HOPE
Mepkin Abbey
"It is not uncommon to find that what we have put our energy into, indeed what we have staked our lives on, is unreliable. What then is our reason for hope? Can we continue in such circumstances? It is precisely when our faith is shaken and our love grows dim that hope really begins; it is in the wonder and weakness of our faith that we find hope’s real meaning. Hope is the willingness not to give up precisely when we draw no consolation from what we have previously found trustworthy and reliable. Hope does not try to determine how God’s ways will be shown, but remains open to new and astonishing manifestations of the divine presence. It allows something to come into life that is not of our own making. Hope is the retrieval of possibilities that come as gift."
Care to do some Monastic Surfing?
Want to know where to find the best Monastic fruitcake and creamed honey?
Once Upon A Time....
From IHT: William Pfaff: A fiction shattered by America's aggression
DO YOU?.....REALLY??
"......what actually has happened during the past nine months is something Americans have yet to grasp, and that others have yet to say out loud:
People outside the United States have stopped believing the American story. They say instead that terrorism is a way people wage war when they don't have F-16's or armored divisions.
They say that Chechens, Moros, Taliban, Colombian insurgents, Palestinian bombers and Iraqi enemies of the U.S. occupation do not really make up a single global phenomenon that the world must mobilize to defeat.
They say that, actually, they had never really believed the American story in the first place.
They had listened to it because Washington said it, and they respected Washington.
Now they don't."
CONTEST!
BUSH IN 30 SECONDS--
A political advertising contest sponsored by MoveOn.org Voter fund
"All eligible submissions will be posted on this web site and rated by visitors. The top rated ads will then be voted on by our panel of esteemed judges, including Michael Moore, Donna Brazile, Jack Black, Janeane Garofalo, and Gus Van Sant. The winning ad idea will be broadcast on television during the week of Bush's 2004 State of the Union address, and the winner will receive a recording of the ad as broadcast."
This and that....
World Net Daily says MSNBC is geting peeved at Chris Matthews for getting too critical of Bush these days.
"In a speech to university students, MSNBC host Chris Matthews characterized President Bush as a shallow-thinking, unlearned man.."
(If you ask me, this is no great, overly-critical, or new revelation. Chris is telling it like it is. We can all guess why GE might be concerned.)
The word is out that Chris Matthews is a Howard Dean-man.
"Matthews acknowledged that his personal favorite in the race is Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who many see as the Democratic front-runner..."
What's up with this Betina Mixon? She had been awake all one night arguing with her husband, was late for an event (which happened to be Bush's speech) and "grew increasingly frustrated as she was turned away from the building at checkpoint after checkpoint. She then "took the matter into her own hands" and crashed through the checkpoint.
I wonder if she realizes this is the kind of thing that gets families killed in Iraq and Palestine nowadays?
Betina was lucky her brains (and those of her children, for Pete's sake) weren't blown out of her skull.
From UPI: Interview with Chief Minister of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province
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"America wanted to be the sole superpower and the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan was the sine qua non of its quest. Then came Taliban in the vacuum that followed the Soviet withdrawal. Taliban are not just students from madrassas. They are the same jihadis (holy warriors) who chased the Russians out. Many came from Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries to fight against the Russian invader. But when they tried to go home, they were treated as criminals and terrorists. Some were barred from returning home and others were sentenced to death or life imprisonment. So they returned to the region where they knew they would be welcome."
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This is a must-read.
See what the people of the PNF Province believe.
You may find yourself saying "I can't believe they see it that way"....
and in the next paragraph (or the next sentence)
you may be surprised to find yourself agreeing.
I'm certain there is a way to disentangle and reconciliate the disinformation which has caused seemingly wild accusations to be thrown our way by this Pakistani minster (and others like him), but it will never happen while we employ the tactics we are currently utilizing in this "war on terror".
I am certain that GW Bush will never be able to accomplish the difficult task of winning hearts and minds in the Arab world.
Just look at him...he miserably fails to win half of America's hearts and minds.
So where are we headed, people?
Bush is leading a divided nation.
Divided by his policies...policies for which he has had no mandate.
In this dangerous world we see angry, often-invisible, and misunderstood "enemies of the West". We are fools if we can't see that these "enemies" have been encouraged to join the hateful fight against us by the ignorant and aggressive actions of the Bush administration. We cannot trust Bush and his team of NeoCon idealists who have gotten us into a hornet's trap. We've been lied to....taken for fools. Our Congress has bought into the lies and facilitated this war with last year's Iraq Resolution. They should have known better.
It's time we start to listen to these people they like to call "terrorists".
It would behoove us to listen.
Either we listen or we fail.
Do you want us to fail?
Because, frankly, I don't want to see us fail in making this world a kinder and more peaceful place.
I'm not just talking about Kumbayah, either.
It's all about using the good sense we possess instead of our base savage instinct.
Sorry, war fans...
Bombing the hell out of this world and occupying the freshly-fried space just doesn't seem to work.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"....Durrani firmly rejected the accusation that the NWFP's ruling coalition comprises Taliban-like religious zealots. "We are true democrats," he responded, "witness the way we conduct our policies in NWFP, in sharp contrast to the military dictatorship at the center. We also advocate peace with India over Kashmir; again witness the recent journey to New Delhi by one of our three top leaders with an offering of peace. As a result, India has responded with 12 confidence-building measures. The Holy (Koran) book teaches us peace, love and cooperation...."
"....Asked if he was suggesting that Taliban are for the most part foreigners, Durrani said, "in the literal sense (they) were no more than 1,000 at the outset. Later Taliban came to symbolize the entire Afghan nation. You might ask where did Osama Bin Laden come from? Who brought him back to Afghanistan after Sudan asked him to leave? The United States didn't seem too concerned about him in 1996 when he decided to go to Afghanistan. Later America was not interested in a negotiated solution. Imagine what the United States could have done if it had devoted the money it spent on bombing Afghanistan -- about $8 billion according to published reports -- to the reconstruction of the country after two decades of warfare. That would have been statesmanship of the highest order. Instead, you have chosen war and occupation and now you are faced with an increasingly hostile population...."
".....Durrani concluded the interview by saying that a world with one superpower "is very dangerous. There is no counterweight. Things were less dangerous during the Cold War when we had two superpowers. The same applies in a village that only has one elder. He could take unwise decisions with no countervailing force. A village is much safer with two elders. So was the world."
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For those of you who may find Durrani's suspicion of any Mossad / 9-11 connection as an insane and preposterous thought, see today's Herald (Glasgow).
