News Of the Real
Spiritual level decreases
Economics: Tight immigration policy hits roadblock of reality.
Desperation forces millions to come to U.S.
Culture: Potent Mexican meth floods In as states curb domestic variety
Use of hard drugs has spread to the Midwest and other U.S. areas once far removed from violent crime and drugs
Government: Bush fails to live up to his own beliefs
What if the actual news were right before our eyes, but we didn’t see it? Where is the dynamic, challenging, inspiring news that we don’t have words yet to explain: inner news, news of the shattered and the broken, news of the beautiful and the good?
Our goal is to compare conventional (political) problems, questions and responses with human ones. This page is a summary of our continuing exploration of a multitude of contemporary political issues. See the Discussion forum on our humanitynews.net website for further attempts to see through the bland analysis of contemporary news.
Spiritual level decreases
“The political and corporate leadership, and half the population of the U.S., live in isolated ignorance of the real world and promote their way of life as the answer for, and the envy of, the rest of the world.”
“We have made words into dangerous weapons....Worse than all of these...Is the silence, the resounding silence, of good Americans.”
“All-consuming consumerism has brought the psycho-spiritual evolutionary journey of Western man and woman to a standstill, or even into regression, in a few decades. Through the glorification of material excess as the ultimate goal in life, and by rewarding effort for gain rather than for good....The illusion of progress, the numbing and dumbing of human development, and the diminishing of the human spirit have been foisted on us, and especially on our children, by the priests and profits of capitalism.”
John Whitmore, Resurgence, Nov 2006
Economics: Tight immigration policy hits roadblock of reality. Desperation forces millions to come to U.S.
Political question: Should economic refugees be allowed into the U.S.? Conservatives: No. Liberals: Yes.
Human question: What kind of global culture would reduce (or end) desperation in poor countries? How can we create a world where anyone can travel, work or live in any country?
In September, domestic security officials promised to tighten control of the border with Mexico by swiftly deporting all illegal immigrants seized there, ending the practice of releasing thousands of illegal immigrants to the streets each year because of shortages of beds in detention centers.
In the first three months of the 2006 fiscal year, the number of illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico who were caught crossing the border surged nearly 30 percent compared with the corresponding period last year, notwithstanding hopes that the policy would deter such would-be immigrants.
But even with the difficulties, officials say they are moving more aggressively than before.
The number of people processed through expedited removal increased to 10,607 in the first quarter of this fiscal year, up from 4,227 in the first quarter of last year, official figures show.
The problem has ballooned as tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from countries like Brazil and El Salvador, along with others as far afield as India and Romania, wade into the rushing river here in hopes of reaching the United States.
New York Times, January 20, 2006
Culture: Potent Mexican meth floods In as states curb domestic variety
Use of hard drugs has spread to the Midwest and other U.S. areas once far removed from violent crime and drugs
Conventional problem: How can we stop or lesson the scourge of meth in American towns?
Spiritual law: External cures magnify internal problems. The particular form of the crisis (for example, the use of drugs) subsides, but the symptoms soon erupt in another form.
Human explanation of drug use: It is a result of cultural failure.
Human problem: How can we subjugate the trivia and decadence that leads sensitive people into oblivion? He can we revitalize culture: bringing inspiration, care, creativity, and reverence into public spaces and everyday events?
In the seven months since Iowa passed a law restricting the sale of cold medicines used to make methamphetamine, seizures of homemade methamphetamine laboratories have dropped to just 20 a month from 120. People once terrified about the neighbor’s house blowing up now walk up to the state’s drug policy director, Marvin Van Haaften, at his local Wal-Mart to thank him for making them safer.
But Mr. Van Haaften, like officials in other states with similar restrictions, is now worried about a new problem: the drop in home-cooked methamphetamine has been met by a new flood of crystal methamphetamine coming largely from Mexico.
Sometimes called ice, crystal methamphetamine is far purer, and therefore even more highly addictive, than powdered home-cooked methamphetamine, a change that health officials say has led to greater risk of overdose. And because crystal methamphetamine costs more, the police say thefts are increasing, as people who once cooked at home now have to buy it.
“Our burglaries have just skyrocketed,” said Jerry Furness, who represents Buchanan County, 150 miles northeast of Des Moines, on the Iowa drug task force. “The state asks how the decrease in meth labs has reduced danger to citizens, and it has, as far as potential explosions. But we’ve had a lot of burglaries where the occupants are home at the time, and that’s probably more of a risk. So it’s kind of evening out.”
By Kate Zernike. The New York Times, January 23, 2006
Government: Bush fails to live up to his own beliefs
Bush professes to believe that Jesus is the son of God, whose words are literally divine commands. Yet anyone who compares what Jesus really said to Bush’s actions in power—the abandonment of the poor, the exaltation of the rich; the dirty insider deals, the culture of corruption, the politics of smear and slander; the perversion of law to countenance murder, torture and predatory war—can readily see that this profession of faith is a monstrous deceit.
“Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you: Resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.”
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount called for a revolutionary transformation of human nature—a complete overthrow of our natural instincts for greed, aggression and self-aggrandizement. This radical vision—erupted in the turbulent backwater of a brutal world empire. The vision’s living force sears through dogma, casts down the pomp of church and state, and gives the lie to every hypocrite who evokes Jesus’ name in pursuit of earthly power.
Global Eye, By Chris Floyd, December 23, 2005