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Archive for the ‘Philosophy’ Category
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
smith relaying his dream to Lady this morning:
it was a big old house, many many floors. all the people had been turned against each other, so they were misusing each other, abusing each other. and we convinced them to work together.
one bad guy even apologized to the rest of us for bullying. then the people who had turned everybody against each other–the controllers–came, and we pretended that it was discordant like before, and we fooled them.
but somebody had left a note on the banister on one of the stairwells that would have given us away. the bad people stopped by and were checking us out. we fooled them; they thought everything was normal.
but they were walking up the stairs and we were afraid they were going to see the note and find out, and that’s when I woke up. it’s the wake up dreams you remember the easiest.
- smith & Lady
Personal disclaimer by Lady: I do not believe that bad people exist. I believe that the situations have sometimes been such that we sometimes have perceived some people as bad.
Tags: awakenings, complexity, coordination, dreams, teamwork
Posted in Conversations, couples, Creative Writing, dreams, ethics, Family, Letters to the Universe, On Writing, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Relationships, smith & Lady, techno, writing, zen | No Comments »
Saturday, December 10th, 2011
This is the letter I emailed Carlos Slim Helu today. According to Forbes, his family’s monetary wealth is estimated to be 74 billion dollars.
Dear Mr. Helu:
It has recently come to my attention that you and your family have the most monetary wealth in the world. I refer to a web page that I see on Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/wealth/billionaires/list.
I see that you are from Mexico. I have read that there are a lot of financial problems in Mexico. We are from the United States. My husband and I lived in Mexico for 18 months, and just like the United States, I see that there are people who are begging in the streets for money. In Mexico, there are also children who beg for money. Some children suffer from malnourishment as well. When we visited there we met a teenager who had suffered such that her hair, which was supposed to be black, had portions in it that were brittle and pale.
Seventy-four billion dollars is more than enough money for you and your family. I have a proposal for you and your family. I would like you to donate the excess money you have–like roughly seventy-three billion dollars and a half–to people who have suffered from poverty in Mexico. I am sure many people will be appreciative of this and this will make your life and your family’s lives much more happy.
I think it will also be good to reject NAFTA as I have heard first hand from people that this has harmed them–both in Mexico and in the United States. It especially impacted the cost of tortillas.
Can you please help with this issue?
Peace,
Lady
. . .
Contact information – Mr. Carlos Slim Helu:
Telefonos de Mexico, S.A. de C.V.
Consejo de Administración
c/o Carlos Slim Helu, Presidente Honorario Vitalicio
Parque Via 198
Oficina 701
Colonia Cuauhtemoc
06599 Mexico, D.F.
Mexico
–
Phone: +52-55-5703-3990
Fax: +52-55-5545-5550
E-Mail: ri@telmex.com
Posted in activism, Lady, Letters to the Universe, Mexico, Peace, Philosophy, spirituality | No Comments »
Sunday, November 6th, 2011
Me by she – foto by Lady K
In Throe of Woe
Well, well, well, what haven’t we here?
How goes your daily throes?
Mine clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags.
I keep trying, but I doubt I’ll ever get it right,
this needed balance twixt good in strive and bad in whirl,
reaching Zen goal of happy life in unhappy world.
The Buddhists teach letting go of attachment
is the secret to ending suffering
because wanting is suffering born.
But wife, cat, friends are all appendages
my life would be lessened without
thus see wobbly road ahead
in reaching this Zen then
as my lane of life loops on itself
in look and like and love.
So no final scene, no play over,
just walking the wheel
until my why’s rubbed raw
my energy moves on
as body slips past in endless sleep.
Until then, gotta keep on fluxing
(as they almost used to say).
Or is that flexing?
Both.
— Smith, 11-6-2011
(This poem was massaged from a paragraph in last month’s blog, for those whose brains tingle in deja voodoo.)
Looking for the light – foto by Smith
Posted in Being, life, Philosophy, Photography, Poetry, zen | 1 Comment »
Friday, October 21st, 2011
Dear Friends New and Old, Family, Artists & Poets…
On behalf of the spirit of compassion, kindness, unity (yet with infinite individual voices), I ask for your help (via direct participation, spreading the word, and/or thinking and meditating) on three events pertaining to two seemingly distinct movements:
1) The Climate Issue, especially at this moment the Keystone XL Pipeline(stopping the building of and very soon, the extraction of oil from tar sands).March and Rally Sunday, 1 pm, starting at CSU.
And please, there’s this event Monday from 6-9 pm near Case Western to help people understand nonviolent civil disobedience (the event Sunday probably does not involve civil disobedience). Even if not planning civil disobedience in the future, if you have a friend or family member who might be, this training is useful because people who do participate in civil disobedience benefit from having help if they are incarcerated.
2) The #OccupyCleveland movement today and/or tonight, Friday, Oct. 21.
Please Occupy Today and/or Tonight. Occuping Tonight helps, as the “permit” for using Public Space is being expired by people who have no actual authority to expire it, as all space is Public Space, particularly Public Square. There is a group of overnight occupiers who need our support as there is the possibility that they might be arrested tonight for civil disobedience. Main events start at 1 p.m. and include food, music, and speakers. At 10 p.m. the curfew at Public Square starts.
And if you are not able to Occupy Public Square tonight (like me), then Occupy Today. And if you are not able to be seemingly physically present in Public Square today, please spread Word. And if you are too shy to spread Word, please think kindly about everyone on the planet.
A value of the Occupy Movement is that it tends to maintain a visible, persistent presence of concern. The people who are actively participating in this presence ask for time and for consideration of the complexity of this unity in which we live. I ask on behalf of you as my friends and acquaintances to please understand that we who identify immediately with the Occupy Movement and who are working for it are working with two main ideals of process which might seem to at first to be opposing poles. The two main ideals of process are individuality and unity. The end results desired are happiness, health and sanity. The intermediate vista involves as much kindness as possible while grappling with complexity and seeming contradictions, such as how does one deal with the concepts of unity and class consciousness simultaneously. The bounds are time and practical deadlines of effective thresholds with respect to particular tangible issues the movement can help.
Fundamentally, at a scientific level, all this that “you” see before you is unity–buzzing unity
We can see ourselves not only as margins, but as centers. We are each at the center of a canvas. We are the centers. We are the center of a moving canvas. Our skins are illusions which trap identity temporarily. Skin is just a focal point for movement of temporary persistence. Fundamentally, we are very much interconnected, very much one. Even if talking about spirituality makes one nervous, one must admit that the human animal is a bundle that extends into the air, into the water, that the human bundle is not so much a bundle as a smear of leaf in rain. That the smear is a pigment dot in a pixelist painting. That the smear is related to all the other smears. That if one opens ears and sees with eyes and remembers and perceives, one can see that the wind of sentiment is a universal wind with currents and eddies and turbulence–or maybe even a river. Many metaphors apply.
Having said all this shtuff, I feel that it is our very real responsibility to deal with the news that a person might have been raped by another person while staying overnight last Saturday night.
I believe in the ideal of truth and transparency, and I believe in full disclosure to an ethical threshold based on faith and reason.
I also believe in appealing to a greater understanding of complexity and human frailty.
I ask for compassion and help.
I ask for compassion and help and I have witnessed much compassion on the part of people who are participating daily and nightly in the Occupy Cleveland movement. I visit the overnighters every morning to bring hot water and sometimes food, and to get news for the daily digest as best I can given the complexities of humans.
I’ve witnessed overnight occupiers give homeless people shelter under the main tent so that homeless people can get out of the wind. I’ve witnessed overnight occupiers helping homeless be part of the movement and regain responsibility and participation.
Tonight is Robert Ritchie a.k.a. Dickhead’s celebration of life service. Smith and I are attending. Robert Ritchie was a friend of Daniel Thompson. Daniel Thompson was intimately involved in humanitarian issues and grappled with complexity. There are metaphors that apply to this situation–some themes: involvement, passion, heart, complexity and simplicity, and life and death. LIVE!
I ask you all, poets and artists, to be part of this movement in a very tangible way. LIVE!
Poets and artists are part of the divine, and a tradition of the divine, and a tradition of being carrier waves and ways of change. Be part of this voice and action, and understand it, and grapple with complexity. LIVE!
This is my personal appeal on behalf of the universal and immediate.
Peace and much love,
Lady
Tags: #OccupyCleveland, cleveland, Cleveland Tar Sands Action, nonviolent civil disobedience, Occupy Wall Street, stop Keystone XL Pipeline
Posted in activism, dreams, Environment, ethics, Events, Family, Lady, Letters to the Universe, On Writing, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Politics, Relationships, spirituality | No Comments »
Sunday, October 9th, 2011
This is a reposting of information compiled by ironboltbruce (he said anyone can repost). He’s mentioned this list of 15 issues that the Occupy Movement has created and has had a creative, personalized take on each of the issues. Am very glad to see this kind of thinking and would like us to think locally in addition to nationally and globally. So I’d like to create my own take on the issues following his example (coming soon). But meanwhile, here’s what he’s said:
The steering committee of the “October 2011 Movement” – the patriots presently occupying Freedom Plaza in Washington DC – published a summary of the 15 issues which are the focus of their protest here:
http://october2011.org/issues
ISSUE #1. “Corporatism – firmly establish that money is not speech, corporations are not people, only people have Constitutional rights, end corporate influence over the political process, protect people and the environment from damage by corporations.”
Article: Corporatism: “Sold Glory”, the U.S. Flag After Citizens United v. FEC (g1a2d0009c1)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ironboltbruce-corporatism
Image: http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/images/Sold_Glory.jpg
Video: http://www.hulu.com/watch/118169/the-corporation
ISSUE #2. “Wars and Militarism – end wars and occupations, end private for-profit military contractors, reduce the national security state and end the weapons export industry. War crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace must be addressed and those responsible held accountable under international law.”
Article: Wars & Militarism: The Real Cause of the Debt Crisis (g1a2d0006c1)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ironboltbruce-wars
Image: http://ironboltbruce.files.wordpress.co … doggle.jpg
Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid … 421983682#
ISSUE #3. “Human Rights – end exploitation of people in the US and abroad, end discrimination in all forms, equal civil rights and due process for all people.”
Article: Human Rights: No Flame Burns Hotter Than A Human Torch (g1a2d0012c1)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ironboltbruce-humanrights
Image: http://images.democracyreview.com/Tunis … uazizi.png
Video: http://www.hulu.com/watch/151119/the-end-of-poverty
ISSUE #4. “Worker Rights and jobs – all working-age people have the right to safe, just, non-discriminatory and dignified working conditions, a sustainable living wage, paid leave and economic protection.”
Article: U.S. Corporations Firing At Home While Hiring Abroad (g1a2d0016c1)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ironboltbruce-jobs
Image: http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/images/ … n_Jobs.jpg
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2em1x2j9-o
ISSUE #5. “Government – all processes of the three branches of government should be accountable to international law, transparent and follow the rule of law, people have the right to participate in decisions which affect them.”
Article: Government: The Kleptocracy and You (g1a2d0007c1)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ironboltbruce-government
Image: http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/images/ … nd_You.jpg
Video: http://vforvendetta.warnerbros.com/
ISSUE #6. “Elections – all citizens 18 and older have the right to vote without barriers, all candidates have the right to be heard and to run and all votes should be counted.”
Article: Elections: Vote All You Want. The Flight Plan Doesn’t Change. (g1a2d0011c1)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ironboltbruce-elections
Image: http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/images/ … e_bird.jpg
Video: http://www.hulu.com/watch/177439/peace
ISSUE #7. “Criminal justice and prisons – end private for-profit prisons, adopt evidence-based drug policy, prisoners have the right to humane and just conditions with a focus on rehabilitation and reintegration into society, abolish the death penalty.”
Article: Prison for Profit: CCA, GEO et al Put Revenues Ahead of Rehabilitation (g1a2d0018c1)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ironboltbruce-prisons
Image: http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/images/ … omplex.jpg
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHVu4ZD9XQE
ISSUE #8. “Healthcare – create a national, universal and publicly financed comprehensive health system.”
Article: Healthcare in America: Who’s Paying Who? And Who’s Getting What? (g1a2d0014c1)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ironboltbruce-healthcare
Image: http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/images/Big_Pharma.jpg
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKP_ISD3rvQ
ISSUE #9. “Education – all people have the right to a high quality, publicly-funded and broad education from pre-school through vocational training or university.”
Article: Students Drown in Debt as Predatory Lenders Bank Billions (g1a2d0017c1)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ironboltbruce-education
Image: http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/images/ … ending.jpg
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZtX32sKVE
ISSUE #10. “Housing – all people have the right to affordable and safe housing.”
Article: HAMP Disaster Shows U.S. Treasury is “Fully Captured by the Big Banks” (g1a2d0021c1)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ironboltbruce-housing
Image: http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/images/ … schild.jpg
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXt1cayx0hs
ISSUE #11. “Environment – adopt policies which effectively create a carbon-free and radio-active free energy economy and that respects the rights of nature.”
Article: The General Electric Company (“GE”): Misinformation at Work (g1a2d0020c1)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ironboltbruce-environment
Image: http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/images/ … t_Work.jpg
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf0khstYDLA
ISSUE #12. “Finance and the economy – end policies which foster a wealth divide and move to a localized and democratic financial system, reform taxes so that they are progressive and provide goods, monetary gain and services for the people.”
Article: Finance & The Economy: A Kleptocracy Tutorial Video in 12 Parts (g1a2d0008c1)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ironboltbruce-finance
Image: http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/images/ … System.gif
Video: http://www.hulu.com/watch/235716/trading-on-thin-air
ISSUE #13. “Media – airwaves and the internet are public goods, require that media be honest, accurate and accountable to the people.”
Article: Media: Only Part of What We See is Real, Only Part of What is Real We See (g1a2d0010c1)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ironboltbruce-media
Image: http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/images/Psywar.jpg
Video: http://www.openfilm.com/videos/psywar
ISSUE #14. “Food and water – create systems that protect the land and water, create local and sustainable food networks and practices.”
Article: Mighty Monsanto, King Corn & The End of Family Farms (g1a2d0015c1)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ironboltbruce-food
Image: http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/images/Monsanto.jpg
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH4OwBYDQe8
ISSUE #15. “Transportation – provide affordable, clean and convenient public transportation and safe spaces for pedestrian and non-automobile travel.”
Article: Gasholes: Every Oil Shortage/Crisis/War Could Have Been Averted (g1a2d0019c1)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ironboltbruce-transportation
Image: http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/images/Gashole.jpg
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVzJhlvtDms
###
LABELS (A POEM OF PROTEST)
“Democrat”, “Republican”,
The parties of the system;
Puppets both, for sale their votes,
No character or wisdom.
“Liberal”, “Conservative”,
For change or status quo?
Pick either one, the change is none,
All charlatans and whores.
Far “Left” we place the Anarchists,
Libertarians claim far “Right”;
Yet both decry the government:
False continuum brought to light.
For oil, “We” bomb their mud huts,
Strip them bare, then offer “Aid”;
And fake their retribution as
Pretext–a false flag raised.
Unarmed hundred thousands killed
By weapons of “Defense”,
While rights are lost for “Freedom” sake–
On profit, all depends.
With stroke of pen, the “Patriot” Act,
And patriots’ gifts are taken;
Then “Citizens United” leaves
Our citizens forsaken.
We protest loss of liberties,
Put “World Wide Web” to use;
Cloudmark Authority censors us
For “messaging abuse”.
They label us to finger-point,
With labels, “They” deride us;
Their labels keep us all at bay,
For with labels, “They” divide us.
IronBoltBruce
###
JOIN THE GLOBAL REVOLUTION!
Occupy Wall Street:
http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution
https://occupywallst.org/
Occupy DC:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/october2011
http://october2011.org/
Occupy LA:
http://www.livestream.com/owslosangeles
http://occupylosangeles.org/
Occupy Together:
http://occupytogether.org/
Watch these Videos:
http://tinyurl.com/kleptocracytutorial
Take this Pledge:
http://wp.me/p19dS3-9o
View this Image:
http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/images/ … yranny.jpg
###
PUBLIC NOTICE: No talking heads on Comcast/GE’s NBC/CNBC/MSNBC speak for us. No talking heads on Murdoch’s Faux News speak for us. No talking heads at the Kleptocracy’s Compliant News Network (CNN) speak for us (no matter how dull, deliberate or subtle their delivery). No talking heads in the lamestream media speak for us, period. And neither do ANY of the 537 bought-and-paid-for Kleptocracy puppets in Washington DC who will soon be joining our legions of unemployed!
Posted in activism, america, dreams, Environment, ethics, Events, Food, Healthcare, Letters to the Universe, news, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Politics, Publications | No Comments »
Sunday, September 18th, 2011
Universal Declaration of Human Rights – foto by Smith
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted December 10, 1948 by the General Assembly of the United Nations.
(I’m going to have to come up with a sneaky snappy title for the blog or else no one will even stop by.)
~ ~ ~
These 30 articles (which I’ve posted below) written by fair, thoughtful, moral humans 63 years ago enumerating the universal rights of every single person on earth seem intuitive, logical and self-evident.
Unfortunately I cannot think of a single government or corporation who honor them in spirit or deed.
These words are also serious and numerous without any laugh tracks or applause signs or mind-candy graphics, which means most who need these protections will not read them because they shy from the educative since it is boring.
Too many of us look up the class money chain and salivate with envy while looking down the money class chain with contempt and disgust.
We forget we’re all human, all portions of the great all . . . whatever affects a single human or animal or any portion of the planet affects everything we have and are as well as the very ground upon which we live and the ecosystem from which we seek substance and shelter.
Seems to me we’re all pissing upstream and then complaining about the taste and color of the water we drink downstream.
In the long run, doing right is better for the planet, better for each of us, and actually cheaper over the long haul.
Plus if there is an after-life called Heaven and Hell, most of us are seriously Hell-fluxed for the greedy thoughtless selfish ways we’ve lived, thought and taught because far too many of us accept this current “is” over possible “could” and moral “should”. After all, the “would” IS up to us.
~ ~ ~
ARTICLE 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
ARTICLE 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
ARTICLE 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
ARTICLE 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
ARTICLE 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
ARTICLE 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
ARTICLE 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
ARTICLE 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
ARTICLE 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
ARTICLE 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
ARTICLE 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
ARTICLE 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
ARTICLE 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
ARTICLE 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
ARTICLE 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
ARTICLE 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
ARTICLE 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
ARTICLE 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
ARTICLE 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
ARTICLE 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
ARTICLE 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
ARTICLE 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
ARTICLE 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
ARTICLE 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
ARTICLE 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
ARTICLE 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
ARTICLE 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
ARTICLE 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
Lady confronts Capitalism – foto by Smith
Posted in Being, Philosophy, Politics | 3 Comments »
Saturday, August 6th, 2011
WE HAVE TENTACLES
we have tentacles
extending into the immediate
not only the capsule of skin
tentacles that mix
and throb and meander with
the immediate
innumerable tentacles
innummerable tentacles
permeate into our skins,
our cells
ultimately and immediately
every tentacle
is connected
to every other
tentacle
the thickness of it
is that it is clustered
skin is abstraction
for a bundle of will
a bundle that seems to bump
itself around
eyes, legs, hands, mouth
allow the bundle to move
through the greater mass
it is sticky, the bundle,
pulling itself through this
mother mass
this is what we perceive of
as separation
separation
clumped together again
with gravity…
I pray
and it casts a net of will
tentacles
into this greater mass
of information
I pray
for immediate perception of
connectedness
everything is so simultaneously logical
and illogical, simultaneously banal
and miraculous
the banal part
is mostly the grind of ambition
of getting through the day well
and the miraculous
is the empirical stuff
that I observe “around” me
signs and sounds
it would seem
it should be the opposite
that the mind inside this shell
should be where novelty resides
and everyday sights and sounds
should be not so novel
but I look at our breathing
tail-swagging cat, and hear
the river of traffic outside,
and I know it is an orchestra
and a ballet
and the permeating song
of crickets outside
the lush August sonic carpet
it is thick, This
the carpet of sound
is thick and humid
it is fabric cumming
into my perception
that by handling with mindfulness
I either tune in to
or it tunes in to me…
I focus my ears, my eyes,
my attention and it is a machine
that becomes keener
the volume and quality
pulls itself together
by my tightening attention
Lady
Tags: abstraction, banility, gravity, information, interconnectedness, mindfulness, miracles, novelty, perception, prayer, senses, separation, signs, skin, tentacles, will
Posted in Being, Lady, Letters to the Universe, Philosophy, Poetry, Relationships, spirituality | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011
Sculpt in and feel the shape of will shaping or touching the shape of the future. Using imagination like a flashlight, like a rope, like a sketch, like a lasso, like a definition…
SCULPT IN
Sculpt in and feel the shape
Know the shape of a situation
Know the shape of your will
like a lasso shaping a horse
like a lasso shaping a rider
like a lasso shaping the horse running down a range
like a range coming back into your eyes and
defining your imagination
like the future that is in 4D coming back
and defining your imagination
Imagine that your imagination
is defined by the shape of the future
and know this.
Know that your imagination
has feelers, has feelers
creeping around a curve
that the curve wraps around your head
that your head wraps around your adjacent step
and if you had access to the rewind button
you could go in reverse as well
You could go in reverse by remembering
Your moment’s brain remembers
and defines the past
Your moment’s brain’s imagination
defines the future
The future defines
your moment’s brain’s imagination
Now is a thick thing
Now has the highway
Now has a lasso on your ears
Now has a lasso on the way you are sitting
Now has a lasso on the stationary sofa
Now has a lasso on the thick moving through thick
Imagine you are a rider on your horse
or if you are in a car
the car could be your horse
know that you *are* the car
that contains the human
that you *are* the horse
that carries the human
and that the Earth’s lasso
is sticky and throbbing
that the Earth’s lasso
and gravity and movement is shape
moving through and on and in itself
Lady
Tags: definition, earth, future, horse, lasso, past, shape, will
Posted in Being, Letters to the Universe, Philosophy, Poetry, spirituality | No Comments »
Sunday, July 24th, 2011
Push – foto by Smith
Livin’ Learn
Just cuz it did don’t mean it will
Or if it could, can can’t fulfill
— Smith, 7-24-2011
Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle – foto by Smith
Posted in Philosophy, Photography, Poetry | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
I attended a moveon.org meeting last weekend about the “American Dream” movement they are building. Although associated with Democrats, I think this movement also encompasses progressive ideals. Everyone in the room was concerned about sustainability, the environment, peace, universal health care, good work, etc. Several people were very discouraged with some of the things President Obama has done, so there was a lot of conscientiousness and self-examination in the room.
Here’s some bit of news about the Gang of Six in the Senate: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/20-4
They are trying to raise taxes on us and cut taxes on the rich, and cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. But we aren’t going to let them.
For young people reading this, these things might seem like things that don’t immediately matter or that it is useless, but they do, and there is hope that we can change things. I’ve seen the standard of living deteriorate and expectations deteriorate significantly over the past ten years. It is not unreasonable to see this turn around and become healthier. We have the resources and talent to turn things around. I had the pleasure of seeing a Democrat in Wisconsin get reelected last night after having made phone calls to do this; I’ve seen us raise over a million signatures for putting Ohio’s anti-collective bargaining SB-5 bill on the ballot so we can overturn it when we only needed to raise 230,000… I have been involved in these campaigns and it does help and it does matter.
One of the action items of last week’s meeting moveon.org is to find five friends who will also participate in the movement to a small or large extent. As we are in such a time of flux, I think this is an important opportunity for people to engage and thus am providing this information with the thought that you’ll consider this and participate if you can. You can sign up for some information here: http://ourfuture.org/blog (newsletter signup on the right column of the screen.)
I understand that we live in a fast-paced society, but I think in this time of flux it is especially important to help ensure programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
I think also we’d seen a kind of deterioration in community life over the past twenty years, and now people are rebuilding community with local food movements, poetry, music… and activism is another way to rebuild and heal and socialize. I think that many have felt apathetic, estranged and horrified by the insanity of some of the stuff going on in the political realm. A way through this is to step into it and be part of healing via activism.
Lady
Tags: American Dream, Budget, Congress, Democrats, Medicaid, Medicare, moveon.org, President Obama, republicans, social security
Posted in america, Being, dreams, Environment, ethics, Events, Family, health, Healthcare, Letters to the Universe, news, Philosophy, Relationships, spirituality, Travel Notes, writing | 1 Comment »
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