Thom Hartmann's New Book and Speaking Engagement in Portland July 27th

Warmest Greetings.

I am so excited to hear that Thom Hartmann will soon be speaking again in Portland. And I am excited to hear about Thom's new book. I have five of his books on my shelf thus far and each one has truly moved and informed and changed me. Besides sharing some things in common - such as being the same age and growing up in Michigan - what most draws me to this prolific author and passionate activist and deeply respectful and informed radio host is his commitment and contribution toward helping create a world that works for all. I have the deepest respect and appreciation for Thom Hartmann. I will be in Michigan for my 40th high school class reunion this time when Thom speaks, but am still moved to share this event - and new book - in the hope that some of you will be able to attend and/or will pass the word on. Thanks! Or just get Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture or any of his other books! Thanks more! And as Thom says, "Tag, you're it!" Peace ~ Molly

* * *

Monday, July 27

Powell's Books presents…

THOM HARTMANN

Author of THRESHOLD and Air America radio host

7 p.m. $5 advance & day of at the Bagdad, Crystal or Ticketmaster.com

All ages welcome

In Threshold, writer and Air America host Thom Hartmann looks at the deteriorating state of our planet, where the dynamics of environmental, economic, and population change are boiling over the limits within which society can function. In clear and impassioned prose, Hartmann busts the myths and ideologies of religious fundamentalism, capitalism run amok, male domination, and militarism that are draining our world of its natural and human resources and engendering the suffering of millions for the benefit of the few.

Radical in its scope and boldness but simple in its commonsense logic, Threshold illustrates the mistakes we have made -- as a culture, as a country, and as individuals -- and provides the inspiration and motivation readers are looking for to build a better, more sustainable world for all. Readers of Jared Diamond, Thomas Friedman, and Paul Hawken will see in Threshold the wake-up call our society so badly needs.

Please note: Tickets are available at the Bagdad Theater box office, the Crystal Ballroom box office, Ticketmaster.com, and all Ticketmaster outlets.

Please go here for the information I quote above and other resources:

http://www.mcmenamins.com/index.php?loc=9&id=1117&eventid=72114

http://www.amazon.com/Threshold-Western-Culture-Thom-Hartmann/dp/0670020915

http://www.thomhartmann.com/2009/02/28/about-thom-hartmann/

* * *

Who are these people who want to undermine the middle class? They often call themselves 'conservatives,' but these people are not true conservatives. They don't want to 'conserve' or protect the America the Founders gave us. I call them 'cons' because they are conning America. My dad was a staunch Republican all his life, but he didn't believe that a small elite should rule America. He was glad the government provided safety nets like Social Security and Medicare and made unionization possible. My dad, and most other real conservatives I have known, believed in the middle class and believed in democracy. ~ Thom Hartmann

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

July 18th: Invitation to "ART FROM OUR HEARTS'' Fundraising Art Fair

This will be wonderful & is such an important event. I hope you can go

or will help spread the word. Thanks! Peace & blessings ~ Molly

* * *

You are invited to the SECOND ANNUAL COMMUNITY

"ART FROM OUR HEARTS" FUNDRAISING ART FAIR

From Julie Doll

HI All:

Last year, the "Art from the Heart" series raised over $2000 for the construction of Afghan schools. With your continued help and support, we hope to make an equally significant contribution this year.

In addition to making beautiful, hand-crafted art available for sale, we're adding a new component this year: we're asking people who stop by to join us in a conversation about hope. Come share with us what is joyful, inspiring, and uplifting in your life, so that we can celebrate -- and grow -- what is good and positive! Be part of the chain of people sharing how we can lift up those around us, give back to our planet, create beauty, develop meaning, and in other ways be catalysts for HOPE as part of our intricately connected global web!

We'd be grateful for your help in spreading word of the "Art from the Heart" initiative by circulating the attached flyer widely among your friends and family. We look forward to seeing you July 18th!

Thank you.

Julie Doll

* * *


The SECOND ANNUAL COMMUNITY
"ART FROM OUR HEARTS" FUNDRAISING ART FAIR
July 18 from 11:00 to 4:00

The Art Fair will feature **new** cards and prints by Wendy, Olivia, and Marsha,

a special "Soul Sisters" card selection, photos by Julie Doll,

Manifesting Diva's glass pendants, and more!

The location is the garden at 8960 SW Washington Drive (Wendy's home).

For information and directions call (503) 245-3485

or email at: createhealth@msn.com.

Preview selections at www.artfromourhearts.org
. (We will be adding selections throughout July so check back.)

As with last year, the proceeds from the art fair will go to the Central Asia Institute

(Three Cups of Tea) to help build schools for girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Thanks to all your generosity, we raised $2000 last year (!) to send to the CAI

and we hope to raise even more this year for this important project.

This year's art fair is a celebration of "HOPE."
We are all faced with many challenges right now and also much hope.

As part of the art fair we are inviting eveyone to help assemble a community collage

of HOPE with images, pictures, poetry, words whatever means "HOPE" to you.

Bring your own or select something when you come.

Please help us get the word out through your networks.
See the attached flyer to download and share.

SEE YOU THERE!

The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right

I've recently heard this author interviewed several times about his latest book. This is very dark, but important, and I am moved to do this post. Please note that I am quoting below extensively from both David Neiwert and Sara Robinson and the blog they share at http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2009/04/far-rights-first-100-days-shifting-into.html.... May we all seek in our own ways to embrace, heal, and transform that which keeps us living within the belief systems of separation and that there is an "us" versus a "them".

Namaste ~ Molly

* * *

David Neiwert, an award-winning journalist and blogger at Orcinus and of late, at Crooks and Liars, has focused for years on that fine, scary line where heated rhetoric gives way to pure hate speech, and where fantasies of inflicting violence morph into the real thing. Neiwert links the proliferation of radical conservative ideas in the political mainstream to the looming specter of eliminationism, an ideology rejecting dialogue and debate in favor of the pursuit of outright elimination of the opposing side, either through suppression, exile, and eviction, or extermination.

Eliminationism has taken many forms in American history, from the attitudes of early settlers toward the Native Americans they displaced and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan to the establishment of Sundown Towns that banned nonwhite residents and the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII. In recent years, the eliminationist urge, articulated by conservative fringe groups associated with the Christian Patriot movement, has emerged in talk radio, news networks and national press outlets providing a platform for attacks on immigrants, Muslims, homosexuals and liberals. In these efforts, the author discerns a nascent American fascism, an argument that is by turns frightening and overwrought.

------------------

Eliminationist Quotes from Conservative Voices:

"I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus -- living fossils -- so we will never forget what these people stood for." -- Rush Limbaugh

"I would have no problem with [New York Times editor Bill Keller] being sent to the gas chamber." -- Melanie Morgan

""[T]he day will come when unpleasant things are going to happen to a bunch of stupid liberals and it's going to be very amusing to watch." -- Lee Rogers

"And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead." -- Bill O'Reilly

"Howard Dean should be arrested and hung for treason or put in a hole until the end of the Iraq war!"-- Michael Reagan

"Let's start with the following New York Times reporters and editors: Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr. , Bill Keller, Eric Lichtblau, and James Risen. Do you have an idea where they live? Go hunt them down and do America a favor. Get their photo, street address, where their kids go to school, anything you can dig up, and send it to the link above. This is your chance to be famous -- grab for the golden ring." -- "The Political Insight"

Ann Coulter
"Some liberals have become even too crazy for Texas to execute, which is a damn shame. They're always saying -- we're oppressed, we're oppressed so let's do it. Let's oppress them." -- Ann Coulter
"We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee. ... That's just a joke, for you in the media." -- Ann Coulter
LINDA VESTER (host): You say you'd rather not talk to liberals at all?
COULTER: I think a baseball bat is the most effective way these days.
"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."
"We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too."
"They are either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America's self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant. Fifty years of treason hasn't slowed them down."
"I have to say I'm all for public flogging."
"I think [women] should be armed but should not [be allowed to] vote."
"Liberals hate America, they hate flag-wavers, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam, post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do. They don't have the energy. If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now."
"My libertarian friends are probably getting a little upset now but I think that's because they never appreciate the benefits of local fascism."
"In this recurring nightmare of a presidency, we have a national debate about whether he [Clinton] 'did it,' even though all sentient people know he did. Otherwise there would be debates only about whether to impeach or assassinate."

------------------

Eliminationism is defined as a politics and a culture that shuns dialogue and the democratic exchange of ideas in favor of the pursuit of outright elimination of the opposing side, either through suppression, exile, and ejection, or extermination. Fascism is passionate nationalism, allied to a conspiratorial dualism and a crude Social Darwinism, voiced with resentment toward the forces, or conditions, that restrain "the chosen people."

The far right wing has been laying the groundwork for violent action for decades. Long before they turn dangerous, political and religious groups take their first step down that road by adopting a worldview that justifies eventual violent action. The particulars of the narrative vary, but the basic themes are always the same. First: their story is apocalyptic, insisting that the end of the world as we've known it is near.

Second: it divides the world into a Good-versus-Evil/Us-versus-Them dualism that encourages the group to interpret even small personal, social, or political events as major battles in a Great Cosmic Struggle -- a habit of mind that leads the group to demonize anyone who disagrees with them. This struggle also encourages members to invest everyday events with huge existential meaning, and as a result sometimes overreact wildly to very mundane stuff.

Third: this split allows for a major retreat from consensus reality and the mainstream culture. The group rejects the idea that they share a common future with the rest of society, and curls up into its own insular worldview that's impervious to the outside culture's reasoning or facts.

Fourth: insiders feel like they're a persecuted, prophetic elite who are being opposed by wicked, tyrannical forces. Left to fester, this paranoia will eventually drive the group to make concrete preparations for self-defense -- and perhaps go on the offense against their perceived persecutors. Fifth: communities following this logic will also advocate the elimination of their enemies by any means necessary, in order to purify the world for their ideology.

All these ideas have been part of the discourse on the right for decades. You can trace their genesis all the way back to the 1950s, starting with the overheated apocalypticism of the anti-Communist movement. Over time, it came to include the dualism of the John Birch Society and assorted white supremacist groups; the persecution complex of Nixon and his Silent Majority followers; the anti-liberal eliminationism that's been gathering force for the past decade; and the war on evidence-based science and reason that's always been at the heart of conservative arguments. As J. Peter Scoblic argues in Us vs. Them, narratives that justify violence have always been deeply ingrained in the right-wing belief system.

Since the Inauguration, all of these themes are being played far more loudly and openly. And somewhere between November 4 and this 100th day, the right wing has also begun to act on these beliefs in ways that push the whole process to the next level -- the level where thoughts and beliefs begin to crystallize into action.

When Sean Hannity runs a poll asking whether his viewers prefer a military coup, secession, or armed rebellion -- and armed rebellion wins -- that's evidence of this kind of shift. Right-wing talkers have built careers out of demonizing liberals; but when they start talking about what specific steps should be taken against them, that's not something we should ignore.

This chilling indictment of modern conservatism concludes that the traditional Republican Party (the author was raised in a Republican blue collar home in Idaho) has been infiltrated by a far-right movement that views liberals, gays, and minorities as un-American elements deserving to be eliminated. Neiwert, a journalist who won a National Press Club Award in 2000 for his reporting on domestic terrorism for MSNBC.com, indicts such conservative icons as Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, Lou Dobbs, and Glenn Beck for inciting the lunatic fringe to remove all undesirables, much as Nazi Germany did to the Jews and Gypsies.

The cheerleaders, or "transmitters" as Neiwert calls them, of eliminationism are not limited to talk radio hosts but also include prominent politicians like onetime Senate majority leader Trent Lott and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Palin was "the most significant transmitter in recent years," according to the author. This account of far-right power in America concludes that domestic terrorism might increase like it did during the Clinton years now that America has its first African American president and that a fascist state is a real threat. Readers will decide for themselves just how far to the right the Republican Party has been pushed and how widespread the fanatical far right is.

More, including resources I quoted from in this post:
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2009/04/far-rights-first-100-days-shifting-into.html
http://www.amazon.com/Eliminationists-Hate-Radicalized-American-Right/dp/0981576982
http://www.commonplacebook.com/current_events/politics/eliminationist.shtm
Eliminationism in America: Appendix

* * *

From a review of The Eliminationists:

Ultimately, Neiwert argues, both sides--liberal and conservative--need to surrender the unhelpful idea that they are the "heroes" of the American story. For in order for there to be a hero, he explains, we need a demonized other from which to "rescue" the nation. True heroism in a democracy is not killing "bad guys" or rounding up scary people or shouting fellow citizens into silence, effectively forcing them to eliminate their voices and themselves from the democratic scene. Rather, it is recognizing the human in the other, the messy nuance of competing interests and sub-cultures, honoring the ability to disagree (strongly) without wishing death or silence on one another. True heroism can look, from the outside, kind of drab and lacking in drama.... And sometimes it can lie in writing a book about a disturbing subject that makes us all take pause and pay attention to the political scene around us in a new way. --Daily Kos

Maude Barlow: The Growing Battle for the Right to Water

By Tara Lohan, AlterNet

Maude Barlow's new book about the water crisis is a call to arms

to protect a fundamental human right.

From Chile to the Philippines to South Africa to her home country of Canada, Maude Barlow is one of a few people who truly understands the scope of the world's water woes. Her newest book, Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water, details her discoveries around the globe about our diminishing water resources, the increasing privatization trend and the grassroots groups that are fighting back against corporate theft, government mismanagement and a changing climate.

If you want to know where the water is running low (including 36 U.S. states), why we haven't been able to protect it and what we can do to ensure everyone has the right to water, Barlow's book is an essential read. It is part science, part policy and part impassioned call. And the information in Blue Covenant couldn't come from a more reliable source. Barlow is the national chairperson of the Council of Canadians and co-founder of the

Blue Planet Project, which is instrumental in the international community in working for the right to water for all people. She also authored Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop Corporate Theft of the World's Water with Tony Clarke. And she's the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (known as the "Alternative Nobel") for her global water justice work.

She took a moment to talk to AlterNet in between the Canadian and U.S. legs of a book tour for Blue Covenant.

Tara Lohan: This year in the U.S. there has been a whole lot press about the drought in Atlanta and the Southeast, and I think for a lot of people in the U.S. it is the first they are hearing about drought, but the crisis here in North America is really pretty extreme isn't it?

Maude Barlow: It really is, and it kind of surprises me when I hear people, for instance in Atlanta say, "We didn't know it was coming." I don't know how that could be possible, and I do have to say that I blame our political leaders. I don't understand how they could not have been reading what I've been reading and what anyone who is watching this has been reading.

I remember attending a conference in Boise, Idaho, three years ago and hearing a lot of scientists get up and say, "Read my lips, this isn't a drought, this is permanent drying out." We are overpumping the Ogallala, Lake Powell and Lake Meade. The back up systems are now being depleted. This is by no means a drought ...

The thing that I'm trying to establish with the first chapter, which is called "Where Has All the Water Gone," is that what we learned in grade five about the hydrologic cycle being a closed, fixed cycle that could never be interrupted and could never go anywhere, is not true. They weren't lying to us, but they weren't aware of the human capacity to destroy it, and the reality is that we've interrupted the hydrologic cycle in many parts of the world and the American Southwest is one of them.

TL: How is this happening?

MB: By farming in deserts and taking up water from aquifers or watersheds. Or by urbanizing -- massive urbanization causes the hydrologic cycle to not function correctly because rain needs to fall back on green stuff -- vegetation and grass -- so that the process can repeat itself. Or we are sending huge amounts of water from large watersheds to megacities and some of them are 10 to 20 million people, and if those cities are on the ocean, some of that water gets dumped into the ocean. It is not returned to the cycle.

We are massively polluting surface water, so that the water may be there, but we can't use it. And we are also mining groundwater faster than it can be replenished by nature, which means we are not allowing the cycle to renew itself. The Ogallala aquifer is one example of massive overpumping. There are bore wells in the Lake Michigan shore that go as deep into the ground as Chicago skyscrapers go into the ground and they are sucking groundwater that should be feeding the lake so hard that they are pulling up lake water now, and they are reversing the flow of water in Lake Michigan for the first time.

We are interrupting the natural cycle. And another thing we are doing is something called virtual water trade. That is where you send water out of the watershed in the form of products or agriculture. You've used the water to produce something and then you export it, and about 20 percent of water used in the world is exported out of watershed in this way, because so much of our economy is about export. In the U.S. you are sending about one-third of your water out of watersheds -- it is not sustainable.

This is not a cyclical drought. We are actually creating hot stains, as I and some scientists call them, around the world. These are parts of the world that are running out of water and will be, or are, in crisis. Which means that millions more people will be without water. I argue that this is one of the causes of global warming. We usually hear water being a result of climate change, and it is, particularly with the melting of the glaciers. But our abuse, mismanagement and treatment of water is actually one of the causes, and we have not placed that analysis at the center of our thinking about climate change and environmental destruction, and until we do, we are only addressing half the question.

Interview continued: http://www.alternet.org/water/76819

* * *

In the last 30 years we've doubled the growth of deserts in the world, and it will double again in 20 years. Well, if you are creating deserts and you've got heat rising from the earth with urban heat islands, the inability for the hydrologic cycle to be maintained because of urbanization, it makes a lot of sense. Of course that is all exacerbated by melting glaciers and the lowering of the ice packs, which protects from evaporation. It is kind of a deadly combination. I spoke at a conference about this recently in London, England, and was received by people from the climate change world, really, really well, and I thought "This is a good sign." ~ Maude Barlow

We Must Stop the Rampant Fraud in the Health Care Industry

Sen. Bernie Sanders
Independent U.S. Senator from Vermont

As a member of the Senate health committee, one of two Senate panels dealing with health care reform, it has become apparent to me that real health care reform must address the billions of dollars in fraud and abuse that comes from the major corporations in the health care industry.

What we have seen over the last several decades is the systemic fraud perpetrated by private insurance companies, private drug companies, and private for-profit hospitals ripping off the American people and the taxpayers of this country to the tune of many billions of dollars.

The rampant fraud is another reason why our current health care system, dominated by private insurance companies, is the most costly, wasteful, complicated and bureaucratic in the world. Its function is not to provide quality health care, but to make huge profits for those who own the companies. With 1,300 private insurance companies and thousands of different health benefit programs designed to maximize profits, our country spends an incredible 30 percent of each health care dollar on administration and billing, exorbitant CEO compensation packages, advertising, lobbying and campaign contributions. Public programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the VA are administered for much less.

In recent years, not only have we seen massive fraud by the health care industry, but we also have been paying for a huge increase in health care bureaucrats and bill collectors. Over the last three decades, the number of administrative personnel has grown by 25 times the number of physicians. Doctors and nurses in Vermont have described to me in painful detail the amount of time and money they are forced to waste negotiating with insurance companies about how they can treat their patients.

Not surprisingly, while health care costs are soaring, so are the profits of private health insurance companies. From 2003 to 2007, the combined profits of the nation's major health insurance companies increased by 170 percent. And the top executives in the industry are receiving lavish compensation packages -- averaging $14.2 million for the top seven companies.

On top of all of this, a review of court records and other public documents shows that billions more dollars are being lost to fraud and outright corruption. Importantly, this is not the case of "one bad player" acting illegally. This is a situation where fraud appears to me part of the normal business model. It is the rule and not the exception.

There is example after example indicating that virtually all of the major pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and private hospital chains have been involved in massive health care fraud over the past decade.

Health and Human Services Department investigators earlier this year found that 80 percent of insurance companies participating in the Medicare prescription drug benefit overcharged subscribers and taxpayers by an estimated $4.4 billion.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/we-must-stop-the-rampant_b_222510.html

* * *

The evidence is overwhelming that we must end the for-profit private insurance company domination of health care in our country and move toward a publicly-funded, single-payer Medicare for All system. ~ Sen. Bernie Sanders

Thich Nhat Hanh: A GLOBAL PATH TOWARD PEACE

Warmest Greetings

Thich Nhat Hanh is an amazing human being. Whether reflecting on my own heart, the heart of others, or the heart of our nation and beyond, I find the deep wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh a source of great inspiration. I recently heard him interviewed on NPR, which moves me today to post something by this great teacher. As many of you know, Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist who was nominated by Martin Luther King, Jr. for the 1967 Nobel Peace Prize. The following transcription is of Thich Nhat Hanh's introductory talk and the initial Proposal to Listen For Peace and Security. The talk was made September 2002 at Naropa University's School of Extended Studies in Boulder, Colorado. I see this talk as continuing to have great wisdom and relevance to where we find ourselves today.

Peace ~ Molly

* * *

GLOBAL PATH TOWARD PEACE

Thich Nhat Hahn

In the past three years we have sponsored many groups of Palestinians and Israelis to come to Plum Village, to practice with us. All of them have big pain and suffering within. Most of them did not know how to breathe, recognize and embrace the fear, the anger, the frustration, the despair in them.

They could not look at each other. They could not talk to each other, because their fear is huge, their anger is so huge. With Buddha Sangha supporting, they are able to breathe in and out, generating the energy of mindfulness and embrace tenderly their anger, their fear, their frustration.

They learned to breath with us. They learned to walk with us. They learned to sit down finally with us. They learned to eat mindfully, wash the dishes mindfully with us, and finally we helped them to practice, the practice of deep compassionate listening to the other group of people. And we helped the other group of people to practice gentle speech, loving speech, so that they can empty their heart. They came to express everything that is in their heart, their fear, their suffering, their anger and so on.

The practice is having an opportunity to speak out everything in your heart because you can get relief when you do so. But you should be trained to speak in such a way that the other group of people can listen and understand. Therefore calm, gentle speech must be learned.

It is very moving to be there and to listen to them, listening to each other and speaking to each other.

And after several sessions of deep compassionate listening, transformation took place. This group realized that the other group is made also of human beings and they have also suffered very deeply. They tell us how they suffer, how their children suffer, how they are victims of discrimination and fear and injustice.

The practice of gentle speaking, loving speech and deep listening have brought about wonderful results.

These Palestinians and Israeli's have become brothers and sisters to each other in the practice. And for the first time they said, for the first time, they believed peace in the Middle East is possible.

PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST IS POSSIBLE

You cannot love, you cannot love unless you understand. You cannot be compassionate and accept the other person unless you understand him, her or them.

But understanding what? Understanding their suffering, their difficulties, their obstacles, their despair. Once you have understanding, your heart opens. The nectar of compassion springs up. And you don't suffer any more because compassion has been born in your heart.

And when you have compassion in your heart you can help the other person to suffer less. You are able to use gentle speech, loving speech. You are able to help him or her to remove the wrong perceptions. Because these wrong perceptions have led to anger, hatred and fear and a willingness to punish.

The purpose of mindfulness and concentration leads to insight. The practice of deep listing and loving speech helps to remove wrong understandings, wrong perceptions. Because wrong perceptions are the very ground of violence and terrorism.

You don't want to destroy them. You don't want to annihilate them as a people, as a nation, as a culture, as a religion, but they believe that you want to destroy them. And that is why they want to punish you, they want to destroy you, so you won't destroy them.

I was there when the event of September 11, happened.

On the 13th of September I gave a dharma talk in Berkeley for 4,000 people. I only said that violence cannot respond to violence, hatred cannot respond to hatred, only compassion can respond to hatred and violence.

It is my conviction that America is capable of being compassionate and understanding.

On the 25th of September again I spoke, in New York City. And I repeated, I brought the same kind of message. And I made a very concrete proposal for America so that American can overcome her suffering. And if America can overcome her suffering she can help others to overcome their suffering also.

AMERICA HAS TO LISTEN TO HER OWN SUFFERING

And this is what I proposed. First America has to listen to her own suffering, because there is suffering in America. There are sections of the population who believe, who feel that they are victims of discrimination and injustice. There are sections of the population who feel that they have never been listened to, they have never been understood.

It is my conviction that in America there are those of you who are very capable of listening deeply and with compassion. We have to identify them. We have invite them to come and form a kind of council, kind of parliament for compassionate deep listening.

There is a vast resource of peace in America. We have to identify these resources. Especially the people who know. Who are capable of understanding with compassion. Who are capable of listening deeply with compassion. And after we have formed that council of sages we will invite the sections of the population who have felt they have been discriminated against.

We can invite them to come and will assure them they are safe. If they want to speak out they are safe, provided that they learn how to speak with gentle speech. That those of us who can come and help them to breath, to walk, to embrace their suffering so that they can express themselves peacefully, the suffering in their heart.

The way we do in Plum Village for our friends from the Middle East. We help them to breathe, to calm, to embrace their suffering and their fear and their anger. Sessions of deep compassionate listening like that can be televised to the whole population of America.

Talk continued: http://plumvillage.org/HTML/dharmatalks/html/globalpathtowardpeace.html

* * *

Peace begins with each one of us. We recognize that the peace, well being, and safety of the people within the United States and the peace, well being and safety of rest of the world are inextricably interwoven. ~ Thich Nhat Hahn

The Speech President Obama Should Deliver… But Won't

by David Korten

David Korten's new book Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth outlines an agenda to bring into being a new economy—locally based, community oriented, and devoted to creating a better life for all, not simply increasing profits.

In this special pre-publication excerpt, Korten summarizes his version of the economic address to the nation he wishes Barack Obama were able to deliver.

* * *

Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. presidency on a promise of change. Before his inauguration, indeed before his election, I drafted the following as my dream for the economic address he might deliver to the nation during his administration in fulfillment of the economic aspect of that promise. It is the New Economy agenda presented in the style of candidate Obama’s political rhetoric.

I suffer no illusion that he will deliver it. He has surrounded himself with advisers aligned with Wall Street interests in an effort to establish public confidence in his ability to restore order in the economy. Because there has been no discussion of any other option, to most people “restoring order” means restoring the status quo with the addition of a job-stimulus package, and that is most likely what he will try to do.

This speech presents the missing option—the program that a U.S. president must one day be able to announce and implement if there is to be any hope for our economic, social, and environmental future.

Here is the address: http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=3186

* * *

It is interesting to note that the 200 richest people have more assets

than the 2 billion poorest. ~ David Korten