born empathic

Evenin'


From Bob Edwards Show on NPR


http://www.bobedwards.info/ftopic976.html


"Social thinker and author JEREMY RIFKIN'S latest book looks at emerging scientific studies that show humans are not naturally aggressive and self-interested, but fundamentally empathetic. Rifkin's book, "The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis," is a new interpretation of the history of civilization, focusing on the development of human empathy." 


Enjoy the Listen


Here's an exercise  from Tel Aviv via Al Jazeera program Witness


 "Moshe Cohen is a 'garbage archeologist'. His life on the streets of Tel Aviv, Israel's capital city, is dedicated to plundering the city's dumpsters looking for discarded objects, often things thrown away after recent death.
He collects artefacts, antiques and things which he believes tell a personal, historical story - everything from old Palestinian passports, to suitcases, to bedsheets, clothes or pictures.
Occasionally there will be something valuable, an antique or a gold watch, but mostly his daily activities just chronicle the day-to-day history of Tel Aviv.
The film follows him around Tel Aviv as he is traveling the streets collecting rubbish."




Part 2

In the Strangers Stroll

There is Life

In the Child's Laughter

There is Life

Feeling helpless, yet hopeful

There is Life

Saying a Selfless kind Word

There is Life

Listening to another's need to talk

There is Life

The Bird's Flight with song

There is Life

Giving a dollar instead of spare change

There is Life

To be Continued

There is Life

Peter/Alley

Across the Aisle

Evenin',


Earlier Today, an across the aisle meeting as offered Wednesday  Night.







Transcript

And Then From MSNBC:

Republicans Say It Was a Mistake Cameras Were Allowed to Roll During President's Appearance at Retreat

And Also This Day
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/28/howard_zinn_1922_2010_a_tribute

Howard Zinn (1922-2010): A Tribute to the Legendary Historian with Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein and Anthony Arnove

We pay tribute to the late historian, writer and activist Howard Zinn, who died suddenly on Wednesday of a heart attack at the age of eighty-seven. Howard Zinn’s classic work A People’s History of the United States changed the way we look at history in America. It has sold over a million copies and was recently made into a television special called The People Speak. We remember Howard Zinn in his own words, and we speak with those who knew him best: Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein and Anthony Arnove. [includes rush transcript]

Filed under Howard Zinn

It's a good tie in which balances the big picture perspective of time.


Enjoy,


Peter


P.S. You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train

P.S. 2

say your say

People Speak - History.com - Democracy TV Special Presentation

www.history.com

Discover more about The People Speak, a special series from History, featuring the world's most popular celebrities celebrating the forging of our nation and social change.

Stubborn Resilience

Afternoon,


Providence shined once again last night. A seat near a power source for my laptop, in a place with Wi Fi and  a clear view of the big screen enabled me to enjoy a  State of the Union Address Watch Party.


There were the response's of Congress,  synced with Joey's Brickhouse Customer's & Staff, The White House Blog with running Facebook interactivity. A triangulation of viewpoint's in real time; Excellent. 


This was followed by the Republican Response featuring an audience with Applause Prompter and a directed shots of minority faces who were in the minority.


Then Jon Stewart Daily Show response to the Address, kinda. The crowd did not need a laugh track or prompter.


All in all it was a full informative evening,

Moving Forward!!! with facts, human values, that generations before us got us here today. It is our Job now!!!

Hope you were there,

Moving Forward!!! with facts, human values, that generations before us got us here today. It is our Job now!!!

Chit with ya',

Moving Forward!!! with facts, human values, that generations before us got us here today. It is our Job now!!!

Peter Lott Heppner
Chicago


P.S. PNHP press Release

Do You see the others in each?

Mornin Congress.

Tomorrow evening, while you & your fellow citizen representatives listen to the President's State of the Union Address.

Your Fellow Citizen's will be attending Watch Parties 
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/sotuwatchparty/ 
Some 44th Ward, 5th District Illinois folks will be Here, 
Time: Wednesday, January 27 from 6:00 PM - 11:00 PM
Host: Greg Morelli 
Contact Phone: 7732961300 
Location: Joey's Brickhouse (Chicago, IL) 1258 West Belmont Chicago, IL 60657
Maps: Google Maps MapQuest Yahoo! Maps Directions: 1258 West Belmont between Southport & Racine, here's a link:
http://joeysbrickhouse.com/directions.html  
Pass it on,
Peter Lott Heppner
peterlott2004@yahoo.com
773-573-7330

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

You are reading from the book Touchstones

Within every man there is the reflection of a woman, and within every woman there is the reflection of a man. Within every man and woman there is also the reflection of an old man and an old woman, a little boy and a little girl.
  — Hyemeyohsts Storm

This Cheyenne teaching reminds us of our connections - inside ourselves and with other people. Reading this passage, we are seeing it partly with the eyes of that small child who first learned to read. And perhaps, looking in the mirror today, we can see the traces of the old men we are becoming. We have been close to our mothers or sisters or lovers and have found parts of ourselves in them. By gently welcoming the children we once were, the old men we will be, the part of us that has a woman's outlook, we become wiser, stronger, and more spiritual.

We don't need to be frightened or disrespectful of the parts of ourselves that don't feel 100 percent virile. We can have virility and many other sides too. Such awareness creates peace with ourselves.
I will notice the reflection of small children in old faces, old people in children's faces, and men and women in each other.
From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men ©1986, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the publisher.

 Rational Brain versus Emotional brain

Radiolab: Why Is It So Hard To Do The Right Thing? : NPR

www.npr.org

The reason for a lack of willpower may be that you're working your prefrontal cortex too hard. If you give it too many jobs to do, it gets tired, calls it a day and gives into temptation.

Sooo Congress, my message is get rational.

 For some help in thinking, see the movie Disturbing the Universe

Remember!

 All  Power to the People(1) & (2)

Sincerely,

Peter Lott Heppner

Chicago,

PNHP Press Release, 1-22-2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
Jan. 22, 2010 Quentin Young, M.D., (312) 782-6006
Mark Almberg, (312) 782-6006, cell: (312) 622-0996,
mark@pnhp.org

Obama should seize moment to push for Medicare for All, doctors' group says

Dr. Quentin Young comments on Massachusetts election, next steps for health reform
A spokesman for a national physicians' group says it would be a mistake for President Obama to conclude from Tuesday's vote in Massachusetts that he needs to "tack more toward the right," as some pundits have advised, or to aim for a scaled-back set of piecemeal reforms. Instead, the spokesman says, the president and Congress should immediately move to expand the popular Medicare program to cover everyone.
"President Obama and Congress should seize this moment to change course and re-inspire the U.S. public with a plan that is simple, clear, workable, fiscally responsible, comprehensive and truly universal -- namely, single-payer Medicare for All," said Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program.
Young dismissed suggestions by some that the House should adopt the Senate bill as it presently reads, send it to the president's desk, and have Congress improve upon it later. "The Senate bill is rotten," he said. "It's a huge financial handout to the for-profit insurers and big drug companies. If passed, it will still leave at least 20 million uninsured and millions more unable to afford the care they need.
"Yesterday's Supreme Court decision removing bans on corporate contributions in candidate elections will only make this fatally flawed bill even more difficult to improve upon," he said. "It's too laden with concession after concession to the private health industry to serve as a starting point."
"Instead, we need to start anew and build on a system that we know works well, is cost-efficient and that could quickly be extended to cover everybody," Young said. "That's the Medicare program, which was implemented within one year of its enactment in 1965 and now covers about 45 million people, mainly seniors and the totally disabled."
"Extending Medicare to cover the entire population would result in $400 billion savings annually by eliminating the administrative waste -- the unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy -- inflicted on the U.S. economy by the private health insurers," he said. "That would be enough to ensure high-quality coverage for everybody."
Young said it would be a mistake to interpret the election of Republican Scott Brown to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy's seat as a rejection by voters of fundamental health reform. Many independents and Democrats voted for Brown or stayed home because of mounting economic insecurity and their belief that the health reform process led by the Democrats had been corrupted by the big insurance and drug companies, he said. Union voters were especially angry with the proposed excise tax on workers' health plans.
"It was more of a protest vote," he said.
Young pointed to a 2008 ballot initiative in 10 legislative districts in Massachusetts, including one that overlaps with Brown's state senatorial district, that asked voters if they support "legislation creating a cost-effective, single-payer health insurance system that is available to all residents, and oppose laws penalizing those who fail to obtain health insurance," i.e. an individual mandate.
"Seventy-three percent of Massachusetts voters in these districts voted for a single-payer program and against the individual mandate, a hallmark of their own state's plan," Young said. "The Massachusetts plan is now in financial trouble. It's fair to assume that those who voted this way in 2008, like many others in exit polls this week, believe the bills in Congress don't go far enough toward real reform."
"Nationwide," he said, "polls show about two-thirds of the U.S. population would favor a Medicare-for-All approach, and a solid majority of physicians now support efforts to establish national health insurance."
Young also pointed to the robust movement in several states, including California and Vermont, where physicians, among others, are pressing for single payer at the state level.
Nearly 1,000 health professional students and their allies rallied on the steps of the State Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., on Jan. 11, in support of S.B. 810, a single-payer bill that was reintroduced Thursday in the Legislature, he said. Similar bills were approved twice by California lawmakers in recent years, only to be vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In Vermont, some 300 citizens bearing thousands of petition signatures flooded the chambers of the State Capitol in Montpelier on Jan. 12, calling for enactment of a similar proposal there. Many participants said the national bills were completely inadequate to address the state's urgent health care needs, Young said.
A bold policy shift to single payer on the national level is more plausible than many people think, given the public's support for such an approach, he said, and given the Medicare program's "44-year track record of proven success."
Whatever deficiencies the Medicare program presently has could be easily remedied in a streamlined, better-funded single-payer system, he said. "In fact, single-payer Medicare for All would yield enormous efficiencies and savings through measures like bulk buying and negotiated fees, benefiting everyone and making the program sustainable for future generations. It would also be a much-needed boon to our economy."
"The president and Congress, if they truly stand up against the insurance and drug companies and press for single-payer Medicare for All, will find a public and a medical community ready and willing to support them," he said.
*****
Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org) is an organization of 17,000 doctors who advocate for single-payer national health insurance. To contact a physician-spokesperson near you, visit www.pnhp.org/stateactions or call (312) 782-6006.


For More PNHP Articles of Interest http://www.pnhp.org/news/articles-of-interest

No Worries

Evenin'


The Cab ride from Kimball featured Sean Hannity on the drivers radio. Though he had it on slightly audible, words like "Aryan" & "Obamacare" got through along with the "Message of Massachusetts, is the Message of America."

Jim Crow caws on the airwaves with predatory delight.

The Lack of a successor for the imminent vacancy of Senator Kennedy's' seat is the lesson learned. Political Activism by Democrats and Independents will be the result, The Republicans are picking and choosing their targets.Honesty is not their strength but their dishonesty is winning the power to do as they please.

Soo, Shame on who? A Naked Man in a pick-up Truck getting atta-boys from older guys?
An electorate given a poor selection and required to choose?

The Cabbie told me, it was a way to stop the spread of Socialism. Hmm,so I told him that the Military, Every Elected Official, Police, Firefighters are all Government Employeesl with Healthcare benefits. that's pretty socialistic!"

So he rebutted, "DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO BE WORKING FOR THE GOVERNMENT?"
Nope, "I want you who disagrees with me & me to have healthcare as good as theirs." 
My stop arrived, the fare was $9.75 I gave him a twenty, asked for $8 back and wished him a good night.

My Recurrent malignant glioma has a ways to go before it goes instead of me. It is identical to the celebratory rants broadcast by Newscorp offspring and affiliations. Repeating my Post to THE HILL Column yesterday

Brown snags Mass. Senate seat in stunning upset win for Republicans

By Aaron Blake - 01/20/10 12:06 AM ET

It is precursor of adverbs, adjectives & hyperboles resounding of the Republican in Massachusetts. There was an echo of the 2008 Presidential Campaign, or better yet the Din of Bush, Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld, crew flexing rhetoric on the fear beaten.


No Worries, Shake it off move Forward. Moral Imperatives still breath.


Machiavelli advised that fear was a great tool for maintaining power. Also if the opposition was unable to retaliate then attack. Sounds familiar to pre-2000 till now.


Chit with ya',


Peter

Invigorate Reflection

Evenin'


35 years ago we heard about the Great Society, a step forward from The New Deal.

Here is President Johnson in his words to us all then. It's worth a listen to invigorate reflection on ambition.

Courtesy of Gordon Skene via http://newstalgia.crooksandliars.com/



LBJ: “We must open opportunity to all our people. Most Americans enjoy a good life. But far too many are still trapped in poverty and idleness and fear. Let a just nation throw open to them the city of promise. To the elderly, by providing hospital care under Social Security and by raising benefit payments to those struggling to maintain the dignity of their later years.”

Humanity versus duty

Imagine being told to do your job or else and despite all you've raised to believe in, you follow orders given by people who really don't care about you, but you do your job because you've been taught to do the right thing, And somehow your conscience, breaks through and challenges your humanity with duty. And the enemy turns out to be the one giving you orders from a different view with a different purpose, which doesn't include you.

You are not alone.

From:
http://www.truthout.org/healing-suicidal-veterans-an-interview-with-vic-montgomery56074



 

In Fact you are Really not alone,

We are All in this Ship

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - Wall Street Bonuses
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Hang in There,

I mean it!!

an exchange

 Evenin',

worth the listen, take notes

Next Up: Turning Two Health Care Bills Into One : NPR

www.npr.org

Congress is back in session, and the health care bills are headed for a conference committee. Jonathan Cohn, who blogs about health care issues for The New Republic, joins Fresh Air for a conversation about the difference between the House and Senate bills and what a compromise might look like.

Ah-Ha! Education & Human possibility

Evenin'


Thanx to Sunday Morning on NPR, This Is a pass along, A mixture of Education, Vocation, Common Sense versus Book Sense


Please Listen & Share

The Meaning of Intelligence [Speaking of Faith® from American Public Media]

speakingoffaith.publicradio.org

An expansive reflection on the meaning of intelligence with author and educator Mike Rose. We explore his perspective on hard subjects that drive to the heart of who we are as individuals, families, and a nation — literacy, schooling, social class, and the deepest meaning of vocation.

 "Everyone Knows!"

 including  me? 

and

 others I know?


Who is


 Everyone?

Peter

Can Relate

Mornin',

Can Relate to this reading

Saturday, January 9, 2010

You are reading from the book Today's Gift

Life gives us so much time to collect bizarre thoughts and feelings.
—Claire Weekes

As we go through life, we run into all kinds of negative messages: teasing on the school bus, insulting nicknames, and other put-downs. Pretty soon we may discover that some of these messages stick in our minds, repeating themselves over and over like broken records. These messages can make us feel bad about ourselves.

But when we hear one of these tapes playing inside us, we have the power to push the STOP button. Then we can record a new message. We can even say it out loud, so that our voice settles emphatically into our thoughts. We can't make others stop saying these things, but we can stop listening to them. They only have power over us when we give it to them. We have the ability and freedom to let negative thoughts float by us, like water going downstream.

What positive message can I send to myself?
From Today's Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©1985, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the publisher.

Babble

Evenin'


Recently consumed
Challenging Chicago: coping with everyday life, 1837-1920 By Perry Duis


while co-consuming
America's History to 1877 by James A. Henretta and W. Elliot Brownlee (Paperback - 1987)

and now am satiating Yes to a Global Ethic edited by Hans Küng

 Overlapping thoughtful concerns prevail through time both contemporary and recorded, now appear with refined tumult, in all our available forms of communication complete with antithesis.

 observations have corroboration,

 solace flows

Delicious.

Peter Lott Heppner




P.S.

t r u t h o u t | Rove's Scheherazade Strategy: The Art of Political Storytelling

www.truthout.org

And what if the mother of political communication were the Princess Scheherazade, who understood that telling make-believe stories and making people dream allows one to influence them profoundly?

2010

Mornin',

 May your 2010 be full of Vitality

& Progress

World celebrates New Year_English_Xinhua

news.xinhuanet.com

Fireworks explode near the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House during a pyrotechnic show to celebrate the New Year December 31, 2009. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)Photo Gallery>>>

Movin' Forward,

Peter Lott Heppner
P.S. from Gordon Skene Newstalgia:
Performances of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin from the Hungarian Relief Fundraiser in Los Angeles on November 30, 1956