Casino Gambling a Loser for Kentucky: LEGISLATURE SHOULD AVOID TEMPTATION OF EASY MONEY

From the Lexington Herald-Leader Monday, Dec. 26, 2005 http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/editorial/13478743.htm

A wondrous, wintry day in Woodland Park was a welcome break from not only the typical holiday buzz, but also from controversies so out of character for this season of peace and goodwill.

I mused on the ancient oaks and elms, their bare brown branches stretching across the cold, gray-streaked skies. These trees have presided over a past that created our present. And so, I wondered, what kind of Kentucky our majestic friends will find on a future Christmas morning.

For we are most certainly at the proverbial crossroads and the decisions we make now will create a Kentucky worthy of its citizens and character or rob us of the greatness within our grasp.

The most critical obstacle to our ascension is the rush to adopt casino gambling as the answer to our problems, when it will in fact worsen them. Will Kentuckians have the wisdom and strength of character to look beyond the siren call of false profits? Will we identify the wolf in Santa's suit promising money for education and health care if we will only strike this Faustian bargain?

Those most loudly touting casinos ask why we should allow tax dollars to leave the state. Yet that is the wrong question at the wrong time in Kentucky's history. The proper question is not how many tax dollars Indiana gets from Kentucky gamblers, just as it is not how many vacation dollars Florida gets from Kentucky tourists. Rather it is how we best and most fairly raise sufficient revenues for our needs and then live within whatever budget they provide.

Electronic slots are unlike any other form of gambling. As John Warren Kindt of the University of Illinois says, it is the crack cocaine of gambling. It is lickety-split action with manipulated payoffs that hook gamblers, 5 percent of whom become addicts. Many more become problem gamblers.

All academic research, unbiased and untainted by pro-gambling propaganda, conclusively shows that slots are an economic loser. That is, the state will lose more money than it takes in from taxes. Indiana, for example, has approved ever more gambling and still is $1 billion in debt.

Even worse, this economic loss does not take into account the ruined lives, the inconsistent lessons to our youth and the sacrificing of our pioneer tradition of leadership at the altar of false hope and short-term thinking that casinos represent.

The nation underwent a similar gambling scourge in the late 1800s. It got so bad that Kentucky and other states banned gambling and even changed their constitutions to prevent future generations from falling into the downward spiral of economic and societal ruin.

An alternative vision would build on the inherent goodness of Kentuckians, instead of preying on them. We could be the state that welcomes business and industry, as an electronic-gambling-free zone, unlike our neighbors. This is a niche where we win big.

Our very name, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, suggests the winning path. We must think positively and encourage the helping hand of friendship in every field, whether it is volunteer programs for reading instruction, worker training or financial advice. We should teach good citizenship to our young, strengthen opportunities for families and lend a hand to those left behind.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come tells us Kentucky still has time. All we need do is walk the sure-footed path consistent with our highest values. Then Woodland's stately trees will witness a Kentucky that is indeed all happy, merry and bright.

Jesus and Politics

It’s always tricky relating Jesus to contemporary politics, but it is especially so during this time of peace and goodwill. Yet if we are to glean the true essence of Jesus and all of what he so passionately wanted to teach us we must not cower of doing so when an occasion presents itself.

The recent U.S. Congressional budget vote is just such an opportunity. The House has once again voted to cut taxes for the wealthiest taxpayers, while slashing roughly 45 BILLION dollars in social welfare programs, including food stamps, Medicaid, student loans and child-support enforcement.

Jesus’ exhortations to do precisely the opposite are so numerous they need no citation, yet I dare say ALL those who vote against the poorest of us while rewarding the richest are among the most vocal and visible Jesus cheerleaders.

“WAIT!” they typically say, “our actions are not anti-Jesus because they promote personal responsibility and individual freedom from oppressive government.” They will add that their personal charity is sufficient to fulfill Jesus’ commands. Many would further intimate that government welfare is socialism and makes us like “godless” communist states.

First, if anyone doubts Jesus’ desire that we apply his principles even in—ESPECIALLY within—our political process they should refer to ACTS 4: 31-35*. Here you will find no better definition of collective action, of, um…er…wow the truth is sometimes so hard to say…of “socialism.”

In no way am I saying we must conform our free market capitalistic system to this arrangement. And perhaps it is because I derive my goodies from it that I feign ignorance about Jesus’ will in this regard.

But it is beyond any reasonable argument that even should Jesus not require us scrap our system he would certainly want us to do as much as possible to achieve the social EFFECTS of a the collective arrangement described in Acts. That is, Jesus would want us to use our political governing systemto do all we can to ameliorate human suffering and “promote the GENERAL WELFARE” as our own Constitution mandates.

Now of course our very system accomplishes much of this. Free markets encourage the entrepreneurial spirit that fuels industry that in turns provides job and creates progress. And it is to the gods of this private initiative that today’s conservatives so bow, in undying loyalty to “trickle down” theory. Yet we know from our history, from our current situation, that trickle down does not work: there still remains much human want and need right here in our own country.

Admittedly politics is about finding the right balance between fostering free market capitalism and checking its abuses and it is often an area very shaded in gray. However, this last Congressional budget vote is way beyond that area.

Reducing aid to our most vulnerable citizens while adding still more to the richest is bad enough. That they did so during this celebratory season of Jesus’ birth is truly a pity.

And Jesus wept.


*ACTS 4:31-36
31After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
32All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. 33With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. 34There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

Jesus Beyond Mere Christianity

So begins a serendipitous series on Jesus, during the celebratory season of his birth.

While not “born again” by what I perceive many would consider that term to mean, Jesus has forever been at the center of my consciousness. From the Jesus of my little childhood church nestled in those mystical mountains of Eastern Kentucky, to the Jesus of the Bedside Storybooks, the ones with the colored illustrations showing Jesus with the flowing brown locks and blazingly blue eyes. He was “the little lord Jesus, who laid down his sweet head”…the Jesus who “loved the little children, red and yellow, black and white, (because) all are precious in His sight.” Yes, that Jesus was all good and all loving.

When the death of my little 3-year-old brother, Willie, crushed my poor parents, it was Jesus who was our rock and sanctuary. I recall one Sunday, me and mom going to a different mountain church one Sunday—just me and her—and I looked up at her beautiful, but now so forlorn face and saw a tear streak down from her left eye.

At that precise moment I knew what faith was. All the years, all the books and sermons and televangelists and little courses in this or that were all summed up in that one tear on mom’s otherwise serene face. It was a tear of unfathomable grief, but of immeasurable faith as well. We needed no words on our way back home as that tear spoke volumes about mom’s total trust in and total reliance on God.

The next fall, when I was 6, we moved to Lexington and my idyllic Mayberry mountain childhood was over. Church shopping, we started at the Greek Orthodox, as all my grandparents were Orthodox in the “old country” (Syria and Lebanon). But the services were in Greek and lasted about three hours! I remember following dad as he got up and walked around, in out and around the church, until the closing prayer.

We eventually settled on Good Shepard Episcopal Church, and it was in and through this church that God has revealed and is revealing still the nature of His most enlightened of sons, Jesus. This ideal nature is at its core familiar to ALL humanity for it is the essence of humanity’s highest nature. Yet, the traditions of MAN have obscured it, layering manmade conventions and supposed truths on top of the Jesus’ true nature.

Too often these dogmas contradict Jesus, making him a flashpoint for division and conflict instead of unity and harmony. Subsequent writings will explore this in more detail, but just for today consider Christmas and how the whole world, Christians and non-Christians alike, celebrate the anniversary of Jesus’ birth.

My Jewish vendor-friend was on his way to buy a “secret Santa” gift for an office party. Another was going to visit his mother for “Christmas.” He explained their observance similarly to many non-Christians with whom I have spoken: they celebrate Christmas as a time of HOPE AND HAPPINESS and Jesus as that message’s prime author.

They, like me, do not consider Jesus as God, for as even Jesus himself said, there is only one God, and he is father of us all. But Jesus said that God sent Jesus as our Rabbi, our teacher, to show us a higher truth and a higher way to live that was truly revolutionary for his times.

Fact is, it gives me great hope to see my spiritual brethren, be they Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, agnostic or not who celebrate the season for they grasp the essential core of what Jesus was all about and why this is imminently worthy of our celebration and especially of our emulation.

Indeed, if Jesus would even want a celebration in his name, this recognition of hope, happiness and a desire to live life as he taught—did he sacrifice his very life to so teach—would be his ideal reason.

Merry Happy Holly Jolly to you all!

Rfd 12/8/05

Party Loyalty vs. Personal Priorities (or Why I won't be Seeing Hillary)

It is moment of truth time. A fellow Democratic activist friend invited me to attend Hillary Clinton’s fundraising event in Louisville this Friday.

Suddenly the conflicting rays of principle, party and personal priorities converge in the prism of his invitation. For while I have long been a fervent FDR Democrat, Mrs. Clinton supported the Iraqi war, which for me is the defining issue of our time.

There is NOTHING more important than correctly calling forth our military to invade another country, nothing. All our social justice and citizen’s benefit philosophies are dwarfed by the hypocrisy and immorality of erroneous decisions to war. And Mrs. Clinton was a vocal advocate of this war, voting along with many other Democrats to authorize President Bush’s fait accompli.

The whole of 2002 found me so frustrated and enraged by the Democrats buckling, not only on Bush’s anti-social domestic policies, but especially by their complicity in Bush’s frequent and flagrantly FALSE assertions about the non-existent Iraqi threat and our urgent need to go to war.

From his State of the Union “Axis of Evil” speech to his West Point address enunciating an unprecedented policy of PRE-EMPTION it was clear that Bush was intent on going to war way before the final CIA report that fall. His bellicosity was as Un-American as it was illogical, and was based on deliberate mis-representations in order to whip up public fear and fury to support this long-planned invasion.

Thus, I wrote an anti-war article based upon my own research and analysis that thoroughly debunked Bush’s rationale and correctly predicted the hornet’s nest we instead created. (http://peacecow.blogspot.com/2005_06_01_peacecow_archive.html appearing under the June 21 “Time To Impeach” entry).

I could not for the life of me understand how intelligent, highly placed Democrats like Mrs. Clinton, like John Edwards and like John Kerry could have voted the way they did. It showed either an incredible lack of depth of thinking OR depth of character in sacrificing long term truth, justice and security for short-term expedience. How could I, sitting here in the hinterlands of rural America know more than them?!

Then came the 2004 Democratic platform, which had as its top priority a vast increase of our military so that we could exert control across the globe, practically mirroring the Republicans and totally missing the fact that we were nearly outspending the rest of the world combined.

MY COUNTERPOINT: “Yeah Rich, but we’ve gotta support the party if we are to unseat the Republicans, who are killing America with their selfish cronyism and corruption!” True, but if I have no say in what my party prioritizes, and if it continues with leadership that has acted contrarily to my deepest held values, then I would have to abandon that party. I am NOT saying the Democrats are there yet.

In fact, John Edwards has apologized and admitted his error. Good. But can he be trusted again? Those in the highest levels simply cannot make those errors on such important issues and with a little research and analysis this was not even a close call. Yet Mrs. Clinton still supports this war.

MY COUNTERPOINT: “But Richard, a party will never represent 100% of its members wishes.” True, but war and obscene military spending are bellwether issues, and if that remains the official party line in 2008 I will leave it.

I have come to this realization: I am not merely a “Democrat.” I am first a Human, then an American, reporting to a Universal Moral Director.

MY COUNTERPOINT: “You know, you’ll about kill any chance you had at getting your party’s support for any elective office you may want to seek down the line.” Yet my goal should never be a seat per se, a position per se or anything but to do the will of the Director and to serve others as well as myself as best I can with the light given me.

I hope the Democratic Party will return to that snug fold. But if not there IS a political party that more closely represents the Director’s values, and Ralph Nader is that party’s leader.

Respectfully, Rfd 11/30/05

Nee Cassius Clay, Now Muhammad Ali

My first recollection of Mr. Ali was February 26, 1964 in the morning school bus on the way to my 3rd grade class at Stonewall Elementary. I still recall an older student with one of those little transistor radios, the hottest techno-gadget for that time, excitedly telling the whole bus about Clay’s stunning victory.

If not for the older boy’s excited announcement, and the fact that NEVER before or since has ANYBODY gotten so excited over any news event on my subsequent public transports, I would not have given Clay, or any boxer or boxing feat any significance whatsoever. After all, as an 8 year old, I was—THANKFULLY--never exposed to this most brutal so called “sport.”*

*[Don’t get me wrong, I have long appreciated the extreme physical nature of boxing, the strenuous work ethic boxers undergo and the strategy and unbelievable courage they have. It’s just that for me “sport” excludes any and all activity wherein the goal is to literally knock somebody else senseless.]

So was born Cassius Clay into my young consciousness. For reasons I did not then understand Clay became Muhammad Ali. The years that followed were full of ABC Wide World of Sports, and its new Ali-made celebrity, Ho-ward Co-SELL (my interpretation of which won me my own sort of celebrity in high school and college).

Month after month, year after year it was Ali “Winner” here, Ali “winner” there, indeed Ali was the greatest anywhere! His braggadocios taunting was frankly annoying to me and yes, I would be hoping for an upset no matter who he faced, but of course, Ali always won.

And then he did something during the Vietnam War that from my limited perspective seemed unpatriotic and cowardly: he refused to go to Vietnam, saying “I ain’t got nothing ‘gainst them Viet Cong.” Being a pro-establishment conservative, wary of pinko-hippie pot smoking protestors any such opposition to our war against the spread of Communism was heresy!

I could only see a killer in the ring who was scared to die outside it; my young pre-pre-sophomoric mind did not yet fathom Ali’s principled action nor the rightness of his stand. [I’m sorry Mr. Ali, and thank you for helping encourage my own miniscule-by- comparison conscience-based stands].

Three years later Ali won again—this time in the US Supreme Court, which unanimously overturned his conviction and granted him his right to refuse service on religious grounds. Then came his fights of legend: the Thrilla in Manilla, the Rumble in the Jungle where Ali, with Joe FRAZHIUH, made boxing the undisputed King of um, er…(ugh) Sports.

I began to admire Ali and had hoped he would quit while he was ahead. I shuddered at the pounding he took in his final fights and, while never liking boxing anyway, forswear ever watching it again.

Today, we celebrate Ali as a world-class leader, a man who in humility now stands more strongly than ever in his quest for peace and justice.

Indeed Mr. Simon, The fighter still remains.


[The Muhammad Ali Center opens this week in Louisville]
Rfd

The "Heidi Game" Anniversary

The 60's was the peak--the peak of passion, of intellectual thought, and of technological achievement (I know, I know you are saying pc's, internet, cellular, hdtv," etc. but the stage was set in the 60's and before and at any rate all progress is built on the shoulders of giants).

And the 60's was the absolute peak of TELEVISED sports. None of the annoying, OVERKILL graphics, terrible field angles, interminable close-up shots of players, horrible replays from field level that are more appropriate for C-grade action movies.

Instead there was total field of view coverage, ample re-plays that showed the whole play develop, and the best announcers ever--folks like Curt Gowdy (my favorite), Kyle Rote, Charlie Jones, Ray Scott Al Derogatis, Chris Schinkle and Lindsay Nelson. And there were few more memorable sports moments than....THE HEIDI GAME!

___________

From The Writer's Almanac <newsletter@americanpublicmedia.org>


It was on this day in 1968 that NBC interrupted its coverage of a football game between the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets with one minute remaining in order to show the scheduled movie Heidi, about an orphaned girl who goes to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps.

In the last minute of the game, the Raiders scored two touchdowns, coming from behind to win the game 43 to 32. Football fans were enraged. So many people called to complain that the NBC's telephone switchboard in New York City blew 26 fuses.

It was that game, and the storm of protest by fans, that forced TV executives to realize how passionate the audience for football really was. Two years later, networks began showing football on Monday nights as well. And because of that game, the NFL now has a contract with the networks that all football games will be shown until their completion.

Why France Fries

It is with surreal fascination that we watch France set aflame. As with all abnormalities we naturally ask—or SHOULD ask—“why?”

Already there are those French haters who relate this conflagration to “Islamic terrorism” and loosely to the Iraqi war and France’s refusal to join it. Yet the reasons for the current inferno have absolutely nothing to do with either of these shallow and self-serving rationales.

As this excellent article http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5328931-103390,00.html from the Guardian details, the angry young French of North African descent are rioting for much the same reasons as American blacks did in the 60’s: a dynamite stick of poverty, discrimination and indifference lit by an emotionally-charged event.

In 1968 it was the King assassination, today it was the electrocution (apparently accidental) of youths evading French police.

That the impoverished immigrants--most brought over 50 years ago from to do much of France’s dirty work--are Muslim is of no consequence. They were long ago sequestered in suburban ghettoes, treated like third-class citizens and recently made to suffer 20% cuts in social programs.

France’s official non-discrimination law, a well-intentioned ideal born of the Revolution, tragically gave cover to the very real and human discrimination that permeates French society.

Hopefully, the recent events will breed positive change in French culture. Ideally it will cause their leaders to accurately assess root causes and effective, just solutions to them.

Or they may ignore the “why?” and focus solely on punishing the perpetrators. But like cutting weeds at the surface, those riotous roots will grow ever stronger.

And they won’t stop at the French border.


Rfd 11/11/05

On Being in a Hurricane

Common foes create camaraderie. Be they cold-blooded Nazis, malevolent Martians, microbic plagues, or as we are confronted in Florida, a horrific “act of God” hurricane, the victory is to be found in teamwork: sharing, caring and co-operative effort.

True, there was word of heated confrontations at the gas pump, understandable with MILES long lines to the few stations open, but these are few and way overblown. Anybody who has been through turmoil learns pretty quickly that the best way to insure everybody’s highest welfare is to cooperate and help one another, “share one another’s burdens” as the biblical phrase goes.

Last Monday at noon, just after the worst of the hurricane, I admit to a teensy crack in my faith. Like everybody else, I had little water, no power, but with an added dimension of having a brother in the hospital. Luckily I trusted instincts and had gone to Publix* on Sunday, anticipating a mild Cat 1 cane, truly not expecting to need the few provisions I did buy: some water, some fruit, some canned soup, crackers, etc., all to my exacting health standards (no hydrogenated or canola oils, no artificial anything, low sodium, no meat).

Yet the Cat 3 that materialized was far worse than anyone expected. Please don’t be fooled, it wasn’t nearly as bad as Katrina in New Orleans. Floridians still had their homes well intact, there was no flooding and the infrastructure is sound, albeit in need of widespread repairs. But when total power restoration is a month out, potable water is similarly non-existent, and property damage is unprecedented it’s pretty darn bad. The worst in 50 years they say.

THE HURRICANE

Here is what a Cat 3 hurricane sounds like from within a standard Fairfield Inn* outside entrance room. Around 10 pm (8 hours before the cane actually hits) the winds start howling, just like the worst windstorm you have ever heard; you know, when the wind blows long and strong and pulls at the door and sucks the air out of the room leaving you with a little heart palpitation and heightening your nerves only you know it’s just a rare strong wind that will soon subside.

But these winds only get louder and stronger and more consistent so that there is NO BREAK, none.

Every channel was tracking Wilma’s path from the Keys across the state and warned “Do NOT expect Wilma to weaken, it is moving too fast and will be just as strong as when it hit the gulf coast.” Thus, we have the extraordinary phenomena of a hurricane’s devastation as it was leaving the coast.

The power goes out around 2:00 am as the winds kept getting incredibly, impossibly, louder and stronger! They keep escalating in sound to a tone that keeps getting louder and louder, like an operatic diva on steroids.

Wilma hits full force around 6 am. It was as if a jet engine was right outside my door…but louder. With my mind still full of the record devastation of the last year’s many hurricanes I admit to being more than a little scared at first, but after a while I just had to open my door a few times to see this dude. I’d brace myself and crack the door every so often.

Unreal! Stiff, huge, thick palms bending, all kinds of stuff blowing completely horizontally for hours! Then the eye passed and the back end of the cane blows just as fiercely in the opposite direction.

By noon the worst had passed and it was time to venture out. I felt a little like Tom Cruise emerging from his basement after the alien invasion in War of the Worlds. Good lord, the stuff—all kinds of it—EVERYWHERE. Huge, hundred year old trees uprooted. Big utility poles, traffic lights, signs, roof remnants, signs covered the town. US 1 was barely passable, but I made it, every so slowly to the hospital, which was on generator power for the whole week.

THE AFTERMATH

Not knowing if or where you might get food, water or power is discomforting. For a self-professed believer in God who is called to FAITH regardless of circumstances it is a realization that I have a long way to go. Yet it was a major blessing that Publix* (also on generator power) opened on Tuesday.

Each day I’d leave the hospital and it was totally dark, not a light anywhere in the moonless night. It is amazing how importantly street lights are, one of the thousand things I took for granted before I temporarily lost them.

Then, Thursday night the power is back on in the motel (it is on the same power grid as the hospital)! Everybody was giddy with joy.

SILVER LININGS

1) As I mentioned earlier, turmoil can bring people together. In this case, you saw people totally in tune with helping one another. Forgotten were political, ideological, and philosophical differences that truly are petty matters in the larger scheme. The focus on our higher nature brings out the best in us all and makes us grateful for what we have, even though it is far less that what we had.

2) “Less Is More.” In the room, total blackness save the light from my fantastic $35 lithium-powered flashlight and the little light on the new Grundig emergency crank-powered radio from Radio Shack. Nothing to do, it was literally lights out by 9:00, the first time since 4th grade. No mind-cluttering TV, I caught up on much-needed sleep and felt terrific each morning.

*PUBLIX and The FAIRFIELD INN. They both deserve my sincere praise and admiration for serving the public so incredibly well. They were literally lifesavers for many of us. Both company’s people were just super, and despite having to weather their own difficulties, were focused on serving others. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

*And to the Holy Cross Hospital folks, from Gerald in security to Dorette on the nursing floor and everybody else as well…THANK YOU!

Rfd 10/30/05

Eyeing a Hurricane, Closely

24/7 hurricane coverage when safely ensconced the country’s midsection, thousands of miles from Florida is just more news sensationalism, but here in a Ft. Lauderdale hotel room with the pre-winds howling Wilma’s still-hours away arrival, the news has an urgent relevance.

A hospitalized brother flew me dead in the path of Wilma’s gaping jaw. Luckily, it looks as if this won’t be near the disaster of Katrina-Rita, yet the warnings have been non-stop, the lines in the stores long, as I joined the natives in queuing up for radios, flashlights, batteries, water and food.

“Dang, I shoulda took the collision insurance on my rental” I start thinking as the wind now grows louder with each commercial break. The Fairfield Inn has aluminum-shuttered all the windows, bringing it home that, yeah, we’re going to have 100+ mph winds. My brother is probably in the safest place he could be, Holy Cross hospital.

They say most folks stayed home at Key West, and that most in the Broward-Dade area are kind of living in denial. I hope we’re just living period tomorrow night!

Rfd 10/24/05 midnight

Rod Stewart IS Fall

Rod Stewart is fall. From Maggie May, the song of my football glory years ridin’ the pine at good ol’ Lafayette High, to the randomly played I-pod song during this almost-brisk* morning run, Every Picture Tells a Story.

*It was 58, not warm like it has been, but still not breath mist cold like late October mornings should be. I love cool, even cold, weather so unseasonably warm weather is uncomfortable. But with no hurricanes or tsunamis we have absolutely NOTHING to complain about. In any case there are MANY people who love the warm weather, and remembering that the best philosophy is to want (have love) for others as we want (have love) ourselves serves to “cool” me down.

[QUERY: Does love=want? This seems inconsistent, as “want” indicates a lacking, a pain. Of course “want” as used in the manner of wishing good is different, isn’t it? Well, no, not really because it still indicates that all is currently not fine, there is still something more needed to be “happy.” In fact for many of us LESS is MORE. Without realizing it our “wants” when fulfilled leads only to more unhappiness, which certainly is not love. Anyway, since warm weather makes others happy, there is solace for me. Whew! Sorry.]

So the sun was just rising on this gray morn, the mellow street lamps alit between trees now colored with those fabulous autumnal tones. Last night’s rain brings out such richness in the rusts, wines and golds of leaves now drained of August’s chlorophyll.

My feet slap fallen leaves, in death more beautiful than ever. Hum, the green leaf of summer stores fuel for its mother tree in summer, then in sacrificing that cholorphyillic feast serves humanity with its clarion call of color, the bellwether sign that Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner.

A call that will hopefully again remind us of our better nature, our higher selves.

May we all be like the storybook leaves of fall.

Science vs Intelligent Design Explained

I feel my earlier piece on “Intelligent Design” needs further clarification. Like most of us, I sometimes (often?) fail to adequately express the totality of what I intend, and writing at 2:00 in the morning leaves me most susceptible to this failure.

A thoughtful response from a devout fellow Christian friend provokes this re-examination. He reminded me that “evolution” has not been proven beyond dispute. I believe he is correct insofar that scientists concede evolution does not answer every question about the creation of life. Further, within the scientific community there is debate over many aspects of evolution, for instance neutralism versus selectionism in molecular evolution; adaptationism; group selection; "Cambrian Explosion"; mass extinctions; interspecies competition; sexual selection; the evolution of sex itself and evolutionary psychology among others.

My citing the certainty of evolution was NOT that man necessarily evolved from a fish or from any disputed origin. It was only to observe the validity, the TRUTH, of evolutionary science, that which has been repeatedly proven and accepted as fact by those who have independently studied the subject.

As Eugenie Scott, director of the Oakland, California-based National Center for Science Education says, while those who study peer-reviewed scientific literature will find documented disagreements over the pattern and process of evolution, "they won't find arguments over whether living things have common ancestors.”

Intelligent Design on the other had has absolutely no scientific basis. It is based on philosophy and theology. Kenneth Miller, a biologist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island explains academia’s opposition to explanations that rely on God as a causal agent because such explanations go against the very definition of science: seeking a natural explanation for natural events and phenomenon.

The intelligent-design movement, Miller said, seeks to allow a non-natural explanation into science. "By altering the definition of science, they seek a playing field where the supernatural can have scientific meaning."

Personally I believe God started it all, somehow, some way. We have science to thank for answering some of “HOW” God works his miracles, whether it be the changeable nature of matter, or how a huge stalk of corn grows from tiny seeds in just a few months time.
Science sheds light on truth.

And what is God if not truth?

For now, like the wind that we cannot see but for the trees that wave, God’s reality shines forth from a child’s smiling face, a merciful donation or one of a billion examples of goodness and grace. Ironically, it is the honest pursuit of science that may eventually uncover the verifiable truth of God’s existence.

Yet will faith survive that day?

Intelligent Design: A Sinful Affront to God

Denial of reality on a personal level may be harmful, even deadly. But when foisted upon society by its political leaders it can lead to catastrophe.

The Republican/Bush insistence on denying proven science in favor of promoting the fiction of “Intelligent Design” is the latest such example. ID’s proponents are nothing more than propagandists with a creationist agenda to obliterate the wall between church and state.

There is not one shred of scientific evidence to prove their theory, which essentially is that life is so complex it just had to be intelligently designed. In one fell swoop they have dismissed centuries of hard, fact-based research that proves evolution beyond the slightest shadow of a doubt and, with Mr. Bush’s imprimatur, placed unproved and unproveable fiction on an equal plane with observable, repeatable, proven science.

Their abortion of reality follows the same playbook that sells wars on false premises, that rewards cronyism at great Public cost, and that disparages proven cooperative social democratic government for the equally proven disaster of trickle-down.

Like his other reality-denying actions, Bush’s equating ID with evolution is done on behalf of a favored constituency: his conservative religious base. After all, they deliver the votes that enable their democracy-killing lies on the issues that really matters.

This is the same philosophy that sees natural disasters as the Intelligent Designer’s retribution on evil humanity. It is dead-on the same as blaming terrorism on “they hate our freedoms,” while resolutely failing to look deeper and honestly by rationally asking “why?”

Scientific realism in no way diminishes God’s reality. The wondrous complexity of our universe is no less a miracle than it is a mystery. Only through our God-given power of reason and observation have we made what little sense we have of it to this point of our evolution. Replacing this knowledge with mythology is a true sacrilege to God, or in their words, the Intelligent Creator.

The seeds of their error are sewn by the very faith they profess, for the power of religion and belief in God is by FAITH in that which is unseen, unseeable and scientifically unproveable! As Jesus said (JN 20:29), “…Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Moo on! RFD 10/13/05

Les Miserables en la Cour Supreme

John Roberts is smooth and smart. Newly nominated Harriet Miers may be as well. What they both share for sure, however, is their avowed promise to “follow the letter of the law.”

In this they answer the call of the “Justice Sunday” promoters to be non-activist strict constructionists of the law. In other words, they will make sacrosanct about any Act of Congress, regardless of how such Acts may interfere with more abstract Constitutional principles like “equal protection,” “due process,” “right of privacy” and the like.

Judge Roberts has already proved his mettle. He ruled that the police did not violate those pesky rights by arresting 12-year-old Ansche Hedgepeth for eating a single French fry on the Washington Metro.

ONE FRENCH FRY, and the young girl was handcuffed, searched, hauled in a windowless police cruiser to a juvenile facility, FINGERPRINTED, and arrested! . Perversely, had she been an adult she would have been issued a ticket and released on the spot

And Roberts APPROVED this outrage as a judge on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals!

The esteemed chief justice John Roberts termed the eating of a French fry a “delinquent” act that warranted her arrest. It seems incredible that one who would so judge will sit as the leader of our nation's highest court.

His callous neglect of compassion and humane rationality brought to
mind another notorious stickler for the law, Joubert, the heartless pursuer of the saintly Jean Valjean in Les Miserable.

Judges judge, plain and simple. Their duty is to insure that laws are in accord with the spirit of our Bill of Rights. To simply accept a law, because the legislature passed it is NOT judging, it is rubber stamping, and it is a total abdication of their job to interpret the Constitution in light of the laws that lawmakers pass, state or federal.

Without this judgment “separate but equal” in education would still be force, there’d be no right to remain silent, no protection against discrimination and unfettered arrests of 12-year-old girls who eat French fries.

There is only one way an honest, intelligent judge can be “activist”: by refusing to judge. Rfd 10/4/05

Shootin’ hoops with Tubby in the Halls of the House that Rupp Built

Do you ever do things that seem pretty cool, but when considered from another’s viewpoint are stratospherically special? Shootin’ hoops with University of Kentucky Basketball coach Tubby Smith this morning was one of those things.

We were photographing Coach and his wife, Donna, in our store's UK apparel at Memorial Coliseum, one of the most storied and special venues in all of basketball. This is “the house that Rupp built” in the 50’s and was the site of the penultimate passion of Kentucky Basketball until Rupp Arena’s debut in 1977.

I looked over to where the Man in the Brown Suit sat and my seats just a few rows behind him. Even though I at least had the presence of mind as a 10 year old to appreciate how lucky I was to have such cheeky seats, looking back now I realize just how special those days truly were.

There was Cotton Nash in the early sixties. Then the most incredible, unbelievably precise and finely tuned team I have EVER seen—Rupp’s Runts. No player taller than Lexington’s own, 6’5” Thad Jaracz. The stars were Pat Riley, Larry Conley, Louie Dampier and Tommy Kron.

You’ve never seen such passing and teamwork as the Runts displayed game after game. They romped, and romped, and romped until….Texas Western, now UTEP. Kentucky and Rupp were later painted as the last holdout to integrationist athletics, although the other Final Four teams—Duke and Utah—were also lily white.

TW played brilliantly in victory. I still recall seeing the “NCAA Champions!” sweatshirt in our store window, wondering whatever happened to it and how many others we had to throw away.

Then I saw the mystical, magical Pete Maravich, floppy socks, flappy hair and dead eye 60% downtown shooting. Rupp would tell his players to “let Pete shoot, you ain’t gonna stop him.” So he’d get his 50 and the Cats would win.

One of my most memorable games was when Lou Bellos refereed the UK/LSU game. He was a showman as much as a referee. My older cousin, Louis Kawaja, who took me to the game, still talks about that game.

Then there was more LSU excitement with their new coach, Dale Brown, who got so heated he took his plaid sportcoat off and flung it to mid court. Afterwards in a typically Dale Brown-esque interview about that he responded to sportswriter, Billy Reed, “well, what would you say if I asked you ‘do you masturbate?’” HELLO!

There was Ernie Grunfeld sneaking free throws for another Vol who was actually fouled in a Ray Mears-led Tennessee upset (seemed the Vols always beat the Cats!). Then there was the amazing Kentucky comeback against Kansas—9 points in under a minute... BEFORE the three existed!

But today, it was just me and Tubby shootin’ hoops. Coach Smith draining three after three, beautiful arcing shots that saw nothing but net. Let me tell you, Tubby is among the most gracious, classy persons I know—high profiled coach or not. I love him and respect him immensely. He is so humble, approachable and genuine that it is easy to take for granted that I was shooting hoops with a premiere coach of THE premiere basketball program in the world. How many Kentucky Kids (young AND old) would give their eye tooth to be doing this!?

I never got to know Coach Rupp as well, but I did get to meet him once back in '66. I was at a luncheon honoring my cousin Louis’ graduation from law school at the old Imperial House Hotel. It was the middle of the week and so when I shook Coach Rupp’s big warm paw, he asked me in his long drawn out drawl “son, why aren’t you in scho-o-u-h-l-l?”

Good lord, there are so many Rupp stories and his interviews were so entertaining…”wel-l-l, I told the boys you’ve got to guard that number ee-lev-in, he’s running WI-L-L-L-D!” referring to some obscure Mississippi player who scored 8 of their 10 first half points in a Kentucky blow out.

Thanks dad, thanks uncles, thanks Coach Smith (Tubby)…and thank you Coach Rupp—I’ve seen history, and on the shoulders of giants, can witness it still.


RFD 9/28/05

On Meeting Max Cleland

Had other humans acted more humane today’s embrace of this human may not have been so special. Of course, any meeting with a Vietnam veteran who overcomes severe wounds to become a successful public servant is significant.

But meeting Max Cleland was altogether different. On April 8, 1968, during the siege of Khe Sanh, he stepped off a helicopter and saw a grenade at his feet, which he assumed he had dropped. Turned out another soldier had dropped it. When he reached down to pick it up, it exploded, ripping off both legs and his right hand.

Imagine what he must have felt during the ensuing months of recovery. No legs, one arm, his JFK-inspired dreams to better the world blasted beyond comprehension. Yet he overcame the improbable and in 1970, at 28 became the youngest person ever elected to the Georgia state senate.

In 1977 President Jimmy Carter appointed him to head the Veterans Administration. In 1982 he was elected as Georgia's secretary of state. In 1996 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, defeating businessman Guy Millner in a very close race.

In the senate he was a moderate, generally conservative on fiscal matters and liberal on social ones. He was a reliable vote for military spending and bucked his party by supporting the Bush tax cuts in 2001.

During his 2002 senate race another explosion shook his life. But this one was deliberately and carefully planted to exact the maximum harm by the most vicious combatant: his Republican machine-run opponent, Saxby Chambliss.

The GOP attack ads against Max were the cruelest and most untruthful frauds in what is typically routine for today’s Republican party. The ads opened with pictures of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, then Max. "As America faces terrorists and extremist dictators," said a narrator, "Max Cleland runs television ads claiming he has the courage to lead. He says he supports President Bush at every opportunity, but that's not the truth. Since July, Max Cleland voted against President Bush's vital homeland security efforts 11 times!"

In fact, Max supported the Democratic version of the Patriot Act, so he joined most other democrats in opposing the blank check GOP version.

Two Republican senators, John McCain and Chuck Hagel, both of them Vietnam veterans, immediately denounced the ads. "I've never seen anything like that ad," says McCain. "Putting pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden next to a picture of a man who left three limbs on the battlefield -- it's worse than disgraceful, it's reprehensible."

"Max Cleland has given as much to this country as any living human being," Hagel says. "To say he is in some way connected to people like Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein was beyond offensive to me. It made me recoil, quite honestly."

Those ads portrayed the utterly decrepit, evil nature of the GOP propaganda machine. No lie to great, no means too vile. Max Cleland became for me a key inspiration to change this corrupt system—yea, dare I dream, even to save our democracy from the rot within.

So it was that when I met him today Max looked at me as though he KNEW me, he instantly reached his big left arm out to hug me close, as he does everybody. “God bless you brother, keep the faith,” he told me. It was incredibly moving.

Max has overcome it all--with love, with hope, with purpose. He is, whether he realizes it or not, leading me onwards. Thank you, Max.


Rfd 9/18/05

An I-Pod Shuffle Through Rural Kentucky

I love Kentucky. I love Kentuckians. One of the joys of my job is visiting our stores around the state. My routes often take the most scenic country roads with way more brush than bustle.

Today’s 8-hour jaunt to Glasgow, Bowling Green, Elizabethtown and Bardstown was tailor made for my I-Pod, which I let “shuffle.” The digital DJ’s chance selections are just cool. I mean, come on—Bach, then Beatles; James Brown then James Taylor.

Beyond the offbeat juxtaposition of songs, today’s mix was coincidentally fraught with meaning and memories. It started with Dionne Warwick’s wailing “I’ll never fall in love again.” Well, after my nearly completed divorce, I may or may not, but I can tell you this: I’d rather NOT “fall” in love. Never was a term more aptly put! Love should be a state that is RISEN to, not a hellhole in which to fall.

Then, another 60’s standout, the Fifth Dimension’s Save the Country…”Come on people, come on children, come on down to the glory river… We can build a dream with love…I can’t study war no more. Save the people, save the children, Save the country--NOW!”

Marilyn McCoo on Love’s Lines Angles and Rhymes is simply incomparable. All the recent so-called divas couldn’t hold the mike for her, Dionne, Aretha and their ilk, not even close.

To further add credence to my belief that the 60’s saw the peak of musicality the next song was Blood Sweat and Tears’ version of God Bless the Child…”Them that’s got shall get, them that’s not shall lose, so the Bible says, and it still is news.” With today’s disparity between the wealthiest and the poorest greater than it has ever been Billie Holiday’s words ring so true.

Yet as if to prevent my falling into deep despair the Beach Boys reminded me, “Don’t Worry Baby!” There is no better perfectionist than Brian Wilson. He came mentally undone while working on Pet Sounds, critically regarded as THE best album of all time. Brian’s massive solo effort (the group was touring while Brian, with some help from lyricist Tony Asher, toiled day and night on it) actually inspired the Beatle’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band, considered one or two along with Pet Sounds. (PS, McCartney’s favorite song is God Only Knows, and remember, the Beatles had a huge cast to work out their masterpieces).

Next came one of my favorites, America, doing the obscure, Here…”I am thinking about the days we led ourselves astray in more than many ways. Here within the time we spend wonderin’ what we meant by living all those years…” How timely for me as I’ve been considering some major changes in my life as a result of asking this same question.

“Coventry Carol” was a wonderful hint of the holiday season to come, just a little teaser of the ‘Most Wonderful Time of the Year!”

I then switched to the radio in time to hear John Robert’s Senate Confirmation hearings on NPR. He was discussing the two views of the 2nd Amendment’s right to bear arms: circuits have held it either as an individual right or a collective one. Personally, I believe individuals have the right to their guns. While I would prefer a world with no weapons, this is a utopian ideal that we will be working towards for many years to come.

As if to confirm my opinion the very next song had the Beatle’s remind me that indeed “Happiness is a Warm Gun.” And Dooley Wilson continued this theme with his prescription for happiness: just “Knock On Wood” (from the Casablanca soundtrack). I kid you not, in just this order!

Chicago re-called my youthful idealism with “We Can Make It Happen, We Can Change the World” in Dialogue: Part Two. Following that was Lexington’s own Marvin Gaye singing “Right On!” Right on, Marvin, rest in peace brother.

James Brown echoed with Soul Power, then K.C. and the Sunshine Band “I’m Your Boogie Man,” John Denver, Bach, then another favorite, Crosby Stills Nash—not sure if Young was on this one—“Find the Cost of Freedom—buried in the ground…mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down.”

So many questions do I have. Collective compassion versus individual responsibility. The beauty of freedom versus the blight of excess. The “invisible hand” versus the gamed system. Can I make a difference? Can anyone?

Hope is found on the last song of the trip, from the all time best album, the afore-mentioned Pet Sounds, “I KNOW THERE’S AN ANSWER.” Thanks, Brian. I love you, man.

Rfd 9/14/05

The Last Cicada

BZZZZ-Z-Z-Z! BZZZZ-Z-Z-Z! The verdant path through the neighborhood forest now rings with the call of just one. One lonely sycophant still searching for its mate.

Weeks earlier the tropical canopy was a deafening riot of screaming cicadas, each trying to out-maneuver the next. Imagine your lifetime of sexual energy condensed to one 30-day period. The maniacal buzzing and whirring went non-stop 24/7, so loud and frantic it was comical.

For 17 long years these nymphs sucked sap deep underground from the tall trees’ roots. Finally mature, they’ve come out and shed their skin for their summer prom, engagement, honeymoon and funeral all in just a few short weeks.

My evening walk’s now mostly calm, save this last cicada. Why, pray tell, is he still unmated? Pimples? Shy? Two left feet? Too picky? Off key?

Are the females all gone that his wails go in vain?

Or maybe he don’t give a damn, he just wants to be the last man standin’.

The toughest dude of the brood.

The last cicada.

Rfd September, 2005

Why Government? Oh Say We Now See!

Cross-country flights leave plenty of time for the news. Post-flood Louisiana looting. Fighting and raping in the lawless Superdome, now a den of anarchy where ruthlessness, hopelessness, fear and greed seem to rule.

Fine, friendly and generous people in any other “normal” circumstance, i.e. at work, with friends at a restaurant, at a child’s ball game, in a mall…or even on a laptop in a cool, air-conditioned airport with I-tunes and Starbucks in tow. Hard to imagine such genteel civility morphing to barbarism.

But when the right—rather, WRONG--situation arises, with a lethal mix of imprisonment, scarcity, desolation and isolation, rare it would be for even a Saint to remain so. I’m reminded of Winthorp (Dan Aykroyd) in Trading Places, but tragically, this southern scene is no made-for-TV reality show.

The malefactors of evil—birthed this time by Mother Nature--appear to dominate. [Query: Does evil become less so when from the hand of God instead of from man?]. Yet we know that the good far outweighs the bad. Certainly there are countless acts of human kindness throughout that troubled land.

And millions more beyond. The fellow next to me on the plane is meeting his friend in Atlanta and will then drive all night to their boat in the gulf to help in the rescue operation. A sympathetic America is rushing to send money, supplies and volunteers. And at last, the National Guard and government aid is making its way.

It is a great opportunity for unity in a cause greater than any one individual or group. It is a time for sharing and sacrifice for the greater good. It is, in short, the most crystallized example of government’s purpose and the good it—WE—can do when properly focused.

Thus, I was stung with irony at the day’s other news items:

1) The Bush Administration had cut FEMA’s budget and stature since they took office, specifically cutting flood protection in the New Orleans levies;
2) Lack of government oversight allowed developers to destroy wetlands and barrier islands that might have held back the hurricane’s surge;
3) The same experts who foresaw this inevitable tragedy say that man-made global warming will increase the intensity of future hurricanes;
4) Tennessee has dropped 200,000 working poor from its health care program, Tenn-Care, for budgetary reasons.

Each of these items shows the corruption of governmental purpose and potential from within by self-interest, greed and ideology that are too often opposed to the Greater Public Interest.

Yet, those who are the quickest to condemn and shrink government are the FIRST to flood it with demands for aid when they are in need, whether it be corporate subsidies, tax breaks, bail-outs, or direct aid when storms wreak havoc.

The Gulf catastrophe clarifies our crying need for government that is responsive to this Greater Public Interest, much like the Crash and Depression did in the 1930’s.

Better the day that we embrace this need when the seas of life are calm.

Richard F. Dawahare 9/3/05

There but for the grace of God...

I ain't got no problems. Retail friends from Louisiana--those inland at least--ain't got too many either. But those in New Orleans, those from Jackson and Gulfport, MS--THEY got problems.

40,000 homes in east New Orleans--GONE! Businesses, banks, malls, stadiums, neighborhoods, power plants, phone lines--GONE! GONE!

"It will never look the same again," says my good friend Brent Caplan from Alexandria, LA. Sewage and debris-laden storm water now inhabits the French Quarter and beyond. "Biblical historic proportions" is no over-statement.

Every glad handshake and warm embrace here at the convention is punctuated with worry about our cajun friends. What if OUR houses, OUR towns, OUR businesses and sources of income were GONE? GONE!


There but for the grace of God go we.

United, We Stand

Just arrived in Vegas for the world’s biggest men’s apparel trade show, M.A.G.I.C. This is an acronym for Men’s Apparel Guild In California, but the show is just too big for anything Los Angeles can handle, so for the last 15 years it’s been held in Vegas.

Checked into my very nice room at the Paris, unpacked and turned on the TV. What looked like a happy-go-lucky type of day, with that giddy anticipation of shopping the market and seeing old friends was suddenly drowned out by the now-Category 5 Katrina, about to bury Louisiana with unprecedented fury.

I empathized best I could with the million or so who have already clogged the roads. Some to other families or friends, some to whatever hotels that may still be available, and others to shelters. I thanked my lucky stars I am not in their position, forced to flee their homes that may never withstand this hellish storm.

Whether you are prayerful or not, I implore you to join me in a thought of good will and that somehow, some way, they are spared the sting of this beast. You probably join me in this feeling of helplessness, thus the ONE thing we can do is focus our POSITIVE thoughts and prayers for them. Let's do it NOW, creating a massive laser like beam of hope.

United, we stand.

Tears From the Garden

Saw the picture of the Israeli soldiers forcibly evicting the Gaza Israelis from their homes and my heart sank. Regardless of the impropriety of HOW they came to be there, from their perspective that was rightfully THEIR home. To have that taken away, to be forcibly relocated to some new place must be devastating.

Such are the snarled weeds of injustice and the pain of unraveling them.

____________________
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/18/international/middleeast/18arabs.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1124453233-m19iLh9zkCzIY0PCp1MAbA


· Some Arabs See Withdrawal as Hollow Victory
By HASSAN M. FATTAH NY Times
Published: August 18, 2005

AMMAN, Jordan Aug. 17 - The images of Israeli soldiers clashing with settlers in Gaza have left many Arabs in the Middle East ambivalent about the significance of the pullout. While some see it as a resounding victory for the Palestinians, crediting them with pushing Israel out of the Gaza Strip, others say it will do little to settle the core issue of Palestinian sovereignty.


"There's a mixture of victory and failure here," said Hassan Abu Taleb, assistant director of the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. Dampening the sense of victory is that Israel maintains control over Gaza's borders, Mr. Abu Taleb said, while the West Bank, the most contentious part of any settlement, is not even a subject of discussion.

"There remains a principle governing the Arab view of Israel: comprehensive peace will be followed by completely normal relations," he said. "But so far, the Israelis have not achieved the comprehensive peace."

Still, the evictions of Israeli settlers have brought change. Instead of victims, Palestinians appeared on Arab television screens as victors, a notable shift in tone after five years of violence and hardship.

Almost all the major Arab channels poured resources into covering the pullout.
"We think this is a very big event," said Nakhle al Haj, director of news and current affairs at Al Arabiya. "It was historic and deserved a lot of attention."

For many Arabs, the winner is Hamas, the militant Palestinian group. Like Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite movement that undertook a fight against Israel in southern Lebanon that lasted decades, Hamas has capitalized on the Gaza withdrawal to build its image and vie for influence with the Palestinian Authority. One of the group's leaders, Mahmoud Zahar, was prominently featured on most Arab broadcasts in recent days, emphasizing the success of the Intifada and encouraging Palestinians to celebrate their victory.

On Wednesday, Khaled Meshaal, a Hamas leader based in Damascus, held an unusual news conference in Beirut, vowing that Hamas would keep up the fight, sending the kind of message that resonates with many Arabs.

"We made it clear - you scare us, we'll scare you," said Ismail Mustafa, 28, a Palestinian living in the Gaza Refugee Camp about an hour's drive from here. "Whatever is taken by force can't be won back without force."

Yet whatever brief elation was felt in the early days of the pullout was exceeded by fear that Israel's move might in fact hamper the longer term prospect for a Palestinian state to be created in Gaza and the West Bank. The pullout may have put pressure on Arab governments, which will find it hard to demand further concessions from the Israeli government soon.

"Sharon trumped them," said Mohammed al Ameer, political editor at the Saudi daily Al Riyadh. "The Arabs are in a difficult position now because they have been presented with an olive branch and must do something in return."

The pullout also hampers the propaganda war in the Arab world. Gaza, the site of some of the most violent clashes between Palestinians and Israelis, has become synonymous with the Israeli occupation, images of which have been beamed into Arab homes nightly. With ostensibly fewer confrontations and fewer images of violence in Gaza, the Palestinians' case against Israel becomes less telegenic, if not less immediate.

"The pullout was a serious step, but after that things will change significantly," said Oraib al Ramtawi, director of Al Quds Center for Political Studies here. "Sharon will be able to avoid the road map for six months to a year, and nobody will be able to tell him to pursue another pullout. It buys him a lot of time."

Democrats and the Military

The Democratic Party platform in the 2004 election WAS NEARLY IDENTICAL to the GOP in regards to the military!! The NUMBER ONE--Numero UNO--item was a call for a "transformed" and hugely increased military!

This is deadly serious, my friends. How can we ever hope to improve our world when the two parties are identical in nature on the most important issue we will ever face? Perhaps the Dems were afraid of being beaten over the head with more false propaganda and a fearful public. Or maybe they/ WE ? (I don't know--are we really part of this Democratic party if they are so at odds with what we know to be right??) are being run, bought and sold by the same military/industrial powers that run the GOP.

If we who see the futility of an ever-increasing military do not have a voice in the Democratic party, then we MUST--MUST make a change. This is the pre-eminent issue, everything else pales by comparison.

The error of over-militarization is as obvious as it is logical. In our lifetimes we have never felt more insecure, yet we are spending more than ever since Bush has taken office. 9/11 had nothing to do with our military might, or that of any other country, yet the conspiratorial powers have used the resultant fear to explode military growth. Clinton's military budget was a relatively measly $240 BILLION, which was more than the next 11 nations COMBINED!


A friend sent this link www.truemajority.com/oreos/ to me--you may have seen it last year. This shows how much a LITTLE re-allotment of the military spending to our real human needs and foreign aid can have a huge beneficial impact.

Again however I must repeat what I said earlier: we Democrats must influence the party powers to adopt a NEW approach to our security that includes less military spending, more multi-lateral co-operation and recognition of root causes of conflicts and their proper resolution.

Or we bolt.

RFD 8/16/05

An Ode to Chase Comley

It was jaw-dropping news: “Lance Cpl. Chase Comley, 21, is returning to Lexington in a flag-draped coffin. Friends and family are stunned at the loss. Comley, killed by a suicide bomber Saturday, is the 28th recorded servicemember with a Kentucky hometown to have died in the Iraq war.”

War fatalities had always happened to other people, from other families. Not anymore. I knew Chase and his family very well. His grandfather, Victor Comley, I’ve known for over 25 years. His father, Mark, used to sell our store Kentucky tee-shirts.

Years later Mark would bring his wife, Cathy, and the rest of the family, Clinton, Laine and Cammie, to Friday’s where Mark would do magic tricks. 12-year old Chase would join me at the bar to play trivia. He joyfully and fearlessly answered the most difficult questions, that big smile and thick flock of hair waving triumphantly with every right answer.

Chase had an unquenchable optimism and a boundless spirit. So it was with that same smile and “can’t wait to get to it” drive that he told me of his decision to enlist and serve his country. I had not heard anything till I saw his mother over Memorial Day at the Lexington Cemetery, where our families’ plots lay next to each other.

Cathy was so proud, and not just a little worried. Chase had matured so much, she told me. And while he relished his role as a Marine, he was so looking forward to coming home.

How foolish my words of comfort to her seem now. They came much too easily and with that “he’ll be home for the holidays” certainty that comes only from a safe distance. Try as I might, it is just impossible to imagine the horrid reality of what our soldiers face.

Yesterday was visitation. The long, winding line took nearly an hour to get through, such were the huge number of people, young and old, who Chase had touched during his short life. A fully decorated Marine guarded his flag-draped coffin. His family stood nearby, serenely receiving us with unusual composure and class.

Such conflicting emotions flooded my head and heart. I have been an outspoken opponent of this war long before we began it. And wrong though they are the pro-warriors have painted this opposition as being targeted against the troops as well. How, I wondered, would Chase see this? Is it inconsistent to honor him—and all our soldiers—while opposing this war?

Absolutely not. I wholly support our military while opposing unjust, unnecessary and counterproductive wars. The military’s duty is to be ready when the civilian leadership calls it to action. They MUST be well-oiled and gung ho. All soldiers are worthy of our utmost respect and honor and care both during their service AND in retirement. .

Yet the military does not will itself into battle—our elected leaders do. In essence the military is one big GUN, and as the NRA argument goes, “guns don’t kill people, people do.” The proper use of a gun is to defend an attack. The law recognizes this right to the extent that such use will absolve a shooter from any liability providing that was the only course available to protecting their life. But the law will convict for life—even DEATH—those who shoot and kill without proper cause. The gun is not prosecuted—the SHOOTER is.

Our nation's military, properly and justly employed, performs the same defensive mission on a big scale. So it is, in effect, a GUN. Yet the shooter of that gun is the nation's elected LEADERSHIP, chief among them President Bush. Yes, they are certainly accountable for their wrongful use of the world’s biggest gun, the United States military.

Would Chase believe likewise? I just don’t know, but regardless I must always stay true to my light, leaving it ever open to new and better information. Coincidentally his aunt, Missy Comley Beattie, wrote an article in yesterday’s Lexington Herald-Leader http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/12364399.htm, that gave me a clue as to how Chase would feel.

A brief excerpt: “As I write, Chase is being flown to Dover Air Force Base. His 6-foot-4 body is in a coffin draped with the American flag. He loved his family, his country, his Sayre classmates and his life, but we don't think he loved his mission in Iraq.

“When he was recruited, he told us he would be deployed to Japan. He called every week when he wasn't in the field to tell us he was counting the days until his return. He tried to sound upbeat, probably for our benefit, but his father could detect in Chase's voice more than a hint of futility and will never say, "my son died doing what he loved."

“For those of you who still trust the Bush administration -- and your percentage diminishes every day -- let me tell you that my nephew Chase Johnson Comley did not die to preserve your freedoms. He was not presented flowers by grateful Iraqis, welcoming him as their liberator. He died fighting a senseless war for oil and contracts, ensuring the increased wealth of President Bush and his administration's friends.”

I’ll often sit in Friday’s and remember a Chase so full of glee. And of that, no doubt, his fellow Angels will certainly agree.

Richard F. Dawahare 8/13/05

It CAN happen to you!

The following story is as bizarre as it is scary. Wednesday started out calmly enough for Teddy (not his real name), a menswear sales rep. He was preparing to show us (Dawahare’s) his line, suffer my bad jokes (rule #1 for vendors: ALWAYS laugh at the retailer’s jokes), and then fly home.

After a nice lunch the Dawahare boys dropped Teddy off at the airport, wishing him bon voyage. About an hour later I get a call from my brother, “Teddy’s in jail, he was arrested going through security, something about a sharp object, can you help him?”

Whoa, what, where, what, come again, WHOAA! By time I got to the jail, Teddy’d been charged with carrying a concealed deadly weapon while attempting to board an airplane. I went into overdrive calling my criminal attorney friends, only to get their answering machines. My buddy at legal aid, Joe Barbieri, saved us. He talked me through the steps I needed to take to spring Teddy, which, considering the charge seemed most unlikely.

Being a licensed attorney I was able to enter the jail to visit my shocked and frantic client. The police escorted me through a maze of security doors to a basement holding area where Teddy was being held. It was a sorry, sorry sight. I tell you, whether one is guilty or innocent it is a sad and sorry sight.

Teddy explained: “as my bags were going through, the TSA said they were going to re-check them. Then they pulled my company-supplied portfolio and said there was something in it. They groped and searched and finally out came a grayish metal file-type instrument with a tip. They pulled me aside and arrested me, read me my rights, handcuffed me, and brought me here.”

Teddy had no idea that was in the portfolio, but to his great credit he could understand why TSA would find such a well hidden tool suspicious. Yet he was surprised the police did no questioning or follow up—they just arrested him, booked him and treated him as if he was guilty.

Funny thing is he got this portfolio from his company about 3 months ago and had just flown through Atlanta with it. I know from my own experience that the Lexington airport’s security equipment seems more sensitive as they have caught items other airports—including LaGuardia—have not.

Teddy called his boss in New York, and his company’s top people rushed to his aid. Best they can figure, the tool was one used to turn the leather and must have accidentally been left in at the point of manufacture (in India). Unless somebody was playing a joke on poor Teddy there seems to be no other explanation.

At any rate, Teddy was lucky the charge was only a mis-demeanor. I went to the courthouse, posted the $200 bail and got Teddy out. While he was thrilled to be out all he could think about was dreadful doom and gloom: tomorrow’s court appearance, being a marked-man whenever he flew, and a possible federal charge to boot.

I was able to get my friend Jim Lowry, the best criminal attorney in town, to go with me to court for Teddy’s arraignment. Thankfully, Jim has had 20 similar cases and has gotten them all off, and Teddy will certainly make it 21.

If this has not hitten home with you yet, consider this. After the “not guilty” court plea Teddy was free to leave. I escorted him to the Delta check in, just to insure he would have no problems.

The Delta manager pulled him aside and politely told him, “Delta has decided not to board you today, sir.” They considered Teddy too much a security risk! I pleaded with the manager, told him Teddy’s side, but to no avail. He did say he could try to get him on another airline.

I admit I started to get heated, so I just walked away…and prayed. Yes, I prayed for Teddy, the Delta agent, the security people, for my own patience and wisdom. Now this is either an unbelievable coincidence or another example of “the power of prayer” but the Delta manager came back and said they would let Teddy fly after all---WHEW!

Sure enough, they basically strip-searched Teddy at the checkpoint, but he did make it through. And, as he emailed me today, he “passed out as soon as [he] got home.”

Friends, I know that in today’s world we think it essential to broach NO security risk, to mandate hypersensitive security at airports, and soon in movies, ballgames and buildings. But SOMETHING has got to give.

We are losing it--our freedom, our well being, our sanity, our Constitutional rights. Too many people are ready to accept random police searches, profiling, wiretaps and such without the constitutionally required showing of probable cause. This is totally, totally unacceptable and can only end in disaster for us—or any society—that so readily and unnecessarily forfeits these rights.

I told Teddy there are always silver linings to seemingly bad events. Somehow, he will benefit from this. Perhaps we all will by using this as inspiration to develop new security techniques that keep sacrosanct our rights and well-being.
After all, it could happen to you. RFD 8/6/05

A Poison By Any Other Name

I researched aspartame after my own experience. Not only did I occasionally have various nervous spells, which at that time I did not think at all related to drinking diet Cokes, but I kept gaining weight even though I watched my food intake AND exercised.

In the late 90's I gave up diet drinks and lost 20 pounds. Then I started drinking them again and over the next 5 years I picked up 25 pounds. I hit 200 pounds last July and decided enough was enough. So I gave up all meat (beef, chicken, pork) all fried foods and snacks AND all diet drinks, all aspartame.

I lost 35 pounds since last August 1. I know I can't isolate the elimination of aspartame as the key reason for this weight loss, BUT I was not eating all that much meat or fried foods anyway. Also, I have had NONE of those nervous-type feelings that I used to while drinking diets.

This article is a synopsis of hundreds of pages--out of THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS out there. I have no doubt from my own experience and this history that this is a substance that should never have been allowed in our foods or beverages. Rfd

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A POISON BY ANY OTHER NAME

Would you take poison if it had a healthy sounding name, came in trusted products and had a “good housekeeping” type seal of approval? You’re doing just that if you use Nutrasweet, Equal or any of the thousands of famous products containing Aspartame.

Years of research and thousands of complaints filed with the FDA bear witness to the horrors of Aspartame. It causes brain tumors, psychiatric and behavioral disorders, memory loss, depression, headaches, rashes, asthma, seizures, insulin-resistant diabetes, blindness and obesity.

And a just-released report in the European Journal of Clinical Oncology proves Aspartame causes leukemia and lymphoma in rats. The report concludes with a call “…for urgent re-examination of permissible exposure levels of Aspartame in both food and beverages, especially to protect children.”

Renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock M.D. said, "The new study should terrify mothers and all those consuming aspartame sweetened products. Both of these malignancies have increased significantly in this country since the widespread use of aspartame.”

Dieters hoping to lose weight are perversely GAINING it instead. Aspartame affects metabolism so we don’t burn off calories that end up being stored as fat. It also lowers the brain’s output of serotonin, the substance that causes us to feel “full” after eating, thus we eat even more.

The late Dr. M. Adrian Gross, former senior FDA toxicologist, stated in his testimony before Congress, "Beyond a shadow of a doubt, aspartame triggers brain tumors" and, "therefore, by allowing aspartame to be placed on the market, the FDA has violated the Delaney Amendment… And if the FDA violates its own law, who is left to protect the public?"

Aspartame’s approval is the tragic, but all to common sacrifice of our greater public interest to profit, power and greed. In textbook style it shows the corruption from within by self-interested politicians and their corporate masters that continues to this very day.

It started in 1965 when Searle developed Aspartame as an ulcer drug. A Searle scientist discovered its sweet taste after licking it from his finger. Searle foresaw the much bigger profits to be made by using this new chemical as a food additive sweetener than the more limited use as an ulcer drug.

Searle’s own initial tests showed Aspartame produced holes and tumors in the brains of mice, epileptic seizures in monkeys and converted by animals into dangerous substances, including formaldehyde. But Searle falsified their test results and disposed of the most damaging evidence.


The FDA pursued criminal charges against Searle for this flagrant violation. But the government’s prosecutors, Samuel Skinner and William Conlon, failed to bring it to the grand jury. In typical revolving door fashion, the foot dragging prosecutors then joined the law firm defending Searle.

But even accepting Searle’s doctored results as presented, Dr. Gross said, “… it still emerges that the rate of brain tumors amongst the animals exposed to it (aspartame) vastly exceeds that for animals not exposed to it and such excess is very highly significant. What this says is that there cannot be any reasonable, or even shadow of a doubt that aspartame had caused such an increase in the incidence of brain tumors.”

So the FDA refused to approve Aspartame throughout the Ford and Carter Administrations. But two significant events happened. First, Donald Rumsfeld became president of Searle in 1977 with the express goal of getting Nutrasweet on the market.

Then Ronald Reagan was elected President in 1980. Rumsfeld joined the Reagan transition team. The second day upon taking office Reagan, by executive order, suspended all action of the FDA. One month later he appointed Arthur Hayes as the new Chairman.

Just five months later Hayes overruled FDA advisors and approved aspartame for dry foods. In November 1983 he approved it for beverages. Hayes, under fire for accepting corporate gifts, left the FDA that same month and joined Searle’s public relations firm. Rumsfeld eventually got a $12 million bonus. And the complaints started pouring in.

Within a year of Aspartame’s test marketing release, over 10,000 complaints of dizziness, blurred vision, headaches, and seizures hit the FDA. The Centers for Disease Control found that the symptoms in approximately 25% of the complainants had stopped and then restarted in a corresponding manner with aspartame consumption and withdrawal.

In this same period the human incidence of brain tumors had soared by 10%. None of this bothered the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner, who left the FDA two years later to become vice-president of clinical research for Searle.

That would explain why 100% of all the Searle-financed studies from 1985 to 1995 found no problem with Nutrasweet, while 100% of non-industry financed research raised questions.

Most damning is the soft drink industry’s own statement to Congress in 1983 opposing Aspartame. The National Soft Drink Association petition to Congress against the approval of aspartame was published in the May 7, 1985, Congressional Record: "Searle has not met its burdens under section 409 . . . to demonstrate that aspartame is safe and functional for use in soft drinks . . .. The extensive deficiencies in the stability studies conducted by Searle to demonstrate that aspartame and its degradation products [methyl alcohol, formaldehyde, formic acid, diketopiperazine, etc] are safe in soft drinks intended to be sold in the United States, render these studies inadequate and unreliable. "

So why would they later embrace as a sweetener that which they earlier correctly labeled a toxic poison? And why would Commissioner Hayes unilaterally overrule longstanding FDA opposition and approve the identical Aspartame formula that had been rejected under three previous administrations?

Profit, power and greed. And it’s happening again with Splenda, which is nothing more than chlorinated sugar. Biochemist Dr. James Bowen explains that "Just like aspartame…sucralose also failed in clinical trials with animals.” It affects metabolism and leads to organ damage.

This frequent and open sell-out of our welfare to big money is destroying our faith in government and eroding our democracy. It will only stop when we insist on leaders who make paramount the greater public interest.

Some call this corruption “free market capitalism.” But like “Nutrasweet” it is a label that can’t hide the poison beneath.


Respectfully submitted, Richard F. Dawahare 7/20/05

Patriarchal Dominance & the 4th of July

Patriarchal Dominance & the 4th of July

Patriarchal dominance. My identity is so consumed with my last name that I often forget there are three other ancestral lines that have equal standing in my genetic makeup. The Rashid family reunion, my maternal grandmother’s line, is a yearly reminder of this.

The Rashids emigrated in the early 1900’s from Lebanon to various points in the Midwest, settling in both the cities and rural areas from Kansas to Michigan. This year’s reunion, from which I just returned, was in Washington D.C. (Bethesda, Md to be more accurate).

There is something special about being in Washington during the 4th of July weekend. All the sights seem to ooze forth a little extra meaning. none more than the starting point for Friday’s excursion, Arlington Cemetery.

The open-air trolley dropped us at the JFK memorial. Very touching, with Jackie buried next to President Kennedy on his right and his pre-deceased son, Patrick, on his left. His most famous and moving quotes were etched in the huge concrete veranda. In a separate area to the left was a similar memorial to Robert Kennedy. Tears welled as the song “Abraham, Martin and John” came to mind.

From there to the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is amazing how precise and focused these soldiers are. A guard’s waist can be no larger than 29” WITH the uniform on, so these young men were really “cut.”

The trolley driver pointed out various tombs and markers of famous military men and their role in either freeing, defining or preserving our nation. This was on my mind as we next visited the Vietnam, Lincoln and WWII Memorials.

Concrete and marbled magnificence, all of them! I mused that all the main sights of Washington, of our country’s most cherished heroes, of the 4th itself were forged from military might, from unimaginable courage and willpower.

Blazing 95-degree heat with sauna-like humidity intensified their impact. Being without sunglasses I viewed these sights through severely squinted sweat-soaked eyes. I could literally FEEL “the bombs bursting in air” that led to independence, democracy, acceptance of the world’s “tired and huddled masses” like my forbears, who in turned served in WWII, and thus to my standing on that very spot on this very day.

I naturally wondered about the war in Iraq. Would its future monument be one to a desperate nation-saving, back-to-the-wall life or death struggle? Or would it, like the Vietnam Memorial, be one that honors the valiant soldiers who courageously answered an errant call of duty.



The next day’s visit to the FDR memorial was a soul-confirming perspective on our nation’s past, present and hopeful future. Sitting on the banks of the Potomac, the FDR’s memorial is a peaceful setting. The sculpted concrete walls bear his resounding principles and are segmented into the eras of his four terms of office.

In his first term FDR confronted the nations collapse following the crash and Depression, but his optimism helped see us through. “We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” and he proclaimed government responsibility for fostering the Four Freedoms: of speech and worship and from want and fear.

Then this timely gem from his second Inaugural Address: "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little."

While FDR successfully faced domestic insecurity his first two terms, in his third he led the nation against Germany and Japan, axis foes determined to crush us. “Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy--the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

Clarity. Nations with the world’s strongest militaries declared war on us, and we had no choice but to do or die. No wonder our boys were itchin’ to enlist! “No matter how long it may take for us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.”

It struck me that our wars fought for real protection, with a high moral purpose and undisputed clarity were the ones in which we DID prevail. Iraq, like Vietnam, is absolutely NONE of that. FDR would never have warred so unnecessarily for as he said, “I have seen war…I hate war.”

Most relevant for our future FDR nails it: “The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man or one party or one nation. It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world.”

FDR’s memorial reminded me that while our military might is the most visible of our country’s ancestral line, it is but one key enabler. Equally important are the values inherent within our social contract, the “united we stand” proposition that FDR saw as the government’s prime responsibility to foster.

Without that we may never have been able to withstand the axis powers. We would never have created the world’s strongest middle class nor become the beacon of leadership for the world to emulate.

Paternal dominance is mental. Memorials and reunions remind us of our whole story, our reality.

RFD 7/7/05

A Solution for Iraq

Let's pretend:

Let's imagine the Most Wise, the Most Just, Most Compassionate (MWJC) was just installed as our President. What would this new President's strategy be in Iraq?

From one side of the room: "Our freedom at home depends on THEIR freedom there. Only by our military might can we install democracy. If we pulled out now their insurgency would lead to the same kind of tyranny we fought to displace. We must see this to the end, even if it takes decades!"

From another side: "While we were never for this war, we agree that we can't just cut and run, it would leave Iraqis defenseless and make the situation even worse. We must see this through by building up Iraq's own security force."

The new President pondered all this, when a small, still voice called out: "Try truth, try justice." The President asked for more explanation. The voice answered, "The war was wrong and based on lies, but we can't go back we must deal in the now. So it is NEVER TOO LATE to act with truth and justice.

"Many on the side of war dismiss the rest of the world. They have always rejected that world's ONE political representative body, the United Nations. But it is within the UN in which we can start to make progress.

“If we went and admitted our past wrong--which for you, being the new President would be easy--and ask the world representatives to help fashion a safe and just future for Iraq, this would set a tone and base from which we can begin to make a just and lasting peace.”

The President thanked everybody and left. The MWJC consulted in silence with the Highest Authority and chose the course to take.

He addressed Congress, “Ladies and gentlemen. I will address the United Nations myself and here is what I will say:

‘Ladies and gentlemen of the world, I thank you for being here. I come to see what together we can do to improve the lot of our world’s citizens. Admittedly our country has not always fully bought in to this. We have been drunk with the wine of our supreme power and might and have, in a very human manner, tended to depend on that more than on honestly dealing with you.

‘My predecessor went around this body to make war in Iraq. This was an understandable exercise in self-defense when seen through his fear-laden perspective in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Some of our leaders feel that many of you, perhaps as retaliation for our admitted unilateralism, don’t really care about our safety or success, and that we should therefore not hamstring ourselves by subordinating our strength to your deliberations.

‘However, we failed to understand that to GET RESPECT, we must honestly GIVE RESPECT. And it is with this attitude that I pledge our nation to you and your citizens.

‘So I ask your help in Iraq. I ask that we work together to develop a plan for peace and safety for the Iraqi people and the region. We must deal with the situation as it exists now, but together we can begin to make it better.

‘From there we can begin to work more closely and honestly for the benefit of our citizens on all other issues. When any of us start to go astray, to focus excessively on self-interest, or otherwise act in a way contrary to what benefits us as a whole, then we must be open to hearing about this from each other and get back on track.

‘From the bottom of my heart and from my fellow American citizens, I thank you.’”

The Senate leader asked, “But what do you suppose the UN could offer?”

The MWJC said, “First, they will feel empowered to do good and we NEED their help, we always have. Second, we always have our military and economic might. THEY know this, too. We leverage that power by not abusing it. We best use our power by leaving it dormant and instead showing honest respect and deference.

“We should look at all nations as equal partners in the quest for peace and justice, after all we still have veto power on the Security Council when we need it. Who knows what good ideas will arise from the atmosphere of trust and goodwill that we will help lead.” The MWJC thanked them and left.
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“Pollyanna, idealistic and unrealistic” thinking many of you say. I wholeheartedly disagree. I remain open to more and better FACTUAL information of which I, nor you, have.

But the approach and attitude of the imagined MWJC President is undoubtedly correct. Applied with wisdom and perseverance it will create a better world.

Rfd 6/29/05

Pearls in the Oil Crisis

Oil—is there an infinite supply to fuel our Manifest Destiny or are we nearing the point of exhausting it? Many learned experts say it’s about gone—30 years of known oil reserves—while others, including the Bush administration say, or at least ACT, as if there’s a bottomless well.

Oil interests only win if there is in fact a plentiful supply. And they can explode that victory to massive profits in the scarcity-filled atmosphere that now exists, especially if they know of a bountiful supply that's in the hole.

Combine this fact with a hope that were this crisis real President Bush would surely respect the national interest enough to talk about conservation, accelerated hybrid productions, etc.--and it LOOKS as if there is plenty of oil.

Then comes Matthew R. Simmons, who in Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy convincingly shows that the Saudis are nearing peak production. This would be Armageddon for a nation of people who feel it their birthright to consume with an unquenchable desire.

The great news, really great news, is that the solution depends not on the level of supply. That is absolutely the wrong way of looking at it. In any situation Universal Moral Principles can direct the way forward.

In regard to resource usage those principles dictate: a) a use of humanity’s highest intelligence to get the MOST productivity out of the LEAST expenditure of resources, b) a use of only what is needed—“waste not, want not”, c) a show of the same respect for others’ needs and wants as that which we give to ourselves.

Our national policy then becomes abundantly clear—and a moral imperative: require vehicles getting at least twice, up to 4 times the fuel efficiency as well promote and incentivize conservation by citizens and businesses.

The energy crisis is actually a major opportunity. We will encourage students to apply their gaming skills to devise new ways of conservation. Whole industries will evolve devoted to efficiency, while those with desire and aptitude will work on new ways of energy creation and delivery. Already bio-fuels and other non-oil sources are showing real promise.

It IS doable, but only with a focus on what best benefits the Greater Public Interest instead of what maximizes the profits of the oil or automotive industries or that of any entrenched special interests. This renewed focus on the greater common good is yet another benefit of the energy crisis.

We might still be able to have our cars and drive them too. But our destination must be clear, just and worthy.

Richard F. Dawahare 6.28.05

Time to Impeach

While doing some research on another matter, I coincidentally came upon this piece, which I had written Oct. 2002 during the run-up to the war in Iraq. That whole year, beginning with Bush's "axis of evil" speech in Jan/Feb and his CONTINUAL, PRE-DETERMINED DECISION to go to war in Iraq, I was aghast at the dis-information, whether deliberate (I truly believe it was) or not. I felt compelled with all the light given me to do what I could to prevent this atrocious injustice--done with my tax dollars and by the corrupted government of the country I love. I also joined the local peace movement and helped organize and lead the anti-war rally that fall.

My totally serendipitous discovery of my article, which I was not aware the Kentucky Post even ran, confirms for me the path we must now take as a country, as unpopular as this will seem to many of you. Of course, the hindrance to doing this (see below) is the still deep national division about the rightness of this war. It is similar to Vietnam, wherein many Americans still believe we should have been there, and the only mistake was not nuking them. The very fact that this position is not "correct" as history and reason has conclusively proven, is similarly applicable to the current mess in Iraq.

The war, so obviously wrong before we waged it, remains so. The question of what to do vexes us. Do we "cut and run?" Do we wait on adequate Iraqi security capabilities? The key point is that THIS ADMINISTRATION is utterly incapable of any just, effective solution, as they will continue to make all decisions based on their warped view of the "rightness" of their war.

I pondered whether I should parrot the existing cries for impeachment. After all, with the House and Senate in Republican hands it looks like an exercise in futility, so all I'd be accomplishing is further alienating those friends on my "conservative" list. Yet in my heart and soul I believe that only with NEW leadership can a credible and just corrective plan materialize. Thus, I believe a re-call of this president is necessary and the only way Constitutionally to accomplish this is through the impeachment process.

Personally, I've discovered meditation and through it a better sense of peace. I fret and fume less and am starting to have more clarity. So it is with love and compassion for all concerned, and a desire to see the most good for the most people, that I be true to soul and reason in recommending this course.

Respectfully, Richard
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PEACEFUL RESOLUTION IS RIGHT, JUST RESPONSE TO IRAQ.(Editorial)(Column)Source: The Kentucky Post (Covington, KY)Date: 10/30/2002

Byline: Richard F. Dawahare

Deep in our souls we know. Stripped of the paralyzing fear that smothers our minds and dulls our hearts we know that war in Iraq would be an immoral obscenity, a terrible wrong that would only exacerbate our problems instead of solving them.

Quite naturally, the 9/11 attacks exponentially increased our fear of vulnerability. When combined with the continuous demonization of Saddam Hussein we feel an impending doom if we do not attack. I, too, admit to these feelings.

Yet all that frightens is not fearsome. That is, there is just too much credible information that refutes the danger that Iraq is made to pose. A calm review of all the relevant information will show that Saddam Hussein, appalling tyrant that he is, does not present the clear and present threat requiring war.

First, the world community, including Iraq's own neighbors, oppose war and regime change.
Second, our own former lead weapons inspector has courageously challenged the threat Iraq is alleged to present. Scott Ritter, who spent 7 years in Iraq as the United Nation's lead weapons inspector, calls the Bush Administration's push for war "a tragic joke perpetrated on the American public and the world."

He says the inspectors had destroyed 95 percent of Iraq's weapons as well as their capacity to build them. While Ritter is certain that Iraq is nowhere close to nuclear capability, he believes inspectors must go back to continue the job.

Ritter has no motive to lie. A Republican, he says his Marine code of honor requires him to tell the truth. He concludes that an America that pushes for war and regime change under these circumstances, especially when there are other alternatives available, "is not the country I want to be a part of."

To further enhance our fear and justify attack the hawks keep telling us how Hussein gassed his own people. This refers to the old charge that he gassed the Kurds in 1988. Forget for a second that we have already punished him for this atrocity. The bigger news is that it may not have happened the way we have heard it.

A Pentagon report by Stephen C. Pelletiere, Douglas V. Johnson II and Leif R. Rosenberger, of the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. War College concluded "we find it impossible to confirm the State Department's claim that gas was used against the Kurds."

Further, regarding charges that Iraq used chemical weapons at Halabjah in March, 1988 the same report concluded that Iran, not Iraq was likely responsible. It concludes, "Congress acted more on the basis of emotionalism than factual information." (Not that it matters but we were Saddam Hussein's ally in Iraq's war against Iran.)

This is not to say that Saddam Hussein is not a dangerous guy. I believe that he is. But there are other methods short of war - such as inspections and containment - that will more effectively secure peace.

Our fear is also amplified by Hussein's portrayal as a psychotic madman. This may well be as he no doubt has performed heinous acts of brutality. But at crucial times he also has acted rationally. For example, during the Gulf War he did not use the chemical or biological weapons that we claim he had - not against Israel, not against us, not against his own citizens.

This can only mean that a) he did not have them, or b) he had them but knew that to use them would invite a devastating retaliation on his country. This is the kind of sane, rational thinking that spared the world a nuclear holocaust throughout the cold war as each side feared mutually assured destruction.

We also fear that Hussein could provide biological or germ weapons to terrorists. Yet there is no evidence he has done so. In fact, he historically has considered Islamic radicals as an enemy to his regime. Indeed, he fought Iran to prevent Khomeini's fundamentalist revolution from overtaking Iraq.

Unfortunately, there are many enemies who might be inclined to help terrorists. How futile to believe we can war our way to safety when the only way to ensure a just and lasting peace is through dialogue and diplomacy. As even Iraq's own neighbors have suggested, war will only inflame hostilities and increase terrorism, not reduce it.

The Bush Administration has backed off its claim that Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attack. Regardless, the hawks use the appeasement argument to justify an attack. That is, a refusal to attack Hussein now will lead to future catastrophe similar to Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler.

The much more relevant history, however, is Vietnam where we did follow the appeasement lesson by going to war to "stop the spread of Communism." Our fear then turned out to be a tragic mistake that killed 57,000 Americans, 3 million of "them" and created a truly unfortunate class of veterans.

I was 8 when the trumped up Gulf of Tonkin resolution led to full-scale war in Vietnam. Huckleberry Hound, Pleasant Valley Sundays, the Beatles, and the many hundreds of fun things the '60s offered us boomers took precedent over a war fought ostensibly to protect our ability to live the American Dream.

The protestors were "pinko drug-loving hippies." The establishment did all it could to discredit them. But the voice of truth was too powerful and the American middle class, after eight years of horrific tragedy, demanded peace, albeit "with honor."

If our leaders then had studied the history of the Vietnamese and their suffering under domination from the French and Japanese, they would have realized that all they ever wanted was to be free of the yoke of colonialism - they had no intention of world wide revolution.
(In an eerily similar coincidence, America was actually allied with Ho Chi Minh during World War II against Japan as we were with Saddam Hussein in Iraq's war with Iran.)

I have often wondered what I would have done in 1964 had I been an adult with this understanding. Would I have acquiesced to the pro-establishment, "support the president" position I knew inside to be wrong, but popular. Or would I have stayed true to my knowledge of a higher truth and joined the protestors?

Because there are workable alternatives to war - inspections, the lifting of sanctions and the re-incorporation of the Iraqi people into the international community - that would create a more permanent and just solution today's decision is easy.
Deep inside I know. We all do.

Richard F. Dawahare is an attorney and businessman from Lexington.