Dan Pallotta

Friday, October 29, 2004

Saw a report yesterday that 100,000 Iraqis have died in the war up to this point. The following is from Reuters: "Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100,000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq." This comes from researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland in a report published online by The Lancet medical journal.

The fact that 100,000 Iraqis may have died, many of them women and children, as unfathomable as that is, is not the point. The point is the complete lack of acknowledgement, sorrow, or reflection on those numbers and on those lives here in the United States. The disparity is the point. The honor we pay to the lives of the 3,000 people lost in America on September 11th bears no resemblance to the honor we pay to the lives of the tens of thousands of people lost in Iraq over the last year and a half. This should tell us something about our real respect for human life. Do we value human life, or have we been calloused to the point where we value only American life?

There should be a national prayer service for the lives of every one of those people - not in the mosques of Iraq, but in the churches and synagogues and mosques of the United States. This kind of simple thing shows the world that we are human. That we feel. That we actually have the conscience and the character our political rhetoric claims that we have.

You learn a lot about a person by whether or not they send you a thank you note after you've had them over for dinner. Such a simple thing reveals so much about character. You learn a lot about a nation when it has the decency and reverence to conduct a simple prayer service to honor innocent dead. And you learn a lot about it when it doesn't.

Thursday, October 28, 2004

The Red Sox won the world series. All things are possible.

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power." Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

I happened to see Deepak Chopra on Dennis Miller two nights ago. He got absolutely slaughtered, both by Miller, and the audience. Ridiculed, yelled at, and made to look weak, naive, foolish, and ridiculous for proposing love, humility, and understanding as alternatives to our approach in Iraq. This is where the rubber meets the road. Those of us who believe in love, and peace, and non-violence - the things that Gandhi and Jesus taught - are afraid that we will be laughed at for our views in this testosterone, hate-filled political climate. It is with good reason. We will be. But that is not the question. The question is whether we are willing to stand up for what we believe in, no matter how vitriolic Dennis Miller or his audience are toward us, for in the end, the benefit of our wisdom will accrue to them as well. One day they will thank us. Remember how Gandhi and Jesus were received while they were alive.

Monday, October 25, 2004

I went to see an exhibit on Einstein yesterday. I never realized how much he advocated the exploration of a world government. Saw this quote - one of many:

"A world government must be created which is able to solve conflicts between nations by judicial decision...This government must be based on a clear-cut constitution that is approved by the government and the nations, and which has the sole disposition of offensive weapons." - Albert Einstein

One must take cover behind the reputation of Einstein to even introduce such an idea. Even with his name attached to it it is heresy in this political climate. That must say something about its merit.

Sunday, October 24, 2004

"The resistance to a new idea increases as the square of its importance."

Bertrand Russell

This we need to remember when we consider the validity of the non-violent approaches suggested by Jesus, Gandhi, and King, as the world struggles with the question of how to create lasting peace. These are not new ideas, but as a suggestion for a replacement foreign policy they will be considered as such, and all hell will break loose.