nt. In its eighth year, The Thom Hartmann Program airs live daily, NOON – 3pm, ET simulcast as both radio and TV on over 120 radio stations. into more than 50 million homes via both nationwide satellite TV systems (DirecTV and Dish Network). Points of View
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01 June 2009
Posted in
iNFORMATION PRESS -
Points of View
Once, before our sons and daughters recognized the grave digger's rhythms of war (do you remember that there was such a time?), before we had war-lords for rulers, and resources were distributed only to the wealthy; before water and children were bought and sold as luxuries, not a right; before god rode a blazing chariot across the sky and Hercules pushed the Wheel of Fortuna through the twelve houses of the zodiac, god was a seed.
In the same oil rich lands we greedily wipe our mouths upon, we uncover the Fertile Crescent and the birthplace of the first pre-historic civilization in ancient Anatolia called Çatalhöyük.. In 6500 BCE women and men shared equally amongst each other. Women were buried with their tools of trade and with her children; men had equal status with each other. Before darkness was equated with disconnection and fear, we shaped our gods from grains, and goddesses from sacred storage houses.
She held the seeds within her. He grew within her womb. He came to her as a lover, not as a conquerer. There were no connotations of violence in the love making and fertility of the gods. There were no words of war, sacrifice of man or animal. This multi-racial culture thrived for 2,100 years in harmony with the earth and the pulses of life sustainability.
God was a grain. His body lay dormant in the darkness of winter’s womb/tomb. He was idea and energy put forth. She was the void where creativity and inspiration sprung from. And both were within us. In the summertime, the grains were ripening, the fruit on the tree hung heavy with its nectarous scent. Like fruit on the vine, and the Sun's rays, we are all susceptible to our turn on the Wheel from top to bottom, outward to inward.
Summer Solstice harnesses the solar god's chariot of power, the zenith at which his fiery kiss comes closest to Mother Earth's cheek and instantaneously starts to die. The crux of power, the orgasm of energetic ebb, is the culmination of the outward push of life. And after the last jubilant inhalation, we pause, mid-flight, yield, and exhale.
This is the time to find that joining within. At the height of our greatest flash of brilliance, we are at our most vulnerable state; beginning the journey inward to heal, to harvest, and to invest within the abundance we have created. We gather council with others. We connect with others who will be of deep rootedness. We will need sustenance for the journey.
“I celebrate the noon of summer with mystic rites.
O great Goddess and God,
all nature vibrates with your energies
and the Earth is bathed with warmth and life.
Now is the time of forgetting past cares and banes;
Now is the time for purification.
O fiery Sun,
burn away the un-useful,
the hurtful,
the bane,
in your omnipotent power.
Purify me!
Purify me!
Purify me!”----Scott Cunningham
Adaire uses Sunblock SPF 1000 in all her Summer Solstice rituals
BCE: Before Common Era. The term is used by people who choose not to acknowledge Christ as in BC (Before Christ).
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05 May 2009
Posted in
iNFORMATION PRESS -
Points of View
As the swirl turns...
On January 20 I decided to launch a 100 Day Plan for Information Press in support of our new President and to stimulate the local economy. As part of the plan it was time to renew the commitment to the purpose of Information Press, to give it a new look, re-energize and reconnect with readers and advertisers, and reach out in new ways.
Well we did it all and we have succeeded in every area!
In 100 days we created a stimulus plan for advertisers, began a Support Local Business page, added five writers and ten drop sites plus we launched a totally new website on April 1. Please check it out! www.informationpress.net. I am so proud, it is totally awesome. Many thanks again and again to Craig Jungdandel for the look and time that he has given to make this work so well. We look forward to expanding even more in the months to come.
During these first 100 days we made an even deeper connection to our community by sponsoring and coordinating Spring Fest and Earth Day. This takes hours away from Information Press but we are committed to following through.
The first 100 days are over but we are looking at new ways to bring fun and joy into building community and commerce. Watch old topics return and new ones unfold with the many new writers that are joining our staff.
The month of April had many ups and downs; miscommunication seemed to be on high alert. New beginnings and sad endings drifted in and out of the 30 long days of April. We could see this happening on a national level as well. Out with the old, in with the new; we know we want change but sometimes you have to try a few things to learn what will work best. I believe it is all for the good but it’s not always easy.
I said NO in April, no is going to become my friend. It will help lighten my load so I can say yes to the bike commuter challenge. Join me, I’m creating an Information Press team. If I can do it, you can too.
Enjoy May. Remember your Mother and remember Mother Earth too.
Peace
Sandra Marshall
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30 April 2009
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Points of View
The May 2009 "Kick the Can down the Road"
Ballot-box legislating in California–as in this year’s special election – is a sorry way to run a state of 38 million people. The six measures on the May ballot, A through F, deal with fiscal matters – revenues and expenditures - that should have been resolved by normal parliamentary processes. But our craven legislature is a dysfunctional mess overseen by a governor noted mostly for “true lies.” This gaggle of lobbyist led whohaws, incapable of doing the job assigned them in our representative democracy, is once again foisting upon the general population the nasty work of rescuing the State from financial disaster.
The job of a legislature, every year, is to do the hard work of right sizing revenues to fund a right sized government. The initiative and referendum processes were never intended to take over this basic legislative function. These tools of popular democracy were crafted in the early 1900s to empower the people to curb excess, right gross wrongs and set the constitutional rules of the game.
It is clear, after years of crisis management in Sacramento, that to right size taxes to finance a right sized government in a timely manner, we need to eliminate the two-thirds majority that our state constitution requires for passing tax laws and approving the annual State budget. That constitutional amendment should have been on the ballot this year. Instead, by asking us to approve these six hysterical slights of hand, the legislature and the governor want the people to get them off the hook. The party line is to blame the Republican troglodytes and the rabid, libertarian CA anti-tax lobby for our budgetary Armageddon. But truth is that our Democratic majorities in the State Senate and Assembly could have put constitutional reform on the ballot. Perhaps it is the Democratic legislators who do not want to be empowered to clean up this mess.
Due to the general economic downturn (recession, depression, crash?), if approved, these six ballot measures will not come close to providing the funds needed to bridge the huge gaps in the state budget for schools, mental health, and general government. California is on the cusp of insolvency, perhaps even bankruptcy, but even so I am leaning toward a NO vote on the whole package. This time by denying our elected officials another “hail Mary” pass, we just might force the constitutional reform we really need.
I’m damned tired of being told that I have to clean up after a bunch of politicians who are too clever by half.
Harlan Hobgood
Avila Beach, CA
DRUG SOLUTION?
The statistics will make you sick: 7,000 killed (many beheaded) in Mexico last year by the drug lords. Huge percentages are in our prisons right now because of drugs and drug related crimes. These prisoners are sucking up billions of our taxes and resources. Mothers lose their children, families are destroyed, young and old have their brains fried.
The money you spend on a joint of marijuana, a line of coke, crack or meth, ends up in the hands of a drug lord in a mansion somewhere. He uses it to buy guns, bribe and corrupt officials and police, and do every disgusting thing he needs to do to keep control.
You think you’re having a good time, but you’re funding murder, extortion and prostitution with your fix.Let America be a leader to the world. We can end the drug lords’ rein by simply stopping the use of these products - one clean person at a time. Stop a murder – stop using drugs.Helen Saulsbury
Oceano, CA
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30 April 2009
Posted in
iNFORMATION PRESS -
Points of View
I wonder what would happen if everyone were to look in the mirror and ask themselves – do I want to make it great. Whatever “it” may be …
It could be their job, their marriage, their spiritual practice; a friendship, their family, their team, their company, their art, their community, their country … their life.
Whatever “it” is, the question becomes - am I just whiling away the time without being fully present and without giving myself to the situation; am I just showing up without really showing up; without really caring and without really putting forth the effort? And if so, is that how and what I want to be; … someone who’s apathetic … indifferent … blasé? Am I so dispirited as to not even try to make it great?
I’m not suggesting that people should be more ambitious, or more concerned with do-ing rather than be-ing, but I do think that every day offers opportunities for us to be alive; to think, to imagine, to love, to communicate, to learn, to work, to cooperate, to appreciate, to help someone, and maybe – some way somehow – change the world for the better.
How many times, though, do we end up not seizing the opportunity, either because we’re too tired, too lazy, unmotivated, uncaring, unaware, or simply because we’re not present in the present? We fail to recognize the true importance of the moment, and by so doing allow life and time to slip away – little by little.
We act as if there is endless time to make things better and do something great; endless time to fulfill our purpose, and uphold our principles, and live according to our ideals, but we have all seen plenty enough examples of people who’ve had the rug snatched out from under them, and never quite got around to it.
No matter who or where we are, until we achieved our immortality, our time is limited, and since we know not the hour, we know not how much time is left for us to do what we truly want to do, or feel we should or shouldn’t do.
Some people say - you should live each day as if it’s your last. If I were to approach the day with that mind-set then I wouldn’t go to work, which would probably not be in my best interest let alone the interest and well-being of my family.
A better mantra for me is – Be aLive, and occupy the moment you are in. Don’t be a vacant, empty shell – lacking in energy, absent in presence, wanting of life.
Many of us, in our day-to-day jobs, lives and circumstances, move through without being fully present and with an almost nonchalant attitude in regards to greatness and changing the world, and as a result we fail to hold the intent or put forth the effort. Instead, we just go about “business as usual.”
Not only does it happen individually but collectively as well. Our nonchalance in addressing and effectively dealing with some of the big problems that impact as all, such as energy and the environment, results in the problems being passed off to future generations. Lately, I’ve been hearing the term “kicking the can down the road.” The can represents the problem, or perhaps the solution, and rather than taking possession of it, we just keep putting it off, pushing it off, and passing it off. Instead of kicking it down the road, it’s time to take possession of it, take responsibility for it, and do something great with it – whatever greatness means to you.
Ron Colone writes a column for the Santa Ynez Valley Voice, has authored two books and is a music promoter. He can be reached via e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .