A mourner asks, who is going to step up and defend the rights of women?
My answer is each and every one of us; how can we expect someone else to step up unless we are doing it ourselves?
I think the wish that RGB Rest In Peace and rest in power can be an exhortation to the living. When we can live resting in our own peace and power, then we will have what we need to persist and shift.
Cherry tomatoes and scotch bonnet peppers from the garden; high protein bread (used both pulp from homemade soy-rice milk and sourdough starter). Gardening and cooking are a grounding practice I am grateful to have.
I just received this letter and wanted to pass it on to those who have senators and members of Congress (those of us in DC still do not):
Dear Elizabeth Goodman,One of our lobbyists just reported to me that some members of the supercommittee are telling us they are open to cutting Pentagon spending. “We need to hear what the folks back home in our state have to say about this,” we heard.The most important voice in this budget debate is your voices as constituents. As they make their decision, your members of Congress need to hear your side of this story. They need to hear about the consequences in your communities when money isn’t invested in schools, roads, jobs, and other local priorities.Today, will you write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper? Refer to your members of Congress by name and point out the needs in your local community.Communities around the country are being squeezed. More people are relying on food banks; local governments are copying with both the neighborhood and family stress of foreclosure; schools are increasing class sizes and shortening the school year; and critical maintenance on bridges and roadways. Police and firefighters are losing their jobs. Yet, the Pentagon budget continues to grow.Congress will take action to reduce the deficit, which means budget cuts. But if Congress doesn’t act to cut at Pentagon spending by a significant amount — FCNL and others believe that number is $1 trillion over the next ten years — then the cuts to other programs will be much deeper. Cutting the Pentagon budget and potentially making more funds available to meet the needs of state and local communities. There is an opportunity to make this change.Thank you for your action.Sincerely,Diane RandallExecutive Secretary P.S. If you want to know more about how much Pentagon spending is slated to rise, or more on FCNL’s views on the debt, deficit and supercommittee, visit our website.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
This evening I attended a gathering at Meridian Hill Park with several hundred Jewish people and a some allies and a few dozen police (not sure whether the police were there intentionally to be threatening or to be of supposed protection).
The gathering was to mourn the 1200 killed on October 7, the 250 taken hostage, and the tens of thousands killed and millions displaced since then. Whether the speakers were Jewish or Palestinian or Christian or Hindu, they were unified in their belief (relying on the texts and teachings that informed their faith), that no lives are more precious than others. The rabbis were emphatic that continuing to bomb and displace Palestinians and now, Lebanese, makes no one safer.
We must stop the relentless funding of war, the destruction of life and communities and the ecosystem if we and our companion species (flora and fauna) are ever to thrive.
Om shanti, shanti, shanti.
Shalom.
