TO THE BOSTON TERRORISTS, DOMESTIC OR FOREIGN: WE ARE UNITED AGAIN

IT'S TIME TO CHANGE THE WORLD WITH LOVE * AMERICA IS UNITED 

Our prayers go out to those killed or injured in the Boston Marathon. It's time to take a stand against the destruction of our country. More than ever we must come together and unite as the United States. If we start being kinder to each other, no one can defeat us. That means left and right, Black and White, rich and poor. We are so powerful when we are united. A nation divided cannot stand. Love, peace, unity, service. When we think of others' first, our own problems diminish. It's a circle.

In light of the Boston terror attack that just killed an 8-year old child and another adult, as well as injuring 8 children and 110 people, it's time to unite our country and stop fighting each other. A divided nation cannot stand. 

A DIVIDED NATION CANNOT STAND

I am sick of the "Left-Right" divisiveness in the media. It's just a phony ruse to get us to watch TV. It seems to help the Nielsen ratings, which helps the TV networks earn more money through advertisers. There is no real divide. No matter what side you are on, we all want the same ultimate goal: peace. 

All my friends and loved ones, and even Facebook friends whom I have grown to love -- no matter how at odds we seem politically, we all really want the same things in life. We all want to see ourselves are kind, helpful, and generous. We all want prosperity, harmony, abundance, joy, enlightenment, safety, success, comfort, charity, love.

This world was set up to work against human nature. It sets us up to compete against each other and often feel like failures. 

It's time to change the paradigm. 

I have many ideas which I will post, but first I'd like to hear from you. How can we change the world? 

Please comment here. 

Thank you. 

LOVE xoxoxo 

THE PURPOSE OF LIFE

Cherish your children, help others. That is our main purpose: forget yourself, think of others first. If the whole world did this, imagine the circle of harmony, love and plenty that would result. "It is by self-forgetting that we find. It's by dying (to selfishness) that we are born to eternal life."  ~ St. Francis

My favorite celebrity, Audrey Hepburn, doing what we are all here for. 

CalArts Mural in Choinard Hall

Calarts Chouinard Hall Mural 

Spirit Orb above my head, Dec. 2012 (4 pictures in a row turned out like this)

Producer Anselmo Martini ("The Apprentice" Brazil) , Lydia Cornell at London Hotel for
Blessings in a Backpack at Kentucky Pre-Derby party

Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Lydia Cornell at DVV's August, 2012 birthday 

Lydia Cornell, December 2012

Lydia Cornell, son Jack walking down the aisle at  Cornell's wedding to Paul H.

Lydia Cornell at London Hotel for Blessings in a Backpack, 2012

We are not material, biological beings in a state of decomposition. We are spiritual beings having a temporary human experience. 

GIVING THANKS * HELP IS ON THE WAY

Think about this tomorrow as you sit down to your Thanksgiving Feast! And remember your local Food Bank!

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.

And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness .... you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.

If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation .... you are ahead of over 700 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world.

If your parents are still alive and still married ...you are very rare.

If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique to all those in doubt and despair.

And if you can't seem to rev yourself up and out of depression, just quietly say "thank you." Just find ONE SMALL THING to be grateful for. Then go outside, look up and breathe. The more you are grateful, the more you get out of yourself. "It's by self-forgetting that we find..." - Lydia

If you can read this you are very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

Have a good day, and count your blessings!!- Anonymous

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Obama: 'HELP IS ON THE WAY' .... and 'Change will come from me' (despite keeping Gates on as Secretary of Defense)

Designates Former Fed Chair Volcker As Head Of New "President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board"... Third Straight Economic Conference This Week...

President-elect Barack Obama said today that "people should understand that help is on the way" for the nation's ailing economy. Obama held his third press conference in three days on the economy. He named former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to lead a new economic recovery board. developing story... Obama stresses patience

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New link to my cover story: http://www.retroality.tv/retrohotLydiaCornell.html

VETERANS DAY * A NEW MISSION

Met Daniel Ellsberg and Seymour Hersh last night after they spoke at the 24th anniversary of the Office of the Americas celebration. They were both amazing. Hersh revealed where he got the Abu Grahib photos. Also ran into the wonderful Paul Haggis (writer/director and Oscar winner of "Crash" and "Million Dollar Baby." Haggis is a tireless peace activist. His wife Deborah is too. More on this evening later.

Today on BASHAM AND CORNELL PROGRESSIVE TALK our guest is Marine Combat Vet John Conley, the amazing Marine who sent me his Purple Heart after the death threats my family received from Ann Coulter's fans...

The Basham and Cornell Show broadcasts weekday mornings at 8 am Pacific (11 a.m. Eastern) on KLAV 1230 AM Radio live in Las Vegas. All shows are simulcast on the Internet (and archived) and can be listened to at BASHAM AND CORNELL.COM We have interviewed Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, Valerie Plame, Dahr Jamail, John Dean, Elizabeth Edwards, Mike Gravel; Pulitzer Prize winner Charlie Savage, Congressman Charlie Rangel, Senator Byron Dorgan; bestselling authors like Greg Palast, Mikey Weinstein, Paul Krugman; Media Matters’ Eric Boehlert and Paul Waldman are regular guests. Upcoming: Obama and Hilary. If you missed any of these shows, check out the archives on our website.



In the Screen Actor's Guild Building, there used to be a huge painting of Norma Rae holding the "UNION" sign. When I stepped off the elevator and saw it for the first time, it gave me goosebumps. It reminded me of the common cause we all share, not just as actors but as American citizens and workers.


I met Elizabeth Kucinich last night at a fundraiser for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and after hearing the speakers, it struck me anew that Democrats are desperately in need of hope and inspiration. We are all too mired in negativity, fear and hopelessness.

Elizabeth Kucinich, whom we're having on our show next week, has a positive, exciting new message, that inspired me to remember our true mission. We need to realize we are on the precipice of exciting, catastrophic change. We are on the edge of the NEW ENLIGHTENMENT. Instead of being defeated and pessimistic, we need to see that it's always darkest before the dawn. This is the perfect time to turn it all around. But we can't do it with incessant anger and fear. That's why Obama's message rang so true in the beginning. He was untainted. The naysayers' force of media worship and it's hideous underbelly hadn't gotten to him yet. So far, he seems to have stayed above the fray, but hasn't fulfilled expectations of the Great Colorblind Hope.

The naysayers in the media are trying to splinter us, and it may look like we've lost our balance — but now is the perfect time to see the silver lining in this whole shameful political spectacle.

BEST EXPLANATION OF THE WRITER'S STRIKE:

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Liberals and Democrats are passionate about ending this war and all future wars. Republicans have more cynicism about America's place in the world. Liberals are probably more pure and unjaded. We actually believed the American Dream that we were the peacekeepers of the planet - the good guys. As it turns out, we are the only civilized nation to have ever dropped a nuclear bomb on a civilian population. And now we have a delusional, fear-based president who is instilling terror in us by provoking nuclear conflict with Iran. It's like the Harry Truman quote on my sidebar:

But I no longer want to focus on the bad news. Everyone else is doing that. We need to be constructive and look at the good being created all around us. There is a silver lining to every single "bad" thing happening.

New industry will be created out of the oil and gas crisis. New forms of energy, new ways to save the planet, new jobs created, newfound simplicity and love for our fellow man.

Even the Writers Strike may turn out to be the beginning of a new paradigm — where antiquated corporations no longer have a stranglehold on the true owners of creative content. Who needs corporate bosses any way?

Think about it. See a new way. I will post more later.

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SYMPHONY OF HOPE

I heard Nancy Pelosi this morning. 'She said that the whole point of the military surge, is to bring forth a peaceful political process. But the Iraqi government seems to be disbanding, desite reports that the military part of the surge is having some success. We can't just stay indefinitely using only military means, since the whole point of the surge was to bring the Democratic government to the table. Are we supposed to stay there forever, providing a virtual police state? The cost to our troops and to our nation is too great.



The following two articles will blow you away. I am a symphony lover and grew up in a family of musicians. I wanted to see if Iraq had a symphony and if there were any signs of hope in Iraq at all. So I Googled "Symphony in Iraq: and here's what I found from this amazing journalist embedded in Iraq. God Bless Terry McCarthy. He also wrote a bizarre and astounding article below called "Prints of War" You will not believe it. In addition, he did an interview last week with Iraq's Prime Minister Maliki, and was shocked at how "dead" Maliki's spirit seems to be.

SYMPHONY OF HOPE by Terry McCarthy of ABC News

July 26, 2007 6:23 PM

We look hard for signs of hope in Iraq. And so we were pleasantly surprised when we went to a music festival in Erbil -- about 300 Iraqi musicians and dancers had been flown in to the northern city, and were given the run of an enormous performing arts center, courtesy of a grant from the US government. On hand were nine American music and dance teachers, who were giving classes on such subjects as Baroque keyboard technique, hip hop dancing and contemporary jazz. It was fun to see the Iraqi musicians soaking it all in. For 10 days, in the relative safety of Kurdistan, they got to act like most musicians in the rest of the world who don’t have car bombs and gunshots constantly disturbing their sense of harmony.

Michael, the hip-hop teacher, was from Texas and very extroverted -- the young Kurds who wanted to learn hip-hop quickly lost all their shyness and inhibitions in the face of his antics. His first task -- to update their musical knowledge. They had been downloading most of their music on their cell phones, which Michael thought was cool -- until he heard it. “There is a definite time lag,” he said. “I had an argument about it yesterday. They still feel Michael Jackson is the King of Pop.” Once that issue was settled, he began teaching them a robocop dance routine. They loved it.

Other inhibitions melted away. Iraq is in the midst of a bitter sectarian conflict, and today people are usually very slow to socialize outside their own group -- it is a simple matter of safety. At the festival there were Sunnis, Shiites, Christians, Kurds and Arabs, flown or driven in from all over the country. On the first day the organizers noted that people pretty much stuck to their own cliques when they sat down for lunch or gathered in the hallways. But after about 24 hours thrown together in class rooms and the concert hall, religious and ethnic differences began to be pushed aside, as the musicians and dancers found common interest in their craft.

By the end of the festival they had put together what they called a “Unity Orchestra”, made up of musicians from various cities around Iraq, who were to give a performance on the final evening to an invited audience. A conductor from Baghdad, Mohammed Amin, said the whole point was “to show that we are still here, that there is still hope for Iraq”.

The music festival in Erbil reinforced my sense that, if they are given a modicum of security, Iraqis can lay aside their differences fairly quickly. In the context of today’s violence, provoked by some very vicious extremists, that is a pretty massive “if”. But as the conductor says, the moderate, non-extremist, non-sectarian majority of Iraqis is still here. And so, there is still hope.

THE PRINTS OF WAR

July 31, 2007 2:30 PM

Some time ago a good friend, Chris Morris, a photographer for TIME magazine, told me how he had been traveling through Somalia during the bad days there and had come across a makeshift medical station in an abandoned house north of the capital Mogadishu. There was one doctor, an English-speaking Somali surgeon, who was dealing with a large number of wounded civilians and soldiers who had been brought there from the fighting further south. His equipment was rudimentary – a small number of scalpels and forceps, not many drugs, a wooden table on which he was operating.

Chris, with a photographer’s eye, noticed that the whitewashed walls of the room where the operations were carried out had been decorated with red palm prints. He shot a few frames, and asked about the significance of the designs. The doctor was blunt. There was no water in the building, and he had no latex gloves, so the only way to get the blood off his hands after each operation was to slap them against the wall, before moving on to the next patient.

That image stayed with me, and it popped back into my mind today during a conversation I had with an Iraqi surgeon who has become a good friend to the ABC bureau here, Dr Jamal Taha. Dr Jamal works in the ER of Yarmuk Hospital, one of the busiest in Baghdad, and over the last four years he has seen an unimaginable array of human suffering – gunshot victims, carbomb survivors, victims of torture – and many dead bodies. We talk to him frequently, and he has become a bellwether for us on the level of violence on the streets. He sees the effects first.

I asked him today about supplies of drugs and medical equipment for his hospital – there has been some news recently about how corrupt officials in the ministry of health here have been diverting drugs from hospitals onto the black market to make profit for themselves. Dr Jamal said yes, there was a shortage of drugs, but that wasn’t the worst of his problems. “Many times,” he said, “we have to delay our operations because there is no tap water to wash our hands.”

History repeats itself, often for the worse. The movie “Blackhawk Down” about the war in Somalia starts with a quote from the Greek philosopher, Plato: “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” Iraqis understand that with a tragic sense of the inevitable.

And they desperately need running water in Yarmuk hospital.

ABC News' Terry McCarthy has been reporting on war, peace, and everything in between from all around the world for 20 years. He writes about daily life in the areas he is reporting from.ABC News

http://blogs.abcnews.com/bizarrebazaar/2007/07/symphony-of-hop.html

"No water, no eat, no everything," Symphony conductor al-Ghazali says. "And we think it's the end of life on the Earth. But we say, 'Hamdallah, we can do the new life.'"

THE DAWN OF HOPE

"I think we can come up with a statement on which all Americans, Republican or Democrat, rich or poor, straight or gay, can agree, despite our country being so tragically and ferociously divided. The first universal American sentiment I came up with was: 'Sugar is sweet.'" - Kurt Vonnegut

"I am neither left wing nor right wing; I need both wings to fly." - Deborah Van Valkenburgh.



L. to R: Lydia, Wally Wingert's mom, Deborah Van Valkenburgh

In Burbank over the weekend, Deborah and I signed autographs and had fun with Henry Winkler (Fonzie from Happy Days and children's book author of the "Hank Zipper" series), Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters and Beverly Hills Cop. Ernie guest-starred on our show in its first season); Michael Beck from The Warriors; Lorenzo Lamas; Juliet Mills; Larry Thomas, the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld (LOVE THIS GUY!); Bruce Kulick, incredibly gifted guitarist from KISS; Wally Wingert - actor, amazing human, and voice over artist extraordinaire; William Forsythe, Branscombe Richmonds who is now host of GOOD MORNING HAWAII. Deborah and I did an interview for the show, and I'll try to upload clips after it airs. I love Branscombe; he played Jackie Rush's love interest on our show. I met lots of others, but have to post them later. Met the legendary sketch artist ROMEO who works in blue pencil; he gave me a portrait of my favorite actress of all time, Audrey Hepburn.

My son got INVADER ZIM'S autograph, Richar Horvitz, who played ZIM!!!



THE DAWN OF HOPE 2
Progressive is the term I choose to call my social and political leanings. Going forward, making progress, advancing new ideas, bringing people together in the spirit of love, making friends out of enemies, having compassion even for the offensive and downtrodden (because I know what it's like to have a bad day.) Progressive means enlightened, spiritual, diplomatic solutions... getting along with ones enemies, finding common ground, realizing that by joining forces and engaging in community we become stronger and better human beings.

Regressive is the opposite of progressive. In my view, regressive thought encompasses the belief that fighting one's enemies is the way to peace! Never have I heard a more ridiculous statement, but it seems to be the philosophy of the regressive movement. Religious fundamentalism is dangerous in any culture. Being focused on materialism, and on judging others completely negates the love required in order to live in a society. Fundamentalism is the primitive, archaic, eye-for-an-eye mentality -- the way of people who are too afraid of losing what they have and too protective of their own possessions. People who are afraid.

Strong people do not need to fight -- or hide behind guns. Truly brave and courageous men do not breed enemies. They are clever enough to outwit and outsmart their enemies by keeping them close. What sane person on earth, if he's not in law enforcement, needs a semi-automatic weapon?

The Constitution of the United States of America mentions "military defense" only once. But it mentions the importance of sharing, helping each other, helping the states, and building community -- several times, repeatedly.

Our Founding Fathers would not recognize the executive branch today. Their values are quite different from the values of America.

God helps those who help others. "God helps those who help themselves" is not mentioned in the bible anywhere. We must replace the idea of "rugged individualism" with "helping others within your community" because no one ever really made it on his own without a helping hand.

I really feel as if the tide is turning and we are all going to be okay. We will avert nuclear war with Iran, despite the president's war lust, and we will create a safer, cleaner better world. Because we all have intentions toward life and peace.

I signed autographs on Friday and Saturday at Ray Courts show in Burbank and spoke to several people about the state of the world. Eight out of ten people, including a police officer, despise this war and think badly of Bush. Only two people I spoke to the entire day said that they could never vote for a Democrat becaues they are pro-life. They never once acknowledge that the war in Iraq has killed 650,000 Iraqi civilians and innocent children, including babies -- even though they are "pro-life." They are so brainwashed they actually do not understand that Democrats are NOT PRO-ABORTION. Democrats hate abortion too.

These unthinking people who parrot the Bush party line, are killing more innocent souls with their ideology and they refuse to wake up and see it.

Got this from a LAKE TAHOE Journal: "Deep inside of us, we hunger for a simpler life. The fresh mountain air, the smell of pine needles and the bluest lake in the world. Nothing alleviates stress better than the surreal beauty of nature."

If you missed it, YOU WILL NEVER WATCH TV NEWS AGAIN after watching the electrifying PBS Special by Bill Moyers "BUYING THE WAR."

"Buying the War," a 90-minute documentary that explores the role of the press in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. This riveting, thorough investigation includes interviews with Dan Rather, formerly of CBS; Tim Russert of MEET THE PRESS; Bob Simon of 60 MINUTES; Walter Isaacson, former president of CNN; and John Walcott, Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel of Knight Ridder newspapers, which was acquired by The McClatchy Company in 2006.

In "Buying the War" Bill Moyers and producer Kathleen Hughes document the reporting of Walcott, Landay and Strobel, the Knight Ridder team that burrowed deep into the intelligence agencies to try and determine whether there was any evidence for the Bush Administration's case for war. THIS WILL SHOCK PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN BUYING THE PROPAGANDA OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION. BUSH AND CHENEY MUST BE IMPEACHED.

NETWORK OF SPIRITUAL PROGRESSIVES AIM TO:

* Bring about a new bottom line of love and caring in America
* Challenge the misuse of God, religion, and spirit by the religious right
* Challenge the anti-religious and anti-spiritual biases in some sectors of liberal culture

www.spiritualprogressives.org