Blessings of the Burdened II - Guilt is a Disease

I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

To preface this, with a disclaimer/warning - I have been reading Atlas Shrugged. I have read it before, but it has been a while. If you know of Atlas Shrugged, you probably are also aware as to its author's political and phillisophical persuasions - so when I say "I love it" you may now make a decision as to whether or not you'd like to continue reading. I'll give you a moment to decide.

[crickets chirp]

Here's something that's really fascinating to me - Christian guilt. To expand on my last entry, I'm not sure I ought to be so paternalistic as to say one way or the other whether or not "poor" people are happy. I'm sure they have just as much right to be unhappy or happy as Bill Gates does. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's none of my business whether they are happy or not. Because people ought not be what makes other people happy. If someone can make you "happy" then they can also, [insert appropriate obnoxious latin phrase to demonstrate I went to law school], make you unhappy.

In the traditional American Christian, we find a particularly interesting breeding. Here is a capitalist - the more successful the better. This person has a sense of individuality not to be found in inhabitants of other countries, especially if he were raised here. He is moved to joy by the fruits of his own labor - who among us is not proud when we finish something that doesn't turn out shotty? The American Christian is self-motivated - he succeeds at work because he doesn't make decisions based on irrational motives, but on fact. That which will yield the better result, will make the bottom line fatter, that is the one he chooses. And when he makes the wrong decision from time to time, we are ok with that. But what if he is always right? What if he makes TONS of money? Then, suddenly, we villify him. His name is synonamous with greed and evil: he is selfish. He only wants to make money, he seeks to make a profit. As we ride on his airplanes and talk to our friends on his iPhones, we make sure to point out what a horrible person he is - he has no social conscious. I mean, what has he ever done for society? [Never you mind that competition breeds innovation, and that the all-mighty dollar as a motivator probably pushed the development of the vaccines that kept you alive so far to read this on your wonderful machine that I suppose appeared out of thin air without the aid of any entrepreneurial intervention.] How has his money grubbing done anything for a single human being on earth [besides of course keep him in business - but who ever needed pasturized milk anyway]? Selfish, selfish, selfish: disgusting.

When we approach this American Christian at church or in a religious setting, we remind him that he has much and others have little. We inform him that he has no right to be joyful in what he has created, invented, improved, because others don't even have that which he has improved upon. We tell him that he is responsible for the weak - that he owes to them all that he has because to he whom much is given, much is expected. And if the guilt works, the American will allow himself to live a dual life - one in which he believes in self-motivation and self-reliance as virtue, and one in which his guilt at others' failures and lack of opportunity enable them to live off of him. Our ability to control his giving depends not on the quality of his conviction in the value of life, but in his acceptance of guilt. Now, unable to remain consistent, he begins to be afraid of himself. He fears what his instincts tell him - that he should pursue the right decisions in business -those that make him profit. He is now unwilling to act on what he believes in. Supposing that were the definition of virtue, what sort of stumbling block is our social conscious?

Can this really be the way in which God wanted Christians to tend to the hurting world? Consider this excerpt taken from Atlas Shrugged, that would demonstrate the absurdity in this line of thinking:

"I mean, we're only human beings - and what's a human being? A weak, ugly, sinful creature, born that way, rotten in his bones - so humility is the one virtue he ought to practice. He ought to spend his life on his knees, begging to be forgiven for his dirty existence. When a man thinks he's good - that's when he's rotten. Pride is the worst of all sins, no matter what he's done."
"But if a man knows that what he's done is good?"
"Then he ought to apologize for it."
"To whom?"

"To those who haven't done it."


When we apologize, as a nation for having more money than [insert country here], we allow them to live off our system, and our government, our people, they just hand over the money. What does that do? It eventually will destroy the American Christian's ability to make a living and live comfortably, and his apology to those who do not live comfortably will be his joining them on a lower socio-economic level, standing in solidarity with the poor he can no longer afford to assist. This would be the consequence of the ever expanding social conscious, would it not?

But what if we were selfish? Would that help anyone? Next installment - same bat time, same bat channel.

In violation of copyright laws...

I bring this to you all as a violation of copyright laws, but I don't really care. Think of it as my reading it to you.



The Cure of Troy
by Seamus Heaney


Human beings suffer.
They torture one another.
They get hurt, and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.

The innocent in gaols
Beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker's father
Stands in the graveyeard dumb.
The police widow in veils
Faints at the funeral home.

History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime,
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.

Call miracle self-healing:
The utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there's fire on the mountain
Or lightening and storm
And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing
The outcry and birth cry
Of new life at its term.
It means that once in a lifetime
That justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.

The Last Unicorn

As I sit up in bed, the exhaustion teems over my eyes, but still sleep escapes me. Like the love you can never quite hold on to, so too lately is undisturbed sleep. So numerous are the unconnected thoughts that swarm in my mind that were they colors, the greatest of Klimt's masterpieces would still pale in comparison to the sea of pigment it would produce. But amidst the rushing thoughts and the din I create in my mind, there is one thing that brings me peace - the image of a small porcelain unicorn.

As a child I had such the fascination with the enchantments of childrens' fairytales. I was awed by the simple beauty in a kind woodland maiden aiding a lost creature, or the nobility with which a noble steed would stand by his master. It seemed more than just "too good to be true," for I really believed that kindness and mercy existed in the world. All I knew, is that somewhere there had to be a place where my favorite of playtime fantasies, the Unicorn, existed.

And why shouldn't it? Lonely streets and cold nights numbered many in our silent and fearful world, but I had always felt warm. So many lived without a home, but I had one. And so, I began to love unicorns. And when I moved away from my first best friend, she gave me a small porcelain unicorn to connect us, for always. I remember it well - it had a main of rainbow colors that were far brighter in my mind than they could ever have been represented by cheap paint in the uninspired spectrum it had been painted. It was small enough to fit in my cupped hands, tiny though they were, but big enough to fill my whole heart.

As I grew, many other depictions of this fair creature began to mark the shelves and spaces of my humble bedroom. But no matter how beautiful each new addition was, no matter how intricate the detailing or the awesome talent each new artist had for her art, no image or figure could take the place of that one tiny icon. I remember talking to it when I moved away from all my friends as a little girl. I remember holding it when I wished I could go back to my "old home," where everything was alright. And as the years passed and I perhaps had grown to like my new home, I would still glance at it, or hold it, whenever I was disheartened because it reminded me of the beauty of true friendship. I recall often with a smile, and perhaps even a small tear, the day my prized possession broke in half. My mother understood that I could not just throw the gift away! She knew that none of the others would matter without this one precious pearl. She helped me glue it back together and proudly I continued to display it as if everyone else would also be indifferent to the obvious crack all around my little unicorn's neck.

As I grew, I lost my affinity for child-like knick-knacks in my room, and one by one, my unicorns disappeared. They grew old or shabby or tacky with the changing of the seasons [and my moods] and were gradually thinned out. But not the one - the Last of my Unicorns. I still have that unicorn, wrapped in tissue paper in my hope chest. From time to time I take it out and stroke it and remember...The thing about the unicorn, is that she represented mercy and justice. She protected all the creatures in her forest, and if she left it they would all be in danger. All those who were truly good knew her when they saw her. But then, so did all those who were truly evil. Much like the soldier of Christ, she is easily recognized by both friend and foe.

But what of the Last Unicorn? She would have hardly anyone left to recognize her in eyes of love. What would it be like to be known by your enemies, but by very few friends? What would it be like to stand for good and justice, and still go unrecognized by most?

I saw a man, a man whom I knew to be evil in my recent travels. He is large, he is powerful, and I am not. He owns much, I own little. He commands attention, I am just a small woman. But when he saw me, he stared at me. And when he stared at me, I could tell he knew me, and the one who sent me. God's army is full of Last Unicorns.

THE LAST UNICORN

When the last eagle flies
Over the last crumbling mountain
And the last lion roars
At the last dusty fountain
In the shadow of the forest
Though she may be old and worn
They will stare unbelieving
At the Last Unicorn

When the first breath of winter
Throught the flowers is icing
And you look to the north
And a pale moon is rising
And it seems like all is dying
And would leave the world to mourn
In the distance hear her laughter
It's the Last Unicorn
I'm alive... I'm alive

When the last moon is cast
Over the last star of morning
And the future is past
Without even a last desparate warning
Then look into the sky where through
The cloudes a path is formed
Look and see her how she sparkles
It's the Last Unicorn
I'm alive... I'm alive.

The One

This past Winter I had the opportunity to meet a number of interesting and beautiful people in the country of Uganda. But among all of the new people I met, the one who left the largest impact upon me, was a young girl I interviewed in a dirty and run-down Orphanage just outside of Kampala. Let's call her Mikay.

Mikay, like many other young children in Uganda, has fallen victim to the atrocities of the War in the North. While peacefully living a simple life in her village with her family, Joseph Kony's rebel army quickly thrust her into a nightmare. They burned her village down and she and her family were forced to flee into the bush for safety. They lived there in abject fear for over a year, terrified that each new day would bring with it the realization that the rebel army knew where they were. And one day, I'm sad to say, she met that fear face to face. The rebels found her and her family, killed one of her parents, and took her away. She doesn't know where her other parent is or her siblings. She served as a sex slave and domestic for Kony's militants for over 2 years, until she escaped one day amid a skirmish with the UPDF.


Returning to the Bush for safety, Mikay ran into a childhood friend who offered her a chance for hope: "Let's go to Kampala and get jobs and an apartment together." Overjoyed at a chance for a new life, Mikay gladly assented. But upon her arrival in Kampala, she was sold by her "friend" into prostitution. This beautiful young girl was a child prostitute in the streets of Kampala for what seemed like forever. Her escape from this new nightmare was being sold into domestic servitude. After being moved from house to house in the Kampala underground slave trade, she finally lifted her cries up to God: "Lord," she cried, "I have never stolen from anyone, lied to anyone, or cheated anyone because I know that it's wrong. But I'm starving and alone and tired and if you can't help me, I would rather die." She was soon kicked out of the house she was working in, and found herself once again on the streets.


The One
By Sharon Cohn - Vice President, Interventions

Rather unoriginally, I suppose, Mother Teresa is one of my heroes. She exemplified better than perhaps anyone, the significance of the one. When a priest was trying to discourage her from a dangerous mission, she replied, “It is not an idea, Father, I think it is our duty…If I didn’t do it that time [pick up the one] I would never had picked up the 42,000 in Calcutta.”


I think back to this sometimes when I am asked how I keep from being overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of the injustices we labor to combat. Or when I am challenged with grim statistics and asked, “So you have rescued hundreds of bonded slaves in the past few months. There are tens of millions still enslaved. What is the point?”


The point is the one. Let me tell you about her. I met Simla* more than two years ago in May 2002 when I was assisting with my first brothel raid with IJM. Based on our information the police rescued six children and arrested one offender. Simla was the most reserved of the girls rescued that day. Her eyes darted with skepticism and distrust and she was loath to smile when I met her.


With good reason. Simla had been promised a job in a restaurant two-and-a-half years earlier, and had instead been taken to the brothel where she had been subjected to exploitation day and night without end. When our investigators first met her, she begged them to give a good report to the brothel keeper because she had been beaten severely the last time a customer had complained.


Simla and I walked back into the brothel together one hot day when the police took us to retrieve her few possessions. It was a painful glimpse into the life of a teenager enslaved, the bizarre juxtaposition of childhood and brutality, posters of teenage idols and bank ledgers of customers’ payments.


Why this one?
IJM has assisted in rescuing hundreds of girls from commercial sexual exploitation since Simla, some of whom I have come to know. So why do I want to write you about her? Simla’s story is not unique, except that, of course, it is. It is unique to Simla. She has plans and dreams just like you and I. Men and women conspired to crush her uniqueness and her value, but we are committed to seeking justice for her.


And so, too, for one little girl in a rock quarry in South Asia. Kani* wasn’t among the others when IJM went with the authorities to raid the quarry. As a matter of fact, our investigators did not know about her family and had not documented this case of slavery during the investigation. At the end of a successful raid, IJM staff members were leaving the quarry where 76 people had been freed from slavery. A desperate woman, Kani’s mother, began banging on the door of one of the cars in the caravan. She explained that her family had not been present for the investigation, but they wanted to be taken out of the quarry. She explained that Kani had been injured while working at the quarry. After inadequate medical care and a raging infection, her middle finger had been amputated just that day to save the rest of her arm.


IJM stopped the caravan and with the help of local police officers found the husband and the eight family members, including the young girl. The family had been working as bonded slaves in the quarry for three years trying to pay off a $400 US debt. The pleas of a desperate mother were heard and her family was freed. IJM staff members have been working with Kani to help prepare her for a more promising future. She’s now back in her native village with her family, attending school and getting the education she deserves.


To Simla and to Kani it mattered that IJM brought the hand of justice to them despite the massiveness of the problem of oppression. Not only is each victim the one, but we likewise can be the one. The one called, the one listening, the one willing, the one sent to bring freedom and justice to innocent ones who are suffering.


Being overwhelmed by the numbers is an indulgence the oppressed can ill afford. Thank you, dear friend, for your willingness to stand with us for each child, each woman and each man who longs for the chance of a new life of hope.

What Would A Human RIghts Theorist Do?

In God and the Constitution I read that politics is actually far more entrenched in a Christian ethic now than we realize, and that there is a place for a human rights theology within that ethic. This leads me to wonder, what exactly a foreign policy guided by this ethic would look like.
The analysis is made, when discussing the Cain & Able story, that all injustices that go unanswered appeal directly to God. However, as an intermediate step to this appeal, after the covenant with Noah and all creation, men were to exercise a judicial function and to protect rights. So what happens when the judicial system of a state fails? What exactly does the role of the Christian government to intervene and protect look like? Is this theology mean to imply that the existence of a judicial system of any kind, no matter how ill-equipped, represents the human responsibility to maintain justice? So for example, if a country like say the Philippines, is incapable of providing a higher level of justice then their current infrastructure allows, do we just chalk that up to human development and allow their justice system to develop as it will? Do we, in other words, accept this lacking justice system as a good faith effort toward intervening on behalf of the oppressed? Or, do we assume that it is our duty to ENSURE that all cries of oppression are met with justice?
Or, do we say that the unsuccessful efforts of other nations to fight injustice represent an example of a cry to God, and that God’s intervention and answer is the use of human servants to carry the day [much like the people in Egypt cried out, God speaks to Moses, Moses and Aaron go with God’s protection]?
And if we decide that we must intervene when justice systems fail to meet a specific standard of justice, how do we determine what standard will govern our interventions? Do all justice systems which persecute Christians require intervention? What about those which persecute women? Homosexuals? Are all justice systems which allow detention without access to a lawyer to be condemned, unless they are American military tribunals? From what text shall we draw this standard?
Additionally, if we have an obligation to fight back against unrighteous treatment, where does that belong in a hierarchy of rights? Do we intervene to provide justice as a foreign policy? Can that be allowed to trump other foreign policy objectives?
What about a situation like the Darfur or the situation in Northern Uganda? If I am a Christian subscribing to a human rights ethic somewhat like the one we’ve discussed in this class [as for instance seen in God and the Constitution] what do I do about the Darfur? Do I say, for instance, that I have a duty as a Christian to use the resources at my disposal to answer cries of injustice? Does this obligation trump, for instance any domestic obligations I may have to my constituents?

Eyah asher Eyah

Moses then said to God, `Look, if I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The god of your ancestors has sent me to you,” and they say to me, “What is his name?” what am I to tell them?

God said to Moses, `I am who I am’.
-Exodus 3:13-14

Is a human rights framework an inherently religious creation, or can it be conceived absent Christianity? This question does not, I believe, evoke a need for an intense discussion of complicated cosmologies. Instead, it simply leads us backwards, watching a flower bloom in reverse to the original question of life on earth [and everywhere else]: is God the beginning and end of all? Is Yahweh the Alpha and the Omega?
The Psalmists tell us that God is known by His justice. And we are given the responsibility as humans, to live a life of stewardship, as it says in Genesis 1:28: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.’”
When the Queen of Sheba hears of the fame of King Solomon and comes to see him with her own eyes she says to him: “Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in your and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king, to maintain justice and righteousness.” I Kings 10:9. And what might this justice - the Lord’s justice - look like? In Psalm 72, the writer asks God to “Endow the king with your justice, O God,...He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; he will crush the oppressor.” Psalm 72:1,4.
What is it exactly that God is rescuing his children from? The terror from who’s hands God will snatch his children is not unlike modern Human Rights litigation. Job 5:4 says “His children are far from safety, crushed in court without defenders.” Ecclesiastes chapter 1 notes that nothing is happening now that has not been happening, or has not happened before. And the Old Testament would seem to confirm that such horrors have been plaguing man for quite some time. Psalms 10:2 says “[i]n his arrogance, the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises.” Ezekiel 22:29 observes “[t]he people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice.” Joel 3:3 says “[t]hey cast lots for my people and traded boys for prostitutes; they sold girls for wine that they might drink.” Isaiah tells of worker abuse, and slavery, Amos tells of merchants cheating the poor, and Psalms further tells us about trafficking of persons - weaving tales of the wicked who lay in wait and capture the innocent and drag them from the village.
These cries, much like those from the abandoned villages in Northern Uganda or Burma or Guatemla that we hear today magnified through the megaphone of Human Rights NGOs like Restore International or the International Justice Mission, are lonely and loud, but do not escape God’s ears:
“Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the Lord. “I will protect them from those who malign them.” Psalm 12:5
Interestingly enough, God is not adding to the pool of rights or entitlements of the poor or the down-trodden. Rather, he is in the business of restoration - he is restoring them to the state they were in, a state of human dignity. God is in the business of returning the dignity of human beings, made and crafted in His image, to its condition before oppression. He is making right the wrong done in their name, “For he who avenges blood remembers; he does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.” Pslam 9:12.
But what is the justice he is bestowing upon them? Where does the inherent dignity come from? The answer to that question, I believe, lays squarely within the debate on the existence of God himself. When Moses asked God “Whom shall I say sent me?” God responded “Eyah asher Eyah,” a biblical play on words if you will. God responded I Am he who is called I Am. For the Christian who truly believes God is El Shaddai, the Lord must be the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. If the justice and dignity the Lord were restoring to his people was not originally derivative of His being, than justice would be a concept existing outside of God. It would be a value or value cosmology if you will, which exists outside God that God may and ought to be judged against.
The explanation for the Christian cannot be that God can be judged against a standard of justice which man has created. It is God who is the justifier. At the end of the book of Job, after God has heard Job complain for what will be the last time, it is written:
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm: “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you shall answer me. Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? Do you have an arm like God’s and can your voice thunder like his? Then...unleash the fury of your wrath,...crush the wicked where they stand. Bury them all in the dust together; shroud their faces in the grave. Then I myself will admit to you that your own right hand can save you.” Job 40:6-14
Either the Lord is right all the time, or we are. Either we can save ourselves, or we cannot. And if we can, then we are the justifiers and the dignity of all human beings comes from what we award ourselves. If not, then he is the Justifier, the King, El Shaddai and the source of justice forever, amen.

Into Africa Day #2 - I Hate London

We arrived in London around 2 in the afternoon (London time), today. We poked around Heathrow, got something to eat, and then pretty much parked it outside our gate.

Because I had already sat for far too long, I decided to poke around the shops. You'll never BELIEVE what I found - that's right folks, A DR. PEPPER!! I bought the last two in all of Heathrow [and I'm willing to believe, all of London - sine I hate London. If we were say in Croatia or some other place I actually liked I might be willing to go ahead and give it the benefit of the doubt and say there may still be Dr. Pepper dwelling somewhere within the geographic bounds therein...]. I am now drinking one, and the other is tucked up inside my cute little bag for later. I also procured Cadburry White Chocolate...

On the tram over to this terminal we met a guy who was on our plane over from LAX who is also going to Uganda. He is from USC and grew up in SoCal and has all these wierd connections with Matt. I would like to take this time to note I have had it UP TO HERE with the whole soCal thing. Moving on...he's also a Xtian, and he's looking at a job opening with some missionaries as a teacher. Astounding how God works through those who praise him, no?

Well, I'm up for some much needed rest - but we've reached that place: the Point of No Return. Let's just say that when I wake up, I'm GETTING ON THAT PLANE!!

Into Africa Day #1 - And They're Off!

Today Matt & I caught our plane from LAX to Heathrow in London. Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 8:30 but it was at LEAST an hour behind. Either way was good for us though as it provided us the opportunity to get our affairs in order.

We drove to Ira'as house in BelAire and left my car there, in his trust, and he drove us to the Tom Bradley International Terminal. We had checked in online so gettin' our bags in was easy - we just went and dropped them off without incident.

The plane was really cramped, because there was barely enough room to breathe. Somehow that doesn't matter to me though.

Here Am I Lord, send me! [I don't read a qualifier there... I don't think Isaiah would've turned around if the camel was crowded...]

Romo - I don't want to talk about it

So Romo's latest "fumble" - I don't want to talk about it.

My homework for immigration law is kindo of taxing [no pun intended]. II'm so tired. But check out this paragraph from Justice Murphy's opinion in Schneiderman v. United States:

"We are directly concerned only with the rights of this petitioner and the circumstances surrounding his naturalization, but we should not overlook the fact that we are a heterogeneous people. In some of our larger cities a majority of the school children are the offspring of parents only one generation, if that far, reoved from the steerage of the immigrant ship, children of those sought refuge in the new world from the cruelty and oppression of the old, where men have been burned at the stake, impriosoned, and driven into exile in countless numbers for their political status as citizens in a free world in which men are privileged to think and act and speak according to their convictions, without fear of punishment or further exile so long as they keep the peace and obey the law."

Comments???

Ashton sent me this, wanting my comments. I will let y'all read it, post comments, and then in a few days I will give MY THOUGHTS



New York Post
THE DAMNED OF DARFUR
By RALPH PETERS

December 11, 2006 -- A HALF-million dead in Darfur; 2.5 million refugees - not counting the corpses lost in the sands or terrified survivors in hiding. Surely, the world will act?

No. The world talks. While the militias kill - and years pass. The United Nations looks away - its signature gesture when human rights are violated.

Welcome to the triumph of global hypocrisy.

Europe wrings its hands - as Europe always does - but declines an invitation to the dance. After all, "responsible" governments can't play fast and loose with another state's sovereignty. No dictator or president-for-life would be able to get a decent night's sleep.

So Sudan's Islamo-fascists continue to kill with impunity.

Our own left mourns theatrically for Darfur's dead - but no one has formed a new Lincoln Brigade to take on Sudan's Muslims fanatics. And the uncomfortable fact that Arab Muslims are slaughtering black Muslims goes ignored. It doesn't fit the left's comfortable worldview.

Oh, yes: Those on the left demanding that we "bring the troops home" from Iraq would be delighted to send American troops to rescue Khartoum's victims. But our military is occupied with other cases of fanaticism and genocide in the Muslim world this holiday season.

Isn't it curious that, when it comes to liberation, Iraq didn't count? For the endlessly hypocritical left, there's one magic difference between the half-million dead of Darfur and the 1.5 million people killed by Saddam in his internal massacres and neighborhood wars: Bush.

Now the global intelligentsia is getting yet another lesson in what happens when the United States and its fellow English-speaking democracies are otherwise engaged: When the "Great Satan" doesn't act, the killing continues.

It doesn't matter that those oh-so-much-wiser Europeans have plenty of troops available. Latin America, that beacon of liberation, has plenty of soldiers, too. Asia has a number of excellent militaries - and China certainly has troops to spare.

But the world outside of Africa won't fight to save black lives. And China backs the Khartoum government at the United Nations - for the sake of Sudan's oil. Europe does what it loves to do: Weep piteously over the dead, but do nothing to save the living.

It tells you all you need to know about Europe's "conscience" that Guantanamo matters more to its citoyens than the genocide in Darfur.

The problem is that changing the world for the better costs blood. Only Anglo-American civilization has ever provided the leadership necessary to stop this kind of killing. For which we receive only abuse from the world's hypocrites and cowards.

As the massacres and mass rapes continue in Darfur, rich countries watch the destruction of an entire culture while arguing sanctimoniously that "We must let Africans solve Africa's problems" - knowing full well that Africa's militaries are too weak and poor, too ill-trained and ill-led to cope with so grave a crisis.

The oil-rich states of the Middle East could have funded the now-failed African military mission - after all, the victims in Darfur are fellow Muslims. But to the bloated princes and sheiks of Arabia, there are Muslims and then there are Muslims. Khartoum's Arabs count as "real" Muslims - unlike the black-skinned Africans who foolishly believed the Prophet's teachings that all believers are equal before Allah.

And the sanctimonious mourners realize that a mission to Darfur wouldn't be for peacekeeping. There's no peace to keep. It would be for peacemaking. And none of these folks thinks black lives are worth a fight.

Whether our domestic laments for Darfur come from The New York Times or a Web site, there's no indication that the left is really serious. Even those who want to send in our troops refuse to acknowledge that, in order to rescue Darfur from its "sovereign" government, an intervention force would need no-nonsense rules of engagement, resolute leaders behind it - and the intention of staying for years.

Indeed, the only way to build a lasting peace would be to break up the artificial state seated at the United Nations as "Sudan" - but the U.N. would never countenance such an act of justice. So the Khartoum junta will just go on killing its "own" people - as it has done not only in Darfur in the country's west, but in its impoverished south and east, as well.

One begins to suspect that all too many on the left enjoy pitying Darfur as they wait in line for their lattes. Others, of course, just refuse to accept the troubling fact that this broken world's problems demand more profound solutions than a chant of "Stop the killing."

The killing will never stop until we stop pretending that every dictator or junta seizing power is entitled to claim sovereignty over the millions who never had a voice in choosing their government. After the oppression of women, the sovereignty con is the world's greatest human-rights abuse. And for all of its damnable incompetence, the Bush administration understood that one great truth.

Darfur deserves more than self-satisfied words. As does Iraq. And Afghanistan. And Zimbabwe. And Burma/Myanmar, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and so many other "sovereign states."

But if we're ever going to stop the killing, we first have to stop the lying. Especially the lie we tell ourselves about the universal desire for peace: Try telling that one to the Janjaweed militaman raping your wife, burning your house, taking your children into slavery - and cutting your throat.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese government laughs at all of us. Khartoum is so confident that the world doesn't give a damn about black Africans that it's recently moved to destabilize neighboring Chad.

The hypocrisy of the intelligentsia, here and in Europe, stinks to the throne of God. No campus seminar ever provoked a cease-fire, and no demonstration ever halted a massacre. Those who are unwilling to fight injustice will ultimately face injustice and a fight.

Ralph Peters' latest book is "Never Quit the Fight.

AMAZING

Well ladies and gentlemen, Blood Diamonds was the AWESOMEST MOVIE!!! Going to this private screening was the coolest experience ever. Let the story-telling begin...


It all started when I decided that if I waited until sometime AFTER 3 the traffic to Burbank would be ridiculous. So, I left right from my spine specialist's office in Augora, and drove straight there early Thursday afternoon. I arrived in Burbank around 3:20, and located the appropriate gate I was supposed to use to enter into the studios at game time. So, I decided I would find a Starbucks and chill until then. I wasn't supposed to get there until around 6:30 so I figured I had plenty of time [which was cool since I had my work with me...]

Guess what - no friggin' Starbucks.

It's a STUDIO

WHERE IS THE COFFEE???

Sigh; so I ended up chilling out at a little coffee shop with the "good ol' boys" chillin' out inside. When I walked in with my Macbook in tow in a brown pinstripe pantsuit - they most def stopped and looked at me. Oh well... :-)

So around 6:00 or so I packed up, paid my $3.00 coffee tab and drove to the studio. There was like quadruple security at the studio, but once I got through it the magic began. I arrived to the theater the private screening would be at. There were Blood Diamond prints and posters to warm you up to the idea. Inside there was a bar and a bunch of maitre dees dressed to the T. They were running around with silver serving trays giving you the opportunity for ALL KINDS of fab food :-) and drinks. They would then come back with little silver trays for your trash. Random? I think so...way more important than I'm used to...they don't hand stuff out for free on Skid Row...especially not little mini chocolate rasberry cakes with PAINTED ON star designs...ridic

Anyway; the movie was shown in this HUGE gorgeous theater which reminded me of the one they show in Anne. :-) The CEO of Warner Brothers talked for a while - he is also on the International Board of Human Rights Watch. There were some more speeches by other important people.

Then the movie.

What else is there to say???

I cried so much - it was amazing.

GO.

I Promise, I'll Get Back To Studying Soon

Well, one more post [so I say]. I just got an email from one of my good friends and all it said was "Go to this Link Lizz and Read the Story you will be hapy."

So I did.

And I was.

And I'll include the story here so you can be happy too.



DiCaprio film may hurt diamond demand: analysts
Mon Dec 4, 2006 1:54 PM ET

By Martinne Geller

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Blood Diamond," the Warner Bros. thriller that hits movie theaters on Friday, could spark public concern about illicit "conflict diamonds" and hurt demand during the key holiday shopping season, analysts said on Monday.

But any financial impact to retailers should be modest and brief, they added.

The film, staring Leonardo DiCaprio, highlights the precious gem's role in Sierra Leone's civil war during the 1990s. So-called conflict diamonds, or blood diamonds, refer to stones mined in war zones and sold illicitly to fund war, insurgencies and human rights abuses.

James Hurley, an analyst with research firm Telsey Group, said the movie will likely affect sentiment with its star power and advertising push.

But he doubts people will stop buying diamonds, which would hurt retailers such as Zale Corp., Tiffany & Co. Inc., Blue Nile Inc., and Signet Group Plc, which operates the Kay Jewelers chain, as well as diamond processor De Beers Group, which is 45-percent owned by mining company Anglo American Plc..

"What a diamond means and what it stands for has been ingrained in people's psyches for decades, if not centuries. That's a pretty powerful attachment to ... destroy with just one film," Hurley said.

CL King analyst William Armstrong said the movie would likely alter buying patterns for a small group of shoppers.

"But how much that would be ... I'd be very surprised if it was a material amount," Armstrong said, adding that the issue is not new and that large retailers already have strict programs in place to prevent or minimize the possibility that their diamonds have left a bloody trail.

To help prepare for a possible public backlash, the World Diamond Council, a trade group, earlier this year hired a crisis public relations firm to design a campaign stressing the industry's efforts at reducing the number of blood diamonds. The campaign included full-page advertisements in national and international newspapers and an educational Web site, www.diamondfacts.org.

High-end retailer Tiffany, which said it tries to assure the responsible mining of all materials used to make its jewelry, said it encourages consumers to ask jewelers how they support efforts to promote responsible mining.

"The film 'Blood Diamond' serves as a horrific reminder of the terrible costs of uncontrolled diamond trading ... and we are hopeful it will contribute to ongoing international efforts to assure history does not repeat itself," Tiffany told Reuters in an e-mailed statement.

Blue Nile, Zale and Signet did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

In 2002 diamond production companies and most countries involved in the mining and trade of diamonds agreed on the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which is a process designed to prevent blood diamonds from entering the mainstream diamond market.

"The industry has worked hard and effectively to keep conflict diamonds from the mainstream markets, including certifying stones as conflict-free," wrote ThinkEquity Partners analyst Edward Weller in a note to clients. "Though the industry has, we think, done a very good job, the release of this movie could temper overall demand modestly, we believe, and briefly."

The fourth quarter, which includes the all-important holiday shopping season, accounts for the lion's share of the year's sales for jewelry retailers. Telsey Group's Hurley said that signs such as recent strength in the stock market bode well for strong holiday jewelry sales.

(Additional reporting by Aarthi Sivaraman)

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.



Additionally; I'd just like to point out that I've been invited to a PRIVATE screening of this movie BEFORE it opens. I'll see it Thursday night in Beverly Hills. :-)

I'm a human rights activist - officially - that's how I got an invitation. :) Life's lookin' up guys!!

And yet, I'm still unhappy because the movie poster [seen above] is so glamorous. If I were going to publisize this; I'd use something like this if I were serious.

Finals Blows Goats

Ok guys; so there is this song I thought of today. It's a REALLY OLD Wierd Al song called "One More Minute" which may be THE BEST break-up song EVER...but I thought of it for a different reason. Wouldn't it be the perfect law school song if you changed just a few of the words? Here we go [the words i changed are BOLDED]






Aahh....

Well I heard that I passed (passed')
Gonna have another semester (semester)
'Cause my Torts Professor passed me
I decided that this is a disaster (aahh..)

So I pulled (I pulled) all the names out (name out) of my Rolodex (oohh..)
And I tore all my pictures in two
And I burned down the malt shop where my friends used to go
it reminds me of what real people do (dippity dippity doo)

That's right (that's right) you ain't gonna see me cryin'
I'm glad (I'm glad) that i'm not number 1 or 2
'Cause I'd rather spend eternity eating shards of broken glass
Than spend one more minute in law school.

I guess I might seem kinda bitter
Remedies got me feeling down in the dumps
'Cause I'm stranded all alone in the gas station of love
And I have to use the self-service pumps

Oh, so honey, let me help you with that Authentication
Wills & Trusts (Con Law) gonna break my heart in two
'Cause I'd rather get a hundred thousand paper cuts on my face
Than spend one more minute in law school.

I'd rather rip out my intestines with a fork
Than watch one more Westlaw search go
I'd rather slam my fingers in a door (yah)
Again and again and again and again and again

Oh, can't you see what I'm tryin' to say, Mom...

I'd rather have my blood sucked out by leeches (leeches)
Shove an icepick under a toenail or two
I'd rather clean all the bathrooms in Grand Central Station with my tongue
Than spend one more minute in law school.

Yes, I'd rather jump naked on a huge pile of thumbtacks
Or stick my nostrils together with crazy glue
I'd rather dive into a swimming pool filled with double-edged razor blades
Than spend one more minute in law school.

I'd rather rip my heart right out of my ribcage with my bare hands
and then throw it on the floor and stomp on it 'till I die
Than spend one more minute in law school.


Shepardize THAT!

My Prayer Tonight

How long, O Lord? WIll you forget me forever
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, O Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes...

Pslam 13:1-3

Quote

Best quote of the week:

"No self-respecting Hispanic could shop at a store called 'Banana Republic.' That would be just like a Japanesse person shopping at a store called 'Internment Camp'."

Old School Jars of Clay

Old School Jars of Clay is soooooo good.

In our Violence Against Women Room - one of the songs played while the open house was going on was Tea and Sympathy...love it


Fare thee well
Trade in all our words for tea and sympathy
Wonder why we tried, for things that could never be
Play our hearts lament, like an unrehearsed symphony

Not intend
To leave this castle full of empty rooms
Our love the captive in the tower never rescued
And all the victory songs
Seem to be playing out of tune

But its not the way
That it has to be
Dont trade our love for tea and sympathy
cause its not the way
That it has to be

You begin
And all your words fall to the floor and break like china cups
And the waitress grabs a broom and tries to sweep them up
I reach for my tea and slowly drink in

Chorus:

cause its not the way
That it has to be
Dont trade our love for tea and sympathy
cause its not the way
That it has to be
Dont trade our love for tea and sympathy

So fare thee well
Words the bag of leaves that fill my head
I could taste the bitterness and call the waitress instead
She holds the answer, smiles and asks one teaspoon or two

[chorus x 2]

Dont trade us for tea and sympathy
Dont trade us for tea and sympathy
We can work it out
Dont trade us for tea and sympathy
Dont trade us for tea and sympathy
We can work it out
Dont trade us for tea and sympathy
We can work it out


good song :-)


Speaking of Violence Against Women - Jeremy - good luck tomorrow TAKE IT TO THE HOLE...be the light God made you to be in that Courtroom tomorrow!

Violence Against Women Day - Once A Liar Always A Liar

Today we focused on violence against women in our symposium and it got me thinking, or rather reflecting on some real-life applications [or recent events] if you will. I'll tell you what really roasts my grits - when Men get away with behavior that women are villanized for, at women's expense. Let's take the issue of Domestic Violence. Domestic Violence is the abuse of trust for control. Domestic Violence extends farther than hitting your girlfriend, beating your fiance, or raping your wife. It extends to manipulation of women for control. When men lie and say they love a woman while fully intending to cheat on her or do her wrong - it's abusive of trust for control. The use of the words "I love you" or "I want to marry you" or "I want to be with you forever" or "I will follow you anywhere" when he doesn't really mean it are used to keep a woman close by, keep her on lock so to speak so that a man gets to keep his security blanket.

It is used to allow a man access to thing a conservative christian woman wouldn't ever let a man have access to - most of all her innermost thoughts, feelings, dreams, and trust - so that he can feel better about himself. These men want the GOOD that comes from being with a good woman - but they want it at a discount.

What's perhaps even more cruel is when the woman gives in - her "man" has already cheated on her or lied to her or beaten her and so she starts out doing all she can to tell him no - she tells him to leave her alone because she can't ever trust him and he begs you for another chance.

LISTEN UP WOMEN: He begs you to believe him begs you to love him and begs you to SAY OUT LOUD that you BELIEVE him and BELIEVE that he is telling the truth. He wants you to SAY OUT LOUD that yes, you'll be there for him to that YES you love him. He wants you to SAY OUT LOUD that yes you want to marry him because then HE'S GOT YOU.

LISTEN UP VICTIMS: He can manipulate you anyway he wants - once he raises a hand ONE TIME you're his if you don't walk away. If you don't make it known his behavior is not acceptable the first time he disrespects you that way it's over because he doesn't think you have the nerve to say TO YOURSELF he NEVER meant it and I AM SO FOOLISH that I BELIEVED A LIAR AND A CHEAT. He doesn't think you have the hutzpah TO SAY TO EVERYONE he's that cruel and that you're just that sad.

AND THEN when the day comes when he says I DON'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE or let's be special friends where I get everything from you but I can get play when you're not here he doesn't think you can say no because he's abusing your trust in him. He'll come around, or I don't want to lose him, or I'll consent to anything he wants because I already said I loved him and I don't lie.

But sometimes they don't know that they don't mean it right? I guess that's even more heartbreaking - because then bridges are burned that don't have to be...it makes me so sad.

The best part is when he does this - "men will be men". This is what you get. Or "he's just scared of committment" or "that was a lot for him to deal with at once". Or there is always the "give him some time and space - all men are like that". YOU MUST BE JOKING. If I did the same thing to him that he did to me I'd be a whore or a b*tch or a monster. I'd be a slut - I'd be a psycho hose beast. But when he does it he's a playa. He's a serial bachelor and he becomes MORE ATTRACTIVE to all the women chasing him, to the woman who always thought that he was cheating on her with me when he was cheating on me with her. He becomes an enigma - the man everyone wants to tame. If I did it I'd become the woman everyone should stay away from. If he had any money I'd even be a gold digga. But what if he took my money? What if he drove my car? Used my stuff? Did whatever he wanted all the time and used me - then I'm just stupid for believing his crap. I should've known.

YOU MUST BE JOKING ME.

THERE IS NOTHING DIFFERENT BETWEEN THIS AND THE BABY BABY BABY I'M SO SORRY AFTER HE HITS HIS GIRLFRIEND EXCEPT THAT NOW MY SOUL IS DESTROYED...and those bruises will NEVER heal...at least without Christ...

THIS IS STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE AND I FOR ONE WILL NOT TAKE IT ANYMORE.


and you shouldn't either


but what do you do when you really belive he didn't mean it - are you just stupid or is he really not as bad of a person as he thinks he is?

Either way - good luck and godspeed to those who fight this everyday - his children shall not e crushed in court without defenders anymore

justice resources