Welcome to the January 26, 2010 edition of the Progressive Post. While we hope you find this information useful, you can unsubscribe at any time by replying to this email with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.
Event Reminders: 2010 Annual Letters to Editor awards event Jan 30Saturday, 01/30/2010 The 13th Annual Letters to the Editor Awards Night will be held on Saturday evening, January 30, 2010 in Vista. More details to follow. Over 200 people expected to attend so make your reservations now. Experts present "Torture Conference" in San Diego Earth Hour 2010: Join the Global Movement! Spend evening with bestselling crime novelist ... Save Our Schools Week Action Day & March Earth Hour 2010: Join the Global Movement! Candidate forum for Lt. Gov, Atty General in CSUSM San Diego March 4th Rally and March SOS This 'N ThatIn the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human success, but rather on how much we have loved.- St. John of the Cross The world will not be inherited by the strongest, it will be inherited by those most able to change A solid rock is not disturbed by the wind; even so, a wise person is not agitated by praise or blame. Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world: Indeed it's the only thing that ever has. When the people fear the government you have tyranny...when the government fears the people you have liberty. Accurst be he that first invented war. It is only by feeling your love that the poor will forgive you for the gifts of bread. Many oppressors are also oppressed. Nonviolent confrontation is the only confrontation that allows us to respond realistically to such complexity. Peace comes from being able to contribute the best that we have, and all that we are, toward creating a world that supports everyone. But it is also securing the space for others to contibute the best that they have and all that they are. Activism pays the rent on being alive and being here on the planet. The question is not, do we go to church; the question is, have we been converted. The crux of Christianity is not whether or not we give donations to popular charities but whether or not we are really committed to the poor. Fondly do we hope, ferverently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Youth is the first victim of war; the first fruit of peace.It takes 20 years or more of peace to make a man; it takes only 20 seconds of war to destroy him. There is no time left for anything but to make peace work a dimension of our every waking activity. Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely an absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people. A peace that comes from fear and not from the heart is the opposite of peace. Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, shall harness for God the energies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire. We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate --- thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising. Abba Poeman said about Abba Prior that every single day he made a fresh beginning. The first essential characteristics of nonviolent action is that it is creative. Only the poor knew the meaning of life; the rich and the safe had to guess. I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do. There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever. Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for your meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do. I'd like someone to mention the day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I'd like somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day, that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try to feed the hungry . . . I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness . . . I want to leave a committed life behind. The master's tools will never destroy the master's house. Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience. The Christian fight for peace is not to be confused with defeatism. Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution. There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb. I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are your works. Do it big or stay in bed. The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see, and to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look. The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty - it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God. True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it. At some ideas you stand perplexed, especially at the sight of human sins, uncertain whether to combat it by force or by human love. Always decide, "I will combat it with human love." If you make up your mind about that once and for all, you can conquer the whole world. Loving humility is a terrible force; it is the strongest of all things and there is nothing like it. A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes. We are, each of us angels with only one wing; and we can only fly by embracing one another. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of humans as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is not safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. If you oppress poor people, you insult the God who makes them; but kindness shown to the poor is an act of worship. Until he extends the circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace. For it isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it. The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border? One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory. What all men fear, I too must fear - how barren and pointless a thought! Love the fellow of the resurrection, scooping up the dust and chanting "Live!" If we emphasize the life and works of our greatest contributors . . . people will come to realize that moral courage is bravery of the highest type, and America will be called the "Champion of Peace." We challenge the culture of violence when we ourselves act in the certainty that violence is no longer acceptable, that it's tired and outdated no matter how many cling to it in the stubborn belief that it still works and that it's still valid. If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. The bomb that fell on Hiroshima fell on America, too. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Do your work as though you had a thousand years to live, & as if you were to die tomorrow. As long as ever you can. If peace . . . only had the music and pageantry of war, there'd be no wars. The only thing that's been a worse flop than the organization of nonviolence has been the organization of violence. | Articles & News: Progressive Dems Metro endorse Tracy Emblem News San Diego Progressive Democrats of America (Metro) just endorsed Tracy Emblem in her bid for congress in the 50th District. She is running against Republican incumbent Brian Bilbray; and against Democrat Francine Busby in the primary. Tracy's website http://tracyemblemforcongress.com/ Dick Eiden on Letters Night The homeless: A disturbing experience in SD Powerlink revelations spark outrage in Alpine Federal Trial of Prop 8 enters third week WE broke Haiti This candidate gets America's message on health Print your own gay marriage iniative petition Mayor Sanders emotional testimony for gay marriage
Mayor Jerry Sanders of San Diego: "I was proud to testify this week in what I believe will soon be seen as one of the defining civil rights cases of our time, Perry v. Schwarzenegger. I did so as a Republican mayor, a father, and a former police chief with over 26 years of experience on the force. But I also testified as an American who has seen the effects of discrimination - and who believes that discrimination against anyone, anywhere, is unacceptable." Quick overview: How great Prop 8 trial came to be
Step by step in 2009, the great wheel of justice was set in motion in California leading up the the historic trial now underway in the 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco. The two high profile attorneys seeking to overturn Prop 8 and restore marriage equality speak out: David Boises and Ted Olson. "The Constitution has fundamental rights that are not subject to a vote." Creative Writing Workshop in Fallbrook "The Last Man" by Roy Zimmerman
In The Last Man, Roy Zimmerman brings a sobering message about the troup surge in Afghanistan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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