War on Ourselves

Reading the article posted below did not make me feel good. Perhaps that's the point. Do we really have a right to feel good about ourselves as we merrily go about decimating the planet? As I feel my existential crisis kicking in again I am compelled to resort to poetry. The title, War on Ourselves is a phrase taken from the article.


I kill you, you kill me, this goes on for eternity
Violence and destruction is nothing new
You'ld think after all this time we would find a way to break free
by now our chances seem very few

Will we wake up before it's too late
While the planet is ravaged by our weapons of hate
Time's running out, god's patience depleted
our unchanging behavior too often repeated

If we could only find the courage to put the guns back on the shelves
and end this un-winnable war on ourselves.

No no no I've got to pay the rent
Many bills coming due
All the money got spent
I don't have time to think about
the damage being done
the world may go to hell
but I have nowhere to run
So I just have to keep playing the game
And pray that god doesn't find my excuses lame

I should have woken up long ago
I had plenty of chances
But I can never seem to get beyond
my circumstances
I need to find the resolve to put this game back on the shelf
and put an end to this unwinnable war on myself.




JUST GIVE US THE FACTS





By Rosalind Peterson
September 9, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

We find ourselves in the middle of crisis-driven facts and fiction. It is no longer the bare facts reported down the middle of the line by the media…it is now news opinions. Walter Cronkite was labeled “the most trusted man in America ” because he brought us, for the most part, unvarnished news reporting. And he trusted us to make our own decisions.

Now every event that is deemed “important” by the media is dissected, fought over, delivered with opinions from every side, even though there no “side” to take. The President gives a speech and no sooner has he completed his speech than the media varnishes what he said in great detail, telling us what we should think and what he really meant. And so it is with each significant or insignificant event…we, the people are not trusted to be given “just the facts” and allowed to make our own judgments. The media thinks we must be driven by the opinions of the media about what it really all means. Politicians work along the same lines with events and opinions. If you lie enough people believe it to be true especially when embellished with confusion.

If the media thinks you are cute, like ex-Governor Palin, she is resurrected with each media cycle which uses her statements and cuteness to sell advertising. If she was not cute, older, had lines in her face, squat, and didn’t wink at men, you would not see her at all in the media cycles. If the media thinks you are not electable or doesn’t like your views they use any method to delete you from the news…if they like you…every cycle, every picture on the media-news shows has a picture of you in the promos or on screen even when others are talking.

Today “Shock & Awe” is being practiced against all ocean life. Now a story that needs to be told on every major media news program is being ignored. The United States Navy has started live-fire and sonar warfare practice in the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico with more 5-year warfare programs waiting in the wings to be used on land areas and in the oceans surrounding the United States . These programs will decimate more than 11.7 million marine mammals over five years, according to U.S. Congressman Henry Waxman, and disrupt marine habitats, pollute our air and water with toxic chemicals, and blast our oceans and sea life into oblivion. It is “shock and awe” all over again except “the enemy” is our oceans and its inhabitants…our fish and our fishing industry…our ocean tourism industry…our air and water quality…human health is not even considered…as we are considered “expendable”.

KTVU Channel 2, Oakland/San Francisco, John Fowler, had the courage to cover this story. No other major television stations, large newspapers, or large radio stations will cover this story. It is not a cute story that will sell advertising or raise ratings. It means blowing the whistle on a current warfare testing expansion that will make everyone uncomfortable...war on ourselves. The new motto of the media is to ignore stories that they don’t want to tell even though they know the telling could save our oceans and millions of marine mammals from disaster.

With the exception of the NRDC taking action against the Navy, few environmental groups are making any effort to let the public know what is happening, preferring instead to send out cute animal pictures to raise money for their corporate coffers. The new motto of most environmental groups is to ignore sticky, uncomfortable subjects, even when an environmental disaster is eminent. Money has overridden ethics for many of these groups. Another environmental group motto, which has been around for years: “We only take on causes we can win”…thus ensuring that money is raised, without generating too much controversy, for their corporate headquarters.


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A wonderful teacher and a good friend wrote “Choices” in 2008, which we, the people, all need to make in the face of media and political fear mongering, opinion driven media, and a lack of reporting important news most of the time. I am sharing this with you because I believe that we, the people, can be trusted to make our own decisions and take a higher path. No one says it better.


CHOICES

Words are written, words are spoken, yet truth is laced half way, loose ends, which eventually force us to stumble and fall. Explanations handed out like warm taffy, a quick, gooey fix, a pacifier to keep us quiet for the moment. A sweet, empty treat, but without nourishment of truth, we will no doubt grow weak, unhealthy and controlled.

We are living in a world which we have created, which has ventured so far away from nature, I am afraid we can no longer turn back, find our way home, for all the poisonous bread crumbs we have scattered along our misguided way, have been consumed by the innocent creatures we have forced into extinction. The path is left empty, barren and contaminated. Lost our way, burned our bridges.

We praise yet fool ourselves into believing we are the most intelligent, most beautiful, most divine creatures upon this sick planet, all the while drifting so extremely far off our natural course. We have fouled and poisoned the very Mother that has given us birth, whom has asked nothing of us but to take care of Her, nurture Her and protect Her other natural children. She asks only for Her health and we deny Her plea.

Yet, we, Her children, with all our wisdom and technology mustered in the last 100 years, have harmed, have injured, have pushed our Mother Earth to the very brink of death. We have chosen our own vanity over stewardship. Our own selfish material desires over common, natural sense. Our own grotesque death by poisoning over a simpler life, filled with natural beauty and purity. Our Mother Earth has always offered us this avenue of health and clean environment, yet we have strayed so far, far away, we may never again be able to partake in Her offer.

Pesticide. Herbicide. Fungicide. Insecticide. Homicide. Genocide. Suicide. Which side are you on?

We find more artificial pleasure in the printed green of the dollar than we find from the pure green of a healthy forest glade. We seek a false joy from tiny electronic screens which pull us inward and isolate us. We are told we must own and possess these new inventions and that they will bring us happiness, until they breakdown or are stolen, then we rage against the manufacturer or seek revenge on the thief.

Why is it that we do not possess the same emotions when our fresh, clean air is stolen from our lungs and our waters become rivers of poison? Why is it that we do not possess these same emotions when our forests die before our stinging eyes or bees no longer pollinate our crops and disappear, to never return to their hives? Why do we not raise our voices in unison about these thefts from our natural world of life?

The joy of communications between human beings slips further away, denied within the confines of small, electronic gadgets. Our bodies and minds thirst for the exhilaration of our senses, to rejoice in a simple stroll along an ocean beach, breathe in deeply the fresh salt sea air, feel the cool sands caress our toes and be consumed by the powerful song of sea waves which engulfs our hearts and souls, far removed from the noise of ring tones and scattered, artificial songs, their isolation and separation from natural harmony quite apparent.

We have poisoned our Mother’s lungs, and in doing so, have poisoned our lungs and our children’s lungs. The very chemicals of our genius have become our doom. We must stop in our tracks and use our ingenuity to create a new path. The bread crumbs are gone. We can no longer turn back and hope to rebuild poisoned bridges which have rotted away from our ignorance and arrogance. But we can also not run forward in blind, reckless desire and greed for self-gratification.

We must ALL STOP! Put down the I-Pod, the Blackberry, the Cell phone. Turn off the computer, the TV, the SUV. We must stop and reflect - all of us; take time to truly reflect on what is important, set our priorities. Every adult must escape the ego and bring compassion and true care within their hearts for the children and the elderly, for they are the ones who need our help and strength. We do have a choice. We have always had a choice, and that choice has been the one pure truth of our intelligence and how we choose to use it.


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We must make a conscious choice to stop the activities which poison us, and our only home, The Earth. Plain and complex, not simple. And sometimes painful, but the pain which rises from our current path will be much more severe and eternal. Every adult must educate themselves and with that education, enlighten and energize and guide our children. The information is available, you just have to investigate and research. Read, learn, open your mind and find the truth about the chemicals that rule and control our lives. Find out who the corporations are that produce these poisons and demand their production be stopped immediately. Help find natural solutions. Eat, grow and promote organic foods and drinks. Advocate for solar, wind and hydro power. The technology has been present since the 1980’s for ALL of us to drive electric vehicles. Ask WHY we are not allowed that technology. Rise up and demand an end to fossil fuel addiction and the affordable creation of pollution free vehicles.

Demand that your domestic water supplies be tested for a variety of chemicals and heavy metals and demand the true data from those tests. Demand that our air quality be improved, that chemicals and poisons in the air be eliminated and the health of our world’s lungs, the Trees, our Forests, become a top priority.

Advocate for your human and environmental rights. Advocate for the Earth’s rights and advocate for the rights of all living beings on the planet to live and exist in a pure, safe and poison-free atmosphere.

We do have a choice. We have an obligation to the children we bring into this sick and unhealthy world to clean up our decades long mess. To stop the madness of self-destruction and begin the long, tough and painful journey forward. Education, clarity, truth and community, locally, nationally and globally. Our governments will not do it for us. Our multi-national corporations will not do it for us. The CEO’s of oil companies, pharmaceutical and chemical companies, and GMO companies will not assist us.

Without us, without our buying power and our weaknesses, these control corporations do not exist. We, The People, create the governments of the world, create the existence of chemical and pharmaceutical mega-giants. And We The People can and must rise up and demand that these companies either help us clean up our environment and restore the health to the planet or they must not be supported. Any corporate or government officials who do not work with us to restore and renew this planet must be boycotted and asked to leave office. This is beyond argument or discussion or negotiations.

Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, genocide, suicide, homicide. The words ring of horrid truths of evil which penetrate our societies. We must bring a halt to the sicknesses which grip our beings and control our lives and the lives of the innocent, silent beings, whose only joy is to BE.

We do not have 10, 15 or 20 years. We must make a conscious choice and act. We must open our eyes and minds and look up to the sky and not bury our heads in the poisonous sands. We have now experienced two weeks of intense smoke from fires burning in our sick and dying forests. Our air quality has been drastically reduced to a sickening brown haze, filled with chemicals and particulates. We must now recognize that we can never allow this to become “the norm”.

We must not accept the poisons which we are told will help us, assist us in agriculture and health. We must return to nature, for in natural things we find all the answers we require. Artificial and synthetic remedies can only harm our environment, our bodies, our children’s bodies and the health of all ecosystems. Nature supplies us with the remedies, the medicines, and our health; spiritually, physically and emotionally. All we need to do is educate ourselves and act.

If we sit back and wait, for government or corporate assistance, we shall Never get better; Never return to natural health. It is our choice indeed. Live healthy, upon a healthy Earth or die poisoned from the chemicals which corporations profess will assist us.

Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, homicide, genocide or suicide? Our choice.

Creativity, critical thinking, self-confidence, compassion, stewardship and love.

Your choice. -Len Greenwood July, 9 2008

If you would like to learn more about the U.S. Navy Warfare Testing programs that are ongoing, with more 5 years programs to follow, the following link will give you more information. It is your choice to standup or stand down and only have pictures of “what it was like” for your children to see in old pictures and books. Choices…

For More Information & Links to Government Documents.

© 2009 - Rosalind Peterson - All Rights Reserved

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In 1995, Rosalind, now retired, became a certified California United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency Agriculture Crop Loss Adjustor working in more than ten counties throughout California. Rosalind has a BA degree from Sonoma State University in Environmental Studies & Planning (ENSP), with emphasis on using solar power, photosynthesis, agriculture, and crop production.

Between 1989 and 1993 Rosalind worked as an Agricultural Technologist for the Mendocino County Department of Agriculture. After leaving Mendocino County she took a position with the USDA Farm Service Agency as a Program Assistant in Mendocino, Sonoma, and the Salinas County Offices, where she worked until becoming certified as a crop loss adjustor for the State.

E-Mail: info@californiaskywatch.com