Read this in today's Post and thought it was worthy of mulling. Mull what it means to desire freedom and liberty; mull persistence, patience and hope in the face of crushing autocracies; mull your feelings about the U.S. role in spreading democracy and freedom - is it our responsibility? What are your mullitudes on these mullings?
Support Freedom in the Arab World
By Radwan A. Masmoudi and Amr Hamzawy
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; A19
Washington Post
As Arab and Muslim intellectuals and activists concerned about the promotion of democracy in our region, we call on America and its president to reaffirm -- in words and actions -- its commitment to sustained democratic reform in the Arab world.
We have been heartened by the strong commitment to liberty that President Bush expressed in his November 2003 speech at the National Endowment for Democracy and then in his second inaugural address, when he said: "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: The United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you."
Despite some initial skepticism, those statements nurtured hope in our region. We realize that democracy is not easily attained and must ultimately come from within. But it can receive encouragement and support, both of which it badly needs today in Arab countries.
We know that some in the United States, worried by recent Islamist gains among voters in Palestine and Egypt, are having doubts about the wisdom of pushing for freedom and democracy in the Middle East. These worries are exploited by despots in the region to perpetuate the untenable status quo. But there is no way to advance liberty without inclusion of all elements that are willing to abide by democratic rules and reject violence.
Democratic participation is the only way to combat extremism and pressure all groups, including Islamists, to moderate their stance in order to maximize their share of the vote. The United States should continue to press for an end to repression by governing regimes of democratically minded liberal and Islamist groups, and it should emphatically distance itself from such repression and condemn it in the strongest terms whenever and wherever it occurs. We are confident that if Arab citizens are able to have their choice, they will choose democracy, freedom, peace and progress.
Perhaps emboldened by the impression that America is wavering in its support for democracy, some autocrats have recently intensified repression. This makes the need for sustained U.S. and international support and pressure more urgent than ever. The region needs to hear again that the course of freedom and democracy is the only course that America, guided by both interest and principle, will support.
To mention but one case where U.S. influence might do much good: Egypt has experienced a regime crackdown lately on opposition activists. In February the government postponed municipal elections and renewed the emergency law. The regime has not even spared Egypt's venerable judiciary, which has steadfastly proclaimed its independence in recent months. And liberal opposition politician Ayman Nour, who was allowed to run in last year's presidential election and won 8 percent of the popular vote, behind only President Hosni Mubarak, was arrested and sentenced in a murky process to five years in jail.
The health of Ayman Nour, a dear friend and colleague of many of us, continues to deteriorate. We pray that President Bush will take Nour's case to heart and tell the Egyptian regime of his concerns. Hundreds of other activists (including doctors, university professors, journalists and those in civil society) whose only crime was to express their desire for freedom continue to languish in jail and suffer torture and police brutality.
We entreat America to do all it can to ensure that a small number of authoritarian rulers will not control the future of more than 300 million Arabs, more than half of whom are not yet 20 years old. Freedom and democracy are the only ways to build a world where violence is replaced by peaceful public debate and political participation, and despair is replaced by hope, tolerance and dignity.
This article is adapted from an open letter to President Bush signed by 103 other Arab and Muslim activists and thinkers in Arab countries, Europe, the United States and elsewhere who have worked in support of democracy (see www.islam-democracy.org).
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Back To The Basics - Mullin' and Observin'
I've mulled Mississippi and decided to keep my thoughts to myself. Shocking I know. But I have multitudes of mullings on other items to entertain and irritate the masses of people who visit bentpinky.com on a daily basis. I think I'm averaging 3 visits a day.
Bentpinky Observations
1. There's something to be said for spending time in a news-free environment. In Mississippi, all I did was go to mass, work on the house for 10 hours, eat a little something and hit the hay. I didn't know about the shootings at the Amish school house or the Mark Foley scandal until I was in the Memphis airport on Wednesday, Oct. 4. Observation: Self-induced ignorance is bliss.
2. That new television show Studio 60 is just a reincarnation of the West Wing (aka Left Wing) on the Left Coast. Same "snappy" and annoying dialogue, same leftist self-righteousness, same blah, blah, blah. Observation: Uhhhhhhhhhhh...yah, I got nothin'. I just don't like the show.
3. Yesterday as I was getting ready for work I swore I heard an animal in my house. Now I have two cats. I know every sound they make. They don't make the sound I heard. So, of course, I slammed my bathroom door so "it" couldn't get me. My only exit was out the bathroom window, so of course that's what I did...in my pajamas...my ugly, cutoff sweatpant shorts and grungy, green Iowa State t-shirt. At this point I recognize loyal readers will question my state of mind. I mean, wearing an Iowa State t-shirt?
Anyway, I proceed to knock on my neighbors' doors to see if I can use their phone to call animal control (for the animal I only heard...I did not see it). Luckily my upstairs neighbor was getting home from the night shift as a Capitol police officer just as I was knocking on his door. He crawled through my bathroom window, searched the place and unlocked the front door for me. No animal. After work I had my friend Sharon's husband do a thorough search. No animal. What the hell did I hear? Observation: I can't believe my neighbor saw me wearing an Iowa State t-shirt. Ugh. The horror.
4. In 2004 I shook Mark Foley's hand as I entered the Capitol rotunda to pay my respects to President Reagan as he laid in state. It was just past 1 a.m. and Foley was there as Chair of the House Aministration Committee (I think) to greet visitors. He was all smiley and saying "God bless" and such. Observation: I thought he was creepy then. I know he's creepy now. Yuck.
Bentpinky Mullings
1. I wonder what kind of product Kim Jong-Il uses in his hair to get it so high and fluffy. Hair products must not be on the international sanction list.
2. Is the number of perverts in Congress proportional to the number of perverts in the general public? It's a fair question. Mull it.
3. Who besides emaciated models do skinny pants look good on and why are eighties styles - namely walking shorts with tights - back in vogue? WHAT IS THAT ABOUT? I distinctly remember watching an episode of What Not To Wear last year in which they mercilessly ridiculed a woman for wearing walking shorts and tights. Who drives seasonal trends?
4. One of the priests at my parish is my age. So I'm calling one of my peers "Father." This is new.
5. I just saw an ad for Mexico. The slogan was "It's beyond your expectations." If half the country's population is fleeing over its northern border to find a better life...mull it.
Thanks to the three loyal readers. Keep on mullin'.
Bentpinky Observations
1. There's something to be said for spending time in a news-free environment. In Mississippi, all I did was go to mass, work on the house for 10 hours, eat a little something and hit the hay. I didn't know about the shootings at the Amish school house or the Mark Foley scandal until I was in the Memphis airport on Wednesday, Oct. 4. Observation: Self-induced ignorance is bliss.
2. That new television show Studio 60 is just a reincarnation of the West Wing (aka Left Wing) on the Left Coast. Same "snappy" and annoying dialogue, same leftist self-righteousness, same blah, blah, blah. Observation: Uhhhhhhhhhhh...yah, I got nothin'. I just don't like the show.
3. Yesterday as I was getting ready for work I swore I heard an animal in my house. Now I have two cats. I know every sound they make. They don't make the sound I heard. So, of course, I slammed my bathroom door so "it" couldn't get me. My only exit was out the bathroom window, so of course that's what I did...in my pajamas...my ugly, cutoff sweatpant shorts and grungy, green Iowa State t-shirt. At this point I recognize loyal readers will question my state of mind. I mean, wearing an Iowa State t-shirt?
Anyway, I proceed to knock on my neighbors' doors to see if I can use their phone to call animal control (for the animal I only heard...I did not see it). Luckily my upstairs neighbor was getting home from the night shift as a Capitol police officer just as I was knocking on his door. He crawled through my bathroom window, searched the place and unlocked the front door for me. No animal. After work I had my friend Sharon's husband do a thorough search. No animal. What the hell did I hear? Observation: I can't believe my neighbor saw me wearing an Iowa State t-shirt. Ugh. The horror.
4. In 2004 I shook Mark Foley's hand as I entered the Capitol rotunda to pay my respects to President Reagan as he laid in state. It was just past 1 a.m. and Foley was there as Chair of the House Aministration Committee (I think) to greet visitors. He was all smiley and saying "God bless" and such. Observation: I thought he was creepy then. I know he's creepy now. Yuck.
Bentpinky Mullings
1. I wonder what kind of product Kim Jong-Il uses in his hair to get it so high and fluffy. Hair products must not be on the international sanction list.
2. Is the number of perverts in Congress proportional to the number of perverts in the general public? It's a fair question. Mull it.
3. Who besides emaciated models do skinny pants look good on and why are eighties styles - namely walking shorts with tights - back in vogue? WHAT IS THAT ABOUT? I distinctly remember watching an episode of What Not To Wear last year in which they mercilessly ridiculed a woman for wearing walking shorts and tights. Who drives seasonal trends?
4. One of the priests at my parish is my age. So I'm calling one of my peers "Father." This is new.
5. I just saw an ad for Mexico. The slogan was "It's beyond your expectations." If half the country's population is fleeing over its northern border to find a better life...mull it.
Thanks to the three loyal readers. Keep on mullin'.
Citgo Can Go...
The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com
________________________________________
Alaskan villages defend Bush, reject Chavez's fuel
Published October 10, 2006
________________________________________
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A few of Alaska's native villages are refusing free heating oil from the petroleum company controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, based on the patriotic principle that no foreigner has the right to call their president "the devil."
"As a citizen of this country, you can have your own opinion of our president and our country. But I don't want a foreigner coming in here and bashing us," said Justine Gunderson, administrator for the tribal council in the Aleut village of Nelson Lagoon.
"Even though we're in economically dire straits, it was the right choice to make," said Mr. Gunderson, whose village on the Bering Sea can dip to temperatures of minus-15.
While scores of Alaska's Eskimo and Indian villages, where many are poor, say they have no choice but to accept heating-oil money from Citgo, Dimitri Philemonof, president and chief executive of the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, said taking the aid would be "compromising ourselves."
"I think we have some duty to our country, and I think it's loyalty," said Mr. Philemonof, whose nonprofit organization would have handled the heating oil donation on behalf of 291 households in Nelson Lagoon, Atka, St. Paul and St. George.
The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association rejected the offer because Mr. Chavez has repeatedly denigrated Mr. Bush, calling him "the devil" in a speech to the United Nations last month and referring to him as a terrorist.
About 150 native villages in Alaska have accepted money for heating oil from Citgo, the Venezuelan government's Texas-based oil subsidiary. The oil company does not operate in Alaska, so instead of sending oil, it is donating about $5.3 million to native nonprofit organizations to buy 100 gallons this winter for each of more than 12,000 households.
"When you have a dire need and it is a matter of survival for your people, it doesn't matter where, what country, the gift or donation comes from," said Virginia Commack, an elder in the arctic village of Ambler, an impoverished Eskimo community.
The donation to Alaska's native villages has focused attention on the rampant poverty and high fuel prices in a state that is otherwise awash in oil -- and oil profits.
For years, Alaska natives have accused the state and federal governments of sending too little money to their tiny, far-flung communities, where fuel and grocery prices are bloated by the high costs of delivery by plane and barge.
An editorial last month in the Anchorage Daily News criticized the Legislature's rejection in March of an $8.8 million state supplement to a federal program that helps poor Alaskans with home heating costs.
"It's hard to blame villagers for accepting the gift," the editorial stated.
John Manly, a spokesman for Gov. Frank Murkowski, said the governorthought Mr. Chavez's donation was a ploy to undermine Americans' faith in their government. But he said it was up to each village to make its own decision.
Over the past two years, Citgo has given millions of gallons of discounted heating oil to the poor in several states and cities -- including New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts -- in what is widely seen as an effort by Mr. Chavez to embarrass and irritate the U.S. government and make himself look good.
www.washingtontimes.com
________________________________________
Alaskan villages defend Bush, reject Chavez's fuel
Published October 10, 2006
________________________________________
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A few of Alaska's native villages are refusing free heating oil from the petroleum company controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, based on the patriotic principle that no foreigner has the right to call their president "the devil."
"As a citizen of this country, you can have your own opinion of our president and our country. But I don't want a foreigner coming in here and bashing us," said Justine Gunderson, administrator for the tribal council in the Aleut village of Nelson Lagoon.
"Even though we're in economically dire straits, it was the right choice to make," said Mr. Gunderson, whose village on the Bering Sea can dip to temperatures of minus-15.
While scores of Alaska's Eskimo and Indian villages, where many are poor, say they have no choice but to accept heating-oil money from Citgo, Dimitri Philemonof, president and chief executive of the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, said taking the aid would be "compromising ourselves."
"I think we have some duty to our country, and I think it's loyalty," said Mr. Philemonof, whose nonprofit organization would have handled the heating oil donation on behalf of 291 households in Nelson Lagoon, Atka, St. Paul and St. George.
The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association rejected the offer because Mr. Chavez has repeatedly denigrated Mr. Bush, calling him "the devil" in a speech to the United Nations last month and referring to him as a terrorist.
About 150 native villages in Alaska have accepted money for heating oil from Citgo, the Venezuelan government's Texas-based oil subsidiary. The oil company does not operate in Alaska, so instead of sending oil, it is donating about $5.3 million to native nonprofit organizations to buy 100 gallons this winter for each of more than 12,000 households.
"When you have a dire need and it is a matter of survival for your people, it doesn't matter where, what country, the gift or donation comes from," said Virginia Commack, an elder in the arctic village of Ambler, an impoverished Eskimo community.
The donation to Alaska's native villages has focused attention on the rampant poverty and high fuel prices in a state that is otherwise awash in oil -- and oil profits.
For years, Alaska natives have accused the state and federal governments of sending too little money to their tiny, far-flung communities, where fuel and grocery prices are bloated by the high costs of delivery by plane and barge.
An editorial last month in the Anchorage Daily News criticized the Legislature's rejection in March of an $8.8 million state supplement to a federal program that helps poor Alaskans with home heating costs.
"It's hard to blame villagers for accepting the gift," the editorial stated.
John Manly, a spokesman for Gov. Frank Murkowski, said the governorthought Mr. Chavez's donation was a ploy to undermine Americans' faith in their government. But he said it was up to each village to make its own decision.
Over the past two years, Citgo has given millions of gallons of discounted heating oil to the poor in several states and cities -- including New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts -- in what is widely seen as an effort by Mr. Chavez to embarrass and irritate the U.S. government and make himself look good.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Mississippi Briefly
I don't think I'm ready to talk about Biloxi, MS. It was a meaningful trip - a profoundly meaningful trip. I need to mull it over some more. So much to mull on what it means to be a good neighbor, and how sometimes you have to travel 1500 miles to meet the people who live across the hall.
"In the quiet of the American conscience, we know that deep persistent poverty is unworthy of our nation's promise. Whatever our views of its cause, we can agree that children at risk are not at fault... Where there is suffering, there is duty. Americans in need are not strangers, they are citizens, not problems, but priorities, and all of us are diminished when any are hopeless. Government has great responsibilities for public safety and public health, for civil rights and common schools. Yet compassion is the work of a nation, not just a government. Some needs and hurts are so deep they will only respond to a mentor's touch or a pastor's prayer. Church and charity, synagogue and mosque lend our communities their humanity, and they will have an honored place in our plans and in our laws. Many in our country do not know the pain of poverty, but we can listen to those who do. I can pledge our nation to a goal, "When we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side."
- George W. Bush, January 20, 2001
P.S. I watched the Iowa vs. Ohio State game while in Mississippi. Kinnick looked FANtastic - I nearly wept at the site of it dressed in gold for all the football-loving U.S. to see. Congratulations, Iowa fans, you did us all proud. I know! I know! I'm a complete sap, but that's how I mull. On Iowa!
"In the quiet of the American conscience, we know that deep persistent poverty is unworthy of our nation's promise. Whatever our views of its cause, we can agree that children at risk are not at fault... Where there is suffering, there is duty. Americans in need are not strangers, they are citizens, not problems, but priorities, and all of us are diminished when any are hopeless. Government has great responsibilities for public safety and public health, for civil rights and common schools. Yet compassion is the work of a nation, not just a government. Some needs and hurts are so deep they will only respond to a mentor's touch or a pastor's prayer. Church and charity, synagogue and mosque lend our communities their humanity, and they will have an honored place in our plans and in our laws. Many in our country do not know the pain of poverty, but we can listen to those who do. I can pledge our nation to a goal, "When we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side."
- George W. Bush, January 20, 2001
P.S. I watched the Iowa vs. Ohio State game while in Mississippi. Kinnick looked FANtastic - I nearly wept at the site of it dressed in gold for all the football-loving U.S. to see. Congratulations, Iowa fans, you did us all proud. I know! I know! I'm a complete sap, but that's how I mull. On Iowa!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
