Tipi pole politics

Tipi pole politics

Since coming to Montana Indian country with my family in ’73, there’s one lesson I learned slowly: We humans are all connected. That means that if we are to stand strong, like poles of a tipi planted firmly staked into the earth, we must trust each other.  Canvas, ropes, stakes and poles operate with nothing hidden from the sky or earth, with all details of the structure united for protection of something precious. Inside that small round perimeter, children are born and learn about their own links to earth, sky and other living things. A tipi provides safety from the threats of weather and predators. But it remains transparent to all that it exists for the good of humanity.

We planted a tipi at Greenwood Farm the spring of 08 when we first moved here. We erected the poles and laid them all into position, then lashed the chief pole into position and wrapped the canvas around the cone of poles. We attached cords to pebbles lashed into the canvas edge. These we connected firmly to stakes driven so powerfully into the spring-droughty hard clay that some of them splintered a bit. Our grandchildren enjoyed sleeping in our tipi that summer. In the fall we neglected to take it down. Guests used it again the next summer. And then it went through a second winter.

A tipi is an amazing round structure, able to withstand the force of wind better than any similarly strong square (or cube) structure. But I ignored sound advice from our adopted Indian relatives about how long term tipi care. Two years of freezing and thawing deviously loosened the stake-hold some poles had with the earth. The first big windstorm of the third spring jerked loose some stakes. The canvas waved in the wind and shook the structure, lifting some of the poles.

Soon the loosened skirts of canvas, waving gleefully in the gale, tore the pebble connections. At that point, the system’s foundation was broken, in spite of the lashing ropes at the top holding the poles tightly together. The whole cone suddenly tipped in a gust, and flew loose from its moorings.  It crashed onto my car, breaking the windshield and smashing the hood. There I found it, poles still connected by the unyielding lashing, much of the canvas still in place, but flopping uselessly in the diminishing storm.

Here in Big Horn County we too often see our social support systems held together at the top, but tipped over, trashed and useless for the purpose intended. Real connections to the ground of human need are damaged. This is not just Big Horn county, it's all over the world.  Dysfunction, secrecy, and even in some cases threats of violence displace the original intent and design of political systems.  It's what makes politics a dirty word for many of us. Denials of uncomfortable truth are dictated by those firmly holding the tipped poles together. Their reason for being—the good of humankind—is often lost in excessive profits and a race to control tax dollars. Most of us know pain at the family level in America because of one or another of our dysfunctional and deceptive top-down politics.

Dangerous cynicism takes hold. We begin assuming humans are incapable of honest dedication to the common good espoused in our creeds, and will only do right with motivation by fear. For that reason, we have developed a huge legal system of justice based on fear of punishment that is dedicated to complicated conflict of interest detection.  We assume that other people cannot make decisions based on altruism and a true desire to help support each other. Assuming the worst, we lose connection to the best.

I believe humans can do what tipi poles are designed to do.  We can stand strong and connected, embracing those things that hold us together as people.  We can protect those we love and still touch earth and sky.  When will we loosen our grip on divisive rhetoric, and re-stake ourselves to the ground of common good, cloaked in a fabric of transparency? Let’s invest again in our workplaces, schools, churches, and volunteer organizations in working together and assuming the best intentions of each other.  Neighbors held together at the ground-level will survive the strongest winds.

--
David Graber
Hardin, MT 59034
graberdb@gmail.com

Know your ACE score

We Americans certainly have health problems. But with the world’s best health technology at our disposal, we can now prolong our lives when confronted with problems like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke and other maladies. It wasn’t too long ago that many of these conditions led to much shorter life spans. 

 

We’re also learning a lot about how many of these diseases are actually symptoms of deeper problems. As researchers began looking for root causes of these issues, they found that these conditions are often concentrated in parts of our country where there is a lot of poverty. They also learned that caring for individuals suffering with these symptoms is extremely expensive. And they found that increased health expenditures in these high poverty areas didn’t necessarily improve health as much as they should have. And while throwing lots of money at these problems does generate lots of business for the health care industry, there may be a better way to improve our health.

 

It turns out that a simple questionnaire called the ACE Assessment—that can be given at a visit to any clinic—can help with this problem. ACE is short for “Adverse Childhood Experiences.” The few questions on the assessment generate a score, and research shows that the ACE score correlates really well with the likelihood that someone will suffer from one or more of these symptoms. Interestingly, more than anything else, the questions on this survey ask about childhood experiences of fear.

 

Yes, that’s right: a fear assessment.

 

Incredibly enough, childhood experiences of adversity can create stress and fears that may cause diseases extending into adulthood and aging.   According to researchers, young brains are especially vulnerable to stress.  “When prolonged stress occurs during infancy and childhood, the stress hormone cortisol is released throughout the young brain and body.  These stress hormones compromise normal brain development and damage the immature immune and nervous systems.” 

 

Could it be that early stress might account for some of our troubling health problems in Big Horn County?  If so, is there anything that could be done to protect young children from the effects of poverty? 

 

A decade ago, Bonnie and I observed a village where these symptoms seemed to be nonexistent. We sat for a meal on two of the few chairs available at a kitchen table in the most important house of Cheng Meng, an impoverished Tibetan village. There was a striking contrast between obvious impoverishment and robust health present in this family, and in virtually all we met. Villagers lived in ancient buildings with dirt floors, worked very hard raising vegetables and herding goats on the mountainsides. For a little extra income they hiked into the tundra to collect “Tibetan Medicine,” to sell to middle profiteers for a burgeoning market in the cities of China. But in contrast to American poor, nearly everyone had lived for generations in the same houses, worked the same jobs, and was deeply connected with everything and everyone around them. They didn’t know they were missing fast food, grocery stores, and the constant presence of media entertainment.

 

We watched healthy, active children accompanying their families into the high country the day we visited. These youngsters obviously grew up connected and knowledgeable about their importance to everyone else in the village. Their connections fed them, warmed them, and gave them a sense of safety.  Their lives were predictable and stable. Their days were filled with love, healthy foods and challenging exercise for their growing bodies. We were surrounded in this house in this village with awesome hospitality of the healthy families there.

 

Recently I began wondering what I could learn from this encounter. Why were these people so healthy, so free of the usual American symptoms? The temptation is to look for an ingredient in the mountain air, a particular food from the tundra of the Himalayas, or a rare ingredient in the gall bladder of a Himalayan tiger. However, having learned about the ACE Study, I wonder now if I was looking for the wrong magic ingredient. Perhaps I should have considered the need for children to have stability, connection, and a solid heritage of people and place.  These basic elements provide safety and nutrition for developing brains, provided by the work of parents and extended family. Science clearly demonstrates that when these elements are lacking, illness and modern disease can become a plague.

 

To learn more, check out “The Childwise Institute,” an organization of medical providers based in Kalispell.  http://www.childwise.org/ace-study-summit-2014/

 

A PBS documentary on “Frontline” highlights the connections between poverty, high per capita health costs, and high levels of unhealthiness in a major city in the east. 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/doctor-hotspot/

 

More ACE research and associated links:

 

Here’s how certain kinds of fears trigger health problems that often last a lifetime:

http://www.americasangel.org/research/adverse-childhood-experiences-ace-study/

 

Specific health risks were identified in the research leading to the ACE assessment, especially with children.  Read how the scoring functions, and the findings of other recent research:

http://acestudy.org/ace_score

http://www.cdc.gov/ace/findings.htm

http://www.acestudy.org/files/ACE_Score_Calculator.pdf

 

The new ACE assessment tools could have been inspired by health research in the village of Cheng Meng. They unveil the level of safety and trustworthiness of a child’s connections with friends, family, and with their world, like a thermometer and a blood pressure meter uncovers other health indicators. Assessing this connective network is being viewed now by the ACE score system in some health clinics as an equally important indicator of health. When coupled with resources and strategies to make changes toward correcting roots of human unhealthiness, we in Big Horn County as well as across our nation could really benefit at no greater cost, in fact, probably much less.  

 

--
David Graber
graberdb@gmail.com

We for the common good

Part of our shared American culture is our sense of humanity. Most of us were born into this sense, especially those of us over fifty. We were raised to consider what’s best for all of us, rather than just ourselves. We now can see that our shared sense of “we” has been gradually degraded over the past couple of generations.  It seems the media has a lot to do with this.  When I watch television I’m struck by this relentless message of self-centeredness. It comes across in both programming and advertising.  Regardless of content, it seems to be all about “what’s in it for me.” How often do you hear these familiar phases?  “Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps (and quit whining about it).”  “I’m just looking out for number one.” “I have to take care of myself first.” “It’s a dog-eat-dog world.”

 

The opposite message would be that it’s good to look out for the benefit of others as only a part of caring for one’s own responsibilities. In Big Horn County we have ethnic heritages that historically encouraged a sense of “We’re all in this together.” I remember Ted Risingsun of Busby, quoting his grandfather, “If you are in need, don’t go to the best-kept lodge with the nicest tools and best horses. Go to the poorest lodge, the one that’s ragged and old, and not well kept. That’s where you will find generous people, happy to help you.”

 

One tribe in California has a remarkable story rediscovering these values.  Recently I heard their story in an entertaining broadcast on Bioneers. As in Montana, tribes in California have used casinos as a means of economic advancement. Chairman Sarris, of the Federated Tribes of Graton Rancheria, found himself facing a daunting conflict. At first opposed to casinos, he tried to stop an outside organization from building one near the Graton Rancheria. Then, seeing that the casino would inevitably be built regardless of what the tribe did, he changed his mind. He pursued the option of tribal ownership. That’s when the opposition mounted. It came both from the white community and from within his own tribe. The struggle was complex, involving deep values. Could this tribal nation uphold its traditional values, benefit the land, and also benefit the local community with diverse economic status, and with divergent religious beliefs? Chairman Sarris invested in the common good for all sides, focusing strongly on the values of his heritage.

 

Turns out he was right. Through all the changes, Harris held up his cultural heritage, as a “Home culture, safe, and connected,” values compatible with all sides in the conflict. He contrasted this beliefs with the homeless culture so prevalent on the streets of his city, and imbedded in the horrendous history of his people since the Spanish conquest. Values held in common across the political, religious and economic divides of the community became visible in the way the tribe promoted and built the casino with his leadership. The “me” culture of homelessness was replaced with a common ground of caring and sharing in “coming home to a we culture.”

 

Before the Spanish arrived, the Sonoma/Marin county region in California was home to the largest urban population in North America (outside of Mexico City). After Spain claimed this territory, legalized enslavement of Indians began.  It persisted for centuries, during which time the California tribes became homeless. Up to 1924, Indians in California lacked citizenship and legal rights. That’s when the Graton Rancheria was granted federal tribal recognition, and the new Indian nation was born. The last segment of the broadcast is the story of the casino, how it became a benefit to all in the community, Indian and non-Indian alike, and more importantly, how the “me” culture was defeated. The entire community still benefits together.

 

Most of us in Big Horn County claim a heritage that upholds these ancient values.  Obviously, they are portrayed in our Judeo-Christian writings.  Even our Lenten observances uphold these values of self-giving for the good of all. They also happen to be at the core of our two Native American heritages here in Big Horn County.

 

This is not a tale of fiction. It’s a story of whole community advancing for the common good, where “we” can include everyone.  Check out the Bioneers Radio Series 13 - Revolution from the Heart of Nature broadcast, “Coming Home to a We Culture”  https://www.prx.org/pieces/112182-betting-big-on-a-native-dream-coming-home-to-a

 

“Given the extreme economic disenfranchisement of Native American tribes, being an Indian in modern times has given rise to Indian casinos. Chairman Greg Sarris of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria found himself staring down the barrel of massive community resistance. Was it possible to create a casino that would uphold traditional values and benefit the land and local community? You wouldn’t want to bet against him.”

 

Further current information:

http://gratonrancheria.com/tribal-government/

--
David Graber

Hardin, MT  59034

graberdb@gmail.com

I thought I had to play God

Stop. Look. Listen. Remember those old RR track crossing signs, now extinct? Misinformation, impatience and the power to act decisively can be lethal. In the following personal account, I was attuned to the power of the family 20 Gauge. An intervention beyond my control saved a life. 

A mutt adopted us. It was a red spaniel bird dog mix that appeared one evening without a collar near my wife’s parents’ home just out of Gulfport, Miss. We didn’t feed her that evening. She was there again the next morning, obviously looking for a family. Our family agreed to be adopted.

So we discovered she loved hunting. She was good, pointing and waiting until our signal to flush a quail covey. We didn’t wonder; we just accepted the good luck. She helped us hunting nutria, ‘possums and armadillos, looking for bull snakes and moccasins in Cyprus swamps, fishing in the Gulf, beach combing, and building and paddling pirogues on the bayou. There was plenty for a red longhair bird dog mutt to do. 

But then tragedy happened: she attacked the wrong prey. The first clue was when we were walking to get the mail. We noticed her down the road by the swamp loping in circles and howling. I couldn’t figure out if she caught someone’s stocking cap in her teeth or had an overgrown beard under her chin. That perception changed in a hurry as we approached her. She was sporting a massive cluster of porcupine quills under her chin, in her nose and even her mouth. 

The boys inquired with a neighbor what to do. Let them fester and come out on their own, said the old man. It’s impossible to pull out that many porcupine quills without doing lethal damage.

So I helped my wife’s younger brothers clip them off, a task that still turns my stomach thinking about it. It was tough holding her to clip them off. We hoped she could eat, but I’m not sure she ever did, since we couldn’t clip the ones in her mouth. 

She took the pain as a send-off, and went howling into the piney woods behind the ball diamond. We didn’t see her again for two weeks. She came back barely able to walk, mangy hair falling out, with her jaw rotted off to the bone on one side. A few quills were still hanging on. She refused food, and only drank a little water. 

That’s when my emotional thinking set in, prompting me to act out of ignorance. This dog would not survive, so I thought. We had no choice but to end her suffering. The next morning we enacted our plan. She seemed weaker, and was willing to let one of the boys lead her to a pit we dug. I hid the shotgun behind my back, knowing she would be ultra alert to any muzzle pointing at her. We knew from previous experience pointing the empty gun at her with the hammer cocked and pulling the trigger, eliciting a yelp and quick jump away from the muzzle. So I knew we had a challenge. 

Robert held the dog over the pit. We didn’t think to blindfold her. I cocked the loaded shotgun behind my back so she wouldn’t hear the set of the firing pin. In one smooth sweep I moved the gun muzzle to between her eyes and pulled the trigger. The blast penetrated deep into the ground. In that split second she had already jerked free, and then dragged herself amazingly fast for a deathly sick dog, yelping and crying into the piney woods. I assumed she would die a miserable death.

A month passed. I’ll never forget that morning. There was that mutt on the front doorstep. Some of her fur had grown back, hairless flesh had rebuilt on the side of her jawbone, and she was looking much more alive. I could not believe this was the same dog, but the healing scars on her nose and lower jaw were too obvious. It was also obvious that her jerk away from the muzzle of that gun was timed perfectly.

She stayed with us then, forgiving as dogs do. But from that time on, every time she saw any of us with a gun she took off and hid. She would not hunt. Instead, she became a loving companion to our two-year-old son. For a month I had accused myself of failure. Why didn’t I think to blindfold the dog? I remain amazed with the power of that dog to heal itself. 

In America today, the power to destroy has far more investment in money and brains than the power to facilitate healing. People are not trusted to care for themselves and their destiny. Nations not trusted to root out the festering wounds that easily metastasize into the cancer of terrorism are subjected to military occupation, so we have more soldiers deployed abroad than other nations of the world have deployed altogether. We have sponsored and proliferated drones, the ultimate expensive technology to assassinate possible terrorists around the world with lethal decisiveness and no due process. We have the world’s highest per capita peacetime incarceration rate, at great cost to taxpayers, because we quickly distrust human relations and trust instead our criminal justice system, coercive police action and imprisonment. We have families in crisis beyond their capacity to care for themselves because of our shotgun mentality to blow up health care and other government services. We don’t work to save our national economy through rational restructuring of the worldwide debt problem and stopping bailouts for the big billionaire businesses. So we join with the powerful, playing God with our technology of destruction.

Yet we have, in our constitution and in our religious writings, the clear admonition to let God be God, and direct our care to the lives of the “least of these.”

--
David Graber
graberdb@gmail.com

Our strong moral foundation

We’re good people here in Big Horn County.  We have lots of compassion and common sense wisdom.  We like to think for ourselves.  We don’t want the government or our neighbors to make decisions for us. We realize that our lives are connected with others and that helping our less fortunate neighbors is the right thing to do.   This capacity to connect with people in need outside our immediate family is at the heart of our moral foundation here.  We can do amazing things when given the chance.

 

Look at how we rallied to help our neighbors across the state line.  At the beginning of this long winter, ranchers in South Dakota faced catastrophic losses. Some herds were almost totally wiped out by over two feet of snow that came on high winds, before animals were acclimatized to winter weather. With an instinctive common sense of what’s right and wrong, a large group of Montana ranchers knew exactly what to do.  Money, resources and cows went to aid the less fortunate.  No one held back with a perception that those South Dakota ranchers just made the wrong choices, or were lazy. We didn’t hear much about moral dilemmas in this case.

 

Now we’re dealing with a situation in our own back yard that is a little more complicated. Our declining housing resources and burgeoning demand in Big Horn County have faced off good people here into a difficult disagreement. It has to do with the rental property ordinance proposed in the recent Hardin city council meeting.  There are moral issues on both sides.  We know that it is dangerous and unhealthy for children to grow up in substandard housing. Children who are exposed to rodents and mold have astronomical rates of asthma.  Exposed wires, holes, and lead paint are just accidents waiting to happen.  We wouldn’t give kids kitchen knives and chainsaws to play with, and then blame them for getting hurt. 

 

On the other hand, local rental property owners aren’t a bunch of slum lords. They’re not trying to exploit children and families. They are regular, decent people who are trying to balance their budgets. Sometimes renovating existing rentals isn’t economically feasible for them. If renters are concerned about safety issues, maybe they are the ones to look somewhere else for housing.  

 

Both sides of this issue speak logically and support commonly held values. 

Take, for example, a common scenario in Big Horn County. A tenant with young children demands corrections to living conditions and refuses to make rent payments. Yet that tenant has a history of delinquent payments and family members’ abuse of the living quarters. The land owner initiates legal process to evict the tenant. The tenant countersues to force the landlord to make the needed repairs. The court is stuck between two alternatives. But there is a third alternative in our moral foundation.

 

Recent appeals to legal action and objections to governmental oversight both darken the clouds obscuring that foundation. Sometimes law, with its threat-based system, undermines the basic human foundation of society: that of civility, trust, and commitment to the common good. If we use the power of law to uphold the common welfare of all, it works. But, too often, the popular use of law is to compensate for our inability to trust those we assume are enemies. It assumes life is about winners and losers, and ends up blinding us to the possibility of a good outcome for all.

 

We are obviously at loggerheads. Rather than focusing on reaching a solution that protects all, each side is consumed with digging out legal briefs to bolster their case. Instead of paying attention to real need and common possibilities for resolution we have become focused on winning the argument. Maybe it’s time to look into our moral foundation alternative, easily hidden in the fog of conflict. 

 

We could start by sorting out the exact conflict. Is it really the concept of safe housing on which we disagree? Or is it over the path for ensuring safety? If finding a reasonable process toward safe housing is the problem, let’s find out how other communities do this. Perhaps there are alternate funding options available or strategies for increasing our overall supply of new/safe housing.  Maybe there are legal options that would be less onerous for owners and still protect renters.  Let’s explore all our options for resolution before we assume that our neighbors are out to get us.  This will keep our houses and our community built on our moral foundation, as enshrined in both our Bible and our American Constitution.

 

There are many Bible stories depicting common sense compassionate trust. There are also scholarly resources addressing this in current poverty law nation wide. For Bible references, read all four gospels.  Nearly everyone Jesus encounters is identified with either the elite powerful or the powerless poor. See how the rulers and the poor encounter Jesus differently, and what he expects of them for salvation.

 

Here are websites with information on the topic.

 

http://blog.tifwe.org/myths-of-poverty-wealth-free-enterprise/?gclid=CLjo5MnQib0CFbFFMgod5xoAmQ

 

https://www.law.georgetown.edu/academics/law-journals/poverty/index.cfm

 

http://www.spotlightonpoverty.org/map-detail.aspx?state=Montana

 

http://www.cfra.org/newsletter/2012/06/hometown-housing-burnet-texas-model

 

http://www.cfra.org/news/130305/rural-montana-hurt-tax-holiday

 

http://www.cfra.org/ruralmonitor/2011/11/17/native-business-owners-testify-congress-reservation-populations-growing-acce

 

http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/status-of-women-in-montana

 

Restoring Justice

 

The US has one of the largest incarceration rates of any country in the world.  We put so many people in jail that we’re running out of space.  This happens to be a problem for us right here in Big Horn County.  Our county jail is overcrowded. Millions was spent already on a possible facility, and now we are looking to spend more.

 

It seems like one of those situations that just can’t go on.  The more people we lock up, the worse the problem gets.  We know that prison doesn’t cure addiction.  It doesn’t help people get good jobs to support their families.  It doesn’t teach people how to get along with others or how to function in the real world.  It especially doesn’t lead to good outcomes for children.   

 

What is to be done? After all, we can’t have dangerous people out on the streets. We can’t let people get away with behaviors that are against the law. Do we just keep people locked up for life, knowing they’re likely to be worse when they come out? 

 

Maybe we could learn something from our indigenous nations. Many cultures have used the concept of restorative justice successfully for thousands of years.  Restorative justice is an approach that focuses on allowing people to make up for the damage their actions have caused others.  People who commit crimes are forced to dedicate their own lives to helping their victims. 

 

Up in Northern Canadian indigenous fishing communities, a native offender gives up his own trap lines to work for the family of an individual he injures.  Often he will work for and with his victim’s family on their daily life-sustaining tasks.  He might manage that family’s trap lines, supply firewood, repair or purchase fishing and hunting equipment, or build and maintain their homes.  Depending on the offense, a person’s whole life could become dedicated to caring for the family suffering loss from his crime. 

 

This is a life sentence that produces something of value. It truly involves relinquishing a major part of a previous life, but in return the life of the entire community is moved toward restoration.  Often there is no recidivism. These indigenous nations’ corrective judicial systems really do what every normal retributive justice correction facility cannot do, but claims to do.

 

A restorative justice approach involves a different way of thinking about those who commit crimes.  In this view, antisocial behaviors are thought to result from disrupted connections between people, rather than unchangeable character flaws.  This perspective might lead us toward fixing the losses that lead people to criminal activity, instead on concentrating on harsher punishments for offenders.

 

Maybe we in Big Horn County could learn more from criminal justice systems where restorative justice is the dominant response to crime, where retribution in kind is usually rejected, knowing it does little to heal antisocial behavior. Unfortunately, conventional wisdom doesn’t agree.  But research proves even Jesus got it right. “Life for a life,” or, “An eye for an eye,” is what Jesus rejected when he commanded, “Do not return evil for evil.” He seemed to know, and maybe it’s still true: criminals are best deterred by tough insistence on connection to human virtues, especially being forced to see, hear, and understand directly as possible from their victims, and then do something about the pain and suffering their crimes cost.

 

As a teacher since the 70’s in Big Horn and Rosebud Counties I felt that it was my job to recognize and promote the good in all children.  What if we could do this for our community as a whole?  Our conventional criminal justice system already recognizes that delinquent children should not simply be punished and left to rot in jail. What if we could recognize the potential for virtuous pro-social behavior in all people, regardless of age, and provide opportunities to make up for misdeeds in meaningful ways?  I think our community might ultimately be safer and more effective by promoting the values and virtues we share in common, which means requiring offenders to connect with their victims, where appropriate*, to do all they can to repair the damage of their antisocial behavior.

 

Sources on restorative justice:

https://emu.edu/now/peacebuilder/2009/10/how-effective-is-restorative-justice/

A meta-analysis of all restorative justice research written in English, Restorative Justice: The Evidence [by scholars Lawrence W. Sherman and Heather Strang of Cambridge University], concluded in at least two trials, that when used as a diversion, restorative justice reduced violent re-offending, victim’s desire for revenge, and costs. A 2007 University of Wisconsin study found that Barron County’s restorative justice program [in northwestern Wisconsin] led to significant declines in youth violence, arrests, crime, and recidivism

 

 

*Sexual violence, abuse and rape

These and many offenses, especially among adults, require community restoration rather than a relationship between victim and offender. Current justice procedures too often heap abuse upon abuse, often requiring victim and offender both to be present in a courtroom, an environment potentially perpetuating the rapist’s power over the victim.  http://rapecrisis.org.za/information-for-survivors/secondary-trauma/

 

NIH gets it right.The community response to rape: victims' experiences with the legal, medical, and mental health systems.

Campbell R.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9726113

 

The following paper deals with power imbalance issues in gender.

http://harvardjlg.com/2013/10/transforming-campus-culture-to-prevent-rape-the-possibility-and-promise-of-restorative-justice-as-a-response-to-campus-sexual-violence/

 Quote from the author:

“Applying an intersectional view of how and why campus rape occurs, I argue that colleges and universities should seek to engage the broader student community in dialogue and utilize the grievance process as a means of both holding offenders accountable and preventing future rapes. Restorative justice offers one model for how schools might augment their campus grievance processes to respond to acquaintance rape cases to achieve these goals. Though a restorative justice approach may not be appropriate in every case, I argue that it may provide significant benefits for some survivors and offenders, and help to fill the gaps between existing preventative and remedial approaches.”

 

http://www.justiceaction.org.au/cms/prisons/alternatives/restorative-justice

“Restorative Justice is a form of mediation that aims to reconcile the tensions between offenders, victims and the community, rather than retributive justice, which merely punishes the offender. “Restorative Justice aims to heal the community bonds and to have a humanising effect on the system of punitive justice”.

http://www.justiceaction.org.au/cms/prisons/alternatives/restorative-justice - _edn1

[1] It enables stakeholders to cooperate and come to an agreement on appropriate outcomes at different stages of the criminal process, not just in the pre-trial process, as it is commonly perceived to be. 

This research paper has been prepared in light of questions of the effectiveness of Restorative Justice for reducing recidivism rates.http://www.justiceaction.org.au/cms/prisons/alternatives/restorative-justice - _edn2

[2] International studies referred to in this paper dispel this criticism. For Restorative Justice to be effective, emphasis is placed on reconciliation, where offenders accept responsibility for their actions and make amends and in turn create a level of empowerment in their own rehabilitation. 

Effective use of Restorative Justice processes can displace resources from the prison systems, enabling them to be put into the community. The term “justice reinvestment” describes the transfer of those resources into the source area of the problems. Trained community workers reconcile the tensions, often using those same people who have personally experienced the process, either as victims or offenders. For this role to be effective it must have trust, be independent of the coercive process and protected by privacy legislation such as created for community justice centres.

This paper proposes the extension of Restorative Justice programs from not just the pre-sentencing 

http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/jstc-rcdvs/index-eng.aspx

http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/jstc-rcdvs/jstc-rcdvs-eng.pdf

Question: Can restorative justice programs influence offender recidivism?

 

 Background: The traditional way of dealing with crime in society is for the State to intervene by punishing the offender. The punishment of offenders is seen to serve justice through denunciation and deterrence. Some critics of this approach have argued that the focus on offenders ignores victims and the community. In the 1970s, an alternative approach, restorative justice, began to emerge and, particularly in the last decade, has proliferated across North America and other parts of the world.

 

 Restorative justice seeks to involve victims and the community in a process that holds the offender accountable for repairing the harms committed by the offender.

 

https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/abstractdb/AbstractDBDetails.aspx?id=147713

Victim-offender reconciliation and mediation programs involving juvenile offenders in California, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Texas were studied to determine the effectiveness of these programs

 

international virtues project

http://www.52virtues.com/virtues/the-virtues-project.php

The History of The Virtues Project

The Virtues Project was founded in 1991 by three concerned individuals who made a commitment to do something to counteract the rising violence among families and youth. Linda Kavelin-Popov, her husband Dr. Dan Popov and her brother, John Kavelin researched the world's diverse sacred traditions and they discovered something simple and profound.

Essence of the human spirit

At the heart of all spiritual traditions are 360 virtues, described as the essence of the human spirit and the content of our character. A guide containing fifty-two of these universal virtues was published to help parents bring out the best in their children and in themselves.

 

Used in more than 85 countries

Since then many books and other resources have been published to help educators, businesses and governments implement the virtues. The project has grown into a global grass roots network of diverse individuals, organizations, schools, and communities in more than 85 countries, including Australia. It has been used in many Western Australian schools for 10 years and is growing in popularity now in the Eastern States.

 

Not about religion

The Virtues Project is not about the practices or beliefs of any one religion. It is sourced in the teachings about virtues found in the sacred traditions of all cultures. Its purpose is to support all people, both those who are religious and those who are not, to awaken the virtues of their character.

 

aboriginal justice CPT

http://www.cpt.org/work/aboriginal_justice/mandate

CPT’s Aboriginal Justice Team is mandated with undoing colonialism and supporting Indigenous communities seeking justice and defending their lands against corporate and government exploitation without community consent. Our work includes human rights monitoring and reporting, non-violence training, presence and accompaniment, court witnessing, education and advocacy through presentations to schools and churches, articles and media releases, organizing fact-finding and learning delegations to areas of conflict or oppression, participating in and/or offering logistical support for public actions and speaking tours. CPT seeks to enlist the whole church in the work of undoing colonialism.

 

Other links of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restorative_justice

 

http://www.icjia.state.il.us/public/pdf/researchreports/inventoryandexaminationofrestorativejusticepracticesforyouthillinois_042013.pdf

 

http://www.cpt.org/category/cptnet-categories/aboriginal-justice

 

It’s often not appropriate to bring a perpetrator and victim together. Restorative justice usually doesn’t happen with a power imbalance between victim and perpetrator. This is almost always the case with abuse, especially sexual abuse of children and rape. In indigenous nations, a third party representing the needs of the less powerful party may carry much or even all the responsibility to connect with the perpetrator.  Thus the “triangulation” concern of modern Western psychology is understood often potentially positive.

 

bioneers

 

http://lakotawaldorfschool.blogspot.com/

 

A good friend of mine, now one of the last of the Council of Forty-four Cheyenne Peace Chiefs, applied these virtues a half century ago as a young man. He was disciplined to resist vengeance at a battle re-enactment of the Washita Massacre, then still not acknowledged as a deadly evil military action. Black Kettle, his great-grandfather and a peace chief nearly 150 years ago, had advocated was quoted as saying not long before Custer’s bugler played Garrwyown and his troops surrounded a peaceful Cheyenne village   assembly. Just appointed, and now Our system works hard to treat antisocial behavior with more separation instead of reconnection, with pain of responsibility lost instead of the pain of enormously more responsibility, by damaging and breaking family relationships instead of nourishing them, by more hardness and absolute power instead of vulnerability, and by a belief that eventually, because of punishment, the criminal will “see the light.”

In fact, our national mania toward justice rests on retribution, an opposite concept. This starts in the way we treat our children at home and in schools, backed up by immovable assumptions reinforced in every sitcom and cartoon on TV: “Bad deeds need payback. Give ‘em what he deserves. Teach ‘em a lesson. Don’t let them get by. Give ‘em a dose of their own medicine.” All these common phrases are part and parcel of a failed system that supposedly nurtures children into good citizens. It doesn’t. This is the message of loads of research of child development.

Finding resources to do this is the job of some two-dozen family and child service agencies in Big Horn County. In the last two years these agencies have built connecting links with each other sharing resources for health care, behavioral help, parental support, family income jobs, emergency resources, justice services, funding information, referrals and ideas for growing the good all children need to survive in this world. That linking organization, Big Horn County Best Beginnings, for the last two years has been joining with parents and care givers fighting against problems that smash and destroy the good in children, leading them to cope with stress by acting out in ways that endanger other’s safety, interfere with others’ learning,  risk their own health and safety, keep them from adequate health care, healthy nutrition, safety at home and in the neighborhood, and stop learning of positive people relationships. Too often, those of us who listen to our troubled children in schools, medical, or social care institutions hear them state in matter-of-fact ways such matters as parent separation or abandonment, domestic abuse, violence, tragic deaths—even murder—of family members. It makes sense that too many of our children suffer nightmares and sleep loss associated normally with children caught in war zones. Of course they can’t concentrate in school, are easily offended, easily become bullies or victims of bullies, and often spend time in the principal’s or counselor’s office. These are the elements that make it difficult to find the good in some of our children.

 

And these most pressing needs of children have a key promise of relief in a simple reality: rebuild modern society on the history stemming back thousands of years of successful connections between humans and each other, all life forms, and their place on our planet earth.  Modern society has departed too far from practicing and teaching these life connections. They dominated human social networking in our ancient tribal past, as reflected most profoundly in the most ancient writings and oral traditions of our species, especially our religious writings such as the Christian Bible.  It’s time to return to our roots.

 

No doubt about it, troubled children are children of troubled adults who grew up with trouble.

 

We met with them,  and simply shared our  3:46  We all do live together on this planet, and the elements and connections that make human life possible as we see it are disappearing one by one. 

 

The technologies of peace come from the land we live on, and are available to us all.  Collective heritage institute.

 

Many of these children in Big Horn County are part of one or more of the indigenous nations originally belonging in the territory of Montana. We, the providers of services for healing our children in Big Horn County, can access the ingredients to make enormous changes for the better through restoring that belonging, that connection power.  

 

Evan Prichard: Restorative Justice.

One of the least rational responses to our children’s dilemma with life comes from those who govern our schools. They make us test cognitive development. They make us use cognitive test to determine school preparation for success in life. Our government says it’s a child’s right not to be left behind cognitively, but we all meekly allow grouping them into monocultures of age and developmental stratification. They want our kids to join confidently in a race to the top where all are can be winners, then we test to divide and rank them within schools, and further rank winners and losers among classrooms, among teachers, and among entire school districts, with funding loss and forced oversight threats.  The “common core,” with all its improvements for children’s access to success, still endorses setting up barricades through cognitive testing to doom or destine children and their families to despair or privilege. 

 

We have a rash of unsolved murders in Big Horn County, being brought to light by a family courageous enough to push for investigation of an FBI agent responsible for lack of progress on solving these crimes. Illnesses and injuries associated with the impact of adults in high stress converge on our health care facilities, doing their best to cope.  Many at a young age engage in socially-accepted addictions to cope with the stress, overloading our facilities to handle additive dysfunction. Many families suffer from chronic occurrences of inadequate housing, clothing, or food.  Mixed in with the media hype and tragedy is a national fear of violent crime impacting us in Big Horn County. Most seriously, Our children grow up seeing their loved ones caught in dysfunctional behavior causing pain, terror, and physical/emotional scars.  It’s easy to join in, first watching addictive coping strategies in children’s and adult media in the home, and eventually finding peer confirmation of enough maturity to try chemical abuse to create an alternative happier universe. 

 

A prime example of the mentality behind this national proliferation of fear is the “stand-your-ground” laws proliferating in hotbeds of racism, economic stress and violent crime outside Montana. Unlike Montana’s older law, restricted to an occupied structure (45-3-103. Use of force in defense of occupied structure),  other states adopted stand-your-ground laws with loopholes leading to exoneration of criminal pursuit, assault and death. This social intervention experiment by many state governments has solved nothing because its foundation is fear rather than reason, the same kind of fear peddled in Big Horn County. So we have symptoms of the national mentality growing in our criminal justice system deployed to address the unsolved murders in Big Horn County. The job isn’t being done. Justice is not served. Tragedy and pain remain.

 

This is not simply a letter to urge vigorous investigation. It’s to address the mentality behind the neglect of victims and their families.

 

http://www.cpt.org/category/cptnet-categories/aboriginal-justice

 I hope this isn't information overload!  It's a tough topic, and needing attention.

-- 
David Graber
graberdb@gmail.com

The power of community

Dave Graber

We recently lost a dear friend, Louise Fisher, whose life impacted many people in our community. In celebrating her contributions last week, I was reminded of how we all touch the lives of our neighbors every day. 

We had to drive through snow leaving the funeral in Busby this past Friday afternoon. As we crested the last hill before descending into Crow Agency, the clouds lifted enough to see what looked like a possibility of sunlight across the Little Horn and Big Horn rivers upon the ridgeline of the Pryor Mountains. Our destination was the Fairview Cemetery west of Hardin, for burial. 

We parked, trudged through the snow and gathered around the casket in the cold. A few flakes descended from the dark metallic sky arching over the treetops, riding on a slight breeze and into the gathering. Folks sought to ward off the cold with tightened collars and scarves, gently brushing tears from freezing against faces focused on hearing, watching and caring. Words were spoken. Songs were sung mostly in Cheyenne. Announcements were short and to the point. 

After it seemed all was said and done, the caretakers of the casket centered it on the lowering rack, removed the blankets and flowers, and one knelt in a corner to grasp a lever and start turning. Steel against cold steel lost static friction, and the casket began its descent into the earth with a squeaky cry. At that moment a Cheyenne elder stepped forward signaling to halt the descent. Carefully sensing the moment, he spoke. Then he sang. His offering was obviously well received, and appropriate for this moment in the heritage he shared with the deceased. 

The sun attempted a few rays far to the southwest on the Pryor Mountains as he stepped back, signing to the caretaker to continue the descent. As the squeaks ended and the casket settled into the earth, a Cheyenne song was sung. After that came trilling, a high-pitched tongue-fluttered vocalization by women with strong voices, announcing closure for an honored person. Then a second, unplanned event happened: A barely discernable cry emerged from the southwest. 

We weren’t the only ones defying the coldness that day. The distant voice grew steadily louder, and rose to a cacophony of many crying out as a large flock of several V’s of wild geese, barely at treetop level, began their flyover. Those of us removing the green canvas from the pile of soil and grasping shovels hesitated and looked up. The geese were low almost to the treetops, oblivious to humans just below through the green branches. Their white wingtips maintained unflinching synchronicity. The distances between flyers in each V’s arm were kept precise. The forward velocity and vector of the entire flock remained constant. It was as if they knew exactly where they came from, knew no one would be left behind, and knew exactly where they were going. 

The sound slowly converged again into one voice and wafted into the darkening north sky, disappearing into the distance down the Big Horn Valley. Recovering from my shock of the noisy appearance and departure of the geese so close overhead, I realized the soil beside the occupied grave was finding its way into shovels and bare hands, gently dropping in and enveloping the casket. Slowly, the empty space above it was heaped full. Through sound of the shovels encountering earth, steel, and human hands, weeping stayed quiet. But it was there. 

Then we departed for the warmth of our vehicles, and the trip back to Busby to food, warmth, and a celebratory exchange of stories to remember our blessing from this life lived among us. I wonder whether we could emulate the power of the formation paying its respects to Louise that day. If each encounter we had with others in our community was made in the spirit of mutual cooperation and respect, how far could we all fly together?

This column can be accessed online at the Big Horn County News, and at greenwoodback40.blogspot.com along with archives of “Spirit and Dust” columns since 2012.

David Graber

graberdb@gmail.com

The Secret Garden Connection

It's all connected. I watched our children's performance in the Missoula Children's Theater at Hardin Middle School this evening, January 10, 2014. It was an awesome performance, well done in every way. This play illustrated the importance of interconnections between all living things and the natural world.  As a career educator, it also got me thinking about the concept of holistic learning and integrated instruction, educators' jargon for learning that occurs naturally among the young.

 

During the performance, children were turned into flowers, bugs, fireflies, geese, and squirrels. Three characters, portrayed as human, illustrated how illness and dysfunction come about when we are disconnected from the earth, sea or sky. Each of the three learned to be reconnected with life and others of their kind. The secret garden held, and holds for children everywhere, the secret power of learning how to learn through honing those connections.

 

I began learning this lesson sixty years ago, roaming the timbered hills of my childhood Iowa farm acreage, armed with a .22 squirrel rifle.  I was honing my marksmanship in the nutted tops of hickory trees.  I prided myself in dropping my prey straight to the ground, using a clean headshot.  My brothers and sister competed with each other for proof of this skill. I liked to think I came out on top consistently.

 

One Friday evening, arguing over our respective marksmanship while the last cows were milking, I made the claim that tomorrow I would take our Benjamin BB gun and bring home at least one squirrel, maybe two. I knew, with four pumps, I had the power to penetrate and kill. I stuck a few dozen BB's in my pocket the next morning and headed out. Not far over the fence into the deep timber a young squirrel sat on a snag of a hickory tree barely ten yards away and barked at me. He was my first victim. I found that I needed to use three shots instead of just one because my first headshot was not fatal.

 

I should have stopped right there, lesson learned. However, I was ignoring the carefully instilled teachings of my father about taking wild game with as little suffering as possible. In my family we hunted to eat, not to torture animals. 

 

My next opportunity was a squirrel burying acorns under an oak. I was either not seen, or ignored, because I could get close enough for a fatal BB shot, or so I thought. But the squirrel was not stationary. My shot broke his back, a painful injury that disabled his back legs. I watched and desperately tried to reload my single shot BB gun and pump it for a fatal shot. He crawled up that hollow oak with his hind legs dragging, and dropped into a hole as I shot wildly and missed. That's when my father's training rose up to my awareness. I went home with one squirrel, gave the meat to my mother who placed it in a saltwater bowl in the icebox, and said nothing about it to my siblings.

 

That night I had nightmares. I was the one shot in the back, screaming like that squirrel, struggling to climb and scratching my fingernails on my headboard instead of a tree trunk. My brother shook me awake and asked what I was screaming about. Confused and in pain, I said it was a crazy dream. 

 

The children who performed tonight will not need an event like mine to bring them into respect for life. They had the chance to use all their senses in learning, as they sang, danced, and acted.  They were able to synchronize and attune with others around a theme of connections.  In our rush for academic attainment, this approach to learning is one that we must not forget. 

 

How much better to structure classrooms around relationship-building and activity, rather than sedentary bubbling of test answer sheets. Learning through peer connections and integrated instruction can still invite district disapproval. But this proven teaching approach is not about watering down or sugar-coating education in order to make it easier for kids. It's about creating natural and powerful experiences that change perceptions for life. When learning is meaningful and enjoyable there's no need to fight the drudgery and motivational lags that defeat the goals of schooling.

 

The pain of experiencing that squirrel's scream in my dream long ago returned to my memory while watching the children tonight.  But the joy of learning I saw on their faces, as they connected with the animal world, defeated it. Their enthusiastic synchronized gestures, singing and acting together made the Secret Garden's lesson a more powerful tool for education than the plot itself.

 

--
David Graber
graberdb@gmail.com

Responsibility and Deception

It’s hard to imagine a higher calling than that of defending our country through military service. We have a large number of veterans here in Big Horn County who took on this task for us. Many of them have experienced, first hand, the awesome responsibility of carrying out orders from their superior officers to take the lives of other human beings. It takes great trust to do this. Killing others of our kind is an awesome responsibility. In order to suspend our personal sense of right and wrong, we must believe that our government got it right. We must believe that our actions are furthering a greater purpose and protecting our deepest ideals. 

Many of our older veterans cannot conceive of our American government lying, or hiding errors, inappropriately placing our troops in harms way, or creating missions tainted with falsehood and deception. We all desperately want to believe that in such heavy matters our government will get it right.

Unfortunately, it often turns out that governments promote violence for the wrong reasons.  The Christmas story tells of Herod, Roman Tetrarch of Judea. He sent out a wide network of soldiers to find and kill all infant boys in Bethlehem and surrounding towns.  This was an attempt to protect the empire from the predicted influence of Jesus. Like today, overkill and lying had good intentions: eliminate insurrectionists threatening Pax Romana, the Empire’s way of securing peace, in outlying provinces like Judea and Galilee.

Herod’s lie is still around. Powerful governments still hide brutal destruction of perceived enemies, and cover collateral damage—killing of innocents—with an aura of righteousness. Any criticism of our government doing its job is considered unpatriotic and even seditious.  Remember the Patriot Act and government spying on peace churches like Quakers and Mennonites in the aftermath of 9-11. Yes, they opposed the war, but it’s hard to imagine a less threatening group of protestors. 

There should be a place for debate in a healthy democracy. Everyone is not going to agree with the use to military action, even when it appears to be justified. Yet lately, more evidence is coming to light that our government/media complex has come up with outright lies to justify increasing use of force in the Middle East. Accurate information regarding exactly what and when our government representatives were planning for military action has been difficult to uncover.  Choices shrouded in secrecy led to inconceivable bloodshed and draining of almost a trillion of our tax dollars.  Many Americans are still not sure what we have gained from the sacrifices of our military families (and national coffers) over the past 10 years. 

Just this December a movie, “The Last War Crime,” censored in the United States since its debut at the Cannes film festival last year, can now be seen. I tried to find it at the time of its release, but it was not available anywhere. Our Hollywood moguls, the theater industry, motion picture advertisers like You Tube, and the online movie businesses like Netflix threw it into the dustbin.

Luckily God makes good use of dust.  He once transformed it into humans and it’s in us where the Spirit and common sense can move together.  Our veterans in Big Horn County need a big thanks this Christmas for their honorable service.  We especially appreciate their valiant efforts to get right this awesome responsibility for the death of fellow human beings. We owe it to them and ourselves to make sure we’re on the right path each and every time we pursue military action.  With our help, and theirs, the hope of nations for real peace can be conceived and born again here, in our time.

This 2014 again we need a star to guide us. “The Last War Crime” could help us, like the Christmas star, become a guide to uncover the truth behind the lies of the last wars and find the Jesus who came to bring peace on earth. The film begins with reliable factual information on what was said and done and when, centering on the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Then, in the second half of the film, the narrative turns from history to fantasy, exploring what could have happened (it didn’t) had this evidence been used for a grand jury indictment of one of our highest government officials. The film retrieves from the dustbin of media neglect what major actors from Downing Street to Washington DC actually did and said, with confirmation from official government reporting as well as the leaks of Manning, Assange or Snowden. To find the DVD, available for a contribution to cover shipping, look online “Last War Crime The Pen,” or check this link:  http://www.peaceteam.net/screeners.php

Further links to this movie:  http://www.nationofchange.org/last-war-crime-debuts-cannes-censored-us-1342021227

http://www.opednews.com/articles/A-Free-Speech-David-Takes-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Activism-Anti-War_Arts-And-Activism_Bush-War-Strategery_Crimes-Against-Huma

https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/13

War Tribunal Finds Bush, Cheney Guilty of War Crimes

Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal orders reparations be given to torture victims

- Common Dreams staff

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/13/1091353/-Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-etc-Convicted-of-War-Crimes#

SUN MAY 13, 2012 AT 12:22 PM PDT

Bush, Cheney, etc. Convicted of War Crimes by Malasyian NGO

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/01/obama-spain-bush-torture-prosecution/

Nigeria, Spain

The Obama administration went to the mat to defend its predecessors from a torture prosecution in Spain last year, a leaked State Department cable shows. The cable, released by WikiLeaks this week, shows that senior US diplomats teamed with Republican lawmakers — including a former Republican Party chairman — to put pressure on Spanish officials to drop a criminal investigation into the Bush administration’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

In the spring of 2009, Spanish Judge Balthasar Garzon launched an inquiry into six Bush officials linked to the torture policy. They were then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; Cheney adviser David Addington; Pentagon lawyer William Haynes; Pentagon official Douglas Feith; and Jay Bybee and John Yoo from the Office of Legal Counsel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/02/opinion/edward-snowden-whistle-blower.html

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/spain-trial-judge-baltasar-garz-n-blow-human-rights-2012-01-20

Spanish judge prosecuted. Given Judge Baltasar Garzón’s success at investigating and prosecuting crimes under international law around the world, it beggars belief that Spanish judicial authorities would seek to prevent him from investigating such crimes in Spain.

”

Hugo Relva, Legal Adviser at Amnesty International.

Fri, 20/01/2012

“Under international law there are no statutes of limitation for enforced disappearance, torture and other crimes against humanity, and Spain has an obligation to investigate and, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, to prosecute the suspects and to provide full reparations to the victims,” said Hugo Relva

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'” 
― Isaac Asimov

Probably the most government and secrecy surrounding killing of innocents involves our drone warfare. Unavailable in commercial media is information on a drone strike just last month on a wedding procession in Radaa,Yemen, killing 17 extended family members. Certainly, some were relatives of insurrectionists, if not terrorists, against the CIA-supported regime. Since our government continues a policy of secrecy regarding particular drone strikes such as this, information comes only from civilians and independent media sources.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/drone-strike-in-yemen-killed-17-mostly-civilians_896419.html

Here’s recent information from a drone operator:  http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/i-worked-us-drone-program-heres-what-really-happens

http://www.nationofchange.org/obama-s-new-normal-drone-strikes-continue-1387896058

Information on the most important city geographically in the history surrounding Jesus’ birth:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzippori

http://www.nationofchange.org/dismal-indeed-why-dick-cheney-disdains-second-rate-obama-team-1361025116

http://www.nationofchange.org/dick-cheney-benghazi-one-worst-incidences-i-can-recall-my-career-1368627118

http://www.nationofchange.org/last-war-crime-debuts-cannes-censored-us-1342021227

http://www.truth-out.org/archive/item/88097:cheney-admits-to-war-crimes-media-yawns-obama-turns-the-other-cheek

http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/19237-torture-opponents-say-ban-dick-cheney-from-canada-or-prosecute-him

http://www.lawyersagainstthewar.org/letters/barcheney300913.pdf

http://www.lawyersagainstthewar.org/PolTor.pdf

Lawyers Against the War (LAW) is a Canada-based committee of jurists and others who oppose war and advocate for adherence to international humanitarian law and against impunity for violators.

World Can't Wait is a US-based movement formed to halt and reverse the terrible program of war and repression, initiated by the Bush/Cheney regime as well as the on-going crimes that continue to this day – www.worldcantwait.net. War Criminals Watch is a project of World Can’t Wait – www.warcriminalswatch.org. 

CODEPINK is a US women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end US- funded wars and occupations, to challenge militarism globall, and to redirect our resources into health care, education, green jobs and other life-affirming activities –www.codepink.org.

Read a page from WMD, Nukes and Nuns

 By William Strabala

This is available on line

http://books.google.com/books?id=NeS7nyXHFgcC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=sojourners+government+lying+cheney&source=bl&ots=VCWx9THCKl&sig=Un3mbxvBP-wwrGgmswEBMhqKIOs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9O24UsbvKYf4yAHT0oGICw&ved=0CG4Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=sojourners%20government%20lying%20cheney&f=false

http://www.algora.com/114/book/details.html

Anyone interested in military strategies in our most recent wars should read the following, on our Afghanistan war: “Limits of counterinsurgency doctrine in Afghanistan,” on Global Affairs, Sept/Oct 2013, by the Council on Foreign Relations: http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/139645/karl-w-eikenberry/the-limits-of-counterinsurgency-doctrine-in-afghanistan

 An analysis from the government gives

https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R43196.pdf

War in Afghanistan: Campaign Progress,

Political Strategy, and Issues for Congress

Catherine Dale

Specialist in International Security

December 17, 2013

http://csis.org/publication/salvaging-war-afghanistan

Salvaging the war in Afghanistan

By Anthony H. Cordesman

JUL 23, 2013

CSIS published a PDF in May giving a thorough analysis with perspective of a large spectrum of experts experienced in Afghanistan:

http://csis.org/files/publication/130326_afghan_war_in_2013_vol_I.pdf

Also, see this from fall 2013: http://csis.org/publication/afghanistan-remembering-war-we-are-still-fighting

http://www.nationofchange.org/obama-s-new-normal-drone-strikes-continue-1387896058

--
David Graber
Hardin, MT  59034
graberdb@gmail.com