Injustice in Turkey

Aug 262013

Bob Orleck’s response to the following article:

Halkias: A Middle East primer – its people

by Opinion from Telly Halkias | August 23, 2013

See more at: http://vtdigger.org/2013/08/23/halkias-a-middle-east-primer-its-people/#sthash.hxc1KsMk.dpuf

Bob Orleck August 25, 2013 at 6:08 pm

Article quote: “Turks are Sunni Muslims governing a secular state, the only country of the Middle East with that distinction.”

The article was informative and I enjoyed reading what the author had to say. My knowledge of the Middle East comes mostly from attending and teaching Sunday school in church so I am familiar with many of the cultural groups that exist throughout that part of the world.

The reason I am posting on this is because I have direct personal knowledge of the situation that currently exists in Turkey and how through arrest of their own military leaders and journalists, the civilian Islamist government has made major moves to turn Turkey into a dictatorial fundamentalist Islamic state. Once Turkey was a free secular state and once it was a close ally to both the United States and Israel but no more. The loss of this even hand that Turkey brought to Middle East politics should be a concern for all who worry about that part of the world.

One only needs to understand who Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was and what he established in Turkey when he became the First President of the Turkish Republic and then consider the turmoil that is happening there today as Islamists have moved strongly to remove the influence of his teachings and the social and political change he brought to Turkey which made it the only secular governed country in the Middle East.

The military was dedicated to the teachings of Ataturk and thus acted to insure a secular and democratic approach to governing. Somehow the Islamists got the upper hand what seems to be about 3 years ago and summarily imprisoned those leaders who were insuring freedom for the people.

Democracy is no longer the order of the day in Turkey. If you do your research on the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer (Balyoz) cases, you will know what I am talking about. Half of the Admiralty of the Turkish Navy, good men, and Turkish patriots who have defended in Turkey the kind of freedom we take for granted in the United States, as well as other top military leaders have been arrested and imprisoned on fabricated, doctored digital evidence that they conspired to overthrow the Islamist Turkish Republic. The evidence used to convict over 400 of Turkey’s top military leaders was generated in 2003 and has reference to happenings in 2006. There is something terribly wrong with that kind of evidence and there is no doubt that it is fabricated. Even more wrong is when the courts and prosecutors, who are controlled by the executive have accepted and relied on this bogus evidence! The military leaders I speak of are now in prison for no offense other than being pro-western and caring for the rule of law in what is becoming more and more a fundamentalist dictatorship.

Even the United Nations has declared the pre-trial detention of 250 of these military leaders violates their human rights but Turkey seems to be ignoring that because they are still in jail. As Turkey moves closer and closer to a civil war, the threat to the United States and our ally Israel is serious and our press and our people need to know more about what is happening there. This article seems to have missed this sore spot that is festering right now and our press has done little to follow it and that is the reason I write this.

I know that Mr. Halkias’s discussion was not intended to focus on Turkey and its turmoil but was about the cultural makeup of the Middle East, however, I hope my input has added something to the conversation.

Jamal Kheiry August 25, 2013 at 7:44 pm responded

Mr. Orleck,

To shed light on your word “somehow,” when referring to an Islamist-leaning party gaining power in Turkey… there’s no mystery to it: they were elected. And during Turkey’s history since Ataturk, the military undemocratically stomped on anyone who didn’t follow the secular path, even if it was the will of the majority.

It’s important to acknowledge that often the types of governments people freely elect, ironically, end up being anti-democratic, at least in some regards.

Bob Orleck August 25, 2013 at 9:34 pm replied

Jamal Kheiry quote: “To shed light on your word “somehow,…”

Mr. Kheiry: You misunderstand what I meant by “somehow”. Prime Minister Erdogan has been in elected office for a long time and what I was questioning was how he was able to imprison 450 top military leaders when they have all the guns. I have not engaged in any conversation about how that occurred so it became “somehow”.

True the prime minister won the election. But he has recently changed his tactics since doing so and the people do not like what he has been doing so there are now mass peaceful protests and like a true dictator who wants to stay in power he has turned on his people with water cannons and tear gas.

The people were with him in the past because he allowed for the secular democratic ideals of Ataturk to function. That would have not been the case but for the fact that the military followed and made clear that the country would function under such. But the prime minister is an autocrat, who saw the opportunity to throw off the one thing that held back the exercise of his lust for single handed power and that was the implicit threat of a coup d’état, as real or imagined as it might be.

By ignoring the rule of law and wrongly imprisoning military leaders who had done no wrong, he instilled a fear into the rest of the military that they might wake up in the morning, read the news and see that he is after them too. So with the imprisonment of those who held his power in check and of the journalists who try to expose what he is up to, Erdogan is able to take his unrestrained rule down the Islamist path which it seems he is doing.

What we may be seeing is that the majority of the Turkish people want the freedoms that the military made possible and tacitly enforced and are willing to stand up for their military friends and for those freedoms.

And it is important to note about this that the evidence that was used to charge these men with conspiracy to overthrow the Republic of Turkey has been shown by experts there and in our country to be bogus. The UN has found that these men have had their human rights violated. The matter is before the Supreme Court in Turkey right now but the executive branch has apparent control of not only the courts, but the prosecutors as well and because they have not been able to suppress the lawyers who are fighting for the rule of law and their clients, Erdogan has turned on them also.

This is one of those situations you speak of where a democratically elected government has become undemocratic and I might add grossly so.

Telly Halkias August 26, 2013 at 12:36 am-opinion author commented

Dear Messrs. Orleck and Kheiry,

Thank you for jumping in and continuing the conversation in a learned and civil way.

It is true that the situation in Turkey, past just my cursory review of their demographic, has turned more dangerous in the past half-decade.

Turkey was a considerable ally and therefore asset during the Cold War, armed to the teeth, I might add, by the US, on the USSR’s southern flank. In fact, US arms manufacturers still do considerable business there as my own direct personal links to the region can attest.

Because of Ataturk’s secular national philosophy, in the 20th century Turkey was able to lift itself out of the rubble of the Ottoman Empire and not only survive, but thrive. Militarily, it’s quite possible that it has no power match in the Middle East; therefore, it served/s the US as a huge counterbalance against Islamic extremism, a sort of 500-lb gorilla in the room that could secure the northern frontier of the entire mess below it.

This security is now in question. Fundamentalists have a way of influencing huge percentages of the electorate; still, it remains, at least for now, secular. Turkey will play a key role this next decade in the direction of the entire Middle East. We would be wise to pay close attention to developments there–perhaps as close as anywhere else.

Please feel free to continue your dialogue at your leisure and discretion. Thank you again for your interest in the subject.

very respectfully,

Telly Halkias

Jamal Kheiry August 26, 2013 at 8:24 am concluded with

Mr. Orleck,

Thanks for the clarification.

An added note by Bob Orleck: On October 9, 2013, the Supreme Court of Turkey failed to render justice as they upheld the conviction of these innocent, patriotic military officers. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers and speak out on the injustice when you can.

Emperor Shumlin’s new clothes

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Aug 262013

Bob Orleck reponses and exchanges shared on vtdigger.com article:

State regulators say universal broadband is within reach

by Hilary Niles | August 24, 2013

http://vtdigger.org/2013/08/24/state-regulators-say-universal-broadband-is-within-200-addresses-of-being-met/

Bob Orleck August 24, 2013 at 10:59 am replied:

Quote from the article: “During Gov. Peter Shumlin’s 2010 campaign, he pledged to usher in universal broadband by the end of 2013.”

Another quote: “Vermont is now within fewer than 200 addresses from the governor’s universal broadband goal.”

Another: “That’s not to say … those 200 are the only places left without service. It’s not even to say that all those addresses will actually be connected by Dec. 31.”

Then this one: “… that they’ll at least have broadband solutions proposed for all remaining addresses by the end of this year.”

Sounds like a bunch of double talk to me. Folks, please analyze all those words in the quotes and tell me if you don’t just feel like screaming. I guess naked words mean little or nothing today and one sentence does not have to be consistent with another sentence even if it is in the same paragraph. Maybe it is because our attention span is so short or something like that. Who knows, but politicians have gotten away with this kind of talk for years and I guess they will always try.

Talking about naked, to say we have internet when we don’t kind of reminds me of the tale of the “Emperor’s new clothes” that you will recall the weavers hoodwinked the King into believing his clothing was invisible. I am sure he was shocked and shocked many others when he realized he had no clothes on and was out in the public. Our public internet is invisible and if the situation is the same as with the King we have an invisible invisible situation that when they expose it to the public as in this article double talk the fact that it is invisible would not shock too many because the invisible is invisible. Huh? I think this makes as much sense as the combined quotes above.

I do not think any stretching of the word “usher in” would cover having “proposed solutions” in place by the end of the year. Think about what those two little words mean. It means taking a person to his seat for the show to begin. It means the “beginning of” and not the proposed possibility of if some big company who takes our money (grant money is our money you know) to do things it promises over and over to do, but then does not do but says it did or you could interpret that it might have although you can’t see it and the government says it has it covered by one of these promises someday but makes no promises and yet by the end of the year the Governor said he has lived up to his pledge to provide “universal broadband”. Huh?

“Universal?” Hey, that gives me a great idea!! Let’s have a “universal ‘single payer’ broadband supplier” which surely this Governor can handle by using the same tactics he has for “ushering in” the “single payer” health system. That way we don’t have to worry about what it costs because he just won’t tell anyone about how we are going to do it or how we are going to pay for it.

We will all just trust that the Governor will do what he says and when he is ready to move on to a higher office he will just smile as he does and as he departs will tell us that he learned it all from his good friends, the King’s weavers.

Kathy Leonard August 24, 2013 at 1:05 pm responded.

Lest your forget…

April 7, 2010 — “Three years ago, Vermont’s Republican governor Jim Douglas announced the state would achieve 100 percent broadband coverage by 2010, making Vermont the nation’s first “e-State.”

Bob Orleck August 25, 2013 at 5:13 pm responded to her response:

Kathy: I don’t know where you got that April 7, 2010 date or who you are quoting but you seem to have forgotten some things yourself.

It was in 2007 when Governor Douglas set the goal. The global financial meltdown came in 2008 followed by recession. The banks stopped lending which threw a kink into the financing. You forgot the sale of Verizon to Fairpoint in 2008 that drug on into 2009 and then Fairpoint filing for bankruptcy. You seem to have easily overlooked that Lehman Brothers collapsed along with financing plans and Senator Leahy’s inability to get federal loan guarantees.

It was 2010 when your Governor made his pledge “to usher in universal broadband by the end of 2013.” Here it is only in August and he has declared that his mission was accomplished.

Give us a break. A proposed solution is not an ushering in. If you can’t equate him with the King’s weavers, you are just looking the other way, something that all liberals seem to be able to do for the sake of “the cause”.

Ask me what ”the cause” is and I’ll tell you.

Janice Prindle August 25, 2013 at 6:11 pm then replied

Bob, Even though I agree with you about what a sham this announcement is, I find your gratuitous comment about liberals offensive. I am a liberal, and I am well able to criticize both governors for dropping the ball, and so are my many liberal friends who are equally frustrated with our lack of access to true high speed internet (especially when some of us are paying for it, but not getting it). Ultimately this is not about being liberal or conservative, any more than wanting to have good roads and other public utilities, not to mention good government, is a liberal or conservative issue.

Bob Orleck August 25, 2013 at 7:54 pm answered Janice

Janice: I probably do owe you an apology but I did say what I did with good reason.

Maybe I should have said “most liberals” or “misled liberals” for it seems clear to me that the most outrageous, costly, non-productive projects that make current situations worse rather than better come from liberal democrats who think more government is better, no matter how many times over and over and over they fail to make much of anything better. They just keep spending taxpayer money as if it was their personal political war chest to enable them to gain constituents who are beholden to them thus insuring victory at the polls and power at the capital. The system is broken that allows the party in power to do that and there will be a price to pay when that system collapses.

With that being said, I am impressed by the those liberals and true environmentalists like Kathy who oppose projects like the environment destroying subsidy driven wind turbine farms that our Governor is embracing. I am a conservative but without the opposition from folks on the same side of the political aisle as the Governor on this, we will irreversible degrade our headwaters, destroy plant and animal life at the bottom of the food chain and cause irreparable damage to the world we live in, not only aesthetically but environmentally as we destroy raptors, other birds and bats by operating these monsters.

Yet those money driven interests that are destroying our ridgelines are able to march forward with boldness. Why? Because “most liberals” do it for “the cause”! Most of them are being deceived.

We do need to work together to defeat such things and to hold our leaders accountable instead of buying into the them versus us lie. My apologies to you.

Kathy Leonard August 26, 2013 at 1:14 pm then just had to say:

“…something that all liberals seem to be able to do for the sake of “the cause”.

Bob, your stereotype preclude further response from me and imo mirrors stereotypes currently shutting down our national dialog — not useful. You appear to have conservative answers for everything but most people understand that the answers need to come from all of us as individuals, not as caricatures put in boxes.

to which Bob Orleck August 27, 2013 at 10:02 am replied:

Kathy: I can only TILII and just because IYO the moon is made of green cheese don’t make it so. You opinion is baseless and IMHO most political liberals are the mulish intolerant stereotypers especially in Washington, DC where dictatorial tyranny from the left is rampant and where even government agencies are being used as their lackeys to hurt and destroy opponents.

Kathy Leonard August 27, 2013 at 12:21 pm then got nasty:

Bob Orleck: Your over-caffeinated posts remind me of the climate that we endured in Randolph when you made your bid for Selectboard in 2012. People won’t be convinced of ideas if you just lump invective on them, as the results clearly showed.

“Green cheese/mulish/intolerant/dictatorial tyranny/rampant/lackeys….

these aren’t words you want to use when you want people to listen to you, so maybe you just need to rant.

Bob Orleck-August 27, 2013 at 8:29 pm with grin on his face replied and got the last word:

Hey Kathy: How would you define what your post was? Does it qualify as a rant? I drink decaf, what are you on? Anyway, kind of think I did pretty well in a town controlled by special interests if I do say so myself. Had 500 people who agreed with me anyway! No matter, though, my loss allowed me the time to address liberal hypocrites where I find them.

I don’t know how old you are but I remember when all Democrats it seemed really cared about their country and did not do things to damage it. I think maybe those older Dems who are still around are misled to think those Democrats of today are the same as those of the past. They are not! Witness what Governor Shumlin is doing to our environment with wind turbines and its all about money, his promoting and signing of a defective physician assisted suicide bill and that is about power and money also and his financially incomprehensible quest for a single payer healthcare system that will threaten the very care we have now is all about power and money. I could have been a Democrat back in the 50’s and 60’s but not now.

My father was not only a Democrat, he was a union organizer and he was a patriot and I never heard from his mouth what I hear from hate filled, foundationless, left wing radicals who we call our leaders. They lead alright and just like lemmings we follow and are about to go off a cliff.

And do you really think I would be able to or want to try to convince most liberals of my ideas. I could only convince them if I totally disregarded what I know is right and true and agree with them, then would they accept my ideas. No thanks.

I am happy with what I do and it’s not in anger but in hope that I can wake up some poor misinformed who unwittingly goes along with the money driven, hypocritical phony caring that today’s political liberals use to institute programs to make people dependent in order to win at the polls. That is what it is about for them. It is their god. They need to sacrifice our nation on the altar of power that they so badly lust for and they use their ability to spend yours and my tax money to do it. Maybe someday others might get honest about what is happening and say “no more”. It is those folks I am not speaking to and I have heard from some that it rings a bell and they like it.

By the way your post made me smile. The last time you posted you said you were precluded from responding to me anymore but you still are. And you know what else? We were supposed to be discussing Governor Shumlin’s double talk statement on broadband availability in 2013 but you avoided that and diverted to Governor Douglas but of course you failed to discuss Governor Dean who had grandiose plans for the internet. It was easier for you to attack me than to even give one negative word to what your friend Peter was doing even though I am sure you know it is deserved. Why” Because you believe in “the cause”!

Simple cut flowers at my grave marker please!

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Aug 182013

Natural ending:

As interest in ‘green burial’ grows, funeral industry, lawmakers consider regulation by Viola Gad | August 18, 2013 –

See more at: http://vtdigger.org/2013/08/18/natural-ending-as-interest-in-green-burial-grows-funeral-industry-lawmakers-consider-regulation/#comment-66883

Here are some quotes from this article:

“Dying Green” tells the story of a natural reserve in South Carolina, where bodies are being buried without caskets and embalmment. Metal from hip replacements or other surgery is collected for recycling. The burials are made in a natural reserve, and, in some cases, without formal gravestones.”
“An increasing number of Vermonters want to make their final decision a green one. And with more than 40 “green burial” sites popping up around the country in recent years, the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Vermont is following up on the trend with a campaign to get a bill regulating green burial passed during the 2014 legislative session.”
“We’re not ahead of the nation on this,”
“McCullough, the co-presenter of the bill, said it will not be on his priority list next session (work in the Lake Shoreland Protection Commission will come first, he said).”
“Head said that if the bill resurfaces it would need more research.”
“Head said the committee did not have time to dig into the details of the bill last session.”

Comment: Bob Orleck replies to above article in vtdigger.com on green dying.

I’m sorry but I laughed a little (not much) when I read this article. At first I looked at the calendar to see if it was April fool’s day or that some skit from “Saturday Night Live” accidentally got printed. Imagine being hit with the idea of bodies “buried without caskets and embalming”, and the “metal from their hip replacement … collected for recycling.” Does the gold and silver from their teeth filling go into the deceased’s estate or back into the land to set up another potential “gold rush” at these green sites years from now. That would be a good way to get more relatives to visit burial sites even if it is with a gold pan.

Maybe some of this came from a Jay Leno monologue. Like “sites popping up around the country in recent years”, a dig at little Vermont’s trying to be the first in outrageous things; “We’re not ahead of the nation on this.” I guess you could say we are behind.” Behind is a good word when you think about our leaders who pursue these ignominious firsts and can be referred to as “horses behinds”.

Surely it had to have been humor intended to say “the Lake Shoreland Protection Commission work has priority over green dying legislation.” But “… if the bill ‘resurfaces’ it will need more research” because the committee “did not have time to ‘dig’ into the details of the bill last session.”

Well maybe I am just a “deadhead” because for some they might “die” laughing at this article, but for me it was not really that funny. Funnier was my humorous Mom. She was buried traditionally I might add in a casket with a stone marker, at a beautiful site that allows us to visit and place fresh, beautiful flowers (she always loved her flowers) and remember her wonderful life. She would joke that when she died, just “pickle her bones and put them on the mantle and when you get hungry, take a bite.”

As for me, I don’t mind being cremated, but do me a favor, don’t pass a law that would prevent a big piece of genuine job producing Vermont granite from being put over my body that says “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” that will for time to come, remind people if they choose to visit or just happen to walk past that Bob was here, had a purpose in life and that he accomplished it before he passed over to the other side.

Simple cut flowers at my grave marker please!

Hospital Decision on Physician Assisted Suicide should be easy!

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Aug 132013

Comments for Burlington Free Press article

Fletcher Allen: Death law policy could take months

Bob Orleck · Pharmacist at Randolph, Vermont

Let me understand. Physicians can write the prescriptions but if they are sued or criminal charges brought against them they are immune from those civil and criminal actions under Act 39 (physician assisted suicide law), is that not so? Why would they need that and not the nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers? Now let me think about this a little further. The doctor writes the prescription and he is protected against not only civil but criminal action but the pharmacist who fills that same prescription is not covered against civil and criminal action and the nurse who presents the medicine from that prescription to the patient is not covered against civil and criminal action. Hmmmm! I can sure see why most of these professional folks would want nothing to do with this whole mess. Seems like it should be an easy call for the hospital to make doesn’t it. There are lots of other good reasons to say “NO” but I’ll leave it at that for now.

It was a good day in Randolph, Vermont!

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Aug 112013

I wanted to try to put into words what I saw today in Randolph. It was a wonderful day for some and I am confident that if every person in our little town heard and saw “A Journey to the Potter’s House” today, that tomorrow Randolph would be a much different place. I saw several people begin a journey by accepting the Lord as Savior and their lives will never be the same. As Michael Ferris, said, there is applause in Heaven when someone begins this journey.

I will never look at a lump of clay in the same way again. I saw the clay with its impurities and flaws and the way that Michael, the potter, worked it to bring those to the surface and remove them. He then molded and shaped it into something really beautiful. Some of the pottery might make it through the molding but before it was done it had to go through tremendous temperatures that would surly reveal any inner flaws and impurities in the clay. The clay is us. Those impurities will be revealed. Before it is too late must allow Him to work with us and in us to purify or we will perish.

It was a wonderful thing to see the way Michael worked this little lump of clay over a two hour period revealing the that God is the potter and we are the clay. How the lump of clay provided the visual for Michael’s clear and scripturally backed discussion of how God works us, molds us, removes our impurities then tests us before we become His final beautiful creation. We saw how a stone (sin) in the clay (us) can distort the final product as the centrifuge (life) spins and He tries to shape and lift us but if we do not get rid of the stone it will cause us to collapse. But even when we collapse, with the stone (sin) removed, the potter picks up the clay, molds and shapes it then into its beautiful end product. He never would just discard us because we are so valuable to Him and He bought us with a very high price. I saw that no matter how dry and brittle the clay (us who have committed so many sins we feel we cannot be forgiven) becomes, He can hydrate us with his love and truth and we can then be made new. Yet, even with that we will have scars from that sin but it can be used to show the world that through His love, even though we have suffered pain and hurt, we can come through it and while we can never forget the pain caused by what we do to ourselves and what others do to us, we can get past it and be all that He wants us to be. It was a wonderful illustration of these things to me. Of His unfailing love and forgiveness and the truth that He will never give up on us and will forgive us if we only ask.

I then saw something I never thought I would see that evening and that was so many people gathering and almost filling Chandler Music Hall in Randolph, Vermont singing and praising the Lord. It sure did my heart good and encouraged me. This could be the start of something big. I know I will be praying harder for revival after tonight. Thank you Lord! It was a good day in Randolph, Vermont.

Bob Orleck

Good grief!

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Aug 042013

Stannard: To tell ya the truth …

by Opinion | August 2, 2013

Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Bob Stannard, a former lobbyist and author. This piece first appeared in the Bennington Banner.

– See more at: http://vtdigger.org/2013/08/02/stannard-to-tell-ya-the-truth/#sthash.Hu9lVeTv.dpuf

Bob Orleck’s reply to the above opinion.

Bob: You really were all over the map with this thing. I have always chosen to believe that George did cut down the cherry tree and told his father the truth. I am not certain where your certainty comes from that he did not but I would like to know. Don’t you just hate this history revisionist stuff? Even so it was quite a jump from that to having an inability to level with each other, to evolution being a wonderful 250 year thing when the world population was “only a million” (I think you will find in 1760 it was closer to 900 million), to your talented 2 year old granddaughter to Goldman Sachs scamming with aluminum first “extracting billions from your collective wallets” to later in other comments to them making billions by the scam and costing the consumer millions (not sure how that works) then stating they made millions on it, then off to the Indian Point nuclear guy who lied for reasons you attribute to him being afraid of the impossible possibility that they would close the plant onto the story of Anthony Weiner then Mark Sanford having moved from South Carolina to Elliot Spitzer to a dig at Yankee back to the warehouse move of aluminum (not so sure about that either) then back to George Washington again, all with 850 words and not a mention of the deception facing us here in Vermont. Poor George gets blamed for all of this. I seem to recall that the other George got blamed for a lot of things he was not responsible for also. How much longer can the liberals of this state and country get away with their lies? I can tell you. As long as they use our money to fund over 50% of the nation with handouts and make sure they get them in the voting booth and people use their 850 words to try to entertain and not inform. That’s how! Sorry for the run-on sentence.

America in decline! Why? The answer is simple!

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Aug 022013

Schubart: America in decline

by Opinion | August! 1, 2013

Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Bill Schubart, a regular commentator for Vermont Public Radio and president of the Vermont Journalism Trust, the umbrella organization for VTDigger.org. This piece was first aired on VPR.

– See more at: http://vtdigger.org/2013/08/01/schubart-america-in-decline/#comment-65510

Opinion reply by Bob Orleck:

”Noticeably left out of the list of common frames through which we view the quality of our lives, although I would suppose one could argue spirit covers this even though the author lists it last, is the frame through which people of faith view things based on a Biblical world view. I agree somewhat that when we focus on what we think is most important then we can lose our way. I would qualify that by saying that the frame of truth through scriptural understanding will never cause us to lose our way but in fact will keep us in the way that was intended.

It is true that our nation’s fabric is unraveling due to “selfish battles being waged for personal gain against those who are seeking in other ways to figure out what is right for our country outside of that.” It may well be that there are those who are fixated on wealth even to the point where they care nothing or little for those who help them make that wealth. And while, to some “Financialization” may appear to be the primary element in the decline, in fact it has roots in something we as a nation have lost which is respect for and recognition of the sanctity of life. An employer with such a view will take care of his employees and they will in turn take care of him in growing his or her business. This employer will be wealthier in “spirit” in that his or her life will show one that was well lived.\

The reason we see more and more need to regulate every aspect of our existence is because we have lost our way and have become untrustworthy and we need to be controlled for we cannot control ourselves. We are willing to exploit others and care only about ourselves. If we truly cared about others as is taught in the scriptures we would not need these regulations. They would be written on our hearts and we would be acting in the best interest of each person we deal with or employ.

The “regulate it” attitude gets us in even deeper. The more we regulate the more opportunity there is for those looking through the frame of accumulated wealth or of desiring what others have to manipulate the system to get more and more of what they crave. Clearly those with power and money couple with corrupt politicians to make laws and regulations that will make it even easier to prey on the helpless. With the ability of government to tax and print vast sums of money, the opportunities are endless for such misguided people.

We as a nation allow our televisions to be the instrument to show all sorts of sordid pictures and sounds to our children. We accept TV’s offering to our family of family entertainment and we give them money for that while at the same time they are taking money from those lusting after pornographic images. We have lost sight of the reality that by paying for the family shows through them we are supporting those things that exploit people, mainly women, by people operating through the frame of profit regardless of what it costs others. And we are even more guilty as we watch what I call the “idiot tube” entertain us with news of trials of the rich and famous who murder, steal and rape. We are entertained by the reports we see of abducted children, riots and wars. We allow our children to have access to the Internet with all of its dangers and degenerate images. What are we thinking? If we believe children are taught, what are we teaching them and what will they become and as a result what will our country be like for future generations?

We abort our babies when not convenient through whatever frame we are viewing our lives. We think it might be OK to euthanize our older citizens. After all, they had their chance.

We allow our workers to engage in dangerous, sometimes toxic environments for the lowest pay we can manage to pay them so we can build wealth for our family.

These and other examples can be blamed on other factors but they are just symptoms of a bigger failure to recognize that there is a God who has a purpose for each and every person he breathed life into. Each life is precious and we as a nation have lost that respect for it. We as a nation are working daily to destroy the foundation that she was constructed on and we all know what happens to structures that have a crumbling foundation. What we are is more than just what we think we are. “Human beings are more than money.” We are children of God created in His image and as such we are sacred and each of us should view the other that way. If we did, all the need for the regulations would go away for what would guide us would be the frame of love that surpasses all understanding. Love and what flows from it is the true antidote to our decline and we better get to realizing it real soon before it is too late.”

A comment likening Christianity to Islam was posted in response to my opinion and below I have commented in response. If you wish to see her comment go to the link at the top of the page to the vtdigger site.

Kathy, it seems safe to assume from the few responses made to this article that not many people are interested in the exchange we have had. My first reaction was to ignore what you wrote because I thought there would be few if any who would agree with you. But later I began to think that while that might be true there might be someone who is misled by the anti-Christian hate you spewed out, so I decided to try respond.

Some of the things you say I agree with. Faith in God is very personal and no one can make it for another even if they wanted to. No one can force it on anyone for it is an issue of free will and decision making by the person choosing. In a free United States with the First Amendment to the Constitution there can be no theocracy and clearly people have the right to the free exercise of their religion.

Our free speech rights allow people to speak out on issues that are basic to their faith. Reading your words I can only guess you would not follow the dictates of our Constitution if you were in control of the government. It seems you wish to take away the right to speak out against abortion. People of faith believe the teachings of scripture that life is sacred and they are doing what is legally permissible to save an unborn life. It is no different than if you protested a war or a capital death penalty case or an unfair tax. You have the right to do so but if you overstep the bounds of legality, you will be arrested. The same applies to those who are trying to save an unborn life.

Now we come to the part that is really troublesome. You have the right to say what you say about Christianity and Islam but it is not right. To equate the two as if there were no difference is so offensive. You surely know what Islam means toward women. It enslaves them and believes the only role for them is to be possessions of men. Islam is trying to impose Sharia Law on society and you know full well that if they did it would mean total subjugation of women.

How can you equate the two religions when you know about female mutilation, wife beating rights and honor killings where perpetrators go unpunished in Islamic countries? Christianity teaches a man to love his wife as he loves himself. The Bible teaches honor and respect for women and that is what happens in a truly Christian household.
Imagine if the United States was an Islamic nation. Do you think you would be able to speak the way you have. You most likely would not be able to have the job you have either or drive a car and the only proof of your existence would be on your husband’s or father’s ID. Imagine what it would be like for you if you rejected their teachings. Only an uninformed or a bigoted person could equate the two.

You then go on to say that it is rare for humans to be unable to distinguish right from wrong and they need no one to police their understanding of goodness, honesty and responsible action but you say that “America is in decline suggesting the reason is our greed. So obviously we are not doing well with our own understandings and responsible actions if because of greed we are declining as a nation.

What if our life was built on the understanding and belief that greed is bad and the belief was so real to us that we were able to resist greed in most situations? What if we knew down deep in our hearts that it is wrong to build our life around accumulating an abundance of possessions? What if we were always keenly aware that we leave this world without possessions just as we came into it and that our lives are only so long that the constant pursuit of wealth actually cheats us of the happiness and joy we could have from daily living. Life is here and gone and the excess wealth we have struggled to accumulate is just left for someone else to fret over. We have heard it said that the love of money is the root of all evil. That teaching comes from scripture. Have you heard people say that if they had such and such amount of money they would be satisfied? But would they really? Would that really make them happy? If they had that, would they not want and seek more? Would they not worry about losing what they have?

So if you build your life on the foundation that gaining possessions is the most important thing it is like building a house on the sand. It will not withstand the hard weather and the elements. It will fall just as we see our nation falling. We do agree that greed is a big problem for us. What faith and the scripture offer is a strong foundation so as to resist this evil. If a house is built and the first story is uneven, as the rest of the floors are added on the defect becomes more exaggerated. So what is the solution? Build your house on a strong solid level foundation and as you build it to different levels it will remain straight and strong and will withstand the pressures that are brought against it. .

So it is with our lives. By building it on the foundation that the Bible teaches, we can handle the day to day issues that come in life. We will not be sidetracked by the greed that is bringing this country down. If we accept the foundation of love that the scripture calls for, this strong foundation will lead to good decisions, caring for one another and the building of strong families, communities and country. If we did this we would do away with the need to regulate the greed at all levels and everyone would more likely share in the wealth that would be created. The way it is, the greed sucks it all up to itself and it deprives those who are unable to compete against it. To do other than what the scriptures teach will mean the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer and if you are not strong enough to fight them you will not survive. This is not the world God intended for us and it is of our own making.

If we follow His will we will have the fruits of the spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that “…the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.” To build our lives on this foundation makes all the sense in this world and the one after.

Bob Orleck

– See more at: http://vtdigger.org/2013/08/01/schubart-america-in-decline/#comment-65715

Yeeeeeaaaaaah!

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Aug 012013

Howard Dean on the Green Mountain Care Board: “I don’t think it works”

by Andrew Stein | July 31, 2013

Follow Andrew on Twitter @andrewcstein

– See more at: http://vtdigger.org/2013/07/31/howard-dean-on-the-green-mountain-care-board-i-dont-think-it-works/#comments

A picture appeared in the article of Howard Dean at his 10^th anniversary celebration of his unsuccessful presidential run.

Bob Orleck commented on this at the end of the article.

“Has it really been 10 years since the Howard Dean scream? You know I never thought I would be thinking that I would rather have him back than the Governor we now have. It’s kind of like I’d rather have Hillary than the President we have. Sometimes you just don’t realize when its happening how bad it can get. “