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Yesterday, in the States, was Veteran's Day. I remember it being Armistice Day when I was very young...
Anyway, one US-centric article and one US-centric memoir-essay about war, and the wish for peace.
The Anguish of War for Today’s Soldiers, Explored by Sophocles.
By PATRICK HEALY
Published: November 12, 2009
A project uses ancient theater as a vehicle for sharing pain, learning and healing. (NYT)
( Full text in case link will not work )
Sgt. First Class Tony Gonzalez, an Iraq combat veteran from Brooklyn who was on the panel, recalled that post-traumatic stress disorder was rarely discussed when he first joined the Army. He described his own pain after his platoon captain was killed and he went to pay respects to the man’s wife, also a friend and member of the military.
And he praised the use of theater to help put a spotlight on trauma.
“I’ve been Ajax,” he said. “I’ve spoken to Ajax.”
~~
One Grizzled Veteran's Dream
Huffington Post
William Astore
Writer, Professor, Retired Lt. Colonel, Air Force
Posted: November 11, 2009 08:05 AM
( full text in case the link won't work )
On this Veteran's Day, what if we began to measure our national success and power, not by our military arsenal or by the number of new recruits in the ranks, but rather by the gradual shrinking of our military ranks, the decline of our spending on defense, perhaps even by the growing quiet of our legion posts and VFW halls?
Wouldn't that be a truer measure of national success: fewer American combat veterans?
Wouldn't that give us something to celebrate this Veteran's Day?
I know one old grizzled veteran who would quietly nod his agreement.
Professor Astore currently teaches History at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, PA. He writes regularly for TomDispatch.com and can be reached at wastore at pct.edu.
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Security Spending Primer:Getting Smart About The Pentagon Budget
How do people influence federal spending decisions and stop fighting over smaller and smaller “slices of the budgetary pie”? What will make our nation more secure? National Priorities Project is proud to release the Security Spending Primer: Getting Smart About The Pentagon Budget. (PDF Document) This Primer is a is a “one-stop-shopping” resource and has two main goals: ~ to provide comprehensive, easy-to-understand information on the complexity of the federal budget process; and ~ to help build the capacity of people across the United States who want their voices and their priorities to be heard in the debate over federal spending in general and military spending in particular. Even though federal spending and policy priorities have an enormous impact on individual lives, the budgeting and policy-making process remains mysterious to most Americans. NPP believes that good, concrete information strengthens social change work. In order to make our federal government more accountable, people – especially those most affected by social inequities – must play a central role in identifying the changes essential to creating better lives for themselves and future generations. They must have access to accurate information that supports effective strategies. The Primer answers the most frequently asked questions about, and supplies the most commonly requested information on, the Pentagon budget and U.S. military spending and is based on decades of experience in military budget analysis. It contains 16 two-page fact sheets on topics ranging from nuclear weapons to the employment impact of U.S. military and domestic spending choices to the military cost of securing energy. We designed these fact sheets to be read separately or as a group. We have also included a host of resources: organizational contact lists, sample NPP tools, resources lists, a glossary and more. Key findings in the primer include: ~ Total spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will exceed $1 trillion February/March 2010. From FY 2001 to FY 2008, federal grants to state and local governments increased 0.57% for every 1% increase in total federal budget authority. Yet, during the same period, federal military expenditures increased 1.47% for every 1% in total federal budget authority. In other words, as the “budgetary pie” increased, the defense slice got bigger and fatter and the “grants to the states” slice of the pie got smaller. ~ Even without including current war allocations, U.S. military spending is at its highest level since World War II. This takes into account the war-time budgets of Vietnam and Korea. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the Obama Administration is not cutting defense. In fact, the Pentagon budget is projected to grow25% over the next decade. ~ This is an unprecedented period in our nation’s history. Two wars, staggering national debt, the economic crisis and an impending climate crisis make these extremely challenging times. At the same time, President Obama endeavors to respond to the sweeping mandate for change. NPP is indebted to our collaborators in this project: Frida Berrigan, Senior Program Associate of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation Ruth Flower, Associate Executive Secretary for Legislative Programs at Friends Committee on National Legislation ( FCNL) Miriam Pemberton, Peace and Security Editor of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies ( IPS) Heidi Garrett-Peltier, Research Assistant at the Political Economy Research Institute ( PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Robert Pollin, Professor of Economics and founding Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute ( PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Susan Shaer, Executive Director of Women’s Action for New Directions ( WAND) For more information: Jo Comerford, Executive Director (jo@nationalpriorities.org, 413.559.1649) Chris Hellman, Director of Research (chris@nationalpriorities.org) National Priorities Project www.nationalpriorities.org
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Roy Rogers' Horse Saves Health Care
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
The Senate cannot pass a health care bill with a public option. The House cannot pass a bill without one. The public wants a public option. The insurance industry wants a private mandate. The White House is in trouble on this and is calling upon the Senate to find a way out of this dark passage.
So, Boys and Girls, return with us now as the Senators will take a page from out of the old West. They are going to do what cowboy hero Roy Rogers did when he got in a jam: Call for Trigger, the Golden Palomino. Trigger, the trusty steed who rode to glory against those phantom cattle rustlers who sold insurance against physical harm, provided however that the small town marks bought the stolen beef.
In this scene Trigger will come off his mount of glory at the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Missouri and gallop to the mount of glory on Capitol Hill, rear up a dazzling 24ft, and by his sheer electrifying presence rescue the US Senate and the Administration from today's rustlers.
It is Washington, DC, so they promptly slap on a confused Trigger a corporate blanket with corporate logos from insurance companies: Pre-Existing Trigger. Lower Cost Trigger. Patient Access Trigger. The Senators will jump on this horse and ride straight for the sunset. Giddy-up Trigger, past that broken down Public Option dray horse. Gallop into the conference committee with full force. Charge!
I am carried away by prospect of rescue by the one horse I can believe in. Sadly, Trigger will never save us from the rustlers. He'll just stand there, mounted, in all of his spectacular equine power ever poised to spring into action, ever ready to hustle out the rustlers, or something like that.
Thank you.
Dennis
http://kucinich.us/index.php
Sept 16, 2009
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Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
September 16, 2009
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
"Everything on earth is beautiful, everything -- except what we ourselves
think and do when we forget the higher purposes of life and our own
human dignity."
- Anton Chekhov( this way to Jason Mraz pronoia )
What does it say about the current state of reality when an intelligent optimist like Mraz has such mainstream popularity? Here's what I suspect: The media may relentlessly wallow in news about what's wrong and bad and rotting, but a lot of people are resisting that hypnotic hum as they wake up to the glorious other side of the story.
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BILLY BOYD WITH BEECAKE TO EMBARK ON U.S. EAST COAST TOUR OCTOBER 6-11, 2009
Actor and musician, Billy Boyd, who starred in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy as Peregrin “Pippin” Took and contributed to the soundtrack with his original song “Steward of Gondor”, will embark on a tour of the U.S. East Coast with his band Beecake October 6-11 in support of their new album “Soul Swimming”. (credit TORn)
Tour Dates
OCTOBER 6 at 7PM, Iota Café, Arlington, VA.
For tickets, visit www.iotaclubandcafe.com or call (703) 522-8340.
OCTOBER 7 at 8:30PM, Tin Angel, Philadelphia, PA.
For tickets, visit www.tinangel.com or call (215) 928-0770.
OCTOBER 8 & 10 at 10:30PM, Joe’s Pub, New York, NY.
For tickets, visit www.joespub.com or call (212) 967-7555.
OCTOBER 11 at 9PM, Passim Center, Cambridge, MA.
For tickets, visit www.clubpassim.org or call (617) 492-5300.
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| 2009-08-31 04:42 |
| So, yanno? I'm a nurse. It's my job: sometimes (often) I worry about our (communal) health... |
| Public |
| despair work, economics, environment, ethics, health, hope, native american issues, nurse-intuitive, nursing, political science |
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What I watched on TV tonight at work:
Water's Edge: Profits and Policy: Behind the Rising Catastrophe of Floods
Mountain Top Removal ( Wiki article ) ( series on youtube )
I have some thoughts about it all, but cannot avoid sinking into horrid and vicious cynicism- and while that might feel good for a moment, it's not an appropriate response for someone with my education and background. I'm trained to look at this from a community health perspective: as an RN, I have an obligation to do just that. Risk management, genetics, environmental safety- those are all within my purview as a nurse. So it behooves me to stop, just a moment longer, marshall my thoughts, and organize them so that I can pursue this with some clarity.
Because right now? I'm just pissed.
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I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. - Jorge Luis Borges
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www.freewillastrology.com
Gemini Horoscope for week of August 27, 2009
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden because of an incident involving an apple, right? Wrong. Many biblical scholars suspect the fruit in question was either a fig, grape, or pomegranate. I mention this, Gemini, because I think you'd be wise to review your own personal myth of exile. It's time to question the story you have been telling yourself about how your paradise got lost. Evidence you discover in the coming days just might suggest that everything you've believed is at least half-wrong -- that your origins are different from what you imagine. And as for the forbidden fruit that supposedly led you astray: You may realize that it was actually a precious medicine.
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Can-do, or the attitude that the quality of your day (and your life) is, to large extent, in your own hands.
This land: Living in tents, and by the rules, under a bridge. And in how you interact with others. How well you understand the culture, the government, you live in, live under.
I dunno. We're all struggling, no? some have new babies, new houses. Others have new losses, new despairs. Some are grinding away against the same-old, same-old. Some have brand-spanking-new opportunities that are exhilarating and terrifying in near-equal portions.
But is it about the new comix and clothes, the Broadway shows, the cable channels, the bad days and the frustrations? Or is it about how we meet them?
Afterlife or no: in this life, all you have is your attitude in this moment. The rest is completely, utterly, and totally out of your control.
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Maurice Sendak's Arbuthnot lecture, Descent into Limbo, in the Summer/Fall 2003 issue of ALA's Children & Libraries ??
I'd really appreciate it. I'm slowly transcribing the video http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/65 but a) I keep getting caught up in the lecture and missing my place and b) I can't listen well at work, because 'my' lad is sleeping so no turning up the sound or earphones (the one might disturb him, the other I might miss something, a change in his breathing, for intstance).
Thank you in advance. .doc, .rtf, .pdf- they all work for me. And please let me know if I need to pay you for costs, copying, postage, anything like that.
Pass the word for me? I can really use this transcript for some articles I'm writing for An Ounce of Prevention. Thank you so very very much.
(I'm also looking for an article by Patricia Moccia, RN, from American Journal of Nursing ca 1992, titled "Are We Dying for Nuclear Weapons?" I have a paper copy someplace, but not handy, and not enough time/money to go through ordering it online/uni library. Just in case someone here can access it "free" (your time/trouble will be reimbursed in some way- fic, postcards from Europe, some other research I can do for you) I'm asking. Thanks!)
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Come, join my Cause, and get invitation credit (not to mention thanks!) when you invite your friends.
Yeah, ok, it's Facebook. It's the school-yard, the soda fountain, the village well, the back fence, the water cooler, the bar, it's where people gather and shoot the breeze and come together to work and party down afterwards, and it's where I'm trying to raise a little money to support making Nuclear Guardianship something we just do, like buckling seat belts and picking up trash and not hitting kids and taking care of the elders. I'm supporting the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons because I believe these weapons to be the single largest, most weighty, least acknowledged threat to the public health, and I have a life-long dream of reducing, removing, this threat to my community.
So, if you're in Facebook, or your kids are, wander on by. Join, donate, invite. I promise it's not a RickRoll.
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| 2009-05-08 12:55 |
| Friday, Friday |
| Public |
| amazon, car, despair work, economics, fun, hope, peace-work, sleep, star trek, uni |
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The good news: my Facebook Cause, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is gaining members. You can be one!
The Happiness Project.
I managed to get the car to the mechanic's without its either blowing up or falling to pieces on the freeway. We'll find out what we find out, eh? It's an '88 Volvo wagon- I'm sure it's got a few miles left on it, if it can just find them.
Ah, what the hell. It's all good news, isn't it? The only thing is, I won't be seeing Star Trek today at 1:30, so that's $8.00 I'm considering donated to the cause of Hunter Urban's college fund. Just something to look forward to then, innit? Bones McCoy, I'm on my way.
Alrighty then. Since I can't ship any books, go to Star Trek, or stay up any longer, and I am graduating AND raising money for my Cause, I think I'll get some zzzzzs. Yay for nights off!
And blessings on your heads, y'all. Each and every one of you.
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| 2009-05-07 18:53 |
| Despair-work, Peace-work, Hope |
| Public |
| despair work, ethics, facebook, friends, hope, networking, peace work, twitter, wordpress |
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If you've followed along for any length of time, you know that I'm a big fan of what Joanna Macy calls 'despair-work'. Interestingly, this is not work in which one admits despair and then gives up. This is work in which one admits to despair being present, then uses the energy gained by that admission to generate new energy: to create hope, in one way or another.
I've joined the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in their ican project, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. I'm inviting you to join me, by donating, by spreading the word, by believing this can be accomplished across the lines of nations and over the objections of corporations and armies, through the work of concerned, dedicated, connected individuals- a fellowship of the many, if you will.
The secondary cost of maintaining nuclear weapons stockpiles is part of what the GreenhamCommonWomen worked to make apparent, what Eric and David Thiermann, in their difficult but beautiful film The Last Epidemic demonstrate in clear and personal way, what Joanna Macy Rogers from her practice of Engaged Buddhism names Nuclear Guardianship. The thing is done, it cannot be undone, but it can be put into balance: not the balance of bomb for bomb, because that is no balance, but the balance of action and care.
I'm inviting you to join me, and bring your friends, family and co-workers. Invite your government, corporations, churches, synagogues, mosques. There is room for everyone to do this work, and many hands make light work.
As Aragorn said: There is always hope.
Today, I bring this sliver of it and hold it alight. Please, join me in carrying the fire.
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| 2009-05-06 07:36 |
| State of the Slashfairy, three weeks and counting |
| Public |
| amazon, aoop, despair work, europe 2009, facebook, friends, life, peace-work, twitter, uni, wordpress |
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Yep, I'm graduating! have to pick up my cap&gown over at uni this week. If I remember I'll do it after work before my mammogram on Friday. *eyeroll* life of an older student.
EnjoyIt will go on vacation May 25th (last day I can ship) because I'm leaving for Europe May 26th! (London-Germany-Denmark-Germany-London) Home July 8th, back to work probably the 12th. Thank you every one who has bought or will buy, who has passed the word to friends and co-workers. It's been a real joy, becoming a book-seller, and it's made the difference between being able to pull off this trip nicely and have it be a grind and a worry.
Have started a WordPress Blog as a professional place to write; those of you who read along know that peace-work and despair-work are two lifetime interests/pursuits for me. My entire aim with pursuing my bachelors' has been to get the base for doing work in this area- yes, I know people do work in it without college degrees, but I want to change something in Nursing, open up a dialogue inside Nursing, so I thought I'd better get a bit more academic education in Nursing to give me some place to stand. It worked: I feel/AM better prepared to state my case. Now I'm making the place from which to speak. It's very satisfying.
Ok, I've a chance at an early bed this morning, and I'm going to take it. Blessings on your heads.
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And how I love the Greenham Common Women.
Were any of you there? Do you know someone who was? Any chance I can interview you/her (possibly him, if he was inside the fence) while I'm over in London or even in e-mail?
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