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Work 4 Peace,Hold All Life Sacred,Eliminate Violence! I am on my mobile version of the door-to-door, going town-to-town holding readings/gatherings/discussions of my book "But What Can I Do?" This is my often neglected blog mostly about my travels since 9/11 as I engage in dialogue and actions. It is steaming with my opinions, insights, analyses toward that end of holding all life sacred, dismantling the empire and eliminating violence while creating the society we want ALL to thrive in

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Harm

In case you are not aware of what is happening in Berkeley tonite, I'll tell you: the city council is getting ready to vote on a resolution by the Peace & Justice Commission that will support one of our most courageous young heroes in the u.s. today, Wikileaks "whistle blower" Bradley Manning.

The commissioner who was the only vote against the resolution, did so on the grounds that the information Manning released could have harmed u.s. troops by spreading negative information about us to the 'enemy'.

This is my response to the issue of "harming":

1st of all: the people of the world already know, in great detail, the harm we are causing in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Nothing Bradley revealed was news to them.

2nd please consider and weigh the 'harm' of war that we - our troops, contractors, weapons - are capable of and are inflicting on others: the harm of the most heavily armed, most highly technologically 'advanced' weapons of war, the country that spends more money on the military than every other country in the world combined; the "harm" of destroying a country's infrastructure, of building and imprisoning more prisons, more women, more men then have ever been imprisoned before; let alone the torture, rape, murder of those individuals and others.

3rd of course, the almost greatest potential "harm" in this country Bradley inflicted, is the harm to the views of those people supporting war. it is mostly the people of this country, not those who are attempting to survive under our troops' occupation of their land, who are unaware or choose to be uninformed of what is really happening in our name. To hide the truth, distort the facts, cover-up at best exactly what it means for us to be at war, against very poor countries, in this 'modern' day - which is what the protagonists of war HAVE to do to sell it to us - this is the greatest "harm" that cripples our ability to act as kind, caring, loving human beings, or even just decent people. Bradley's courageous acts can lead to this liberation of the people of our nation.

This brave young man faces up to 52 years in jail. Please go to http://www.bradleymanning.org/ and do what you are willing and able to support his fight, which is really our fight too.

Veggie oil and Mazatlan


It’s very strange to be in Mazatlan surrounded by so many english speaking people, from both the u.s. and Canada, but also from Mexico, bi-lingual folks.

I’m on the hunt for veggie oil and finding people so very open and helpful. People get it here pretty quickly, even though they can’t believe it.

The first restaurant I go to, I am referred to the womon who is the manager, after talking with three other people.

She tells me she will talk with her chef and I should return in the morning. I’m forgetting her name now, but we have a great time, her talking in english and me responding in Spanish! So we both get to practice the languages we are trying to learn!

She tells me she was just thinking what do they do with their used oil? They have only been open 15 days!

I cross the street and approach two young men who are working in front of an Italian restaurant. Neither of them speak English but they are able to understand me! Unbelievable! And one of the men gets it immediately.

He uses words recycle and ecology. He is so happy and tells me he is very proud of me. He takes me around to the side and explains to the man sitting inside the office what I want. After waiting 10 minutes, I am told that they have very little oil and they have a contract with someone to pick it up.

I go to the next restaurant. Every restaurant I’ve been in today is empty of customers. I feel bad approaching not as a customer but as someone who wants something from them.

This restaurant has about 7 workers and 2 customers. I ask in Spanish for aceite vegetal and they look at me as if I’m saying something beyond belief. The owner or manager gets up, takes me to the little kitchen in the back and shows me the deep fryer.

I say yes, I want this oil! He looks for a container but can’t find one. I tell him I’ll bring one back. I walk the 2 blocks back to the truck, get a container and return.

My first oil!!!! Yeah!!!! He drains the fryer and the oil is not as terrible as it looks inside the fryer. The rest of the staff comes in, laughing and talking rapidly. They still can’t believe I’m taking this oil for my truck!

I go to the truck and then to the 2 restaurants close to where I’m parked. BOTH of them tell me that a fellow was there ONE HOUR earlier and picked up about 60 liters of oil! GRRRRRRRR

If only I wasn’t so tired last nite. But I was. And this morning I had to study my Spanish after jogging on the beach and going for a dip in the ocean.

Oh well. I go to the next restaurant and they tell me sure, they have veggie oil used and I should get my truck, which I do.

I’m SOOOOOOO excited! Everyone is so positive and trying to help!

When I return, there are 2 huge pots outside by the curb. The whole staff is out there too, reading my truck, talking english and Spanish, and waiting for me to load it up.

I see it is REALLY funky oil but I can’t tell them I won’t take it. I get out two buckets and they dump yucky oil into both buckets. There’s still some left but I tell them it’s enough.

Shit! Now what am I going to do? I’ll have to find somewhere to filter it and see if there’s anything usable.

Onward and upward, hopefully