I'm Still Alive...

Keep your eyes on the gentleman above...

Let Them All Live!

In Honor of the Holiday

Friday is the BIG DAY! Buy Nothing Day, that is.

I have celebrated BND for several years and this year will not be an exception. What is BND? A short answer:

For 24 hours, millions of people around the world do not participate -- in the doomsday economy, the marketing mind-games, and the frantic consumer-binge that's become our culture. We pause. We make a small choice not to shop. We shrink our footprint and gain some calm. Together we say to Exxon, Nike, Coke and the rest: enough is enough. And we help build this movement to rethink our unsustainable course.

The day after Thanksgiving has traditionally been the biggest shopping day of the year. Americans, and those who follow our toxic way of life, spend billions of dollars in an attempt to satisfy ego and carnality. Money is thrown down a rat hole as consumers buy useless gifts for one another for no other reason than they have been conditioned to do so. It is a shame. The world is starving to death, AIDS is ravaging most of the African continent, Sudan is in the midst of a genocide, Iraqi citizens are dying in a war for oil and Americans shop.

How about curbing your consumerism for ONE DAY and giving the money you don't spend at NikeTown or Wal-Mart to a charity? Better yet, don't buy anything at all this Christmas season and give a huge donation to the Salvation Army. Christ told the rich young ruler to sell all that he owned and give the money he got for his possessions to the poor. He couldn't do it at the time. His stomach was more important than his heart. Don't be like the rich, young ruler. Resist the propaganda and buck the trend!

You can do it! Whooooooa!

What You Can Do

Victoria’s Dirty Secret
In New York activists will be dressed up as Angels with Chain Saws to protest the deforestation of the Boreal Forest for the production of glossy catalogues. It's a spoof of Victoria's Secret's recent ad campaign: ‘Angels Across America’.

Jammer Radios
Imagine rush hour commuters bombarded with BND anti-ads. In L.A. Culture Jammers are reclaiming radio with low-power FM transmitters.

BND Japan
Become a Zenta: put on a Santa costume and meditate in front of HANKYU department store, Kyoto, 2pm - 6pm.
Trade coffee fairly: one cup costs 100g of rice, 5 sheets of seaweed or 200g of flour.Enjoy a free meal and some conversation at one of Japan's "biggest and most colorful homeless communities" in Kamagasaki.

BND UK
Throw a temper tantrum in a shopping mall.
Visit a fast food chain in a chicken or cow costume with a banner proclaiming things like "You're not having my chicken wings."
Stage a classic conga to finish off the festivities. Reverend Billy In New York
Look out for the Ten Commandments posted on CEO Headquarters in Times Square, and listen up for radio interviews preaching the good word of anti-consumerism.

AND. . .

Radio Spots on community stations in Whitehorse Yukon, Chicago, San Diego and Redway California.

Parade in New York, also is doing a dumpster diving tour.

Seattle is cycling with Critical Mass, and cooperating with Church of Stop Shopping.

"Nothing" billboards in Auckland New Zealand.

Fake barcodes in Manchester England, with "Economic Zone" mocking NAFTA Free Trade Zones.

Take a break from shopping in Oxford England. and relax in the "Fun is FREE Zone " with music, entertainment, juggling, face-painting and arts and crafts.

Street theatre performances: "Dresses of Mass Seduction" in Melbourne Australia. Oil barrel sculpture in Raleigh North Carolina. "Death By Latte" in Montreal.

Improv. actors in Madrid Spain are poking fun at the 'Culture of Consumerism' and holding a concert and storytelling sessions.

Shopping vultures in Flagstaff Arizona. Creative minds in Austin are coming up with jams like. . . a shopping cart grand prix.

Dallas does Boycott Bush.

Philadelphia: Black Spot, Black Friday.

Food court potluck in Victoria, BC.

Memes in Sacramento shopping bags. . . BND slogans slipped into pockets of new clothing and bags.

Massive street party in Halifax, NS. Radical cheerleaders in Denver. Money drop in Salt Lake City.

Public Forums on the "Culture of Consumerism, and Reclaiming Public Space" are being held in Anchorage Alaska. Across campuses Internationally University Students are having a clothing swap, free-market stores, fair trade coffee, book swaps and spreading the word about the Barefoot Economics Manifesto and World Peace Week events.

The New U2 Album Is Out!

Get Your Hand On A Copy Today!
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From The Front

 CBSnews.com

Approximately 300,000 American men and women have served at one time or another in Iraq. Most will return to the United States more or less intact. But some come home the hard way - on a stretcher, bloody and broken.

And, as Correspondent Bob Simon says, there are few bloodier or more broken than Chris Schneider.

Schneider says he believed in the war in Iraq, and liked wearing the uniform. "[I was] proud to wear it. I loved wearing it," says Schneider, a Kansas boy straight off the recruitment poster.

He went to college on a wrestling scholarship, started a family, and joined the Army Reserves. This past January, his unit was providing security for a supply convoy traveling through 100 miles of dangerous Iraqi desert. He was riding in a two-and-a-half ton cargo truck, armed to the teeth.

"In my vehicle there was my driver, there was my 50-cal gunner who was in a turret on top," says Schneider. "And then there was myself and another individual in back. We both had M249 machine guns."

Schneider saw another convoy coming in his direction - a line of HETS (heavy equipment transports), big rigs on steroids, hogging the road. The first HET just missed hitting his truck. The second one did not.

"It threw me up over my vehicle, over the HET and about 50 feet into the field on the left," says Schneider. "When I landed, the next HET in line had locked up their brakes to keep from rear ending the one that we hit. And when he came to rest, the first set of tires on his trailer were parked on my pelvis. And the second set had my lower leg wedged in it to the axle. I've been told a rough estimate of approximately 120,000 to 140,000 pounds."

Today, Schneider walks with a limp, on his artificial leg. But even though he was injured while on a mission in a war zone – and even though he’ll receive the same benefits as a soldier who’d been shot - he is not included in the Pentagon’s casualty count. Their official tally shows only deaths and wounded in action. It doesn't include "non-combat" injured, those whose injuries were not the result of enemy fire.

"It's a slap in the face. Although it was through no direct hostile action, I was on a mission that they’d given me in hostile territory. Hostile enough that we had to have a perimeter set up at the time of my accident to prevent from an ambush or an attack," says Schneider. "For those of us that were unfortunate enough to get injured. Whether it was hostile action or not, we're all paying the same price." How many injured and ill soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines - like Chris Schneider - are left off the Pentagon’s casualty count?

Would you believe 15,000? 60 Minutes asked the Department of Defense to grant us an interview. They declined. Instead, they sent a letter, which contains a figure not included in published casualty reports: "More than 15,000 troops with so-called 'non-battle' injuries and diseases have been evacuated from Iraq."

Many of those evacuated are brought to Landstuhl in Germany. Most cases are not life-threatening. In fact, some are not serious at all. But only 20 percent return to their units in Iraq. Among the 80 percent who don’t return are GIs who suffered crushing bone fractures; scores of spinal injuries; heart problems by the hundreds; and a slew of psychiatric cases. None of these are included in the casualty count, leaving the true human cost of the war something of a mystery.

"It's difficult to estimate what the total number is," says John Pike, director of a research group called GlobalSecurity.org.

As a military analyst, Pike has spoken out against both Republican and Democratic administrations. He’s weighed all the available casualty data and has made an informed estimate that goes well beyond what the Pentagon has released.

"You have to say that the total number of casualties due to wounds, injury, disease would have to be somewhere in the ballpark of over 20, maybe 30,000," says Pike.

His calculation, striking as it is, is based on the military's own definition of casualty – anyone "lost to the organization," in this case, for medical reasons. And Pike believes it’s no accident that the military reports a number far lower than his estimate.

"The Pentagon, I think, is afraid that they're going to lose public support for this war, the way they lost public support for Vietnam back in the 1960s," says Pike. "And minimizing the apparent cost of the war, I think, is one way that they're hoping to sustain public support here at home."

60 Minutes asked the assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs about that claim - that casualties are being underreported, for political reasons. And we got a flat denial. In a letter, he told us, "We in the Department of Defense categorically reject the notion that we are underreporting casualties from Operation Iraqi Freedom."

He pointed out that he’d already provided us with some figures - the 15,000 evacuations of non-combat injured and ill. Still, Pike says the military is trying to minimize the casualty count. It’s an effort Pike believes is misguided, because he says that even if Americans understood the full human cost of the war, public support would not weaken.

"I think that all of the public opinion polling that we're seeing suggests that the public is prepared to sustain far higher casualties than politicians give them credit for," says Pike. "I think that it's basically that the politicians and the Pentagon, don't have confidence in the American people." The Department of Defense did not include non-battle injuries in its casualty reports in other recent wars, either. But that’s of little comfort to Joel Gomez, who was riding in the back of a Bradley fighting vehicle, looking for insurgents, when disaster struck.

"Unfortunately, the Bradley was too heavy for the road, a dirt road, and the ground gave way. And we wound up flipping down the mountain. And it landed upside-down in the Tigris River," says Gomez.

His two buddies were killed. Gomez made it out, but he's now paralyzed. "[It's] a horrific change. I can't move my legs. I can't move my arms," says Gomez. "It just totally changes your life in a manner that you could never imagine."

Even though Gomez tumbled into the Tigris while looking for insurgents, he is, by the Pentagon’s definition, “non-combat injured.”

"They blow it off and say it's just an accident," say Gomez. "I'm sure that somebody getting shot in the back would just be an accident. But that's how they see it."

The Department of Defense says the injuries and illnesses suffered by Gomez and thousands of other troops should not be taken out of context. In their letter to 60 Minutes, they said: “In order to understand rates of injuries and diseases, it is necessary to understand what the normal or usual rates of injuries and diseases might be in other situations.”

What does this mean? That there are always going to be a certain number of accidents and injuries, war or no war – though they offer no numbers for comparison.

"Soldiers and Marines are gonna get sick. They're gonna get into accidents. But there's gonna be more disease, more accidents, more psychiatric stress in Iraq than if they were back here," says Pike, who adds that hundreds of troops in Iraq have been so paralyzed by stress that they've had to be medically evacuated – though you won't see them reported in the casualty count. Traditionally, that count has not included combat stress. It was long thought, in the military’s macho culture, that psychological trauma is best suffered in silence.

Graham Alstrom has been back from Iraq for over a year, but he’s still haunted by what he saw – and what he did to other people. "Some of them I shot. Some of them I blew up with grenades. Some of them were stabbed," says Alstrom.

The memories of killing invaded his mind. Soon after he returned home, Alstrom’s life began to unravel.

"The drinking started immediately. I stopped sleeping. And I started getting very angry. I didn't want to talk to my family anymore. I didn't want them to see me. I didn't want to see them. I felt like they were ashamed of me," says Alstrom. "I was partly ashamed of some of the things I had done. …I couldn't separate the killing people and killing them in combat."

He says he's frustrated that the military says his illness is not combat-related. "I know what I was like before I went to combat. I had a life beyond the Army," says Alstrom. "I talked to my family. I'd share feelings and emotions with people I cared about. I lived a very regular life."

Alstrom won’t get a Purple Heart for his service in Iraq. It was only his mind that was wounded in battle. "It doesn't matter what the paperwork says. We know what happened over there. We know what we did over there," says Alstrom. "And no piece of paperwork saying that I'm not a casualty could ever take that away. For any of us."

They’ve had so much taken away already, but both Alstrom and Schneider insist that what remains inside them is the heart of a good soldier.

"I'm very supportive of why we're there. I'm very supportive of what we did while I was there," says Schneider. "I believe wholeheartedly that not only should we have gone, but that we've done the right thing."

Now, he’d like the military to do the right thing, too.

"Every one of us went over there with the knowledge that we could die," says Schneider. "And then they tell you - you're wounded - or your sacrifice doesn't deserve to be recognized, or we don’t deserve to be on their list – it’s not right. It’s almost disgraceful."

Humor Me!

Brought To You Today By
America's First Family

 

 

 

 

 

I couldn't sleep last night. I have absolutely no idea why. I sometimes have panic attacks. Out of the blue. Last night seemed to be one of those times.

Maybe it's the upcoming holidays. I dunno. Maybe it's the job I currently have. That could be part of it. I work at a conservative christian radio station and I share almost none of the values the far-right hold so dearly. A guy's gotta eat, right?

At any rate, I'm not going to spend much time blogging tonight. I'm too burnt out.

Check this out:

 Revolution must be more than a personal and private matter.

Today I saw this guy driving around with big flags flying off his pick-up truck. I thought to myself that someone ought to break those things off his truck. Then I thought that this would do nothing much to change this particular persons mind about patriotism, probably.

Then after some thought I began to realize that while it might not change the person immediately, the flying of these images makes a culture of violence and idolatry easier. When flags are flying everywhere, when the media is bombarding people with this stuff, it is very hard for people to see past it. So on one level, repainting the landscape is a first priority. The Situationists did a lot of this in France in 1968. In New York City there is graffitti everywhere about various revoutionary talk and such and it creates a culture where people feel and think differently.

What does it mean to "fail"? What are the goals of anarchism? What does it mean to succeed?

To fail or succeed depends on the goals, it depends on what was the aim of the revolution...anarchists are not trying to set up a perfect state of existence, but to put a brake on the total militarization of the entire world, the complete destruction of the earth and ecology, the utter dehumanization of every person, and the ruling of a handful over the many in abject poverty. What is failing is the national state. Perhaps anarchists are dreaming...but so are those who think the current system can go on like this endlessly. Perhaps anarchists are hoping against hope...but so are Christians who think that they must wait around for some magical pie from the sky to drop down on them and suddenly everything will be okay. Anarchists can teach Christians to get back to work! God has told us to work for justice, to work to alleviate poverty, to bring about mutual respect and care between people, etc. Instead we want to claim that it is useless unless everyone is exactly like us. That unless things are exactly perfect at all times and all places then we will not even attempt to work mercy and help alleviate that condition that grips our society at this moment.

I wonder what the Lutherans who stood by watching Hitler exterminate their fellow neighbors thought? Did they think that it was useless? That Revolution was somehow useless if everyone did not think like they did? I am talking about those who did not actively support the regime or those that did not actively resist (like Bonhoeffer and his circle resisted). Did these Christians have a notion that revolution was impossible nor desirable unless every person became a German Lutheran? I think it is likely that this is the kind of thinking that allows such things to happen. And it is happening right now. America is eterminating tens of thousands of people every year through the military system. We can sit back and say a revolution will fail, so we should do nothing, or we can work for something better. And yes this does begin at the ground level, with personal interactions and such, but it must be much more than that.

Likewise for anarchism. Nation-states are murdering, dominating and impoverishing millions upon millions of people every instant. We can sit back and say it is not desirable (because everyone is not like us yet) to work to break apart this oppressive power, or we can get off our asses and organize.--che from Jesus Radicals

I like this. It pretty much lays it all down.

Images from the War Zone

News From the Front

November 21, 2004

 Dahr Jamail

In Ramadi today 6 civilians were killed in clashes between the resistance and military. The military sealed the city, closing all the roads while announcing over loudspeakers for residents in the city to hand over “terrorists.”

A man, woman and child died when the public bus they were riding in approached a US checkpoint there when they were riddled with bullets from anxious soldiers. A military spokesman said the bus was shot because it didn’t stop when they asked it to.

The city remains sealed by US forces as fierce clashes sporadically erupt across the area while the military decides how to handle yet another resistance controlled. As the mass graves in Fallujah continue to be filled with countless corpses, sporadic fighting flashes throughout areas of the destroyed battleground.

“The Americans want every city in Iraq to be like Fallujah,” said Abdulla Rahnan, a 40 year-old man on the street where I was taking tea not far from my hotel, “They want to kill us all-they are freeing us of our lives!” His friend, remaining nameless, added, “Everyone here hates them because they are making mass graves faster than even Saddam!”

I never tell people I interview I am from America. I tell them I am Canadian of Lebanese descent-which is close enough since I am from Alaska. With this information, I am always greeted warmly, invited to meals and to spend the night wherever I go. Arab culture continues to impress me as the most beautiful, warm, civilized culture of any I’ve experienced in all of my travels.

But as Abu Talat told me the other day when I asked him what he thought about going to Ramadi or Fallujah, “Sure Dahr, we can go-but not until you get a steel neck!” He laughs his deep laugh, and I fake a laugh with him while peering out my car window.

After conducting other interviews during the day, Salam and I are in my room working on a radio dispatch. As we begin recording, his cell phone and my room phone ring simultaneously.

He gets news of another friend who has been shot by soldiers, while I am told by Abu Talat that al-Adhamiya is under a 6pm curfew as the military begins house to house searches. His frustrated voice tells me his wife and boys are afraid as he speaks above helicopters thumping the air over his home.

Over in Sadr City, the military are now sealing off neighborhoods doing home searches as well-this after having agreed to a deal with Sadr’s Mehdi Army the fighters turned in many of their weapons and agreed to a truce. Last night a small boy was shot there because he was out after curfew.

Lieutenant-General Lance Smith, deputy US commander of the region of the Middle East that includes Iraq, announced that his command might be asking for 3-5,000 more troops for Iraq.

This goal will most likely be attained by delaying the already scheduled departure of soldiers already here, and was announced at about the same time that the commander for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Fallujah, Lieutenant-General John Sattler said that he believed the assault on Fallujah had “broken the back of the insurgency.”

Refugees from Fallujah have yet to be allowed to return to their city. One of my friends here works on the election commission for Iraq-he stopped by tonight laughing at the new date which has been set for the election of January 30th. “They have this new date for their rigged elections,” he rolls his eyes, “And nobody in Iraq believes their propaganda. Elections? Here? I don’t know anyone who will vote. Perhaps the entire country can vote absentee for reason of car bomb!”

He and I were interviewed on a radio program this evening-while I was listening to commercials waiting to come back on, I laugh to myself as one of the advertisements is for folks to trade in their old Hummer for a new one with low financing! This against the backdrop of the show, where my friend and I had shared stories with the host and callers of death in the streets, Iraqi outrage over the failed occupation and other love stories from Iraq.

Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist from Alaska who has spent over 5 months in occupied Iraq reporting on how the brutal, bloody, unlawful occupation has affected the Iraqi people. You can visit his website at www.dahrjamailiraq.com.

Humor Me!

Be Sure To Check Out The New CD By
A Perfect Circle

A Perfect Circle

Brought To You Today By
John Howard Yoder, Christian/Anarchist

A walk to the park to see the moose. Listening to k.d. lang. Or U2. Or Kim Hill. Reading the latest insights at Jesus Radicals. Finishing a really good book by Dostoevsky. Or Tolstoy. Or Rowling. Watching foreign films. Waking up next to my beautiful Russian wife. Arguing with my daughters. Making up with them.

Running. Long distance running. Biking to work. Playing banned music during my shift at the radio station. Placing subvertisement on the post office bulletin board. Not getting caught. Playing chase with Simba. Puzzling over Chicken's autism. Looking at morning fog and remembering that I don't work for an airline anymore.

Watching Ellen Degeneres give gifts to new mothers. Realizing that God is love. Believing in universalism. Knowing that Christ was who He said he was. Playing System of a Down at full volume. Laughing when Ana turns the stereo down. Mowing the lawn. Looking for snow geese. Seeing canadian geese. Spending ten days every summer in a tent.

Leaving the fundamental church. Being churchless. Receiving phone calls and allowing the answering machine take care of business. Shaving my head. Going to bed at 9 PM. Waking at 5 AM. Dancing on the porch. Crying during movies. Buying nothing on the day after Thanksgiving. Giving money to Jim Fitz instead of buying Christmas presents.

Discussing politics with my grandma. Pretending to be republican. Or demorcrat. Being anarchist. Eating ice cream from Dairy Queen. Waxing my wife's car. Dissing the church. Listening to rainstorms. Choosing a new tattoo. Eating apples from the tree. Skipping rocks across the river. Thanking God for all that is good in the world.

Part one...

From The Front- Cliff Kindy

Not so funny...

Artist of the Day

Psalters

It appears that the only way the the United States will quit the war in Iraq is if the death toll to American soldiers exceeds acceptable levels. President Bush reminds the nation that the war in Iraq will take great sacrifice on the part of the American youth. Young men and young ladies are going to die. He tells us this in order to soften the daily death blow that is usually under reported in the mainstream press. Americans have become numb to death.

In saner times, one death would be mourned and debated as one death too many. Now we accept death as some kind of totem of protectionism against the Iraqi boogeyman. Don't fall for the bullshit. If it appears that an incursion into Mosul (to rid the world of some more terrorists) will require a rapid escalation of the loss of human life, the current administration will see to it that the propaganda that is fed to the nation is effective in dumbing and numbing the masses to accept more death and destruction. There is no exit stategy.

Our only hope for an end to the violence that is Iraq would be for the Iraqi people to put down their weapons and to on strike. If all the Iraqi's refused to work: refused to do their jobs in the oil fields, in the towns, in the administrations; if more groups pulled out of the coalition government in protest, then there could be avoidance of all of this bloodshed. American troops, with all those cameras possibly watching them, are not going to shoot and kill Iraqi's who have chosen to fight nonviolently. It would absolutely outrage not only Americans but the rest of the world.

Do I think this will happen. Probably not. There are, however, many groups who are pressing this issue with the Iraqi populace. Many peacemaker teams are on the ground preaching this very message. Nonviolent resistance seems to be the only hope for the nation of Iraq. History has shown that nonviolent resistance can reap positive results: India, East Germany, The Soviet Union. It can be done. But it must be the will of the people.

Christ lead the way in nonviolent resistance when He refused to call down angels to rescue Him from the Roman cross. When goverments are trying to kill you, what have you got to lose? Pray for peace in Iraq. Pray that peace will come nonviolently. It would have to be a God driven movement. Man, by and large, is incapable of putting down arms. It's called bloodlust.

There really is nothing new under the sun.

 From The Front

She lays dazed in the crowded hospital room, languidly waving her bruised arm at the flies. Her shins, shattered by bullets from US soldiers when they fired through the front door of her house, are both covered by casts. Small plastic drainage backs filled with red fluid sit upon her abdomen, where she took shrapnel from another bullet. Fatima Harouz, 12 years old, lives in Latifiya, a city just south of Baghdad. Just three days ago soldiers attacked her home. Her mother, standing with us says, “They attacked our home and there weren’t even any resistance fighters in our area.” Her brother was shot and killed, and his wife was wounded as their home was ransacked by soldiers. “Before they left, they killed all of our chickens,” added Fatima’s mother, her eyes a mixture of fear, shock and rage. A doctor standing with us, after listening to Fatima’s mother tell their story, looks at me and sternly asks, “This is the freedom… in their Disney Land are there kids just like this?”

Another young woman, Rana Obeidy, was walking home with her brother two nights ago. She assumes the soldiers shot her and her brother because he was carrying a bottle of soda. This happened in Baghdad. She has a chest wound where a bullet grazed her, unlike her little brother who is dead. Laying in a bed near Rana is Hanna, 14 years old. She has a gash on her right leg from the bullet of a US soldier. Her family was in a taxi in Baghdad this morning which was driving near a US patrol when a soldier opened fire on the car. Her father’s shirt is spotted with blood from his head which was wounded when the taxi crashed.

In another room a small boy from Fallujah lays on his stomach. Shrapnel from a grenade thrown into their home by a US soldier entered his body through his back, and implanted near his kidney. An operation successfully removed the shrapnel. His father was killed by what his mother called, “the haphazard shooting of the Americans.” The boy, Amin, lies in his bed vacillating between crying with pain and playing with is toy car. It’s one case after another of people from Baghdad, Fallujah, Latifiya, Balad, Ramadi, Samarra, Baquba…from all over Iraq, who have been injured by the heavy-handed tactics of American soldiers fighting a no-win guerilla war spawned from an illegal invasion based on lies. Their barbaric acts of retaliation have become the daily reality for Iraqis, who continue to take the brunt of the frustration and rage of the soldiers. Out in front of the hospital three Humvees pull up as soldiers alert the hospital staff that some of the wounded from outside of Fallujah will be brought there. One of the staff begins to yell at the soldier who is doing the talking, while a soldier manning a machine gun atop a Humvee with his face completely covered by an olive balaclava and goggles looks on.

 “We don’t need you here! Get the fuck out of here! Bring back Saddam! Even he was better than you animals! We don’t want to die by your hands, so get out of here! We can take care of our own people!” The translator with the soldiers does not translate this. Instead he watches with a face of stone. The survivors of those killed and wounded by the US military in Iraq, as well as those who care for them, are left with feelings of bitter anguish, grief, rage and vengeance. This afternoon at a small, but busy supply center set up in Baghdad to distribute goods to refugees from Fallujah, the stories the haggard survivors are telling are nearly unimaginable. “They kicked all the journalists out of Fallujah so they could do whatever they want,” says Kassem Mohammed Ahmed, who just escaped from Fallujah three days ago, “The first thing they did is they bombed the hospitals because that is where the wounded have to go. Now we see that wounded people are in the street and the soldiers are rolling over them with tanks. This happened so many times. What you see on the TV is nothing-that is just one camera. What you cannot see is so much.” While Kassem speaks of the television footage, there are also stories of soldiers not discriminating between civilians and resistance fighters. While distributing supplies to other refugees he says, “There are dead bodies on the ground and nobody can bury them. The Americans are dropping some of the bodies into the Euphrates River near Fallujah. They are pulling the bodies with tanks and leaving them at the soccer stadium.”

Nearby is another man in tears as he listens, nodding his head. He can’t stop crying, but after a little while says he wants to talk to us. “They bombed my neighborhood and we used car jacks to raise the blocks of concrete to get dead children out from under them.” Another refugee, Abu Sabah, an older man wearing a torn shirt and dusty pants tells of how he escaped with his family while soldiers shot bullets over their heads, but killed his cousin. “They used these weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom cloud,” he said, having just arrived yesterday, “Then small pieces fell from the air with long tails of smoke behind them. These exploded on the ground with large fires that burnt for half an hour. They used these near the train tracks. You could hear these dropped from a large airplane and the bombs were the size of a tank. When anyone touched those fires, their body burned for hours.” The comparison of Iraq to Vietnam is becoming more valid by the day here.

Chumbawamba!

I am listening to the new k.d. land CD. I am nearly speechless.

k.d. lang is supposedly a country and western singer. Because of this label, I have never gone out of my way to purchase an album of hers. I have never spent any time seeking out her music. She had a song on the radio several years ago called "Constant Craving". I actually dug the hell out of that single, but not enough to become a fan.

I recently had to good fortune of seeing k.d. on The Ellen Degeneres Show. She sang a couple of songs from 49th Parallel. Her voice was flawless and I felt emotional when I heard her sing. That doesn't happen to me very often. I guess when one mainly listens to hardcore sonnets or punk anthems, the main emotion one feels is fueled by adrenaline. The emotions I felt while listening to k.d. sing were more on the goosebump, tears in the eyes side of things. I decided to buy her new album.

What an album it is. The premise of the album is that k.d. wanted to pay tribute to all of the great songwriters who reside north of the US border. That's right, songwriters from Canada. "Canada, Oh Canada!" At first I thought that was a goofy idea for an album. How many good songwriters were there in Canada? How many artists from Canada had I heard of? Celine Dion? (Gag). Imagine my surprise when I found out the names of the songwriters showcased on 49th Parallel: Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Cockburn, Ron Sexsmith and Jane Siberry. Not a ringer in the bunch. First rate songwriting along with the pitch-perfect and stunning vocals of k.d. lang make for one hell of an album!

I am sure that k.d. would not make it to an evangelical christian's CD player. Her life is chronicled well enough that a simple google search would reveal more than the Focus on the Family bunch could handle. I say balls to the evangelical bunch! One listen to k.d. sing Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" was all it took for me to become a believer. Stunning. There isn't a single throw away song on the entire album. I guess the Jesus Right loses big on this one. My other favorite is Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". Fans of the first Shrek movie will recongize this one. k.d. makes it her own. I loved the song when I first heard it on the Shrek soundtrack. I love it now.

k.d. lang is God's child. He gave her the ability to sing like a bird. She was created in His image. I love k.d. lang. Buy this album! But not at Wal-Mart. But that's a blog for another day...

k.d. lang 

Jim Fitz, Hero!

I first met Jim a couple of years ago at the Cornerstone Festival. He was speaking about peacemaking in the Opon region of Colombia. Jim made a huge impression on my life and I have since become a supporter of his. Jim is a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams and currently serves as a security specialist in Colombia. A security specialist with CPT carries no weapon and deals with conflict by standing between 2 combatants. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is! I yield some space to Jim today. His cause is that of peace in the name of Jesus Christ.

250 paramilitaries invaded Alto Carnaval, Colombia, under the pretense that the villagers were guerrilla supporters.  These paramilitaries are the illegal right wing group fighting the guerrillas, and both the guerrillas and the paramilitaries are on the US government’s list of terrorist groups. The paramilitaries came with two people whom they claimed were guerrilla deserters, and who began pointing out persons whom they said fought with them when they were part of the guerrillas.

The paramilitaries beat one of these persons, tied him up, and said they were going to kill him because he was a guerrilla at one time. Then the village Priest, led by the Spirit, responded on behalf of the accused, “He is no longer a guerrilla, and if you are going kill him, you should kill his accuser because he was part of the guerrillas too at one time."  The paramilitaries were taken back so much by this response that they backed off and let him go. Alleluia!

This all happened a few days ago on a Sunday morning when  farmers gathered from 34 villages in the community of Alto Carnaval, with outside  church leaders, government watch dog agencies, the UN and nongovernmental ( NGO's) development organizations to work on a plan to find alternatives to their dependency on coca, the source of cocaine.  In this region the Columbian government claims to be providing security from the guerrillas and paramilitaries.

On Thursday Raphael and I, as a part of CPT security work, accompanied a commission of the organizations mentioned above, plus the media, to meet with leaders from the villages and the Colombian Army, and to recount and document what happened. (See =http://plowcreek.org/para.htm... href="http://plowcreek.org/para.htm" target=new_winphoto.)  The villagers confronted the Army head-on with the question, How can you not know anything about 250 paramilitary terrorists invading and staying for two days in an area in which you are supposedly providing security for the farmers?" Underneath this question was the assumption that nobody was able to talk about, which was that the army really knew about the invasion. The army major responded, "But nobody told us." The farmers answered, "But if we tell you, we may lose our necks literally."

This shows the trap the farmers find themselves in, because of the documented, yet under-the-table, relationship between the paramilitaries and the Colombian Army. If they tell the Army about the abusive acts of the paramilitaries, the paramilitaries are likely to come back to do away with whoever tells.

This was a unique opportunity to expose the Army’s blatant shortcomings in providing security, particularly because of the eyewitness of so many prominent leaders from all these organizations. This now documented incident has great potential to help in a good way.  This good way, which is in process, is dismantling the paramilitary forces.

God seems to working at peacemaking in many different levels and places in Colombia.  The above incident is an example, and there are more examples in the Opon, and at the national level, as the government talks more and more about negotiations with the guerrillas. Alleluia!

 Let’s keep praying,

--
"Let us not be disheartened, as though
human realities made impossible the
accomplishments of God's plans"
-Oscar Romero

Jim Fitz
815-646-4672
www.plowcreek.org/jimspeacemaking.htm

PEACEMAKING

Death of a Friend

It is to my sorrow mixed with joy that I am writing this e-mail. On Saturday, Nov 13 in the AM hours, our beloved friend and brother Nelson Whitehorse passed away in a Kansas City hospital.  His health had taken a turn for the worse a few days before his death, and his fragile body could no longer hold onto the life that was inside.   It is a credit to his genuine faith that we have a hope of seeing him again in the next world.  In fact, all of us who believe and who knew him can share in this hope.  We are convinced that Nelson would not have us mourn for him, but rather for us losing him for a time.   He was (and is) convinced that upon his death he would be in the presence of Jesus, and able to worship his Father in heaven without hinderance.  We in Madison Greene are blessed to have had the experience of serving God with him.  For those of you who knew him, those touched by his testimony, rejoice with us. Rejoice that you knew him well enough to mourn. Rejoice that he had no illusions of death, and no fear of it. Rejoice that we have a God in heaven who cares enough to forgive us.Then go, bring this invitation to those you love the most.Bring the invitation of God's forgiveness through his son Jesus to all who are in your circle of influence.  Let us not waste this occasion to remember Nelson Whitehorse and the faith he defended and lived.  Let us continue in his work, to the glory of God our Father.   One day, we who believe will meet again without the prospect of saying goodbye.  Peace to you...

VH1 is previewing the new U2 album, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb". You can hear it here: MUSIC SOOTHES THE SOUL

I just completed my shift for a local convervative christian radio station. I'm tired. My shift begins when most of the rest of the world is still asleep. I often wonder if anyone actually listens to my program. I am always very surprised when the telephone rings and a listener compliments me or asks me to play a favorite song of theirs. My inner voice speaks to me: "Why in the world are these people up at 5 AM and why are they listening to christian radio programming?"

I've got to wonder...

To be honest, I don't hate what I do. In fact, it is often very enjoyable. When I am at work, I am the only human being in the building. No one else gets up as early as I do. I go home when the rest of the staff are arriving for work. So that is cool. I like playing some of the music available for me to play. (The music director and I have very different taste in music.) I play a ton of Rich Mullins, mainly because he was such a poet, but also because he rebelled against the evangelical way of doing things. I play Glenn Kaiser. I play stuff that pushes the boundry of "boring christian worship" music. I don't always get away with it. Sometimes I am told to quit playing a certain song. It is usually because the guitar line is too loud or the cadence of the song is too fast. Never mind what the artist is saying. But...since I am on so early, most of the time, I play what I want.

The problem I have with conservative christian radio is the programming I am required to play. It was particularly difficult during the recent US Presidential campaign. Nearly every independent christian radio station in America works under tax exemption (501(c)3). When an organization is listed as tax exempt, they are not allowed to be partisan. Non-partisanship is very difficult for conservative christian radio stations to maintain. Everyone knows that the truth of the matter is that the radio stations who profess to be evangelical christian are going to have right wing leanings (read that REPUBLICAN). They skate on very thin ice.

For example, such shining examples of non-partisanship can be heard from coast to coast on Focus on the Family, James Dobson's bully pulpit. I got so tired of Dobson's ranting about the election that I had to turn the in-house volume down completely and run the board based on a computerized countdown clock. James is not a democrat, in case you were wondering. During one broadcast, which was taped during a speech in Rapid City, South Dakota, Dobson actually fell off the stage, resulting in a nasty gash to his leg (or arm...I forget). The fact that he shed blood was used on the broadcast as a sort of Jesus reference when it was stated that he (Dobson) "gave blood for his ideals". Wow. Bush was re-elected because of the shedding of James Dobson's blood. Quite a feat.

I also had to listen to vitriol of former Watergate felon Chuck Colson. It seems Colson was up in arms against homosexual marriage for much of the campaign. I guess two men in a loving, monogamous relationship is just too much for him to handle. Christians divorcing at a higher rate than non-christians is of no concern. Colson also pushed the swiftboat agenda as far as he could. Oh, and who could forget his tirades against the pro-choice crowd. All the while endorsing and encouraging our hegemony in the rest of the world. It's OK with Chuck to send your son or daughter to be slaughtered in Iraq. There's oil to be had, ya know...

I could go on and on about conservative christian radio, but I will spare you all of the details. The question that begs to be asked is "why do I work in such a place?" I like to think of myself as a missionary. A missionary to the evangelical right. I don't doubt that evangelicals have their heart in the right place. They do. They love God. It just seems to me that they don't fully understand God. I find it my mission to bring a sense of sanity to an otherwise crazy world. When given the opportunity, I talk on-air about love. Love is the greatest commandment. I'll say things like "we need to love the pro-choicers in America." Morality can not be legislated. Morality, as discussed yesterday, is something that can only come through conversion and a full understanding of what it means to belong to Christ. I have been sent to the evangelical right as a spokesperson for the Truth. It's a big calling, and I am not so egotistical to think that I am the only chosen one on earth. No, I am just an instrument for the Most High God. I will speak the Yin of Christianity to Dobson's Yang. I believe there is remnant of God's people out there. Waiting to be heard. Waiting with cups filled with cool, refreshing water. We need to be the people of God who stand for love.

Dobson and his minions speak for hatred.

News From The Front

By Dahr Jamail in Baghdad
15 November 2004

BAGHDAD, Nov 15 (IPS) - Everyone saw it coming, only the U.S. forces did not: humanitarian disaster in Fallujah, and stronger resistance against U.S. and allied occupying forces all around Iraq.

The real face of the ’success’ of the U.S. military assault in Fallujah is now beginning to present itself. Thousands of families remain trapped inside Fallujah with no food, clean water or medical assistance. No one can say how many of the 1,200 ‘rebels’ U.S. forces claim to have killed inside Fallujah are civilians, or whether the death toll is higher.

The Iraqi Red Crescent Society, which is supported by the Red Cross and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called the situation in Fallujah a “big disaster”. The Iraqi Red Crescent has several teams of relief workers and doctors, and truckloads of food waiting for the authorisation from the U.S.-backed interim government and the U.S. military, but they have not been allowed in.

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) has expressed grave concern for the civilians left in the city. “All those taking part in the combat have a responsibility to spare civilians and give access to the wounded,” ICRC spokesman Rana Sidani said in a statement.

U.S. forces have said they will now carry out ‘humanitarian’ tasks on their own. It could be too late, going by the people’s voices that are now emerging. Muna Salim who managed to flee the city with her sister after the rest of their family was killed by U.S. bombs, said Fallujah had turned from a battlefield to a ghost town in recent days.

“Most families stayed inside their houses all the time,” she said after reaching Baghdad. “We were always very hungry because we didn’t want to eat our food or drink all of the water. We never knew if we would be able to get more, so we tried to be careful.” She could not bring herself to talk of the killings. “The Americans didn’t care about us,” said a young refugee who gave his name only as Ahmed. He arrived in Baghdad with most of his family three days back. “All the medical people left the city and the only people in the city are Fallujans or from Ramadi or other cities who came to try to help us.”

People in Fallujah had been left helpless, he said. “Anyone who left their house would either be shot by American snipers or recruited by the Mujahideen,” he said. “So we stayed inside most of the time and prayed. The more the bombs exploded the more we prayed and cried.”

Ahmed says he did not expect to survive. “Every night we said goodbye to one another because we expected to die,” he said. “You could see areas where all the houses were flattened, there was just nothing left. We could get water at times, but there was no electricity ever.” U.S. forces had bombed families in their homes, he said. “Even those of us who do not fight, we are suffering so much because of the U.S. bombs and tanks. Can’t they see this is turning so many people against them?”

Iraqi resistance has taken control of many cities across Iraq following the U.S. siege of Fallujah. Despite U.S. military claims of being in control of Mosul in the north, al-Jazeera reported that the U.S. military, Iraqi police and National Guardsmen have disappeared from the streets and armed men wearing masks are wandering freely around.

A freelance journalist in the city told al-Jazeera on telephone from the city: “The situation is very bad, there is no security, only armed resistance groups on the streets, and it seems there is no government in Mosul.” The U.S. military says it has taken back control of Mosul police stations and other areas. Iraqi rebels are now also in control of large areas of Ramadi, Samarra, Haditha, Baquba, Hiyt, Qaim, Latifiyah, Taji and Khaldiyah. Fighting has been reported also in the Shia holy city Kerbala.

The uprising has spread across the capital as well. The districts al-Dora, al-Amiriyah, Abu Ghraib, al-Adhamiya and Khan Dhari are now largely controlled by resistance fighters. U.S. military vehicles have been damaged and destroyed near the city Hiyt. Fighting has spread to the normally peaceful town Hilla, just south of Baghdad.

“The security situation there has gone from bad to worse,” Ali Abdulla, a 35-year-old carpenter from Hilla said. “You can hear the fighting all around the city now, and the resistance is fighting against the Polish very fiercely.” Abdulla said this was the first time there had been fighting between Polish troops and resistance fighters.

Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist from Alaska who has spent over 5 months in occupied Iraq reporting on how the brutal, bloody, unlawful occupation has affected the Iraqi people. You can visit his website at www.dahrjamailiraq.com.

Band of the Day
Project 86

Brought to you today by the Oompah Loompahs
Decentralized and collective anarchists!

I made it to church on Saturday evening. (I'm not Seventh Day Adventist. I just like to attend services on Saturdays--no legalistic reasons.) I hadn't attended for several weeks. The worship team was in fine form and the congregants were (seemingly) happy to be praising God together. After 25 minutes of song, the head pastor strolled to the pulpit. He took a deep breath and the dove into the deep end of scripture. Or his interpretation of scripture.

The pastor of my church is a likeable guy. He has a real burden, as we say in the business, for the lost. Particularly the lost from his personal sub-culture (farmers, ranchers and dudes, as in cowboys). Within the last 7 years, church membership has grown from 150 stalwart believers to a present total exceeding 900! Considering that the church is located in a village with a population of under 2000, 900 members is quite impressive.

A couple of years ago, the decision was made to build a new church building. With a budding congregation of over 700 people at the time, it seemed our old building was not sufficient. Lickety-split, consultants were hired and land was purchased. The push for a new building was on and after some arm twisting and some heavy handed propaganda, 3 million dollars was promised by the congregation to accomplish the task of building a new facility. By the way, I abstained from promising any money for the construction of a 3 million dollar building.

Back to Saturday's church service. The gist of the sermon was that we must be holy as the Lord God is holy. Fine. Things started out with promise. I believe we are called to be holy. However, the pastors opinion of what holiness is proved to be somewhat different than mine. His definition of holiness equated to personal morality. He mentioned the biggies--smoking, swearing, adultry. I thought, adultry, yes. Smoking and swearing...I dunno. He went on to say that holiness was keeping an eye on the fact that we are aliens and strangers on this earth and that heaven is our true home. In my mind, this belief may actually be harmful to my vision of what holiness is all about.

I think holiness involves much more than personal morality. Morality is important, but what is morality to God? Is He really concerned about smoking, drinking and swearing? Is he concerned with what we wear? Is God so in tune with every cultural group in the world that He can speak an absolute morality that fits all of humanity like a glove? If so, should all people groups imitate the dress and style of midwestern church people? Should we send shirts and ties along with bibles to Papau New Guinea?

Holiness is more than morality. Holiness is living like God. God was more concerned with relationship than he was with culture. God said that we should love our neighbors as we love Him. The way that we put flesh and bone to this love is what the bible means when it speaks to holiness. We are holy when we are truly pro-life. Pro-life in respect to babies as well as captial punishment. Pro-life in regard to war. Pro-life when we talk about the food we eat, the air we breath and the way we treat animals. Holiness is about standing up for the defenseless. Standing between warring factions. Standing alone when all other voices are calling for the shedding of blood. Holiness is sharing with those who are in need. Opening our doors to the oppressed, the hungry, the homeless. Holiness is seeking the more perfect way when dealing with the gay community. Holiness is not building a 3 million dollar church. It is spending 3 million dollars of God's money on the poor and disenfranchised. It is building houses and giving away food. It is taking care of the fatherless and the widows in our midst. It is giving a hand up to the drug addicts in our neighborhoods. It is giving gifts to the those who have no money to buy presents for childern on Christmas morning.

I left church on Saturday evening wondering if I would ever return. When will we get God's message to humanity right?

Tax Burden?

News From the Front

Iraq Is Burning
by Dahr Jamail; November 13, 2004

Leaving the hotel is always an adventure. Last night, with a full beard and a kefir draped around my shoulders, Abut Talat wisks me out into the chaotic streets of occupied Baghdad.

As we traveled around the capital, we took side roads, winding varying routes towards our destination, never daring to take the direct, most obvious path. Aside from the obvious threat of kidnapping which is my greatest concern, we travel accepting the fact that anywhere, anytime, we could be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whether that take the form of a car bomb like the one yesterday which detonated near a US patrol on Sa’adoun street, killing 17 people and engulfing 20 cars in flames, or a full scale battle between occupation forces and resistance fighters like that which occurred in al-Adhamiya today.

The damp night air appeared as a haze which exaggerated the ever-present of smog in the capital. Driving around Baghdad always provides an assortment of smells-from beef kebobs cooking on the roadsides as vendors stoke their fires, or more commonly, as the stench of raw sewage as one passes through yet another un-reconstructed sewage infested area.

One of our stops is at the home of Dr. Wamid Omar Nathmi, a senior political scientist at Baghdad University. An older, articulate man who vehemently opposed the regime of Saddam Hussein, he is now critical of the US policy which is engulfing Iraq in violence, bloodshed and chaos.

He told me that during the buildup to the siege of Fallujah, he had sent John Negroponte, the current so-called ambassador of Iraq, a letter which, along with several other points, asked him, “Do you think that by occupying Fallujah you will stop the resistance?”

Of course his letter was ignored, and now we watch in fear as the resistance is spreading across Iraq like a wildfire, fanned by the pounding of Fallujah.

Dr. Nathmi added, “Certainly the US military can eventually suppress Fallujah, but for how long? Iraq is burning with wrath, anger and sadness…the people of Fallujah are dear to us. They are our brothers and sisters and we are so saddened by what is happening in that city.”

He asked what the difference was between what is occurring in Fallujah now to what Saddam Hussein did during his repression of the Shia Intifada which followed the ’91 Gulf War. “Saddam suppressed that uprising and used less awful methods than the Americans are in Fallujah today.”

Dr. Nathmi is a brilliant man and certainly a warehouse of informative analysis about the events in Iraq. He was quick to point out another flaw in the US policy here, of how the US disbanded the entire Iraqi Police force in Ramadi the day before the siege of Fallujah began. He held up his hands and asked, “Who will provide security in Ramadi now, angels?”

“I can assure you, it is well over 75% of Iraqis who cannot even tolerate this occupation,” he said a little later when discussing the Bush administrations attempts to whitewash the situation in Iraq. “The right-wing Bush administration is blinded by its ideology, and we are all suffering from this, Iraqis and soldiers alike.”

After our interview, we stopped by Abu Talat’s home for a coffee and so I could say hello to his family. His son Hissan somberly asked me, “When will the Americans leave, Dahr?” I had no response. “I don’t know Hissan. I really don’t know.” He then said, “I don’t think they are ever going to leave Iraq.”

I snuck back into the car and we wound our way across Baghdad, noting that most of the city sat in darkness. “Baghdad is running on the generators Dahr,” said Abu Talat, “Even my home has been without electricity since 9am this morning.” It was after 8pm. He insisted we stop for ice cream, which I most certainly did not refuse, then he dropped me back at my hotel.

Today dawned a grey, windy day, with fighter jets scorching the sky en route to Fallujah. Of course the flames of resistance have now engulfed other parts of Baghdad and Iraq alike. Here in Baghdad, the Amiriyah, Abu Ghraib and al-Dora regions have fallen mostly under the control of the resistance. A friend of mine who lives in al-Dora said, “The resistance is in control here now, they are controlling the streets.”

What few US patrols still roam the streets are attacked often. This fact underscored earlier as several large explosions nearby shook the walls of my hotel this afternoon.

Abu Talat was once again trapped in his neighborhood and we were unable to conduct an interview when fighting broke out nearby his home. He called me and said, “The Iraqi Police found a car bomb, and when they were warning people about it US troops showed up and were immediately attacked with RPG’s. The fighting raged for at least half an hour, and several soldiers were wounded and taken away. Now fighter jets are flying so low over our neighborhood, using their loud voices to terrorize people.”

Huge areas within the cities of Ramadi, Fallujah, Baquba and Mosul are now controlled by the resistance. Will the slash and burn tactics of the US military in Fallujah be applied to those areas next?

Meanwhile, over near the Imam Adham mosque a huge demonstration organized by the Islamic Party (which just withdrew from the so-called interim government and recently called for a boycott of the elections), broke out. It was comprised of well over 5,000 angry people denouncing Ayad Allawi and demanding his resignation.

They also demonstrated to show that they were unafraid of the US military. And they called for jihad against Allawi.

Presenting Flatfoot 56! Bagpipe Punk Rock! Horrible Politics!

This is Yeshua, Hope for all of humanity!

It's Saturday and I'm feeling a little bit lazy. With that in mind, I decided to paste an interesting essay regarding the Catholic Workers and the idea of Anarchy. I hope it is interesting. If not, page down and I'll try to put some humor up today...

Anarchism in the Catholic Worker Tradition
By Tom Cornell

The dictionary definition of anarchism is useless for understanding a current in the wider radical movement. Rejection of any kind of authority or control for the common good is an extreme form of individualism contrary to the consensus of peoples and to the mind of the Church. Anarchism, something else altogether, developed to resist the rise of the nation state in the seventeenth century, a stream of thought and action aimed at a more just and democratic integration of society. Anarchists took an active role in popular revolutionary struggles in imperial Russia, Italy, Germany, France, Spain and the English speaking countries in the 19th and early 20th centuries. They are not quite dead yet.

No anarchist of sound mind holds either that government does not exist or ought not exist, etymology notwithstanding. Anarchists want more government, if that means the Department of Labor defending the right to organize, the Department of Agriculture helping to initiate producer cooperatives, sponsoring farm support and surplus food distribution programs, and much less government if it means the State Department, and the so-called Defense and Justice departments; more anti-trust legislation and enforcement, more environmental protection, more OSHA; immediate access to federal courts for every labor organizer punished for organizing. But they will hold even the benign organs of government to a most strict accounting, since "power tends to corrupt," and view the state in practice more as a guarantor of privilege than as an organ of its diffusion.

Anarchist thinkers distinguish between society, government and the state. The pertinence of the anarchist tradition today reverts to the criticism of the sovereign national state. Sovereignty entails the ability of a nation state to protect its interests or to project its might with ultimate force. But the whole of humankind will live as long as it lives under the threat of weapons of mass destruction. Weapons of mass destruction can not be allowed to remain in the hands of nation states without a high probability that they will eventually be used. That is morally inadmissible, absolutely. Another principle of governing a world society of peoples has to come into play under the overall principles of the unity of the human family, the universal destination of goods, the integrity of cultures and the sovereignty of God. The sovereign nation state is an idea whose time has passed.

Instead of a political program or ideology, anarchists share a set of attitudes and preferences: the fewer rules, regulations and laws, the better. "All the law necessary, and no more than is necessary," and then they argue over "necessary." They favor spontaneity over predictability, initiative and invention over tried-and-true patterns, and personal responsibility over delegation. Authority is to be won by good work, not by heredity, appointment or even majority vote, and exercised only as long as it is recognized by equals. Anarchists tend to be free-wheeling and egalitarian. They look to horizontal organization before vertical structure, though they do not deny the need for that too. Anarchists temper individualism with a mind toward community and the common good. Catholic anarchists gratefully accept the Magisterium of the Church. Many vote and even hold public office. But the preferred modus operandi is direct action and the formation of small, intimate communities.

Peter Maurin preferred to use the term "personalist." That term has a well developed articulation behind it, from Emmanuel Mounier and Dom Virgil Michel to Pope John Paul II. Dorothy Day liked the shock value of the term "anarchist." It also placed her in the very American tradition of the Industrial Workers of the World, the only union she ever joined. And it had a romantic appeal.

In economics, anarchists call for more capital to more people. The distributists G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, Eric Gill and Fr. Vincent McNabb strongly influenced the Catholic Worker in its formative years. They held that law and government structures should promote crafts, producer and consumer cooperatives, small worker-owned industry and farms and worker participation in management.

Government can advance anarchist principles, first among them the right of peoples to organize for the redress of grievances and for the advancement of their own interests. Since the rich and powerful are already well organized, law and government should make a "preferential option" to extend the same rights to the poor and the marginalized in order to advance justice, promote the general welfare and civil harmony. In the modern state they seldom do. Anarchists are likely to perceive this anomaly, and the deception the powerful employ to justify wars that maintain it.

Confusion over the term "anarchist" has made its use problematic within the Catholic Worker movement. On the one hand, as Robert Ludlow pointed out in the June 1955 CW, the name has a history and is "owned" by others than ourselves. Another problem is the easy identification even Catholic Workers make of "anarchism" with "do your own thing," with lack of discipline and slovenliness.

On the other hand, there is a natural tendency even in a radical movement to grow lazy with the years, to soften, to lose its edge and to accommodate to the "wisdom" of the age. In order not to become conformed to this age, not to be coopted by an effete socialism or, even worse, by decadent bourgeois liberalism, to continue ever to be transformed in the renewal of our understanding, to discern what is truly good and pleasing and perfect, the will of God, and to cultivate the charisms of our founders as well, Catholic Workers should continue to identify as anarchists, and struggle always to understand just what that means.

Catholic Workers Website

The Vital Signs Family

It is interesting to me that nearly 100% of American Evangelicals support Israel in their on-going struggle with the Palestinian State. In essence, they are taking sides with state sponsored terrorism when they do so. Yes, the Palestinian Authority supports terrorism, as well. However, terrorism, regardless of its origin or goal, should never be supported by followers of Christ Jesus. I know an evangelical couple--a man and wife--who actively support Israel. In spite of devastating Israeli actions against the Palestinian people, they continue to send money to an organization that brings foreign born Jews back to Israel. If the Israeli army decides to bulldoze a Palestinian home, it matters not to this couple. If Israelis uproot fruit trees in an effort to disenfranchise Palestinian peoples, the money continues to flow. When Israel decided to build a wall to separate Palestinian people from Israeli people, curtailing freedom of movement for Palestinians, this couple continued to send money for immigration to Israel. Their steadfast and unwavering desire to see Jews return to Israel is one that is very self serving. The kicker is this: Most evangelicals are premillenial dispensationalists. Their understanding of the book of Revelation is a literal one. They believe that Christ will return and rapture His church. Take them out before the tribulation. As literalists, the believe Christ will tarry until all of the chosen people of God (Jews) return to Jerusalem. Once they return, God will begin the process of sending His Son back to earth and rapturing His church. As literalists, they believe that two thirds of the Jews in Israel will be wiped out by God prior to the second coming of Jesus Christ. Therefore, this evangelical couple, by giving money for Jews to return to their "homeland", are attempting to hasten Christ's return by facilitating the wholesale slaughter of the Jewish people. And they do so with a smile on their faces and a song on their lips. Yasser Arafat is dead. Evangelical christians are rejoicing. They see the passing of Arafat as another fulfilled end times prophecy. I work at a very conservative christian radio station. (I've got to eat!) I work early in the morning, before most of the other employees arrive. Just as I prepare to leave, people start to trickle in. This morning, as I was grabbing my jacket, I overheard one of my peers discussing the death of Yasser Arafat. He called him an antichrist. He mentioned that he was glad that Arafat had died and he hoped that the Palestinian people would somehow disappear from the face of the earth. "They are nothing but terrorists anyway. God needs to take them out." I can't hang with these people. The God I believe in is a nonviolent God. He does not speak to His people through a literalist interpretation of the bible. He does not kill one people group to benefit another. When Christ came to earth 2000 years ago, He put an end to the law and ushered in a peaceable kingdom. A kingdom based on love for one another. God's kingdom is not some futurist rendition of paradise, it is amongst us now. It is time for evangelicals to own up to the truth and repent of their support of violence and blood lust. Christ instructs us to LOVE OUR ENEMIES! Love our enemies even if it means our own death. God never promised us a perfect life. In fact, He guarantees a life of persecution. So what. Accept what happens. Never yield to violence. Love is the more perfect way. It's time for Christians to speak up about the terrorism that is perpetrated by the United States and her allies. It's time for Christians to confront the evangelical right and proclaim the Truth. After all, it is Truth that sets us free.

Mordecai Vanunu was re-arrested in Israel this morning. Mordechai Vanunu was arrested this morning in his room at St. George's Cathedral in East Jerusalem, by a huge police force (about 30 armed officers). The pretext for his arrest: Vanunu violated the Draconian restrictions that were imposed on him when he was released from prison in April, by giving interviews to foreign media. The attempt to silence Mordechai Vanunu on this of all days, is an attempt to bury Israel's secret nuclear arsenal together with Yasser Arafat. While the world media and attention are focused on the burial of the Palestinian leader, the Israeli government is attempting to disappear the nuclear whistleblower, whose only crime is revealing the terrible truth that Israel is trying to hide: weapons of mass destruction that are concealed from Israeli citizens and from the world. Mordechai Vanunu is expected to be brought to court on Friday morning, November 12. His supporters will demonstrate outside the courthouse. Vanunu worked in Israel’s nuclear program and in the 1980’s blew the whistle on Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program. Vanunu served in the Israeli army and then went to work as a young man in the Dimona nuclear "research center" in the Negev Desert near his home at Beersheba. The facility harbored an underground plutonium separation plant operated in strictest secrecy. As the years went by he grew increasingly troubled as he realized his work was part of Israel's nuclear bomb program. In 1985, before leaving Dimona, he took extensive photographs inside the factory in order to document the truth for his fellow citizens and the entire world. Vanunu's story, published in London’s Sunday Times on October 5, 1986, gave the world its first authoritative confirmation that tiny Israel had become a major nuclear weapons power, with material for as many as 200 nuclear warheads of advanced design. Mordecai was released from Israel’s prisons in April 2004 after spending 18 years in prison.

In Fallujah, A Message

Rise and cry out. Rise and tell the people. You can. I, the bolt, the technician, mechanic? -- Yes, you. You are the secret agent of the people. You are the eyes of the nation. Agent-spy, tell us what you've seen. Tell us what the insiders, the clever ones, have hidden from us. Without you, there is only the precipice. Only catastrophe. I have no choice. I'm a little man, a citizen, one of the people, but I'll do what I have to. I've heard the voice of my conscience and there's nowhere to hide. The world is small, small for Big Brother. I'm on your mission. I'm doing my duty. Take it from me. excerpted from "I Am Your Spy" by Mordechai Vanunu

Brought To You Today by Elphaba, Freedom Fighter from the Land of Oz!

Because of my understanding of the teachings of Christ, I believe in pacifism. I choose nonviolence when dealing with potentially violent situations. I choose to "turn the other cheek".

When sharing about pacifism with other believers, I am often scoffed at. I get asked the classic question, "what would you do if someone broke into your house and tried to rape your wife and kill your daughters?"

I honestly don't know what I would do. As a pacifist, I should say that I would do nothing. I should trust God to take care of their souls should they die in a violent manner. But I know my own propensity for "sin" and I believe in my heart of hearts that I would fight like hell to save my family.

Label me a sinner.

Yes, I know my weaknesses. But that doesn't allow me to simply shrug off my belief in nonviolence. As much as I can, in my own power, I will live peaceably. When I feel myself slipping, I must cry out to Jesus and ask Him to be my nonviolence. It is only through His strength that I can be peaceable. God is our peace.

Most of the evangelical right supports the war effort in Iraq. For most of this week, battles have been raging in Fallujah. American Evangelicals somehow see the war as a mandate from God Almighty. They cite numerous Old Testament passages as proof texts supporting the wholesale slaughter of Iraqis. I beg to differ. God may or may not have given instructions to Israel to kill Canaanites.  Nowhere in the OT does God tell Americans to bomb Iraqis.

In other words, a specific command was given to a specific people in a specific time. It was not and has not been given to us.

In fact Jesus in Matthew 5 tells us what our commands are from that time forth: love enemies, pray for those who persecute you, turn the left cheek when the right is struck, not to return evil for evil. That's the better way.

Living in the Kingdom of God is not easy. It requires that our allegiance be with Jesus Christ. To be in the world yet separate includes resisting violence through the power of the Holy Spirit. It requires that we reject the statist view of manifest destiny. It requires us to love others as God loves us. Love is the better way.

  Confessing Christ in a World of Violence

Our world is wracked with violence and war. But Jesus said: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God" (Matt. 5:9). Innocent people, at home and abroad, are increasingly threatened by terrorist attacks. But Jesus said: "Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you" (Matt. 5:44). These words, which have never been easy, seem all the more difficult today.

Nevertheless, a time comes when silence is betrayal. How many churches have heard sermons on these texts since the terrorist atrocities of September 11? Where is the serious debate about what it means to confess Christ in a world of violence? Does Christian "realism" mean resigning ourselves to an endless future of "pre-emptive wars"? Does it mean turning a blind eye to torture and massive civilian casualties? Does it mean acting out of fear and resentment rather than intelligence and restraint?

Faithfully confessing Christ is the church's task, and never more so than when its confession is co-opted by militarism and nationalism.

- A "theology of war," emanating from the highest circles of American government, is seeping into our churches as well.

- The language of "righteous empire" is employed with growing frequency.

- The roles of God, church, and nation are confused by talk of an American "mission" and "divine appointment" to "rid the world of evil."

The security issues before our nation allow no easy solutions. No one has a monopoly on the truth. But a policy that rejects the wisdom of international consultation should not be baptized by religiosity. The danger today is political idolatry exacerbated by the politics of fear.

In this time of crisis, we need a new confession of Christ.

1. Jesus Christ, as attested in Holy Scripture, knows no national boundaries. Those who confess his name are found throughout the earth. Our allegiance to Christ takes priority over national identity. Whenever Christianity compromises with empire, the gospel of Christ is discredited.

We reject the false teaching that any nation-state can ever be described with the words, "the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it." These words, used in scripture, apply only to Christ. No political or religious leader has the right to twist them in the service of war.

2. Christ commits Christians to a strong presumption against war. The wanton destructiveness of modern warfare strengthens this obligation. Standing in the shadow of the Cross, Christians have a responsibility to count the cost, speak out for the victims, and explore every alternative before a nation goes to war. We are committed to international cooperation rather than unilateral policies.

We reject the false teaching that a war on terrorism takes precedence over ethical and legal norms. Some things ought never be done - torture, the deliberate bombing of civilians, the use of indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction - regardless of the consequences.

3. Christ commands us to see not only the splinter in our adversary's eye, but also the beam in our own. The distinction between good and evil does not run between one nation and another, or one group and another. It runs straight through every human heart.

We reject the false teaching that America is a "Christian nation," representing only virtue, while its adversaries are nothing but vicious. We reject the belief that America has nothing to repent of, even as we reject that it represents most of the world's evil. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).

4. Christ shows us that enemy-love is the heart of the gospel. While we were yet enemies, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8, 10). We are to show love to our enemies even as we believe God in Christ has shown love to us and the whole world. Enemy-love does not mean capitulating to hostile agendas or domination. It does mean refusing to demonize any human being created in God's image.

We reject the false teaching that any human being can be defined as outside the law's protection. We reject the demonization of perceived enemies, which only paves the way to abuse; and we reject the mistreatment of prisoners, regardless of supposed benefits to their captors.

5. Christ teaches us that humility is the virtue befitting forgiven sinners. It tempers all political disagreements, and it allows that our own political perceptions, in a complex world, may be wrong.

We reject the false teaching that those who are not for the United States politically are against it or that those who fundamentally question American policies must be with the "evil-doers." Such crude distinctions, especially when used by Christians, are expressions of the Manichaean heresy, in which the world is divided into forces of absolute good and absolute evil.

The Lord Jesus Christ is either authoritative for Christians, or he is not. His Lordship cannot be set aside by any earthly power. His words may not be distorted for propagandistic purposes. No nation-state may usurp the place of God.

We believe that acknowledging these truths is indispensable for followers of Christ. We urge them to remember these principles in making their decisions as citizens. Peacemaking is central to our vocation in a troubled world where Christ is Lord.

Sojourners

Lighten Up!

Brought to you today by Leo Tolstoy!

This is after the fact, but interesting nevertheless:

The Only Vote Worth Casting in November

Welcome! In the netherworld of internet blogs, why should you spend time reading this one? What makes it interesting? Well, since this is the first entry, there is really no reason for you to know what I'm all about. Here is a brief description of myself...and my hope for this blog:

I am a Christian. I follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. I do not consider myself an evangelical, however. I consider myself a Christian Anarchist. Or, more correctly, a Christian who is also an Anarchist. I believe that Christ teaches us to be in the world, but not of the world. Human government is corrupt and seeks to steal, kill and destroy humanity. Christ came as a peacemaker and established His Kingdom on earth. We live in Christ's Kingdom now. Therefore, I answer to the power-under authority of Jesus Christ, not to the kingdom of man. Jacques Ellul wrote a book covering Christianity and Anarchy which is very helpful in understanding where I am coming from: Ellul's Anarchy and Christianity

I am a pacifist with Mennonite leanings, although I don't attend an Anabaptist church. There aren't any such churches where I hail from (the Great Plains of America). I don't believe that you can legislate morality. I do not vote. I abhor the war in Iraq. I believe the pro-life movement is ripe with hypocrisy. (Spontaneous abortion due to extreme stress, such as the bombing done in Iraq, is just as atrocious as abortion done by a western doctor. Yet pro-lifers also tend to support the efforts of G. W. Bush in his bid for world domination.)

I listen to Project 86, Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down and Anti-Flag. I also listen to worship music by Kim Hill, Caedmon's Call and Jars of Clay. My favorite band of all time is/was Ballydowse. I support 2 children through Compassion International and I support the efforts of World Relief. I like tattoos. I like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I love Seinfeld reruns.

I often rant about political issues even though I consider myself an anarchist. I can't seem to get politics out of my blood. I am an ex-ditto head. I was in the Rush fold for several years. I was under the impression, shortly after my conversion to christianity, that in order to properly follow Christ, you had to be a Republican. I no longer feel that way!

I have a foreign-born wife and three children. I work part-time by choice. I used to work for a Fortune 500 corporation as a manager, but left because I could no longer support a company that relied on slave labor and slave wages to make millions of dollars for the CEO and the company shareholders.

My intent is to present an alternative understanding of Christianity. Perhaps some my disagree with my take on things, but that's the way the world works. Iron sharpens iron. It seems the political left has painted Christianity with a very broad brush. We are not all the same. Science and faith can co-exist. As can philosophy and faith. Kierkegaard for example. Check me out from time to time.

Whew...

At any rate, this shoud be fun!