Being Forever Aware of Fascism

Conservative Zionism attempts to silence the voices of justice and the equality of peoples based on a sense of righteousness. In a letter to the New York Times Albert Einstein outlines the danger of fascism shortly after the formation of Israel in 1948. While Menachem Begin's leadership is rightfully questioned here, it is good to see that he had evolved beyond his terrorist fundamentalism as Prime Minister with the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1979. But the actions of the Israeli Defense Force during the 1982 Lebanon War in Sabra and Shatila where Lebanese and Palestinian civilians were mascaraed tarnishes the honor of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to him. We must always be aware. Fascism forever rears its ugly head.

Being Barack Obama XVI

Congratulations Mr. President on the Nobel Peace Prize!



We are counting on you with our help to bring world peace.

Being Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus' Grameen Bank has changed the lives of many poor people of Bangladesh through micro-financing. Today he will receive the highest civilian honor, The Presidential Medal of Freedom. The White House released this announcement:

Dr. Muhammad Yunus is a global leader in anti-poverty efforts, and has pioneered the use of "micro-loans" to provide credit to poor individuals without collateral. Dr. Yunus, an economist by training, founded the Grameen Bank in 1983 in his native Bangladesh to provide small, low-interest loans to the poor to help better their livelihood and communities. Despite its low interest rates and lending to poor individuals, Grameen Bank is sustainable and 98% percent of its loans are repaid – higher than other banking systems. It has spread its successful model throughout the world. Dr. Yunus received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work.

With such sustainability and 98% of loans being repaid, maybe Wall Street should take notice. Of course, Yunus' model is not only profitable but serves its borrowers. Can Wall Street ever serve its borrowers when its modus operandi is essentially themselves?

Being a Writer

In the July issue of "O Magazine" Pam Houston has a conversation with the great Nobel novelist, Toni Morrison, one of my favorite authors. Here Morrison describes her relationship with writing.

"Writing...holds me in the world in healthy relationship, with language, with people, bits of everything filter down, and I can stay here. Everything I see or do, the weather and water, buildings...everything actual is an advantage when I am writing...When I am not writing...then I see chaos, confusion, disorder."

Does writing help to order our world? If this is so, does my concern with regards to the de-emphasis of sentence structure matter? Or, is it perhaps a different kind of order that will prove advantageous for future generations? I have my doubts.

Perhaps my concern for sentence structure, or the eroding lack of structure in so many areas, is centered in my belief that such assists in developing our ideas and goals. Writing seems to order our world, individually and collectively. Without such what do we have?