Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

In giving thought to both the “successes”, endurance and recruiting power of terrorist groups worldwide, its apparent to me that the one thing they have going for them is Certainty. No matter how irrational or destructive their goals, terrorists are certain, they have no doubt, about those goals or the acceptable means of achieving them. 

Certainty is the engine that drives achievement.  Its the power that moves an idea or intention to fruition.  Lacking certainty, it is easy to either 1) lose your way, or 2) be persuaded by the power of someone else’s certainty.

How this applies to our current political and economic situation is of utmost importance.

In any free society  (read as “democracy” or “republic”) there will always be an endless onslaught of ideas. This is the nature, and the intention, of such societies.  The free and unfettered exchange of ideas.   The extent to which an individual, or group, has certainty regarding their particular idea will drive, and likely determine, the dissemination and acceptance of that idea by the many. 

Particularly in times of economic hardship, when individuals seek out way to alleviate the burdens of financial uncertainty, an idea or proposed solution buttressed by the passion of certainty is most compelling.  Such was the power behind the success of Adolf Hitler and, as said earlier, global terrorism.

So how do we translate this awareness and apply it to the United States in 2010 as we face greater economic uncertainty that ever before in our nation’s history? How do we make it work for us and for the good?

Poetically, and literally, I suggest you listen within.

Each of us has an inner knowing and that inner knowing has a voice.  The key is to trust that you know then turn down the onslaught of external chatter so you can hear the voice of knowing.

Knowing tells you that you cannot get out of debt by spending more money that you have.  Knowing also tells you that the money in Monopoly is neither real or valuable nor are vast sums of money that are continuously printed with nothing to back up their worth. 

There is statistical evidence through a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll out that the movement identified as “The Tea Party” currently has a higher approval rating (41%) than both the Democrats (35%) and the Republicans 28%).

Why?

The growing popularity of the Tea Party Movement can be understood by its certainty.  Adherents and followers alike know with certainty that the federal government has lost its way. To the contrary, politicians are being manipulated, tossed and bossed about like falling leaves on a windy day.  Their collective uncertainty provides no momentum for sustained problem solving and so they have become ineffective at successfully addressing that which needs correction.

And so the Tea Party Movement’s message of certainty is compelling and contagious.  I suspect their numbers will continue to grow as will their influence.

This may be a good thing. 

Ultimately, however, as tougher and tougher decisions need to be made as part of the course correction that is coming, each of us will have to know, with certainty, what it is we want and what we are and are not willing to do to achieve it.

In the meantime, what we can do individually is go within, listen, and be certain about what we believe… for the time is coming when inner certainty may well be the only guiding force you can rely on…with certainty.

 

 

    

The recent news about Senator Max Baucus and his behavior with a former staffer has an interesting undercurrent to it.  While on its surface the news seems to be about yet another unfaithful member of Congress who, at the very least, improperly used public monies to fund a romantic trip to Asia with a former staff member turned current live-in lover…there is a broader and more important story within the story.

Wanda Baucus, the Senator’s former wife, is speaking out on the subject and its not her first foray into the subject. 

The subject I’m referring to is the effect that the dominance of men in positions of power in Washington has had on women and, inevitably, on the country.  Both their presence in such positions as well as their complicity in failing to hold one another accountable for immoral and, at times, criminally actionable behavior. 

Now if this were the 60’s or 70’s, you’d likely think “Here we go. Another feminist male-bashing tirade.”  But its not.  We’re closing in on 2010 and both the means and the goal are of a higher order.

Wanda Baucus, a former outspoken supporter of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, has recently said that ” If the women I know in Washington in the Senate talked and said all
the things they know, this government would — I mean talk about the
revolution… this place would be turned upside down.”

She’s t alking about sexual harassment and more.

Sadly, we have become so accustomed and hardened to such revelations that when they occur we are no longer shocked.  It takes the fall of a seeming paragon of accomplishment and morality such as Tiger Woods to even phase us anymore…and even then only for a week or so.  Thereafter, we go back to business as usual.

But here’s the thing.

The country is broke. The government keeps spending money we do not have.  Millions are unemployed.  No one trusts the politicians… a state of being they’ve justifiably earned, I might add.   

I’d focus on the excesses but I think it more important to focus on the deficiency. 

The Divine Feminine has been too long absent.  

By the D ivine Feminine I do not mean feminists.  I don’t refer necessarily to women exclusively.  However,
for the most part, what has been absent and what is now being resurrected will come forth mostly by and through women. 

What I am referring to is the resurrection of that aspect of Creator’s energy that balances out the qualities and characteristics inherent in male energy. 

Male energy, in its natural state, is positive and expansive.  Female energy, in its natural state, is negative and receptive.  Be careful that your mind doesn’t immediately attach worn out definitions to any of these words.  There is nothing inherently “good’ or “bad” about the words positive or negative.  Where we run amok is when they are out of balance in relationship to one another.  S uch imbalance results in chaos which lacks the ability to self-organize.  When in balance, we are a self-organizing species.  We will return to a state of being that is the highest good for all concerned.

Absent balance, we will go the way of the dinosaur.

Which beings us back to Wanda and Max Baucus.

I know nothing about either of these people personally.  What I do know is that Max Baucus is symptomatic of a diseased and dying concentration of perverse power run amok.  Wanda Baucus is symptomatic of the emerging Divine Feminine that will, by its very presence and design, bring the human race back into the necessary balance to sustain physical life, expanded consciousness and spiritual growth.

Often following a long journey in the darkness, an emergence into the light can momentarily seem blinding.  Remember, its just momentary. Our future is here and its bright.  Just be patient and allow yourself some time to adjust to the re-emergence of the brilliant Light of the Divine Feminine.

Politics aside, I admire Glenn Beck for his unabashed courage in speaking truth to power.  At least his truth.  Which is all anyone can be certain of.

And that’s the point.

What Beck is standing for is your right to think, speak and act upon the truth as you know it.  He’s doing it  peacefully… but not without power of his own.  Not force, but power.  And while he can’t do it for you, he can do it for himself… thereby acting as both example and guiding light for how its done.

Sure, you can say “easy for him” he’s got a platform, a microphone and sponsors.  However, each of us has a calling and is similarly provided the means to get there if only we have the courage to embark upon the journey.

Which got me to thinking about Ayn Rand and Mahatma Gandhi.

I’ve always been fascinated by Ayn Rand’s writings and her fierce advocacy on behalf of individualism as opposed to collectivism.  You know, Capitalism and individualism trumping Marxism, Communism and Fascism.  Yet, despite my dedication to re-reading Atlas Shrugged every decade or so, I’ve been uncomfortable with her obvious disbelief in a power greater than man or woman.  To be specific, a lack of God in her philosophy.

I’ve had a similar fascination, and respect, for Mahatma Gandhi.  He peacefully turned away a world power  by bringing to the political arena a deeply held spiritual belief in the dignity of humankind tied to a responsibility for the well being of one another.

I thought if I could snap my fingers, I’d merge Rand and Gandhi and come up with a compassionate political solution to the world’s problems.  You know, kind of “Hope and Change.”

So I snapped those fingers… and here’s what I came up with.

There is a spiritual concept called Oneness.  It is an eternal concept founded in the connectedness of everyone and everything that ever was or will be created.  Socialism, Progressivism, Marxism, Communism, Fascism are all political perversions of that spiritual concept.  What Oneness accomplishes naturally through an understanding of how Spirit works and, consequently, our relationship to all things living… those political systems try to artificially impose through intimidation and redistribution of wealth.

Any Rand almost had it right… but for her resistance to the spiritual world, which leaves her characters unforgiving, ungrateful and sometimes even cruel.  Such is humankind absent Spirit.

Gandhi had it right… but enough of the world had not yet reached the tipping point necessary to be able to hold onto his accomplishment.

Which is why I admire Glenn Beck.

He knows with certainty what Ayn Rand knew… which is the value of a fully conscious human mind.  He also knows with certainty what Gandhi knew as well.  That we are all born of Creator and our success is tied to understanding how that makes us all connected.

What Glenn Beck is standing for is why this Administration must not prevail.  To try and artificially impose, through force, intimidation and redistribution of wealth, that which has been Divinely seeded within the hearts and minds of All existence is to try to defy Universal Law and usurp the right of every human being to reach that realization in their own way and in their own time.

Its called Divine Time.

Hope and Change are qualities inherent in Creation placed there by Creator. They are neither to be toyed nor tampered with… and they most certainly are not a bumper sticker.

 

I’m always fascinated, awed actually, by synchronicity…the  simultaneous or corresponding occurrence of seemingly unrelated events that turn out to be profoundly related after all.   I’d like to share one.

This week I read “Cosmos of the Soul” by Patricia Cori.  Its a “channeled” book about the future of the Earth and all life living on the planet.  In it, Ms. Cori speaks about the “Earth’s (or Gaia’s) Desert Period” as a challenging transitional period we are about to live through.  What that looks like is not well-defined, although how we should prepare for it and what our roles in it will be, is.

This morning, I was listening to a radio interview with Bruce Feiler, author of “America’s Prophet.”   Apparently, the book is an historical look at the teachings from the story of Moses and how they parallel with the story of the Pilgrims who colonized America.

And it hit me.

In an instant I understood what Particia Cori’s channeled message was about.

As the Israelites went out from slavery and bondage to Egypt…as the Pilgrims went out from the slavery and bondage to a King… so are We about to go out from slavery and bondage to a government no longer in service to its people and our own addiction to raping the planet for personal satisfaction and gain.

The one thing that all three situations have in common is materialism.  The Egyptian consciousness, and the Israelites in service to it, were obsessed with gratifying every earthly pleasure and glorifying the human ego.  King George III of England and the aristocracy were obsessed with the same pleasures and goals at the expense of the dignity and freedom of those they governed. 

And here we are.  2009.

We have a government and ruling class comprised of financiers and other elitists who have long since stopped caring about personal liberty or the Will of the People but who, instead, are enthroned in a power structure that for hundreds of years has exploited, sedated and enslaved the general  population while maintaining that power base through fear and intimidation.

We, as citizens, are never without personal responsibility.  As did the Israelites and Pilgrims before us, we allowed the conditions of sedation and enslavement to entrap us in exchange for creature comforts.  The problem is that materialism is always a slippery slope and, inevitably, “more is never enough.”  We have been complicit in our own entrapment by our silence, compliance and greed.  We have injured the planet, and its other life forms, by our disregard and disrespect for their parts in this glorious experiment called Life on Earth.

Now we are about to make our own journey across the desert.  In reality, I do not know what the terrain will look like or precisely what obstacles we’ll find along the way.  But as the Israelites crossed their desert and the Pilgrims crossed their sea in order to go out from bondage and find their way to “higher ground”… so must we.

Growth is never easy or comfortable.  It can be life threatening.  But the alternative is no life at all.  I, personally, would rather risk mine for the opportunity to grow than to capitulate by default to something other than a fully conscious existence.

As we set out through “Earth’s Desert Period” let us learn from those who have gone before us on similar journeys:

With faith comes protection. 

United we stand. 

The Promised Land is no better than the effort we make to get there and the energy we invest in keeping it sacred.

Lately,it seems that life is too frequently stranger than fiction.  When an institution of higher learning such as Harvard University’s Ethics Center chooses to invite Eliot Spitzer to speak, I find it difficult to overlook the dire implications.

Have we lost our minds… or have just Harvard’s Administrators lost theirs?

This public servant, this former Chief Executive Law Enforcement Officer of NY, willfully violated the law while in office while prosecuting others for the very same behavior.  Historically, I think we call that hypocrisy…not to mention, in this instance, a felony. Oh, yes, and also morally reprehensible since the felony was participation in prostitution.

I find the title of the advertised lecture particularly offensive. I am offended on behalf of Ayn Rand. Anyone familiar with the economic determinist views of Rand knows that Eliot Spitzer’s ethics and morals are the very ethics and morals Rand found disgusting and detrimental to a fully functioning society that honors, above all, the individual and a commitment to truth and integrity.

I am unmoved by Harvard’s attempting to justify their choice by claiming that Spitzer’s speech will be limited to economic issues and not encroach upon ethics.  Isn’t the Bill Clinton legacy fresh enough in our minds to raise a red flag about trying to compartmentalize a role model’s behavior to fit the issue at hand?  I think the economic boon of the Clinton years, in hindsight, was not worth the moral depravity exemplified by both he and his wife lying about a pattern of morally deficient behavior. 

Such was the slippery slope, one could argue, that brought us Reality TV. And we all know how helpful and uplifting that’s been working out for us.
 
I think Eliot Spitzer should stay home and not speak at Harvard. 
I think Harvard should rescind his invitation if he does not volunteer to doso.
I think sold out ticket holders should turn in their tickets.
I think students should protest his appearance.

I think how we respond to Spitzer’s scheduled appearance will say more about us than his appearance will ever say about Harvard, ethics, or our financial future.
 
As always, the choice is ours.

Lately, we’ve been facing a lot of really important ones.

Have you noticed?

Let’s start with the admission that I am neither an economist nor a military expert.  But I like to say I’m a thinker.  So last week when I stumbled across two seemingly disparate pieces of information, the Thinker in me made a troubling observation.

First, I learned that the Federal Reserve Board, which regulates monetary policy for the United States, was created in 1913.  The World Bank was created in 1944 with the 44 allied nations agreeing at Bretton Woods to go on the gold standard whereby currencies were valued against a constant.  The constant was gold.  However, in 1971 the system collapsed when the United States unilaterally decided to no longer back the dollar with gold. In effect, the U.S. dollar then became the world’s reserve currency.

Secondly, while doing some web research for a power point presentation,  I stumbled upon a graph history of wars since recorded time.  I couldn’t help notice the huge disparity between the total amount of wars from 1000 B.C. through 1913 and the amount of world conflicts since 1913.  The escalation of war worldwide since 1913 was astonishing, to say the least.

As I was staring at the graph I suddenly remembered reading about the U.S. led (followed by worldwide adoption of) centralized banking at the beginning of the 20th century. Then it hit me.  You can’t fight a war very long without the money to fund it…to buy arms, to feed troops, to replenish resources etc. 

Prior to the creation of centralized banking, and particularly once off the gold standard, the ability to endlessly print money and correspondingly fund war simply didn’t exist.  You fought a war until you were out of supplies. Then you either went home or negotiated something resembling a peace.

Not so since 1913.

Now, we can fund the military and finance every urge we have to tinker in economies and political systems all over the globe.  Short on resources?  No problem.  Print more money or manipulate the economy through artificial interest rates to support the political and military aspirations of whomever at the moment holds the decision making power for the Federal Reserve and the White House.

Why do I care about all of this? 

Because 2000+ years of out-of-balance, male dominated, aggressive energies have brought us to this point. We are engaged in more conflicts than anyone should be and we are in debt up to our great grand children’s ears!

I’m not blaming men.  I’m pointing out that imbalance is the precursor to disaster.

In order to bring the world, not to mention the monetary system, back into balance, the Divine Feminine aspect of female energy must step up and co-create a new reality through a balance of power and shared cooperation in the application of power. 

True power is neither controlling nor aggressive.  True power is liberating and certain.  What I mean by certainty of power was best exemplified by Mahatma Gandhi.  It was his certainty of purpose, and means of achieving that purpose, that allowed him to successfully defeat the military force of an empire. 

Certainty is the spiritual “nuclear option.”  True power always trumps force.

It is now time for women to access our true inner power and, by defying the laws of man in obedience to the laws of Spirit, bring back into balance a world bent on self-destruction through the endless financing of conflict.

Whenever I am about to sound like I have an agenda, I think its important to preface that supposition with a disclaimer.  So, in anticipation of any preconceived idea you may have about my political orientation, let me say at the outset that I was, until recently, a life-long Democrat.    That is no longer true.  I am currently a registered Independent. This said, let me turn to the recent White House assault upon Fox News, Glenn Beck, and countless Americans who see the world and the future of this nation differently than they.

It was my habit for many years to watch the Sunday morning television network news programs. I was always a political news junkie and enjoyed the weekly wrap-up and commentary.  It has also become my habit to listen to Glenn Beck when I can.  So what I know of what Mr. Beck espouses, and the meaning I glean from what he says, is based upon my own personal experience.

Good thing, too.

Because had I listened this past Sunday to what Chris Mathews and his guest commentators said about Beck, and those who are moved by his mission, I would think that he and they are some “right-wing-nut, tea-bagging, birthers” out to wreak havoc upon all that is good in this country.  Watching and listening to Matthews, I felt as if I was in an episode of Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone.”  What was being said was dishonest, inaccurate, and biased.  A perspective designed to support an agenda and maintain an illusion worthy of Houdini.

Which brings me to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod.

The previous Sunday, both appeared separately, and simultaneously, on two different Sunday morning network news shows to parrot, almost verbatim, a script that had obviously been predetermined.  Their script went something like this: “Fox news is not really a news outlet.  Its is more of a business with a perspective to sell and market for a profit.  Therefore, it should not be treated seriously as a news outlet but more in the manner of talk radio. Other news organizations should treat it accordingly and not follow in it’s footsteps.” (I paraphrase but the point is accurately made).  At the time I found it mildly amusing, since it is obvious that all media reporting has seemingly come to have a “perspective”…with network news NBC, CBS and ABC being no exception.

I stopped being amused when, this past week, the White House attempted to essentially blackball Fox News from the White House Press pool. Their shameful effort failed due to a momentary attack of “spinal conscience” from the other members of the pool. They said, “No Fox, no Us.”

The White House then had a change of perspective and Fox was included.

There are several lessons we can take from all of this. 

1.     Perspectives come is all colors, shapes and sizes.

2.     United we stand. Divided we fall.

3.     Freedom requires vigilant attention and rapid response.

4.     Source within for the Truth.  Perspectives change.  Only Truth is constant.

I can’t wait until next Sunday morning.  There is nothing I need to watch.

I think I’ll take a walk instead and get some fresh air.

    

    

A few nights ago I found myself with my 16 1/2 year old daughter, Zoe, seated at a Barnes and Noble waiting for Glenn Beck.  His latest book, “Arguing With Idiots” was recently released and this was an author’s book signing.  As Zoe and I ate a quick dinner nearby the bookstore, we pondered how many people would show up. 

Arriving an hour and a half early, we bought two copies of the book and were handed numbered wrist tags. Our numbers were 473 and 474.  By the time Mr. Beck arrived, there were 2000 people waiting to see him.

But not just any 2000 people. 

These were 2000 of the most polite and happy people I’ve every encountered in any one place at any one time.

Which is the first point I want to make.  No matter what misinformation the mainstream media likes to pump out, the people that are attracted to Glenn Beck and his message are not angry, right-wing revolutionary 9/12ers out to destroy all that is good in America.  In fact, these people appeared to be much of what is good about America. 

My second point is about the book itself.  I’ve read about 4 chapters. Its infuriating.  But please understand just what’s infuriating about it.  It’s the documented idiocy, incompetence and corruption of a government grown out of control and the propensity of entrenched ideological organizations to support it by advocating for policies, programs and structures that are destined to destroy all that is, in fact, good about America.

I live my life and form my opinions based upon my own personal experience.

It is my personal experience that Glenn Beck is a lightening rod for all different types of Americans who have had enough and simply aren’t going to take it anymore.  What form their opposition and resistance takes… only time will tell. 

But if Thursday night at Barnes and Noble is any indication, we (yes, I’m in) will come at this armed with knowledge, civility, and most importantly, certainty.  I doubt anyone in that crowd, or anyone else drawn in by Mr. Beck’s message, wants or intends to use any type of force to end the corrupt use of power and the politics of destruction that have become a way of life in our nation.

I said we don’t want or intend to use force.

If those in power, who have used and abused the public trust with which they were gifted, are unwilling to relinquish their death grip on the Republic… then civil disobedience will devolve into whatever is necessary. For I believe there is now no turning back.

Let us all pray that they go quietly into the night so that we, as a nation, will not someday have to paraphrase the words of Golda Meir to the Arab world:
 
         “We can forgive you for killing our sons.
          But we will never forgive you for making us kill yours.”

I continue to believe in the highest good for all concerned.  I believe it is not too late. I believe that transition is always difficult… and transformation always worth it. 

Now, let us turn away from empty bumper stickers and get on with the business of real change.

    

It’s often said that teachers have an important job because the future sits in front of them for 6-7 hours every day.  If that’s true, then the most important job in the world is being a Mother because that job, just for starters, is 24/7 and no summers off. 

I know, because I am one. 

I was also a divorce lawyer for 13 years who wore a pager and had a cell phone so that I was available whenever my client’s needed me. I know what a demanding career with no down time asks, and takes, and I can say with unequivocal authority and experience….there is no comparison.

Now, we Mothers are not all great at what we do. We try hard, really hard. We make mistakes and, hopefully, at times learn from them.  We’re too often tired, under appreciated, don’t even get me started on pay, and are never quite sure if what we’re doing will help or hurt in the long run.

But its an incredible journey that has as its reward a sense of selflessness that’s hard to come by and a unique insight into what unconditional love looks and feels like.  Which is why we are often fiercely protective of our charge and its well being.

Which is also why we have to march on Washington.

We have a government, a President and a Congress, who are mortgaging the sovereignty, individuality and financial security of those for whom we are responsible: The children. 

We, and others, have tried to garner our President’s and our Representative’s attention to ask them to be more aware…more responsible…more committed to the consequences of decisions they have been too quick to make. Their response, if at all, has been long coming and woefully inadequate. 

Mothers must have patience but not in the face of disaster. There is a time and season for everything. The time for waiting is passed.  It is now the season for action. 

Every Mother who cares about the opportunities her child will have in the future to be a free citizen with the right to speak its mind without fear of reprisal and pursue its dreams without governmentally imposed limitations on how and where and to what extent those dreams can be followed… needs to put on her Bierkenstocks, Manolo Blahniks, Uggs, Nikes or, if necessary, arrive barefoot in Washington, D.C. to say, “With one voice we speak for the children and you will no longer put up for bargain sale their rights and inheritance.”

No one will deny what a Mother can do.

Think what a million of us will do.

I’m not someone who has ever had a position on the inherent value of the United Nations or it’s effectiveness. I know there are proponents on either side of the issue.  I’ve just never given it much consideration. 

Until this week.

This week, three world leaders stood before that organization.  Two would have been laughable in their ignorance, bigotry and hatred had their very presence at the United Nations not dignified them beyond either merit or reason. 

Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are carbon copies of historical predecessors who sought to dominate and subjugate the very people they claimed to represent and care for.  Such men have one goal. It is the annihilation of the Jewish people and the destruction of freedom everywhere. They would see their goals accomplished through repression, deceit, torture and murder.

The United Nations welcomed these two men and gave them a platform. Some delegates even shamelessly laughed and applauded as Chavez, once again, debased an American President.  A former American President.  It seems he actually likes our current one.  A disturbing fact that should give us all pause.

The third man to speak was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  Holding the United Nations feet to the fire of its Charter, he questioned the morality and absence of shame in providing these other two a stage from which to spew their hatred.  He spoke of historical fact, not fiction.  As if any rational or feeling person might need it, he came with proof in hand.  He held up a mirror for those listening who were brave enough to look upon their own reflection.

Then, having spoken truth to power, he went on to speak of all that has been and will be accomplished by civil and humane societies everywhere that look to better the world for the highest good of all concerned. 

I began by saying that I am not someone who has ever had a position on the inherent value of the United Nations or it’s effectiveness.

I do now.

It is an institution with vast potential that has completely failed to achieve its mission.  It is a mockery of what it was envisioned to be. It is rendered impotent by nature of its cowardice.  It is irrelevant.

As an American, I am proud that our delegation left the room when Ahmadinejad spoke.

As a Jew I am proud of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s forthrightness.  I have not always been a fan… but he “had me at hello” on this one. 

As a member of humankind, I hope we, the people of the world, continue to awaken to the choices we face at this critical time of transition and transformation.

The Chavezes and Ahmadinejads of the world or the Netanyahus?

The choice, and the voice, belongs to each of us.

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