Freedom From? . . .

(from Ain't Nothing Like Freedom by Cynthia McKinney)

". . . The old 11th District that first sent me to Congress was Georgia's second poorest district.  People paid rent, but didn't have running water in their homes.  Why was it, then, that when Blacks finally did get representation, the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that purports to be a "civil rights organization," filed an amicus curiae brief on the side of the five White plaintiffs, and against the 649,995 Blacks and Whites who were working together in that district, in a lawsuit designed to dismantle that district and allow insensitive representatives to continue to fail to serve Georgia's poor, rural, and much-neglected Black Belt?  Surely, the Anti-Defamation League would support poor Blacks who had never had authentic Congressional representation, right?  Wrong.

And as I think about it, it might have also had something to do with me not signing the pledge for Israel. . . "

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In Between. . .

Sometimes (especially at my age) life seems like a series of coping with bad things.  These things involve either a physical (although sometimes psychological) issue of my own or of others close to me, or sometimes death itself.  Not trying to be Debbie-Downer or anything here.  It's just how I feel sometimes.  

But in the meantime, I have to live my life to the fullest in between those times.  I must take advantage of all the good things and people in my life.  Living this way should and will strengthen me to cope better when the bad things do roll around. 

And I really don't want to be a pessimist because, as a good friend of mine often says, the glass is half empty AND half full at the same time.

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Our own. . .

. . . creations. . .

(from The Fourth Gospel:  Tales of a Jewish Mystic by John Shelby Spong)
". . . How difficult it is for religious people to embrace an unbounded God.  We have through our history sought to define God as a particular being, albeit one possessing supernatural power.  With God defined as a being, we then had to locate God in a place.  Ultimately that place was thought to be somewhere above the sky in a three-tiered universe.  Then we had to build for this God earthly dwelling places that we called "houses of worship."

Next, we began to assert that God's very words were captured in the words of our sacred scriptures.  Then we convinced ourselves that God's very nature could be defined in our creeds, doctrines and dogmas.  We then built mythologies around each of these human creations, assuring ourselves that God was content to live within our developed theological and liturgical limits. 

When these "sacred idols" began to be destroyed by the expansion of human knowledge, we acted as if God had died.  The God who lived above the sky was rendered homeless when we began to embrace the infinity of space; yet we continued to address God as "our Father who art in heaven."  Next, the scriptures, which we once thought of as God's literal words, began to be understood as tribal tales and as human interpretations; but when we read then in public worship, we still asserted that "this is the word of the Lord."  Then the creeds, the doctrines and the dogmas-which, we asserted, had captured God's revelation-began to be understood as political and cultural compromises; but we, in our fear, had in the past invested these human forms with such authority that those who questioned them were burned at the stake as heretics, and we claimed the word "orthodox" for our own human formulations. . ."

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Popes. . .

(from 'In God's Name' by David Yallop)
". . . Albino Luciani then gave an extraordinary demonstration of his own abhorrence of a wealthy, materialistic Church.  He exhorted and authorised all of his parish priests and rectors of sanctuaries to sell their gold, necklaces, and precious objects.  The proceeds were to go to the Don Orione centre for handicapped people.  He advised his readers that he intended to sell the bejewelled (sic) cross and gold chain which had belonged to Pius XII and which Pope John had given to Luciani when he had made him a bishop.

'It is very little in terms of the money it will produce but it is perhaps something if it helps people to understand that the true treasures of the Church are, as St Lorenzo said, the poor, the weak who must be helped not with occasional charity but in such a way that they can be raised a little at a time to that standard of life and that level of culture to which they have a right. . .'"

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People. . .

. . . are like music. . .

"There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind. "    -Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington


Muhammad Robert Heft, a Muslim community leader in Toronto  said Muslims had helped the security services detain the suspects in an alleged "al Qaeda-supported" plot to blow up a U.S.-Canada rail line.

"We have to be on the front lines," Heft said. "To either nip it in the bud in the very beginning or co-operate with authorities so they can be brought to justice."

"In our community we may look a little different, but in our hearts we love Canada. It's our country. It's our tribe," he added. "We want safety for all Canadians regardless of their religion."

U.S. officials said the attack would have targeted a rail line between New York and Toronto, a route that travels along the Hudson Valley into New York wine country and enters Canada near Niagara Falls.

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Ideas. . .

(from http://www.businessinsider.com/9-ridiculous-ideas-that-made-people-ridiculously-rich-2011-3?op=1#ixzz2QPKciWK7)
". . . Pet Rock, Ridiculously Rich Person Behind It: Gary Dahl
Estimated Profit: $15M in just the first six months

Yellow Smiley Faces, Ridiculously Rich People Behind It: Bernard and Murray Spain
Estimated Profit: $500MM

iFart App, Ridiculously Rich Person Behind It: Joel Comm
Estimated Profit: $400K

Wacky Wall Walker, Ridiculously Rich Person Behind It: Ken Hakuta
Estimated Profit: $80MM

Icanhascheezburger.com, Ridiculously Wealthy People Behind It: Eric Nakagawa (aka Cheezburger) and Kari Unebasami (aka Tofu burger)
Estimated Profit: $2MM

Slinky, Ridiculously Rich Person Behind It: Richard James
Estimated Profit: $250MM

Snuggie, Ridiculously Rich Person Behind It: Scott Boilen, President of Allstar Products
Estimated Profit: $200MM

Million-Dollar Home Page, Ridiculously Rich Person Behind The Idea: Alex Tew
Estimated Profit: $1MM

Beanie Babies, Ridiculously Rich Person Behind It: H Ty Warner
Estimated Profit: $3-6 Billion. . . "

(and some of my own. . . )


Ideas
©2013 Raymond M. Jozwiak




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Odd. . .

 

Isn’t it odd that our Supreme Court is finding it difficult to say that gay people should be accorded every benefit of marriage while they had no difficulty at all saying that corporations are people?  Maybe it’s time to clean the judicial house.  (Guess that really can't be done, can it?  What a shame.)

 

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Good. . .

. . . for you. . .

Do we really know what is good for us?  Just watched a flick from '96 called Citizen Ruth which asks that, among other questions.   I remember in my early working days encountering homeless people downtown and wondering if my giving them a dollar was actually a benefit to them.  Then there was an episode of LA Law (I think), where one of the attorneys took an interest in a homeless woman and went to great pains to get her involved in a program that would help her become a stable, self- sustaining citizen.  Turns out the woman did not want the help of the attorney at all.  She merely wanted cash to satisfy her immediate need or desire, no matter how temporary, superficial or unhealthy.  She was, in the end, quite content with her homeless lifestyle.

Ruth, in the movie, was similar.  And while she became involved with people who, unlike the attorney, offered her help under the guise of beneficence but were merely using her situation to further their own (political, in this case) agenda.  

How true to life.  

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