By Yvonne Ridley
edited by Linda Zises
June 01, 2010 "Information Clearing House" --
How many of you remember the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship the Achille Lauro way back in October 1985?
Four members of the Palestine Liberation Front took control of the liner off Egypt as she was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said.
It was a bungled operation in which the hijackers killed disabled Jewish-American passenger Leon Klinghoffer and then threw his body overboard.
The incident created headlines around the world and polarized people over the Palestinian cause.
It also prompted the law makers to create new legislation making it an international crime for anyone to take a ship by force.
And this is the reason for the brief history lesson - under article 3 of the Rome Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation of 1988, it is an international crime for any person to seize or exercise control over a ship by force, and also a crime to injure or kill any person in the process.
The treaty necessarily adopts a strict approach. One cannot attack a ship and then claim self-defence if the people on board resist the unlawful use of violence.
In other words, according to international law, the actions of the Israeli military were beyond the law and those involved should be treated no differently than, say, the Somali pirates who are also in the habit of boarding ships by force.
Any rights to self defence in such dramatic circumstances rests purely with the passengers and crew on board. Under international maritime law you are legally entitled to resist unlawful capture, abduction and detention.
What those on board the Freedom Flotilla did was perfectly legal. I believe they acted with great courage in the face of heavily armed IDF commandos, while others might have thought their actions reckless.
Several people paid the ultimate price for their international right to resist.
What will you, what will the World do now?
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
"Glow in the Dark Penis" revisited:
"Glow in the Dark Penis" a tag/hook, a phrase which appeared years ago on the blog "criticalwomen of film' still attracts "hits"; Internet surfers from around the world; 111 to 116 countries/territories per month are repeatedly registered on the Google scale. At the core of this statistical success is the experience of the hidden desires of those who suffer from guilt; the so called "pervert".
It is a brilliant phrase because it uses the word penis - which is one of those trigger internet suffer words - coupled with the word Dark which denotes hidden/ forbidden secretive sexual thoughts. In short, it appeals to those steeped in guilt
Guilt: How strange, how powerful it is!
It's source can be either: Heinous acts of destruction (murder) or acts or ideations of construction (sex) or anything that makes us feel "bad'.
Did the Ancient Greeks experience guilt? Most likely not.
In the caveman times, was guilt a prevalent emotion? Not likely.
Today almost every adult feels guilt from one source or another and our children are inheriting this crippling emotion as well.
Common sources of quilt:
i didn't separate out the metal cans from the newspapers,
I help pay for the next generation of Drones or the nuclear bomb dropped on civilians or
I killed a man because I was told to..........
I killed a man and I don't know why....
or did I dream it,
imagine it.
I want/crave a man's penis in my mouth.
I want to taste his semen
I want to get into that woman's pants
I want to live..........
without pain
and I can't.
I am guilty because I think about suicide all the time.
I think about masturbating, then I do it
to feel better
but it makes me feel guilty
which is worse.
I killed a man
I watched him die
I saw his blood
it was real,
I saw life flow from his limbs
I am guilty
I killed a child
he was running
i said
I think I said "stop"
but he didn't
I banged open the door
a private space
exposed:
A home
their home
my gun held just so
my fingers worked without thought
I am a killer
A hero
My flesh littered with tattoos
indisputable though revocable
evidence
I am guilty
Yet to be charged
I punish myself
everyday
I live in hell
in silence
in eternal
Agony
Freud said Americans substitute aggression for sex. What he meant is that the processes for guilt-formation and the struggles that this emotion poses are substantially confined to Aggressive acts in this country as opposed to the illness from sexual ideation experienced in the Europe of his lifetime.
Although I think this is changing what has happened is an entire industry propelled by an undertone of religious indignation that is infiltrating the "Women's liberation" movement; a worldwide prohibition against sexual strivings which is ever increasing in its visibility and its wealth of ideas, actions identified as worthy of reprimand/prohibition.
What happens, and we see/hear it in the news to the point that it no longer surprises even the most virtuous among us, is the very people who talk the talk do not act in accordance to the good 'clean" life.
They are and have always been the repressed but repression does not work. The repressed ideas become an energy block, like a huge onslaught of fast moving water stopped at the point of urgent egress it must find an outlet.
We block our human nature to conform to a pathological state of purity.
Into this mix of gratifying both the aggressive drive and the sexual drive is the ever growing sex trade, pornography and all those trigger words that makes a blog, a web page garner notice.
Is this a problem?
Or is pornography a solution, an answer to pathological fallout from War?
Should it be legalized along with Pot and Liquor and masturbation?
"Tell me, Daddy, what did you do in the army? What did you see?" are questions that are seldom answered and for good reason.
Although we know this, my point is that there is a relationship between this obvious omission of communication and the proliferation, the need for pornography to ease our pain.
That is the human condition, our living hell.
Our experience of ever increasing and more urgent feelings of quilt.
It is a brilliant phrase because it uses the word penis - which is one of those trigger internet suffer words - coupled with the word Dark which denotes hidden/ forbidden secretive sexual thoughts. In short, it appeals to those steeped in guilt
Guilt: How strange, how powerful it is!
It's source can be either: Heinous acts of destruction (murder) or acts or ideations of construction (sex) or anything that makes us feel "bad'.
Did the Ancient Greeks experience guilt? Most likely not.
In the caveman times, was guilt a prevalent emotion? Not likely.
Today almost every adult feels guilt from one source or another and our children are inheriting this crippling emotion as well.
Common sources of quilt:
i didn't separate out the metal cans from the newspapers,
I help pay for the next generation of Drones or the nuclear bomb dropped on civilians or
I killed a man because I was told to..........
I killed a man and I don't know why....
or did I dream it,
imagine it.
I want/crave a man's penis in my mouth.
I want to taste his semen
I want to get into that woman's pants
I want to live..........
without pain
and I can't.
I am guilty because I think about suicide all the time.
I think about masturbating, then I do it
to feel better
but it makes me feel guilty
which is worse.
I killed a man
I watched him die
I saw his blood
it was real,
I saw life flow from his limbs
I am guilty
I killed a child
he was running
i said
I think I said "stop"
but he didn't
I banged open the door
a private space
exposed:
A home
their home
my gun held just so
my fingers worked without thought
I am a killer
A hero
My flesh littered with tattoos
indisputable though revocable
evidence
I am guilty
Yet to be charged
I punish myself
everyday
I live in hell
in silence
in eternal
Agony
Freud said Americans substitute aggression for sex. What he meant is that the processes for guilt-formation and the struggles that this emotion poses are substantially confined to Aggressive acts in this country as opposed to the illness from sexual ideation experienced in the Europe of his lifetime.
Although I think this is changing what has happened is an entire industry propelled by an undertone of religious indignation that is infiltrating the "Women's liberation" movement; a worldwide prohibition against sexual strivings which is ever increasing in its visibility and its wealth of ideas, actions identified as worthy of reprimand/prohibition.
What happens, and we see/hear it in the news to the point that it no longer surprises even the most virtuous among us, is the very people who talk the talk do not act in accordance to the good 'clean" life.
They are and have always been the repressed but repression does not work. The repressed ideas become an energy block, like a huge onslaught of fast moving water stopped at the point of urgent egress it must find an outlet.
We block our human nature to conform to a pathological state of purity.
Into this mix of gratifying both the aggressive drive and the sexual drive is the ever growing sex trade, pornography and all those trigger words that makes a blog, a web page garner notice.
Is this a problem?
Or is pornography a solution, an answer to pathological fallout from War?
Should it be legalized along with Pot and Liquor and masturbation?
"Tell me, Daddy, what did you do in the army? What did you see?" are questions that are seldom answered and for good reason.
Although we know this, my point is that there is a relationship between this obvious omission of communication and the proliferation, the need for pornography to ease our pain.
That is the human condition, our living hell.
Our experience of ever increasing and more urgent feelings of quilt.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
The Killer Inside Me: Interesting but............?
THE KILLER INSIDE ME
Michael Winterbottom
Based on a novel by pulp writer Jim Thompson:
An idyllic West Texas town in the early 1950’s:
handsome, charming, unassuming small town sheriff's deputy, Lou Ford (Casey Affleck) has difficulty juggling his long-term girlfriend Amy (Kate Hudson) and a prostitute named Joyce (Jessica Alba). His siopathic tendencies steer him and us, his audience towards an unusual finale.
Does it matter to you if the basis of a file is right, true to its depiction of the potential for human behavior? That is the underling question posed by this film, a difficult one to answer.
There is no question that emotion, such as anger, can trigger behavior that seems to defy intelligent mediation. We have all experienced going from an identified feeling to an action we would later regret. Can this happen with the intellectual/emotional experience of "Love" or is it more to the point that the experience of the sexual orgasm is what triggers an unconscious or preconscious reaction? In this film, The Killer Inside Me this is an essential question because it is the basis of the plot, the foundation of the story.
If the latter is what holds true and the former not, then this raises the question of authenticity - not an easy one to answer, but important nonetheless.
I don't know about seeing the film on a large screen. I recommend The Killer Inside Me be seen, at home, on DVD.
Release date: June 18th
The film will be available simultaneously on VOD
Michael Winterbottom
Based on a novel by pulp writer Jim Thompson:
An idyllic West Texas town in the early 1950’s:
handsome, charming, unassuming small town sheriff's deputy, Lou Ford (Casey Affleck) has difficulty juggling his long-term girlfriend Amy (Kate Hudson) and a prostitute named Joyce (Jessica Alba). His siopathic tendencies steer him and us, his audience towards an unusual finale.
Does it matter to you if the basis of a file is right, true to its depiction of the potential for human behavior? That is the underling question posed by this film, a difficult one to answer.
There is no question that emotion, such as anger, can trigger behavior that seems to defy intelligent mediation. We have all experienced going from an identified feeling to an action we would later regret. Can this happen with the intellectual/emotional experience of "Love" or is it more to the point that the experience of the sexual orgasm is what triggers an unconscious or preconscious reaction? In this film, The Killer Inside Me this is an essential question because it is the basis of the plot, the foundation of the story.
If the latter is what holds true and the former not, then this raises the question of authenticity - not an easy one to answer, but important nonetheless.
I don't know about seeing the film on a large screen. I recommend The Killer Inside Me be seen, at home, on DVD.
Release date: June 18th
The film will be available simultaneously on VOD
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Finding Bliss: pornography in the making
Cast: Leelee Sobieski, Matthew Davis, Donnamarie Recco, Denise Richards
FINDING BLISS, a romantic comedy that explores the adult film industry through the eyes of an idealistic 25 year-old award-winning film school grad, Jody Balaban (LEELEE SOBIESKI).
With sex as the landscape and pornography the issue to be explored, punctuated with visual images that manage to stay on the date-flick side of the divide, it is hard to imagine how this film will not make back the money spent on its creation.
An interesting film that addresses issues rarely spoken about even in those private moments when "the girls" get together: the fear of inability to perform is not limited to men, not in this country, this century. It is a universal fear but women rarely admit to feelings traditionally attributed to men. In Finding Bliss this curtain of silence is lifted and the "good girl", the Virgin of choice, is exposed as a frightened child trying to survive in an adult world.
The film is compelling in content but is amateurish in construction and weak in acting. There is so much good and so much lacking in this film that I recommend it with strong reservations.
Hopefully writer/director Julie Davis will learn more about filmmaking before she attempts to bring her compelling and important ideas onto the screen again.
Release Date: June 4th, 2010 (limited)
FINDING BLISS, a romantic comedy that explores the adult film industry through the eyes of an idealistic 25 year-old award-winning film school grad, Jody Balaban (LEELEE SOBIESKI).
With sex as the landscape and pornography the issue to be explored, punctuated with visual images that manage to stay on the date-flick side of the divide, it is hard to imagine how this film will not make back the money spent on its creation.
An interesting film that addresses issues rarely spoken about even in those private moments when "the girls" get together: the fear of inability to perform is not limited to men, not in this country, this century. It is a universal fear but women rarely admit to feelings traditionally attributed to men. In Finding Bliss this curtain of silence is lifted and the "good girl", the Virgin of choice, is exposed as a frightened child trying to survive in an adult world.
The film is compelling in content but is amateurish in construction and weak in acting. There is so much good and so much lacking in this film that I recommend it with strong reservations.
Hopefully writer/director Julie Davis will learn more about filmmaking before she attempts to bring her compelling and important ideas onto the screen again.
Release Date: June 4th, 2010 (limited)
Paper Man: funny/poignant, one of the year's best
Written and Directed by: Michele Mulroney & Kieran Mulroney
Cast: Jeff Daniels, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Lisa Kudrow, Kieran Culkin
Comedic Drama
Richard (Jeff Daniels), a failed middle-aged novelist quirky in his immaturity as contrasted to his wife (Lisa Kudrow), a physician who embodies the ultra-successful adult persona.
Richard embarks on a month-long trip to Long Island's pristine winter setting, a self imposed solitude, to lift his "writer's block". During his stay, he rides around on a child-size bike, a symbol of the child persona that engulfs this 50+ year-old man. While on a trip to town Richard befriends, and hires as his babysitter, Abby (Emma Stone) - a 17 year-old victim of childhood trauma that has left her accepting a masochistic male companion even though or rather because he degrades and hurts her.
The comedic element is mostly based on the contract between Richard and others. Richard relies heavily on his imaginary friend, a costumed superhero known as Captain Excellent (Ryan Reynolds) whom no one other than Richard sees, but his wife knows about. Abby's equivolent "super man" is a fellow ex-"loony bin" friend who follows her everywhere.
Given the details of the plot it is difficult to anticipate that this usual older man/very young girl scenario is a film worth seeing. But this film is very much worth seeing because the dialogue and the hook, an extinct bird, are so compelling that it raises the film into the realm of Great.
Paper Man's extinct bird is America, a country which has outgrown its 'super power of the world' status and along with it the comic book character Superman or Captain Excellent. Richard's problems and our problem are twofold: In a society that has no factories, that makes no thing, what do we do with our Hands? What can we make - Origami, slice up fish, sofas out of books.............nothing of substance, of inherent worth. We are insubstantial people and what we manufacture is unhappiness and we, the denizens of this once productive, thriving super power America are becoming extinct, like the bird.
The political/emotional impact of Paper Man is immense. We are all victims - of the fallout from the cell phones/computers, all means of non communication communication. We don't even type on a substantial Corona typewriter anymore. We tap delicately on our computers, barely touching the keyboard.
The imagery is endless, delivered in the most delightful, funny interactions that resonated deeply.
It all felt so real, as if I was involved in the scene right there with the messy eating of a Lobster, the slicing up of the Fluke, the making of a sofa out of unsold books that otherwise would have remained in unopened boxes for ever and ever, and the arguments between husband and wife.... I've been there, i heard them, I've had them.
I see an average of 7 to 10 films a week, standard for today's film reviewer. But Paper Man was so rich in detail, so compelling a film that I saw it twice within three days. What else can I say?
PAPER MAN opened Friday, April 23rd
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Expendable Lives,
Distorted Images: The Murder of Aiayanna Jones
By Sikivu Hutchinson
When a little white girl goes missing, online news, supermarket tabloids and cable network stations bombard us with up-to-the-minute dispatches on the crime, the victim, her shattered family and anguished community. When a little black girl is murdered in cold blood by a big city police department it is up to the community and those who care about social justice to ensure that the case doesn’t fade into the national obscurity that is usually reserved for the lives of people of color. The recent execution of 7 year-old Aiyanna Jones by the Detroit Police Department during a raid while she was sleeping in her home is the kind of atrocity that makes many people of color view the police as an occupying army. According to news reports, the Detroit Police were conducting a raid that was being filmed for an A&E reality show. Searching for a suspect who lived in another apartment unit, officers fired into the home from outside, then lobbed a grenade into the house, killing little Aiyanna.
By exercising a so-called “no knock” policy in poor neighborhoods, the Detroit Police’s criminal disregard for human life and the civil liberties of people of color have kept the community under siege. According to Ron Scott of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, the Detroit Police have been under a federal consent decree but continue to use military style raids that terrorize citizens in its poorest neighborhoods.
Of course, deeply ingrained racist stereotypes and biases against people of color are a major factor in racial profiling and police misconduct. Disturbingly, Aiyanna’s murder also comes in the wake of a recent CNN study about the impact of skin color bias on young children. CNN presented the findings of Margaret Beale Spencer, a psychologist who utilized the same “doll test” technique as that of psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark in 1947. The Clarks’ research documented the destructive impact of racism on black children’s self-image and was used in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education suit....CONT.http://blackfemlens.blogspot.com/2010/05/expendable-lives-distorted-images.html
Sikivu Hutchinson is the editor of blackfemlens.org. She is working on a book entitled Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics and the Atheism Question.
By Sikivu Hutchinson
When a little white girl goes missing, online news, supermarket tabloids and cable network stations bombard us with up-to-the-minute dispatches on the crime, the victim, her shattered family and anguished community. When a little black girl is murdered in cold blood by a big city police department it is up to the community and those who care about social justice to ensure that the case doesn’t fade into the national obscurity that is usually reserved for the lives of people of color. The recent execution of 7 year-old Aiyanna Jones by the Detroit Police Department during a raid while she was sleeping in her home is the kind of atrocity that makes many people of color view the police as an occupying army. According to news reports, the Detroit Police were conducting a raid that was being filmed for an A&E reality show. Searching for a suspect who lived in another apartment unit, officers fired into the home from outside, then lobbed a grenade into the house, killing little Aiyanna.
By exercising a so-called “no knock” policy in poor neighborhoods, the Detroit Police’s criminal disregard for human life and the civil liberties of people of color have kept the community under siege. According to Ron Scott of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, the Detroit Police have been under a federal consent decree but continue to use military style raids that terrorize citizens in its poorest neighborhoods.
Of course, deeply ingrained racist stereotypes and biases against people of color are a major factor in racial profiling and police misconduct. Disturbingly, Aiyanna’s murder also comes in the wake of a recent CNN study about the impact of skin color bias on young children. CNN presented the findings of Margaret Beale Spencer, a psychologist who utilized the same “doll test” technique as that of psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark in 1947. The Clarks’ research documented the destructive impact of racism on black children’s self-image and was used in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education suit....CONT.http://blackfemlens.blogspot.com/2010/05/expendable-lives-distorted-images.html
Sikivu Hutchinson is the editor of blackfemlens.org. She is working on a book entitled Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics and the Atheism Question.
John Rabe: an enemy of many becomes a hero of some
Florian Gallenberger
John Rabe is an old-fashioned war melodrama replete with all the horrors that "sane "people do to those they deem their enemy.
In 1937 John Rabe, "The Good German of Nanking." was a middle-aged, business man, a self proclaimed Nazi who worked tirelessly to save thousands of civilian Chinese from the Rape of Nanking. He achieved this goal by assisting thousands of Chinese civilians to enter the sprawling International Safety Zone
Estimates go as high as 250,000.
This historical event and the heroism of Rabe, the self proclaimed Nazi, doesn't register much outside of Germany,
Rabe appears to have no understanding of the nature of the Japanese menace or of the Nazi party he belongs to. But when evil rears its head, he cannot in good conscience betray the trust his workers have placed in him.
One of the most startling images here is Rabe's brainstorm to use a giant Nazi flag to deflect Japanese bombers away from desperate civilians crammed into the Siemens grounds. The idea of anyone using a Nazi flag for protection from aggressors is certainly new to World War II movies! the other is the sight of human heads on a wooden ledge, the participatory evidence of a competition to see who could accumulate the most number: the image of blood dripping from multiple heads and necks is one I won't forget.
A 134-minute film, with a clear message. Sometimes, under extreme circumstances, people do the right thing.
Currently P\laying in a limited number of theaters.
John Rabe is an old-fashioned war melodrama replete with all the horrors that "sane "people do to those they deem their enemy.
In 1937 John Rabe, "The Good German of Nanking." was a middle-aged, business man, a self proclaimed Nazi who worked tirelessly to save thousands of civilian Chinese from the Rape of Nanking. He achieved this goal by assisting thousands of Chinese civilians to enter the sprawling International Safety Zone
Estimates go as high as 250,000.
This historical event and the heroism of Rabe, the self proclaimed Nazi, doesn't register much outside of Germany,
Rabe appears to have no understanding of the nature of the Japanese menace or of the Nazi party he belongs to. But when evil rears its head, he cannot in good conscience betray the trust his workers have placed in him.
One of the most startling images here is Rabe's brainstorm to use a giant Nazi flag to deflect Japanese bombers away from desperate civilians crammed into the Siemens grounds. The idea of anyone using a Nazi flag for protection from aggressors is certainly new to World War II movies! the other is the sight of human heads on a wooden ledge, the participatory evidence of a competition to see who could accumulate the most number: the image of blood dripping from multiple heads and necks is one I won't forget.
A 134-minute film, with a clear message. Sometimes, under extreme circumstances, people do the right thing.
Currently P\laying in a limited number of theaters.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
MADEMOISELLE CHAMBON, directed by Stéphane Brizé
French: subtitles
Cast: Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlain
A construction worker whose life is embedded in deep and satisfying emotional ties to his family; wife, son, elderly father, meets a school teacher Mademoiselle Chambon, whose emotional ties are defined by her love, her involvement in the arts: music, writing, reading, painting, teaching.
Each steps into the other's world.
Brick by brick the Director builds the plot, life built one brick on top of another. With delicate, deliberate perfection
we are shown/told the 'Direct Object' of the film is life. The choices we make and don't.
A quiet, compelling love story for those who don't need to be told what we already know but can't accept, not without a struggle.
MADEMOISELLE CHAMBON, is a gem, an intense provocative moment so unlike an American film experience.
For those in search of a film based on philosophical inquiry that forces the viewer to think, to digest, and feel more connected with others, I highly recommend MADEMOISELLE CHAMBON.
Film open at New York's Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and at the Cinema Village in New York on May 28, followed by a nationwide release to select cities.
Cast: Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlain
A construction worker whose life is embedded in deep and satisfying emotional ties to his family; wife, son, elderly father, meets a school teacher Mademoiselle Chambon, whose emotional ties are defined by her love, her involvement in the arts: music, writing, reading, painting, teaching.
Each steps into the other's world.
Brick by brick the Director builds the plot, life built one brick on top of another. With delicate, deliberate perfection
we are shown/told the 'Direct Object' of the film is life. The choices we make and don't.
A quiet, compelling love story for those who don't need to be told what we already know but can't accept, not without a struggle.
MADEMOISELLE CHAMBON, is a gem, an intense provocative moment so unlike an American film experience.
For those in search of a film based on philosophical inquiry that forces the viewer to think, to digest, and feel more connected with others, I highly recommend MADEMOISELLE CHAMBON.
Film open at New York's Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and at the Cinema Village in New York on May 28, followed by a nationwide release to select cities.
HEARTBREAKER (L’ARNACOEUR): ENJOYABLE!
director: Pascal Chaumeil.
romantic comedy
Cast: Vanessa Paradis (Girl on the Bridge, The Key)
Romain Duris (The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Paris, Russian Dolls). Alex (Duris), Julie Ferrier, François Damiens
Plot: 'Professinal' heartbreakers at work
fun
clever
turns and twists
brillliantly delivered
each character filled with moments of enjoyment
even when apparant failure seems inevitable.
the ending is expected but how the Director gets from one moment to the next is pure pleasure
without anyone getting seriously hurt, without regret at the Heartbreakers success in encouraging the end of one relationship after another, this film achieves its goal........with consumate fun and frivolous delight....... it entertains.
French: subtitled
romantic comedy
Cast: Vanessa Paradis (Girl on the Bridge, The Key)
Romain Duris (The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Paris, Russian Dolls). Alex (Duris), Julie Ferrier, François Damiens
Plot: 'Professinal' heartbreakers at work
fun
clever
turns and twists
brillliantly delivered
each character filled with moments of enjoyment
even when apparant failure seems inevitable.
the ending is expected but how the Director gets from one moment to the next is pure pleasure
without anyone getting seriously hurt, without regret at the Heartbreakers success in encouraging the end of one relationship after another, this film achieves its goal........with consumate fun and frivolous delight....... it entertains.
French: subtitled
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Sat May 15, Bklyn Peace Fair: Fr. Roy Bourgeois, Keynote Speaker
It is no surprise that people are turning more and more to the fundamentalist religions at this turning point in world wide economic malaise as the thought of when will War end has been replaced by, so this is the way it is, and will be.
Against this fatalistic posture are those who attended the Peace Fair, those who believe that small incremental actions by committed people will eventually lead to a change that we want and feel must come to be. This understanding adds an imperative in the fight against the symptoms of endless aggression and brings back to our conscience human discourse, verbal communication as an essential vehicle for co-existence.
Those who attended the Peace Fair were compelled by the believe/conviction that the chosen course of our Government has to end or it will end all of us.
Most notable was the absence of fear of police intervention/harassment or potential time spent in jail.
This experience reaffirmed our united hope and effort to keep free speak a right, rather than a Saturday afternoon luxury
What a pleasure!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)