Peace/Monk/Warming

(P1) Philosophical

Readers' Forum

"Is World Peace a Reasonable Goal For Mankind?"

(Please comment below and read the responses of others too)

I personally have times when I begin to despair. I was born during war. Served in Vietnam. Sought peace since. Listened to all who said we are in the Age of Aquarius. Now, observing my fellows around the world, I wonder whether it is in us to have peace. Help me with this. Please go back to the question above and write from your hearts. What is the human race all about anyway?

"Is World Peace a Reasonable Goal For Mankind?"

Comment Here on any of the above or below and read the comments of others too. Log in as "Other" if you like, but please be sure to sign some facsimile of your name. Or email me at edcoletti@sbcglobal.net.


(P2) Poetical

Denner and Bromige to Read at Copperfield's in Sebastopol.

My friend Richard Denner and his friend David Bromige will bring their roadshow to Copperfield's in Sebastopol Thursday May 25th. Attend to be entertained with humor, poetry, and even some wisdom.

Time: Thursday, May 25, 2006 7:00 PM
Location: SEBASTOPOL, 138 North Main Street, (707) 823-2618
Title of Event: David Bromige and Rychard Denner: Spade : The Poem as Healer

Two poets, who have time to converse and who delight in their view of how contemporary writing might proceed, engage in lively dialogue and sculpt their words into a long poem. One is a Buddhist monk and the other, a terminal atheist. They meet twice weekly in the Sufi garden of the innermost heart, and Spade: Cantos 1-33 is the result.

David Bromige is a professor emeritus at Sonoma State University and past poet laureate of Sonoma County. The author of forty books of poetry and prose, he worked on Spade while recuperating from a heart attack and two strokes. Rychard Denner (Jampa Dorje) is on loan from Tara Mandala Retreat Center. A Buddhist monk of the Vajrayana School, he is publisher of dPress books, www.dpress.net.

Here is a short excerpt from Canto 6 of Spade

Really, it's Coyote's story
needs to be told
          messing with my brain
          messing with my keyboard
                    my space bar


trouble tracking
           stories within stories


Edith sd, "Some people need space.
Some need a space bar, and
in relation to you
          thick and full
my wagging tongue will
          insert not only more words
                    but more pages."





(P3) Political (?)


Following lamentably sparse response (except for Duncan's) to my "global warming" post last week,

I almost packed in the old P3.  Friend Bob Fisher saved the day with the following graphic "proof" for global

warming

12 Results of Global Warming/Divine Bomb/Headlines

(P1) Philosophical

Where Have All The Glaciers Gone?








(above) A photo taken in 1899 shows the shoreline near Muir Point on Muir Inlet with no vexation visible along Alaska's Glacier Bay. Photo courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey.

(below) By the time this photo was taken in 2003, the Muir and Adams glaciers have disappeared, and extensive vegetation is visible. National Park Service photo by Ronald D. Karpilo.

Please read this and then please send letters, emails, phonecalls, etc. to all your representatives urging (at the very least) a push for anti-global warming legislation including demanding ratification of the Kyoto Accords.


12 Results of Global Warming



1. Heat Waves - have tripled - 19,000 deaths in Italian heat wave, 18,000 France, 800 Chicago. Deaths from heat waves will double by 2020.

2. Rains Harder when it does rain

3. More Drought in Dry Areas.

4. Seasonal Changes

5. Water Shortage from Loss of the Snow Pack - 75% of water in Western States comes from snow pack. Areas also produce 75% of the nation's fruit.

6. Forest Fires

7. Extinction of one quarter of all plants and animals.

8. Disease (eg. mosquito-borne)

9. Allergy Pollens have doubled and will continue to double.

10. Melting of Alaska and Ice Caps (see above) - Extremely significant!

11. Sea Level Is Rising - If the Greenland and Arctic Ice Caps melt, it could rise 240 ft. 50% of Americans live within 50 miles of the sea.

12. Storm Surges - Since 1970, the number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes have doubled.

Please Post Your Comments Here about the above and/or Read the Comments of Others.You can sign in as "blogger" or "other" but please add your name or initials to your text. Or email me at edcoletti@sbcglobal.net. We need your feedback.


(P2) Political

A "Divine Bomb"

When I first received this article from a friend, I knew I'd use it here. Do I classify this as "political" or "philosophical"? How can we tell the difference anymore? I'll begin the article here and then link to it in its entirety.


There is nothing divine about a bomb test
Barb Guy
Salt Lake Tribune

The first I heard of Divine Strake was last month. I was standing a few feet from the Nevada Nuclear Test Site where the experiment will happen. Corbin Harney, a Western Shoshone elder, winkingly gave me permission to enter the U.S. government-run, restricted-access site as his guest, since, if you believe the treaty the government signed, his people still own the land. I declined his invitation - I didn't have time to go to jail. Still, he and I stood together, holding hands, our heads bowed in prayer, or in respect for the prayers of others, as a religious service was held in the nuclear dust. This Catholic mass welcomed the Shoshone spiritual leader, a Jewish man wearing a tallit and reading from the Torah, a Mennonite, an Episcopal priest, a Jesuit priest, a Zen priest, a Methodist minister, an elderly nun in microfleece pants and sneakers, a former Marine officer, a hibakusha (Japanese survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb), my husband Chris, and me. It was a fine American exercise in people of many faiths coming together, talking through difference, wishing for peace, and petitioning our government.

Divine Strake is the code name for a massive non-nuclear test planned for June 2. An explosion of 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil - ANFO - will send a mushroom cloud perhaps 10,000 feet into the Nevada sky. This gigantic experimental blast will use 280 times the amount of ANFO that demolished Oklahoma City's Murrah Federal Building in 1995, killing 168 people and damaging or destroying more than 300 buildings.

Some experts worry the test is a precursor to developing a nuclear bunker-buster bomb. (Here is the complete text of Barb Guy's article)


Please Post Your Comments Here about the above and/or Read the Comments of Others.You can sign in as "blogger" or "other" but please add your name or initials to your text. Or email me at edcoletti@sbcglobal.net. We need your feedback.


(P3) Poetical

Any Random MorningÂ’s Headlines

11-YR OLD BOY SHOT DEAD IN HOME

49 INDICTED IN FILING FALSE KATRINA CLAIMS

WOMAN HOLDING TOY GUN SHOT

ISRAEL'S SHARON TO RECEIVE SURGERY FOR HOLE IN HEART

BODY IN PARK I.D.'d

BRITAIN CELEBRATES FIRST FOX HUNT SINCE KILLING BAN

SUICIDES UP IN NEW ORLEANS

2 ST. PETERSBURG STORES GASSED-AUTHORITIES BLAME RUSSIAN GANGS

U.S. SOLDIER KILLED WHILE ON PATROL IN BAGHDAD

POLICE INVESTIGATING WHY VIRGINIA MAN KILLED 4, HIMSELF

14% OF SALES EXPECTED POST-HOLIDAY

(Tuesday December 27, 2005)

Please Post Your Comments Here about the above and/or Read the Comments of Others.You can sign in as "blogger" or "other" but please add your name or initials to your text. Or email me at edcoletti@sbcglobal.net. We need your feedback.

Coletti's New Books/"Greatest Nation?"/Advice From My Grandma

(P1) Poetical

New Books by Edward Coletti




Between Trellis and Glass
(dPress - Sebastopol - May 2006)
Chapbook of animal poems.
$8.

(Coming Soon)
Bringing Home the Bones
(dPress - Sebastopol - June 2006)
Epic length multimedia poetry book about war, death, closure, superstition, and families.
Copiously illustrated by Jonathan Allen
$14.


thawts - Selected Poems of Edward Coletti (second edition May 2006)
(PoetWorks Press - May 2006)
This is the second edition of Coletti's 2000 book of selected poems.
$19.

Order any or all now online either by comment below or by email to edcoletti@sbcglobal.net. I'll inscribe a copy for you and trust you for your check.


(P2) Political

Regarding "The Greatest Nation on Earth"

I believe it was conservative snot nosed commentator Tucker Carlson, who, after the usual "America's the greatest country in the world," asked "Have you been to Europe lately?"

How many of you have been to Europe or Japan recently? How did you feel about the Autostrade of Italy or the Autobahns of Germany? Were you surprised with the upkeep, the lack of potholes, the roadworthiness allowing speed? Did you enjoy being able to pay at machines with credit cards and have the machines say "Grazie?" What of the food, the design, the art, the fashion, the way of life? And above all, how about that healthcare! So when we glibly refer to ourselves as "the greatest nation on earth," let's also do some thinking about it before we lapse into the mere jingoism of certain fundamentalist religions that believe the United States is foreordained by God to do no wrong. Let's not even consider the greatest present obvious wrong - the Iraq war lie - that even the Reverend Moon - who encouraged "divine deception" in the interest of his cult - might blush at.

No, let's look at the state of our healthcare. Here are a few interesting blurbs from Paul Krugman's May 7th column:

"Is being an American bad for your health? That's the apparent implication of a study just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"It's not news that something is very wrong with the state of America's health. International comparisons show that the United States has achieved a sort of inverse miracle: We spend much more per person on health care than any other nation, yet we have lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than Canada, Japan and most of Europe...

"...the study concludes that 'Americans are much sicker than the English.' For example, middle -age Americans are twice as likely to suffer from diabetes as their English counterparts. That's a striking finding in itself.

"What's even more striking is that being American seems to damage your health regardless of your race and social class...

"...other possibility is that Americans work too hard and experience too much stress. Full-time American workers work, on average, about 46 weeks per year; full time British, French and German workers work only 41 weeks a year...our workaholic economy is actually more destructive of the 'family values' we claim to honor than the European economies in which regulations and union power have led to shorter working hours.

"Maybe overwork, together with the stress of living in an economy with a minimal social safety net, damages our health as well as our families. These are just suggestions. What we know for sure is that although the American way of life may be, as Ari Fleischer famously proclaimed back in 2001, 'a blessed one,' there's something about that way of life that is seriously bad for our health."



(P3) Philosophical


Better Than the Alternative

My sister just reminded me that, in the midst of trouble, our mother and her mother used to maintain, "But you know, it only happens to the living."



Please Post Your Comments Here about any of the above and/or Read the Comments of Others.You can sign in as "blogger" or "other" but please add your name or initials to your text. Or email me at edcoletti@sbcglobal.net. We need your feedback.