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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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

than the 2 billion poorest. ~ David Korten

The Most Peaceful Nations On Earth

New Zealand is the world's most peaceful country,

according to a newly published global survey.

The South Pacific nation of four million people and 40 million sheep has knocked Iceland off its perch after violent demonstrations followed the collapse of Reykjavik's banking system.

The Global Peace Index, a report prepared for the Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit, ranks 144 countries in a league table of peacefulness.

The index defines peace as "the absence of violence".

Twenty-three criteria on which the league table is compiled include political stability, risk of terrorism, murder rate, likelihood of violent demonstrations, respect for human rights, internal conflicts, arms imports and involvement in foreign wars.

It will be a source of quiet satisfaction for New Zealanders that Australia, their great rival across the Tasman Sea, managed to score only 19th place.

Nordic countries Denmark and Norway took their accustomed positions near the top of the table.

Britain, by comparison, was 35th, slightly higher than last year but one place below Botswana and one higher than Italy. Britain also ranks below most of the rest of Europe.

The United States came 83rd, dragged down by two foreign wars, a high prison population, and the wide availability of guns.

Its position did, however, mark a rise of six places, attributed to the number of years that have passed since 9/11 without suffering another terrorist attack.

Iraq was last for the third of the three years since the index was launched.

The report says the global economic recession and an increase in violent conflict and political instability around the planet took a toll on world peacefulness in 2008.

Clyde McConaghy of the Institute for Economics and Peace said: "Peace is a concrete aim that can be measured and valued, not just in social terms but in economic terms.

"There is a clear correlation between the economic crisis and the decline in peace."

In New Zealand, the report says last year's election of a Centre-Right government "with a strong popular mandate and a robust parliamentary majority" was a factor contributing to peacefulness.

Analysts also attribute the country's relative racial harmony in part to a now well-established institutional system for addressing historic Maori grievances.

Professor Kevin Clements, of Otago University in Dunedin, said: "The index is a pretty good reflection of countries people want to live in, because on bicultural issues and a variety of factors we are scoring well.

"If you look at the top 20, they are all small nations based on strong welfare principles, all with good and relatively uncorrupt governance."

Top 10 most peaceful nations:

1 New Zealand, 2 Denmark, 3 Norway, 4 Iceland, 5 Austria, 6 Sweden, 7 Japan, 8 Canada, 9= Finland, 9= Slovenia.

Ten least peaceful:

1 Iraq, 2 Afghanistan, 3 Somalia, 4 Israel, 5 Sudan, 6 Democratic Republic of the Congo, 7 Chad, 8 Pakistan, 9 Russia, 10 Zimbabwe.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/newzealand/5433581/New-Zealand-named-worlds-most-peaceful-nation.html

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Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us.

When our community is in a state of peace, it can share that peace with neighboring communities, and so on. When we feel love and kindness towards others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace. And there are ways in which we can consciously work to develop feelings of love and kindness. For some of us, the most effective way to do so is through religious practice. For others it may be non-religious practices. What is important is that we each make a sincere effort to take our responsibility for each other and for the natural environment we live in seriously.

~ H. H. Dalai Lama

Beautiful, Brilliant, Important - A Message From Paul Hawken

Warmest greetings. Thank you to my friend Diana and to Leslie Temple-Thurston for sharing this incredible speech by someone I have the utmost respect and appreciation for: Paul Hawken. Peace & Blessings ~ Molly

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To: Teacher Training Students and Graduates, Spiritual Warriors and Friends

Hello Dear Friends,

As the energy of change moves through us all at this amazing time in our evolution, we are being solicited for our insights and dreams for the future. The political opinions, sociological and philosophical issues we hear spoken by others and face personally each day have become so polarized and controversial that it is easy to become overwhelmed, confused and to opt out of the decision-making process. Our response can become one of distracting oneself in an attempt to find a moment of peaceful stability. Yet it behooves us, now more than ever, to look directly into "the light of truth" and from our hearts to ask ourselves some searching and serious questions about the future. So that, hopefully, as we race through our days, we can begin to vision the principles and the structures we want to see manifesting in the world yet to come.

I would love to share with you this truly invigorating commencement speech by someone for whom I have a lot of respect: Paul Hawken. If you have already read it, please forgive me, but I decided to pass it along in case there were some who had not.

Much love always,
Leslie Temple-Thurston

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Commencement Address to the Class of 2009 ­ Paul Hawken University of Portland, May 3rd, 2009.

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful. Boy, no pressure there.
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But let’s begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation ­ but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement.
Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of operating instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, and don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat, have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seat belts, lots of room in coach, and really good food ­ but all that is changing.

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn’t afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse.

What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, "So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world. There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen.

Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers,fisher-folk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.

There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true.

Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, re-imagine, and reconsider. "One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice," is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots.

Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown ­ Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood ­ and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, and non-governmental organizations, of companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals.

The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.

The living world is not "out there" somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. Think about this: we are the only species on this planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time than to renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.

The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe ­ exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a "little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven."

So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, challenging, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.

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Paul Hawken's website: http://www.paulhawken.com/paulhawken_frameset.html

Paul Hawken's Blessed Unrest: http://www.blessedunrest.com/

Blessed Unrest Video: http://www.blessedunrest.com/video.html

My Personal Message to KPOJ Regarding the Debate on Releasing the Torture Photos

I recently sent off a quick email before going to work with the below message to the wonderful people on the local morning radio show on KPOJ. I felt compelled to add my voice to the conversation in response to the debate which was happening on whether or not it was best to release the torture photos. Barack Obama had just made the decision to not release the latest photos, which are already being seen in other countries. I disagreed with the President's decision and my message communicates why. (The local morning show from 6-9am is followed by Thom Hartmann's national show from 9-12:00.) Peace ~ Molly

* * *

Hi, Carl, Christine, Paul, and Thom. I really appreciate your conversation this morning about the release of photos. I can truly see and could argue both sides. However, I do come out on the side of releasing these photos. I have been deeply politically involved for a few years now, and have attended numerous events, including Winter Soldier speaker panel conferences, Iraqi speaker events, just seeing Archbishop Desmond Tutu on May 4th, and more. The thing is, people around the world already know that this torture has been happening. The killing of American soldiers has already been passionately undertaken for years now due to this knowledge of atrocities committed in our name.

I believe that the best way to begin to scratch the surface of what Americans have done is to own it. The Muslim world and the rest of the world needs to see America become accountable. We have been like a hugely dysfunctional family. We cannot make amends as a nation as long as we continue to hide behind minimizations, secrecy, denials, justifications, and the shame of the profound horror of what has been done in our name.

Because American atrocities are so well known by the rest of the world, I believe that the only way to begin to stop the hatred that is directed toward the West and the recruitment of terrorists to kill Americans is to come out - come out in the open and own it all. No more secrets, no more hiding, no more denials. We need to proceed with investigations, with prosecutions, with venues for truth and reconciliation. We need to show the world our humility, our profound sorrow at what we have done, our courage, and our passion to absolutely and totally own and transform all the enormity of this horror of what Americans have done by coming out. As long as we hold back at all, it will be seen as justification to continue to propel acts of vengeance against Americans.

Sometimes things do get worse before they get better. My heart goes out to all who have loved ones in the Iraq and Afghanistan. There are friends of my my sons who are there now. I do hear them in their terror of the impact of releasing the actual photos. And, yes, there is bound to be an initial profound negative reaction. What I am doing is seeing a bigger picture beyond that initial reaction. In the bigger picture, there can be no solution for problems denied, minimized, not fully owned. In the bigger picture, the rest of the world needs to see Americans owning fully what we have done.

Americans also are prevented from this opportunity for healing as long as we are shielded from reality. We need to know the truth. Everyone does. There is a saying that I believe - the truth shall set us free. America needs to embrace our shadow side and allow the light of day to illuminate this horror and others for there to be full acknowledgment, healing, and transformation of all this pain and tragedy we have carried in our cells since the first native peoples were killed by our ancestors. Otherwise our words of morality and values are compromised and experienced as disengenuous by much of the rest of the word. There is a deep need to walk our talk and to have the deep courage to stand in truth, accountabilty, humility, and the values and visions we hold most dear. It is time.

Thank you so much for the incredibly awesome job you all do. I am deeply appreciative of this great service and the wonderfulness I experience in each of you.

Blessings,

Molly Strong

Gresham, OR

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There is nothing to fear except the persistent refusal to find out the truth, the persistent refusal to analyze the causes of happenings... Fear grows in darkness; if you think there's a bogeyman around, turn on the light. ~ Dorothy Thompson

Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit. ~ Edward R. Murrow

Reformers who are always compromising, have not yet grasped the idea that truth is the only safe ground to stand upon. ~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton

I believe that ignorance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth. ~ Molly Ivins

The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love. ~ William Sloane Coffin

Memorial Day with Veterans For Peace, Benji Lewis and Cindy Sheehan

Cindy's son, Casey, who was killed in Iraq on 4/4/04, was born on June 29th, 1979

- three days before my oldest son, Brian, was born. Peace ~ Molly

* * *

Cindy Sheehan will be in Portland on Memorial Day the 25th of May to participate in Veterans For Peace Chapter 72's annual event "From War to Peace". This event begins with a short ceremony at the Memorial Coliseum at 12 noon in the Courtyard of the Korean War memorial. After Taps is played we will march to the Peace Memorial Park where Benji Lewis, a two-tour Marine Veteran/War Resister and Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan will give address to the assembly. There will be music, snacks and good conversation after. As always, the general public is invited to attend.

Later in the day Cindy will give a reading from her new book "Myth America: 10 GreatestMyths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution". Doors open at 6pm, reading begins at 630 pm in Main Street Chapel of the 1st Unitarian Universalist Church at 1011 SW 12th Ave in downtown Portland, OR. The reading will be followed by a Reception/Booksigning in the Buchannan Room beginning at around 730 pm. There will be light snacks and coffee available.

Both events are free and open to the public.

For further information send to info@vfpchapter72.org or call (503) 282-5015
Posted on May 12, 2009 by Veterans for Peace #72 Portland

http://oregonprogressivenetwork.org/

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How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light. ~ Barry Lopez

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change. ~ Buddha

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now. ~ Joan Baez

Howard Zinn: America's 'Three Holy Wars'

Howard Zinn speaks at

The Progressive Magazine's 100th Anniversary:

http://www.commondreams.org/video/2009/05/18-0

How different our world would be if great numbers of us

knew the wisdom, heart, and knowledge of Howard Zinn.

Peace ~ Molly

***

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. ~ George Santayana

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves "inside the skin" of the other. We "go inside" their body, feelings, and mental formations, and witness for ourselves their suffering. Shallow observation as an outsider is not enough to see their suffering. We must become one with the subject of our observation. When we are in contact with another's suffering, a feeling of compassion is born in us. Compassion means, literally, "to suffer with." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Unexceptional Americans: Why We Can't See the Trees or the Forest

The Torture Memos and Historical Amnesia

by Noam Chomsky

The torture memos released by the White House elicited shock, indignation, and surprise. The shock and indignation are understandable. The surprise, less so.

For one thing, even without inquiry, it was reasonable to suppose that Guantanamo was a torture chamber. Why else send prisoners where they would be beyond the reach of the law -- a place, incidentally, that Washington is using in violation of a treaty forced on Cuba at the point of a gun? Security reasons were, of course, alleged, but they remain hard to take seriously. The same expectations held for the Bush administration's "black sites," or secret prisons, and for extraordinary rendition, and they were fulfilled.

More importantly, torture has been routinely practiced from the early days of the conquest of the national territory, and continued to be used as the imperial ventures of the "infant empire" -- as George Washington called the new republic -- extended to the Philippines, Haiti, and elsewhere. Keep in mind as well that torture was the least of the many crimes of aggression, terror, subversion, and economic strangulation that have darkened U.S. history, much as in the case of other great powers.

Accordingly, what's surprising is to see the reactions to the release of those Justice Department memos, even by some of the most eloquent and forthright critics of Bush malfeasance: Paul Krugman, for example, writing that we used to be "a nation of moral ideals" and never before Bush "have our leaders so utterly betrayed everything our nation stands for." To say the least, that common view reflects a rather slanted version of American history.

Occasionally the conflict between "what we stand for" and "what we do" has been forthrightly addressed. One distinguished scholar who undertook the task at hand was Hans Morgenthau, a founder of realist international relations theory. In a classic study published in 1964 in the glow of Camelot, Morgenthau developed the standard view that the U.S. has a "transcendent purpose": establishing peace and freedom at home and indeed everywhere, since "the arena within which the United States must defend and promote its purpose has become world-wide." But as a scrupulous scholar, he also recognized that the historical record was radically inconsistent with that "transcendent purpose."

We should not be misled by that discrepancy, advised Morgenthau; we should not "confound the abuse of reality with reality itself." Reality is the unachieved "national purpose" revealed by "the evidence of history as our minds reflect it." What actually happened was merely the "abuse of reality."

The release of the torture memos led others to recognize the problem. In the New York Times, columnist Roger Cohen reviewed a new book, The Myth of American Exceptionalism, by British journalist Geoffrey Hodgson, who concludes that the U.S. is "just one great, but imperfect, country among others." Cohen agrees that the evidence supports Hodgson's judgment, but nonetheless regards as fundamentally mistaken Hodgson's failure to understand that "America was born as an idea, and so it has to carry that idea forward." The American idea is revealed in the country's birth as a "city on a hill," an "inspirational notion" that resides "deep in the American psyche," and by "the distinctive spirit of American individualism and enterprise" demonstrated in the Western expansion. Hodgson's error, it seems, is that he is keeping to "the distortions of the American idea," "the abuse of reality."

Let us then turn to "reality itself": the "idea" of America from its earliest days...

More: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/19-7

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Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times. ~ Gustave Flaubert

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. ~ Maya Angelou

Please Lend Your Support For This Courageous Woman

Warmest Greetings

This came to me through Avaaz.org, which "is a new global web movement with a simple democratic mission: to close the gap between the world we have, and the world most people everywhere want." “Avaaz” means “Voice” in many Asian, Middle Eastern and Eastern European languages. This message also came to me through friends in Oregon and Canada and I thought it important to share. I hope you will consider adding your name to the list. Thank you so much.

Peace ~ Molly

I just joined a global movement to free Burmese democracy leader and Nobel Peace prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi and 2,100 other political prisoners and I thought that you would want to get involved.

The only crime Aung San Suu Kyi and her fellow prisoners have committed was to peacefully call for democracy. Days before she was due to be released after 13 years of detention, the brutal regime has locked up again on trumped up charges. She is seriously ill, but the brutal military regime wants to keep her under lock and key so that she cannot challenge them in next year's elections.

The petition is calling on the UN Secretary General to act now -- he can require the prisoners release as a condition of renewed international engagement. The petition will be presented on May 26th by brave Burmese democracy activists -- so we have just 6 days to build a massive global movement. Click on the link to sign the petition and send this email on to friends and family!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/free_aung_san_suu_kyi/98.php/?CLICK_TF_TRACK

Thank you so much for your help!

P.S. For more information read the full alert below.

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Dear Friends,

Burma's democracy leader and Nobel Peace prize winner, Aung San SuuKyi, has been locked up on new trumped up charges, just days before her 13 years of detention was due to expire. She and thousands of fellow monks and students have been imprisoned for bravely challenging the brutal military regime with peaceful calls for democracy.

Risking danger to speak out for their jailed friends, Burmese activists are demanding the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners and calling on the world to help. We have six days to get a flood of petition signatures to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon calling on him to make their release a top priority -- he can make it a condition of any renewed international engagement. Follow the link to sign the petition, and forward this email on to friends to ensure Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners are freed. Burmese activists will present the global petition to the media on May 26th:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/free_aung_san_suu_kyi/98.php/?CLICK_TF_TRACK

On May 14th, Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested and sent to jail to charged in connection with an American man who allegedly sneaked uninvited into the compound where she is being held in Yangon. The charges are absurd -- it is the Burmese military, now charging her with breach of house arrest, that are responsible for the security of the compound.They area pretext to keep her detained until after elections which are set for 2010.

The Burmese regime is renown for its vicious repression of any threat to full military control - thousands are in jail in inhumane conditions and denied any medical care, there are ongoing abuses of human rights, there is violent repression of ethnic groups, and over a million have been forced into refuge across the border.

Aung San Suu Kyi's is the greatest threat to the junta's hold on power. Her moral leadership of the democracy movement and the legacy of her landslide victory in 1990 elections means that she is the only figure who could face down the military in elections next year. She has been detained over and over again since 1988 -- under house arrest and allowed no contact with the outside world. But this scandalous new detention in the notorious Insein Prison without medical care could be very dangerous because she is seriously ill.

Sources say that the military regime is fearful of this unified and massive online call to the UN -- over 160 Burma exile and solidarity groups in 24 countries are participating in the campaign. And the Secretary General and key regional players that are looking tore-engage with the Burmese regime, can influence the fate of these prisoners. Last week Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said: 'Aung San SuuKyi and all those that have a contribution to make to the future of their country must be free'. Let's overwhelm him with a global call to urgently act on his words and stop the arrests and brutality:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/free_aung_san_suu_kyi/98.php/?CLICK_TF_TRACK

As with the release of Nelson Mandela from years of prison in South Africa, the freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi from years of unjust detention, will bring a new beginning to Burma and hope for democracy.This week could be that historical time for change - let's stand united behind Suu Kyi and these brave men and women and demand their release now!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/free_aung_san_suu_kyi/98.php/?CLICK_TF_TRACK

With hope,

Alice, Brett, Ricken, Pascal, Graziela, Paula and the rest of the Avaaz team

PS.For more about Aung San Suu Kyi visit:

http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/aboutburma/aung_san_suu_kyi.htm

For more about the Global Free Political Prisoners Campaign visit:

http://www.fbppn.net/?page_id=582

A Letter from former Presidents for the release of political prisoners:

http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/index.php/burma/news/Letter-from-112-Former-Presidents-and-Prime-Ministers-to-UN-

For the West and Asian countries reactions to Aung San Suu Kyi's arrest:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8050545.stm