Dear Vocalist friends, colleagues and community,
Having just returned to cyberspace after an absence and attempting to
respect the "netiquette" of this forum, I am sitting on mountains of
stuff about all this, as I know many of you are - I have endeavoured,
probably not too successfully, to keep this short...
I extend my deepest condolences to all victims of the recent atrocities
in New York City and Washington and to all victims of violence
everywhere, regardless of cause...
For those who may be interested in "where I was, when..." My summer gig
in Whitehorse, Yukon ended September 10. The next morning, I had just
arisen when my roommate said to me, "I don't think you'll be flying out
today, there are planes crashing all over..." Life has been surreal
(more than ever...) since that moment... We had no tv, but we did have
internet and radio - the local CBC was broadcasting a report of a Korean
airliner, diverted to Whitehorse from a refuelling stop in Anchorage,
Alaska, possibly hijacked, landing here within a few minutes, escorted
by Canadian and U.S. fighter planes. Local police were advising all
downtown businesses and schools to evacuate, in case the the airliner
ended up crashing on the town. Thankfully, at least this part of the
September 11 tragedy turned out to be a false alarm, actually a "bit of
good news", as Whitehorse opened its communal heart to the passengers of
this and other airliners forced to land here... To make a long, weird
story short, I was able to fly back here to Victoria four days later.
Struggling to offer a succinct message to this international community,
If I can say one thing, it is this: Please, as never before, for the
love of all that is truly good, for the present and future survival of
all of us, *Question Everything*. Deeply question all aspects of your
media and your politicians, who are not telling you the deeper truths of
the deep-seated, centuries-old, truly insidious global systemic
pathology of violence that is fuelled by all-consuming greed. Question
yourselves. Question the questions. I will not tell you what to think
and how to act; I will only attempt to question how all of us and
certainly myself, think and act... The wisdom of Albert Einstein has
never been more critically relevant: "Problems cannot be solved at the
same level of awareness that created them." [or] "We cannot solve
problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created
them."
I unequivocally condemn the psychosis of September 11. Having said
that, I think I have some clue as to its root systemic causes...
Contemporary "western" culture/economy, with about 20 % of Earth's
population, is consuming about 80 % of Earth's resources. As a society,
"western civilization" is literally cannibalizing Mother Earth, at the
expense of thousands of innocents. Right now, every day, 30,000
children starve to death - one direct result of stagnating global human
and natural infrastructures on the brink of unprecedented collapse due
to the blind, suicidal pathology that is greed. Our most respected,
most "mainstream" scientists are telling us none of us, no matter how
rich or poor, is immune to this pathology which, according to
overwhelming objective data, "spiking" since the advent of the
Industrial Age, has been causing and will continue to cause
unprecedented global catastrophe within this century. The one bright
spot is, by deeply questioning our current abilities for truly informed
discourse, we may yet be able to mitigate and somehow (literally)
weather this clear and present danger - we may yet evolve to allow
ourselves to be awake to whom we are becoming... You won't necessarily
get this stuff on CNN and the like... They tend to be part of the
pathology... There is currently much confusion, arising from
misinformation and deliberate disinformation, between national/cultural
socioeconomic policies and identities and individual innocents
worldwide...
As I often do, I offer a few quotes, websites, etc., some old, some new,
as a postscript. Again, I will not presume to tell anyone what to think
- I will only attempt to point toward a few truths - that we will all,
as the diverse beings that we are, will all find different paths to our
own certain individual and synergistic truths... I apologize for any
abuse of this specialized (and truly special...) forum and hope that
more of you will sign up and contribute to further informed, truly
compassionate, transformational dialogue on Vocalist Backstage and other
forums...
"I really should be singing..." I really aspire to be in a world where
I can... There is only healing to be done, as never before... In the
process of bringing light to all this unprecedented weirdness and
darkness, one must not forget to laugh and dance... So, a skeleton
walks into a bar and orders a beer and a mop.
Blessings.
Michael
Michael Eckford <michaelb@i...>
Michael Eckford <michaelb@i...>
Green Eccentric Introvert With Loud Voice(s)
Earth, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
http://www.angelfire.com/me/interdependence/
"...it is our estrangement from the oneness of all being (or, in
religious terms, from the God who is one) that is the source of our
greatest illusion, estrangement and misunderstanding of ourselves." -
The Politics of Meaning – “Restoring Hope and Possibility in an Age of
Cynicism" by Michael Lerner
"We believe that it is time to face very tough issues which may be
painful, and deal with all parts of the organization, and create a new
structure, new relationships, new operating models that create a solid
foundation." - Bob Weiss, Chairman of the Board, Toronto Symphony
Orchestra
"As long as we have vast unmet human needs and idle human and nonhuman
resources, finance should never be allowed to stand in the way of doing
what must be done. Could anything be more insane than for the human
race to die out because we 'couldn't afford' to save ourselves." -Dr.
John Hargrove Hotson (1993), Emeritus Professor of Economics, University
of Waterloo and co-founder of COMER
"I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore." - Peter
Finch in the movie, "Network"
Manifesto for the Millennium http://www.creative-learning.ca/manifesto/
Independent Media Centre http://indymedia.org/
Welcome to New Stories http://www.newstories.org/
The Co-Intelligence Institute promotes collaboration
http://www.co-intelligence.org/
Centre for Media & Democracy http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/index.html
"Decide to Network" by Robert Muller, and Michael Ventura
http://www.alternativeculture.com/spirit/muller.htm
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