A toast to the occupiers taking flight on Gandhi's wings

Gandhi

Rob Johnson’s analysis of what OWS is all about gets it right as he cuts through the media slime, backlash from the bankers, etc. to toast the occupiers taking flight on Gandhi’s wings (Johnson is Director of Economic Policy, Roosevelt Institute, NewDeal2.0):

It's my home -- last night I dreamt that I grew wings
I found a place where they could hear me when I sing
--"Wings" by Josh Ritter

Occupy Wall Street is about anxiety, and the courage of young people to fly into conflict on Gandhi's wings. This is the noble legacy of civil disobedience on display at Zuccotti Park. We are seeing that anxiety channeled by courage can transform a society.

What does anxiety look like? You can see this drama played out as the demonstrators meditate surrounded by police whose anxiety is palpable, perhaps because the police cannot figure out which side they should really be on. You see it and hear it and feel it from all of the media pundits who are trying to "figure out," discredit, or dismiss OWS. You see it in the angry denunciations emanating from Wall Street financiers who beat their breasts and cling to the image of their legitimacy because they work so hard that they deserve their top 0.1% style mega incomes. (Doctors and tool and die makers work long and hard too, but their skill and hard work and education, often far beyond that of a financier, do not produce 7 and 8 figure incomes). You feel it in the desperate rhetoric of George Will, as he tries to discredit Elisabeth Warren's assertion of the obvious, namely that the very successful are highly dependent on society and did not create their wealth and achievements in a vacuum. You sense it in the desperate smearing by David Brooks, whose efforts to behead this movement lie in planting the seeds that this protest is about anti Semitism rather than an unjust society.

Read more:

Hillary Speaks to WomenCount.org at Denver Fundraising Event

Nicole Pitney reports on Hillary Clinton’s remarks at a fundraising event for WomenCount.org rumored to be on its way to becoming the MoveOn.org of the women’s movement.

Pitney said:

‘“Clinton's remarks reflected the extent of frustration and resentment over the presidential race among the few hundred gathered attendees, mostly women. Clinton didn't mention either Barack Obama or Joe Biden by name during the roughly 10-minute speech -- she referred once to ‘the nominees.’

“And the New York Senator's unity argument seemed to be aimed specifically at supporters who were considering abandoning the Democratic ticket and backing John McCain.

‘"I believe that with all my heart that the Democratic Party represents a much better future for everything we believe in and care about,’ she said, ‘and I will be making a very strong case tonight that we stand behind our nominees in order for us to keep pushing progress forward. We cannot be deterred, we cannot be diverted.’

“Conversations with attendees found much of the widely-reported anger over the Democratic primary.

“One Clinton delegate from North Carolina, Marc Friedland, recounted his convention hall confrontation with DNC Chairman Howard Dean. He said he pressed him to explain why Clinton-backing delegates were being, in his view, blocked from supporting their candidate on the convention floor.

“Some griped about Obama's outreach efforts – ‘If he'd actually say what he stands for, maybe I could get behind him,’ said one -- while two major donors claimed that while they were willing to support Obama, they viewed the message from his campaign as, "Get on board, you don't have any other choice.”'

Myanmar: “Loving Kindness Will Win Every Time”

In Rudyard Kipling's day, Myanmar, formerly Burma, was a colony of the British Empire. Mention of Burmese cities in recent news broadcasts of the pro-democracy uprising there reminded me of Kipling’s poem, Mandalay, once required reading in high school English classes; re-reading those lines today, the vulgar chauvinism is jarring, shocking:

By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea,
There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me;
For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say:
"Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!"

Then in the next stanza:

An' I seed her first a-smokin' of a whackin' white cheroot,
An' a-wastin' Christian kisses on an 'eathen idol's foot:
Bloomin' idol made o'mud –
Wot they called the Great Gawd Budd –

Kipling (1865-1936) didn’t live to see it happen, but Burma gained its independence from the British Empire in 1948. The Burmese people have since struggled to establish a democratic government and in fact, the National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in 1990. However, the junta refused to hand over power, and they placed the NLD leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest where she is said to remain.

In the current pro-democracy uprising in Myanmar tens of thousands of Buddhist monks, later joined by nuns, were involved prior to the brutal military crackdown. Protestors reportedly carried signs reading, “loving kindness will win every time.”

Anyone who has been even briefly exposed to mindfulness meditation is likely familiar with the ancient Buddhist prayer of loving-kindness. As beginners, we are first invited to repeat the prayer many times to build up loving-kindness within ourselves. Later on, we substitute the names of loved ones, practicing until we gain the strength to include our enemies. Eventually, we extend our goodwill to people throughout the world.

But for now let’s focus our attention on Myanmar where the AP reports the junta’s brutal crackdown continues; many monks have been imprisoned, and the people are losing hope:

According to the AP, “As governments heap criticism on the junta, Myanmar and foreign activists continue to call for concrete, urgent action.

"The world cannot fail the people of Burma again," said the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, an exile group based in Washington. "Selfless sacrifices deserve more than words and lip-service. They want effective intervention before it is too late."

Here’s the good news: on this day, October 2, 2007, at the request of 53 nations, the UN Human Rights Council is holding an urgent, all-day meeting on the situation in Burma.

From around the world, may the rest of us pause for a few minutes and in solidarity with the suffering people of Myanmar and their brave Buddhist clergy, repeat the loving-kindness prayer on their behalf:

May the people of Myanmar be filled with loving kindness;

May the people of Myanmar be safe and protected from all internal and external harm;
May the people of Myanmar be as healthy and whole as possible;
May the people of Myanmar experience ease and well-being.