Stop Sacrificing Our Grandchildren

For your grandchildren and in honor of your fallen loved ones, this Memorial Day is a good day for us to begin to walk a different path.

Rather than remaining the victims of our war economy that enables suffering for the 99.9% and wealth for the .01%, we can choose to a different way.

We know at least one other path. It’s an economy based upon renewable resources.

By making our conversion to renewable energy from oil and natural gas a top priority we remove one of the ages-old pretenses for war. Middle Eastern oil will be eliminated as a reason to bomb innocent children because the energy you require to power your home will come from your own rooftop solar array or the wind power system next door.

As for making the .01% more wealthy, allowing them more dominance and governmental control, well… perhaps we will never satisfy their insatiable needs. Still, conversion to a renewables-based economy will make trillions of dollars for them without sacrificing our grandchildren.

Please go here for the Case for Peace.

Opportunity

Why Not Try to Stop the Killing?

For me Memorial Day is about Peace. It's about most Vet's desire to stop killing. Please take a minute or two and listen to these New York Vets when they were arrested in 2013 for reading the names of fallen Vietnam War military. Please, can't we at least try to stop the killing?

NY Vets Make a Stand — One More Time
Veterans reading the names of New York citizens who lost their lives in service to their nation during the Vietnam War were arrested once again at the NY Vietnam Memorial. They refused to vacate the memorial after the 10 pm curfew on 8 Oct 2013 while they were reading the names of the fallen.

The vets said they refused to leave the NY Vietnam Memorial at the 10pm curfew for these four reasons:

• We are calling for an end to the Afghan war after 12 years.
• We are calling for an end to all U.S. wars of empire.
• We are here to remember the fallen.
• We are here to affirm our right to assemble.

They also said they were not trying to be antagonistic toward the NYPD.

Speaking to the NYPD policemen, one vet said, “It's important for you to know your government committed atrocities every day in Vietnam because some of you are so much younger and that history has been denied you. So, you just need to know why we are here.”

That statement did not stop them from being arrested for “criminal trespass”.

Please watch the video report above. Thanks to U.S. Air Force vet Matthew Adolph for sending the link to us. Matt is currently working on his degree at the University of Akron, Akron, Ohio. (Please overlook the ad which has been inserted by YouTube. You can skip it after a few seconds interruption.)

See more at:
http://www.encoreboomer.com/encore_vets.html#sthash.eYjpDeXb.dpuf

“It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again”
During President Teddy Roosevelt’s term, 1901-1909, Mark Twain wrote about the U.S. Army torturing Filipino insurgents and slaughtering civilians during the Philippine-American War. One torture the Army used was called the “water cure.” Our CIA used the same technique in Iraq and Afghanistan, But, it's now named “water boarding.”

“There have been lies, yes, but they were told in a good cause,” Twain wrote, ridiculing the government with his acidic satire. “We have been treacherous, but that was only in order that real good might come out of apparent evil.”

Not much has changed over the past 100 years. We are still telling lies, torturing people and denying it all. Oh, and we are still accusing people of betraying the USA, just as Twain was accused, because they are outing these repugnant offenses to humanity.

Candice Millard, "Looking for a Fight", review of Honor in the Dust, Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines and the Rise and Fall of America’s Imperial Dream, by Gregg Jones, New York Times Book Review, pg 13, 19 Feb 2012.

(“Déjà vu…” quote offered with apologizes to Yogi Berra.)

See more at:
http://www.encoreboomer.com/encore_vets.html#sthash.eYjpDeXb.dpuf

The Case for Peace

Why Peace Makes Sense Even for the 1%


As Boomers, we share a characteristic with millions of our brothers and sisters throughout the world: We just want to live our lives in PEACE and be left alone to enjoy the fruits of our labor. If we have freedom enough for that, well then, we're basically happy.

Until now we have had the good fortune to enjoy that state of mind. Life has been good.

But things changed during this past few years, what with Depression.2 and unfortunately, life is no longer as joyful as it once was. What has changed?

For certain one negative human characteristic has come back in favor. As the economic conditions become worse, the “us vs. them” mentality is back in full force. Soon, it will emerge with a vengeance.

History is on the side of the “us vs. them” and vengeance characteristics. One only need remember a little bit of history, i.e. the French Revolution, to understand how out of control things can become unless those that “have” allow those “without” just an itty bitty bit.

Second, not even the most self-absorbed Boomer wants to lose the little in life he / she still possesses. We all have awakened to the facts of life and are realizing that our world is now different and bad things are happening all around. Perhaps the same is true for the 1%ers, too. Only they have a lot more to lose.

Take all this into consideration and yes, it's true, there are solid financial reasons for adopting “a peace model” which make sense to the most hardcore capitalist among us.

It appears that a change of perspective is in order. Just a slight glance away from a traditional capitalist way of seeing life, offers a new view of the “us vs. them” problem. The problem actually becomes an unique opportunity for the 1%ers to accumulate even more wealth in a multitude of ways if the 99% actually have enough to spend. The 1%ers could be selling zillions of things and untold services to the billions of emerging “have-a-littles” — the Boomers and all the rest of humanity. For us, the 99%, we just want to be left alone with enough to live a reasonably humble existence.

Do you remember thinking that those who believed that our governments were “controlled by a few select people” were out of their minds and could “better occupy their time doing something constructive, like running for office?”

Today, we learned through life experience that change does not necessarily happen because a bright, motivated person gets elected to office.

Actually, it doesn't matter who is in office. Because nothing changes. It is now abundantly clear that the office holders enjoy incentives for maintaining the old way, the old power structure. So, everything keeps piling on for the 1%ers and little to nothing goes to the 99%. The politicos are rewarded for guarding the “same-old-same-old”.

But, outside of politics and government, the world has changed. For the first time in history, people throughout the world have the knowledge and the communication tools to create a new paradigm based upon their certain intuitive understanding that they have more in common with each other around the world than they have with their own political leadership.

As a result, we share an unspoken agreement that we all have everything to gain through PEACE, and everything to lose through war.

I've never met a combat vet who is in favor of going to war. Have you? - RB

- See more at: http://www.encoreboomer.com/encore_boomer_peace.html
and http://www.encoreboomer.com/encore_vets.html