Democracy for New Mexico

Honoring Dr. King

Martin Luther King, Jr., Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, delivered 4 April 1967 at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City:

A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.

Not much has changed in the intervening years, has it? Today it's the Iraq occupation that is the "demonic destructive suction tube." Today it's a debacle in Iraq which will end up costing at least a trillion dollars when all is said and done. A trillion dollars charged to future generations, adding to an already monstrous debt created by the right-wing plot to ensure that our wealthiest citizens and biggest corporations pay next to nothing in taxes for the common good.

Think what a trillion dollars could do to help build a just society here in America, with excellent schools and health care and services for the elderly and housing and communities and opportunities for all. Instead Bush will be asking for more than $10 billion to pay for a jobs program -- in Iraq, not here in the U.S. Instead the government is asking for another $100 billion to impose our oil-hungry will on a nation we are dismantling and attempting to rebuild so it serves our needs, not those who call it home.

The Reverend King would have been 78 this year. I imagine he is rolling painfully in his grave, as the saying goes. Our nation's leadership vacuum, its debt, its warmongering, injustice and imperialism have far surpassed what he criticized in the 60s. We seem to have lost all shame about tolerating sweatshops, tolerating torture, tolerating profound dishonesty in the service of greed and hubris around the globe, tolerating broken down schools, ruined neighborhoods, decimated housing stocks and wars of choice. It is we who allow them to direct outrageously more to the haves by taking everything of value from the have nots.

How can we best honor Reverend King this year? One way is to speak out, to refuse to maintain a frightened, cowed or cynical silence in the face of injustice and violence. In King's words:

... I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.

... Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read: Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.

... The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.

Substitute Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Venezuela, Cuba, Sudan, secret prisons in Eastern Europe and even "detainment camps" within our own borders. Silence = collaboration. We need to get up and stand up. We need to speak up and demand that our elected representatives do the same. Ignoring the horrors of today's Bush policies will permit more escalation, more calculated inhumanity, more horrific violence in our names in more and more places, here and abroad. We must break the silence at every level and do it now. We must challenge the current sickly orientation of the nation. We must heed the warnings of Dr. King when he said:

We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

... A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

... America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.

... We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

Links to King resources.

PS: I find it admirable that presidential candidate John Edwards is evoking King's 'Beyond Vietnam' speech today, at his own speech at the Riverside Church.

Gov. Richardson Gets Commitment for 60-Day Cease-Fire in Darfur Region of Sudan

Excellent news. Read all about it.
Save Darfur is very pleased. They sent him on the mission.
There's a diary and Richardson statement at Daily Kos.

2006 Lists: Best, Most, Tops, Predictions

Some best of, most whatever lists to browse as we savor the last of 2006 and open the door to 2007. With so many New Mexico roads still closed and so many streets still icy from our two-day record-breaking snowstorm, I imagine many will stay close to home tonight with lots of time to visit some of these:

Slate's Ten Most Outrageous Civil Liberties Violations of 2006

Netroots' Year in Review 2006 by firedoglake

Grist's David Roberts gives us the Top Ten Green Stories

Alternet offers the Most Popular Top Ten Lists of 2006

Jerry Ortiz y Pino's New Year's Predictions at the Alibi

NOW Online's Tops in 2006

Opinion Picks by Salon editors

The Alibi's Future is Now psychic predictions

The Huffington Post's Jane Smiley's Bingo Award for Most Informative Book of 2006

Riverbend at Baghdad Burning considers the madness that was 2006 in Iraq in her last post of the year

Crooks and Liars gives us Best Books of 2006 and Best Movies of 2006

The BBC reveals 100 Things We Didn't Know Last Year

Matacritic tabulates the Best Music of 2006 according to a range of critics, as well as lists from Billboard, Amazon, the New York Times and many others

Reuters' Best Pictures of the Year

Yahoo News Year in Review

Earthcam's New Year's Eve Webcams around the world

And if you still haven't gotten enough Albuquerque snow photos and comments, Duke City Fix is the place to go. Steve Terrell's Damien the Snowman series is also very cool.

Anyone else have any good New Year links?

Happy Winter Solstice

Solstice literally means standing-still-sun. At Winter Solstice the hemisphere is leaning farthest away from the sun because of the earth's tilt, and therefore daylight is the shortest and the sun has its lowest arc across the sky. Winter Solstice occurs today in the Northern Hemisphere of Planet Earth at exactly 5:22 PM Mountain Time.

Many ancient cultures knew about the solstices (and equinoxes) and lined up structures in relation to the sun, like those at Stonehenge in England and Chaco Canyon in NM, so that these times could be accurately observed and celebrated. Many of the traditions that we associate with Christmas and other religious holidays around this time actually are variations on so-called pagan rites that were dedicated to light, warmth, community and the forces of life during nature's time of cold, dark and fear.

Think candles and evergreens and lights and bonfires and feasting and Yule logs and starlight and raising voices in unison to fill the long, long nights with song and spirit. All are a celebration of the fact that more and more light will be returning with each passing day beyond the Winter Solstice.

Click to send a Solstice e-card. We''ll be lighting a candle for peace and and patience, enlightenment and love tonight. We need as much warmth and light as we can get these days. Love the ones you're with.

Donate to Child's Play and Get Games to Sick Kids at UNM Hospital

From Avelino Maestas of local blog Live From Silver City:
Child's Play uses wishlists at Amazon.com to get toys, books and games to sick kids in children's hospitals. One of their partners is UNM Children's Hospital. So, I'm trying to get the word out about this charity, because it might make for a better holiday season for a lot of children in the state. I know there are a lot of charities helping people during the Christmas season, but this one is Web based, and it appeals to me as a blogger. Click here for more information.

Happy Hanukkah!

Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights or Festival of Rededication, began at sundown last night and continues through sunset on December 23rd. The holiday is typically celebrated by lighting candles each night of the festival in a special Hanukkah menorah (or Chanukkiyah) in a visible location. Other traditions include playing the dreidel (or sevivon) game, and eating foods fried in olive oil, such as lattkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts).

The holiday was called Hanukkah meaning "dedication" because it marks the re-dedication of the Temple after its desecration under Antiochus IV. Spiritually, Hanukkah commemorates the Miracle of the Oil. According to the Talmud, at the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days - which was the length of time it took to press, prepare and consecrate new oil.

Consider Buying Your Christmas Tree Here

From Terri Holland: Help support a NM businesswoman. Kathy Lucero, a strong support of the American GI Forum (AGIF), has a Christmas tree business called DISCOUNT TREES, with beautiful NM trees for sale.  Located at the corner of Edith and Los Ranchos-daytime hours-very fair prices! Get your tree from her!

December 8, 1980

It was 26 years ago today that John Winston Ono Lennon, age 40, was gunned down in front of the Dakota in New York city. I learned about it and cried on an oddly foggy, almost otherworldly night in Albuquerque while on the way back from the airport to pick up a friend. All the incoming planes were being turned away due to the weather. I heard the shocking report on the tinny car radio, my Cherokee surrounded by billowing gray ground clouds. The misty fog seemed fitting, matching my melancholy about another one gone too early, another one gunned down, another kindred spirit cut down in his prime, another creative and courageous soul lost to us in violence, in tragedy.

I went home and listened to John and Yoko's album Double Fantasy, released just 3 weeks before his death. And wept again. It's almost impossible to describe what Lennon meant to my generation. In the end, I guess you had to be there to truly understand. We had literally grown up with his music as a primary groove in our soundtrack to life. In many ways, we had also grown up with Lennon himself, evolving in tune with him and his emotional and political explorations.

The profound changes of the era and those in us progressed along with his changes and those of so many other transcendent artists, writers and political figures of the time. We projected onto them. They projected onto us. Somehow we were all in the trip together, in a powerful circular flow of kinetic generational energy traveling up-an-octave peaks and bottoming-out valleys. There was a strange kind of linkage among us and our shared flaws and our shared joys, a web of in and out and around. And now blood spurted once more, spattering our branching hopes and dreams with pain, again, again, again.

What I am writing probably comes across as corny, cliched, melodramatic to those too young to remember. But those of a certain age will surely understand.

This year, Yoko Ono released a statement called forgive us as a full-page ad in the New York Times. She asks us to commemorate John's life and death as well as the suffering of souls across the globe. With so much of the world in bloody chaos, it's time. As she says, "Let's wish strongly that one day we will be able to say that we healed ourselves, and by healing ourselves, we healed the world."

Official Lennon website.

Donate Now to Help Wounded and Sick Veterans With a Phone Card

From Working Assets Act for Change:
Support the veterans who've served our country by sending them a phone card so they can call their loved ones over the holidays. Click here.

Veterans Administration (VA) budget cuts in recent years have left many of our nation's veterans at VA hospitals without the means to call their families over the holidays. These long distance calls are generally not covered by the VA, and many vets just don't have the financial resources to call all their loved ones.

So Working Assets, Veterans for Peace, CODEPINK, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Gold Star Families for Peace have teamed up on a project to thank our veterans by sending them phone cards loaded with 125 minutes of domestic long-distance calling time. We'll purchase these cards and deliver them to VA Medical Facilities all over the country on December 18th. (If you want to join in delivering the cards to a VA hospital near you, just click on the link you'll see after making your gift.)

$10 will cover the cost of phone cards for three veterans. $20 will buy six phone cards. $33 will buy ten cards. $100 will buy phone cards for 30 veterans to call home over the holidays. 100% of your gift will go directly to buying phone cards -- so please give as generously as you can.

Snippets

• Juan Cole reports: The US military announced that Sunni Arab guerrillas have killed 9 GIs in Baghdad and al-Anbar over the weekend. AP says that 71 bodies were found in Baghdad and other cities on Sunday.
• Sen. Diane Feinstein, who will chair the powerful Senate Rules Committee come January, will introduce legislation to require paper trails and audits for all electronic voting.
• David Sirota names names as he analyzes Dem membership in The Money Party vs. The People Party.
• Terrific maps of how the midterm elections have changed Red vs. Blue America.
• Robert Borosage of the Campaign for America's Future describes how Democrats Go Wrong on the economy by blindly continuing to follow Rubinomics.
• Digby reports we have to watch what we ask for with Bush, whose top security aide said that the prez is weighing a range of options in Iraq, including a partial withdrawal of U.S. troops from violence-plagued cities and a troop buildup near the Iranian and Syrian borders.