Wisdom:television;knowledge:ignorance

Gandhi Flower is the blossoming of wisdom.  Wisdom, as a product of the mindful lives and observations of many is as natural as any refinement of evolution,  and therefore, as  a natural thing subject to it's surrounding environment for nurturing.  Just as a Mountain Goat in New York would not realize his fullest potential, wisdom in the hands of a thoughtless culture becomes a spectacle.  Just like an animal at the zoo, wisdom is presented, emptied of its nature and fit for a child to laugh at.

There is nothing worth seeing on the television.  In fact, it is more than a waste of our time but it acts as the most crucial point of contact between you and the lies.  Whats worse than lies is misinformation.  Know this, the government regulates the content of television, they do nothing to ensure when some show presents information, such as the many news programs, that it is news in fact, objective and provoking.  To allow misinformation to such a degree is  negligent if your job is to protect the health and well-being of the community.

It is important to understand that most minds work off of a platform of sorts; if you think the government is doing good, you will not join a movement to address corruption in congress.  I mean to say you only get one opinion about something so it is important you take the information you think about very seriously.

To say the news is tripe is one thing, but to continue to watch it is the same as a smoker who admits smoking is bad but continues to smoke- the damage continues.  If one thing can be said of the American public it is they suffer from gross apathy.  Why do we still live our lives the same after we could no longer hide the effects of Anthropogenic (human-caused) Global Warming?  It is clearly the result of the culmination of human activity on the planet.  So why do you or your neighbor still contribute pounds, daily, to the problem?  The damage continues and televisions keep turning us on.

There is a better way: Ask the questions, and think about the answers.

Its amazing how much we can discover with objective thinking.  Personally, I have quoted some of the more profound concepts  of our times, in my own words without having read the book that contained the information.  I can say, from experience, that a solid foundation of knowledge, diverse in its scope, but not more than can be squeezed in three full semester college class, along with traveling and reading select books that fuel the imagination is all one needs to answer then more pressing questions of our time.  Understand though, you will receive no validation for the aim of all information before us is to keep us working happily pursuing this "Dream of America".  

to Hope: my love

I can hold out with the best of them, and I still like romantic movies. But when faced with a wall, I can not, no matter how mighty I may feel, walk through. IT is a strange time indeed when these walls of economy, industry, and war stand so boldly before us yet we seem to think we can walk right through them. A fairy tale that has the protagonist closing their eyes as the witch steals the babies, saying "what I can;t see doesn't hurt me". This is the tale of our culture.

Tolstoy said something like this: The fall of America will be due to the cowardice of her people;too afraid to do anything about it. Obama is casually stepping into a new war and paying his billion dollar tribute to the ruthlessness of American Capitalism you know, "change your can believe in". Where did the Nazis go? When you scan the field in search of the imperialistic force that crushes its tiny foes and paints their flags its own color, and you don't see it, you need a mirror instead of a television. What we've become is a classic junkie, high on comfort and drunk with violence. We can not be serious when we cry for change, and go to work for oil companies and war machines. Make no mistake, you work for war. IF there was one thing I learned in the military it is every one counts, and it all adds up to war.

Whether you pull the trigger, or buy the bullet, we are the reason there is on-going war, corruption, and dwindling resources, like water for instance. Do you know about the concept of "recycled water"? Its gaining popularity in the west. Do all of us even know whats going on in the Western United States in regards of water? In short, there isn't enough for drinking, and the lawns are still green under the dry desert sun . Why does this matter to the east? Where do you think people will go when there is no more water out west? There is a funny thing about exponential curves, once the balance begins to tip, in the next breath its far gone.

Think about the questions. Then think beyond the answers.

For what?

Why stop war? Why abandon your car? Why grow food in your rose garden? For Love silly, what else.

One can not claim affiliation with any brand of righteousness if they support ways of war. Since most Americans consider themselves Christians, Christ would disapprove of our war supported lifestyle, no questions asked. Buddhists too, can not reach beyond a material existence without letting go of the attachment of the self that is identified by oil, clothes and houses.

Love is in need as Mr. Wonder sings. We must sacrifice in the name of love, the things we don't need. Together we can do without so much.

Gandhi Flower (idea for change): Organize your neighborhood and cook a weekly dinner to discuss how your community will deal with the changing economy. How will you eat next year?

Love & Peace; War & Slavery- your choice.

Andy

What do you think

What place is there for nonviolence today? Can a voice of peace be heard through the cries for more oil, Hollywood movies, new cars and pretty shoes? Does anyone care that war is being waged in our name, without any official reason that withstands even the slightest scrutiny? If America was founded on Independence and Freedom, we have indeed drifted far from her shores. Derelict and afloat upon an ocean of lies, misinformation and exploitation, the next step is either a mutiny or every man, woman and child for themselves. Both perspectives are grim and neither embodies the ideologies we claim to follow. Today, we have all the reason we need to stand, shoulder to shoulder for peace in our community. We need only feel free enough to do so.

Today we are at the height of our technologies in respects to viable resources to fuel them. Alternatives are unrealistic without first bringing an end to the exponentially increasing level of irresponsible consumption. Our 21st century gadgetry is being fueled by burning rocks and sludge. Our sophistication is merely a façade for behind the vale of flat screen TVs, hybrid cars and politics there is a gumbo of lies, corruption and pollution so thick it could choke a whale. And what's worse, every step of the way is marked by violence.

At the heart of our cultural condition is distraction, for a people would only be party to such murder and plunder only if they were without morals or ignorant to the reality. However, on this day, with the presence of the internet and increasing feedback to such a degree that even the birds know great disaster is looming, we as a people, do nothing. Ignorance has become more of a choice than a natural condition; many simply choose not to know. To do nothing is shameful by any measure rooted in even the most generic moral code. To do the same is the very definition of crazy.

If we truly believe all are equal, then why do we sit enamored by the color of our newly elected president, for as a politician he is typical: saying what we want to hear. The meaning of a word can only be known through action and we have no time to wait to see how this president turns out. I do not propose opposition or revolution. I simply appeal for action; change; the very reason so many Americans voted for this man. "For the people. By the People". This is how it works. We must be the change for the good of our children.

We must step away from this neo-Calvinistic culture and have a revival of the willingness to act on behalf of peace and freedom and those who suffer; to stand up and question lies; to show wisdom gained from lessons past: War is all consuming. The time has come to face our fate. We have not only allowed the plunder of our country to be carried out but played the role of accomplice. Each day provides the chance we need to act. As our relative securities dwindle further we will become more dependant upon the very system that led us to this point, and we will become less free.

It is true that no one can live your life, and no one can do your work. We must, everyone, be the change our country and our world needs. Peace and love are actions. "Be the change you wish to see in the world".

fear; aversion to discomfort (revised)

We have become slaves to our addiction to comfort and convenience. Our response to a war on the grounds of the acquisition of oil, though most are morally opposed to such flagrant evil, sit on their hands in fear of "loosing" their own freedom. The point is, we are not free, not if we continue following the herd.

Love for the earth and children is my only complaint and I see no hope if we don't abandon ways of war and move towards non-violence. I have found love to feel better than hate. I have founddeep satisfaction in choosing to suffer in the name of love, and great pain when I suffer on another's behalf due to greed and calvinism. I leave each to their own code of morals and seek nothing more than to aid in the self discovery, that the life most live is based on fear, or, an aversion to discomfort.

Everything about our culture clearly points to an addiction to comfort. Rightfully so, if there is a great pendulum swinging, as soon as we strapped shoes on our feet and started to grow food (not necessarily in that order) we began to swing from a life of scavenging and survival, or harmony with the seasons, environment, etc. to a life of domestication where the biggest threats to safety are absent-mindedness around heavy machinery.

We are not being hunted any longer, at least by predators looking for food. In excepting slavery we have traded freedom for a relatively secure life. Just as the pendulum swings for the status of the human species, another swings for the whole of life, and more still for the myriad process that occur in symphony beneath the sun providing us and the whole of creation this very inhabitable planet. Change is upon us and I leave it to the individual to either open their eyes, or follow the herd over the cliff's edge.

Extinction is inevitable, and so is hope. Nature is both provider and depriver and its no ones choice which as we are just one of the many creatures of creation. All I can do is bask in this life I have in my grasp. I"m gona hold on to it until death, disease or who knows loosens my grip.

So 2nd and 4th Wednesday will be still, a discussion on the role of non-violence but with a focus and exploration of fear and distraction in the context of the American Dream.

Peace and love; slavery and war: your choice.

Work

So what does one do, if that one if aware of the distraction, to be the change (s)he wishes to see in the world? Gandhi may never had addressed this question, at least in my reading so far, but I imagine he'd of said something like: "Absolutely everything within your power". We have been told we are powerless without our vote. This is propaganda, plain and simple for one is powerless only when they submit to a force outside them self. To vote is to vest your power in something outside yourself. How many times will we empower politicians who abuse our trust?

I will be hosting a discussion at the Daily Grind in Fells Point Baltimore on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month at 7pm.

I am returning to the public forum once again after a two year journey on the wheels of a bicycle, the strings of a guitar and the love of beautiful people around the country. These discussions will focus on the place of non-violence in our culture and seek to deconstruct the lie that is the American dream. I know not what to expect, only that I attempt to stand in public forum for peace and love, and oppose the forces that have murdered outspoken, eloquent practitioners of non-violence every step of the way. I am not as eloquent as Jesus, Tolstoy, Gandhi, or Martin Luther King Jr. so I don't feel threatened by anything other than a bigoted patriotic zealot throwing a fist. My only hope is I will be joined by friends of friends, and lovers of humanity, activist for peace, and the many who don't quite know what to make of current events.

I don't promote any particular faith but hope those who are of a religion and practice the love of their God will see this as an opportunity to spread it; love. The point is to organize a movement to the end of non-violent action; to oppose the forced sacrifice of Innocent men women and children the world over in the name of the American Dream, and to end the War for More once and for all.

This will amount to nothing, it all depends on you. "Be the change you wish to see in the world."