links to the music, Glory, which won an Oscar, bringing many to tears. Since you’re being manipulated by everything from Kim Kardashian’s choice of hair color to those well-meaning [sic] Koch brothers’ ads about providing good jobs for America right this minute, you might as well get a taste of the passions renewed in this on-going battle for civil liberty.

No less than the President of the United States will join in the 50th anniversary remembrance of the Bloody Sunday assault on protestors in Selma, Alabama, this weekend, as will a number of others, an estimated 20 percent of Congress including but not limited to progressive legislators. Certainly long-serving Georgia congressman John Lewis, son of sharecroppers and one of the original Freedom Riders who suffered a skull-fracture on that infamous day, will attend. Lewis commented that he sees all the parallels, then and now, with one disturbing missing piece: “The only thing that is so different [is that] today, I don’t think many of the young people have a deep understanding of the ways of nonviolent direct action.”

No ranking GOP representatives will be in Selma this weekend. I suspect that says everything we need to know about how the conservatives view this anniversary, especially in so polarized an atmosphere as we find ourselves today. And let’s remember that it wasn’t simply the treatment of black citizens being protested fifty years ago, it was also their inability to guarantee their voting rights, something still being denied them whenever possible in Republican strongholds across the nation. And while it took two more tries to make it into Montgomery, the images of racial brutality on that march are permanently seared into the consciousness of the nation. Take note of that as one of those things that wouldn’t have happened without (the dreaded) television coverage of yesteryear.

So here we are, fifty years and counting, déjà vu all over again as we stack up the dead bodies of young black kids across the nation. And while the civil rights legislation of Johnson’s era served us all to bring the black demographic into better social and financial standing, those protections are now in sharp decline due to factors such as the war on drugs and income inequality, to name just a few. And it isn’t just people of color who are being victimized by heavily militarized law enforcement. The Ferguson report shows a level of authority-gone-paranoid, therefore reckless, that transcends race to include those in poverty, unable to hire adequate defense, and — you know — “There but for the grace of God …” Essentially, we are all endangered.

Clearly, issues of racial bias are not easily dealt with, nor can they be tolerated if Lady Justice is to be blindfolded but balanced. We count upon her ability to define cultural equality, unassailed by the issues that would promote prejudice. It is BECAUSE we humans are not able to be entirely neutral arbiters of law that law itself is required. Those laws must not only be carefully crafted but enforced. As we found in 1965, they require not just update to ensure all of our citizens are receiving their constitutional rights, but enforcement carefully monitored to eliminate abuse or mismanagement.

I think we can file this one under “re-do,” as in continually re-doing that which does not meet strict legal standard, with laws carefully scrutinized (and dots connected back to voting for well-meaning and ethical lawmakers). Democracy demands a constant and perpetual re-do, as required. I would feel much better about it if I didn’t agree with John Lewis that our disdain of what is “old” and “outdated” leaves us ignorant of what worked so potently in the past. It would be well to remember how Gandhi and King and others dedicated to non-violence did the deed. Each of them spoke to the power of love to overcome great inequity.

As we continue to wrestle the big historical parallels, I’d also like to point out a few examples of positive progress this week, little bits and pieces that make up the texture in the fabric of the whole. Acknowledging the Nessus-effect, baby steps get us where we’re going even if it takes more, collectively speaking, than giant steps, and their sequence may end up covering more ground than we expect.

The most recent jobs report — adding over a quarter-million positions — still reflects salary inequalities that must be dealt with, but the economy continues to grow despite wage problems. Wall Street isn’t celebrating, though, fearful that the Fed will raise interest rates. I think we’ll look back on this period in history — when money was available for pennies on the dollar — and fault government for not taking advantage of that to shore up, mend and improve all that’s wrong with our infrastructure. Still, stabilization of the economy provides more latitude to override crippling austerity measures.

We can’t seem to agree on the science of vaccines, but it appears we’ve come to collective agreement regarding over-medicated feed-stock. McDonalds has joined the growing list of fast-food providers that will phase out use of antibiotic-fed chickens. News of the growth of drug-resistant mutant microbes has finally filtered down to the mainstream, especially parents who cave to their child’s demand for McNuggets. This is likely very good news. Like last week’s announcement that Wal-Mart was giving its employees a raise, McDonalds leads the industry — and the game remains Follow The Leader.

The Greatest Show on Earth is going to be even greater, thanks to pressure from dedicated animal activists. Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey circus is getting set to retire its elephant herd of 43 trained pachyderms, the largest herd in North America, to a 200-acre sanctuary in central Florida. This comes on the heels of a negotiated settlement of over a quarter-million dollars to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for animal welfare violations. Legislation in various cities forbidding the use of bull hooks added to the decision by Feld Entertainment Corporation.

According to their Vice President, Alana Feld, “There’s been somewhat of a mood shift among our consumers.” I think it’s pretty obvious that ‘mood shifts’ are what happens when consumers see the back story on just about everything — think of it as the rails upon which the Hundredth Monkey rides.

A blog over at Huffy gave Feld kudos on its decision and threw down the gauntlet on a parallel company who has done the exact opposite, saying, “Your move, SeaWorld.” If they’re smart, they’ll re-think their bid to create even more space for their whales while maintaining the cute-Shamu-tricks that made them rich, the whales psychotic, and the trainers dead.

One last note, with a nod to recent polls that show most people now know what a Mercury retrograde is: as the Dawn space probe entered orbit around Ceres, noting that it is very round and not like Vesta (which apparently has the appearance of a squashed dinner roll) the world has finally been introduced to dwarf planets. One never knows how this information will be met, but what becomes part of the public conversation always translates into dots connecting us together, somewhere. Perhaps, investigating, some will find Planet Waves who need to be here, perhaps even some who just learned about Mercury retrogrades.

We’re at an interesting juncture now, awaiting the last of the Uranus/Pluto energy, solidifying what we’ve learned. A work in progress, examining what we’ve re-experienced, reviewed, resolved and preparing to move ahead with it. What will that mean to those who don’t want things to change, even though they already have? What will that look like to those who insist on change, even though it feels like their feet are mired deep in concrete?

What last important happenings await us in our journey toward solid footing? Life happens while we’re busy making other plans, and only in looking back do we see how we took the steps necessary for progress, seldom seen while we’re taking them.

Like weather, change happens on a regular schedule. Like lightning, emotions assault us, shake us and wake us up. Like evolution, baby steps take us forward slowly but surely. And those who think that the chicken came before the egg might also suggest that it’s the leaders of the country calling the tune — but not, I think, during those exciting years under Uranus/Pluto aspects. One of life’s mysteries is how slowly time can go while folding on itself at the same time, how stress can be glorious and peace boring. We’re going to miss this transit when it’s gone.

Our collective power to sway the whole of the conversation remains just outside of our peripheral vision, as if we’re afraid to know how powerful we truly are. We’ve created the emerging outcome, we’ve crafted it for its lessons and its opportunities. Now we’ll see what we’ve produced.

I’m confident we’ve changed enormously in the last few years, sensitizing ourselves to one another and opening our hearts, and it won’t be long before we find out how that’s going to look. I’m just hoping it doesn’t involve paisley.

One More Time

14 Replies

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

I was sitting at my computer mid-morning, wearing three-layers, attempting warmth on a 10-degree day. More snow is due by Monday here in Missouri, and there was snow this week in Washington, D.C. as well. Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, author of The Greatest Hoax: How The Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, scooped up a handful and tossed a snowball onto the Senate floor to ‘disprove’ reports that this is, overall, one of the warmest winters on record. Consider it theatrics of the mendacious kind. Inhofe will go down in history as a belligerent curmudgeon, if that kindly. I consider him a danger to global security.

Perhaps he should listen to the nation’s hands-down favorite Today Show weather man, Al Roker, who named the extreme temps this week due to climate change. Roker is about as mundane as a corn dog and a coke, so perhaps Inhofe should think twice about trying to twist the rubes’ tails with stunts, now that Willie Soon has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Soon, an aerospace engineer, climate truther advocate and part-time employee at the Smithsonian, has long been quoted on the right as an ‘expert’ on the topic of climate. He’s one of 58 such experts promoted by The Heartland Institute, the most influential of the climate truther think-tanks, frequently referenced on FOX News.

The Daily Beast vetted the 58 and found that only three have credentials that would entitle them to an informed opinion, noting that Greenpeace had recently discovered that Willie Soon is employed by the Charles G. Koch Foundation and other fossil-fuel advocates, to issue “deliverables”: scientific papers refuting climate change. The Beast also notes that one of the three actual atmospheric scientists took 40 percent of his funding from the industry, while the truther movement itself is entirely funded by big oil, resulting in “an avalanche of bullshit.”

Since not a single Republican validates global warming, I think we can assume that across the board, their bread is well buttered by petroleum. We should also be aware — as in loudly declarative and obnoxiously so, if required — that as a party they are LYING to the nation, for profit and on purpose. Isn’t that obvious enough now, to catch everyone’s attention? Isn’t that enough to begin to question their motives on who and what they represent? The question: Do they represent us, or only themselves?

Jon Stewart, feeling the pressure of exit count-down, has gone at FOX with real passion the last few days. His most recent hit was a challenge between FOX and The Daily Show in a ‘lie-off.’ He proved his point with an amazing little snip called “50 Fox News Lies in Six Seconds,” just a glimpse of what he’s spent much of his career exposing in recent years. And because these things are synchronous, this comes at a time when one of the more (strange but true) ‘moderate’ of the FOX commentators, bully-boy and ego-case Bill O’Reilly, has come under fire for embellishing the truth.

I suppose if O’Reilly hadn’t expressed so much faux-outrage about Brian Williams inserting himself into historical events, the spotlight wouldn’t have swung back so quickly to catch him up. As it is, however, no less than four previous statements of O’Reilly’s have come under scrutiny by those who were there. Despite what Bill has said, he did not see nuns shot in the head in San Salvador; protests in Buenos Aires, where he was reporting, were neither a ‘war zone’ during the Falklands war nor particularly dangerous; he was not outside the door of George de Mohrenschildt, friend of Lee Harvey Oswald, when he committed suicide; and he and his crew were never “attacked by protesters” during the Rodney King Los Angeles riots in 1992.

Should O’Reilly represent a rational world-view or any level of respected journalism, we could expect this kind of fiction to create a shit-storm, similar to Williams’s helicopter tale. Nothing on the right side of the spectrum requires supporting fact, however, so no surprise, ratings for The Factor have jumped in these last couple of days. Everybody wants to hear Bill’s bluster, belligerent in the manner of Limbaugh and every bit as much a shock-jock and provocateur. Everyone, it seems, wants to watch O’Reilly lie.

O’Reilly’s No Spin Zone — as accurately descriptive of his show as FOX News is fair and balanced — has won some viewers but has it won any respect? And does anyone actually care? The FOX brand stands behind O’Reilly as an entertainer, not a reporter. The nation should be able to examine that stance, compounded by the examples of outright lying and skewed reporting that Stewart offered, and determine that not very much presented on this news [sic] show is anything other than extremist propaganda.

Indeed, nobody is calling for O’Reilly’s head on a plate. They KNOW he’s outrageous and his rhetoric is slanted. They KNOW FOX News isn’t objective reporting. Most of us can say with certainty that very little FOX News has to say is more than right-wing clap-trap, designed to ensnare a morbidly paranoid right-wing base, but they still have a place at the table, they still show up for White House briefings, and we tolerate them in the name of “bipartisanship” or some such nonsense. Why can’t we connect those dots to condemn obvious flim-flam?

We should be very, very clear about this kind of statement when we hear it, and be quick to respond. Taking our sweet time has given the right the opportunity to move the football so far to the right that we’re all whistling Dixie. Every time we hear something that serves no one but the privileged, we should sing it to the heavens, tweeting and blogging, talking with friends and acquaintances, making it plain that with plans like these for the average citizen, right OR left, the conservatives “just aren’t that into you.”

Here’s more counter-intuitive flim-flam. The Republicans still want to privatize your Social Security, but don’t want oversight into the fraudulent banking that put the world on the edge of fiscal plummet. Sounds to me like they’re pushing the old folks to the edge of the herd while shoring up the one-tenth of one percent to which they all aspire. The question for your neighbor: “So you’re willing to allow your retirement funds to be gambled on the stock market?”

Every one of the Pub presidential wannabes have declared that they would void the Affordable Care Act without having a replacement. What’s being said, ultimately, is that showing up at hospital emergency rooms is good enough for the indigent, the uninsured, and the helpless, who would only thrive under preventative care, costing more to keep alive than they’re worth. And didn’t God say he helps those who help themselves? (Actually that was Aesop, not the Bible, although three-quarters of those polled thought it came straight out of the Good Book. It’s been cited as a favorite quote of pick-pockets.)

Can we see how well this serves plutocracy? An underemployed nation, no longer expecting benefits, quickly becomes grateful for what it can get. Witness Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, the (deliberate) decline of the union movement and the rise of Right To Work legislation across the nation. From the point of view of the business class, workers should be grateful to have a job at all, let alone health care. Isn’t that what Republicans are actually saying? And isn’t that reminiscent of the default ‘death panel’ that Palin was sure the godless liberals wanted to foist upon her? The question for the neighbors: “Are you sure you can trust the insurance companies to cover you? Not to increase your rates? Are you sure you’ll keep your health care coverage if you change your job?”

Here’s a case in point. As I write this, the U.S. House of Representatives is preparing to punt on funding Homeland Security — their very own and very personal hedge against all things that go bump in the night — rather than allow Obama to go forward with his immigration plan. The message couldn’t BE any clearer! Are you of Latino heritage, citizen? The right-wing faction of the American political process is at war with your race. They are never going to allow you equality, so it’s in your best interests to not only ignore them, but to begin taking every opportunity to declare your independence from austerity and manipulation.

In Chicago this week, sitting-mayor Rahm Emanuel was forced into an election run-off — the first ever for a Chicago mayoral candidate — with Chuy Garcia, a Mexican-American immigrant who has come up through the populist ranks. A Democrat, Emanuel has always been controversial, not a politician to engender affection, and this time, in a city infamous for crony capitalism and corruption, his elitist connections and big money did not prevail. Garcia’s win against Emanuel’s thirty-million-dollar war chest can be rightly called extraordinary. The neighborhoods connected the dots in the Windy City, got out the vote, and shook the foundations of outworn tradition. Garcia faces a steep climb now, and deserves whatever support we can offer his campaign.

This is exactly the way it’s going to have to look all over this nation before we can say we understood the message of this new century, putting to rest the echoes of inequity reminiscent of the last one, and a radical religious streak that hasn’t been equaled since Cotton Mather pounded a pulpit. Before we can beat back the nameless fears that assail us, geld those who play us against one another, or put an end to the constant manipulation we’re exposed to, we’re going to have to recognize the face of radicalism when we see it.

ISIS is, on all accounts, a hybrid of the various terrorist movements of the last few decades, constructed from the DNA of every perceived outrage in the Mid-east, enhanced with the techno-talent of a hopeless generation, and fashioned over the bones of the unjustly dead. I agree with Obama that it should not get any props for being a legitimate part of Islam, or even a title used for an esteemed enemy. Each outrageous act of brutality is a plea for attention and legitimacy, like those of L’il Kim in North Korea, only infinitely worse because they don’t actually want response from the U.S. except in ordnance and warfare. They are a rogue end-times cult, marketing nihilism like snake oil medicine, bent on hastening the end of the world. Sound like anyone we know?

Here on our shores we have a radical religious movement wedded to a self-serving political party buoyed and supported by a for-profit corporate body that has turned this nation into a zombie eating its own brain. Bigotry and repression are not just tolerated in this mix but promoted. Black kids are seen as the enemy, gay persons must be turned ‘normal’ and women must not be allowed sexual freedom. To those who currently hold the good of the nation in their hands, government, medicine, education must all be leveraged for profit, quietly cutting the legs out from beneath America’s roots in democratic socialism.

And face it, those mindlessly pursuing profit are oblivious to the bottom line of this God-given mission: to kill off every progressive plan, liberal thought and public give-away until the Second Coming, which will arrive on the heels of a fiery conflagration in Israel. (And just so you know, it was a devious plot by noxious Hollywood liberals that American Sniper — the heroic story of a warrior living and dying by the scope of his rifle and his patriotic American values — did not win a deserved Oscar for Best Picture.) Yes, here in America we have some radicals of our own.

ISIS kills those who oppose it in as loud and dramatic a fashion as it can muster. Can we admit that the politics of this nation is slowly and quietly strangling its own, pushing policies that make us weaker and dumber? Meanwhile, the world awaits a rational American partner to rebuild and renew the planet. The question: who’s the radical, again? Who are the haters? Who are the lovers?

Now, take a deep breath. It’s a relief to face things clearly, and since we still have a good deal of illusion about what military-might can do for us in this country, we DO need to look very carefully. On the plus side, it’s not all bad news, here in the purge of darkness and Shift of Era. In fact, there have been a couple of big things to celebrate this week, things that give us the hope necessary to keep on keeping on.

The FCC has voted to support net neutrality, so remarkable a change in philosophy going foreword that long-time observers are stunned at the turn-around. This decision is akin to civil rights legislation, creating a level of equality upon which we can continue to build. Also, the XL Pipeline legislation was vetoed in the Oval Office — only the third veto of Obama’s presidency — but be aware, the pipeline itself is still in play, while the Republican proposal to approve it has been disposed of.

For American readers, there is activism needed to shore up these fragile successes. Our attention is still needed to make our desires known about these important breakthroughs. There is more to do. Next, the FCC needs to hear from us about the possible merger of Comcast and Time-Warner, in what we used to call ‘monopoly.’ Consumers Union will deliver your comments, here.

The Pipeline is still under consideration, and we need to continue advocating against it. For their part, the Republicans will try for a veto override next week, and we need to stay on top of that. Nine Senate Democrats and 28 House Democrats approved this legislation; check to make sure none of them were yours, or if they were, contact them with your view on this defeated legislation. Here’s the list from Daily Kos:

These are the 28 House Democrats who voted with Republicans last time: Terri Sewell (AL-07), Jim Costa (CA-16), Gwen Graham (FL-02), Patrick Murphy (FL-18), Sanford Bishop (GA-02), David Scott (GA-13), David Loebsack (IA-02), Dan Lipinski (IL-03), Cheri Bustos (IL-17), Cedric Richmond (LA-02), Tim Walz (MN-01), Colin Peterson (MN-07), Rick Nolan (MN-08), Brad Ashford (NE-02), Donald Norcross (NJ-01), Albio Sires (NJ-08), Sean Maloney (NY-18), Kurt Schrader (OR-05), Bob Brady (PA-01), Mike Doyle (PA-14), Jim Clyburn (SC-06), Jim Cooper (TN-05), Al Green (TX-09), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Gene Green (TX-29), Marc Veasey (TX-33) and Filemon Vela (TX-34)

These are the nine Senate Democrats and independents who voted with Republicans last time: Michael Bennet (CO), Tom Carper (DE), Joe Donnelly (IN), Claire McCaskill (MO), Jon Tester (MT), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Bob Casey (PA), Tom Mark Warner (VA), Joe Manchin (WV)

Contact your legislator here by scrolling down to Elected Official and picking your poison.

Rather than become overwhelmed by all that needs doing, let’s remember that the dregs must rise from the bottom before the glass can fill with clear water. It may feel as though we’ve talked and talked and yelled and yelled, argued and objected and made ourselves a target at family dinners and city meetings. It may feel as though we’re worn down to a nubbin, speaking truth to power as we might, but — oh, my dears — we’ve only just begun.

One more time, dearhearts, into the breach. The stars have moved us closer to awareness, our circumstances opening opportunity from moment to moment, and we must use what’s at hand to lift ourselves and others into something other than disabling, nihilistic end-times rhetoric. We owe one another activism in service to healing the planet and her wounds. We owe one another the loving attention that is at the heart of decent leadership and common good. The least we can do is ask the questions, tell the truth and expect the best of, and for, one another.

If you need to hear someone speak truth to power this week, go here to listen to California fire-breather Barbara Boxer give the Pubs a piece of her mind over the Homeland Security smack-down. She makes their actual intent very clear, and if your neighbor still isn’t listening, send this YouTube. They may hear something that sounds — oh so very — familiar. Do not underestimate the shifting currents that can make us suddenly visible to ourselves, the energies of change that urge us to remain teachable.

Let me put it another way. Nothing we — any of us — ever did entirely for our own good, with thought to no other, served the world around us or improved life on the planet. Is that who we want to be, who we want to elect and what we want to become? Impoverished in plenty? Heartless in power? Culturally mindless and spiritually hopeless?

No? I didn’t think so. A Course in Miracles tells us that the goal is not to achieve a perfect world, but to heal our perception enough to experience the one we’re in as a ‘happy dream.’ That’s the work. One more time, then, find the good; bless the righteous; act to counter, without judgment, the unkind and selfish; and serve the Light.

With Friends Like These

15 Replies

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

“Fear and guilt are your only enemies. If you let go of fear, fear lets go of you. If you release guilt, guilt will release you. How do you do that? By deciding to.”
— Neale Donald Walsch

Rudy Giuliani told us this week that Obama hates America, and that his comments aren’t racist because Barack had a white mother. With logic like that, how is it that he wasn’t elected president, again?

Marco Rubio, eyeing a run himself, had a sudden attack of conscience, making it impossible for him to allow Homeland Security to go unfunded unless Obama gives up his immigration plans. He abandoned his party, if you believe Breitbart readers and others on the extreme right. There goes his run for the Oval Office. And a legislator in South Dakota equated Planned Parenthood with ISIS, saying that both were ‘dismembering’ and ‘beheading.’ He no doubt has presidential aspirations.

This was the week that Jeb Bush tried to convince us that he was neither his father nor his brother, to no avail. Long touted as the smart brother, I was surprised how clumsy his presentation was, and dismayed by his tone-deaf list of political consultants, including infamous Neocon Paul Wolfowitz (who, bubbled in his own reality, believes Dubby won the war in Iraq).

I know it seems too early to be thinking about the next election, but the money is being divvied up right now, the largest portion of it swinging toward Jeb. Chris Christie’s star appears to be fading, while that of Wisconsin’s union-busting governor, Scott Walker, is rising on the far-right. Walker recently told the nation, with a wink and a grin — similar to the wink and grin that a clever used car salesman employed to sell me a lemon of a Corvair, several decades ago — not to bet against him.

Walker, by the way, seems typical of a new brand of conservative that I find disturbing. He doesn’t have the chops for this amount of hubris. Riding on his success in his home state, he concludes that he’s entitled to it everywhere. Tea Baggers are like this, especially when they quote their party’s leadership about what “the nation” wants (a personal peeve of mine) while skidding on the reality of their own rural and regressive voters. The nation, the world, is bigger than their view, but they seem both myopic and misinformed. The worrisome part of that is, so are the voters who support them in a system that badly needs reinventing.

At this point, Jeb has the establishment vote but not the nomination, while whoever gets the nomination is not likely to please the establishment. This is not just perception, not just fact, but an acknowledged Republican meme. If you aren’t regressive enough to please the rural crowd, you’ll never get a shot at the big time. Yet reaping the whirlwind of that wisdom and the gerrymandered districts that gave us Tea Party zealots, the Republicans find themselves too radical to either govern the nation or win a national election, and the excuses bellowed from their media bullhorn (FOX News) are increasingly unable to excite more than the faithful. This is policy akin to witlessly falling on one’s sword, but I fear not quickly enough to loosen the grip of irrationality that has seized us.

Why am I focusing on a political event more than a year out, with Dem candidates still undisclosed or undeclared? Because we’re going to have a choice about where to put our energy in the coming months, and it’s necessary for us to be very careful of our footing. The metaphysical maxim “What you resist, persists,” is not only true but inescapable. It is incumbent upon us to work FOR something, not AGAINST something. If we are to succeed in transitioning from the old paradigm to a new one, we must — sincerely, and with all of our will — become part of the solution, not the problem.

It comes as no surprise that the Republican stable of candidates will swing from full-blown idiocracy to Jeb’s moderation, giving us another spectacle with clown cars and bozo noses, a slide-show highlighting the alternate reality that is the extreme right-wing. Consider this a major distraction from real problems of the day and as horrifying a prospect for American leadership as progressives can imagine. Think not? What about the gut-cramping prospect of a President Huckabee? Is Paul or Walker rearranging pictures in the Oval Office enough to make you grab the Excedrin? Is (ugh!) Perry, or dark horse (no pun) candidate Dr. Ben Carson more agreeable?

And with no one declared on the left, Hillary seems likely to sweep if she can only shake her coziness with big business and her hawkish ways — but what if she won’t? What if she’s the recycled establishment candidate to take us into an era desperate for progressive leadership? And what about the unknown unknowns, as Rumsfeld would put it, of Pub candidates Lynch, Payto, Russell, LaRose, Kinlaw, Andrews, Bowers and Hill? “Who?” you ask. Exactly!

See? A handful of known-knowns and a full house of wild cards, fearsome and distracting. So it’s on us, each one, to reconfigure the way we think about this prospect. In fact, it’s vital that we rethink the whole of our collective analysis about what’s dangerous and how we deal with it, because it’s being used against us to keep us in turmoil. The seduction of herd mentality is always just a decision away.

Here’s an example: the President is under fire this week for his insistence that we not declare ourselves at war with a religion enjoined by over a billion souls, which must come as a relief to Muslims and nuanced thinkers everywhere, but not to those on the right. This position is sane by any standards, except those of the conservative parties that have considered Islam the enemy since before the democratization of this nation. Dealing with the problem of ISIS as violent extremism, wherever it is found — and much of it growing here, on the home front, by the way — does not demonize an entire people. This is both logical and a very progressive stance, one totally at odds with the regressive outlook that names groups who do not agree with it ‘evil enemies.’

It’s no surprise that the conservatives are the party most likely to take offense, most easily spooked by threat, and most eager to respond with punishing violence. We’ve all read the studies that prove these attributes hard-wired into the conservative brain. Unfortunately, that’s a loop that never ends, a deep-sea dive that can’t come up for air. As Nietzsche told us, “Speaking generally, punishment hardens and numbs, it produces concentration, it sharpens the consciousness of alienation, it strengthens the power of resistance. Insanity in individuals is rare – but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule.”

Unifying the disparate conservative factions under the Christian banner of Judeo-Christian punishment/reward consciousness was one of the most brilliant achievements of the Republican party in the last century. It was also the most divisive, and I suspect, the least constitutional. There is a fundamental difference in the philosophy each type of person adopts, based on their response to stimulus. The Pubs have gained the upper hand in social concerns for a couple of generations, given the end of separation of church and state, while the problem of unifying progressive interests into a single movement has been stymied since the unions were decimated. We needed that common goal of working rights to get our attention, because on other levels we don’t scare so easily.

If it’s true that an enemy in common pulls people together, then why — facing a parade of more repugnant political poster children than we’ve seen in years — has it been so hard a sell to get the left on board? Liberals are more likely to live and let live, though they get disgruntled when someone tries to interfere with their self-expression. They’re more likely to question authority but withdraw from a process they find distasteful; they allow growth within their personal belief system and expect the same from others.

Liberals dwell in a larger tribe, more likely to condemn distasteful policies and actions rather than people. Conservatives employ a more selective group-consciousness, eager to condemn personalities who do not agree with them (most often referenced as the godless and unsaved). Face it: if liberals had a conservative’s disposition, Cheney, Bush, et al, would have been in prison years ago.

Something happened on 9/11/01, however, that changed everything. Conservatives became terrified of everything that went bump in the night, and liberals slowly realized they were being squeezed into too small a box to breathe. And since our experience with Bush, liberals have struggled, not to avoid demonizing those who thwart them but to accept that those who thwart them somehow represent the world they live in. Our indignation seems elitist and patronizing to the right, while their self-centered hypocrisy seems more than we can bear.

The Challenge

Fear plays on both sides now. The Republicans have become radicalized, and radical conservatives frighten us. Those of us with vaginas don’t have to explain further, while those without don’t want to fight unnecessary wars or work for slave wages, and all of us want to build a productive future, not stumble backward into a regressive, delusional past. And yes, it’s human nature to target what frightens us, which is why the public can be kept busy with fear-mongering while empowered entities, like corporations, continue to victimize us all (for-profit).

Here’s the kicker: this is ALL too easy to accomplish. While writing this, with CNN on in the background, I succumbed to a ‘button pushing’ moment that got me really REALLY hot under the collar. For reasons that completely elude me, this question of Obama loving America has taken on a life of its own, with CNN holding a roundtable discussion with Dem strategist Donna Brazile (a fave of mine) representing the left. When she mentioned that all of us should be careful to speak respectfully of one another, she was challenged (as a Clinton supporter) to hold Hillary to the same rule, with the right-wing pundits all chiming in, pouncing like they’d caught a mouse in a trap.

That was when I saw red. WTF! As Criss Jami wrote, “Whenever we want to combat our enemies, first and foremost we must start by understanding them rather than exaggerating their motives.” When was the last time you heard Hillary question someone’s love for his/her country? I resent the projection from the right that those I admire would behave with such contempt — I resent those who would misrepresent the motives of those I respect — and that path leads to madness. Let me explain.

Early this week, I got an e-mail from our Len Wallick about my inclusion of Amy Pascal as an example of truth-telling. Pascal is not an attractive personality, certainly, but she appears to be fearless in terms of public opinion, which is why I included her. Len wrote:

Anybody who actually believes that the world “won’t work if everybody is nice” makes me want to vomit, to be quite honest with you. There has been too much abuse in my life for me to do anything but pity her on my most charitable and tolerant days. On my bad days, I must admit to utterly and passionately despising her and those like her.

Len’s visceral response to who Pascal appears to be and what she tells us she believes in is both honest and human. When we talk about the ‘mirroring behaviors’ of those who upset us — as in, this is my doppelganger, so much like that me I’m missing it — in this case, that ain’t it. This is more likely the other reason we respond passionately to this kind of opposition to what we honor and value: this is what we once were or once did (probably not this incarnation, although perhaps) that we have judged against. Karma behaves this way: it brings us opportunity to sensitize in no uncertain terms.

Within our human illusion of duality, it is second nature to judge against any display of those behaviors that are either projections of our own failings, or those we have overcome. It is the ‘judgment’ portion that trips us up, because — as Course in Miracles tells us — we don’t have any talent for it. ACIM suggests that we do not have the complete picture of our situation, our history, our culpability or our evolution, and so do not have enough facts to truly judge either self or others.

Another insight occurred this week, when a conversation within a private meeting of our conservative Missouri lawmakers surfaced. You probably know that we’re among those states that have made legal abortion almost impossible and keep working toward its demise. Some of those who support these things were caught on camera not just questioning the possibility of passing a proposal that would require the father’s permission to eliminate a pregnancy, but the ethics of such legislation. This is counter to the notion that all Republicans think alike, although — to be fair — they VOTE alike, hive-mind a prerequisite.

Does that change my opinion of Missouri Republicans? It does, although I’m wary. I look for a reason to change my mind every day. James Redfield, author of “The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision,” clarified when he wrote, “In reality, there are no enemies; we’re all souls in growth, waking up.” I know that the more I open myself to the possibility of change, the more I will find. To wallow in resistance and resentment does not serve my purpose.

The Way Forward

In truth, George W. Bush was our guru, informing us about the limitations of ideological nation building and enforced democratization (for-profit). Dick Cheney is an example to us of stubborn resistance to the compassionate humanizing of those who opposed him, almost to the point of mental/emotional illness (and heart constriction). And we would not have found any healing at all on those issues had we not elected an unflappable intellectual of a president who insisted this nation embraced neither of those things, but another ethos entirely.

Once we perceive the human variable — different opinions within a group, for instance, identified as the wants and needs of the individual instead of the herd — we can personalize a response rather than fall into the trap Nietzsche describes in his warning, “When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.” It’s a very human failing, slipping into group-mind, but we will not find our growth in that kind of comfort zone. Seeing ourselves in one another is the only hope for busting through those ideological walls to find our common humanity. If that’s not the entire point of incarnation, it is at least an important part of this one!

Moving into our own power to make heartfelt, respectful and harmless decisions for ourselves and others requires us to make every decision count. Each resentment we nurse is our petrie dish for enlightenment, inviting us to stumble. Each ‘enemy’ we perceive is our teacher, offering us a gift of awareness. Each time our buttons get punched, we’re being given another chance at our heart’s desire for evolution. Each problem is an opportunity for practice, each challenge an opportunity for growth. If we are faithful, each decision will take us closer to awakening.

Truly, it’s only when we take the hand of our enemy that we begin to heal that which is disenfranchised within ourselves. When we step out of resistance to find commonality, we break the structure that holds us in old paradigm pattern. When we see our brother/sister as ourselves, we begin to mend the schism of duality. When we forgive ourselves as we forgive one another, our heart begins to open and the prize is revealed. Jed McKenna said it very well: “The bottom line remains the same: you’re either awake or you’re not. One day, there it is. Nothing. No more enemies, no more battles.”

Neale Donald Walsch told us how to get there: decide for it. And A Course in Miracles put some wind beneath our wings when it taught that when we get it wrong, we have the capacity to choose again and again until we get it right. Before we can act differently, we must see the situation differently, of course. We must change our mind.

As the silly season of political struggle has arrived early, giving us reason to avoid the theatrics, and along with it the responsibility, for our political realities, let’s — instead — make it our practice to remain aware; to decide, choose again and attend to the bottom line of our human evolution. With friends like these, who needs enemies? We must, or we wouldn’t create so many of them. So here’s our chance to change our mind, see into ourselves and pull the plug on that old iteration of human behavior.

Course gives us this affirmation: “I can see peace instead of this.” It’s our decision to make. Let’s meet fear with love, meet conflict with love, meet judgment with love. Let’s agree to love our way out of this mess and into that space where, one by one, we discover “… no more enemies, no more battles.” Let’s choose peace, instead of this.

A Story Of Change

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By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

I think we’d better admit the obvious: truth isn’t what it used to be in America and that’s undoubtedly a good thing. For a very long time, our narratives about who and what we are have been two-dimensional, much of it fantasy and nationalistic mythology, played out on a 3D screen. Now truth has become something more than just stories we tell ourselves, it’s becoming something to inhabit.

With everything speeded up, with so much coming up to meet the air and light, we’re moving into a fuller discussion, headed (hopefully) for 5D — a different way of seeing the whole of us — at a quickening clip, but we continue to hit the speed bumps, for sure.

We’re trying to navigate our way through this chaotic chapter of our becoming — stumbling over suspicious Pinocchios (with every political story Brian Williams ever personally inserted himself into) when we’d do better kicking over the walls of truthiness (examining every story, personal OR political, that George W., Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney ever told) — to knock at the gates of the corporate-owned infotainment industry that sells us the nightly news it wants us to hear.

Oh, I know. “Lyin’ Brian” might not have met the Pope or shared his Wheat Thins with a Navy Seal out in the desert. He’s lost credibility, income and respect for embellishing his personal narrative to make himself look a bit more heroic. Perhaps we should admit how human that is, how many of us have done the same — and while we’re at it, let’s agree that George W. really did run away from his duties in the National Guard, John McCain evidently did spill his guts to the Cong and St. Ronnie the Reagan actually never left the U.S. of A. during the Second World War, which means he didn’t liberate any death camps.

Two of those mentioned are honored as past presidents and one is respected for his military sacrifice, all fibs, exaggerations, outright lies and cover-ups long behind them. That first guy, though, the one we like so much that we’re greatly disappointed he turned out to be an actual establishment news employee? Williams is in limbo for six-plus months, maybe more. A pundit suggested that he and Stewart might switch jobs, both equally up to the task. NBC said they’d happily have Jon, whose lack of response was decline enough. Williams? I suspect he’s still in shock.

There’s something wrong with the picture, though. In a similar political arena, Rand Paul continues to mention his degree in biology, when in fact he didn’t finish college or earn a degree. He was evidently able to enter medical school without one, so his continuing “off-hand comments” are the kind of short-cut in truth-telling that earns him three Pinocchios from The Washington Post (and a slew of unanswered questions that could fall like a ton of bricks on a presidential candidate — or not, if nobody sends up a flare.) So why aren’t we buzzing about Lyin’ Rand?

Is the lesson here that all lies are not created equally? Williams, as the charming, likeable newscaster squandered our trust and hurt our feelings, but Paul, too complex to define as merely Libertarian, is still too much of an outlier to have earned our ire? Or perhaps this is that moment when we look at how we just don’t pay much attention to these things until some bulldog somewhere attaches to the seat of their pants, and then we all pile on.

Does Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal’s hacked e-mails make her less fictional and more human, or do they prove her to be occasionally insensitive and bitch-slap funny, hence ‘fire-able?’ She has endeared herself to some by admitting that there was some relief in having been knocked off her powerful perch, and advises that we should tell people to their face what we honestly think — although I can’t picture her telling Angelina Jolie that she’s a talentless brat without dire provocation. But who knows, maybe she would. She’s weathered this storm pretty well. What’s the ‘female’ for mensch, anyway?

When we talk about being authentic, I wonder how many of us are willing to take that kind of risk. How many of us are, in fact, willing to be that visible, to tell the whole truth? I had reason to love Ruth Bader Ginsberg even more this week when she told on herself, citing the reason she nodded off at Obama’s State of the Union as not being “100% sober.” She pleaded a bit of excellent wine with a good dinner, and it was her own granddaughter that tweeted the world when her head dropped.

RBG has her big-girl panties on. She’s not afraid of the chattering class, but then she’s 81 and has a lifetime job. She’s also signaled — Spoiler Alert! — that the nation is ready to take gay marriage in stride, and she’s come down hard on the conservative justices for their judicial activism, which she believes endangers democracy (although they all seem to remain friends; Scalia was her dinner, hence drinking, companion on the evening of Obama’s SOTU.)

The President caught hell from the right this week (yawn, same overkill outrage for the last six-plus years!) over a YouTube video he made promoting the ACA. He obviously isn’t afraid of this kind of risk, pretty much at ease in his skin. Noting the flap on the right, HuffPost Hill sent their daily comments under the title, “President Uses Selfie Stick; Articles of Impeachment Ready.”

The conservatives demand more dignity from the black fella because what? Because Dubby was a monument to decorum [sic], never goofy, cranky or cringe-worthy? (Do open these links — it will make you feel better about everything, I promise!)

Reading the day’s news gives us the impression that the pendulum is swinging wildly — left and right, back and forth — in front of our very eyes, but it seems to me that the great confusion of opinion IS the news of the day. We’re in the thick of a larger conversation — as yet unresolved — about the really big social issues like police brutality and religious wars, government policies surrounding income inequality and corporate dominance, even as the cultural issues that are used to pit us against one another are beginning to lose their influence.

The truth is just bare bones facts buts the story we tell ourselves about them shapes the change we’re after. Today lying is the story, and it’s a good one to examine because we’ve not been very good at sorting out lies. We need to develop an ear for what’s truthful and what isn’t.

It would be productive if the political parties could find some commonality, but that’s still in limbo with Republicans doing everything they can to poison the well on net neutrality, and refusing a ‘clean’ Homeland Security funding bill that would allow Obama’s immigration plan to proceed. Still, as we ready ourselves to lose Jon Stewart as Fact-Checker-In-Chief, we seem to have developed a bit of talent at finding and redefining the core issues ourselves.

This week the Director of the FBI, James Comey, responded to racism within the police force with unexpected candor. In a pitch to encourage an accurate body count of those that the police kill nation-wide — not reported, at this point — Comey urged law enforcement to overcome lazy thinking and subconscious bias. In short, he encouraged (without naming it) empathy, the same attribute Obama took fire over when he discussed his decision-making process in picking Sotomayor for SCOTUS:

We must better understand the people we serve and protect — by trying to know, deep in our gut, what it feels like to be a law-abiding young black man walking on the street and encountering law enforcement, we must understand how that young man may see us. We must resist the lazy shortcuts of cynicism and approach him with respect and decency.

Credit where it’s due, that was something of a risk for Comey, considering the conservatives’ usual paranoid howl that lawlessness is just around the bend, with those soft on crime soft in the head. But Comey is a ‘Pub, one of their own, so there has been little backlash at this point. Time will tell if this is to be met with a defensive posture, although it appears that the needle may have already moved on this issue — and if that’s so, think how quickly things have changed since the heat of Missouri in August.

I read several articles this week — at least three, one from NYC — indicating that quick-on-the-trigger cops were being charged with some degree of murder. Accountability is suddenly in vogue. Sadly, most of those cops noted in unfortunate killings were rookies, undoubtedly made paranoid by their Gung Ho training and let loose without a restraining hand. It takes time to make change and there are always sacrificial lambs along the way. Let’s hope this change “takes,” for ourselves as well as the lambs on both sides.

Regarding the viability of the culture wars — giving way to gender equality, like it or not — this week a Supreme Court justice in Alabama decided that while SCOTUS may well approve gay marriage for the whole nation, Alabama had no such directive from God. You may remember Justice Roy Moore from a case that made waves back in 2004. He was removed from serving as Alabama’s chief justice when he refused to remove a 5,300-pound monument to the Ten Commandments he’d placed in the rotunda of the judicial building.

Last month, a federal judge found Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. SCOTUS was asked to intervene, and so a hold was placed on counties issuing same-sex licenses. The high court decided to pass on this ruling, with the federal judge giving a green light to licensing but Justice Moore would have none of it. He is in violation of federal law, but refuses to give, acting ‘on principle’.

CNN host Chris Cuomo earned his day’s pay by taking on Moore with an admirable level of candor, including an exhortation that, “Our laws do not come from God, you know that.”

When you take the rules of your religion and you put them on everybody else, that is not what we do in this country. Your definition of marriage is based on your faith, you’ve said it a hundred times, that it is derived from God. That is not how it works here, and you know that. Equal protection applies to all by compromise. And you would even need to have a rational basis for why it would need to be only between a man and a woman, and all you can say is, ‘Because God said so. It’s always been that way.’ That’s not enough.

I’m quite sure there is no argument that will turn Justice Moore’s head, nor that of any of the Klan members who have applauded and backed his regressive stand. I’m quite sure none of them has developed enough compassion and tolerance to note that love itself is patently unable to diminish itself enough to be contained within so limited a concept as the old law has proscribed. It may well have endured that way for centuries, but it can never be trapped there forever, unable to expand itself. I suppose we should celebrate that Alabama is usually last to go, and that’s where we find ourselves now — at the last of it.

In other news, Kayla Mueller, the young U.S. woman killed by ISIS, has been remembered as a tireless volunteer, someone whose idealism had taken her into dangerous places. She was being held hostage in Syria where she’d gone to assist with displaced refugees; Obama’s team had been working on a rescue operation when time ran out. Her work with the Palestinians set the conservative community into a tizzy of celebration when she was killed, tweets and conversation too mean-spirited to repeat.

Those who are so dark are the baggage we drag behind us, slowing us down. We simply cannot allow that kind of behavior to go unaddressed. The human cost is not just to Kayla and her family, or to those who so badly needed her ministrations. The human cost is to those who attempt to diminish what she sacrificed, to that pinpoint of Light they carry that cannot widen when they are lost in the energy of judgment based on fear. The cost is to the whole of us, because we are not energetically divided; each of us is connected to the rest — and we are waiting for those dark ones to join us.

They will not help us help them. We will have to do that for them, with non-violence and love. We can no longer remain an organism at war with itself, and so each of us — adding our piece of the puzzle — must take care not to fall into the trap of hating, fearing, judging. Those of us who have taken a lower path must be lifted up. We must love our way out of hell. We must forgive ourselves and one another.

So here’s the question: in order to take a leap of consciousness — in order to stop the insanity — does the pendulum have to come to rest at some point? Don’t we have to step into one another’s shoes to see where we might find agreement? Don’t we have to stop counting coup on each other? Stop pummeling scapegoats while hiding our own warts from public view?

The competitive model that demands a zero-sum game denies us that intuitive core of compassionate existence we yearn for. Win/win has to be the name of this human game, and until we badly want that win for one another, we remain in competition and strife. We remain the problem, not the necessary answer.

There is much, politically speaking, to remain uncomfortable about (go here and here for necessary reads and activist/ops) along with a lot of cultural confusion, some of it engendered from those very ones who have outgrown the old templates while still searching out the new. Despairing in what we find does not help us help ourselves. Have faith that where we are is exactly where we need to be, and what we’re experiencing is that thing we’re completing in order to take a remarkable leap. It may feel as though we’re crawling along toward needed change in slow-motion, but we’re moving quicker than we think.

Open the links and remember what it was like just a decade ago, how clueless we were, how horrified and frightened of what was to come. Understand that the sorrows were evidently deemed necessary to break the hold of nationalism, of competition and tribal taboos. Even now, as the clashes seem never-ending, remember that we cannot finally put them to bed unless they have exhausted themselves and, evidently, us along with them.

But we are lighter, aren’t we? Recall how much of what we no longer carry was back-bendingly heavy, sucking at our energy and keeping us from necessary risk, with much of that behind us now. Hug yourself for how far you’ve come!

I grant you, most days it seems like chaos reigns, as if there were 7 billion voices around the planet all yelling at once — and there are, actually. A good many of them are not tech-savvy nor engaged in more than the limits of their own little village and are unaware that their energy signal is registering in the collective to sway the whole of civilization. We need to remember that when we despair of how small we are, how limited our influence.

And remember that not all conscious expression is created equally; remember to aim higher in thought, word and deed. One open heart shines like a beacon among many too shuttered to risk loving, to risk authenticity or the audacity of public error or scrutiny — also known as learning, here on planet Terra.

When we live opened to love and its myriad expression, all things are possible. When we love fearlessly and without expectation, blessing follows. And here’s a reminder: all of us are Valentines, this long weekend, because even the scratchiest and most belligerent of us is a part of the larger body known as the Beloved. So offer up a heart-felt Valentine’s Day smile to everyone you meet today and let your Light shine, because what blesses spreads like ripples in a pond to touch us all.