Russell Brand speaks to Guardian columnist Owen Jones about capitalism, democracy and his new book Revolution.
“A Night at the Opera”
Thane on the 4th Way
Navy to Name Ship After Gay Rights Activist Harvey Milk
US Navy portrait of then Ens. Harvey Milk.
July 28, 2016
The Navy is set to name a ship after the gay rights icon and San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, according to a Congressional notification obtained by USNI News.
The July 14, 2016 notification, signed by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, indicated he intended to name a planned Military Sealift Command fleet oiler USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO-206). The ship would be the second of the John Lewis-class oilers being built by General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego, Calif.
The Secretary of the Navy’s office is deferring releasing additional information until the naming announcement, a Navy official told USNI News on Thursday.
Mabus has said the John Lewis-class – named after civil rights activist and congressman Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) – would be named after civil rights leaders.
Other names in the class include former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren whose court ruled to desegregate U.S. schools, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, women’s right activist Lucy Stone and abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth.
Mabus has also named ships in the past for other civil rights icons, including the Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ships USNS Medgar Evers (T-AKE-13) and USNS Cesar Chavez (T-AKE-14).
Milk came from a Navy family and commissioned in the service in 1951. He served as a diving officer in San Diego during the Korean War on the submarine rescue shipKittiwake until 1955. Milk was honorably discharged from the service as a lieutenant junior grade.
Following his service, Milk was elected to the San Francisco board of supervisors and was the first openly gay California politician to be elected to office. He was killed in office in 1978. When Milk was shot he was wearing his U.S. Navy diver’s belt buckle.
Over the last several years, there have been pushes from California politicians to have a ship named for Milk since the 2011 repeal of the Department of Defense’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” policy.
Naming a ship after Milk, “will further send a green light to all the brave men and women who serve our nation that honesty, acceptance and authenticity are held up among the highest ideals of our military,” said Milk’s nephew Stuart Milk in a statement to San Diego LGBT Weekly in 2012.
“Public Eavesdropping” by Leah Garchik
Rev. William Barber on right and wrong
“Some issues are not left or right or liberal versus conservative. They are right versus wrong.”
–Rev. William Barber at the Democratic National Convention (2016). William J. Barber II (born August 30, 1963) is a Protestant minister and political leader in North Carolina. He is a member of the national board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the chair …Wikipedia
Movie recommendation: “Solace”
Dr. James Jealous on originality
The democratization of America; the democratization of The Prosperos; the democratization of myself
By Mike Zonta, H.W., M.
Watching the Democratic National Convention’s 4-day advertisement for Hillary Clinton, I wonder if we’ll ever get to the point of living in a democratic country, a country in which we all don’t rely on one person to run the whole show or at least to lead the whole show.
It used to be said in Prosperos circles, that the trustees would run the school until the High Watch could get its act together. That hasn’t happened yet.
I wonder if the same thing could be said about our country. What would it look like if the citizens of this country ran the country instead of our current trustees — those elected with the help of our the hierarchical corporations which finance their campaigns.
If so, what would that look like? Friends of mine here in San Francisco have developed an online unhackable (they say) way to vote which would require citizen participation in an unprecedented way. (It’s called Democracy Operating System.) Citizens would propose, debate and vote online and elect representatives who would be bound to cast their votes according to the democratic majority of the registered online citizens.
As Thom Hartmann said in his book, “What Would Jefferson Do?”, even a herd of deer or a flock of birds makes its decisions through democracy, through voting via body language which way to go and when. So that the voice of the “alpha” male (or female) is just another vote.
Isn’t that ontological? Well, equality is certainly ontological. But not only equality of voice but equality of involvement. I remember one public forum of the Metaphysical Alliance (an organization founded in the late ’80s to combat the fear of AIDS permeating the gay community), some asked us to change the way we ran our meetings. I told these people that if they wanted to have a voice in how we did things, they should attend our monthly planning meetings. There is no voting without involvement.
So we get the leadership we deserve whether in the country or in our family. The Prosperos teaches us that ultimately the responsibility for all aspects of our life lies in consciousness, and specifically in each of our own individuations of consciousness. The government of our country begins with the government of ourselves and that requires work on yourself.
The world is going through a great crisis today. Perhaps a new birth. Gerald Heard referred to it as our “Second Maturity.” Not just the maturity of being an adult citizen of our country, but being an adult citizen of the universe, or as Thane of Hawaii put it, a Native of Eternity.
As a Native of Eternity, our home is wherever we find ourselves and, at the same time, as an expression of Infinite Mind. And with Infinite Mind as our home and our source of supply, we can approach problems with the perspective of Infinite Mind.
And the perspective of Infinite Mind is oneness. The perspective of Infinite Mind is love. And democracy (the rule of the majority) is a natural when citizens are infused with love.
This was always the problem with the Occupy movement. There was not enough love, enough trust. How can you make decisions based on consensus without the basis of love and trust? You can’t.
Even within ourselves, we must become democratic. When we reach the Second Maturity, we see others as aspects of ourself, not as separate from ourself. So there is no room for enemies — only an aspect of ourself which is not very well understood yet or which does not understand itself very well yet.
A majority of us (a critical mass) needs to arrive at the threshold of Universal citizenry which does engender trust and which does engender democracy. Democracy is just the practical application of love and trust.
Until then, monarchy (hierarchy) rules. Long live the Queen!
Odetta – Battle Hymn Of The Republic
Odetta’s rendition of the popular american abolitionist song ‘Battle Hymn Of The Republic’, from the album Best Of The Vanguard Years.
Odetta is one of the most influential artists of the 20th Century. By combining the power and grace of an opera singer with the earthiness of a blues singer and the conviction of a folk singer, Odetta became a commanding, stirring singer unlike any other.
Odetta released her first album, Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues, in 1956. This is some two years before the beginning of the folk revival with which she is usually associated. The power of her singing seems to connect her to an earlier folk music, more elemental and raw than her late-50s and early-60s peers. Unlike the Highwaymen or other popular interrupters of classic folk songs, Odetta seems closer in both approach and presentation to Leadbelly. Her interest in folk music appeared to be less of a personal “revival” or awakening, than a continuation of a living tradition. She was referred to as the “female Leadbelly.”
Bob Dylan was major inspired by Odetta – – in 1956 her album, “ODETTA Sings Ballads & Blues,” inspired him to trade in his electric guitar for a Gibson acoustic guitar,and got him into folk. (andrijadragon on YouTube.com)