When We Were Children, We Loved Without Question

Allen Ginsberg was no Hart Crane. As a poet, he didn't hold a candle to his heroes, Walter Whitman and Dr. Williams. Nevertheless, in this early poem ("Song") he got something right: the weight of the world is love.

As children, we know this. In our journey to adulthood, we manage to shed this knowledge. Or we translate it into something else: "love" is limited to an idealized romantic relationship between two individuals, or the circle of love is tightly circumscribed to include those who are related to us, or who are most like us, who fit certain criteria that allow us to clearly delineate who's with us and who's against us.

Leo Tolstoy, in his "The Gospel in Brief" and numerous other writings, argued that no one follows Jesus until s/he accepts and practices what he argued was the essence of Christ's teaching: Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.

In this most Christian of countries, we plow billions of dollars each year into the manufacture and deployment of weapons designed to kill those whom we deem to be our enemies.Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition...

In Mark's gospel we encounter a Jesus who instructs his disciples to "Suffer the little children to come unto me..."

Ginsberg's "Song" closes with the erotically charged discovery that bearing the weight of the world (love) returns one "to the body/where I was born."

Somehow we have to each find our way back to a state in which we can once again love without question. If we do this, we can end the government-sponsored homicidal madness that transfers our nation's wealth into the coffers of a select few, robs us of loved ones, and spatters us all with the blood of those we do not see, do not know, but consider our enemies--in direct contradiction to the religious teachings that many of us claim to hold sacred.

Song

The weight of the world
is love.
Under the burden
of solitude,
under the burden
of dissatisfaction

the weight,
the weight we carry
is love.

Who can deny?
In dreams
it touches
the body,
in thought
constructs
a miracle,
in imagination
anguishes
till born
in human--
looks out of the heart
burning with purity--
for the burden of life
is love,

but we carry the weight
wearily,
and so must rest
in the arms of love
at last,
must rest in the arms
of love.

No rest
without love,
no sleep
without dreams
of love--
be mad or chill
obsessed with angels
or machines,
the final wish
is love
--cannot be bitter,
cannot deny,
cannot withhold
if denied:

the weight is too heavy

--must give
for no return
as thought
is given
in solitude
in all the excellence
of its excess.

The warm bodies
shine together
in the darkness,
the hand moves
to the center
of the flesh,
the skin trembles
in happiness
and the soul comes
joyful to the eye--

yes, yes,
that's what
I wanted,
I always wanted,
I always wanted,
to return
to the body
where I was born.





Allen Ginsberg
San Jose, 1954

Fun Facts to Know and Share

From the April 6, 2009 issue of The Nation (p.5):

The cost of the Iraq War: $656 billion in funds allocated.

Documented civilian deaths: 91,121-99,500.

Estimated Iraqi deaths due to U.S. invasion: 1,320,110 (not even Saddam was this murderous).

Iraqi civilians killed in February 2009: 346 (including 11 children--now repeat after me: "The surge is working...the surge is working...the surge is working...").

US Casualties: 4,259 dead, 31,131 wounded in action.

Estimated number of Iraqis displaced since 2003: 5 million (nearly 20% of the total population).

I think old Dick Cheney said in an interview recently that he felt that the Bush Administration had achieved all of its goals in Iraq.

No doubt.

How to Solve the Financial Crisis

Whenever I meet members of the U.S. military, I am invariably impressed by their dedication, loyalty, penchant for hard work, discipline, and pragmatic idealism. Military people tend to be good, decent folk. So I cannot help but ask myself, why are these people government employees? They have all the necessary qualities for stunning success in any endeavor they should undertake. Government employment for such individuals is under-employment.

Rather than waste this pool of extraordinary talent, these fine individuals should be turned loose in the private sector where they can produce something constructive for the nation and financially reward themselves. Imagine the boost they could give to our faltering economy in private sector employment! And think about the huge bonus the U.S. Treasury would receive if it could re-direct the monies that are currently being spent (at least 30% of the 2009 fiscal year budget according to WRL--see www.warresisters.org) to under-employ this accomplished segment of the population.

People enlist in the military to serve their country; well, their country needs them now to revitalize its economy. Friends in the military! Attention! Can we count on you to do your duty and leave government employment? Your country calls you!

Obama's Attempts to Effect REAL CHANGE...

...are being neutralized every step of the way. This is from Democracy Now! (Wednesday March 12, 2009):

Intel Pick Withdraws Nomination, Blasts Israel Lobby

The Obama administration’s pick to become the nation’s top intelligence analyst has withdrawn his nomination after an intense lobbying campaign by backers of Israeli government policies. Former US Ambassador Charles “Chas” Freeman had come under Republican-led opposition over his comments criticizing Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land. Freeman has years of diplomatic experience, including stints as US ambassador to Saudi Arabia and assistant secretary of defense. Some Democrats joined in on the opposition to Freeman’s appointment. In a statement, Democratic Senator Charles Schumer took credit for Freeman’s withdrawal, saying, “I repeatedly urged the White House to reject him, and I am glad they did the right thing.” In a statement, Freeman blasted lobby groups, lawmakers and pundits who support Israeli government policies for forcing his withdrawal. Freeman wrote, “The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency…The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favors.” Freeman continued, “I regret that my willingness to serve the new administration has ended by casting doubt on its ability to consider, let alone decide what policies might best serve the interests of the United States rather than those of a Lobby intent on enforcing the will and interests of a foreign government.”

BHO concedes ground to the Plutocratic War Party at every turn, and then when he tries to do something that might actually result in REAL CHANGE, they shoot him down.

The election of Barack Obama does not appear to have been the first step in the NON-VIOLENT PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION this country desperately needs. I'm afraid that it is time to take to the streets.

Obama's Recovery Plan

President Obama's plan for economic recovery must somehow reckon with the incubus that is the Pentagon and its corporate welfare dependents, euphemistically known as the "defense industry."

Get a load of this!