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Congratulations President Obama! Learn what you need to know for yourself with Obama's Platform YES WE CAN!
Thomas Paine * * * * * "Those who cast the ballots decide nothing; Josef Stalin * * * * *
Wearing a button IS NOT enough!
* * * * * Young patriot waiting patiently for the
"It is not the function of our government U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Congratulations, even if only "on a wing and a prayer".
Dear Mr. President,
Congratulations on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. I personally believe that this award was given to you on a "wing and a prayer" in hope of what you might yet do and NOT for what you have already done.
Nearly every citizen of the world is praying that YOU will fulfill their dreams of peace so that ALL OF OUR CHILDREN can live in a better future, devoid of war and extreme poverty. They are praying for an end to the continued barbarism of the United States with our military exploits and our war-profiteering; with our cluster bombs, DU238 weapons, our sanctions, atrocities and disregard for the planet that conspire to harm us all.
Our country's reputation has been tarnished so badly that it will take a Herculean effort to restore it to where it belongs; as the guiding light that inspires people to follow our example. Our Congress and our Judiciary must begin pulling together to this end. Our corporations must be held accountable for their crimes with punishments so severe that they can no longer be absorbed as a "cost of doing business". Our criminals must be weighed against an international standard and WE must back that standard if we are to move forward into a future we can all be proud of.
It is the "HOPE" that your campaign brought to the world that provides you now with the greatest of opportunities and the greatest of challenges at this, the most critical moment in human history. For the moment this amazing award is just an undeserved trophy; but I too pray that your future actions will "earn it" and I support your continued courage and your efforts in all things morally just in this endeavor.
This is not a time to celebrate but it is a sign of the support you have rightfully earned throughout the world. It is a time for honorable actions and it is a time for peace. It must appear to you to be an insurmountable challenge with the power structures that surround the Office of The Presidency. WE THE PEOPLE need to assist you by creating an atmosphere that will bring Congress and the Judiciary in-line with the goals that you need to espouse forcefully, for the good of humankind; with truth, justice and common decency as your guide. We need to get the corporate greed out of our politics and fill the great void left behind with compassion, truth and justice.
I believe this is the unspoken message of the Nobel Peace Committee and despite my initial skepticism with their decision I now “thank them” for taking this bold step, this courageous and self-defacing step, by offering us one more chance for hope and for a better future; even “if” only on "a wing and a prayer" to you sir. Godspeed! Respectfully submitted, * * * * * Letter to a Friend; You wrote; "Here is the thing. I believe there should be no war, but greed exists. Having said that I want to stop world hunger, abuse, global warming and on and on, but greed exists. I think this is the whole problem. The question is how do we stop greediness?" The simplest way to stop an undesirable behavior is to stop rewarding it. Reward those behaviors that BENEFIT society. Like cleaning up the environment or providing food, medical assistance, shelter, schools, etc to poor nations and our own disenfranchised. i.e. Export charity INSTEAD OF WAR. We need a PEACE-BASED ECONOMY or we don't deserve to see the sun rise. Excessive greed should become criminalized. Exactly WHERE the limits are is the discussion we all need to have. An increasing scale of taxation on earnings seems appropriate, as does mandatory jail time for hiding money in off-shore accounts to avoid taxation. Confiscation of entire fortunes for criminal behavior, including money laundering, would be a pretty good disincentive, instead of receiving what amounts to little more than taps on the wrist with puny fines that are dwarfed by the crimes committed.
We've got to get lobbyists out of the equation and close the revolving door between big business and politics. Until we do they will continue to rule us mercilessly. It's going to take public awareness and as I've already said; mass participation. We can't sit back and do nothing and hope that a very few well-intended representatives can do it all for us. We can't be afraid to speak truth to power. When we are too frightened to speak out we have already lost and only violence can ensue. We still have a chance to turn things around peacefully but not by turning the other cheek. We need to smack back; with words, print media, protests, boycotts, petitions, public conversations out in the open and not timidly behind closed doors like little mice.
The greed has become so inculcated into our system that it has changed our democracy into something else, something evil. The power brokers have begun merging it with FASCISM and we have stood idly by as our corporate and government cultures allied and corrupted our democracy. Whether this virulent cancer can be cut out and cured is yet to be seen. Does anyone really believe that providing retroactive immunity to telephone companies for illegally spying on us by a government that illegally authorized it, this massive violation to our right to privacy, by a government that has repeatedly flaunted its disrespect for the law of the land and of our constitution is A-OKAY? No problem, right? Give me a break and don't even try to defend THAT outrageous malarkey! Do we really want to look like
If we were to spend these same tax dollars on making homes more energy efficient we would be killing two birds with one stone; 1st: We could be putting Americans back to work. 2nd: We would be greatly reducing our energy consumption every winter. Do this again for home insulation projects, high-efficiency furnace replacements, carbon capture technologies, etc. and we will be moving forward in a BIG WAY toward bringing green house gases under the 350 ppm necessary to save the environment as we know it. Our environment is spiraling OUT OF OUR CONTROL, is currently over 383 ppm carbon (MORE THAN EVER BEFORE!) and rising every year into an undeterminable climate change and yet the media would rather focus on Michael Vick and his dog fighting escapades. We need to charge polluters for every toxin they send into OUR environment; atmosphere, soil and water WITHOUT EXCEPTION! We need to reward those countries for saving the resources that protect our planet by NOT BURNING DOWN FORESTS, by NOT BURNING COAL, etc.
I heard last week on NPR how the mafia was paid between $5 to $20 Million dollars to sink ships carrying Pharmaceutical toxic waste from
There are champions out there and they need all of our support RIGHT NOW! President Obama is one of them, Senators Patrick Leahy and Sanders from my adopted State are two others, as is Al Gore, Dennis Kucinich, Gwen Moore, Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney, to name but a few and they've been on the inside of our system of government and that is the main reason why I still have hope for a peaceful evolution-solution, and not a violent revolution-devolution, or perhaps better yet; devil-ution would best describe that ominous direction. We lost a bright star in Senator Edward Kennedy but his example lives on and gives us hope. We have tens-of-thousands of brave authors, true journalists, Professors, lawyers, activists, military experts, economists, producers, actors, musicians, artists, conscientious objectors, spiritual leaders, Nobel peace laureates and well intentioned moms and dads who are all on our side, so we are far from being outnumbered by soulless war-profiteers, propagandists, mercenaries, liars and the all too easy to understand intentions of greed-mongers.
Sorry to have rambled on but these issues are so important that it’s hard for me not to respond to someone who is genuinely interested and trying to make a difference. I think it's important to keep in mind that it might not be you or I that will add the final straw that will break humanity through to a brighter, more enduring future. We may not be the ones making that critical speech, or singing that inspirational song, standing up to the dishonest judge, or withering away in prison, planning and staging that important protest, or writing that enlightening book, producing the immortalized play, or uttering that desperate yet compelling plea for truth and justice... but then again, it just might be one of us; or it might simply be someone we have spoken to, who was ignited by our passion, that is our hope.
Then there's always the chance that our warring nature will kill billions of us before we evolve or are driven extinct. Extinction may not even be our choice, we may never have to press the proverbial "M-A-D button" to our own demise; perhaps, all we need do is... "nothing"; just long enough for the permafrost to melt, for the discharge of more carbon into the atmosphere than (all but the select few ignored scientists) could have ever imagined; for the oceans currents to stop cold in their tracks and then assume flow patterns impossible for us to predict with our puny technology; as the great ice shelves of the earth melt and her oceans rise over EIGHTY feet and the next plague is set loose upon us, to balance out our filth and our toxic annihilation of this most beautiful of worlds, with the gross negligence and stupidity of a spoiled child. Once released, this plague will first consume the weak and exhausted migrating populations that WILL NUMBER IN THE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS. One tiny, insignificant germ (unlike our own unique and incredibly-exceptional species), will be one that we CAN'T resist, that's all it will take for the human experiment to come crashing to an inevitable end for the benefit of the rest of the inhabitants of this planet that we were unable to steward with a loving hand. Either we can change or we can wait, allow the status quo to persist and "hope" that Mother earth doesn't decide our fate for us.
We must now recognize the absolute fact that each of us has power to use for good or for evil. Our individual power can be likened to loading a mousetrap with a single ping pong ball on top of it, insignificant right? When we are alienated from one another and spread far apart we are insignificant in our influence and can have but little impact on our world; but when we stand united, tightly knitted together in our convictions, both nationally and globally, then we are a force that can not be denied. This very same analogy was used to explain how nuclear chain reactions occur; only this time "we are the critical mass!" The unscrupulous powers dare not set loose even a single ping pong ball into our midst or they will unleash a fury of change that will not be denied. It is in everyone's best interest to find a peaceful transition and yet it is those still in power who must choose between evolution or revolution and we the people who must push for a decision. Anything less than swift action leaves the climate issue unresolved and perhaps completely out of our hands. The clock is ticking and there is no time to waste. There can be no stopping us! Not with aircraft carriers, or nuclear bombs, not with stealth fighters or cruise missiles, not with machine guns, tanks or depleted uranium projectiles, not with cluster bombs, torture or extraordinary rendition; not with your attempts to destroy OUR CONSTITUTION, or your illegal wire-taps, surveillance, retroactive immunities or illegal or immoral edicts and certainly not with your greed, avarice or inhumanity; not even your billions of dollars of blood money spent on disinformation propaganda will withstand our combined and dedicated scrutiny. The only thing standing between us and a brighter, more humane future is not the people in power, it is our own COLLECTIVE WILL.
Respectfully submitted,
* * * * * PHYSICS 101:
"An object at rest tends to stay at rest."
"An object in motion tends to stay in motion."
DROP SUPER BALLS NOT CLUSTER BOMBS!
NOW IT'S YOUR TURN TO DO SOMETHING!
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For generations tobacco and alcohol companies applied their knowledge of the marketplace to increase their customer base. The advertising tactic they discovered was that by targeting our children with their youth-oriented ad campaigns they could produce (not only) a younger customer but one who was much more likely to engage in these unhealthy habits for the vast majority of their lives. They had discovered that if a person reached adulthood, say twenty-one, and hadn’t yet begun to indulge themselves in these habit-forming activities then they were far less-likely to begin using these dangerous products as adults. The “cool factor” simply diminishes with maturity. Perhaps if we really want to change the world for the better then we could consider a few simple compromises. What constitutes the state of being a child? Intelligence, no; age, it depends on who’s measuring and for what, war or profit? We’ve raised the drinking age to twenty-one so there will be far fewer vehicular accidents and that is a position I fully agree with. So my question is this; Did we do this ONLY because of those statistics, which taught us that this was the wisest thing to do, or have we raised the age of childhood to twenty years three-hundred and sixty four days? If that is the case then how do we justify sending our children off to war? Isn’t that immoral; to be able to kill and die for your country but not yet be able to drink as an adult, legally? This is not a new conversation and I hope you’ll hang in there for another minute so you will see the point that I am coming to. I believe that our country’s military-industrial complex is doing the EXACT SAME THING to our children with THEIR advertising that the tobacco and alcohol companies were doing until they were forced to stop. Perhaps wiser “adults” would not be so obedient and follow orders blindly to their untimely death. Perhaps it’s easier to brainwash children into believing that they are cool or doing something superbly patriotic, perhaps even fun and exciting! Perhaps we should have more TV commercials about the ratio of “wounded to killed” soldiers and the truth about the horrific nature of those wounds and the substandard way our soldiers are being cared for. What about the years of denial concerning Agent Orange injuries during the Viet Nam era or the depleted uranium effects of the recent Gulf, Iraqi and Afghan wars? But those issues are not what I am writing to you about, we all know of those by now (don't we) and what we decide to do about them will live on in our nation’s history. What I am writing about is the current legal voting age of eighteen. Our children can be taught to kill and die BEFORE they can cast a single ballot concerning their country or the war, skirmish, action, whatever we decide to call it; that they may be obligated to enforce. This too seems to me to be immoral. Why not take a lead from the tobacco, alcohol and military industries and advertise to our youth and encourage them to learn about and engage in the political process? Not just as volunteers, whose voices do not matter, but as active citizens that will help determine the future of THEIR Country, not just ours. If they can go to war at eighteen then they should be able to vote on all elections, just as any other citizen, at least as early as the age of sixteen. I would suggest that ANY student willing to study and pass a written exam could vote as soon as he/she was able to accomplish that patriotic feat. Now that’s something they could be proud of; not puffing on a cigarette with a beer in their other hand. Imagine a world where the kids had something to say and the country actually listened! How many of them would choose blood and recklessness over negotiation and mutual understanding and perhaps, even peace? Are we going to evolve into something more or is our headlong rush into nuclear confrontation the only future we "adults" can summon up? Respectfully submitted, * * * * *
Snowfall by Pat Alaggio December, 2006 We are all but snowflakes floating for a brief time through gentle winds, sometimes not, * * * * * "One Patriot's View" I’ve been considering what is most important in my life… my children, my company and my Country were my answers. I would have liked to include “my wife” in that sentiment but we were in the half that lost and didn’t make it. So I’ll have to stick with my original three, conceding that I don’t know enough about God to be included among these priorities. I would however, like to reorder my list to read: 1) My children, 2) my Country and, 3) my company. I realized that my company was third after hearing a friend's advice against mixing politics (and religion for that matter) with business. However, I feel compelled to say something at this critical juncture in our history and to add my voice to the billions of souls in the human choir... most of whom will never have this opportunity. The prayer being that all of our children will have more of what God intended, which I know is grounded in TRUTH and LOVE... I hereby offer the following perspective.
It is my intention to help turn the tide against greedy corporations, unscrupulous lobbyists and dishonest politicians who are Hell-bent on stealing our freedoms by waging war on third world nations and terrorizing populations around the world, including our own. They have done a good job convincing Americans that we are all in "imminent danger" while their very actions have made attacks on our homeland more likely. All-the-while trying to turn us against each other, misdirect our attention, or scare the living daylights out of us with propaganda that is controlled by the wealthy few. Why? So we won't unite behind the truth and throw them out of office, or better still, into their own privatized jails... where far too many of them belong! (Remember the seven tobacco moguls who each, under oath, stood one by one and declared they didn't know that their product was addictive or harmful! Related Articles. These people have killed more innocents than Hitler!) By now you're probably saying; "Why don't you tell me how you really feel!" Okay, I will! They destroy IN OUR NAMES while hiding the essential truth from us, truths that are common knowledge throughout the rest of the world but hidden by our own “free-press”. Then they rebuild those nations with OUR tax dollars allowing the wealth to flow directly from the poor and middle classes to the rich! We pay for the bombs and then pay for the rebuilding while the rich benefit from the military purchases AND the new construction contracts! Meanwhile, they lie a little more and say that it all balances out... everyone pays equally... the system is fair. Forget the morality of these actions for a moment… just do the math. We're told that we can't afford music in our schools but we sure as Hell have plenty when it comes to bombing someone into oblivion... ANYTIME they damn well please according to our new doctrines of preemptive war! Think I'm kidding? Open your mind to the facts that ARE out there... don’t limit yourself to our press coverage since it is owned (or at least swayed) by the same industrial giants that will ultimately prosper. This is the most dangerous time in our nations history because our country is being taken over from the inside by the powerful few who are able to create their own version of reality... at least for the time being, to THIS population of Americans who are too ill-informed, or too frightened (or both) to get up, speak their minds and stop them. Or are we? ... We have books and articles by Noam Chomsky (of M.I.T), or Bill Moyers, a true Patriotic journalist... We have unprecedented access and contact with each other through the internet. So go ahead and visit a few of the sites that I've listed on the Contact Us page. Don't be afraid that the FBI will steal your computer and lock you away… that’s what they want you to think. (i.e. “You're either with us or you’re with the terrorists.”) Watch Free Speech TV and shows like "Democracy Now". I've never been much of a political person... but wisdom comes slowly, especially when the truth goes untold or is locked away under the guise of "national security"... but I can no longer afford to wait... not if I want my children to be proud of their America. Thank goodness we've preserved the "Freedom of Information Act"... that's one of our most valuable weapons against tyranny. The political hold on us is tenuous and we DO have the ability to make our country a GOOD AND JUST democracy (again?). That's "if" we can keep the power mongers from assassinating our candidates. Remember the "single bullet theory" in the JFK assassination? ... and how that LIE and the "lone gunman" theory was rubber stamped by the Warren Commission? So I'm staying informed and keeping involved in this moment in human history to help make a difference... to give Mother Earth just one reason not to eradicate our greedy species from Her planet. I'm dedicated to seeking the TRUTH. Everything God has given us is true; the predictability of the universe, our mathematical and scientific laws (all provable by our humble equations), the shared beliefs of all of our cultures (the Golden Rule), the beauty, balances and delicate interactions of our planet... the intricacies of our chimp-like brains, which can produce incredible art, magnificent music AND the ability to transcend our primal instincts. When we find the truth we are blessed with glimpses of the "mind of God". Ignore the truth and our species will not survive without great hardship, famine and war. It seems to me that an "ounce of prevention" would go a long way to staving off the future that the WTO's greed holds in store for us... greed that puts profit over environment and the well-being of all but the wealthy few. Big business can not be allowed to ignore the truth in favor of shareholder profits and the destruction of the natural world... OUR WORLD! We need leaders with the guts to say so... and the courage and support to put their words into action. After all, "talk is cheap", activism takes a little more effort. Don't let them paint you as "un-patriotic" as those ridiculous words from our esteemed leader would have you think. If you believe in justice and the principals that our nation was founded upon then we need to lead by example, not by the doctrines that are presently in-place in America. What can one person do? You can open your mind to the possibility that you haven't been told the entire truth and then seek out world-views and opinions so you can make your own decisions. You can boycott those products and services associated with the companies who deal in death and environmental destruction... just as you can boycott I.O.S. for standing for this philosophy. We need to stand up and be counted... to elect leaders that will make choices that benefit the planet as a holistic, living organism for the sake of ALL of its inhabitants, not just the wealthy. We need to do what's best for every child and not just our own, lest we condemn them to become targets of the future. When religious cultures call us "the devil" they are telling us that "we don't believe you... you are liars... you are ALL liars!" When we turn a blind eye to what our leaders do "in our names" then we too are culpable... we are not the innocents we proclaim ourselves to be. We can not ignore human need, science, bio or cultural-diversity, or TRUTH and LOVE, which to me are the only absolutes that I KNOW to be synonymous with God. We can not be cowered by lies unless we ourselves are looking for an excuse to allow greed to rule us. I guess the second half of my life comes down to just this question... Do I watch in silence or do I stand up and try to make a positive difference? Thank you for taking the time to listen, to follow-up and learn each perspective so you can make educated choices about the kind of nation you want your children to inherit. Respectfully submitted, patrick4music The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the cost of the Iraq and Afghan wars will top $2.4 TRILLION dollars over the next ten years due in a large part to the $700 BILLION dollars in interest that will accrue against the money borrowed to wage these wars. That equates to nearly $8,000 for every U.S. resident! New evidence sought through the FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT has raised this estimate 43 Percent of OUR Taxes Go To WAR! ONLY 1 cent goes to diplomacy and foreign aid; Isn't it time we voted war profiteers out of OUR government?
Don't let the liars sell us another war in Iran WAGE PEACE NOT WAR! * * * * *
Benito Mussolini (Is this what we want for OUR country?) "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, Dante * * * * * "The most common way people give up their power Alice Walker * * * * * "The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." Frederick Douglass * * * * * "If all Americans want is security, they can go to prison. Dwight D. Eisenhower * * * * * "A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves." Henry de Jouvenel * * * * * "The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use Robert F. Kennedy * * * * * "There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, Elie Wiesel * * * * * "In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell * * * * * JUDGMENT Let the Nations not be judged Then, let not the world be judged * * * * *
I am but a poor man What do you stand for? Either you stand for TRUTH and JUSTICE... * * * * * SPIRIT It would be too easy to look back and point angry fingers at each other. Each of us placing blame and making excuses as to why this job or that job fell through the cracks. But after all is said and done either we all win or we all fail. It's that simple. I would hope that we could look collectively at the future as one team, better yet, as one family. Instead of drawing further apart as we each seek the comfort of our own peers and the familiarity of our own little worlds. We all need to take ownership of our responsibilities and to protect the resources and efforts of our neighbors. Only through cooperation and mutual respect will we build a team of winners. I can't say enough about "respect", I can say that we don't show enough of it to each other. There's nothing that can hurt us more. Disrespect demotivates, demoralizes, depresses, and downright defuses our best efforts. It makes losers of us all. Rather we should take pride in each other, our successes, our products, our results. Our company is a bright new star made up of talented, energetic, creative people. How can we waste any of that precious effort or impede those initiatives. How often can we restart that motion and regain whatever momentum we might have gathered? At what cost? "TOGETHER" we can double our results with less effort than it takes to fail! It's our choice, what are we? Let's not dwell on the lost opportunities but also let us not forget them and why they happened. Rather, let us refine the process and improve the play until we win. Sounds too easy, well it is. Lost opportunities can be constructive too. They tell us who we were, who we're not - and who we wish to be. Take the initiative to do the next step, without being asked. Follow each task to its logical conclusion and tie up every loose end. Keep an open mind and challenge your own creativity. Set your goals high and believe in yourself. Learn, grow and understand why, if you don't know, ask. Take pride in what you do and who you are. Become the spirit of a winning team and make a difference. Make each effort your best and succeed. Care about each other and love what you do.
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