thoughts on haiti

Since the earthquake in Haiti there has been much published about looting and the possibility for societal breakdown.  Lots of hand ringing concerning how damaging it is etc..   Lots of written words and TV shows saying loads of alarming things about allowing looting to happen. 

During a conversation the other night i stated that i could understand why a person would loot after a catastrophe.  Having been in a major one myself i understood why people, seeing buildings totally destroyed, think if i don't scavenge the stuff some one else will.  i stated that it was no different from financiers knowingly swindling investors.

i was immediately slapped down, saying you couldn't compare the two.  One could result in the break down of society, the other was different.  We changed the conversation but i wanted to delve deeper into the intricacies of theft and what makes one so different, acceptable, or not acceptable than the other.

After Hurricane Hugo was finished tearing St. Croix apart, business's that hadn't survived the onslaught, were open to the elements.  Roofs had been torn off, walls had collapsed, rain had poured down on the goods and everything was exposed.  It didn't take long before people all over the island started scavenging.

Refrigerators, TV's, and washing machines, along with food and water rolled down streets that had no electricity and wouldn't see any for months to come.  They scavenged everything, even things they would never be able to use, but they did it.  They did it because they were scared and they did it because they were trying to provide for their families.  They did it because they could.

Rumor had it at the time that owners of these gaping businesses had said in some circumstances to go ahead and take it, the insurance company would cover the loss.   They certainly couldn't resell damaged goods so many said have at it.  i suppose somewhere, months down the line, after the island had been cleaned up, the owners may have been able to sell some as damaged goods, but by that time things were more normal and people wanted new items. Not filthy dirty hurricane left overs.

Anyone who participated in the scavenging after the hurricane was labeled a "looter" or a "thief." 

Today, people in Haiti are labeled "looters" for scavenging food, medicine, clothing etc. from crushed buildings.  They are being shot and killed for "petty theft" while others are successfully getting away with the goods.

So what exactly is the difference between looting and swindling or fraud?

All involve stealing something that doesn't belong to you for personal gain.  For some the gain is strictly  survival for others its a chance to obtain something always dreamed of.  This gain may or may not swell the coffers of others besides themselves, but the looter or swindler is the primary criminal.

All of them do it because they can.

I'll start with my financial comparison.  Some may rationalize a swindle or a Ponzi or some other type of monetary theft as different from looting because not just one person gains, and some have consented.  Those getting involved in the fraud initially may actually come out ahead before it collapses or is found out. 

Well the looter that gets there first, who scavenges successfully also helps his family and friends.  He brings home the goods and distributes them just like the heads of the financial firms.

The head of a financial institution who knowingly bets against himself and makes millions or billions while others lose is a thief who should do time or be killed just like the looter.  He is no different from a looter and in many cases is much worse than a looter.  He hasn't taken advantage of a natural catastrophe, he has created one and yet is viewed as somehow above a common looter.

The newspapers and television say looting is different because it can cause chaos and a break down of society. 

Well haven't we seen today how the bundling of worthless financial instruments and trading them on international security markets causes chaos and a break down of the world economy which affects societies everywhere.

The difference between the two is not minimal for the break down in both cases should be contained when law enforcement steps in.  Problem is, the economic breakdown world wide caused by financial manipulation is much more devastating to higher numbers of people and in fact hasn't stopped, than what looting can cause. 

Hundreds of thousands of Haitians remain in desperate need of food, medicine, water and shelter so scavenging destroyed buildings is utilizing their survival skills and who are we to say that they wouldn't later come back and repay what they took.

Some will say, well consent has been given in the case of investments in Ponzi schemes or other types of manipulation, well maybe consent was given to scavenge in the buildings too.  If the consent in either case was given under deceptive circumstances then it cancels the consent.  Rumor may have been the spark that started the looting but it will end when the goods are all distributed.  It can only happen as long as there is a supply of commodities.

The swindle ends when the money dries up, only those who have stolen are still regarded as pillars of society, not criminals and not subject to annihilation by a police force wielding guns.

What is wrong with this picture?  Why is looting by desperate people looked upon as so much worse than swindling by white collar criminals? 

And so, i view the looting going on in Haiti as much less damaging over the long term than the looting that went on in our monetary markets over the past few years.  Its time we put things in perspective and stop condemning people who are trying to survive.  This is not a cut and dried issue.  Any one of us who found ourselves with nothing during a natural disaster could quite easily turn into a "looter."

creative maladjustment

 Have you ever heard of the "The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment"?

No?

Well, there is no such thing...but there should be.


 A non-violent rebel who broke the law fighting for justice and human rights wanted to create the above department.

He claimed that human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

Martin Luther King believed there were certain things in this world that it was not appropriate to be adjusted to; things like bigotry, discrimination and segregation.

"This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Our planet teeters on the brink of atomic annihilation; dangerous passions of pride, hatred and selfishness are enthroned in our lives; and men do reverence before false gods of nationalism and materialism. The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority." MLK

Monday Juan Cole wrote about new areas where we non-conformists are maladjusted.

"We are told by the Republican minority that is holding the country hostage in the Senate that we are maladjusted if we object to 37 million Americans not being covered by health care. We are maladjusted if we want to see banks regulated. We are maladjusted if we want a change in  income tax so that the richest, with their billions in bonuses, pay more for government social services from which they and their corporations benefit. We are maladjusted if we object to escalating the war in Afghanistan or to covert drone assassinations in Pakistan or to starting a whole new war in Yemen. We are maladjusted if we object to racially profiling Arabs and Arab-Americans. We are maladjusted if we object to mountain top removal coal mining, or, indeed, if we object to destroying the world with the burning of coal in general. We are maladjusted if we won't disfigure our shorelines with oil rigs. We are maladjusted if we support choice for women or marriage for gays."

i didn't think Juan had enough down so as another non-conformist i'd like to add a few more:

There are those out there who think we are maladjusted if we believe man may be impacting his environment adversely and we should do something about it.  We are maladjusted if we support minimum wage. We are maladjusted if we want to even the playing field just a tad through public education.  We are maladjusted if we want to end corporate welfare.  We are maladjusted if we want to decriminalize marijuana use.  We are maladjusted if we want to end our dependence upon fossil fuels.  We are maladjusted if we want to reauthorize assault weapon bans.  And finally but certainly not the end of areas where we are so very maladjusted because we want accountability for pre-emptive invasions, torture, wiretapping, rendition, and a host of other things that aren't coming to mind just now.

King called for an end to militarism and far-flung imperial wars. He rightly claimed that war was the enemy of the poor.

"The fact that our militarism has only grown significantly in the intervening decades makes it more comfortable to sweep these aspects of King's message under the national rug. With Obama mobilizing more soldiers and military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan than Bush did, authorizing more drone attacks that have killed more innocent civilians than Bush did, expanding military bases in South America, and requesting and receiving the largest military budget ever in the history of not only this nation, but any nation in history, it is easier to simply close our collective lips about this King." Ryan Van Lenning

This week we have all been affected by the devastation in Haiti. We have stepped up by focusing on those in need, we contribute what we can, volunteer where we can and wish we could do more to help those devastated by mother nature.

Perhaps this year as we witness ever more defense spending and military engagements and the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and even the middle class drops out, we will listen a little more closely to this giant of a man who still has much to teach us: "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

Finally, "I say to you, my friends, as I move to my conclusion, there are certain things in our nation and in the world which I am proud to be maladjusted and which I hope all men of good-will will be maladjusted." MLK

flamingo tongue snail

Open the door to a dark house and what do you do first? 

Flip on the "light." 

Why?

Because we need to "see".

The use of illuminating light started when pre-historic man discovered how to create fire at will.  Up until that point lighting up anything was solely a function of nature.  Lightning lit up the night skies, lightning bugs flittered amongst the trees leaving the glow of light behind and fires started by lightning lit up vast areas. The only problem with fire was, man couldn't control it, but he sure wanted to for fire could be very destructive.

As man learned the intricacies of cooking and lighting his caves with fire he put more thought to lighting up his residence during the night.  Torches were created from bundles of sticks.  Torches could be placed anywhere  and could easily be transported but still posed a danger when they burned down to the end.  Myths were created around the use of fire and Gods took shape to explain the questions. 

Eventually, the use of fire created a desire to control the darkness more consistently.  Fire had a tendency to burn itself out, so man started experimenting with burning things other than wood.  Animal grease was a natural progression.  Soon stones, shells and horns were filled with grease and a wick and caught on fire.  Archaeologists discovered these pre-historic oil lamps dating back as far as 15,000 years so we know darkness had been conquered long ago.

As man progressed to a more agrarian society light took on more and more meaning.  Artificial light, possessed by the wealthy in the form of fats and oils, would ordinarily be consumed by the poor, but revered none the less.

Some cultures worshiped the sun, understanding that light was necessary for things to grow.  The Egyptian sun god Ra created the first divine couple, Shu and Tefnut, who are the parents of the earth and sky.  Man was born from the tears of Ra, created from his flesh and in his image,
while the earth was created to provide care and support for mankind.  Hmmmm... sounds familiar?

Light is composed of waves and particles but there is actually no way to simultaneously find both the position and path of the particle.  Light surrounds us and nurtures everything we need to grow, so it stands to reason that it would be revered.  We are part of the light. We need it for life.

This morning, while swimming, the sun was refracting through the water.  In the Caribbean it is a beautiful sight.  One that imprisons you in light beams that undulate, tremble and palpitate upon your very core.  If you take a moment to relish the experience the light leads you to explore the entire underwater world.  All sizes of fish, turtles and mammals, flash and flick their bodies...coral, sea fans, sand, everything moving and immobile is pinpointed in the beams as you move through the water.  You are focused on the all and the connection through the light.  It is truly a spiritual experience.

Flamingo tongue on a purple sea fan from Arcadin Islands, Haiti.

Philosophers, scientists, shamans, rabbis, imans, preachers and probably every human being alive has at some point considered "light" and its effect on us.  Sunsets, sunrises, rainbows, light reflections in ponds or any body of water are immortalized in poems, literature and religious texts.  People who have had near death experiences tell us they have seen the light and come back to talk about it.

"Curiously enough, the message from all of those who have encountered the light and returned is the same. All of the beings of light are in firm agreement, and they tell the dying: Stay on Earth and resist the transcendental temptation; focus on life not death; use your human powers of love and compassion in work to make this material world-the world of the here and now and the world we all inhabit-a better world, the best world it can possibly be. This is the one thing on which all of us-the believer and the skeptic-can unanimously agree. This is the true light we all should see."
Robert Baker

St. Croix, VI Three Kings Day Parade 2010

This flower is so beautiful I had to post it for everyone to enjoy.  It should have been in the parade!

I started taking pictures where the groups were lining up.  Much easier to get closeups when the crowd is thin!

Everyone parades...mama's, kids, dads and even grandparents. Check out the 4  grannies below strut their stuff!  The music is loud and the crowd dances along, it starts late, goes slow, slow, slow and doesn't end till after dark.  It is the slowest parade ever.  Some parade goers lack patience and walk the route passing the masqueraders as they wait their turn to perform in front of the grandstand.  It is an all day affair but worth it in so many ways.  If you have never been it is time to come to the islands and experience a Cruzian Christmas the best in the world.  And that's just my opinion.

donkey races

All those vices you tried to hang up are auditioning for a major performance on New Years Eve. The audience is ready, the director has given you the lines, go out and do your best. Let those vices perform, let them do it with a bang, give them the stage to enjoy the applause they so desperately crave, for this is the last chance you have to do all the things you want to stop.

Eat, drink and be merry for the dawning of New Years Day will arrive with a rasher of Do Nots.

Do not eat that fatty food, do not over indulge in tobacco or alcohol. Do not go back to your couch potato ways, get up, get out and exercise. Every year millions of people all over the country list their do nots for the New Year. They will be better people, they won't argue, they will work harder, they will be more understanding and it all starts soon, midnight December 31st.

On stage this year are some philosophical musings.

One guy Peter from England says: "My New Year's resolution is to live until I'm one hundred and twenty six. I haven't broken the resolution yet and it's currently day 5. I'm doing well.

Another one said: "Write down your mistakes in the previous year (2008) and any bad habits you may have picked up - aim to improve your life throughout the New Year by avoiding your errors. I've been following this since 2000 he says and the bad habit list is growing.

Oscar Wilde said: "To never give into anything except temptation and to read more."

Faye of the USA says "I think New Year's resolutions help us to define areas in our lives that need some improvement. If their only virtue is an admission of our faults, and a wish to improve ourselves, they are worth making even if they only last a few hours."


Gareth in the UK said "This year I have decided to give up completely."


All those dreams and drastic changes need more preparation than a New Years Eve resolution.

i've never been one to make New Years Resolutions. There is something so wrong about picking that one day out of 365 to change anything about your person. And what if you fail...what if you start out with all these good intentions and within days are back doing what you have sworn off for life?

Later, when you look back, you have not only failed, but it will make you feel bad on top of it.

So there goes the self esteem, out the window on a rash decision to make a New Years Resolution.

So this year swear off resolutions.

According to a study done by Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire 78% of those polled failed to keep their resolutions. Wiseman asked 700 people about their strategies for achieving new year resolutions only to find the majority of the respondents had failed to keep them.

So give it up, enjoy the New Year, don't make any resolutions you can't keep. Have fun, laugh lots and enjoy your friends and family.

Happy New Year

Happy Holidays

i went to see an impossible fantasy last night, a movie that left a friend longing to live on the depicted planet. "Avatar" is a movie that created a wonderful escape into a way of life many of us could wish for here. "Avatar" lived up to its billing and i would recommend it to any one that loves a good science fiction movie.

The writers create a chimera(which has been used to describe real-life entities that arise or are created as amalgams of previously separate entities) that moves between the human culture and the indigenous on planet Pandora. The irony of naming a planet after a woman who released all the evils on the world becomes abundantly clear as the movie takes shape. i would tell you to go just for the special effects. The mixing of water world entities with earth-bound physicalities in ways not allowed in our world was a fantastic use of the artist's imagination. But the unification of Pandora's inhabitants with the world they lived on is something many of us here might love to experience. Ahhhh the joys of the fantastic.

But playing the role of the gatekeeper i will restrain further flows of information about the movie so as not to spoil it for you.

Just go.

Friday is Christmas. The end of the build up that has been going on everywhere for almost two months now. Since most Americans appear to overemphasize spending and superficiality at the expense of spirituality Friday will be the culmination of an intense shopping binge.

All of us, be we religious or secular, enjoy the coming together, the festive food and the break from the work routine. It is a time of year when we can let our hair down and just fall in love with everything, if we allow ourselves that option.

This universe we live in is wondrous even without faith in a divine plan. Having a holiday to celebrate together is so much fun. This is the best time of the year in the islands. We all shut down to party and commune with each other.

This Holiday Season i'm thinking about what a magical and amazing place Earth can be when we all celebrate how improbable things can happen, Santa coming down the chimney for instance.

There is a great children's book about Santa Claus(The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Julie Lane)that brings tears to my eyes every time i read it to a child. It is one of the most heartwarming stories i think i have ever read. It describes an orphan who is passed around from family to family in a Northern European village, because no one family has the resources to keep him full time. As he grows, he adds more people he loves to his extended family. He slowly starts making tiny gifts and leaves them in stockings on the doors during the dead of night. He evolves into the Santa we all thought we knew and loved as children only to find out later he never existed. But this Santa is real, his love is real, and the love for him from adults and children is real.

The nature of the human mind is to question and as children we are taught to question Santa's reality. i think we should be reminded of humanity's great questions at least once a year. At some point in our lives we question the meaning of our world and our existence. In doing so, we examine religious beliefs and philosophies of different cultures; we look at literature's and the artistic expressions of the people of the world; we study languages, create works of art and perform music and plays.

What, if anything, can be known with certainty?

Questioning can be as simple as having a successful confrontation with human suffering, or questioning to find the answer to life's roadblocks.

Remember that cruelty hardens and degrades while kindness reforms and ennobles. This holiday season let Peace prevail, become a foe of violence, don't let it invade your space.
And remember, don't ever stop questioning our humanity, question who we really are, question everything.

Celebrate our questions.

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes

food

Food, from the simple to the sublime . . . is a commodity we can't do without for too long before it negatively impacts our existence. And we can't have that now can we?

As the holiday season creates more venues for eating many of us will be anxiously shopping for that delectable tidbit that will wow family and guests.

Eating has always been an important event in this family, just on a daily basis. We organize our day around the evening meal, dinner being the most important for that is the one we can usually all attend. If you can't make dinner you better have a darn good excuse why not.

But traditions play a huge role for most humans around the world and for us they are primary. The menu selection, prep work, cooking and eventual presentation can cause a rash of headaches if all aren't in agreement prior to beginning the process. We are a very fussy bunch, us humans, and we like our food just so. Sometimes, tradition is so set in stone, that any mention of a change of a menu can be down right horrifying.

A guest last night was lamenting having to attend a Christmas Eve appetizer party instead of a sitting down dinner. Another was discussing a menu faux pas(cooking the Turkey in a paper bag) that had made their Thanksgiving less than stellar. It seems we are such creatures of habit that any changes during traditional meals cause such consternation as to make the event unsatisfactory.

i was reading recently about the oil used during Hanukkah, a celebration that reminds Jews of the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days when the Maccabees purified and rededicated the holy Temple in Jerusalem. Oil plays a huge role in this story. There is the oil of the candles that kept burning and the oil for cooking the Latke's, which is an American tradition. The characteristics of different oils(that for burning and eating) can enhance the flavor and aromas of most dishes but we really don't need the oil it just helps us "see" and taste in a more helpful way. Some say that oil has a way of "illuminating" life, i would tend to agree with that statement.

i had oil all over the stove, the kitchen counters, the floor and myself trying to make the traditional latke's last night and keep the guests entertained. i could "see" i was in danger of slipping on some of it while juggling heaping bowls of marinating grated potatoes, sizzling potato pancakes frying on the stove and pans full of already cooked latke's being kept warm in the oven.

The kitchen was a disaster but the dinner table looked lovely. The house glowed with the Christmas tree and other decorations, but my mother's voice kept playing over and over in my head. She had admonished us for building a house where the kitchen was visible to the guests while you were cooking. Last night was a night i could hear her saying "see, I'll bet you wish they couldn't "see" you now, hehe." "All that oil everywhere, it's such a mess, no one wants to see the mess when they are about to eat."

Well, it was a mess, but you know what, the food was great, the talk was great and everyone helped clean up after. The mess brought us all together.

Eating during holidays always brings up some cultural tradition be it Thanksgiving turkey, Hanukkah latke's, Christmas puddings, or Valentine chocolates. Food plays a big role . . . and so does the conversation that surrounds the making and eating of it. After all the prep, all the fuss, all the work of getting it to the table the real aspect of tradition and food comes to fruition.

When everyone sits down and starts to eat, if it becomes very silent for a short while you know you have triumphed. After that, the fun starts for everyone starts chatting and this is what i love to savor, eating and talking. The food, the talk, they bind us to each other. It can bring out great joy or give rise to clearing the air of grievances. We can solve the world's problems in one sitting or create new ones. We can articulate and sparkle or remain quiet and listen.

The joining together to eat can symbolize health and togetherness so celebrate every time you sit down with family or friends.

For food can humble us in ways unexpected.

lingering essence

A friends father died recently and during writing a condolence message i was struck by his lingering essence. This happens every time i write a condolence letter or even think of someone alive. Usually the person i'm writing about or thinking about appears vividly in my conscious, reminding me of all the things i liked about that person. Reminding me of the lessons i learned from that person, their smiles, stories and how we interacted.

i think about them while writing and they come back to life. My friends father was laughing, he was as alive as i am to me while i was thinking about him and yet he is dead. My conscious brought him back to life, interacted with the vision, and enabled me to compose a more personal message. He took shape, he talked, i re-created him.

There is a book written by Robert Lanza called "Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness Are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe." This book, about the centrality of life and how our conscious creates the universe, uses the term biocentrism and lays out seven principles which i will blatantly copy.

1. What we perceive as reality is a process that involves our consciousness. An "external" reality, if it existed, would by definition have to exist in space. But this is meaningless, because space and time are not absolute realities but rather tools of the human and animal mind.
2. Our external and internal perceptions are inextricably intertwined. They are different sides of the same coin and cannot be divorced from one another.
3. The behavior of subatomic particles, indeed all particles and objects, is inextricably linked to the presence of an observer. Without the presence of a conscious observer, they at best exist in an undetermined state of probability waves.
4. Without consciousness, "matter" dwells in an undetermined state of probability. Any universe that could have preceded consciousness only existed in a probability state.
5. The structure of the universe is explainable only through biocentrism. The universe is fine-tuned for life, which makes perfect sense as life creates the universe, not the other way around. The "universe" is simply the complete spatio-temporal logic of the self.
6. Time does not have a real existence outside of animal-sense perception. It is the process by which we perceive changes in the universe.
7. Space, like time, is not an object or a thing. Space is another form of our animal understanding and does not have an independent reality. We carry space and time around with us like turtles with shells. Thus, there is no absolute self-existing matrix in which physical events occur independent of life.

Our senses give us a read out while we are awake and while we sleep. According to Lanza space and time are not external, they are not objects, they are a part of our conscious makeup. Lanza explains that the basis for trying to understand this conscious creation could be had through an investigation of quantum physics.

But controversies abound.

Some say this idea will revolutionize our concept of nature. Others say poppycock. But as Kant said in his own words way back when.

Space is not something objective and real, nor a substance, nor an accident, nor a relation; instead, it is subjective and ideal, and originates from the mind's nature in accord with a stable law as a scheme, as it were, for coordinating everything sensed externally. (Ak 2: 403)

Lanza who is known to many as a biomedical pioneer in cloning and stem cell research, goes on to suggest that we are all immortal. That there is no such thing as death.

i can comprehend this because we are all energy. Energy is not lost in this world it just eeks out to combine with other entities. We change shape when we pass on but our energy remains. It becomes part of everything , part of the plants, the trees, the air, the ocean, the universe. In this way we become immortal, we don't die.

i'm throwing all this out there as a betweener. i'm not sure his idea is strong enough to convince me that only our consciousness creates reality.

If it is the case, my question today would be if our conscious created space and time and reality....why in the world did we create this place? i think we could have done much better.

And so today i'm using my conscious to create reality. My friends dead father is alive and in my world we all treat each other as equals first.........what is yours creating?

betweeness

Yesterday in the New York Times there was an article about a new book by Dr. Tomasello who "believes children develop what he calls "shared intentionality," a notion of what others expect to happen and hence a sense of a group "we." It is from this shared intentionality that children derive their sense of norms and of expecting others to obey them." The article, called "We may be born with the urge to help," describes the study of 12-24 month old subjects who exhibit helping behavior before parents actually teach manners.

"Drop something in front of a two-year-old, and she's likely to pick it up for you. This is not a learned behavior, psychologist Michael Tomasello argues. Through observations of young children in experiments he himself has designed, Tomasello shows that children are naturally—and uniquely—cooperative."

Even the selfish and independent people have to work with others to reach their goals and this may have been learned in childhood, Tomasello claims. Cooperation is one of the least understood attributes of nature and as research continues the focus on the benefits of cooperation and cultural norms becomes more apparent.

Yesterday i was also reading about yeast proteins in biomolecular interaction networks. Scientists use a term called high betweeness proteins when describing a relationship with low connectivity protein modules. While reading an abstract that is much more in depth than the above sentence i was struck by the need for high betweeness in human relationships.

Being between is not necessarily reflective of connectivity or cooperation but "being between" still has a role to play by creating a linkage of interactions. The linkage of interactions by humans not accustomed to relating with each other can occur through the random use of the betweener. The betweener can or cannot signal any diverse groups by using key commonalities.

Barbara Ehrenreich has a new book out(Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America,) that questions the mammoth business of "positive thinking". Apparently after a diagnosis of breast cancer she became caught up in the cult of the pink ribbons. Those ribbon wearing ladies who were not allowed to express anger, fear, or distress by doctors, families and other pink ribbon wearing "cancer survivors." This immersion in "happiness" in the face of death lead her to research the American obsession with optimism. She wanted to know if poverty, obesity, unemployment and relationship troubles could be overcome with a positive mind set. Later, after much research, she came to the conclusion that the bungled invasion of Iraq and the current economic mess may be intricately tied to this reckless national penchant for self-delusion and a lack of anxious vigilance, necessary to societal survival.

Which leads me back to the betweener. The betweener can create a shorter path to understanding and may directly or indirectly influence later outcomes. There is no recognizable category of people that represent betweener's for they are not easily identified. i absconded with a scientific term(high betweeness) to create a different verbal usage of connecting humans together even when they may not view it as a connection or as being necessary to their survival or existence.

Historically negotiators or mediators played a type of betweener when parties to a dispute reached an impasse and discussions broke down. This is not the definition of a betweener that i'm trying to develop, for a betweener's role is purely linkage and not final resolution. Sometimes the linkage may happen without any of the parties recognizing the importance or change in behavior that happened as a result of "betweeness."

It is a slow process that occurs over time as the betweeners sweeten the pot with unusual connections or insights.

As most of you know i was adamantly against the Iraq invasion. Today i'm adding that i'm against the increase of troops by President Obama in Afghanistan.

Our military is composed of men and women who are trained to kill. That is their job.

As Juan Cole says on his blog today:

The biggest threat of derailment comes from an American public facing 17 percent true unemployment and a collapsing economy who are being told we need to spend an extra $30 billion to fight less than 100 al-Qaeda guys in the mountains of Afghanistan, even after the National Security Adviser admitted that they are not a security threat to the US.

We are increasing our forces to kill more Afghanistan people...we are not going in to make peace. Warriors don't make peace, they kill. Peace only happens after they start to withdraw.
i rest my case.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow!

Holidays can be stressful times for those hosting the festivities and those joining the party with lofty expectations. Family time can run the full gamut of relaxation, adventure, laughter and fun to bouts of unexpected misunderstandings. It is the misunderstandings, those times that come unannounced and unanticipated that can wreck havoc with the party.

Albert Sweitzer had a lovely quote about misunderstandings:

"Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate."

Many times the misunderstanding is related to a failure to communicate appropriately. One or the other may have thought they were listening. Thought they understood what had passed between both of the parties involved in the failure to understand. Thought they had explained themselves perfectly in a logical manner, only the end result was really one participant just trying to defend their own point of view? Was one talking when they should have been listening? Was one listening too much and not having an opportunity to explain?

We all need to be understood and listened to, not just heard. Hearing and really listening are two different activities. When we listen so hard that what we have heard is offensive it is time to take a deep breath before responding with some diatribe we wish later we hadn't replied with.

Sometimes coming back with a positive emotional response can diffuse the situation. We humans are all emotional beings and respond positively when our psyches are stroked. We all have gut feelings when misunderstood. we fight back without thinking or we enter a zone detached from the verbal acrobatics. We put up our defenses, we ignore the words hoping they will go away and the attack will stop.

Think about the relationships between members of a family during this holiday. They should be mutually beneficial and not simply relationships of provider and consumer. We need family to survive even when we misunderstand each other. It is important to get over the impasse as fast as possible so it doesn't grow a thick moldy crust that can't be touched. Get over it tomorrow, move on, don't brood or yell if you are involved in any misunderstandings.

When we are joined with each other in mutual actions of eating and drinking....think of the trust and affection, care and responsibility we can retain as members of the human family by taking an extra moment before reacting.

"Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate."

Happy Thanksgiving