Update [2005-7-7 13:59:9 by shirlstars]: Today’s outrage in London has doubled my personal sense of anger and rage beyond rage. Will it never stop? If I was heartbroken when I wrote this last evening I am that much more so today. But I am so totally angry right now it is a good thing I am in the wild outback of small town Idaho. I have an overwhelming desire to stand in front of Bush and Blair and spit in their faces. If there is karma, let it come forth now and smite these two on the spot. We can add to the numbers below the dead, torn apart and wounded in London.  

Yep, I am having one of those days.  We all have them from time to time, some of us more often than others, but we all know what it’s like to have one of those days.  

This is going to be a rant, but I don’t think I can maintain the level of anger that is required to rant properly.  That doesn’t mean there isn’t anger, it just means I am too overcome with the magnitude of it all to sustain just anger at the expense of all the other emotions.  I am going to make generalized statements, so please know that I know it is not all, or everyone in a particular group, or probably even most. . .it is the hugely lurking “they” and “Them” of every category I mention, I just don’t have the where with all to qualify every thought and statement at the moment.
I sit in my small home which is adequate for my needs.  I have my small concerns which are important to my small world of me, but in relation to many others, really nothing at all.  I have plenty of food to eat.  I have clean fresh water to drink. I have clothes to wear. I have far more of everything than I need. By world standards, I am fabulously wealthy.

Maybe life was easier in the days before we had access to so much “instant” information.  Maybe it was easier when all the news that was in the local little paper was about our village.  And when we heard news from the seats of power in our  counties, states and our nation and even the world, it was days, weeks or months after the fact. Maybe it was easier for us to turn our backs when we knew too little or it was too late.  

Today I am angry about journalists and political operatives undermining our country, intent upon destroying an individual because of revenge over political differences.  I am angry about lies and liars.  I am angry that most likely nothing will happen to rebuke, chastise or punish such people.  Most likely not in this case and quite possibly not in the larger lies and liars who have sent our children off to die in a foreign land while they likewise cause the deaths of innocent thousands of men women and children in that nation. I am extremely angry about our liberties being stripped away from us one after another by minions of giant corporations, some of them republican elected officials, some of them Democratic elected officials.  I am angry at a long, long history of voter irregularities and disenfranchisement that our congress does not want to investigate or even look at cleaning up.

I am angry that there are people without homes living on our streets with no place to go, without food to survive, without medical treatment, with very few or not nearly enough people, organizations or agencies, or money to help them.  I am angry that children in American are starving and have inadequate shelter, food, clothing and loving.  I am angry that women and children are being raped, that boys and girls. . .children, for God sake, are being sexually abused and misused.  I am angry that our elected elite are destroying our education system while feeding the behemoth corporate monsters who support this disaster of dumbing down the people.  I am angry at the TV, Radio, major mega-media for having no concerns beyond the dollars on the bottom line. . .Owners salivating over the big bucks, Editors and Producers fearful of their high salaries and perks, so-called journalists fearful of their paychecks. . .etc. etc. I am angry about what is being done in the name of God and Religion (STILL. . .the crusades taught us nothing, apparently).  Greed, hatred, avarice, debauchery, torture, death of innocents, lying, cheating, stealing, dishonor, selfishness, fear. . .I am angry at it all!

In 1994 we had Rwanda.  America and the World turned our backs on it.  What’s a few million dark-skinned “uncivilized” tribal “thems”.  They are just killing each other.  Not our concern.  Right now, today, this very moment as you and I are sitting in relative comfort in our homes, surrounded with our basic needs for the most part; men, women and children are being slaughtered, raped, disfigured, their homes and villages destroyed, their means of supporting themselves even in the most meager ways totally wiped out.  In the Congo, in Africa, this has been going on for some time now. . .more than 4 million. . .FOUR MILL LION dead over the past few years.  The bands of warring tribesmen have destroyed so much that they have turned now to destroy the only thing they can see that hasn’t yet been totally torn asunder.  They are gang raping women and children in front of their helpless family members.  Eight to ten men at a time, gang raping.  And they return, or others like them, in a few days or a few weeks to do it all over again.  

But we are America.  The once strongest nation in the world.  A once thought of honorable and ethical nation.  And frankly, we are far more concerned about the oil in Iraq and Iran and some sort of role of dominance there.  And really. . .they are just those dark skinned backward, uncivilized tribes having a little war with each other.  NONE OF OUR BUSINESS…..And they are, as I said, that dark skin tone, you know?  FOUR MILLION DEAD!  Not our concern.  A little perspective:  4 million people is 3 times the entire population of my state of Idaho.  Thousands upon thousands of women being brutally raped, endlessly.  Not our concern.  

And if I weren’t so deeply sad in my soul, so deeply overwhelmed with what is going on in almost every corner of this world, I would be angry beyond any means to control it, and I would become no better than the cruel, heartless disgusting men playing the major roles in every one of the things I have mentioned.  

Instead of feeling hopeless and so deeply pained and sad that I am paralyzed into inaction, I will do what I can, but I will DO SOMETHING, NOW, TODAY! I am not asking you to give money or do what you cannot afford to do or are not capable of doing, I am asking you to do SOMETHING.  If not about the concerns in the Congo, then something else.  We cannot do everything, and God knows there is an unending pile of things that need doing.  Find one damn thing that you can do, whether it is in your neighborhood, your town, your county, your sate, the Nation, the world, FIND ONE SMALL DAMN THING THAT YOU CAN DO.  And do it NOW.

Many of you are already doing all that you can!  Bless you and thank you.  For those of you who can find one more small space on your plate for one more thing, please do what you can.  Even if it is just writing to some of these women to encourage them. . .Please?

Women for Women International

Get connected to a woman in need through Zainab Salbi’s organization. The goal of Women for Women International is to take women from victim to survivor to active citizen. With the Emergency Response Fund, Women for Women International can move quickly to help women in post-conflict societies. You can join the Global Voices program, and support skills and leadership training for a community of women. As a sponsor, you can provide direct financial aid and emotional support through letter writing. For example, $27 a month for one year will provide lifesaving assistance to a woman in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Contact Information:
Women for Women International
1850 M Street, NW Suite 1090
Washington, DC 20036
PH: 202-737-7705

If you pray or meditate or send healing energy, then please add this spot on our globe to the long list of the many that need our thoughts, concerns and prayers.