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Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup...
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
A Remarkable Man
Mood:  special
My thoughts are with Senator Ted Kennedy today.  All his life, Ted Kennedy has tried to engender in us a social conscience.  He sees wrongs which need attention.  He sees people who are poor and who need help. And he has always felt a responsibility to them and to this country.  Senator Kennedy told us that -- because he was fortunate enough to have been born in the United States under the most comfortable conditions -- he has a responsibility to others who are less well off.

Seantor Kennedy recognized, more than most, that there is a discrimination in this world and slavery and slaughter and starvation.  Governments repress their people; and millions are trapped in poverty while the nation grows rich; and wealth is lavished on armaments everywhere.  There are differing evils, but they are common works of man.  They reflect the imperfection of human justice, the inadequacy of human compassion, and our lack of sensibility toward the sufferings of our fellow man.

Senator Kennedy tried to point out that those who live with us, who share this same short moment of life, are our brothers; and they seek--as we do -- nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Many believe there is nothing that one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills.  Yet Senator Kennedy has sought to remind us that many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation; one general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a single woman reclaimed the territory of France.  It was one Italian explorer who discovered the New World; and one man, Thomas Jefferson, who proclaimed that all men are created equal.

These men moved the world, and Senator Kennedy believed that so can we all.  Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.  It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.  Ted Kennedy taught us that each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Senator Kennedy recognized that for the most fortunate among us, there is the temptation to follow the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition and financial success so grandly spread before them. But that is not the road that history that has marked out for us.  Like it or not, we live in times of danger and uncertainty.  But they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history.  All of us will ultimately be judged, and as the years pass we will surely judge ourselves on the effort we have contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which our ideals and goals have shaped that effort.

Kennedy said, "The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society."

This is the way Ted Kennedy has lived his life:  as a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.


Posted by Webmaster at 8:07 PM EDT
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Sunday, 11 May 2008
My First Mother's Day Without Bobbi
Mood:  blue

How do we count the lives she touched, the light she shed for years?

How do we see the difference she made when we're looking through the tears?

How do we know the things that are that never would have been

Without her valiant heart that dared to fight and fight again?

How do we know what flowers will bloom from the seeds of yesterday?

What songs are sung and dreams begun because she passed this way?

How do we measure the shining place that time can never pale

In all the hearts that cheered her on and willed her to prevail?

Although her spirit soared from all the love in our hearts

She lived with one hand clutching her dream and the other on the stars.

We may not know what she left behind on the shortened path she trod

But we know this much...  her life's brief touch

Was from the hand of God.


Posted by Webmaster at 7:45 PM EDT
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Saturday, 10 May 2008
Boycott Sponsors of 2008 Beijing Olympics
Mood:  a-ok
The time has come for China to free Tibet. The brave protesters in Paris who extinguished the Olympic torch and the amazing young people who unfurled the "Free Tibet" banner from the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge were an inspiration to us all. But unless people begin to put their money where their mouths and hearts are, nothing is going to change. So with that in mind, I have made a decision. If Tibet is not freed, I am going to boycott the Olympics and their sponsors. I know what you're thinking: "yeah, like they care". But these companies claim to take corporate citizenship seriously, so it's time to see just how seriously they take it... or if it's just lip service.

I don't expect these companies to pull out. They have already put millions of dollars into supporting the games. But if enough people say, "Hey! This concerns me enough to actually think about where I am spending my money", then the advertisers should listen. That is what they want! They want people to think about their brands when they go to buy a soda or a burger and fries or a DVD player or a mutual fund. The issue becomes what will I be thinking, which at the moment is nothing nice.

My hope is that these advertisers can say to the Olympics, "Hey, supporting you isn't quite the deal it used to be because people are not watching. They're not watching because of what your hosts are doing in Tibet". I encourage you to do some research, then take the time to compose an email and send it to each of the corporate sponsors.
 
Click here for a list of the 2008 Beijing Olympics sponsors.

Posted by Webmaster at 10:22 PM EDT
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Friday, 9 May 2008
China Unfit to Host 2008 Olympics
Mood:  chillin'
This summer, President George W. Bush will smile while jaunting up the stairs to Air Force One - his laughable presidency all but over - with not a care in the world.

For 13 hours, he'll lie on a couch in the airplane, drink pomegranate-flavored water and watch reruns of Texas Rangers games from the glory days of Nolan Ryan and Jose Canseco

Eventually, he'll land in Beijing, China, for the 2008 Summer Olympics. He'll pose and smile for photos with great Chinese leaders.

You'll definitely read about it in the newspaper, and so will people just like you all over the world; and you'll probably feel pretty good when you do. Like a bottle of cheap gin the whole globe can pass around, the Olympics somehow make it okay to forget for a little while.

This is helpful for most of us, but somewhat unfortunate for the Tibetan people, whose struggle against occupation has gone on for nearly 60 years

In 1951, the Chinese government annexed Tibet and declared it part of China. In 1959, an uprising resulted in the expulsion of the Dalai Lama; since that time he has run a "government in exile" based in India and become a martyr for global political rights.

On March 10, in honor of the 49th anniversary of China's great experiment in the abuse of state sovereignty, Tibetan monks began to protest en masse the continued demonization of the Dalai Lama and China's efforts to ethnically cleanse Tibetans.

China, for its part, pledged to "resolutely crush" those people. Within days, it launched a fresh military campaign in the region. It kicked out journalists and declared no quarter on religious figures.  It is estimated that over 200 Tibetans were slaughtered by the Chinese during the crackdown.

Anyway, a generation later, as a reward for Chinese progress and a concession that China has established itself as a modern global player, it gets to host the Olympics!

Irony in such high doses should be fatal.

Posted by Webmaster at 8:41 PM EDT
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