From the book Weather Shamanism by Nan Moss and David Corbin:
"From the Talmud we have the adage, "We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are." Lacking this awareness, we can easily fall into the deception of regarding any particular worldview as the correct version of reality and defend it -- sometimes with great hostility -- by dismissing or denouncing the perspective of others. History is replete with examples of wars and other tragic tales caused by the collision of worldviews."

What a powerful statement that is.

In this one paragraph, they have managed to sum up just about every conflict that man has had with each other. The sad thing is that even in its simplicity, many, or rather I should say most, people just don't get it. I have often related that Hindu teaching:

“There are hundreds of paths up the mountain,
all leading in the same direction,
so it doesn’t matter which path you take.
The only one wasting time is the one
who runs around and around the mountain,
telling everyone else that their path is wrong.”

it is interesting that a new friend I met on Myspace when introducing herself said how she was pagan and hoped that I was okay with that. What a sad commentary on our world that she would even feel that it was worth saying. Maybe I am just a strange duck, okay, yes, I am a strange duck, but I mean with regard for accepting others paths. Rather than standing against them, I seek to learn their path, both to remove all ignorance and to honor their path. I work with a few Hindu people and have been gifted a copy of the Bagavad Gita to read. I pray I spelled that right. I have stood up for Muslims because I feel that our government has been the worst offender in stirring up the ignorance and hatred because of a group of fundamentalists. Hey, I don't see them lambasting all Christians for bombing abortion clinics or beating up gays. They will be the first to point out that it is just a small group that is doing those things and you can't blame all Christians for the actions of those few. I then turn to them and say, "Exactly, so why are you blaming all Muslims for the actions of the few." The standard response, "Well, it's just not the same."
Out in California another travesty is playing out as the people of California are making it illegal for gays to marry despite that the courts there all ready said they could. So they were able to get married, but now because some ignorant people got it put on the ballot, it is going to be illegal and what of the people who all ready got married. What are they saying to them. Psych! Just kidding, you're not really married anymore? Just for counterpoint to some of the lame arguments against, we have had Gay marriage in Massachusetts for a number of years now. Guess what, I don't see gay people running naked through the streets or standing on street corners handing out pamphlets enlisting people in Gay Army. I know that seems a little over the top, but believe me, there are some people who fear this. I belonged to a Father's that sent out emails that were originally to deal with the outrageous child support guidelines in Massachusetts. It also talked about shared parenting, but when they started about gay marriage and how we had to stand up for this, I asked to be removed from the list. The gentleman who owned it told me that it is an important issue to fathers because they will be recruiting your sons and daughters. Huh? This is just the level of ignorance that permeates our society. Of course the dominant culture or groups will press their agenda, their ideals. If you don't believe it, ask any Native American in this country about Indian Schools or the Canton or Hiawatha Indian Insane Asylums. Many medicine man ended his life in one of those asylums for refusing to "convert" and "renounce" their ways.

So going back to the original quote from Weather Shamanism and the Talmud, "We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are.". We shape our perception of things around us based on our ideals, our prejudices, our teachings. If we truly want to see things as they really are and lose the blinders of ignorance, then we have to take the time to learn and grow. Who knows, maybe you might find that instead of the Catholic religion, you like the Wiccan way. Maybe rather than Methodist, you like Baptist. Maybe you find truth in Buddhism or Hinduism. Maybe instead of sitting down in front of the TV or reading that trashy novel, we pick up an introduction to Buddhism, The Idiots Guide to Wiccan, Shamanism for Dummies. I know that the Borders and Barnes and Noble in your neighborhood has a section. Usually pushing Wiccan, Shamanism and such into New Age which puts further stigmatism on them. You could try online at Amazon and search. A good place is Oxford University Press, www.oup.com/us/catalog/g...gionTheology/

Here in the US, we have made a step that I hope moves us back into balance with the world around us. People who live in fear and ignorance need to control others as we have seen with this administration. Maybe with President Obama we will open our hearts and minds more and walk out of the darkness, out of the fear.
There was an old song we used to sing in Youth Ministry:
Let there be peace on earth,
and let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on Earth,
the peace that was meant to be.

With God as our Father,
brothers all are we,
Let me walk with my brother,
in perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me,
let this be the moment now.
With every step I take,
let this be my solemn vow,

To take each moment and live each moment
in peace, eternally.
Let there be Peace on Earth,
and let it begin with me.

Words and Music by Jill Jackson and Sy Miller, Circa 1955

it was a powerful song when all the kids sang together. It brought great hope that one day, these young people would be coming together not as Christians, or Muslims, or Hindus, or Wiccan, but as people. One heart, one spirit, uniting us all in a common goal of peace, harmony, and love for all people.
And let it begin with me.
Salaamata, Anachemowegan, Patz, Yatanpa, Koosi, Kupia Kumi Laka, Achukma, Satta, solh, Paix, Mir,Kappia,Nrim-khyam-ye
No matter the language, it all means the same, Peace. You see, we all know how to say it. If you want it in other languages go to www.columbia.edu/~fdc/pace/
No matter the nation, religion or peoples, there is the word peace. Let us remove the ignorances and find peace in our hearts for all people.
My heart to your heart, one heart, one spirit.
dohiyi

From a blog on CarTalk: "Here they are asking for this enormous amount of money from US the taxpayers...telling congress that GM is burning through cash...AND they had the audacity to fly to this hearing in the Corporate $36m private jets. One congressman asked them..."Couldn't you downsized to at least First Class?" GM has at least 1 corporate jet. Ford maintains 8 corporate jets.

So instead of cutting their own PERSONAL EXPENSES...they lay off workers...Close plants."

Yet, the sad part is that this attitude isn't confined to just the auto industry, it is pervasive throughout corporate America. Even my company who still had 7% growth has laid off people, cut office parties, and stopped unnecessary travel. Of course, AIG may have finally got it with their recent news that the top seven execs are foregoing bonuses and the CEO will only be taking $1 pay for the next two years. Well, it took all that negative publicity after they got their handout and went out and partied, and then the auto industry execs getting their hand slapped for coming to Washington in their private jets. The main thrust of many companies is return for investors. The product becomes secondary. We'll get to the product in a moment as it turns out that much is not even made in this country. It is all about profit and return to investors. So anytime there is concern about profitability where are the cuts made? Exec bonuses? Exec perks? Nope, first knee jerk response is layoffs. Cut the work force, putting more of a burden on those left. Of course, those that are left won't squawk because the unspoken feeling is that if you complain, you could join your coworkers on the breadlines. Look at the news these days and we hear the layoff word over and over and over. Yet, execs are still getting huge salaries, perks, and golden parachutes.

Hopefully, the mentality is changing, but the best job in America is a Corporate CEO. Where else can you take on a company, run it into the ground, and when let go, get millions in compensation? And while you are at the top, you get a car, maybe even a jet, unlimited expense accounts, and so many other perks. The only other people in a company who can do a shit job and still get perks is the sales teams. I don't know how many times I have worked for companies that have cut the production/manufacturing force while hiring more sales. The sales teams go off site for team building at Las Vegas or the Bahamas. I have raised this question before, if the sales team are not doing their job, why do they get to travel and have their numbers added to while manufacturing/production has to cut?

It is just a paradigm that I have seen time and time again. Whenever profits slip, we lay off the work force, close plants, put more and more out of work. Yet, these are not the only issues, the other is outsourcing. Go into a store or a market and just try to buy American made or grown goods. Go on, try it. Mother Jones just did an article on this. O Say Can U Buy? www.motherjones.com/commenta...-buy.html The author tried to buy just American for one week and found that if you could find it, it was expensive. Another article from Mother Jones, When All-American...Isn't , www.motherjones.com/commenta...ican.html shows that even the vaunted Budweiser is no longer American. Of course, it still is brewed in the US, but it is no longer an American owned company. Two interesting points were brought up. Target and Gap keep the "Made in USA" label alive by making garments in offshore US territories like Saipan. Saipan? Do US Territories have to abide by US regulations for labor? This one floored me, APPLE JUICE 75% of it is imported; half of that comes from China. China???? Whatever happened to as American as Mom's Apple Pie? Um, does the pie come from China too? Of course, we won't go there about quality in China. It used to be a running gag that Made in China meant cheap, but lately the news from China is that it is deadly too. Yet, we will continue to import clothes, toys, and even food from China. Why haven't we stopped imports from China even though we have found food tainted with Melamine, toys with lead paint, and so many other issues. It just seems that everything these days is made in China. I bought a belt at a western wear store in Sedona. Nothing says American like western wear right? Wrong, got it home and as I was putting it on, I noticed the little stamp, made in China! Why is China so cheap to buy from? Well maybe slave labor might a major part of it. As my friend Will reminds us, Falong Gong practitioners are rounded up and thrown into prison or retraining camps where they are forced to work while being reindoctrinated. For more info, check out, www.faluninfo.net/

So the American worker is under siege. From Corporate Execs reaping outrageous salaries and bonuses, outsourcing, cutbacks, layoffs, its a wonder anyone is working anymore. As if that is not enough, the upward spiraling of health care costs is driving more and more to the poor house, but in the meantime not getting the care they need because though their health care costs are rising, the services are being reduced. Of course, there is a large PAC between the insurance companies and the health industry to prevent people from signing onto socialized medicine. One of their biggest arguments is that if you let the government run health care your taxes will go up and the government wouldn't provide the service. Um, let me see, what is the single most rising chunk out of my paycheck? Taxes? Nope. That would be health care deductions. Maybe it wouldn't rise so fast if the government ran it. Their other argument about cutting services is so lame as not to be mentioned when they continue to deny service to many. Of course, fuel costs have also hit the American people hard in the wallet. I find it interesting that as Bush's term comes to a close, the price of a gallon of gas is returning to those 2004 levels. So maybe Exxon/Mobil won't reap another billion dollar quarter profit. Hey, it was a nice ride, while it lasted. With Obama as a proponent of a Windfall Profit Tax, I think they saw the handwriting on the wall. So maybe just a little relief there, but other costs are just whacking consumers left and right.

Now that is the key word here, consumers. Let's think about all that has been said here about the American worker. Many have lost their jobs or their job is in peril at this time. Let me tell you, unemployment doesn't cut it. I was laid off after 9/11 in a terrible economy and spent six months on unemployment. I had to tap my 401k just to make the rent. Of course, the government doesn't care why you are taking the money out, so I got whacked with the taxes and 10% penalty so that further depleted my funds. I couldn't afford much, so I bought food when my kids were coming over on the weekend and survived on what was left over for the rest of the week. Even now, I am not happy with my job, but can't even think about leaving it. And even though I get a decent wage, it is dig in time because you don't know what is going to happen and my wife is being outsourced.

So we hear in the reports that consumer confidence is down, retail sales are down, and the retail industry feels that the outlook is going to be very bleak for Christmas. Well, duh! I am working and I have not been in a mall probably since last Christmas. I haven't bought new clothes for myself in years. I usually get a new shirt or pants for my birthday or Christmas. My car is over 177,000 miles and due for brakes and shocks. (It is a 2004, but I have a long commute which kills my back and my kids live fourty minutes away and I have to go get them twice a week.) Now, I have all ready told my kids that Christmas will be lean this year. Yet, I am in a good place. I have a job, my wife is still working until the end of the year. So the question is, who is going to buy all the goods that these corporations are bringing in from other countries? They have pushed the American worker out so that they could have slave labor in other countries manufacture their goods for pennies and then wonder why no one here is buying their stuff? The unfortunate part of it is that we are just as complicit because we flood the likes of Walmart and its ilk to get cheap items. In tough economies like this, we are drawn to the discounters for the cheap items made in places like China because we can't afford anything else. So we exacerbate the problem as we buy less and less American goods and causing American companies to either have to layoff workers or close their doors.

The real question is how to turn things around. Well for starters how about tying execs fates to the fates of the company like in the old days. If the company is failing, they don't get bonuses. If they fail to turn the company around, they don't get a golden parachute out the door. And they don't get automatic bonuses even in a failing economy. Get rid of the perks such as private jets and such. Tie their fate to the fate of the workers, then maybe they won't be so quick to lay people off. I believe it was a Boston radio talk show host said that you can't limit executive perks because then the only people you would draw would be college professors. My response is that maybe that is exactly what we need since many of these execs are more interested in their big houses, fancy cars, and private jets than in whether the company makes it. Of course, it isn't just the execs, but on the other end too, we the consumers. Maybe if we started taking an interest in buying American, manufacturers might just get it and then they might start hiring people. Hmm, novel concept, hire people, put them to work and give them a decent wage so they can, wait for it, oh, I think you guessed all ready, yep, buy something. Some company has to get the ball rolling. They have to say enough, hire back people, get them working and putting money back in the economy. We as consumers also can start taking measures by trying to find those few remaining American goods and buy them. Failing that, don't support slave labor in third world countries or forced labor camps in China. Look for things like Fair Trade products where companies get certified for giving a fair price to the locals for products grown or made in other countries. It may cost a little bit more, but remember the reason for the cheap price most times is because someone else is being forced to make that product for little or no pay.

For a starting point on buying American, google Made in the USA or go to sites like www.madeinusa.org/

As long as we continue to buy these cheap goods from China and third world countries, we are only contributing to the demise of the American Worker.

(FYI- what is NOT mentioned in this article is the fact that the Oglala aquifer is a HUGE water supply line... much of it has its "headwaters" in the area where our relatives have been fighting uranium mining for YEARS! The "powers that be" have yet to be testing for as much as they need to be thanks to the proliferation of the large-scale factory farms and their massive levels of nitrates dumping into our waters! Well, I guess this goes to prove just how far reaching the damage can spread from the origin of contaminations of ALL kinds!)
bluejay



Uranium Found in Kansas Drinking Water Supplies

http://www. ens-newswire. com/ens/nov2008/2008-11-28-093. asp

LAWRENCE, Kansas, November 28, 2008 (ENS) - The radioactive element uranium has been found above federal limits in the drinking water supplies of nine Kansas communities, says Don Whittemore, a geochemist with the Kansas Geological Survey. Now these communities must devise solutions to bring down the uranium levels.


Possible solutions include relocating wells, buying water from other suppliers, or installing a treatment system, such as reverse osmosis.


In 2003 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set a drinking water standard for uranium at a maximum contamination level of 30 parts per billion and gave public water providers until December 2007 to complete monitoring. Not all Kansas communities were able to meet the standard.


"The Arkansas River corridor in southwestern Kansas is especially susceptible to levels of uranium above EPA standards due to water-consuming agricultural practices in eastern Colorado," said Whittemore.


"Low levels of naturally occurring uranium picked up by the river from Cretaceous shales in Colorado are increased as water is lost to evaporation and transpiration," he explained.


Water from the river and shallow aquifers in Colorado is diverted into irrigation canals, farm fields, and reservoirs, giving it greater exposure to evaporation and transpiration. As a result, flows decline and concentrations of almost all chemical constituents, including uranium, increase before the river enters Kansas.


"When these enriched levels are added to natural uranium already present in groundwater in portions of the Ogallala aquifer in Kansas, it doesn't take much to get above the standard," Whittemore said.


The High Plains aquifer, which includes the Ogallala, is the source of most drinking water in western Kansas.


Some cities along the Arkansas River, including Garden City and Dodge City, have approaches in place to reduce contaminants and they were able to meet EPA standards.


But nine Kansas communities and water districts must now deal with water supplies that consistently registered above federal standards. They are - Atwood, Clay Center, Gaylord, Morganville, Norton, Oberlin, Lakin, Rooks County Rural Water District 1, and a Garden City subdivision. Private wells are not monitored.


In Lakin, uranium levels in the city's main well were above the standard over the four-year monitoring period.


"When out of compliance, communities such as Lakin are responsible for fixing the problem," Whittemore said.


A water supply that does not meet EPA standards has to be monitored quarterly while the community works to reduce the contaminants. Lakin and the other Kansas communities are currently investigating their options.


Because long-term exposure to high levels of uranium may cause kidney damage and increase the risk of cancer, the maximum contamination level for uranium is a primary standard, meaning it was enacted to protect public health and is legally enforceable. Natural uranium's capacity to be toxic, or poisonous, not its weak radioactivity, is what raises health concerns.


"Like mercury and arsenic, uranium can be toxic in high doses over a long period," Whittemore said.


As in the Arkansas River valley, high levels of uranium in other parts of the state are derived from Cretaceous-age shales deposited between 65 and 142 million years ago. The uranium leaches into the groundwater when the subsurface shales are weathered by rainfall recharge.


"Cretaceous shales tend to contain higher concentrations of naturally occurring uranium than other rocks in the Great Plains," Whittemore said.


In Kansas, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment's Bureau of Water is responsible for regulating all public water supply systems and has adopted the EPA's drinking water standards.


The EPA also recommends secondary, nonbinding, standards for dissolved solids, such as sulfate and chloride. High levels of these nontoxic salts and minerals, common in the Arkansas River system, negatively affect the aesthetic qualities of water, including taste, smell, and color, but are not generally considered to be health hazards.