Practice for the New Millennium by the Dalai Lama

The Practice:

1. Spend 5 minutes at the beginning of each day remembering we all want the same things (to be happy and be loved) and we are all connected to one another.

2. Spend 5 minutes breathing in, cherishing yourself; and, breathing out cherishing others. If you think about people you have difficulty cherishing, extend your cherishing to them anyway.

3. During the day extend that attitude to everyone you meet. Practice cherishing the “simplest” person (clerks, attendants, etc) or people you dislike.

4. Continue this practice no matter what happens or what anyone does to you.

These thoughts are very simple, inspiring and helpful.

The practice of cherishing can be taken very deeply if done wordlessly, allowing yourself to feel the love and appreciation that already exists in your heart. 

“I was six when I saw that everything was God, and my hair stood up, and all,” Teddy said. “It was on a Sunday, I remember. My sister was a tiny child then, and she was drinking her milk, and all of a sudden I saw that she was God and the milk was God. I mean, all she was doing was pouring God into God, if you know what I mean.”  J.D. Salinger -(Teddy, 1954)

I would like to ask a question. This is the same question I ask every new minister at our church. Do you believe that men like Ghandi and the Dalai Lama will be punished in the afterlife, for no other reason than not being called a Buddhist or Hindu? ~sekanblogger

Obama needs to call their bluff

New polls show a growing number of Americans are worried about growing deficits and debt. The former president has added his voice to the noise, the GOP is using this deficit tactic to court Independents who pretty much stay out of social issues but take fiscal issues seriously.

Health care reform is jeopardized and this is important.

President Obama needs to call their bluff!

I have confidence that most Americans are intelligent adults and will listen when issues are explained. Who knows? If bush the lesser had been able to communicate we may have been able to understand some of his motives. A leader is a person who both makes and explains the hard decisions and actions that are necessary for the common good. Americans are capable of understanding and even appreciate being respected and having our interests acknowledged — whether we agree or not.

First, Obama must explain that Uncle Sam has to spend until we’re past the worst of this recession which nearly reached depression status. Our economy isn’t healthy enough to really do anything about deficits yet. He must make the honest case for temporarily running high deficits to rescue our future. He has to lay out the reasons the deficits will get us past the worst and back to financial safety. He must acknowledge the cure isn’t instantaneous. He must explain rising unemployment rates, and what he is doing to address those rates. He has to state the goals that will lead us to stability and allow growth to resume. He must go on the offensive and speak directly to the American people with an honest plan and achievable goals. We will understand and it will take the wind out of those who have NO PLAN.

He has to call their bluff, involve the American people once again and as often as necessary to take the steam out of this issue. This can’t be a one-time interaction, but the beginning of a conversation that points out this is my plan, then updates the progress and / or adjustments to the plan — all the while (maybe silently) pointing out detractors have no plan, and aren’t part of the solutions.

Most Americans will be ready to support the team with a solution over those who simply have criticisms. Something does beat nothing every time!

fnord

Dan Froomkin Fired???

Popular blogger at the Washington Post, Dan Froomkin, was given his walking papers today.  He was told that his widely viewed blog White House Watch “wasn’t working any more.”

I personally find this action by the WAPO deeply disturbing.  Every time I would post to Froomkin’s blog, he’d include my remarks, and comment on them.  He was the epitome of what blogging is supposed to be about.  I think he loathed G.W. Bush even more than I did, which is truthfully hard to conceive.

I think I will boycott the Washington Post website from now on…  Please join me in this protest.

Iggy Donnelly

BLACK MESSIAH by The Kinks

Since it’s Juneteenth, and the Senate formally apologizes for slavery, well…. all us crackers may as well admit it. The picture in the hall at your local church is all wrong. THE MESSIAH IS BLACK! Read lyrics, listen to song, comment. ~sekanblogger

 Everybody got the right to speak their mind
So don’t shoot me for saying mine
Everybody talking about racial equality
‘Cos everybody’s equal in the good Lord’s eyes
But if I told you that God was black
What would you think of that
I bet you wouldn’t believe it

There’s a self made prophet living right next to me
He said the Black Messiah’s gonna come and set the whole world free
He looked at me with his evil eye and prophesied
And he really believed it

He said a Black Messiah is gonna set the world on fire
And he no liar, ‘cos he has truly heard the word
Everybody talk about racial equality
But I’m the only honky living on an all black street
They knock me down ‘cos they brown and I white
Like you wouldn’t believe it

They say a Black Messiah is gonna set the world on fire
A Black Messiah is gonna come and rule the world
Everybody talk about racial equality
Everybody talk about equal rights
But white’s white, black’s black and that’s that
Everybody got the right to speak their mind
So don’t shoot me for saying mine

Everybody talking about racial equality
You hear everybody talking about equal rights
But white’s white, black’s black and that’s that
And that’s the way you should leave it

Don’t want no Black Messiah to come and set the world on fire
A Black Messiah is gonna come and rule the world
Everybody got to show a little give and take
Everybody got to live with a little less hate
Everybody gotta work it out, we gotta sort it out
Everybody got the right to speak their mind
So don’t shoot me for saying mine

Friday, 06/19/09, Public Square

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.

“The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer.”

fnord