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There are “dahs” and then there are really big “dahs.” Two days ago you may recall that a British parliamentary committee said that News Corp’s chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch was unfit to run a major international business. The committee accused him of turning “a blind eye” to the scandal of phone hacking at his companies, News Corporation and News International. Yesterday the News Corp’s board of directors came out in full support of Rupert Murdoch. “Dah!” Sometimes we all should look around our great nation and ask ourselves, “what have we become.” I look at the headlines from all over the world on a daily basis and all too often I come away shaking my head in disappointment over the human condition. I know I shouldn’t, but I do. For instance: These headlines. In Seattle protesters broke windows on looted during a May Day rally. What is wrong with these people? The British parliament dumped all over Rupert Murdock and his media empire and declared he was unfit to run a multinational empire. Do you know how many people in the United States listen to this man’s media outlets and think they tell them the truth? Government Graft? On the cusp of the GSA scandal about embarrassing expenditures in a Las Vegas conference, now comes words that a high-ranking homeland Security official has pleaded guilty in a travel fraud ring. Five idiots were arrested in Ohio and accused of plotting to blow up a bridge near Cleveland. They are self-subscribed “anarchists.” By the looks of their police photos these guys couldn’t spell anarchist. Where does this kind of ignorance come from? New Jersey Governor Chris Christie reminded Wisconsin voters that the impact of a recall decision before them holds major national implications. Why is New Jersey’s Governor preaching to Wisconsin voters? Maybe he does want the GOP vice-presidential spot. He says he’s not ready for the top spot, why is he ready for veep? He doesn’t make any sense. I’m still shaking my head. So here we are at the first of May. It’s an interesting day in history and in various cultures. It is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane. It was an ancient springtime festival of optimism coupled with bonfires and dancing. May first is also historically attached to the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. They did similar things as the Celts, bonfires and dancing to celebrate the end of winter and the coming of spring. When I was a child May first was celebrated in the papers and newsreels as a holiday known as May Day. The communist countries at that time would parade their missiles and armies in big city squares for the entire world to see It was also known as a day to remember the struggles of workers who were killed or oppressed in their fight for better wages and working conditions; that’s probably why the communists embraced it. The United States countered with a proclamation in 1958 by President Eisenhower that May first would henceforth be known as “law day.” A day to reflect on the role of law and its importance in a democratic society. Some early European settlers on the American continent celebrated May Day by leaving baskets of flowers or treats at someone’s doorstep. They would knock and run away. The person getting the basket would try to catch the basket giver. If they caught the person a kiss was exchanged. I like that one. Sister Simone Campbell, head of the Catholic social justice group NETWORK, appeared on several television programs regarding the recent Vatican report that reprimanded Catholic nuns for failing to speak out on “issues of crucial importance.” Her group NETWORK was heavily criticized in the Vatican report. Sister Campbell, who is also a lawyer, said “we’re a political organization. We don’t even have formal ties with Rome. Many of our members are Catholic sisters and priests, but we have 18,000 people across the country who are activists. But the Vatican named us. It’s not a faith fight; it’s a political fight.” Sister Campbell went on to say, “What the bishops are criticizing is the engagement in culture. We come from a democratic culture. We follow the rule of Saint Benedict from the 500 A.D., where Benedict says, “When you’re making a decision, listen to every member of the community, and the truth will emerge.” She added that the Vatican comes out of a European experience and a culture of monarchy where the monarchy is always right with no room for a plurality of thought. “The United States’ she said, “has an amazing pluralism that is really our gift, because it creates a vibrant diverse society. And I think that vibrant society is running headlong into the culture of monarchy at this point.” History is filled with stories of inspired individuals, mystics, and saints, who have come in conflict with authority over an inner dictate versus a system of rigid principles. Galileo, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Aquinas, Kabir, and Thoreau are examples, to name a few. following one’s inner faith, however it may be expressed, either as activism or mystical meditation, will always disempower dogma and render service activists unacceptable to most religious authorities. A prime example today was the conflict between the Vatican and Dominican scholar, Dr. Matthew Fox. His enlightenment and verbal activism led him to preach creation spirituality, a positive view of humankind’s inter-relationship with God, rather than the Catholic church dogma of redemption spirituality, a view whereby human beings are born sinful. Fox was silenced by the Vatican and has since left the order is now an Episcopalian scholar. Within the Catholic church dogma has apparently no room for dialogue.
Some thoughts on political rumor and innuendo. I’ve received dozens of blatantly false emails purporting to be true in order to discredit, smear and maligned the opposition candidate. The false accusations have attacked both Barrack Obama and now Mitt Romney. What is disappointing to me is that many people forward these pieces of junk to their litany of email friends without checking the facts, without any thought of the harm they are doing and the false witness they are spreading. I won’t repeat then new and even the old allegations because even if there were a shred of truth in them, some investigative reporter would have checked it out long ago. Rumor and innuendo, however they are spread, always belie the truth with a fetid falsity of illusion’s fiction. Back during the Franklin Roosevelt administration some of his opponents spread rumors that his democrats plundered the gold in Fort Knox to pull the country out of the depression. In 1953, President Eisenhower was pressured to have the gold counted. When the last bar was tabulated, it was short of what was supposed to be there. Ten dollars short. Just to even up the books, Mrs. Georgia Clark, the long time treasurer of the United States, sent the government a personal check for ten dollars to cover the missing funds. The rumor went away. In this time of resurging election rhetoric how many more rumors would go away if all of us did more checking and less gossip? April is poetry month. President John F. Kenned talked about poetry at the dedication of the Robert Frost Library. He said: “When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitation. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.” I would add to that… Poetry precipitates emotion into words. Poetry embraces the perceived pain of life and breaks it down into soft images of understanding and it takes the joy of life and transcends it into a sustaining ecstasy of imagination. It amplifies the tiny specks of grace from the minutia of things beautiful and allows us to be it, if only for the moment of appreciation. Poetry clarifies and sometimes condemns. It magnifies the inner magic of feelings and encourages the soul to rejoice in the shared awareness of another’s insight and makes it our own. Poetry laughs and cries and brings the sensual into an undulating body of words and it holds sometimes forever, an emotion long past, a desire forgotten, a wish remembered or a splendor that’s vanished in the illusion of time. Poetry is a link to the Divine within each of us and to the demons of our imagination. It allows introspection without pity and effacement without fear of obscurity. It is intellect and spirit wedded in the sacredness of creation. I believe it is agape love at the purest verbal level. I had dinner last night with good friends. We have been close for over thirty years and continue to enjoy each other’s company. Driving home reminded me of a poem I wrote about their teahouse. A structure they built just to enjoy the solitude of any moment. It’s just a short step from their home in the mountains. In the summer when the windows of the tiny teahouse are open you can hear the water ripple from a near-by stream as it rambles over rock and rill. Everyone who visits the teahouse takes away a little piece of peace that stay with them forever.
The Teahouse of the Summer Sun © 2012 Rolland G. Smith
Beyond the thought of standing still And wondering what’s held within. A teahouse blessed by heaven’s trill Allows the prayerful to begin.
Young trees stand sentry to this place To grace love’s presence everywhere. Especially in shadowed lace When setting sun releases care.
The teahouse is a place of proof for souls who’ve gone and those who stay. It blends beneath its raftered roof A place to think and one to pray. Good Morning, Another wonderful lesson from nature. It is amazing what she says to us if we but listen this day after Earth Day.
Tulips Talk Earthday brings poetic thoughts of I have a three-acre meadow that sits about five stories below my house. I often write about mowing the meadow, but this post is about what’s in the meadow. My house sits on a ridge and commands a grand view of the meadow far below. A pond is the lower border of the sloping meadow grasses.
In the upper part of the meadow, as you can see in the picture, there is a large protruding rock about five feet long and three feet wide at its center. Years ago, I knew there was nothing I could do to remove the rock, so I hired a rock cutter to drill three eight inch deep holes in the rock and in them I placed three metal pipes. One was eighteen foot long, another sixteen feet and the third fourteen feet. On each pole I tie Buddhist prayer flags and let them fly in the wind for a couple of years. I have always loved the idea of the Buddhist prayer flags. They are very gossamer silk-like tiny square flags of brilliant primary colors. There is a prayer imprinted on the flag. The prayer comes from the Indian Buddhist Sutras. They bless the surrounding countryside and promote peace, compassion, strength and wisdom The idea, as I understand it, is that when the wind blows tiny fibers of the flag fly off on the wind and carry the prayer and blessing to all those in the path of the wind. The tiny fibers do fly off for I do have to replace the flags every few years. I just did hence the brilliant colors. I hope just writing about the flags and showing you a picture that the prayer embraces you on the ethereal wind of cyberspace. |
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Copyright © 2012 by Rolland G. Smith - All Rights Reserved
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Romney’s Distortion
Memo to Mitt Romney: Prospective Presidential GOP candidate 2012.
Mr. Romney:
Once again you distort the truth. The incident in China where the Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng at first sought refuge in the US embassy and then after six days when US officials conveyed an apparent Chinese threat of retribution to his family Chen decided to leave the embassy protection.
Whether the Chinese did in fact make a threat or imply a threat and if American diplomats did or did not convey that possibility to Chen we will probably never know. Sensitive diplomacy requires official zippered lips. I would, however, not put it past the Chinese to make such a threat given the fact that they continue to deny that anyone, but soldiers died in the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
The fact that Mr. Chen, who is blind and a lawyer, managed to escape to the US Embassy just before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner arrived in Beijing for high-level talks is a bit suspect and no doubt was designed for the highest publicity value.
Mr. Romney you called it day of shame for the Obama Administration. It is a day of shame for you and your continued distortion of unsubstantiated facts. I know you kept saying “if reports are true,” but just the suggestion of diplomatic impropriety and using the word shame is a political distortion.
Mr. Chen is using the system too, and rightfully so, to his advantage. He is an outspoken critic of the Chinese political system on human rights and he quickly expressed “disappointment” in U.S. officials.
Later in the day he conveyed to a Congressional hearing via the telephone that he now would like to come to the United States for a period of rest.
This is sensitive stuff at a crucial time of Sino/American negotiations. It is not the time for politics on either side.