Living the Nightmare of American Democracy

"You call me an enemy of American Democracy, and yet I along with only a handful of other Americans am even knowledgeable of what it means to practice Democracy."

"It is frightening when even college students relinquish their sense of curiosity and skepticism. I know college students who are confused about the true meaning of words and I know fear."

"Solidarity has been liquefied; apply as much pressure as your strength allows you to exert and pray to whichever God you serve that it is enough to reestablish our broken social bonds and recover unity."

These are my thoughts for the day. I became frightened when I read a few things in our college newspaper (Marist College), though I am not easily frightened. These frightening things were widely known, so I'm unsure of why they struck such discord; they did nevertheless, and, low and behold, I am furiously blogging again after 2 1/2 months of silence. Read my columns in The Circle (Marist's newspaper) if you're curious, read Chomsky if you're open-minded enough (read independent media if not), read Freire or Kozol if you're a concerned educator like me, but -mercy of The Almighty- read something! Remember the Downing Street Memo. Remember Alberto Mora's famous Torture Memo. (they call these things "memos", they must be remembered)

Remember your God; to do so, you must first know your God. To know your God is to know yourself, and you have no God but the one you serve. If a slave cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24), then choose your master wisely; you only get one. Religion, if it endeavors to achieve a relationship with something unobservable/supernatural, is as much an accomplishment of the mind as it is an accomplishment of the spirit. Both are gifts from our creator; both become cataclysmically toxic when misused. If your faith is tied to a secular agenda, you may very well be a murderer and not even realize it; better to err on the side of peace than to risk otherwise, I believe. I fail to accept that any man or woman who lived their life in pursuit of peace will, upon their death, be judged harshly for doing so. War has been around long enough for us to realize it is not altogether a good thing; it has proven most harmful, in fact, and will likely continue to do so. Perhaps we should try something else...