As most of you know I was stressed to the max before the wedding. I didn't have much cooperation from my workaholic husband to be, and it really seemed that nothing was falling into place. We arrived at Willow Ranch Friday to get the basic things set up, but nothing was there. We were unable to get the tables and chairs before 5, so we didn't have that. We had no idea where the large canopy's were to set up, the camp sites were not mowed, Shawn didn't get there with the mower until almost dark and I was freaking out. Then my mom showed up with her friends who I had never met and I fell to pieces in front of them. She is always the one person who can break me like a little girl - and it always seems as though I have to meet some friends of hers that I've never met before, yet she describes them as "very good friends", which I think bothers me only because my entire past with her has consisted of her choosing her "very good friends" over time with me. I wasn't ready to meet HER very good friends and so I cracked. The plan was that I was to stay with her that night because "I wasn't supposed to be with Shawn" the night before the wedding. So, I chose Kaitlyn to come to stay at this house her friend had lined up for us. We got there and it was a nice place, they silly stringed me and lit fireworks for me. My mom was pretty geeked and I was glad - and tired, so I went to bed early.
The morning was beautiful. Sunshine and all that, but a storm was moving in and I was worried. We went back to the Ranch to help with anything we could. When I got there, there was still no Canopies, no tables, no chairs, no grill, and rain was moving in quickly. I was really loosing it at this point. So, we left and went to Wal Mart (I know....I know...I HATED having to do it) and bought some really cheap - VERY shitty canopies and brought them back to the Ranch. We started setting things up in the rain - and there were STILL no tables and chairs - and no grill...so, I cried. Then Shawn called from the rental place and told us that they had not saved our tables and chairs like they said they would on Friday, but that he upgraded and got us a big canopy and round tables and chairs. So, things were looking up, but it was almost 1:00....and still raining.
I left the Ranch to get ready. We all took showers, I did my own hair and makeup because I'm practical like that. By the time I was ready, the sun was shining and it was absolutely gorgeous outside, which made my heart sing. We got in the cars and headed to the ranch for the last time. I was getting married! I had butterflies, but they were the good kind. I was not nervous about marrying Shawn. I have been through the worst and the best with him, and I knew that he and I belonged together. I knew we were doing the right thing for US.
I arrived and it was amazing, people were seated, everything was set up and looked AMAZING! You would not have guessed that nothing was put together only a couple of hours before. I went around and said hello to as many people as I could before it was time to marry. Then, all of a sudden, they told me to get out of there because Shawn was coming. So, I went around this hill and behind trees with a few of my girl friends, I picked a small bouquet of wild flowers growing there and then Sarah got my my Sunflower to add to it. They told me that Shawn was waiting for me under the tree...and for whatever reason, that seemed so romantic to me. I told my girls to go let everyone know I was coming, and then I started to walk in. Tim Loonsfoot (our pipe carrier) and my friend - and his nephew - Ben sang and played the drum for me as I walked in (though I was pretty fast so I was standing there for about 3/4 of the song - damn long legs of mine and an eager heart had me flying up there to my man!). Tim then proceeded to talk to the crowd and explain that this was a ritual, that what they were to see was something sacred and was about Shawn and I. He explained that the majority of the ceremony would not be heard by the crowd because it was something between Shawn, I and the spirits. He called the directions and blew the spirit whistle, and I could feel the change in the atmosphere. I could sense eyes and love surrounding us. We would look at each other, and feel a complete connection to one another.
We tied the feathers, which is a tradition Native American ceremony which ties two people together for life. The two Eagle feathers come from each side of the Eagle, one mine and one his. Eagles mate for life, and once those feathers are tied together it is forever. If one of us breaks that bond, there is a karmic repercussion for that person. If one person dies, the other moves on after a long grieving period as does the Eagle.
The Feathers were tied together in an effort shared by Shawn and I. Each ribbon that tied our feathers together was done by both of us, and each ribbon represented a different teaching and with each teaching we took pinches of different medicine. Tobacco, Sage, Cedar and Sweet-grass. Each pinch we held in our hands we prayed over and then placed on a plate together. We were given the teachings of the 7 Cardinal Directions (north, south, east, west, heaven, land, and center (or self, now) to apply to our lives from then and forward and with each teaching we prayed with our medicine. When we tied the last feather, the medicine - our prayers - were placed in the pipe which Shawn and I shared. As we smoked and released the smoke to the heavens, our prayers were released into the spirit world, were carried to the heavens.
This is the moment our lives together truly began. Everything before that moment did not matter, the past was gone and the two of us would forever move forward in love and trust. Tying the feathers with Shawn was truly the most connected, loving, beautiful moment of my life. I felt joined to him inside of his body and he inside of mine. It was very real, very spiritual. I forgot about all of the people watching us, I only saw him and Tim. Our universe was born.
When the ceremony was complete, Tim announced us and explained more to the crowd. We then turned around as one, I realized that the people I loved most were there with us the whole time, that not only was I blessed enough to have a good man, but WE were blessed to have these great people who had made it all possible.
From there we made a spirit plate. We got little pieces of all of the food and put it on the plate to offer to the spirits, then we took the plate to find a place to put the food as the offering. We went behind a large pine tree and found a large amount of ants which was perfect. We shared spooning the food onto the ground for the creepy crawlies to eat and told each other how much we loved each other. We talked of the possible baby that was inside of me at that moment and Shawn said that he would be happy - which turned out to be a good thing because we found out we are expecting not even a week later. Then, he gave me my wedding ring. It was the most beautiful and honest moment. There was no one but him and I and the spirits who were giving us their blessings. Nothing could have been more perfect.
From there the elders were fed first and then everyone ate and mingled. It was amazing to see everyone getting along so well, and seeing everyone so happy. People kept telling us that they felt privileged to be there to share such an experience with us, that they had never been to such an amazing wedding. I felt privileged to have such amazing people in our lives, and I felt honored to share this part of us with them. The rest of the night was spent in sheer celebration. We partied, had a fire, the music was amazing (I did ALL my own music on compilation Cd's and played it on our home stereo system and it was fantastic), and everyone got along. Cori came later and did an amazing fire performance and blew the socks off of all of our guests as well as myself. She truly is amazing. It was a 100% drama free event where we were truly free to be ourselves. There was good food, good smoke and great company. Shawn and I didn't hit the sack until 4:30AM, and I looked back on it as the greatest day of my life, and imagine I always will.....
A special thanks to ALL of you who did so much for us. Without you this would never have been as amazing as it was...We LOVE you.
So, around 6:40 AM, state police call me to finish the accident report - and to tell me "the law requires that you keep your vehicle on the road at all times". REALLY? No shit?! Fuck me, man. FUCK ME. So, now I'm getting a ticket that I WILL fight, and that I certainly can't afford. I'm out a car, I'm devistated OVER my car, and now I need a fucking ticket? Are you fucking serious? WHAT ELSE? I can't take this shit anymore, I'm about to run away forever.
I totalled my car last night. I was coming west bound from GR and hydroplaned off the road down about 40 yards into a deep ravine. The whole experience has me shaken to the core, and feeling SO fucking blessed, and unblessed at the same time. Getting married in 2 weeks makes this really bad timing...
The whole thing was slow motion, it really felt like snow or ice as my car was just whipped from under me. I slowed myself and consciously thought "OK, this is going to happen - you HAVE to relax and ride it out". The whole experience seemed surreal because it was actually so graceful, I just slid down the hill (a VERY steep hill) and landed snugly into some trees. I don't remember any heavy impact or jolts or anything really, it really was as if I was floating or being carried. I had this sense that I would be OK, and that I HAD to relax, and I literally don't have a scratch on me.
When I went to open my car door, I couldn't. I couldn't see outside, so I put my window down and there was a huge tree about a foot away from my face. That put me into shock because I realized at that moment, that could have easily been where my face landed had this gone any other way. I panicked and called Shawn so he could come and get me. I was freaking out trying to tell him where I was and what had happened. He came and I hiked my heels up that huge swampy hill, freaked and crying. I felt like I had cheated death somehow - even injury. Looking at the car, you wouldn't believe that it seemed so smooth and graceful. It's in BAD shape, and I'll never drive it again I'm sure. Even with my superhero mechanic man. I really loved that car, too. :-(
The really weird thing is that I had bought a small Ganesha key chain earlier yesterday. I have only one key (my car key) with one key chain, that for YEARS until yesterday was a plastic faceted heart. I put it on my key and left. I truly believe this is significant to my incredible fortune here.
Ganesha - The lord of good fortune
In general terms, Ganesha is a much beloved and frequently invoked divinity, since he is the Lord of Good Fortune who provides prosperity and fortune and also the Destroyer of Obstacles of a material or spiritual order. It is for this reason that his grace is invoked before the undertaking of any task (e.g. traveling, taking an examination, conducting a business affair, a job interview, performing a ceremony,) with such incantations as Aum Shri Ganeshaya Namah (hail the name of Ganesha), or similar. It is also for this reason that, traditionally, all sessions of bhajan (devotional chanting) begin with an invocation of Ganesha, Lord of the "good beginnings" of chants. Throughout India and the Hindu culture, Lord Ganesha is the first idol placed into any new home or abode.
A sticky situation (or really any situation in which you are dissenting)
Calm nerves
* This is just advice, and while it will probably be helpful, we can’t guarantee any of it.
Most public displays of dissent are going to attract the attention of the police. Often the police claim that they are there to make sure everything stays "peaceful" or to facilitate your expression of your first amendment rights. As with most things the police say, this is not true. The police almost always will attempt to make your action the least effective possible. You can prevent this by knowing your rights.
The first thing to keep in mind is to only talk to the police when it is absolutely necessary. Anything you say to the police can be used against you. Not to mention arguing with the police usually does not result in winning any gains, but rather agitates them more, making it more likely that they will respond with violence or arrests.
With that in mind, here are some tips that will help you when dealing with the police.
Regardless of what the police say, you do not need a permit to gather in or on a public space, such as a park or on a sidewalk. This is a common claim made by the police. If you are gathering on public property, and not obstructing the movement of other pedestrians, you have a legal right to be there.
Private property is another issue. You can be kicked out of private spaces. Often, but not always, the police have to contact the property owner prior to doing this. This of course does not mean that you shouldn’t do things on private property, but rather that you need to be a bit more cautious–or at least have thought about how you will deal with the police beforehand.
Also, DO NOT ever bring drugs or alcohol to an action. This should go without saying but, having these on you at an action is a risk not only to yourself but to others in the group as it may give the police more reason to harass people
* One thing that our group has found useful is to have a designated person for each action that will deal with the police. This position should rotate so the police don’t assume that this person is a leader–thereby risking the possibility of them being singled out in the future. This person’s job is to deal with the police when they ask the group who is in charge (police think in a very hierarchal manner and will always ask "who’s in charge here" or some variation). This person should explain that they are not in charge but are designated to talk to the police for this event. Usually the police will lay down the "ground rules." This person should let the group know what the police communicated and have the group make a decision accordingly.
If you are stopped by the police
If the police ask you to stop the first thing you should ask is "am I being detained or arrested, and if so for what crime. If not, am I free to go." If you are being arrested, the only information you should supply the police with is your name, date of birth, and address. Anything else you say can and will be used against you. You should remain silent until you have a chance to talk to a lawyer.
If stopped by the police, you do not have to consent to a search of you or your property. This might not stop them from searching anyway, but you should clearly state "I do not consent to this search."
If you are arrested
The process of arrest to release can be long and uncertain, but in our experience will typically take between 2-6 hours and goes much smoother if you have some idea what to expect.
Either after being placed under arrest (i.e. they cuff you) or placed in a police car, the police will generally ask your name, address, and phone number. There is no reason to lie about any of this information, as they will find it out anyway and it will only make things more difficult for you to get out.
They may ask you questions about what happened or what you were trying to do–don’t answer them. You can simply say "I am going to remain silent until I speak with my lawyer." Once you are placed under arrest, there is really nothing that you can tell them that will get you out of the situation. Similarly, if they decide to lecture you–which they frequently do, often invoking the "Look, you seem like a good kid…" line of talking–it is best not to argue and just listen.
If you are arrested here in Kent County, they will take you to the Kent County jail. It’s located at 703 Ball Avenue NE in Grand Rapids. Once there, they will take you out of the car and into a room with a large table where they will ask you to empty your pockets, ask your weight, height, and other such details. The contents of your pockets and any bags that you have will be given to the jail staff. The only thing that might be surprising about this process is that you will have to take out your shoelaces before being moved further into the jail, any drawstrings on clothing (for example on a sweatshirt) will be cut out, and piercings will be removed.
NOTE: At this point, we have heard of people being pulled into side rooms to be questioned. As we said earlier, say nothing–but remember what the police tell you. It may be helpful in subsequent interactions with the court.
Next, you will be placed in a small room with two (usually) additional officers who are employed by Kent County. They will frisk you before passing you into a larger room.
This larger room is a holding area where you will be photographed, finger printed, questioned by a medical examiner, and questioned by a jail staff member. These can happen in any order and the hallmark of how the jail operates seems to be confusion–they will do whatever they can to disorient you by doing the unexpected. During this time, you might be placed in a holding cell with other inmates or they might keep you in the main room. For the most part, this process is fairly straight forward–the fingerprinting and photographing is "just like the movies," but the guards are worse at it than they are in the movies. The medical examiner will ask you questions about your health and the other jail staff will ask you about your employment status, where you live, if you have tattoos (which they will photograph), etc.
Once you have completed these four steps, you will be granted a phone call. If possible, call someone who can come down and get you out. Of course, that assumes that you know someone with access to money. If you don’t–and many of us don’t–call someone who can get in touch with the organizers of the protest. Hopefully, they are already working to get you out. Assuming that someone is coming to get you out, you will typically remain in the holding cell until they come. This can take a long time–but you really can’t do anything other than wait it out. Right before you allowed to leave, you will have to go into another little room where they will return your property. Then, the last door leads to the waiting room where hopefully your friends are there to give you hugs and refresh your spirit.
NOTE: We have typically seen "bond"–the money you have to pay to getout–set at around $500.
If you are not able to find someone to pay bond, you will remain in jail until you can see a judge. If it is a weekday, that should happen the next day or on Monday if it is the weekend. Often in this case the judge will let you out on what is called a "personal recognizance" bond, basically a promise that you will appear in court when ordered.
Once you are out of jail, you will need to start thinking about your legal defense. You can hire a lawyer if you can afford one, but we have had good luck contacting the West Michigan chapter of the ACLU. They will sometimes represent protesters.
ADD & ADHD (the dangers of medicating yourself or your children)
In a world full of televisions, billboards, heavy traffic, and an increased number of human beings and what we are all exposed to, it’s no wonder that the rate of ADD and ADHD is rising in record numbers every year. We are all so desensitized and distracted (entertained) ALL THE TIME that it’s no wonder we have a hard time slowing our minds down on demand. This is a symptom of a much greater disease, which is the mass rate that humanity is growing and consuming this planet. The time has come to get back to nature and slow things down a bit. To shut off our TVs, to GO OUTSIDE, and to eat healthy FOOD (no, fast food is NOT food).
For those of you who have children who suffer from ADD or ADHD - please pay attention. Medication (not only Ritalin) that you give your children can alter their lives forever. Many children grow out of their AD(H)D in their teens years, yet many who have been on medication since childhood turn toward drugs because they are used to numbing their minds and altering their realities with drugs. It’s an easy transition between Rx drugs and recreational drugs...and since it’s administered by the parent or school, they are more likely to trust that it’s OK to do so. You are not only giving them medication, you are giving them the example that it’s OK to take drugs to alter your reality. Personally, I believe that too many parents are just too lazy, busy, distracted to actually put in the time and care it takes to care for a hyperactive child and they want a quick fix. Many times, AD(H)D is triggered by food, sleep, irregular routines, etc. and can be counteracted with a change in lifestyle rather than a pill.
My advice to ANYONE considering putting their children on ANY behavioral medication is to fight the urge and seek other treatment and GET OUT AND VOTE FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA. Marijuana is a healthy alternative to many Rx medications, and should be taken more and more seriously as a VALUE to us as human beings. See the links I have posted below the video for more information. Knowledge is power.
RITALIN
Possible Side Effects:
nervousness
insomnia
skin rash
urticaria
fever
arthralgia
exfoliative dermatitis
erythema multiforme with histopathological findings of necrotizing vasculitis, and thrombocytopenic purpura
anorexia
nausea
dizziness
palpitations
headache
dyskinesia
drowsiness
blood pressure and pulse changes, both up and down
tachycardia
angina
cardiac arrhythmia
abdominal pain
weight loss
Tourette’s syndrome
toxic psychosis
abnormal liver function, ranging from to transaminase elevation
hepatic coma
cerebral arteritis and/or occlusion
leukopenia and/or anemia
transient depressed mood
aggressive behavior
scalp hair loss
neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS)
In children, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, weight loss during prolonged therapy, insomnia, and tachycardia may occur more frequently; however, any of the other adverse reactions listed above may also occur.
DR. CLAUDIA JENSEN RECOMMENDS USING CANNABIS INSTEAD OF RITALIN
THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES: Do your homework for yours and your child’s sake!
I’ve come to the conclusion that Christ was a cool guy, he did cool things, and then these early politicians got a hold of his name and workings and formed christianity around an agenda of THIERS - NOT HIS. Because, I don’t know where Jesus said anything about killing others who are not christian, or that you should not accept those different from you, or to throw stones every chance you get. Jesus would be ashamed of christianity.....therefore, Christianity IS The Anti-Christ.
But I totally don’t believe in zombie jesus. I believe he was cool like Gandhi was cool.....but he was no "son of god". That was thrown in there as propaganda.
I care. The fact THAT I care (and take action) causes "turmoil" in my life. Some people would like to just survive in their bubble world, while I would like to see the world as a whole. I see that your problems and our neighbors problems are our problems, and that unless these things are addressed more often and more honestly, the problems aren’t going to be solved. sweeping them under the rug never created any sort of progress for anyone. I like to be involved in solving more than surviving...and it’s a difficult road to travel. Many people just want me to "let it go" - but I CANT. I think about "issues" all the time. I know that they turn me into a bitch sometimes, but I can’t help it. Because I get bitchy and pissed off at the bull shit around me, should I just stop examining the bull shit? Should I become another sleeping citizen and chose to ignore? Nothing could possibly sound more disgusting, wrong and NOT ME.
I just hope that the people around me realize that I get pissed off out of love, not hate. We should ALL be pissed.
This was a bulletin a friend of mine posted. I want to take a moment and address the situation because I think it's important. Please read:
Bulletin:
This is so interesting and definetly something to consider!!!!!!!
The Bible has warned us that 'A man will come from the East that will be charismatic in nature and have proposed solutions for all our problems and his rhetoric will attract many supporters!'
This man is 'A Muslim'....First, Last and always....and we are AT WAR with the Muslim Nation,
Who is Barack Obama?
Very interesting and something that should be considered in your choice.
Please forward this to all your contacts...this is very scary to think of what lies ahead of us here in our own United States...
snopes.com ..' confirms this is factual. Check for yourself.
Who is Barack Obama?
Probable U. S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black MUSLIM from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white ATHEIST from Wichita , Kansas.
Obama's parents met at the University of Hawaii.
When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL Muslim from Indonesia.
When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to Indonesia. Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta. He also spent two years in a Catholic school.
Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, 'He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school.'
Obama's political handlers are attempting to make it appear that that he is not a radical.
Obama's introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son's education.
Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta.
Wahabism is the RADICAL teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world. Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background. ALSO, keep in mind that when he was sworn into office he DID NOT use the Holy Bible, but instead the Koran.
Barack Hussein Obama will NOT recite the Pledge of Allegiance nor will he show any reverence for our flag. While others place their hands over their hearts, Obama turns his back to the flag and slouches. Do you want someone like this as your PRESIDENT?
Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential candidacy.
The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level - through the President of the United States, one of their own!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My response:
This is blasphemy and I'm surprised that you re-posted it - I'm sorry if you get offended here and I'm totally open to discussion about it, but you know if I've got something to say - I've got to say it. I hear people all the time going crazy over the fact that Barack has a muslim background, but this is NOT a christian country. ANYONE can run for office from any background. Maybe he is what we need to help us unify.
You know I'm not anything religiously, and I'm not even saying I'm going to vote for Barack Obabma, but, the fact of the matter is, all of these people from all of these religions are praying to the same GOD and they are fighting for no reason at all. It's childish and people who give it any creedence at all are only giving this ignorance more power. So what if he was sworn in on the Koran - can you imagine if I was ever sworn into office...I wouldn't use the bible either, and I DON'T say the pledge of alleigance - but that doesn't mean that I would make a great president or do my job right. Religion should have absolutely NOTHING to do with politics. People are pushing this kind of shit around and it does nothing but spread ignorance and fear. It's a poison that is responsible for almost every bad thing that has ever really happened in history, and the only real choice we are left with is weather we take part in that or don't. I wont.
I'm tired of being stressed out. I always knew that people got stressed out about weddings, and now I know why. It's probably got a lot to do with the fact that the groom has very little to do while the bride goes crazy trying to make everything "perfect". Well, I'm not striving for "perfect" - but it seems like everything I am striving for get's shit on. "Things" are always standing in the way - or Shawn decides to put in his two cents at the last minute and throw off EVERYTHING. So, now, I'm basically back at square one. Which SUCKS when your only 3.5 month away from the event itself. That is NOT a lot of time. As much as I thought I wanted to do this, I will say that I am totaly having second thoughts about it. I can't help but wonder why we are doing this if it's so fucking stressful. I want to do it, I love the idea OF it, but when I ask Shawn if he's even remotely excited and I get an answer like "not really, it just stresses me out"....I start to wonder why I'm stressing myself (and apparently him) out for something that should be beautiful and natural. Are we doing the right thing? Are we just playing into the whole traditional wedding bull shit that I always said I wouldn't do? Sometimes I feel like a hypocrite, but, it's not like I don't know that Shawn is the guy I'm going to marry. We pretty much ARE married - minus all THIS bull shit.
I don't want to be alone right now. I'm WAY to pissed. Yet, here I sit, with all this shit to do and no way to do it. We'll be lucky if I don't kill someone today. I'm not looking for anyone's response - I just need to get this shit out.
Wierd. I just had TOTAL deja vu typing those last lines......
There go my plans....right out the fucking window.
UGH!
Shawn has now decided to put in his two cents in on the wedding plans I've so far made...and he won't LET me have it at the fucking house! This blows most of my plans right out the window. He just wants to have the ceremony somewhere and rent a HALL. (I HATE halls). I want it OUTSIDE. PERIOD. I want FIRE. PERIOD. These are two major things I do NOT want to budge on, and now I don't know how in the fuck I'm going to get them. I have a vision for how this thing is supposed to go down, and he's fucking it all up now. It's pissing me off.
Mike Gravel is the only ray of hope in a race that has shown us little to no promising leaders. It was looking as though I was going to have to settle and pick the less of the evils to vote for....until I was introduced to Mike Gravel. This man is exactly what I want in a leader. He is smart, interesting, and full of something that I don't see ANY other candidates with - COMMON SENSE AND MOTIVATION TO CHANGE THE WORLD.
Are we "not ready"? I'm tired of hearing that. "Medical Marijuana won't make it in the election, Michigan just isn't "ready"", "America isn't "ready" for a black/woman president".....remarks like this make my blood boil. We should not hold ourselves back due to the idiots in the back of the class who refuse to evolve. We ARE ready. We just have to have faith in ourselves, and vote and act with our common sense and our conscience - all the time remembering to look out for others just as much as yourself. After all, you are only as free, as well off and as at peace as your neighbor is.
I've been going nuts over the location of the wedding. I want everything to be perfect, and was for some time considering getting a vacation home to have everything, including our honeymoon in. BUT, it was also going to be $2,200. for that. I started thinking about all the other stuff I could get for that kind of money, and have now decided to have the wedding at our home in our back yard and instead invest in a garden and improvements on the house. As far as a honeymoon, I'm thinking it would be cool if Shawn and I could go to Chicago for a weekend after the wedding. I've never been there and I know it would be fun.
So, now, there's the plan. My wedding will be on June 21st, 2008 @ noon exactly at my home in Jenison. We will party the night away in an event to remember. I am working on plans for a fire show (by the lovely cori), a belly dance surprise, and many more things for you all to enjoy. I hope you are looking forward to it as much as I am!!
Now, I know some of you won't read this because "it's too long" (lame excuse)- but I offer you these words, which have helped make me who I am, that have inspired me in almost everything I do, and that I believe still ring true in our time today.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who was willingly killed by his government. I say willingly because he knew the dangers of speaking out against them, and against the war in Vietnam, but he, like I, could not live a life without doing and saying what he felt in his heart was more than right, it was necessary. This man lives in all of us, his words can live on forever through us. Take a moment and read these words, out of respect, out of love for yourself and your fellow man. These are also revolutionary times - and since our own present day MLK is no where in site, we have to rely on the silenced voices of warning before us.
Create Change. Demand PEACE - ultimately, we are ALL worthy and it's about time. Don't you think?...
I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.
The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.
Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement well and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.
Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent? Peace and civil rights don't mix, they say. Aren't you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.
In the light of such tragic misunderstandings, I deem it of signal importance to try to state clearly, and I trust concisely, why I believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church -- the church in Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate -- leads clearly to this sanctuary tonight.
I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia.
Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they can play in a successful resolution of the problem. While they both may have justifiable reason to be suspicious of the good faith of the United States, life and history give eloquent testimony to the fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful give and take on both sides.
Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the NLF, but rather to my fellow Americans, who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents.
The Importance of Vietnam Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.
Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.
My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettoes of the North over the last three years -- especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.
For those who ask the question, "Aren't you a civil rights leader?" and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: "To save the soul of America." We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself unless the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier:
O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath-- America will be!
Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.
As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964; and I cannot forget that the Nobel Prize for Peace was also a commission -- a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for "the brotherhood of man." This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances, but even if it were not present I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the good news was meant for all men -- for Communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for revolutionary and conservative? Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? What then can I say to the "Vietcong" or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life?
Finally, as I try to delineate for you and for myself the road that leads from Montgomery to this place I would have offered all that was most valid if I simply said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be a son of the living God. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them.
This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation's self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.
And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond to compassion my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them too because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.
They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony.
Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not "ready" for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination, and a government that had been established not by China (for whom the Vietnamese have no great love) but by clearly indigenous forces that included some Communists. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives.
For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam.
Before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the French war costs. Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of the reckless action, but we did not. We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization.
After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. But instead there came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators -- our chosen man, Premier Diem. The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly routed out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords and refused even to discuss reunification with the north. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by U.S. influence and then by increasing numbers of U.S. troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change -- especially in terms of their need for land and peace.
The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept and without popular support. All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy -- and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us -- not their fellow Vietnamese --the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go -- primarily women and children and the aged.
They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one "Vietcong"-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them -- mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers.
What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones?
We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only non-Communist revolutionary political force -- the unified Buddhist church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. What liberators?
Now there is little left to build on -- save bitterness. Soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call fortified hamlets. The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these? Could we blame them for such thoughts? We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. These too are our brothers.
Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. What of the National Liberation Front -- that strangely anonymous group we call VC or Communists? What must they think of us in America when they realize that we permitted the repression and cruelty of Diem which helped to bring them into being as a resistance group in the south? What do they think of our condoning the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? How can they believe in our integrity when now we speak of "aggression from the north" as if there were nothing more essential to the war? How can they trust us when now we charge them with violence after the murderous reign of Diem and charge them with violence while we pour every new weapon of death into their land? Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts.
How do they judge us when our officials know that their membership is less than twenty-five percent Communist and yet insist on giving them the blanket name? What must they be thinking when they know that we are aware of their control of major sections of Vietnam and yet we appear ready to allow national elections in which this highly organized political parallel government will have no part? They ask how we can speak of free elections when the Saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. And they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we plan to help form without them -- the only party in real touch with the peasants. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again and then shore it up with the power of new violence?
Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.
So, too, with Hanoi. In the north, where our bombs now pummel the land, and our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable mistrust. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. In Hanoi are the men who led the nation to independence against the Japanese and the French, the men who sought membership in the French commonwealth and were betrayed by the weakness of Paris and the willfulness of the colonial armies. It was they who led a second struggle against French domination at tremendous costs, and then were persuaded to give up the land they controlled between the thirteenth and seventeenth parallel as a temporary measure at Geneva. After 1954 they watched us conspire with Diem to prevent elections which would have surely brought Ho Chi Minh to power over a united Vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again.
When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. Also it must be clear that the leaders of Hanoi considered the presence of American troops in support of the Diem regime to have been the initial military breach of the Geneva agreements concerning foreign troops, and they remind us that they did not begin to send in any large number of supplies or men until American forces had moved into the tens of thousands.
Hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the earlier North Vietnamese overtures for peace, how the president claimed that none existed when they had clearly been made. Ho Chi Minh has watched as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard of the increasing international rumors of American plans for an invasion of the north. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. Perhaps only his sense of humor and of irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation of the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a poor weak nation more than eight thousand miles away from its shores.
At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless on Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called enemy, I am as deeply concerned about our troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy and the secure while we create hell for the poor.
Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.
This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words:
"Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism."
If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. It will become clear that our minimal expectation is to occupy it as an American colony and men will not refrain from thinking that our maximum hope is to goad China into a war so that we may bomb her nuclear installations. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horribly clumsy and deadly game we have decided to play.
The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways.
In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war. I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish conflict:
End all bombing in North and South Vietnam. Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation. Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos. Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations and in any future Vietnam government. Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva agreement.
Part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime which included the Liberation Front. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. We most provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary.
Meanwhile we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative means of protest possible.
As we counsel young men concerning military service we must clarify for them our nation's role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objection. I am pleased to say that this is the path now being chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. Moreover I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.
There is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter the struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy- and laymen-concerned committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.
In 1957 a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the past ten years we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which now has justified the presence of U.S. military "advisors" in Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Colombia and why American napalm and green beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken -- the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment.
I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.
This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. War is not the answer. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Let us not join those who shout war and through their misguided passions urge the United States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. We must not call everyone a Communist or an appeaser who advocates the seating of Red China in the United Nations and who recognizes that hate and hysteria are not the final answers to the problem of these turbulent days. We must not engage in a negative anti-communism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. We must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity and injustice which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops.
These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." We in the West must support these revolutions. It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgement against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores and thereby speed the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every moutain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain."
A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.
This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men. This often misunderstood and misinterpreted concept -- so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force -- has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John:
Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says : "Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word."
We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The "tide in the affairs of men" does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out deperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on..." We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation.
We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world -- a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.
Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter -- but beautiful -- struggle for a new world. This is the callling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.
As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated:
Once to every man and nation Comes the moment to decide, In the strife of truth and falsehood, For the good or evil side; Some great cause, God's new Messiah, Off'ring each the bloom or blight, And the choice goes by forever Twixt that darkness and that light.
Though the cause of evil prosper, Yet 'tis truth alone is strong; Though her portion be the scaffold, And upon the throne be wrong: Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow Keeping watch above his own.
So, the only thing I was SURE about as far as a wedding dress goes is that I wanted Hemp Silk. So after days of recearch (and disapointment) I found a few sites I liked, but were very expensive and a little off as far as my style. Until today. I fell in love about 20 minutes ago with this girls dresses and prices, and have already sent her a message about a custom dress. Check it out: One Of A Kind Coture
The idea behind our wedding is that it is a day of love, not only between ourselves, but for the world around us. Including our children, our extended family and friends, and also the soil and the sun which fertilizes it. I chose the Summer Solstice as our wedding day because I wanted truly to share more than a wedding and vows with all of our friends and family, but a ritual of love and healing for all of us. A celebration to open our hearts to the possibility of positivity in our futures. I also wanted to use the opportunity to make a positive impact on the world around me by making as little an impact on the Earth as possible. This is why I have chosen to have a pot luck style reception.
By choosing to have a pot luck reception, it not only cuts HUGE costs for our wedding day, but will also give our guests a chance to get their hands and energy into the ceremony. I want everyone to be involved and really feel as though you are a part of it. And, hopefully, by including them in the plan that I have, they will take much more than just an experience at a wedding with them. With any luck, some of you will find a local grower and develop a new outlook on the food you eat and the impact it has on your body and your community.
The Golden Rule:
All dishes need to be assigned and/or noted and organized. BUY LOCAL and organic whenever possible. Get to know the growers or local merchants around you and feel good about the dish that you are contributing.
Below is a list of recipes and information that I have found relevant to the menu planning. If there is a dish here that you have an interest in making or know if a dish that you would like to make already, please contact me.
"Foods for the Summer Solstice are typically fresh vegetables and fresh fruits (esp. lemons and oranges), harvested herbs and edible flowers, Summer squash and any yellow or orange colored foods. Honey, pumpernickel bread, barbecue fare, herbal teas, fruit juices, punches, sweet wines, ales & meads."
Asparagus with Wasabi-Mayonnaise Dip
You can substitute wasabi powder for the wasabi paste in this recipe, but we find that the paste imparts a fresher flavor. Force the wasabi powder through a very fine sieve before using.
3 pounds thin to medium asparagus, trimmed 1 cup mayonnaise 4 teaspoons soy sauce 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice 2 teaspoons wasabi paste
Blanch asparagus in 2 batches in a large saucepan of boiling salted water 1 minute. Transfer to a colander and rinse under cold running water to stop cooking. Drain well and pat dry. Whisk together mayonnaise, soy sauce, sugar, lemon juice, and wasabi paste until sugar is dissolved. Serve asparagus with dip.
Acapulco Sunset Spread
1 16 oz can refried beans 1/2 cup Old El Paso Homestyle Garden Pepper Salsa 1 8 oz pkg Neufchatel cheese -- softened 1 avocado -- pitted,, peeled and chopped 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice 1/2 pound small shrimp -- cooked 1 tomato -- chopped chopped fresh cilantro -- optional tortilla chips
In medium bowl, combine beans and salsa; mix well. Spread bean mixture onto serving plate.
In food processor bowl with metal blade or blender container, combine cheese, avocado and lime juice; process until well blended. Spread cheese mixture over bean mixture.
Top with shrimp and tomato; garnish or sprinkle with cilantro. Serve with tortilla chips.
Celestial Chicken Wings
1 c. soy sauce 1 c. pineapple juice 1 clove garlic, pressed 3 T. minced onion 1 t. ground ginger 1/4 c. brown sugar 1 can beer 1/4 c. butter or oil 2 pkg. chicken wings, cut, tips discarded
Combine first 8 ingredients and stir until dissolved. Pour over chicken and marinate overnight or at least 8 hours. Be sure sauce covers all pieces. Drain and save marinade. In a large skillet, heat a small amount of oil and brown chicken on all sides over medium heat. When brown, add 1/2 cup marinade; cover; reduce heat and simmer 15-20 minutes. Stir and add more marinade if necessary. This may be cook4ed a day ahead and then reheated in oven before serving. Add marinade to moisten before heating. Serve hot in a chafing dish. Serves 8-10.
Without separating the dough, roll out both packs of crescent rolls onto a baking sheet, forming them into a single, flat surface. Bake according to the directions on the package. Allow the finished rolls to cool. In a bowl, Mix together the cream cheese, mayonnaise, basil and garlic powder. Spread the mixture evenly over the surface of the rolls. Spread the broccoli, cauliflower and carrots on top of the cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle the salad seasoning mix over all. Cut into squares and serve.
Makes 16 servings
Drinks:
(I think this sounds like an awesome drink for a brinde and groom....especially if I make it myself.:)
Rose Geranium Blackberry Liqueur
4 pt Blackberries 1 c Rose Geranium Leaves 4 c Vodka 1/2 c White Wine 1 c Sugar 1/2 c Water
Combine the berries, geranium leaves, vodka, and wine in a large container with a tight-fitting cover. Set the mixture in a cool dark place to season for one month. Open the container and bruise the berries slightly. Cover and allow the mixture to steep for another five days. Next, strain the mixture. Then pour through a filter. Boil the sugar and water together in a saucepan until the sugar is dissolved. Allow mixture to cool and gradually stir into the liqueur. Taste. When the liqueur is to the desired sweetness, bottle and age for approximately 4 to five weeks. Age in a cool dark place. Makes about one to two quarts.
Iced Applemint Tea
4 cups boiling water 4 regular tea bags 1 cup applement leaves (or peppermint) 2 cups apple juice
BRING water to a BOIL. PLACE tea bags and herbs in a tea pot and pour the water over them STEEP, covered 5 to 10 minutes. REMOVE tea bags and STRAIN out herbs. Let tea cool completely. ADD apple juice. POUR over ice and add sprigs of mint as a garnish.
NOTE: If you use unsweetened apple juice, you may wish to add a little honey to taste (2 tbsp) Use 1 tsp of dried herbs or 1 tblsp of fresh herbs for each cup of water, as a general rule. Adjust to your taste and the strength of the herbs.
Lavender Lemonade
5 cups water 1 1/2 cups sugar 12 stems fresh lavender 2 1/4 cups lemon juice
BOIL 2 1/2 cups of water with the sugar. ADD the lavender stems and remove from heat. PLACE on the lid and let cool. When cool, add 2 1/2 cups water and the lemon juice. STRAIN out the lavender. SERVE the lavender lemonade with crushed ice and GARNISH with lavender blossoms.
Serves 8.
Breads:
I freaking LOVE bread..
Fresh Herb Bread
1 package (1 Tbs, 15 ml) dried yeast 3 1/2 cups (875 ml) bread or all-purpose flour, approximately 1 Tbs (15 ml) sugar 1 tsp (5 ml) salt 1/2 cup (125 ml) non-fat dry milk 1 1/4 cups (310 ml) hot water 1 Tbs (15 ml) butter at room temperature One or more of the following finely chopped fresh herbs: 2 Tbs (30 ml) dill 2 Tbs (30 ml) savory 2 Tbs (30 ml) basil 1 Tbs (15 ml) oregano 1 Tbs (15 ml) thyme 1 Tbs (15 ml) marjoram
Blend the yeast and 1 1/2 cup (375 ml) of the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar, salt, milk, and hot water and beat for 3 minutes with a wooden spoon or electric mixer. Add the butter and continue beating until the batter pulls away in strings from the sides of the bowl. Gradually add the remaining flour until the dough has formed a ball and can be kneaded. Knead on a lightly floured surface until the dough is smooth and satiny, about 8 minutes. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning it to grease all sides, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. Turn the dough out onto a floured, flatten it with your fingers, sprinkle it with the herb or herbs of your choice, and knead for 2 minutes, and form into a ball. Form the ball into an oval about 9 inches (23 cm) long and 6 inches (15 cm) wide. Fold the oval in half lengthwise, pinch the seam, and place seam side down in a lightly greased 9x5-inch (23x12 cm) loaf pan. Cover with wax paper or parchment and allow the dough to rise until doubled in volume, about 45 minutes. Bake in the middle of a preheated 375F (190C) oven until the crust is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry and clean, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately turn out onto a wire rack to cool on a wire rack before serving.
Makes 1 loaf.
Rosemary Biscuits
1 3 oz package cream cheese, softened 1 3/4 cups of biscuit mix 1/2 cup milk 2 tsp chopped fresh or dried rosemary
CUT cream cheese into biscuit mix with a pastry fork until crumbly, add milk and rosemary, stirring just until the dry ingredients are moistened. TURN biscuit dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead 3 or 4 times. PAT or ROLL dough to 3/4 inch thickness; cut diagonally with a knife into one inch diamonds. BAKE at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, or, until lightly browned.
YIELD : 2 dozen biscuits.
Solstice Herb Bread
3 C. flour 1 tbsp. sugar 1 tsp. salt 1 pkg. dry active yeast 2 tbsp. chopped fresh chives 2 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary 1 tsp. fresh thyme 1 1/4 C. hot water 2 tbsp. vegetable shortening
Mix 2 cups of the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Add herbs, water, and shortening. Beat slowly, stirring in remaining cup of flour until smooth. Scrape batter from sides of bowl and let rise in a warm place for 35 minutes or until it doubles in bulk. Punch down and beat with a spoon for about 15 seconds. Place dough in a greased loaf pan, patting down and forming a loaf shape with your hands. Cover and let rise again for about 30 minutes or until it again doubles in bulk. Bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes. Brush top with butter or margarine and remove from pan to cool.
Strawberry Bread
3-1/4 cups flour 1-3/4 cups sugar 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 3 eggs, slightly beaten 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons oil Two 10-ounce packages sliced frozen strawberries and juice 1-1/4 cups chopped walnuts (opt)
Mix first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Add liquid ingredients and blend well. Do not use a mixer. Pour into 2 greased and floured loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes.
Side Items:
BAKED TOMATOES Serves 6-8 3 whole fresh tomatoes 1, 12-oz bag of shredded cheddar cheese Fresh parsley
Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. Slice the tomato 1/2-inch thick, place on tin foil. Liberal spread cheddar cheese on the tomatoes. Baked for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle parsley over tomatoes.
SUMMER SQUASH Serves 6-8 1 summer squash 1/4 cup of butter Black pepper
Need one medium size sauce pan, set flame to medium. Place butter in pan. Slice squash approximately 1/8-inch thick, layer into pan, sprinkling pepper to taste on each layer. Stirring occasionally, cook to taste. Takes 20-30 minutes.
Main Dishes:
We will be providing BBQ (Chicken, Beef, Maybe some Buffalo?), so there isn't a lot of need for main dishes. BUT, it would be nice if someone would make something for the vegetarians in the crowd. Here's a suggestion:
1/2 cup olive oil or salad oil 1 large onion (chopped) 2 cloves garlic (minced) 1 medium eggplant (diced) 1/4 pound mushrooms (sliced) 1 - 1 lb. can Italian-style tomatoes undrained 1 - 8 oz. can tomato sauce 1/2 cup dry red wine 1 medium carrot (shredded) 1/4 cup chopped parsley 2 tsp. oregano leaves 1 tsp. dry basil 1 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper 12 to 16 whole-wheat or regular lasagna noodles Boiling salted water Butter or margarine 2 cups ricotta cheese 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese 1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
Heat oil in a wide frying pan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, eggplant, and mushrooms; cook, stirring frequently, for about 15 minutes. Add tomatoes (break up with a spoon) and their liquid, tomato sauce, wine, carrot, parsley, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for about 30 minutes. Uncover and continue cooking until sauce thickens (you should have about 5 cups of sauce) set aside. Meanwhile, cook lasagna in boiling salted water according to package directions. Drain, rinse with cold water, and drain again. Spread about 1/4 of the sauce in a buttered, shallow 3-quart casserole, or 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Arrange 1/3 of the noodles in an even layer over sauce. Dot noodles with 1/3 of the ricotta cheese. Distribute 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese evenly over the ricotta cheese, then sprinkle with 1/4 of the Parmesan cheese. Repeat this layering two more times; spread remaining sauce evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese. Bake, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven, for 40 to 50 minutes, or until bubbly and heated through. Cut into squares to serve.
