| Paul's Blog of Occasional Musings |
Government For the People From the People
My blogs have become scarce due to more
time researching than reporting. But the current U.S. situation weighs
heavily on my mind. With our nation's economic difficulties (including
the Herculean challenge of avoiding a national bankruptcy), political
deadlocks at many levels, and questions about the integrity of major
institutions, I believe everyone, regardless of profession or job,
should should apply some intellect and social skills to the solutions.
Most readers of this site know me for my interdisciplinary,
historical/scientific/spiritual books and articles over the past 15
years. But some know about my first book (Dismantling the Pyramid: Government by the People)
30 years ago, and now out of print, and have asked if it's still
relevant. So we have made a PDF file of the entire book available here.
This piece is an abbreviated story of how that
book came about and why many of its conclusions are still relevant
today. I want to describe the personal part of the story not because I'm
proud of it (in fact, I failed to use for the common good many of the
opportunities I had), but because I believe all of us gain insights
along the way that can be useful later on.
More than 50 years ago I became a part of our
government and political system. As young Congressional interns in
Washington, Bob Graham (later Governor and U.S. Senator) and I
represented Florida in a new, 1959 training program. We met President
Eisenhower and Senator John Kennedy among others. We interns learned how
our Congressmen responded to their constituents needs, at least enough
to insure their re-election. We also witnessed the early stages of a
growing, pernicious cadre of corporate and special-interest-group
lobbyists arriving in Washington (and had dinner with some).
(Today that cadre is literally the 4th branch of
the American government. This "institution" is crucial to the success or
failure of a bipartisan deficit reduction strategy to keep the United
States from going bankrupt. The leaders of the President's commission
confronting the challenge released their draft ideas last weeks. The
resulting furor stimulated in all parts of society motivated me to write
about my view that the problem cannot be solved by those who created
it.) Read more......
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Experiencing Memorial Day 2010
As a veteran I
participated in my small town's Memorial Day ceremony, but with very
mixed feelings. I felt an imperative to honor those who serve, but I was
also compelled to challenge all Americans to question our society's
propensity to choose war as a first solution. Go to the text of my
letter to the editor of our local paper.
A Reader Comment: I enjoyed (and agreed with) your comments regarding the problem of supporting those who serve in the military (for legitimate reasons) while being realistic about our reasons for getting into wars. ... Glorifying veterans (and I am one, a retiree) simply makes it more likely that we will get into additional military difficulties. ... Likewise I agree with your [article] in 9/11 plus 5. What we are [now] doing is counterproductive. Dwight Connelly (Former editor of MUFON UFO Journal)
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Responding to a Local Church Request for a "This I Believe" Statement
THIS I BELIEVE AS OF TODAY!
by Paul Von Ward
(February 2010)
Beliefs are like slippery eels; they slither around like threads of luminescence in dark waters, sometimes made more clear and whole when beams of external light pierce the darkness.Beliefs are like fragments of dreams that stand out so clearly in the fog of sleep, but for only a quick second, then escape our awareness to reappear in a different form as we turn in bed. The same dream on a later night teases us with subtle variations. Ones consciously expressed beliefs comprise a soup of many ingredients: personal inner experiences, ideas from others that we except as truth, and concrete facts that cannot be denied. Read More....
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Birthday Memories and Subsequent Assessments of 9/11 Attack on America
Each
anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I celebrate my own passing birthdays,
but always in the context of this act of horror on America's citizens,
land, and institutions. That was a pivotal point in United States
history (and one can also argue, the history of the world). We have not
yet found the behind-the-scenes perpetrators of these acts, but our
nation's reactions to them have dramatically changed the international
community of nations for the worse, and wrought deep changes in the
fabric of the United States' society (and the world community's) and
its links to our own government. Periodically, I try to reflect on this
state of affairs and share my thoughts with others.
I shared the notes
I wrote during and just after the attacks. I sent them to friends and
colleagues. They found their way around the world and were selected by
news organizations among the most wrenching, yet inspirational comments
of the day. For the fifth anniversary of the attacks, I wrote an assessment for individuals and news organization. For this year's comments, read more. Unfortunately, along with all the world's people, I will be struggling with its aftermath for the rest of my life. Hear a poignant song by Tom Hanson about the cover-up of much evidence related to 9/11.
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On the Fort Hood Killings
Paul Von Ward adds historical
depth to David Brooks November 10, 2009 Op-Ed piece in the New York
Times on Major Hasan's killing of his U. S. military colleagues.
(David and I share the sense of horror of last week's, Ft. Hood
killings of 13 people by a U.S. Army soldier of the Islamic faith.
Tragedies of this kind wrench the souls of practically all humans,
regardless of faith, or not. We both seek to understand the cause of
such psychological distortions that result in a member of our species
slaughtering his own kind.)
David's
article (to follow) is well written, but lacks the historical depth necessary
to understand the psychological power of extreme interpretations of the
egocentric "narratives" of supernatural religions. History has
demonstrated that all world religions have at one time or the other
sanctioned "divinely-guided" killings. Unfortunately, the "war on the
infidel" theme now significantly (but by no means universally) present
in Islam is not unlike "death-to-non-believer" themes characterizing
Judaism and Christianity at different periods in their history. Read more....
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