REMEMBERING THE DEAD TODAY AND THE LIVES THEY SAVED

Today is the 65th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy. I'm 40 years old, so as I grew up in my home in Chicago, when my parents referred to "The War" it was World War 2, not Vietnam or Korea.

The invasion of Normandy was the largest sea assault of its time. A massive air assault took place just before the sea invasion began. According to Wikipedia, 160,000 troops landed that day on the Normandy beaches in France. The numbers are staggering, and although I have not been able to back up his claim, my father told me that the life expectancy of a soldier landing on those beaches was five minutes.

These troops fought and died to battle the hideous ideas of Fascism and Nazism. It was a just war, one of necessity as opposed to choice.

I visited Europe when I was in third grade, but I did not visit the cemetery at Normandy (the American Cemetery at Normandy is pictured.) Thousands upon thousands of Christian Crosses and Stars of David, (forgive my ignorance but I am unaware if there are any Crescents of Islam) stand eternally at attention, marking the graves of Americans that are interred in France, never to be returned to their home soil of the United States. Rarely did I see my dad choked with emotion, but upon seeing the row after row after row of graves, I believe for a time he actually was human.

Reflecting upon the war we are in right now, not the foolish "war on terror" but the real combat situation in Iraq, I have to ask...why?

So, on this anniversary of D-Day, I give a somber thanks to those that fought and died and those that were maimed both physically and mentally to make damn sure we could live in a vastly freer society than Hitler, Hirohito, and Mussolini envisioned.

Peace, Searchers...

image credit

ISRAEL INVADES GAZA

The conflict in Israel/Gaza is major news but a post on The Field Negro, "The Lost Boys", caught my attention. I am in no way an isolationist, and my views regarding Israel have changed somewhat. At any rate, we have got to focus on the United States and reverse the trend of Right Wing policies that have lead to greater poverty, despair, homelessness, hopelessness, and death not only in the U.S., but across the globe. Here is a portion:

"It's funny, at a time when most of you are outraged at
Israeli aggression in the Middle East, which has unfortunately caused innocent
civilians to lose their lives. Right here in your own country young boys who
look like you are losing their lives to the streets, and some of you don't seem
to give a damn. You are passionate about human rights in the "Holy Land" but not
about the right of our children to live past 21 here at home. Thanks to the
policies of the right; social programs, local police and juvenile crime
prevention programs, and other key local government programs geared to help keep
kids off the mean streets, have been cut. So while the frat boy was keeping us
safe from Al-Qaeda, he forgot to protect our children from each other, and from
the killing fields of urban A-merry-ca."

Very interesting insight. Let us reverse the trend of destruction to our middle class and poor.
Peace-

SEARCHERS: IT IS TIME TO PAY ATTENTION TO THIS PROFESSOR'S BLOG:

http://www.ridwanlaher.blogspot.com/

This is a scholar that helped enlightened me at Portland State University, and one I hold in extreme regard: Ridwan Laher

Britain's the House of Lords has overturned
a lower court ruling that would have allowed displaced Chagossian people to
return to their homes in the Indian Ocean archipelago.Hengride
Permel, who represents the Chagos Islands Community Association, said the
Britain missed "a chance ... to right a wrong ... it is a shameful day for the
government."The
Chagos Islanders plight to return is hardly covered in the mainstream media. It
is a story of brutal imperialism and war mongering that implicates Britain, and
of course, the United States.In the 1960s and 1970s Britain used force to remove
the Chagossian people from their homes in and around the largest Chagos Island
called Diego Garcia. The move came after Britain leased Diego Garcia to the US.
Britain also allowed the US to build a navy and air base.The vast majority of
displaced Chagossians were settled into slums in Mauritius.In 2007 the British
High Court ruled that the Chagossian people were wrongfully expelled and
that they should have the right to return.Today's House of Lords decision, the
highest court of appeal in Britain, sets the High Court decision aside.The
decision was in large part based on the British government's argument that the
right of return would bridge security because the US uses Diego Garcia to launch
military operations to Iraq and Afghanistan.The House of Lords decision confirms
that Britain (along with the US) have condemned the Chagossian people to
permanent and inhumane exile.See "Stealing a
Nation, A Special Report by John Pilger" (2006) for critical background
coverage. Also, you can get more information from the UK Chagos Support
Association.Onward!Picture Credit
Posted by Ridwan at 7:41 PM 3
comments
Monday,
October 20, 2008

Peace-
Mike

WATCH OUT WORLD THE U.S. IS COMING!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/washington/11policy.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

The New York Times 9-11-08

BUSH SAID TO GIVE ORDERS ALLOWING RAIDS IN PAKISTAN
STRATEGY SHIFT IN JULY
Now, Special Forces May Act Without Seeking Ally's Approval

Special Forces is the military, right? If European countries think they are immune from the insanity of Bush and the right wing warmongers, they are sorely mistaken. The United States has reserved the right to attack anyone, any nation it feels may be doing anything against the interests of the U.S. This means companies, people, military. Any nation or people that stands in the way of the U.S. will be crushed. If McPalin get elected, things will be far worse.

So much for freedom and democracy. Let's get the lunatic right wing out that we have tolerated for the past quarter century and be a real beacon of hope across this planet.

FREE AT LAST FREE AT LAST! OR AT LEAST I'M WORKING ON IT...

I posted this comment on an Alaskan Blog.* As my experience with the Charismatic churches, the intolerance, hate, fear, contempt for those less fortunate, is coming un- suppressed I am expressing it periodically here:

As a man heavily involved with these types of churches, and as a man that has been finally able to cast off the cult-like oppression, I can say with some authority that Palin is a compassion-less right winger that has no interests but her own to further. Religion and politics as well as the Gov't of the US must all be subject to the Evangelical/Charismatic movement.

Edward Abbey was correct when he declared: "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." The ultimate goal for these agents of intolerance, evangelicals and charismatics, is a "Christian Nation" one which at best rejects those who don't believe and at worse subjugates them.

We have real issues at hand, such as soldiers committing suicide and living on the streets, health care, EDUCATION, but these right wingers would have you believe that if you're poor you're cursed, (see family curse theology), if you're rich you're blessed (unless you're an "unbeliever" then "the devil" gave it to you...)and all others can fall by the wayside and beg for crumbs. If this administration, that is McPalin, is installed in Washington, D.C., revolution will be closer than ever. I pasted this comment to my blog, mikesearches.blogspot.com. I'm reliving my experiences as they come back. One of my favorite lines in these churches is: "It's of the Devil!" That can apply to care bears, cabbage patch kids, my little pony, soda, t.v., movies, cars, alcohol, pants on women,beards on men,(despite the fact that Jesus' beard was "plucked"), short sleeves on men or women, drugs, as longs as the drugs aren't prescribed by a doctor, however, in some of these cults, like the UPCI, (United Pentecostal Church International) doctors are "of the devil" as well...(like in Brother Bill Gray's church in Pocahontas AR a members' daughter was born with severe birth defects as a result of oxygen depletion while in the birth canal, because the parents refused to involve a doctor or hospital in her birth because this would in some way reflect on their level of faith in the LORD) , some sex...(wink, wink)but surprisingly, NOT FOOD! Yes food is the ultimate payback on this planet for so much sacrificing for the LORD! In our church in Pocahontas, after a fast you better stay the hell away from the ro-tel cheese dip vat or you're gonna get stabbed!

The things I write are true. This is just the beginning. We are in for real trouble, war and revolution if these two yo-yo's are elected.

More to come...

*shannynmoore.wordpress.com- link below

http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/would-jesus-vote-for-palin/#comments

Hurricanes, Barracudas, and Christianity

I'm watching CNN. The weather report is regarding Hurricane Ike that is about to slam into Cuba. It is already hitting Haiti, I think, and is on its way to Cuba. Haiti just got through dealing with Gustav that created quite a bit of damage and death.

Watching the footage of people fleeing to higher ground in Haiti, I am struck by the living conditions between Haiti and the U.S.

Enter a memory triggered.

When I went to a church much like Sarah Palin goes to currently, I remember the Pastor talking about Haiti and the extreme poverty there.
He taught along the lines of generational curses. Generational curses have become popular in the charismatic churches, the teaching basically goes like this: At some point in your (insert either family, country, wife's family), history, someone did something that God didn't like and a curse was place on your family, but it is laid at your feet: you allowed a Demon in and it has total influence over your mind and actions. According to their doctrine, a demon now has control over your family and that grip of demonic power has to be broken. Usually by a pastor or someone in the hierarchy of the church, or by direction, a large group of people will gather around you and lay hands on you and begin to scream "rebukes to the Devil". It is a good way of keeping the gullible attending.

So to sum it up, regarding Haiti, at some point in its history, some people went to the top of a mountain in Haiti and sacrificed a pig to the devil and that is why Haiti has so many problems. The congregants were instructed to pray and break that generational curse against the island and it's people, to break the demonic hold on the island.

Of course, (in the minds of the congregants), the oppression on the island has nothing to do with greater world powers exploiting and oppressing the people, and it certainly would have nothing to do with Anglo America.

One of the frightening things about a lot of these people in the right-wing Evangelical movement is their lack of education, their fear of others, and their closed minds. As well as their guns.

On the other hand, I know considerable amounts of people in these churches with advanced degrees and money but are just as gullible and xenophobic as their less educated counterparts, whom they look down on,(and the less educated envy the other and so on and on it goes.)

It goes farther. This generational curse crap is also used to explain why people in the US of African decent are poor and oppressed. It is taught that the oppression is spiritual rather than physical, that is by whites or the white government, and in order to prosper like the so-called mainstream you must accept Jesus, you must be baptized, you must interpret the Bible as it is taught by X,Y,Z church.

Blacks in the US, it is taught in these churches, have curses placed upon them because of their ancestors in Africa practicing their native religion. In other words, they are DESTINED, according to evangelicals, for poverty, strife, sickness and disease because of what their fore-people practiced spiritually, despite the christian doctrine and Jesus preaching that believing on him would set you free. It is a ploy to divide, oppress, and dominate. As well as create fear among people that "This could happen to you." It plays into long-simmering racial feuds as well as other issues.

This is another example of oppressive Christianity, (not Jesus' Christianity) as well as the ridiculous nonsense of pre-destination, or pre-ordaining of a certain people, usually white Anglo right-wing christians. Again. This is NOTHING like the real teachings of Jesus.

As time goes by I am going to search my past to articulate what I learned in these right-wing evangelical churches. Their doctrines are largely the same, and they are quite radical. Senator John McCain NOT Candidate McCain said it right when he called them (evangelicals) the "Agents of Intolerance". This is who Sarah Palin is in regards to her religion. I am well versed in the cult like hold the evangelicals have on their followers, and I know how easy it is for the same to ostracize, humiliate, embarrass, or punish individuals for perceived transgressions, or violation of their dress codes, etc.

Keep Palin out of the White House!

PEOPLE TALKING WAR

http://http//www.mg.co.za/article/2008-06-25-guards-say-us-to-face-tragedy-if-it-hits-iran




The above link is to an article in The Guardian. I shudder at the thought of nations talking of war with Iran. I read an article the other day that described the EU tightening sanctions against Iran. At the begining of Bush's Presidency I supported him in the drum beats to war with Iraq. Of course, I believed what the government told me about WMD in Iraq, and they had me convinced that it was a good idea.




But this idea of going to war with Iran is crazy. Haven't we lost enough children in the war with Iraq? Must we make war upon every country that we disagree with? Look at the ticker on the right side of my blog. This is the number of Iraqis dead, that is dead-never coming back. Never. Babies whose lives are over because the US government was hell bent on taking down Saddam. George Bush in particular, but the VP is to blame, Powell, Rice, Wolfowitz...just to name a few.





And now Bush is talking war with Iran, using some 0f the same rhetoric he used to go to war with Iraq. Making comments like, "the choice is theirs" and the like. Treating a sovereign nation as though they were children. I think it would be a terrible mistake if we launched a war against Iran currently, and the thought of getting into a ground war with Iran is out there as well.





We have to think about the issues at home rather than continue to feed the ravenous war machine that the "war on terror" has created. The war profiteers are champing at the bit to get into Iran, it would mean billions more for their companies. Billions more funded by the Federal government. Money that could be better spent on education, health and the welfare of the people.





It is time to put and end to this madness.


Surely George Bush doesn't have enough time left in his term to actually get us into a full war with Iran.