They held black prisons that the CIA and the Armed forces more than likely knew about, and certainly benefited from. However, they acted without the military chain of command that is supposed to cause soldiers to act by rules agreed upon by the Geneva Conventio; IN A MILITARY CULTURE THAT ITSELF HAD THROWN ASIDE THE RULES OF WAR, CALLING THEIR ACTION A HUNT FOR CRIMINALS/TERRORISTS... though they sure look like soldiers to me, and will have to be treated as such in both times of war and peace... The Military Is A Culture. A Microcosmic culture within our larger culture. A set a of rules of their own... When we threw out the normal rules of war so a president could fight a dirty war, we gave up our honor to save lives, we were told and many believed. The private contractors were as caught up in this military fever as the people across the states who wore their I Hate Ossama t-shirts and shit... Now, the president of Blackwater did some sleazy shit, and so did some of the operatives. However much the army wants to abdicate control -- and perhaps they should to Cheney and the Neo-Cons who were originally behind these ventures, and told them it was okay to act brutally -- they created a culture.
General MCrystal is now trying to change that now. We discovered that killing civilians causes people around them to join the resistance, whether they politically backed them or not... so, you can bet the private contractors are acting better now. Coincidence? Not at all...
I put forth a few ideas that I know will never happen here, just because they make sense. Right now, we have a POVERTY DRAFT. No jobs. The oldest trick in the General's Book -- you want to eat, pick up a gun and join the army. They talk about school and shit, but after getting stop gapped into states of traumatic stress syndrome, it is a little difficult at times to see the import of Yeats when therapy is refused, practically.
I read yesterday about the areas where the wounded are kept on base. They basically have nothing to do except drugs, and with little kids selling pure black tar heroin outside the base -- unmolested, they easily fall into forgetting their pain, worry, and the abusive non-coms who run the ward like they are all slackers. They berate them for not getting up on time, after being drugged out of their mind by the staff. Obviously, we are talking sick people who are being abused. I have been in a poorly run welfare hospital before, where the room they whisked me into had a pool of blood on the floor that no one bothered to mop up until finally, my mom requested a mop.... Heard abusive, over-worked nurses treat me like shit. I was not under the kind of mental stress these patients are and just kind of dealt with it. I was grateful Chicago has a free hospital to see the poor, and was more than willing to deal with the bullshit because when your spine breaks apart and they need to do surgery after surgery, you do whatever you have to....
A draft... now, I am not talking a Vietnam era thing... I think people should have plenty of ways to opt out of this. Any kind of work which is helpful, social work, community organizer, going to school, having children, etc... should allow people to find the source of public service that best suites their religion and conscious. This would give kids work experience, a way to learn that they are part of a community and a world that requires a commitment from them. Kids need reasons to live for. Here is one way to give a WPA like feel to the countries push toward a--righting the wrongs of our fathers... the good and bad men who did their best with what they had.
I used to do a lot of volunteer and political work before going to school, and having to work full time...
I worked with drug addicted kids, adults... did everything they told me to do when I was eighteen and decided that drinking and drugging were not the road I wanted to travel down. I tried to emulate my mother, who kind of tries to keep up with her missionary sister and nieces and beliefs to do all kinds of volunteer work. We used to dress up as clowns and go to the Veterans homes. I was five, they loved being around kids. It was a joy to bring joy. Something I rediscovered writing comedy.
I was drafted by my own demons into doing a lot of volunteer work, but it helped me in life, through my twenties and early thirties, when I could... school and work eventually took all my time; even finding time to write was like stealing sleep, or my social life... and I like to get a lot of sleep.
Being engaged in a flawed system is better than just giving up on that system, especially now... We are on the verge of a Nuclear Iran, which will lead to a Nuclear Saudi Arabia (those kings are very fearful of these anti-Royalist Talibans, I think, even more than Israel, who they know, at least, is their buddy in the whole oil thing, and keeping that area peaceful enough for profits). What then? We say that some terrorist is going to get ahold of the bomb. We also say, we just came up with a new rocket that can hit anywhere in the world, possibly destroying every nuclear silo in Iran in one big bang too quick to respond to.
I pray the Iranians, and they show signs of it now, will just allow inspectors in and get on with getting nuclear power, and avoid the bomb. However, since Israel, their avowed enemy, has all these bombs and will not even admit them, let alone come to the table to talk about reducing bombs is yet another reason why I believe the Zionists in charge of Israel are conquerors, not peace makers.... They are gaining too much by this war. I read last week of an ancient Palestinian Olive Grove was torn down in the night and no one was arrested, because the fundamentalists Jews want the land for Jews... As long as America continues blindly supporting these efforts in any way, we are sinning greatly against the Muslim people. Might as well face it, folks. We are in league with the wrong guys, again. Happens all the time to america, where our cultural colonialists think a fascist will lead to a democracy, and sent millions to their graves in South America. Now, we see the leftest down there are the ones bringing true Democracy. The lesson should not be lost here.
Liberals and conservatives on both sides should be able to come together enough to agree that 1) we need a safety net for those who are disabled, elderly, and otherwise incapable of taking care of themselves; 2) Businesses must be subjected to laws that stop predatory practices 3) the pollution we have caused must be cleaned up, and we have to do our best to stop it.
Let's start there. Local pollution if you do not believe in the Greenhouse (which is silly, but hey, you will get there or you won't, so let's talk about what we agree on, where our friendship is bonded by shared enemies we can only defeat by banding together and making DEMANDS ON OUR SYSTEM.
I am a liberal, tried and true on most issues. I have seen votes change a lot of things in my lifetime. I have seen the unions destroyed, and the subsequent loss of medical benefits, life time jobs, and pensions that came out of that. I have seen the Reagan Counter-Revolution lead my country into dealing drugs, sacrificing Los Angeles, and then the nation, to a plague of crack to use the airports of the coke dealers after congress cut off funds for Reagan's bloody, bloody war.... killing nuns and priests is about as low as it gets. Let alone union organizers. They still have short life spans down south. We had a part in causing all the turmoil down there. Now, the Chinese, who give them more money than we do, are aiding them in their transition to the left. But even they now have a capatilist bent now that the great red party made a new elite out of the army generals and whoever else got the industries once owned by the people. I am not saying this is all that happened, or generalizing this all the way out, there are plenty of people who are running businesses there who are not in this category... but, it opens them up to melding the east and the west.
Here is our line to peace... let the work a holics go out and kill themselves if that feels noble, and let them buy all the trinkets they want... to a degree. Other zones we have to pay taxes and do together. Like insurance, the military, streets, garbage pick up, the humane society, parks, beaches, and the endless etc... that has been successfully nationalized. People who slam all government workers, again, are full of shit. I worked for the government at a license bureau, and we worked hard, knew our shit. Most do. Sure, there is room to clean this up, there is always the ideal and what we have now.
The current fear of Government on the far right is mocked by the Hispanics on the imigration issue. They have a bill coming up in Congress that is going to be voted on this summer, and they are out there marching in numbers that would get the tea party folk locking all their doors, rolling up the windows and keeping their eyes straight ahead. I can see a van of them stopped by the protest, hear the mother turning back to the kids in the van, "Hide the posters. These are illegals son. Selling drugs, all in gangs. I tell ya kids, except for those guys who charge next to nothing to mow the lawns, and clean the pool, we must report every illegal."
They are demanding rights, and forcing political action on a humanitarian issue. Not an immigration issue. Rights for all people, especially in this country of immigrants, is my goal. Diversity thy name is America, and the sooner we accept this the sooner we can fight our real demons, not these made up divisions between people who live in this country or that. Economic refugees are legitimate. People who are driven from their home who come here and add to our economy deserve every chance. Our heart is bigger than this country. Truly, I believe this.
I was reading last week how they had proven that some memories are lodged in the heart. Heart transplant victims woke up showing indisputable proof of having urges, loves, that they did not possess prior to the heart; and they of course matched the personality of the body they got the heart from. I think maybe our memories of love are in our heart. This would explain why people fall in love with folk they really shouldn't, if their head was at all involved. Cupid's arrows, etc... how our heart really does seem to ache when a love dies, or is threatened...
In my heart is a great love for this country, this world, even outer space... room enough for every animal, plant, and human here... for every mountain, ocean, fish, bird in the sky. As a poet I have tried very hard to keep myself from becoming psychopathic in any way. I want to feel this world. My toughness must not stop me from being able to feel this world, or I would give it up, just go off by myself into some personal pleasure zone where I try to forget about the people who rely on me... who have helped me... who I owe my life, love and honor. The community that made who I am exists. The community that I wish children were raised within exists. In our visions mostly maybe, but there is where everything starts.
While I am addressing things that I think have been unfairly demonized, I should bring up my vision of what should be happening as we move toward 'something' of a one world government. A loose affiliation of international laws are 'probably' going to be the actual genesis of as one world government as we really get; well, that and business connections, where already we have been a one world business culture for decades. Concentrating on International laws may be the best barometer of what is happening on this front. Unless, of course, the secret gov. is in control.... then, everything I am writing is bullshit. I would hate to lay odds on this one. Assuming this is not true, I think identifying a movement of like ethics, world wide, is almost predicted by EO Wilson, when he talks about how apes, like us, prefer to get along -- especially when women run things (look at the Bonobo's -- our closest living relative, when they come across carrion, are led by their female leader into a frantic orgy, after which they are all in the mood to share the food -- having fucked their fight right out. Ah, this alone makes me want women in control. Preferably the women who work at this classy sex boutique on Clark and Belmont. They already have all the whips that I think will be needed to put certain people in their place. Not that this is a push for Palin, who is what the feminists consider a woman who sold out to become accepted as a male who looks hot, rather than a woman who represents the values of her sex.
So, folks, what do you want... a draft, or private armies? I am betting you'll pay the taxes and let the private sector, and the Poverty Draft provide the other bodies. Not that I mean to say that there is not idealism involved involved in joining the armed forces, and this is a valid reason to sign up in the service of our country, as well... and certainly, I have seen in my own family how the military can give great rewards with their training -- my cousin learned computers in the Navy and went on to run the computers at BGSU, and another retired, quite happily, from the army.... however, during our current war efforts, they were having a hell of a time getting recruits to go directly into a war until the economy collapsed, so a lot of the people fighting now had little economic choice. This once again leads to the elite keeping their kids out of the armed forces. The kids of the congressmen and senators who are heavily invested in companies profiting off the war... can you imagine, our lawmakers would be voting against their own investments if they stopped the war? There is something so criminal about that .... gallows come to mind.
This Entry Is Dedicated To All The Brave Souls Who Fought For The Ideals of The United States under Private Flags. Your sacrifices will be remembered, too... you were betrayed by the management, left hanging by the military that should have supported you in the press; just another american reality. . . everyone wants a scapegoat.
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