Something ABSOLUTELY EXTRAORDINARY happened today, December 9, 2009 which I know is a portentous sign of GREAT global changes of unprecedented magnitude now underway that will significantly transform our world and our experience of life in many wonderful ways, especially for those of us who pray/meditate/demand from our hearts and souls that such changes are globally implemented for the highest good of all.
I've received numerous emails today about what happened this morning in Norway where President Barack Obama is scheduled to give tomorrow his Nobel peace prize acceptance speech, and many, many people are very excited about what this stunning phenomenon potentially means. To find out immediately what it is, just read Spiral UFO puts Norway in a spin and See the 84 related news articles on this today
After reading all the related information I found on this (gathered below in the "Worthy of your attention" section), I've decided to share with all of you something I had only shared with a small group of kin souls yesterday and which I did not intend at first to share widely. But to me what happened today is perhaps not coincidental and could very well be related to something that I heard last Sunday during the global meditation focus... Here is how I described this experience yesterday:
"I heard, out of the blue, while I was in a very high state of soul/God attunement with all other souls reaching out together to welcome our soul family from abroad, near the end of this past Sunday's focus meditation, a voice suddenly popping into my consciousness and stating firmly: "Access Granted" which - in a nutshell - I understood as being the response from our larger galactic soul family confirming that we have reached collective mass awakening in sufficient numbers and quality to be formally acknowledged as ready for first global contacts with and integration into the Galactic Light Federation - it was also signaling our global ascension process is well underway. It felt like an important threshold had been crossed..."
Of course, if anyone else experienced something similar during this last Sunday meditation, I'd love to hear about it...
So this feeling as too important to wait, I've decided to send out immediately this Special Addendum to Turning Tide of History #30: Reaching Critical Mass For Real Global Change. You'll also find below a wonderful suggestion by David Spangler - see Peace on Earth below - who recommends that we all join to overlight him during his speech that is to take place this Thursday December 10th at 1:00pm Oslo, Norway time (CET) - that’s December 10th at 4:00am PST. 7:00am EST (New York time).
If you cannot join in meditation during his speech, you can project your Light right away towards this moment and even do it after to sustain the momentum of Light expansion that is now firmly underway.
Finally, at my request, Suzy Ward asked for Matthew's perspective on these wonderful new developments and she just sent me back the following:
"Matthew says this is the most profound sign yet from our brothers and sisters in other civilizations that the time is nearing for their presence to be properly acknowledged -- there is no way that those who do not want that to happen can explain away this dramatic sign. The overall spiral represents the unbroken interconnectedness of all souls from our Beginnings in the light -- the intense light at the center -- and the blue spiral aimed at Earth is the most forceful evidence to date of their desire for us to consciously connect with them in the same spirit they have come. The timing and location are significant, selected to mark the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Obama for his vision and dedication to achieving world peace and to indicate that they are here to assist us reach this goal."
Please help in circulating this widely if you feel this is indeed a momentous Earth-Shift in the making...
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THE QUOTES
"It's the peace we create, the goodwill we offer, the forgiveness we extend, the Light we generate that make a difference in the world. For the world is not one huge, single narrative. It's millions of little individual ones, each shaping the world in incremental ways that cumulatively determine our future. (...) We have the power to change ourselves and thus to change the world. There is still hope. (...) December 10, 2009, when President Obama walks up to the podium in the Oslo Town Hall—and even now in the days of preparation and thought leading up to that event—provides opportunity for subtle activism. However you do so, hold him and this event in your heart and in your Light; see it as what it can be, an opportunity held forth by the Nobel Committee to inspire hope and action within all of us on behalf of humanity and our world. In your thoughts and feelings, let it be a portal through which a blessing of inspiration may reach out to our world. Let December 10th be not simply the occasion of a single man receiving an award but the Day of the Peacemaker, a day we are born anew to our own capacities to manifest peace on earth, goodwill to all."
- David Spangler -- Taken from Peace on Earth below
"Why is our consciousness limited? Having forgotten our connection with our Higher Self, we develop the perception that we are separate as we live and express our individuality through our bodies. Separation is a misperception we convince ourselves is true. It becomes our consensus reality. Separation consciousness becomes the driving force in all that we experience throughout our lives…and it is a self-deception. Is it any wonder then that our relationships with one another are so often problematic? We believe a fabrication about who we are and are unaware of it because it seems real enough to us. Seemingly split off from that infinite and eternal connection with our higher self, how can we possibly become unified with another in a fulfilling way when we do not even do that within our own being? Looking at the actual experience of human relationships, we obviously cannot…unless we can change our perspective. A paradigm shift is required."
"The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all it's powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really EVERYWHERE... It is WITHIN EACH OF US."
- Black Elk
"Thank you Jean for all that you do for us all. You have enormous patience to sort through all this information that looks to me like a tsunami coming. I so appreciate the balance you give, as most reporting is usually so slanted toward the horrendous. It takes a persistent vision to keep believing there is a way through this mess, and you are someone I have regularly relied on to keep me from bogging down. Bless you, my brother, and peace to you in this season! You are deeply, truly appreciated."
- Lily Lightbridge (judy_1952@yahoo.com)
"Thank you for your wonderful contribution to lifting the spirits of all who reads you messages. My dear mother would always say when we did something good for someone you would get your rewards in heaven. I believe we now have the power to achieve bringing heaven to earth."
- Keith Lewis (klewis@wollongongtruckcentre.com.au)
Spiral UFO puts Norway in a spin (December 9, 2009) THIS IS Stunning and Unexplained MUST SEE PICTURES! http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2764647/Spiral-UFO-puts-Norway-in-a-spin.html
A MYSTERIOUS giant spiral of light that dominated the sky over Norway this morning has stunned experts — who believe the space spectacle is an entirely new astral phenomenon. Thousands of awe-struck Norwegians bombarded the Meteorological Institute to ask what the incredible light — that could be seen in the pre-dawn sky for hundreds of miles — could possibly be. The phenomenon has been dubbed 'Star-Gate' — as the world's top scientists and the military lined up to admit they were baffled. Theories ranging from a misfired Russian missile, meteor fireball, never-before-seen type of northern light, 'black hole' and even alien activity were all proposed. Witnesses across Norway, who first glimpsed the space show at 8.45am, all described seeing a spinning 'Catherine wheel-style' spiral of white light, centred around a bright moon-like star. A blue "streaming tail" appeared to anchor the spiral to earth, before the light "exploded" into a rotating ring of white fire. The spiral spectacle — which lasted for two minutes — was seen by vast swathes of the Scandinavian country's almost five million population, with sightings as far north as Finnmark to Trondelag in the south. Totto Eriksen, from Tromso, in northern Norway, was one of the thousands who bombarded Norwegian newspapers with sightings — after nearly crashing his car on spotting the spiral overhead. He said: "I was driving my daughter to school when this light spun and exploded in the sky. We saw it from the Inner Harbour in Tromso. It looked like a rocket that spun around and around - and then went diagonally across the heavens. It looked like the moon was coming over the mountain - but then turned into something totally different. People just stopped and stared on the pier - it was like something from a Hollywood movie." Axel Berg, from Alta, also in the north of the country, added: "It was like a giant spiral - a shooting star that spun around and around. I initially thought it was a projector but then the 'tail light' left and the spiral remained spinning still." Norway's most celebrated astronomer, Knut Jorgen Roed Odegaard, said he had never seen anything like the spiral before. He said: "This was seen over an exceptionally large area of the country - in all of north Norway and the Trondelag. (...) Dr Tandberg said: "I agree with everyone in the science community that this light was the weirdest thing. I have never seen anything like this ever. (...) "It's ironic that something like this should happen the very week after the MoD terminated its UFO project. It just goes to show how wrong that decision was." NOTE: There is another exceptional close-up picture of this astounding phenomenon at the top of the archived copy of this special addendum.
Someone HERE made the following comment about this spiral phenomenon: "The Large Hadron Collider achieved collisions with protons accelerated to energies of 1.18 trillion electron volts apiece for the first time on late Tuesday night. They did say black holes would be to small and just evaporate LOOKS like a good case.... the whole story is in Collider Sets Record, and Europe Takes U.S.’s Lead - COULD IT BE RELATED?
NOTE: There is an accelerated video HERE of the phenomenon mentioned above which already gave rise to channeled interpretations such as THIS ONE and StarGate Opens in Cosmic Burst of Love Over Norway (with a couple additional pictures) - "This spiral of light in the sky is an opening through a portal. This is the beginning of the Cosmic Burst of Love StarGate Portal Opening. This is a 72 hour process which will raise the vibrations of Earth and on 12/12/09 nothing that is not at 5D or above will be capable of withstanding the energy here. Everyone will be able to feel the effects of love and bliss pouring out over the Planet. It will be in this extremely high energy where miracles will occur. This is a dispensation and it is the largest burst of love energy to be emitted to Earth in all her history. We have been bringing a message to Earth regarding changes in the financial, political, and religious sectors. This is the Celestial Sign you have been waiting to see. Decloakings cannot occur until we have PEACE. This burst of Cosmic Love entering through StarGate Portal Opening, pictured here, is the bringer of Peace. Blessings my Beloveds. - Archangel Metatron" -- "In the vortex opening significant serious Ones came through in Ships and have entered this Dimension to Remove all Dark Hats from the Planet in the next 72 hours on 12/12/09 pre-staging worldwide decloakings."
And amongst the comments posted THERE we can read: "Fantastic!!!!!!!! A member of my site is from Norway and he has just posted on it. Last night I felt such love go through my being I was stopped in my tracks as I closed my eyes and with a huge smile on my face tears flowed I felt close to home, this morning I awoke with the now familiar geometrical patterns and colours flooding my minds eye and a word in my head 'pulsar' Love,light and Joy!!! and so much gratitude to our Star Beings and all those other beings of light that are assisting us as we move forward into the light."
Mysterious light appears over Norway before Obama Peace Prize speech (December 9, 2009) http://www.examiner.com/x-2383-Honolulu-Exopolitics-Examiner~y2009m12d9-Mysterious-light-appears-over-Norway-before-Obama-Peace-Prize-speech
A mysterious spiral of light has appeared in northern Norway one day before President Obama arrives to give his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo. The spiral has baffled experts who do not believe it is related to the Aurora Borealis. Speculation that it is a rocket launched by the Russian Northern Fleet has been denied by Russian authorities. Similarly the Norwegian military has claimed no knowledge of any rocket launches in the area. There has been speculation that it may be some exotic weapon system, the opening of a space-time portal, or even UFO activity. Obama’s arrival in Norway on December 10 to give his acceptance speech only adds to the mysterious appearance of the lights. Is it a pure coincidence or is it in some way related to Obama’s upcoming speech? The object appeared on the morning of December 9 and has been photographed and filmed by thousands of Norwegians over a wide area ranging from Finnmark in the country’s north to Trondelang in the south. It is a giant spiral of green-blue light that appears directed towards a mountain. According to observers, a giant light spiral appeared and within seconds covered the entire sky. A green-blue beam of light then shot out from its center. (...) Obama’s December 10 Nobel Prize acceptance speech is expected to focus on international cooperation on the removal of nuclear weapons and promoting diplomatic solutions to global problems. Coming nine days after Obama’s announcement of a 30,000 troop surge for Afghanistan, it is expected that he will show his commitment to international diplomacy and cooperation. He may use the opportunity to launch a bold international initiative to achieve this end. The appearance of the enormous light spiral in northern Norway may be a sheer coincidence and unrelated to his upcoming speech in Oslo. Alternatively, the mysterious spiral of light may be a sign from an unknown intelligence that Obama’s acceptance speech may be a catalyst for major global changes that lie ahead. With much speculation that the Obama administration is poised to make some kind of announcement concerning extraterrestrial life soon, the light may be sign for him to boldly go where no U.S. President has gone before.
UFO - E.T Disclosure (27 Oct 2009) http://www.thespiritguides.co.uk/Article_Journeys_into_Consciousness_11_-_Obama_E_T_Disclosure_Spiritual_Laws_Mysterious_StonesTelekinesis_4503.aspx
Insiders / Researchers such as David Wilcock, Michael Salla et al and now other Channellers are all saying that Obama will be disclosing the existence of other E.T races by the end of the year (2009). We discussed this subject along with the announcement by some intel sources via some internet researchers that a large ship is also approaching Earth which apparently houses a large civilisation, according to Gregory this event is putting huge pressure on governments to disclose as there will be no hiding the subject once this is visible in our skies in the near future. I was expecting Gregory to debunk this but in fact he seemed to agree this was the case, which is rather interesting.Also we discussed E.T Cities that exist within our Mountains and under the oceans.
We are all one - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Worth taking 10 minutes to watch and listen to this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61BCB2-OmRY
The voice of the man who speaks such profoundly touching wisdom in most of this video soundtrack is from the late, renowned American Indian activist-singer-songwriter Floyd Red Crow Westerman (official website) and the last voice at the very end is of from Oren Lyons - More about him HERE)
Building Global Democracy Programme http://www.buildingglobaldemocracy.org
This is a workshop on 'Conceptualising Global Democracy' that took place in Cairo (December 6 - 9, 09). The workshop brought together a diverse group of academics, activist and officials from across the globe to discuss what 'rule by and for the people' means in the context of a more global world. Please visit our website to read our daily updates from the workshop as well as participants comments on global democracy. Find out more HERE about the Building Global Democracy Programme. Recommended by Rob Wheeler (UNRob@watun.org) Chair of the Executive Committee of the World Alliance to Transform the UN. -- Read also HERE the take of the Women's Economic Agenda Project (WEAP) on this key event. More about them at http://weap.org/about.htm and if you go at http://www.buildingglobaldemocracy.org/content/about-us here is what you'll read: "The Building Global Democracy Programme explores how ‘rule by and for the people’ can be understood and practised in relation to global issues. How can democracy be meaningful in today’s more global world? How can affected people participate in and control the governance of global concerns such as climate change, financial crises, health challenges, human rights, internet communications, security problems, and trade? Launched in 2008, the Building Global Democracy Programme brings together hundreds of interested academic researchers, civil society activists, entrepreneurs, journalists and officials from all world regions. Our projects cover issues such as: rethinking democracy for a global age; citizen learning for global democracy; including the excluded in global policymaking; resource redistribution for global equity; and intercultural constructions of legitimate global governance." Seems like something she should all support!
COULD THAT FOX COVERAGE BE INDICATIVE OF A PSYCHOLOGICAL PREPARATION TO FULL DISCLOSURE?...
From: James Gilliland (ecetiwebmaster@yahoo.com)
Date: Dec 9, 2009
Subject: [ECETI News] Fox News Covers ECETI Ranch
We find it odd that ABC, Fox News, BBC, as well as other mainstream news agencies in Latin America are covering the UFO activity at the ECETI Ranch along with major television and music stars making their appearance yet many of the major UFO and Paranormal conferences and radio shows like Coast to Coast believe it to not be news worthy. Triple PHD Boeing engineers, Air Force Base commanders, Pilots, Air Traffic Controllers, Physicists, and people in the thousands from all walks of life have come to the ECETI Ranch, had their own personal experience and have gone on record. Paranormal State came to the ranch and filmed multiple ships which appeared exactly where and when we said they would. Now any reasonable mind would ask how did we have pre-knowledge of the ships appearance if we did not have contact and why isn't the ufo community jumping all over this.
Because it is real, it is benevolent, they have always been here as overseers and it goes against the grain of creating a threat to continue in our aggressive fearful, war like behavior. It also goes against the disinformation so prevalent in the field of ufology and those who want to continue to enslave the masses through dependency such as the banksters, war and disease profiteers. What would happen if contact was made with a spiritually and technologically advanced race of beings which knew more about our history, our origins, had transcended war, disease, all material lack and had the technologies to provide all of our transportation and energy needs fuelessly from zero point?
Now you know why some people who you thought were there to end the censorship act entirely opposite and have been compromised. We need to clean our own house first, rise to the occasion and choose to serve in the awakening and healing of humanity and the Earth then ask for help. After a life time of contact and 23 years of service trust has been earned with the benevolent off world visitors. Yet why is this story kept hidden in favor of the dark and negative agendas? It is because you need to be kept in fear, there needs to be a threat, after all how else can they continue to control you and establish a need for a governing protection. What better fictitious enemy than a superior race who has come to slice, dice and make human pilaf. Infiltrating the very UFO community with messages of fear, pain and suffering coming soon to your neighborhood has been very disempowering for you and profitable for them. Think about it.
An old friend called me a couple of weeks ago with a suggestion I couldn't resist. Val Scott is a man of diverse talents who for years was involved in Canadian electoral politics, then worked in the field of labor and management relations. He is a man dedicated to peace and to what can be achieved when people work together in a spirit of trust and mutual support. For years, he has been promoting a “politics of forgiveness” and to that end started his own non-profit foundation, Inner Peace Unlimited. One of the premises of his work is very simple: the first step to peace, both within ourselves and within the world, is with forgiveness. When we stop blaming each other for all that is wrong, we open a space in which love can heal and peace can emerge.
When he called, Val reminded me that President Obama was to receive his Nobel Peace Prize award in Oslo on December 10, 2009 and at that time would be giving his acceptance address. “This is an important event,” Val said. “The Nobel Committee is not awarding Obama this prize for what he's done but for what he-and we-can do to bring peace to the world. When he gives his acceptance speech, he could inspire the world with a vision of what we are capable of, particularly when we can forgive each other.” Val's suggestion was that this event be a focus for an act of spiritual support, what I would call subtle activism.
In that moment I could see clearly what Val was seeing: a respected, inspiring world leader using the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance ceremony as an opportunity to remind us all of the moral and spiritual powers within us and to call us to action to use those powers to bring peace on earth. Fifty years ago another inspiring, young American President called on his nation to undertake a daunting task, that of landing a man on the moon. Within ten years it did so. Now Obama could call on the world to perform an even more important but just as challenging task, that of landing lovingly and trustingly within each other's heart to build the collaborations needed to meet the global challenges of the new century.
Normally, the Nobel Prize is a testament to the past. In the fields of science for which Alfred Nobel established his prize, the award is always made for achievements accomplished. There is no Nobel Prize for chemistry or physics awarded to a scientist in the hopes that he or she will make breakthroughs in those fields. It is given for things that have happened in the past.
This is usually true of the Peace prize as well, but this year it has been given as a pledge to the future. “Only very rarely has a person captured the world's attention to the same extent as Obama and given its people hope for a better future,” wrote the Nobel Committee in its announcement. It is an award for hope, for the possibility that through vision and work, we can together make a better world.
Obama himself responded accordingly. “I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations,” he said in his press statement the day he received the award. He went on to say, “I know that throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes. And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action -- a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.”
Interestingly this acceptance and the call to action it represents is being made as we enter what for millions of people is one of the holiest times of the year. Whether we celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, the Winter Solstice, or New Year's, this is a time of hope, of new beginnings, of renewed vision, and, in the famous words of the Christmas Angel, of “peace on earth, goodwill towards men.”
The holiday nature of this season means that our attention is drawn outwards to inspiring narratives: Angels descend and speak to us, a savior is born, the longest night gives birth to the return of the sun. But the most important narrative, which perhaps will be one that President Obama speaks to but which is certainly implicit in his call to action, is the one that takes place in our own hearts. It's the peace we create, the goodwill we offer, the forgiveness we extend, the Light we generate that make a difference in the world. For the world is not one huge, single narrative. It's millions of little individual ones, each shaping the world in incremental ways that cumulatively determine our future.
God's love for the world, which is at the heart of the Christian celebration this season, is a powerful thing and not to be denied, but it's our love as persons that acts in the world. To draw an analogy from the military, for all our sophisticated weaponry, it's still the presence of the individual soldier, the infantry “grunt,” that is required to hold and take ground. A missile cannot capture anything; it can only destroy. In an analogous way, it isn't the love emanating from transpersonal and higher levels that can capture the heart of the world; it's the specific love we bring to each situation before us that takes the high ground or, in the absence of that love, loses it. We are the “boots on the ground,” and it's our choices, our decisions, our peacemaking, our goodwill that makes a difference.
When Obama gives his talk and presumably makes his call to action, there are two reasons people may not pay attention. This is a time when people are suspicious, cynical and weary of apocalyptic warnings even as our planetary challenges continue to mount and grow more complex. For instance, according to recent polls, the number of Americans who believe global warming is occurring and is a dangerous problem has dropped in the past year even as evidence that it is so has increased. People are tired of fearing the future. Furthermore, we have all heard “calls to action” before. Over two thousand years have passed since the angels proclaimed peace on earth, and we have yet to make it so. Twenty-one hundred years of Christmases and festivals of Light and the messages they bring have failed to give us a world of love and wholeness. Twenty-one hundred “Happy New Years” have not demonstrably made our world a happier place for all who live upon it. It is understandable why people may be skeptical that our time can be any different.
This is why this Nobel Peace Prize award has significance. Not because it is going to Obama or any other American President, but because it says we can still make a difference. We have the power to change ourselves and thus to change the world. There is still hope.
Can the world open to this hope in spite of bickering, weariness, suspicion, and fear? Can we open to it in ourselves?
This is why Obama's call can't be just to nations or heads of state. It must be to people. It is we who must respond to the hope that the Nobel Committee has invested in this particular award, for it is an award for the future, our future, and that is what we are shaping together. When it comes to peace, it is we who must take the prize.
This David's Desk comes with a great deal of love and good wishes to each of you for this Holiday Season. May it truly be a blessed time for you, and may you have rich opportunities to enjoy the pleasure of being a blessing for others. I thank you personally for your support throughout this past year, and I look forward to all we will accomplish in 2010. A Happy New Year one and all! I'll see you in January.
Following my friend Val's suggestion, December 10, 2009, when President Obama walks up to the podium in the Oslo Town Hall-and even now in the days of preparation and thought leading up to that event-provides opportunity for subtle activism. However you do so, hold him and this event in your heart and in your Light; see it as what it can be, an opportunity held forth by the Nobel Committee to inspire hope and action within all of us on behalf of humanity and our world. In your thoughts and feelings, let it be a portal through which a blessing of inspiration may reach out to our world. Let December 10th be not simply the occasion of a single man receiving an award but the Day of the Peacemaker, a day we are born anew to our own capacities to manifest peace on earth, goodwill to all.
There will be no Forums this month. Online courses and dialogues will begin again in January. The Lorian Association - PO Box 1368 - Issaquah, WA 98027
President Obama Has Changed the International Climate And Called For PEACE (December 9, 2009) http://www.galacticroundtable.com/profiles/blogs/president-obama-has-changed
Speech is on December 10th at 1:00pm Oslo, Norway time (CET). That’s December 10th at 4:00am PST. 7:00am EST. On January 22, 2009, his first day as President of the United States, President Obama closed down Guantanamo. In doing this he forced the hand of the International Community and the International Courts to look into War Crimes. In one Memo he changed the course of the entire World. Since then he has Presided over the UN Security Council and asked for an End of Nuclear Proliferation. He has met with dozens of World Leaders in closed door meetings. He has called for change. The Time For Peace Is Now! The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture will be held on Thursday 10 December at the Oslo City Hall in Norway (attendance by invitation only). The Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony will start at 1.00 p.m. CET. A live video broadcast of the Award Ceremony and the Nobel Lecture will be available. Please see video regarding decision here: http://nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1174
3.
NOTE from Jean: I could not include this in my last compilation but I'm doing it right away because it urgently needs to be circulated as you will see.
A Holiday Shopping Strike! - Give the Gift of Peace
By Patricia Baird Greene
peagreen@earthlink.net -- 315-714-2285
All over America people are wringing their hands about escalating the war in Afghanistan, a move that polls have shown the majority of us don't want. Peace organizations are protesting. Code Pink blocked the White House email with anti-war messages. Petitions ask Congress not to fund the war. And I doubt that any of it will get heard in Washington.
Last night I could not sleep thinking about how invisible we've become. I, like many of you, have lost my job, count my pennies on unemployment, and have no health insurance. I'm no longer proud to say I'm an American. In the last year, we've let the insurance industry snooker us on health care reform, Wall Street grab billions of our tax dollars, and the Pentagon take the rest for perpetual war. But one thing is becoming crystal clear out here on Main Street. Only those with the most money can talk to the government we have elected.
I woke up early this morning with a new idea about who has the most money. There are 300 million of us and more than half claim to be against this war. Will Obama's move to send in more troops finally awaken a sleeping giant with a deadly weapon in its wallet?
What if we did not play the Good Consumer role they project for us this season and declare instead a Holiday Shopping Strike. What if we simply did not buy gifts and returned the ones we've already bought? With help of the Internet, we could create an instant movement that will shake the halls of Congress and the corporate offices with a message they can't afford to avoid?
Every one of us hates the unsustainable commercial hoax the holidays have become. Each year we grumble and swear that next year we're going to get into the holiday spirit and make gifts, instead of running down to Target or Wal-Mart or Toys-R-Us. Well folks, the time has come to stop shopping!
I can hear many of you worrying about disappointment on Christmas morning, or the injury we might do to local stores. Yes, there may be some collateral damage. But can we afford not to act? Sit down today and talk with the kids and the rest of the family about what peace really means to all of us. Talk about Iraq and Afghanistan and American militarism. Talk about drones killing civilians, and imagine what life is like for the kids in war zones. Talk about the defeat in Vietnam if you're old enough. Then go to your library or bookstore and get a Make Your Own Holiday book. Engage everyone in the family to create the best and most memorable homemade holiday ever.
I know. You don't have time. Stay up late if you have to or give up some television programs. Knit scarves or mittens. Make ornaments or simple toys. Bake something. Get together a calendar with photos. Give a kitten from the shelter. If you must buy a gift, buy it from local artisans at local stores or craft bazaars. Or tag sale and give recycled gifts. Have the kids make drawings for Grandma and frame them. A gift certificate for a massage, or membership in the gym or what about an I.O.U. for a day of work? Give the gift of the family helping to serve a holiday dinner to those less fortunate at your church or shelter, or a contribution to a worthy organization in someone's name, or money to help the children hurt by our wars. And this is just the beginning of possible holiday creativity.
Obama, the Pentagon, Congress, the corporations, and the military-industrial complex are betting that Americans will grumble for a week about the war, and then swing into holiday cheer and forget. But we can prove them wrong this time. Let's join together to each do something this month that will send a clear message to those who think they control us that we intend to have the peaceful change we voted for now-or else. And in the process we will be benefiting ourselves and everyone around us.
I proclaim this December a national Holiday Shopping Strike Month, and predict that if enough of you join in, we will be heard. We don't need to organize anything, but each of us needs to act with lightening speed. Pass the idea along to everyone you know today, and give the gift of peace!
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Related articles:
A Fresh Advertising Pitch: Buy Nothing (November 22, 2007) http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/a-fresh-advertising-pitch-buy-nothing/
As millions of Americans brace for the jammed parking lots and mobbed closeout racks that come with the holiday shopping season, a small but determined network of antishopping activists is girded for action as well.Their goal is to get as many people as possible to buy nothing at all over a 24-hour span on Friday in the United States (and Saturday elsewhere around the world), as a small blow against what they say are the destructive efforts of advertisers and corporations to fuel the deep-rooted human tendency to want the next new thing.One of those spearheading the “Buy Nothing Day” campaign is a repentant 65-year-old former ad man, Kalle Lasn. He is the editor of Adbusters, a magazine that says it is “about the erosion of our physical and cultural environments by commercial forces.”Mr. Lasn, from Vancouver, says the targets of the movement are the wealthiest one billion people on the planet, “the 20 percent who consume 80 percent of the goodies in the global marketplace.” The goal, he told me, “is to create an economy and a culture in which it eventually becomes cool to consume less.” CLIP - Much more through https://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd Check also their latest post for 4 hard-hitting pictures...
To Be Or Not To Be: Will this generation hold its leaders accountable? (08 Dec 2009) https://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/be-or-not-be.html
How fitting that the world’s leaders are gathered in Copenhagen, where they can ask themselves that proverbial Danish question: To be or not to be? A Greenpeace-sponsored campaign unveiled in the city this week presents a stark image of the negation. World leaders who chose not to be – not to be the ones who imposed firm limits on emissions, who initiated clean energy infrastructure, who stopped deforestation – apologize from the future for their failings. But what the campaign doesn’t address is us. Who are we to be? The generation that held its leaders accountable and catalyzed real, systemic change? Or the generation that chose not to be – and took the entire planet down with it. CLIP
When Our Leaders Fail to Lead (Dec 02, 2009) http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/david-korten/when-our-leaders-fail-to-lead?utm_source=wkly091207&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=14_mrKorten
We have to make them. What David Korten learned from his experiences during the Vietnam War. -- On Tuesday night, President Obama announced his decision to increase U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan. It was a tragic error. He specifically said that to compare Afghanistan with Vietnam is a misreading of history. In a way, I would have to agree. We ultimately left Vietnam in humiliation. Afghanistan is not comparable, because our prospects for success there are even worse.
(...) Afghanistan has never functioned as a nation under the central rule of either foreigners or Afghanis. It is a land fragmented physically and politically into feudal fiefdoms ruled by local warlords united only by a fierce commitment to resisting any form of foreign occupation. What passes for a central government has less legitimacy than did the government of South Vietnam, is even more corrupt, and is arguably not even fully in control of Kabul, the capital city. The idea that we or any other group of outsiders can pacify Afghanistan and bring it under some semblance of central democratic rule with a legitimate and reasonably competent government is beyond ludicrous.It is difficult to convince civilians that you are there to help them when you are maiming and killing their loved ones for no evident purpose. Yet when you cannot identify the enemy, you will almost inevitably kill more civilians than combatants. I know how I would respond if a foreign army inflicted such harm on my family. The more troops we put into Afghanistan, the greater the resistance.On November 20, 2009, Bill Moyers PBS Journal presented an episode on President Lyndon Johnson’s path to war. It is a piece of history that Moyers knows well, having served as a top-ranking member of President Johnson’s staff from 1964-1967. Drawing on the archive of White House tapes, Moyers tells the story, in Johnson’s own words, of how the political dynamics of the time drew him into an ever more costly escalation in a war that he knew from the beginning we could not win. President Obama seems to be repeating this sad history, caught up in much the same dynamic in an even more futile war. This one may not end with pictures of the last Americans in Afghanistan departing by helicopter from the U.S. Embassy roof, but the time will come when we will recognize as a nation that we cannot win this war. The only uncertainty is when that time will come that we make the decision to leave.
(...) Invading Afghanistan was a tragic error. Escalating our presence there compounds the error. We have created a terrible mess, but it is not within our means to clean it up. The sooner we leave Afghanistan and let the Afghani people sort out their future for themselves, the better off both we and they will be. We now know it will happen only when we send a message to our politicians, including President Obama, too loud and too clear to be ignored.
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