Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Current Help
Settle into more consistent truthfulness
"Accept-reject, accept-reject" - remembering these are the same. Neither makes a difference.
waiting to see what I will do.
Realizing that I can't do anything by myself. The Everything does everything.
I take responsibility by allowing truth to be what is.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
We Are Not Trash - Occupy Encampments Destroyed
I've got to get off my duff and start writing every day about the changes that are happening in our country, finally. I am talking about the Occupy movement.
This week, the Oakland encampment was removed by police, and the Occupy Wall Street itself was summarily tipped into NYC sanitation trucks. We then read that the mayors and managers of 18 cities with occupations conference-called about what to do with them. Apparently, they decided the thing to do was treat them like trash to be swept away, and justify police actions with sanctimonious pronouncements about "public safety."
But the mayors - either 1%-er's like New York's Bloomberg, or terrified politicians like Jean Quan in Oakland, are just stumbling forward in a stage-play whose finale is already written. Their inevitable authoritarian reactions to Occupy merely serve the function of strengthening and widening the movement. The finale is the fall of the economic and political structures we have now, that are not working for 99% of the people (or more.)
The next act of the play, though, is improvisation. Change requires untried solutions; and not everything that gets tried will work. The Occupy Movement is creating new forms of democracy. A working system of elections, that voice the actual will of the majority, (with protection of minorities,) will have to be in place BEFORE the ultimate fall of the system, if we are to avoid massive violence and loss.
The next play, the one that comes after the new structures of democracy are in place, will be written by the new democracy itself. All we know now are the problems it will have to solve - the environmental emergency, creating opportunities for productive work for all, and the equitable distribution of resources that productive work creates.
I propose the next step for Occupiers is to demand public space for Occupations as a right, in EVERY locality. People need to gather for long periods of time - these are informal constitutional conventions. They are political free speech of the highest order. Money is not speech, as the Supreme Court would have it. But human bodies, gathered in protest, ARE. Their right to gather trumps the local ordinances that would prevent it.
Furthermore, there are now millions of homeless people in the United States. For a person to live, they need shelter. To have a decent life, they need the same shelter every night, and the right not to be kicked out of it. Millions of homeless people is not a normal phenomenon - it is not simple "delinquency." It is a symptom of the sickness that befouls us. In this housing emergency, we need a provision of public space for camping, and it has to be usable - in cities, near facilities and public transportation. Yes, Occupy encampments attract homeless people, of course! Mayors should be welcoming and accommodating this. Occupy Wall Street has plenty of resources to keep itself clean and safe. Less well-endowed occupations should be supported by their cities with water and sanitation. Until we have well-built homes for all, encampments are our right, and our political necessity.
The 1% are losing their minions by the second. One Oakland mayoral adviser resigned in protest at this week's police action. More importantly, veterans of our reckless foreign wars are showing up at occupations in force. Last February, Madison, WI police disobeyed orders to remove protesters from the capitol rotunda. Working class soldiers and police are waking up, and will not be used to suppress dissent.
This is why I say the battle is won - the tide has turned. If the road ahead it not yet clear, at least people are starting to wake up, and see that we need to go in the opposite direction from the one the 1%-ers have been leading us in.
This week, the Oakland encampment was removed by police, and the Occupy Wall Street itself was summarily tipped into NYC sanitation trucks. We then read that the mayors and managers of 18 cities with occupations conference-called about what to do with them. Apparently, they decided the thing to do was treat them like trash to be swept away, and justify police actions with sanctimonious pronouncements about "public safety."
But the mayors - either 1%-er's like New York's Bloomberg, or terrified politicians like Jean Quan in Oakland, are just stumbling forward in a stage-play whose finale is already written. Their inevitable authoritarian reactions to Occupy merely serve the function of strengthening and widening the movement. The finale is the fall of the economic and political structures we have now, that are not working for 99% of the people (or more.)
The next act of the play, though, is improvisation. Change requires untried solutions; and not everything that gets tried will work. The Occupy Movement is creating new forms of democracy. A working system of elections, that voice the actual will of the majority, (with protection of minorities,) will have to be in place BEFORE the ultimate fall of the system, if we are to avoid massive violence and loss.
The next play, the one that comes after the new structures of democracy are in place, will be written by the new democracy itself. All we know now are the problems it will have to solve - the environmental emergency, creating opportunities for productive work for all, and the equitable distribution of resources that productive work creates.
I propose the next step for Occupiers is to demand public space for Occupations as a right, in EVERY locality. People need to gather for long periods of time - these are informal constitutional conventions. They are political free speech of the highest order. Money is not speech, as the Supreme Court would have it. But human bodies, gathered in protest, ARE. Their right to gather trumps the local ordinances that would prevent it.
Furthermore, there are now millions of homeless people in the United States. For a person to live, they need shelter. To have a decent life, they need the same shelter every night, and the right not to be kicked out of it. Millions of homeless people is not a normal phenomenon - it is not simple "delinquency." It is a symptom of the sickness that befouls us. In this housing emergency, we need a provision of public space for camping, and it has to be usable - in cities, near facilities and public transportation. Yes, Occupy encampments attract homeless people, of course! Mayors should be welcoming and accommodating this. Occupy Wall Street has plenty of resources to keep itself clean and safe. Less well-endowed occupations should be supported by their cities with water and sanitation. Until we have well-built homes for all, encampments are our right, and our political necessity.
The 1% are losing their minions by the second. One Oakland mayoral adviser resigned in protest at this week's police action. More importantly, veterans of our reckless foreign wars are showing up at occupations in force. Last February, Madison, WI police disobeyed orders to remove protesters from the capitol rotunda. Working class soldiers and police are waking up, and will not be used to suppress dissent.
This is why I say the battle is won - the tide has turned. If the road ahead it not yet clear, at least people are starting to wake up, and see that we need to go in the opposite direction from the one the 1%-ers have been leading us in.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Occupy Denver 1st Amendment Petition
Wow - I just noticed that I haven't posted in October, yet. This is what I wrote as my reason for signing the petition to the Governor of Colorado and the Mayor of Denver, to respect the free speech and peaceable assembly rights of the Occupy Denver encampment:
In order for the right of peaceably assembly to be a real right, there must be a place where peaceable assembly is allowed. Any and all public space is, by rights, the space where people are free to assemble. If there is an on-going event of political expression, the right to assemble for any length of time may not be denied.
If the event goes on for longer than 24 hours, then the use of camping equipment is necessary for the right to assemble to upheld. Equal rights for rich and poor, means that a peaceable assembly for the purpose of political expression cannot be denied to those who can't afford a place to live, or a commute. Government at any level (federal, state or local) may not deny "Creator-endowed" rights.
In order for the right of peaceably assembly to be a real right, there must be a place where peaceable assembly is allowed. Any and all public space is, by rights, the space where people are free to assemble. If there is an on-going event of political expression, the right to assemble for any length of time may not be denied.
If the event goes on for longer than 24 hours, then the use of camping equipment is necessary for the right to assemble to upheld. Equal rights for rich and poor, means that a peaceable assembly for the purpose of political expression cannot be denied to those who can't afford a place to live, or a commute. Government at any level (federal, state or local) may not deny "Creator-endowed" rights.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Expecting Others to Love You
I'm testing out a new theory: that you it is safe to relate to everyone as though you thought they loved you - as long as you also love them, and treat them as beloved. Surely not all people will not return the love, but how excellent it will be when someone does! I will try to hold this as an intention. It is not like, "I must be loving." It is, "You might well love me, and I love you for that possibility."
If I get any interesting results, I will let you know.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Cultchah
Here is a YouTube link from my sister. Does anyone else consider the Three Stooges to be a basic cultural building block?
Thursday, September 1, 2011
The Present Moment
The present moment:
1.) the moment after the past, and before the future. An infinitessimal instant of time. Scientists are not sure that it exists. They are sure that our intuitions about it are wrong.
2.) All conscious experience, current, remembered and anticipated, from the perspective of "now." This includes the immediate experiences of sights, sounds, flavors, and physical feelings, as well as the presentation to consciousness of such memories, plans, fears, confusions, emotions and fantasies as arise. The content and beliefs that those memories, plans, etc. themselves represent, are not part of "now," so in the most basic, physical sense of existence, they don't exist. But the experiencing of them is part of "now". I think this is what the sages mean when they say, 'past and future do not exist.' It can sound like a tautology, but it is really referring to the fact that "now" is unburdened by so very much of what we think 'exists.'
"The content and beliefs that those memories, plans, etc. themselves represent" is a phrase that requires some expanding-upon. I might have a fear, the content of which is, "My spouse may be dead." The fear itself is an experience that happens to me; it exists at some period in time. The content of my thought is representational. It is a story, or a presumption. It may or may not correspond to reality in varying ways and degrees. But we can differentiate it from direct experience. We can realize that representational thought is a servant, not a master. Direct experience is that which needs to be welcomed for what it is, not for how it is represented in our minds. We can reject ideas, but not experience. The good news is that we never have to reject experience. That is also the hard news, still, for me.
I have been given the feedback that I need to be less presumptuous about my perceptions being the gospel truth. I know they are not. Sorry if they still sound that way.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)