Twisted Old Eucalyptus Tree

"it's sixty years later
near the hypo-center of the a-bomb
i'm in the middle of hiroshima
watching a twisted old eucalyptus tree wave
one of the very few lives that survived and lives on
remembering the day it was suddenly
thousands of degrees in the shade
and what all of nature gave birth to
terror took in a blinding rey
with the kind of pain
it would take cancer so many years just to say"
~Ani Difranco, Reprieve 2006

I talked to my father this weekend, who had the blessed opportunity (what, I don't say blessed, well I guess I do now) to speak with a man who works with Peace organizing in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East. He told me about all of the problems that are arising from depleted uranium (DU) bullets in Iraq.

This morning I did some of my own research and I read this 30 page online study about the effects of DU. Children are being diagnosed with radiation-caused cancer by the age of 2 (if they don't die from a horrible fallout-induced defect first). I found pictures on the internet of children with their faces mal-shaped, because the shavings given off by DU tipped munitions when fired are hanging in the air. Lung damage is instant, and if exposed to it for any length of time, it can cause genetic mutations in ovum and sperm. Our soldiers are going to come home and give birth to children just like those pictured below.

These are websites with pictures

EDIT: I took these links down because after further research, I found that these particular pictures were being falsely labeled. I apologize!

These websites are targeting what happened in the 90's, but we are still using these bullets, so this will continue to happen.

We cannot possibly rebuild Iraq. We can't expect them to grow their own food or drink the water--it's radioactive and toxic. Our government will refuse to help soldiers who come home and suffer from these same maladies. In the next ten years, American children will be born this way. Our veterans will be suffering from fallout related illness.

I urge you to participate in your local anti-war rallies this coming weekend, which marks the 5th year of this illegal war. Visit United For Peace and find out what is happening in your area this weekend. Other sources, such as Iraq Body Count and the Not in Our Name Project are excellent resources to find out what is happening and what you can do to stop it.

I would be curious to see what you are doing, please, post your actions in a comment on this entry. I am a member of the One Million Blogs for Peace and since then my hit count has gone up, so others can read and be inspired by what you are doing.

Lasting Power of Intent

I was talking on the phone last night to my friend Dennis--this great man I met a few years ago while I was in college. He was talking about a concept, well, more an idea or observation, that he has been obsessed with for a few weeks now. I guess he thought it was like the tape in the The Ring, if he tells me, his burden is lifted.

He tells about how there is a certain beauty in simplicity, in how one note, one word, one action can yield so many results. This, I told him, wasn't exactly news to me--we've been told for years that we need to get back to basics and to free our lives from clutter and complexity. Dennis goes one step farther--saying that it is the intention and purpose behind the simple act that is truly astounding.

Not quite sure what he means, I ask him to clarify. "You play guitar, don't you? Well, that one intentional act of hitting a string results in a simple, singular note. But unless you react, that note continues for some time--and even when it because inaudible, the string still vibrates, right? There you go...now it's not the chaos theory, that crap about a butterfly flapping it's wings in Mexico and a guy in Europe gets a blow job, no. It's about the lasting power of intent."

Okay, so that was as close to verbatim as I could remember, but it's the last sentence that struck me: the lasting power of intent. Does that mean if I mean to do something, as opposed to an accident, that it lasts longer and has more meaning and power? If I were to accidentally set off a nuclear bomb, does that mean less than if I did it on purpose? Does the outcome change? No, the bomb still goes off. Does how the act is viewed change? Perhaps. Does my guilt change? I'm not so sure. One could argue that if I set of the bomb on accident, that it wasn't my fault and I would not be to blame. One could even say that the act itself takes on a different meaning, a tragic meaning, since it was not intended.

And what if it was? Does that mean I am suddenly to blame? I'm not sure---I mean, wouldn't people be ready to blame my religion (or lack thereof?)? How about the current governmental system, or my parents for not seeing the warning signs?

I think Dennis' concept of intent and simplicity struck me, sure. Otherwise I wouldn't have written about it. However, I don't know if we can sit and mull over intent when nothing is being done in the first place.

Levity and a Fundamental Lack of Balance

I was watching the Today show as I was getting ready for work today, a habit of mine that is hard to break since I don't have cable and CNN---so I watch cheesy "faux news" to get my headlines before I reach my computer and get on Democracy Now. I saw that Congress is considering stepping into the Airline industry after the Jet Blue fiasco on the 14th. Jet's Blue's CEO has already instituted a company "Bill of Rights" for it's passengers--and retroactively applying it to those from the 14th. However, the Congress wants to create a legal one spanning the entire industry--basically making a Bill of Rights legal.

My concern, and question, is this: Doesn't the Congress have anything better to do?

We are in an illegal war, the citizens of this country are without health care, food, or shelter. Tax paying citizens are being denied equal rights, and yet our Congress is focused on creating a set of laws protecting those who "have" (ie people who can afford to fly) so they may continue to "have" with as little discomfort as possible.

It's amazing what class structures are doing to this Country. This, as Ani Difranco once put it, fundamental lack of balance, tears resources and potential institutional support away from where it is actually needed the most and puts it in the arms of those who can afford to pay someone to care.

I see this played out in the recent Celebrity events of the weekend--namely Britney Spears. Whatever her real issues may be (most likely not what the media makes them out to be), I see how we devote so much time and energy on the "haves" in our society--suddenly Britney Spears shaves her head and gets more tattoos (BTW, I think she's hot with the buzzcut) and we are concerned---actually, the media tells us we should be concerned. And we are not making it any better by condemning her, telling her she needs help when we don't know her or what's actually going on in her life, but she "has" so to speak, so we care. Meanwhile, the "have nots" are in need of our help and support--this is no secret. We know that people who are staying in a shelter are homeless, we know that people at the food shelf need help to feed themselves and their families---and yet we don't notice--we don't ACT.

So many of us are content to vote every two years and call that citizenry. As if we are completely responsible citizens by marking a piece of paper. And while I think voting is a key part of being a responsible citizen--nigh--human being---there is so much more to democracy that this.

That's what it is, a lack of balance. As my friend Jon said, we are being pulled ragged by gravity (home, work, racism, classism, all the "isms") and what we need to find is levity---a balance for ourselves in this world. And I highly doubt that will happen if we sit still.

Fellow Workers

This is a post from my old personal blog over at Livejournal, but I feel it fits in here much better.

February 7, 2007

I sent in a concerned (albeit academic) letter to the Snickers people about their homophobic Superbowl ad--and good news, they pulled it from any further circulation. That's my tiny triumph for today.

I've been reading a book called The Road to Hell about the San Quentin massacre and the Soledad Brothers case--basically the story of George Jackson and Stephen Bingham. While I couldn't give you a summary that does justice, I find myself frightened, literally, at what we are doing---or yet not doing---in today's politically charged climate. I've been thinking about all these things and wishing--praying--that I could travel back to those times where being American meant action.

What I'm about to say may be what opens up a manila file in the FBI or CIA headquarters with my name on it (but damn that would be cool). Not that I think that highly of myself, but because I think that lowly of our current government.

In the late 60's, J. Edgar Hoover declared the Black Panthers the top threat to National Security--because they were teaching black school children Black Pride songs, such as "Black is Beautiful." They were giving black kids rides to school so these children wouldn't be bullied or worse on public and school buses. They gave poor children free breakfast (and are not given enough credit for being the inspiration behind such programs as Head Start and public schools serving breakfast to students).

The Black Panthers began to see non-violence as a death sentence, a suicide mission. Protesting at sit-ins and marches were indeed powerful, but what could you do if you held up your hands while being shot by the police? If you were suspected of being a member of the BPP, the police would raid your home in the middle of the night (unless you were lucky enough to have one of the few white law students living with you to protect your and serve witness). FBI would shoot up offices in the wee hours of the morning--cut off water and electricity. Courts would arrest you for shoplifting and sentence you to ten years in jail--where you might kill another inmate in self defense. The system, in it's fear and ignorance, actually caused an otherwise innocent human to commit murder--a murder that would not have happened if they had been sentences disproportionate to their crime. Society has imposed on us a system that hurts everyone, fosters poverty, hatred and fear, and will ultimately become the downfall of the human race. Would you expect anything less than to arm yourselves to the teeth?

We are all too ready to go through our lives buying our unregulated bottled water, watching television with a glazed eye, and to think that our civic duty amounts to stating our uneducated opinions (or worse--network news educated) and maybe getting off our asses to vote (but only if we were in the neighborhood and there isn't a line). In the sixties and seventies, even the eighties---people took a stance. They found what they were passionate about and they devoted their lives to creating a community, nation, and world they wanted. People quit school, quit jobs, sold their homes, cut themselves off from friends and family, put themselves in harms way--all for OUR benefit.

I find myself sympathetic to suicide bombers in Iraq and other regions of the middle east---nigh the world. I admire their passion to dedicate themselves so deeply to a cause--something the American public has forgotten how to do. I find myself admiring Cindy Sheehan for her efforts to actually do something---to act, to be heard, and to get others to join the fight. I find myself crying because we need this dedication--this passion--now more than ever and it is nowhere to be found.

I am considering leaving Montana after my two years of service in the Americorps. I want to see mass demonstrations, sit-ins, I plead for radical activism and groups to crawl out of the woodwork. I want to see pictures of that beautiful black panther logo grace telephone poles and grocery store bulletin boards. I want to see action, passion. I want to be a part of change---of the revolution that was talked about forty years ago, but never came.