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Saturday, May 22, 2004 |
2 QUOTES FOR THE WEEKEND
"May all beings be happy and free from suffering, even Bush. May all beings be happy and freed from Bush."
- - Allan Hunt Badiner (From Rhino's Weekend Bottom Line)
"Hatred can never put an end to hatred, love alone can. This is the unalterable law."
- - Gautama Buddah
THIS WEEKEND IN HISTORY
May 22nd, 1969 -- Langston Hughes ("Let America be America Again") dies in New York. Foremost champion of the black experience in the US & poet of the Harlem Renaissance. A target of HUAC.
May 23rd, 1985 -- US President Ronnie Reagan bestows the Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian award, on the otherwise rarely paired duet: Mother Teresa & Frank Sinatra.
WEB SITE OF THE WEEK: "Meltdown"
"Terrorists didn't have to build a nuclear weapon. We built it for them."
An FX original movie written by Rhino's Blog readers Larry & Paul Barber.
Airing on the FX Network - June 6th - 8PM Eastern & Pacific.
SEE A CLIP AT: http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/meltdown
RHINO HERE:
As a raving pacifist, the Rhino often struggles with the juxtaposition of teaching peace & being really pissed off at the neo-robber barons currently inhabiting La Casa Blanca. This weekend's Rhino's Weekend Bottom Line looks at that dilemma from the point of view of a practicing Buddhist (& Rhino's Blog reader), Allan Hunt Badiner. The essay, "Is Bush the Anti-Buddha?" quotes a variety of fine minds on the subject of politics & non-violence.
Earlier this week, at the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education court ruling, Senator John Kerry inaugurated a new campaign slogan for his Presidential bid. The slogan, "Let America be America Again" comes from a poem written by Langston Hughes, whose life work was enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. I've posted an excerpt & a link to this powerful poem. For more on Langston Hughes, go to: http://www.kuce.org/hughes
Here's what Kerry had to say about his new slogan:
"Talking about 'Let America be America again' is tapping into that value system that people think makes this country strong. What is it that makes us strong, and what do we have to do to get that back, to let America be America? Strength means people being able to do better in their jobs. Strength means having the courage to stand up to special interests that steal the agenda here in Washington. Strength is fighting to have health coverage for children." - - John Kerry (5/17/04)
Let America Be America Again
by Langston Hughes
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")...
READ THE REST AT: http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?45442B7C000C07010E70
7:47:25 AM 
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Is Bush the Anti-Buddha?
By Allan Hunt Badiner, AlterNet, May 18, 2004
(Rhino's Excerpt)
When George W. Bush mouths the word "compassion" chills dart up my spine. Anyone paying attention can easily see how the actions of the Bush regime reflect a distinct lack of empathy and understanding. This is an administration bent on blatant paybacks to friends and contributors at everyone else's expense. Its single truth: What is good for extractive profits is good for the country. Trees and caribou don't contribute cash so Bush's environmental policy opens majestic old growth forests for commercial logging and protected wilderness areas for domestic oil exploration. His foreign policy confuses justice with punishment, disagreement with treachery, and cultural differences with evil. He willingly risks escalating and perpetuating a continuous cycle of global violence...
...How does a student of the Dharma deal with the rising temptation to wish ill will on the perpetrators of such shocking and detestable undertakings? To the specter of four more years of Bush, what is an appropriate Buddhist response? While it's important to recognize the full scope of the damage generated by this President and his cronies, and understandable to feel bitter, the Dharma clearly counsels us against hating our enemies. As Buddhists, we can assume that Bush-hating doesn't help anyone. Buddhist philosophy is centered on non-duality, the unity of all things, so we must concede that we ourselves are not separate from the corruption and unprincipled behavior of those who represent us. It is in fact an old political axiom that people get the government they deserve.
As Thich Nhat Hanh might say, the Bush Regime is made up of non-Bush elements, and there are Bush-like behaviors in every family, and in every mind. Hated by the Viet Cong for being CIA and by the CIA for being Viet Cong, Nhat Hanh is famously loved for his plea that we transform anger through meditation and heal it by putting our loving kindness into practical action. Martin Luther King Jr. taught that true nonviolence means "you not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him." "If we could read the secret history of our enemies," Longfellow reminded us, "we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility."...
READ IT ALL AT: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18717
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6:34:10 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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