People have asked me why I think writing stuff down is so important so let me talk about that just a tad more.
Look too many people attempt to rely entirely to much on there memory to keep track of all the many and wondrous things that go on in their lives. From important dates to detailed work on projects, both at work and at home, what friends, relatives and other loved ones like and don’t like, what are our dreams and goals of the future, the name of the person we met at the seminar last month to the name of the pretty person we talked to for an hour at such and such party, etc. And this is on top of the many daily routines such as how to drive, how to iron our clothes, get to work, the chapter that we stopped at in the novel that we’re reading and the like.
Now don’t get me wrong the human mind is a truly wondrous instrument and I can’t praise it enough it in how it operates over the course of our life and the remarkable ability it has to help us keep on top of so many things. Yet why not give our poor beleaguered brain some help in its millions upon millions of tasks that we demand that it performs each and every day. Why not relieve some of the stress that we heap upon this gray matter. Why don’t we, wait for it, write some of the stuff down that is always bubbling in the inner most recess’s of our mind? Jot down a few of those items on a regular bases, that seems to need to demand some of our attention regardless of the fact that at this particular time that these seemingly random thoughts occur to us there is nothing that we can do about them at the moment. I would dare say that the importance of writing these items down, and reviewing the list of what we write on a pretty regular bases is that, not only do we keep a record of those thoughts and feelings which may prove to be useful at some future date and time but also by recording it somewhere we will remove a little of that nameless nagging stress that we always seem to carry with us no matter where we go or what we do.
Recording these thoughts, ideas, appointments, tasks, plans in some manner that makes sense to us and in a system that we find reliable and systematic will go a long way in improving how we feel about life and about ourselves and our ability to function in this world in which we live.
Another reason for writing things down is that the simple act of doing so aids in our self reflection or helps us in looking at the big picture. Seeing the whole from another angle supports us in getting some manner of prospective on the thoughts and/or actions we need to take or plans for future action.
If you read any material on self improvement or increasing personal productivity in almost all of them they stress the importance of “To Do Lists” or of “Brainstorming” on paper or whatever electronic device you might be into. There is something almost magical about writing things down and the effect it has on a person’s ability to achieve anything. Please, please, please commence to putting your thoughts, plans, ideas, dreams, goals etc. on paper, or in your computer or PDA. Do this regularly for 30 days and see if you have gotten further along in any of your plans and/or goals. The results may surprise you.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Why Change and Is It Possible, Part 3
To achieve what every it is that we want or need, we must learn to engage in a certain level of commitment and perform a certain level of action. If you think about it every since we enter the world our lives are constantly impacted by various actions performed by the people around us or in our immediate sphere of survival. Part of the motivation for many of the people in our lives is to teach us how to take, hopefully, positive action on our own as we get older. Actions and steps that will hopefully lead us to a more positive and social life.
From learning to brush our teeth to tying our shoes, learning to recite our ABC’s to riding a bicycle a good deal of our life is devoted to learning to not only take actions but also observing the consequences of taking, or in many cases, not taking action. As children we accept the principle that actions have effects not only on our lives but in affecting the lives of others around us. It is interesting that as we get older we begin to loose our ability to focus and see that we can take actions and responsibilities ourselves. It’s funny if you think about it as we get older we seemingly forget that our actions can change things for both good and evil. We enter a sort of mindless drifting state where we barely survive day to day. And in the back of our mind we accept the principle that there is not a whole lot that we can do about it.
Since we know that actions can bring about changes the question then becomes how can we become more action oriented? Or to put it another way how can we start committing to taking actions that will lead to our having better lives? What is the big secret? Why does it seem like some people are so energized that they seem to figure out what it is that they want and then go after it with a vengeance? What is the “secret?”
Well in terms of my reading and research it’s not really a question of a big secret. If most people could really look back on their childhood with clear vision and memory they would see that a great deal of what they learned they learned through sheer repetition. Think about brushing you teeth, tying your shoes learning to printing the letters to the alphabet you had instructors, usually adults, to tell you why these tasks had to be done and to demonstrate to you how to do them. Then you were assisted in trying to preform the tasks yourself. Through trial and error and constant repetition you kept at it until, one day, you master whatever the task was.
Now in terms of being an adult we don’t have as many people training us in how to do most things as the general belief is that we should be pretty much up on everything we need to know by now. Yet we still have a great deal of difficulties substituting good habits for bad habits. Or perhaps a better way to phrase it is that we till haven’t mastered the key to figuring out what we need to do, what actions or steps we need to take, to acquire whatever it is that we want to get or accomplish. Some of the lessons of youth seems to have evaded our memory. Let’s take an example of taking some action, or at least some different action, to deal with a problem or situation that could lead to really bigger difficulties down the road.
Let’s say this year we, once again, forgot our spouses, partner, sibling, children’s birthday, anniversary etc. Let’s say we miss this important date pretty regularly. In fact its such a regular occurrence that the offended party won't even regard it as much of a problem any longer as we are regarded as not thinking the date is really very important in the scheme. You feel sufficiently bad that you swear up and down that next year you will remember and that you will never forget these dates again for as long as you live. Of course you’re setting your self up for a big embarrassing fall if you forget the date once again next year. What can you do to correct this over sight.
Now what I would suggest is that whatever you do to attempt to remember this date you don’t do what you usually do. Your standard operating procedure is not going to cut it in this particular instance. It is time to try something new. Say you have a calendar that you tentatively use for appointments. If you don’t have one let me suggest that you consider getting one. After all there are 365 days in the year and it would be a mighty person indeed who could remember all the appointments of each and everyday.
Now turn to entry for the upcoming date. Of course write in the section that today is the birthday, anniversary whatever the occasion maybe. Assuming that this appointment is several months away turn to approximately 30 days before the date and write in that space that the date is 30 days from today and jot a little note to the effect of, have I decided what I’m going to do for the person to celebrate the occasion. Now, assuming once again that you have started this far enough in advance turn to a week before that current reminder and write down a reminder that next week, on such and such date, you will have only 30 days left till the important date that you vowed not to forget. Then five weeks before that date place another reminder for this particular reminder. The goal is to put in reminders for yourself at different somewhat odd intervals so it will not become a relatively predictable routine or reminder. Sometimes 30 days to the next reminder then two weeks to another reminder to maybe two reminders in one week. It is important to write the reminders in the calendar as an appointment to yourself. Keep backtracking this way until you have caught up with yourself to today.
Now for this to work you have to get into the habit of checking your appointment calendar on a daily bases. If you don’t do this already well now is a find time to start. If you’re the only person to actually look in your appointment calendar then you could also drop any little ideas as to how you want to celebrate this event or what type of gifts you are thinking about buying. If you can’t put your ideas in the calendar itself jot down some of your thoughts on paper. Another rule, idea, suggestion the more you write things down the more ideas you will come up with and the more creative you will become. So more brainstorming on paper please.
From learning to brush our teeth to tying our shoes, learning to recite our ABC’s to riding a bicycle a good deal of our life is devoted to learning to not only take actions but also observing the consequences of taking, or in many cases, not taking action. As children we accept the principle that actions have effects not only on our lives but in affecting the lives of others around us. It is interesting that as we get older we begin to loose our ability to focus and see that we can take actions and responsibilities ourselves. It’s funny if you think about it as we get older we seemingly forget that our actions can change things for both good and evil. We enter a sort of mindless drifting state where we barely survive day to day. And in the back of our mind we accept the principle that there is not a whole lot that we can do about it.
Since we know that actions can bring about changes the question then becomes how can we become more action oriented? Or to put it another way how can we start committing to taking actions that will lead to our having better lives? What is the big secret? Why does it seem like some people are so energized that they seem to figure out what it is that they want and then go after it with a vengeance? What is the “secret?”
Well in terms of my reading and research it’s not really a question of a big secret. If most people could really look back on their childhood with clear vision and memory they would see that a great deal of what they learned they learned through sheer repetition. Think about brushing you teeth, tying your shoes learning to printing the letters to the alphabet you had instructors, usually adults, to tell you why these tasks had to be done and to demonstrate to you how to do them. Then you were assisted in trying to preform the tasks yourself. Through trial and error and constant repetition you kept at it until, one day, you master whatever the task was.
Now in terms of being an adult we don’t have as many people training us in how to do most things as the general belief is that we should be pretty much up on everything we need to know by now. Yet we still have a great deal of difficulties substituting good habits for bad habits. Or perhaps a better way to phrase it is that we till haven’t mastered the key to figuring out what we need to do, what actions or steps we need to take, to acquire whatever it is that we want to get or accomplish. Some of the lessons of youth seems to have evaded our memory. Let’s take an example of taking some action, or at least some different action, to deal with a problem or situation that could lead to really bigger difficulties down the road.
Let’s say this year we, once again, forgot our spouses, partner, sibling, children’s birthday, anniversary etc. Let’s say we miss this important date pretty regularly. In fact its such a regular occurrence that the offended party won't even regard it as much of a problem any longer as we are regarded as not thinking the date is really very important in the scheme. You feel sufficiently bad that you swear up and down that next year you will remember and that you will never forget these dates again for as long as you live. Of course you’re setting your self up for a big embarrassing fall if you forget the date once again next year. What can you do to correct this over sight.
Now what I would suggest is that whatever you do to attempt to remember this date you don’t do what you usually do. Your standard operating procedure is not going to cut it in this particular instance. It is time to try something new. Say you have a calendar that you tentatively use for appointments. If you don’t have one let me suggest that you consider getting one. After all there are 365 days in the year and it would be a mighty person indeed who could remember all the appointments of each and everyday.
Now turn to entry for the upcoming date. Of course write in the section that today is the birthday, anniversary whatever the occasion maybe. Assuming that this appointment is several months away turn to approximately 30 days before the date and write in that space that the date is 30 days from today and jot a little note to the effect of, have I decided what I’m going to do for the person to celebrate the occasion. Now, assuming once again that you have started this far enough in advance turn to a week before that current reminder and write down a reminder that next week, on such and such date, you will have only 30 days left till the important date that you vowed not to forget. Then five weeks before that date place another reminder for this particular reminder. The goal is to put in reminders for yourself at different somewhat odd intervals so it will not become a relatively predictable routine or reminder. Sometimes 30 days to the next reminder then two weeks to another reminder to maybe two reminders in one week. It is important to write the reminders in the calendar as an appointment to yourself. Keep backtracking this way until you have caught up with yourself to today.
Now for this to work you have to get into the habit of checking your appointment calendar on a daily bases. If you don’t do this already well now is a find time to start. If you’re the only person to actually look in your appointment calendar then you could also drop any little ideas as to how you want to celebrate this event or what type of gifts you are thinking about buying. If you can’t put your ideas in the calendar itself jot down some of your thoughts on paper. Another rule, idea, suggestion the more you write things down the more ideas you will come up with and the more creative you will become. So more brainstorming on paper please.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Why Change and Is It Possible, Part 2
With all the research into the human mind, both physiological and psychological, there have been several key developments into humankind’s knowledge of the great mystery of our brain. The critical discovers that we have learned is the fact that the more people strive to learn and know the better functioning are brains become. To use an constantly recited analogy the brain is like a muscle the more you use it the stronger it becomes. If there is something called intelligence the way to improve it is to give your brain more experiences to learn. The more we use it the better off we become. If we think about it for any length of time that actually makes a great deal of sense. Is not the same thing true in regards to our bodies? The more we use our bodies, in a controlled responsible way, the stronger and more efficient and stronger our bodies become. So would it not make sense that what is true for our bodies has to be true for our brains as well?
So with this key bit of insight then the next logical conclusion has to be the more we learn about stuff the better off we become. Learning should not be viewed as a pain or something to be done only when you have no other choice. People should love to learn in fact they should want to do it all the time. And the more we learn the smarter we become and the more exercise we give our old gray matter which in turn will make it stronger and more resilient.
In regards to changing one’s life this is really good news. To become more actualized, more proactive, more dynamic we need to learn. How do we learn? Well by having many new and varied experiences. Every time we read a book or an article and really think deeply about it that is a new experience. When we talk to someone in a in depth that is a new experience. When we meet and really listen to people, active listening, that is a new experience. When we go places that we have not been too or we have not examined in depth and take the time to really see and observe, more new experiences. Of course taking classes, writing, painting pictures, going to movies, trying new and different foods, yes those count as new experiences. Writing letters to folks when all you usually do is send emails can also be new experiences. Really interacting and truly playing with young kids as opposed to just putting up with them can be a new experience. Learning to meditate or praying for more than two minutes can also be new experiences.
Watching television is not a new experience. Will not simulate your mind regardless of the program. Dreaming about being something or dreaming about doing something but never attempting action to make it real is not a new experience. Now having dreams and sitting down, with pen and paper or typewriter or computer, and translating these dreams into goals and then breaking these goals down even further into actionable steps then carrying out said steps now that is a learning experience.
We must strive to fill our lives with new and varied experiences so that our muscle that is the brain can get a wonderful workout and grow stronger and more fit. Learning seems to be the key to building a strong and healthy mind and increasing humans ability to focus and concentrate.
In attempting to change our lives this principle must always be kept at the forefront of our thoughts. Learning must be a life time event and it can never stop. Getting our lives together and making that push to improve ourselves and improve how we live the main tool is our ability to learn. Learning is fundamental.
We can talk about to do lists, goal setting, action steps, projects and project management, vision quests and vision statements, clearing out clutter, increasing creativity and the like but none of it really matters if we don’t understand and act upon the concept of spending a lifetime learning. Keep in mind that whatever we do it is through learning that it will be accomplished. So the tool behind any changes is our ability to learn and grow. If you can believe in that then that big first step is already accomplished and it’s all down hill from here.
So with this key bit of insight then the next logical conclusion has to be the more we learn about stuff the better off we become. Learning should not be viewed as a pain or something to be done only when you have no other choice. People should love to learn in fact they should want to do it all the time. And the more we learn the smarter we become and the more exercise we give our old gray matter which in turn will make it stronger and more resilient.
In regards to changing one’s life this is really good news. To become more actualized, more proactive, more dynamic we need to learn. How do we learn? Well by having many new and varied experiences. Every time we read a book or an article and really think deeply about it that is a new experience. When we talk to someone in a in depth that is a new experience. When we meet and really listen to people, active listening, that is a new experience. When we go places that we have not been too or we have not examined in depth and take the time to really see and observe, more new experiences. Of course taking classes, writing, painting pictures, going to movies, trying new and different foods, yes those count as new experiences. Writing letters to folks when all you usually do is send emails can also be new experiences. Really interacting and truly playing with young kids as opposed to just putting up with them can be a new experience. Learning to meditate or praying for more than two minutes can also be new experiences.
Watching television is not a new experience. Will not simulate your mind regardless of the program. Dreaming about being something or dreaming about doing something but never attempting action to make it real is not a new experience. Now having dreams and sitting down, with pen and paper or typewriter or computer, and translating these dreams into goals and then breaking these goals down even further into actionable steps then carrying out said steps now that is a learning experience.
We must strive to fill our lives with new and varied experiences so that our muscle that is the brain can get a wonderful workout and grow stronger and more fit. Learning seems to be the key to building a strong and healthy mind and increasing humans ability to focus and concentrate.
In attempting to change our lives this principle must always be kept at the forefront of our thoughts. Learning must be a life time event and it can never stop. Getting our lives together and making that push to improve ourselves and improve how we live the main tool is our ability to learn. Learning is fundamental.
We can talk about to do lists, goal setting, action steps, projects and project management, vision quests and vision statements, clearing out clutter, increasing creativity and the like but none of it really matters if we don’t understand and act upon the concept of spending a lifetime learning. Keep in mind that whatever we do it is through learning that it will be accomplished. So the tool behind any changes is our ability to learn and grow. If you can believe in that then that big first step is already accomplished and it’s all down hill from here.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Why Change and is it Possible, Part 1?
A true story, When I was a freshman in college there was this young lady that I wanted to meet. She was tall, cute, had a squeaky voice, wore glasses, always looked like she was in deep, deep thought. Oh and she wore glasses. We’ll call her Cathy to protect the innocent as well as the guilty. A friend of mine took a music class with her and as such was in a position to give me all sorts of juicy information about the young lady. The fact that she was from Indiana, was a double music major, had two sisters and a mom and a pop. What my friend would not do, is introduce me to her. Stated some silly such like she really didn’t know her that well and that she didn’t want to introduce crazy me to any young woman as that might ruin her reputation. So I badgered and I begged and I hounded my friend to get her to introduce me to this young woman, Cathy. My friend kept telling me no.
Well to make a long story short I convinced my friend to lie to the instructor of the class. To tell the teacher that she knew a guy who loved and was an expert on electronic music. Who would love to come to class one hot summer day and bring some of his albums of electronic music and give a brief lecture about the history and development of electronic music as it stood during that year of 1971. So the teacher agreed and in 3 weeks I was to give my lecture.
I had never study so hard in my life as I did during that 3 week period. I went from knowing almost nothing about electronic music to becoming, at least for a day in that particular location something of an expert on the subject. I went so far as to not only check out some albums from the local library, which surprisingly had a pretty good size collection, but actually purchased a few albums myself. Which I continued to listen to and enjoy for several years.
During the big day of my lecture I was pretty darn prepared. Per my instructions the teacher had a phonograph already for me. I strode to the front of the class and began assembling my material.
At this point perhaps I should mention that the class was Intro to Music Appreciation at Spelman College, a all female black college located in Atlanta, Georgia. The class size was about 30 to 35 students all beautiful black females with the exception of two males who were like me, students from Morehouse College. An all black male college that was roughly right across the street from Spelman. During my time there students at both schools were actively encouraged to take as many classes at other colleges as was feasible.
I introduced myself to the assembled students and began my lecture. After speaking for about five minutes a young lady about in the middle section raised her hand. I immediately pointed and acknowledge her presence, which was real easy to do since she was absolutely gorgeous. She opened her mouth and said, “Excuse me, but could you speak up and slow down. We can’t really understand what you’re saying.”
Needless to say I was stunned. Thank God I fought my first natural reaction which was to scream, holler and run out the room and out the building crying. The only thing that could have been worst was if she told me mine fly was undone and my penis was hanging out.
Instead I regroup, got a grip on myself, mentally, and responded with, “Sorry, it’s just that I find this subject so fascinating that I have a tendency to get a little too revved up.”
And from there I went on to lecture quite amazingly about the current state of Electronic Music in Europe and America today. I must admit I did a damn good job. Yet the young lady that I really wanted to impress, the female that I was doing this for, this Cathy person sat on the second row third seat from the left reading, as I would find out later, letters from home. She was not paying me a bit of attention. The instructor informed the class before I had arrived that nothing I mentioned would be on any of the test. She just thought it would be nice to have some one present a different viewpoint on electronic music. Cathy didn’t look my way not one time during me entire talk. Needles to say I was pissed.
I was so angry that the next class day, Monday, I went over to Spelman’s campus found her walking out of her last class, yes I knew her class schedule and her walking routes, went up to her and struck up a conversation. Eventually I asked her to go to the Black Pearl Restaurant with me for something to eat. Low and behold she agreed. And off we went.
Months later when I told Cathy this story she asked me why didn’t I just come up and do what I eventually did, which was to just go up and start talking to her? Which brings us to the point of my little rant. What is the lesson that I should have learned from this escapade?
One, the easiest thing would have been for me just to walk up to young lady and introduce myself and start talking. My complicated plan took entirely too much work and effort. And it was such a complicated plan in part because I was too insecure to simply walk up to her and introduce myself and depend on the person that I was to attract her attention. Still though once I decided on the plan I expected it pretty darn well. So even way back when there was talent there. Even if I was to silly to recognize or understand the type of person I that I could be.
I was potentially more than I thought I could be.
Yet in making potentially silly moves and decisions my brain still came up with ideas in terms of meeting this young lady. The potential to utilize my mind was evident in this scenario. My lack of awareness of my potential did not negate the potential that was there I just didn’t use my mental abilities to there greatest extent. The changes that I believe can happen is that we can learn ways, habits to improve our functioning, both mental, emotional physical that there may be no limit as to how we can improve out lives and the lives or others. My example above was to show that even when I made bonehead decisions my ability to strive and achieve was still apparent. Lets just see it I can turn these things around in a more effective and positive way in a purposeful and directed manner.
Now the truth is if you really don’t believe that it is possible to change one’s direction in life to start performing new positive habits and getting rid of negative destructive habits, well perhaps you shouldn’t waste time reading this blog. Where I’m coming from is that positive change is not only possible but is quite desirable. In fact it is something to strive for in this life. One should always attempt to move toward being a better person. To do anything less is living a life of mediocrity. Besides I’m trying to change my life here and it would be really silly of me to not believe that whole sale change is not a possibility. So for those who believe it can be done, welcome. I will continue you this next time in Part 2 of “Why Change and is it Possible?
Well to make a long story short I convinced my friend to lie to the instructor of the class. To tell the teacher that she knew a guy who loved and was an expert on electronic music. Who would love to come to class one hot summer day and bring some of his albums of electronic music and give a brief lecture about the history and development of electronic music as it stood during that year of 1971. So the teacher agreed and in 3 weeks I was to give my lecture.
I had never study so hard in my life as I did during that 3 week period. I went from knowing almost nothing about electronic music to becoming, at least for a day in that particular location something of an expert on the subject. I went so far as to not only check out some albums from the local library, which surprisingly had a pretty good size collection, but actually purchased a few albums myself. Which I continued to listen to and enjoy for several years.
During the big day of my lecture I was pretty darn prepared. Per my instructions the teacher had a phonograph already for me. I strode to the front of the class and began assembling my material.
At this point perhaps I should mention that the class was Intro to Music Appreciation at Spelman College, a all female black college located in Atlanta, Georgia. The class size was about 30 to 35 students all beautiful black females with the exception of two males who were like me, students from Morehouse College. An all black male college that was roughly right across the street from Spelman. During my time there students at both schools were actively encouraged to take as many classes at other colleges as was feasible.
I introduced myself to the assembled students and began my lecture. After speaking for about five minutes a young lady about in the middle section raised her hand. I immediately pointed and acknowledge her presence, which was real easy to do since she was absolutely gorgeous. She opened her mouth and said, “Excuse me, but could you speak up and slow down. We can’t really understand what you’re saying.”
Needless to say I was stunned. Thank God I fought my first natural reaction which was to scream, holler and run out the room and out the building crying. The only thing that could have been worst was if she told me mine fly was undone and my penis was hanging out.
Instead I regroup, got a grip on myself, mentally, and responded with, “Sorry, it’s just that I find this subject so fascinating that I have a tendency to get a little too revved up.”
And from there I went on to lecture quite amazingly about the current state of Electronic Music in Europe and America today. I must admit I did a damn good job. Yet the young lady that I really wanted to impress, the female that I was doing this for, this Cathy person sat on the second row third seat from the left reading, as I would find out later, letters from home. She was not paying me a bit of attention. The instructor informed the class before I had arrived that nothing I mentioned would be on any of the test. She just thought it would be nice to have some one present a different viewpoint on electronic music. Cathy didn’t look my way not one time during me entire talk. Needles to say I was pissed.
I was so angry that the next class day, Monday, I went over to Spelman’s campus found her walking out of her last class, yes I knew her class schedule and her walking routes, went up to her and struck up a conversation. Eventually I asked her to go to the Black Pearl Restaurant with me for something to eat. Low and behold she agreed. And off we went.
Months later when I told Cathy this story she asked me why didn’t I just come up and do what I eventually did, which was to just go up and start talking to her? Which brings us to the point of my little rant. What is the lesson that I should have learned from this escapade?
One, the easiest thing would have been for me just to walk up to young lady and introduce myself and start talking. My complicated plan took entirely too much work and effort. And it was such a complicated plan in part because I was too insecure to simply walk up to her and introduce myself and depend on the person that I was to attract her attention. Still though once I decided on the plan I expected it pretty darn well. So even way back when there was talent there. Even if I was to silly to recognize or understand the type of person I that I could be.
I was potentially more than I thought I could be.
Yet in making potentially silly moves and decisions my brain still came up with ideas in terms of meeting this young lady. The potential to utilize my mind was evident in this scenario. My lack of awareness of my potential did not negate the potential that was there I just didn’t use my mental abilities to there greatest extent. The changes that I believe can happen is that we can learn ways, habits to improve our functioning, both mental, emotional physical that there may be no limit as to how we can improve out lives and the lives or others. My example above was to show that even when I made bonehead decisions my ability to strive and achieve was still apparent. Lets just see it I can turn these things around in a more effective and positive way in a purposeful and directed manner.
Now the truth is if you really don’t believe that it is possible to change one’s direction in life to start performing new positive habits and getting rid of negative destructive habits, well perhaps you shouldn’t waste time reading this blog. Where I’m coming from is that positive change is not only possible but is quite desirable. In fact it is something to strive for in this life. One should always attempt to move toward being a better person. To do anything less is living a life of mediocrity. Besides I’m trying to change my life here and it would be really silly of me to not believe that whole sale change is not a possibility. So for those who believe it can be done, welcome. I will continue you this next time in Part 2 of “Why Change and is it Possible?
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Cart Before the Horse or Why I Need to Start at the Beginning
In my last post in May I talked about the “30 Day Plan” to start new habits. Well in retrospect I think I should discuss what I want and why am I doing what I’m doing. The question becomes the people have the ability to become the best that they can be? Is it possible to live the type of life that one would like to live? And if you haven’t achieved whatever is that you had hoped to achieve by a certain age or a certain time is it too late? Do you have to settle for second best? Is the prospect of achieving your personal best, impossible? Or was such a desire ever real in the first place?
Well I don’t believe that once you hit a certain age or have obstacles in your way that learning, self improvement, drive, ambition comes to an end. Nope I think that our ability to dream and then translate said dreams into goals and finally bring them into reality is a gift that is with us when we are born and hangs with us until we die. The question is what, if anything, we decide to do with these gifts. Do we use them to grow, learn and improve or do we ignore them refusing to believe that we can shape our destiny? I have to believe that if you focus and put your mind to it a person can make great changes not only in their life but in the lives of other human beings.
So with that in mind I have decided to begin a journey. From this point in time I will set off on a path to self improvement and self actualization. My goal, to paraphrase a commercial, is to become the best that I can be.
Since this is a personal journey which I plan to document this will be a personal journal. A journey that I’m would like to share with anyone interested. I’m constantly researching, absorbing facts and information. The course of action that I have decided on is a compilation of several different sources. I’m attempting to pull out what I think will work and what will be of the most benefit to me. But whatever happens, hopefully you will be along for the ride. At times I will go into some detail about my life so that you will get some insight as to whom I am. I will reveal step by step how I attempt to pursue this path. Then we get to see if any of this stuff actually works and is of a benefit to bringing dreams to reality. I’m assuming that if you’re reading this you are somewhat curious as to whether this will work or not. I also hope you find the whole subject somewhat interesting so you will keep reading. And please in the comment section share your insights, observations and ask your questions. Any and all comments will be greatly appreciated.
I for one can’t wait to find out if any of this is possible. It’s like a great science experiment with me under the microscope. So come on spend a few minutes a week every other week and lets watch what happens. You are invited.
Well I don’t believe that once you hit a certain age or have obstacles in your way that learning, self improvement, drive, ambition comes to an end. Nope I think that our ability to dream and then translate said dreams into goals and finally bring them into reality is a gift that is with us when we are born and hangs with us until we die. The question is what, if anything, we decide to do with these gifts. Do we use them to grow, learn and improve or do we ignore them refusing to believe that we can shape our destiny? I have to believe that if you focus and put your mind to it a person can make great changes not only in their life but in the lives of other human beings.
So with that in mind I have decided to begin a journey. From this point in time I will set off on a path to self improvement and self actualization. My goal, to paraphrase a commercial, is to become the best that I can be.
Since this is a personal journey which I plan to document this will be a personal journal. A journey that I’m would like to share with anyone interested. I’m constantly researching, absorbing facts and information. The course of action that I have decided on is a compilation of several different sources. I’m attempting to pull out what I think will work and what will be of the most benefit to me. But whatever happens, hopefully you will be along for the ride. At times I will go into some detail about my life so that you will get some insight as to whom I am. I will reveal step by step how I attempt to pursue this path. Then we get to see if any of this stuff actually works and is of a benefit to bringing dreams to reality. I’m assuming that if you’re reading this you are somewhat curious as to whether this will work or not. I also hope you find the whole subject somewhat interesting so you will keep reading. And please in the comment section share your insights, observations and ask your questions. Any and all comments will be greatly appreciated.
I for one can’t wait to find out if any of this is possible. It’s like a great science experiment with me under the microscope. So come on spend a few minutes a week every other week and lets watch what happens. You are invited.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Everything Must/Should Change
May 10, 2007
10:31 PM
I have decided to embark upon my own 30 day program. What 30 day program you ask? A program where you attempt to make a change or changes in some aspect of your behavior or your attitude by changing it for 30 days just to see how you feel at the end of the 30 day period.
What I’m leaning toward is writing for at least 30 minutes everyday or reading for at least 30 minutes to an hour every day or some combination of both. Others to consider would be only drink, water, tea, herb teas and juices for 30 days or no bread for 30 days.
The thing that gives me hope that I can do this is that I have succeeded in making exercise a regular part of my life and there was a time that I would have considered that happening almost a complete impossibility. Yet here I am a little exercising fool. So I have proof positive that I can make changes in my life and follow through with them no matter how hard I get down on myself with how I’m not really any good and how I can’t really change anything about my life. The evidence has shown that for many people if they can maintain a new, hopefully positive habit for 30 days the odds increase dramatically that it can become a permanent change.
For this to work one must believe in the ability to make changes in their lives. I now believe that anyone can make great changes in their lives. It takes hard work and strong beliefs but it is definitely possible. I shall now prove this to be true.
Must fight the demons that would stop me in this quest. I wonder if this is how most people feel about their lives?
I will decide no later than this time tomorrow which task I will choose for my next 30 days.
Since I’m a little late to the party let me review what happened with my first 30 days of following through on new habits. My first 30 days the challenge that I set for myself was to write for at least 45 minutes and read for at least 30 minutes each and everyday. In terms of the writing part I could choose whatever I wanted to write. Fiction, non fiction, journal entries poetry, movie scripts what ever wanted to do. I would not concern myself, so much with quality. The goal was about doing it, setting the goal and to damn with editing. This was quantity, nothing but quantity. The point being if I wrote something every day for 30 days, quality on it’s on would tend to get better.
Nope the key factor was to force myself to write every 30 days. If I could do that I would be well on the way of getting closer to one of my major goals, to sell some of my writing.
More to come.....
10:31 PM
I have decided to embark upon my own 30 day program. What 30 day program you ask? A program where you attempt to make a change or changes in some aspect of your behavior or your attitude by changing it for 30 days just to see how you feel at the end of the 30 day period.
What I’m leaning toward is writing for at least 30 minutes everyday or reading for at least 30 minutes to an hour every day or some combination of both. Others to consider would be only drink, water, tea, herb teas and juices for 30 days or no bread for 30 days.
The thing that gives me hope that I can do this is that I have succeeded in making exercise a regular part of my life and there was a time that I would have considered that happening almost a complete impossibility. Yet here I am a little exercising fool. So I have proof positive that I can make changes in my life and follow through with them no matter how hard I get down on myself with how I’m not really any good and how I can’t really change anything about my life. The evidence has shown that for many people if they can maintain a new, hopefully positive habit for 30 days the odds increase dramatically that it can become a permanent change.
For this to work one must believe in the ability to make changes in their lives. I now believe that anyone can make great changes in their lives. It takes hard work and strong beliefs but it is definitely possible. I shall now prove this to be true.
Must fight the demons that would stop me in this quest. I wonder if this is how most people feel about their lives?
I will decide no later than this time tomorrow which task I will choose for my next 30 days.
Since I’m a little late to the party let me review what happened with my first 30 days of following through on new habits. My first 30 days the challenge that I set for myself was to write for at least 45 minutes and read for at least 30 minutes each and everyday. In terms of the writing part I could choose whatever I wanted to write. Fiction, non fiction, journal entries poetry, movie scripts what ever wanted to do. I would not concern myself, so much with quality. The goal was about doing it, setting the goal and to damn with editing. This was quantity, nothing but quantity. The point being if I wrote something every day for 30 days, quality on it’s on would tend to get better.
Nope the key factor was to force myself to write every 30 days. If I could do that I would be well on the way of getting closer to one of my major goals, to sell some of my writing.
More to come.....
Thursday, February 01, 2007
The Sins of Sleeping
As the president laments on television about his last desperate plan for victory in Iraq, my words not his, I can’t help but sit and wonder about the section of the population that willing buys this plea of foolishness. The key component of the plan is that the Iraq government will somehow work hard with us to fight and disarm everyone who stands in the way of making Bagdad and related areas safe for the population and others. Something the Iraq government didn’t take seriously before. Now, with the addition of some 20,000 troops, the ante has been upped and therefore the Iraq government will respond in the appropriate fashion.
I can see two problems with this line of reasoning, one even if the original battles are successful how long will it be before the insurgents regroup and start battling again and, two if the society is actually in a civil war why would they care about the additional troop presence. It seems that all sides would regard it as more potential targets to shoot and blow up. This plan really does not lead to any sort of conclusion. The truth is that the only way to resolve this mess is through diplomacy.
There is the rub, the old diplomacy bug a boo. The Bush White House is not a diplomatic type of white house. In this way it is completely different from all of the past presidents in the modern era. Hell even Nixon went to China, during a time when all of the western world thought of Communists as the scourge of humanity and the world.
The fact is that the UN weapons inspectors told Bush and his people that in six more months they would be able to state with complete certainly that Iraq did not currently posses any weapons of mass destruction. At that particular junction they stated that they were 75% certain that there were no weapons. Yet our president would not give the inspectors six more months. Itchy trigger fingers. No one brought into the theory that somehow Saddam and Iraq were a danger to the west. In the end the defense of the invasion was that Hussain was a bad man who killed his own people and there for had to be removed. That in the global war against terrorism Iraq was the first domino that had to be toppled. We would find and take care of Bin Laden a little later, I mean after all first things first. So now years later we’re stuck in this big mess. Imposing democracy from above hasn’t worked out. Well what a surprise. Establishing a permanent military presence in the middle east doesn’t seem to be going too well either. Yet our president is sticking to his story that with a lot more troops and greater cooperation from the Iraq government and military this can still work itself out. If we leave now we leave Iraq to be a breeding ground for terrorists. The trouble is that we, the United States of America, have turned Iraq into a terrorist training camp. All of the intelligence agencies have maintained, since before the invasion that Saddam and Iraq had no ties to Osama Ben Laden or to Al-Qaeda. In point of fact they were enemies. Now Al-Qaeda is in Iraq training and killing. And with the ongoing occupation they seem to have little trouble getting recruits. And this goes on in the midst of the civil war playing itself out through out the country. So even if we send in the additional troops and actually clean up the designated areas to keep them that way our troops will have to stay there for quite some time possibly several years if not a decade. That is not acceptable. To paraphrase a song in this case war is not the answer. Whether the politicians like it or not the future of Iraq must be decided by the people of Iraq. The violence goes on today because the people of Iraq had no say as to what is going on. Yes Saddam was a dictator who ruled with a Iron fist. But it should have been up to the people of Iraq to deal with him. Which they would have done in time if not to him then to whoever his successor would be. As we can plainly see now we really didn’t liberate anyone. We just gave others the freedom to fight and kill for power. And non of the forces currently fighting are friends of the United States.
It is a little too easy for our leaders to decide and wage war in the name of freedom, peace and democracy. It was easy in Viet Nam and it was easy in Iraq. The only people who suffer are the regular folks, both in America and in Iraq.
So with all that why do people, admittedly a ever shrinking percentage of people, still support Mr. Bush and his policies? What exactly is going on here? There is one answer, 9/11. What happened is 9/11 did more than capture the American Public’s attention it scared them. It pointed out to all of us that we were more than capable of being targeted by our enemies. That there truly are people in the world who hate us with such a passion that they would willingly give their on lives to harm us. Before, as far as the world community was concerned, there was a difference between American Foreign Policy and the American Public. Many people hated American foreign Policy and American Military might but they viewed the American people as somehow not really involved or knowing about those issues. Now that naive belief is being swept away. When people view American Military and Foreign policy adventures and missteps they see the American public as being one hundred percent behind these actions. They view Americans as being fully behind the foreign policy adventures of our leaders, particular the leaders in the White House. Due to blunders and cover ups by the mainstream America media people around the world believe that there is little or no dissent against American Foreign Policy in this country.
Due to media consolidation, major corporate players buying more and more media outlets, and increasing media reliance on official government and business press releases and briefings, the American media enterprise is becoming more and more the pr machine for the government and corporate American. From journalists embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to the reliance of current and past military and intelligent officials from the pentagon and NSA, CIA etc. In most major news media, in this country, there is very little in the way of dissenting view points. To give an alternative view or analysis one must go to the few remaining radical newspapers or journals or dig through morass of information on the world wide web. You will not here dissenting points of view on the major networks of CNN and Fox News. So much for fair and balanced.
Yet despite this handicap, and believe me it is a huge handicap in what is suppose to be a democracy, eventually the American body politic begins to detect foolishness when it’s fed to much of it for to long. The past mid term elections were wildly seen as a referendum on the administration’s actions in and about the Iraq war. In most mainstream polling the results were that the majority of Americans wanted an in to the Iraq occupation. More and more Americans were beginning to see that this conflict had nothing to do with fighting terrorism and/or protecting Americans. Many conservatives who supported the invasion seemed to have now reached a point where they to begin to wonder what is the point of continuing on with this foolishness. Some political pundits maintain that if American troops are still involved in Iraq by the time of the next presidential election that it will be almost impossible for a Republicans to keep the white house. Of course this assumes that the Democratic Party will not labor mightily to shoot itself in the foot which it has done many times in the past.
Now the question that lingers in the air is what do we do now? If you or I became King of America overnight what moves would we make? What is the best possible outcome that we could hope to happen? Despite all the people comparing this conflict to America’s involvement in Viet Nam there are some major differences that make this situation unique. One, in Viet Nam there was no strategic resource that the American Political Machine, as well as the American public, considers to be so vital to the nation’s well being. The policy makers during the Viet Nam era truly believed that if North Viet Nam won then Communist would spread willy nilly through out all of the pacific region. Silly to think that was the big fear but there you have it, we were committed to stop the spread of communism in Asia. In Iraq, and in most to the middle east, the fear of the military planners and politicians is the control of the precious oil reserves in the hands of anti-American fundamentalists. Which is why we hear plenty of talk about the need of stable governments in the middle east to ensure the flow of oil to the industrial democracies of the world, particularly in the west. This was a push to place a pro American government or pro American political officials in Iraq. A move to blunt the presence of Iran and Syria. 9/11 was used as the pretext to attempt to establish a permanent military presence in that region of the world. This is why President Bush was so adamant about “regime change”. It seemed that nothing else seemed to matter. It was never really about weapons of mass destruction or any of the other stated reasons. Regime change, to a more pro American body, was the entire plan. The planning did not take into account the results of the rising tide of Islamic Fundamentalism and how the leaders of these movements would use the invasion and subsequent occupation as the perfect recruiting tool for terrorists troops and “freedom fighters”. The White House also did not have a firm understanding of the level of hatred between the Sunni and the Shiites. With the Saddam ruling apparatus out of the way it has become a bloody free for all as to who will eventually come out on top. It is a civil war but with plenty of Al-Qaeda, foreign mercenaries and suicidal hot shots thrown into the mix.
At this current junction there is no way that President Bush’s tweaking of the war is going to succeed. You pour in 100,000 thousand troops and have an open ended commitment of maybe 10 to 20 years then yeah maybe you can pull it off. So a year from now we will be in the same mess, debating the same points. But the bigger problem is going to be I don’t see how pulling out is going to make the situation any better. The nature of this conflict is that the “insurgents will declare a great victory if the US leaves, which will further their recruiting drives for future terrorists and if we stay they declare victory which each death, each and every killing. Of course the majority of the Iraq population, who did not love Saddam in the least, suffer the most as they are now literally in the close fire between a civil conflict and a terrorist war. Maybe there is a diplomatic solution to this mess. I would really like to think that there is but to be perfectly honest right now I’m having a difficult time seeing what that solution might be.
Long term America must make a total and complete break with using oil as the primary means of energy. The country must cease it’s dependence on foreign oil. And know this does not mean increase production of oil from Alaska or off the Gulf Coast or off the West Coast. What has to be done is to move away from the combustion engine as the means of power and motion in the Western World. It is long past time to fully fund research and investment into alternative means of energy production. The internal combustion energy needs to go the way of the dinosaur.
The question before us now is what can we, the American Public, the rank and file every day average person do to deal with this madness? What are our responsibilities to address this situation which is already spiraling out of control and costing the lives of so many people?
Step 1: Become informed about what is going on. Don’t depend on the mainstream media to give you all the information that you need to know. In particularly the news on television and radio is so lacking of any type of intelligent debate as to be particularly worthless. If you have internet access it is usually just a matter of typing into any of the search engines to get truly diverse view points and analysis of what is going on with American Foreign Policy. Some sites you can check out our Z-Magazine’s web site, Common Dreams, Alternet and Daily News Standards just to name a few. In terms of print media magazines you can look for in your local bookstore, or even subscribe to if you’re feeling really daring, Z-Magazine, Utne Reader, The Nation and Counter Punch newsletter. You may be able to find back issues in your local library and if they don’t have them ask them to get a subscription. Next check with your local colleges and universities to see if they have any speaker bureaus going on and attempt to get a list of upcoming speakers and topics. At most schools these events are open to the public and are either free or they charge a small nominal fee. Allow me to borrow a quote from the television show “The X-Files”, it is a fact that the “Truth Is Out There!” It is just a question of expending some energy to find said truth.
Step 2:Get involved. Local marches and meetings, writing letters to your local leaders and politicians, sending email to national politicians and the White House. Having lively discussion groups with your church or civic organizations can generate a great deal of action and support. If nothing else it lets you know that you are not along. If you have family members or friends stationed in Iraq, please write them often. Let them know that you care and listen to their observations as to what is going on. Regardless of what position you take in terms of American Policy in Iraq let the troops know that you care and are in their corner 100%. Of course the ultimate way of letting them know that you care is to do all you can to get them out of Iraq and on a transport plane back home.
Finally as Americans we may have a tendency to take Democracy for granted. We sometimes behave that we will always have our freedoms therefore we don’t have to pay to close attention as to what is going on in our country and in the world. Somehow we think that freedom will always exist and we don’t have to actively do anything to protect and preserve freedom. Nothing could be farther from the truth. An informed active citizenry is the only guarantee that freedom will survive. And as citizens it is our duty to make certain that we keep our operations of the government out of the shadows and force the political and corporate forces to operate above board and honestly for the benefits of our Americans and for the benefit of the larger world. As Americans we do not have the right to fall asleep at the wheel and let the forces of history pass us by. The responsibility of living in a Democracy is that we must stay awake and observe and learn. We must apply the knowledge that we have acquired to make a better world for today and tomorrow. We cannot allow ourselves to sleep at the wheel. Not if we call ourselves a free people.
-Michael E. Johnson-
January 28, 2007
I can see two problems with this line of reasoning, one even if the original battles are successful how long will it be before the insurgents regroup and start battling again and, two if the society is actually in a civil war why would they care about the additional troop presence. It seems that all sides would regard it as more potential targets to shoot and blow up. This plan really does not lead to any sort of conclusion. The truth is that the only way to resolve this mess is through diplomacy.
There is the rub, the old diplomacy bug a boo. The Bush White House is not a diplomatic type of white house. In this way it is completely different from all of the past presidents in the modern era. Hell even Nixon went to China, during a time when all of the western world thought of Communists as the scourge of humanity and the world.
The fact is that the UN weapons inspectors told Bush and his people that in six more months they would be able to state with complete certainly that Iraq did not currently posses any weapons of mass destruction. At that particular junction they stated that they were 75% certain that there were no weapons. Yet our president would not give the inspectors six more months. Itchy trigger fingers. No one brought into the theory that somehow Saddam and Iraq were a danger to the west. In the end the defense of the invasion was that Hussain was a bad man who killed his own people and there for had to be removed. That in the global war against terrorism Iraq was the first domino that had to be toppled. We would find and take care of Bin Laden a little later, I mean after all first things first. So now years later we’re stuck in this big mess. Imposing democracy from above hasn’t worked out. Well what a surprise. Establishing a permanent military presence in the middle east doesn’t seem to be going too well either. Yet our president is sticking to his story that with a lot more troops and greater cooperation from the Iraq government and military this can still work itself out. If we leave now we leave Iraq to be a breeding ground for terrorists. The trouble is that we, the United States of America, have turned Iraq into a terrorist training camp. All of the intelligence agencies have maintained, since before the invasion that Saddam and Iraq had no ties to Osama Ben Laden or to Al-Qaeda. In point of fact they were enemies. Now Al-Qaeda is in Iraq training and killing. And with the ongoing occupation they seem to have little trouble getting recruits. And this goes on in the midst of the civil war playing itself out through out the country. So even if we send in the additional troops and actually clean up the designated areas to keep them that way our troops will have to stay there for quite some time possibly several years if not a decade. That is not acceptable. To paraphrase a song in this case war is not the answer. Whether the politicians like it or not the future of Iraq must be decided by the people of Iraq. The violence goes on today because the people of Iraq had no say as to what is going on. Yes Saddam was a dictator who ruled with a Iron fist. But it should have been up to the people of Iraq to deal with him. Which they would have done in time if not to him then to whoever his successor would be. As we can plainly see now we really didn’t liberate anyone. We just gave others the freedom to fight and kill for power. And non of the forces currently fighting are friends of the United States.
It is a little too easy for our leaders to decide and wage war in the name of freedom, peace and democracy. It was easy in Viet Nam and it was easy in Iraq. The only people who suffer are the regular folks, both in America and in Iraq.
So with all that why do people, admittedly a ever shrinking percentage of people, still support Mr. Bush and his policies? What exactly is going on here? There is one answer, 9/11. What happened is 9/11 did more than capture the American Public’s attention it scared them. It pointed out to all of us that we were more than capable of being targeted by our enemies. That there truly are people in the world who hate us with such a passion that they would willingly give their on lives to harm us. Before, as far as the world community was concerned, there was a difference between American Foreign Policy and the American Public. Many people hated American foreign Policy and American Military might but they viewed the American people as somehow not really involved or knowing about those issues. Now that naive belief is being swept away. When people view American Military and Foreign policy adventures and missteps they see the American public as being one hundred percent behind these actions. They view Americans as being fully behind the foreign policy adventures of our leaders, particular the leaders in the White House. Due to blunders and cover ups by the mainstream America media people around the world believe that there is little or no dissent against American Foreign Policy in this country.
Due to media consolidation, major corporate players buying more and more media outlets, and increasing media reliance on official government and business press releases and briefings, the American media enterprise is becoming more and more the pr machine for the government and corporate American. From journalists embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to the reliance of current and past military and intelligent officials from the pentagon and NSA, CIA etc. In most major news media, in this country, there is very little in the way of dissenting view points. To give an alternative view or analysis one must go to the few remaining radical newspapers or journals or dig through morass of information on the world wide web. You will not here dissenting points of view on the major networks of CNN and Fox News. So much for fair and balanced.
Yet despite this handicap, and believe me it is a huge handicap in what is suppose to be a democracy, eventually the American body politic begins to detect foolishness when it’s fed to much of it for to long. The past mid term elections were wildly seen as a referendum on the administration’s actions in and about the Iraq war. In most mainstream polling the results were that the majority of Americans wanted an in to the Iraq occupation. More and more Americans were beginning to see that this conflict had nothing to do with fighting terrorism and/or protecting Americans. Many conservatives who supported the invasion seemed to have now reached a point where they to begin to wonder what is the point of continuing on with this foolishness. Some political pundits maintain that if American troops are still involved in Iraq by the time of the next presidential election that it will be almost impossible for a Republicans to keep the white house. Of course this assumes that the Democratic Party will not labor mightily to shoot itself in the foot which it has done many times in the past.
Now the question that lingers in the air is what do we do now? If you or I became King of America overnight what moves would we make? What is the best possible outcome that we could hope to happen? Despite all the people comparing this conflict to America’s involvement in Viet Nam there are some major differences that make this situation unique. One, in Viet Nam there was no strategic resource that the American Political Machine, as well as the American public, considers to be so vital to the nation’s well being. The policy makers during the Viet Nam era truly believed that if North Viet Nam won then Communist would spread willy nilly through out all of the pacific region. Silly to think that was the big fear but there you have it, we were committed to stop the spread of communism in Asia. In Iraq, and in most to the middle east, the fear of the military planners and politicians is the control of the precious oil reserves in the hands of anti-American fundamentalists. Which is why we hear plenty of talk about the need of stable governments in the middle east to ensure the flow of oil to the industrial democracies of the world, particularly in the west. This was a push to place a pro American government or pro American political officials in Iraq. A move to blunt the presence of Iran and Syria. 9/11 was used as the pretext to attempt to establish a permanent military presence in that region of the world. This is why President Bush was so adamant about “regime change”. It seemed that nothing else seemed to matter. It was never really about weapons of mass destruction or any of the other stated reasons. Regime change, to a more pro American body, was the entire plan. The planning did not take into account the results of the rising tide of Islamic Fundamentalism and how the leaders of these movements would use the invasion and subsequent occupation as the perfect recruiting tool for terrorists troops and “freedom fighters”. The White House also did not have a firm understanding of the level of hatred between the Sunni and the Shiites. With the Saddam ruling apparatus out of the way it has become a bloody free for all as to who will eventually come out on top. It is a civil war but with plenty of Al-Qaeda, foreign mercenaries and suicidal hot shots thrown into the mix.
At this current junction there is no way that President Bush’s tweaking of the war is going to succeed. You pour in 100,000 thousand troops and have an open ended commitment of maybe 10 to 20 years then yeah maybe you can pull it off. So a year from now we will be in the same mess, debating the same points. But the bigger problem is going to be I don’t see how pulling out is going to make the situation any better. The nature of this conflict is that the “insurgents will declare a great victory if the US leaves, which will further their recruiting drives for future terrorists and if we stay they declare victory which each death, each and every killing. Of course the majority of the Iraq population, who did not love Saddam in the least, suffer the most as they are now literally in the close fire between a civil conflict and a terrorist war. Maybe there is a diplomatic solution to this mess. I would really like to think that there is but to be perfectly honest right now I’m having a difficult time seeing what that solution might be.
Long term America must make a total and complete break with using oil as the primary means of energy. The country must cease it’s dependence on foreign oil. And know this does not mean increase production of oil from Alaska or off the Gulf Coast or off the West Coast. What has to be done is to move away from the combustion engine as the means of power and motion in the Western World. It is long past time to fully fund research and investment into alternative means of energy production. The internal combustion energy needs to go the way of the dinosaur.
The question before us now is what can we, the American Public, the rank and file every day average person do to deal with this madness? What are our responsibilities to address this situation which is already spiraling out of control and costing the lives of so many people?
Step 1: Become informed about what is going on. Don’t depend on the mainstream media to give you all the information that you need to know. In particularly the news on television and radio is so lacking of any type of intelligent debate as to be particularly worthless. If you have internet access it is usually just a matter of typing into any of the search engines to get truly diverse view points and analysis of what is going on with American Foreign Policy. Some sites you can check out our Z-Magazine’s web site, Common Dreams, Alternet and Daily News Standards just to name a few. In terms of print media magazines you can look for in your local bookstore, or even subscribe to if you’re feeling really daring, Z-Magazine, Utne Reader, The Nation and Counter Punch newsletter. You may be able to find back issues in your local library and if they don’t have them ask them to get a subscription. Next check with your local colleges and universities to see if they have any speaker bureaus going on and attempt to get a list of upcoming speakers and topics. At most schools these events are open to the public and are either free or they charge a small nominal fee. Allow me to borrow a quote from the television show “The X-Files”, it is a fact that the “Truth Is Out There!” It is just a question of expending some energy to find said truth.
Step 2:Get involved. Local marches and meetings, writing letters to your local leaders and politicians, sending email to national politicians and the White House. Having lively discussion groups with your church or civic organizations can generate a great deal of action and support. If nothing else it lets you know that you are not along. If you have family members or friends stationed in Iraq, please write them often. Let them know that you care and listen to their observations as to what is going on. Regardless of what position you take in terms of American Policy in Iraq let the troops know that you care and are in their corner 100%. Of course the ultimate way of letting them know that you care is to do all you can to get them out of Iraq and on a transport plane back home.
Finally as Americans we may have a tendency to take Democracy for granted. We sometimes behave that we will always have our freedoms therefore we don’t have to pay to close attention as to what is going on in our country and in the world. Somehow we think that freedom will always exist and we don’t have to actively do anything to protect and preserve freedom. Nothing could be farther from the truth. An informed active citizenry is the only guarantee that freedom will survive. And as citizens it is our duty to make certain that we keep our operations of the government out of the shadows and force the political and corporate forces to operate above board and honestly for the benefits of our Americans and for the benefit of the larger world. As Americans we do not have the right to fall asleep at the wheel and let the forces of history pass us by. The responsibility of living in a Democracy is that we must stay awake and observe and learn. We must apply the knowledge that we have acquired to make a better world for today and tomorrow. We cannot allow ourselves to sleep at the wheel. Not if we call ourselves a free people.
-Michael E. Johnson-
January 28, 2007
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