WAWA/WeAreWideAwake is my Public Service to America as a muckracker who has journeyed seven times to Israel Palestine since June 2005.
WAWA is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole
truth.
We who Are Wide
Awake are compelled by the "fierce urgency of Now" [Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise
awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of the crucial issues of our
day: the state of our Union and in protection of democracy, what life is like
under military occupation in Palestine, the Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land,
and spirituality-from a Theologically Liberated Christian Anarchist
POV.
"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils." George Washington's Farewell Address - 1796
"My aim is to agitate & disturb people. I'm not selling bread, I'm selling yeast." Unamuno
"Imagine All the People Sharing All the World." John Lennon
"If enough Christians followed the gospel, they could bring any state to its knees." Father Philip Francis Berrigan
"You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won't back down." Tom Petty
"If I can't dance, it's not my revolution." Emma Goldman
"We have yet to begin to IMAGINE the power and potential of the Internet." Charlie Rose, 2005
Only in Solidarity do "We have it in our power to begin the world again" Tom Paine
"Never doubt that a few, thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead
"You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free." John 8:32
DO SOMETHING!
Photo of George shown here and in web site banner courtesy of Debbie Hill, 2000.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence
October 27, 2009: The Obama Memo, Moyers, Abbie, Jon and back to Goldstone
On October 23, 2009, Journalist and executive director of If Americans Knew, Alison Weir, reported "President Obama just signed a presidential memo eliminating a tariff on Israel that protected American dairy farmers and that raised money for the American economy. [1]
Council for the National Interest President, Eugene Bird noted, “Once again we see Israel receiving special treatment, at the cost to Americans. Even American citizens who oppose protective tariffs want to see a fair and equitable policy. Instead we have a policy change -- implemented without public input or debate -- that benefits one of the richest nations on earth, and a nation that consistently flouts US laws and policies in violation of US trade agreements [and] has been blocking some American products entirely. A serious look should be taken at how Israel has prevented certain American products from being imported into Israel, for example orange juice.” [Ibid]
For decades Israeli policies have prevented Palestinian exports causing Palestinian farmers to lose their livelihoods, reaping unemployment and malnutrition at what the Red Cross has called “devastating” levels in Gaza.
Bill Moyers plays the consummate Devil's Advocate to Judge Goldstone here:
This Wednesday night, the delightfully cunning, Jon Stewart's guests are former Palestinian Authority Presidential Candidate Dr. Mustafa Barghouti and the eloquent beautiful Jewess, Anna Baltzer author of "Witness in Palestine."
The after show-show should be highly viewed-catch it here:
In 1989, just prior to expiring due to a fatal alcohol and Phenobarbital combo, Abbie Hoffman told his sister he had a plan to solve the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
Co-founder of the Yippies/Youth International Party, Abbie was the grandmaster of The Groucho Marxist's and once pulled off a mass media manipulation when he convinced the press to turn out for a demonstration at The Pentagon which promised 50,000 people using psychic energy would levitate The Pentagon, causing it to vibrate it, rotate, turn bright orange and End the War on Vietnam.
In 1968 Chicago, Abbie Hoffman addressed the children of the '60's who had planned on spending the night in a city park after their long day of 'lobbying' at the Democratic Convention.
Mayor Daly sent word to Abbie that the multitudes were not welcome in his park and the cops were on the way in. Before the Chicago mob with badges descended upon the heads of America's youth, Abbie stood at a microphone and quoted Christ:
"I send you out like little lambs into a wolves den. Remain as harmless as doves and cunning as snakes."
If the doves had consulted Webster's, they first would have had a laugh at the two words cunning is sandwiched between.
Then they would have learned that cunning means one must be skillful, clever, sly, crafty, and do things with skill and ingenuity. To be cunning is to be attractive; cute and cleverly proficient.
On October 26, 2009, the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict Goldstone Report: Human Rights in Palestine Conclusions and recommendations went online.
Article 1975: To the international community:
(a) The Mission recommends that the States parties to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 should start criminal investigations in national courts, using universal jurisdiction, where there is sufficient evidence of the commission of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Where so warranted following investigation, alleged perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted in accordance with internationally recognized standards of justice...
[d] The Mission recommends that States involved in peace negotiations between Israel and representatives of the Palestinian people, especially the Quartet, should ensure that respect for the rule of law, international law and human rights assumes a central role in internationally sponsored peace initiatives.
1976: The Mission recommends that appropriate mechanisms should be established to ensure that the funds pledged by international donors for reconstruction activities in the Gaza Strip are smoothly and efficiently disbursed, and urgently put to use for the benefit of the population of Gaza;
1978: To the United Nations Secretary-General, the Mission recommends that the Secretary-General should develop a policy to integrate human rights in peace initiatives in which the United Nations is involved, especially the Quartet, and request the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide the expertise required to implement this recommendation. [2]
2009 is the final year of the UN's Decade of creating a Culture of Nonviolence for ALL the Children of the World. The US is on the record as abstaining because to support such a goal would make it too hard for US to go to war.
"Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow."-Tom Paine
"HOPE has two children.The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine
"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust." - Aquinas
Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
" In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."-Mother Teresa
“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased...to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946
The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright
“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” - Rev. MLK
Establishment of Israel
"On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations." - May 14, 1948. The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel