There is so much of truth

There is so much of truth; out there, there is no lack of it. Rather, it is awash in a sea of lies.

There is so much of information.

Mark reading Laurie Arbeiter's account of the Gogosian gallery incident at Anselm Keifer's "Next Year in Jerusalem" show, job hunting, nature shows, young Israeli women telling of their recent period of servitude in the armies of occupation. All of us riding on the information stream.

One young woman saw a burned and beaten boy in IDF custody; then she was ordered to carry back the request that the truthful report of the incident be changed.

Which it was. Now we know the truth about that.

What difference does it make -- is it enough to know, or do we have to do something? (Like I am doing by sharing the video with you here.)

Do we need to tip the balance from lies out there to truth out there, and how could that even be done? With good creative? Or the right opportunity? 15 minutes of fame devoted to truth. As if fame were not a central untruth itself. The false cult of personification; celebrity spokesman for truth sounds like an oxymoron.

Still, we are inspired by examples. Rob paints truthtellers with their own words by their faces.

What signs shall we hold up, and where, to truly witness for truth? Another female IDF vet:

"It's part of what I carry with me." She remembers wanting to comfort a screaming baby. It was her 20th birthday and the IDF was blowing up Palestinian houses. The mother of the crying child appeared, and looked at her with pure hatred. She says:

“I realized that I was in deep trouble. There was no way back. I thought that I had a solid outlook on life but here everything falls apart ... You get used to it. You can't feel so much all the time."

Another who stayed drunk for a time after she got out wonders, “How in the hell did I ever think I'd be able to forget about it?” Then the film presents a jingle, "La la la you're getting out of the service, and next year you'll be fine."

And that's an order.

The absurdly overprotective Jewish parent stereotype of U.S. culture was explained a response to the Holocaust, and pogroms of the past.

In Breaking the Silence, we find firsthand reports of a dystopian Zionist culture that eats its own young along with the young of its prey.

Bullets for shepherds, and PTSD all round. A policy containing the seeds of its own resistance.

Laughing all the way

CODEPINK activist and Veterans for Peace member Lori Perdue being arrested in front of the White House Dec. 16.

Lori reports she was smiling in response to the cheers of the crowd of supporters watching 130+ people get arrested.

Here's a picture of Will Hopkins, another Vet for Peace, getting arrested, laughing despite being down on the icy sidewalk after 4 1/2 hours standing in the snow. I love how the cop seems to be laughing also.

Photo linked from P.A.inT. blog post "My friends were the ones in jail...

These faces in action are the reason that our government puts so very much effort into dividing us. Why do you think Bradley Manning has been in solitary confinement for 209 days?

Do you notice how legislation is so convoluted that it's nearly impossible to decide which is the right side to be on? Or to comprehend what your rep or senator's yes vote or no vote even means? This also serves to divide us. The failed DREAM act is a perfect example. The poison pill of enlistment as a path to citizenship peeled off a lot of early DREAM supporters who just couldn't swallow it. This in turn caused bitterness on the part of the masses of young undocumented immigrants who can't get college loans or other services to get on with their lives.

Or take the historic repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" which passed even in these reactionary times because it will help with military recruitment. Don't get me wrong -- I've lobbied on behalf of DADT repeal, called my congressional reps, written letters, etc. because I believe in equal rights for all. At a holiday party last weekend, we drank a toast to the repeal of DADT and wondered aloud if Bradley Manning knew it had happened. Medea just wrote a great piece titled: "To the LGBT Community: Now that you can join the military, please don't!"

Last June Rep. Chellie Pingree told us in Freeport that she had voted "ought to pass" to send the FY11 "Defense" Authorization bill out of the House Armed Services Committee to the floor because at that time it contained DADT repeal as an amendment and, "I will still have plenty of time to vote 'no' on the bill itself." In the event, DADT was repealed separately, and Chellie did vote no as she said she would. But the vast majority of Congress voted to authorize the largest military spending bill in recorded history. If she and others had killed it in committee, that would have been that. So, do we thank her or spank her?

And while you were trying to keep your eye on that ball, NATO began invading a country with nuclear weapons and a lot of bad feelings toward the U.S. of A. Ok, maybe it was inevitable since we've been bombing them now for months, but I thought Obama said he was against stupid wars? The current and informative Afghanistan War Weekly is up on the United for Peace & Justice website -- highly recommended.

Stick together, and keep laughing. This might help: