The human mind understands such a small sliver of the information contained in the universe. How can humans make progress towards understanding what is really going on?
Google News has become my favorite newspaper. Those of you who are using know it is not a newspaper, but rather a page of headlines and links to the top of the news in catagoies of USA, International, Business, Entertainment, Sports and Health. As a result of links all over the world I now read Islam On Line, The Straites Times, World Socialist Web Site, The Hindu and many more. It has become important to me to read what the other people are saying. Can it be that their reporting is as biased as what we ingest domestically? Maybe, probably, at least I am getting another view. Will I ever know what the truth in any matter really is. I don't think so.
This quote from the June 26 edition of Ha'aretz quotes George W Bush as follows,
Abbas said that at Aqaba, Bush promised to speak
with Sharon about the siege on Arafat. He said
nobody can speak to or pressure Sharon except
the Americans.
According to Abbas, immediately thereafter Bush
said: "God told me to strike at al Qaida and I
struck them, and then he instructed me to
strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am
determined to solve the problem in the Middle
East. If you help me I will act, and if not,
the elections will come and I will have to
focus on them."
Link to www.haaretz.com for the complete article.
This story has been picked up by Common Dreams News Center, Metropolis, The Moscow Times and The Daily Times of Pakistan. But it has not been run in any news service publishing in the United States-that I know of. If anyone can help me with a USA source on this story please get in touch with me.
Here is the actual letter responding to the Op-Ed by Daniel C. Dennett on July 12, 2003. It was my chance to come "Out as a Brights in the NY TIMES. What a chance to let everyone know. smile..........
In This Corner, the Nonbelievers
To the Editor:
Re "The Bright Stuff" (Op-Ed, July 12):
Daniel C. Dennett defines a bright as "a person with a naturalist as opposed to a supernaturalist world view."
I am a 70-year-old bright. After all these years, I am delighted to have a fresh name that doesn't begin with the letter A. Atheist and agnostic are such negative labels.
I was raised in a God-infused and loving family. I have lived in God-infused neighborhoods all my life. Daily, I interact with sincere, respectful believers who God bless me and describe their latest personal contact with God in detail. How do I get by? I smile and listen carefully, but I know that they are merely telling me of their experience, not asking me for my comment or beliefs.
I commend your social activism and will indeed write my congressman.
To add to the hate issue, we have a small Muslim community here. Recently
they announced plans to build a mosque. Our paper decided to do a story, in
four parts, about Muslims in the community and how they are accepted or not.
In general the response was either neutral or positive. However one person
wrote a letter to the editor in opposition to these poor people who make a
trip each month to Chicago to buy the foods and spices they use to cook. The
author's point was, this is a physician, who cares. He makes big money. We
have people here with no food to eat.
Fortunately someone replied and said you're missing the point. I welcome the
diversity.
It may be a small step to take. To speak out as one person in support of
another religious group is not always easy especially if you feel isolated
or that you may be attacked in turn. But I bet you are not alone. I bet if
one of us speaks up there will quickly be others beside us to add their
voices.
Brights gets brighter. Daniel C Dennett has an op-ed piece in the NY Times about Brights, those people who have a naturalistic world view. That is one without supernatural elements. Here is the link.........
Today I've written a letter to the editor NY Times regarding this article. If The Times is going to use it they will say so within 10 days. If I don't hear from them I'll post it here on the 11th day
Friday's post about the EID stamp has resulted in some favorable comments, for which I'm very happy. Saturday I mailed the essay using the label and EID stamp to the Peace River Center for Writers and the Islamic Community of SW Florida, both local addressees. I also mail to Southern Poverty Law Center and Linn's Stamp News. (This the national stamp collecting weekly newspaper) Today I'll continue mailing samples of the project.
Last Thursday I showed an example of the mailing to James Abraham, a local newspaperman, and he asked if he could have it. Of course.
What about the current 37c EID United States Postage Stamp?
Recently I received an email from one of my high school classmates that was a forward, forward, forward of an anti-Muslim message urging all receiptants to boycott the current EID commemorative postage stamp on sale at United States Post Offices. No doubt many readers have also seen one of these emails or have read letters to the editors urging boycott of this current stamp.
The instructions in the email and letters to the editors are to boycott this stamp, and to be vocal to postal clerks by expressing your opposition to this stamp. The tone and thinking of the writers classify them as promoting hate mail and a hate boycott.
It is a flaw of thinking to apply your response to the actions of a few people and applying as if they represented an entire group, class, race or country. This is the same thinking that urges people not eat French Fries, not to listen to Canadian radio broadcasts, and not to use Russian dressing on their salad. Hate can only be overcome with love and understanding. It can only happen one at a time in each person's mind.
This design was first issued as a 34c stamp on September 1, 2001, ten days prior to the attacks of 911. The stamp was designed by Mohammed Zakariya of Arlington, VA and features the phrase “Eid mubarak” in Arabic gold calligraphy on a blue background. The English text reads, “Eid Greetings.” This stamp commemorates two important Islamic festivals celebrated by Muslims worldwide including the six to seven million Muslims living in the United States.
I have been a stamp collector for 63 years and a professional stamp dealer for 36 years. I am well aware of the various motives for stamp designs and use. They include, but are not limited to, commemorating a national hero, event or location. Stamps are also used to promote many causes of public merit, and of course for outright propaganda.
I will use the EID stamp this year in celebration of the 6 to 7 million Muslims living in peace in this country, and the many hundreds of millions of Muslims world wide who lead lives of peace, hope and love.
Would you join me?
I have made up a label on with my computer that I use with the EID stamps: “The sender is using this EID stamp to honor the Muslims worldwide who live in peace with their families and neighbors.” As my mail goes through the system and to the address maybe more people will be encouraged to use the EID stamps and labels.
Let’s promote peace among people in this simple way.
Henry Burt Stevens
6400 Taylor Rd Lot 108
Punta Gorda FL 33950 Phone 941 575 2470 hank330@hotmail.com
"On July 8, 1950, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea. "
Sound familiar? How many commanders of armed forces has the United States named in the years since 1950? Many, many and we are still doing it. We are a superpower because we have the machinery, the people who know how to use the machinery and public backing for these adventures.
Here is a link to the Brights, a new idea for self identification of people whose worldview is free of supernatural and mystical elememts. These are people who operate within the community of reason.
http://www.the-brights.net
Here is a sample from their web page.
What are the goals of the Bright Movement?
The goals are simple and straightforward, and range from current to far-reaching as follows:
[initial goal, using internet and our own presentations to aid the process]
To get the word out (about the new umbrella noun) to as many persons as possible who do fit its definition, inviting those who like it to begin to self-identify as Brights.
To have the noun, Bright, in wide use as an identity label among those persons who are free of the supernatural and mystical
To gradually bring together under the name, the Brights, large numbers of the supernaturalism-free individuals and begin to form an identifiable and visible civic constituency.
To, have the noun, Bright, gain recognition in broader society as a useful label to describe those who have a naturalistic worldview, in other words, those "beyond the faith community."
To gain "a place at the civic table" for the Brights, and a capacity to transmit to religionists, politicians, media, and society in general educational information on key topics that affect the interests not only of the Brights (e.g., discrimination, the separation of church and state), but the welfare of all the individuals of the nation and world.
.......................................................
Posted by
Henry Burt Stevens
Henry Burt Stevens
6400 Taylor Rd Lot 108
Punta Gorda FL 33950
hank330@hotmail.com
Sprint DLS has been mostly down since last Friday. Every so once in a while it is up, but within minutes or an hour it will be back down again. Tonight, Monday July 7 it is up and I'm trying the Link from the new beta Google Blogger tool bar. It's working so far. One very useful feature is the pop-up blocker. I really like this feature and have installed the tool bar on my other computer.
I'm going to post about the Brights. Something new.
For instance, I remember when The NY TIMES would only let me read news stories online if I gave them a credit card and paid for every word I received. That was back in the dark ages of the internet when the gatekeepers of information hoarded their knowledge and believed they could sock it to us if we wanted access. That idea capsized-they were all wet anyway-but they got really wet as the internet developed. The survivors who made it to shore knew the truth was to give it away.
Now, each day bright and freshly delivered to my email inbox are links to the latest top headlines from The NY Times. For free. Not only that, but there is a quick link to three or four top op-ed pieces, including Maureen Dowd. I used to think Ms Dowd was pretty sassy, but since she won a Pulitzer Prize I take her seriously. Also I can link to the main home page online and prowl the whole site free.
For an additional $19.95 per year on top of my free subscription to the top rated newspaper, regardless of current boo hoos, I receive an exceedingly effective news story tracker. I can track 10 subjects. When a track of interest appears in the current edition of the Times the link to the story comes to me in my mailbox. I follow deflation, ERA-Equal Rights Amendment, Patriot II and Howard Dean. I’m sure everyone else has spicier items than mine. Perhaps I should put in one for Howard Stern or Dixie Chicks. I have six unused trackers available.
So how does The NY Times make money? I don’t know. But they do want to charge me for articles that are more than 30 days old.
I was late coming to the internet. I’d been using computers since the very first Apple appeared. But I lived in a small town thirty miles from anywhere that would provide an internet connection in the early days.
Eventually internet connection did come to town and the little store front computer shop put a sign in its window, “One hour internet connection $20.00.” I put a floppy in my shirt pocket, went to the store and asked for a half hour. I’d never been on the internet before, but the owner gave me the two minute tour and turned me loose. I download the Wal-Mart annual financial statement they are required to file with the Security and Exchange Commission to my floppy, paid my $10.00 and went home. At home I opened the file on the floppy and printed the 80 pages. I was hooked. I’m still hooked after all these years.
These annual reports were historically difficult to get for people living in the rural areas. People living in cities, who had a brokerage account and a nearby brokerage office, could often get the information easier.
The internet has an equally attractive offer for world wide newspapers called Google News. Free.
This service, part of Google, the search engine, is an innovative news service completely computer created. No human hands or minds involved. All news stories world wide are ranked and linked in any of six subject categories; World, U.S., Business, Sports, Entertainment and Health. I can read the top stories by following the provided links. These stories are coming from newspapers world wide, so I end up reading news from the BBC, The Guardian, The Straites Times, The Hindu, WSWS World Socialist, and AL Bawaba. These papers, of course, have different points of view, which I find of value and interest to me.
But everything considered it’s still a great pleasure to start each day with a friendly “Welcome hank330,” from the The NY Times.
Last week I bought a nine inch world globe from Office Depot. I’d been looking for small globe for a few months and this one had the advantage of having a three brightness bulb inside. My purpose was to brush up on the location of countries of the world. Where’s Kyrgyzstan, for instance.
Of course my first lookup was Iraq, and what I discovered set me back on my heels. Iraq’s neighbors include Syria, Iran and Afghanistan, among other, but these three are in a line that extends from the border of China to the Mediterranean Sea. We have a presence in Afghanistan, and Iraq, and we’ve made big noises about the governments of Syria and Iran not being to our liking.
If we were to extend our presence in Syria and Iran we would draw a line that would about bisect the Muslim World. We would also control oil reserves and oil production that would allow us to set the world price. That would solve one of our greatest problems.
As I turned my little lighted globe and looked at the countries of the world I was amazed to see how they were selling USA their resources and cheap labor and we are exporting our culture and our weapons.
