You say Mo-NATO and I say No-NATO

NATO was created in 1949 and this year the NATO Summit was held in Chicago, Illinois for the first time. Leaders from 60 nations visited the windy city as well as thousands of people that traveled to Chicago to participate in the protest against this Summit.

Forty-five Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans threw away their "Global War on Terror" medals, symbolizing with this gesture their opposition to this false war on terror. These veterans marched alongside Occupiers, arm in arm with Afghans for Peace and side by side to women of all ages that called themselves Grannies at the G8 or Nanas at NATO who were marching to voice their discontent for war and for the war conservatives have declared against women.  Together were the young and the old, women and men, Black, Asians, Latinos, Whites and Native Americans, united as one to express their disapproval for the never ending war in Afghanistan, the mistreatment of the Afghan people and the use of drones by the military that indiscriminately kills innocent lives in order to destroy one al Qaeda or Taliban member.

As it has become the norm, the riot police welcomed the unarmed protesters in full riot gear. Once more, the police was armed by their inseparable baton but, as far as I know, this time they left the pepper spray at the police station. As it has happened before, protesters were physically hurt by abuse of power of the police that didn't hesitate to use their batons against the occupiers. Again, the street of a city was stained by the blood of its citizens for exercising their constitutional right. This country has paid with blood for the freedom and the right to assemble; we have the constitutional right to peacefully protest for that which we don't agree and against this Summit that I don’t care the name it's given it is a meeting about war.

I find appalling that during these difficult financial times where many nations are on the verge of bankruptcy – particularly Greece, this meeting took place and “defense” deals were secured and everything was business as usual. The participating NATO Countries all belong to the Northern Hemisphere, after all NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Several other countries were invited to participate in the Summit as guests as well as the member countries of ISAF. It is odd that China wasn’t invited, one would think thy have an interest on what is taking place after all, they are practically financing the United States but no, not one representative from the Socialist Republic of China received an invitation perhaps the invitation was lost in the mail.

It is my personal opinion that NATO is nothing more than a club of powerful nations that together confabulate to control the world while interchanging strategies and weapon contracts that will bring them closer to that goal. We cannot expect that they will openly admit this, so the meeting gets camouflaged as an alliance of countries for the security, peace keeping and partnership among the 28 countries that form NATO.

No one can expect for any country to abandon all their weapons and I am not suggesting that, every country must have the capability of defending themselves, and that includes our enemies; what I can’t comprehend is how, at a time where almost every nation is bankrupted and unable to even pay their debts or fulfill their obligations to help the citizens that are struggling to survive in each of these countries, including ours, these nations have the money to purchase these drones and armaments which price tags are in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. I can’t understand how the United States can continue ordering weapons such as these and go on with a war no one wants and even threatens Iran with a military intervention if they do not stop their nuclear experiments. How can we continue on this ballistic path? How can the United States finance the rebuilding of the countries we have destroyed while our own infrastructure is falling apart? How can we continue to indiscriminately borrow more and more money to finance these absurdities? Wouldn’t it be easier, simpler and more efficient to end these fucking wars once and for all, stop investing in these drones and other extremely expensive and unnecessary weapons while we have people that have nothing to eat in our own backyard and all over the world? How many nuclear bombs do we need to destroy one another? Would we ever be armed enough? Will the scientific community ever invent an antipsychotic medication strong enough to finally treat the paranoia of the leaders of the United States, the NATO countries and any other country on this planet? I love my president but I can’t support wars it goes against every fiber of my being, after all, I am all for peace and love, not wars.

Members of NATO
Invited Non-NATO countries
Members of ISAF
Sponsoring Corporations

Angels and Demons

Today has been a particularly tough day. I was running late for work, the traffic was horrible, weather was gloomy and when I was about to get to my job, the bridge opened and the last vestiges of arriving at a close to decent time vanished. Two hours later, I got a call from my son to let me know that he had been assaulted, had a broken lip requiring stitching and his back was aching; a tough day indeed.

Later in the day, I heard that Donna Summer died. I couldn’t help but feeling that another icon from a wonderful musical era had left us way too soon and needless to say the news didn’t brighten my day one bit, rather it made it worse if that was even possible. Truth be told, I felt miserable as the day went by and I kept feeling as if no one could have a worse day than mine. We can be so self-centered and so selfish at times!

I left the office later than usual to compensate for the time lost in the morning. On my way home still feeling like my day had been the most miserable of days, I passed by what it seemed to be a very young man sitting on the grass by the sidewalk. I passed him immersed in my thoughts until I reached the stop sign, somehow at that moment the picture of the man on the grass did not seem right, I couldn’t continue on my way so I backed up to make sure. I saw a frail young man, head down as if defeated. With a assuring voice I asked him if he needed help and he lifted his head, tears still falling down his cheeks but with a beautiful smile on his face he said a warm and resounding “Yes!” I pulled my car in a driveway, got off my car and asked him how could I help him. I noticed the seat of the electric wheelchair was occupied with two bags leaving no room for him, so the first thing I did was to take the largest bag that had a strap and secured it to the back of the chair. Next I went to help him get on it and he gently thanked me and said that he could do it by himself. I saw a young woman, in her early twenties come out of the house where I had parked, phone on her ear and I could tell she was talking to the police. Why would she do that? She looked at me, asked me if I knew what was wrong with him to which I replied: he fell off his chair. She simply turned around and walked back to the house. Not once did she looked at him or offered any help. I was surprised!

Cars kept passing by through, it had to be evident that I was trying to help a man on the floor. A person that it was obviously paraplegic – his legs looked like rags – but not one car stopped, asked or at minimum even looked. We were invisible for the passers by and to that young woman that had closed the door behind her without even glancing at this young man or me.

After maneuvering his useless legs to position them in such a way that they would somehow hold his weight while lifting himself up to the chair he finally made it. I was happy for him and he looked radiant. He didn’t have money for the bus and was going a long way. I am in the process of moving, the back of my car is full of boxes and I couldn’t take him to where he needed to go, but the bus stop was very close so I gave him the last dollars I had with me and, feeling that he was safe I was ready to leave. He thanked me profusely, and… the chair wouldn’t move! Apparently, in the fall some cables had come lose and the chair wouldn’t move!

He asked me if I could stay a little longer and threw himself back to the floor. He looked around what I think it had to be the wheelchair’s motor and triumphantly said he had found the loose wire and all I had to do was to lift the top part of the chair. I couldn’t do that, I have a bad back and I told him so… he began to weep again and I felt terrible, useless. He reassured me that God would help, to try… I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I didn’t believe in God, God is the only thing that keeps this man strong and I wasn’t going to destroy that, so I said yes, God will provide… maybe a car will stop by. He laughed, and said no, those people don’t care or haven’t you noticed?  They are demons! All of the sudden, a young muscular woman that was jogging passed him by and apparently knew him and recognized him, she approached him, kissed him and she told me that I could leave that she was going to take over from there.

I was relieved that now someone could help him where I couldn’t. He extended his arms from the floor as if asking me for a hug; I gave him a hug and a kiss. He said I was an angel and I smiled… I couldn’t tell him what I thought of angels. If good angels do exist, he certainly was one of them, because he did more good to me than I did to him. If he with so little and such adversity in his life was smiling and was so thankful and grateful… How could I be so selfish as to think that my problems are so big? Sometimes we need a reality check, I met mine today.

 

 

The Truth about Mitt Romney

The elections are less than six months away. Everything seems to indicate that Mitt Romney will be the Republican Presidential Nominee, and after several failed attempts the presidency finally is within his reach. It must be really exciting for Romney, after all, he doesn't care how he gets what he wants as long as he gets it, whatever means necessary.

Mitt Romney has changed his views and opinions about everything, and not throughout the years as many of us do, but from one event to another. It's the "etch a sketch" strategy we have heard so much about.  It is obvious that this man is not campaigning on his values or principles, rather he is telling the American people whatever is necessary and suitable at the time in order to get their vote.

Many will claim this is politics as usual, and up to a point I agree. However, every candidate has an opinion that he or she will defend and not change, but not Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney is spending his time accusing President Obama of not knowing how to deal with current issues such as unemployment, energy, education, budget, government and any other issue you can think of. Every candidate employs these tactics and it shouldn't surprise anyone that Mitt Romney does the same. What it is surprising is that when he is asked what are his plans to solve any of these issues, what strategy he will use to fix the problems he claims President Obama is not handling correctly, Romney will not answer.  It is at moments like this that a candidate will take the opportunity to show the American people that they have a viable plan or idea and in the process show their platform hoping it will appeal to as many people as possible.  Instead,  Romney shifts the discussion to economics and how brilliant he is at it, never replying to the question he was asked. Invariably, he mentions how many jobs he saved and created over the years, how many companies he helped create or advance.  On the 2007 elections the GOP mantra was "Drill, baby, Drill" it seems that today's mantra is "Economics, baby, Economics."  We all agree that there is a global economic crises, however, there are other equally important issues that are in desperate need of attention and that are equally important to the quickly disappearing middle class.  Mitt Romney doesn't care about those, all that he is willing to talk about is economics because that is the only thing he thinks he knows and gives him the setting to glorify himself.  The only thing he hasn't said, so far, is that he has the Midas touch... but give him time, the elections are still a few months away!

I decided to write this post after watching the video I attached below. It is a forceful video that shows you exactly how Mitt Romney "saved" jobs. The caring that Mitt Romney has for the average American worker is the same a hungry shark would have for a lion seal. We are insignificant for him, spendable and the only thing that matters for Romney is the mighty dollar.  Now that he has amassed enough of it, he wants to buy a place in history by becoming the President of the United States.  What inspired him was not saving this country and certainly not saving our way of life and the middle class, to obtain what thus far has been unattainable:  to be the ruler of the most powerful nation in the world, the United States of America.

Obama-Biden 2012!

Live and let Live

Sometimes, we need to see for ourselves the damages and unnecessary suffering we inflict to others in our quest for "righteousness"... In reality, we are making others miserable as a reflection of our own misery.  Move forward America, leave your bigotry in the past.  The time has come to Live and let Live!