Perceiving truth

In the search for truth, one must be careful not to get stuck on a single perception, but rather, must keep an open-mind. I think it's very easy to fall into a certain belief and then reject all things that contradict that belief. Does this inhibit the search for truth? I guess so. If you are focused on one belief you invest more energy in protecting that belief rather than searching for truth. I know I'm rambling again but I realize that I've fallen into such a trap many times. O well, just a thought.

I have something to admit that I'm not exceptionally proud of. I feel and think that I've been a bad friend. A little insight on the situation.... my friend Sami is in hospital. To not reveal too much, since it involves a personal issue, I will not reveal why she is there, but the point of the matter is that she is. I have not visited her or even called her. My excuse? Oh wait, yes.... there isn't one. I feel bad about this... as I said, I had to admit something that I was not proud of. Ash and Brooke have gone to visit her (for whatever reason, I was not invited) but why should they even have considered inviting me? After-all, I didn't even call Sami to see if she was okay. Is that friendship? Does that demonstrate concern for anyone other than myself?
In the past few days I've just been procrastinating, lazing around the house. At no point in my inactivity did I even think to call a friend of mine who has always been there for me. Is that friendship? What have I demonstrated here, other than a wholesome lack of compassion... a lack of feeling, as my grandmother would call it.
In truth, I've been involved in a long-running forum discussion that has had me enthralled. And while lost in the heat of the debates I find myself in, I forgot about those most important. I feel awful about this. I feel as though I have betrayed someones friendship. Why should I expect to receive Sami's support, as I have in so many times of need, when I fail miserably to give her any in her times of need?
Here I am, claiming to be a personalist, and yet I mistreat my own friends. Here I am claiming that people are what matter, and yet failing to show why.
I'm sorry Sami. I'm sorry for failing you as a friend.
My New Year's Resolution (I know it's late) is to live-out my personalist perspective in my life, and to hopefully... truly demonstrate an appreciation for the people in my life- my friends, my family... because it's these people, these people, who are always there for me. In turn, I should be there for them.

"Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist; it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges. What's gotten in the way is the theory that says there is one right way to proceed with growing up. That's an ancient Egyptian idea symbolized by the pyramid with an eye on top-- everyone is a stone defined by its position on the pyramid-- it signals a worldview of minds obsessed with the control of other minds, obsessed by dominance and strategies of intervention to maintain that dominance."
- John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down

Life's lessons

I think I've learned a valuable lesson today while posting on an internet forum. One of the contributor's did not agree with my view so he resorted to a personal attack claiming that I either have the intent of willful ignorance or plain stupidity. In response to this aggression, I felt like aggressively asserting such an attack of my own in retaliation. However, I realized that his personal attack toward me merited him no credence, and that such retaliation would merit me nothing either. So I rather tried to remain calm and replied that I would not retaliate in such a way.
Aggression breeds only more aggression.

Xmas reflection

Christmas is a celebration of God entering the human journey to be with us and to bring us into an intimate communion with him. It is a celebration of love entering the world to renew it- the ultimate act of giving. The Supreme Being, out of love for us, humbled himself and became the Suffering Servant. Such love, so pure, so perfect and divine, such love manifest in giving... that is what Christmas is about. That is the message.

I shared Christmas lunch with my grandmother and my brother. A thought occurred to me, struck me suddenly. I thought how truly fortunate I was to be where I am. At that very moment, countless persons', fellow human beings, could not participate in the feeling of belonging, of family that I had. Countless children not only did not have a meal, at that very moment, but many suffered such hunger with crippling loneliness, having no family to share such a feast with. Do they know it's Christmas, I wondered. I made a pledge to fight depravity, yet I feel that I am doing close to nothing to honour that pledge. How many have this Christmas gone without a feast, or perhaps even without a family... without a sense of connection that recognizes our humanity. A connection that celebrates our human identity. Love is born today, in the humblest of surrounds, in the human heart. And it calls, it beckons each of us to reach out to each other, to connect with other human beings and together acknowledge our humanity through that connection. I think I understand now what I am meant to do if I am to truly 'love my neighbor'... I must connect with fellow persons'. That is what my pledge to fight depravity is about. It is not merely fighting depravity in physiological needs, but is also about fighting the depravity of the heart. How? By connecting with people. For through this connection, a sense of belonging, of solidarity, of recognition is born, and it is these feelings, these connections that we share that are central to our human identity.
I hope, it is my Christmas hope, that I can practice what I preach... that I can connect to persons', regardless of race, sex or social condition, regardless of cultural barriers, in a positive way.

Merry Christmas to everyone. Love is born today and everyday and calls us to love. Love is not love until you give it away. Once more, merry Christmas to all.

9/11 Truth

There are some who claim that the 9/11 Truth momentum is a fringe social phenomenum, having little or no practical knowledge base, nor even the insight to have a credible stance on the issue.
However, this proves to be drastically incorrect as Prof. David Ray Griffin outlines in his literary work, Debunking 9/11 Debunking, in which he states that individuals insinuating that those who oppose the popular notion of truth found in the official narrative of 9/11 are 'nut-cases' with little insight on the issue would have to contend with the combined insights of, "economist Michel Chossudovsky, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, British Minister of Parliament Michael Meacher, former Assistant Treasury Secretary Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of Housing Catherine Austin Fitts, journalists Wayne Madsen and Barrie Azwicker, Institute for Policy Studies co-founded Marcus Raskin, former diplomat Peter Dale Scott, international law professors Richard Falk and Burns Weston, social philosopher John McMurty, theologians John B. Ruether, ethicists Joseph C. Hough and Douglas Strum, writer A.L. Kennedy, media critic and professor of culture Mark Crispin Miller, attorney Gerry Spence, historians Richard Horsley and Howard Zinn, and the late Rev. Williams Sloane Coffin, who after a stint in the CIA, became one of the country's leading preachers and civil rights, anti-war and anti-nuclear activists.
Furthermore, if everyone who believes the alternative conspiracy theory, rather than the official conspiracy theory, is by definition a nut, then Cockburn would have to sling that label at Philip J. Berg, a former deputy attorney general of Pennsylvania; Colonel Robert Bowman, who flew over 100 combat missions in Vietnam and earned a Ph.D in aeronautics and nuclear engineering before becoming head of the "Star Wars program ...; Andreas von Bulow, formerly state secretary in the German Federal Minisity of Defense, minister of research and technology, and member of parliament, where he served on the intelligence committee; Giulietto Chiesa, an Italian member of the European parliament; Bill Christison, formerly a national intelligence officer in the CIA and the director of its Office of Religion and Political Analysis; A.K. Dewdney, emeritus professor of mathematics and computer science and long-time columnists for Scientific American; General Leonid Ivashov, formerly chief of staff of the Russian armed forces; Lt. Col. Shelton F. Lankford, former US Marine Corps fighter pilot; Captain Eric H. May, formerly an airplane accident investigation expert in the US Air Force; Colonel Ronald D. Ray, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who became deputy assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration; Morgan Reynolds, former director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis and former chief economist at the Department of Labor; Robert David Steele, who had a 25-year career in intelligence, serving both as a CIA clandestine services case officer and as a US Marine Corps intelligence officer; Captain Russ Wittenberg, a former Air Force fighter pilot with over 100 combat missions, after which he was a commercial airlines pilot for 35 years; Captain Gregory M. Zeigler, former intelligence officer in the US Army; all the member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice, Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, Veterans for 9/11 Truth, and Pilots for 9/11 Truth; and most of the college and university professors lists under "Professors Question 9/11" on the Patriots Question 9/11 website.
Would Cockburn really want to suggest that these people are "nuts" with "no conception of evidence," no awareness of "military history," and no grasp of "common sense" and "the real world"?"
- Prof. David Ray Griffin. Debunking 9/11 Debunking.

Let us not also forget families impacted by the deaths of loved ones on 9/11 and survivors such William Rodrigues who openly question the official conspiracy theory and demand a new fully independent and transparent investigation.... http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd317.htm

"The 9/11 Commission is probably the worst representation of the 9/11 Families or for that matter all the American public because it's a sham. It really is.... We had tons of different questions that we asked them to ask. They wouldn't do it. And the continuing cover-up is just beyond belief... There's just such a continuing coverup. And why don't we just let the information about 9/11 be known? And then maybe this conspiracy type of thing would go away, but it's never going to go away or I don't think it can go away because they were complicit..." - Bob Doyle. Head of the Coalition of 9/11 Families.

Michelle Little, sister of Firefighter David M. Weiss, FDNY, Rescue Company 1, Midtown Manhattan, lost his life trying to rescue others from the World Trade Center the day of the attacks. Press Conference, National Press Club 9/12/06: "I am here today to call for the facts of September 11, 2001 to be released to the American public. ... The time is now to call upon all the Americans to lobby local media to cover this story and to pressure members of Congress to support legislation by reopening this investigation. We must hold those involved accountable for this atrocious tragedy. My brother, David, and ten brothers from his unit were murdered on 9/11. For them and for all of our mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles that died that day, it is imperative for their lives to know the truth."

Barry Zelman, brother of Kenneth Zelman, Oracle Corp., on assignment at Marsh & McLennan, WTC North Tower, 99th floor. Speech given at The Citizens' Commission on 9-11, 9/9/04: "I just embrace people that understand that four airplanes an hour and half between the first impact and the second impact with zero military response in the United States. It didn't happen that way. It couldn't have happened that way. You're talking about the most intelligent agencies that we have on the face of the earth. State of the art agencies ... And there was zero military response? ...It's very transparent that our own president did not want to investigate this tragedy. And I'm standing before you today for one reason. The only thing that I can give my brother is the truth. That's it."

Daniel Wallace (1984 - 2007), son of Lt. Robert Wallace, Engine 205, Ladder 118, FDNY. Speech 12/3/06: "Ever since that day, I believed the official story for all about 2 minutes. I always had my questions. My family had their questions. The government sent us the 9/11 Commission or I should say omissions, really. They sent us that. I read the whole thing. As I'm reading the whole thing; it was just incredible; the lies in this book... It hurt me to read this book....

Pro-life

The reasoning behind my pro-life stance relates to my personalist outlook. I believe that each human person is infused with innate dignity and that such dignity should be respected at all stages of the lifespan, from conception to death. To assert that an unborn child is anything less than a free human being is to discount the value and potential of human life. To assert that an unborn child is mere property is to sell-out human life. Were we not once fetuses? Did that make us the property of another? Did that mean our lives had no value that we could have been terminated? We that are born were too once unborn.