Archive for September, 2009

I’m not someone who has ever had a position on the inherent value of the United Nations or it’s effectiveness. I know there are proponents on either side of the issue.  I’ve just never given it much consideration. 

Until this week.

This week, three world leaders stood before that organization.  Two would have been laughable in their ignorance, bigotry and hatred had their very presence at the United Nations not dignified them beyond either merit or reason. 

Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are carbon copies of historical predecessors who sought to dominate and subjugate the very people they claimed to represent and care for.  Such men have one goal. It is the annihilation of the Jewish people and the destruction of freedom everywhere. They would see their goals accomplished through repression, deceit, torture and murder.

The United Nations welcomed these two men and gave them a platform. Some delegates even shamelessly laughed and applauded as Chavez, once again, debased an American President.  A former American President.  It seems he actually likes our current one.  A disturbing fact that should give us all pause.

The third man to speak was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  Holding the United Nations feet to the fire of its Charter, he questioned the morality and absence of shame in providing these other two a stage from which to spew their hatred.  He spoke of historical fact, not fiction.  As if any rational or feeling person might need it, he came with proof in hand.  He held up a mirror for those listening who were brave enough to look upon their own reflection.

Then, having spoken truth to power, he went on to speak of all that has been and will be accomplished by civil and humane societies everywhere that look to better the world for the highest good of all concerned. 

I began by saying that I am not someone who has ever had a position on the inherent value of the United Nations or it’s effectiveness.

I do now.

It is an institution with vast potential that has completely failed to achieve its mission.  It is a mockery of what it was envisioned to be. It is rendered impotent by nature of its cowardice.  It is irrelevant.

As an American, I am proud that our delegation left the room when Ahmadinejad spoke.

As a Jew I am proud of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s forthrightness.  I have not always been a fan… but he “had me at hello” on this one. 

As a member of humankind, I hope we, the people of the world, continue to awaken to the choices we face at this critical time of transition and transformation.

The Chavezes and Ahmadinejads of the world or the Netanyahus?

The choice, and the voice, belongs to each of us.

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size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>It seems getting to God is a team sport.

The holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) is about to occur. I am re-reading a book I first read 30 years ago titled “A Course in Miracles.”  size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>These two facts, from a formal, organized religious perspective are seemingly irreconcilable. size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>..mainly because the book is about God, Christ and the Holy Spirit and Yom Kippur is …well, you get the picture.

size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>Irreconcilable. I’m sure that’s what most would say.

But I think the messages of Yom Kippur and “A Course in Miracles” are exactly the same.

size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>The holiday and the book are about Atonement.

size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>As a Jew, I’ve always felt the gravity and opportunity of Yom Kippur… yet I don’t think I ever really understood Atonement until reading the book.
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Atonement is the undoing of what you thought occurred in your past.  Well, at least the undoing of whatever occurred to you or by you that was not loving.  It’s more than forgiveness, because to forgive there must have occurred something that needed to be forgiven…and whatever occurs that is not of Love never really occurs at all since only Love is real.  size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>

Everything else is illusion.

size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>Hard to comprehend, right?

But really, if we’ve been created in the image and likeness of God….and God is Love…ever expanding outward energy with Its only intention being to give All to All for eternity and infinity…then how can we be anything other than That from which we came and which continues to sustain us? And if we are That, then We Too Are Love and everything that is not Love…is not real.

The Atonement is setting aside, putting down, walking away from all that is illusion and turning toward That Which Is Real. Turning toward Love. Turning toward Creator.

Having turned, we then surrender to Who We Really Are and commit to Being Love..to understanding Oneness…to gifting to every other human being the same Love and Grace we have received as a result of Atonement.

It’s an interesting discussion I’d like to have with a Rabbi and a Priest…in the same room at the same time. 

I think the outcome would be One(1)ness.

Final Score: 
Separate religions O
Spirituality       1

If the White House thought it had a problem with Glenn Beck, conservative talk radio and the “organized smear campaign” against Van Jones….they better hold onto their hats as they are not likely going to be able to hold onto their jobs.

This morning, on both Glenn Beck’s radio show and, simultaneously on FOX cable TV, they ran an undercover video with audio exposing WHO ACORN IS and WHAT ACORN DOES. A portion of that video is being excerpted on the web, as I write, at Big Government.

ACORN “professionals” assist, advise and conspire to commit fraud with an undercover man and woman posing as a future Congressional candidate and a teenage prostitute who allegedly want to purchase a house in a respectable neighborhood to run a brothel.  Proceeds from the brothel will go into the campaign coffers of the man when he runs for Congress. 

The man and woman are undercover and with hidden camera and wired with a mic.

The ACORN employees are shameless criminals.

If ever there were a straw to break the Public’s back it will be this one.

ACORN employees:

    -Advise the couple how to evade filing federal taxes;
    -Proceed in misrepresenting the girl’s “job” by using the code designation for an unrelated occupation in order to qualify for federal loan monies to purchase the house;
    -Tell the teenage girl she should be proud of her prostitution;
    -Suggests the couple not discuss the 13 year-old-girls from El Salvador who are illegal and prostitutes working within the brothel or not get them social security cards because they’re not old enough to get social security.
    -Suggests the prostitute claim the 13-year-old-illegals as dependents.

ACORN is:

    -The organization from which President Obama emerged. 
    -Where President Obama learned how to community organize.
    -Having it’s employees arrested across this country, as recently as this week, for fraudulent voter registration. 
    -Along with SEIU, had the voting laws changed in Nevada in order to give Barack Obama an advantage over Hilary Clinton in the Primary that likely cost her the nomination.

Out of every bad comes a good.

This is a moment to STAND UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT.
This is a moment to STAND FOR TRUTH.
This is a moment to say NO MORE CORRUPTION.
This is a moment to say NO MORE DECEPTION.
This is a moment to say I AM NOT AFRAID.
This is a moment to say I KNOW WHO I AM.
This is a moment to say I KNOW WHERE I WANT TO GO.

This is Your moment. Your choice. Your reality.

The road is forked just around this bend.  One way will take you home and the other will take you to a dark and twisted place. You have the Inner Guidance to know which way to go.  All you have to do is listen from within, trust in that voice, and stand with certainty for what you know to be True.

The rest will done for you.
Not by the Federal government, ACORN or Van Jones.
But by the Only Power There Is.

    

This past Thursday I wrote a column that was unusual for me because it had political subject matter.  I try to avoid that arena here.  Breaking policy, I wrote it because, as is always the case, truth is “the highest good for all concerned” and that’s my mission statement.  So, I go where it takes me.  On Thursday it took me to the White House.

It’s Sunday morning and the trip was worth it.  Van Jones has resigned.

Glenn Beck is a Public Servant, in the purest sense of the word, for has done the nation a service.  He shone a bright and unwavering light, the Light of Truth I dare to say, upon a shadowy man whose intentions have been deliberately masked and obscured by those in positions of power in order to advance a very anti-American agenda.

The resignation of Van Jones as Special Adviser to the President is a victory for full and fair disclosure… a legal and ethical concept lost on this Administration.  He is but the latest in a long list of appointees and nominees by this President who have personal and professional histories of corruption, pay-for-play tactics, cronyism and supporting policies and foreign governments that would see an end to freedom as we know it.

This is a cloaked and shadowy Administration but I still believe in Hope and Change.  They are what Barack Obama promised us and they are exactly what he is delivering….albeit not quite the way he and his wife intended.

There is always a silver lining… and I see this one shining brightly through.

We can remain HOPEful that there are brave and impassioned men and women, such as Glenn Beck and those who are making his personal mission possible, to shine that Light of Truth when and where it’s needed.

We can CHANGE the face of politics by removing the mask of deceit and cloak of subterfuge and demanding accountability, full disclosure and truthfulness of those who claim to aspire to serve the public good.

Van Jones’ resignation is not the end.  It is the beginning of a sea CHANGE moving this nation and, ultimately, free people everywhere, to higher ground where HOPE is the order of the day and the air is cleaner… not of CO2 content but of fear.

Yes, “HOPE and CHANGE.” 

Turns out it really is more than a bumper sticker after all.

This is not a political blog. I have always advocated “the highest good for all concerned” as my mission statement and I go the extra mile to find just that within everything I write.  Sometimes, however, important choices need to be made at crossroads, and I believe we as a People have arrived at one.

I have listened to Glenn Beck on and off for the past three years.  I found him entertaining and intellectually curious, a combination I enjoyed. I thought his tag line “the fusion between entertainment and enlightenment” was aptly put.  I sometimes questioned how far out on a limb he was walking… and where the fine line ended between his entertaining persona and his intellectual curiosity; however, I none-the-less felt that overall he provided a “cut above” in talk radio. 

He seemed not so much partisan as he did genuine.

To be up front, I was a life-long Democrat (now Independent) who voted for John McCain.  I did so not with a happy heart but because I had an intuitive feeling that there was too much unknown, untested and, frankly, disturbing about Barack Obama and the people with whom he surrounded himself.  I listened, as Glenn Beck started down the road of alleging more than discomfort with the President but rather alleging mal-intent.  As Beck’s allegations grew and intensified, along with his substantiated fact finding, my concerns grew and intensified as well.

I believe today is a turning point.  Like Glenn Beck, I too now pray for the country.

Beck has played on air this morning audio from April 2008 of Van Jones, Special Adviser to the President on Green Jobs.  It is the straw that will break that camel’s back.  Van Jones speaks, unabashedly, of undeniably Marxist intentions.  He sets forth, unmasked, what he (and I now believe many surrounding President Obama) intend for this country.  It is not what I intend and I know with certainty it is not what most people intend whovalue freedom, privacy and personal responsibility.

The President is a smart man.  He knows who surrounds him.  He is either in agreement with their intentions, or, he is not certain enough of what he believes in and strong enough to stand for it. 

Either way, the crossroad is here, now, for you and me.

Each citizen must decide for himself and herself what their basic values are and then stand for them. Be ready to stand for them in every way at every opportunity.  Be ready to voice your stand.  Be ready to be demeaned for it, marginalized for it and rejected for it.  And be certain that no voice other than your own has any more certainty or power.  Get your strength from within.  Fear nothing and no one.  Know that you are looking at and listening to an illusion wherever fear and urgency are the clarion calls. 

I take no political side on this. I take the side of inner guidance and personal responsibility. I take the side of full disclosure and good intention. I take the side of opposing all who would impose their view upon me while attempting to dishonor my own. 

I am hopeful that Glenn Beck has made his voice so public and so widespread, that to harm or silence him would be it’s own affirmation about the lengths to which those now in power will go to try and force their view of reality upon others.

This is a potentially glorious moment in our societal evolution.  I have no doubt that just as a lit room obliterates darkness, so too will the light of truth obliterate those who are motivated by power and the desire to oppress the spirit of man.

We are at the crossroad and it is the night before the dawn.

Stand for what you believe in and hold high the light of truth.