Both from ‘living buddha, living christ’ by thich nhat hanh, as reviewed by Brooke
When we believe that ours is the only faith that contains the truth, violence and suffering will surely be the result. (p.2)
“Until there is peace between religions, there can be no peace in the world.” ~Hans Kung, quoted on p. 2
Reactions?
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »This caught my eye today. Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family’s Citizen Link asks people pray for rain “of Biblical proportions” during Obama’s acceptance speech during the Democratic National Convention at the 70,000 seat outdoor Mile High Stadium.
The *reason* he wants people to pray this way? Because of the two issues that FOTF cares about (and about which they disagree with Obama, apparently): Homosexual marriage, and abortion.
Citizenlink has pulled the video in response to complaints from Focus on the Family’ers, saying they only meant to be a little humorous. One wonders if their willingness to pull the video so quickly represents the beginnings of a sort of … cultural shift at the organization?
Your thoughts?
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »No doubt most if not all of you have been following the escalating military clashes between Russia and Georgia since Thursday of last week. President George W. Bush was quoted today as saying
I’ve expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn the bombing outside of South Ossetia.”
What–is he stressed about because American corporations won’t be getting the contracts to replace all the arms which get used up or destroyed in this conflict?!?
Ok, maybe that was uncalled for. But seriously, I find it really frightening, at one level, to see the apparent lack of *ability* for self reflection in this quote–mostly because it speaks to the larger, more widespread inability of the nation with the largest, most powerful military in recorded history to self-reflect. I’m completely mystified as to what it could possible even *mean* to talk about proportion or the lack thereof when you have such enormous stockpiles of nuclear weapons, of land mines, of cluster weapons, of bullets, of missiles, and so forth, and are in the process of using them so gratuitously all over the world. Not to mention when you spend 3 trillion dollars on a war of aggression with a smallish middle eastern nation while 30,000 people starve to death every day.
Am I wrong? Your thoughts?
Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »I think this is really pretty, although I’m not sure if it’s real.
There’s nothing I like more than a really spectacular thunder and lightening storm.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »Last month Richard Stengel, who collaborated with Nelson Mandela on his bestselling autobiography, wrote an article for Time Magazine entitled “Mandela: His 8 Lessons of Leadership” in celebration of Mandela’s 90th birthday. I really liked the article and wanted to share a few quotes. (H/T Clint).
I liked this:
Uncomfortable with abstract philosophical concepts, he would often say to me that an issue “was not a question of principle; it was a question of tactics.” He is a master tactician.
That’s something I totally want to take that to heart. It’s *so* easy to talk about “principle”, but to really *change* anything … Read the rest of this news item »
I recently ran across the name of Patek Philippe, a producer of rather expensive, and high quality, watches. For instance, this one is currently for sale on ebay at a starting bid of $1,750,000.00. Apparently, it takes 3 *years* to build this watch.
I can’t get my head around that. It doesn’t make sense to me that someone can spend nearly 2 million dollars on a watch, and someone else can die for lack of enough money being available to dig a well or buy a bag of rice.
Maybe I’m trying to compare apples and oranges.
What does it mean?
Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »This upcoming weekend in Seattle is called SeaFair, and there will be lots of celebration and conspicuous American-style consumption and production of green house gases.
Part of the festivities will be a performance by the precision U.S. Navy flying team called the Blue Angels. Six pilots will fly their six F/A-18 high performance fighter jets in various acrobatic maneuvers and formations to the ooh’s and ah’s of the huge crowds who will be watching. The Blue Angels have been practicing today in the skies above Seattle, and they are *loud*!
When I was a kid, I used to have these huge posters of lots of fighter and bomber aircraft all over the walls of my room. I wanted to be a fighter pilot when I grew up. I thought all those planes were *so* kewl.
Read the rest of this news item »
Yesterday I wrote, as my facebook status, that “Benjamin feels like a loser”. Today one of the most amazing people I know wrote on my wall, I suppose in response to that status. She wrote “You are a hero to me.”
This person really … gets to me. With some people I would see a statement like that and think “Yeah, whatever, you’re just trying to help me feel better.” This person has *very* seriously affected the lives of hundreds of people, many of them in dire straits, for the better, undergoing a lot of suffering in the process. And she’s saying to me “You are a hero to me.” She is one of the most truthful people I know, and I’m saying that as one whose NO is against lies and half-truths. I don’t know what to do with that. I don’t feel at all like a hero, nor even an anti-hero, but more like the dumb driven cattle in Longfellow’s Psalm of Life.
What makes a hero? Do you know anyone who seems a hero to you, but perhaps not to themselves or others? What makes them a hero? Have you told them?
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »I was reading this fascinating if somewhat disheartening New York Times article by Helene Cooper entitled Waiting for Justice. Helene discusses a bit of a dilemma into which world leaders have bumped, on occasion. Some argue that public arrest warrants/indictments for national leaders, such as Charles Taylor in Liberia or Joseph Kony in Uganda, can serve to merely prolong the conflict by making reconciliation/peace-seeking a non-option for those who are indicted. She quotes Gary Bass, a Princeton University Politics and International Affairs professor:
“From a human rights perspective, what’s more important? Delivering justice for people who’ve been victimized, or preventing future victimization?”
If indeed a sort of dichotomy exists between justice-as-punishment and justice-as-liberation, then finding a balance between the two seems extraordinarily difficult, even, perhaps, in my own attitude toward myself, and ever so much more in international relations.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »There are 14 more days until the start of the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. There has been some (a lot) of talk about human rights abuses in China (cited here, for instance, are China’s relationships with Tibet, Sudan, and Zimbabwe). There has also been talk of “boycotting” the Olympics, or more specifically, the Opening Ceremonies, in protest of the aforementioned human rights abuses.
What do you think? Is it reasonable, for instance, to say that China’s human rights violations are somehow of a different order than those of western nations? An old proverb says you can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar–does this hold with regards to international relations, especially in terms of the Olympics Games? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »