Important

Now, a word on our future

from Sidney Has No Horses

at session at Pine Ridge

It's sad. I haven't figured out how to archive my blogs. Oh, dear! And there is so much to post. I don't want to lose my Peace pieces!

This item is so important. SPREAD IT AROUND.

MESSAGE BY SIDNEY HAS NO HORSES: OCTOBER 17, 2005
RETYPED TRANSCRIPT OF THE COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS HELD IN EAGLE BUTTE, SOUTH DAKOTA ON OCTOBER 4, 2005,
REGULAR OCTOBER SESSION.

ROBERT WALTERS: Mr. Chairman, thank you and Council, with us is Sidney Has No Horses. He is a medicine man from Oglala and Mr. Chariman, he has a message that he's going to all the tribes, all the reservations with that came out of a ceremony and I feel it's a good message. I visited Mr. Has No Horses and so at this time, I'd like to get the floor for him.

SIDNEY HAS NO HORSES: Mitakuye Oyasin. All my relatives.

I'd like to get in the middle if I could, I really don't like to use the mic.
My name is Sidney Has No Horses. I'm from the Pine Ridge Reservation. You probably know my father, his name was Dawson Has No Horses. He was a yuwipi man, a powerful medicine man. My grandfather's name is Frank Fools Crow. He was also a powerful medicine man.

Six months ago, we had a ceremony, in this ceremony, two angels came to me and they talked to me and they told us of the devastation that would happen to the islands and the Indian Ocean. They told us of the earthquakes that would hit Japan. They told us of the earthquakes that will hit South American and the they also told us of the Tsunami that wiped out all the people and they told us of the hurricanes that came to Florida, the one that came to New Orleans and the one that went to Texas. There's one more hurricane coming to wipe out another city.

Two weeks ago, we has a cermony, Sitting Bull came in and he talked to me; Crazy Horse , he talked to me; Chief Big Foot talked to me and they asked me to go to the Seven Council Fires and to the Council People and to warn all of these Fires, within six months. There's going to be a tidal wave that's going to wipe out Los Angeles. Within six months, there 's going to be an eruption in the northwest with the volcanoes. Two eruptions within six months. They say from the eruptions of theses volcanoes, the ash is coming, the Missouri River will be destroyed. They say the water that we drink from the ground is going to be no longer drinkable.

These hardships are coming because God is bringing this. Whether you believe in Christianity, Native American Church or the traditional way, if you read the Bible, we are going into the fourth seal. There's diseases coming that are going to wipe out our children and like this man said here, meth -methaphetamine on our rez is very bad too. If we don't stop that, it's going to destroy the next generation. Many vegetables are going to be born into our tribes.

When I'm done here, I am going to Standing Rock and I am going to stand in front of them, their council and tell them the same thing I am telling you now. This winter is going to be very cold for a long time. Ranchers are going to lose their horses and cows because it is not going to warm up. The price of propane is going to skyrocket and sometimes they are not going to be able to deliver the propane to our families. This food issue in the Bible, it says one day there will be no food in the store's shelves. If you look at the hurricane, a lot of the stores, there's no food on the shelves. These people lost their homes. They can't drink the water and so I come because of the mighty chiefs that talked to me and because of who I am.

They tell me, I need to warn the tribes. Today, I came here without announcement, but to see you all gathered like this, I know God is on my side to see you gathered. The Sisseton-Wahpeton tomorrow will be gathered at 10 o'clock and they will hear what I have to hear. The Flandreau people are gling to be waiting for me tomorrow evening. I 'm going up to Fort Yates here, I'm going to talk to them even if it's after hours and so I thank you very much for letting me come in and I'm thankful that I got all of you together at the same time. I offer you all a handshake.

My name is Sidney Has No Horses. I'm from Batesland, South Dakota. You might want to write this down. My phone number is 605-288-0097. We incorporated ourselves through the State of South Dakota to let you know that we are serious. Within six months, we are going to be living in hell of a world and these chiefs have talked to me, and my cousins.

If you ever want a ceremony, you get ahold of us and we will bring you a ceremony to let you believe. But the chiefs tell me, some of you have good hearts. Some of you have good mind. Some of you have spirituality. You are the people that will take heed on the words I bring and there's a lot of people that didn't believe us when everything we told them has happened and my President, Cecilia Fire Thunder, I talked to her yesterday and she supports because everything I told her would happen to our tribe has happened.

The power of God, he knows what he's bringing to us and in three years, as the keepers of Mother Earth, if the Seven Fires do not come together, there's going to be a meteorite that will be coming and it's going to hit off of San Francisco and they told us that the Seven Council Fires, theses Seven Fires never has hate and jealousy toward each other. I've been trying to get the medicine men of Oglala to be in unity, but they can't and now God asked me to come and get all the Tribal Councils together and all the tribes together.

That's a very hard job that he's giving me. I'm very nervous as I stand here in front of you, but I tried to look you all in the eye to let you know thatI'm for real and so at this time, there are food for thought, things you can think about in the next six months and this little time you have given me. I thank you.

Now I'm going to Standing Rock. I will be going to every reservation.. Maybe the tribal members will get together and at least the tribal presidents will have a ceremony for all you to hear and believe in God. All my relatives. Mitakuye Oyasin. You have my phone number and so if any questions, please contact me.
RETYPED TRANSCRIPT OF THE COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS HELD IN EAGLE BUTTE, SOUTH DAKOTA ON OCTOBER 4, 2005,
REGULAR OCTOBER SESSION.

"Welcome to 1984"

by Anti-Flag

Who would Jesus bomb?

Yeah, who would Jesus kill?

The double talk is past surreal

The word of god is now the word of hate

War is peace, and freedom is the police state

Can't you see the writing on the wall?

Democracy lays trampled on the floor...

You better believe that...

Hell yeah I'm confused for sure

what I thought was the New Millennium is 1984!

Mr. Orwell from the grave, adding fresh ink to the page

As the unpresident declares an endless war...

Welcome to 1984!

Feels like Nazi Germany, and Hitler on TV,

As the unpresident spews homophobic speech

You say the Allies fought a war to end extremist fascist law

So tell me NOW what the fuck are we fighting for?

I just can not take it anymore

Democracy lays trampled on the floor...

Man, isn't freedom great?!?!

Hell yeah I'm confused for sure

what I thought was the New Millennium is 1984!

Mr. Orwell from the grave, adding fresh ink to the page

As the unpresident declares an endless war...

Welcome to 1984!

Now we've got...

Armies of peace, armed to the teeth,

delivering death to make the world a better place

So celebrate the weapons spending,

say a toast to Armageddon, raise some hell!

We're headed straight to hell!!!

Hell yeah I'm confused for sure

what I thought was the New Millennium is 1984!

Mr. Orwell from the grave, adding fresh ink to the page

As the unpresident declares an endless war...

Welcome to 1984!

I HAVE COME INTO THIS WORLD TO SEE THIS

I have come into this world to see this:
the sword drop from men's hands even at the height
of their arc of anger
because we have finally realized there is just one flesh to wound
and it is His - the Christ's, our
Beloved's.

I have come into this world to see this: all creatures hold hands as
we pass through this miraculous existence we share on the way
to even a greater being of soul,
a being of just ecstatic light, forever entwined and at play
with Him.

I have come into this world to hear this:
every song the earth has sung since it was conceived in
the Divine's womb and began spinning from
His wish,
every song by wing and fin and hoof,
every song by hill and field and tree and woman and child,
every song of stream and rock,
every song of tool and lyre and flute,
every song of gold and emerald
and fire,
every song the heart should cry with magnificent dignity
to know itself as
God:
for all other knowledge will leave us again in want and aching -
only imbibing the glorious Sun
will complete us.

I have come into this world to experience this:
men so true to love
they would rather die before speaking
an unkind
word,
men so true their lives are His covenant -
the promise of
hope.

I have come into this world to see this:
the sword drop from men's hands
even at the height of
their arc of
rage
because we have finally realized
there is just one flesh
we can wound.

~ Hafiz ~

We are One Body, The Body of Christ

(Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West by Daniel Ladinsky)


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The Angel Spoke:

You are the voice of the wind
That sooths all souls and clears
the movement of love within.

You stand within the feet
of unshakable strength in
power born of love unending.

Yours are the eyes that see beyond
into depths and places not
viewed by the many.

Yours is the heart that swells
within overflowing of beauty and
love not comprehended.

You are the One and the Many
the blessed of the blessed beyond
measure of any man.

Yours are the arms that embrace
the fearful and the fearless, the
heart that has room for all.

You have within your hands
the power, the glory, the beauty
incomprehensible of All That Is.

You are not forgotten nor
are you without our very presence
in this and every moment.

That which we are is in you.
That which you are is within us.
That which is All That Is - IS.

The Stars reside in your crown
The trees and flowers within your very
person
the birds sing within your smile.

There is naught to want or
seek after, ALL is within even
the spaces in-between what you are.

We hold you up to the glorious heights
from which you came and to which
you return,

In this you that IS, ALL are.
Spread forth your arms knowing
they are the arms of everyone.

Beloved,
The Beloved is within you.

~Archangel Ariel~

Through Shirley White
(thanx, Shirl!)
www.mattersofspirit.blogspot.com

BULLETIN ITEM
PASS IT ON

The Revolution Really Did Begin
The Next Skirmish Begins NOW

Michael Mandeville says

(www.yahoogroups/group/earthchange-bulletins)

Temporarily Upstaged By the Weather,
the Street Movement To Stop Bush
Literally Begins Tomorrow



2000, Why? Not One More
by Cindy Sheehan

Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the State becomes lawless and corrupt.
~Mahatma Gandhi~

Unfortunately the 2000th American death in Iraq is tragically coming up too soon.

In addition to the wasted young lives in Iraq,
246 of our brave men and women have been killed in Afghanistan.
Our troops and the war in Afghanistan get even less attention than Iraq, if possible.

I am in Washington, DC now and along with a
coalition of peace groups and local activists,
we will be holding vigils at the White House for the rest of the week
from 12 noon to 8 PM.

Each day we will be passing out black wrist bands and
we will have each person who picks one up write a KIA troops' name and number on it.
Each wrist band will also stand for 50 innocent Iraqis killed.

Everyday at 6 PM we will have a "die-in."

We will ask everyone who is present at 6 PM to lie down and represent a dead soldier.
At that point, the park police will give us 3 warnings before they arrest us.
We are not encouraging people;
to get arrested is a very personal decision.

I am planning to not get up on the day after the 2000th soldier is killed.
I may be arrested.
Then when they let me out, I will go back and lie back down.

We in America have let this criminal administration get away with murder for too long.

Enough is enough.

It's time to start practicing non-violent civil disobedience (C.D.) on a large scale.

On Tuesday the 25th we will be fasting for the length of the vigil
in solidarity with the hardships
that Americans and Iraqis are enduring on a daily basis.

We are asking America to fast in solidarity with us.


On Wednesday the 26th at 10:30 AM, we will be going to Arlington Cemetery
to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Then to the White House for our vigil.

On Thursday the 27th at 10:30 AM we will be delivering a wreath
and signed sympathy cards to the Iraqi Embassy.
We are asking people who come out to our vigil on the Lafayette Park side
to bring sympathy cards.

Then to the White House for our vigil.

On Friday the 28th at 10:30 AM we will be delivering flowers
and get well wishes to Walter Reed Hospital and
we are asking people to bring get well cards to our vigil.

Then off to the White House for our vigil.

Tomorrow I will be calling on President Bush
to answer my original question:

"What Noble Cause?"

There is absolutely no noble cause.

Our children and the Iraqi people are dying and suffering
for no cause except for power and money greedy criminals.

The numbers are staggering.

More American soldiers have been KIA in the first 32 months of Iraq
so far then in the first 4 years of Vietnam.

This isn't another Vietnam people, this is worse.

We cannot allow the people who are running our country to keep on running it into the ground.

It is time to exercise our sacred duty as human beings.

Let's get peacefully radical.

P E A C E

To download a two-sided flyer of this, email:

ladybroadoak@gmail.com

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"U.S. military death toll in Iraq reaches 2,000" -- CNN headline, October 25, 2005


Memorial Day Sonnet

We're here to honor those who went to war

Who did not wish to die, but did die, grievously,

In eighteen sixty-one and in two-thousand four

Though they were peaceable as you or me.

Young and innocent, they knew nothing of horror ---

Singers and athletes, and all in all well-bred.

Their sergeants, mercifully, made them into warriors,

And at the end, they were moving straight ahead.

As we look at these headstones, row on row on row,

Let us see them as they were, laughing and joking,

On that bright irreverent morning long ago.

And once more, let our hearts be broken.

God have mercy on them for their heroic gift.

May we live the good lives they would have lived.

~ Garrison Keillor ~

(A Prairie Home Companion, May 29, 2004)

Coexist in Peace


The "august" (read: establishment) New York Times, having absolutely heard about the "leaks" of 21 federal indictments and the state of the White House "staff", provides only this today: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/24/politics/24leak.html?th&emc=th

Instead the editorial focus is on -- untieing the Nations once again.

Today, United Nations Day, one of their editorials is focused on child abuse by UN Peacekeepers. I loathe child abuse (having been a victim). I find war the worst attack on women and children that can be perpetrated. There have been many stories in the Western press about this abuse and the UN being lax at doing something about it. Not at all nice.

But I think today was THE day to run an editorial warning that the US axis of evil is about to run a scam once again, telling its usual lies, to bail out its sorry backside. BLAME SYRIA! (this time)

To pick today as the day to attack the UN in the NYT editorials has to be (not only in poor taste) a very big political slap in the face for all people, including the ones who are are so seriously and sadly spiritually misled these days.

But what can you expect from a newspaper that's complicit with this "administration" in manufacturing and spreading the lies that create and "justify" war? The NYT shows little compassion for the inhabitants of those countries currently invaded and occupied.

Jack Straw and Condi Rice will be performing their "script" about Syria as a potential threat to world peace as another "evil" empire, one which engages in assassinations. (as if black ops CIA hands were blood free). It might be comical to visualize the insincere and patently self-serving delivery these two will be "performing" But that's not even tempting. Too many more lives are at stake to waste this time. Even politically, the only people who stand to benefit from this pre-planned, unholy invasion of Syria, are Iran and Israel. Keep your eyes on the Israeli government this week and forget the visualizations.

When I lived in New York, it was a regular bar/saloon put-down by journalists, tipsy after work, that nothing good could come out of the UN, as it was built on the site of torn-down slaughterhouse. I drank with them and strongly disagreed, achieving nothing. They forget about the immense lettering on a huge monument right outside the General Assembly "They shall beat their swords into plowshares."

I worked for the Assembly and the Security Council (Conference Services) as a verbatim stenographer during one session. I concluded that with what went on there, they would be better off sitting down ONE day a year, every single person working for the UN, and making lists of suggestions about how to achieve peace rather than to go on day after day with their gruelling, duplious business. I am convinced that the janitors know more about peace than the "diplomats".

The peace of the UN died with Dag Hammerskold's mysterious death. He came from that spiritual place and he, a magnificent man, was killed for it so the elite could get a few more years of really good war profits before Armageddon. Hey, they believe in the prophecies, too; we know that. But they love profits more than the peace of God.

Those of us who LOVEd peace who worked there, who went in with stars in our eyes becuz we thought we could help the cause of World Peace, often shed tears with those eyes as we passed his portrait in the halls. We wept quietly, shyly. We into the Chapel and we prayed that Dag's spirit might return; we prayed alone not as a group. We lost the power we might have had should we have been able to work together as a real team for peace.

Our Peacemakers group, as I've come to dis-cover, has the tools to help end all the US's and other nations' aggression and restore hope to all peoples. It has the means to expose the establishment press for the apologists for war that they are. It is the "peace" of the puzzle that's been missing.

Enough. I've had enough! It's time to fight the peaceful fight!


I believe that participants have been lead directly to the Peacemakers of the Sacred Hoop as Peaceful Warriors and Warrioresses. In that group, we ARE the people of the war for the spirit, whatever religious or spiritual tradition we may have sprung from originally or those we may have "investigated".

Some of us have endured years of "crying in the wilderness" about nuclear, chemical and scalar weapons; about imperialistic wars, genocide, war profiteering; about the slaughter of innocents and innocence; about the seizure of native lands and culture; about psychic and physical scars left on combatants and victims; about the apathy society engenders-all for the thoroughly rotten purpose of keeping the business of war over commodities and terrain profitable- and now is our time to show the world that there is a Way to stop all of this -- peacefully, legally, democratically and spiritually.

We begin today with prayer: that nations unite regardless of the inhumane agendas afoot in the world today. (See below.)

We can call our Congressmen (or you can! I live in Canada) and say we are fed up and want peace.

We can write letters to our newspapers telling them WE aren't fooled by the Bushwhackers.

We can read some peaceful words to inspire us to carry our consciences to the next person.

We can email or phone a friend about Bob's Divinely-inspired Mendelson "collection" and tell them its peace plan and the peace it brings us to know there is a Way.

We can all thank God we have a peaceful violence-free zone, groups groups.yahoo.com/groups/Peacermakers_of_the_Sacred_Hoop to come to and pour our hearts out about how much we want these "End Times" to be a PEACEFUL force to usher in the arrival of an age of loving our neighbours and loving our loving Creator.

We can thank each other for the time each has given to the others there, in this short time, and for the actual love exchanged. I thank everyone in the group for bearing with me as I "got my bearings".

I thank Robert Leon Mendelson for all the time he has taken to show us a peaceful path through Armageddon. Bush&Co are in their last days and the antiChrist MUST go. We are all the body of Christ, everyone on earth, and we must stop hurting God with our thoughtless ways.

I have had the weekend to read most of the past postings on the group, Bob's collection and thus, to really understand why the Bushistas need a new home -- jail -- and to think about what I can contribute to that happening. Bush&Co. need to repent, to reconcile their consciences with the laws of a loving God and begin to repay for all the damage they have done to countless people. They make sure we shall never know the true extent of the damage caused by their greed and arrogance.

We need to see the prophecies fulfilled, but peacefully. It CAN be done. We have God's help and God is working through each of us.
And they remembered that God was their strength - Psalm LXXVIII, v.35

I thank my God and ^i^ that it was my destiny to find my way to peace. So today I will do a little bit to say thank you by going out and doing something for peace. Let it begin with me.

Megweetch,
Many Rivers
Virginia

written 19th July, 1961
by Dag Hammarskjold
translated in Markings

Have mercy
Upon us.
Have mercy
Upon our efforts,
That we
Before Thee,
In love and in faith,
Righteousness and humility,
May follow Thee,
With self-denial, steadfastness and courage,
and meet Thee
In the silence.

Give us
A pure heart
That we may see Thee,
A humble heart
That we may hear Thee,
A heart of love
That we may serve Thee,
A heart of faith
That we may live Thee,

Thou
Whom I do not know
But Whose I am.

Thou
Whom I do not comprehend
But Who has dedicated me
To my fate.
Thou ----

Sweeping away

No time right now to drag out a broom photo.

This is the image of the clean sweep we need.

NOW is the need.

But we are praying for a peaceful clean sweep.

Pray for (y)our President. He needs it just now.

There are rumors he may commit suicide to be a martyr to the Special Prosecutor.

There are rumors he is scurrying about in cars in California ... whatever. It is apparent the mainstream media is playing non-Sunny Sunday, focussing on the hurricane 90% of the time. The indictment scenario is NOT mentioned. The upcoming UN hearings on the Bushistas' accusatory papers against Syria are missing from the paper. No space to explain the plot to give people the Avian flu to distract them and feed them with poisonous sera. No explanations of global warming and scalar wars. That's it, folks, there is no need to get excited. And if you believe all this, it's time to wake up out of your main stream media trance!

The New York Times today printed NOTHING remotely connected with American reality today. We are having a Constitutional crisis. American officials are out there commiting felonies today. Fitzgerald has shown it to be so on his website. The New York Times despite ITS involvement in all this, has nothing to say about the real news.

So I bring you news.

Please get our your virtual brooms. Visualize a clean sweep (there are up to 21 indictments, we hear) and ..

Pray for all these liars, prevaricators and warmongers ...

Sad and Saddest, surburbia and The New York Times
All the news it doesn't see fit to print

This is just a pre-run of a post that I intend to expand. It's the first time I've seen anyone write anything sane about the insane.Concealing The Suburban Nightmare
James Howard Kunstler
October 20, 2005
(James Howard Kunstler is the author of The Long Emergency and 12 other books. This article originally appeared in the author's website and appears in this Blog without permission.)

When the Museum of Bad Ideas is built by Steve Wynn in Las Vegas (designed by Frank Gehry), surely one of its remote galleries will contain this week's cover story in The New York Times Sunday Magazine about the suburban homebuilding racket titled "Chasing Ground ." The story focuses on one of the nation's leading large production builders, the Toll Brothers, based in Philadelphia, and "ground" is their own cute phrase for the parcels of meadow and cornfield that they magically convert into suburban housing subdivisions all over the nation.

The Times brings its usual magisterial lack of critical thinking to the subject. Among the conclusions: that the suburban sprawl housing bubble will continue indefinitely into the future, and that the price of houses will continue to rise, probably forever, too:

Indeed , Toll seemed certain that firms like his—with an expertise at finding and developing land—l would become increasingly successful. The company expects to grow by 20 percent for the next two years and 15 percent annually after that.

Philosophically, the story is grounded in Times columnist David Brooks's concept that suburbia is a good thing because people seem to like it. But it's the Times's ignorance of practical matters that's really breathtaking. The nation's oil predicament is barely mentioned (and obviously only as an editorial afterthought, since the story was no doubt filed before Katrina and Rita shredded production in the Gulf of Mexico). Anyway, the issue is cavalierly dismissed. Missing altogether is America's even more dire predicament over natural gas, which is used to heat half the houses in America and 99 percent of the brand-new ones. Since the story focuses on large luxury houses over 3,500 square feet, featuring cathedral ceilings and yawning lawyer foyers, you'd think the question of heating these behemoths might arise, but no. The price of natural gas has quadrupled since 2002 and is still going up.

But it's the story's willingness to embrace uncritically the Toll Brothers' credo of reckless and destructive greed that is most amazing:

What happens when New Jersey reaches build-out? 'We've been trying to build it out, but we can't get our hands on it,' [Toll] said. 'We could sell every square foot that we could build on. I mean, anything within 15 minutes of Interstate 78 could be built and sold. Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, all the way to New York City. And it's all sitting there.

The assumption, clearly, is that America will be a happily car-crazed society forever and that nothing might interfere with that. The interstates will keep humming along. The consumer sector will keep generating high-paying management jobs. The "boomburbs" of Arizona and Nevada, in particular, will continue to expand and thrive.

Here's the real dope on the situation. The big corporate production homebuilders, including the Toll Brothers, are selling their own stock like mad lately because they realize that the game is over, that they are in a twilight industry. (The Times left this out.) Home heating costs are going to crush the public this winter, and even the supposedly well-off in big new houses are going to feel the pain, because the truth is that many of them are leveraged up to their eyeballs to be where they are, and supernatural utility bills will push them over the edge just when the national bankruptcy laws have been revised to make wiggling out of debt much more difficult and punitive. The price of gasoline will keep ratcheting upward like a medieval torture device, and will combine with home heating costs to make the public's collective head pop like a winter melon.

Meanwhile, the mortgage industry, a mutant monster organism of lapsed lending standards and arrant grift on the grand scale, is going to implode like a dying star under the weight of these non-performing loans and drag every tradable instrument known to man into the quantum vacuum of finance that it creates.

And is there anything to be said on behalf of the mutilated American rural landscape itself? Such as: might we actually need it to feed ourselves when the great Cheez Doodle sector of the economy craps out from a shortage of cheap fossil fuel "inputs?"

It's sad to see a once-great newspaper go through the motions of pretending to be intelligent.

It's sad too that Suburbia isn't seen as non-valid lifestyle choice.

It's not just that the business of suburbia is as corrupt, defeating and disastrous as the Federal government, it's a soul sucking way to live.

Neither the nuclear family nor nuclear wars make sense.

In the next few years, due to climate change, air conditioning in homes and cars will make living in suburbia worse than being in city ghettos.


No one at the New York Times lives in a REAL suburb. They may commute to work; may send their children to suburban schools; may shop at suburban malls; may drink in suburban bars and eat at suburban restraunts rather often. They may walk under suburban skies and see suburban starz. But the suburbs have become a state of mind, linked to a post war blues.


Does anyone at all recall the Levittown story?

WE LOVE TO SEE YOU SMILE ....

Clear Day Breakfast at McDonald's

(Please read until the end)

This is a good story and is true, please read it all the way through until the end! (After the story, there are some very interesting facts!):

I am a mother of three (ages 14, 12, 3) and have recently completed my college degree.

The last class I had to take was Sociology.

The teacher was absolutely inspiring with the qualities that I wish every human being had been graced with.

Her last project of the term was called "Smile."

The class was asked to go out and smile at three people and document their reactions.

I am a very friendly person and always smile at everyone and say hello anyway, so, I thought this would be a piece of cake, literally.

Soon after we were assigned the project, my husband, youngest son, and I went out to McDonald's one crisp March morning.

It was just our way of sharing special playtime with our son.

We were standing in line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back away, and then even my husband did.

I did not move an inch... an overwhelming feeling of panic welled up inside of me as I turned to see why they had moved.

As I turned around I smelled a horrible "dirty body" smell, and there standing behind me were two poor homeless men.

As I looked down at the short gentleman, close to me, he was "smiling".

His beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God's Light as he searched for acceptance.

He said, "Good day" as he counted the few coins he had been clutching.

The second man fumbled with his hands as he stood behind his friend. I realized the second man was mentally challenged and the blue-eyed gentleman was his salvation.

I held my tears as I stood there with them.

The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted.

He said, "Coffee is all, Miss" because that was all they could afford. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something. He just wanted to be warm).

Then I really felt it - the compulsion was so great I almost reached out and embraced the little man with the blue eyes.

That is when I noticed all eyes in the restaurant were set on me, judging my every action.

I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two more breakfast meals on a separate tray.

I then walked around the corner to the table that the men had chosen as a resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue-eyed gentleman's cold hand.

He looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said, "Thank you."

I leaned over, began to pat his hand and said, "I did not do this for you. God is here working through me to give you hope."

I started to cry as I walked away to join my husband and son. When I sat down my husband smiled at me and said, "That is why God gave you to me, Honey, to give me hope."

We held hands for a moment and at that time, we knew that only because of the Grace that we had been given were we able to give.

We are not church goers, but we are believers.

That day showed me the pure Light of God's sweet love.

I returned to college, on the last evening of class, with this story in hand.

I turned in "my project" and the instructor read it.

Then she looked up at me and said, "Can I share this?"

I slowly nodded as she got the attention of the class.

She began to read and that is when I knew that we as human beings and being part of God share this need to heal people and to be healed.

In my own way I had touched the people at McDonald's, my husband, son, instructor, and every soul that shared the classroom on the last night I spent as a college student.

I graduated with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn: UNCONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE.

Much love and compassion is sent to each and every person who may read this and learn how to LOVE PEOPLE AND USE THINGS - NOT LOVE THINGS AND USE PEOPLE.

If you think this story has touched you in any way, please send this to everyone you know.

There is an Angel sent to watch over you. In order for her to work, you must pass this on to the people you want watched over.

An Angel wrote: Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

To handle yourself, use your head.

To handle others, use your heart.

God Gives every bird it's food, but He does not throw it into its nest.

Keep this going ... Pass it on.

When we leave this earth, we only keep what we gave away, not what we got!

post-Katrina offerings ...

Okay. I am working away on several canvases of Blog to post. My desktop is as messy as my closet! Things like the Lamed Vov, Mayan prophecy and the Mayan Bible, sacred geometry, internet trolls, witches and Impeachment ... I've been posting to forums, following up emails and NOT coming here. I think I am disgusted with MySelf for not choosing a Blog template where it is easy-peasy to upload links. I've got lots squandered away in Word documents named Blog notes and Weblog, etc. And oodles of pictures.

I'm still in my Katrina concern phase.

This is from today's New Orleans paper:

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1129878424123770.xml

This stuff sickens me, yet I am fascinated by the human elementals "failures" and "successes". Amongst other things, including being obsessed with the monumental failulre of FEMA, I read different channelings as to God's plan in all this; I read stuff on scalar wars (a blog in the unfinished canvas stage), I look for interesting (Hate that word!), say, worthwhile post-Katrina projects. One such is:

www.gryphonking.blogspot.com

Please, please check this blogsite out. It shows what good people can do!

I got an email from Flashquake today I really, really liked and hope whoever finds this Blog will pass the info along as it is maybe a good spot for some creatives to be involved ... and I can think of a couple!

^i^ ^i^ ^i^ ^i^ ^i^ ^i^ ^i^

From Flashquake.org:

We're excited about a special new project we're debuting, called "Voices from the Storm." You can find out more about it and read our call for submissions at http://www.flashquake.org/editorial/voices.html.

And please spread the word! We'd like all the writers, poets, and artists affected by the recent disasters in the southern U.S. to know that there are people who'd like to hear their stories. Thank you for your support -- this is how we make good things happen!

Debi Orton, Publisher dorton@flashquake.org

Voices from the Storm

As most of us know by now, the U.S. has been severely affected by multiple disasters in the Gulf States, resulting from hurricanes Katrina and Rita (and perhaps Wilma). We at flashquake would like to set up a venue where people affected by these disasters can share their stories and art. Fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, artwork and photographs are welcome from anyone directly affected by the storm. This includes those who endured or were evacuated from the affected areas, their family members, rescuers, volunteers, foster homes and so forth. Please, no submissions from those who weren't personally impacted by the hurricanes and/or floods directly.

This will be an ongoing project — entries selected for publication will be published in one long broadsheet that will be available on our site, and for download, as a PDF document. See our regular guidelines for information on length and rules of submission; all submissions should follow our regular guidelines.

Submission to the category: Voices from the Storm does not preclude submission to our regular journal. Published entries will receive a monetary award in the amount of $25.

The reading periods are as follows:

October 21 - November 15, 2005: Broadsheet 1
November 16 - December 15, 2005: Broadsheet 2
December 16 - January 15, 2005: Broadsheet 3

Broadsheets will be published shortly after each reading period closes.

Please submit entries to: voices@flashquake.org

Acceptance notices will be sent out prior to publication. Unfortunately, we will be unable to send out rejection notices or comments for these submissions.

^i^ ^i^ ^i^ ^i^ ^i^ ^i^ ^i^

John Lennon
A Belated eulogy

John, my man.

I grew up in a very repressive environment. When the Beatles made it, it became the most divisive element in my household. I left home at 15, like John I didn't "grow up" with my parents. To me, John was the embodiment of what someone who grew up "weird", could do with themselves. I loved him my whole life.

I went to the Dakota to pay tribute two days before he died after working in NYC on the Leonard/Duran fight. After getting paid, I took my then six-year-old son to go to Disneyland and stayed at the Tropicana Motel (Tom Waits' "home"). The morning of the killing, all the mothers gathered in the cafe. Can you imagine how many of us gathered there had had our children because John conceived Sean despite his cynicism with the world? We all cried together. Then went to Century City, as no one really knew what else to DO. People just sang his songs and kept the beat with stomping. It was spiritual, it was POWERFUL.


I have always been upset with people criticising Yoko Ono. I won't listen to the criticism -- musical, personal, or political ... Those two were meant to be together. He recognized her true value, and said so in his Rolling Stone interviews.


To my mind, John found the God within, the true Gnostic. He was an enlightened, funny, irreverant and talented man. We should all have such courage and be so full of heart. I feel sorry I didn't get my words down October 8th in the blog. Because there isn't an October 8th I don't remember the man. Songwriter, musician (and he was good, a GREAT guitarist, have a real listen), singer/performer, actor, writer, artist, activist, enemy of the state, lover, husband, father, inspired inspirer, entertainer Extra-nonordinary.

The saddest day of my life -- I owned a coffeehouse/tearoom in a tourist town here in Ontario. I had only one photo up. It was of John. Someone came in and actually asked me who it was.

So as you can Imagine, I have to shine on, without him.


Lennon Remembers: The Full Rolling Stone Interviews from 1970 (Hardcover)by John Lennon, Jann S. Wenner (Editor)
John Lennon - Imagine by John Lennon
Postcards From The Boys by Ringo Starr
Acoustic ~ John Lennon
Lennon : Definitive Biography, The by Ray Coleman
All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono by David Sheff
Skywriting by Word of Mouth : And Other Writings, Including "The Ballad of John and Yoko" by John Lennon
John's Secret Dreams : The Life of John Lennon by Doreen Rappaport
Lennon Legend by James Henke
Life: Remembering John Lennon : 25 Years Later by LIFE MAGAZINE EDITORS
Memories of John Lennon by Yoko Ono

What's next in this World?

This appeared in Lady Isis lightcircle ezine today ...

I would like to add, NESARA is real in the Physical also. Even if it were not we could make it so. It lives in our hearts. Do you know of a higher Ideal? If it is a just cause then press on until you make it so. Love, Steve
=====================
Events That Are Unfolding
Gary McDaniel
http://mail.yahoo.com/config/login?/ym/Compose?To=gmcdaniel@donet.com
=====================

In my opinion, indeed things have come to a head. It appears the dark cabal has no options left except to take what little time they have left to make one more desperate attempt to bring about an incident or multiple incidents simultaneously to impose their total rule over most of the world. I, like some others on this forum, do not believe they will succeed, but will utterly fail. Why? Why not? They are at least 5 years behind their original plan to openly rule the world by the year 2000. Since they were not in complete control by 2000 they had to put their agenda into hyper drive. This accelerated pace has caused them to make some fatal mistakes. There is a lot of infighting and division among the top echelon Illuminati as to the best course to take to reach their goals.

The 2000 elections and 9/11 were their opening salvos to put themselves quickly in control of the U.S and start the wars leading to world domination. These conspiratorial events have not proven to be as successful as they had hoped. Then we have all the exposed lies getting us into the Iraq war, the Valerie Palme fiasco, the Katrina and New Orleans disaster, and most recently the flubbed attempts to blow up the Chicago and New York subway systems. They are getting desperate to pull off some major event so they can justify declaring martial law here in the U.S. before the indictments Patrick Fitzgerald is working on are made public.

The point I am trying to make is the Illuminati are taking themselves down as the darkness always does eventually. They appear to be imploding. I believe this month will see the end of the Bush administration. The only ace-in-the-hole the Illuminati has is the totally corrupt major U.S. media, which appears to be totally subservient to the Illuminati agenda, and willtell John Q Public whatever lies they are told to tell. I don't believe the media will be able to cover-up or minimize the impact of the coming announcement of the indictments. Add to this our ace-in-the-hole "THE INTERNET" and its quick dissemination of the news and all the nails should be solidly hammered in their coffins.

Now isn't it interesting that these unfolding earthly events fit hand in glove with some of the objectives of NESARA? Most notably being the resignation or arrest of the president and vice president, and perhaps half the cabinet, and the many others complicit in all the many cover-ups of the above mentioned manipulated events.

I must admit I am new this year (since June) to NESARA. I have read most of the pros and cons concerning the validity of NESARA. All I can say is that the perfect time to announce it would be in conjunction with the coming indictments. As I said above they fit hand and glove. I have noticed the last couple of weeks that most of the channeled messages, regardless of the channel, are saying the time is now for NESARA to be announced and the current administration to be replaced with individuals which are pro-light. The messages have become so certain that the time is now, that they have given themselves no rope to put off the event any longer. I believe we are going to know this month as to whether or not what we have been told for the last 5 years about NESARA, First Contact, and the Second Coming event are true or not.

I believe they are true. Why? Why not? I have believed for a long time (over 25 years) that something of this nature was going to come to pass upon the earth in due time. All the ancient prophecies point to these times we are now in. I have prayed these 25 years for understanding and enlightenment as to how the ascension of humanity would unfold. Over theyears I only received glimpses here and there as to how it would happen. Then suddenly in a relatively short period this year the scenario is revealed. And what a scenario! I couldn't have come up with this three part game plan in my wildest imaginations, but it resonates with my innermost being. Your logical, rational, matrix programmed mind may tell you it is all a big hoax. Yet my higher (Christ) mind tells me that it is possible.

It really isn't that much of a stretch when you consider that this earth has been observed for millennia by so called ET's both friendly and hostile. The key that unlocks the truth is realizing that the positive ET's are in actuality the hosts of heaven! This changed everything for me when I looked at these events from that viewpoint. Of course you naysayer's who are only looking at these proposed events from an earthbound ego's perspective considers these events ludicrous and foolish.

That's OK! It's not going to change what is about to happen. Once these events begin to unfold and your trembling heart goes into your dry mouth you will have an opportunity to change your mind, and adjust to the new unfolding reality. The grace and compassion of God is offered to all of humanity without judgment. After all, the Universal Mind is well aware that over many lifetimes the negatively controlled matrix has taken mostof the minds of humanity captive to its will. That too is OK, as it is all part of the evolving path we are all on together.

I learned a long time ago what David Ike evidently only recently learned, and that is:

INFINITE LOVE IS THE ONLY TRUTH THERE IS AND ALL ELSE IS ILLUSION.

So as we dream our dreams and live their earthly realities both individually and corporately let us love and respect one another without regard as to how we might believe the future will unfold.

For those of us who believe the 3-fold work of heaven is about to be revealed let us hold the faith as never before. This is not the time to be doubtful, double-minded, wavering, or wishy-washy as this only delays the process. The naysayer's and deceivers are literally working day and night to discredit this final unfolding of the 3-fold divine plan. Let your inner spirit be your guide unto all truth.

Peace!

Gary McDaniel
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
**For those who do not know what NESARA is:
NESARA: National Economic Security And Reformation Act which was signed into law by Bill Clinton on October 10, 2000.

The Supreme Court made this law and put a GAG ORDER on it until it is announced; The National Economic Security And Reformation Act- " NESARA" provides Major benefits to All Americans:

1. Forgives Credit card, Mortgage Debit, and other Bank loans as a remedy for Bank and Government Frauds.

2. Abolishes the IRS; creates flat rate non-essential New Items only sales tax revenue for government.

3. Initiates U.S. Treasury Bank System which absorbs the Federal Reserve and new precious metals backed by U.S. Treasury currency.

4. Restores Constitutional Law.

5. Requires Resignations of current administration to be replaced by Constitutionally acceptable NESARA President and Vice President Designates until new elections with-in 120 days.

6. Requires the President Designate to declare "PEACE" enabling International banking improvements to proceed smoothly; and

7. Ends U.S. aggressive military actions immediately and many more improvements.

Contact http://mail.yahoo.com/config/login?/ym/Compose?To=Dove@nesara.us for more information.

(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)

God is not on earth unless consciously real-ized. We have to choose CONSCIOUSLY to work together on this earth to get Infinite Love.

Isn't the above a wonderful idea? Well, yes, in a limited way. Some rich geezers may compromise with NESARA rather than lose everything, as a wise friend pointed out to me. But NESARA does nothing for the people living at the bottom of the material culture. People like me on disability. People on old pensions. The unemployed. People who can't even get credit. People with dreams that will never materialize, but are nourishing to the human spirit.

So, I while I can see this as "better than"; it's still not going to bring ALL peoples together. And that's what's on my mind ...

Scaring yourself to disbelief is easy these days.

On a forum I am on, someone wrote in saying they are becoming increasingly athiestic. And then listed about ten horrible things going on today ... Hurricanes, riots, war, threats of disease (I've laid off the avian flu panic on the Blog, but I have my theories about vaccines ..)

So I felt compelled to write him this ..
Dear _______,

I have been at the extreme end of the social/political nightmare. I live in Canada in exile, having done nothing wrong. I know what it is like to have your faith tested.

It's easy to list out all the horrors going on around us, but a close look at history will reveal that one could have made a horror list at ANY time in history. It's true enough to me that we are in the End Times, but I don't expect if we work at it the world is over. It may be over as we know it. I care about the world and I don't expect The Rapture to come along and let me irresponsible to my fellow human pods until then.

What makes our times different is that the incredible leaps in public literacy, the impact of the mass media and communications, photography, the overwhelming numbers of people living in the 20th and 21st century made possible by medical science and hygiene, even advancements in psychology ... have made us much more aware of what's going on and given us the ability to understand it.

It seems like in the past year, we barely have time to recover from what is going on before the next big thing to cause us real grief occurs. We are overwhelmed. We know that we aren't being told the truth -- what we think is happening, what we are told is happening and what is really happening is all at variance. This is called cognitive dissonance and leads to ... more overwhelm.

This is the time to get involved with a power greater than yourself, and find the infinity within you, MORE THAN EVER.

As the planet seems to be spinning out of control, and perhaps it is, it is more important than ever to reach inside yourself where faith, love, understanding and peace live. It's a time to live day by day and do the best we can. The whole planet is Waking Up! It's actually a GREAT time to be alive, despite how weary we may grow. It's like we've volunteered to be here to help out just be living in these times. That's how I see it.

B_________, your very vulnerability is such a strength. Rather than stoning yourself and numbing out, you are alive and thinking. Descartes had it ALL wrong. I AM, therefore I think, not the other way around. What you are thinking is logical. But thinking isn't all of it.

It's the experience of being human that takes us into NEEDING a God. Unfortunately, we have been fed so much garbage about God and tend to think of Him as like our fathers, or mothers, or other authority figures. But I am walking proof -- miracles exist.

Tune in (meditate on Bill S.'s -- www.mysticalprinciples@yahoogroups.com -- excellent meditations or read some inspirational literature), TURN ON (appreciate all the great things in your life today -- light a candle at www.gratefulness.org), but don't drop out like the hippies. All the wonderful knowledge you have can be given away to help others. When we leave this planet we only take with us that which we have given away! Be loving and brave. It feels really good.

My prayers are with you. I think as you decide which path best suits your ability to help others, you will find your belief in God renewed and strengthened. Your honesty is SO refreshing ... and I AM

Grateful,
Lady Broakoak

Helping (people change)
with a dedication to a true hero, Bill S.

Today someone emailed me a little essay called Do you want to change? The first assumption was that people don't want to change.

I think that is a dangerous assumption. People don't know HOW to change. It's a social/political thing to want things to stay the same. That way The System keeps the insane status quo going. Keynes said, capitalism is insane and is sure to die, but in the end, we're all dead anyway (paraphrase) but that just shows how logic doesn't help straighten out anything!

The second assumption in the article is that abuse isn't personal. I think abuse is plenty personal. Okay, so if it weren't you it would have been somebody else is the argument used. But the fact is it was you. And the trauma, pain and scars you carry around are yours, not somebody else's.

I felt compelled to respond on the forum where it was posted. Because in my life in the 64 bit Alternative Universe has shown me that this New Age thing of "Blame the Victim" is completely out of control. People pretending to channel God who have NO compassion for victims of very bad childhoods. People who can't be vulnerable and cry with the grieving. People who thought the victims in Hurricane Rita asked for it because they couldn't or wouldn't skip town.

(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/0\)

We are all individuals and have to "deal" with things in our own way, in our time.

Unfortunately, life's misfortunes hit all of us.

If they are overwhelming -- such as sexual and physical abuse -- and we are not "safe" enough to cope with them in the NOW of the moment -- we must find ways to go on. So we become angry, or depressed (an overused word) or become mentally ill in some cases. Often, way too often, these tragic traumas lead to addictions. And addiction becomes an obsessive mentality (and sometimes an actual physical allergy depending on which of the three kinds you get) ... which can only be broken with a complete surrender and a true religious (read: spiritual) experience.

This is why so often it seems people who have experienced The Bottom are the spiritual seekers.

Change can be frightening to a person who has never experienced change to the good. And it is fruitless to try to persuade them otherwise. All we can do is to understand and "be there" for them as they try to find a better way to live.

Once trust has broken down by a traumatic event, it is a hard thing to restore. That's why our compassion and support is so important. Why change if there is nothing to support it?

These r.d.laing types of mental knots are only the tip of the iceberg. There is a school of "therapy" called rational-emotive therapy (RET). They used it for YEARS in addiction centres. It doesn't work. Great in theory, bad in practice. It attempts to argue people out of their obsessive thinking and "knots".

The truth is: it is by God's grace that we finally discover what God is. We are changed by positive perception, and other humans CAN help us with this. We can be an example to a damaged person. I call it the Will to Well. We can "catch" a desire to be good, to turn to God even though humans have failed us. The people who work on their addictions are true Heros, it takes courage (which comes from Full of heart ...) to look at YourSelf, discover the hole in the doughnut and then struggle with the beginning to Know the Unknowable.

Grace in itself is NOT enough. We have to make a daily commitment to live in God's way. It's so easy, and hard wired, to fall back into "bad" patterns. They kept us alive until we could experience the miracle and shouldn't be condemned. Sometimes we forget just how many people die from traumatic events. Suicides, "accidents" caused because we were obsessing over one thing or another, stress related illnesses.

In all my metaphysical searchings, the one thing I have learned is that GRATITUDE is a, if not the, key attitude needed to make life worthwhile. Being truly appreciative of the glass being half full and not obsessing about the half that is empty!

I am happy I went through all these stages of living, the good and the bad. They've brought me to where I am today. Even the worst of my obsessive thinking, mental knots and negativity served its purpose.

Getting to where you want to be is a process, not an event. We have to grieve our losses. That's why compassion (which comes from Full of all feelings, not pity) for every one and every event can make us be healers in the highest sense.

The message is: that email he wrote that I read is part of HIS healing. But it needn't be True for anyone else, unless it is True for them.

To say that the abuse in my life was nothing PERSONAL just doesn't cut it with me. It happened, it was personal and I needed to deal with it personally. And with God's help, I did.

I am a walking miracle. When I imagine a world with 1 billion Bill S's walking around, I am happy. It wasn't always that way.

Download a Bill S. talk: go to www.mysticalprinciples.yahoogroups.com

Grieving for trees

from www.nola.com

Insurance firms sued over tree removal price tag
Amounts offered too small, suit says
By Meghan Gordon
St. Tammany bureau

An estimated 200 St. Tammany Parish residents have turned to state court to demand higher compensation for the clean-up bills and lost property value of trees that Hurricane Katrina toppled in every corner of the north shore.

The class-action petition names Urban M. Craddock Sr. as the lead plaintiff, but Covington lawyer Shawn Reed said she has added dozens of names daily to the lawsuit against 17 insurance companies.

Craddock's insurer offered him $500 to remove the 40 to 50 fallen trees on his 16-acre property north of Pearl River - a sum that fell $59,500 short of the lowest estimate to clean up the mess, Reed said. Craddock also should be due reimbursement for the loss in value from the majestic oaks that were the focal point of his property, she said. "They're saying basically that the trees have no value, and our position is that the trees do have value," Reed said. "They've just totally ignored that in our community we really think that our trees are important property.

"We're here because we love our trees, and that's part of what we love when we're here. But the insurance companies are saying, 'We'll give you $500 for debris removal, but we won't cover the trees.' "

Reed said insurers should have specifically excluded trees from homeowners' policies if they wanted to take the stance they have taken since Katrina.

Craddock, whom Reed said wouldn't comment because of pending depositions, was forced to clear what he could from his driveway to get in and out of his house. Reed said he left the remainder of the huge debris-removal project untouched, because he can't afford the estimates he's received.

Reed would not release a list of clients who hope to be named plaintiffs in the suit. She gave another example of an elderly woman who paid $7,000 to have two trees cleared.

"It's all the same story wherever we go," she said. "People are left with quotes to clean up this stuff."

Defendants named in the Sept. 29 petition include All State, American International Group, Lloyd's of London, CNA, GEICO, Hanover Insurance Co., Hartford Group, Liberty Mutual, Louisiana Farm Bureau, St. Paul Insurance, Traveler's, State Farm, USF&G, Safeco and Farmers Group.


Katrina felled more than merely trees

For foresters, it claimed a source of income

By Meghan Gordon
St. Tammany bureau

The small forest of long-leaf pines that Roy Wood bought in northwestern St. Tammany Parish after returning from World War II represented more than just the start of a young man's financial investment.

As his land holdings grew to 800 wooded acres in St. Tammany and Washington parishes, Wood's forests became a point of pride and an endless hobby. He studied the latest management practices to keep his land a healthy ecosystem, home to two of the dwindling gopher tortoise dens in the state.

Now 81, Wood stood recently among the twisted, shattered, mature trees that were but healthy saplings when he bought the land in 1946. The retired nuclear weapons specialists compared the scene to the outer edges of a multi-megaton blast.

Wood and some 10,000 family foresters in southeastern Louisiana who suffered enormous blows from Hurricane Katrina stand to lose 90 percent or more of the income they could have reaped from logging. Meanwhile, 3 billion board feet of damaged timber lay tangled on the ground, in danger of deteriorating before it can be sold for sharply depleted prices as plywood or pulpwood.

"It's got to be the most destructive force that's hit our country since settlement days," Wood said, adding that he remembers as a boy counting the growth rings of felled trees in Washington Parish. "I could count in excess of 400, so there had never been a storm like this."

Buck Vandersteen, executive director of the Louisiana Forestry Association, said the state's timber industry will likely take a $1 billion hit - one fifth its annual income - from Katrina's immediate damage and the subsequent rush to salvage fallen trees before they're stripped of all their value.

The staggering loss amounts to enough healthy wood to build 300,000 homes - twice Louisiana's total annual harvest, Vandersteen said. About 65 percent of the damage was in Washington Parish, with St. Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes suffering most of the remainder of the damage.

Vandersteen said that although none of the damaged wood has gone to waste, it's quickly approaching that point. First, loggers are attempting to pick up fallen trees that weren't splintered so badly that they can no longer be used as plywood. The remaining wood that's picked up in time will be shredded into pulpwood for paper. Finally, timber that sits too long will have to be used as fuel wood, burned in boilers for energy.

"A lot of it will go to waste," Vandersteen said. "Our goal is to recover 40 percent of it."

Aside from the sheer volume of material awaiting pickup, Vandersteen said the task for loggers screeched to a halt when crews had to abandon all-mechanized cutting for on-the-ground power saws to untangle the clot of fallen trees. He said insurance costs have doubled for the more dangerous working conditions.

"Because the material is all down and it's crosswise and it's such a mess, productivity drops by about half than what it would normally be," he said.

The forestry association has been working with state and federal officials to line up grants and other assistance to help landowners reforest their devastated plots. Vandersteen said the future of timber, the state's largest agricultural crop, depends on starting the long process of replacing the hurricane-ravaged forests.

"What we worry most after this storm is that people's attitudes after this storm is, 'Oh, it is too risky. I'm going to let it grow up into weeds or I'm going to turn it in to a shopping center,' " Vandersteen said. Wood, who lives in Amite, doesn't have another six decades to replant and grow his life's savings. He estimated that his carefully tended land held $800,000 to $1 million worth of timber.

"If I get 10 percent of that, I'd probably be lucky," he said.

Wood heaped some of the blame for his expected loss on state agriculture and forestry officials whom he said haven't responded adequately to the challenge of recovering the quickly deteriorating timber.

"I expect my people in Louisiana to give me some help, and I've seen zilch," Wood said. "The only help I got was from Mississippi. I am in the process of getting it up, but no thanks to anyone in Louisiana."

Meghan Gordon can be reached at meghangordon@hotmail.com.

Why is it 5:23 am and I am obsessed about the trees in Louisiana?

Because I think they are something to be obsessed about.

Earlier tonight, I read Michael Moore's website and it was with grief that I looked at the photos published there. www.michaelmoore.com

Years ago I went to New Orleans by thumbing rides from Aspen, Colorado. I grew up on the Mississippi (Minneapolis) and I got it into my head I NEEDED to see the delta, to see just how large it became at the end.

Funny thing about deltas. They turn into lots of tributaries! I went in August and my NO friend, Neil, took me in his car. We didn't make it far: the heat was so hot, the retreads came off the tires. The retreads lay limply by the sides of the roads and bridges like so many pulverized snakes.

********

(Remember the spiritual parable about the snake? ...

See, the Buddha is going to town. Serene as could be, he walked down the road. Suddenly, a snake leapt out of the bushes and attacked the Buddha. "Oh, snake!" he cried out, "You mustn't go about biting people!" Well, the snake wasn't very contrite as he thought that was his nature. The Buddha told him to have look inside his cold-blooded self and see if he could find the God inside. And as things would have it, the snake looked inside and discovered his living light. "So," says the Buddha, "then you must have respect for ALL living things. No more biting. Be kind to all living things. It is a much better way to live. I must go to town, but I'll drop by on my way back."

So the Buddha, having been to town, returns to find a battered, abused, ambushed snake. "Whatever happened to you?" the Buddha inquired not knowing what to think. "I followed your advice. I was kind to everyone that passed by, hoping that they would enjoy their journeys. But some people came by and hit me and beat me and called me names and left me to die." The Buddha meditated and then said, "I told you to lose your bite, not your hiss.")

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I hope the folks in New Orleans and the Gulf coast remember that the squeeky wheel gets the grease. Because these folks just got set upon. Bad. Really bad. And they have plenty to be upset about ... no matter how much or how little money they MAY have had. The civic contract was broken. They thought FEMA was their ally since they would want to protect all those pretty little oil wells, the shipping business, the tourist trade, the fisheries, the rice crop ... even Bushwhackers are pro- those things. But FEMA's mandate is something very different. The politicians LOVE of power is very different than an average citizen's love for their land, hurricane-proof or no.

The current Times Picayune is very interesting reading, folks. There are forums there to read.

There are many comments about just HOW to rescue pets. Lots of pets in New Orleans, just waiting to be rescued. It seems to rescue your pets you need to HISS ...

I had a great FEMA expose to post. But it's lost in the stacks of stuff I am accumulating. I have lots of stuff to share, because I give a hoot.

(/o\)(/o\)(/0\)(/0\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)(/o\)

ALL thinking/feeling Divine/Human Being Pods Everywhere (this means you!)

Images set to Pink Floyd Us and Them -- PASS IT ON

http://www.progressiveindependent.com/shalom/movies/UsAndThemLG.mov

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