Used to be I shunned my shoes. But pointed mom to a man with no feet and then I had no further blues.
Used to be I’d eat this and skip that and often whine if it wasn’t just right. Then one day my dad would say, about the scraps I’d thrown away, “what a feast they would be for the many hungry who have nothing to eat but misery” and now each morsel is as dear as can be.
Used to be I’d give thanks for my food and eating to fill sit contentedly still. Then I’d see folks for whom chew was a chore, while for others digestion was for them very sore. So now I am thankful for each bite I take, every swallow I make and for flow-thrus that go just as easy as cake.
Used to be I’d be nimble and quick, move to and fro with no thought to this trick. Then I’d meet people who hobbled about, some with game knees, bad hips, goiter or gout. Now I’m so thankful just to walk in the park with a gait free and easy and pain be without.
Used to be couples I met who divorced, I’d feel sorry for both and had great remorse. But having gone through a similar course—and one I never ever dreamed I would source!—I know how important that empathy is. Even more so did my faith in God grow, and stronger it grew as God carried me through. And while teaching me how very little I knew, that though She/He be a complete mystery, all I need do is believe in what’s good and, too, in what’s true.
Used to be my eternity depended upon the Holy Trinity. Yet to put God in a box built by men orthodox that over the ages became petrified thought denies a reality that lets God be what God is which is all that we see and all that we don’t and even, too, all that we won’t.
Used to be “In the beginning there was the Word.”
Now words just get in the way.
Rfd 11/25/06
Friday, November 24, 2006
Thursday, November 16, 2006
A Solution for Iraq, A Second Chance for Bush
It’s over. Yet it’s just beginning, a seed of hope that could sprout both a new chance for peace and a salvation of President Bush and his stature in history.
His recent conciliation and expressions of desire to work with the new Democratic leadership is a 180 degree turn from 6 years of bull-headed charges in the wrong direction, a course which has lead to fear and loathing throughout the world, and drapes-pulled-from-the-eyes discontent at home.
If, as his recent stance seems to indicate, his attitude is truly changed, he can retire in two years with a shiny epitaph and restored reputation as a human who erred, yet for the good of humanity, did all he could to right it. Here’s how.
The world is ready. They have renewed confidence in the American public that we too have seen the error of our unilateral and dangerous aggression and want to re-join the community of nations in the quest for shared security and well being for all countries, not just the U.S.
Therefore, they will gladly work with us in bringing peace to Iraq and the region. But President Bush must actively seek and sincerely want their partnership. He must not merely accept, but honestly insist on other nations’ best and equal involvement in solving the quagmire, asking only that any such nation be in it for the right reasons: the welfare of Iraq, the region and the world at large, and not just for what they stand to gain.
This seemed all but impossible before the President’s post-election speeches and firing of Donald Rumsfeld. But such is his power that even with a Democratically controlled Congress it is his demeanor and actions that can continue to break or instead repair us.
With the holidays nearing an analogy to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol seems appropriate. As the ghost of Christmas Future ushers us about we see the world as it will look a few years hence if the present course remains unaltered. Headlines of death, despair and contempt, a presidency ranked at the bottom, President Bush a tragic example of what one should never to be.
Yet, behold! This is a nightmare vision of what might happen. And like the joyful Scrooge upon the discovery that he still COULD change the future, George W. Bush has a second chance. Tomorrow’s headlines full of hope, peace and progress. President Bush, smiling from the cover of his new best seller, “From My War to Our Peace, a Tale of Grace and Redemption,” his legacy secure in the annals of history.
It is possible and it is doable. President Bush need only act with the faith he so proudly professes and with humility and magnanimity face the mistakes of the past to insure a more hopeful tomorrow.
And in a well-deserved glow of contentment he can end his farewell speech not with “God bless America,” but rather “God bless the world!”
Richard F. Dawahare 11/10/06
His recent conciliation and expressions of desire to work with the new Democratic leadership is a 180 degree turn from 6 years of bull-headed charges in the wrong direction, a course which has lead to fear and loathing throughout the world, and drapes-pulled-from-the-eyes discontent at home.
If, as his recent stance seems to indicate, his attitude is truly changed, he can retire in two years with a shiny epitaph and restored reputation as a human who erred, yet for the good of humanity, did all he could to right it. Here’s how.
The world is ready. They have renewed confidence in the American public that we too have seen the error of our unilateral and dangerous aggression and want to re-join the community of nations in the quest for shared security and well being for all countries, not just the U.S.
Therefore, they will gladly work with us in bringing peace to Iraq and the region. But President Bush must actively seek and sincerely want their partnership. He must not merely accept, but honestly insist on other nations’ best and equal involvement in solving the quagmire, asking only that any such nation be in it for the right reasons: the welfare of Iraq, the region and the world at large, and not just for what they stand to gain.
This seemed all but impossible before the President’s post-election speeches and firing of Donald Rumsfeld. But such is his power that even with a Democratically controlled Congress it is his demeanor and actions that can continue to break or instead repair us.
With the holidays nearing an analogy to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol seems appropriate. As the ghost of Christmas Future ushers us about we see the world as it will look a few years hence if the present course remains unaltered. Headlines of death, despair and contempt, a presidency ranked at the bottom, President Bush a tragic example of what one should never to be.
Yet, behold! This is a nightmare vision of what might happen. And like the joyful Scrooge upon the discovery that he still COULD change the future, George W. Bush has a second chance. Tomorrow’s headlines full of hope, peace and progress. President Bush, smiling from the cover of his new best seller, “From My War to Our Peace, a Tale of Grace and Redemption,” his legacy secure in the annals of history.
It is possible and it is doable. President Bush need only act with the faith he so proudly professes and with humility and magnanimity face the mistakes of the past to insure a more hopeful tomorrow.
And in a well-deserved glow of contentment he can end his farewell speech not with “God bless America,” but rather “God bless the world!”
Richard F. Dawahare 11/10/06
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
When a Rose is not a Rose
The biggest news today is not related to the election. No. It is instead a story about the state of New York legally recognizing that black indeed may be white, that up can be in fact down! Specifically New York is moving forward with a plan to allow people to change the sex on their birth certificate upon affidavits from a doctor and mental health professional laying out why their patient should be considered a member of the opposite sex and asserting that the proposed change would be permanent.
Cool.
Applicants would have to have changed their names and lived in their new gender for at least two years, but there is no requirement for any surgical operation, which is considered arbitrary. “It’s the permanence of the transition that matters most,” says Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, New York City’s health commissioner.
This “recognizes the emerging shift away from viewing gender as simply the sum of one’s body parts.” (Quoting Damien Cave, the NY Times writer of this story, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/nyregion/07gender.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print).
Joann Prinzivalli, 52, a lawyer for the New York Transgender Rights Organization is a human born as a male, but living as a woman since 2000 without surgery said this is a progressive move away from American culture’s misguided fixation on genitals as the basis for one’s identity.
“It’s based on an arbitrary distinction that says there are two and only two sexes,” she said. “In reality the diversity of nature is such that there are more than just two, and people who seem to belong to one of the designated sexes may really belong to the other.”
Okay, value judgment time. Since love should be the guiding rule for all humanity, I will look at it through the eyes of that highest of values. Doing so I say, “GREAT, FANTASTIC, AWESOME!” Undoubtedly there are folks dancing to the tune of a different drummer than the storybook band that convention has decreed as being the only one suitable for the dances similarly dictated as acceptable.
These human souls long for the freedom to be themselves, thereby attaining a peace of mind that we all require to live happily, and by extension, to help others live happily as well. It just makes for a better world.
This recognition, radical and revolutionary to be sure, is for me another sign of God’s mystery. Today’s “Truth” is more than what I thought it was yesterday, and certainly—hopefully--not as full as it will be tomorrow.
Cool.
Applicants would have to have changed their names and lived in their new gender for at least two years, but there is no requirement for any surgical operation, which is considered arbitrary. “It’s the permanence of the transition that matters most,” says Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, New York City’s health commissioner.
This “recognizes the emerging shift away from viewing gender as simply the sum of one’s body parts.” (Quoting Damien Cave, the NY Times writer of this story, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/nyregion/07gender.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print).
Joann Prinzivalli, 52, a lawyer for the New York Transgender Rights Organization is a human born as a male, but living as a woman since 2000 without surgery said this is a progressive move away from American culture’s misguided fixation on genitals as the basis for one’s identity.
“It’s based on an arbitrary distinction that says there are two and only two sexes,” she said. “In reality the diversity of nature is such that there are more than just two, and people who seem to belong to one of the designated sexes may really belong to the other.”
Okay, value judgment time. Since love should be the guiding rule for all humanity, I will look at it through the eyes of that highest of values. Doing so I say, “GREAT, FANTASTIC, AWESOME!” Undoubtedly there are folks dancing to the tune of a different drummer than the storybook band that convention has decreed as being the only one suitable for the dances similarly dictated as acceptable.
These human souls long for the freedom to be themselves, thereby attaining a peace of mind that we all require to live happily, and by extension, to help others live happily as well. It just makes for a better world.
This recognition, radical and revolutionary to be sure, is for me another sign of God’s mystery. Today’s “Truth” is more than what I thought it was yesterday, and certainly—hopefully--not as full as it will be tomorrow.
Friday, November 03, 2006
Rebuttals to Vote Rigging Charge or Let Jimmy Carter Stay home
I am lucky to have many intelligent friends across the political spectrum. Some have given a different perspective than the one I presented regarding the unreliability of electronic, paperless voting machines. I list them verbatim below.
I believe they each have merit and admit that I truly do not know the level, if any, of fraud that actually exists. I am convinced, however, that the potential for fraud is more than has ever existed with old fashioned paper ballots.
1) There are safeguards. Your a bit overzealous.
2) If these accusations are true, then people should be in prison.
3) We have had electronic voting machines for almostthirty years. There has not been one case of provenvoting fraud with these machines. I know we do havethe Rev. "Mr. "shakedown Jesse Jackson, stating everyelection cycle .. Fraud .. Fraud. I find itinteresting he has not been successful with anydisenfranchisement suit. However, I would argue that voting fraud is not arepublican issue. It is a democratic and republicanissue. We have had cases in New York in the lastelection cycle that 77,000 dead people voted. Additionally, how about states like Maryland who countabsentee votes two days after the polls close. Or,how about election fraud issues in high populatedareas by which senior folks homes and people withAlzheimer's are targeted. I think these are the casesthat we need to expose.
4) I thought the entire point of using electronic voting machines was to cut down on fraud. It was long alleged that paper ballot elections were easily rigged with mountains of fraudulent ballots; now it is said that electronic ballots are easily manipulated. I find it hard to believe that the Democratic Party would stand idly by and do nothing if they thought that a particular election was rigged.
I believe they each have merit and admit that I truly do not know the level, if any, of fraud that actually exists. I am convinced, however, that the potential for fraud is more than has ever existed with old fashioned paper ballots.
1) There are safeguards. Your a bit overzealous.
2) If these accusations are true, then people should be in prison.
3) We have had electronic voting machines for almostthirty years. There has not been one case of provenvoting fraud with these machines. I know we do havethe Rev. "Mr. "shakedown Jesse Jackson, stating everyelection cycle .. Fraud .. Fraud. I find itinteresting he has not been successful with anydisenfranchisement suit. However, I would argue that voting fraud is not arepublican issue. It is a democratic and republicanissue. We have had cases in New York in the lastelection cycle that 77,000 dead people voted. Additionally, how about states like Maryland who countabsentee votes two days after the polls close. Or,how about election fraud issues in high populatedareas by which senior folks homes and people withAlzheimer's are targeted. I think these are the casesthat we need to expose.
4) I thought the entire point of using electronic voting machines was to cut down on fraud. It was long alleged that paper ballot elections were easily rigged with mountains of fraudulent ballots; now it is said that electronic ballots are easily manipulated. I find it hard to believe that the Democratic Party would stand idly by and do nothing if they thought that a particular election was rigged.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
This Election, Send Jimmy Carter to… America!
Can you just imagine the chief executive of the main paperless electronic voting machine maker say, “(I am) committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.”? You don’t have to imagine. It happened!
Walden O’Dell, then Diebold CEO made the prophetic guarantee in an August 2003 fundraising letter. Can you imagine what Republicans or their mouthpieces like Rush Limbaugh would say if that CEO were a Democrat speaking of a sitting Democratic president?
Yet, the multitudinous tales of election mayhem by Diebold from California, Georgia, Maryland, Florida, Minnesota, Ohio and most if not every state continues unabated. Election fraud will happen this fall and without a paper trail it will be nearly impossible to prove it.
There is a guiding rule for public servants and those dealing with them: one must not engage in an activity or accept, or give, a benefit if there is even the appearance of impropriety. This rule has been utterly trashed, and instead its opposite now rules the hearts and minds of our top so-called leaders. But in the voting machine scandals it is not just the appearance, but also the actuality of an ongoing impropriety.
The wolf is not merely guarding the henhouse—the wolf now owns it while we scuttle like lambs from one non-story to another allowing this outrage continue.
Three of the four voting machine makers are major Republican supporters. Chuck Hagel was chairman of ES&S, the voting machine maker that tallied 85% of Nebraska’s votes in his 1996 election to the Senate, the first Republican in 24 years to win that seat.
There are many reports of computer patches, code swapping and hacked manipulations. Just last week Maryland governor Robert Ehrlich, Jr., a Republican running for re-election, said that the voting situation is "approaching crisis proportions." He advised voters to vote with absentee ballots. "I don't care if we paid half a billion dollars or $1 billion," Ehrlich said. "If it's going to put the election at risk, there's no price tag for a phony election or a fraudulent election."
A former Diebold employee-turned-whistleblower, Chris Hood, recounts how in 2002 Diebold, though it was the highest of nine bids, got the Georgia contract for voting machines, and how Georgia essentially delegated the whole voting apparatus to them. He said Diebold employees altered 5000 voting machines (he personally did 56 and witnessed 1200) in the heavily Democratic DeKalb and Fulton Counties with a patch—a programmable memory card that can skew an election to any desired result. Small wonder that though the poles showed Democrats Max Cleland and Roy Barnes ahead six days before the election, both lost narrowly. [Max Cleland, you may recall, was the triple amputee Vietnam War vet who was viciously and fraudulently painted as a traitorous chicken by Republican Saxby Chambliss.]
Beyond the obvious corruption and unaccountability of paperless, ostensibly Republican-run, voting machines is the GOP’s systematic dis-enfranchisement of registered voters. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio’s ultra-partisan GOP secretary of state oversaw the purging of over 300,000 names in heavily Democratic precincts of Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo. Not surprisingly there were 50,000 complaints of dis-enfranchised voters following the election. Long lines up to 6 hours, in poorer Democratic precincts discouraged many still on the rolls from casting their ballots.
The United States is one of the very few democracies that allow private companies to run the voting of nations electorate. Just four such companies will secretly tabulate over 80% of Americans’ votes using their own proprietary software with no reliable checks or balances.
Regardless of party affiliation, we should all protest the further use of paperless, electronic voting machines, which without the safeguard of a verifiable paper trail, leave them easily subject to manipulation and fraud.
Equally, we should reject any and all attempts to discourage voting. Such dis-enfranchisement is the hallmark of fascist, totalitarian states, not the world’s supposedly truest democracy.
So instead of sending Jimmy Carter to some far off third world country to promote free and fair elections let’s send him somewhere closer to home. Let’s send him to America.
Richard F. Dawahare, 11/2/06
Walden O’Dell, then Diebold CEO made the prophetic guarantee in an August 2003 fundraising letter. Can you imagine what Republicans or their mouthpieces like Rush Limbaugh would say if that CEO were a Democrat speaking of a sitting Democratic president?
Yet, the multitudinous tales of election mayhem by Diebold from California, Georgia, Maryland, Florida, Minnesota, Ohio and most if not every state continues unabated. Election fraud will happen this fall and without a paper trail it will be nearly impossible to prove it.
There is a guiding rule for public servants and those dealing with them: one must not engage in an activity or accept, or give, a benefit if there is even the appearance of impropriety. This rule has been utterly trashed, and instead its opposite now rules the hearts and minds of our top so-called leaders. But in the voting machine scandals it is not just the appearance, but also the actuality of an ongoing impropriety.
The wolf is not merely guarding the henhouse—the wolf now owns it while we scuttle like lambs from one non-story to another allowing this outrage continue.
Three of the four voting machine makers are major Republican supporters. Chuck Hagel was chairman of ES&S, the voting machine maker that tallied 85% of Nebraska’s votes in his 1996 election to the Senate, the first Republican in 24 years to win that seat.
There are many reports of computer patches, code swapping and hacked manipulations. Just last week Maryland governor Robert Ehrlich, Jr., a Republican running for re-election, said that the voting situation is "approaching crisis proportions." He advised voters to vote with absentee ballots. "I don't care if we paid half a billion dollars or $1 billion," Ehrlich said. "If it's going to put the election at risk, there's no price tag for a phony election or a fraudulent election."
A former Diebold employee-turned-whistleblower, Chris Hood, recounts how in 2002 Diebold, though it was the highest of nine bids, got the Georgia contract for voting machines, and how Georgia essentially delegated the whole voting apparatus to them. He said Diebold employees altered 5000 voting machines (he personally did 56 and witnessed 1200) in the heavily Democratic DeKalb and Fulton Counties with a patch—a programmable memory card that can skew an election to any desired result. Small wonder that though the poles showed Democrats Max Cleland and Roy Barnes ahead six days before the election, both lost narrowly. [Max Cleland, you may recall, was the triple amputee Vietnam War vet who was viciously and fraudulently painted as a traitorous chicken by Republican Saxby Chambliss.]
Beyond the obvious corruption and unaccountability of paperless, ostensibly Republican-run, voting machines is the GOP’s systematic dis-enfranchisement of registered voters. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio’s ultra-partisan GOP secretary of state oversaw the purging of over 300,000 names in heavily Democratic precincts of Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo. Not surprisingly there were 50,000 complaints of dis-enfranchised voters following the election. Long lines up to 6 hours, in poorer Democratic precincts discouraged many still on the rolls from casting their ballots.
The United States is one of the very few democracies that allow private companies to run the voting of nations electorate. Just four such companies will secretly tabulate over 80% of Americans’ votes using their own proprietary software with no reliable checks or balances.
Regardless of party affiliation, we should all protest the further use of paperless, electronic voting machines, which without the safeguard of a verifiable paper trail, leave them easily subject to manipulation and fraud.
Equally, we should reject any and all attempts to discourage voting. Such dis-enfranchisement is the hallmark of fascist, totalitarian states, not the world’s supposedly truest democracy.
So instead of sending Jimmy Carter to some far off third world country to promote free and fair elections let’s send him somewhere closer to home. Let’s send him to America.
Richard F. Dawahare, 11/2/06
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