Bali Institute for Global Renewal, only the empowered need apply_ pssst: that means EVERYONE is capable!

Bali Institute for Global Renewal

In their own words...

Sam Schultz,
Andrew Horne
Rose Forrest
John Bruhns
Michael Breen
Brendan Duffy
Robert Loria
Peter Granato
Shelly Burgoyne
Brian Van Riper

VoteVets

Dear America, (my opening greeting words on this blog site, the contents of the email in my in box are quoted verbatim),

Today we're launching an important new project with MoveOn that will use the power of internet video to help spread the truth about how veterans and military families feel about the war and want to begin a course that leads to a responsible redeployment.

The project is called VideoVets and it contains some of the most compelling stories about this war that you've ever heard, many from VoteVets.org's own ranks. Please watch these videos and tell us which one you think is the most compelling. Academy Award winning director, Oliver Stone, will take the video that you choose and turn it into a TV ad-spreading this message even further.

Click here to watch now:


There are over 20 interviews, each less than 2 minutes long.

Pay special attention to the videos of Sam Schultz, Andrew Horne, Rose Forrest, John Bruhns, Michael Breen, Brendan Duffy, Robert Loria, Peter Granato, Shelly Burgoyne, and Brian Van Riper, all of whom are proud VoteVets.org members!

The administration tries to call anyone who criticizes their policy in Iraq 'anti-troop,' but these stories show that 'supporting the troops' does NOT mean supporting an endless war. The voices of these veterans and military families are often missing from the debate in Washington. Together we can make sure they become a vital part of the national dialogue.

Click here to watch the videos and tell us which one Oliver Stone should turn into an ad.


Thanks for supporting the Voice of America's 21st Century Patriots, like these!

Sincerely,
Jon Soltz
Iraq War Veteran
Co-Founder and Chairman, VoteVets.org

Note: The views expressed in these interviews do not necessarily reflect the views of VoteVets or MoveOn.org Political Action. They are the views of interview subjects only.

Stop the war in Iran today, Sign the petition!

Paid For By VoteVets.org. Not authorized by any candidate or any candidate's committee.

What is all this dissin' on Hippies?"

Do Americans never learn to appreciate their own culture? Or is this only a country about self-entitlement? People of life-experience don't seem to do their job currently, at least not in the popular or mainstream media. As the aging generation of hippies, we now have wisdom to impart that does have relevant and current value for a younger generation._ if they can see themselves as open-minded, and act on that belief. Is everyone missing the self-confidence gene right now? Remember the wise words in John Bradshaw's teachings on shame-based inter-personal/social patterns? What does anyone really value about being alive_ besides "me," "mine," "my stuff?" This very much includes the reactionary name-calling free-for-all that this nation's culture is really stuck in right now... shame, shame, shame: God, Guilt and yo mama! War games, big bucks and bad-ass bad boys, who never faced up to their masks between truth and a healthy personal familiarity with real personal courage. Not this big-bad-wolf-at-the-door regression: 'only I can save ya little darlin',' or "I'll" intimidate to hell out of you, even violently if "I" have to, in order to maintain patriarchal lockstep loyalty instead of ever breaking ranks to know healthy individual male identity.
All you idealists are not free to retire on your laurels! Activism work is lifelong._ the young activists don't seem to get that commitment-level reality yet, having just read an article in the March '07 issue of YJ.
You young computer, corporate fodder-types can handle listening to hippies. There is wisdom there, and pertinent history that you are going to need well before we are gone. Did I just name-call, label, stereotype_ a group of people?! Hm-m-m...

Connect the Socio/Political Contemporary Historical Dots...

The title of this entry is emphatically stated. It is a directive for the young people in the marketplace who are at the beginning of their career paths, who are relatively new as wage-earners.... quite simply, what are you doing?

Scroll down on this page to the epic photo taken on the Kent State Campus in 1970. Now flash forward to hear that it is Completely life today_ that on my little square of it, I would just be getting up to a new day, and immediately experience 2 very noticeable attention-getters as they crossed my path just out of bed!

What is shame? What are the faces of subtle social derision? In current popular culture, who is targeted in this country? Who walks around reacting from a victimized perspective? Are the ones who notice, the ones making fun, the ones reacting_ the same groups of people?

What is the emotional/psychological legacy of the newest members to American "adulthood?"

Is there room for you to notice? What skills are possible to learn, in becoming conscious of your own life, that then will govern what choices you will each make over the course of your lives?

Can you step away from family origins lovingly trusting that human consciousness evolution is calling?
Can you find the internal connection to your own courage to pioneer the territory of responsibility where the words to family may sound like: 'I know you love me, and I have to do this (life journey) for myself.' Said in an instinctive "knowing" that ultimately, inner personal work joins community, then nation-wide, and ultimately world-wide growth-work because choosing to be awake in one's own life IS the choice freely made... with all the social/economic consequences that come with choosing to live awake.

Who is a victim? Who is a target to objectify expressly for continuing social shame?

Are we completely distracted yet?

Expect complete ineptitude in coping/taking-action skills from the entire Bush regime.

Sounds like the West Virginia system of authority right close up to Blacksburg, Va, too... 'maybe it was only a domestic abuse call_ Wha'd ya'll think? What is response?

Today, the "'60's" era John Filo, is now named Chuck Burton, and the 21st C image of disempowerment for your time is on the Virginia Tech Campus... don't want to think there is a connection?

Unconsciousness, shame-based rhetorical distraction is a choice.

Only victim-minds will point their fingers, to cruelly deride the confrontive invitation to WAKE UP, that is written here.

So, why can't the powerful comparative image be posted here freely?
A dollar for your territorial thoughts.

A Summer of Self-Love

The CCC group thus far is a grand total of one, and this one is taking a break for the summer for much needed personal transitions. Transitions that are focused on non-traditional work development. There may be postings here intermittently then, that continue to be primarily focused on cultural history.
As the writer, poster, developer of this blog, one of the main concerns from the perspective of being an experienced observer, is the current larger cultural shift to rampant materialism by the newest members of the workforce. A bit of unsolicited advice: Gen Xers are probably not the best example-setters, like-wise Hippies are not losers. Many kids born during (this) era of the sixties, seventies, and eighties may be healing from chaos and pain historically found in all the contemporary cultural groups of that era. That reality for the potential need to heal, is not diminished here at all. The point on rampant materialism, is that only toxic habits are dominating cultural life now, kiddos! For all the gadgets, there is a great deal of distraction to what is ultimately real_ distraction on a huge scale then, that is potentially sealing the reality that the new workforce generation's legacy is, only one of being so much fodder for the corporate machine. Don't be so damn intimidated by consumerist B.S.
Authentic happiness will always only be inside. The first generational clue is cynicism. If that disease gotcha before your right to your own idealism, then there is work to do! Work belonging to the newest generation mirroring at this point, developmentally naïve perceptions of reality back to the dominate world. That is techno-savvy YOU! The generation of your parents will all be dead one day! This unsolicited warning is only attempting to point to the future QUALITY of your own life environment. What is YOUR world going to look like for YOUR kids?! WAKE UP! WAKE UP! Don't just open-throat swallow tradition without question! Think about the choice to reclaim the definition of tradition to fit it to WHO your are becoming!! Don't let yourselves be distracted by too much choice_ get quiet inside. Where does the quality of your OWN inner silence take your attentions?
Speaking up about consciousness evolution then, has also been the emerging intention of this site. Since it was clear from the get-go, that no one else was going to have the gumption to participate, then recapturing aspects of alternative cultural history is posted here in an intention to infuse personal empowerment, in healthy, creative ways.
Look at the art! Listen to the music! Drop competition! Understand the nature of patriarchy! Research the radical conversations on reclaiming public culture in the early sixties! Do not leave out political history from the sixties forward to the new century. Read "The Cultural Creatives!" Consciously connect the dots to the present cultural reality! See yourself in the bigger picture.
Notice the direction of personal growth! TAKE OWNERSHIP OF YOURSELF!
Mastery within one's own life doesn't happen overnight, and you are worth the time it takes to consciously live your own life.

"Til next fall, this blog will only be very intermittently attended then.

What can you add to this space until then?

1967: Summer of Love

The events, people and music in the UK during the summer of 1967.

Wisdom

You have arrived at

every single moment.

If you abandon the

present moment, you

will die.

So, touch life deeply

where you already are_

in the present moment.