Proportional Representation

I am one who would favor having a proportionally representative form of government...there are way too many disenfranchised people within our two party system...which is why our country is so divided, as badly as it was before the civil war...very nearly. I may align myself with only 5% of other people in the USA, but then we should have 5% of the representatives in government...all our voices need to be heard. So what if it's slow and cumbersome...it would be better than the get nothing done representatives we have now.

Feeling overwhelmed by the Kochtopus? I know I am.

It may already be too late to avoid runaway global warming; and it’s certainly too late to avoid radioactive rain, shrimp without eyes in the Gulf of Mexico, and tap water that can be lit on fire. It’s too late to save 78 percent of the world’s old-growth forests or bring back the 200 species of plants and animals that went extinct today. The situation is extremely dire.

But we can’t give up – not without a fight.

Ecocide is accelerating with a constant need to expand into new areas. We have entered a period of extreme extraction, even in areas that were previously off-limits geographically and politically. We're now ripping up North America as wantonly as we've already wrecked other parts of the world, with fracking, oil from tar sands and deep-sea drilling, and mountaintop removal.

It can’t be reasoned with, escaped, reformed, redeemed, cajoled, abandoned, or rejected. It does not care what we want or how persuasively (or how nicely, or how rudely) we request it.

Elections won’t change this. “Less evil” politicians still serve and represent capitalist interests. It’s their job.

Personal lifestyle changes, though nice, will not make it stop. Protests and demonstrations won’t make it stop.

A better-regulated or reformed system would still kill the planet. So-called “green” capitalism and technotopianism are lies to make us believe an expansionist economy could be sustainable. We can’t buy our way out of it.

Feeling overwhelmed by the Kochtopus?  I know I am.

WHOOO

Tonight the barred owls
ask their question upon
the chill of dusk;

one from the tulip poplar grove,
the other at creekside.

“Whooo?”

Is what they want to know.

“Whooo?”

It’s a dangerous inquiry.

A warrior’s initiation right
if you dare seek the answer.

Do you dare?

Do you dare to know
who you truly are?

Coyotes run the crest of the ridge,
yips and howls
formulating the collective voice
of the pack.

Don’t listen to them,

they are tricksters.

This is what I have to say:

If you go searching for the
answer,

you will Die.

And if you don’t go searching
for the answer,

you will die.

If you want to Live,

you must go searching
for the answer.

The moon will light the way in the darkness,
but only so much as to allow
you to take one uncertain step
at a time,

often, backwards.

You’ll find that what the sun illuminates,
is frequently outsized by its
shadow,

and that the shadow has a life of its own.

You are going to have to
befriend it,
as your fellow journeyman.

Be prepared to leave who you
think you are behind
in the quest for
authenticity.

It’s best if you put down the large bundle
of “what no longer serves”
at the trail head.

Do bring your most spectacular heartaches
and your deepest wounds;
these are the trail markers that
will help you stay on course.

And too, have within you
a most
beautiful verse.

You cannot fully understand who you
are until you have courted the
Beloved with such wild abandon,
that you become completely undone.

“Whooo?”

from the top of the tallest pine.

“Whooo?”

from the sycamore at the edge of the meadow.

“Who?”

from the moment you were born,

has been the question

gifted by those who

want you to find your way

Home.

© 2012-2014/Jamie K. Reaser
Published in "Sacred Reciprocity: Courting the Beloved in Everyday Life" (www.hirathpress.com)

When The Angels Cried...

This is what we call a January thaw...certainly a bit warmer than the past week...70 to 80 degrees warmer. Definitely a day to think 'hot and spicy' when planning the evening meal...Perhaps a bit of Mana' assisting my cooking, and I'll remember that Francisco Alves Mendes Filho (Chico Mendes) must not have died in vain. He fought to preserve the Amazon rainforest, and advocated for the human rights of Brazilian peasants and indigenous peoples. He was assassinated on December 22, 1988.

Unchecked Oil Wealth and Democracy Don't Mix

We, with our choices, have created despots in the middle east who have power due to oil...they become more and more entrenched as the revenue stream continues on and on...look at most of the middle eastern countries which are oil rich nations...despots all. My fear is, with the rush to become "energy independent" that North America is becoming a corporate oligarchy on the conservative side fueled by Koch brothers, et al...boom towns such as Williston, North Dakota and Fort McMurray with high paying temporary jobs, drugs, prostitution and violence...not to mention the environmental damage. Meanwhile that oil wealth is being used to fund the tea party, The Cato Institute, The Mercatus Center, The Institute for Humane Studies, Citizens for a Sound Economy (FreedomWorks), Americans for Prosperity, Patients United Now, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), ad nauseum...as well as funding economic, scientific and other wings of some fairly powerful universities, even saying who can and who cannot teach there. Ramifications from The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) are still being felt in our economy. These tendrils all intertwine with our political system and can be found having infiltrated even our highest court. Oil can destroy a democracy unless its wealth is kept in check and not used to fuel these oligarchical structures. We, the people, have a choice to make...

miss you little george

To make a Lord of The Ring's reference

Understand the nature of Sauron's power and see that the key to his power is the One Ring. Rather than fight Sauron directly, or try to wield The Ring's corrupting influence, seek to remove the source of Sauron's power. Seek to destroy the privilege granted by governments to corporations, seek to destroy the One Ring.

If government had no deals and privileges to dole out to the well connected then couldn't a free and fair market occur? So, we must destroy the One Ring and only a union of Occupy Wall Street, The Tea Parties, Independents, and Libertarians, (and even Democrats and Republicans) can make it happen. Unite! Destroy the One Ring. Honor the Earth.