THE HUNGER GAMES

      Over the past weekend I had the misfortune to see the movie, “The Hunger Games”.  The movie was preceded by 7 coming attractions.  One was an animated film and the rest appeared to be trying to outdo each other in gore, brutality, and stupidity.  How staggering that our evolutionary process has culminated in an artistic endeavor about Abraham Lincoln as a vampire hunter.

     “The Hunger Games” was deeply troubling for me.  The thought of an elite ruling class that entertains itself on the suffering and death of the “little people” is no longer really science fiction.  The elimination of the draft in the U. S. has terminated any threat that the wealthy will ever have to dirty their hands.  With no threat to their own children they can so easily send “our volunteers” to do their bidding.  We appear to have all the money we need for bombs but none for social programs.

     I watch the Republican debates in horror.  Except for Ron Paul I have seen a bunch of old men trying to convince the universe that their genitals are so much bigger than Obama’s.  (I’d just love to see them all naked on stage.)  They scream for the destruction of Iran and talk so loudly about how Obama is an appeasing Muslim wimp.  Their rhetoric is very effectively picking up where Carl Rove left off.  There are now more militia groups in American than ever.  There are now more guns in circulation than ever.  This process of dividing and conquering is working.  Workers rights and unions are under direct and very clear attack in the states with Republican governors.  Women’s rights are under attack.  The ability of the poor and elderly to vote is under attack.  Medicare is under attack.  The lie is that the rich need their money so that they can create jobs.  It’s unbelievable to me that the masses have not noticed that the rich have gotten staggeringly richer over the past few years while the rest of us have lost our jobs.

     For me the thing that really sticks in my craw (wherever that is) is how all of  this is also guised under the pretense of “Christian values”.  The beauty of Christ was his love and compassion.  In Matthew 25:40 we are clearly told that, “… whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”  Somehow this has now been repackaged as “Socialism” and really bad. In my photography and in the Daily Dose my intent is to share a moment of beauty, a sense of connection between ourselves and others or our environment.  It is my belief that the more we know about others the more we can see ourselves in them and feel a sense of compassion.  For me this is a central core of my spiritual belief.  I don't understand a spiritual pursuit that results in separation and disdain.

     One of my friends has told me that “The Hunger Games” is a trilogy and there is a revolt in the second book.  I wonder how much worse it will have to get before the revolt is on CNN.

A PLEA FOR WISDOM AND DECENCY

I have this deeply felt sadness and ache.  I watch the Republican debates and I hear the crowd  cheer about letting people without insurance die.  Last night the crowd booed an openly gay soldier asking a question.  The candidates appear to be lining up for their chance to throw more meat at their hungry wolves.  My fear is that this movie won’t end well.

In my opinion leadership is not just about rallying the troops.  Appropriate leadership also educates.  Appropriate leadership does not sink to the lowest common denominator.  If this were not true then men like Hitler and Mussolini would be celebrated.  They each did a masterful job in getting a lot of people to do their bidding.  It was the direction that they led their followers to that was the determining factor.

It’s easy to understand that in our current political climate the Bachman’s, Santorum’s, Limbaugh’s and the rest of the Mensa corps that are the loudest in the Republican Party will have their moment in the sun.  But where are the voices of rationality and wisdom? Not everyone who has ever been a Republican politician takes their marching orders from the Koch brothers and some unfortunate directive from God.  Why their silence?  They have nothing to lose since they are out of office.

George H. W. Bush stopped our troops from invading Baghdad.  He was able to have the wisdom to not destabilize that  country.  I wonder what would have happened if he had had the strength to openly criticize his son.  Honest differences of opinion is wonderfully healthy for growth and insight.  

Today's news was partially about Obama changing No Child Left Behind.  There is much talk about how the school system is letting our children down.  If the clowns on the stage are in fact the best that America has to offer it won't matter what we do with the school system. 

A Moment of Hope

The past few months have been a rather difficult time for me.  The national political system of America is not just broken it has become the repository of whores that can be easily bought by the highest bidder.  The elation that I felt when Barack Obama was elected has faded into an underlying sense of disappointment and despair.  I never would have dreamed that Obama's eloquence could have been matched by his absence of spine.  In addition the recent events in the stock market added yet another blow to my illusion that one day I might be able to retire and leave my children a modicum of inheritance.

     I live  in the wealthiest Republican district in America.  Marsha Blackburn theoretically represents me in the House of Representatives.  She is the Marsha Blackburn that espouses all the talking points du jour of the Republican Party and never heard George Bush say anything that she didn't love.  I live in an area that upon first meeting me wants to know what church I go to in order to ascertain whether or not I'm decent or worthy of talking to.  I live in an area in which the sign that I had on my lawn supporting Obama during the last election was destroyed 3 times.  I live next to the town that hosted the Tea Party convention.

     So it is within this context that I went to the movies today.  I saw "The Help".  I believe that it is a wonderful experience that should not be missed.  I will not give any details about the movie except to state that it is about Mississippi in the 1960's and what it was like to be a Black maid at that time.  There is a scene in the movie in which one of the maids exacts a small measure of revenge on a woman who was deserving of all that she got.  To my total shock the mostly White audience applauded.  I found myself instantly sobbing.  For a brief moment hope poured through my body.  How glorious that every so often I can still experience the possibility of better.

It Might Have Been Cialis

My guess is that we will never really know if Trump was ever serious about giving up his day job.  But today's news comes two weeks after The Donald got put in his rightful place by our President at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.  Back on 8/31/09 I did a blog post on my regret about President Obama's lack of backbone.  I am begging the chef at the White House to only serve whatever was on the menu on the weekend of 4/30 to 5/2.  I titled my last post "Obama on Viagra".  Well whatever he was taking it obviously lasted the whole weekend.  During that weekend our President took out both The Donald and bin Laden.  The former was a no brainer.  The latter took a lot of guts.

 

During his dinner monolog our President spoke the truth in front of his opposition.  His wit, eloquence, and capacity allowed for a clear knock out.  I wonder what it would take to get that guy to run for president?

Obama on Viagra

If you haven't already seen the video tapes from the 2011 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner last night you have missed some lovely moments. If you are not familiar with the format it is generally a roast of the President and the President typically gives a humorous and self-effacing speech. Last night our president did both but he also showed an ability to fight back. With Donald trump in the audience our president cut him up far better than last year's Thanksgiving turkey. He also took shots at many of his potential opponents in the 2012 election. I cheered and applauded as I watched. While at the same time I prayed that our president has for breakfast everyday whatever he had yesterday.

The master of ceremonies was Seth Meyers from Saturday Night Live. During his monolog Seth made one remark that was a perfect bulls-eye. He turned to Obama and said that he knew the one man who could beat him in the next election. That man was Obama, version 2008. I couldn't agree more. I doubt very much that we will hear "Change that we can believe in" during the next election. I doubt that we will hear very much about transparency.

What allowed Barak Obama to win was not so much who he was. Rather it was the amazing confluence of America's being fed up with Bush and the wonderfully inept campaign waged by McCain and his mean spirited, rather ignorant, hockey Mom that was to be one heart beat away from the Presidency. If the status quo continues and the Republican party continues to be controlled by the Conservative Right and the Tea Party wrong then Obama has a pretty good chance of being re-elected. I pray that once this happens he will spend 4 years on whatever form of Viagra he took yesterday so that we might hear truth spoken to evil. The Republican Party is waging a fairly flagrant war on the middle and lower classes in America. The staggering transfer of wealth that has taken place since Reagan does not seem to be enough. If we are not careful our children will soon be serfs.

I want to conclude with a brief note about the Donald. Prior to last night he appeared to be heading for his own Charlie Sheen moment. On Thursday he gave an obscenity laden speech in Las Vegas. On Saturday night he suffered a rather severe narcissistic wound by being repeatedly humiliated in public. If you notice he has been unusually quiet today. I don't believe his silence is coming from a place of repentance. Such a wound typically arouses a great deal of anger. It isn't clear at this time whether that anger will be directed inwardly or outwardly.

Violation Cubed

The latest Wiki leak about the Pope taking an active part in blocking the investigation of the clergy in Ireland reveals a tragedy of immense proportions. I have personally experienced the profound effects of being sexually abused. Professionally I deal with this on a daily basis. It would take me hundreds of pages to begin to detail the devastating impact that sexual abuse has on victims. Depending on the age of the victim the act can cause physical damage but that is not the norm. The most prevalent outcome for a victim is a deeply felt sense of defect and shame. On the surface it takes the normal and natural maturational process of the victim's sexuality expression off the table. My purpose here is not to give a treatise on the causes and effects of sexual abuse. I guess I just want the vast majority of you to realize how fortunate you are that you don't know what I'm talking about or how profoundly it influences a victim's life.

Here's a brief example that I'm hoping will give you a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg of these negative effects. For most of us driving a car is a marvelous experience. We have at our disposal a marvelous vehicle that can take us wherever we want to go. When we are in this vehicle knowingly or unknowingly we experience an amazing sense of power and control. We can propel ourselves at wonderfully high speeds. And we can do this with a miniscule amount of effort. We have power steering and power brakes. Some of us now have GPS's that can talk to us and guide us to unknown places. We can listen to whatever music we like. We can even round out the experience with food, drink, the company of others, or our cell phones. We are the kings in our castle and the masters of our universe. That's all a normal and natural part of life in the Western industrialized countries. The environment that I have just described results in the individual knowingly or unknowingly experiencing a sense of freedom, power, capacity, and enjoyment.
Unfortunately some of us have the misfortune to one day be propelling ourselves in our castles when another vehicle smashes into us without our having any ability to stop it. Those of us who are lucky enough to survive the crash and heal our physical wounds quite frequently can't regain that sense of power, control, and safety that they once had prior to the accident. This posttraumatic stress results in anxiety about driving, flashbacks of the accident, and intense anxiety just upon seeing brake lights. These are but a few of the potential negative consequences of such a traumatic event that we are powerless to stop or control. A driver in such a horrific accident frequently can never regain that unblemished driving experience that they would have had if the accident had never taken place.

Now let's get a bit more specific about sexual abuse and the Pope. Just imagine if you had just found out that your sister's husband (or your family priest) has been sexually abusing your six-year-old son for the past three years. Take a moment to feel your guts as you read the last sentence. Notice all the sensations that get aroused with just the thought of it. You then learn that your sister (your Bishop) has known about the abuse and never told you. You then find out that your sister (or Bishop) has actually helped facilitate the abuse to take place. Now comes the icing on the cake. Whatever emotion, whatever fantasized course of action you'd like to take at that moment gets totally annihilated when you go to your father (the Pope) and you tell him about everything that has taken place and he prohibits you from taking any action or even from speaking about it. In fact your father even takes actions to protect your brother-in-law from any prosecution or negative consequences for his actions. Once again I would ask you to close your eyes and look into your guts to see what you might feel under such circumstances.

I am not here trying to single out the Catholic Church. At this point in my life I can easily consider that many other religious leaders would act in the same way. The pervasive decline in a sense of integrity, decency, or morality in our society lends itself not only to the commission of such acts but also the relative complacency of the population in general. Within the Hindu philosophy and religion it is believed that approximately every 10,000 years the universe reverts back to its primordial source only to be created once again. You can think of it as the ultimate recycling program. The older I get more I believe we are ready for a good flush.

Thank You Bernie

If you missed today's 8 hour speech by Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont you missed a wonderful moment for decency, integrity, and truth. Senator Sanders in a very straight forward, unadulterated way, laid out the facts of what is going on in our country. Please check out the video sources on the net to hear him in action.

I wonder how our country would be different if we had real news being reported on the major networks and the average American had access to this news. The Vietnam War didn't end because the multinational corporations gave up their selfish interests or because our politicians thought it would be a good idea to end it. The war ended because of: the release of the Pentagon Papers, a vocal populace that had access to the reality of what was going on there, and there was a draft that forced people to go there.

A few more like Senator Sanders just might give people an opportunity to realize how to vote in their own best interests.