Monday 24 December 2012
Saturday 22 December 2012
Is America at War with itself?
Is America at War with itself?
I must admit I am conflicted in writing about this. I'm conflicted because I'm a Canadian, and yet I owe so much to America.
Do I have the right to speak my truth about America, because I'm not a citizen? But it's for the love of it's people that I write this article.
It has welcomed me as a visitor, as a student, as a writer, as a broadcaster, as a friend and as a businessman.
Every summer while I was a child growing up my father would pack up the car and drive the 3,500 miles from Edmonton, Alberta to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. to visit his only living sisters from the holocaust. He lost both his parents and one brother. For him the United States was the sanctuary that he could go to where he felt at home. I too had the same feeling of a second home with Aunts, Uncles and cousins welcoming me. As an only child, that meant a great deal to me.
The University of Montana welcomed me and gave me a college education that I would never have gotten in Canada because my grades were not good enough. But the U of M gave me a chance to prove myself and I made the honor role twice, once as an undergraduate and once as a graduate student. My college roommate became a life long friend.. I have so many friends in the U.S. they would fill up an entire data base. It's for that reason that I am conflicted.
It saddens me to see where America is at today, on it's knees, both fiscally and morally. But this is what power, corruption and greed can do to an entire civilization. The Wall Street Meltdown was the first warning sign, and just as I had written 6 years ago, I had hoped it would be their wake up call", but rather than stop pursuing the elusive American Dream they tried to re-birth it, re-brand it and politicize it. . And that was the definition of insanity. . "Wealth in itself is kind of boring," a billionaire once said. "You just accumulate, and it's like having too much food on your plate."
The American Dream has indeed become it''s worst nightmare. On the eve of this Xmas and the day after the "purist" Mayans said we will enter a new dawn of enlightenment we can say that America continues to follow a path towards the ruin of it''s most precious commodity, it's people.
For the past 12 Xmases, including this one, America is fighting a war somewhere in the world and on this day it has begun to be at war with itself.
Whenever there is a public event, and with every opportunity; on radio, television,. or newspaper, America thanks it's troops.
Last night David Letterman, had soldiers do video greetings to loved ones back home . He has done this every year for the past 12 years. And at the end he says, let's thank these troops for us being able to be free and enjoy the life we have here in the U.S.
I'm wondering if Letterman along with so many other entertainers and public figures continues to echo a feeling that somehow has gotten lost in translation.
How many times have we been told that Viet Nam was not a war we should have been in, CIA reports lied about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, even now the U.S. is planning on withdrawing from Afghanistan by 2014. So why is the U.S. in Afghanistan in the first place?
The government has always told us it's to protect us from our enemies who want to destroy us and take away our freedoms. Who are these enemies? It seems to switch with each new conflict.
Now please put all these facts in perspective: Ten long years of continuous wars, trillions of dollars, 250,000 military personnel, trillions of dollars worth of intelligence gathering institutions and capabilities, millions of dollars set in rewards for Al Qaeda terrorists, and a supposed network with supposed Al Qaeda active terrorist members in very large numbers. Yet we have less than 1000 detained who have been accused of being Al Qaeda terrorists, and none ever proven to be an active Al Qaeda terrorist member.
Does this make sense to you? Does it make sense as far as the trillions of dollars you have been made to pay for this? What are we talking about here? A massive never-ending war against a fantastical network of technologically and militaristic dwarfed terrorists whose proven guilty members we haven’t been able to catch or kill.
Everyone is busy arguing whether we should cut or add a few billion dollars to the several trillion dollars war on Al Qaeda. People keep talking about which country we should be getting out of, or, how many more countries we should get into to fight against terrorist Al Qaeda. No one is asking what Al Qaeda is or who really these supposed Al Qaeda terrorists are. The question that never seems to come up is exactly how big is this Al Qaeda we are spending trillions of dollars and thousands of lives fighting against. I mean no one.
And yet the very thing America has feared, has now become it;'s darkest reality. Americans have become afraid of themselves. It's no longer about the terrorists, it's about Americans fearing Americans. Worse, the NRA, which has a powerful lobbying voice has taken a stand and it spells it out like an old Western movie from the 50's; ""The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun". http://usat.ly/Tg8AXK
Here's the rhetorical question I have for the head of the NRA, how do you know who's a bad guy and who's a good guy?
The biggest fear right now for Americans is that Obama will take away their right to have auotmatic army type rifles. And so they are cleaning out the gun stores like preparing for a hurricane, and a hurricane is what''s coming.
Remember Operation Gladio? The Pentagon, through NATO, organized bombings and shootings in the streets of Europe. When one of the terrorists got caught, he explained at his trial: “You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public to turn to the State to ask for greater security.” He later explained the “strategy of tension” to the BBC: “To create tension within the country to promote conservative, reactionary social and political tendencies.”
So the answer to the question, WHY? is really very simple: When you terrorize the population, you open the door for fascist, authoritarian politicians.
If they do not stop the insanity, the next step is anarchy. When every man, woman, and yes, even a child has a gun in America, there will never be a need to fear terrorists, because there will be nothing left to destroy. Americans will have destroyed themselves.. Geoffrey Canada, a prominent educator rights advocate said last night on CNN that the U.S. was heading towards a "moral cliff" from which there will be no turning back. http://bit.ly/12uLwta
I agree, the fiscal cliff is just about money, the moral cliff is about a human life.
I pray that none of my family, friends, and business associates and the people I love will be one of those human lives.
It's time for truth, wisdom, peace and harmony, not anger, confrontation, and fear. (Definition of FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real)
May God teach and guide the United States before it's too late to bless it.
Allan Holender is a writer, visionary, broadcaster and founder of the Zentrepreneurism movement. His new e-book Zen 3.0 "The Inner Game of Conscious Business is available from Amazon and Apple on his website at http://www.zentrepreneurism.com
I must admit I am conflicted in writing about this. I'm conflicted because I'm a Canadian, and yet I owe so much to America.
Do I have the right to speak my truth about America, because I'm not a citizen? But it's for the love of it's people that I write this article.
It has welcomed me as a visitor, as a student, as a writer, as a broadcaster, as a friend and as a businessman.
Every summer while I was a child growing up my father would pack up the car and drive the 3,500 miles from Edmonton, Alberta to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. to visit his only living sisters from the holocaust. He lost both his parents and one brother. For him the United States was the sanctuary that he could go to where he felt at home. I too had the same feeling of a second home with Aunts, Uncles and cousins welcoming me. As an only child, that meant a great deal to me.
The University of Montana welcomed me and gave me a college education that I would never have gotten in Canada because my grades were not good enough. But the U of M gave me a chance to prove myself and I made the honor role twice, once as an undergraduate and once as a graduate student. My college roommate became a life long friend.. I have so many friends in the U.S. they would fill up an entire data base. It's for that reason that I am conflicted.
It saddens me to see where America is at today, on it's knees, both fiscally and morally. But this is what power, corruption and greed can do to an entire civilization. The Wall Street Meltdown was the first warning sign, and just as I had written 6 years ago, I had hoped it would be their wake up call", but rather than stop pursuing the elusive American Dream they tried to re-birth it, re-brand it and politicize it. . And that was the definition of insanity. . "Wealth in itself is kind of boring," a billionaire once said. "You just accumulate, and it's like having too much food on your plate."
The American Dream has indeed become it''s worst nightmare. On the eve of this Xmas and the day after the "purist" Mayans said we will enter a new dawn of enlightenment we can say that America continues to follow a path towards the ruin of it''s most precious commodity, it's people.
For the past 12 Xmases, including this one, America is fighting a war somewhere in the world and on this day it has begun to be at war with itself.
Whenever there is a public event, and with every opportunity; on radio, television,. or newspaper, America thanks it's troops.
Last night David Letterman, had soldiers do video greetings to loved ones back home . He has done this every year for the past 12 years. And at the end he says, let's thank these troops for us being able to be free and enjoy the life we have here in the U.S.
I'm wondering if Letterman along with so many other entertainers and public figures continues to echo a feeling that somehow has gotten lost in translation.
How many times have we been told that Viet Nam was not a war we should have been in, CIA reports lied about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, even now the U.S. is planning on withdrawing from Afghanistan by 2014. So why is the U.S. in Afghanistan in the first place?
The government has always told us it's to protect us from our enemies who want to destroy us and take away our freedoms. Who are these enemies? It seems to switch with each new conflict.
Now please put all these facts in perspective: Ten long years of continuous wars, trillions of dollars, 250,000 military personnel, trillions of dollars worth of intelligence gathering institutions and capabilities, millions of dollars set in rewards for Al Qaeda terrorists, and a supposed network with supposed Al Qaeda active terrorist members in very large numbers. Yet we have less than 1000 detained who have been accused of being Al Qaeda terrorists, and none ever proven to be an active Al Qaeda terrorist member.
Does this make sense to you? Does it make sense as far as the trillions of dollars you have been made to pay for this? What are we talking about here? A massive never-ending war against a fantastical network of technologically and militaristic dwarfed terrorists whose proven guilty members we haven’t been able to catch or kill.
Everyone is busy arguing whether we should cut or add a few billion dollars to the several trillion dollars war on Al Qaeda. People keep talking about which country we should be getting out of, or, how many more countries we should get into to fight against terrorist Al Qaeda. No one is asking what Al Qaeda is or who really these supposed Al Qaeda terrorists are. The question that never seems to come up is exactly how big is this Al Qaeda we are spending trillions of dollars and thousands of lives fighting against. I mean no one.
And yet the very thing America has feared, has now become it;'s darkest reality. Americans have become afraid of themselves. It's no longer about the terrorists, it's about Americans fearing Americans. Worse, the NRA, which has a powerful lobbying voice has taken a stand and it spells it out like an old Western movie from the 50's; ""The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun". http://usat.ly/Tg8AXK
Here's the rhetorical question I have for the head of the NRA, how do you know who's a bad guy and who's a good guy?
The biggest fear right now for Americans is that Obama will take away their right to have auotmatic army type rifles. And so they are cleaning out the gun stores like preparing for a hurricane, and a hurricane is what''s coming.
Remember Operation Gladio? The Pentagon, through NATO, organized bombings and shootings in the streets of Europe. When one of the terrorists got caught, he explained at his trial: “You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public to turn to the State to ask for greater security.” He later explained the “strategy of tension” to the BBC: “To create tension within the country to promote conservative, reactionary social and political tendencies.”
So the answer to the question, WHY? is really very simple: When you terrorize the population, you open the door for fascist, authoritarian politicians.
If they do not stop the insanity, the next step is anarchy. When every man, woman, and yes, even a child has a gun in America, there will never be a need to fear terrorists, because there will be nothing left to destroy. Americans will have destroyed themselves.. Geoffrey Canada, a prominent educator rights advocate said last night on CNN that the U.S. was heading towards a "moral cliff" from which there will be no turning back. http://bit.ly/12uLwta
I agree, the fiscal cliff is just about money, the moral cliff is about a human life.
I pray that none of my family, friends, and business associates and the people I love will be one of those human lives.
It's time for truth, wisdom, peace and harmony, not anger, confrontation, and fear. (Definition of FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real)
May God teach and guide the United States before it's too late to bless it.
Allan Holender is a writer, visionary, broadcaster and founder of the Zentrepreneurism movement. His new e-book Zen 3.0 "The Inner Game of Conscious Business is available from Amazon and Apple on his website at http://www.zentrepreneurism.com
Sunday 16 December 2012
Gun Culture In The U.S. Will Not Change
The thing we must remember about the slaughter of the children on
Friday is that it will have little or no impact on the crazed world of
American firearms. The pattern is always the same.
There will be the traditional prayer vigils and hand-wringing and solemn promises that something must be done to prevent it happening again.
There will be a slight post-massacre blip in calls for tighter gun controls.
Those will be overtaken in a month or so by cries for greater access to guns so people can protect themselves.
In the past five years, there have been 19 mass shootings.
Hundreds of people have died, including 32 souls at Virginia Tech in 2007.
The random killings of innocent people have become as integral a part of American life, as late night television.
In fact the day before the Connecticut murders, a man killed two people in a Portland shopping mall.
Only two. Hardly worth mentioning.
There will be hours of media exploration talking about the reasons behind these frequent killings.
That appalling human being, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has jumped out in front with his explanation.
It's because God has been kicked out of the school system.
"We don't have a crime problem, a gun problem or even a violence problem. What we have is a sin problem," he said.
Connecticut is the birthplace and home of the US firearms industry.
Colt, Winchester, Remington and Sturm-Ruger have all set up manufacturing plants in what is called "gun valley."
The gun industry supports about 6,000 jobs in the state and has an overall impact on the economy of about $1.3 billion.
And in a grisly irony, Newtown is the site of the country's second most powerful gun lobby, the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
The predominating culture in the United States is not food or music or literature. It is guns.
There are estimated to be 300 million guns in the country. Everyone has a gun or has access to a gun or knows somebody who owns a gun.
When I lived in Washington, the young teacher in the apartment next to mine slept with a gun on her night table.
The worship of guns and gun culture is glorified in every element of American popular entertainment.
Drive though any state on a weekend and see the number of gun shows. In many states, it is easier to buy a gun than a used car.
In his teary plea for hugs and prayers on Friday, Barack Obama said he was reacting as a parent, not as a president.
In fact he should have acted precisely as a president. Instead of crying, he should have cried enough. Finally, for God's sake, enough.
The gun lobby in the US is impervious to public mourning and public heartbreak.
The ghouls who preside over the National Rifle Association couldn't care less about the pile of tiny bodies in the Newtown school.
Or in Columbine. Or in Aurora. Or in Portland. Or anywhere.
They are in the death business and must protect the franchise.
The question now is: Can President Obama summon the courage he lacked as Candidate Obama, and take up the fight?
With so many lives at stake, we can only hope.
Michael Enright, is the host of the Sunday Edition on CBC Radio
There will be the traditional prayer vigils and hand-wringing and solemn promises that something must be done to prevent it happening again.
There will be a slight post-massacre blip in calls for tighter gun controls.
Those will be overtaken in a month or so by cries for greater access to guns so people can protect themselves.
In the past five years, there have been 19 mass shootings.
Hundreds of people have died, including 32 souls at Virginia Tech in 2007.
The random killings of innocent people have become as integral a part of American life, as late night television.
In fact the day before the Connecticut murders, a man killed two people in a Portland shopping mall.
Only two. Hardly worth mentioning.
There will be hours of media exploration talking about the reasons behind these frequent killings.
That appalling human being, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has jumped out in front with his explanation.
It's because God has been kicked out of the school system.
"We don't have a crime problem, a gun problem or even a violence problem. What we have is a sin problem," he said.
Connecticut is the birthplace and home of the US firearms industry.
Colt, Winchester, Remington and Sturm-Ruger have all set up manufacturing plants in what is called "gun valley."
The gun industry supports about 6,000 jobs in the state and has an overall impact on the economy of about $1.3 billion.
And in a grisly irony, Newtown is the site of the country's second most powerful gun lobby, the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
The predominating culture in the United States is not food or music or literature. It is guns.
There are estimated to be 300 million guns in the country. Everyone has a gun or has access to a gun or knows somebody who owns a gun.
When I lived in Washington, the young teacher in the apartment next to mine slept with a gun on her night table.
The worship of guns and gun culture is glorified in every element of American popular entertainment.
Drive though any state on a weekend and see the number of gun shows. In many states, it is easier to buy a gun than a used car.
In his teary plea for hugs and prayers on Friday, Barack Obama said he was reacting as a parent, not as a president.
In fact he should have acted precisely as a president. Instead of crying, he should have cried enough. Finally, for God's sake, enough.
The gun lobby in the US is impervious to public mourning and public heartbreak.
The ghouls who preside over the National Rifle Association couldn't care less about the pile of tiny bodies in the Newtown school.
Or in Columbine. Or in Aurora. Or in Portland. Or anywhere.
They are in the death business and must protect the franchise.
The question now is: Can President Obama summon the courage he lacked as Candidate Obama, and take up the fight?
With so many lives at stake, we can only hope.
Michael Enright, is the host of the Sunday Edition on CBC Radio
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