The following is an update from Suzanne Taylor and TheConversation.org Making Sense of These Times Website. Thank you for your interest. If you wish to be removed from this list at any time, just let us know.
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Featured Conversation: Joe Simonetta, Senior Editor of the World Business Academy and author of Seven Words That Can Change the World
 
Suzanne's comments: There's a conversation underway, revolving around Joe Simonetta and his wonderful book, "Seven Words That Can Change the World." It proposes a new definition of sacredness that all people of good will could subscribe to, whereby the book could become a unifying force for a new story we tell about reality. The handful of participants, who each have significant transformational work of their own (read the Allan Savory talk that we link to -- it is sensational), all have read Joe's book. What we're talking about in the latest post is how to use the Net to create an alignment -- building on a previous post where we talk about creating "something that is ongoing and participatory, so that we're starting something, not just selling something. Maybe it's the planting of a new seed as the new story, and we field conversation that comes back, with selective posting so people can read it and feel like they are part of something that's developing."
 
Link to the conversation for new post: http://www.theconversation.org/joeandfriends.html#030402
 
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Column from Geov Parrish: The Doomsday Regime: The Bush Administration is Hurdling us Toward Armageddon -- March 11, 2002
Full column: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=12949
 
Suzanne's comment: Geov apologizes for harping on a theme, "but it seems like every week brings us a measurable step closer to this completely unnecessary brink." If there's anything you haven't thought yourself about how terrifying Bush's new nuclear pronouncement is, Geov has covered it in this brilliant column, which has this chilling end: "Six months ago today, the world was horrified by the devastation in New York, D.C., and Pennsylvania. Since then, it has been doubly horrified by the Bush Administration's exploitation of a few thousand tragic deaths to set in motion a series of policy decisions, based explicitly upon an aggressive desire for military domination of the world for up to the next 50 years, that if pursued for any length of time will unquestionably kill tens of millions, including many of us. If not all life on earth. No wonder he's not worried about global warming."
 
Other quotes drawn from the column:
 
"...George W. Bush is planning to destroy the world... a dramatic and terrifying change in recent U.S. military policy...
 
"...Bush's nuclear planning is far more sickening than it appears at first glance. (And that's saying something.)...nuclear weaponry in 2002 bears
about as much resemblance to that of 1945 as today's computers do to the very first prototypes. 2002's nukes are far more destructive...
 
"...if the world's assorted dictators, departments of "defense," and terrorist cells weren't already inclined to consider weapons of mass destruction, of whatever sort they can afford, they will now see a compelling reason to invest in them...the fraudulently-elected George W. Bush has almost single-handedly made the world an infinitely more dangerous place...
 
"The track record suggests Bush and Rumsfeld are just insane and arrogant enough to use such weapons; but if they don't, chances are pretty good they'll have created the "moral" space for someone else to use them...This document also comes at a time when -- due to U.S. actions in Afghanistan alone -- countless scores of thousands of Muslims have newly pledged themselves to martyrdom."
 
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Other additions to our Quotes section:
 
"War without end is likely to have — indeed is already having — profound consequences for the American constitutional system. It tends to produce the very thing that the framers of the Constitution most feared: concentrated, unaccountable political power...

"War inevitably produces an exaltation of presidential power. The president is commander in chief of the armed forces — a distinctive feature of the American system — and in wartime people tend to fall in behind the commander...The danger lies in political use of that wartime popularity...
 
"Secrecy is a second threat to the constitutional premise. The Bush administration is the most secretive Washington has seen in years...

"Civil liberties have often been overridden in times of crisis and war — as in the removal of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast in World War II. Those occasions were followed by regrets and apologies. But how will we protect civil liberties in a war without end?"

Taking Our Liberties
Anthony Lewis
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/09/opinion/09LEWI.html [Access to this article requires (free) registration on the New York Times Website.]
 
"There is something about this new, intensely violent, stage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that is starting to feel like the fuse for a much larger war of civilizations. You can smell it in the incredibly foul wind blowing through the Arab-Muslim world these days. It is a wind that is fed by many sources: the (one-sided) Arab TV images of Israelis brutalizing Palestinians, the Arab resentment of America's support for Israel and its threat against Iraq, the frustrations of young Arabs with their own lack of freedom and jobs. But once these forces are all bundled together, they express themselves in the most heated anti-Israeli and anti-American sentiments that I've ever felt...

"'The question is whether Palestinian extremists will do what bin Laden could not: trigger a civilizational war,' said the Middle East analyst Stephen P. Cohen. 'If you are willing to give up your own life and that of thousands of your own people, the overwhelming power of America and Israel does not deter you any more. We are now on the cusp of the extremists' realizing this destructive power, before the majority is mobilized for an alternative. That's why this Israeli-Palestinian war is not just a local ethnic conflict that we can ignore. It resonates with too many millions of people, connected by too many satellite TV's, with too many dangerous weapons.'"

A Foul Wind
Thomas L. Friedman
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/10/opinion/10FRIE.html [Access to this article requires (free) registration on the New York Times Website.]
 
Other quotes, that appear on the site in the Quotes section, are in bold in the Five Star Piece below.
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Five Star Piece: Kucinich Rocks the Boat, John Nichols -- Published in the March 25, 2002 edition of The Nation
 
Suzanne's comments: This is a perfect companion piece to Michael Moore's letter, our last Five Star Piece. It reports on the overwhelming response to a speech by Dennis Kucinich -- again, we see that those who oppose the Bush mania for war and other atrocities are very alive and very well. Next thing you know, we could become a force. This report, with a link to the fabulous Kucinich speech, gets it right -- after umpteen emails that have it wrong -- that Barbara Lee was the first heroic Congressperson to oppose giving Bush war power. With people like Barbara and Dennis and Michael out there, we all can breathe a little easier -- and step up our efforts to rally ourselves. "[Kucinich] admits he underestimated the depth of the discomfort until February 17, when he delivered a speech to the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action, in which he declared, 'Let us pray that our country will stop this war.'...Kucinich's 'Prayer for America' speech was interrupted by repeated standing ovations. But the real measure of the message's resonance came as the text of the speech circulated on the Internet - - where a genuine worldwide web of opposition to the Administration's actions led to the posting of Kucinich's words on websites and dispatched them via e-mail."
 
Dennis Kucinich never doubted that millions of Americans had deep concerns about George W. Bush's ever-expanding war on ill-defined foes abroad and on civil liberties at home. But the Congressional Progressive Caucus chair admits he underestimated the depth of the discomfort until February 17, when he delivered a speech to the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action, in which he declared, "Let us pray that our country will stop this war."
 
Recalling the Congressional vote authorizing the President's response to the September 11 terrorist attacks--a resolution supported by Kucinich and all but one member of Congress, California Democrat Barbara Lee--the Ohioan thundered, "We did not authorize an eye for an eye. Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan. We did not authorize the Administration to wage war anytime, anywhere, anyhow it pleases. We did not authorize war without end. We did not authorize a permanent war economy. Yet we are upon the threshold of a permanent war economy."
 
Kucinich's "Prayer for America" speech was interrupted by repeated standing ovations. But the real measure of the message's resonance came as the text of the speech circulated on the Internet--where a genuine worldwide web of opposition to the Administration's actions led to the posting of Kucinich's words on websites (including TheNation.com) and dispatched them via e-mail. Within days, Kucinich received 10,000-plus e-mails. Many echoed New Jerseyan Thomas Minet's sentiments: "Since the 'Axis of Evil' State of the Union Address, I have been searching like Diogenes with his lantern for one honest person in Congress who would have the guts to speak out about the attack on Democracy being mounted by the Bush Administration. It has been a frustrating search indeed, and I was just about ready to give up hope when I ran across 'A Prayer for America.' Thank God for this man's courage." Others simply read, "Kucinich for President."
 
For Kucinich, a former Cleveland mayor who led Democratic opposition to the US bombing of Yugoslavia and proposed establishing a Cabinet-level Department of Peace, speaking out against military adventuring is not new. But he says he's never experienced so immediate and enthusiastic a response. "We can't print out the messages as fast as we are receiving them," he says. "But I've read through a lot of them now, and they touch on the same themes: The Administration's actions are no longer appropriate, and it is time for Congress to start asking questions. The people understand something most of Congress does not: There is nothing unpatriotic about challenging this Administration's policies."
 
Kucinich was not the first Congressmember to express concern about Bush's plans. Lee cast her cautionary vote in September. In October, responding to reports of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, Representative Jim McDermott criticized the speed with which the Administration had taken military action and the failure of the White House to adequately consult Congress. In December, Kucinich, McDermott and Lee joined five other House Democrats in signing a letter to Bush, written by Representative Tammy Baldwin, which noted, "We are concerned by those in your Administration and among our own ranks in the Congress who appear to be making the case for broad expansion of this military campaign beyond Afghanistan. Without presenting clear and compelling evidence that other nations were involved in the September 11 attacks, it is inappropriate to expand the conflict." Another letter, by Representative Peter DeFazio, called on the White House to comply with the War Powers Resolution before expanding the war. In February Senator Robert Byrd said that Congress should no longer hand the President a "blank check." Senate majority leader Tom Daschle suggested the war "will have failed" without the capture of Osama bin Laden--a statement rebuked by Republicans, who want no measure of success or failure applied to this war.
 
But Kucinich's speech was a clarion call. "For most people, Kucinich's speech represents the clearest Congressional criticism they have heard about the conduct of the war, and of the Administration's plans to expand it. That's enormously significant," said Midge Miller, who helped launch Senator Eugene McCarthy's antiwar challenge to President Lyndon Johnson in 1967. "Citizens look for Congressional opposition to organize around--they look for leaders to say something. When I read Kucinich's speech, I thought, This could be a turning point."
 
It has certainly been a turning point for Kucinich. Overwhelmed by invitations to speak, he says his top priority will be to work with Baldwin and others to encourage a broader Congressional debate over international priorities, Pentagon spending and the stifling of dissent. Expect battles in the House Democratic Caucus, where minority leader Dick Gephardt has been more cautious than Daschle about criticizing Bush. But Kucinich thinks more Democrats will begin to echo Senator Byrd's challenge to blank-check military spending in a time of tight budgets. Kucinich plans to encourage grassroots activists to tell members of Congress it is not merely necessary but politically safe to challenge "the Patriot Games, the Mind Games, the War Games of an unelected President and his unelected Vice President."
 
Kucinich, whose working-class district elected a conservative Republican before him, is confident Democrats from even the most competitive districts can safely join him in questioning the war. "The key," he says, "is to recognize that there is a great deal of unity in America around some basic values: peace and security, protection of the planet, a good quality of life for themselves and for others. When people express their patriotism, they are not saying--as some would suggest--that they no longer believe in these things. There's nothing unpatriotic about asserting human values and defending democratic principles. A lot of Americans are telling me this is the highest form of patriotism."
 
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We've posted another update from Michael Moore, reporting on his STUPID WHITE MEN book tour: Police Raid, Shut Down My Booksigning in San Diego -- March 11, 2002
 
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You can always visit our What's New Since Last Update page for links to everything new since we posted an Update from Suzanne, March 4, on the site.
 
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