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Showing posts with label txt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label txt. Show all posts

2.09.2012

'OCCUPY DC REPORT CARD - Occupiers D-, Pk Police A- ' SL (vid, txt)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMwFdpW3zXU



Raw transcript with typos and errors......

''OCCUPY DC REPORT CARD - Occupiers D-, Pk Police A-

Quite unexpectedly I hit the mother load today in terms of getting to the bottom of what I think happened on Saturday at Occupy McPherson Square.  As I arrived here at the park about noon today, two of the four officers I saw at the end of the park, and made a bee line to them all, to express my concern for the officer that had a bottle thrown into his eye, to find out how he was, and I think he's out of the hospital , and they're hoping for a full recovery, but I don't know yet; two of them are fellows that I've known now for years, from my work in front of the White House.  One is from upstate NY, a farm boy I'd guess, if not by profession, certainly by demeanor.  Just a straight, straight, straight shooter.  My guess is, frankly, he probably doesn't know how to lie.  Among his kindnesses, I remember one time that the unspeakably nasty Concepcion, had to admit his kindness.  She's a biggot, she hates ever policeman. And yet in a horriffic wind storm, her huge umbarella and plastic was blown, and this fine young officer ran across the park to get it, and return it, despite all the nastiness she heeps on these guys.  And then another fella, his wife is a high school teacher, inner city kids, although recently that's changed, recently married.  Just two nice young guys, are among the ones that were on duty.  And I expressed my concern that it appered to me that there was a flagrant, complete betrayal of the efforts by a young fella I have tremendous respect for, in the Occupy DC movement, who had thought that he negotiated that only tents with bedding, food, or health hazard would be removed.  And it was my understanding that he felt totally, and completely, and immediately betrayed once he had gained the compliance of his comrades to free up the statue of McPherson on Saturday morning.  Well, if I have any doubts they're far in the minority now.  The fella from upstate NY was on the detail that went tent to tent.  And the park police didn't make the decision on what tents were removed, he said.  A medical doctor from health and human services, I think he said, was the one that made that determination.  It's possible I'm not being told the truth, it's possible I'm lying to you, it's possible it's really raining right now.  They didn't make the determination.  The guy from HHS did.  I even asked this fine young man, now, was this some red neck right winger doctor?  He said, absolutely not.  He was just a doctor from HHS. Some of the tents were known in advance as having been occupied by people with communicable diseases, severe communicable diseases.  That was the minority of those removed, but some were removed simply based on that knowledge.  Most were removed because of evidence of urine or feces, and that doesn't mean necessarily human feces.  Before and during the occupation there are a lot of rats in this park, and they'd make their way into the tents, so be it human or unhuman feces, those were the reason for tents being removed.  I'm told, and catagorically believe that the police did not decide what tents were removed, unless it was the case of bedding, and on that score I was correct.  I couldn't believe that 60% of the tents had bedding left in them.  It was largely most of the tents removed for health reasons, as determined by the doctor.

The other isssue that had concerned me hugely, was the two incident's, one in which I was almost trampled, and the other widely seen on tape, the standoff at the library in the middle of Occupy, where it seemed, it appeared, and probably happened that there was a sudden surge, a frightening surge of police energy, as the police with plexiglass helmets and shields, all of a sudden started pushing the crowd.  But first of all, and this is my feeling as a citizen, human being, a pursuer of justice, and my knowledge of the law - if I receive an order, including a gesture from a police officer, that's a, if I don't comply with that I have just waved my rights to expecting no escalation.  I've just invited on  myself an escalation.   If I don't like what  police officer says, I can unviolently noncomply and accept the consequences, or I can resist and argue and expect consequences.  Personally I don't want it to be any diffrent.  I don't what for contests to take place on the street with the police.  I'd rather see that take place in a court of law.  Many, most, all of the folks at Occupy tragically, it's such a strategic mistake and it's so immature, can't seem to resist making that issue, the one that they wan't to fight.  Oh, I resisted, but I didn't resist that hard, so the police shouldn't have reacted they way they did.  A. it's not the law, B. it's not the way it works, and C. if that's what you're going to spend your time on, your're done.  It is so far down' thke list of what you should be concerned with. 

But relaitve to the library that I saw on tape and was concerned about, A. there were people pushing back against the shields. That's aggression, you don't get to do that, you don't get to put your hands on a cop, a cop doesn't get to put his hands on you unless you've crossed a boundary, and that' isn't what what happening.  People were pushing back against the shields.  You don't get to do that.  That's an arrestable offense. But on top of that there were people behind the police officers being pushed, civilians that were sitting on the ground and the police were being pushed back on top of them and if they didn't surge forward then they were going to fall back on demonstartors.  I"m not suggesting it's exactly that simple, it wasn't suggested to me it was exactly that simple, but that's the nature of what was going on. 

The two-legged vermin many of whom identify as anarchists, black bloc maybe, these are people of hate, pure, unmitigated hate.  They're my brothers and sisters, they don't know any better, but they are sucking down, they're pulling down these folks at Occupy. Hate is the status quo. Violence is the status quo.  That's what what Occupy pretentds to be against, violence in its overt and subtile forms.  Well the anarchists are about hate.  The only alternative is unviolent waging of love, by whatever name.  And that can be tough as hell.  Nothing is off the table with that.  But that's the only alternative, and, in a mistaken of inclusiveness, the better souls in Occupy are losing their clarity on that.  However they may have understood it going forward, and wanting to not offent the anarchists, uh, no, actually folks, if your issue, if the issue you came to DC for of NYC or SF... is to have run-ins iwth the police, well, you're hopeless friends.  Enjoy your rant.  But if you're better than that, and some of you are, then stop getting sucked into these battles, you're on the wrong side of, and even when you're on the right side, you're taking your attention off of the 1%, off the issues that are worth your life. 

I never asked directly about officer Beck who I've raised questions about, however, my feeling about the removal of tents, I have every reason to accept the word of these two young officers that I've known and seen every reason to trust - their humanity, versacity, professionalism for years, who say, we didn't make the call.  And then moments ago I saw officer Reed, one of the commanding officers, and he independently corroborataed that.  They took copius notes on everything they removed from the park because they know they're going to be sued.  I've worked with these folks for years.  They're professionals, they're nice folks, they've put on the uniform to defend the citizens, the constitution.  And that's what they've been doing. And if they argument is that they haven't been doing everything perfectly, well my God, what an incredibly important thing to fight over; I'm being facetious.

And on the issue of the two explosively forceful explosions by the park police, the one in the evening where I almost got trampled, was to get the guy that had possibly blinded a fellow officer.  It wasn't gratuitously violent.  I felt that it could have or should have been communicated better, but I didn't realize at the time that there was an officer down, that there was an officer that had been possibly blinded by the fellow they were aprehending.  They didn't trample any of us, they didn't hurt any of us.  They didn't come out with any show of hatred.  I was concerned they didn't show any more concern, but under the circumstances, that and the incident at the library, park police gets at least a B+, if not an A or an A- for their conduct the last 4 months. They're continuing to break the law, they're continuing to turn a blind eye to the law, to enable this encampment to continue.  They're not coming on like heavies now, despite one of their men being serously injured.  They're trying to keep their jobs, when they come through late at night, if anyone is asleep they say you've gotta sit up, no thei're not tolerating bedding, they'd be fools to, Issa would get them fired, he's that slime ball on the Hill, that democracy hater.  These are good guys. They're damn good guys.  And they were the first to come to the defense today in our discussion of many of the Occupiers.  'We know that most of those guys are good guys.  We know that most of the troublemakers on Saturday came just to make trouble.  We've been around Occupy.  We knew that many of the troublemakers were faces we hadn't seen before.  They jumped to that defense.  I didn't have to bring it out of them. 

2.05.2012

'Divine Truth is Demonstrated, Shown, Told of not Argued, Convinced., Proven.' SL (txt)

Jesus, the man, never argued, convinced.... He Demonstrated, Showed, Told of... the Truth of how things are.  If someone shows me that a tree is green, and I argue that it is some opposite color, if one argues with me, or tries to convince me, they are at best wasting their time, probably, right?  And so it is, that the Divine Truth of Life is Love - relentless waging of activity to advance the well-being of the individual and the species.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Principles of Nonviolence Martin-Luther-King (txt)

http://paceebene.org/power-nonviolent-change/martin-luther-king-jr-s-principles-nonviolence

1) Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
  • It is active nonviolent resistance to evil.
  • It is assertive spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.
  • It is always persuading the opponent of the justice of your cause.
2) Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.
  • The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation.
  • The purpose of nonviolence is the creation of the Beloved Community.
3) Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.
  • Nonviolence holds that evildoers are also victims.
4) Nonviolence holds that voluntary suffering can educate and transform.
  • Nonviolence willingly accepts the consequences of its acts.
  • Nonviolence accepts suffering without retaliation.
  • Nonviolence accepts violence if necessary, but will never inflict it.
  • Unearned suffering is redemptive and has tremendous educational and transforming possibilities.
  • Suffering can have the power to convert the enemy when reason fails.
5) Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate.
  • Nonviolence resists violence of the spirit as well as of the body.
  • Nonviolent love gives willingly, knowing that the return might be hostility.
  • Nonviolent love is active, not passive.
  • Nonviolent love does not sink to the level of the hater.
  • Love for the enemy is how we demonstrate love for ourselves.
  • Love restores community and resists injustice.
  • Nonviolence recognizes the fact that all life is interrelated.
6) Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice.
  • The nonviolent resister has deep faith that justice will eventually win.

'DC Occupiers - spoiled, bratty, hateful mob.' SL (vid, txt)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MW7sO5No74

 

 
'DC Occupiers - spoiled, bratty, hateful mob.' SL

My brothers and sisters all, but I suspect that today's impression that I hold will not change - those willing to stand among the occupiers, no that's not true -  the largest group of those willing to stand among the occupiers are the class brats, whiners, irresponsible me me me me me.  Everything that doesn't comply with their wishes is evil and wrong.   Absolutely worthless trash. 

But eight of us, including two that were young,  the rest Vets, except for me and one other, were willing to, were, were determined to risk life and limb to protect the police from an Occupy faction that had amassed mustard gas and feces bombs.  And those eight remained through today among the occupiers.  But with the exception of myself, this group did not stand up against the hate speech of the brats, which is tragic, but nothing can take away the they were passionately eager to protect anyone and everyone, including the police against abuse, against violence.

But as a movement, it's clear to me that what we've seen so far is at best an indication of what is not a hope.  I experience no hope within me that it will be learned from its behavior thus far, in a constructive way, but it could be. 

The most hopeless thing is for people to try nothing - entropy wins by default.  At least these folks tried something, and they didn't come here out of malice; they didn't come here to hate the police; they didn't come here to rag on the police - there may be a few exceptions.  They came here because they feel things are wrong and to that extent they're healthy, they're healthier than 99.9999% of the population, including most of you. 

It's rightly said that we can only see ourselves and others clearly in times of crisis, when our very core is called forth by the emergency of the situation.   And what showed in the crisis today among DC occupiers is what I would've expected to see, what I think we would've seen in the other occupies - spoiled brats, whining about anything and everything when they don't get their own way, for which they have no right, they haven't worked for a different America;  they're not working for a different America now. 

My brothers and sisters all, but with very few exceptions, no hope.

'DC Occupy - Fatal Flaw - No Standards' SL (vid, text)




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmARabcS3qQ

'DC Occupy - Fatal Flaw - No Standards' SL

Shame on me, I never saw this and never voiced it to the few Souls of any promise that I saw in recent weeks and months, at Occupy.  Part of it  I have voiced strongly and frequently - that a notion they had of inclusiveness was certain doom to any meaningful outcome for their efforts.  By way of analogy, I'd say - so you want to put together a surgical, a doctor, to care for your loved one, wants to put together a surgical team, you're going to hope that their criteria is going to feature inclusiveness?  There were many occasions on which I put forth such an idea.

But what I'm seeing tonight and what I wish I had thought to say, to point out, to share, was that their approach was an indictment of, or a rejection of explicitly what King and Gandhi insisted upon.  King and Gandhi would have no one in actions with them that weren't trained, that from their very soul didn't convincingly swear to uphold extremely high moral standards, extremely high behavioral codes, that flowed from those extremely high moral standards.   Now these poor young folks, largely, have had nothing but the most deadly example from my generation that has  taken selfishness, brutal, mindless selfishness to the level of religion, as this planet has never seen before.  It would be amazing if these young folks figured things out, but they haven't. 

And I wish I had the wisdom to share with them then, but I'm sharing it now, that thus far they have explicitly rejected what was a central tenet of the efforts King and Gandhi.  No one participated in their efforts with them, except those who swore to uphold moral and behavioral standards that were explicitly laid out, and who had trained sufficiently that there was reason to believe that under pressure those behaviors would be manifest. 

I have no illusion that anyone would've paid attention to me had I shared this.  But that's not my responsibility, and by way of logical consideration, if they had heard and paid attention, I have no illusion they would have accepted or rejected - probably rejected.  I don't know.

2.01.2012

'Start, it's your example that caused our willingness to human-shield.' SL (text)

From a note to a friend - 
To my shock and delight, for the first time since I've been in DC I see some real Peace Makers beginning  to emerge - a small, largely mature cadre of folks from within Occupy, half of them Vets. 'Give me a military man to fight alongside any day.  Don't give me any cowards.'  Gandhi.  Like Diane Wilson, Col. Ann Wright, Brian Willson....
Based on visual sightings, the a fringe group that have one quadrant of the DC Occupy park, had armed with lethal mustard gas bombs and feces bombs.  I figured, that as usual, I'd be standing alone as a human shield, protecting and shielding our brothers and sisters in uniform, and protecting the deserved international good-will that the Good protesters have built with their Occupation.  I was wrong. I was not to stand alone.  There were another 8 that rose up, and we developed plans, we were standing together, for Brotherhood, no one gets abused, no double standards - the only and entire hope - the only thing that would be New, to Save us, under the sun.

And then, at midnight, we learned that the hostile group had self-destroyed the materials, afraid for their own safety - that the stuff might detonate and they'd be the victims. 

But we grew in Spirit through the trial, folks in Occupy grew as we've rarely seen in 60 years.  Morphing toward 1 Family, 1 Human Family, the only Hope, by whatever name.

As our cadre last night broke up, with the good news, at midnight, we went to sleep, exhausted from a prior sleepless night of vigilance. As I was leaving, the most senior in the group, a fellow for whom I have developed immense respect for his character, humanity, seriousness of purpose..., an AFL/CIO guy, 10 years younger than me, I've been watching him for months now, said, 'Start, it was you. It was your Spirit that rose us to this level of humanity, your Spirit,  your Example and the coaching you've shared with us.'  

The potential for hostilities continues, over the pending removal of the tarp on the McPherson statue, and further resolution on camping.  And now the reports of Right-Wing hostiles is no longer just a report - http://dcist.com/2012/01/man_sick_of_occupy_dc_tries_to_cut.php  .  So, I'll continue my recent pattern of recharging the laptop in the morning, and spend afternoons and evenings sitting, working, on the southwest edge of the concrete circle around the statue.

xx sl

ps:  It is such a tragedy how religiously, how scrupulously I've been ignored, marginalized, excluded by the DC activist 'club' ever since I've been here.  The young and just plain 'folks' that have come from all over to Occupy McPherson, weren't smart enough to do so, so for now anyway, I've been able to work some of the magic I'm placed here to work.

1.27.2012

'The life of Christlikeness is the 'sustainability' life-style: serving way more than one consumes.' SL (more)

'The life of Christlikeness is the 'sustainability' life-style: serving way more than one consumes.' SL

USCCB - NAB - 1 John 2

old.usccb.org/nab/bible/1john/1john2.htm
This is the way we may know that we are in union with him: 6: whoever claims to abide in him ought to live (just) as he lived.

'It's excruciating, ecstatic, trying to hold open Heaven's Gate for others.' SL (no detail)

'It's excruciating, ecstatic, trying to hold open Heaven's Gate for others.' SL

'To Live like Jesus is INSANE, and if you don't, you are; and if you aren't, you aren't.' SL (no detail)

'To Live like Jesus is INSANE, and if you don't, you are; and if you aren't, you aren't.'  SL

'I think you can't teach Skiing without Skiing, nor Christ without Dying for our Global Neediest.' SL (no detail)

'I think you can't teach Skiing without Skiing, nor Jesus' Gospel without Dying for our Global Neediest.' SL

'Insufficient Prayer produces the same result as insufficent use of 'instruments' when flying in fog.' SL (more)

One of my most surprising Discoveries is that the single greatest danger to my
ability to do Our Father's work, as fatigue.  I've largely learned the lesson to not allow it.

The 2nd biggest threat is insufficient prayer - use of 'instruments' - without whose use
Fatal Crash is virtually certain, as it is for a plane in zero-viability.  Gandhi, Teresa...
were emphatic about this.

'Jesus entire Gospel: We're Born to Channel the Spirit of Christ, Love, Brotherhood. Period.' SL

'Jesus entire Gospel: We're Born to Channel the Spirit of Christ, Love, Brotherhood. Period.' SL

'We must every second preach One, World, Immediate-Family, using words OCCASIONALLY to do so.' Assisi paraphrase (no detail)

'We must every second preach One, World, Immediate-Family, using words OCCASIONALLY to do so.' Assisi paraphrase

'Pr. Obama - End support of Israel's Genocide of Palestine, Please. (vid)

'Pr. Obama - Declare War on CO2, Plea… (vid)

1.25.2012

'From my church-step bed I generated 15,000 views of my youtube last night..' SL (more)





Views:




3,074





The sum total of donations I've received this last month is $10, that I recall.  I've not done the math, but I'll guess I received $10 per minute when I worked for over-privilege.

I do a lot with what I'm given.  Sitting on my granite bed in the 40 degree cold, as folks benign and threatening walked past, I watched, downloaded, parsed, and uploaded Pr. Obama's SOTU last night in 7 segments, and as of now about 15,000 viewings across all 7 segments.

I wonder how many, with infinitely more material resources than I, used them to similar impact during the same time.

We are really in trouble.  Affloholic Zombie Addicts.  

'Start, in the 90 days I've know you, my entire world view has changed for the better.' Late 30's friend at Occupy

'Start, in the 90 days I've know you, my entire world view has changed for the better.' Late 30's friend at Occupy

'How's Devotion to Good (God) not what all healthy tissue does? It's the Same, I think.' SL

'How's Devotion to Good (God) not what all healthy tissue does?  It is Not, I think.' SL

'I suspect the genuine Saint is virtually 100% Intrinsically Motivated, Rewarded.' SL

'I suspect the genuine Saint is virtually 100% Intrinsically Motivated, Rewarded.'  SL