Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

> Sometimes it takes a while for the truth to surface…but it always does. That’s the beauty of the truth. It inherently rises upward. Two of the most recent examples are 1) the disclosure by Scott McClellan, former Press Secretary to President Bush, that McClellan was deliberately fed misinformation by the President, Vice President, Karl Rove and “Scooter” Libby regarding the “outing” of the identity of Valerie Plame and 2) the recent arrest of three young men in Aruba in connection with the disappearance and apparent death of American high school graduate Natalie Halloway. It’s taken awhile, yes, but in both cases the truth is being outed.
    We are living though a transition in human consciousness that effectively “removes the masks and veils” that have for so long obscured our ability, and our choice, to know and confront the truth. Previously, deceptions and manipulations either went unnoticed or were readily accepted by most in order to maintain the status quo.
    In case you haven’t noticed, those days are over.
    Whether in your personal life or in connection with more public matters, it will now be increasingly difficult and in some cases impossible to see, and know, anything but the truth. Many of us have been experiencing this reality for some time now in our personal and professional lives. Old ways of doing things that lack integrity are no longer working. Integrity means not just truth telling, but a commitment to the wholeness of an idea or action, not just the self-serving aspects of it. Integrity is proceeding from an internal knowing that all living beings and all outcomes are connected. To deceive another is to deceive oneself…not figuratively or philosophically…but literally.
    Many of us lament the world in which we find ourselves. We find it nearly impossible to keep up with the pace of things, are disillusioned by the endemic dishonesty all around us, and frustrated by our inability to affect change. But each of these challenges, and their cures, begin with how honest we have been with ourselves and in our dealings with the world and others.
    The outer world in which we find ourselves is but a reflection of our own inner worlds. When we are willing to stop the rushing, competing, denials and quest for more and more having…and face the truth of what we know in our hearts, then and only then will the quality of our outer world change.
    Many people are now stepping up and turning off the repeated messages that have been programmed within them to consciously alter their behavioral patterns in order to create a more harmonious and truth-based world. Those who are waking to this challenge and opportunity will, in fact, ride the wave to that higher vibration.
    Those who choose to remain in a world run by manipulation and deception will effectively miss the wave. As with everything else, the choice is yours.
    While you are pondering which path to take, imagine yourself today to be Valerie Plame or Natalie Halloway’s parents now that those truths are surfacing.
    Then imagine how liberating, and satisfying, the truth can be.

> Suzanne Lafrankie is a talk-radio host on “The Big Talker” 1210AM out of Philadelphia. In full disclosure, I need to say right up front that I wanted her job. Actually, I contacted the producer of the show before 1210 had a woman on the air and suggested the line-up (Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Shaun Hannity, etc) could use one. The producer, a woman herself, was dismissive and condescending, telling me I needed more experience and besides, they didn’t need a woman host. Shortly thereafter, Lafrankie was hired.
    I’ve listened to her on a few occasions but, honestly, our view of the world is so different that it’s of little benefit for me to do so regularly. This morning, while listening to another talk-radio program, Lafrankie had a one-minute promo for her show that spoke to the celebration of Thanksgiving.
    I can’t let this one go unnoticed.
    Ms. Lafrankie’s point was that we don’t “owe” the Native Americans any thanks for the holiday, we owe thanks to God. She was explicit in making the point that she did not care that she was being “politically incorrect” by either dismissing the Native Americans or overtly mentioning gratitude to God.
    It’s not the God part that I find misguided…its her dismissal of Native Americans and all they tried to gift us.
    I understand that it was the colonist governor William Bradford who said we should give thanks to God for our bounty and George Washington who made it a national holiday. But to focus on the legalities while ignoring the intent is to miss the point altogether.
    Before we, the descendants of Anglo-Saxon Europeans, arrived in the New World and for some time thereafter, Native Americans were planting and harvesting crops with consciousness while educated European adventurers were sailing the globe…pillaging and destroying the cultures and lands they “discovered.” Each of the Native American tribes had a cultural understanding of and profound respect for all of Nature and Her creatures. It was with gratitude that they planted, with gratitude that they reaped, with gratitude that they hunted, and with gratitude that they consumed. They had an inherent knowing about the connectedness of all things…as well as an appreciation for the part each plays in the overall balance and harmony of our world.
    Beginning with those first explorers and settlers, right through to today’s advanced technological society, we have failed to accept the gift Native Americans tried to pass on and, instead, banished them to a footnote in our minds as well as in our history books.
    Life is a continuum on the way to eternity and, sooner or later, all things come ’round again. So here we are.
    Having raped the land, squandered natural resources, devalued animal life and desecrated the environment all in the name of progress, enlightenment and a more civilized culture, we none-the-less continue to question how this imbalance came to be.
    If I had gotten the job I suggested, instead of Suzanne Lafrankie, the promo for my show this morning would have conveyed a different message, for sure.
    I would have said that Thanksgiving is one day, of a possible 365 days, when we can literally stop the “needing” and the “getting” to express our sincere gratitude for all of the wisdom gifts we have been blessed with and to reflect upon all of the ones we ignored in the name of progress.
    My hope for a Thanksgiving message is that we learn to recognize what matters in the moment, rather than in hindsight. However, because it really is “better late than never”…my heartfelt gratitude to the Native Americans who endured great hardship for shining a light upon the path we were too blind to follow.  
    History cannot be re-written but the Now is full of possibility.

> Last night I watched the Democrat Presidential debate from Las Vegas and listened to CNN’s media commentary immediately following. This morning I am reading media accounts of it and, all told, am convinced that there are at any one time alternate realities operating.
    The choice is ours as to which one we want to participate in.
    CNN’s coverage following the debate included Andersen Cooper, David Gergen and J.C. Watts.  Their astute observations and conclusions can be wrapped up in one sentence: Hilary regained her ground, Obama and Edwards missed an opportunity to stay on the attack, and the first 10 minutes of the debate that were frought with petty infighting were the best.
    This morning, other media analysis follows suit, with the Republicans choosing to stay on the attack of Clinton’s “inconsistent” statements on various issues as they continue to think she is the horse to beat in this race.
    I, on the other hand (or should I say in the other reality) watched a remarkably uplifting and encouraging debate among several intelligent and informed individuals who, after a few minutes of going after one another, gave it up in order to passionately address in as much specificity as time allowed the issues that matter to us…the American people.
    What a change!
    Change is good.
    What the candidates did, led I might say by Joe Biden, Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd, was to cut through so much of the “political speak” and parsing of words to talk straight from the heart and shoot straight from the hip, showing us they finally hear that we don’t trust them anymore.
    This is a very good sign.
    Some even threw caution completely to the wind…and it may cost them. Bill Richardson said “Human Rights are more important than national security” which will hurt him and give the Conservative Right Wing glee and fodder for their canons. I suspect that Richardson was trying to say the two were inextricably bound and that without demanding and enforcing human rights at home and abroad we negatively impact our credibility and security. In fact, the other candidates who had time to reflect on the question tried to say something along those lines. But look at Richardson’s courage in bringing human rights to the forefront and giving it the status it deserves. Bravo!
    This was not your usual meaningless, controlled, cautious political debate scripted for mass appeal.
    This was the Democrat Party coming alive again, the party I grew up with and remember. This was the passion and speaking truth to power I want to see in leaders of the 21st century.
    Yes, they’re still not perfect and there’s still a lot of gamesmanship and manipulating of the facts going on. But be assured. Last night the pendulum swung back toward the truth and the momentum shifted.     That momentum is fueled by We The People, and now having moved in a new direction, will not cease it’s path. We The People have demanded quietly, and now more vociferously, that business as usual must go and be replaced with a system and a paradigm that support growth, integrity and human dignity.
    That’s the reality I’m living in and hope you join me here. The media and the Republicans may choose to put a more controlled spin on what occurred last night but I’d advise them to beware.
    We The People are speaking…and they better be listening… because the Democrats are.
    

>     During the period between 2002-2004, two Chinese pro-democracy dissidents named Wang Xiaoning and Shi Tao used Yahoo’s message boards to post information about China’s persecution of pro-democracy activists. The Chinese government asked Yahoo to provide the IP addresses and e-mail accounts on the postings and Yahoo complied. The two dissidents were arrested and Shi is now spending 10 years in a Chinese dungeon for his views and actions in creating the postings. Yahoo, when asked by Congressional investigators why they provided the information stated that 1) they had to comply with local law and 2) at the time Yahoo turned over the information they did not know the nature of the investigation. It turns out that a later published version of the Chinese government’s request indicated that the basis for the request and the focus of the investigation was clear at the time Yahoo complied.
    Yahoo representatives, it seems, lied to Congress.
    Now there’s a shock. 
    Congressional hearings commenced yesterday on Yahoo’s behavior. Twelve lawyers representing Yahoo prepared one lawyer, Michael Callahan (Yahoo’s Executive V.P. and General Counsel), to testify  before Congress regarding the incident. Mr. Callahan called Yahoo’s failure to honestly admit to what it had known a “misunderstanding” and said it “did not occur” to Yahoo to bring the “new information” to Congress.
    
As a former practicing attorney, I am often proud of the determination
and creativity I periodically see in the practice of law by fellow
lawyers. I am equally perplexed and ashamed by the dishonesty and
stupidity I periodically see as well.
    Let’s take it one Yahoo excuse at a time.
    First, Yahoo said it did not know the nature of the investigation when it turned over the requested information. Since a later disclosure and translation of the request document itself by the human rights group Dui Hua clearly showed this to be untrue, we are faced with the willful and knowing intention by Yahoo executives to lie.
    For profit. Surely that is what this is all about. Yahoo wanted and still wants to be in on the booming Chinese internet market and weighed it’s integrity against it’s bottom line and integrity came up light. Surely there’s enough profit in Yahoo that it did not need to proceed in this way at this time. Or maybe not. Maybe what my dear friend Ruth used to say about human frailty is true: “More is never enough.” If that’s the case, and it’s also the sole motivator for Yahoo’s corporate mission (regardless of what they say the mission is) then we cannot rely on their corporate integrity.
    Secondly, as to Yahoo’s having to “comply with local law”…well, this is where I’d have preferred those thirteen lawyers to have risen to the occasion rather than acquiesced to it. Surely thirteen U.S. educated, bright, legal minds could have used the energy they used to deceive Congress to instead come up with a rationale for the Chinese government as to why they could not have turned over the requested information.
    I think the lesson in all of this is that when we are motivated solely by our wallets without the benefit of guidance from our conscience we find it easy, and justifiable, to stray further and further from what is the highest good for all concerned.
    I used to be in business with a woman whose specialty is in the field of data mining. When this original story broke, she said “Yahoo probably complied with the Chinese government’s request because they wanted to continue to do business in China in the hopes of bringing Western ideas and democracy in through the internet. Shi was a small sacrifice for the higher good.”
    Nice spin…but I don’t think it works that way.   
    I think compromising your integrity on core principles and values is a very slippery slope.  When you justify decisions that make those compromises you just grease the slide.
    Perhaps Yahoo can take a lesson from my personal approach.
    Ever since I married 16 years ago, my husband always tries to suggest a vacation in Jamaica when we’re looking for a place to go. It’s sort of become a little family joke, but it’s none-the-less true. Whenever he mentions Jamaica and how lovely it is and how there’s a beautiful Sandals Resort there…I always respond with “I don’t vacation in a country that  doesn’t have a human rights policy.”
    Now I realize that limits where I will vacation and what I might see in this lifetime. But I like to vote with my wallet.
    Yahoo, are you listening?
    

>    I will match my love of animals against anyone else’s…any time… anywhere. Mine is borderline irrational (to which my husband and daughter will attest). So it comes as a surprise, to no one more than me, that I would be making a suggestion that advises a nation to lower the status of a particular breed of animal, yet that’s what I am about to do none-the-less.
  It is estimated that somewhere between 60 to 115 million children are working as slaves India. That was million. This fact and the difficulty of how to deal with it was brought to light today when it was reported that Gap, the largest clothing manufacturer in the world (also owner of Old Navy and Lands End) had been guilty of using child slave labor in India to manufacturer some of it’s upcoming Christmas clothing.
    In all fairness to Gap, it’s President Marka Hansen said that the garments had been made by a subcontractor whose general contractor had violated Gap Compliance Rules by hiring the sub.  Ms. Hansen also went on to say that no clothing made in a sweat shop in New Delhi would be sold. In fact, the clothing in question has been destroyed, according to Ms. Hansen.
    This is not an article about the pros and cons of outsourcing or corporate responsibility. Not that these aren’t worthy avenues to pursue in this matter. This is my personal anguish over a nation…it’s government and parents alike, who would literally bow down and honor a Brahman bull while turning a blind eye to the selling of it’s children into slavery.
    I am not about to tell anyone else how to worship Creator or what the path to an enlightened consciousness should be. But I do feel the need to address a perverse system of prioritization that would value a cow more than a child. At the very least, let’s equate them.
  Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world and one of the oldest. Almost 900 million of its one billion adherents live in the Republic of India.Under Hinduism all animals, including livestock (cattle
and buffaloes), are sacred and must not be killed because this results in
ill health or bad luck for individuals and is an offense to the community.
    Since we are talking about a religion here, I think it would be wise to focus on what might be an offense to God.
  Children sold into salve labor might be a good start.
    The problem in India is many faceted, I am certain…the least of which is not the governments refusal to enforce the national and international laws that prohibit child labor. However, with most change, it will not come from organizations but rather from individuals.
    Parents and adults in whose care these children originate are responsible for changing the way things are in India. There is no justification for selling any human being…let alone a child…for any reason. Humans are not property. They are created in the image and likeness of God. To claim religion while violating the rights and demeaning the value of any individual is hypocrisy at its worst. One cannot invoke Creator and in the same breath devalue that which It has created.
    Many religious practices, of various religions, have long ago lost their way and been misused to control and breed, if not fear, compliance in the minds and behavior of believers.
    I feel comfortable in saying that a nation, be it of the East or the West, that can in the name of God honor it’s livestock and torture it’s children is a nation in peril.
    Those who do not actively participate in injustice, but who instead turn a blind eye and a deaf ear, are in peril as well. The children of India belong to humankind and are, therefore, our children as well. They are in our care as surely as they are in the care of their parents.
    All life is sacred regardless of species. May those in India who are closest to this tragedy remember that fact the next time they step aside for a bull on the way to sell a child.

>     Doesn’t it seem that for quite some time now there is always someone, or something, “raging” at us? Whether it’s the wildfires in California, the terrorist in the Middle East, the Republicans and Democrats in Congress, or some angry motorist in rush hour, we appear to be surrounded and inundated with rage. And it’s closing in. What’s a person to do?
    For the most part, it will be a good thing if you can find your peace and direction from within. We are in times of great chaos and change…not necessarily a bad thing…but change, especially change for the highest good of all concerned…is always accompanied by stress. Stress is the natural by-product of a structure expanding. The old limits and parameters are “tested” as they attempt to adapt and accommodate new dimensions.
    It’s of little value to look outside yourself to try and find the answers for the answers are within. Each of us was designed, created, with an internal reference library to access for locating all that we need to know in any given situation. The key to accessing the information stored within the library is an ability to listen…to receive.
    We are not taught about receiving. We are taught about giving and we are taught about doing, but rarely do we find guidance around the Art of Receiving. There is a very good reason for this age-old, deliberate omission…for if you know how to access internal guidance that provides you everything you need to know, there would be no need for the “experts” and organizations outside of us to which we all flock and financially compensate for their “special” knowledge.
    When you lack the ability to receive and proceed from internal guidance, you are at the mercy of, and are reliant upon, those people and institutions that appear to have what it is you lack. Appear is the key word here. Believing that someone else has more knowledge than you do about how to BE YOU is an illusion created by others and perpetuated by you. One of the ways this illusion is perpetuated by self and others is through fear and chaos. These mechanisms may take many forms, but they’re all of the same origin and for the same purpose. Control.
    Chaos in the form of rage is the current form of choice.
    The best way to deal with chaos and rage is to learn how to be “in it but not of it.” (Now where have I heard that advice before?).
    When in the midst of chaos, or when in the presence of rage, what you want to do is perfect going within yourself to access the reference library of infinite information with which you are equipped to obtain what it is YOU need to know to transcend the situation. Transcending the situation means being able to witness the chaos without becoming a part of it…without contributing to it…without helping it grow.  
    I have heard multiple stories in the past three days of people who did not evacuate their homes in California as the raging wildfires approached, even though they were ordered to do so by local government, but instead chose to stay and use their brains and their resources to fight the fire. In each of those cases, they saved their homes although every evacuated and abandoned home around theirs burnt to the ground.
   Fear and rage are powerful behavioral control mechanisms.
    Inner guidance is the override.
    When chaos comes, and others warn you about what to do and how to handle it, don’t abandon yourself. Go within, use your intuition and internal reference library to adapt and expand new dimensions…and, oh yes, survive.   
    
    
    
   

>    On Monday, as Californians struggled with the horror of their State in flames, talk radio show host Glenn Beck made light of the tragedy expressing less-than-compassionate Conservatism for the plight of “Hollywood Liberals” and the acting community in general.  As I listened to his rant, I was momentarily taken aback by his apparent insensitivity…until I remembered his show’s motto: “The Fusion of Entertainment and Enlightenment.” Clearly, Mr. Beck was “performing” and bringing his brand of humor to a group of people, and a State, that he regularly pans.
    I got it. However, many bloggers did not.
    On Tuesday, Mr. Beck felt the need to clear up the many attempts by “liberal bloggers” to paint him as both villainous and callous for mocking Californians in the throes of a nightmare and taking joy in the loss of their homes. He clearly and adamantly denied any such thoughts and feelings and explained what I had figured out…that he was joking.
    On Wednesday (today), I would like to comment on both Mr. Beck’s original statements and the subsequent and retaliatory statements by liberal bloggers.
    Actually, I want to comment on what unites us, rather than what divides us.
    Glenn Beck has very specific political, religious and social views. I admire him for his courage in standing up, and by, those people and things he believes in. I didn’t say I agree with him. I said I admire his courage. And while some of his views appear to me to be fear-based, I have heard enough to know that in his heart he would suffer for anyone else’s suffering. He is a compassionate man.
    He is also, in his words, “a rodeo clown” who, despite his efforts at humility, has an ego that sometimes gets in his way. He’s human, like all of us. When he “joked” about the California wildfires as they were burning down homes, causing death and destruction, he was over the line. Mass suffering is not a funny subject.
    The bloggers who retaliated and sought to castigate Mr. Beck for his insensitivity had really been laying in wait to jump on him for any reason. They are his political and philosophical enemies. If they had the slightest intention of mirroring the truth, they would have had to admit that he had just gone over the “enlightenment” line and entered the “entertainment” zone. Tasteless, yes…but malevolent, no. But had they done that, they would not have been able to attack him personally on their blogs.
     Both Mr. Beck and the bloggers could have used their “bully pulpits” more wisely. 
     On Monday, Mr. Beck could have dropped his radio persona momentarily and asked his audience, the “third most listened to talk radio show in America”, to stop what they were doing and literally pray for the inhabitants of California. He is, after all, a devout Mormon who “gets on his knees every day” seeking guidance from God.
    I think it’s a safe guess to say God would not tell him to mock a tragedy in the making wherein His children were suffering.
    The bloggers need to use their space and time to uplift others, not to daily troll the media for opportunities to attack individuals who are politically or philosophically different than they.
    We all must learn two vital lessons of this century:

    1.  United we stand, divided we fall.  This does not mean we agree on everything. It means we honor the diversity and differences among us toward the common end of Oneness.
    
    2.  When one of us suffers, we all suffer.  This does not mean that we need to take on the suffering of others. But it does mean that we must open our hearts, and use our minds, to support them in the way out of their suffering.
      
    Personally, I’d like to thank both Glenn Beck and the liberal bloggers for this opportunity to give voice to something we can all rally behind.

>    Yesterday I read a short “tip” in a magazine which advised that while journal writing can be cathartic, blog writing is less helpful in that regard. Blog writing, it said, was really a method of social networking and not conducive to “truth telling.”
    What?
    The article went on to say that when we are writing privately, as in a journal, we are more likely to plumb the depths of our Soul and be honest with ourselves than when we are writing for others. When writing for others, it continued, we are more inclined to say what we think we ought to say and what is socially acceptable.
    Now I’ll agree if we’re talking about writing fiction…but in all other matters, what is the purpose of writing anything other than the truth?
    I write to my blog 5 days a week with one unwavering goal. The goal is to use the gift of words to inspire, enlighten or educate whenever possible. I don’t believe I can do that if I am less than honest with myself or the reader. It’s in the willingness to see and share the world as we perceive it that we have the greatest opportunity for helping one another grow…both by experience and by example.  If there is no greater teacher than experience…how about the experience of watching someone else step up and stand behind their truth?
    Notice I’ve said “their” truth.
    I am an advocate of the position that what is true for me may or may not be true for you. Reality is as each of us perceives it. However, because my truth may differ from yours is not a reason for me to alter or obscure it in order that it be more “socially acceptable” to you. You are always free to accept or reject my version of reality and pursue your own…all the while allowing me the pursuit of mine. But we will be of little value to ourselves, or one another, if what we do is present a false front for whatever reason.
    Whatever way you cut it deception, in any of it’s forms, is a bar to healthy, productive, and life-affirming relationships. Deception, like everything else, exists in a state of potentiality, awaiting it’s manifestation. And when you think about it, that potentiality doesn’t really exist anywhere else in Nature except in we humans. It’s sort of an “extra option” that comes with the model…to be optioned or not.
    Like everything else, the choice is ours.
    I remember being a freshman at Villanova University at the age of 23. I took an elective titled “Deviant Social Behavior” (because the professor was really cute). I was the oldest person in my class. Midway through the first semester he taught a unit about suicide. On the last day of the unit, he opened the last class up for discussion and a young man about age 19 raised his hand and said, “I don’t know why they just don’t let people die who try to commit suicide…it’s obviously what they want.”
    I hesitated for a moment pondering whether or not to speak, then raised my hand and when called on said, “I tried to commit suicide last year and you’re wrong. People who try to commit suicide don’t want to die. They have simply misplaced their capacity to hope and cannot see how whatever is going on in their life will change. They are in pain and they think the pain will never stop. All they really want is a little love and a little encouragement.”  There were about 10 more minutes left in the class but when I finished speaking, the professor said, “I can’t top that. Class dismissed.”
    I could have kept that information to myself and avoided the “social stigma” that can accompany the revelation of such behavior. But who could I have helped with my silence? 
    The truth is the most powerful teacher. We are not here to mislead one another…we’re here to light the way for one another. In so doing, we must care less about being socially acceptable and more about being personally responsible to what is true for us while having the courage and determination to share it.
    My “tip” is quite different than the one I read yesterday.
    It happens to be my truth.
    

>    Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of an event that captured the world’s attention and it’s heart. A 3-year-old toddler, Jessica McClure, fell into and remained wedged in an 8 inch hole in the back yard of her home for two and a half days while the world held it’s breath and sent it’s prayers awaiting her rescue. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that only coverage of the Princess of Wales’ death exceeded the worldwide coverage Baby Jessica’s ordeal received.
    As a matter of course, the media tries to engage and captivate us by daily marketing negative or frightening news. It’s not that they don’t also provide some good news…but if I had to guess I’d say the proportion is 90/10, at best.
    In 2001, I had a talk-radio show in Pennsylvania called “Higher Ground” on which I looked at news, current events, and personal stories from the perspective of the highest and most inspiring meaning that could be found in them.  No matter how awful the facts of any story, it is always possible to take from it a message and meaning that can uplift and teach us something important about ourselves and others.  
    One of the reasons I alway hear as to why the coverage is so negative is that it sells. It’s what people want to hear. And while that may have been true at a point in time, it’s no longer true. Just talk with people and they will tell you that they are daily tuning out and turning off negative news and talk shows because they just can’t stand it anymore. The challenge is where else to go? What are the alternatives and how to do we make the shift to seeing the world more positively?
    Some people might say that the worldwide coverage of Diana’s accident and funeral was an example of how the viewing and listening public really do like bad news and morbidity.
    They would be missing the point.
    What both Diana and Baby Jessica had in common is that their “stories” tugged at the human heart. Both were forced to publicly struggle with extraordinary circumstances and both fought to survive those circumstances. It is what each of us goes through daily in our lives, in the microcosm, and something with which each of us must contend.  Diana’s resilience in coming back from rejection and embarrassment time and time again…Baby Jessica’s holding onto life in defiance of the odds…these are stories that touch and inspire us to be the best we can be.
    I still believe in the premise of “Higher Ground.” I believe that until we change the way we look at the world, we will not succeed in actually changing the world. The change must begin with each of us as individuals before it can spread to us as a society. We must see the good…the possibility for growth…in everything that happens to us and around us. We must speak to those observations and share the positive message. We must demand of those who market to us that they too, step up and change the way they present to us…or we will turn off and tune out in far greater numbers.
    We do not vote every 4 years. We vote daily with the remote control, with subscriptions, with cable and internet providers, and we vote each time we purchase a ticket to a movie or buy a magazine.
    Cast your votes wisely. Your life depends on it.
    And thank you Jessica and Diana.
    You inspire me.
   
   
        

>    Ann Coulter, columnist, author, speaker, and political commentator is a dinosaur. She and others like her are on the verge of extinction. They refuse to see beyond their own limiting and divisive beliefs in order to catch the wave of unity that is sweeping the globe. It’s not that they don’t sense the global change taking place, it’s just that they want to obstruct it, making a conscious effort to re-frame the tidal wave of change as a “return to Socialism or Communism” rather than the evolutionary leap to honoring diversity within unity that it is.
    For a long time, Ann Coulter, and the Conservative Christian Right she represents, have spoken in exclusionary terms of “us vs. them”…”Republican vs. Democrat”…”Conservative vs. Liberal”…”Christian vs…well…that one was just taken to an entirely new level by Ms. Coulter.
    It seems that earlier this week, in an interview on Donnie Deutsch’s CNBC’s cable show “The Big Idea”, Ms. Coulter stepped completely out of the shadows and stated that the United States would be better off if everyone were Republican and Christian. As if that were not thinking small enough, she went on to say that “Jews” needed to be “perfected” by becoming (I can only assume) messianic Jews, or, born again Christians.
    If a Jew needs to be perfected it is safe to conclude that in my present state I, as a Jew, must be imperfect. Now, I looked into the mirror earlier that morning and every morning since Ms. Coulter made her beliefs known, and I have not observed my obvious imperfections. What I see in the mirror is the same thing I see when I look into the eyes of any other living being…the image and likeness of God. Quite simply, perfection. It’s a perfection best described by a dear friend who passed away a couple of years ago and who taught me, “We are all born perfectly imperfect.”
    It is for each of us in our own way and using the gift of Free Will to take the situations and character we are born with and elevate them through good choices, deeds of service, and right speech. Right speech, by the way, is not the political Right Ms. Coulter espouses. It’s using words carefully chosen in a way that does no harm. Suggesting that people who do not see the Creator as you do as being not only wrong but in need of changing their beliefs to match your own is arrogant, condescending and dangerous. The arrogance and condescension are obvious on their face. So let’s take a look at the danger.
    Caesar, Attila, Hitler, and a host of other politicians also believed that their view was the only view and certain imperfect peoples needed to be either converted or eliminated. While Ms. Coulter only spoke to stage one, the conversion process, history shows that stage two is never far behind.
    I think it’s important to give credit where credit is due. Ms. Coulter is very bright and attractive. But there were bright and attractive dinosaurs as well…even those with silky hair and long, lanky legs…and they are extinct as well because they could not adapt to the inevitable changes that came their way.
    We are living through a transition unparalleled in human history that is expanding, exponentially, the abilities and scope of human consciousness. It is a time of comprehending, in a most profound  manner, how we are all connected and interdependent, regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or status on the food chain. Thinking otherwise is a futile attempt to stand firmly rooted in quicksand.
    Someday, in a world where respect for life regardless of form will be the norm, children born into harmony and unity will be able to see politically right-wing Conservative Christians in the Smithsonian…as an exhibit.