NOVEMBER 29, 2024 VENDOR VOICES Gratefulness For the past two months, Granna has been crying in her bed every night, facing an eviction that would split the family. Granna has had six jobs in the past six months, struggling to keep the rent and light bill paid. The light bill went from $700 to $200. However, the rent was still behind. She did not want to move out of her apartment and become homeless once again. Granna knew she could not afford an eviction. She talked to the landlord and made an agreement to move out, and pay later. Granna knew it would be hard on her grandson and dog. She prayed every day, “God please make a way for us to pay this rent;” however nothing ever materialized. Depression was trying to take a hold her dog to a veterinarian and updated her shots. They also neutered her, cut her dew-claws, and gave her a flea bath. Granna has 60 days to retrieve her friend. Aware of her limited time, she FELICIA WILBERT Groundcover vendor No. 234 of her mind, knowing that she had to separate from her grandson and dog. The shelter did not allow dogs, but on the upside, they placed her dog in a foster home. She is grateful for the organization, Safe Pet Program in Shelby County Alabama, which sent Mother Nature is calling We often say the words “mother nature is calling” when our bowels begin to move. My parents, in their quest to be educated and scientific, used the words bowel movement rather than vague or possibly offensive words. Polite society does not want to hear about bodily processes except for eating. Weather, sports, children, financial news and food— especially bargains — are the subjects to stay with. If you go out of bounds you may be quickly rebuffed or ignored. Basic beliefs about reality are often untouched except in circles sharing common assumptions. Believers or secular humanists have their distinct social circles. Beliefs are basic assumptions about reality, so everyone is a believer in their quest for the assumptions that work. We want to make sense of our experience. We soon discover that outcomes are often not what we planned and sometimes the opposite of expectations. Life is full of surprises and trauma can persist in habitual patterns with deadly consequences. Every day in the world, someone is hurt or killed by unexploded ordnance as cluster bombs are discovered in the course of play and work. Toxic sites are far too numerous. There is a lot of work remaining to clean up the messes of civilization. We have not faced this work properly and continue to create new disasters. Microplastics are getting into the cells of our body. The list of toxic chemicals we have ingested is a mental and physical shock. The rising rate of cancer among young people is in the data but the bureaucracy has its own cancer. Who can help us understand our dilemma? Einstein taught us that curiosity is the KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 most important quality of a scientist. If you explore whatever appears in your life, reality will manifest with clues to pursue. Everything becomes your teacher and those pursuing the clues with wisdom and intelligence appear. When you discover that everything is interrelated, science becomes even more meaningful. Context becomes central and the best context may require some study of the prevailing context. In my quest for the best teachers I have found Buddhist culture to have many highly awakened persons. I met Thich Nhat Hanh in 1967 and remember his words, “Whatever you can do to stop the war in VietNam!” When Martin Luther King gave his “Breaking the Silence” speech on April 4, 1967, the connection was so vivid I was impelled to be a draft resister. That was a great turn towards a radical lifestyle which we defined as going to the root of the war system. I remember the popular Shaker song, “Simple Gifts,” which is one to learn and share. Alison Krauss has a good version. Among scientists I have recently discovered is Dr. Jack Kruse, a neurosurgeon who is a quantum biologist and received the 2016 Nobel Prize in physics for his work. In summary, nature does not make mistakes. Evolution is decentralized, life unfolds as the completeness of reality comes together in a majestic concert. Empty space gives birth to infinite forms and probabilities that play out seamlessly in our creative wisdom mind. Compassion and lovingkindness mix with awareness just as rivers flow into the sea. Words cannot capture the Clear Light of the Void, but they can point towards it, just as the finger points to the moon. When dialectics embrace the unity of opposites we are in a deep harmonic. Stillness in motion creates revolutionary activity. As the Rev. Lucius Walker Jr. said, "We have the human right to take humanitarian aid to our brothers and sisters, especially the victims of U.S. foreign policy. We do not need a license.” Many peace and justice activists organized with Pastors for Peace to take caravans to Cuba which deepened the bond between the Cuban and American people. Revolutionary Love is the call of Valerie Kaur and is based on the solidarity that is our birthright as human beings. Breathe that power regularly until it is a habit. The struggle continues. An injury to one is an injury to all. We are all injured by a system so obsessed with commodification that human life is sacrificed to the arbitrary compliance of those who have advanced up the chain of command. Every bureaucracy can become cancerous. This malignancy can spread from financial bureaucracies into every nook and cranny of your life. Prevention is the key. Search “cancer as a metabolic disease” to get a view that makes better sense. Healthy bodies and a healthy society are evolving as we face our multidimensional dysfunction. When you meet the corporate state you may feel that they have all the power and that you have none. It’s true that their full spectrum warfare, especially in the theater of the mind, has had great success in promoting a war culture that is global. When sanctions confiscate whole nations’ bank accounts and prevent the export and import of essential goods and services, international law calls this an act of war. Google “FDR and sanctions on Japan.” The real story of Pearl Harbor is in the public domain. It could use some refining by sincere academics. The ongoing story of Japan, the United States, China and the USSR is a global mystery. The story of imperialist competition, the United States and Japan as well as Britain and Germany, was best explained by Lenin in “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.” He explains the integration of industrial and financial capital as the cause of World War I and the need for the working class to understand the dialectics of history. Today, as financial capital cannibalizes industrial capital, we begin to understand neoliberal imperialism. I think “Monthly Review” is a good resource here. The AADL had it on the periodical shelves but someone vandalized them and it has not been brought back. I have not gotten a complete response from the library but it is the modern form of book burning. “Monthly Review” is online. You can find John Bellamy Foster and others who address the current ”metabolic rift” that Marx noted as capitalism exploits nature and breaks the context of life on earth. Humans become see NATURE page 12 quickly got a job. Unfortunately, it’s still not enough money making $14 an hour, part time work. Fortunately, the hours are convenient for Granna to take her grandson to school and pick him up daily. Every dollar she makes on a job they take away from her Social Security, keeping her income under $1200/month. She has thought about all kinds of ways of how she can make money legally. Granna’s goal is to have a best seller and to make an animated movie out of "The AD-DAM FAM," her third book. This is how Granna continues to move forward. Regardless of the challenges Granna has to face and obstacles she has to overcome, God has kept her strong, and she continues to hope for the future. Everyone Granna meets she asks one question, “Do you know how to make animated films?” Thank you, Groundcover News readers and Truth Or Lies Fans. The Golden Halloween, published October 18, is FALSE. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11
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