new drug war bill

[daniel]

On another thread, Silentwolf commented on this:

"As a side note, http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/a...ensen051705-aa
will take you to a link that lets you email your representatives so you can complain to them about a new bill that's in the works that gives mandatory drug sentences...and not just for users! It has a clause in there that says if you know someone who uses any scheduled substances and you don't report them within 24 hours and assist the law enforcement in every way they need you to, including wearing a wire, you could be imprisoned for up to two years. That provision alone will put pretty much everyone in the US in prison...please click on the above link and bookmark it so you can keep sending emails in to your local reps petitioning them not to vote for it when it reaches the floor. My plan is to send an email a day for the next two weeks opposing it, and then send an email and call every day. Robin Hayes, one of NC's reps has told me that she plans on voting for it to pass. Please do something to preserve freedom for us all."

I just wanted to honestly relay my own current reactions to pleas like this (and I get them all the time from DPA emails, MoveOn, etc.). My feeling, increasingly, is that it is pointless to throw energy into objecting against the mindless atrocities of the lawmakers. When I try to analyze my own intuition on this point, I come up with the following points:

1, the more they overreach, the faster the system will collapse. Let them try to put everyone in jail - who's going to pay for it? If I am one of those who is forced to go to prison eventually, so be it. I don't believe in being a martyr for one's beliefs, but I would only see such a development (considering my essentially innocuous and benevolent nature) as a sign that sawdust is beginning to leak out of the old-fashioned stage props.

2, there is something vampiric going on here, in that they want to create outrages that force us to respond - and just by responding we are feeding their system with our energy. I seem to prefer to withdraw my energy from this system, as much as humanly possible, and exert it on creating what is positive for the future.

3, also i am a bit sick of the white liberals who begin to fight only when a bill seems to threaten them, but not when it threatens Native Americans or minorities (like the Rockefeller Drug Laws, which were catastrophic for blacks in NYC).

4, as long as the conscious elite is kept in reactive mode (opposing and fighting against the outrages of the system), we are not thinking properly and not doing what needs to be done. Subliminally, that seems to be the true meaning of these sorts of bill attempts, to keep the thinking minority from actually applying their consciousness on a higher level.

[sidecross]

In all sincerity, what is the difference, daniel, between what you wrote and the intellectual community of Germany of in the 1930’s?

I feel the government already has largest prison population of any industrial modern country. And the private prison industry will welcome the idea of more people to put in prison.

[ June 14, 2005, 07:12 AM: Message edited by: sidecross ]

[silentwolf]

I have to agree with Sidecross here.

On a physical level, I'm an American who is aware of our history and dedicated to our Constitution. I know what kind of struggles the Country Party (framers of the Bill of Rights) had against the Wig Party (those who believed in the power of monarchs and oligarchs) and I cannot in good conscience stand by on any level and watch this kind of heinous tyranny blossom or bring forth growth of any kind with taking action against it.

If you can sit by and just watch without it bothering you enough to take action, then so be it. By not taking action against it, however, you're condoning it. And you're calloused or cowardly if all you do is watch it go on and do not resist it, in my opinion.

I received some propaganda in the mail this past Saturday from a group calling themselves "Citizens for a Drug-Free Midland" who are resisting a bill to allow alcohol sales in this town. Currently, they're prohibited. They equated alcohol sales in this community with increased crime, illicit drug use, and taxes. I wrote them back a nice two page letter quoting our nation's Founding Fathers: Ben Franklin's "Those who would trade their liberty for security are worthy of neither," and a few from Gen. Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Prohibition is anti-American, un-Constitutional, and against the ethics that our Founding Fathers had.

I also took the liberty to post the same letter in the post office for all who see to read. But you won't see a political sign in my yard saying to vote yes or no this month.

I cannot sit by and not take action.

Here's a few quotes from Thomas Jefferson for you, Daniel. Not that I expect them to spur you to action, of course; your type has long been known in the eternal human struggle for liberty.

"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?"

"Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now."

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

"He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors."

"I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."

I'll fight for my freedom. You can sit in your lawn chair, drink a beer, and watch the show if you want...but know that what you view as a non-expenditure of energy on your part is actually an expenditure promoting tyranny.

A reflection upon a puddle gives no indication to its true depth, Daniel, despite the elaborateness or clarity of the reflection. You're staring into the reflection, neglecting to look within the puddle.

[silentwolf]

The reason I keep going to our elected public servants, despite the despotic and tyrannical actions of the majority of them, is because I believe the methods employed by the Constitution are the best non-violent means to insure liberty.

One of two things will happen with this path. The majority will become enraged at our slavery, toss out the corrupt officials and dictates, and install those who will preserve liberty;

Or a minority will stand up and begin to fight, and blood will be spilled.

Unfortunately, history has shown that the true patriots who will act are few and quick to die, but their deaths and actions spur the impotent majority into actions capable of destroying the tyrants for a time.

Take strong actions now, be successful, and bloodshed will be avoided. Fail to act, and the few patriots will be forced to ensure liberty by whatever means possible.

[craazyman]

Dear Representative Maloney,

As a resident of Manhattan and one of your constituents, I am curious if your office is engaged in the debate over Sensenbrenner's HR 1528 bill.

From what I could tell reviewing the bill on the THOMAS system, among other faults, the prospective legislation contains a clause that would subject people to criminal prosecution if they fail to report a neighbor to police if they suspect that neighbor has committed a non-violent drug offense.

It strains the imagination to consider how such an approach to jurisprudence would succeed within our already overburdened law enforcement, court and prison system; what would constitute prosecutable "evidence" of knowledge of a drug crime; and how the bill would make former-Soviet-style informants out of millions of Americans, under threat of imprisonment.

I would be interested in any updates your office could provide regarding the status of HR 1528 and your work on the bill.

Sincerely,

[I didn't sign it "Craazyman"]

* * *

I will post if I get a response from Rep. Maloney's office.

[willoweyes]

I liked your letter Craazyman! Good job!

Daniel, while I agreed with everything you said in principle, the Law of 180 degree opposites forces us to look at the other side of the truth.

If this law were implemented, it would not be exercised indiscriminately. It would be used as a sword over the head of those who proved themselves disagreeable to Power. It would be another tool to keep people afraid and paranoid, and worried about their neighbors.

Surely we who care can at least write our legislators, without taking too much time from our busy schedule of ushering in the new paradigm?

If we really want to add a straw to the camel's back, let's support a universal draft!

[Thom]

I think the situation in Nazi Germany was different. The humiliation (as it was seen) of the Versailles treaty, and the consequent bankrupting of the German state created an entirely different environment to that in which the Bush administration operates.

I'm inclined to agree with Daniel on this one.

[sidecross]

Thom, Margaret MacMillan's Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, argues against the view you expressed.

[Lowlight]

Its a difficult one this...Im not sure which side i fall on. Im always in favour of Speaking out when the shadow of oppression falls, but in this case im not sure if it will do much good. Maybe there are better ways to speak out, i.e. direct our language at other problems that people may listen to more.

Im always outraged by any talk of a war on drugs in America. It primarily a war against Black Americans. The CIA has and continues to control the majority of the drug flow into the States, creams of anywhere up to half a trillion dollars a year and props up wall street with the profits. There is a drug war but not in they way most people think.

[Rob P]

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I'm a damn Libra so I see both sides of this question,
and to me, the thing seems to be that every man thinks he
is the only one who sees all the colors in the land
of the color-blind. Both sides think they know
the right way to proceed, for the benefit of all...

Who is the 'all' they all think they are going to save?

And what are we saving them from?

Themselves?
Or is it that all we really want
is our own freedom?

But freedom for what?
Freedom from what?

To do whatever we like?
Smoke whatever we like?
Watch whatever we like?
Think whatever we like?

Well- again- that is what
the other side wants too...

He 'knows' what is best for you.

Who is right?

We are all blinded by the failure
to recognize this idea: that until
we recognize the true freedom within
ourselves, we will always be
restricting the freedom of others.

As soon as we take sides there is a conflict,
and no true resolution is possible.

These are not the revolutionary times of
250 years ago, and we are not in
Europe of 70 years ago....
We live in a colorful grey world full
of contradictions and confusion
about what is right and what is wrong...
And who gets to choose...

And again I ask you if there is an ultimate
'right and wrong' to actually define this question...

This country is full of
(I'm quoting someone but I don't
remember who)
'fat, dumb, happy people'....
and do you honestly think that the 'comfortably numb'
will rise up to fight for your perceived injustices?

What will it take?

How did millions of people around the world
in 2003 gather the collective will to protest
a military invasion which the US government
had every intention of going through with?

Do we now see the futility of large
gatherings, making signs,
chanting to faceless entities?

Do we think the protest had
a valid effect upon the people
it was intended for?

Or was it a true moment of
the expression of our ultimate
unity as a human family?

Did anyone in the crowd
think that it would serve
no purpose at all?

That thousands upon thousands
would be dead, regardless of how
colorful and forceful your
'NO WAR FOR OIL' sign was?

Well this is where we still are-
You are free to make all the signs
you want, and write all the letters you want.

We are all alone in this world, and as an individual
you have the right to remain true to
yourself only, and if someone wants
to infringe upon your right to hold
this truth, well- you do what you will,
and they will do what they will,
and where does that lead us,
if neither of us sees what the other truly is?
That he is you, and you are him...

This story has no ending- well the ending
will come when we transcend this game
and move to the next level-

You could be there now!
Because you are : )

seeya
R O B

[Thom]

Sidecross, I'll have a look at that book thanks. Its an interesting subject, for another thread perhaps.

I read somewhere that Jung noted an increase in dreams of predatory big cats in his German patients between the wars. I wonder what surges might be taking place in the collective American dream world.

[daniel]

sidecross: "what is the difference, daniel, between what you wrote and the intellectual community of Germany of in the 1930’s?"

There are a lot of important differences - for instance, this government is boxed in by their own expressed ideology of "freedom," "democracy," and so on. They haven't been able to reintroduce the draft, they can't find enough soldiers - there is a deeper level of subliminal rejection of the whole program they are offering. Although part of the "cultural DNA" of the whole situation has evolved from 1930s Fascism (Bush's family connections, etc.), the world is in a much different place in many ways, and the same scenarios cannot be repeated in the same way.

sidecross: "I feel the government already has largest prison population of any industrial modern country. And the private prison industry will welcome the idea of more people to put in prison."

Right but at a certain point imprisoning more people becomes an economic impossibility - this has already been realized by some states that are trying to move into other models of punishment. Of course there are also attempts to put the prison population to work (especially in the South), which is a return of slavery, in a sense. However I do not think the extension of prison to another million+ citizens is economically or practically feasible.

silentwolfxvx

" I cannot in good conscience stand by on any level and watch this kind of heinous tyranny blossom or bring forth growth of any kind with taking action against it."

I am all for taking action - it just has to be the right kind of action. Writing letters everyday to idiot braindead congresspeople doesn't seem to be effective action to me. If you really wanted to help the situation, you might contact Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and help organize a series of talks in your local community - at the Chamber of Commerce etc.

"By not taking action against it, however, you're condoning it."

By taking the wrong kind of action, you are supporting the system with your investment of personal energy.

"And you're calloused or cowardly if all you do is watch it go on and do not resist it, in my opinion."

When the Patriot Act and the RAVE Bill came along, I really did my part - I emailed everyone I knew, I sent Op-Eds to the NY Times, etcetera. This did not seem to bear fruit. I have been forced by experience to reassess the situation, and what I now see is that the system itself is caroming towards its own collapse, and instead of trying to deal with one or a few of its many evil tentacles, the right thing is to seek to envision and promote and live in the new paradigm that is going to be forced to emerge as this one crashes down.

[daniel]

The larger point is to think strategically rather than reactively. As long as you are just reacting, you are lost. That is why I propose bringing in LEAP to your local community - apparently these disaffected sherrifs, DAs, judges, and so on are the most effective at presenting a whole counter-argument to the War on Drugs that actually works to convince even conservative businessmen that the mission is utterly counterproductive and misguided.

[daniel]

here is the website for LEAP, which includes contact information, if you want them to speak in your community:

http://www.leap.cc/

[silentwolf]

Yeah, I've already been reading up on LEAP. I was introduced to them via www.overgrow.com...quite a few of the experienced grow contributors and supporters of OG are current/former LEO and judges...but they stay quiet about who they really are.

I can see the system crashing right now as well, Daniel, but I don't just approach it from one angle. A lot of our elected public officials are despots, but that doesn't mean I won't chide them as much as possible, and try to goad them into doing something to promote liberty. At the same time as I do this, I move my family to an area that will be safe from the swarms of people moving down from the larger cities when the food supply is broken, an area full of wild game, food, fresh clean water, and safe from fallout should nuclear weapons be used upon D.C. or any other military bases in the area.

When the system does collapse, there will not be a smooth transition into a new system, as far as the basic necessities of life are concerned. Effective change which promotes new growth is always swift, overwhelming, and "violent" as some people would consider.

It's all about being free for me. That's why I searched religions and studied the nature of existence. I can't bow and be obedient to any despot or tyrant, be it a god, a single man, or a collection of individuals. I also can't dive into conquest for money...it presents itself to me an act so against Nature that I abhor the very ideal of "legal tender."

Freedom is what I need. The freedom to roam through the woods, plant seeds and pick crops, hunt wild game, and tend to the domesticated animals. I'm tired of paying tribute to Caesar, and being bound as a slave with lies fed into my ear to keep me content.

This is my motivation, and this is why I act as I do.

[willoweyes]

Silent, Chellis Glendenning has an interesting book; "Hi, My Name is Chellis and I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization." Her premise is basically, once we put up a fence, once we separate the domesticated from the wild, we become domesticated ourselves (IE, when we partake of gardening, domesticated animals, and all the other accessories that keep life safe and predictable). How do you feel about that thought?

Daniel, the more I contemplate this thread, the more I feel you are feeling a sense of great weariness. It just does seem like too much effort to fight sometimes, doesn't it? They are like vampires, sucking our blood with their thousand little cuts. But the beast is already drinking of you--you cannot live now and escape its fangs. The only question is, how and with what will you fight? Or will you be drained?

This drug bill is not about laws against black vs white. This is another step toward fascism--increasing paranoia; forcing neighbor against neighbor--turning us all into informers. This is ten years manditory if you are caught smoking pot in front of your ten-year-old. This is your friend pressured to rat on you. This is a nation of stoolies. It is very bad.

The Russian state collapsed because the people said "No" collectively, not because the people said, "Well, they can't send everyone to the Gulag, so let's just set back and let the system screw itself!" People must not hear, "Child Protection," and think, "Oh, that's nice!" We can't get tired when it comes to speaking out against--I will dare say it--evil.

[silentwolf]

I agree that we are quite domesticated at this point in time, as a species.

The wild fight to be freed. The domesticated are content, or just not willing to fight, and follow orders.

Of course...once a domesticated animal has a taste of what it's like to be wild and literally be forced to fend for itself, the chance is rare that it will allow itself to be completely re-domesticated. The in-between-the-two is what I want.

[Agent Smith]

fighting the system maybe an oxymoron if the system was designed to do nothing more than breed fights.

cooperating with the competitive to create the outcomes we desire can be a most worthy challenge.

identifying where you are cooperating with a parasitic system and evaluating a more intelligent use of your resources can be most rewarding.

parasite require hosts. sybiotes require communities.

how can we cooperate with those who appear to be our enemies to create the world we want to live in?

[daniel]

"how can we cooperate with those who appear to be our enemies...?"

first realize there are no enemies. Essentially, every person is the same - everyone desires a better life for themselves and their family. Everyone is participating in the same unitary and universal consciousness, at their own level of karmic and psychic development.

The best way is to seduce the elites to the proper perspective, utilizing the whole range of tools available to us. I think bringing LEAP to your local Chamber of Commerce, if everyone on this board pursued that, it could have an enormous benefit.

[Agent Smith]

i'll have to disagree with your first statement, that everyone is basically the same, and wants the same thing...

...you and i daniel do not want the same things. i have no interest in your universal consciousness, or ideas about psychic development, or karma.

if you can view that last statement as nonpersonal, and void of value judgement, i would be most greatful. it's the most direct way to describe my position that i can think of at this moment.

your second suggestion i agree with quite a bit more.

understanding what these other people, who by the way have defined many of us as enemies (i still find it challenging to think of them as 'confused' on this subject)) and offering them versions of our outcomes that work with the core of what they are seeking ...ie. 'seducing' them seems much more effective...

...of course some begings are suicidal...

[residualantipathy]

This is my favorite debate...what do we do?

And my favorite word on it that I have found comes from a San Francisco Digger, writing in a Berkeley udnderground newspaper in 1966:

"If the society is A are we to be anti-A or can we make the leap to B or out of alphabets altogether? As it is now, the street scene is the subliminal content of capitalism: egocentric, competitive, and material. The reaction to lousy politics is no politics; the reaction to mind-prison communism has been no communism; the reaction to bullshit ideology has been no ideology...in all cases the logical obverse; the least imaginative and most obvious recourse."

Daniel--I think you are totally correct about the need to be more creative and positive rather than reactive. If we know that we are smarter than these people, then why don't we demonstrate our intelligence rather than keeping ourselves tied up fighting uselessly against them?

But nothing aggravates an activist lefty more than religion and spirituality, so the 2012 "it's all coming down" argument doesn't convince action-oriented liberals. However, I've swayed a few of my peers to come over to the Digger or Burning Man model of political action by using arguments like the one I posted above, that appeal to secular-leaning and intelligent people.

In other words, you don't even have to believe anything about 2012 to realize that the protest model is irrelevant at best and at worst completely counterproductive.

---David

[Agent Smith]

that is an excellent point david...

...the part i find so daunting is that the 'right' (and not even specifically them) have pretty well mastered a HUGE arsenal of modalities which allows them to 'act'... and act in concert... one of the major things that 'those other people'...(right/left... illuminiods, alien skank ho's, vegan nazis, cannibal burger makers...whatever) have absolutely mastered, is the ability to 'frame the debate'... and i mean this on a civilization wide level...

...what if we've all been programmed to act, react, 'create' etc. in less effective ways than were necessary?

i look at the work of john taylor gatto, an ultra experienced educator who has researched the exact origins of our modern education system, and exposed it for the control mechinism that it is... and i don't mean 'just another brick in the wall' style generalities.... SPECIFIC THINGS are done to children... i'm betting most of us on this board... that frame the way you are ABLE TO THINK... not just what you're thinking about... yeah, i knew they were lying to me about history...but i didn't realize that they were also ringing a fucking bell evey 45 minutes so that i wouldn't be able to pay attention to a subject for longer than that... i didn't realize that they seperated me from my family everyday, and a diverse age group, and stuck me with me 'peers' ie. those kids who were my same age, for 13 years so that i would be disconnected from any sense of community, and only have group loyalty to 'my ggggeneration'.... this began with carnigie, and rockafeller.... mean....HUH? damn these guys are slick...

...and it just gets better, and better... research diet, nutrition, water additives, and you begin to learn some very interesting things.... did you know that the human digestive system properly run has the ability to create protiens, and vitamins? ...of course you cannot do this properly if you drink tap water....

....i am here on this Earth. i have been given access to a certain amount of it's resources, in the form of a body, a mind, infomation, and a certian place in a human society.... i see it as my job to MAXIMIZE the use for the Earth as a whole that i can get from these resources...

[daniel]

Great points about education, agent smith - could be a piece for Metacine if you could develop it thoughtfully. My friend Speed Levitch has been raving about a book called "Deschooling Society," by an anarchist, that makes the same arguments. Apparently William Irwin Thompson is working on developing another model for education with a different curicullum for a planetary culture - look forward to checking it out.

I would note from earlier: My perspective is that everyone ultimately wants a better life - that is what we all share. I would also propose that we are participating in universal consciousness and shaped by karma, whether we want to think about it or not.

Also, David, it is not about "believing" in 2012 - belief in anything becomes self-limiting. It is about looking over the available evidence and making the best thesis. For me, personally and intellectually, the evidence seems to support the hypothesis that the Mayan Calendar has a significance, marking the evolution of consciousness on this planet. I still wouldn't say I "believe" in it. Show me better evidence that supports another hypothesis, and I will shift my thesis.

[residualantipathy]

Well, sure, for us 2012 isn't a "belief." But we're talking about the people that have never heard of Arguelles or McKenna, who greet talk of 2012 with skepticism bordering on ridicule. To these people, the people we are ostensibly trying to persuade, 2012 is definitely a "belief" in the same realm as a religious cult, and any political outlook based on such a belief seems to them dangerously irresponsible. While I certainly don't feel that way, I'm realistic about the fact that these sleepwalkers feel that we are, as Mckenna happily described himself, "on the lunatic fringe of the lunatic fringe."

Now I don't really care about "convincing" anyone on the left that many of their activities are futile. But since I am surrounded by these types of people at school, and I am inevitably asked by them why I don't protest, I have found that they are much more receptive to arguments like "The Long Emergency" than talk of The Mayan Factor. That sounds like pragmatism, sure, but I think it's better to start by speaking their language rather than jumping right into the "lunatic fringe" stuff.

As misguided as I think the secular left may be, I think that they represent the group most likely to shift to our viewpoint, and therefore they (their minds, not their activities) cannot be dismissed. When events start spinning out of control, if we are prepared to rationally explain what is going on by presenting the evidence that we have already considered and accepted, we will be able to gain a great deal of intelligent allies.

[daniel]

residualantipathy,

once again, i agree. I have already been seeing a lot of my protest-culture friends moving into the spiritual/consciousness evolutionary perspective since the pathetic spectacle of the last election.

Generally, my sense is that all you can do with people in any conversation is move them one step or insight beyond their current perspective on the world. People will come to this material when they are psychically ready to handle it.

I agree with you about the secular left. My feeling is their energy has to be shifted from protesting or being "against" the current system, to beginning to actually plan and build the new structures that will be necessary when the current system topples, which according to my operative hypothesis will be around the year 2008.

We are in a situation now that is very similar to the decade before the French Revolution, when intellectuals and cafe bohemians spent all their time grousing about the system without any awareness that there could actually be a fall that would put them into positions of authority - and when it happened, they misused the opportunity, leading to Napoleon, etc.

[Gnosisolarium]

.. and what is your operatiing hypothosis daniel?.. i would be greatly interested in hearing it

[craazyman]

Interesting article from Sunday 6/26 Washington Post on native American shamanic healing and rejection of pharmaceutical pychiatric drugs . . .

* * *

Healers Prescribe Tribal Tradition
'White Man's Medicine' Is Secondary to Time-Honored Customs

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 26, 2005; Page A11

When a chronically depressed 9-year-old girl at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota became so sad that she stopped eating, Ethleen Iron Cloud-Two Dogs came up with a treatment plan: not antidepressant drugs, but a spiritual assessment, followed by a healing ceremony at a Lakota purification lodge that represents the womb.

"There is a hole dug in the middle and rocks that are heated," she said. "Because we believe that everything has a spirit, rocks are addressed as grandfather spirits. The water is taken in and poured on the rocks -- the steam that results is the breath of the grandfathers which then purifies and renews us."

Over the next three months, the girl recovered, said Iron Cloud-Two Dogs, who treats emotionally disturbed and suicidal children at a federally funded Native American mental health program called Nagi Kicopi, "Calling the Spirit Back." The healer dismissed those who demand evidence that her techniques work.

"They will say, 'Where's the proof, where's the research base, how can you document this?' -- all the Western aspects of clinical interventions," she said. "We understood from the beginning that we would get those reactions, so our stance is, 'We are Lakota people and these are Lakota children, and we will use the methods that have worked for thousands of years and that's all there is to it.' "

For rest of story (you have to register, but its free) . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...062500876.html

[zenafire]

I think everyone here has made some good points...I'm a Libra, too, like Rob P, and so see the good and the bad, weighing the options.

Not one of us can tell the other how they should or shouldn't take part in the government, but we can share what we want and leave others to take it or leave it. We need to remember what each of us personally needs to do in relationship to the whole, but keep it in perspective to our own needs-burned out, stressed out, FEARFUL activists are not helping themselves or the whole.

I work with a statewide political org, but because I agree that acitivism is pointless and the sooner the system crashes the better, I have mostly given up on my personal political activism in pursuit of more time for spiritual reflection and my garden-preparing myself for what may ultimately be reactionary times for all of us. It is frustrating getting nowhere with repeated emails, letters and phone calls. But to offer encouragement to those who choose to be active... I just returned from working a politicking weekend where I charmed and schmoozed, but ultimately got more accomplished by speaking with legislators on a personal level. The constituents that have been organized across the state have made their voices heard by being present with their personal stories. Bringing in LEAP members to meet with legislators is the way to go on this issue. Let them share their perspective. Legislators often know little about the issues covered in bills they are to vote on-they must be educated somehow and if you feel the need...Share who you are, especially if you can do it in person, and bring your spiritual self with you! My work is accomplishing something for some people in their present. And I do pat myself on the back for it, while realizing my time might be better spent preaching on Love, Unity, etc. instead.