A suvivor of Apartheid, new Greenpeace Director skewers Obama - US

Submitted by Eternity on Thu, 12/10/2009 - 11:19.

 

Democracy Now! - Longtime South African activist Kumi Naidoo was recently appointed the new executive director of Greenpeace International. In 1986 Naidoo was forced to go underground after he was arrested for violating the apartheid government’s state of emergency regulations. He later became one of the founders of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. We speak to Naidoo about Obama’s Nobel prize, the status of the Copenhagen summit, climate debt, and how his days resisting the apartheid government have influenced his current fight for climate justice.  Visit Democracy Now!

 

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Well, you got your daily

Well, you got your daily shot in on Obama. Hope you feel good.

The problem is that Obama and the Democrats raised our expectations much too high. And, of course, we helped greatly in raising expectations. We basked in it. None of us have - or could have - delivered to meet the bar we had set. So disappointment.

People, I think, expect Obama to deliver the way Roosevelt delivered in the Great Depression. Not sure Roosevelt would have stood the test you have set for Obama.

 

However, what is different is the American people. The American people of 1932 are different from the American people of 2008-09. 

Roosevelt had a strong left to push him and to support him and to oppose the right. Obama does not. Roosevelt had a strong labor movement. Obama has a weak labor movement. The Left of Roosevelt's time was hungry and organized. Today there really isn't any Left. And there doesn't seem to be anyone capable of organizing very much of anything.

As a nation we've allowed a very, very small minority to bear the entire burden of two wars. We don't even pay for it but shift the burden down the road. The student movement does little or nothing. There's no draft to force them to make tough decisions.

I've found in my years of observing that people don't react much until they have the knife at their throats. Then they get busy.

We are too comfortable to bother. So don't blame one person for our own failures. We need to take responsibility ourselves. All of us.

 

this posting of pragmatics is the best

 posting in this blog, along with Debra's posting of the Eisenhower speech on the military industrial complex. This was a good foundation that got wasted today. Let's do better next time.

Agree Rondo

Governing is complex and while our system is out of whack, imperfect, many times corrupted, it is one of the best.....Americans are too impatient, and as you say, too comfortable, even those of us on the bottom of the scale.    A president has to weave in and out, delicately balancing all factions, try to accomplish what is possible. 

All presidents veer from campaign promises.  I choose to believe not that they have lied but when actually in office are confronted with much better information than to which we,, the  public, can be privy.  If Obama were to govern from far left,  he would be crucified, unable to accomplish anything.  Democracy is a system of consensus. 

We need John Lennon

Kate--Roldo,

Roldo you make a good point, change requires all of us--not just one man.  And yet, think of all the individuals who have taken it upon themselves to be a lightening rod of change.

Who was the only President not to go to war in the last 50 years...Jimmy Carter.  Who created the Environmental Protection Agency...Jimmy Carter.  Who was the first to talk about fuel efficienty, Jimmy Carter.  And even when the American hostages were held in Iran all those months during the Carter Presidency, he made absolutely sure that not one of them died.  In fact, once they were release, they talked about how well their captors had treated them.

And yet, you guys have the audacity to talk about the far Left?

Oh, you mean like the Native Americans, that far Left?

Thank God Dr. King, John Lennon, Christ, Gandhi, Harriet Tubman, Princess Diana, Fredrick Douglass, Jimmy Carter, Mohammad, Malcolm X were not believers of faux-Populism--bombing the poor--advocating the use of land mines--supporting Apartheid--enriching the rich.

It's all a crock of bullshit.

Obama has completely taken up almost all the causes of Bush, and yet you stand proud.

Attacking me will FAIL, because me and Michael Moore, Naomi Klein, Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald, Cornel West and others are not the problem.  We're not committing genocide in the Middle East, Obama is.

How much longer will it take before you guys are justifying voting for Palin?

Obama's the new "War President".  Eat it.

And just like I've already told Debbie, blaming me will FAIL.

Enjoy your self-deception.  Enjoy your war.

Eternity

 

 

a true leader

is not a pussy.

Hello???

Amen!

Eternity

a true leader

could also be a dick? 

Maybe this will help some:

 

A Woman Lost...

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost.

She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below.
She shouted to him, 
 
"Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would
meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am." 
 
The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level.
You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude. 
 
"She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be an Obama Democrat." 
 
"I am,"replied the man. "How did you know?" 
 
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct.
But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost.
Frankly, you've not been much help to me." 
 
The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Republican." 
 
"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?" 
 
"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air.
 
You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem.
 
You're in exactly the same position you were in before
we met, but somehow, now it's my fault."
 
 

I highly recommend everyone read this comment!

Thank you Roldo - I needed a good laugh.

Disrupt IT

Muddying the Waters: This is a false analogy

Roldo,

Nice attempt...lame, but clever.

In your fable, the woman was lost all on her own.  The man on the ground did not deceive her.  What the man (supposedly) told her was honest and true.

That cannot be said of Obama.

What's next, comparing "death panels" to Single-Payer?

For someone who's supposed to be about speaking truth, you sure are muddying the waters--covering it up.

Eternity

Keep it real

I appreciate you keeping discussion about Obama front, present and real, Eternity - because of you, REALNEO is the only place I bother reading and thinking about our President - you have really brought great insight to this community (which shows by YOUR stats on REALNEO, BTW, as I'll show)!

So you didn't even crack a smile when you read Roldo's fable?!?!

Disrupt IT

It's good to be free

Norm,

The Real community is a brilliant idea.  I'm here because you're here.  So God bless you for all that you do.

Thank God fo independent media and alternative ideas.

It's good to be free.

Eternity

trying to write

and I came across this (which I think sheds more light on the debate):

Deontological (duty-oriented) focuses on duty to certain ethical principles such as honesty or justice in a quest for which duty is primary

 

Teleological (consequence-oriented) weighs the consequences of a course of action, as in utilitarianism with its calculus of “the greatest good for the greatest number”

 

These are compatible

Debra,

Non-violent social change serve both those aims.  So, no one has to buy into the lie that its one or the other.

Give Peace A Chance

Eternity

Eternity

Anger may make you feel better but it doesn't solve a thing.

I've often been self-righteous myself on such scores.

By the way the little story above is not my creation. I'm passing it on.

 

By the way

I don't think my original comment was clever at all. Nor was it meant to be. It was what I believe is a common sense reaction to your concentration on Obama as the Great Evil and the reality of our condition and the sharing of blame. What may be clever is your continued reference to liking Obama as you bring up only criticisms.

 

Roldo, you want war, why aren't you fighting it?

Roldo,

While others here are pleased to hang on your every word as true, I'm more interested in principles over personality.

Obama is a war-monger.  He is the new "War President" who has completely embraced all things Bush.

He is corrupt to the core, a betrayer of everything the Civil Rights Movement stood for.

Now I see why you hate Dennis Kucinich.  You're a war-monger too.

So, take your pansy-ass, poser Liberal grievances up with Gandi, Dr. King and the other true Progressive historical greats.  Because, calling me angry will not change the fact that you are a war-monger too.

You want a war, why aren't you fighting it?

You, Obama and the lot are a bunch of fucking cowards that are happy to spend trillions killing.

But go ahead, enjoy your war, while you sit on your couch with a head full of gined-up rhetoric of lies and deception--believing your own corrupt, deluded reality.

Long live King Obama the "New War President"!!!

Eternity

we won't be able to sit on our safe little couches

much longer.

times they are a changin'...

name calling

comes when you've lost your ability to be rational.

It is hard to be rational

In such irrational times.

Disrupt IT

Peace

Holding to lies and falsehoods...

...comes when you're a war-monger, supporting morally bankrupt policies.

Like Debbie et all, you can't argue the facts, so you try and discret the person.

Shows you got nothing.

Was John Lennon irrational?  Was Gandhi irrational?  Is Michael Moore irrational?  Is Cornel West irrational?  Is Naomi Klein irrational?  Is Keith Obermann irrational? Is Arianna Huffington irrational?  Is Amy Goodman irrational?

Are the people of Afghanistan irrational?

 

Facts

Facts

Facts

Facts

Facts

Facts

Enjoy your war.  I hope you choke on it. 

we are an ugly people

:::sigh:::

You are not a slave

One of the the things that some people get confused about with me is that even in my most confrontational mode(s) I still hold deep in my heart, a deep reverence for life--loving all people, Cheney, Obama, Bush, Powell, Mugabe, Rice, Rumesfeld, Saddam et all.  Consequentially I am not threatened by different views and opinions.

Some are of the belief that because I feel and express myself passionately, and not always in the nicest way, that that somehow lessens the validity of the truth I bear.  When in fact, that wrong thinking only indicates how fragile public discourse has become.

A poem--lyrics to a song--I wrote some years ago:

Afriad to love
Afriad to think
Afraid to speak out
Afriad to exist

...you are not a slave

Afraid to have sex
Afriad to live
Afraid to breath
Afriad to be real

...you are not a slave

Afraid to grow old
Afraid to die
Afraid to feel pain
Afraid to walk away

But, now you're...

Working a slave job

Making a slave wage

Living a slave life

Suffering, each day

...you are not a slave

...you are not a slave

Break free
You are not a slave

Break free
You are not a slave

Be love - Be free
'Cause you are not a slave

You are, you are
You are, you are
YOU ARE NOT A SLAVE
_________________________________
You Are Not A Slave
Words by Max Eternity
22 June 2006
All Rights Reserved

 

Eternity

 

oh - I didn't mean you, Eternity

I meant us...

how fragile public discourse has become

I've been told I need to learn to be more politically correct, from all sorts of people... I've also been told I'm seen as the bad cop.

I've replied, I have been taught and have the privilege to speak the truth.

Disrupt IT

Tell it like it is

Amen!

 

Professional truthtelling

My dad is a psychiatrist, so I learned at a young age you don't help people by making them delusional - a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact.

Disrupt IT

maybe if we just put those words out there

(because often no one bothers to follow the links or play the video):

Bob Herbert, writing for the NYTs quotes Eisenhower:

“I hate war,” said Dwight Eisenhower, “as only a soldier who has lived it can, as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”

He also said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”

Some choose not to see

Debra,

Like Michael Moore, Cornel West, Amy Goodman and Naomi Klein, Bob Herbert is spot on every time.  He's one of the few writers @ The New York Times who consistently tells the truth.

Eisenhower was right too, refering to the quotes you provide.  In fact, he was the guy who came up with the term Military Industrialist Complex.

Yet no matter how much one puts the truth out there, some continue to choose not to see it...perfering instead to aide and abet occupiers and war-mongers.

Eternity

 

why didn't (doesn't) anyone listen to Eisenhower?

 Eisenhower's final speech, an omen, about the military industrial complex was so prescient - yes - Obama DID say in his campaign that he would step up the military in Afghanistan. But it is still astounding that a "progressive" president, elected to bring about "change" could be so fucking pathetically predictable. and evil. God bless the Afghanis... 

 

From the Public Papers of the Presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960, p. 1035- 1040 (emphasis added)

My fellow Americans:

Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor.

This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.

Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.

Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of the Nation.

My own relations with the Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war period, and, finally, to the mutually interdependent during these past eight years.

In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have, on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the national good rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the Nation should go forward. So, my official relationship with the Congress ends in a feeling, on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together.

II.

We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

III.

Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.

Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology -- global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger is poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle -- with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage -- balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.

The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well, in the face of stress and threat. But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. I mention two only.

IV.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present

  • and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientifictechnological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system -- ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

V.

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government -- must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

VI.

Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war -- as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years -- I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.

Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road.

VII.

So -- in this my last good night to you as your President -- I thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and peace. I trust that in that service you find some things worthy; as for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.

You and I -- my fellow citizens -- need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation's great goals.

To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America's prayerful and continuing aspiration:

We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.

 

arguing

or discussing or whatever you want to call it, eternity, just doesn't happen with you. If someone doesn't drink your koolaid, you attack, and you know what, this isn't conducive to dialogue. For free thought to happen, it can't be done in the atomsphere that you create with your swooping attacks & name calling, it is virtual battering. You post the articles of others, take a position and dare someone to challenge you. You got challenged. Get over it already.

Hypocrites for WAR

I write plenty of articles of my own.  And yet to avoid facing the fact that Obama has punk'd us all, you seek to plant falsehoods in the minds of others, claiming that I am some kind of copycat.

Have you any idea how much time it would take you to read all that I've written???

So, quit beating around the bush--avoiding the facts.

I've called Obama out, like Michael Moore and others as the "War President" that he is, and you are trying to stonewall and cover-up the falsehoods.

Challenge the facts already--which you haven't.

You're stuck on personality, focused on being nice, while endorsing a Obama's plan to murder men, women and children.

You are a hypocrite.

Enjoy your murderious war.  I hope you choke on it!

Eternity

You are a pleasant guy.

You are a pleasant guy.

truth telling

is not happening here because this is all about just that: Obama clearly, and repeatedly said through out his campaign that he would build up the war in Afghanistan. Now he is doing this. It is disingenuous and hypocritical to act as if this specific action in Afghanistan by Obama is now a reversal.

 Missing from all of this is my position on any of it. I spoke a truth: Obama was a pro-war candidate. Say whatever you want, Eternity, you are pathetic. The slurs, name calling, and Eternity, your delusions of grandeur to put yourself in the same league as Klein, King, Goodman, and for god's sake, Gandhi, you are so freaking far from the truth. I have wasted too much time on your nonsense, and that is what it is, cloaked in  pretend left leaning words that go no where except to join in with the revisionist right wingers while yelling that you are otherwise. I am not buying this bullshit.  

Debbie

In kissing Obama's ass...

...not only are you buying into the bullshit, but you are full of shit.

And again you show yourself to be a total hypocrite, scolding me for name calling, only to savage my name...calling me pathetic.

I don't pretend to be Mr. Gladhands...smiling in everybody's face.  But I do tell it like it is, and yes I do put my self on par with any and everyone who speaks truth to power.  No one has a monopoly on that.

So now you play the role of hater...mad because I exposed you, Roldo and the Obama kooky kool-aid fan club for being sophmoric sheep, full of duplicitous, vicious and hatefulness...advocating the murder of poor, brown-skinned people in the Middle-East, dissembling the facts to justify your perverse, vile thinking.

That horrid smell?  It's not you're breath, it's your mind--rotten with visions of war.

No one said you had to comment on anything I've written here, that was you're choice, and now you're pissed--taking your ball, crying...running home--because you didn't get your way.

You were all to happy to chime in when I put the truth on savcash, but now that you're hearing something you disagree with, suddenly I'm angry, pathetic, with delusions of grandeur.

What a load of crap.

Can you say HYPOCRITE?

Enjoy your fucking war.  I hope you choke on it--having nightmares about all the babies you're participating in killing!

You've got blood on your hands.

Eternity

 

 

I can say hypocrite

 in the same breath as I say your name, Eternity. 

But all the posts are here...for all to see...

...that in fact it is I who first called you a hypocrite...because you are.

And like I have said all along, you resort to attacking me, because you got nothing. 

You completely ignore all the FACTS.  But it's here in all these posts...all the links and videos I've posted about others echoing exactly words I have said about Obama, like Naomi Klein, Michael Moore, Arianna Huffinton, Amy Goodman, and the new Director of Greenpeace, Kumi Naidoo, et all--now what Rolling Stone Magazine is saying about Obama.

Yet in your own mind you think that by insulting me you have wiped all that away.

Not only are you a hypocrite but you're a juvenile fool.

You cry about your own brother's death, yet you are all to happy to assist in the murder of other people's brothers.

And you're a big dummy to think that anything you could ever say to me would ever change what I believe.  And regardless of the lies you spew, attempting to misrepresent my words, it all comes back to Obama's total failure.

Deb, enjoy your war, you lying-ass phony!

Eternity

 

Yes, the posts are there, forever

 That is how it works. What next, Eternity? 

I continue my message...enjoying my life

What's next, well that's something you need to ask yourself. 

I don't sleep with you at night.  But as for me...

I'm living my life to the fullest.  I just returned from a fabulous trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains, celebrating my mother's 74th Birthday.  

Later this month I'll have a feature article coming out in a national print publication and my own magazine, Art Digital Magazine celebrates it's one year anniversary this year too--this month.

Hip Hip Hurrah!

I'm working on a book project and I've got a solo exhibition coming up next month at the Ferst Performing Arts Center @ Georgia Tech.

After a long struggle with drugs, one of my best friends is finally getting clean.

And as if that's not enough good news, guess what, there's more!

BECAUSE, there's an absolutely wonderful Marcel Breuer retrospective happening right now in Atlanta--costing over $100,000 to produce--which came about in large part (so I'm told)  because of my advocacy to save the Atlanta-Fulton Central Public Lbrary, Marcel Breuer's last commission.  Too, on the architectural front, the World Monuments Fund, a writer for the New York Times and others are reconsidering their usage of the word "Brutalism" because I've been stongly advocating that we must return to using the term "Beton Brut" to describe lightweight, cast-concrete over steel building construction.

My son will be coming to spend some time with me over the holidays, so things in my life couldn't be better.

And a group of cultural heavyweights in Atlanta have recently become very interested in what I have to say about culture in the city.  Too, apparently it seems that what I have to say goes a long way, because I was recently informed that a letter of recommendation that I wrote for an artist that was applying for a grant, was very instrumental in that person being awarded the money.

In other good news.  A young lady from England, who heard about my work on the internet contacted me seeking my counsel for her college thesis, as she is preparing to receive her Bachelors Degree.

What exactly have I done to deserve this beautiful, spendid life...me, a poor black man who was born and raised in the segregated South--having only a high school diploma, which I barely got, because I almost flunked out of highschool.

God is great.  Life is good.  And while I'm being blessed--doing all these wonderful things, I'll keep telling the truth about the lies and deception that I see--doing what I can to make the world a better place.

I know I can sometimes be a complete asshole--some might even say a jerk.  But I'm honest and sincere.

And I have to give it to ya Debbie, even though we've been at each other really hard today, I admire your spunk--even as I maintain that you miss the point by arguing personality differences, needing instead to challenge and grapple with the facts...however painful and unsavory.

God bless you and yours.  I'm glad you're safe in Cleveland and not somewhere where bombs are being dropped.

You might think I"m being a bit of a smart ass in saying that, but I say what I mean and I mean what I say.  Because, you just have no idea how sad needless killing really makes me.  War is horrible, and if more people had to experience it first hand, they would be much more reluctant to give it tacit approval.

Though for now, I'm glad to be alive myself.  Grateful that I am healthy and able to think my own thoughts and say what I please.

Go RealNeo Go!

Eternity

I am glad too that I am safe, for now

and not in a village being strifed by war plans. I am happy for you that  things are going well, and especially that you son is coming to visit for the holidays.

Yes, we did go at each other hard, the arguing over personalities came after you started it. God, doesn't that sound like sibling stuff? I do like a variety of news sources and encourage you to explore a variety also. Not to co-opt you, but that are good writers that critque the areas that we argued in, though, for me, time doesn't allow me to link those as easily as you do yours. 

At any rate, say Happy Birthday to your Mom. I glad that she is able to get out and enjoy the Blue Ridge Mountains, they are beautiful. 

THe Bruer retrospective is big; enjoy.

Till next time.

jumpinf in here

jumping in for a minute to say that I've read them all, mister and You are screaming so  self righteously that your are DEAF to anybody else.  goodbye cause I can't take the screaming

Not a chance

Like "differentpointofview" and "skepticalthinker" you've never made a single blog entry.  Yet, you think you've got something to say.

Calling me a self-righteous.  Like Roldo and Debbie, never mind the FACTS. Let's just insult the person telling the truth, and maybe they will go away.

Not a chance, you sorry sack of shit.

Eternity

 

It will be interesting to

It will be interesting to see if Obama actually gets the troops out of Afghanistan in 18 months.  Maybe, just maybe, if we could believe that was true some of us that would like to see an end to the wars would be able to support Obama's decision.   But the trust is just not there.  We don't even know the real reason why we are involved in the wars.  Could it be that we want the oil that is there?  Are we, as a country really that greedy for oil that we don't care who we hurt to get it?  Maybe if we were told the TRUTH we would begin to trust our leaders, but we have been fed lies for far too long.  This expansion of the troops to Afghanistan is just unbearable for many of us that were hoping for peace.  I also can't support this decision to expand the war in Afghanistan.  War will never bring peace.  

http://www.thedebate.org/thedebate/petition.asp#petition

18 months

I did not agree with Obama's position on furthering the war during his campaign. I have not changed in that belief. I do not believe that this can be "over" in 18 months.

Rejecting Obama's original and final position on war

I get it. What Eternity is saying is fuck Obama's position on war, now and always - war is wrong.

Did I hope Obama, as President, would show those warmongers and move toward Peace - did I hope his intelligence would win out over the military industrial complex - did I hope for change - ? Yes. Even if Obama was for war, we elected him to represent us, and we are not for war. As our President, we expect him to hear his people. If he does not, he is a failure.

Now, to see if Obama is capable of hearing Max Eternity, as he is speaking loud and clear that we must have Peace for that citizen to be satisfied with this President.

I agree, and my soon-to-be-2-year-old son Max-Xavier agrees.

I know Obama listens to REAL NEO.

I am hopeful he will hear our call for peace.

Disrupt IT

A lot of people are calling for peace

And a lot of them were awake enough last year to hear the awful truth of where every presidential candidate was on the subject, with the exception of Kucinich who was ridiculed by his call for a department of peace.  What makes up a call for peace? Is it marching on Washington (been there, will do it again), is it letters and petitions, working to get congressional people in who will force the war down, or is it destroying the village to save it by trashing anyone who does not speak in the neo-liberal popular press lingo? Sorry, but my commitment has been a life long commitment to the peace process and I am having little patience with the hate mongering protestations masquerading as a call for peace. The stance of either your with me or against me is sounding a little like a recent former president.

Obama will hear the call for peace when the call is so loud that everyone else hears it too, and that seems way too far away. Too many people in this country have blinders on and actually, for now, support this war. 

Like Obama...

...you speak out of both sides of your mouth, Deb.

Eternity

I speak clearly

I speak clearly. I don't back down just because you do not like what I am saying. I also do not respond to your demands to explain myself. If you have a question, ask it. You watch for perceived nuances or slights or deviations from your own party line, and swoop in, attacking.  The message either gets lost in all of the posturing, or it just was not there to begin with. Whatever, sweet dreams of peace to you and realneo. Tomorrow is a new day.

Obama has to explain himself, not you

Below are links to just a few article about those, most within the Democratic Party, who are very strongly disagreeing with Obama being the "New War President."  But I understand, just like the man who kicks his dog, because he's mad at his boss, you've decided to kick me, because you're broken-hearted with Obama:

Eternity

That's exactly what I'm saying

Norm, it seems you really get it.  And oddly, it would appear that you have articulated my own sentiments better than I have.

Damn, how did that happen!

Eternity

I specialize in comparative analysis

and making complex things simpler for people to understand.

Disrupt IT

and remember just last year

Hilary favored continuing both wars, so did McCain. What choices we had! And will the next set of candidates be better?  

Maybe Kucinich will run

Maybe Kucinich will run again...and maybe this time people will believe that he had it right from the get go.  But, then again, maybe the majority of American people really want war.  Will we keep pushing for war until the war is on our own soil...killing our own citizens?  Is that what it will take for the majority of people to really hate war and work for peace?

You go girl!

As hard as it is for me to say, ward14resident, you really hit the nail on the head.

I'm a man of principle, so even when I have personality clashes with others--for whatver reason--I still must humble myself and give them their due props when they call it out like it is.

You go girl!

Eternity

Kudos not needed.  But I do

Kudos not needed.  But I do find it interesting that people can agree on some things and disagree strongly on others.  Maybe we here on RealNeo are really like siblings. 

during Vietnam

During Vietnam, kids from more affluent families received deferred induction as long as they were in  college. I believe that the Vietnam war ended when the deferments were ended, and the affluent kids had to same opportunity to go kill or to go be killed. Suddenly, the war was equal opportunity and not just for the sons of poor families. People are comfortable, the war is over there, and it is optional viewing on TV.  In these wars in the middle east, it is poor people waging the battles. Kids are still joining the army for the educational opportunities and benefits, too young and naive to know what they are getting into. The recruiters are on campus and in the shopping malls.

dwebb, I agree that a large

dwebb, I agree that a large majority of the military recruits are poor kids that are looking for an opportunity to earn a living.  But, now there is no draft so the ones that join do so voluntarily, but I don't think they really understand that war is real, not a game.