Freedom Currents

"No government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it. There is a remedy in human nature against tyranny, that will keep us safe under every form of government." Samuel Johnson

Iranian Student News Agency, via Agence France-Presse
Protesters at Amir Kabir University mocking President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit there.

"GIVE ME LIBERTY OR -"

By NAZILA FATHI
Published: December 21, 2006

"TEHRAN, Dec. 20 — As protests broke out last week at a prestigious university here, cutting short a speech by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Babak Zamanian could only watch from afar. He was on crutches, having been clubbed by supporters of the president and had his foot run over by a motorcycle during a less publicized student demonstration a few days earlier. "

Those students are standing up to a tyrant. They are risking their lives. Today, I heard President Bush on television and began spewing insults and crude commentary at the screen. My dog looked at me, and decided to leave the room. I turned off the television and visited Americablog to read the live blogging comments. Boy, I thought I was crude, whew! We Americans are increasingly one angry, outraged group of people. I wonder how many of us would risk our lives to reclaim our rights and our freedoms?

My great grandfather X4, Richard, fought in the American Revolution. He spent that bitter desolate winter at Valley Forge. He was a dirt poor uneducated man, who ended up with a 320 acre tract of land after that War, and fathered a large number of children. That is about all I know about him. But, I imagine him spinning away in his grave along with the others of his time who risked so much and fought so hard for the essential freedoms that we have allowed to be eroded. How many of us today would sacrifice so much, risk so much?

What would happen if the people of Iran and the people of this country just met and talked, just regular people talking with each other? Many of them seem to be as outraged by their President as we are by ours. Great conversation opener, eh?

Santa Jesus - A Protest Against Commercialization

Christmas Lawn Decoration

A Must-Have Lawn Santa. Be the first to put one up in your neighborhood. And it makes the perfect gift for that impossible- to- shop-for-person on YOUR list.

'Sumptum Fac Donec Consumptus Sis.'

Juxtaposition of Opposites?

(Photo: Reverse Begging)

After it brings us to reckoning, sorrow and tears, does the truth finally set us free? Is this the process? First the pain of seeing reality as it is and not as we wish it to be; then the acknowledgement of wrong-doing, of error, and the acceptance of the grieving and the consequences of our flawed decisions; and then the release into -- what? -- a chastened transformation? a sudden reconciliation of two opposing states of being? Is reconciliation a hilarious process? I dunno. So, I searched for someone wiser than me and found a most learned Rabbi.

Colin Powell is telling us the truth, but he isn't laughing. Perhaps he is grieving?

And President Bush sleeps like (he's overly medicated) a baby, and awakens with a (smirk) smile on his face. Is He Obstinate Or Steadfast?

Roisin Dubh

Roisin Dubh - "Rosheen Doo" - the little dark rose - dark rosaleen. Dark Rosaleen is an old, old poem; a call-to-arms disguised as a love song to Dark Rosaleen, a symbol for Ireland. The poem was a call to rescue, preserve and protect ancient Gaelic Ireland from the British. It is a sad and beautiful poem of defeat, outrage and hope. Those poets who kept the dream of Ireland alive did so at the risk of being accused of treason and (murdered) executed.

Citizens of the United States in the year 2006 risk being labelled as "enemy combatants" and detained by our government if we exercise our freedom to speak out against government policies and decisions. We, the People, stand at a crossroads. Will we assert the rights and freedoms guaranteed to us in our nation's Constitution and the Bill of Rights or will we roll over and let the 43rd President of the United States take our rights away?

I intend to use this blog as a tool to stay sane and centered, as one venue for discerning the currents and undercurrents of positive change and transformation at work in the world we live in today. It is my belief that the more clearly we can comprehend and articulate a vision of our potential for evolution and transformation, the more clearly we will be able trace the outlines of the new world struggling to birth itself in the midst of the corruption and death throes of a failing patriarchy, exemplified, I believe, by The Bush Administration.

Each sentence opens the door to at least ten more, rooted in new world views, new sets of information (or at least new ways to relate information sets to each other), and value systems based upon connectedness. This will be a wide-ranging and eclectic blog reflecting my struggle to understand, integrate and describe a vision of a truly free and brave new world. Rob Brezsny may be right, the world really is conspiring to shower us with blessings

"The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed." Krishnamurti

It is a mystery.