Let’s support our troops while we work to bring them home now.

I wrote most of this post on Memorial Day but didn’t have a chance to complete and post it until today.

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On Memorial Day, which falls on the last Monday of May, our nation honors the men and women who died in military service to our nation.

There are a lot of them to honor. Below are our ten most lethal wars ranked by total deaths of American soldiers from Wikipedia:

1. American Civil War (1861–1865): 625,000 deaths

2. World War II (1941–1945): 405,399 deaths

3. World War I (1917–1918): 116,516 deaths

4. Vietnam War (1964–1973): 58,151 deaths

5. Korean War (1950–1953): 36,516 deaths

6. Revolutionary War (1775–1783): 25,000 deaths

7. War of 1812 (1812–1815): 20,000 deaths

8. Mexican-American War (1846–1848): 13,283 deaths

9. Philippine War (1899–1902): 4,196 deaths

10. Iraq War (2003–present) 4,079 deaths

These, of course, are the numbers of members of our armed forces who died. And while these are truly significant, we might want to consider the total number of deaths in the wars in which our nation has enaged. For example, the total estimated human loss of life for World War II was 72 million people. The estimated total number of deaths in the Vietnam War total is more than three million. And in Iraq some estimate that more than one million Iraqi civilians have died thus far.

On this day of remembrance songs are sung, speeches are made, graves are decorated, lost loved ones are honored, sacrifices during time of war recalled.

But as columnist Mark Shields points out in a March 21 appearance on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, our military personnel and their families have borne the entire brunt of the current war:

[W]e went to war against a country that had never attacked us, that never threatened us, on the bogus claim that that country had weapons of mass destruction which were a threat to us.

And it was not a moral war, and it was not a just war. It was a war in which the United States sullied, stained and repealed one of the great American values, that is that, in wartime, war demands equality of sacrifice.

All the sacrifice in this war has been borne by the one percent of Americans who are in uniform and their families. The rest of us have been quietly by, especially those of us who opposed the war, and been moral defectors.

We haven’t protested the fact that this is a war that our children and grandchildren will pay for. We haven’t even—we’ve blithely accepted tax cuts, and no draft, and no burden, paid no price, bore no burden, and accepted leadership that demanded nothing of us, and we’ve demanded nothing of them.

So how do we shoulder our share the sacrifice during war time, during this war? First and foremost, we immediately tell our elected officials to stop sending the men and women of our armed forces to fight in unnecessary and futile (not to mention illegal and immoral) conflicts and demand that they bring those who are in harm’s way home right now.

By no standard was the Iraq War necessary; the theoretical reasons to participate in this ill-advised and reckless military adventure were concocted in the dark, paranoid imaginations of deeply flawed men like George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, ballyhooed by print and television pundits and marketed to us like laundry detergent or the latest cure for a limp penis.

Regardless, however, we’re not off the hook. We, the people of this nation, have a responsibility for what has happened, for what is still happening. We have elected politicians who have voted to create the most massive war machine ever known on earth. We have elected and re-elected a president who thinks the best way to honor the troops is to give up golf. We have become consumers—of stuff, of TV, of antidepressants, of the mainstream media’s bullshit—rather than engaged citizens who will take action to stop the slaughter.

So what can we do around this Memorial Day to make a difference, to help bring our nation to its senses?

We can work to elect leaders who pledge to defend our country and who will engage the other nations of the world as partners, rather than endeavoring to bully other peoples into submission. We can let our elected representatives know that we will no longer tolerate the huge sums of money being spent on armaments while so little is spent on education, health care, healing the environment, rebuilding our infrastructure, etc. We can consider becoming a war tax resister.

One very important thing: Instead of spending your tax rebate on a vacation or wide-screen television set, how about using it to support those who have been making all the sacrifices in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and who have been getting short shrift on their return—the men and women of our armed forces and their families.

While our troops are overseas, their families need our support. When they return to the U.S., they may need it even more. Let’s stand together to show our gratitude, and let them know that we stand with them.

Click on the links below to find out more about worthy organizations that provide services for our troops and their families.

America Supports You — Lists numerous ways to offer support to troops (includes financial assistance, care packages, family member support, scholarships, support for wounded)

AnySoldier — Gives you contact info for deployed troops along with their specific requests for care packages

Forgotten Soldiers Outreach — Allows you to write to soldiers or send them care packages

National Veterans Foundation — Donate to help those who have served our country and their families.

SoldiersAngels — Offers a variety of ways to support soldiers during and after deployment

Swords to Plowshares — Donate to help heal the wounds and to restore dignity, hope and self-sufficiency to all veterans in need

Wounded Warrior Project — Donate to help meet the needs of wounded soldiers

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

Are you part of the 11%?

This video is from IONS One Minute Shift series:

Are you ready for a quantum leap forward, personally and collectively? In this video, bestselling author Marianne Williamson dares us to become part of the 11% of people that can transform the world. From the suffragettes to the civil rights movement, history shows that all it takes is ENOUGH people to truly make a difference. Will you be one of them?”

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

U.S. ranks 97th in peace index

Surprise, surprise! The 2008 Global Peace Index ranked the United States 97th out of 140 countries in terms of their level of peacefulness. The index ranks nations according to how peaceful they were domestically and how they interacted with the outside world. It looks at 24 indicators of external and internal measures of peace, including:

• Number of external and internal conflicts fought: 2001-06
• Estimated number of deaths from organized conflict
• Military expenditure as a percentage of GDP
• Number of jailed population per 100,000 people
• Level of violent crime
• Level of disrespect for human rights

The ten most peaceful nations are:

1. Iceland
2. Denmark
3. Norway
4. New Zealand
5. Japan
6. Ireland
7. Portugal
8. Finland
9. Luxembourg
10. Austria

By the way, Iran ranks 105th and dead last is Iraq–140th.

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

Oil prices pass $132 after government reports supply drop

Peak oil is here, folks. Plan on radically changing your travel and commuting habits . . . forever. From AP via Yahoo Finance:

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices bolted to a new record above $132 a barrel Wednesday after the government reported that supplies of crude oil and gasoline fell unexpectedly last week. And crude’s rise in the futures market again pressured consumers by pulling prices at the pump higher — a gallon of regular gas rose overnight to a new record above $3.80 a gallon.

Click the link below to read the whole story:

Oil prices pass $132 after government reports supply drop: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Update: Make that $133 per barrel.

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

The Lines That Divide Us

I found this truly moving video via Michel Fortin’s website. It demonstrates how we can set aside our judgments, acknowledge our similarities and really connect with one another at a deep level.

The program being shown is from Challenge Day, a non-profit whose mission is to provide youth and their communities with experiential workshops and programs that demonstrate the possibility of love and connection through the celebration of diversity, truth, and full expression.

Note: Mozilla Firefox users, merely click on the play button on the video player below. Internet Explorer users, you likely will not see the video player, so click on the link to view the video at the YouTube website.

To anyone who has felt the sting of my judgment or toward whom I have acted disrepectfully: I’m deeply sorry for my actions and ask for your forgiveness.

Monday, May 19th, 2008

Why I am supporting Barack Obama by Bill Jamieson

Why I am supporting Barack Obama
by Bill Jamieson

Why am I, a 64-year old white man, turning away from my demographic colleagues and supporting Barack Obama? The answers are found in Tryon, North Carolina: Hunter, Smith and Carson, my three grandchildren. My greatest concern is about the world they will inherit, and I feel a deep sense of urgency about the need for generational change in this country.

Most of my adult life has been spent in and around politics as a Democrat and a child advocate. While my generation of political activists (both on the right and the left) can be proud of our many accomplishments, we must also be honest about the failures. We should recognize that the mess our country finds itself in today is owed largely to our failures of leadership, our inclination to rename and recycle old solutions to new problems, and our reluctance to seek common ground by recognizing the truth in positions of people with whom we disagree.

The fact is that we are living on the borderland of time, hinged between 20th-century institutions and structures, and a 21st-century world yearning for fresh vision. Two paths diverge along the border: one honors the natural human quest for certainty as it circles around the status quo. The other follows a path into unknown spaces, spaces where a transformed, life-giving world can be birthed. (more…)

Friday, May 16th, 2008

Voters in North Carolina make our voices heard!

I’m sitting at my desk very tired and very happy. Last Tuesday North Carolina helped shift the political paradigm of this nation. By a large majority, the voters of our state rejected the ego-driven politics of pandering, fear-mongering, guilt by association and personal attack, embracing instead a pioneering political ethos of candor, authenticity, openness and organizing at the grassroots level. Not only did our votes in the North Carolina Democratic presidential primary really count; through our efforts Barack Obama is now the presumptive nominee.

More than 2,000,000 total votes were cast in both the Democratic and Republican primaries in North Carolina, a turnout of registered voters of approximately 36%. Of those voting for the Democratic presidential nominees, Barack Obama received 875,683 (55.99%) and Hillary Clinton received 652,824 (41.74%), a resounding victory for Obama and a deciding factor in this race.

In Buncombe County Obama received 27,899 (54.67%) and Clinton received 22,290 or (43.68%). And this with the Clinton family spending the past few weeks in Asheville and Western North Carolina.

At our own Asheville Precinct 3 (just north of downtown and east of Broadway), Obama received 550 votes (74%), Clinton received 187 (25%) and “Other” received 7.

In addition, we supported the movement to bring new leaders to the Buncombe County Commission. The top four candidates in the list below move on to the general election on November 4. The first number after each name is the percentage of the vote garnered, the second number is the candidates’ total vote in the county and the number in parentheses is his/her vote in Precinct 3.

Holly Jones 21.45% 30,535 (547)
K. Ray Bailey 14.94% 21,268 (304)
Carol Weir Peterson 13.81% 19,655 (152)
William H. (Bill) Stanley 12.29% 17,499 (130)
Cecil Bothwell 11.54% 16,425 (439)
Keith Thomson 8.70% 12,380 (305)
Vernon E. Dover 6.90% 9,822 (46)
J. Ray Elingburg 5.81% 8,267 (44)
Robert E. (Bob) Hill 4.58% 6,524 (46)

As you can see our friend Cecil Bothwell (who lives in Precinct 3) barely missed the cut. Congratulations on a well-run grassroots campaign, Cecil Here’s hoping you’ll run for city council next year.

My gratitude to everyone involved in this grassroots effort, especially my Obama precinct co-captains Shonnie Lavender and Cindy Esselstyn who worked tirelessly for the next President of the United States, and for other progressive candidates in North Carolina and Buncombe County. Thanks also to Luke McGowan, the Obama Field Organizer for Buncombe County, who guided our efforts with a gentle hand. Good luck, Luke, wherever you are now (WV? KY? PR? OR?). Hope you make it back to this part of the world to help out with the November election.

YES WE DID!

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

“The Night the Old Politics Died” by Brent Budowsky

The Night Old Politics Died
Brent Budowsky, Consortium News
May 7, 2008

The old politics died on May 6, 2008, as the predictable and inevitable happened and the voters said no to business as usual.

The voters said no to the most phony and fraudulent proposal in memory for a gas tax cut that would never happen, that would profit the oil companies that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) falsely said she was fighting with it, that would do nothing for the people she falsely claimed she was helping with it.

The most reprehensible and shameful aspect of this gas tax fraud was in its cheap exploitation of people who are hurting, and fearful. There is nothing lower in politics that exploiting people who are hurting, trying to deceive them. The voters said no.

The voters said no to the politics embodied by the shameful ABC debate of Gibson and Stephanopoulos that was nothing more than an oppo-research festival. Voters said no to the Tim Russert “Meet the Press” that insulted them last Sunday, wasting time with more than a dozen questions about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright rather than a serious discussion of national issues

The voters said no to the insider pundits who pontificated about what a brilliant and clever tactic the gas tax fraud was, about how Hillary is on a huge roll and Barack looked broken and on his heels only hours before he won a crushing and devastating victory.

Soon, as I predicted some time ago, Hillary will withdraw and the superdelegate surge will reach a juggernaut pace that has already begun.

Soon, there will be new talk about 2 million Obama donors that will rise to 3 million. There will be talk of a historic voter registration program that has already been approved and will exponentially strengthen democracy and build even more voter turnout, voter excitement and voter enthusiasm.

Soon, there will be talk about a Democratic landslide throughout the Congress as Democrats come together and coordination begins between the presidential and the congressional Democrats.

Soon, there will be talk about the outpouring of enthusiasm around the world from good people everywhere ready to begin a new day of American world leadership based on the great role we have played in the past.

It was the night they drove old Dixie down, the night the old politics ended, the night a great new era in American politics truly began.

The battle now begins in earnest. On Tuesday, May 6, 2008, the Rubicon was crossed.

Thursday, May 8th, 2008