Make Presidential Debaters Answer Questions!!

Presidential candidates constantly avoid or evade questions put to them in the debates organized by the misnamed Citizens' Debate Commission.

Many online petitions are asking for "fact checkers" at the debates, or that specific questions be put, or that the moderators insist their original questions be answered. Michael Nickerson proposes simply that the broadcasters post the original question in a box on-screen, so that viewers can judge for themselves whether the question has been answered. Please sign it:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/296/842/109/post-questions-during-candidate-responses-in-the-debates/

Here is another way that WE the People can require that candidates answer questions. Someone should type each question up briefly in a Tweet, and assign a short #Hashtag. Everyone who wants can then respond as to whether the question has been answered by a given candidate. Ideally, the moderator should develop a meaningful #hashtag that viewers can use to put in their vote by tweeting as to whether the question has been answered by the candidate.

EXAMPLE:

Moderator: Mr Obama, Mr. Romney, Do you envision that, your administration will be able to put into place policies that will allow Medicare benefits and payments to doctors to be adequate to ensure that all Seniors will get a standard of care at least as good at what they get today, Why or why not? #WillMeaningfulMedicareSurvive

Citizen-Tweeter: #WillMeaningfulMedicareSurvive Obama Answered
  -OR-
Citizen-Tweeter: #WillMeaningfulMedicareSurvive Obama has NOT Answered


Citizen-Tweeter: #WillMeaningfulMedicareSurvive Romney Answered
  -OR-
Citizen-Tweeter: #WillMeaningfulMedicareSurvive Romney has NOT Answered

The moderator's team counts the Tweets, and reports to the Candidates and the world what the Tweet-o-Sphere says.

I'm open to all suggestions as to how to make this better, or how to make this happen.

Eventually,  WE the People will make our voice heard!

Still Just Thinking to Myself

I am still just thinking to myself. I know a couple of friends are reading my posts, random and sporadic as they have been.

I have been bursting to express myself every day in writing. But only a short time ago did I start having the hope that I could write something useful. I know I have been writing some useful things the past week or so, because I have looked back at them. I WROTE them to be useful to me, should I look back at them. And they are.

So, that is how I know this is worth doing. Might as well publish them forever on a blog. That way, I am more likely to have access to them, where ever I go.

It's interesting to me, whether I can embarrass myself with my writing, even if I have committed to saying nothing bad about anyone or anything. A big point of this, is to have accountability to myself with what I say and do. If anyone points out where I am rejecting something, I can let go of it that much sooner. Ah, bliss...

I Am Only Capable of Moving Backward

Currently, I am mostly only capable of moving backward.

Not backward in time or space. Not backward in development.

Backward as, "In a defensive position." Much of my existence is ruled by fear, and the specific fears sometimes form the basis for a panic attack. I have been panicky a lot more than most other people, it seems. (I do have a mild diagnosis of panic disorder with Mitral Valve Prolapse - for whatever that is worth.) I have plenty of the symptoms of PTSD - but don't most people you know?

This is to say, my claim yesterday ( New Life Has Begun) was not a claim that the person Linda is "enlightened."

It was more in the form of a declaration that I want God's will to flow through me. And I have seen that every single negative thought is simply a rejection of God's will. I am no longer confused about whether I need to express rejection of anything.

I may continue to have the various feelings I have called rejection for a while - but I no longer accept that concept as a definition.

My New Life Has Begun

OK dears,

I think I am ready to start my new life. I have figured out the ultimate rule for me. I will not say anything negative, (aloud or to myself,) about anyone or anything. If I can't find something positive to think or say, I will think and say nothing. This give me the best of all possible worlds: the blessings of ALL the good things in life, plus absolute, blessed silence.

My new life has begun.

I Can Be Silence

Whatever happens, I can remember Peace.

My teachers have been telling me to drop the conditions and modifiers. I AM Peace. I can ALWAYS remember that. If it appears I have forgotten, I may have. But if I choose to be peace, in that moment, I can be.

How is this true, and how do I know it is true? ACIM says "To have peace, teach peace to learn it." Am I just defining my experience at all times as peace? what does that mean?

I want peace with what is. The "peace" in that phrase is my eternal relationship to WHAT IS, or God. You must have seen this, or you will. Letting myself proclaim my loyalty to that which I am calling peace, is the purest, most abstract expression of wanting. Wanting is not in itself particularly peaceful. But in that pure expression of loyalty, there must be the willingness that signals to God to close the gap between us.

I can be silent, thank God!

No, I can be Silence

Deep Peace

I have striven for peace all my adult life. Anyone knows, peace stays away from striving. But it was a noble, quixotic effort. And somehow it led me to know more of Peace.

Deep peace is the peace of Death. Not the anticipation of death; certainly not the glorification of death.

Rather, it is the Simplicity of Not-Being.

(I am using unprescribed capital letters to indicate words that invoke God or the Divine.)

I am Aware of the Peace of Not-Being. This is to Know God, which is direct, non-symbolic knowing. It is All There Is. Constantly Changing. Always fresh and new. Every Flavor, ones you like, and ones you don't. Like and Dislike are the same, constantly changing one from the other, switching places. I melt away, but God's experience of All, is complete and Eternal.

Responsibility

 Do what you do, and take responsibility for it. Don't make explanations and excuses. Don't deny it.

Other people react as they react to you and what you do. It is NOT your responsibility to manage their response, either before or after they make it. If someone doesn't like something you did, you might explain your reasoning and motivation to them. It is loving, and can help in negotiating the relationship. Being fearful or guilty with people who are criticizing you is not helpful to either of you.

No. 1 Joy

The number one joy in life is breathing. There is no question about it. When given the choice of any two things one might do, exclusive of the other, breathing wins, hands down. Especially if the exclusive length of time is more than, say two minutes.

So, if you are willing to give up breathing for something else, then that is something! Giving up breath is giving up life. If there is something you love more than living itself, then that something IS the meaning of your life. It is a simple equation.

Silence Rules Negativity

Silence rules negativity - absorbs it, transforms it.

Scissors, Paper, Rock. I don't know if I read or heard this somewhere, or just made it up -- intuitively, anyway, that game works if you take the "Rock" for silence.

Paper covers the Rock. If you take "Paper" for that which is temporary, and illusory, then, yes, Paper can appear to have victory over Rock. I never understood that one before. I thought they just made paper win over rock because you had to do it that way, for the game to work.

If you take "Scissors" for that which cuts, and is therefore painful and negative, then it makes sense that the Rock can destroy the Scissors. Otherwise, why not think of the Rock as that which sharpens scissors?

Scissors as negativity, is negativity in the positive sense. Cutting away that which is not needed, creates the masterpiece. Scissors also cut through the illusion, which is the paper, which covers the rock.

I am trying to remember Silence, the Rock, and let it absorb all negativity. As Jesus did. I don't need to cry out to my God, for God to know what I need. And I also can cry out, and the holy spirit can cry out from within me. If the cry comes from Silence itself, then let it.

On a less serious note, you can't lose traditional Scissors, Paper, Rock by choosing "Rock" all the time - why? Because, unless the person is a practiced "Scissors, Paper, Rock"  competitor, they are likely to forget to punch you, if they win with something other than "Rock." You, on the other hand, already having a fist balled up, are likely to punch them every time. (Note, for documentation on traditional Scissors, Paper, Rock, see any" Charlie Chan" movie scene where No. 1 Son and  No. 2 Son are waiting around, or trying to decide something.)

Reminders

Being ready to die at any moment.
When your thinking gets to the end of its framework, it is time to let go, and receive more input.
Your experience of life is not constrained by gravity, and thinking does not hold it up. There is no place to fall to, if you let go of thinking.

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.

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.

New SideBar today

I know
I am not in my
right mind
if I don't see anything
of infinite value


by me.

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.

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.

Cultchah

Here is a YouTube link from my sister. Does anyone else consider the Three Stooges to be a basic cultural building block?

>
> On Fri, Sep 2, 2011 at 11:52 PM,  You wrote:
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n76IKFlhJWo

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.

Should and Ought Not

If you do anything with a expectation of praise, you are likely to be disappointed. But you should still want to do praiseworthy things.

You ought not reject the urge to do something (in the context of positive intention), only because it might lead to embarrassment. You can think it over, though. That's what embarrassment is for. If it still seems right, revel in the possibility of embarrassment. You might be surprised by lavish praise.

The Value of Words

An extraterrestrial observer was flying past the Earth, idly dialing through the video broadcasts s/he was picking up. If the E.T. had thought in words, s/he would have been saying something like, "This verbal language they use is fascinating. It may have stunted their intuitive powers, but words themselves can have great value! A group of humans can sit together just exchanging words, and the entire group erupts with something they call 'laughter.' This encourages deep breathing and relaxation.

"Because of all the incredible stress they endure in their lives, they are constantly on tenterhooks, and hyper-vigilant. They use words to lead their minds into images and ideas, and then to cultivate emotions, which in turn, gives them some influence over their own energies and motivations.

"Unintuitive? Round-about? Yes. But it seems to get the job done for the meat creatures."

Poem Fragment "Self-Annihilating Thought"

My mind has held the Self-Annihilating Thought.
 How, then, can I yet be?
 I am only an echo of myself, and of Myself.


The Poem Fragment Explained -
The Self-Annihilating Thought is not the thought of annihilating oneself. It is the thought whose nature and power is such that, for a mind to hold it, means that no thought will ever be held to be "self" again. I don't know if there is such a thing, but I like the category.

The ego likes to compare itself to others, and takes pride in its accomplishments. The accomplishment the ego can be the most proud of, is the holding of the Self-Annihilating Thought. It is the highest possible achievement of the thinking mind. It has not been accomplished by any separate, individual mind currently in existence. If you succeed in achieving it, you will be the first, and only, person ever to have done it.

I recognize myself as I am sometimes, and sometimes in imagined forms. All these experiences are reflections of pure-awareness/that-which-experiences. Knowing that, is saving knowledge.