It's so disheartening

[Horse with no Name]

I have read so much stuff in this forum all weekend...some of it is terrifying, but certainly paints a picture of evil and corruptness all the way to the core of the government. It doesn't just flow along Republican lines, it flows along Democrat lines as well.
I think the people in Washington have forgotten WHY they are there and WHO they work for. All of them...with very few exceptions. At the risk of sounding racist..I'm gonna say that the most of the critters fighting this assault on our democracy are black. I can only imagine it is because they know in the new world order...we are all destined to some type of slavery or indentured servitude and they KNOW the stories of their families and are trying to save us all from the same fate.
May whoever you deem to be your higher power bless them and keep them safe.
I am beginning to believe that all of the stories...the Kennedy assassination, Iran Contra, overthrows of governments, the Plame outing, the first Gulf war, our present war in Iraq, DSM...each and every one of these events is linked in some way and these are the loose threads. Hopefully if we pull hard enough on each...the whole blanket will come apart. But I now believe that every one of the threads leads to a blanket that is monogrammed with the Bush name.

[wli]

1. given the nature of the evidence I have access to

I'm a bit more conservative in these claims, but not by much.

Regardless, it's clear something far beyond sinister is going on.

Finally, as far as motives are concerned, it's clear that profit is involved, but there also appear to be ideological and social control aspects to it.

Indira Singh (9/11 whistleblower) said, "They are going to make the Third Reich look like a tea party." Bush said, "History is a reminder of what's possible" ... at Auschwitz.

[XemaSab]

2. I don't think it's racist

to bring up the fact that the congressional black caucus seems to contain the leading voices of opposition.

I think it's in part because they see how it's many of the same people who got rich selling African slaves and cutting business deals with Hitler who today are trying to turn Muslims into the oppressed class of the new millennium. It's racism and prejudice based on religion and they recognize it for what it is. I'm sure they're far more likely than whites to have read the autobiography of Malcolm X where he describes his pilgrimage to Mecca, and coming together with Muslims of every race from every nation.

They're the people in government whose families never benefitted from being part of the scam, so they've not got a lot to gain by going along with it.

[NorCalDem]

5. I love the Malcolm X autobiography

and I'm white. The part when he makes his pilgrimage is the best part of the book in my opinion. I think it should be required reading for all high school graduates, as should "Class Matters" by Bell Hooks. Both are excellent reads.

[G_j]

3. some hopeful quotes

because I know exactly how you feel!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, and kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places-and there are so many-where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility to send this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. This future is an infitite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

-Howard Zinn
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Letter To A Young Activist During Troubled Times

http://www.newconnexion.net/article/01-05/activist.html

by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered.

They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world right now. Ours is a time of almost daily astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.

You are right in your assessments. The lustre and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking. Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is that we were made for these times.

Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement. I grew up on the Great Lakes and recognize a seaworthy vessel when I see one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able vessels in the waters than there are right now across the world. And they are fully provisioned and able to signal one another as never before in the history of humankind. Look out over the prow; there are millions of boats of righteous souls on the waters with you. Even though your veneers may shiver from every wave in this stormy roil, I assure you that the long timbers composing your prow and rudder come from a greater forest. That long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold its own, and to advance, regardless.

In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is spending the wind without raising the sails. We are needed, that is all we can know. And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear. Didn't you say you were a believer? Didn't you say you pledged to listen to a voice greater? Didn't you ask for grace? Don't you remember that to be in grace means to submit to the voice greater?

..more..

~ ~ ~ ~

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.
--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.
--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

But also keep this in mind:

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood -- it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on."


MLK April 4 1967

[H2O Man]

4. "This world

and yonder world are incessantly giving birth; every cause is a mother, its effect a child.
When the effect is born, it too becomes a cause and gives birth to wonderous effects.
These causes are generation on generation, but it needs a very well lighted eye to see the links in their chain."
--Jalal-ad-din Rumi, Persian Sufi poet

"The thing that has been,
it is that which shall be;
and that which is done
is that which shall be done;
and there is no new thing
under the sun."
-- Ecclesiastes 1:9 ("The Preacher")

"What you think, you become."
-- Gandhi

[G_j]

7. the Rumi quote is stunning

kind of chokes me up..

I am going to stash your quotes away with the others for special occasions. thanks!

[earth mom]

6. You forgot to list the truth of 9/11...

the truth of LIHOP or MIHOP is what finally opened my eyes to what these evil bastards are really up to.

My hope is that the LIHOP or MIHOP truth will spread across this country and open everyones eyes...for it is this truth that will change everything and completely unravel their blanket of lies...

[wiggs]

8. Won't be easy

If, as you say, there is a hidden sinister story behind world events, we are battling an unbelievable amount of coordinated entrenched power and money that has staken decades building what only they can fully see.

They will not let go because of one election or because of an investigation or because of a scandal or two. They won't be undone by a few pulls on some loose threads.

We are way behind in a race we don't understand....trailing unknown competitors who have a huge headstart. We don't have a map of the race... we don't know who can help us....don't even know why there is a race.

We thought that our democracy and our democratically elected leaders would provide checks and balances that might prevent this kind of thing. Democracy was our roadmap. Most of us were naive. I was.

52 of the world's top economies are corporations. This is their time and I don't see how it changes soon without a MAJOR turn of events.

Concentration of wealth and power into the hands of fewer and fewer people is the goal and all other objectives are secondary.

[xxqqqzme]

9. I think what

terrifies most of us, well me anyway, is, from time 2 time, I get a glimmer of the future world being planned for us all and I see no opposition. I do not know how to engage my children, 34 & 29, in what their future holds.

[wiggs]

11. I've got 16 year old twins....

no way to say what life in America will be like in 20 years....

[Just Me]

10. You're not alone. I've had moments of mourning,...

,...that are so deep, so cathartic; an intense soul-shedding sorrow. Once I allow myself a thorough emotional-cleansing, I find myself back at the light of hope that keeps me passionately driven and I get pissed!!!