Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
To third person who said to me that I deserved a nice vacation, I said that I think of myself more as being fortunate than deserving of such luxuries.
I received the following email last night from Move-On. I pass it on to all of you, who, I am sure are also grieving deeply and praying for those who were the direct victims of these hideous violence, and who also are concerned for all who have been and continue to be impacted by the policies and mindsets that contribute to the environment in which such acts arise:
Dear MoveOn member,
This is a tragic day for America.
As you may have already heard, Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 17 other people were shot today at an event near Tucson.
Right now, Rep. Giffords is in critical condition, and there are reports are that at least five people have been killed, including a young child of about nine years old and Justice John M. Roll, the chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona.
Our hearts go out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy. We’ve created a Facebook page where we can all post prayers and thoughts for Rep. Giffords, the other victims and their families. You can find it here:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=205705&id=25753-1983776-0_o0QGx&t=1
Gabrielle Giffords is an up-and-coming, shining star in Congress. Anyone who’s been around her will tell you that she’s smart, passionate, and one of the hardest working members of Congress. Robert Reich, one of her mentors, once said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s the first or second female president of the United States.”1
Judge Roll started his legal career as a bailiff in the Pima County Superior Court and worked his way all the way to the federal bench. He was appointed by President George H. W. Bush in 1991 and began serving as presiding judge in 2006.
This is such a terrible, confusing, awful thing. Please join us in sending your prayers and wishes to those who are suffering tonight. Here again is the link:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=205705&id=25753-1983776-0_o0QGx&t=2
–Justin, Adam, Amy, Anna, Annie, Carrie, Christopher, Daniel, David, Duncan, Eli, Emily, Gail, Ian, Ilya, Ilyse, Kat, Laura, Lenore, Mariana, Marika, Matthew, Melanie, Michael, Milan, Nita, Peter, Robin, Ryan, Susannah, Stephen, Steven, and Tim
Ai Weiwei at the Hirshhorn on this anniversary of 9/11.
My dear friend from college, Dan Harper, just posted the following on his website. I feel fortunate to have a friend who inspires me to me more learned and more concerned.
Martin Luther King would have been 80 today. On February 25, 1967, not long before he was killed, he spoke about the Vietnam War and its effects on our country. The following excerpt from that speech could easily be delivered today, with just a few minor changes:
“This confused war has played havoc with our domestic destinies.
“Despite feeble protestations to the contrary, the promises of the Great Society [anti-poverty program] have been shot down on the battlefield of Viet Nam. The pursuit of this widened war has narrowed domestic welfare programs, making the poor, white and Negro, bear the heaviest burdens both at the front and at home.
“While the anti-poverty program is cautiously initiated, zealously supervised and evaluated for immediate results, billions are liberally expended for this ill-considered war. The recently revealed mis-estimate of the war budget amounts to ten billions of dollars for a single year. This error alone is more than five times the amount committed to anti-poverty programs. The security we profess to seek in foreign adventures we will lose in our decaying cities. The bombs in Viet Nam explode at home: they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.
“If we reversed investments and gave the armed forces the antipoverty budget, the generals could be forgiven if they walked off the battlefield in disgust.
“Poverty, urban problems and social progress generally are ignored when the guns of war become a national obsession. When it is not our security that is at stake, but questionable and vague commitments to reactionary regimes, values disintegrate into foolish and adolescent slogans.”
Full text of the speech on Stanford’s Web site. Crossposted on PaxPac.
