QUESTION YOUR GOVERNMENT, IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO

IT’S A RARE THING WHEN SOMEONE SPEAKS FROM TRUTH

AS THE CORE VALUE

My youth is gone. And as I try to carry on with the youthful spirit that is apparently age defiant and my undying passion for life, there is a sadness about the fact that I am not young anymore. There is something admittedly affirming though about having lived my life on my terms which has given me an abundant and vibrant rich memory library. And having always been open to knowing my true nature, I am grateful for finding I have a sense of peace about loving my genuine self – flaws… and gifts, all. US American life has me, just like a lot of US citizens, spoiled. I am grateful for all that I have and even more for who I have become. But I am not happy with the state of our government and our society’s apathy about our societal ills and the world-wide mess that we are in. I am tired of the lies that are pretty much unchecked and unbridled by our government that represents who we are. I have become intolerant of the hard sell lifestyle that bombards us and is hard to escape unless you choose a life of no television or news in any form. And “news” today is less journalistic, investigative and more frivolous and unworthy-of-our-attention and time than even 15 years ago. Stories that need telling get little if any reporting. And the same tired stories are regurgitated until I just turn off the TV. I know Larry Craig’s public bathroom activities but I don’t know what happened in Darfur today. The story of the children of the world making it possible for me to have cheap prices at the local Wal-mart goes untold. I guess we don’t want to know that for us to carry on with our lifestyle choices that children make the “goods” that we buy or adults are paid extremely poor wages with very long hours in some land that is out-of-sight and therefore out of our minds. I think we don’t want to know that hiring illegal Mexicans to do our farm labor or other cheap labor is really just a modern-day form of slavery. I don’t think we want the world’s under-class or “developing” countries’ citizens to have the life that we have because then we’d have to pay a fare wage to them for the things that we buy. It’s the “price” that we would have to pay that I genuinely believe trumps our sense of justice and humankindness. “Freedom for all” is no more than a slogan unless we put some action behind it to further the cause. And I don't mean war action. We really are fooling around with ourselves and want to believe that we have the lofty goal to bring freedom to all. But we don’t even want “freedom for all” here in the USA. The victims of Katrina remain victims because “we the people” have allowed our government not to keep GW Bush’s word that we would bring back their communities. Talk is cheap and that is all GW did. And he didn’t do that well.

I get surprised when I hear the truth come out of someone’s mouth. I am surprised when someone has the courage and boldly says what others wouldn’t think of saying because it is too risky. Job security or others’ opinions of us keep us silent or we sell our souls for little more than it helps us get by without too much attention on us. For me it is too high a price to pay to be quiet if it means the truth must be kept in a closet. I like Keith Olbermann when he talks about politics and “conscience” topics. I like Bill Maher when he talks about society and politics. I may not agree with him, but it is enough that he thinks beyond the sound bites and the smallness that we have taken for the norm in how we view the world and our country.

By accident I came across something on the television Sunday morning before the tennis matches began. And I was taken with the show so I went to the website that it mentioned. On the website I watched the entire movie which included a portion that I had caught Sunday. Okay so some of it threw me. But it made me think. Something that is okay with me. So much - doesn’t make me think that it is refreshing for this to happen via television, in a movie, or in this case, a movie completely loaded on the internet for free. Enough of this movie struck me as plausible that I recommend it.

I wonder what others’ thoughts are of this movie. The link http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

Apathy is more of a threat to us than terrorists. And we can do something straight away about our apathy.

When I was child I thought people functioned in their daily lives with integrity, sought justice and courage was used when wrongs needed to be righted. Now, I see rare people function in life this way. What a disappointment to find it is not the norm but so far above the norm that it surprises me when I witness courage to do right or speak truth without it being dressed up as the truth.

http://hrw.org/children/labor.htm
Human Rights Watch

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http://www.dreamfordarfur.org/

Find An Event In Your Area

Dream for Darfur

events

www.savedarfur.org/dreamfordarfur

The Beijing China Olympics 2008 Theme is

ONE WORLD, ONE DREAM

We'd Like To Bring the Olympic Dream to Darfur

Do Something to Use Your Freedom of Speech

To Stand Up and Stand Out Against Genocide

Don’t Be Complicit

Don’t Choose Silence

Don’t Choose Apathy

Don’t Choose Ignorance

Be Proactive

Be Alive

Be Aware

Be Present

Do Something To Tell Your Leaders To Lead

In This Human Disaster of Genocide

If Not You, Then Who?

The Genocide is Four and A Half Years Old

Darfuri Families

Have Suffered Enough On Our Watch

Freedom of Speech means

nothing

if you don’t exercise it.

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