Monday, August 1, 2011
Spiritual Protest #3: Saying a simple “No” to the extreme violence, racism/bigotry & poverty-production of the United States of America (“Perfect Revolution” – per MLK Jr. & Gandhi).
by Norm Lowry
“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience … Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves … [and] the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.” – Howard Zinn
To the Lancaster PA U.S. Military Recruiters:
It is my honor, today, to continue my unwavering commitment to continued Spiritual Protest at your facility (Protest #1 – April 16, 2009; Protest #2 – January 15, 2010).
My pertinent questions continue to be:
1. How can any aware & knowledgeable person call it anything but tyranny, that the United States of America maintains (with its mere 4.6% of total world population) its commitment to “Total Dominance” of the entire world (fiscally, militarily & politically), by spending in excess of 60% of the entire world’s military expenditures (not counting the hundreds of billions tacked on, monthly, to the U.S. “Credit Card” – payable by who knows who – who knows when)?
2. How can any aware & knowledgeable person call it anything but tyranny, that the U.S. total policy & resultant sanctions (fiscal, military & political) continue to cause the deaths (murder/genocide) of 200,000+ people every day (that’s 70,000,000+ deaths per year); half of whom die, simply due to having food & water withheld (as sanction)?
3. How can any aware & knowledgeable person call it anything but tyranny, that the so-called “U.S. Justice & Prison Systems” house 25%+ of the world’s total inmate population (not including military & torture populations); in a population base of merely 4.6% of its total population?
4. How can any aware & knowledgeable person call it anything but tyranny, that 80%+ of all U.S. crime is “white collar,” while 80%+ of U.S. prison beds are filled with “blue collar” criminals?
5. How can any aware & knowledgeable person call it anything but tyranny that one of the nation’s top policing policies (the so-called “war on drugs”) is anything but a cover-up for mass racism/bigotry, for making the minorities poor & for the commercialization of the prison system; all in spite of consistently deescalating crime rates?
It seems quite obvious that our loving Creator (who would prefer to be merciful) is allowing the systemic collapse of the United States of America. We are past the point of fiscal insolvency, yet our arrogant leadership seems content to “keep alive” the absolute lie that there is any hope for honest fiscal recovery. Pathetically, there is the larger lie; that somehow a military solution shows some possibility, when the U.S. military remains simply the world’s largest murder-for-hire establishment.
It is time for the United States of America to wake up, choose humility, repent of our extreme violence, racism/bigotry & poverty-production (before our Holy Creator), accept His discipline & resultant healing…or face imminent destruction!
After presenting this notification to you, it is my intention to simply stand by your front entrance…praying. I will not leave your property, except by arrest.
My choice of today’s spiritual protest is Love. I love you enough to confront & will not waiver in my commitment to do so!
Blessings…
Norman Edgar Lowry Jr.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Inspiration: Two Perspectives
Inspiration: Two Perspectives
1. “The Sermon on the Mount” (Stanley Hauerwas)
”The basis for the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount is not what works but rather the way God is. Cheek-turning is not advocated as what works (it usually does not), but advocated because this is the way God is — God is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. This is not a stratagem for getting what we want but the only manner of life available, now that, in Jesus, we have seen what God wants. We seek reconciliation with the neighbor, not because we feel so much better afterward, but because reconciliation is what God is doing in the world through Christ.”
2. “A drum major for righteousness” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
“Every now and then I guess we all think realistically about that day when we will be victimized with what is life’s final common denominator—that something we call death. We all think about it. And every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my own funeral. And I don’t think of it in a morbid sense. Every now and then I ask myself, “What is it that I would want said?” And I leave the word to you this morning.
I’d like somebody to mention that day, that [ I ], tried to give [ my ] life serving others.
I’d like for somebody to say that day, that [ I ], tried to love somebody.
I want you to say that day, that I tried to be right on the war question.
I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try to feed the hungry.
And I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try, in my life, to clothe those who were naked.
I want you to say, on that day, that I did try, in my life, to visit those who were in prison.
I want you to say that I tried to love and to serve humanity.
Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that’s all I wanted to say.
If I can help somebody as I pass along, If I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he’s traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain. If I can do my duty as a Christian ought, if I can bring salvation to a world once wrought, if I can spread the message as the master taught, then my living will not be in vain.”
1. “The Sermon on the Mount” (Stanley Hauerwas)
”The basis for the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount is not what works but rather the way God is. Cheek-turning is not advocated as what works (it usually does not), but advocated because this is the way God is — God is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. This is not a stratagem for getting what we want but the only manner of life available, now that, in Jesus, we have seen what God wants. We seek reconciliation with the neighbor, not because we feel so much better afterward, but because reconciliation is what God is doing in the world through Christ.”
2. “A drum major for righteousness” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
“Every now and then I guess we all think realistically about that day when we will be victimized with what is life’s final common denominator—that something we call death. We all think about it. And every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my own funeral. And I don’t think of it in a morbid sense. Every now and then I ask myself, “What is it that I would want said?” And I leave the word to you this morning.
I’d like somebody to mention that day, that [ I ], tried to give [ my ] life serving others.
I’d like for somebody to say that day, that [ I ], tried to love somebody.
I want you to say that day, that I tried to be right on the war question.
I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try to feed the hungry.
And I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try, in my life, to clothe those who were naked.
I want you to say, on that day, that I did try, in my life, to visit those who were in prison.
I want you to say that I tried to love and to serve humanity.
Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that’s all I wanted to say.
If I can help somebody as I pass along, If I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he’s traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain. If I can do my duty as a Christian ought, if I can bring salvation to a world once wrought, if I can spread the message as the master taught, then my living will not be in vain.”
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