Category Archives: Making noise

Umpteen Horizons Dreams

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In the face of adversity, what’s the difference between “try” and “triumph?” Last night I had some interesting sets of dreams. Each time I woke up one word would come to mind right away – then I’d go back to sleep:

  • first dreams – “misunderstood”
  • second dreams – “persecuted”
  • third dreams – “upbeat”

When I woke up the third time, I asked myself, how can I remember these words? MUP, no; PUM, no. UMP or better UMPH, yeah, as in the “umph!” of Umpteen Horizons – and “umph!” as in the difference between “try” and “triumph!”

When I got up in the morning from my bed, other words came to mind right away from “umpteen:” T for “truth” as in conveying and being faithful to the “truth;” E for “eternal” as in living with all time frames in mind and getting beyond our individual interests; E for “energetic” as in working hard; N for focusing on and meeting the “needs” of others “now.” 

There’s a clear story coming out of Wikileaks. The “powers-that-be” regularly lie as just part of way they do business. Why should we believe a government who does not tell us the true scope of an ongoing disaster? Why does it take independent researchers using standard methods only hours to figure out how much oil is spewing from the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster? And why are these independent researchers persecuted (see also Empower News tab above and check Gulf Coast news)? And why should we trust the upcoming better-late-than-never government health study? Why should anybody trust the U.S. government when several U.S. administrations including the present one worked with China to derail international efforts to protect the environment?

Of course, not all is lost, people, like the independent researchers, like us, can make a difference. For example, in the health arena, an important Gulf Coast health study was released yesterday. It was conducted by Tulane University’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy (DRLA) and the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and many volunteers helped to make this study possible. This study documents that large numbers of people in coastal communities believe that they have been exposed to oil and dispersants and have suffered from the affects of oil and dispersants (“48 percent of those surveyed reported an unusual spike of at least one health symptom”).

As Jesus said, “Blest are you who are persecuted, insulted, misunderstood … be glad and upbeat … you are the salt and light of the Earth!” (see Matthew 5). You are needed and together we will make a difference!

So, if you possibly can, come join the volunteers who are helping to build a quarter mile of oyster reef at Helen Wood Park in Mobile, just north of Dog River, on March 19, 8:00 to noon!

Lyrics from “Don’t look back” (video on left):

Don’t look back a new day is breakin

It’s been too long since I felt this way

I don’t mind where I get taken

The road is callin, today is the day …

(for full lyrics go to Zone Lyrics)

Freedom from Fear – The Strong Heart of Aung San Suu Kyi

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“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it. Most Burmese are familiar with the four a-gati, the four kinds of corruption. Chanda-gati, corruption induced by desire, is deviation from the right path in pursuit of bribes or for the sake of those one loves. Dosa-gati is the taking the wrong path to spite those against whom one bears ill will, and moha-gati is aberrartion due to ignorance. But perhaps the worst of the four is bhaya-gati, for not only does bhaya, fear, stifle and slowly destroy all sense of right and wrong, it so often lies at the root of the other three kinds of corruption.” These are the words of Aung San Suu Kyi, a long time political prisoner and advocate of democracy, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, who was just released from imprisonment in Burma.

Being imprisoned because of her words and her popular leadership, Aung San Suu Kyi has not depended on the powers of this world (see Luke 4:4-6 and John 18:36). Instead she has proclaimed, “Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the iniquities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration. … A people who would build a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are firmly established as a guarantee against state-induced power must first learn to liberate their own minds from apathy and fear.”

Enduring imprisonment she has lived out her universal call to overcome “fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure.” Instead of fearing, she has relied on “the wellspring of courage and endurance in the face of unbridled power … [and] a firm belief in the sanctity of ethical principles … [and] a historical sense that despite all setbacks the condition of man is set on an ultimate course for both spiritual and material advancement.” She believes in a “vision of a world fit for rational, civilized humanity” and in “concepts such as truth, justice and compassion” which empower her “to dare and to suffer to build societies free from want and fear.”

A BBC article, also found under Empower News (see tab above), provides more information on today’s release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

God bless Aung San Suu Kyi and God bless us all!

 

The night before last, I had a dream of a man who was in a barracks building in which he lived. Without warning some uniformed men entered the building and arrested him. They took him to another building and accused him of disturbing the social order because he had asked this question: “If our work with underground oil can suddenly cause such a catastrophe, what can result from our work with bombs?” The interrogators viewed the man as a danger to society and intended to keep him in custody for a long time.

Today, with a much greater appreciation for the scriptures, the Catholic Christian tradition identifies Bible readings for each day. After the dream, I read the Gospel reading of that day. It is very relevant to the Aung San Suu Kyi’s call toward liberation from apathy and fear:

“’As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man; they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all. So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, a person who is on the housetop and whose belongings are in the house must not go down to get them, and likewise a person in the field must not return to what was left behind. Remember the wife of Lot. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it. I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. And there will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken, the other left.’ They said to him in reply, ‘Where, Lord?’ He said to them, ‘Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather.’” – Luke 17:26-37.

For me, one very convenient source of receiving daily scripture readings by email is The Daily Gospel.

In an earlier post, Make Your Noise, I also quoted Aung San Suu Kyi.

Citizen Rain Water Tests in Louisiana Show Unsafe Levels of Toxins

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Many people, including Kindra Arnesen and the Coastal Heritage Society of Louisiana, are doing great work in Louisiana. The video below with Kindra speaking from the August 5, 2010 Buras Town Hall Meeting about the gulf oil catastrophe is powerful and informative. The video includes the importance of bio-remediation as well as the serious problems with toxins in the environment including the rainwater. The level of denial shown by the official (see the 9:15 point of the video onward) who Kindra speaks with is also illustrative of what many face when trying to realize common sense care for the gulf.

 

Community

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Tuesday evening, July 6, over 100 concerned people gathered to hear Dr. Riki Ott and Dr. J. Steven Picou. Dr. Riki Ott has played a pivotal role throughout the Exxon Valdez disaster and Dr. J. Steven Picou has had extensive onsite research experience with the Exxon Valdez disaster. They spoke of what has happened and is still happening in Alaska, how it relates to the gulf disaster, and what we can expect. “Maximum community disruption,” “post traumatic stress disorder,” massive “loss of community capital,” people seeking “escape” and “isolation,” “suicide,” “economic loss spirals,” communities that have gone “corrosive,” “friends who drink too much” because of the disaster, “divorce,” “corrosive families,” “holes in the ecosystem,” “desperation,” “persistent pollutants,” serious and widespread “health problems,” “reluctant resignation,” … They had our undivided attention.

Dr. Riki Ott. and Dr. J. Steven Picou exchanging notes before their presentation

Dr. Riki Ott. and Dr. J. Steven Picou exchanging notes before their presentation, photographed July 6, 2010 by Dawn McKinney

Part of the concerned audience behind me, photographed July 6, 2010

Part of the concerned audience behind me, photographed July 6, 2010

For me and surely most present it was much more than information overload. The emotional content was even more powerful. Even with the very academic approach, the tears from the audience began to flow especially from mothers worried about their children and the future.

Dr. Riki Ott and Dr. J. Steven Picou spoke of how we can change our future too. Move beyond the “warning,” “threat,” “impact,” “blame” cycle to the “mutual assistance,” “charitable action,” “commercial cooperation,” “entrepreneur leadership” cycle to leverage our own immense “experience” and “resources.” Use “collective common sense,” give “hugs not shrugs,” “maintain families,” “rise up,” “be leaders,” “choose … to live … and get control of the tiller,” “your power is from the community … the people … from the bottom up,” “speak as a community,” “have your cry, get through it, and make a plan.”

The following morning I sat up in bed and cried too. Sorrowfully I thought of our natural surroundings and our communities. I saw how we get distracted so easily and make ourselves nearly powerless by dividing ourselves with all kinds of respectable labels: liberal and conservative, rich and poor, this religion versus that religion or denomination, republican and democrat, … Sorrowfully I looked at our bubbles and walls, the illusions of success, comfort, … It’s quite strange how we seemed to need the Deepwater Horizons wake-up call to see the human and natural disasters around us and involving us.

So what’s the plan, the prayer, the dream, …? Listen to the calls within you to hold suffering people, to hold families together, to hold birds and fish too, … Despite all the bad news, together we have an incredibly positive future ahead of us, a future far better than our past. Let me share this prayer with you. I look at each line as springboard for conversing with God, our All in All, and as springboard for my actions and hopes for the day. Let the wind blow where it will.

You-Are-Who-Are, Infinite Lover of All, Eternal Creating Spirit!
Kumbaya to us, Your beloved children.
Live fully in each of us and be our All in All in each moment.

Inspire us to confidently ask for and seek all that we need
trusting day by day that Your abundant help can be found in many diverse places and persons.
Inspire us also to profoundly appreciate the needs, beauty, and gifts of each person.

Liberate us from every attachment, anger, dishonesty, conceit, and fear;
save us from every desire to do or return evil;
and guide us into Your boundless patience, hope, understanding, forgiveness, and love;
for we yearn and ask to be healed and to live fully like You and with You for the benefit of all.

Thank You, God.

[This prayer has been updated here.]