Healthcare and The Economy: My two cents

I'm thirty-one. I graduated from college in 2000, did a year of "national service" in AmeriCorps, and then 9-11 happened. I tried to get a real job, thinking that someone would surely hire me with my expensive education, blond(ish) hair and tailored suits. Surely. But, no, I scrapped a few dollars together in the next few years, working in a dirty restaurant and lowly social-service jobs. Health insurance? Not even an option. I could barely make my student loan payments. In desperation, I moved to Colorado and got a job working in the fancy Ritz-Carlton world. I learned how the upper crust thrive, and I received dental care from a guy who fixed movie-stars teeth. Six glorious months of health insurance; awesome.

Returning to the Northwest greys, I got a job at another hotel but had to wait 3 months for health insurance to start. Two weeks before my insurance kicked in, I got a horrible spider bite which became so infected that my leg couldn't fit into pants. Despite the nasty wound and visible infection line up my femoral artery, I refused to go to the doctor. I feared the huge emergency room bill. I could've died, but a friend-of-a-friend, a natropath, saw me for free and got me on a cheap antibiotic and homeopathic meds. I survived and the wound healed. (Now I wouldn't think of sacrificing my life for the fear of an ER bill, but at the time I felt terrified and desperate.)

Around that same time, also uninsured, my brother had a terrible ear infection. He didn't go to the doctor until his eardrums were literally bleeding. The ER visit and antibiotics cost thousands of dollars, which he faithfully paid off in small increments over many months. His hearing never fully recovered.

Several years later, I decided to leave Portland and move home to Omaha for a couple months before Nick and I moved to Japan. I quit my job (with great benefits) and figured that I could coast without health insurance for the two months before my Japanese insurance began. A week later, I found out I had a situation that needed surgery and biopsies. I had no insurance. If I did have cancer, I would be screwed. Blessedly, the Creighton Medical Center completely covered all my expenses, supported by some national funds for low-income women needing treatment for breast or gynecological cancers. The surgeries were traumatic, but the costs were covered. I am grateful.

As I think about my early adulthood, I know that the timing of the post-9-11 economic crash and the increasing costs of healthcare has affected my life in real ways. Some 40- and 50-somethings complain about the difficult economy, and for good reason. But my entire adulthood (a decade so far) has felt like a recession. I think that many people my age feel this way.

In a NYT Op-Ed about being "thirtysomething", 31-year-old Porochista Khakpour writes:

"I’m part of the Peter Pan-ish Gen-X final trickle — and what do we know about growing up? My friends are all broke, say “whatever” too much, still live in Converses and constant hangovers, still yell at their parents on the phone and two seconds later ask for money and possibly a place to crash, are still deferring college loans and say everything is the new something-else, including the 30s, which are the new 20s. The economy is in crisis, and they don’t care; they have become Zen about debt, having been impoverished, if trust-fund-less, since they got out of college at the beginning of the millennium, a time of tragedy and war and turmoil, their entire 20s devoured by someone they refer to only by a twangy iteration of his middle initial."

My point? I'm not saying that I deserve to live on the dole because my life has been tough. I'm not blaming W for everything. But I am saying that this country needs healthcare reform. We need single-payer health insurance. And, without question, there should be a public option for health insurance as part of this healthcare reform. I have traveled to many countries that have successful nationalized healthcare models (Australia, Japan, Germany). I've been all over this globe and I can tell you that my international friends find our quality-of-life absolutely shocking. Most countries of the world have nationalized health insurance. Most people in the developed world do not fear illness like we do. European, Australian and Canadian students are not weighed down by inconceivable college loan payments for two decades after graduation. There are better ways to do it. Wake up, America. Stop bombing other people. Start spending the money to help our people live.

Arise, all women who have hearts!

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

-Julia Ward Howe

TORTURE

From the good people at "Faithful America":

After years of denials and euphemisms, (remember "enhanced interrogation techniques"?), a Bush Administration official finally admitted that the U.S. has tortured prisoners in its custody.

Whatever you call it, the abuse needs to stop.

Sign our letter to President-Elect Obama calling for an executive order banning torture.

Years after initial reports of abuse surfaced, accounts from Guantanamo Bay are still shocking. Susan Crawford, the administration official in charge of reviewing practices at Guantanamo told the Washington Post:

"The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent. . . . You think of torture, you think of some horrendous physical act done to an individual. This was not any one particular act; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for. And coercive. Clearly coercive. It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge" to call it torture.

Clearly, government officials at many levels were involved in authorizing torture. As Crawford states though, "the buck stops at the Oval Office."

That's why we need to make sure signing an executive order to ban torture is a top priority for President-Elect Obama once he takes office.

Tell President-Elect Obama to ban torture.

Torture is not only a violation of what our faiths tell us is the inherent dignity of all people, but it's also ineffective and makes prosecuting dangerous individuals more difficult.

It needs to stop. Now.

Sign the petition.

Thank you for all you do,

Beth, Katie, Dan, Kristin and Jennifer

The Faithful America Team

New HOPE; Newfound Patriotism

O beautiful, for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America! God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.

O beautiful, for pilgrim feet

Whose stern, impassioned stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness!

America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw;

Confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law!

O beautiful, for heroes proved

In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country loved

And mercy more than life!

America! America! May God thy gold refine,

'Til all success be nobleness, and ev'ry gain divine!

O beautiful, for patriot dream

That sees beyond the years,

Thine alabaster cities gleam

Undimmed by human tears!

America! America! God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea!

Around the time of America's Independence Day, I sang this song to several of my classes of Japanese junior high students. They'd never heard the song before, but I gave them a brief history of the author (a woman teacher) and story of the writing (she traveled over the endless plains to Colorado, and was struck by the beauty and immensity of our land). I love this song and cried freely as, this week in church, we sang it together as a congregation. I most especially appreciate the second verse. My prayer is that we might be inspired to work collectively for the greater good.

In Intergenerational Conversation

See this video at the link below:

Pete Seeger & Majora Carter on Environmentalism, Hudson River, Urban Renewal, Protest Music, Civil Rights.

In a Lower Manhattan apartment, one of the greatest living musicians and activists sat down with one of the country's newest great leaders.

Pete Seeger, with a list of awards and honors longer than the neck on his famed banjo, still works tirelessly at 88 years of age.

He spoke with Majora Carter, the young and indefatigable founder of Sustainable South Bronx, an organization that is re-shaping the neighborhood of her youth through pioneering green-collar economic development projects, about the environmental work he has worked at for more than forty years.

And while he's at it, he also finds time to sing a couple songs, demanding the film crew sing along, because it's not nearly as much fun singing to someone as it is singing with someone.

War and Creation

Toward the beginning of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Portland Symphonic Choir chose for our concert series songs about war. We sang Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Dona Nobis Pachem", which includes text by Walt Whitman about the Civil War. Vaughan Williams was a medic in World War I, and was apparently moved by Whitman's poems.

"Reconciliation":

Word over all, beautiful as the sky,
Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost,
That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again
and ever again, this soiled world;
... For my enemy is dead - a man divine as myself is dead;
I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin - I draw near,
Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.
-----------

"Beat! Beat! Drums!"

Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!
Through the windows—through doors—burst like a ruthless force,
Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation,
Into the school where the scholar is studying;
Leave not the bridegroom quiet—no happiness must he have now with
his bride,
Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering
his grain,
So fierce you whirr and pound you drums—so shrill you bugles blow.

Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!
Over the traffic of cities—over the rumble of wheels in the streets;
Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no sleepers
must sleep in those beds,
No bargainers' bargains by day—no brokers or speculators—would
they continue?
Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing?
Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge?
Then rattle quicker, heavier drums—you bugles wilder blow.

Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!
Make no parley—stop for no expostulation,
Mind not the timid—mind not the weeper or prayer,
Mind not the old man beseeching the young man,
Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties,
Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the
hearses,
So strong you thump O terrible drums—so loud you bugles blow.


In our day, there is a searing new voice: Soldier-poet Brian Turner wrote from his experiences in Iraq. Read his book, and listen to him read his poems at the above link.

An Anniversary: V-J Day

On August 14, 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers and ended World War II.


This week I visited the beautiful capital of Minnesota in Saint Paul and came upon a rather remarkable monument to WWII. A few veterans joined me in reading the placards. It felt surreal to be 'home' and, seeking to learn more about my new state, the first thing I came upon was the WWII memorial. Unintentional, but probably not a coincidence.

Today I read the New York Times article published on that day, and noticed this remarkable quote:

"If the note had not come today the President was ready though reluctant to give the order that would have spread throughout Japan the hideous death and destruction that are the toll of the atomic bomb."

What?! After visiting Hiroshima a few months ago, and living in Japan for the last year, I am struck by this (unqualified) statement and wonder at its validity. And sanity.


Back in peaceful Saint Paul, Minnesota, I am so grateful to be home. I am grateful for safety and privilege and familiarity. I think about the challenges I faced as an American in Japan; the struggles of the people of Georgia and Sudan and Iraq and Afghanistan; even the struggle between Clintonistas and Obama. And I know that after a year spent in deep reflection about WAR and the peacemaking necessary afterwards, I just need a break. So today I rest, knowing that there is so much work to be done.

A New Truth Commission

Please check out this article by Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times. An excerpt:


"“There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes,” Antonio Taguba, the retired major general who investigated abuses in Iraq, declares in a powerful new report on American torture from Physicians for Human Rights. “The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”

The first step of accountability isn’t prosecutions. Rather, we need a national Truth Commission to lead a process of soul searching and national cleansing.

That was what South Africa did after apartheid, with its Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and it is what the United States did with the Kerner Commission on race and the 1980s commission that examined the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Today, we need a similar Truth Commission, with subpoena power, to investigate the abuses in the aftermath of 9/11."


And I add, perhaps then, the USA will put Bush and Cheney in prison where they belong (with no pensions).

Peace One Day

Check out this amazing website, campaigning for International Peace Day on September 21.

Americaland

"The American Dream offers a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement." 1931, James Truslow Adams

What does it mean, to me, to be from the United States of America? What does it mean, to others, to meet a woman from America? How do people react to me, knowing my nationality? What do they assume about me? What do I wish they understood, and what do I wish we could heal? What parts of my "american-ness" are my points of pride, and for what do I feel ashamed?

The following is a disorganized list of thoughts about the US in the world. Possible future essay topics.

Freedom of thought and action: In the US we are privileged to be able to think what we want, AND to to express our thoughts through letters to our senators, employment unions, personal fashion sense, creative art... In my travels through Eastern Europe I learned that many people there have independent thoughts but it is too dangerous to express their political thoughts publicly. This problem directly affects public life, even years after the fall of communism: in the Czech Republic no one wants to join clubs or even share their thoughts with friends, for fear their 'friends' might be spies.

Independent Thought: In Japan, when I ask the students a simple question like "what is your favorite color?" they turn to one another to confer before answering. The students do not understand the concept of voting. Virtually all teachers belong to the same ineffective teacher`s union. When a child is singled out and bullied, s/he tends to believe his peers` assesment and never defends himself. In America, if one child is bullied or isolated s/he usually aligns himself with another social group and tries to ignore the pressures of the agressors. This characteristic of Japanese culture has a positive side: harmony and group cohesion.

Wealth and sharing: When I explain my nationality to students (in a self-introduction lesson I have given about 50 times), they become wide-eyed and wildly curious. The United States is exhorbatantly wealthy in finances and natural resources. Even modest suburban houses are extraordinary compared to homes in developed nations like Australia and Japan.

Violence and war: News-reading adults here, both gaijins and Japanese nationals, are deeply concerned about America's recent warmongering. The US is also famous for its tradition of gun-wielding, robbery and frequent murders. Now that I've been out of it for a year, living in a very safe country, I see the violence in America simply appalling. It really sucks to live in constant awareness/fear and I am not looking forward to it. Private gun ownership seems a completely asinine tradition that only feeds fear.

Charity: The word doesn't even translate into Japanese. When speaking about "volunteerism", Japanese use the English word because it is such a rare concept here. I am so grateful to from the US, where ordinary citizens meet violence and despair with generous acts of goodwill. Every church, civic group, and family has a charity or two that we support. Even our national budget includes a significant percentage for nation-building, global public health, and economic stimulation of foreign nations.

Privilege, strength, bullying

Diversity and acceptance: In January and February I did a number of lessons specifically about "diversity", a word which interestingly, does not have have a Japanese translation.

Continual revolutions toward justice and equality

Creativity, opportunity, production, efficiency, output

Hiroshima and Miyajima

Many Japanese people discouraged our effort to go to Hiroshima, as there is "nothing there to see". I am glad we went. It was important for us, as Americans and citizens of the world, to witness to the plight and peacemaking of the people of this city. Please do go there.

The United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in August 1945. Hiroshima was a city known for education with multiple universities, and its historic military facilities. The city was chosen as target for several reasons including: 1) no Allied POW camps were in the Hiroshima area, 2) unlike most other major Japanese cities, Hiroshima had not yet been firebombed by Allied forces, which means that the city had visible "targets" remaining, and 3) the city was a military stronghold. After the nuclear attack, Hiroshima was rebuilt as a "peace memorial city". The city government continues to advocate for the abolition of nuclear weapons, the mayor writing a letter of protest every time a nuclear weapon has been detonated anywhere in the world (including tests) since the city's bombing, and has advocated more broadly for world peace.

Within our first few hours in town, we went to see "it". The Atomic Bomb blew up just over this government building, which survived the blast. However, nearly every other building was leveled within a kilometer diameter.

After taking some quiet photos, we sought food. Okonomiyaki is one of our favorite Japanese foods, and the people of Hiroshima make a unique style much-contested in the rest of the country. We had to try it at the epicenter: the Okonomiyaki Mura. This is a small building full of okonomiyaki restaurants, about five shops on each of six floors. That's a LOT of yaki.

The Hiroshima-style is layered and includes noodles (soba or udon). It's interesting... but kinda dry and not my favorite. We needed a lot of beer to wash it down. Don't tell that to the locals, peaceful as they may be.

The morning after, slightly hung-over, we walked back into town early. The Hiroshima flower festival was in full swing, with lots of vendors and cultural activities to enjoy. These guys were pounding rice into mochi in the traditional way.

They invited Mom to join in the fun! (She nearly pounded her assistant's hand in the process - oops!) As she pounded, a small crowd gathered and cheered her on. I was highly aware of the graciousness of these people to welcome an American woman in such a public way... it brought tears to my eyes.

Then she joined the ladies in rolling out the mochi balls, which they fried and offered us to eat. So kind!

The children's memorial was a touching monument to the international yearning for peace. In the center is a bell, which children and adults line up to prayerfully ring as a clarion call for peace. Surrounding the bell are glass boxes FILLED with millions of paper cranes made by children from all over the world. You and your class or organization can make cranes to contribute to this memorial! http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/

This sculpture of mother and child is ringed with thousands of paper cranes.

This is the central monument in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The giant coffin under this arch contains unidentified remains of hundreds of people.

After prayers and tears, we sought refuge at sea. It was said, after the Bomb, that "nothing will grow for seventy-five years". And yet the spring after the bomb, some grasses and trees put out green. What an incredible miracle for the savaged survivors of this crime against all that is Good!

We visited nearby Miyajima island, famous for monkeys and temples and bamboo rice paddles and... lots of other stuff we didn't see. It was our last day of intense travel and Mom was threatening to have a "temple tantrum" if we went to one more tourist spot. So we took the high road in the opposite directions of the hoards, to some quiet beaches. Fire meets water. It was so good for my soul to be there.





Avoiding the tourist spots proved to be most rewarding. We were invited to join three men, middle-aged triathletes from Hiroshima, in their beach picnic. In an amusing mix of Japanesie, Engrish, and gestures, we spent hours getting to know eachother.

It seems that Miyajima, too, has friendly local deer.


Our new friends hosted us at a great sushi restaurant that night and then took us to see the *very famous* Miyajima Torii Gate. The "floating torii" here is the third-most-beautiful view in Japan, so the prerequisite picture (through a dirty lens, sorry):


The next morning we flew together from Hiroshima to Sapporo.

P.S. Of all the (many) posts I wrote about our trip, this one was the most difficult to convey. After several years of intentional "peace work" in the Pacific Northwest, and my growing inclination toward spiritual pacifism, it is possible that my trip to Hiroshima will be my single most impressive day in Japan. I imagined that my job as 'teacher' and 'internationalizer' would enable me with numerous opportunities to convey my wish for peaceful relations between East and West. Instead, I fear that during this painful year I may have widened the gulf. My heart is broken. Of course, my students and co-teachers generally-hopefully know me to be a loving and intentional teacher. My Japanese friends know me to be curious and communicative. But my heart is not peaceful here. I have so much to learn about peacemaking. And more to process later, when I am healed and can be more generous of heart...

The Wisdom of a Child

Genocide Olympics

From the good people at Dream for Darfur: http://www.dreamfordarfur.org/

"Our campaign has one central ask: "China Please: Bring the Olympic Dream to Darfur." We are appealing to China, in its role as host of the Games and close partner of Sudan, to use its considerable influence with Khartoum to protect civilians.

"Olympic Dream for Darfur applauds that China won the bid to host the Olympics. We commend China’s willingness to work within the international community, and praise the energy and care China has devoted to hosting a celebratory Olympics.

"We do believe, however, that with the privilege of hosting the Olympics come responsibilities, including the obligation to live up to the spirit of the Olympics, which means acting as a global leader for peace."

Torture is a Moral Issue

From the good people at the "National Religious Campaign Against Torture"

Torture is a Moral Issue: Torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions, in their highest ideals, hold dear. It degrades everyone involved -- policy-makers, perpetrators and victims. It contradicts our nation's most cherished ideals. Any policies that permit torture and inhumane treatment are shocking and morally intolerable. Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word but allowed in deed? Let America abolish torture now -- without exceptions. Endorse the statement today:
www.tortureisamoralissue.org


Late last year, the House of Representatives passed important anti-torture legislation as Section 327 of H.R. 2082, the Intelligence Authorization bill. Section 327 would require all elements of the intelligence community, including the CIA, to abide by the restrictions in the Army Field Manual while conducting interrogations. The Army Field Manual prohibits torture and many of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" being used by the CIA.

Unfortunately, some Republican Senators have threatened to obstruct passage of H.R. 2082 as long as it contains Section 327 (the anti-torture provision). Passage of Section 327 is one of the most important actions Congress can take to stop U.S. sponsored torture. We need to do everything we can to win passage of Section 327 in the Senate. Defeating the attempts to block H.R. 2082 or to strip Section 327 from the bill will take 60 votes. We need your help.

The best information we have is that the Senate could vote on this in the first two weeks of February. We ask that you - in the last two weeks of January:

* Contact - by phone or by email - your Senators to express your support for Section 327 of H.R. 2082. You can contact your Senators by calling the Senate switchboard at (202) 224-3121, or you can look up their direct lines and their email addresses at
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

Dark to Light

Blessed Solstice to everyone!
May your days be colored with light and love.

We are off to Thailand and Cambodia for a much-needed break. Over Christmas we will be on the Thai island of Ko Si Chang, meditating with Buddhist monks and nuns. So near Burma, where monks are being imprisoned and tortured, I anticipate this experience will provide some powerful lessons.

I live in Japan, a country that remains deeply scarred by war. And yes, I am frequently reminded that it is MY country that bombed Japan. It could be even more painful to witness to see the more recent damage done, in Cambodia, by our bombs and landmines. I hope that my peaceful witness, smiles, and tourist dollars can make our relationship a little better.

I sing a sweet old song: "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me."

Who Are We?

It is difficult to describe my experience living abroad, as an ambassador of my country. To put it frankly, I am sometimes ashamed to be asked to represent the United States, most especially in conversations about international relations. I am asked difficult questions on a daily basis. This past weekend a friend asked me whether I believe that "Americans like war". I painfully answered that, yes, many do. More accurately, I observe that Americans are willing to support war if we are fed to believe that it will preserve our comfortable way of life. The national budget prioritizes bombs even more than education, healthcare, public transportation, or any other program that might serve people.

I was intentional about my choice to move abroad now. In the past few years I have become increasingly politically active. I participated in protests. I write my representatives weekly. I sign petitions. But I do so with a sense of fatalism, unsure how I can use my skills to make a real difference. I needed to take a break, get a new perspective, reflect on what is "American" in my personality, and consider what role I want to play in this world.

In a recent NYT article, the author Roger Cohen and his interviewee Barack Obama gave a more positive spin on America. How might we regain the capacity to inspire? I want to believe it is possible, but already feel defeated.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/opinion/10cohen.html?th&emc=th

"Obama, speaking less than a month before the Iowa caucus on Jan. 3, continued: “We can and should lead the world, but we have to apply wisdom and judgment. Part of our capacity to lead is linked to our capacity to show restraint.”

That was striking: an enduring belief in U.S. leadership coupled with a commitment to, as he also put it, acting “with a sense of humility.” Skepticism about the American idea and American global stewardship has grown fast during the Bush years.

There are many reasons: the failures in Iraq; the abyss between U.S. principle and practice (Abu Ghraib); the rise of other nations (China); startling displays of American incoherence (Iran); economic vulnerability (the dollar as declining store of value); and general resentments stirred by any near hegemonic power.

All this has led some to conclude that the world would be better off if America slunk home...Still, Obama stands by the universality of the American proposition: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness under a constitutional government of limited powers. “I believe in American exceptionalism,” he told me, but not one based on “our military prowess or our economic dominance.”

Rather, he insisted, “our exceptionalism must be based on our Constitution, our principles, our values and our ideals. We are at our best when we are speaking in a voice that captures the aspirations of people across the globe.”"

Accountability

From the good people at the National Religious Campaign Against Torture:

"Toture is a Moral Issue: Torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions, in their highest ideals, hold dear. It degrades everyone involved -- policy-makers, perpetrators and victims. It contradicts our nation's most cherished ideals. Any policies that permit torture and inhumane treatment are shocking and morally intolerable. Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word but allowed in deed? Let America abolish torture now -- without exceptions."

Endorse the statement today: www.tortureisamoralissue.org

"The Horse Bones" -- Peacemaking Music

I have been rehearsing with a small group of musicians for an upcoming performance on Culture Day, this Saturday the 3rd. The leader of the group is an English teacher at a nearby school. Although I don`t understand much of what we sing (in Japanese), it is peace that we sing about. I will be performing `Blowing in the Wind` and `The Water is Wide/Though I May Speak` (in English).

`Though I May Speak with Bravest Fire` is a song out of the UU hymnal, to the tune of `Water is Wide`. The first two verses are very Buddhist, I think:

Though I may speak with bravest fire
And have the gift to all inspire
And have not love, my words are vain,
As sounding brass, and hopeless gain.

Though I may give all I possess,
And striving so my love profess,
But not be given by love within,
The profit soon turns strangely thin.



It is a pleasure to sing for something I believe in. I miss you, Mo, RCA, and Portland UUs!!!!!

You Should Know About: Events in Burma

A Letter from Burma: Witness to Enduring Protest

[Note: The friend of a member of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee shared this information with the UUSC. The writer is currently in Burma.]

October 6, 2007

Dear Friends,

The events of the past weeks are shocking, barbaric, and unbelievable.

I was moved to tears to see the overwhelming support of the international community, especially since today, Saturday, is the Support the Monks' Protest in Burma Day. I wish the people in Burma had access to the news to know how many millions around the world are gathering in solidarity. I will most certainly relay this message of support upon my return. Information has been cut off to most of the country. Some people have been arrested for listening to the BBC and VOA.

I am aware that the news coverage of Burma has declined over the past days. This is primarily because the Internet was shut down. The BBC received 20,000 images in one day, they received but 12 the next, when the government shut down the Internet for the entire country. The violence has not stopped. So many are being taken away at night, beaten, and detained. I have eyewitness accounts from several Burmese saying that the violence is continuing in neighborhoods during the night. These incidents aren't being photographed because only the soldiers are allowed on the streets during curfew hours.

Here are a few stories that aren't making the news:

One man I know posted negative images of the regime on his blog and escaped just before the authorities came to his house. He and his family are safe, back home in Korea.

Demonstrators identified in the international news such as CNN and the BBC are being arrested at night, beaten, and taken away. One long-haired Burmese man seen on the BBC is in hiding. He came in the middle of the night to my friend's house, asking that he cut his hair to hide his identity.

The monasteries are empty. We don't know for sure where the monks are.

Many of the wounded demonstrators came to a health clinic I know about. The army demanded that they board it up within 10 minutes or they would be arrested. A friend saw several corpses, and many arrests are still being made at night in the houses of her neighborhood.

The hardest thing to deal with right now is the lack of reliable information and the complete lock down of the Internet, which has been down for over a week. Though all the major news items of the past weeks have happened within a mile or so of my house, the lack of information/news journalism is paralyzing. The paradox is that we continue with our daily life: we still go to school and to the fruit market, passing truckloads of armed soldiers.

Life, strangely, goes on, which seems, somehow, so very surreal, as if we're all dreaming.

Through it all, we have been deeply moved by the brave in heart, the demonstrators and monks who risked their lives for peace. The exuberance of the Burmese people in the streets those first few days of mass demonstrations was palpable; it was as if a weight had been lifted off of the country: everyone was happy, and smiling in the streets. The lid of oppression had been temporarily lifted. It was so inspiring to see the demonstrations and to see the people standing up in unity after all these years.

One of my friends was a teacher at the University of Rangoon during the 1988 uprising. She saw all her students taken away. Though I long for home, I want to be a witness for what is happening. Just being here matters.

I strive to be like the monks in the streets by being as peaceful as I possibly can. As truckloads of soldiers roam the streets, I look at their faces. Some of them are terrified, having been forced to join the armed forces. They are asked to "kill or be killed."

We are all assessing the risk factors and are being pushed outside of our comfort zones in these times. We are taking calculated risks. We are not discouraged by the suppression of the demonstrations; there is a deep, deep dissatisfaction among the people that still remains. Over the past two decades hundreds of thousands have died in struggles to create independence and democracy, and it is not over.

Many of you have called or e-mailed asking how you can help.

One way to help is keeping informed and spreading the word about what is happening in this country. The Internet offers much better commentary than the television media, with many support groups forming overnight to organize campaigns and peace vigils.

Please forgive the somber note of this letter. I'm usually much more upbeat and optimistic. But, I'm finding it difficult to be cheery these days, and I walk around with a deep, deep sadness for the nation of Burma and the people who I love so dearly.

Thanks for your prayers and support,

In Peace,

(Anonymous)

You Should Know About: An American Issue

Although most of my current focus is on my health/happiness/adjustment to living in Japan, this article in the NYT speaks to much of the work I previously did in America.

As many of you know, I spent my first few years as an adult working with cons, ex-cons, and troubled youth. My favorite job in college was leading the Prison Ministry program for my school, working in a close-security men`s prison in Minnesota. Immediately after graduation I attended a conference of artists, activists and prison employees, concerned about the U.S. system of incarceration. After university I spent several years mentoring youth-of-color in Portland, many of whom were at risk of falling into the `criminal justice` system. Most recently I volunteered for a Portland program assisting recently-released ex-cons as they adjust to life on the outside. This work is meaningful, rewarding, humbling, and so painful. The disproportionate number of inmates that identify as people-of-color is troubling; racial profiling and economic disadvantages are just two possible reasons for this American travesty.



September 30, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
Jena, O. J. and the Jailing of Black America
By ORLANDO PATTERSON

This full article is at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/opinion/30patterson.html?th&emc=th. My selected excerpt:

"America has more than two million citizens behind bars, the highest absolute and per capita rate of incarceration in the world. Black Americans, a mere 13 percent of the population, constitute half of this country’s prisoners. A tenth of all black men between ages 20 and 35 are in jail or prison; blacks are incarcerated at over eight times the white rate.
The effect on black communities is catastrophic: one in three male African-Americans in their 30s now has a prison record, as do nearly two-thirds of all black male high school dropouts. These numbers and rates are incomparably greater than anything achieved at the height of the Jim Crow era. What’s odd is how long it has taken the African-American community to address in a forceful and thoughtful way this racially biased and utterly counterproductive situation.
How, after decades of undeniable racial progress, did we end up with this virtual gulag of racial incarceration?"