12/31/11

Jail Time

 

It has been said that there are no athe­ists in a fox­hole. Here, after my show trial and four and a half months in a cell, I have dis­cov­ered that there are no athe­ists in prison, ei­ther.

When, de­spite un­bear­able pain, you are in­ter­ro­gated – in­clud­ing in your cell – for dozens of hours with­out a break, and an au­thor­i­tar­ian regime’s en­tire sys­tem of co­er­cion, in­clud­ing its media, is try­ing to dis­credit and de­stroy you once and for all, prayer be­comes the only in­ti­mate, trust­ing, and re­as­sur­ing con­ver­sa­tion that one can have. God, one re­al­izes, is one’s only friend and only avail­able fam­ily, be­cause – de­prived even of ac­cess to a trusted priest – there is no one else in whom to con­fide one’s wor­ries and hopes.

In this sea­son of love and fam­ily, the lone­li­ness of a prison cell is al­most un­bear­able. The gray, dead si­lence of night (guards peer in voyeuris­ti­cally through a slot in the door), the sud­den, dis­em­bod­ied shrieks of pris­on­ers, shrieks of dis­tress and rage, the dis­tant rat­tles and clangs of prison bolts: all make sleep im­pos­si­ble, or so rest­less as to be a torment.

But what is strange is that your senses are not dulled by this dead and dread­ful world. On the con­trary, they are ig­nited by it: your mind is set free from mun­dane con­cerns to pon­der the in­es­timable and your place within it – a free­dom of spirit that is a truly un­ex­pected gift this Christ­mas sea­son. In the cell’s dark­ness, I gather strength and hope from the fact that God some­how seems so near to me here. For where else would Christ be but with those who suf­fer and are per­se­cuted?


In­deed, I have re­cently been read­ing Di­et­rich Bon­ho­ef­fer’s sub­lime and chal­leng­ing Let­ters from Prison, in which he yearns for a Christ ca­pa­ble of of­fer­ing mercy to a world, our world, then in the process of being mar­tyred for a sin­gle man. Writ­ten in a cramped, dank, and pu­trid cell, where hope was meant to die be­fore the body, Bon­ho­ef­fer crafted a book rich in faith, open­ness, pos­si­bil­ity, and, yes, hope – even in hu­man­ity’s dark­est hour.




One par­tic­u­lar pas­sage res­onates with me as I con­tem­plate Ukraine’s plight. As he awaited his ap­proach­ing ex­e­cu­tion by the Nazis, Bon­ho­ef­fer wrote that, in prison, “the god­less­ness of the world is not...​concealed but, rather, re­vealed, and is thus ex­posed to an un­ex­pected light.”



So I take some com­fort this Christ­mas in know­ing that the god­less­ness, in­hu­man­ity, and crim­i­nal­ity of the regime that is now rul­ing in Kyiv is, at long last, being ex­posed to the world in a clear light. Its de­mo­c­ra­tic pos­tur­ing has been un­masked as cyn­i­cal po­lit­i­cal the­ater, its claim to de­sire a Eu­ro­pean fu­ture for Ukraine’s peo­ple re­vealed to be a lie, and the ra­pa­cious­ness of its klep­to­crats has been laid bare. The regime’s con­tempt for the con­sti­tu­tion and the rule of law is now un­de­ni­able, and that clar­ity is em­pow­er­ing.

More im­por­tantly, the suf­fer­ing of Ukraine’s peo­ple has also be­come more widely known, and we are no longer so alone in our plight. Al­le­vi­at­ing it has been em­braced as a just cause across Eu­rope and around the world. The every­day op­pres­sion, sti­fled media, and shake­downs and ex­tor­tion of busi­nesses for bribes all point to a mafia state on Eu­rope’s bor­der. Now our Eu­ro­pean friends can no longer deny the smug vile­ness of the regime with which they are forced to deal. And I am thank­ful this Christ­mas for being able to be­lieve that de­mo­c­ra­tic Eu­rope will not tol­er­ate this state of af­fairs. Ukraini­ans will be strong know­ing that they are not alone in their fight.

I do not pre­tend to be an ex­pert on re­li­gious faith and spir­i­tual val­ues. I am only a be­liever who can­not ac­cept that our ex­is­tence is the re­sult of some freak cos­mic ac­ci­dent. We are, I be­lieve, part of a mys­te­ri­ous yet in­te­gral act, whose source, di­rec­tion, and pur­pose, though dif­fi­cult to grasp at times, does have mean­ing and pur­pose – even when one is con­fined be­hind prison bars.

It is only faith in the idea that our lives mat­ter, and that our de­ci­sions must be judged by their moral con­tent, that we in Ukraine, and else­where, will be able to find our way out of the mis­ery, un­hap­pi­ness, and de­spair that has con­sumed us over the last two years. It is within our power to re­cover or rein­vig­o­rate our free­doms and our so­ci­eties, not by in­di­vid­ual ef­forts, but by join­ing forces with like­minded peo­ple all over the world. I know that we will man­age this.

This Christ­mas, I ask my fam­ily and friends every­where not to worry about me. As Anna Akhma­tova, the great po­etic chron­i­cler of Stalin’s ter­ror, said, “I am alive in this grave.” In­deed, I am more alive, I know, than the men who have im­pris­oned me here.

Christ­mas is meant to mark the pos­si­bil­ity of a new be­gin­ning for all men and women.

As Bon­ho­ef­fer af­firmed with his last words: “This is for me...​the be­gin­ning of life.”




Yuliya Tymoshenko was Prime Minister of Ukraine and is currently leader of the opposition.

I am amazed she has this amount of ability to speak to the world at large. Here is her website: http://www.tymoshenko.ua/en/
Point of correction here: She is not a "Mr." Mrs. Tymoshenko is not only a female leader but a very beautiful woman. She is determined and courageous and very sharp. But this is a vicious game she is in, now locked away in cell 260 while those who've taken over ravage Ukraine.




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“AB900 allows the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to authorize $7.8 billion in lease-revenue bonds to fund the addition of 53,000 new prison and jail beds while bypassing the electorate.”



BY NAOMI WOLF

12/15/11

1 out of Every 2 Americans are Poor!!!

Its a Mean Old World


THIS SHOULD ENCOURAGE THE POPULACE TO EMBRACE THE OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTEST.

Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income

-  HOPE YEN, Associated Press 


“If Americans ever allow banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless.”

- Thomas Jefferson


"One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute."
- William Feather



1 out of 2 Americans are Poor!!!

Its a Mean Old World


THIS SHOULD HAVE ENCOURAGED THE POPULACE TO EMBRACE THE OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTEST.

Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income

-  HOPE YEN, Associated Press 


“If Americans ever allow banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless.”

- Thomas Jefferson


"One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute."
- William Feather





Its a Mean Old World



Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income

-  HOPE YEN, Associated Press


“If Americans ever allow banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless.”

- Thomas Jefferson


"One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute."
- William Feather



One in Two Americans are Poor


According to new supplemental data from the Census Bureau, nearly half of Americans have fallen under the poverty line or are classified as “low income” .
  

................................................................................
Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press  

WASHINGTON (AP) — Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.

'Stagflation':


Stagflation occurs when the economy isn't growing but prices are, which is not a good situation for a country to be in. This happened to a great extent during the 1970s, when world oil prices rose dramatically, fueling sharp inflation in developed countries. For these countries, including the U.S., stagnation increased the inflationary effects.
 

The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.

About 97.3 million Americans fall into a low-income category, commonly defined as those earning between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level, based on a new supplemental measure by the Census Bureau that is designed to provide a fuller picture of poverty. Together with the 49.1 million who fall below the poverty line and are counted as poor, they number 146.4 million, or 48 percent of the U.S. population. That's up by 4 million from 2009, the earliest numbers for the newly developed poverty measure.

*146.4 million people represents a huge number of votes.

A survey of 29 cities conducted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors released Thursday points to a gloomy outlook for those on the lower end of the income scale.

Many mayors cited the challenges of meeting increased demands for food assistance, expressing particular concern about possible cuts to federal programs such as food stamps and WIC, which assists low-income pregnant women and mothers. Unemployment led the list of causes of hunger in cities, followed by poverty, low wages and high housing costs.

 
Many people in the U.S. are in dire straights and with the cost of bank bailouts and two wars the government does not have much stored wealth to provide the 'safety nets' people need.

If you have shopped in Walmart lately, you know few goods are made in North America.  In order to ensure a steady stream of cheap consumer products, America has moved jobs overseas and the effects of that failed policy are beginning to show.  Stagflation, falling house prices and few well-paying jobs leaves one feeling hopeless.  Is this nearly the bottom in the economic cycle? Things always look thier worst at the lowest level of economic activity and begin to pick up from there.


Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press.  

12/13/11

Worry does not help any situation to improve.



The sea like life itself, is a stern taskmaster. The best way to get along with either is to learn all you can, then do your best and don't worry especially about things over which your have no control.



- Admiral Chester William Nimitz quoting his grandfather in E.B. Potter's Nimitz








HOPE FUELS MOTIVATION



"It is necessary to hope
For hope itself is happiness,
And its frustrations, however frequent
Are less dreadful than its extinction."

- Samuel Johnson