When the Word is Given
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On the eve of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day press conference/ rally in Binghamton, N.Y., where I announced a hunger strike, I read the introduction to Thomas Merton's 1964 book, “Gandhi on Non-Violence.” Dr. King was, of course, influenced by Gandhi and Christian theologians, such as Father Merton. Likewise, my hunger strike – undertaken to pressure NYS Senator Tom Libous to meet with a couple of the grass roots leaders of the pro-environment, anti-hydrofracking groups – was as a result of my understanding of these men's examples.
Merton wrote about Western Civilization as a One-Eyed Giant. This giant has succeeded in its attempts to master “matter,” but had failed to comprehend its meaning. The giant attempts to tame the wilderness, because he feels alone and uncomfortable in the Natural World. The One-Eyed Giant has fallen from grace.
The giant lacks the wisdom of his older sibling, the natural, Native People of the Earth. In order to reduce his high level of anxiety, the giant also attempts to tame the Native People. In the case of the United States, Dr. King wrote, “We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population.” This national policy is not a relic of the distant past.
I told the people at the rally about a time, in 1980, when Onondaga Chief Oren Lyons told a group of non-Indian people in Binghamton to be aware that, in a relatively short time, the combination of corporations and government would treat them in exactly the same manner that they currently treated the residents of Indian Territory. We witness this today, when corporate-government selects specific regions as “national sacrifice areas.” The large gas industries are fully aware, for example, that hydrofracking will destroy the land, air, and water in huge segments of upstate New York. They are equally aware that this environmental devastation will result in sky-rocketing cancer rates among today's younger generation. But profit motives dictate.
Merton wrote that, “It is true that neither the ancient wisdom nor the modern sciences are complete in themselves. They do not stand alone.” Certainly, modern science offers many benefits. The rally was held within walking distance of two good hospitals. Modern medicine brings about many miracles. Most of us have a member of our extended family who is fighting cancer. The medical community continues to make advances in the technology needed to treat such brutal diseases.
The medical community also has the wisdom to tell individuals not to increase the risks to their health by smoking. And in 2011, the Bassett Medical Group of Cooperstown, which is the largest health care provider in the three-county area, has come out against hydrofracking. Both their board of directors and their medical staff have issued position papers that document the risks that hydrofracking poses to the public's health.
Yet the One-Eyed Giant lacks the depth perception needed to see the long-term consequences of hydrofracking. The giant is blinded by gluttony, and can only see the illusion of immediate financial gratification. This simplistic view is contagious: the gas corporations have spread trhe virus of greed to politicians and to some land-owners who are desperate for income.
Those politicians and land-owners call the pro-environment, anti-hydrofracking community “tree-huggers.” In some of the gas corporations' internal documents, they refer to us as “insurgents.” This is so wrong. We are university professors and high school students; attornies and physicians; factory workers and farmers; military veterans and patriots. And we call upon the pro-hydrofracking community's sense of humanity, so that they might see that we are their friends and neighbors. We are not, to paraphrase Willard Romney, jealous of them. No, we are working for what we know is best for our communities.
In his December, 2011 letter, Senator Libous thanked me for sharing “the wisdom of Chief Paul Waterman” with him. But, he noted, his mind was already made up, and there was no chance of his changing his mind. As I spoke about this, at the Martin Luther King Day rally in Binghamton, the audience recognized how this fit Merton's One-Eyed Giant. One lady had brought documentation of how much the gas industries had contributed to Senator Libous. Small wonder that Libous would not want to talk with us.
A week later, I was able to participate in a large rally of pro-environment, anti-hydrofracking citizens, at the Capital Building in Albany, NY. I was honored to be among the speakers there, addressing about 750 people. I outlined the communications and failures to communicate between Senator Libous and myself. I spoke of my experiences while employed at the Chenango County Mental Health Clinic, where my duties included “community crises response.” I said that no matter if a crisis involved a single family, a neighborhood, or a community, that the failure to communicate respectfully always increases tensions. And more, that initiating some level of communication is always required to lessen tensions.
I spoke about a group of high school students, who were writing letters-to-the-editor of local newspapers, and taking up a petition to Senator Libous. Not all of these students were absolutely anti-hydrofracking. But they wanted to let Senator Libous know that his behavior was absolutely the opposite of what they were learning in their classes, about how government was supposed to work. They were saying that the Amendment 1 right “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” was vital to our Constitutional democracy – and that this implies that elected officials listen to the citizens they are supposed to represent. Indeed, these students were organizing a rally, to be held at Senator Libous's Binghamton office.
Word travels quickly inside the Capital Building. A couple hours later, I was meeting with Tom Libous. He attempted to impress on me the amount of work he does on behalf of the students in his district. This confirmed my belief that he would not welcome the publicity that these high school students would bring about.
He also said that there were thousands of people in his district who are strongly opposed to hydrofracking, and that he couldn't possibly meet with every one of them. I noted that there were 750 such citizens there, most of whom were wearing “I Support Patrick's Hunger Strike” stickers, and carrying large signs that said the same thing ….and that all of them were asking him to meet with me. Libous would later tell an Albany reporter that our meeting was “cordial.” I would agree with that, but add that it made no sense to avoid meeting with me to begin with.
The struggle is not over. There will be more communications between myself and Senator Libous and his staff. However, to be fair and accurate, of the three people I have focused on – Libous, Governor Cuomo, and Robert Kennedy, Jr. – only Senator Libous has responded. Because my family is concerned about the toll this hunger strike took on my health, I have promised to take some time to heal. But I am examining the options for doing a second hunger strike, either outside Andrew Cuomo's office in Albany, or at Kennedy's office at Pace University. It's a shame that those two are less willing to talkto the grass roots leaders of the anti-hydrofracking community, than a republican politician who accepts thousands of dollars from the gas industry.
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I admire your courage. Few have it the way you do; I certainly don't.
And I must also say that I'm surprised that Cuomo and Kennedy haven't met with you. Are they under the thumb of the hydrofracking people too?
I will keep the avatar I currently have for at least as long as your struggle on our behalf goes on. It is certainly the least I can do.
...a former bishop (known as "the bishop of the poor"
in 2008, overturning 60 years of rightwing rule including a heinous dictatorship. Just before voters elected Lugo, the government rescinded its anti-extradition law and its law immunizing U.S. military personnel from prosecution for crimes. Paraguay is thus no longer a haven for wealthy, fascist criminals.
The rightwing party did this because "the times they are a-changin'" in Latin America, and Paraguay needed to get rid of rogue laws like these to gain the benefits of the huge leftist movement that has swept South America (and parts of Central America), the goals of which are Latin American independence and sovereignty, social justice and economic/political integration and cooperation.
During its long nightmare of rightwing rule, Paraguay gained a reputation for harboring rich criminals. Indeed, there were rumors, just prior to Lugo's election, that the Bush Cartel was purchasing a huge swath of land in Paraguay, on the biggest aquifer (water source) in Latin America. (Most of Paraguay's revenues come from hydroelectric power.) No one has been able to confirm this purchase, that I know of. It's possible that it was hushed up. (Paraguay still has powerful rightwing elements. The Bush purchase was rumored to be adjacent to property owned by Rev. Moon.) But my educated guess is that it never occurred--and the reason may be that war criminals like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld no longer have protection from extradition from Paraguay. (Long story, but there are investigations/prosecutions going forward in Colombia that could conceivably result in indictment of the above for war crimes in Colombia. There is also the danger of extradition to other venues--Spain, for instance, or the Hague--for war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and in torture dungeons around the globe.)
Immunity for U.S. military personnel is also a BIG issue in Latin America. The undoing of this law in Paraguay resulted in Lugo, once in office, refusing U.S. military boots on the ground in Paraguay. The Bushwhacks had trumped up a "terrorist" presence in Paraguay (in the Tri-corner area) in order to beef up U.S. military forces in this central location in the midst of a vast leftist political revolution (in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, etc.--all around Paraguay). Possibly this was a preliminary to the Bush purchase of critically important land in Paraguay (if that was ever real)--i.e., to create Paraguay not only as a haven for Bush Junta criminals but also a central organizing place for fascist forces throughout the region, plotting the overthrow of leftist democracies. Denial of immunity to U.S. military personnel makes this much less possible.
Upshot: Paraguay is no longer an appropriate synonym for where rich criminals abscond to.
One internal LatAm criminal (Colombia's spy chief) who had a liaison to the U.S. embassy in Bogota turning the height of the illegal Uribe spying in Colombia, fled to Panama, likely with CIA help, to avoid being called as a witness against Bush pal, Uribe (president and mafia boss of Colombia during the Bush Junta). But even Panama (still a U.S. client state) is having trouble on this asylum matter. It has caused no end of political trouble for its rightwing president (Uribe pal, U.S. ally).
Colombia itself is probably much too dangerous (made a thousand times worse by the Bushwhacks) to be a "haven." Where can rich, fascist criminals go these days?
Possibly to Harvard and Georgetown Universities. (Both gave Uribe cushy academic sinecures. However, I think those were temporary. Uribe is a bit too "hot" to handle.)
I never heard of "seed vaults north of the Arctic Circle." What's with that? I did just learn recently, though, of a NASA hundred year project for finding a new energy source for fast, long distance space travel. Could this project be further along than they are saying (and have the diabolical purpose of removing the super-rich from a dying Earth)? It is mostly privately funded. I have NO REASON to believe ill of this project, and generally support NASA projects enthusiastically, but you gotta wonder, these days, what the very rich and powerful are up to. Where do they think they are going to live amidst the environmental chaos that they have created, not to mention, where can they go to escape the consequences of their more obvious crimes, such as the Iraq War?
The Grand Canyon-wide split between the 1% and the 99% is not just about money. It is about EVERYTHING, including the communal spirit among human beings that has "saved us" in the past, from going extinct a long time ago. Our rogue egotists are often fun (when they are not Hitler, when they are, say, Leonardo da Vinci, or Steve Jobs) and they are sometimes very useful (inventing things like ziplock bags and refrigerators...and iPhones), but it is our ability to work together for the common good that accounts for our success as a species. Without the latter, we are truly lost and we WILL go extinct. This is what the Latin Americans are teaching us right now--if only we would pay attention: how to make the political system work for everybody.
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