On January 12 the... [deletion of a legal reference, January 2013]
What we are fighting is a form of violence. When the elderly are abused... [deletion of a legal reference, January 2013] ... but it has broader implications. On the personal level... [deletion of a legal reference, January 2013]... On the societal level, everyone must renounce violence of all kinds and never ignore it, as families are devastated...
Also today (Jan. 12th), the popular website AlterNet.org ran our essay that you received last week:
Greeting the Fall of the Empire: a Message of Peace - WITH NEWLY ADDED CARTOON.
[Did you miss the cartoon? Go to culturechange.org/cms/content/view/694/1/]
AlterNet did some good reworking of the title:
Vision: Why the Fall of American Empire Can Be a Good (and Peaceful) Thing: The future belongs to the simple-living closer-to-the-land folk who can utilize what is known as Appropriate Tech.
It may be great timing that my speaking out about Derrick Jensen's advocating violence against humans, in the above-mentioned article first published January 3, came right before the Arizona atrocities. People are speaking out about the mass murder in Tucson in terms of accountability for messages of violence from the right wing. Fascism is violent, but it's not mere coincidence that our dominant culture and Western Civilization also depend on violence. I believe that a peace movement or left wing has to be the nonviolence option; I'm sure Gandhi, King and Lennon would agree. I'm so glad AlterNet helped get our message across. See it along with my broson's cartoon created for my article: http://www.alternet.org/story/149493
On the AlterNet website is a petition to sign online, which I read and signed. It was advertised as such:
Tell Sarah Palin: Renounce Violent Political Rhetoric
Started by: CREDO Action
Targets: Sarah Palin
"Targets" must be a holdover from before Palin's "crosshairs" notoriety. To sign the petition, go to Change.org
Much more ironic is "Obomba's" "call for civility" in a well-attended speech in Tucson on Wednesday. I doubt that people in Afghanistan and Pakistan can quite trust his sincerity, when he has continued and extended a petroleum-related war he inherited. Another problem: as one news story said, "he [Obama] came to Arizona to do: tell everybody, from across the political spectrum, to tamp down the rhetoric." But, is it mainly rhetoric that government officials and critics of government need to change, or change actual policies? Obama is a master of rhetoric, and his skill at it has held back agitation for needed social change.
But, in the case of writers such as Derrick Jensen and some fringe publications that have called for violence against police, curbing the rhetoric is important: because that's their whole product, rhetoric (or it seems like it). No doubt, fans of Derrick Jensen, who rightly love his pro-nature writings, are not happy about my criticizing him. However, for him and his webmaster to accuse me of "lies" and committing "innumerable inaccuracies" (unspecified) is wrong and even provocative. I agree, "tamp down the rhetoric" and let's deal with real issues with civility and truth. One good thing to come out of this is that Derrick is now considering making a clarifying statement on the matter of violence toward humans, that Culture Change would place in the original article and share with other publications that have picked up the article and cartoon.
Thank you for reading Culture Change and spreading the word. Best wishes for your first month of the new year,
Jan
Jan C. Lundberg, independent oil industry analyst
Publisher and Editor,
Culture Change
www.culturechange.org
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