Have Faith

We need a forum for our absurdity, and the Earth is it. All mistakes are forgivable, except for the one that kills us. The destruction of our environment renders all other issues moot. What is justice without a human mind to conceptualize it, what is love without a human heart to experience it? All of our games, both serious and absurd, come to an end when the atmosphere can no longer protect us from the sun, when our water becomes undrinkable, or our cities become subterranean relics.
I have a confession: I almost started a bank account at Chase. In fact I would have if not for some bureaucratic bullshit. Here is the story:
Chase is offering a promotion- start a checking account with them, get x number of dollars. Me, being in the throes of financial destitution and with a wedding coming up, figured I could start an account, keep it for the minimum time period, and take the money and run. I went into a branch, and the only thing that stopped the account from activating was a paper work flub. They said to come back later, and were very apologetic. I engaged in this course of action knowing full well what Chase represents, and therein lies my sin.
Today, I read this sermon regarding strip mining, and I realise now that there is no excuse for handing Chase my money; it would (of course) be used for abominations like those described above. By writing this sermon, you have stopped my participation in thousands of dollars in Chase-managed transactions. Let's hope others read this too, and not only forego beginning a relationship with this demon (Dimon?), but ending any existing relationship they may have with it.
My fiance met Jamie Dimon once while she worked for Chase; her description of this person is unflattering to say the least.

CQ

I auditioned for "The Apprentice"  Thursday, April 1, 2010. Trump was SOOOO upset with my passion about discussing how, even  with loads of $, fame and power, people like Trump could still be be provoked, ie by people who want to "push peoples buttons" even if they are paid well to provide goods and services, etc. I stated, and he heard, that instead of  being greedy and being a robotic consumer  we only need enough for our basic needs to be happy. He said "You have a Masters degree?" He asked me where it was from (Rutgers) and then I said "Sometimes my Masters degree HAS me."  I teach at a community college and try to motivate my students to be "revolutionaries" by living simply and by choosing to attempt to make the world a better place by fighting the trend of being a mindless consumer. I also do standup comedy and my fellow comedians hate it when I tell them their comedy is limited if their goal is to become rich because their $ will HAVE them!  I have a youtube video where I talk @ Trump being limited and radio shows where I suggest we need to tax those who are negative and complain ( but give tax rebates for those with  unique, workable solutions for vexing problems like solving homelessness, etc.)  I suggest that crime commits us instead of us committing crime because we have all allowed our human selves to be "outsourced", so it is our ROLES (our social and cultural roles or constructs) that commit crime. It is our roles that have sex (our genders have sex instead of us) Our race has us (our whiteness, blackness, etc., our skin is our image container and the color of our skins contain our lives FOR us). Instead of risking to be emotionally vulnerable HUMAN beings, we choose the DISTRACTIONS of consumerism and our humanity is what IS consumed, and/or submerged and our robotic images "LIVE" our lives FOR us! (It is like a return of "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers!") To motivate EMERGENCE or re-emergence of our HUMAN selves we need to see the VALUE and the POWER in communicating humorously. We need to see our exaggerated  DRAMA and EGO communications  as absurd  addictions (except when it comes to using any and all types of communication when it comes to providing our most basic survival needs.) Consider clicking on the following link:
http://www.flyinginplace.com
I would love to have Rev. Billy (and/or someone who reads this and is qualified and is interested in doing so) speak to my class of revolutionaries but I can only offer a small honorium.  Please consider calling me @ 973 484-1023 
Thanks,
Barbara Todish
 

 Whoowhee.....  Being at this forum is like arriving in the countryside at an organic co-op farm, Organic Valley or Once Again Peanut Butter, or the Fair Trade cane sugar in Steaz and Maine sodas.
        Ah, the Reverend serves up a rich meal, worthy of the Banquet in the Gospel.  Who can't come?  Well, invite the poorest, most struggling of them all, and anyone and everyone.  That's getting closer to the real Good Samaritan, I'd say, in Bible-terms, anyway.
      More to the point here, I guess, is the gathering of grain on the Sabbath against the rules, and throwing the money changers out of the Temple, as well as the healing miracles.  The healing miracles, I say, because the hypnotic swirl of messages from corporate advertising has a related quality.  While psychosomatic medicine is making headway and bridging concepts from belief to psychological health and love itself, advertising and media propaganda mesmerizes people into a pseudo-mirage of materialistic orthodoxy.  I think of Natalie Merchant's song, Carnival, "Hypnotized, mezmerized, by what my eyes have seen."
         I'm planning to open an account in a local credit union, although my circumstances will be changing soon.  HSBC, at least they have prioritized wind power and an association of corporations in the States and in Europe.  Nevertheless, a credit union account is a basic step to the parallel universe, the mustard seed in the health food store co-op, Strand and bluestocking bookstore co-op alternative universe where street protest may not even know it belongs.
          I'm thankful and it's nice to see Rev Billy and the Choir raising hell through their culture.  I'm right there with you, in spirit, for the time being. 
          The US Social Forum is coming to Detroit in June, and Bluestockings has events every night.  I'll being doing a WSF event at the Park Slope Food Co-op on May 15, so be welcome.
         The Co-op purchases 100% green, as does the 4th St. Co-op, which can here be dedicated to the people victimized by mountaintop removal in Appalachia.
         Jeff Goodell has written an amazing book with much insight into the Coal business.  Rainforest Action Network has also been active, I know, and they are discussed in William Greider's book The Soul of Capitalism.  
          I like Barbara's thought about the dynamic of ego and role, the Left Brain and the Right Brain, the cognitive egotistical versus the psychosocial, or something of that sort.  Do I have my Master's degree (last semester NYU) or does it have me?
         Working with Jack Kornfield's psychological interfaith Buddhism, I'd have to say that my green consumerism has grown to possess me, for which I am grateful.  I'd even been involved with it for years before I grew enough to let it possess me.  Steaz Soda, Organic Valley OJ, and Allegro Rwanda Fair Trade at  Coffee at Whole Foods Markets are things I enjoy, and which are expressed by me whenever I can.  Mother Earth is my source through the Divine Source Spirit God, remembering the true Jesus, but since I see that we are consumers until or unless we are producers, branding is not just evil, it is a social reality that can serve me and all of us in favor, ultimately, of co-operative green social democracy.  
        An organic and Fair Trade Steaz soda in a health food store doesn't get bought if there is no one there to buy it, and it doesn't get popular vis a vis Coke if there is no one there to say, "I really like this, and the vitamins, not just for the Organic and Fair Trade principles...."
        Green peace to the Revolution in Consumer Culture and Entrepreneurial activism. 

      Cheers and a hug, Crunchy Granola, anti-nuke, and Iraqi Veterans against the War be honored,

       Mark