Big controversey over the US National Anthem in Spanish. Another pointless, divisive issue. Personally I feel proud that Mexicans would want to sing the National Anthem in their language. The sham concern is just one more evasive maneuver (like pushing for a Constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage, promote prayer in the schools, prohibit flag burning) to hide the fact that our government has no idea how to solve the really critical problems our nation faces (like overwhelming deficits, Iraq, Afganistan, terrorism, education, universal medical care, gluttonous energy consumption, etc.).
One of our most despicable behaviors is, and has been, the intrusive meddling in other nation’s affairs in order to get what we want. Iran hates us? Big surprise! We helped to overthrow their elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953 (the first successful overthrow of a foreign government by our CIA) and install a brutal dictator, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who would give us unlimited oil, no questions asked. Central and South American governments opting for “left wing” candidates who oppose the US? We have done our best to subvert democratic reform throughout the hemisphere. Remember the 1973 coup our CIA engineered to depose and murder Salvador Allende, the first democratically elected, Marxist/Socialist government ever and install the brutal dictator Augusto Pinochet who destroyed Chile’s democracy and pursued a murderous policy of state terrorism.
I am old but I am really scared for our children in a world we have turned upside down, one which hates us and wants to destroy us, and we have incompetent, dithering leaders who can not conceive of the real issues and only care about keeping their power and wealth
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
"Illegal" Immigration
Americans easily forget history. It was not always the case that illegal aliens streamed North across the Mexican-American border. Throughout the 1820s Americans streamed South and West into Mexican territory. However Mexico would not allow slavery and the folks who were entering Mexican territory wanted to own slaves. The Mexican government became alarmed and outlawed the immigration.
Typical of American foreign policy, President Polk (a slave holder himself), conjured up an attack on American soil by the Mexican Army. He said “American blood had been shed on American soil”. Many in the North knew this was a lie (including the freshman congressman Abraham Lincoln) but Polk successfully convinced congress to let him wage war on Mexico. In 1846 the war was begun and by 1848 the territories from Texas to Southern Oregon were conquered and annexed into the United States of America. It was, in my view, indefensible imperialism at its worst. The ill will engendered by this act, among Americans themselves, was the catalyst for the Civil War.
The perpetuation of the myth of the Alamo is a dishonest exploitation of our history. The fact is that the defenders of the Alamo fought for white supremacy and slavery.
The vast territory (over 500,000 square miles) taken from Mexico included Texas, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah. Now many Americans, ignorant of their own sordid history, bristle with anger over what they perceive as illegal entry into “our” country by Mexicans. But to many of the Mexicans who are entering the U.S. it is their country which was taken from them! They are just coming home.
Mexico 1800
Typical of American foreign policy, President Polk (a slave holder himself), conjured up an attack on American soil by the Mexican Army. He said “American blood had been shed on American soil”. Many in the North knew this was a lie (including the freshman congressman Abraham Lincoln) but Polk successfully convinced congress to let him wage war on Mexico. In 1846 the war was begun and by 1848 the territories from Texas to Southern Oregon were conquered and annexed into the United States of America. It was, in my view, indefensible imperialism at its worst. The ill will engendered by this act, among Americans themselves, was the catalyst for the Civil War.
The perpetuation of the myth of the Alamo is a dishonest exploitation of our history. The fact is that the defenders of the Alamo fought for white supremacy and slavery.
The vast territory (over 500,000 square miles) taken from Mexico included Texas, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah. Now many Americans, ignorant of their own sordid history, bristle with anger over what they perceive as illegal entry into “our” country by Mexicans. But to many of the Mexicans who are entering the U.S. it is their country which was taken from them! They are just coming home.
Classified Information
Classification of government information, for the most part, only serves to keep the American people from knowing what its government is doing. The rest of the world certainly knows what our government is doing.
I am always perplexed at American’s lack of knowledge about the world. For example our complete bewilderment at why so many other nations hate us. Why should Iran be so hostile? What have we ever done to them?? Much of Iranian hatred is based on our CIA deposing their democratically elected Prime Minister in 1953 and installing a brutal dictator (the Shah) who gave the US and Britain unlimited access to oil. Our meddling in Iran is highly “CLASSFIED”!
However, in the year 2000 the New York Times obtained a copy of the CIA’s secret history of the coup, revealing the inner workings of a plot that set the stage for the Islamic revolution in 1979, and for a generation of anti-American hatred in one of the Middle East's most powerful countries.* The document remains classified.
The history of our relationship with Saddam Hussein is like that too. The sordid tale of how we tried to use him to overthrow the Iranian government which followed the Shah is, for the most part, still under wraps. Almost half of Americans still believe that he had WMDs before our invasion but few of them realize that we provided the ones he did have to do our dirty work. Now we shame him for gassing the Kurds but at the time they were just “collateral damage” in his attempt to kill Iranian agents he thought were among the Kurds. This was OK with our government at the time.
* http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/history/2000/0416ciairan.htm
I am always perplexed at American’s lack of knowledge about the world. For example our complete bewilderment at why so many other nations hate us. Why should Iran be so hostile? What have we ever done to them?? Much of Iranian hatred is based on our CIA deposing their democratically elected Prime Minister in 1953 and installing a brutal dictator (the Shah) who gave the US and Britain unlimited access to oil. Our meddling in Iran is highly “CLASSFIED”!
However, in the year 2000 the New York Times obtained a copy of the CIA’s secret history of the coup, revealing the inner workings of a plot that set the stage for the Islamic revolution in 1979, and for a generation of anti-American hatred in one of the Middle East's most powerful countries.* The document remains classified.
The history of our relationship with Saddam Hussein is like that too. The sordid tale of how we tried to use him to overthrow the Iranian government which followed the Shah is, for the most part, still under wraps. Almost half of Americans still believe that he had WMDs before our invasion but few of them realize that we provided the ones he did have to do our dirty work. Now we shame him for gassing the Kurds but at the time they were just “collateral damage” in his attempt to kill Iranian agents he thought were among the Kurds. This was OK with our government at the time.
* http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/history/2000/0416ciairan.htm
Thoughts About God
I don’t think that god (if she/he/it exists) tries to be hidden – or – that there is any requirement of faith to access her/him/it. I think our historical concepts of who god is, keeps us from actually realizing who god is and what god is like. I think our concept of an all powerful being who can grant our wishes, if it so desires, is completely wrong. I don’t think god can operate outside the physical laws of the universe, although, we have a very incomplete knowledge of what the physical laws of the universe actually are. (For example is the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics really true or is order a conserved quantity – I suspect that order will be discovered to be a conserved quantity.) I wonder if god wants to contact us, as much as we want to contact god? What if god can affect the course of human history by somehow influencing human beings? I like Wendell Seward’s idea that “when god answers a prayer, the answer always comes in the form of another human being”.
What if god doesn’t have eyes and ears? – maybe we are god’s eyes and ears. Why do people often think of god as male or female? I think we tend to make god in our own image and that may be the greatest impediment to our understanding of god.
So I am lonely, depressed, sick, in mortal danger – what can god do for me?? Maybe nothing - or maybe something I can’t understand – I wish I knew! Sometimes I think I have been heard by someone but there is never any way of proving it. And why would god help me and not help everyone else who asks? I guess if the answer were personal I would never know if god helped or ignored someone else’s plea for help.
And the big question: do we live after death? So many claim to know, and usually attach restrictions in order to attain a life after death, or even prescribe eternal torture if we don’t observe the restrictions they claim to know about. There is usually a book involved like the Bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon etc.
Why do sexual prohibitions figure so prominently in pleasing god? I don’t think god keeps track of our sexual behavior.
Do birds have anything to do with god? For years I have sensed that someone is with me when a bird comes close. The Havasupai Indians in the Grand Canyon conduct Sweat Lodge in a narrow side canyon near the beautiful Travertine pools under Havasu Falls. The lodge itself is a small mud hut which can hold about 5 people, including the Medicine Man, the Door Keeper and three participants. One enters and leaves the lodge backwards on hands and knees, like the traversing of the birth canal, through a small opening covered with a blanket. A Fire Keeper tends a small fire just outside the entrance. The fire heats rocks which are placed inside the lodge each time it is used. Rocks inside that have cooled are transferred out onto the fire to keep a ready supply. At the beginning of a prayer session the Medicine Man lays Sage Brush on the hot rocks which fill the tiny lodge with pungent Sage smoke. The heat inside is horrific and the Sage smoke is choking. A new comer may feel very frightened and need to cover his or her face from the heat. The Medicine Man asks for prayer and healing requests. He then begins chants so ancient their origin is not known. When the session is over the Door Keeper flings the blanket aside. The Indians believe that the Eagles, which soar overhead in the heat updraft of the ceremonial fire, take their prayers to god. The participants file silently down the trail to the Travertine pools and plunge in. I have experienced this powerful ceremony and recall it each time I see Eagles soaring.
What if god doesn’t have eyes and ears? – maybe we are god’s eyes and ears. Why do people often think of god as male or female? I think we tend to make god in our own image and that may be the greatest impediment to our understanding of god.
So I am lonely, depressed, sick, in mortal danger – what can god do for me?? Maybe nothing - or maybe something I can’t understand – I wish I knew! Sometimes I think I have been heard by someone but there is never any way of proving it. And why would god help me and not help everyone else who asks? I guess if the answer were personal I would never know if god helped or ignored someone else’s plea for help.
And the big question: do we live after death? So many claim to know, and usually attach restrictions in order to attain a life after death, or even prescribe eternal torture if we don’t observe the restrictions they claim to know about. There is usually a book involved like the Bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon etc.
Why do sexual prohibitions figure so prominently in pleasing god? I don’t think god keeps track of our sexual behavior.
Do birds have anything to do with god? For years I have sensed that someone is with me when a bird comes close. The Havasupai Indians in the Grand Canyon conduct Sweat Lodge in a narrow side canyon near the beautiful Travertine pools under Havasu Falls. The lodge itself is a small mud hut which can hold about 5 people, including the Medicine Man, the Door Keeper and three participants. One enters and leaves the lodge backwards on hands and knees, like the traversing of the birth canal, through a small opening covered with a blanket. A Fire Keeper tends a small fire just outside the entrance. The fire heats rocks which are placed inside the lodge each time it is used. Rocks inside that have cooled are transferred out onto the fire to keep a ready supply. At the beginning of a prayer session the Medicine Man lays Sage Brush on the hot rocks which fill the tiny lodge with pungent Sage smoke. The heat inside is horrific and the Sage smoke is choking. A new comer may feel very frightened and need to cover his or her face from the heat. The Medicine Man asks for prayer and healing requests. He then begins chants so ancient their origin is not known. When the session is over the Door Keeper flings the blanket aside. The Indians believe that the Eagles, which soar overhead in the heat updraft of the ceremonial fire, take their prayers to god. The participants file silently down the trail to the Travertine pools and plunge in. I have experienced this powerful ceremony and recall it each time I see Eagles soaring.
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