Ken's Letter

This is a more personal post. Among the many things which I so love, respect, and appreciate about my partner is his courage and deep caring. He is an incredible activist. And, like me, his passions are not rooted in partisan politics, but are very much rooted in his big heart and commitment to doing what he can to help create a world that works for everyone. Ken has so many countless ways in which his deep concerns and caring for his children and truly for all of life manifest. He's out there canvassing, endlessly reading and researching, devouring truth - including when it would be easier to look away, calling his representatives in Congress, and the list goes on and on and on. The below is Ken's letter to Senator Obama and Senator Biden, which Ken has given me permission to share. It made me cry... Peace & blessings to all ~ Molly

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Honorable Sirs:

Please read the following and find enclosed more contributions to your election and bid for the highest public offices in the USA.

I am a 54 year old male, born in the state of Oregon with ancestry that goes back to the northwest territory, 1847, yes before Oregon was a state. I am profoundly disappointed in the current condition of these United States of America. I have not had steady employment since October of 2007, or work with one employer since 2003, who could supply me steady employment that lasted more then a year, so I have had time to think about…………….

How are we as human beings supposed to maintain :
….A stable tax base when everyone is in temporary jobs?
…A healthy family life with everyone working two part or full time jobs?
..Health care for ourselves or our families with no limit on health costs and premiums?
How as decent human beings are we to:
….Survive this injustice in our Government, corporate lobbyists allowed to dominate our political system?
…Believe anything we hear on cable, television, or the public airways when they are owned and operated by the likes of Rupert Murdock, or the other few owners, who only care about the all mighty dollar?
..Not become a country of corporate Greed, with Wars for Profit, and Healthcare for the Wealthy only?

I am giving your campaign money that I cannot really afford to give away, yet I cannot not give to your campaigns, because you are the only real hope for saving this country, so as you accept this donation, I can only hope you will do the following:

1st and foremost, give the airways of television, cable and radio back to the people so truth can be heard and seen once again. No more hiding the wounded and dead soldiers in battles where the USA is involved, because that is what gets us out of wars, transparency forever, thou shall not kill, period. Truth in broadcasting is a must, and I believe our right under the law.

2nd , National healthcare for all ages of Americans, a one payer system, paid from our hard earned taxes. A $25 to $30 per visit fee would be more then most industrialized countries citizens’ pay currently, no matter what the illness.

3rd , Jobs in America. Green energy jobs, not this unsafe Nuclear or Coal powered stuff. Clean Solar, Wind, Geothermal, Hydro, more then enough areas available across these United States to supply all of our energy needs. Solar and wind electric car companies?, Mitsubishi’s MiEV SPORT employs solar panels in its roof and a generator turbine driven by the airflow passing through the front grille, while we continue our oil habit. We can create so many energy jobs in 2009 alone, just get everyday people like me involved with government backing and you will see “not for profit companies” up and running in no time at all, putting hundreds of thousands of Americans back to work and teaching our high school and college age youth how to work for a great cause at the same time.

4th Education for everyone, grades 1 through 16, yes college for all who need to learn more, which is everyone. Education will allow us to continue to grow in mind and spirit and education is the root of all justice and hope for a truth based society, one that can put our hearts first and our wallets second, …..

……..and I could go on and on, but these are the big four, at least from my point of view, and if you go to blog sites like http://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/, you will see links to many others who feel like I do.

In closing, I would like to thank both of you men for your vision and ability to create a better country and world for us all, even when you are subjected to so much false and harmful accusation.

Thank you,

Ken

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"You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore."

--Cesar Chavez, 1984

Winter Soldier: From a Marine Mom

This will be my first post to offer but small glimpses into my experience of attending and bearing witness to the first hand, face to face and heart to heart stories of veterans, their families, unembedded journalists, and an Iraqi civilian. I was able to have this extraordinary opportunity of witnessing at the Winter Soldier event I attended in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, October 18th, 2008. There were three panels of participants. It was so powerful that I nearly left after the second panel. But then I stayed. I knew I needed to stay. And I knew that I would need to share pieces of this experience with others who may not have been there. It is my belief that such experiences, whether bearing witness or being among those who so courageously spoke and shared their stories, changes us all - deeply, profoundly. And, I believe, these experiences settle into our souls, individually and collectively, and in doing so helps move all of humanity to a more peaceful world. It is in deep honor and gratitude of these extraordinary brave human beings that I share this first post from Winter Soldier. It was a letter read to all of us by a Marine mom. May her courage, and the courage of her Marine son, be contagious and spread peace in our hearts and peace in the world... Molly

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Open Letter to Three Iraqi Women from an Oregon Mother

The steam has long since dissipated from my coffee cup as I strain to write this letter to the three of you. You don’t know me, and one of you will never have an opportunity to read this letter, but you have each left your mark upon my soul. Though I do not know your names you will recognize who you are and I speak to you woman to woman and mother to mother and mother to child.

Before I begin, if you don’t already know it, the US military can train a man to kill but cannot train that man how to handle it when he does. For this reason amongst many others my Marine son, John, who touched your lives in Iraq, (and through him, so did I), is in treatment along with other veterans of this and earlier wars. They are ten wounded warriors, five from the Iraq war and five from that earlier American fiasco, Vietnam.

John has bonded most closely with one of these older Vietnam vets, “Old Man”, he calls him. Like my son, Old Man is a first timer in the program. The reason I am telling you about Old Man is that it took him thousands of bottles of alcohol, dozens of jobs, seven marriages and forty years to accept that he had never recovered from his war time experiences. They never recover really. I want you to know that.

So I am reaching out to you three Iraqi women because, while we didn’t realize it at the time, our paths have crossed, tragically and we are connected now. This connection has provided me with certain details about your lives that I feel I have to share if only that some small light may be shed on dark places.

There was a firefight in Baghdad, a 360 degree battle with the Marines taking fire from all around and overhead.

You were there, not as a participant, just a civilian, and you are my first connection though I learned of you last because my son couldn’t tell me about you until recently.

Training had the Marines firing back reflexively at anything that moved, vehicles, stray dogs, a blur of a shirtsleeve. The Marine who fired upon your husband and two children was almost 100 yards away and he jerked his weapon up in horror at the end of the burst and watched your family fall.

You didn’t know it at the time but he watched you run out to your family. He saw you in your light blue wrap as you went from one body to the other. He tried to avert his eyes as you picked up your dead child and then the other and wailed in your grief. He tried to look away but that light blue color was always in his peripheral vision, pulling at him, drawing him back.It might have been five, seven even ten minutes when, in what John described as the coldest thing he’d ever seen, that young Marine could bear your grief no more and killed you. So you see, we are connected because my son saw you die.

Does it matter to you about this man who killed you and your family? Perhaps not, but he hailed from what we call the Deep South. At 6’5” healthy and solid muscle he looked the perfect Marine. Though he returned from Iraq in one piece, he has not fared well since that day in Baghdad. Within months of returning stateside, he amassed multiple alcohol related assault charges and engaged in all the self destructive behavior typical of combat veterans.

Finally, in what John calls Karma, he plunged over a beachside cliff and lay in a coma for months. If not Karma, perhaps self imposed penance but he is only now relearning how to speak.

To the mother in Fallujah who also lost her family. Not long ago I met a Lance Corporal who had determined during the siege on your city that he and his men must enter your home in search of combatants. He prepared and set a timed charge to blow a new doorway in the side of your building. He gathered intelligence assessing the situation and finally gave the order to blow the charge, and his men darted through the newly opened breach and he followed closely behind.

You will remember him because when he entered to find your husband and children dead from the blast, you were standing there crying out, “lemad’a, lemad’a” (why, why?). You will remember him because when he saw what he had done his knees buckled and the blood drained from his twenty-two year old face. You will remember him because he fell back against the wall and clutched at his chest and gasped for breath.

You saw his reaction. You watched him try and shoulder the enormity of the order he had given and when his eyes finally met yours you placed your hand on his cheek and said, “masha, Allah” (God’s will). You should know that your compassion, your understanding and, yes, your forgiveness that day destroyed him.

Please know that he would give his life to undo what he did. Please know that he works hard to end our occupation of your country. Please know that I have thought of you every day since he told me your story.

Now to you little girl of Ramadi, you cannot be more than six now, if that. With luck you do not remember that October day in 2004 when your parents died. With luck you are far away from Iraq now. To you I feel the closest connection, the greatest responsibility and the deepest agony. You see your father wanted only to rescue you. He wanted only to grab you from your dead mother’s arms, and he gave his life trying because he loved you so much.

My son and his sergeant did not understand. They mistook your father’s actions as a threat to their comrades and fired upon and killed your father. So you see we are connected because my son killed your father.Please know that when the men of weapons platoon found you, scared and crying, that many of them including John fell apart. You undid them. You and your scared wide brown eyes and dark curls brought many of them to their knees.

They took your picture that day. You are a tiny bundle of pink and blue flowers and puffy sleeves set against the digital camouflage jacket of John’s sergeant who did not set you down for hours. Please know that John keeps your picture though he looks at it rarely because it hurts so much to remember.

What can I say to you? That I am sorry goes without saying. Does it help that my son suffers because of that day? Does it matter to your life that he will carry your image with him forever? Probably not, I don’t see how it can, but I will tell you that I love you.

As one American woman to you three Iraqi women, I am sure you cannot welcome this connection but I feel it nonetheless. Taking your families from each of you has also lost my son to me, for he will never be the same. In this way we are forever deeply connected. To each of you, Assalamu alaikum, peace be upon you.

A Marine mom

http://www.mfso-oregon.org/2008/03/03/open-letter-to-three-iraqi-women-from-an-oregon-mother/

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"Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind." ~ John F. Kennedy

AN IMPORTANT VETERANS DAY EVENT ~ Please help spread the word & please come and support our veterans!

Voices of Veterans: A Welcome Home Ceremony
For Veterans From Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Wars

Veterans Day in Portland, OR
November 11th, 2008 ~ 6 PM

First Unitarian Church - 1011 SW 12th Ave Portland, OR

For the best seating, make your reservations for A Welcome Home Ceremony

online at www.mosaicvoices.org or contact the Mosaic office at 800-233-6984.

Mosaic is pleased to announce: Voices of Veterans - A Welcome Home Ceremony to be held on Veterans Day, November 11th in Portland, Oregon. This unique and healing event involves veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, members of their families, and veterans of other wars. This Veterans Day ceremony brings together veterans of recent wars and the local community. It involves a community conversation that moves beyond politics and goes deeper than the rhetoric of war. Such an event requires care and courage and is too-often avoided. It begins with tragedy and loss- the aftermath of any war- and requires the language of poetry and story, as well as the dignity of ceremony.

Healing only happens when the burdens of war can be shared by the greater community. A Welcome Home Ceremony intends to help heal the distance between the warriors and those they protect and bridge the gaps between war and peace, trauma and renewal, pain and understanding. A public gathering allows citizens to be compassionate witnesses to the stories of war and the need for conscious and genuine acts of welcoming. As one veteran writes in a poem: "Can we create a village as strong as a war?"

Join author Michael Meade, veterans, and their families for an evening of poetry, stories, and cogent commentary on the realities of being in war and the difficulties found upon return.

Participating veterans say:
“I didn’t know it was possible to find such healing and even include my family.”
“This experience needs to continue. Our message speaks to the human soul and the time to speak is now.”
Audience members say:
“I am completely awed by the courage of the veterans and their family members for sharing with us their deepest emotions and extraordinary experiences.”
"From the first moment I was weeping, and didn't stop the whole night… a healing experience for everyone there, including the audience."
“What wrenching and beautiful stories, I will never be the same. I am so grateful to have been given a chance to be part of a welcome home for these extraordinary people.”
“What a great template for healing the wounds of war, something rarely talked about much less acted upon. Bravo!”

"The suffering and sacrifice of veterans must be acknowledged at a genuine human level. A genuine rite of return for veterans involves an open and compassionate community that fully acknowledges the courage and the wounds of those who return from battle as well as fully grieves those whose lives ended in the unforgiving fields of war." ~ from Michael Meade's introduction to the new book of poems by veterans and their families: Voices of Vets, A Bridge Back to the World.

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For further information, reservations, or to order the Voices of Vets poetry book visit Mosaic online at www.mosaicvoices.org.

Mosaic Multicultural Foundation
4218 1/2 SW Alaska, Suite H
Seattle, WA 98116
(206) 935-3665 (voice)
(206) 935-3612 (fax)
info@mosaicvoices.org
www.mosaicvoices.org

Colin Powell's Endorsement

While I believe that Colin Powell would best spend the rest of his life living his amends for his UN performance which played such an enormous role in leading America into a pre-emptive war with - and the current occupation of -Iraq, I personally found in this speech some genuine redemptive action to lead America in the direction of transformation, hope, and peace. I am grateful for anyone who truthfully addresses and exposes the dark forces at work in this country today while also pointing to the great opportunities to choose another direction. May we all work toward opening our hearts big enough to move into greater and greater inclusivity and caring for all. Peace ~ Molly

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Video:

Colin Powell Endorses Obama

http://www.truthout.org/video/101908Y

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Transcript: Colin Powell's "Meet the Press"

endorsement of Barack Obama

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=388x5842

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Powell's Endorsement an Indictment of GOP

Powell, a Republican, endorsed the Democrat on NBC News' "Meet the Press" program by calling Obama "a transformational figure." During the show, Powell also talked about:

John McCain: "In the case of Mr. McCain, I found that he was a little unsure as to [how to] deal with the economic problems that we were having, and almost every day there was a different approach to the problem. And that concerned me, sensing that he didn't have a complete grasp of the economic problems that we had."
Sarah Palin: "I was also concerned at the selection of Governor Palin. She's a very distinguished woman, and she's to be admired; but at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president. And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Senator McCain made."

Republicans: "The approach of the Republican Party and Mr. McCain has become narrower and narrower. Mr. Obama, at the same time, has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He's crossing lines - ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He's thinking about (how) all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values.""I have some concerns about the direction that the party has taken in recent years. It has moved more to the right than I would like to see it ..." And "Governor Palin has indicated a further rightward shift," Powell said.

Supreme Court appointments: "I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that's what we'd be looking at in a McCain administration."

William Ayers: "I've also been disappointed, frankly, by some of the approaches that Senator McCain has taken recently, or his campaign ads, on issues that are not really central to the problems that the American people are worried about. This Bill Ayers situation that's been going on for weeks became something of a central point of the campaign. But Mr. McCain says that he's a washed-out terrorist. Well, then, why do we keep talking about him?" Powell said it's "demagoguery" to keep trying to associate Obama with Ayers.

Religious innuendo: Some in the GOP, not McCain, have incorrectly tried to paint Obama as a Muslim. Powell said Obama's a Christian and always has been. But, "What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?"

Being African-American: Powell denied he was just endorsing a fellow African-American by saying that "if I only had that in mind, I could have done this six, eight, 10 months ago. I can't deny that it will be a historic event for an African-American to become president. And should that happen, all Americans should be proud - not just African-Americans, but all Americans - that we have reached this point in our national history where such a thing could happen. It will also not only electrify our country, I think it'll electrify the world."

While this endorsement is politically important to Obama, it also says something to the Republican Party and future GOP candidates: The party simply must re-examine what it stands for and the campaign tactics it uses if it wants to be successful.

http://www.truthout.org/102108S

"Dow Jones Must Die!!"

I received this from my friend Sharif Abdullah (http://www.commonway.org/) today.

Peace & blessings ~ Molly

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Commonway Institute
Creating a World That Works for All

[This is the second of four installments examining the roots of our financial, moral and spiritual crises, along with suggesting solutions.]

“DOW JONES MUST DIE!!!”

Okay, that’s more inflammatory and over-the-top than I usually go for. But, for reasons stated below, it may be inflammatory but it’s also true.

First of all, “Dow Jones” is not a person, never was. (And, it was never “alive”, so I can’t really call for its “death”.) It is a company started over 100 years ago by three guys, Charles Henry Dow, Edward Davis Jones and Charles Milford Bergstresser in a small basement office in New York. (Dow Jones early history is fairly interesting…)

It is an arbitrary average of 40 selected stocks, out of the thousands of companies represented on the New York Stock Exchange. It was created back in the horse-and-buggy days, when no one had the ability to track all of the stocks traded on the exchange. (Nowadays, you could track all of the trades in real time, with no more computing power than what’s in your iPhone.) The Dow Jones Average assumes that this small cross-section of stocks reflects what is happening in the market as a whole.

The people who run this average select the stocks of the largest, most profitable and most wildly successful corporate entities in America. The Dow Jones Averages is made up of corporations that are household names: AT&T, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Exxon-Mobil, General Electric, McDonald’s, Pfizer, Wal-Mart. From time to time, some organizations are taken off (American Cotton Oil Company) while others migrate on (Microsoft).

So, the largest, most inefficient, wasteful, socially and ecologically damaging corporate giants become the benchmarks for “success” in this society. Collectively, the ONLY thing these corporations are good at is… making more money.

Well, that is, up until recently. As we watch the Dow Jones Averages plummet and the financial credit markets face total meltdown, some of us realize that the ENTIRE world economy isn’t going down – only the parts of the economy that are inefficient, wasteful and ecologically damaging… EXACTLY those parts that are measured by Dow Jones!

Unfortunately, when these dinosaurs die, it isn’t quiet or pretty. We see them now, thrashing around, taking down hundreds or thousands of other organizations in their death throes, and making miserable the lives of millions of people around the world.

We are being told that “the global economy” is troubled because these 40 companies represent “the Market”. They do. But, WHAT market? The mainstream media, the business colleges, the Wall St. types all pay attention to ONE type of “market”, and that market is very well represented by the Dow Jones Averages. But, it’s not the only market, and (from the point of view of regular human beings) is not the most important one.

In an article I wrote back in 1989, I identified FIVE different markets, all tangled together in a global financial stew:

THE BLACK MARKET (The Rats): Illegal, immoral and destructive. Drug sales; armed robbery; trading in stolen goods; cops taking kickbacks; counterfeiters; illegal weapons sales; dumping toxic chemicals for profit. The Black Market is completely intertwined in all of the other markets, as George Bush the First found out when, as Vice President, he tried to block the flow of drug money into US banks. Within weeks, banks in Florida almost went under. The anti-money laundering laws were relaxed, so that the drug dealers and the banks could go back to doing business. The Black Market thrives on despair and depression; it breeds immorality and social ruin.

THE GRAY MARKET (The Roaches): Dubious legality and at times negative effects. “Survival economics”. Neighborhood junkyards; unregistered child care centers and food preparation. Unlicensed street-corner vendors and musicians. Illegal tree cutting in most parts of the world. People who paint themselves and act like statues for tips. The guy trying to squeegee your windshield during a traffic stop. While the Gray Market is largely ignored by the mainstream, it is the LARGEST of the five different markets, comprising the majority of people on our planet. Ignored by entities like the World Bank and the IMF, the Gray Market is how people LIVE. Over half of the humans on this planet, over THREE BILLION HUMANS, live on $2.00 per day or less. This is the Gray Market.

THE WHITE MARKET (The Rabbits): Legal and largely neutral. Restaurants, offices, taxis, manual laborers, managers… What most of us think about (and work in) when we think about “the economy”.

THE RED MARKET (The Dinosaurs): Super-legal (they own the system and make the rules); Industrial Age wastefulness of resources; inefficient, unbalanced, poisonous. Buckminster Fuller called this “the global casino”. Incomprehensible buying, selling and trading of largely fictitious “assets”, with little or no regulation. The Red Market, based on greed and corruption, feeds off of the White and Gray Markets. The Red Market, exemplified by the Dow Jones Averages, is endangered and soon to become extinct. Those who created the Mess cannot even understand the problem, let alone fix it.

THE GREEN MARKET (The Gazelles): Ecological, positive, adaptive, responsive, decentralized, healing, worker-owned and community-owned businesses. Examples include green energy; organic and sustainable food production; bio-damage remediation and the entire emerging sustainable, “green” business sector. This is the market of the future. Our collective future lies in moving the billions (of people and dollars) currently in the Gray Market into the Green Market.

Hyping the Red Market:

Those who are the proponents of Red Market economics have done a great job in convincing you that the Red Market is the ONLY market, and that its demise means that YOU will die, YOUR retirement is on the line, and the entire world will come to an end if you don’t pump your hard-earned tax dollars into CPR for dinosaurs.

You have choices. You can choose to react out of fear and panic. You can believe that the same people who told you that Iraq would be a breeze can be trusted when it comes to the Red Market economy. Or, you can do something different.

If we can’t trust the government (Republicans or Democrats), then who can we trust? The answer is very, very simple. So simple, in fact, we completely overlook it.

We must trust each other.

My friend Meg Wheatley, in her two EXCELLENT books, “A Simpler Way” and “Turning To One Another”, outlines the path we all must follow. Our future lies in community. The measure of “wealth” in the future will NOT be how many digits are in your bank account; “wealth” WILL be measured by how many communities you connect with. Developing community through self-reflection, talking and listening with others, followed by action that is human-oriented and community-scaled… this is our pathway to survival.

For decades, we have placed our faith in all of the things our wisdom teachers told us NOT to believe in. We have placed our faith in money, in banks, in corporations, faith in big government and big business. Our current economic and political systems RUN on this faith. They cannot exist without it.

It’s time to change the paradigm. It is time for new leaders to step forward, armed with a radically different vision of what “success” means in America. It is time to identify leaders who hold a vision of a world that works for all beings. Leaders who have shed the blinders of old theories like “capitalism” (which I believe is dysfunctional) and “communism/ socialism” (which is equally dysfunctional, just in a different direction).

From where will these leaders emerge? That answer is simple, also. We each can/will/must be those leaders.

It is time for us to divest ourselves from mutual funds, investment banks, hedge funds… Our mantra must be: if (personally) you can’t control it and you don’t understand it, you shouldn’t be invested in it. Period.

It is time to invest in your community. Invest in your bio-region. Invest in your continent. Invest in your planet. You have a choice: you can invest in Red Market “Dow Jones” companies that make money (correction: made money in the past), or you can invest in companies pledged to make a better world (and hopefully make money, too).

It is time for your investments to be MORAL. Your investment strategies must place “making money” SECOND to other, more important considerations. Assume that your immediate neighbors, your children and grandchildren are sitting in your circle as you are making your investment decisions. Assume you are telling them, “I am investing in XYZ Company so that the world will be a better place for you”. (Yes, this includes those crazy neighbors you don’t really get along with. They may have the best ideas. Your survival is linked with theirs.)

In these turbulent times, we must have trust and we must have faith. It’s all a matter of trust and faith. (What do I mean by “faith”? That’s in next week’s message…)

Peace,

Sharif

[PS: Next week: the financial crisis is a crisis of faith and spirit.]

[PPS: I'm putting this up on my blog: http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=54536975&msgid=671111&act=D24J&c=340617&admin=0&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.commonway.org%2Fblog. If you want to make a comment, please do so on the blog, so that others can see it! I THINK the problem preventing folks from logging comments has been fixed!]

Conservatives Flip For Obama: Radio Host, Paper Endorse

Among the many hopeful articles:

Conservative Talk Radio Host Endorses Obama

On Friday, two dependable conservative organs backed Democrat Barack Obama for president.

First, Philadelphia talk radio host Michael Smerconish:
On his talk show on WPHT today, conservative Philadelphian Michael Smerconish endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.
Smerconish did so by reading a couple paragraphs from his pending op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
"I've decided," he said. "My conclusion comes after reading the candidates' memoirs and campaign platforms, attending both party conventions, interviewing both men multiple times, and watching all primary and general election debates.
"John McCain is an honorable man who has served his country well. But he will not get my vote. For the first time since registering as a Republican 28 years ago, I'm voting for a Democrat for president.
"I may have been an appointee in the George H.W. Bush administration, and master of ceremonies for George W. Bush in 2004, but last Saturday I stood amidst the crowd at an Obama event in North Philadelphia," says the Republican.

Then, the Chicago Tribune, a newspaper that has not endorsed a Democrat for president since it was founded in 1847, followed suit. From their editorial:
Many Americans say they're uneasy about Obama. He's pretty new to them.
We can provide some assurance. We have known Obama since he entered politics a dozen years ago. We have watched him, worked with him, argued with him as he rose from an effective state senator to an inspiring U.S. senator to the Democratic Party's nominee for president.
We have tremendous confidence in his intellectual rigor, his moral compass and his ability to make sound, thoughtful, careful decisions. He is ready.
...
It may have seemed audacious for Obama to start his campaign in Springfield, invoking Lincoln. We think, given the opportunity to hold this nation's most powerful office, he will prove it wasn't so audacious after all. We are proud to add Barack Obama's name to Lincoln's in the list of people the Tribune has endorsed for president of the United States.

According to Editor & Publisher, Obama now has a 3 to 1 lead over McCain in newspaper endorsements -- 51 newspapers with a total 6,299,363 daily circulation. At least seven of those papers endorsed President Bush in 2004.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/politics/

October 18, 2008: Winter Soldier Event

Winter Soldier NW : Eyewitness accounts of War

Saturday, October 18, 2008 - 12:00pm to 5:00 pm
Location: FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH
1011 SW 12th Street (at Main), Portland, OR 97205
Cost: $5-10 sliding scale, no one turned away

US Veterans, Military Families, Iraqi Refugees, and others speak about
THE OCCUPATIONS IN IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN AND THE COST OF WAR AT HOME

Hear eyewitness accounts of the realities of war from soldiers, their families, Iraqi refugees, and health care workers. Panelists will discuss the true costs of war, and what we can do here at home to support our veterans, work in solidarity with the Iraqi people and end the war.

Speakers include: Camilo Mejia, first soldier to resist the Iraq war; Dahr Jamail, unembedded journalist in Iraq; Chanan Suarezdiaz, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Seattle Chapter President; Sara Rich, mother of Eugene war resister Suzanne Swift; plus area veterans, Iraqi refugees and health care workers.

Topics include: Veterans' Voices from Iraq and Afghanistan, Human Costs of War and Building Resistance to War.

Sponsored by: PDX Peace Coalition, Veterans for Peace Chapter 72, Military Families Speak Out Oregon and many more.

For more information visit http://www.pdxpeace.org

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Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan

Eye Witness Accounts of the Occupations

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan has featured testimony from U.S. veterans who served in those occupations, giving an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground.

A four-day event brought together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan - and present video and photographic evidence. In addition, panels of scholars, veterans, journalists, and other specialists gave context to the testimony. These panels covered everything from the history of the GI resistance movement to the fight for veterans' health benefits and support.

Winter Soldier continues around the US. IVAW members are organizing regional Winter Soldier events around the US in the coming months.

http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier

Granny D's speech given in Wisconsin, September 6, 2008

Speech by Doris Granny D Haddock

We do not know what the future holds for our dear nation or for the world. Certainly the challenges are like no other time. If you think of the physical challenges before us: the earth's climate, its food supply, its fresh water resources, its energy resources, we might as well be in some science fiction disaster movie. But so be it. We will move ahead and do what we can do to survive.

We Americans will be coming at the future with a new president and perhaps a new kind of politics. This may give us some enthusiasm and hope, regardless of which candidate we are supporting. They are both decent men and strong leaders. I am an old democrat, so i indeed will be voting for Mr. Obama with great joy, but Mr. McCain is someone i have had some dealings with, and i will not disparage my friends who choose to vote for him. I walked some 3,200 miles for his bill and he gave me a pair of sneakers.

Whoever our next president may be, that person will face a fact more difficult than all the other difficult facts, and here it is: congress is so deadlocked by special interests that real reform on any front--environmental, health, education or the general welfare of the people - will be difficult to impossible.

The next president will have to go directly to the American people and make the case for needed action, and this must be done with such moral force that the people will nearly rise up to demand action by their elected leaders in congress and locally. Mr. Obama seems particularly suited to this high task, and that is the reason many people think he is a man of history. But Mr. McCain may rise to that moment also, if he is given the chance and if he will disentangle himself from the special interests that he rails against yet embraces.

This election will be crucial to our future, a fact we do not argue - any of us. Those of us who keep an eye over our shoulder for the darker intrigues of politics must keep working to assure that voting systems are open and not corrupted and that the right of the people to elect people who represent their dreams is not overthrown--this right is our primary freedom. When there are big shakeups at the pentagon, as there have been recently, we who see shadows look carefully indeed. We have lost too many of our greatest leaders already.

The stranglehold that the k street Lobbying culture has on our government, which is a cancer on our democracy, must be ended. I would urge the new president to lead the charge to outlaw lobbying by defense contractors, and by industries that rely heavily on public money, such as the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries. Let their executives be heard in congress, but let them do so in open hearings. Let them speak when they are spoken to. Let them answer questions when they are asked for their answers. But most of us will agree that their power has grown too great. Eisenhower, only three years before john Kennedy's death, warned us against the military-industrial complex. It is time to marginalize this dangerous and undemocratic force in our lives.

More... http://www.democracyfornewhampshire.com/node/view/6058

Warm blessings to all,

Molly

“When you are my age you will understand that the voice you must listen to

is the small one inside.” ~ Doris Granny D Haddock

http://www.grannyd.com/speeches.html

Granny D's Hope- In Spite of It All

I'm on Granny D's email list and just received this today. I love Granny D. What a role model to us all! :-)

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Doris "Granny D" spoke over the weekend in Philadelphia. She was sharing the program with Whoopi Goldberg, which I understand was quite a bit of fun for both of them. Doris's remarks are copied below.Yours, Dennis

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Another of Granny D's great speeches, via Dennis Burke

Philadelphia: October 12, 2008

"Thank you."It seems that the world is changing around us this autumn. I know that some of my feistier friends have been hoping for big social and political changes -- for a revolution of some sort -- to get us on a new path to a better future on a healthier Earth. I do not think they imagined that the revolution might take the form of strange torpedoes called credit default swap derivatives, exploding our banks and bankrupting our governments, but revolutions rarely arrive or turn out the way you expect. This society has run its course. We the people have long been ready for fresh growth, greener growth, scaled more to the needs of human beings and their communities.

"I have been thinking lately of my old Texas writer friend Molly Ivins, who passed away not long ago and left us with an insufficient store of good humor to see all the amusing and satisfying turns of justice in the present economic collapse. She would remind us that Freedom's just another word for no retirement money left to lose. Yes, the walls have crumbled, but now we are free from all that anxiety about losing all our money. There's not much left to worry about. Molly would have been the one to take a few flat busted CEOs out for a scotch and water somewhere toward Greenwich Village and laugh with them and tell them they were all being sons-of-bitches anyway and had it coming. And they would laugh and have to agree. She was an American and never forgot that we are all equals. So what would Molly do? I have a little rubber bracelet that asks that question. She would remind us that the treasure of America isn’t in our banks anyway. It is in our families and friendships, in our brotherhood and sisterhood as a free and creative people.

"Sticking together, none of us will starve. Besides, we can always grow enough zucchini for everyone, can’t we?

"We need not fear Fear Itself this time around, for fear is a humbug. If we have learned anything in all the Aquarian splendor of the last few generations, it is that fear for the loss of material things is but the jitters of an addict, and the jitters go away once we relax into whatever new world we find ourselves come into.

"You will hear people on television worrying about the return of the Great Depression. I have heard that several times during the last week or so.

"I am old enough to have memories of that time, are any of you? Maybe we were hungry sometimes, but did we starve? No, because we had our friends and family and the earth to sustain us. The earth may have been reluctant to feed us in some of those years, but never our friends nor our families.

More... http://www.ibrattleboro.com/article.php/20081015191701622/print

Peace & blessings,

Molly

“Democracy is not something you have, it’s something you do.” ~ Granny D

http://www.grannyd.com/about-grannyd.html

Succinct Editorial--How the World Views the US Election

Thank you to my friend Diana for passing this powerful and important piece on. I am printing it as it was forwarded to me...We are all connected. Peace ~ Molly

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The world's verdict will be harsh if the US rejects the man it yearns for
An America that disdains Obama for his global support risks turning

current anti-Bush feeling into something far worse

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(A succinct editorial from Jonathan Freedland of the British newspaper The Guardian on the upcoming US election.)

If Sarah Palin defies the conventional wisdom that says elections are determined by the top of the ticket, and somehow wins this for McCain, what will be the reaction? Yes, blue-state America will go into mourning once again, feeling estranged in its own country. A generation of young Americans - who back Obama in big numbers - will turn cynical, concluding that politics doesn't work after all. And, most depressing, many African-Americans will decide that if even Barack Obama - with all his conspicuous gifts - could not win, then no black man can ever be elected president.

But what of the rest of the world? This is the reaction I fear most. For Obama has stirred an excitement around the globe unmatched by any American politician in living memory. Polling in Germany, France, Britain and Russia shows that Obama would win by whopping majorities, with the pattern repeated in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. If November 4 were a global ballot, Obama would win it handsomely. If the free world could choose its leader, it would be Barack Obama.

The crowd of 200,000 that rallied to hear him in Berlin in July did so not only because of his charisma, but also because they know he, like the majority of the world's population, opposed the Iraq war.. McCain supported it, peddling the lie that Saddam was linked to 9/11. Non-Americans sense that Obama will not ride roughshod over the international system but will treat alliances and global institutions seriously: McCain wants to bypass the United Nations in favour of a US-friendly League of Democracies. McCain might talk a good game on climate change, but a repeated floor chant at the Republican convention was "Drill, baby, drill!", as if the solution to global warming were not a radical rethink of the US's entire energy system but more offshore oil rigs.

If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush-Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift.

Until now, anti-Americanism has been exaggerated and much misunderstood: outside a leftist hardcore, it has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this specific administration. But if McCain wins in November, that might well change. Suddenly Europeans and others will conclude that their dispute is with not only one ruling clique, but Americans themselves. For it will have been the American people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a once-in-a-generation chance for a fresh start - a fresh start the world is yearning for.

And the manner of that decision will matter, too. If it is deemed to have been about race - that Obama was rejected because of his colour - the world's verdict will be harsh. In that circumstance, Slate's Jacob Weisberg wrote recently, international opinion would conclude that the United States had its day, but in the end couldn't put its own self-interest ahead of its crazy irrationality over race.

Even if it's not ethnic prejudice, but some other aspect of the culture wars, that proves decisive, the point still holds. For America to make a decision as grave as this one - while the planet boils and with the US fighting two wars - on the trivial basis that a hockey mom is likable and seems down to earth, would be to convey a lack of seriousness, a fleeing from reality, that does indeed suggest a nation in, to quote Weisberg, "historical decline". Let's not forget, McCain's campaign manager boasts that this election is "not about the issues".

Of course I know that even to mention Obama's support around the world is to hurt him. Incredibly, that large Berlin crowd damaged Obama at home, branding him the 'candidate of Europe' and making him seem less of a patriotic American. But what does that say about today's America, that the world's esteem is now unwanted? If Americans reject Obama, they will be sending the clearest possible message to the rest of us - and, make no mistake, we shall hear it.

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Please go here for the full article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/10/uselections2008.barackobama