Carole Anne and I saw this being put together at the Canberra Glass Works

Huge glass art set to dazzle "the world" - and later on to be installed in a new part of our hospital! Read this for more.

More on Howard Zinn (Some Memorable Quotes)

In honor of Howard Zinn, who passed away January 27, 2010:

"We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world."

"Any humane and reasonable person must conclude that if the ends, however desirable, are uncertain and the means are horrible and certain, these means must not be employed."

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places-and there are so many-where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

"Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery - have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience."

"Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it. "

"The challenge remains. On the other side are formidable forces: money, political power, the major media. On our side are the people of the world and a power greater than money or weapons: the truth. Truth has a power of its own. Art has a power of its own. That age-old lesson - that everything we do matters - is the meaning of the people's struggle here in the United States and everywhere. A poem can inspire a movement. A pamphlet can spark a revolution. Civil disobedience can arouse people and provoke us to think, when we organize with one another, when we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a power no government can suppress. We live in a beautiful country. But people who have no respect for human life, freedom, or justice have taken it over. It is now up to all of us to take it back."

~ Howard Zinn, 1922 - 2010

Link to Howard Zinn retrospective on 1/28/10 All Things Considered - National Public Radio

RIP: Howard Zinn

Today I learned of Howard Zinn's heart attack and subsequent death on Wednesday, January 27 - in the United States, that is. I think time will prove him to be one of the greatest American historians - Howard was a real progressive hero of mine. I can't believe he was 87. I hope I have even half his energy and wits if I ever reach that age!

Below find an initial tribute to Howard on the Democracy Now! website. Their program on Thursday will be devoted to a retrospective of his contributions.

Some readers here might have seen Zinn's incredibly powerful "The People Speak" documentary which premiered on the History Channel last month! (December)

As Bill Moyers said: "Howard Zinn has long been known as the historian of the American everyman and woman. His groundbreaking work, THE PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, turned history on its head — concentrating on the power of the people to effect change, not just the deeds of great men and those in political power."

Zinn's contributions to people in the United States and around the globe were and are massive - he will be very deeply missed by a multitude. His emphases on honesty, justice, education and "the power of people to effect change" are exactly what was needed as we struggle to initiate the many reforms and changes that some of us deem to be essential.

He deployed his energies so well - to the very end.

One can find plenty of additional links below to help round out the picture of his legacy.

Grace and Peace,
Clair

# # #

What follows is the initial tribute at Democracy Now!

Howard Zinn, one of the country’s most celebrated historians, died of a heart attack Wednesday in Santa Monica, California. He was 87.

His classic work, A People’s History of the United States, changed the way we look at history in America. First published a quarter of a century ago, the book has sold over a million copies and continues to sell more copies each successive year.

After serving as a shipyard worker and then an Air Force bombardier in World War II, Zinn went on to become a lifelong dissident and peace activist. He went to college under the GI Bill, received his PhD from Columbia. He was active in the civil rights movement and many of the struggles for social justice over the past half-century. He taught at Spelman College, the historically black college for women in Atlanta, was fired for insubordination for standing up for the women. He is now Professor Emeritus at Boston University and was recently honored by Spelman.

Zinn has received the Thomas Merton Award, the Eugene V. Debs Award, the Upton Sinclair Award, and the Lannan Literary Award. He is the author of many books, including the People’s History Series; a seven-volume series on the Radical ’60s; several collections of essays on art, war, politics and history; and the plays Emma and Marx in Soho.

In December, The People Speak a documentary based on the live performances of A People’s History of the United States and Voices of a People’s History of the United States premiered on the History Channel.

(A collection of his appearances on Democracy Now! is then listed.)

# # #

Recently shared:

For more on Howard Zinn and to see powerful small segments from "The People Speak," see the Dec. 11 interview with Zinn on the Bill Moyers Journal here. For additional resources and a biography see this link.

The following brief transcribed excerpts from the programs mentioned above will give you a feel for the power of Zinn's humanity, scholarship, and film:

[BILL MOYERS: There's a long tradition in America of people power, and no one has done more to document it than the historian, Howard Zinn. Listen to this paragraph from his most famous book. Quote: "If democracy were to be given any meaning, if it were to go beyond the limits of capitalism and nationalism, this would not come, if history were any guide, from the top. It would come through citizen's movements, educating, organizing, agitating, striking, boycotting, demonstrating, threatening those in power with disruption of the stability they needed."

This son of a working class family got a job in the Brooklyn shipyards and then flew as a bombardier during World War II. He went to NYU on the G.I. Bill, taught history at Spellman College in Atlanta, where he was first active in the Civil Rights movement, and then became a professor of political science at Boston University.

There, he and his students sought a more down-to-earth way of looking at American history. And when no book could provide it, Zinn decided to write one. Since his publication in 1980, "A People's History of the United States" has sold more than two million copies.

This Sunday night, the History Channel will premiere a 90-minute special, "The People Speak" based on Howard Zinn's book. It was produced by Zinn along with Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Chris Moore and Anthony Arnove.]

# # #

Howard Zinn has long been known as the historian of the American everyman and woman. His groundbreaking work, THE PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, turned history on its head — concentrating on the power of the people to effect change, not just the deeds of great men and those in political power.

Now, selections from his collection of voices from the American past are being performed by actors, poets and writers in a new documentary directed by Matt Damon which is airing on The History Channel. Find out more about some of those voices below, and delve further into American history through the JOURNAL's coverage of American history on-air and online.

* "Ain't I a Woman?" Sojourner Truth (1851)
* The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman. "A Narrative of Real Life"(1860)
* Mark Twain, "Comments on the Moro Massacre" (1906)
* Industrial Workers of the World, "Why the IWW is not Patriotic to the United States" (1918)
* Langston Hughes, "Ballad of Roosevelt" (1934)
* Dalton Trumbo, "Johnny Got His Gun" (1939)
* Daniel Ellsberg; "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers" (2003) ]

# # #

More interesting and informative links:

Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn: Obama "Is Going to Need Demonstrations and Protest and Letters and Petitions" to Do the Right Things - Liliana Segura - AlterNet 3/12/09

Changing Obama's Mindset - Howard Zinn - The Progressive 5/09

Archive of Recent Articles by Howard Zinn - AlterNet

"Empire or Humanity? What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me about the American Empire" (Narrated by Viggo Mortensen; from "A People's History of American Empire" by Howard Zinn) - Henry Holt Video (8:35 min) 3/28/08


Rest in peace, Howard Zinn.

Americans In Haiti

Translation:

"Cuba, Venezuela, Spain, and other countries send in the medical brigades;
the Yankees send in the troops."

"It must be so they won't go out of character."

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(The cartoonist, Alfredo Martirena Hernández, was born in 1965 in Santa Clara, Cuba. This particular cartoon was published by Rebelión on 21 January 2010.)

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Cuba? "We sent doctors, not soldiers!" - Fidel Castro (24 January, 2010)

If you don't think cell phones and wireless communications towers aren't hazardous to human health then you haven't watched this presentation!!

Wireless Hazards Panel - Columbia University Law School from ElectromagneticHealth.Org on Vimeo.

Witnesses before a Senate Committee testified about research into cell phone use and its potential impact on human health, as well as the potential side effects such as brain and salivary gland tumors.

In 2008, cell phones were identified as a contributor to salivary gland tumors. Dr. Siegal Sadetzki, who testified in September 2009 at the U.S. Senate Hearing, is the principle investigator of the study that made this finding.

The report states that your risk of getting a parotid tumor on the same side of your head that you use for listening to the mobile phone increases by:

34 percent if you are a regular cell phone user and have used a mobile phone for 5 years.
58 percent if you had more than about 5,500 calls in your lifetime.
49 percent if you have spoken on the phone for more than 266.3 hours during your lifetime.

The video above, produced by Electromagnetichealth.org and filmed at Columbia University Law School at a presentation on Wireless Hazards, was posted during the first week of January 2010. It explains how wireless radiation creates cognitive problems, damages DNA, diminishes fertility, causes disorientation and navigation difficulties for birds, bees and other wildlife, and may contribute to Bee Colony Collapse, which, if not reversed, will jeopardize the future of life on earth.

Presenters include Camilla Rees, founder of ElectromagneticHealth.org; Martin Blank PhD, Associate Professor at Columbia University Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics; and Whitney North Seymour, Jr. Esq., Attorney at Law and Co-Founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Good questions from the audience are addressed by this panel during the last 15 minutes.

I'm very concerned about the billions of people around the globe being - or about to be - affected. How about you? Can you guess why nothing much has been done in America yet? Think about how strong the wireless communications lobby is....

So, get educated, and pass this information along. Think about what you are doing to YOURSELF! (There are hands-free devices out there that can help.)

-Clair

Remember the official court verdict? The assassination of Martin Luther King was a conspiracy, not a lone gunman! So why wasn't anything done?

Some people view the 1960s in America as a "do your own thing" era, whereas in reality it was an era of brutal political repression including the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Malcom X, and Martin Luther King, among many others.

Few probably remember this, but a court that examined official evidence in the Martin Luther King assassination determined James Earl Ray was NOT the assassin - and that the assassination was the result of a conspiracy. Do you remember that? (Of course not - when the verdict finally came down, years later, it only made page 16 of the New York Times.) But why?

Watch this riveting interview to get your historical facts straight in your own mind.

The person below - James Di Eugenio of Probe Magazine which consistently covered the case - points out in this interview in July 2008 that before he was murdered, King became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War.

April 4, 1968 - Martin Luther King, high profile opponent of the Vietnam War - assassinated.

June 4, 1968 - Robert J. Kennedy, high profile opponent of the Vietnam War - assassinated.

What you just saw is Part 1 - you will definitely want to watch Part 2 (about the same length) on Google Videos here.

Part 2 details the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis Tennessee on June 4th, 1968. The interview covers the peculiar circumstances and near impossibility of James Earl Ray having been the assassin. Several of the figures involved with Ray trials are discussed including Lloyd Jowers, William Pepper, Judge Joe Brown, Arthur Hanes and Percy Foreman.

The conclusions just make you want to shake your head...

-Clair

Martin Luther King, Jr among the Mennonites - message still as relevant as it was 50 years ago!

National Public Radio picked up a great story on MLK Day this year about how a recording of his 1960 speech at Bethel (Mennonite) College in Newton, Kansas was rediscovered from the personal collection of Randy Harmison, now a retired engineer. Randy had the foresight to make a reel-to-reel recording as a student there when it happened, but only recently had his memory jogged that he'd kept it all these years when Bethel was desperately seeking a copy for the anniversary celebration, after discovering there was no copy in its own archives. This speech was the centerpiece of a day of related events on that campus today - the 18th of January in the US.

King told his audience at Bethel 50 years ago: "I never intend to adjust myself to the evils of segregation and discrimination. I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry."

The NPR story quotes Duane Friesen, professor emeritus at Bethel. He used King's teachings in his classroom and also remembered listening intently from the balcony during King's speech 50 years ago:

"He kept repeating that we need to be maladjusted to our society; we can't accept the status quo," Friesen says. "And he repeated that over and over again. I said I remember that, being a nonconformist. He had vigor about him, energy. He carried himself with a dignity, a sense of composure."

Bethel College published its own story with many more details, including how Vincent Harding - a Mennonite and one of MLK's former close associates - is involved in their special day. It also includes a link to NPR's story with excerpts from MLK Jr's inspiring "lost" speech.

All quite inspiring. But I found that it's not the first MLK speech recovered after half a century:

A year ago researchers in India discovered a copy of the speech MLK, Jr. made in India 50 years earlier during a trip he and his wife had made there in 1959 to understand the life and effect of Mahatma Ghandi. Here are a couple of excerpts from that one:

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr: "Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity. In a world since Mahatma Gandhi embodied in his life certain universal principles that are inherent in the moral structure of the universe, and these principles are as inescapable as the law of gravitation."

King speaks of his great appreciation for Gandhi:

"Many years ago, when Abraham Lincoln was shot - and incidentally, he was shot for the same reason that Mahatma Gandhi, was shot for, namely, for committing the crime of wanting to heal the wounds of a divided nation - and when he was shot, Secretary Stanton stood by the dead body of the great leader and said these words: Now he belongs to the ages. And in a real sense, we can say the same thing about Mahatma Gandhi, and even in stronger terms: Now he belongs to the ages. And if this age is to survive, it must follow the way of love and nonviolence that he so nobly illustrated in his life. And Mahatma Gandhi may well be God's appeal to this generation, for in a day when sputniks and explorers dash through outer space and guided ballistic missiles are carving highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can win a war. Today, we no longer have a choice between violence and nonviolence; it is either nonviolence or nonexistence."

These words still ring true - so very relevant to issues we struggle with and must continue to address today!

-Clair in Canberra

P.S. Here's a great retrospective in the Seattle Times regarding MLK JR's life

How to Best Help the Situation In Haiti

The State Department (USA) continues to say that the best way to help the people of Haiti is to give money. They are now requesting that we direct people to InterAction, a large coalition of US-based international nongovernmental organizations, to do so.

Volunteer opportunities in Haiti continue to be limited to people with specific skills. If you have the expertise needed, you can register your skills and experience for a possible volunteer opportunity at the Center for International Disaster Information's registration page.

Today I stumbled onto "The National (American) Corruption Index"

To give you some of its "flavor" what follows is a section I've excerpted from near the beginning of a rather longish introduction to the NCI which the journalists behind it "designed as a kind of fact-focus telescope, with correlated lenses to transform information fragments into comprehensive, high definition views" :

"Though they reappear in numerous NCI profiles, at first they don’t seem related. With further review however, they reveal past and present connections in a viewable substructure of ingrained conflicts of interest, subtly understood quid pro quos and malfeasance/dereliction at the nation’s most vital command posts. Increasingly in recent years, influence buyers place orders with officials/sellers, in an open marketplace for US policy decisions.

From 1995 until 2002, a top Al Qaeda funder owned the software company (Ptech), that managed the US government's most sensitive IT systems. Those included the Departments of Defense, Justice, Energy, State, and the White House itself. It developed the FAA system in control on 9/11. A version of the software used by Ptech became the program required by the Patriot Act, for international banking compliance. The program's first marketing company was founded by President George W Bush’s brother Marvin. Marvin Bush? Yes.

According to declassified CIA documents, permission to annihilate Bin Laden at a Kandahar hunting camp in 1999, was denied at the highest level because a Dubai Prince was with him at the time. Leaving office two years later, former President Clinton began receiving millions from that Prince, now Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

In August 2001, a Saudi billionaire later cited by the Justice Department as one of al qaeda’s top 20 financiers, bought a US aircraft company (Cirrus), which, now the nation’s largest of high tech small planes. The 911 hijackers original plan was to use small planes.

The Chinese government controls both sides of the Panama Canal, nearly half the Port of Los Angeles, and its state-owned company is contracted to detect nuclear material entering the US through the Bahamas.

One of the biggest current US Defense contractors is co-owned by the Bin Laden family. Same company (named Fluor) is among the top 10 in Katrina contract awards.

In 2000 Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle created a law requiring the FAA to buy half of all new airport scanners from a company (L-3) that just retained his wife’s lobby firm. After 9/11, the scanners were found to be defective and unreliable. The FAA’s Patriot Act compliance was reportedly slowed by nearly two years.

Haley Barbour, current Governor of Mississippi (and former GOP Party Chairman), is a principal of a major, Iraq contracted, private military company. His partners include the son of the Syrian Baath Party founder, George W Bush's 2004 campaign chairman Joseph Albaugh, and another one of the President’s brothers, Neil.

Bill Clinton’s biggest lifetime contributor, Jackson Stephens, also arranged the bailouts, through terror-finance linked Saudi bankers, of George W Bush’s failing oil company ventures. Stephens also brokered the plan to bring, what prosecutors called the "largest financial fraud in world history," into the United States.The notorious, international bank was named BCCI. It was controlled by some of those same terror-linked Saudi bankers, most notably the Saudi Royals' personal banker Khalid bin Mahfouz. One of BCCI's lead attorneys was Hillary Clinton.

Now, try to recall a chunk of specific information in any of the above without scrolling back up. Not so easy, right?

Overloaded by the info age’s relentless rise of unavoidable incoming data, it's near impossible for us to find and keep track of essential context, let alone retrieve it at will.

National news reports of official wrongdoing, even regarding matters of vital concern, don’t provide immediate access to the relevant histories and relationships of, in New York police parlance, the kingpin “doers” involved.

That’s what the National Corruption Index seeks to provide: a one-stop shopping source for on-point profiles of key figures and companies in major compromises of critical national interest. Every name, agency, event or term found in each profile can be instantly accessed for all links throughout the Index."

---

As I (Clair) read down through a lot more of this material, I realized I had stumbled upon a very excellent source of documentation to bolster my perception that a very powerful web of hidden, insidious and sometimes surprising "connections" moves the levers of control in our world. And it's quite maddening, because most of the prime suspects have been 'getting away with it.' (However, one can only hope that more websites like this one lifting up "reality" to the light of day will perhaps make a difference - which is the main intention of those behind this site.)

Now, if you read this far, you might be muttering to yourself, "why hasn't this stuff come out in investigations?" Well, exactly. This is not someone's delusional pipe dream. Good hard investigative journalism is at the core of what this project represents.

The man who initiated this National Corruption Index is Steve Bauman, who lives in New York. His career in journalism has enjoyed some recognition over the years - but he doesn't work alone. All the others involved, other than himself, hold Master's degrees from Columbia University's School of Journalism - all working writers and reporters, highly "trained to pan fact nuggets from opinion dust."

Of course, as Mr. Bauman admits, "wisps of personal viewpoint might have slipped through the objective purity filters, but if so, they have had no influence on the overall professional grade of unbiased, verifiable information sought and contained in this index. So hold on to your skepticism. At the same time you're urged, as the slogan goes, to 'Just look it up.' "

Bauman urges readers to go right ahead and question the credibility of the information presented, but to do their own source checking. As the information gets confirmed, one comes to understand why NCI was created. "If there are any mistakes, they're unintended, hopefully small ones easily corrected. The facts shriek for themselves."

I urge people to at least read the introduction I cited above on their website. But you have to be in the mood for it.

As I'm sure you've gathered by now, it's really not much in the way of light reading at all, but (I think) definitely good fodder for a discussion group made up of people who've first done their homework. As we all know by now "there can be no peace without justice." And this site, in my judgement, models excellent investigative journalism in the pursuit of truth and justice.

-Clair in Canberra

We're not done yet!

In the aftermath of the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December, one thing's for sure: "We're not done yet!"

A number of young adults connected to the Australian Youth Climate Coalition made this brilliantly clear with this powerful video message they sent to world leaders. I thought it was worth reposting here, because they express how I feel: