My friend and colleague for justice, Washington’s Blog’s author, invited me to “guest blog.” I’ll provide two. First: Gandhi’s conclusion of the essential importance of speaking Truth. Second: a 4-part series to document that current US wars are unlawful, US economic policy is massive criminal fraud, and that these “emperor has no clothes” facts are lied about by US corporate media in constant deception.
I appreciate Washington’s Blog’s author for the intellectual integrity and moral courage to document powerful facts; as I also appreciate all thoughts, words, and acts of virtue of the readers. - Carl Herman
“It is more correct to say that Truth is God than to say God is truth. ...we must speak the Truth.” - Gandhi on Truth (and here, pg. 20)
US injustice in major policies will end when enough Americans speak the truth. The injustice is literal: US government policies with war and economics are in Orwellian violation of basic laws. The annual costs are millions of human lives, billions damned to suffer, and trillions of dollars looted.
Anyone with intellectual integrity and moral courage can see and say these “emperor has no clothes” facts.
Assessing US “leadership” as psychopathic is the perfect academic and professional word because it neither understates nor overstates the facts. I also suggest Princeton professor Frankfurt’s academic term for the type of lies that “leadership” uses: bullshit.
“As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.” - unsourced and attributed to Andrew Carnegie
Gandhi was clear to state and repeat the facts until critical mass of public understanding and action ended the injustice:
"One thing we have endeavoured to observe most scrupulously, namely, never to depart from the strictest facts and, in dealing with the difficult questions that have arisen during the year, we hope that we have used the utmost moderation possible under the circumstances. Our duty is very simple and plain. We want to serve the community, and in our own humble way to serve the Empire. We believe in the righteousness of the cause, which it is our privilege to espouse. We have an abiding faith in the mercy of the Almighty God, and we have firm faith in the British Constitution. That being so, we should fail in our duty if we wrote anything with a view to hurt. Facts we would always place before our readers, whether they are palatable or not, and it is by placing them constantly before the public in their nakedness that the misunderstanding… can be removed." - Mohandas K. Gandhi, Indian Opinion (1 October 1903)
Dr. Martin Luther King learned from Gandhi:
“‘A time comes when silence is betrayal.’ That time has come for us... The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world.
... A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. ... A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. ... A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. ...We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate.
... These are revolutionary times.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”
Again, the basic explanation, documentation, and proof of US “leadership” crimes is here.
I do not place myself in Gandhi and Dr. King’s company, and I assume that neither do you. But I do suggest that We the People are like in spirit and will stand for Truth in the face of War Criminals and destruction of trillions of families’ and children’s dollars.
You should also know that the King family's civil trial found the US government guilty of Dr. King's assassination. US Corporate media refused to cover the trial or interview Dr. King's wife. His family's opinion is that the US government murdered Dr. King to end his protests against unlawful US wars and his call to end poverty.
Following are further resources to explain and document US "emperor has no clothes" obvious injustice:
- Congressional reports disclose that all “reasons” for war with Afghanistan and Iraq were known to be lies as they were told.
- Orwellian unlawful wars, including using depleted uranium weapons to damn victims with continuous misery and death.
- obfuscating from the obvious answer of ending an Orwellian "debt supply" and replacing it with money.
- allowing a million children a month to die of preventable poverty, even though historically ending poverty reduces population growth rate and the investment is less than 1% of the developed nations' gross national incomes (GNI).
- torture, extrajudicial assassinations (including against American citizens) and indefinite detentions.
- destruction of the US Constitution into a form of government closest to fascism and nowhere near a constitutional republic.
- literally throwing Americans onto the streets rather than take any of a dozen acts to allow them to stay in their homes.
- intentional unemployment, crime, infrastructure decay, fear, anger, depression (both economic and psychological) rather than create money for full employment.
- allowing 45,000 Americans to die every year from lack of health care, even though universal single-payer saves the nation $100-$300 billion every year.
- US corporate media complicity to lie by omission and commission to keep the above facts unrecognized by the American public.
The good news is that every step "leadership" takes down their path of deceit and destruction, they become easier to recognize for what they are.
We will win with critical mass of public recognition of what’s right in front of everyone to objectively verify.
You, citizen, have unique opportunity to contribute your unique, beautiful, and powerful self-expression to building a brighter future if you choose the intellectual integrity and moral courage to do so.
Please do.
Millions will live or die, billions will have a life worth living or misery, and trillions of dollars of power are directed at our collective choice.
An artistic expression of Gandhi is the 4-minute video by MC Yogi.
Though I agree with the overall sentiment, I have to take issue with solution number nine.
ReplyDeleteMy issue with single payer is the assumption. If we don't trust government to perform its most essential duties without corruption and avarice, why should we trust it as the only payer of health services? If we don't trust corporations of overly large size to act justly, why should we trust a monopoly payer to act properly?
Wouldn't it be better if, as it has been before government stuck its nose in the tent during the Johnson administration, the person paying for health care was...the customer! This, you will find in our HMO and PPO based system, is a situation enjoyed (or suffered) by too few people.