"Consider the Lilies of the field..." and the dog poo, too!

What a day!

I went to my portuguese class early this morning, and was sitting at the PSC, waiting for my late class, catching up on some reading, talking politics with my boy Mitch, when suddenly, I had had enough!

I was tired of books, tired of studying, tired of homework, tired of politics, tired of talking, tired of reading newspapers, tired of ping-pong, tired of the daily things I do without thought because there is nothing better to do.   I enjoy all those things I listed, but, as our Buddhist friends like to say, I wasn't living in the moment.  

And, at that moment, I had to go home and get my compost on!

So I did, and it was great. I built a dog poo composter in my backyard, and it was wonderful! 

It's nice to know that Dessy will be contributing to the fertilization our ornament garden!

Let's hope her poo doesn't overflow the whole thing!

God is good, amen!

9/11

How long shall we weep?

Heal The Sick

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes … known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

-James Madison, Political Observations, 1795



I find it ironic that the world's largest "Christian" nation is also the nation that outspends every other country in this world in terms of its military budget. As shown by this graph below (provided by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, March 1, 2009), the United States' military budget is far larger than even it's closest rival.

(The red is the US, those tiny slivers at the bottom are our closest competitors)

The United States budgeted nearly $700 billion of tax revenue in 2008 to go to our military forces around the globe (Center for Arms Control and Non-Poliferation) and President Obama in recent months approved of yet another increase in the military budget for the upcoming fiscal year (The Washington Independent, Feb 18, 2009). For a nation facing hard economic times, it's nice to know that some people aren't biting the bullet.

These facts bring to the forefront an interesting question. How is it that a country that can spend hundreds of billions of dollars trying to kill people half-way around the globe not figure out how to fix its current health care system?

Well, it quite frankly comes down to what Americans value more; the ability to kill or the ability to heal. The United States has been blessed with prosperity, and has the ability to be great at either one. We could, if we wanted to, make sure that every US citizen would be provided with the best medical care possible, without bankrupting families and destorying lives. Instead, we choose to develope nuclear weapons that can destroy all of life on this planet, make faster, deadlier tanks, and create cruise missles that can kill from over a hundred of miles away.

It comes down to what we, as a people, make our priority. I have a feeling I know what the Oily One's priorities are.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." (Luke 4:14,18)

The Kingdom is at Hand...

"I didn't know we were doing this to you all!"

So, I just came back from watching the movie District 9, and I got to say that Neil Blomkamp hit the ball out of the park! Not only did the movie address issues ranging from society's treatment of the economically disenfranchised, the cyclical nature of the military-industrial complex, and the lack of societal empathy for the struggle of others, but Blomkamp did so artfully in a movie that had me on the edge of my seat for its entirety.

I won't go into a detailed synopsis here, but I found the central theme of the movie to be quite revealing and enlightening. During the movie, the main character, after entering D-9 with the intent to "persuade" the alien refugees to move from their slums into a concentration camp, is sprayed with a mysterious fluid. This fluid begins to alter his genetic structure, changing him from a human into a alien. Because he has become half human, half alien, he is capable of using the aliens' weapon technology (which binds to their DNA structure). After a large corporate weapons manufacturer (MNU) finds out that they can use him to develop similar weapons for humans, he flees to D-9, where he is also deemed valuable to the Nigerian war lord who effectively runs the slum. The Nigerian gang also tries to cut up our friend into tiny little pieces, believing that if they ate his arm, he would have the power to fire the weapons.

I feared, as I left the theater, that many people missed the parallel between the Nigerian gang and the corporate weapons manufacturer. Although the Nigerian gang could seem to most as primitive and insignificant compared to the very scientific and mammoth multinational corporation, both parties were driven by the same desire to acquire more power through the obtaining of weapons. These men were of the same vine, the same ones who first picked up their hunting spears, and chucked it at the tribesmen from across the stream because he looked funny.

They benefit from the suffering from others, and blatantly disregard the the horrid conditions their actions create. Because the United States has benefited from such a system, many Americans do not see the inhuman consequences of our actions. The American weapons manufacturing companies sell weapons to oppressive regimes around the world, all in the name of profit. People suffer and die needlessly, all for stock values.

("GREED, IS GOOD!"- Gordon Gekko, Wall Street)

Empathy and action, my friends, is all that can stop this.

The Most Appropriate Speech Given to the Most Appropriate Audience

This is a speech that was posted on a blog known as the Falling Whistles. To say it hits the nail on the head would be an understatement...

http://www.fallingwhistles.com/blog/entry/this_is_your_century

Do your Dharma, To get Good Karma, To Escape Samsara...

Someone sent me this great Newsweek article about the spiritual conscience of our nation.

Very interesting....

http://www.newsweek.com/id/212155

Maybe the United States is actually becoming the cultural melting pot that it so proudly likes to proclaim. Let's just work on that whole blowing up people who tug on the chains of oppression (who placed it on them, I wonder).

a new Way

When we last left off, we were exploring what it meant to implant oneself in this new cultural epic known as the God Movement. We noted that it does not accept the current model of Christianity, as presented by the cultural hegemons of our day, and, also, calls for a return to "Christ Values."

What do I mean by "Christ Values?" Well, they are quite simple, really. But, rather than hear me paraphrase, let's just let Jesus do the talking (something we should have been doing in the first place).


"And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set down, his disciples came unto him. 2 And opening his mouth he taught them, saying: 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land. 5 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 6 Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill. 7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the clean of heart: they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 10 Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: 12 Be glad and rejoice for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you." (New American Bible, Matthew 5:11)

From this fantastic opening statement (in the English world, we call this a hook), we are overloaded with opposites. The weak are strong, the poor are rich, the sad are happy, etc. Jesus was quite deliberate in this regard. He wanted the people listening to understand that the values cherished in the Kingdom (y'all got the message that it's at hand, right?) were different from those upheld by the Roman and traditional Jewish society. Jesus was calling for them, and us, to take our Empire goggles off, and put on his.

(yeah, sort of like that)

What a world it be would be if Christians removed the societal filters that skewed their vision. The poor of the world would not be looked down upon, but rather welcomed back into the fold of society. The millions who suffer for want of food would not be viewed as having deserved their fate, but rather seen as victims of political and societal constraints. Nations and peoples would not conspire to wage war with each other, but rather strive to empathize with their neighbor. Man would not set himself above nature, but would find that he was just like the "lilies of the field, and the birds of the sky." We would no longer see these attributes of our world as less than ourselves, but as things that should be cherished.

Now, I know their are some of you who may be thinking, "Well, this sort of thinking is all well and good, but how do we turn it into a practical way of living?"

In order to answer that question, we must first go within ourselves and retrieve that little thing we like to call the soul.

More on another day...