Ode to the Industrial Age

Massive extractions, massive amounts of fossil fuels; such a relatively brief geological time-frame -- the geological blink of an eye; life on planet Earth, in the cross hairs?

Results:
- Certain economic uplift for some of world's population.
- Pollution, including green house gasses.
- Increasing extremity of real economic inequality between rich and poor.

Problem: No one knows what will happen.
- We do however know some of the certain present day outcomes, and while for a percentage, oh say roughly 20% of the world's population, life has gotten better, for many, it may be argued, improvements have not really panned out, and many people are stuck in impoverishment, and further, enslavement, in order to suit the economic benefits of others.
- We also know that a massive extinction event is already well under way. Many species have already been drive to demise, as a result of industrial impacts on environmental conditions, the ecological balances necessary for life to flourish.

And so what about the future... It is reasonable to question whether current activities might result in ever increasing consequences for over all life on Earth. This is not even to mention the present day injustices and violence associated with the current harmful economic paradigm.

So, why do some still take profit and reap reward from activities that do so much to harm (to others, and to the overall diversity and balance of life on Earth.) So--What do you think?

Dear Governor Gregoire, Join us in solidarity!

Dear Governor Gregoire,

I am discouraged. I am looking at the prospect of the emergency special session. According to your office, the special session will focus on cutting programs in order to balance the budget.

I want to ask you to think about whether this is the correct approach. I want to ask why are we pushing for cuts, before seeking new revenue.

Maybe there is a better way.

Maybe, just maybe, instead of a "first cuts" approach, your office could call for a special emergency session to RAISE REVENUE.

For example, the Boeing and Microsoft corporations have tons of money. Tax exemptions that these corporations enjoy could be allowed to expire, instead of making cuts that will result in death and further suffering for so many. Look at this. The Boeing and Microsoft corporations have outsourced jobs to exploit cheap labor overseas. The government, by granting them indefinite tax exemptions, enables, encourages, promotes and rewards these, and other, harmful behaviors.

There is an appearance of betrayal. After all, we cannot abide policies that enable cash profits at the expense of the well-being of so many people (and planet.) We cannot abide cash for killing!

Please consider this: Instead of a special "cuts first" legislative session, how about an emergency session to raise revenue. To save lives.

You could even say to the people and the legislature something like this:

"If at the end of this special session to raise revenue the legislature has failed, then I as Governor of the State of Washington, will leave the luxurious abode of the Governor's Mansion, and move into Solidarity Village, in solidarity with those whom are most afflicted as a result of the systemic injustice and corruption that plagues this society."

Please join us. Please protect us. We call on you.

I hope that you will seriously and sincerely consider this message.

Thank you,
Robert Whitlock

beautiful morning!

Truth and Justice

When the government cannot tell the truth, how can it serve justice?


www.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/world/guantanamo-files-detainees-lawyers-restricted-leaked-documents.html

Government (sort of) pretends that classified files have not been released by Wikileaks: according to one expert, the situation "looks ridiculous."

original size: farm6.static.flickr.com/5306/5662611301_4e65faa672_o.jpg

[a couple more recent NYT articles about this: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/nine-years-779-people-guantanamo-bay-and-the-implications-of-the-files/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/us/28gitmo.html]

Peace Vigil Video with Frog Song

Peace Vigil at Percival Landing with frog song audio overlap
Friday the 1st of April, 2011


Peace Vigil at Percival Landing
Olympia!

Another version of the video posted below (audio track removed, frogs only.)

Some Recent Photos

Here are some recent photos and images from the past week or two. More information is attached on the flickr photo pages.


Friday 19 March 2011
Olympia, Washington

There are a couple of events today and tomorrow happening at Heritage Park. One is the Pacific Northwest Medicine Wheel. Another is the Global Day of Listening project.

Here is a link to a 1min 40sec YouTube video focusing mostly on the GDL project:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsxItpDboJU

olyblog.net/events-heritage-park-weekend

more photos:

A Question about Wealth and Privilege, and Oppression and Suffering

Let us ask whether our wealth and privilege depend on oppression and cause suffering.

Make Sharing the Rule

Humanity and the planet would be a lot better off if society was about mutual service and health, rather than—and instead of—being more about the accumulation of wealth, and about competition over—domination of—material resources. We'd all be a whole lot better off if sharing was the rule.

Berd


Severn Suzuki addresses a panel at the 1992 UN (United Nations) Conference on Environment and Development in Brazil

War is Bankrupting and Impoverishing Us

Friday 19 September 2008
Percival Landing Washington

War is a bankrupting activity. It bankrupts economically (financially, ecologically, etc.) And it bankrupts morally.

There are some anti-war quotes attached to this photo where it's linked from on the flickr site, and I am reminded of another quote by the Rev. Dr. MLK Jr.:

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

Which reminds me that I recently read Stride Toward Freedom by MLK. It's about the Montgomery bus boycotts of 1954-55. I thought it was a great read. Why? A number of reasons. For starters, it was clearly written, and also of compelling content. It's the story of Southern Black Liberation—a story that is ongoing today—and it's roots are in campaigns like the one described in the book by MLK.

Rosa Parks and MLK are popular figures in America. For example, many cities have major thoroughfares buildings named after MLK. That's pretty high esteem for a radical revolutionary. Because that's what MLK was. He was a radical, and a revolutionary. Even at the age of 26, in 1954, he understood the cause of so much violence and disease (including racism) was fear, and distrust/mistrust between people, and the repetition of old patterns of behavior, patterns that really just don't make sense—and he also understood that the vast and growing discrepancy in wealth between global rich as a root-level cause of war and other violence.

By the time that MLK was assassinated in 1968, I think he may have even moved in his political views further toward the left of liberation, that is the liberation from oppression for all people—and he criticized the war in a very meaningful and fundamental way, calling into question national aggression, and calling for a movement to counter the rampant "militarism, materialism, and racism" prevailing in society.

I recommend the Speech, Beyond Vietnam, which was delivered a year to the day before he was killed.

Seeking to address the root cause of violence, disease and poverty, MLK stated in the speech that: "True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

Another statement from the speech:

"I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such." MLK Jr.

Following is a link to audio of the speech, and then the text. Please take a listen!

Include Everyone!

I was reminded of this concept of including everyone by an article I read in the Progressive magazine. It's a book review by Ruth Conliff. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett have researched the effects of socio-economic equality on people's health, and have desecribed their work in a new title, The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger. I wrote a blog about that on OlyBlog here.

Here are a couple more photos, with peace, Berd

Work for Peace and Justice

Work for peace and justice, so that all beings may be happy.

Disability Justice

Yesterday I attended a disability justice workshop. I thought it was great, I learned a lot and thought the presentation was very well organized, and productive.

Here are notes:

view larger

I am in Detroit Michigan for 10 days for the Allied Media Conference (AMC) and the 2010 US Social Forum (USSF 2010). The AMC started on Friday. I have attended three workshops so far, including one on Disability Justice (DJ). The USSF will start on Tuesday the 22nd. I have been photographing a lot. I haven't counted by I am sure that I have well over 500 photos from the 5 day road trip from Olympia to Detroit. Photo content ranges from snapshot scenes inside the bus to landscapes from the moving bus to some candids and landscapes.

I attended a couple more workshops this Saturday afternoon. One was entitled Hurricane Season: Unearthing Solutions in an Era of Unnatural Disaster, by Climbing PoeTree. The other was a symposium about the writings of Octavia E. Butler. I thought both were very worthwhile.

I thought the DJ workshop yesterday was excellent and I heard from others that they thought so too.

The workshop started with a discussion about what Disability Justice means and the workshop organizers shared their working definition:

DJ is a multi-issue political understanding of disability + Ableism, moving away from a rights-based equality model, to a framework that centers justice + wholeness for all disabled people + our communities.

The various major disability movements were compared. These movements range from advocacy for services, to advocacy for rights, to working for basic root level justice. One of my thoughts about the justice movement is that it's radically different from the other movements because it includes the struggle for cultural transformation.

The room was full, with about 80 people in attendance. The participants split into three separate groups to discuss three interrelated aspects of DJ: Policing Bodies, Medical-Industrial Complex, and the Myth of Independence.

I was in the Myth of Independence group. After a round of brief introductions and sharing of thoughts, we discussed various aspects of how the myth of independence affects society and individuals, especially impaired people. Our conclusions included a social analysis of how our society favors a notion of independence, but that this notion is really illusory, and impaired people are discriminated against for being dependent, when in reality everyone is dependent-everyone is interdependent on each other, and interconnected. There is an fictitious idea, a harmful myth, that those whom are ambitious, DIY'ers, whom are entrepreneurial are somehow independent and that independence is a sign of strength, and intelligence (or even superiority.) When in reality, we are all interdependent, and interconnected, both able-bodied and disabled alike.

We see this myth in concepts like, "independently wealthy" and in comparisons between "high-functioning" and "low-functioning" persons, placing value and higher esteem on those who seem more highly functional. There is usually also higher status granted to those whom have invisible impairments, vs. impairments which are visible. We also see this idea reflected in the concepts of rugged individualism, pulling one's self up by their bootstraps, the "American Dream" - all of which carry the odor of Social Darwinism.

It seems to me that the myth of independence relates in important ways to the myth of meritocracy and the myth of scarcity. I think there are some important dots to connect between these concepts.

I think it is important to also mention that the function of our society causes harm. The function of our society causes impairment.

It was exciting to be around so many differently-abled people and think about the re-birth of a nonviolent world that places peoples' well-beings above and beyond anyone's supposed self-interest.

Just imagine. Imagine a world that is not harmful. A world that does not cause impairments...impairments that are caused by calculated and structural poverty, exploitative economics, any of various other deeply entrenched oppressions, or any other violence, very much including war. So I thought the education was good, and important.

Another Photo of the Olympia Rafah Mural

Olympia Rafah Mural

Detention Center

The following is a comment (edited for clarity) that I left on an article about a protest against the Northwest ICE Immigration Detention Center. The facility is located in Tacoma Washington, and I cross-posted the same article here on Peace is Possible. And also here again is a slideshow of the day's events.


by berdww
on 2/15/2010 @ 9:26am

I think that the ICE Detention Center is a symptom of the deeply diseased nature of our society.

When some people are willing to put others down for the purpose of economic self-interest then there is a problem. People are willing to exploit each other - and there is a fundamental violence that exists at the roots, and in the heart, of our socio-economic political system.

The Detention Center is an outward manifestation of what is a culture of cruelness, meanness, hurtfulness, exclusion, fear, and exploitation (etc.). It's a culture that permeates to the roots and heart of this society.

Arbitary and Abusive Policing

Port of Tacoma, Washington
August 4, 2008
Port Militarization Resistance Protest

The officer in this unmarked vehicle made sure to tell everyone where not to park.

He was telling people that their cars were too close to driveways and had to be moved - or that their vehicles would be impounded.

When asked how far away from the driveway cars were allowed to park, he responded, "Didn't you pass the driver's test? If you don't know, then read the book."

If I remember correctly, when I took the test the distance was 10 feet.

Is that right? In this case the cars were more almost certainly more than 10 feet away; they certainly were not blocking anyone's access to driveways.

Really, it seemed to me that the officer was just being mean. He was abusing his authority and threatening people, people whose cars were not blocking driveways, with the impounding of their vehicles.

Arbitrary and discriminatory abuse of power. Why are people mean to each other? What causes people to behave like that?

Is it fear? Low self-esteem? I want to know!

The world would be a much better place if people were not mean to each other.

link to larger version: Unmarked Police Squad Car

Help us love even those who hate us; so we can change the world. - Cesar Chavez

Cultural Transformation

I have posted this before here, but I am posting it again, because I have been thinking about this quote recently.

Here's another MLK quote that I like:

We must accept finite disappointment,
but we must never lose infinite hope.

– Martin Luther King Jr.

see photo larger: Cultural Transformation Shift

Peace for All People

Peace for Children. Peace for Our Children. Peace for All Children.

Peace for All People.

All people deserve to live in peace.

The real vital national interest is peace - and not war.

The real vital national interest is to create mutually beneficial and cooperative economic structures - as opposed to the economics of domination, as opposed to policies of imperialism.

The real vital national interest is social justice and ecological sustainability - not exploitation - nor any other harmful economic activities, which cause so much, and so many, horrendous social and environmental degradations.

I believe that it is wrong for some people to personally "benefit" from activities that are socially and/or ecologically exploitative, abusive, or harmful in any other way.

Check out this video of a speech by teenager Severn Suzuki to a UN Conference on Environment and Development: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW_YxJy-9Y8

view larger: Peace

Global Village Slideshow

I received this great slideshow today from my Mom. Thanks Mom! Check it out:



Regarding the information contained in the above power point; we, as a humanity, can do better. I know it.

There is no good reason why 80% of human beings (or any human beings) need to live in poverty.

Have a good day,
-Berd

David Korten on Time of Useful Consciousness Radio

Hi All,

I want to plug this excellent speech by David Korten. It was delivered in March 2009 at the Northwest Regional Veterans for Peace Conference. I heard it the evening of Wednesday, December 30, 2009, on KAOS 89.3 FM Radio. The speech is in two parts, and both are excellent. The speech is titled, "Community and the New Economy: Why Wall Street Can't be Fixed, and How to Replace it."

In the speech Korten very clearly talks about what's happening in our world in relation to corporate power, militarism, policies of dominance, economics of growth and profitability, violence, poverty, socio-economic inequality and exploitation, and environmental degradation (among other topics.)

Korten also addresses the hopeful and great potential that exists for change to a society (and a money system) that would serve life (rather than profit) - a society that would be cooperative, consensual and mutually beneficial for all people.

I think the speech is a very worthwhile listen.

Korten is the Chair of the Board of Yes! Magazine.

Here are links to the streaming audio, in two parts; an excerpt (that I transcribed,) and a link to the Time of Useful Consciousness Radio Program website.

Please enjoy!

Part One: http://www.tucradio.org/090429_Korten_ONE.mp3

Part Two: http://www.tucradio.org/090506_Korten_TWO.mp3

excerpt:

"...replacing the culture and institutions of an economy devoted to the service of money, with the culture an institutions of an economy devoted to the service of life...

"War is an outmoded institution that serves no beneficial purpose other than to enrich the unscrupulous - and it has become an act of global scale collective suicide."

links to the mp3s can also be found here: http://www.tucradio.org/

Kindly,
Berd

The Story of Cap and Trade Video

This is a great video. A must see.

Here's a comment I left on youtube:

The wealth of developed nations is based not only on ingenuity and hard work. The wealth of developed nations is also critically based on oppression and violence, including slavery and environmental degradation (greenhouse gas pollution very much included.)

The myth of meritocracy runs rampant in American culture.

It's important to realize that much of our material "success" is based not on merit - but instead on oppression and violence, on expropriation and exploitation.

The video:

The Story of Cap and Trade