This from Democracy Now! today:
9 Polio Workers Assassinated in Pakistan
At least nine medical workers have been killed in a series of
attacks on a polio vaccination effort in Pakistan. Three people were
killed earlier today near the city of Peshawar, one day after six
workers, all female, were killed in Peshawar and Karachi. The shootings
are believed to be a part of a militant campaign against polio
eradication in response to the CIA-backed fake
vaccination program in Pakistan that helped locate Osama bin Laden.
Taliban warlords announced a ban on immunization efforts earlier this
year, calling them a cover for espionage. Pakistan is one of three
countries in the world where polio remains a large-scale risk.
OK, so much shit is happening that we scarcely have time to notice news like this. I think it surely relates to what I was talking about this morning when I spoke of the culture of violence in our country. So, it has cost us trillions of dollars and countless people from Afghanistan and Iraq and Yemen and so on and many American soldiers to assassinate Bin Laden. Yup. But here we have collateral damage that could kill many, many more people. Our CIA was proud of how clever they were to use the fake polio vaccinators to find Bin Laden. So now not only are the people trying to wipe out a terrible disease in a highly populated area victims of murder, but when polio spreads there will be countless other innocents who suffer terribly. I think our use of these volunteers and the reaction it has created is a crime against humanity.
In Cuba the CIA used priests to spy with the result that the churches were shut for years. In Guatemala we used Peace Corps kids to make reports that led to the deaths of many Mayans. Where does it begin and where does it end? I am sick over the pain and suffering our triumphs cause in the world. Who controls this stuff? I am back to thinking that all we want is a violent end to everything. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are galloping toward us. If this is not someone's intention, how can we justify our actions? What is the big plan? Who are we really?
OK, so much shit is happening that we scarcely have time to notice news like this. I think it surely relates to what I was talking about this morning when I spoke of the culture of violence in our country. So, it has cost us trillions of dollars and countless people from Afghanistan and Iraq and Yemen and so on and many American soldiers to assassinate Bin Laden. Yup. But here we have collateral damage that could kill many, many more people. Our CIA was proud of how clever they were to use the fake polio vaccinators to find Bin Laden. So now not only are the people trying to wipe out a terrible disease in a highly populated area victims of murder, but when polio spreads there will be countless other innocents who suffer terribly. I think our use of these volunteers and the reaction it has created is a crime against humanity.
In Cuba the CIA used priests to spy with the result that the churches were shut for years. In Guatemala we used Peace Corps kids to make reports that led to the deaths of many Mayans. Where does it begin and where does it end? I am sick over the pain and suffering our triumphs cause in the world. Who controls this stuff? I am back to thinking that all we want is a violent end to everything. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are galloping toward us. If this is not someone's intention, how can we justify our actions? What is the big plan? Who are we really?
The heart of our discussion is our own impending death--and where to go to do it.
ReplyDeleteRe: Choice between nursing home and physician assisted suicide ?
That is one optional choice in Oregon. My plan is to avoid the nursing home scene knowing that plans are, at the beginning, only a guide and may not work to one’s satisfaction. I have spent too much time in the nursing scene. And, yes, I know that I am loved. Yes, I have been there for the love and care of my mother, as well a companion, and observed the self flagellation of what “should” have happened. By my hope I must, again, know self in order not to beat up on self. This process requires unusual awareness and consciousness. To be practiced, now. So, options remain.
Love of self, in my order of things, is where I begin: To avoid the pain in the scene at the nursing facility, the self flagellation of complaint (how often I have heard), the lack of quality of life in large degree, the emptiness at the end of life is what I must plan against. Cost is often a complaint. The love and care of “old folks” is not a mass movement that I propose. I alone must preview my options out of self-love. I must practice this while I am capable, not when the natural or unnatural events develop and I have forgotten who I am.
And, one other thing, I see my love of the whole requires a capacity for love and not the “need” of a subject, with “qualities to love” as expressed in, “only you do I love,” or ”you made me love you.”
There is a phrase, To live now so at the end you know you do not have regrets. And not to be desperate. (Sounds of H. D. Thoreau?) Like he clearly said, So many are living lives of quiet desperation—and then finishing life the same way. That is what I see in nursing homes.
I began a study of human mortality 41 years ago, when I was desperate. On and on into the fourth decade, only then, I found a small group of people who were unwilling to go along with our culture which is missing out on a very vital aspect of life-in-fullness. “Death” spoken of in the commons was nearly always a morose subject, most knowing nothing of their own likely demise. Too spooky. What a laugh. Sooner or later talk has to happen. Even if no plans develop. Great pounding of the chest, bashing of head, heart . . . and grief__Oh my.
No sooner did we began our group and there were a dozen of us wiling to put our energy where our ideas were. We practiced the processes of handing a dead body. Additional to a pledge to aid each others need, our final act was to publish a flyer and then find a cemetery where every thing could be done at no cost. That is Oregon too.
Free also, “Self delivery” is one term for a suicide. This is where an elder of the tribe decides to end this life of the body. For me to do this is not the withholding of love but the demonstration of it, say to family, but an example of knowing one’s self; To demonstrate to heirs and the world a way of real freedom and character; To say to the American “culture” If you want things right, take responsibility; Do not complain about that which you allowed in the first place. I wish to leave a legacy far greater than going with the crowd when the crowd is in full regalia of self-flagellation.
I do not know if I am behind my times—a Luddite—or ahead. Some have said the latter. Whatever, my love goes on, Bert
Above, a continuation of the discussion about ways to die, options. This is from Bert, but appears with my name because he emailed it to me. I think it is very thoughtful and deep. I also think that the time to plan is NOW even if you change your mind, and even if the plans don't pan out. Seems like it is important to think about. My friend, Joanne who was a hospice nurse for many years says the the easiest and most painless way to die is to stop eating and drinking. When my father was saying he was ready to die, I reminded him of this. It was never the right time. He was looking forward to lunch or whatever. He wasn't ready, obviously.
ReplyDelete