Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiA Brave Man Who Stood Alone. If Only the World Had Listened to Him
I don't know if I met Tom Hurndall. He was one of a bunch of "human shields" who turned up in Baghdad just before the Anglo-American invasion in 2003, the kind of folk we professional reporters make fun of. Tree huggers, that kind of thing. Now I wish I had met him because - looking back over the history of that terrible war - Hurndall's journals (soon to be published) show a remarkable man of remarkable principle. "I may not be a human shield," he wrote at 10.26 on 17 March from his Amman hotel. "And I may not adhere to the beliefs of those I have travelled with, but the way Britain and America plan to take Iraq is unnecessary and puts soldiers' lives above those of civilians. For that I hope that Bush and Blair stand trial for war crimes."
Hurndall got it about right, didn't he? It wasn't so simple as war/no war, black and white, he wrote. "Things I've heard and seen over the last few weeks proves what I already knew; neither the Iraqi regime, nor the American or British, are clean. Maybe Saddam needs to go but ... the air war that's proposed is largely unnecessary and doesn't discriminate between civilians and armed soldiers. Tens of thousands will die, maybe hundreds of thousands, just to save thousands of American soldiers having to fight honestly, hand to hand. It is wrong." Oh, how many of my professional colleagues wrote like this on the eve of war? Not many.
We pooh-poohed the Hurndalls and their friends as groupies even when they did briefly enter the South Baghdad electricity station and met one engineer, Attiah Bakir, who had been horrifyingly wounded 11 years earlier when an American bomb blew a fragment of metal into his brain. "You can see now where it struck," Hurndall wrote in an email from Baghdad, "caving in the central third of his forehead and removing the bone totally. Above the bridge of his broken nose, there is only a cavity with scarred skin covering the prominent gap..."
A picture of Attiah Bakir stares out of the book, a distinguished, brave man who refused to leave his place of work as the next war approached. He was silenced only when one of Hurndall's friends made the mistake of asking what he thought of Saddam's government. I cringed for the poor man. "Minders" were everywhere in those early days. Talking to any civilian was almost criminally foolish. Iraqis were forbidden from talking to foreigners. Hence all those bloody "minders" (many of whom, of course, ended up working for Baghdad journalists after Saddam's overthrow).
Hurndall had a dispassionate eye. "Nowhere in the world have I ever seen so many stars as now in the western deserts of Iraq," he wrote on 22 February. "How can somewhere so beautiful be so wrought with terror and war as it is soon to be?" In answer to the questions asked of them by the BBC, ITV, WBO, CNN, al-Jazeera and others, Hurndall had no single reply. "I don't think there could be one, two or 100 responses," he wrote. "To each of us our own, but not one of us wants to die." Prophetic words for Tom to have written.
You can see him smiling selflessly in several snapshots. He went to cover the refugee complex at Al-Rowaishid and moved inexorably towards Gaza where he was confronted by the massive tragedy of the Palestinians. "I woke up at about eight in my bed in Jerusalem and lay in until 9.30," he wrote. "We left at 10.00... Since then, I have been shot at, gassed, chased by soldiers, had sound grenades thrown within metres of me, been hit by falling debris..."
Hurndall was trying to save Palestinian homes and infrastructure but frequently came under Israeli fire and seemed to have lost his fear of death. "While approaching the area, they (the Israelis) continually fired one- to two-second bursts from what I could see was a Bradley fighting vehicle... It was strange that as we approached and the guns were firing, it sent shivers down my spine, but nothing more than that. We walked down the middle of the street, wearing bright orange, and one of us shouted through a loudspeaker, 'We are International volunteers. Don't shoot!' That was followed by another volley of fire, though I can't be sure where from..."
Tom Hurndall had stayed in Rafah. He was only 21 where - in his mother's words - he lost his life through a single, selfless, human act. "Tom was shot in the head as he carried a single Palestinian child out of the range of an Israeli army sniper." Mrs Hurndall asked me to write a preface to Tom's book and this article is his preface, for a brave man who stood alone and showed more courage than most if us dreamed of. Forget tree huggers. Hurndall was one good man and true.
52 Comments so far
Show All...And the talk of trying George W. Bush and his conspirators for wars crimes is finished.
The Obama administration has colluded and conspired to protect the former Bush administration officials from criminal prosecution.
I have to laugh at the fools who voted for Mr. Obama.
jeffj
What an icredibly brave young man Tom Hurndall was. He put his convictions into action not rhetorical anguish. I believe Buckminster Fuller said, "God is a verb not a noun." Tom's remarkable life embodied that belief.
During the massive New York demonstration against waging more senseless war against the people of Iraq, I remember thinking that the worldwide demonstrations taking place that day involving tens of millions of people was a hopeful sign of what our species could become. But I knew that no matter how many people took to the streets, Bush and cronies would have their feast of death.
I also remember thinking about human shields and that Bush would kill them without even a momentary pause of self-doubt or even concern. It then occurred to me that the Pope, the Bishop of Canterbury, the Dalai Lama, and hundreds of religious leaders had spoken out strongly against what was certain to happen. The unthinkable was once again unfolding with the predictable storylines, but there was also the possibility of tranformative action. What if the Pope and the Dalai Lama and every other religious leader took a heroic step beyond the usual rhetoric and announced that they would place themselves with the people of Bagdad as human shields. Just imagine what could have been. Not even the psychopathic Bush Administration would have bombed the Pope. The lovely words in the Beatitudes, " Blessed are the Peacemakers" would have been alchemized into a lasting truth and exemplar of human courage and solidarity.
Sadly, it was left to people like Tom Hurndall to give meaning and life to Christ's Sermon on the Mount in the midst of the horrific carnage for which we all share responsibility.
To die saving the life of an innocent child should have been a banner headline in every newspaper across the country. This is the first I have ever heard of Tom's story. Thank you Tom and Robert Fisk.
Head Shot by a Sniper while Carrying a Child?
What an epiphany of love & hate at once.
I pray and hope for him.
His family.
Head Shot, maybe a Special T-Shirt will
be given to IDF snipers commemorating this confirmed kill.
And now the Zionists in DC are pushing to Amp the Afghan 'War'
Where more people can die and die and die. Gentiles all.
A human being. While the rest of us write and critique behind the safety of our computers this man walked the walk. My guilt and admiration merge...
We hear so much about the valor within the military, but the final act of Tom Hurndall humbles the best of soldiers. It's great to see a tribute to an almost invisible person who did the right thing, at obvious great risk, unarmed and with no reason to expect glory or money out of it. Thank you, Mr. Fisk!
As tears dry, we must ask what can be done to make the heroism of Hurndall become obsolete. The answer in Palestine is the answer in Israel is the answer in the USA! National oppression and imperialist wars that allowed Hurndall to be tragically fulfilled must give way to global cooperation based upon true equality and workers' democracy. Diddle all you want, but humanity will always face self-immolation until we go communist. But first, we need a political party with the will, program, and experience to lead organized labor against irrational capitalist rule - a vanguard party. I don't always like this formula, but there's simply no other way known, and shirking will only increase the pain. We must build that party!
Unlike most of us, he died doing the right thing. No greater love of truth than what he had, have we.
This is one of the most moving pieces that I have ever read. I have been thinking about the difference between men and the value of life lately. This man should walk with Jesus. It makes me feel that maybe we should all try harder to end this dependency on the military industrial complex that president Eisenhower warned this nation about. It has become a monster. The usa spends more on war than all the world combined, and on and on.
Thanks for telling this story!!
That there are such brave, noble people in the world helps make up for the fact that most people aren't. Most people are heavily indoctrinated. Most people see the world in black and white with themselves as white of course. Most people think that greed is a virtue, that and killing.
We are a sick species. Our world is sick. We have lost our way. Hopefully the current crisis will bring down the capitalist, imperialist, militarist order.
And from its ashes perhaps something decent will emerge, perhaps a world based upon equality and justice for all. That and peace.
www.dangerouscreation.com
.
U.S. Tax Dollars paid for the bullets that killed this brave man.
Cut off all U.S. Tax Dollars and Military Aid Packages to the State of Israel............IMMEDIATELY
Spend those Billions on the recovery of our own economy !!!!!!!!!
,
You got the first part right.
Now how about spending 'those Billions" repairing the damage your dollars have done to millions of people all around the world?
After what you've allowed your dollars to do to others, you don't deserve to have an 'economy'.
Thank you, Mr. Fisk, for a moving tribute to an exceptional man.
The western world does not embark in ethnic cleansing mostly because we are a mixed breed to begin with. What's to cleanse? We would have thought that in the year 2009 we would have progressed beyond such medieval thought patterns as ethnic cleansing. Certainly there are dictaorships and third world recalcitrant nations that embark on such evil doings but that's why we have the UN. It is supposed to make sure these egregious actions are stopped in their tracks. I personally am furious with Israel and its phoney excuses for mayhem and murder. I'm also furious with the US, Canada and other western governments that allow this to happen and in some cases (Canada) refuse to allow people to criticise Israel for being such a warmongering rogue nation. Make no mistake that is what they are. This is Zionism run amuck! It's up to the rest of the world to stop them now, not later, now.
First, the "Western World" (which typically includes Europe, but I assume you must mean the Americas) engaged in considerable ethnic cleansing from the get-go. Where do you think all the Native Americans went? Second, when shiploads of Jews were seeking safety from the Nazi terror, they were turned away from every port. That's at least complicity.
But most importantly, you are blind to your own shadow, a blindness which makes you especially vulnerable to the mental shift that turns ordinary, morally average people into murderers. As has been demonstrated by the Stanford Prison Experiment, even the most peaceful person can be capable of the most sadistic and cruel behavior. (Malcolm Gladwell discusses the role of such social context at length in The Tipping Point.)
It is easy to point fingers at the blurry Nazis in the black & white photos, but they were no different than you or your neighbors, easy to moralize about how the Jews should know better, etc. Consider the nuns in Rwanda -- NUNS -- who enabled Tutsis seeking sanctuary to be brutally slain. (One even supplied the gasoline used to burn the victims alive.) Do you consider NUNS to be incapable of the moral judgment of which you feel so possessed?
I urge you to Google the Stanford Prison Experiment. It will open your eyes.
Believe me, what you see the Israelis doing is only what any one of us is capable of, in the right circumstances, the right context. Ethnic cleansing is not some "medieval thought pattern." On the contrary, it is written in our genes.
Consider then the opposite circumstances, the opposite context. Create THAT instead.
Archie, in the case of Canada you are entirely correct in your criticism.
Unfortunately we now have, due to the weakness and arrogance of the prior Liberal government and by the duplicitous efforts of a pro-right wing politicised RCMP, plus Religious Right support, a minority Conservative government with a control freak at the helm.
The Conservative party was merged with the prior Reform Party or Alliance Party as it was later called. Some would say hi-jacked by the Reformists who are mostly Religious Right Wing Evangelical fundamentalists. The type that think man scampered about with dinosaurs 5000 years ago and who interpret the Bible literally despite its many translations and questionable veracity and ambiguous meanings.
Reformists are Armageddonists through and through and a large number of the present Harper cabinet are true believers in bible prophecy. The rest are amateurs and tend to embarrass most Canadians.
So the true believers believe in Israel as written in Bible philosophy and are consequently enraptured by, and totally unconditionally supportive of, anything Israel does. They are in fact more supportive than Israelis themselves since any criticism is labelled anti-semitic and suppressed as dissidence that is supportive of terrorism.
In true binary right-wing fashion, Canada is pro-Israel anti-Arab or anything Islamic, anti-China since they crack down on Christians, anti-Russia since they "attacked" Georgia after the latter attacked S.Ossetia. Georgia is where Israel had a lot of military advisors and hardware e.g. UAVs and hopes for a convenient airbase from which to attack Iran.
Almost all Canada's foreign policy has a religious undertone or reason behind it and domestically we have a Science Minister who demonstrates zero understanding of the meaning of the word evolution and in fact doesn't even believe in Evolution.
Cunningly they have kept the fundamentalist religious theme out of the public eye and their recent effort to kill funds for competing political parties almost got them booted out and replaced by a coalition. Only by outright lies and invoking patriotism (familiar anyone?) together with a prorogue of parliament (shutting it down till things cooled off) and some fancy backtracking did Harper manage to stay alive.
Although devoid of much else, cunning they have in bucketfuls and their modus operandi is to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Never has Canada seen such a divisive leader and one can only hope their stay is temporary and that they never get a majority.
"Ethnic cleansing" or "genocide" or however you want to label it...
This type of thing is as old as humanity itself. That doesn't make it right, but it is NOT aberrant behavior. It's written in our genes and no people are immune to it. People like Tom can help us change but only ever so slowly.
The situation in Israel/Palestine is a STALLED genocide. In another century, this would have been over and done with in short order. Now, because this natural tendency is blocked, the Israelis persist in doing everything possible short of just going in and killing everyone, just as water persists in penetrating every crack in a dam.
My advice to the Palestineans: LEAVE. Flee the way the Israelis fled Europe. The land is not worth it. Yeah, yeah, your ancestors this and that. Just get out while you can. It's not going to get better. Think about your children and their children. Get out or you'll just be pressed into increasingly tight corners until you throw some rocks or fire some bottle rockets, allowing them to justify sending fire from the sky.
Your Arab neighbors look down on you and the rest of the world is deaf to your pleas. Down in our genes we are all amazed that you are even still alive.
Leave. The Israelis will salt the land before they let you plant another tree on it. Fill up as many ships as you can find and set yourselves adrift. THEN the world will help, maybe even find a land without a people for a people without a land...
I think that would actually be the most effective thing the Palestinians could do against the Israelis.
Imagine - without the Palestinian bugbear to rally against, the more rabid portions of the Israeli populace would soon turn on each other.
I think the Palestinians might be able to return within a generation or so...
Tom Hurndall joins a growing list of unarmed humanitarians who have sacrificed themselves for others -- Rachel Corrie, Marla Ruzicka, Tom Fox -- such people would of course not want us to make a fuss about honoring them, but i think it is important that we do so - not so much for their sake as for our own. We need to be reminded that not all fighters for freedom and peace carry guns or wear uniforms, that soldiers are not the only martyrs worth remembering.
So I want to know: is there a site somewhere that lists an Honor Roll of such people? If you know of one, please drop me a note at smendler@yahoo.com --
Hey, I found one:
http://www.daytonpeacemuseum.org/peace_martyrs_of_the_21st_centur.htm
Tom Hurndall and Rachel Corrie were fools. One never stands between a vicious predator and its prey. You'll have as much effect trying to reason with an Israeli as you will with a rabid wolf. Not all Israelis, but the Likudniks for sure, the Netanyahus for sure.
You do if the prey happens to be your brother or sister...
Sometimes, courage involves sacrifices. Tom Hurndall reminds me of Ralph Nader (my favorite candidate and I voted for him thrice) and Gandhi who wouldn't give up their courage no matter how badly the world mistreated them. I cherish these 3 as TRUE HEROES. In fact, as I discussed in another article thread ( http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/28-3), studying the courage Ralph Nader had throughout his life similar to Gandhi's influenced my way of life deeply even to the point of putting career and higher education first over dating and marriage. You'll also find my comments there about how even my family and my best friends raised hell on me for choosing Nader over Obama. In fact, Tom's tragedy reminds me of the horrible dating experience I had on Valentine's Day last month (yes, I posted it in the link I mentioned) though I had the courage to stand my ground and not concede to being a slave housewife. The more I read about these people, the less sad I feel about my living a sheltered life up until a few years ago and being a single even at the age of 28 and the less fearful I am when dealing with married people teasing and annoying me about my single status. My heart goes out to you Tom Hurndall. Sometimes I think that there's a next life for these souls where they won't be persecuted like this.
I am heartened that there are thinking,feeling,aware young people like yourself.
The courage it takes to go against conventional thinking. I am 62 and have seen men and women of conviction go against the tide of the times. I voted for Ralph Nader three times also. I was never more convinced that I made the correct vote. The people who are the voices in the wilderness are always villified by those they seek to unmask. You may be in the minority but you must know that you know the real truth.The hell with people who criticize you,they are afraid,they have no conviction,just ideas gleaned from propaganda spewed out by the ruling elite. Be BRAVE and true to yourself.
Thank you lewb. I'm glad that there are forums such as this one where our points often never get heard. Sometimes, I feel sad that I have to go against conventional thinking but when I realize that the benefits will outweigh the disadvantages, I'll lighten up. The more I learn from such courageous people and meet some like yourself and similar, the more I think I'll improve and cut down on feeling sad to be courageous. I'm working on it. :)
"Slave housewife"? Give me a break! American housewives/stay at home dad's have never had it better. Barf!!!
Why don't you go to India or Africa before you say that again. PPPLEASE!!!!
Why don't take Jennifer's place then, since you assume that she would have had such a good lifestyle? Don't have enough balls?
I already know about the lives of women in India and Africa and no, not all house wives and/or stay-at-home dads have had it any better. I'd rather be a happy single than an unhappy slave wife. Andif you had read my posts on that link I provided, you'd understand what I was getting at !
The important question is, why did Tom Hurndall hate America (sic)?
What a remarkable assumption to make (that Tom Hundall hated America) based on no facts whatsoever. One hopes you have heard the breakdown of the word assume - to assume makes an ass out of you and me.
I think Goebbels was being ironic.
Joe
Jews suffered hideously in the 30's and 40's and when eventually the Nazi's were purged and Jewish people came up with the expression "never again" I thought, and rather naively in hindsight, that meant that never again should humanity ever suffer such an evil. I didn't realise that only Jews were allocated this "never again" and that with their holocaust credits would be free to turn the tables and exterminate anyone (and anywhere) who got in their way with relative impunity.
I have been thinking about this. Rather like that day in August or whenever it is when you have paid all your taxes and that earnings actually start to go to yourself rather than the government -that there should be a similar one for Israel.
I suggest today is that day. From now on Israel, you are just like everybody else, no more extermination credits.
"Jews suffered hideously in the 30's and 40's and when eventually the Nazi's were purged and Jewish people came up with the expression "never again"."
They did and Zionists have used the 6 million and survivors as political tools ever since.
Whenever the heat gets turned up Zionists and their supporters scream "HOLOCAUST!" and everybody backs down. We have been trained to defer when the holocaust is brought up and therefore not call the Zionists bluff.
It's truly sad that on Holocaust Rememberace Day, a Jew will stand during the siren and then hop right back into his armored Cat and knock down a Palestinian house.
Note: I use the term "Zionist" because not all Jews (myself included) support the criminal regime in Israel.
Sioux Rose
From an esoteric standpoint, the man went out depicting the highest of human achievement, sacrificing his life for another, a child/innocent. In reading Edgar Cayce's chronicle of his own past life heritage one life was given where he, along with others during America's early colonial phase, were on board a small raft crossing a river (or escaping flood waters). Cayce died in that lifetime assisting a child who could not swim in an attempt to get aboard.
It was related that out of this act his personal soul record was drastically improved. For all the karma of destruction directly attributable to America's aggressive foreign policy, perhaps if many of us were so disposed as to send some of our fortune to those in need, or to sacrifice our lives for others, the destiny of our land that's fallen to such nakedly depraved indifference might alter.
Someone asked on a thread yesterday why it was that other lands "consumed" our Hollywood entertainment fare which consists of so much violence, and yet rates of domestic abuse and violent crime pale in comparison with the statistics found in our homeland. There are numerous instruments through which a population is programmed, and certainly media plays a tremendous role. This nation also champions war, its own national anthem, "the bombs BURSTING in air" is violent, it sees leaders as warriors, its media exalts shows of raw power, its sporting events program people to worship brute force, and even religion (fundamentalists) have adapted to this war = god's will fallacy. The sum of these diversionary tactics is a world at war with itself, the US its chief sponsor of weapons. If violence were a drug, the US would be the main criminal dealer... crimes against humanity today are as much a part of the fabric of global life as are genetically mutated plants part of our food supplies. This is the world sponsored by mammon and Mars, respect for life, and for the Great Mother, which is nature, have been rendered sissy-like traits, stricken from our spiritual understanding and vocabulary. Without respect for the Divine feminine as life giving force, source of nourishment and nurture, this madness-based manmade model like a virus is set loose to crash, burn, co-opt, and consume everything, inclusive of the very ecosystems necessary for the sustenance of life. Perhaps it does end here. The Atlanteans went about their daily business as the waters rushed in to change their plans substanially around.
Hi Sioux Rose,
A friend of mine whose username is JWVerez introduced me to this site and told me a lot about you. He's my remote coworker out in TX. I only got to see him once in person as I live in St Louis, MO. I came across a lot of posts where you and JWVerez discussed between each other so many times and I must say that after I asked him if this was true and he confirmed his near death hell and what he had to endure after that, I was in tears for about half an hour. Yet, when I thought about all the wonderful work he has contributed to his company to make that company an excellent customer of my company because he put principle over greed despite pressure to do the opposite, I wiped my tears and realized that thanks to his loving family and his own determination eventually to quit giving up, he succeeded. Unfortunately, he has been sick for a while and is on leave for another two weeks. I don't know what's ailing him but I hope he gets better so that he can share more helpful information here too and even continue enlightening the thinking and framing. I find your posts with spiritual emphasis rather interesting especially when you discuss Mars and Venus. I may be Christian and my parents may be conservative but I'm not so religious even though I do believe in God for loving sakes.
P.S.: Alternet.org could use a spiritual thinker such as yourself especially when we need to find ways to knock some sense into those irritating Limbaugh dittoheads and Obamabots.
Sioux Rose
Hello JENNIFER, please send Mr. Verez my regards. He is missed here.
I read all of your recent contributions to this site, and you appear to be very wise and mature for your tender years. The story about the young men deciding to cut your hair was scary, to say the least. There is an article on CD today about the next wave (your generation) of feminists, which I am yet to respond to. At the end of the month I face magazine deadlines, my newest book galleys were just sent and I have a few days to read through 300 pages to check for any errors, and I am waiting to see what I owe in taxes, i.e. lots of personal pressures! And it seems your honesty and strong capacity to observe the absurdities that pass for norms in the world around you (and all of us) won Zmann's heart!
By the way as to the Venus-Mars versus Christian comment, It represents at essence a false dichotomy. Jesus was a master who, as the lost years suggest, studied mystical teachings, possibly in India. An author by the name of Rabbi Dobin published a book years ago, "To Rule Both Night and Day," and in it he COUNTED every reference made in the Bible to the stars, moon, sun and heavens. It was something to the tune of 1700 references. Many Jews do excel in math and he took the time to statistically correlate his findings putting references into categories that suggested a causal relationship or otherwise. For instance, "And the heavens did thus and so, and thus the people responded..." More than 50% of those 1700 references inadvertently point to the spiritual relationship that astrologers define as, "As above, so below."
I may try Alternet. I have had many people thank me for bringing this marginalized understanding to the CD forum, and I have also had critics who have asked me to please refrain from sharing my area of expertise. If there were more outlets that welcomed a cosmic overview of current events, I would probably not be here. Astrologers were the first heretics, and in these times when truth spoken is tantamount to heresy, we ought to be welcomed back to the circles of progressive, cutting edge thinkers.
Hi Sioux Rose,
Thank you for the reassurance. Sometimes, because of an oddity that sticks out or I keep fearing is sticking out, I find myself having internal conflicts about courage vs conforming. About that incident, yeah it was terrible and after we came back home, my father tried not to let my mother know about it but that night they were arguing about what went wrong in my life and why I'm not married unlike everyone else my age or even younger. I was next door and the more I heard them debating and arguing, the more I was in tears and just kept blaming myself for ruining their Valentine's night. The next day wasn't stellar either for a Sunday. Almost everyone had a kissing partner except my favorite uncle and myself and I'd keep getting pushed to the sides while there were conversations going on that I finally decided to leave the family gathering and go to my bedroom. My uncle showed up a little later and told me he was worried about my lack of presence and asked if I was alright. I said I was alright but I couldn't stand myself for lying like that. In any case, he asked if there was anything he could do and still asked if I really was ok and if not what the matter was. I kept repeating that everything's fine but everytime I repeated I kept hesitating. He was about to leave reluctantly when I finally couldn't stand myself any longer and decided to confess that I really was feeling very miserable and lonely and cried on his shoulders. I told him everything I overheard from my parents' conversation last night and he sought to calm down my anxieties and unhappiness. He explained to me how he learned to overcome his grief of losing his wife and even watching his two daughters end up in divorce though both got remarried later. I even admitted to him that I was scared that I would never get married because I never dated let alone successfully. He also assured me that he would try to work out something between my parents and myself to get past the horrible incident. They have visited me in the city and they're starting to lighten up on their conservatism at least on me. They even made sure I'd wipe those tears before they'd leave. Sometimes I feel like a child when I'm in tears but I often notice that because I gained a lot more worldly knowledge having moved from rural MO to St Louis which changed my lifestyle and even my form from plump to slender, I think I'm probably adjusting to what I feared were sudden changes. Yes, going from a country girl to a city girl can feel dramatically different. I wonder if there's a Mars vs Venus internal conflict inside me at times.
I have a penchant for Jews myself and I like being frugal like them even if I get laughed at although the laughing is subsiding thanks to the tougher economic times. zmann's great and he even helped calm down some of my anger I had on Obama. Like zmann, I so dearly wish Obama wouldn't allow even his small victories to be overshadowed by major failures in the financial policies and wars.
It's ok if you don't try Alternet. I can understand. It can get so irritating watching great comments getting a 1 rating while nasty partisan attack ones get a 5. There has gotten to be a lot of DLC vs real progressive debating and even ideology war going on there. I probably won't be there too often myself but if there's a discussion worth posting for, I won't hesitate to do so. You can see my old posts on that site anytime. I don't want to see anyone on Alternet persecuting you. Come to think of it, I can learn from your posts and reframe on the spiritual notions and slowly feed it to them. As I said on Alternet and as some others have pointed out, some may like it some may not but I won't back down. :)
Sioux Rose
Well my dear, you can be SURE that conformity is over-rated when a society slips down a slippery slope into a passive acceptance of torture, murder as foreign policy, the incarceration of over 2 million of its own citizens, stealing $ from workers to give to the obscenely rich, consuming a form of entertainment that routinely mutilates or humiliates others, etc etc etc. Only those courageous enough to think for themselves to fly over this cuckoo's nest have a chance at sanity or moral integrity finding themselves ensconced in such a nexus.
As for the dating game, this is a phase of transition for mankind. I think your generation has a better shot at finding equality in a partnership than mine did. I often feel like Diane Fossey, that dating is not all that different from life among the apes. Probably in this forum there is a better class of (thinking, intelligent) male, but out there in "the jungle" it's rough going. Of course many men in this forum completely discount the pervasiveness of rape and other forms of sexism or sexual abuse. Having had 2 attempted rapes (I'm a tough cookie), and one X I had to get a restraining order against, another (my husband) who managed NOT to pay child support for years, and now dealing with a young guy whose family programming is racist/sexist and immersed in every other damning ism division, the choice is largely to be alone, or deal with consciousness at the level it's at. Of course one can be celibate, or if they have earned MAJOR good karma in the testing zone of intimate "human bondage," they may be so fortunate as to find a soulmate with whom it's not just about spiritual "heavy lifting." Good luck. Awakened souls are a minority, and it's exceedingly difficult for the enlightened to comingle with those still asleep, and quite angry and anguished, too, are those found in that somnabulistic state.
I don't think you would like it at AlterNet.
They are a more hard-boiled lot. Most there are not big on magical-mystical thinking.
While there are a few misandrists who might jump aboard, your Mars-Venus argument would probably be fired upon almost as soon as it was launched. I don't think a statement like "Many Jews do excel in math..." would slide by unscathed, either. The folks at Common Dreams are far more easy-going. It's another world here - especially now.
I am unaware of any hard evidence that Jesus existed, never mind where he did or did not travel. He is but one in a long line of mythological "saviors." Most have several traits in common, incuding a god (or king) for a father, a royal/virgin mother, visited soon after birth by wise men/magi, killed, resurrected, and ascended into heaven (to be with father-god)...
As ancient peoples borrowed ideas extensively from neighbors, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the religions have a bit of flavoring from other lands, even lands far away.
"Blessed is he who was before he came into being."
Alleged quote by Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas included in the Hammadic Scrolls found in a cave in Israel. I would proffer that on childlike honest reflection we find the common denominator of all experience to be oneself and that the insertion of anything other than "I" as the essential component of experience could only be a thought or feeling of which "I" am prior.
I, who only am, dreams on.
Sioux Rose
PHOTONS: Thanks for the caution around Alternet. Truth is, I have little time to spare and what I do generally gets devoted to this forum where I feel that virtual friendships have been established.
The lawyer I used to date posed pretty compelling arguments to my belief system, and sometimes he'd say (after I elaborated I thought quite convincingly on an astrological theme), "Aren't these just STORIES we tell ourselves"? Yes, much of our belief system is colored by and codified by mythologies of various sorts, but for me, I prefer to live WITH magic, than without it. And in times as disgustingly off-kilter and unjust as these, believing in a higher Truth and Universal Law is probably what keeps me sane.
SiouxRose, please don't refrain from expressing your views on this forum - it is always helpful, refreshing and a pleasure when I come across your posts. Please don't let anyone or anything stop you from expressing yourself.
Sioux Rose
GAIL: Thank you very much. With so much censorship and having seen my own career narrowed to the point I wondered if I was blacklisted, I find it therapeutic to bring to CD ideas seldom found ANYWHERE in media, particularly its mainstream equivalent. Again, thank you for the nod.
"Tree huggers" are nearly always exceptional people...I think he'd probably be proud to be called one. I had a dream about the time Tom went to Baghdad that hundreds of thousands of Americans stood in the streets between soldiers and civilians as human shields and said, "Stop". Then I watched the news and realized they were busy voting on American Idol.
When we Americans confront the militarism of Israeli expansion and ethnic cleansing, we stand out as idealists. Palestinians face the same menace day after day after decade after decade. They too have been alone.
JERUSALEM – Citing insufficient evidence and heresy, the Israeli military on Monday closed an investigation into two cases of alleged killings of Gaza civilians that had caused an uproar in Israel and around the world. (AP)
The slaughter of Palistine was preplanned and approved by both the Israelis and our own Congressional GENOCIDAL MONSTERS!
I'll have NOTHING to do either of them or their supporters in this lifetime. When's elections?
This story could also be about Rachel Corrie or Tristan Anderson.
Living in a society where the rule of law only serves those who deem themselves lawful or worthy of fair justice, we see the ruling elite as they reserve the right to, with a twist of a few words, turn unlawful deeds into lawful necessities. After all, Justice is reserved for those who are self proclaimed worthy patrons, and the only ones who measure up to some invisible standard set up for the chosen few. The rest of us have truly become invisible just as the statue of Justice is depicted, a lady holding a well balanced scale, but being blindfolded cannot really deiferentiate between good justice and bad justice. With this mindset for the rule of law, that it is something that can be manipulated and interpeted at will by lawyers whose motives are far from admirable, It becomes easier to believe in what is known as poetic justice. " What Goes Around, Comes Back ARound." We hope for poetic justice for the Israeli sniper who shot Tom while he was rescuing a child. In all instances of oppression and suppression, eventually after all of the devastion placed on other peoples in other places, there will be the "Turnabout is Fair Play." occasions and the wheels will be set in motion for the payback, or poetic justice, at which point I would not care to be in Tom's sniper's shoes.
.
Tom Hurndall was a truly brave warrior for truth. Going where most of us fear to go. Looking into the face of madness, and sacrificing his life for our humanity.
His message to us, is to stop funding this Second Holocaust.
We all need to follow his example........stand up for peace and truth.
israel brought to you by Congress and USA taxpayers.
I deeply respect Fisk but why the tree hugger put down?
If you think about it, the term "tree-hugger", though used derogatorily, actually exposes the ignorance, contempt and arrogance of the person saying it.
"God have mercy on us all!"
Although many of us have been reading and writing for years, the "Evil" continues.
As some of us stood with 15 million Spaniards demonstrating against the impending "Invasion of Iraq", the "Evil" went on.
President Obama and his Council on Foreign Relations advisors have decided "The Evil" is more important than: human life, the rule of law, and the World Economy.
Nothing has changed.... that "Vision of Hope" had always been cloaked in "Evil"
"The Carter Doctrine of 1980" and "The Project For A New American Century" are the guiding lights for that "Evil".......They prayed for a "Pearl Harbor Type Attack" or were they so "Evil" that they planned and executed it using a "False Flag" Technique?
When you are "Evil", human life means nothing to you. "God have mercy on us all!"
He was a true hero-and his acts of heroism live on. For activists, his life and his death atre the reason why we fight on. We will not be stopped-nor will we be silenced. In the names of peole like Tom Hurndall................
I hope there's a Heaven waiting for some of us. And for the 'others' (Bush, Cheney, all of them; the bankers and financial wizards) I truly hope there is something else..