Happy Day Out Of Time

July 25th is the Gregorian Calendar’s date known as The Day Out of Time because it’s the 365th day of the Thirteen Moon Calendar. This harmonic timing standard measures the year in thirteen even months of 28 days each, a perpetual calendar of 52 perfect weeks, making a total of 364 days. The 365th day is technically not a day of the week or month at all, but truly ‘A Day Out of Time’. For this reason, this special day is observed as the day to cancel debts, to pardon and forgive, and to celebrate life through art and culture… So Happy Day out of Time, it’s a good day to make a fresh start! Make it a good one

Love and Light

Scott

Let Freedom Ring – Boycott Beijing

Once every four years, the nations of the world gather together in one place in a showcase of sportmanship and fair play (not to mention a competition for commercial endorsements and the coveted Wheaties Box) in the seminal international sporting event, The Olympic Games.  In the ideal world, indeed in the mind of the founder modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the Olympics are a gathering of the world’s people to showcase their talent and epitomizes human unity as countries set aside our differences to compete in sports.  Of course, we all know this is a crock of shit since the games have been taken over by the corporations who have turned them into one big marketing event, the modern day equivalent of the Roman bread and circuses. While supposedly an International event, the games always take on the flavor of the host country. If you don’t believe me, just watch some re-runs of the Salt Lake City Winter Games, when post-911 fever ran high and it was all about the USA, complete with the 911 battle flag and the famous singing cop. What was once a sporting event has been politicized and has increasingly become so. in 1972, members of the Palestinian Black September group took Israeli athletes hostages in the Olympic Village in Munich, and that ended in a fiasco when the hostages and some of their captors were killed in a botched attempt to rescue them at the airport.  Several nations boycotted the Montreal games because a Rugby Team toured South Africa, then under the heavy thumb of Apartheid.  A political incident on a smaller scale occurred at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Two American track-and-field athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, performed the Black Power salute on the victory stand of the 200-meter track and field race. Then there were the Berlin Games of 1936 which were used as a propaganda tool for Nazi Germany.

And now the games are being hosted this year by the People’s Republic of China. While my country does not have a human rights record to write home about these days, China has consistently neglected the values of the Olympics and it would be an insult to host the games in a place that subjugates people to harsh marginalization and supports ethnic cleansing in other countries. The decades of marginalized oppression of  ethnic Tibetans at the hands or  ethnic Chinese, the refusal to grant Tibet sovereignty and end the occupation of a land that does not belong to them disqualifies China from being the host to anything that is symbolic of worldwide peace and unity.  The Olympic Flame that will burn brightly this summer in Beijing will represent to many the hegemonic rule of China over the Tibetan people. Proponents of a free Tibet are calling for a full-scale boycott of the 2008 Olympics. They believe this will send a strong message to China and push them into legitimizing the in-exile Tibetan government and its leader, the Dalai Lama. After so many years of political subservience, the Tibetan people deserve global support in ensuring freedom from tyranny. These people suffer from severe restrictions, mass censorship and the exile of their beloved leader. China has basically imposed martial law in Lhase, Tibet’s capital, and has imprisoned or detained more than 2,300 peaceful protesters with the excuse that they are protecting normalcy and stability. There’s also the major concern of China’s role in the Sudanese economy. China has strong ties to the Sudan government and for that it should also be recognized that it’s helping to fund genocide in Darfur.
China is only looking out for its economic interests – not human rights.
China has consistently blocked efforts from the United Nations to class Sudan’s actions as genocide and has even blocked sending peacekeeping forces. Sudan’s only major export is oil, and China imports 80 percent of that oil, stimulating the Sudanese government with $2 billion each year.
There is also all the infrastructural investment China is making in Sudan in terms of pipelines, roads and airfields. China also supplies Sudan with military arms and technology. So China is not a blind supporter, but an accomplice in the Bashir regime’s genocide in Darfur. Boycotting this sporting event is a way pressure China to release its vice grip on Tibet and stop its direct funding of a genocide of people in Darfur.
The Olympics are not only a series of sporting events but a symbol of multiculturalism and global unity. How can these things exist in a  nation that is oppressing an entire people while it funds ethnic cleansing in another country? It can’t and it shouldn’t but it is. So there is only one option left. Boycott the Olympics. Senator Hillary Clinton has spoken out and urged President Bush to Boycott the opening ceremonies. I think we should go a step further and this will surely not be a popular opinion – Boycott the Olympic Games. Do not send our contigient over there. Keep the atheletes home. There is a historic precedent for this. When the Soviet military forces entered into Afghanistan in 1979, President Jimmy Carter called for a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. We did not send a team to the 1980 Moscow games.  The Soviet Union repaid the favor and did not attend the Los Angeles games of 1984.  I doubt that George Bush will have the stones to do this, so the next best thing is to tune out.  Don’t watch NBC’s coverage of the games. During those weeks, boycott McDonalds, Johnson & Johnson, GE, Coca Cola , major sponsors of those games.  I’m sure you can stand a few weeks away from Bob Costas anyway. It’s time to send a message that human rights trumps gold medals and the thrill of victory and agony of defeat. Any victories at the games will ring hollow when they are won on the soil of a nation that participates in human rights violations and directly funds genocide in Darfur. Perhaps this should also serve as a wake-up call to the International Olympic Committee that the time has come for a permanent, neutral host such as Switzerland be selected to host the games. It would take the politics away, the Olympics might actually become a sporting event again and the threats of boycotts would diminish. Until then, this writer along with many others is tuning out. And not buying products from companies who advertise during the Olympics. I’m not alone in this.
Many athletes would lose their opportunity to compete, but think of the people who don’t even have the freedom to leave their homes or articulate their political views. Also, look at the Darfur conflict and tell me if anyone would think that was worth a gold medal in an event.

On Freedom – from The Path – Life Explained in 100 Pages by Dr. Joseph Cilona

“The truly free fly above even the desire to chase freedom, and know in their hearts that freedom is not a goal or and end in itself”

July 5th marks the second day of the July 4th weekend when America celebrates her Declaration of Independence from Great Britain in 1776. Ever since that moment, when the Liberty Bell and other bells rang out across the country tolling in the birth of freedom, freedom was a principle, one of the key bricks in the foundation that is this country America.  When people emigrate here from other lands it is often so they can be free – free to express themselves, free to associate with whom they choose, with what religion they choose, free to pursue an education or profession regardless of race, color, creed or gender. But what is freedom and how free are we. Is freedom a destination or is it a journey. While we in America may consider ourselves free, those who live in Tibet and Myanmar certainly are not. And how free are we? In a recent article I wrote on the publication of the book “We shall be heard” I elaborated on the stories of people who were persecuted by our very own government because of their opinions expressed or their association with groups that were labelled anti-American, insurrectionist, dangerous, communist, and the like.  The land of the free has a long history of oppression – The placement of Native Americans on Reservations, the confinement of Japanese-Americans into Detainment Camps during World War II, the placing of pacifists in camps as well, the McCarthy era, the blacklisting of communists in the entertainment industry, Segregation in schools, public buildings, water fountains, buses and neighborhoods. The post-911 histrionics have led to the Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security, which gives the government sweeping powers including wiretapping, going into public libraries to see what patrons are reading and searching for on the Internet. So how much freedom do we have and what kind of freedom should we aspire to?

In The Path – LifeExplained in 100 Pages, a book by Doctor Joseph Cilona, he sums up freedom as he interprets the 193 classic “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran:

And a man said, speak to us of Freedom, and he answered: Throughout the city I have seen you bowed at the feet and awestruck in the face of your own freedom. Like the slave whos own will becomes words and thoughts of praise for their oppressor, so many of you humble yourself and sacrifice yourself and make sacrifice in the name of freedom.

My heart bleeds in seeing many of the freest among you chained and burdened by your very own idea of freedom. The truly free fly above even their desire to chase freedom, and know in their hearts that freedom is not a goal or an end in itself.

You will not even be free when your days are without a care an your nights are without a single grief or want, But rather when your life is burdened with these things, yet you rise above them soaring unbound in the glories of life

You cannot rise above your days and nights until you reak the chains you have placed upon yourself during the dawn of your understanding. And though it’s links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes, thta thing which you call freedom is really the strongest and heaviest of these chains.

And what is it really, but merely pieces of yourself that you would gladly toss away to become free? If you try to abolish an unjust law, remember it was written with your own hand and upon your own forehead. You cannot erase it by burning your law books or by washing the foreheads of your judges with the water of the sea.

Anf if you try to dethrone a tyrantm be sure that you first destroy the tyrants thronem which is erected within yourself.  A tyrant cannot rule the free and the proud unless there is tyranny in their own freedom, and shame in their own pride.

And if you try to cast off a care, remember that the seat or your fear lies in your own heart, not in the hand of the feared. Within you there shall always be a constant half embrace, what you desire and what you fear, what you avoid and what you cherish, what you chase and that from which you run away.

These things move inside you in pairs like lights and shadows forever clning to each other. And when a shadow fadesm it clinging light becomes the shadow to anothe light. And when your freedom breaks free of its chains, it becomes the chains upon a greater freedom

Excerpt from the The Path: Life Explained in 100 Pages Copyright 2007 by Joseph Cilona

We Hold These Truths to Be Self Evident…

 

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress voted unanimously to declare the Thirteen Colonies Independent from Great Britain. They did so under great duress and in the shadow of the hangman’s noose.  What follows is the full text of  the Declaration of Independence on this, July 4, 2008, the 232nd Birthday of these United States of America. As you read these eloquent words, ponder the ideas that were set forth in this eloquent document.  Do we truly have the unalienable rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Are we free from tyranny? What would Thomas Jefferson think if he saw our government today.  Are prisoners held in capitivity in Guantanamo without fair legal recourse or the so called Patriot Act expressions of this document? Has our fear of terrorism and quest for power thwarted our sense of liberty and the right of each individual to his or her own personal liberty? If we are truly all created equal, why are some sectors of our populace still marginalized? Why can’t  gay couples get married if they choose to do so? Why is the government allowed to spy on it’s own citizens and indict people on secret evidence that it does not have to show to a judge? Let’s not even talk about taxation without representation. We are taxed to death, but the representation we send to Congress, who are they representing, the people, or the corporate interests and lobbyists who pony up big bucks to break bread with them. If you don’t believe me, call your congress representative’s office and try to arrange a one on one meeting to discuss issues that are of concern to you as a citizen. You will be passed off to a staffer, who will take notes and then you will get a form letter about a month later thanking you for your concern. Liberty is precious. These men who signed this Declaration of Independence were also signing their death warrants should they be caught by the British army. They would have been hung for treason.  Yet they did so because they believed in the promise of a new nation. On this July Fourth, let us take a moment to ponder the words of this great document, and re-dedicate ourselves to the life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for our nation, and for all nations.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton