Do the US news pundits speak for us?

It is not wrong to speak out for what one thinks is right. A petition is a democratic, legitimate attempt to influence political processes. Nobody gets hurt, nobody needs to get on the street if he doesn't want to. Just some people expressing their agreement on a particular matter. I say bring on the petitions!

Sometimes it is not enough to sit on the cushion and meditate the problems away. Some of these nasty things dare to be still there after the return from Nowhere Land. D'uh! File under: S like 'Sad but true'.

...to seemingly do nothing.  But nothing is exactly what would solve the problem.  You NEED do nothing.  Resist nothing. Accept everything. Surrender completely.  Your strength is in your vulnerability not your pen.  Sometimes no action is right action.  Surrender...

     Big heart brings fire and compassion to Big Mind.

Be well,

Erik

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     Please feel free to join my "One Moment of Stillness" project.  Looking forward to seeing you there!

We all have our shadows. Personally, I have an affinity for worshiping Idols, Zardoz for example...

All pseudo kidding aside, I think someone said something along the lines of “it's impossible not to have shadow issues” if we are running operating system- human/1.01 or newer versions.

My shadow has put me in some interesting and thoughtful circumstances, to be sure.

My ancient family history, I think, reveals some of the shadow.

This family's history, as researched by my sister and myself, tells a story of a swindled-displaced Highland Scot, who moved to Northern Ireland as a plantationist in the 1600's. It also tells a story of the other branch, which did not leave, until after the Highland Clearances following the Jacobite Uprisings of the 1700's.

My shadow might come in the form of being unable to identify with the parties who were in charge of putting them off of their lands.

So, they leave Scotland, one, call him A, goes to Ireland first and lives on lands which previously were deeded to another family, a catholic family. Later he leaves those “Troubles” and emigrates to the Americas, to settle in what is now called the state of Maine.

It's 1718. They moved into the Casco Bay area to settle it, and imagine! The natives were not pleased they had people coming to live on the lands of their birth. They fought with the natives, some brothers died, and eventually they did settle there, having a family.

Their children were part of the march across the continent in the pioneer movement. In the Minnesota- Dakota region, they settled for a while, one man becoming a sheriff who was known for his “harsh pioneer justice.” The story goes on, passed down from a distant and common relative, that the land acquisition of the local times were based on soliciting slaves from the south, and granting them title to lands. However, an interesting trend emerged; we might call it “make your X on the line, and soon you're not seen again.” Those properties somehow became part of the large landowners holdings.

So, we, us pioneers, fleeing persecution, came here to the America's, stole land from the Indians first, then swindled and killed former slaves to enlarge our holdings. This after it was done to us on the other side of the Atlantic.

I actually was given a photograph of an example of the “pioneer justice” in action. You almost don't see the rope going over the side of the bridge. I wonder how long it took the photographer... I digress...

I never learned about the Highland Clearances in the history books that my school required me to read. What I was taught was the  wonderful things about the pioneer movement.  The word pioneer summing up the image of an adventurous spirit, going out to surmount the 'wilds'.

We were fed as children the concept of the Indians being savages, in a similar manner perhaps that some people see certain tribes in the Middle East conflict as “terrorists.” At one point, I had to ask, who wrote these textbooks? Who is paving the tracks for my thinking? Traditionally, its the victors of a conflict.

I know, we are beyond using the word terrorists, to describe the Palestinians, and other Muslim groups. But, for others, who don't see the machinations of cultural programming, i think its important to point out that  there just  might be an agenda which is advanced by perpetuating a myth. 

  I see some folks holding tight to the myths, some selling the myths, and some accepting the myth at face value, being to busy or otherwise to introspect the broad historical and psychological components.

But, knowing what we have learned here about shadow and colored lenses, can we not see our own American heritage favoring the side of the pioneer?

Are the stakes yet high enough for us to try and shed light where we think there is a huge dark shadow?

There is another large shadow which mixes into the equation over there. That is of the persecuted. We were persecuted, and used that platform to advance our agenda for generations, to the point of gluttony. Our tracks were laid, like the railroad themselves, and our children followed along the path.

Bin Laden. Is it possible that he might be of the Ilk of some similar warrior of history? I won't try and parallel him to any specific leader. This is one place where interior consideration is better used, due to the recency of events. The question arises, how did Bin Laden and others like him emerge?

The larger point I am trying to show is that I can see both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. To a point. There has been a structure trying to work for decades. Disregard for the structure, and for the humanity of the other side, creates an exasperating circumstance, and born are the extremes, squeezed out of a pressure cooker.

Perhaps we can come up with another potjie here: a pressure cooker potjie, with a slow steam relief valve. Slow cooking, a dangerous kind, a difficult topic, but possibly necessary given the mixing of the levels of development of the human operating systems with advanced mechanisms of destruction.

I believe that the heat needs to be turned down.