Re: [Futurework] Vietnam, the Sequel

[Ray Evans Harrell]

I mean they seem to be arguing that by taking care of THE World, their world will be fine because saving the world from itself is the only reason for existence in the first place.    With Bush's fundamentalist mentality it may very well be that America is not his reason for "being" but healing the world of his afflictions are.   Safire indicated something of the like in his Monday column about Richard Nixon.   The Northerners in the Civil Rights Era had something of a similar problem.    Everything was great in the Civil Rights revolution as long as it happened in the South far away from landlords in Brownsville or Watts.  The problem was that no one seemed to understand the implications of their own actions while looking at their own hearts and judging them "pure of spirit."    Two days ago there was a stink about Chicago Cubs black manager's kidding the white players by saying that they didn't stand the heat, 95 degrees, as well as the blacks or Hispanics.   He was taken to task as if he was the European making a stereotypical limiting statement about whites.    The same thing happened with black Muslim leaders talking about "people of Ice" meaning Caucasians and "people of warmth".       No one was particularly bothered when I was taught that the reason for slavery's African face was because they could stand the heat of the American South and didn't die as easily as the Indians.   That was my high school history teacher and in science they gave it as a reason for the different races.    I recently saw the same allegation on the Discovery channel about the origin of the races.    But when a black man turns it to a positive for himself all of the media journalists talk as if he truly was choosing dark faces over light.      When will there be a serious discussion about the roots of America's tendency to treat the world as a playpen where they can exercise their lack of sophistication about differing groups and the important lessons that we all have learned in our million years or so on this earth.   I would note that I am not talking about the true Ministers of the world who have first done their own psychological and intellectual homework and are truly moved to go out into the world and help because that is what they are.   These people are responsible and do not try to change that which is not correct or proper to do so.   America went to Iraq and could very well end up decimating the Iraqi consciousness and culture because they were asleep themselves.   Essentially we have the potential of outdoing Sadaam at his own game and to the same people or simply reversing the process to the same end.   That is evil and stupid.  In my personal opinion.*   Cousin REH   P.S. *As I have written letters for money to the various foundations, I have had to give up some of my natural processes in writing in order to make my words understood to people who simply will reject anything they don't understand immediately.     I realize, from the work on this list and others,  that processes that I find simple are not so to others.  I thank you for teaching me that.  I don't judge it, I simply accept the differences.     It is as hard for me to write in standard newspaper English as it is for many foreigners to translate into English.   Not because I don't understand the words but because both in my culture and in my art I have been taught to think differently.     Metaphorically,  linear thought is walking from North to South or East to West.   It is driving a car from one place to another or flying a helicopter to the top of a mountain rather than climbing it.   I walk the circle around the problem and describe each of the things I find in order to understand in a way that has meaning to me from my culture and as an artist.  Often they seem disconnected.   Like poetry they often appear with no "joints" only space.  One way is faster and shorter while the other is longer and takes more time.     In my way, I am continually being taught by my fellow travelers and that gives me the right to teach in return from what I see.  In the shorter version there are no teachers only agreements between individuals as to what the action will be.   As I get older, I prefer working in the circular fashion where I walk around and experience the problematique from various places on the wheel, or spiral if you will, as I slowly get a sense of what the implications are to the problem.   The reason is a simple one.   At this age I cannot be guaranteed the I will have the time for hope or fixing problems that result due to my not considering enough things.      That is why responsibility and liability are so important to my people.   These, plus freedom and truthfulness are some of the more important corners in the "houses" of my existence.    Equality is a given and to deny such is an act of war.    Each person is equal in requiring the freedom, the truth of their existence and the ability to respond as well as the liability for having chosen to do so.    Efficiency or "balance" is the ideal and that means that we have the correct tempo to always react from the whole wisdom of our organism to the world and the problems as we experience them.   That is why almost every goodbye to a Native person is the phrase "May you walk in balance."   Refusing to understand this epistemological underpinning has made for many terminal mis-understandings throughout the history of our relationships with the post-Columbian majority.   So I apologize if my words are not this or that for each of you but I would suggest that I am not irritated or hurt if you choose not to enter the universe I inhabit.   Simply delete or don't answer.   On the other hand, I am available both to learn and teach the things that I learn as we travel together.     I speak only from my experience for that is all that I personally own.   Because I am personally liable for my words, I cannot hide in others unless I make it clear that I am doing so.    I would also suggest that the house I inhabit has all kinds of consciousnesses within it.   Many of them fierce and wild.   We co-exist.   One would be a fool to start a war in such a situation.   I am not responsible for those who exist equally within but only choose to learn what they we have to teach each other.     But perhaps I am speaking of a universe that is much too complicated to talk about in writing and so I will stop.   Let it be said that there are things to be learned here but you have to be sensitive and meet the demands of the system and the logic of that system or one can be hurt.   I too spent my time hiking and climbing mountains modestly.   I never was an athlete about it but one who came to "talk to the spirits."    I walked slow and drank deeply and survived.   Many of the "straight arrows" didn't come back.     I will not change the process given to me because to do so will divert me from what must be done.   I will speak from the depths of my work, life and experience with the tools given to me.   If it is right for someone to come in for a while and talk then we will and if not then we won't.   To do other is simply to push and I'm much too enter the battle of the bulls again.    Got to write some letters.   Walk in balance.   REH       ----- Original Message ----- From: Karen Watters Cole To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Ray Evans Harrell Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 3:27 PM Subject: RE: [Futurework] Vietnam, the Sequel Do you mean that the church musicians are complaining that not as much is being done �at home� as opposed to �overseas� in missions and assistance or they endorse the goal of evangelizing overseas without questioning whether more could be done domestically?   Aren�t people more afraid to confront poverty and despair in their own midst than in someone else�s territory?  That might require that we look in the mirror, question our own foreign policy, in the first case, and practice what we preach, or at least have a populist �revival� and recharge those checks and balance systems.  - KWC   Have you thought about the parallel between this situation you describe and churches who spend all of their money on mission while doing nothing at home for their own?   There is a lot of that on the Church music lists.   Cousin REH   ----- Original Message ----- From: Karen Watters Cole To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 11:07 AM Subject: RE: [Futurework] Vietnam, the Sequel Ed wrote:  ..The other is sustainability.  Prospects for the US economy are not good.  Money is needed at home to patch up deteriorating infrastructure and growing unemployment.  There is also a third factor: growing cynicism as the Haliburons, Bechtels and Worldcoms are seen to be principal beneficiaries.   Or, as we remember from Vietnam, you simply restate the policy and hope no one notices how 1) false 2) inadequate 3) deceptive the first plan was.  Beware the Credibility Gap.  - KWC   Why the CEO in Chief Needs an Audit By Richard Cohen, WP, Thursday, July 10, 2003; Page A23 The Bush White House is run on a business model. The president is the CEO. He delegates to others, including the vice president, who was once a CEO himself. It therefore should come as no surprise that George W. Bush, a Harvard MBA after all, is doing what other CEOs do when they get into trouble. In his case, he's "restated" his reasons for going to war. Corporations do this all the time. If a profit of, say, $2.8 billion turns out to be a loss of a similar amount on account of unanticipated developments (corruption, greed, the demands of mistresses), the figure merely gets "restated." Usually no one is held responsible for this, because a billion here or a billion there can, as we know, fall through the cracks. In fact, the CEO -- having been given a bonus for such a banner year -- is then given another one for managing his company through difficult times. In the same way, the president recently restated some of the reasons for invading Iraq. Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program, which Bush told the world was being "reconstituted," may in fact not exist. The White House the other day restated its earlier insistence that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from the West African nation of Niger. It turned out that the supporting documents had been forged. The White House admitted that in a press release left behind after Bush had departed for Africa. Similarly, the accusation that Iraq was buying high-strength aluminum tubes, which Bush said were "used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons," has to be restated. The tubes appear to have been bought for another purpose entirely and may not be high-strength after all.  As for the charge that Iraq was bristling with other weapons of mass destruction, none have yet been found, raising the distinct possibility that -- in an upcoming quarter -- this too will be restated and the Bush administration will take a one-time charge against future credibility. In fact, should we -- the stockholders of this operation -- look back at the original business plan for the proposed Bush administration, we will find that almost everything has been restated. During the campaign, Bush said he would not go in for peacekeeping operations abroad. He appears ready to do so in Liberia. He also said he would not get engaged, as did the previous CEO, Bill Clinton, in the nitty-gritty of Middle East peace negotiation. The administration is now choosing intersections in Gaza for traffic lights. Restatement follows restatement until we poor stockholders have no choice but to conclude that either the Bush administration did not know what it was talking about when it came into office or does not know what it is talking about now. Not even in corporate America can you hold two contradictory positions simultaneously. One of them, as any CEO can tell you, has to be restated. The Bush administration's interim business plan called for the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden. On account of a botched operation in the Tora Bora area of Afghanistan, this now has to be restated. Similarly, the proclaimed determination to rid the world of Saddam Hussein also has not succeeded. As with bin Laden, this failure will be restated as not being all that important. You learn this sort of thing in business school. In fact, the entire business plan for Iraq has to be restated. It turns out that the country simply will not govern itself, that some elements resent the U.S. occupation and that it will take more troops to administer the country than originally thought. In some way, this abject failure to plan for an occupation -- despite repeated warnings -- will have to be creatively restated. To paraphrase the president, bring on the restatement. The dangers of an immense budget deficit have been restated. Rising unemployment has been restated to blame the Clinton administration. The critical importance of relations with Mexico has been restated. The evils of affirmative action were -- after the Supreme Court ruled -- restated and so, of course, were the reasons for going to war in Iraq. Now it is to rid that country of Saddam Hussein and establish the predicates for a Middle East peace. I like them both. Still, all these restatements suggest a business plan that was both flawed from the start and implemented with an appalling level of incompetence. Despite that, the CEO of this mismanaged operation is not held accountable and remains popular with the shareholders. It used to be that the buck stopped with the president. To state the obvious, that's been restated.