war, war, war......

I and all people in the United States support our troops. Our troops are brave and strong and they risk their lives. Support takes several forms. Support includes providing our troops with the means to make war and it includes the means to conclude a war. The means in both instances include intelligence and will.

It seems to me that concluding a war is dependent on the beginning of the war. The party who initiated the war seems to be the one who is most responsible for concluding it and that has meant, in recent history, that the initiator/aggressor has been forced to leave what has been invaded or surrender to those initially attacked. Germany and Japan finally surrendered. The North Koreans withdrew and ceased hostilities. We left Vietnam. We halted proceedings against Iraq in the early 90's. Things in the Baltics were ended when those being aggressive and brutal were stopped!

Sometimes we support our troops with weapons and armor and other resources they need to fight and win. On the other side we support them by getting them out of harms way!

Essentially we began the current war in Iraq. It is becoming more and more clear to citizens of the United States that this beginning was deeply flawed in all ways.

While it is a judgement call to go to war such a judgement should be very well considered because of the terrible destruction and death which is ever part of war. There are appropriate and right reasons to go to war. Self-defense is an appropriate reason. True proximate fear of aggression may be appropriate, too. On the other hand, there are inappropriate and wrong reasons to go to war such as greed and unfounded hate. Ignorance is not a reason to go to war. There is a right and and there is a wrong judgement which can be determined and which should be determined if war is to be considered and done. The judgement call must be made with special and great care by special and great people. Real intelligence must be brought to such a great and awful decision! Such special intelligence was not brought to this judgement call by our current national leadership.

Clearly our current national leadership is not special nor is it great. One can question the realness of our current leadership. That leadership has never been viewed as particularly intelligent nor good nor kind. That leadership has been useful to some people and some agendas and in quieter, calmer times whatever this leadership accomplished would probably not have been very dramatic or long lasting accept this leadership with all its weaknesses and lacks found itself with a most dramatic and significant event, i.e. the catatrophe of 9/11. Doing all the works of reacting, recovering, and preventing another such catatophe was the public rationale for putting our troops into harms way and that rationale was simply stated the wrong judgement call and that is now known and must now be dealt with appropriately and rightly!

Many citizens would like to see our troops out of harms way because we think our troops our bogged down in a situation which is terribly, terribly WRONG. It is WRONG and NOT RIGHT. Our troops were put into harms way with lies, incorrect intelligence, and poor planning. They should not have gone in to Iraq because Iraq was not where 9/11 came from nor did Iraq have the weapons of mass destruction they wre accused of having. Thus the lies and incorrect intelligence. As for the planning it had to be poor since it was badly based and furthermore the planning just didn't look forward to an exit strategy that would be acceptable to all.

There may have been a good reason to have gone into Iraq and that was the human rights abuses of the ruling regime. The only right way to address human rights issues is through the United Nations and/or the World Court. Our going in as a matter of asserted self-defense was a weak and untruthful one even if Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or had some link to 9/11 which it didn't. We have long not cared for human rights abuses even when they reach the level of genocide and in Iraq that was not the case and certainly not since the first Gulf War and the no-fly zones and sanctions which followed that war.

In general people do not want to go to war. People do not want their children or their friends to be put into harms way but that is appropriate under the right circumstances. The circumstances which brought us into Iraq were not appropriate

Intelligence usually would lead a person to echue war. The mass intelligence of the people of a democracy usually adds up to an avoidance of war. Democracies defend themselves. Offensive war is the thing of minorites and sick individuals. These minoriites and the sick individuals who lead them usually have a problem absorbing and integrating information but they do have a set of static values which they are SURE THEY CAN CORRECTLY APPLY. And they apply those values by oppression and war and destruction! The application is WILLFUL but not intelligent. It is NOT SMART.

Ultimately, the people of our country which IS still a democracy will assert their massed intelligence and wisdom along with the goodness and kindness and compassion which are our values and which are dynamic and true. Ultimately, we the people of these United States of America will do the right things and stop the wars and aggressions and bring a truly compassionate peace to the world with fairness and intelligence.

competence and hope

I hope that I know or get referred to competent people. This thought is prompted by my lack of good knowledge about the workings of automobiles and my daughter's problem with her clutch or as it turned out the hydraulic fluid in her standard transmission. Maybe all is well. I hope so! And it was not a clutch - but only the fluid.

SO... I have lent my car to her for the weekend while I have hers and we will see how it goes. Is there are leak? If so... I can probably handle it better on the flats of Davis than my daughter could in the hills of San Fran!

Ahh.... competence and knowledge. Tough!

Tuesady (Monday)

Today was the first day of my work week. I took yesterday off as a vacation day and spent some time with Amy. Nice, interesting, informative, a bit stresses and there was some tension. I found out some stuff worth knowing. Especially that stuff was stuff Amy was/is hesitant to share and I hope she will learn to share stuff more and sooner so she can get whatever help might be available. Some help is just ideas, or moral support, or just airing issues. Some help might be more tangible. But families are where you can share things and air things and maybe get help for things... And that is IMPORTANT!! AND THE BEST. Families may also be where you can act rudely or be silly, etc... but is that as important? I think not! The lesson is to know your resources and use them. Getting help of some sort is a good use. Being silly and rude and not in good control is not a use of family resources but an abuse of them. Still - families must take them!!! AHHHH.......

I gave blood this morning. At the ARC - last time I was there I had just gotten married.... Is there something similar in the two experiences (ha, ha!).

Had a nice breakfast with daughters at Cindy's. I think we like Cindy's best for breakfasts in Davis. Cafe Italia is ok but there is more variety at Cindy's, more diversity, more interesting stuff. YES!

A couple of days ago Karen and I went to a wedding. Sy's and Regina's. Very nice. I guess I think all weddings, at least the ceremonies, are nice. Those ceremonies get IT done!

All is pretty well in my world. More later. Love you all!

Group expectations....!

Great Expectations.... a book to be looked at perhaps and considered. Did not the main heroic character NOT have many expectations? Did not those who had expectations suffer? As a group (even a small diad) did not all end well?

The word expectation implies a demand that one has of reality and reality has a way of doing its own things.

Hope and yearnings are better in that the person who hopes or yearns has a measure of control over what is hoped for or yearned for.

Hopes are more internal than expectations. I can hope that someone will love me. I cannot expect that they will love me. I can hope to be taken care of but I cannot EXPECT that. Perhaps someone SHOULD take care of me and/or love me but I like what Dr. Albert Ellis says: " They (the human race) believe they must do well; that other people must treat them kindly, nobly and do their bidding; andthat conditions must be absolutely just so - or else they become horribly depressed. It's deadly for people to feel that they MUST have these things.These things are contrary to the facts of life. They are preferences. I'mchanging people's musts into preferences."

I would prefer that such and such were the case. I may feel?, hope?, expect?, that something WILL ABSOLUTELY BE... that it MUST be so.... - but all one can do is express ones preferences.

YES? or NO?? - what is most true?

Expectations are shared with others in a way where one need to get something from the other and if something is not procured than there is guilt!

Hopes are personal and may require someone to do something but the other is free to do or not do and not guilt is implied nor incurred.

GUILT and BLAME and miscommunications and unmet actions are painful TO ALL! Suffering is so very likely when we go beyond our hopes and dreams and instead find ourselves amongst unmet expectations and despair.

Self-sufficiency is important. Personal independence is important. A community of help and support is what civilization is mostly about as we get old and unable to be fully independent. AND in any case at all times humans need other humans to provide all with food, shelter, and clothing. We are barely ever self-sufficient and therefore barely ever really independent and really free. Choices are made. Others are chosen or we have children (of whom we have expectations and/or hopes). It takes a village, nation, planet.....

IT takes more than ourselves and it takes more than just any one other. Spouses support one another but in some cases both grow old and ill and neither can care for the other. In other cases one may be very ill and another may be so well and active as to not want to be trapped into being a full-time caregiver. OOYY!!!!

doing stuff freely or not doing stuff

Why should one have to wait to do stuff which can be done now. Sure - patience is great. Waiting is difficult but often necessary. But - AT WORK... for producing stuff, being efficient, getting things done, helping people quickly - why wait when there are tools which can do things now. Easily. Effectively!

Ah.... ??? there are answers to the why posed above. Are those why's really necessary?

Centralize vs decentralized? Controlled vs liberated? Enslaved vs free? Restrained vs loose. Constrained vs active.

What is necessary by policy? What is necessary by economics? What is necessary by politics?

Nature of necessity? Nature of central control. Nature of freedom. Nature of licence? Nature of power. Nature of ????

gentle along the way

Be kind, be gentle, do no harm.

Expect that from others. IF I am not treated gently and kindly than I may be harmed and I may disengage from those people. Self-protection is ok. On another hand a Buddhist way might have me continually treated badly since that would excercise my patience and humility and forbearance, etc.

Do I need that testing? Maybe!? Do I need that grief? Maybe. Stuff sucks sometimes. While I must be good in my actions I must be able to deal with those actions of others, whatever they are.

The actions of others are not in my control. I am only in control of myself. AND - CONTROL is to be seen as not real, either. Even self-control. BUT I may have this a bit incorrectly exaggerated! The exaggeration is that I can have control over my actions and reactions. Controlling what I see and experience is NOT to be controlled! All "out-there" is beyond my control but how I think, and feel about stuff are things I can choose to do in a variety of ways. I can choose to not feel anything. I can choose to think a story. I can, instead! - choose to be simple and just see and feel. HMMM... JUST SEE AND FEEL? Much easier to say than do.

A general mode of behaviour which is practiced and which is to be gentle and kind is a way to proceed so as to do little harm. My being safe is one thing but keeping others from harm that I might do is THE OTHER! It is good to be harmless!

new stuff/old stuff and people stuff

So... we are in a world of change. Technologies change quickly. Some people are well versed in all the changes and even in stuff that is coming along but not yet here. Others may be luddite-like. Some may be only into the new.

SO - at work places what do old-timers have to offer newbies? And vice versa. And what about personal power, embarrassment, anxiety, etc.? Newbies may seem energetic and "in" and old folks may appear slow and out of it. How do things really change? What are the "radical" issues - by which I mean what are the core values and issues and concerns and tasks... etc... In other words - what is stable and continuing and what is transient and progressing!

RESPECT for old and new is the answer to how to make things happen. Transitions which take into account that old ways are sometimes THE ways some people will do things. In our libraries the change from the paper and wood card catalog to public online catalogs was long and disturbing to some and easy and wonderful to others.

which christianity?

(the following is quite incomplete and/or not well said and/or not fully thought-out - but has value even though it is something of a personal rant. I kept it in draft for several days... but here it is.... )

SO... IF the United States were to become a "christian" country one can wonder - which christian religion would it become/follow? Would it be the Catholic Church which will reign supreme or one of the Lutherin churches/synods or some Baptist or what?

Of course in the land of religous freedom we could then wonder - what about Jews, Buddists, Muslims, and others?

I like the supremacy of a secular democracy because a secular democracy is able to accept and tolerate all kinds of people and ideas and cultures AND RELIGIONS. A secular democracy is all encompassing and it is not solely centered on any one system and it recognized that there are many systems and ways of doing things and that no one system or way of acting is absolutely the best and most perfect. Secular democracy echues perfectionism and rather appreciates the grays as well as the blacks and the whites and in fact see the infinite rainbow which is the Universe.

I think the world has seen an evolution from the particular and singularly centered to a plurality of diversity. In the beginning of history there is a centricism around first the family and then the clan and then the tribe and then the village and then the country. Some today would have us centered around the planet and in speculative fiction (or science fiction if you like) the "center" is even beyond our planet and solar system!

Along the way of the ever widening centers has come religions. There are Catholic countries and Protestant countries and Muslim countries and a Jewish country and Buddist countries and Hindu countries. And perhaps other types, too.

Our country, the United States of America, as a colonized land was not centered on any one religion (though most were christian and there is large and terrible question of the native religions). Christianity is diverse! There are several types of Catholicism. There are MANY types of Protestant religions. There are many types within the many types. What we see in the Christian religions we also see in the Muslim and the Jewish and the Buddhist, etc, etc....

Diversity and a lack of an ultamite CENTER seems to be rule and the norm. WHY? And we might also ask, why NOT?

With countries centered on any one religion we often see war and domination and oppression and soo much more which is antithetical to peace. Religions almost always seem to want to assert that some one religion (and its ways and means and ????) IS THE FINAL RIGHT/TRUE WAY. This is light (or in spite) of the fact that the discoverer of the final-right-true-way is always some individual and what he or she has discovered by experience is never an experience of the masses. The masses always choose or are made to choose "the new way" but why and why not?

voting and ego and what is your point?

so... some people wnat what they want a lot. Ego may be in play. Often I don't care that much but when others get stubbornly set on a course my reaction is to get stupid like that, too. Anger and all that comes with that then develops. AND - making these others aware of their ways does not seem to be possible. SO - I get frustrated and then angry and then.... BUT - AHHHHHHHH....... what the heck!

A point is that voting is an important thing. Consensus, another important thing, is nice too. Accuracy is very important and when voting seems to suggest consensus but does not... what about when voting is truly closer and needs to really reflect what is really going on. AHHHH....... but... winners like to win. People want THEIR own way. And perhaps one can always get ones own way.... IF one knows what to do, etc.

To be or not to be masked by anger.

Whoever is angry will sometime no longer be angry.

Anger is hard on all. The object of anger suffers. The one who is anry suffers.

Suffering is real but not enobling. Suffering is not to be prolonged but it cannot be ended, either.

Doubt is related to suffering. One is not sure of anything and that causes one to feel lost and confused and uncertain and unsure and worried and maybe right or maybe wrong and so on and so forth - and in this state of consciousness or more rightly stated - confusion - one can suffer and be angry. Angry to be confused. Angry to be in doubt or to be doubted. Angry to be worried. Angry because one is right or because one is wrong.

ANGRY, ANGRY, ANGRY...... In all cases noted above the anger clouds the real feelings and thoughts. Anger is the mask. Anger is the GREAT MASK.

All things pass. Anger passes. Sometimes the mask remains longer than the anger. Our faces will freeze the old wives say. Or - perhaps it is our attitudes which freeze and become cold and brittle and either they do not change or they break into shatters and tatters. Anger's look and its feels can last a lot longer than the real anger and the REAL FEELINGS which were masked. Anger is not a thing to cherish. It is something to move off of as soon as possible. Move the anger away and/or aside and let the light and the darkness show through. Whatever the light or darkness is! And be the person you are in the light or the darkness. BE!

another day and another ??????

Last night I was going to cook a paella. Tonight it may happen. A version of it anyway. I am excited. Karen may be afraid..... it will be somewhat free-form. It will not have a lot of fish but there will be rice, safron or tumeric, and other good stuff. It will be good, I am sure!

Last night we went to the Buckhorn with an old friend of Karen's who came to town. The Buckhorn is always a treat and their tri-tip sirloin is wonderfully tasty. Yum.

I also ate at the Great Wall yesterday SO--I ate too much yesterday. Food is a problem for me. I need to do something? What would a Buddhist do? A Buddhist would pay attention! Be mindful. Notice the eating. Notice the drinking. NOTICE!