Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
Friday, September 21, 2007, 4 pm PST
This Week's Show
As Americans, every day more of us are forced to acknowledge that we are being controlled by the intentional and focused use of fear, threat and violence. The mounting incidents of ugly violation, typified by the Meyer Incident in Florida and the Town Councilman, David Snyder, who was battered and beaten by a cop in Roseland, Indiana speak volumes about those in power – and about us as well.
Those who arranged for the militarization of those charged to serve and protect did this with clear intention.
We can no longer doubt that we are confronting the same kind of battle with evil that Germans faced in the late 30s. The same methods, fear, threat, violence, were used then; the same techniques have been used here for longer than we realize. The story is more complex, longer, and more frightening than you even realized.
What they do publicly now they have been doing privately for a long time. We must understand how and why these threats have taken us so far towards fascism; we, as individuals, must take stock, confronting those who abuse power so that we can take back America.
As individuals this forces us to examine the the innermost fiber of our beings. It also forces us to see those many violations that have remained unrevealed and so unquestioned.
There have been many victims whose traumas were not played out in public, who have lived in fear. The actions so carefully planned by this administration did not begin with the militarization of the police. Those incidents are intended to intimidate, paralyzing us. But before that hadn't they done the same with a surveillance that also struck fear into our lives and minds? Did you think, before you spoke, what you might face if they were listening?
Terror comes in many forms.
And, always, there have been individuals who were silenced in ways that were far more personal, intimate, and so perhaps even more frightening.
All are victims; we need to understand that this administration has no limits. On The Spiritual Politician today we will discuss where the agenda of greed has taken this administration with one of the silent victims.
Connie Shannon is a writer, activist and musician who lives in Los Angeles, moving there from Texas where she was raised in Highland Park, an exclusive enclave near the Dallas Country Club.. Ms Shannon's family were close friends with George W. and Laura Bush and her brother, Jim, served as Campaign Chairman for George W.'s first campaign for governor of Texas.
Ms. Shannon attended Stephens College, graduating in 1986.
Connie became active in politics more or less by default after the 2000 election was given to George Bush by the Supreme Court. She has been very active in issues concerning the illegal occupation of Iraq, also is active in stopping the use of electronic voting machines which are owned and operated by Conservative companies with vested interests in election outcomes, and is dedicated to waking up more women to the importance of participating and becoming aware and active in the political world. “All issues affecting us are in some way political when you get down to it”.
We need to understand human motivations, theirs and our own as we remain silent and frozen, unable to respond to the violence that every day becomes more overt. They have drawn for us a vivid portrait that tells us who they are and about the content of their innermost souls.
Most of the answers in life come to us through really seeing and 'getting' the character and motives of those involved. Ms. Shannon understands George Bush and many of his closest associates. She has things to tell you.
On the Spiritual Politician we will be discussing Bush from the inside by a woman who knew and liked him and Laura. She also knew and liked Karl Rove, who was sympathetic to her as a teenager. Connie's experiences lengthened over time to include many strange and frightening incidents that have followed her to her new life in Los Angeles. Whistle Blowers come in all kinds but how they are treated have many things in common.
What the Show is about and being a Spiritual Politician
Bringing government into alignment with the Lessons of Jesus:
The focus of our show is how to bring government into alignment with truth of our spiritual nature. So America started with the idea we are all, inherently free. We are free to choose, free to live, to breath, and to live our lives as we see fit. Government does not own us; government is just a contractor, providing service.
That framework is in alignment with the spiritual truth that each of us connects to God directly, needing no agency as an intermediary. To be free is to be free in the spirit and so in the flesh that temporarily holds the spirit.
When Thomas Jefferson said we were all possessed of inherent rights, existing before government he was extending a spiritual truth into a civic form. It is that Mission Statement from the Declaration of Independence we need to keep in mind.
Because we are free and reject, as did Christ, the use of deceit, manipulation or violence we need to be conscious about our relationships with others and find ways to grow into the sense of connection and community that makes us One in Him.
This is especially true for Christians but it is true for everyone else as well.
Nearly every major spiritual viewpoint enunciates the idea that we are connected to each other and should be good to each other. Christians just have an even more exacting mission. Christians are to love every one, treating them as they would Jesus.
Jesus was very clear about how we were to treat others. He did not say that it was alright to be abusive, deceitful, and violent if we used government as our tool and agent. There was no exception, He wanted all of our hearts, minds and souls. Christ did not lay out any plan of government, but left it to the conscience of the individual, the same way He connects to each of us.
We are Americans but we are also members of a human family that connects us to something truly wonderful and immense.
So our job here at the Spiritual Politician is to look at Government as a human tool we use every day. We need to consider if government is working in a way that speaks that common understanding about our connections to each other and, if it is not, we need to change it.
Americans have had many successes over the last 231 years since our founding and, learning from both mistakes and successes we can consider that question. So here at the Spiritual Politician we look at the truth behind of rhetoric.
Given what is going on today in Government what we may decide to do it reboot the whole system.
To provide the examples of what has gone right and what has gone very wrong we here at the Spiritual Politician have put together several different kinds of segments you will hear on our show from time to time.
Founder and president of the Arthur C. Pillsbury Foundation
Books by Melinda: Links to Melinda's sites:
How the NeoCons Stole Freedom
Shards of Verse Melinda's Poetry
Greed: The NeoConning of America
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