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Gaiananda Dancers
www.Gaiananda.net
www.Gaiananda.net
Rally at Bodies
Exhibition to Resume
Sunday 4/27/2008
Noon - 3PM. For
more information,
click here.
Exhibition to Resume
Sunday 4/27/2008
Noon - 3PM. For
more information,
click here.
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| The Quandary of Ordinary People Reflections on Life In the Turn Lane Beverly Jones - April 18, 2008 The tide of our economic woes is lapping at my front door; I find myself limiting my grocery shopping, driving, choices for entertainment. I am not “bitter” yet, just mindful of the abundance I have enjoyed through the effects of our ever-onward, ever-more-stuff and ever-more unjust economic system. And along comes Wendell Berry cutting and pasting my very thoughts into his article in this month’s Harpers Magazine, “Faustian Economics: Hell hath no limits”. As an example, he characterizes our current fossil fuel predicament and our “no limits” ethos as addictions to waste and greed. He says: “Perhaps by devoting more and more of our already abused cropland to fuel production we will at last cure ourselves of obesity and become fashionably skeletal, hungry but – thank God – still driving.” I say that every day. Thank God I can still drive, that my car still works and in the same breath, I wish I had an alternative. It does not matter how much I want to save the planet, be energy independent, I can’t and still be a viable member of our culture, not to mention earn a living. Limits limit. Aside from Berry’s quotable prose, he makes a point that intrigues: That it is through limits that we learn to be human; that ‘limitlessness’ is truly hell, taking away what distinguishes us from other animal creatures - our ethical and moral sense as well as our intelligence: “...our cultural tradition is in large part the record of our continuing effort to understand ourselves as beings specifically human: to say that, as humans, we must do certain things and we must not do certain things. We must have limits or we will cease to exist as humans: perhaps we will cease to exist, period.” It takes us humans a while, but eventually we figure out that eating as much and what we like makes us fat; that dying with the most toys does not make us happy and, more seriously, that the addiction of more, more, more - alcohol, drugs, gambling, – can make a hell of our individual lives. I am not sure that we have learned yet that shearing off the tops of mountains for more coal, that creating bigger and bigger “farms” for more and more chicken, beef and pork; that building more and more roads for our bigger and bigger cars can make living in community hell. Progress as hell, now there’s an idea. Borg’s and Crossan’s distinction between ‘peace through victory and punishment’ vs. ‘peace through justice’ keeps reverberating for me. Tacked on to Berry’s premise, peace through victory seems to me to come from the “limitlessness” ethos – I’ll keep going to get what I want until I get it – no matter the casualties or consequences. Right from the CNN sound track! ‘Peace through justice’ on the other hand implies limits. In order to have equality (one of our human ideals) I will impose limits on myself so that others might have what they need. Should I be the needy one, I would hope for reciprocity – not a benevolent hand out controlled by the giver - but a recognition and expectation of our human equality and sharing. How to make sense of these contradictions? We have equality as an ideal in our country’s very foundation and a cultural system where science and economics teach us that every problem has a solution, that climbing to the top – of the class, of one’s department, of one’s profession - is the way to go. Yet, all my life I’ve been confused about this inconsistency. Growing up, whenever I asked about it, the adult’s indulgent smile said, “You don’t get it”. So I learned not to ask; but, I still don’t get it. Resolving this inconsistency has probably been my attraction to religion; at least they talk the talk. Going through gates and the eye of a needle certainly imply limits. Berry’s view would make an intriguing church education program: [A consideration that]”...religion, which at a minimum shatters the selfish context of the individual life and thus forces a consideration of what human beings are and ought to be.” Here’s another education program I’d like to see: How my life, our private lives, live out these inconsistencies, for as Berry says in another context: “ ...the root of the problem [policies of government and corporations] is always to be found in private life...to the question of how we live. The world is being destroyed, no doubt about it, by the greed of the rich and powerful. It is also being destroyed by popular demand. ...the rich and powerful need the help of countless ordinary people.” “Conservation is Good Work”, Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community. Before the economic tide sweeps me away, I would like to figure out what this might mean to this ordinary person. © Beverly Jones 2008 Do Good. Together. 256 days, Used with permission. http://harpers.org/media/pages/2008/05/pdf/HarpersMagazine-2008-05-0082022.pdf |
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| Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety - Benjamin Franklin (1759). |
April 2008 Extra
| Shown in above photo from left to right are Robert Harris, Ellen Rohs, S. Nemat took place at the Duke Energy Center on 4/19/2008. The theme of this Health Expo is Your Health and Your Future: A day to learn how to protect against childhood obesity and other serious health threats affecting the African- American, Hispanic and and a member of the Board of BRIDGES for a Just Community and of its Issues Committee. Over the years Dr. Moussavian has tirelessly advocated for greater access to health care particularly for the minority population of Greater Cincinnati. He has unselfishly donated his time and resources in promoting and making available preventative procedures such as colon cancer screening. Shown in photo below is the people in educational-entertainment area of the Health Expo. |
Array by Leslie Welton
| FLOWER GUILD CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL EXHIBITS AT ART IN BLOOM THE CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM Click on photo to see all Exhibits |
Save Darfur Event:
The Devil Came on
Horseback with Nick
Clooney on Monday
more information,
click here.
The Devil Came on
Horseback with Nick
Clooney on Monday
more information,
click here.
For Upcoming Sunday
Seminars on Current
Issues at Christ Church
Cathedral in the City of
click here.
Seminars on Current
Issues at Christ Church
Cathedral in the City of
click here.
| BELLY DANCERS AT ASIAN CULTURE FEST 2008 |
<CLICK ON THUMBNAIL FOR MORE BELLY DANCING
his book, "Among the Righteous: Lost Stories of the Holocaust's Long Reach into the
Arab Lands." Dr. Satloff is the director of the Washington Institute for the Near East
20,000 people for saving Jews during World War II, not one Arab is listed among them.
Robert Satloff, a leading expert on the Middle East, thought that this was not the full
story. In response to Holocaust denial sweeping across the Arab and Muslim worlds, the
author set off on a quest to find an Arab hero whose story can change the way people
view Jewish-Arab relations, themselves, and their own history. After years of research,
Dr. Satloff was indeed able to document the identities of several Arabs who saved Jews in
North African countries such as Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, which in the early 1940s
were under the control of Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and Vichy France. Shown in photo
above is Dr. Robert Satloff at the speaker's lectern accompanied to his right by Anna
Poupko Fisher, President of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the
Jewish Federation of Cincinnati.
Arab Lands." Dr. Satloff is the director of the Washington Institute for the Near East
20,000 people for saving Jews during World War II, not one Arab is listed among them.
Robert Satloff, a leading expert on the Middle East, thought that this was not the full
story. In response to Holocaust denial sweeping across the Arab and Muslim worlds, the
author set off on a quest to find an Arab hero whose story can change the way people
view Jewish-Arab relations, themselves, and their own history. After years of research,
Dr. Satloff was indeed able to document the identities of several Arabs who saved Jews in
North African countries such as Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, which in the early 1940s
were under the control of Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and Vichy France. Shown in photo
above is Dr. Robert Satloff at the speaker's lectern accompanied to his right by Anna
Poupko Fisher, President of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the
Jewish Federation of Cincinnati.
| Dr. Robert Satloff at the Freedom Center |
| Photo above: On 4/2/08, a distinguished panel of faith leaders discussed the racial perceptions within their faith communities. From left to right are Rev. Chris Beard, Diamond, Christ Church Cathedral; Dr. Cathy McDaniels-Wilson, Moderator; Reveredn Michael Dentley, Christ Emmanuel Christian Fellowship; Reverend Rousseau O'Neal, Rockdale Baptist Church; Reverend Darryl Woods, Revelations Baptist Church; and Father Len Wenke, St. Anthony's Catholic Church. Co-Sponsors were the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission and the Council on American Islamic Affairs. |
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