from 9 - 10 a.m. We broadcast live -- or go to our website and click on the link to hear the entire show in the archives.
THIS WEEK we interview Lieutenant Eric Shine, who became a whistle blower, and had his life interrupted... by the Department of Homeland Security.
Upcoming: Congressman Charles Rangel will be our guest April 14. He will discuss his 30-year Congressional career and his new book, "And I Haven't Had a Bad Day Since: From the Streets of Harlem to the Halls of Congress." Recently our guest was Mark Green, one of the new owners of Air America, founder of New Democracy Project and author of "Losing Our Democracy." We've had some amazing guests the past 3 weeks: former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega, author of "U.S. vs BUSH" which is going to be a movie, a courtroom drama on the Bush Impeachment. We also had Media Matters' Paul Waldman, author of "Being Right is Not Enough". Last week we interview Media Matters' Eric Boehlert on his report "If it's Sunday it Must be Conservative." Boehlert is the author of LAPDOGS: "How the Press Rolled Over for Bush." A look inside one of the great journalistic collapses of our time.
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always." - GANDHI
Today is Good Friday, the Friday before Easter, a holy day observed by most Christian religions. It commemorates the crucifixion and death of Jesus at Calvary. Easter celebrates the resurrection on the third day, when death itself was conquered.
All of Christ's teachings are about the sins of intolerance and hatred. These need to be cut out of the new man with the spiritual sword, which separates hate from love.
Special prayer services are often held on this day with readings from the Gospel giving accounts of the events leading up to the crucifixion.
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A man arrives at the gates of heaven. St. Peter asks, "Religion?" The man says, "Buddhist" St. Peter looks down his list, and says, "Go to room 24, but be very quiet as you pass room 8."
Another man arrives at the gates of heaven. "Religion? “Muslim.” Go to room 18, but be very quiet as you pass room 8."A third man arrives at the gates. "Religion?" "Jewish." "Go to room 11, but be very quiet as you pass room 8."
The man says, "I can understand there being different rooms for different religions, but why must I be quiet when I pass room 8?"
St. Peter tells him, "Well only Christians are in room 8, and they think they're the only ones here."
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Late in life when Gandhi was asked if he was a Hindu, he replied:
"Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew".
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SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR EASTER SEASON, A REBIRTH
I have the profound sense that we can touch God everyday when we are loving to others, especially those who offend us and disturb us, and especially those less fortunate. Have you seen someone's face light up with just one kind word?
We lived in Holland for awhile and visited Anne Frank's hiding place in Amsterdam. It is so eerie to think that human beings are capable of villifying an entire group of people and getting the masses to believe that one race of fellow human beings are vermin, not worthy of life. We have to be careful not to do this with any group - including extremist fundamentalists of any religion. Except of course Cheney's religion, Halliburtonology. The tendency in this divisive culture is to lash out at each other, and I have been guilty as well when I speak of the religious-right. But this new breed of militant "Christian" has completely missed the point of Christ's teachings and turned many people off to Christianity in the process. And I believe they are partly behind our foreign policy and this rush to war. They defeat the entire purpose of the Great Peacemaker's teaching: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Christianity 101: God is Love. We must remember that Christ came to bring the New Law in the New Testament, and his Sermon on the Mount (The Beatitudes) brings the message of LOVE for our neighbor, our enemies, and for all mankind. For some bizarre reason, many Christians today are not familiar with Christ's actual words in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They must be listening to false prophets, for Christ's actual words in the the New Testament are all any Christian needs to know about getting along with others in the world.
The Old Testament brought Mosaic Law and the Ten Commandments, which are wonderful, but are only half the story. Fundamentalists are severely misguided by focusing only on the "Thou shalt nots." Christ came to complete the circle, commanding us to a higher law of "Love our neighbor and our enemy."
“ To learn that not only you suffer, but the other person also suffers, the other group of people also suffers… when you touch the suffering in other people you want to help, and when you want to help, compassion is born in you… you don’t suffer anymore, and you are motivated by the desire to do something, to be something for other people…and that is Peace. ”
~ Thich Nhat Hahn Zen Buddhist monk, nominated by Martin Luther King, Jr. for the Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless work to end the Vietnam War
I am so proud of Nancy Pelosi for making her historic visit to Syria. Peace in the Middle East is possible and it is happening now. We can have peace on earth if we all want it badly enough. I see it all happening according to our belief. We must take the spiritual and diplomatic keys to life and use them now.
TRUTH OR WAR
Gandhi dedicated his life to the wider purpose of discovering truth, or Satya. He tried to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and conducting experiments on himself. He named his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Gandhi found that uncovering the truth was not always popular as many people were resistant to change, preferring instead to maintain the existing status quo because of either inertia, self-interest or misguided beliefs. However he also discovered that once the truth was on the march nothing could stop it. All it took was time to achieve traction and gain momentum. As Gandhi said:
"The Truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction".
Gandhi said that the most important battle to fight was in overcoming his own demons, fears and insecurities. He thought it was all too easy to blame people, governing powers or enemies for his personal actions and well-being. He noted the solution to problems could normally be found just by looking in the mirror.
One of the greatest contributions of Mahatma Gandhi was in the realm of ontology and its association with truth. For Gandhi, "to be" did not mean to exist within the realm of time, as it has in the past with the Greek philosophers. But rather, "to exist" meant to exist within the realm of truth, or to use the term Gandhi did, satya. Gandhi summarized his beliefs first when he said "God is Truth," but as typical of Gandhi, he evolved, later to correct himself and state that "Truth is God." The first statement seemed insufficient to Gandhi, as the mistake could be made that Gandhi was using Truth as a description of God, rather than the summative definition of the entire essence of God. Satya (Truth) in Gandhi's philosophy is God. It shares all the characteristics of the Hindu concept of God, or Brahman. It lives within us, that little voice that tells us the right thing to do, but also guides the universe.
Nonviolence
The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonresistance has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Christian contexts. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth.
As the Native Americans reminded us: "No tree is so foolish as to have branches that fight among themselves."
