The Republican Debate 9-17-2015

17, September 2015            The Republican Debate

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina emerged as a fierce hawk on foreign policy issues. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul denounced U.S. interventionist policies abroad, which have largely proven to be major foreign policy debacles (Iraq, Libya to name just a few). Fiorina promised to avoid all communication with ‘big bad wolf, Vladimir Putin and would resurrect Reagan’s disastrous Missile Defense System. It is a pity that Fiorina and her ilk, who habitually fawn over Reagan’s legacy, ignore the fact that he negotiated the INF treaty with the former Soviet Union. Trump received too much airtime and said very little of substance. Jeb Bush made the preposterous claim that his brother, President George Bush, should receive credit ‘for keeping American safe’, ignoring the inconvenient truth that 911 occurred on his watch. Scott Walker claimed that trashing the union workers in Wisconsin offered conclusive proof that he would make a great President.

Although Rand Paul lacks charisma and failed to deliver a knockout punch he was the only speaker who offered sensible ideas on domestic and foreign policy issues resisting the ‘trash Obama’ rhetoric of the other speakers. He was one the few senators who opposed the Iraq war. Trump scrupulously offered no details how he would organize a posse and round up 11 million illegals. Many women would be aghast that the speakers planned to defund Planned Parenthood, perpetuating the myth that they were selling fetal tissue for profit relying on a highly deceptive, edited video.

Response to Phil Smaller 9-16-2015

16, September 2015                        Response to Phil Smaller

Phil Smaller’s anti-Arab diatribe (Post 14 Sept.) is full of inaccuracies. The Jews fleeing anti-Semitism and the Arabs fleeing conflict zones differs by an order of magnitude. Smaller makes the preposterous claim that the land of the former Ottoman Empire was barren and offered to the Jews by the former British Empire. How nice? The land was not barren but occupied by the indigenous population, the Palestinians. According to Phyllis Bennis, a recognized authority on Israel and its founding, by 1947 Jews comprised only about 30 percent of the population but then launched a pogrom expelling 750,000 Palestinians many of whom are still languishing in refugee camps in neighboring Arab countries.

From its early inception, Israel launched terror and mayhem against the British and Palestinians. Perhaps Smaller is unaware of the early history of Israel, when the clandestine enforcers – Hagana, Irgun and the dreaded Stern Gang terror squads drove out the Palestinians from their ancestral lands. According to British records, hundreds of violent and terrorist incidents occurred against British and Palestinians between 1939 and 1948. These included bombings, kidnappings, bank robberies, murders, torture of prisoners and assassinations of police and British officials.

This travesty was the basis for the official founding of the Israeli state in 1948. 

Dead Man Walking 9-15-2015

15, September 2015                        Dead Man Walking

The case against Richard Glossip has received world-wide attention, including Amnesty International. The facts are as follows: on the night of January 1997, Glossip was working as a manager at the Best Budget Inn in Oklahoma City. Sometime during the night his boss, Barry Van Tresse was murdered. A maintenance worker, Justin Sneed, confessed to the crime. Sneed claimed that Glossip hired him to kill his boss for money. The case rests solely on Sneed’s testimony which he provided supposedly to avoid the death penalty which was granted in a plea bargain deal. In a damning letter sent to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, Sneed’s daughter confessed that her father had falsely implicated Glossip to avoid the death penalty. Glossip has long maintained his innocence.

Many famous celebrities have voiced outrage over Glossip imminent execution including Sister Helen Prejean, who is played by actress Susan Sarandon in the film Dead Man Walking. This case speaks volumes of a broken system in which a confessed killer is in a medium security prison while in all probability an innocent man has been incarcerated for 22 years and now waits his imminent death. The defense team has called for a new trial which would reveal gross police and prosecutorial misconduct and very likely exonerate Glossip. I request concerned readers email Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, (email contact.us@ppb.ok.gov) and demand a stay of execution pending a new trial.  

EcoSikh 9-14-2015

14, September 2015               EcoSikh

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Sikhs, the 5^th largest religion in the world, are at the forefront of eco-friendly responses to climate change guided by the teachings of the Sikh Gurus. But first a short history of the Sikhs and how they emerged to be such a powerful tour de force in India and abroad.

But first a short history of the Sikhs:

Sikhism was founded in Punjab by Guru Nanak in the 15th Century and is a monotheistic religion. Sikhs believe religion should be practiced by living in the world and coping with life's everyday problems. The origins of the faith may be traced back to a part of Punjab which is located in modern day Pakistan. Guru Nanak began to challenge the myriad of rituals which were prevalent at the time and indeed continue in modern day India. He spent countless hours in deep meditation to seek guidance from the divine. After many such long periods of meditation he came to the realization that, contrary to the prevailing belief system, there is only ONE GOD. He assigned the name TRUTH to this universal entity. Guru Nanak lived at a time when superstition and myth was commonly practiced. He excoriated the caste system as inherently unjust and evil and idol worship as totally misguided. When coming of age he refused to participate in the coming of age Hindu thread tying ceremony. Although he was born a Hindu, he established a close relationship with a Muslim bard, Mardana, whose poetry goes deep into Sikhism's origins. This may partially explain why Hindus and Muslims both revere Guru Nanak.

The three basic tenets of the Sikh Faith and Fundamental Principles are:

1. Naam japna, remembering God through meditation:
2. Kirat karo, earning an honest living:
3. Vand chakko, selflessly serving others, especially the poor and disadvantaged and donating

part (a minimum of 10% - 15%) to charitable causes.

This includes SEVA, serving others as epitomized by the langar (food served in all Sikh temples throughout the world). Volunteers perform all the menial work in Sikh temples and serve free meals. 

Sikhism preaches complete gender equality.

The five evils that human’s must resist are:

Kam – lust  Krodh – anger, wrath    Lobh – greed  Moh – attachment      

Ahankar – ego,pride

Conversely, Five Virtues are:

Sat – Truth, Santokh – Contentment,  Daya – Compassion,  Nimrata – Humility,

Pyare – Love

Following the death of Guru Nanak, nine other Gurus followed with the realization that such radical social changes in Indian society could not be accomplished in a single generation. The tenth Guru assigned the identifying uniform, the 5-K’s, which set Sikhs apart from the Mughal invaders who were determined to convert Hindus to Muslims by the power of the sword. The most notable of these symbols is the unshorn hair and turban.

This concludes the basic tenets of Sikhism.

A brief description of EcoSikh follows.

EcoSikh was founded in response to climate change and a profound concern for the survival of the planet and all its inhabitants.

EcoSikh connects Sikh values, beliefs, and institutions to the most important environmental issues facing our world. They draw on the rich tradition of the ten Sikh Gurus to shape the behavior and outlook of Sikhs and the world, ensuring that their deep reverence for all creation remains a central part of the Sikh way of life.

First a short quotation from the holy book of the Sikhs, The Guru Granth Sahib.

…Please bless me with the rice of truth and self-restraint, the wheat of compassion, and the leaf-plate of meditation. Bless me with the milk of good karma, and the clarified butter, the ghee, of compassion. Such are the gifts I beg of You, Lord…”

The Gurus encouraged Sikhs to develop our relationship with God by engaging in the world around us. By taking care of the environment we learn more about our Gurus’ relationship with the natural world, and reconnect with a part of the Sikh spiritual identity that the first embodiment of Divine Light, Guru Nanak laid the foundation for.the Sikh religion.

Eak Bageecha:  is a compilation of shabads (poetry) sung to music which enjoins its followers to care for God’s beautiful earth and ensure its survival for all future generations. It’s a stark testimony on the visionary nature of the Sikh Gurus and offers a poetic blueprint for our daily activities, namely we at all cost be must responsible custodians of mother earth and all its inhabitants.

A stanza from the fifth Guru translated by Albel Singh.

This poetry is set to musical measure by the fifth Guru, Arjun Dev Ji (Ji is usually appended to all the Guru’s names as a mark of respect and reverence)

There is a garden.
It has so many plants created within it.
And each bears the sweet-neutered
Naam as its fruit.

Consider this, O wise one,
In this garden you may seek the means by which to attain eternal bliss.
O brothers and sisters of Destiny,
This garden has dark pools of poison here and there,
But it also contains the ambrosial nectar within it.

There is only one gardener who tends it.
He takes care of every leaf and branch.
He brought all these plants and planted them there.
They all bear fruit – none is without fruit.
The one who receives the ambrosial fruit of the Naam
From the Guru – O Nanak,
Such a servant has a way to pass over the ocean of illusion

NOTE: The ocean of illusion denotes the physical world meaning the only reality is that which is timeless unbound by time and space, that is GOD.

A Gurbani Compilation on the Environment: The Gurus encouraged us to develop our relationship with Waheguru (God) by engaging in the world around us. By taking care of the environment we learn more about our Gurus’ relationship with the natural world, and reconnect with a part of the Sikh spiritual identity that the first embodiment of Divine Light, as espoused by the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak

Planned Parenthood 9-13-2015

13, September 2015                        Planned Parenthood

The bogus attacks on Planned Parenthood based on heavily edited, highly deceptive videos falsely claimed it illegally sold fetal tissue for profit. This fabrication has reverberated in Congress who have threatened to not only defund Planned Parenthood but also fetal tissue research. Concerns for the safety of their staff have prompted several Planned Parenthood centers to suspend their fetal tissue donation program. Largely unreported is the simple fact  that they only accepted small fees to cover storage and transportation costs.  Elective abortions are only offered at two centers providing women fewer choices to terminate unwanted pregnancies.

Bereft of more important issues, the cast of GOP hopefuls are already competing with each other with promises of how they will defund and otherwise attack Planned Parenthood. Fetal tissue research has a long history dating back to the 1930s which has contributed enormously to major advances in medicine. It was the patron saint of Republican orthodoxy, Ronald Reagan, who halted important scientific research and turned it into a hot political issue, masquerading as a moral crusade.

In his second term Reagan imposed a moratorium on federal funding for fetal tissue research. He made the preposterous assertion that many pregnant women were seeking abortions and selling the fetal tissues as a money making scheme. Unless efforts are made to save Planned Parenthood, women’s choices will be severely curtailed and critical fetal tissue research will be left to our competitors, to the detriment of American medical research. This would be a travesty.  

Refugees 9-11-2015

11, September 2015                       Refugees

Pope Francis, Angela Merkel, and the Austrian government have shown real leadership in extending a warm welcome to refugees escaping conflict zones.  Many ordinary Germans and Austrian Good Samaritan families have demonstrated enormous compassion for those seeking refuge. Thus far, the US. has admitted only 1,500 Syrian refugees. There is a real danger that economic refugees seeking a better life might join the exodos creating a stampede that is likely to overwhelm Western Nations generating compassion fatigue or outright hostility. What has largely been ignored is Saudi Arab’s deafening silence.  They have a common religion, and enormous wealth which would allow easy access to absorb a million refugees.

What can be done to slow down the exodus?

Hundreds of women in Syria are calling for a cease-fire, international protection and evacuation of the wounded.  At a minimum, a no-fly zone should be created in the south of Syria to halt the devastating impact of barrel-bombs. This could be enforced by U.S. Naval ships in the Mediterranean. The no-fly zone would create pressure on the Syrian regime to negotiate. “If they can’t use their aircraft, they will know they can’t survive, and that will bring them to the negotiating table,” said Reza Afshar, a former British diplomat.

Under pressure from Putin, Assad has reluctantly agreed on power sharing. However unpalatable, the U.S. should accept Russia’s role in bringing about a cease fire which could lead to an end to hostilities.

Trump’s strange bed-fellows 9-9-2015

9, September 2015              Trump’s strange bed-fellows

The actions of Donald Trump become curiousor and curiouser much like Alice in Wonderland. In an act of desperation to shore up his lack of foreign policy experience Trump invited a motley crew of human rights violators to Trump Tower for a photo-op.

He held a press conference and waxed lyrical about his important guests unaware of their sordid pasts. His star guests were Indonesian government officials headed by Deputy Speaker of the House Fadli Zon. Zon was the right-hand man of the U.S.-trained Prabowo Subianto. Gen. Prabowo has been under investigation for extensive human rights abuses that took place in the 1990s when he was head of the country’s Special Forces. He was fired from the army in 1998 following revelations that he was responsible for the abduction and torture of activists which eventually led to the dismissal of US backed dictator, Suharto. Suharto was responsible for the death of as many as a million civilians. Prabowo was the son-in-law of Suharto.

Another of the invitees from Indonesia was Setya Novanto, who has been mired in corruption for decades.

The Grand Imam of the Indonesian mosque in New York City accused Trump of hypocrisy, racism and Islamophobia. I wonder what next the pope of pomposity has in store for his adoring public. I can hardly wait.