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Event Reminders:FALLBROOK: 'Excuse Me, I'm Writing' UpdateWednesday, 05/08/2013 The regular Fallbrook Poetry Read this Wednesday, March 8, will be at the Café des Artistes, featuring poet Conney D. Williams. Open Mic also. New time and place starting in July. List of Democratic events in San Diego County To read the best progressive newsletter west of the Mississippi, click on Jellison's EZINE here Introduction to Wildlife Tracking Mini-tour of the BV Creek Valley and Marron Adobe Birding Hike, Oak Riparian Park Endangered Species Day Open House at BVNC NCFC Shows: Hermano Memorial Day: Remember who and why we killed NCFC Screens: The Sessions This 'N ThatThe earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.- Baha'ullah All we ask, God, is to be safe from the rain, just warm enough in winter to watch the snow with a smile, have enough to eat so that our hunger will not turn us to angry beasts, and sanity enough to make justice that will not kill our love of life. While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart. All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what the do not want to do. The non-violent technique does not depend for its success on the goodwill of the oppressor, but rather on the unfailing assistance of God. When asked what he would do if he knew the world would end tomorrow, Martin Luther said, "I would plant a tree." The world cannot continue to wage war like physical giants and to seek peace like intellectual pygmies If you obey all the rules you will miss the fun. When you're finally up on the moon, looking back at the earth, all these differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend and you're going to get a concept that maybe this is really one world and why the hell can't we learn to live together like decent people? The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. 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. A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your mirror. Peace we want because there is another war to fight against poverty, disease and ignorance. Only the poor knew the meaning of life; the rich and the safe had to guess. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work. 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 must be the change we wish to see. A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he cannot sit on it. The first casualty when war comes is truth. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness, that must frighten us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, Courageous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. You playing small does not help the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And when we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. When we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it stands than to anything on which it is poured. We do not inherit the earth from our fathers. We borrow it from our children. In all the ways you can, The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life. 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." The hottest fires in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis. It is penance to work, to give oneself to others, to endure the pinpricks of community living. And all good things are yours. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. Angry heart -- you have no chance against my prayers. What good is a house, if you haven't got a decent planet to put it on? Don't ever let them pull you down so low as to hate them. (also cited as: I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.) Life is a whim of several billion cells to be you for a while. The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and errors, its successes and setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned. War does not determine who is right - only who is left America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. We should take care, in inculcating patriotism into our boys and girls, that is a patriotism above the narrow sentiment which usually stops at one's country, and thus inspires jealousy and enmity in dealing with others... Our patriotism should be of the wider, nobler kind which recognises justice and reasonableness in the claims of others and which lead our country into comradeship with...the other nations of the world. The first step to this end is to develop peace and goodwill within our borders, by training our youth of both sexes to its practice as their habit of life, so that the jealousies of town against town, class against class and sect against sect no longer exist; and then to extend this good feeling beyond our frontiers towards our neighbours. Not to hurt our humble brethren (the animals) is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission--to be of service to them whenever they require it... If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men. You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom. Tradition is the living faith of dead people to which we must add our chapter while we have the gift of life. Traditionalism is the dead faith of living people who fear that if anything changes, the whole enterprise will crumble. The law, in its majestic equality, forbids both rich and poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. You know, if people are not pacifists, it's not their fault. It's because society puts them in that spot. You've got to change it. You don't just change a man - you've got to change his environment as you do it. The ultimate measure of a person is not where one stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where one stands in times of challenge and controversy. When someone steals another's clothes, we call them a thief. Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the one who has no shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor. The pens which write against disarmament are made with the same steel from which guns are made. Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence. When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. What good is it to me that Mary gave birth to the son of God fourteen hundred years ago, and I do not also give birth to the Son of God in my time and in my culture? We are all meant to be mothers of God. God is always needing to be born. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. To save one life, it is as if you had saved the world. I claim to be no more than an average person with less than average ability. I have not the shadow of doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith. Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it. Our friends show us what we can do; our enemies teach us what we must do. Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him. Sports plays a societal role in engendering jingoist and chauvinist attitudes. They're designed to organize a community to be committed to their gladiators. Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction. They make a desert and call it peace. Our future on this planet, exposed as it is to nuclear annihilation, depends one one single factor: humanity must make a moral about-face. And then to each other. Your life and my life flow into each other as wave flows into wave, and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you, there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me. To see reality--not as we expect it to be but as it is--is to see that unless we live for each other and in and through each other, we do not really live very satisfactorily; that there can really be life only where there really is, in just this sense, love. A spiritual person tries less to be godly than to be deeply human. In 1989, thirteen nations comprising 1,695,000 people experienced nonviolent revolutions that succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations . . . If we add all the countries touched by major nonviolent actions in our century (the Philippines, South Africa . . . the independence movement in India . . .) the figure reaches 3,337,400,000, a staggering 65% of humanity! All this in the teeth of the assertion, endlessly repeated, that nonviolence doesn't work in the 'real' world. Peace is not the product of a victory or a command. It has no finishing line, no final deadline, no fixed definition of achievement. Peace is a never-ending process, the work of many decisions. Wars are not acts of God. They are caused by man, by man-made institutions, by the way in which man has organized his society. What man has made, man can change. 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. Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted We are, each of us angels with only one wing; and we can only fly by embracing one another. I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever, not even in a matter of truth; but rather by some means excuse the faults I hear charged upon others, and upon proper occasions speak all the good I know of everybody. God looks unjust but is not. God asks more from those who more is given. They are not greater or better; they have greater responsibility. They must give more service. Live to serve. Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace. The arms race can kill, though the weapons themselves may never be used...by their cost alone, armaments kill the poor by causing them to starve. To see the world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour. The first thing to be disrupted by our committment to nonviolence will be not the system but our own lives. The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. Very few people chose war. They chose selfishness and the result was war. Each of us, individually and nationally, must choose: total love or total war. 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. Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is--whether its victim is human or animal--we cannot expect things to be much better in this world... We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing we set back the progress of humanity. The idea of absolute freedom is fiction. It's based on the idea of an independent self. But, in fact, there's no such thing. There's no self without other people. There's no self without sunlight. There's no self without dew. And water. And bees to pollinate the food we eat....So the idea of behaving in a way that doesn't acknowledge those reciprocal relationships is not really freedom, it's indulgence. A great many people think they are thinking when they are just rearranging their prejudices. Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity. A peace that comes from fear and not from the heart is the opposite of peace. Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain. It is not your obligation to complete your work, but you are not at liberty to quit. When I have money, I get rid of it quickly, lest it find a way into my heart. In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human success, but rather on how much we have loved. The belief that we some day shall be able to prevent war is to me one with the belief in the possibility of making humanity really human. Non-violence exacts a very high price from one who practices it. But once you are able to meet that demand then you can do most things. Peace begins when the hungry are fed. Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. But the wisdom from above is pure, first of all; it is also peaceful, gentle and friendly; it is full of compassion and produces a harvest of good deals,; it is free from prejudice and hypocrisy. When we yield to discouragement it is usually because we give too much thought to the past and to the future. We are going to have to find ways of organizing ourselves cooperatively,sanely, scientifically, harmonically and in regenerative spontaneity with the rest of humanity around the earth.... We are not going to be able to operate our spaceship earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask: "Mother, what was war?" Dust turned to hope. When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others. Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible- not to have to run away. 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. | Articles & News: Olga Diaz to challenge Abed for mayor of Escondido News Olga Diaz is only the second Latino ever elected to Escondido City Council, though, according to the latest census, the city's population is virtually half Latino. Diaz recently won re-election for a second term on the council, so she will be running for mayor from a safe seat. She said she’s ready to challenge Mayor Sam Abed for the top spot in 2014. Pregnant Anti-War Soldier Sent to Prison Archie Bunker's Editorial on Gun Control
From the "All in the Family" Season 3 premiere, entitled (appropriately) "Archie and the Editorial." It aired over 40 years ago. LIE-bury Accomplished - Disasterpiece Theater SD Coalition demands recognition of Manning. Rhode Is. legalizes gay marriage Syria's rivals both condemn Israel's bombing raid Protesters against DRONE killings shut down road
Beale Air Force Base Anti-Drone Blockade 2 on April 30, 2013 -- Hundreds of cars from all directions are prevented from entering Beale AFB in Marysville, CA on Tuesday, April 30, 2013 from about 6:45 a.m. through 8 a.m. as part of an anti-drone protest. Five people were eventually arrested for trespassing on federal property and later released. The misdemeanor charges will be heard in U.S. Court in Sacramento. Catholic school fires gay teacher outed in obit Cartoons of the Week Obama, the negotiator24-hour Cable NewsUnions & the Middle ClassObama plays poker with GOP Will Obama read Eduardo Galeano's new book? Obama blacklists India for selling cheap med.drugs 'Wet areas will get wetter, dry areas get drier' Banks Rail Against Strict Controls of Foreign Bets Tell Congress: Hypocrisy: Vietnam vs. Boston Bombs Is Rush Limbaugh about to be fired? Ellsberg to march for Bradley Manning at SF Pride
Apr 29, 2013 -- Vietnam War whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg speaks at the protest of San Francisco Gay Pride's decision to revoke the previous choice of Bradley Manning as an Honorary Grand Marshal of its 2013 parade. "Bradley Manning did not harm or place in harms way a single serviceman", stated Ellsberg, who proclaimed his total support for Manning. It was Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz who placed our solders in harm's way, declared Ellsberg, age 82, will be marching to support the honor, patriotism, courage and integrity of the young soldier. The imperious retraction of the selection of Manning has created a virulent backlash against the new conservative board leadership. US soldier account of Apache helicopter War crime
EYEWITNESS Account: - U.S. Soldier Ethan McCord speaking about the civilian massacre documented in WikiLeaks's April 2010 video disclosure of Apache helicopter footage of a New Baghdad attack that took place in 2007, allegedly released by PFC Brad Manning. McCord's story was delivered to attendees of the United National Peace Conference, which took place in Albany NY the weekend of July 23-25, 2010. PFC Manning - Aiding the enemy or American public?
If Pfc. Bradley Manning is convicted of 'aiding the enemy,' it could be the end of whistleblowing as we know it in the United States Armed Forces. This video, entitled "Aiding the Enemy," is to raise awareness of the dangers posed to the American public by leveling this charge at Bradley Manning, and recruit people to our campaign urging Major General Michael Linnington to drop the charge immediately. Manning written testimony Feb. 2013: "The dehumanized the individuals they were engaging and seemed to not value human life by referring to them as quote “dead bastards” unquote and congratulating each other on the ability to kill in large numbers. At one point in the video there is an individual on the ground attempting to crawl to safety. The individual is seriously wounded. Instead of calling for medical attention to the location, one of the aerial weapons team crew members verbally asks for the wounded person to pick up a weapon so that he can have a reason to engage. For me, this seems similar to a child torturing ants with a magnifying glass. While saddened by the aerial weapons team crew’s lack of concern about human life, I was disturbed by the response of the discovery of injured children at the scene. In the video, you can see that the bongo truck driving up to assist the wounded individual. In response the aerial weapons team crew — as soon as the individuals are a threat, they repeatedly request for authorization to fire on the bongo truck and once granted they engage the vehicle at least six times. Shortly after the second engagement, a mechanized infantry unit arrives at the scene. Within minutes, the aerial weapons team crew learns that children were in the van and despite the injuries the crew exhibits no remorse. Instead, they downplay the significance of their actions, saying quote "Well, it's their fault for bringing their kids into a battle" unquote. -- The aerial weapons team crew members sound like they lack sympathy for the children or the parents. Later in a particularly disturbing manner, the aerial weapons team verbalizes enjoyment at the sight of one of the ground vehicles driving over a body -- or one of the bodies." The video that will never be show in Bush Library
"So What If The Guy Threw a Shoe At Me?" -- Bush ducks attack of 2 shoes and then tried to act like he knows what he is talking about. Very funny! -- An Iraqi journalist threw two shoes at President George W. Bush at a News Conference during his surprise visit to Iraq today. The president ducked and the size 10's missed. Among Muslims, throwing shoes at someone, or sitting so that the bottom of a shoe faces another person, is considered an insult. Is this video shown in the new Bush Library? Lesbian teacher fired by bishop
Carla Hale, a teacher in Clintonville, Ohio, was fired just days after an anonymous parent informed the school that her partner's name had appeared in her mother's obituary. Update- April 24, Hale's grievance has been denied. According to a contract between the Columbus diocese and the Central Ohio Association of Catholic Educators, teachers can be terminated for "immorality" or "serious unethical conduct." Editorial comment:CONFUSED THEOLOGY: So the Catholic "god" created Carla Hale as a lesbian woman, but the bishop contends she should be fired for the way god created her." Christian passengr breaks jaw of Muslim cab driver
Muslim Cab Driver Beaten Mohamed Salim Accused Of Being A Terrorist Caught On Tape. An American taxi driver, who served in the Iraq war, suffered a broken jaw after he was accused of being a terrorist, The Washington Post reports. Mohamed A. Salim told the newspaper he had picked up a passenger at a country club in Northern Virginia, and was promptly accused of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing 11 days earlier. "Because I'm a Muslim, he treated me like a piece of trash," Salim said. "I love this country. I didn't deserve this." According to the New York Daily News, Salim captured video from the incident on his cellphone. A man can be heard in the audio, calling the driver a "f---ing Muslim terrorist just like the rest of them." "Your Bible, your Torah, whatever the f--- it is, says you must kill Christians," the man continues. "If you're a f---ing Muslim, flying jets into the World Trade Center, then f--- you! I will slice your f---ing throat right now!" Near the recording's conclusion, Salim asked, "Why are you punching me? Sir, why are you punching me?" His passenger replied simply, "Because you're a s--t Muslim." Ed Dahlberg of Clifton, Virginia has been charged with misdemeanor assault. The Coolest Dog in Southern California
Southern California is the coolest place in the world, and the coolest dog here loves surfing, skateboarding and "hanging ten". This is A really FUN video -- only in Southern California! 30,000 spy drone in the sky over America
30,000 Drones Over America! Obama's Weaponized Police State! 2012. Nobody can feel safe in his own back yard any more. The police can spy on you for any spiteful or vengeful reason, even for political or financial advantages. Police launch unprecedented on privacy of our citizens. Manning Video:American troops slaughter civilians
Army intel analyst Bradley Manning faces decades in prison for allegedly leaking this video of a U.S. helicopter attack killing 11 civilians and wounding two children in Baghdad, Iraq. The Army covered up the evidence and declared the war crime "justified". Now they say that exposing the massacre is criminal. INFO CLICK HERE: Arrested For Drinking Iced Tea in North Carolina
A recent YouTube video captured an overzealous security guard accusing a 24-year-old man of drinking alcohol in the parking lot of a liquor store, and then subsequently arresting him. The kicker, of course, was that the 24-year-old was only drinking Arizona brand Half and Half Iced Tea. -- As rapper Xstrav (Xstravagant), AKA Christopher Beatty, and his friend Tony Brown waited for their friend in the parking lot of the Cumberland County ABC Liquor Store in Fayetteville, North Carolina, an alleged plainclothes officer walked up to them demanding to know what Beatty was drinking. -- Naturally, Beatty was taken aback by the seemingly normal man approaching him and asking to inspect his drink. He held the can at arm’s length, allowing the man, who merely identified himself as “police” verbally, to read the label, but refused to allow the strange man to hold (or sip) the drink. -- The man, professing to be a police officer, next asks Beatty to leave the property for trespassing, even though Beatty explained he was there in the parking lot waiting to make a future purchase. = The video clearly shows the supposed undercover officer did not immediately identify himself as a policeman before he began questioning Beatty, and only quickly flashes what may be a badge three seconds before he demands the man put his hands on the trunk of his own car. -- (This article was originally posted by Adan Salazar at Infowars.com on May 2, 2013. Video credit goes to YouTube user Tony Light.) Anti-Drone Protest, General Atomics Poway
San Diego Veterans for Peace lead the anti-Drone protest at General Atomics in Poway. San Diego is the largest drone manufacturing center in the Nation. Deadly drones are used by the U.S. to assassinate without due process anyone designated by the president as "an enemy of the state". The U.S. has killed hundreds of innocent children and women as "collateral damage" in these strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. Big Brother in the sky is really BIG-G-G-G!
This is the high resolution camera that is carried in drones. The government will not confirm. From 17,000 feet above, ARGUS sees and records everything, even the flight of birds, walking pedestrians, which stall you parked your car in. It can surveil an entire city at one time, 24 hours a day, every day. It is mounted on the Predator Drone, manufactured here in San Diego County. Late-breaking news: This just in ...
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This Memorial Day (May 28) we must remember those leaders who lied to us and the dead soldiers, enticing them into war to enrich the Military Industrial Congressional comples. It is time for Christians to slay the golden calf of the military. Christians should stop joining the military. They should stop encouraging their young men to enlist. They should stop being military chaplains and medics. American churches must be demilitarized.
Quarry Creek Project Draws Legal Challenges
News
Preserve Calavera's first legal challenge to building 656 units at Quarry Creek was submitted the first week in May, with more to come. Unfortunately money drove the decision to approve this project, and more money will be needed to challenge that decision and achieve a compromise that works. Your tax deductible donations will keep them in the fight, for as long as it takes! To donate online: http://preservecalavera.org -by Diane Nygaard
A CA hillside flows with the pain, tears of War
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MEMORIAL DAY is every day on a hillside in this northern California town of Lafayette, crowded with a giant field of crosses, one for every American soldier killed in our occupation of Iraq. One of crosses includes the name of Cindy Sheehan's son, Casey, an early fatality. This slide show is set to the passionate song "Memorial Day" written and performed by Laura Zucker of Lafayette (www.laurazucker.com/). The compilation of photos put to music is by Ko Blix of Berkeley, California (http://gallery.me.com/kofotofactory). With photo contributions by Chris Donton, Lynn MacMichaels and others.
Manning Video:American troops slaughter civilians
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Army intel analyst Bradley Manning faces decades in prison for allegedly leaking this video of a U.S. helicopter attack killing 11 civilians and wounding two children in Baghdad, Iraq. The Army covered up the evidence and declared the war crime "justified". Now they say that exposing the massacre is criminal.
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Arlington West - Memorial to our dead soldiers
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Independence Day, July 4. View this short film. Remember our dead from the two present wars. Please honor the living vets. Invite one out to dinner. At least thank one for their service. May there be no more wars.
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