Dear Peter and Merla, First to you Merla, good luck with your peace vigil. All change starts from an individual basis and the more that you threaten the status quo, the more resistance that you will find. It is easy for someone who is not part of a society to look from outside, view what is happening and then prescribe some magical formula which is going to fix all of that society's ills. However there appears to be one common element in all change against tyranny and aggression, everything changes, there is an impermanence in all things..
There is a feeling of powerlessness to change the system that is permeating many cultures and societies. Hindu teachings have tried to reconcile this struggle between the two aspects of creation, Vishnu [preservation] and Shiva [destruction]. It is the constant interplay between these two forces which eventually keeps everything in balance. Powerlessness is the point of equilibrium that contains the potential to go whichever way we as people choose to start the pendulum swinging. Everything that we do is added to the potential of changing events from one direction to another. in the end what matters is how we as individuals live our lives, and our relationships with everything around us. Everything in the Universe is recycled, even ideas. The same themes keep turning up through history. Listen to a politician, what he/she says is that which has proved successful in the past for leading the sheep to slaughter. Dont be led by the bell wether to wherever they want to take you. Rudolph Steiner saw when he developed the concept of the BD preps that the time would come when the food did not carry the forces to manifest the spirit. Many of the in the world can be bought down to two things, 1]Faulty nutrition in the food, and 2] Failure to assimilate the nutrients in the food. Fortunately in BD we have some of the tools which can help to overcome these influences. All that we have to do is hold our own lines in the war for the minds and hearts of the people. Regards James ----- Original Message ----- From: "Merla Barberie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2002 2:29 AM Subject: Re: The Perils of BSE > Hi Peter, > > Our "Why Organic?" booth addressed these issues. It was hard for me to come up > with a response to the fair theme, "Star Spangled Memories Uniting Bonner > County" because it's obvious that we aren't united and that people with a > certain point of view want to force the other's into quiet submission. Do you > remember this poem, I'm paraphrasing..."He drew a circle that shut me out, > terrorist, rabble-rouser and lout. But love and I had the wit to win, I drew a > circle that let him in." When we put the Milky Way with the "You are here." > sign under the fair theme on the front of the booth, we were redefining > everything. That is what Fred Kirschenmann did in his speech about community. > What we are doing on our road is trying to do something positive about our > whole watershed, while the logging trucks carry their precious cargo out down > our road to a mill. Men in this rural community don't have any work. They > will extract timber and minerals as long as the law allows this. > > Our local and state government in this state has been completely taken over > too. Our local middle of the road Republican party was taken over by the far > right wing who had help from the outside. How else did they suddenly have > their whole voting constituency on computerized "Get out the vote" messages. > The Democrats were left far behind. They would not embrace the > environmentalists because they wanted to "win," they said, and nobody would > vote for an environmental candidate. We have a whole bunch of unrepresented > people in this county, none of whom would join the Green Party because it's > evident that the laws and practices have already been set up to make it > impossible for an independent candidate to win even a county office. Our > democratic American values have been taken over by a fascist clique which has > turned the whole world against all of us and those of us who are not "united" > are disenfranchised in a national election by the Electoral College system. > > The Quakers are having a silent peace vigil on 9/11 and we are announcing it in > the local paper as follows: > > THERE IS A BETTER WAY > > September 11th this year will be a day of reflection, first to remember those > who lost their lives a year ago and in the days following as we reacted with > military actions in the Middle East. But this will also be the time for us to > consider the best way to change the attitudes and resolve the conflicts that > led up to the events on that fateful day a year ago. > > As the anniversary of 9/11 approaches, President Bush is campaigning to use > this event as the reason to expand the present conflict in the Middle East by > invading Iraq. > > Sandpoint Friends (Quakers) believe that such action (added to the cruel > economic sanctions already long imposed, and the more than 75 times we have > bombed Iraq since 1999) will not only lose us the cooperation and respect of > other nations, but will most surely result in more hatred > and violence against the United States. Such action is not only morally wrong, > it violates international conventions and completely aborts all efforts of the > United Nations to resolve by peaceful means the conflicts that led up to that > event. > > The Society of Friends (Quakers) has long held that conflicts should be > resolved by peaceful means. Therefore, the Sandpoint Friends Meeting will hold > a silent vigil in front of the Bonner County Courthouse from 5:00 to 6:30 PM on > Wednesday, September 11th. > > Concerned citizens are invited to join the gathering there to bear witness that > PEACE IS THE ONLY WAY. > > =========================================== > > PLANT HOPE, NOT HATE > PEACE IS THE WAY TO BEGIN > MAKE PEACE, NOT WAR > GIVE PEACE A CHANCE > > ============================================ > > > Peter Michael Bacchus wrote: > > > Hi Steve, > > I think it is a wake up call to our conciousness. Howlong does > > the alarm bell have to ring before you wake up? How much pain do we bare > > before we say it is enough at take some decisive action. It took Chernoble > > to wake Europe up. Then came B.S.E. I have just read an article about the > > hormone disruption of "Envronmental" chemicals. Like a horror story thats > > happening right outside our doors. Clean Green N.Z.!! well comparitive to > > Calcutta, maybe. > > Good on ya for doing what you do right next to a city where > > garbage is exported by the trainload or barge load every day and big daddy > > sees fit to drop a brick on his toe. The World needs more like those who > > role their sleeves up and grow REAL FOOD! > > I'm looking after a mother who is heading for alzheimers. > > Were holding it back as best we can, good B.D. food and leaves off a Ginko > > Bilboa growing in the garden. > > Warm regards. > > Peter. > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >
