Certainly these questions emerge among others: Will overturning the health mandate actually liberate the resulting plan from a complexity it needn’t have suffered in the first place? Will a “single payer” option again emerge is the preferable solution, now that interstate commerce has proved an unsuitable carrier? Or, will we attempt a return to the old status quo.

Return to what we had even a year ago is both impossible and undesirable. Regardless of perceived shortcomings in the compromise Affordable Care Act, it’s benefits to millions of Americans far outweigh its detriments.  Legislation achieved through compromise may never be perfect, yet compromise is the necessary vehicle of our democratic process. All we can do in the case of any legislation is get going with the best thing possible and then improve as we go.

Such is the situation here. Overturning the present law, declaring it to be unconstitutional simply because it may not neatly fit into previous confines of federal interstate commerce regulation, will only result in an indefinite period of healthcare chaos in which lawmakers strive to enact limited measures to address the most grievous needs. The result will be a patchwork at best, incapable of supplying substantial healthcare overall and restricted in it ability to address specific circumstances.

No, none of us will get exactly all we want from the Affordable Care Act, but each and every person will at last have access to affordable care. This in itself represents a long sought victory.

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Recession is here for real, even though the stock market rises and consumer spending grows slightly. Unemployment figures remain stagnant, and unemployment reality is worse than indicated, especially within certain communities.

Most of us manage to trudge on regardless. Most still have jobs, most still have houses, most still have retirement accounts and most of us can drive wherever we want to go. But this fragile security is no longer present forever growing number of people.

Is it now time – even past time – for the more fortunate among us to become more mindful of those in need?

You may respond that no one is forgetting them. You may say, like the little pig who built on a stone foundation: “Misfortune is their own fault.” But even stone foundations have crumbled this time.

When Congress adjourned last autumn for a week’s recess without extending unemployment benefits, it raised the question of how deeply pressing the need of those dispossessed of work and housing is to those still secure. Of course, every lawmaker knew the measure would pass when they returned, and those politically opposed could still cast negative votes in conscience that the measure would not fail.

Who takes account of the added distress felt by those now out of work and virtually penniless? Their pain only grows more acute while lawmakers cut government assistance programs, threaten citizens with termination of Medicare and Medicaid support – dampening what fragile recovery now exists by delaying approval of our national debt extension.

Most states lack resources to aid a flood of new applicants to welfare rolls, especially applicants without children. Still, pressing need continues to mount. “For Sale” signs dot neighborhood lawns like unwelcome litter. A woman stands at the Wal-Mart parking lot exit, holding a “family in need” sign in front of her and looking despondently from side to side hoping someone will pay attention and stop. Somehow you just know this is no scam, not this time.

Unemployment benefits, even when extended, will not last forever. Despite the smug advice of some fiscal conservatives, our only solution now is economic stimulus. Our future depends on improved — not gutted — public education, clean — not polluting — energy, productive and well-employed — not chronically unemployed — citizenry. A renewed economy is now our only road to immediate recovery and long-term prosperity.

If economic imperatives were not enough, the moral imperative in this economic crisis, as in recent weather flood and tornado disasters, demands that we care first for those harmed and worry about balancing budgets later. Reduced spending can no more bring help to those suddenly without employment than it could cover the mounting costs of wildlife care and coastal cleanup and restoration.

Thrift is certainly our best long-term fiscal value, but this value must include enough flexibility to address critical needs when they arise. Failure to address present economic and environmental needs strikes at the very heart of our moral conscience as a nation. We can hardly excuse lack of action now by a decade of profligate spending sponsored by those who would not advocate
restraint.

Now is the time to act, and we must act to support improved employment opportunity, improved education, environmental restoration and clean energy production if we are to preserve our integrity as a nation.

Only then will these dog days end.

We survive only so long as our communities survive. We are prosperous in the long term only when we all share prosperity.

This is what we mean when we say: “life works when we work together.”

An impatient nation isn't getting answers fast enough in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. What exactly went wrong? Who messed up?

This newest and most massive Gulf of Mexico oil disaster provides a study into how we behave in crisis, showing that we still have a lot to learn about working together. Some of us who feel not so immediately involved try to turn away: change the channel. The daily resume of formerly crystal clear waters now murky with oil overwhelms us. Day after day we experience heart wrenching sadness as rescuers try to save scores of seabirds soaked in oil, reminding us of Exxon Valdez and other offshore spills. Our minds struggle to comprehend the choking effects of raw crude embedded in already dwindling Louisiana marshlands and we find it impossible to imagine how this seemingly fragile environment might ever recover.

People immediately affected cannot turn away. Their lives are directly affected in a way impossible to escape. States all around the Gulf rim now suffer financial loss as tourists stay away. Those in the fishing industry and related industries face not only immediate financial disaster but also the loss of generational occupation through no fault of their own. An entire region, already slammed by Hurricane Katrina, now seems doomed with the loss of abundant fresh seafood, so essential to a vibrant culture and cuisine.

Even though oil contamination may be hundreds of miles from still pristine beaches, many would be travelers are repulsed at the thought of swimming in a now polluted Gulf. And the menace moves ever closer to areas still untouched. Aerial sensors record a spreading dark mass of what may be sub-surface oil, while other accounts describe a glaring sheen on the surface where water still appears clear. Oil from the massive spill is now reported entering the “loop current,” and commentators speak of oil as spreading “everywhere.”

As in so many fictional accounts of alien infestation, the horror of it all insidiously spreads to consume us all. Another containment attempt, expected within the next seven days, holds limited promise of success, especially as “some” oil may continue to escape. The only real hope now depends on successful completion of relief wells that may finally ease pressure, diverting escaping oil and gas toward controlled capture. But this cannot occur before mid-August. Our minds now struggle to conceive of a once seemingly pristine Gulf filling with noxious crude with little hope of containment for three months to come.

Wiser heads among us know that our best chances to address this crisis will come when we put aside political differences, rivalries and fears to work together in every way we can. There will be plenty of time in months and years ahead to consider blame. There is sufficient responsibility to go around for now. Now is not the time to squabble over blame as acrimony only saps our energies, splintering groups that might otherwise work successfully together in response to unfolding developments.

Pursuing scapegoats only lessens our ability to work collectively in the face of crisis. Who in the oil industry or in government regulatory agencies could possibly say they were without at least some responsibility in developments leading to this disaster? Even the Obama administration, born in such tremendous hope for clean energy and renewed environmental protection, will remain tarnished by this “greatest American environmental disaster” well into a possible second term.

Watching rusty brown fingers weave across formerly clear water, none of us can avoid feeling touched by the cloying oil. Blaming government or industry may seem temporarily satisfying, but it provides no solution for now: the oil still flows and spreads. We can only effectively meet this environmental and economic disaster by uniting our energies to work together toward containment and solution. And we can remember that, in our finest hours, we have faced crisis together before.

We can at least show support for those directly involved. We can send money to aid those facing financial disaster. We can send money, whatever we can, to help with cleanup and containment efforts. Of course, BP has promised to pay all costs, but there will always be need for more immediate or additional funds. We can send money to support volunteers who would help to protect and clear marshes and beaches, while being lodged in motels usually crowded with tourists. All of us in this way could help to maintain an already struggling economy while providing a volunteer army to keep oil from our shores. We can also buy seafood as long as it remains on shelves. This will at least do a little to save a threatened industry.

Together, we can call on President Obama and Governor Jindal to ask for volunteers and for contributions from us all to cover their expenses. While BP remains responsible for costs, their payment may come too late for either people or pelicans. We can act most effectively if we take up responsibility now, together.

Visit Volunteermatch.org to match your abilities with volunteer opportunities.

(c) Copyright. Douglas Boyd-Robinson

For myself, I can count all too many times!

For BP, once would be maybe enough!

But can we really blame BP?  Isn’t it more our human nature to go beyond boundaries to achieve something we consider exceptional?

What is BP, or any business, if not reflective of our own values?

Without our valuing mega-business and petroleum production, BP would not exist.

IN fact, no petroleum company would exist, and now – most likely – the Middle East would be a classless society – all poor – without some other monopoly resource.

What good would that achieve?  Would violence lessen? - Terrorism wane?  Would all be happy if all were hungry? 

We in the US are certainly not happy when fuel is scarce and expensive.  Is that why the Gulf is fowled?

“Be careful what you wish for!” turns neatly into “Be careful what you reach for – - drill for!”

Try as we might, we cannot act without consequences - and even seeming inaction is, in effect, action and has its consequences.

As we have no omelets without first cracking eggs, we have no oil without drilling – or killing whales – or poking or prodding at some other part of our environment.

We strive to find balance between environmental concern and energy production, but one person’s view of balance is excess for another.  The dispute rages on even now, while oil begins to soak gulf marshes.

Oil is cheap energy people say.  How really cheap is this?

Which is more toxic – our thinking or the oil?

Peace comes when our hearts are no longer ruled by fear.

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Fear causes us to feel estranged from those we perceive as different from ourselves.

Love can quiet fear to show us our togetherness as we join in compassion for each other.

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Fear feeds upon and encourages ignorance.

Knowledge fosters understanding – or as a friend says “circle-standing.”

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Would you choose Peace, Love and Knowledge?

If so, then you must begin by planting and neutering them in your heart.

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Only when we allow fear and its anger child to leave,

encouraging peace and love to flourish,

and when we allow fear’s ignorance child to be replaced by knowledge,

can we share in a new community of compassionate understanding.

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It is my hope that more and more of us learn to cherish peace, love and knowledge in our hearts increasingly each day.

So now I’m counseling myself that whatever I’m feeling is OK. I’m saying that I don’t have to worry to be in the highest vibration all the time so long as I don’t become stuck in the lowest. I’m counseling myself that these thoughts of low self esteem are also valuable to me because the clue me to the parts of myself that really need and deserve my attention. It’s that last part – “deserve” – that really matters. Usually I’m thinking of these thoughts I commonly regard as weak and whiny as “undeserving.”

They are deserving though. They reflect the experiences of a boy growing up with an abusive father who always told him of how worthless he was and also told him of how worthless everyone else was. They reflect the feelings of a boy caught in a blurry world where everyone else seemed able to see the ball while he couldn’t, and where he was derided for what he couldn’t see and do as easily as the others. They reflect the emotions of a boy who tried to preserve his dignity in a second grade classroom when a teacher failed to understand that he couldn’t see the board and where he was publicly hand paddled because he couldn’t find the line of pupils returning from the lunchroom and from recess – it didn’t matter that he reached the classroom before the others. In sum, they reflect the pain of a child whom father, schoolmates, several teachers and scoutmasters made to feel and outcast.

Fortunately that boy survived though. He kept going and didn’t ultimately let all this define who he was. He decided one day that he would define himself against all the odds. From that day on he never looked back, but he still carried the pain and he still carries it until this day somewhere deep inside. Fortunately all the teachers were not ignorant as were a few. Most were OK and several were remarkable. This boy owes a lot to those remarkable ones, and he treasures them.

Fortunately also his father wasn’t abusive all the time, but he remembers the feeling of saying “Daddy I love you!” to try to stop the pain. He wonders now sometimes whether he says “I love you” only go gain acceptance and not from a real feeling of love. He has always now to double check his prevailing emotions. Does he smile in genuine greeting or in hopes of deflecting abuse or condescension? Again he always has to examine his feelings. The feelings of worthlessness are still so deeply ingrained and they can be triggered by the slightest event if he is not careful to address them compassionately when they arise.

So I am struggling with all this now. I am not a shining success for advocates of LOA that’s for sure. Still, I know that we all learn the most when we find ourselves in times of struggle and change. Our successes can certainly teach us a great deal, but not nearly so much as our difficulties and perceived failures. We just have to keep ourselves open to using each event and emotion as a learning opportunity.

So I’ll keep learning and keep moving on to pass on through this despondency that surrounds me now. By the way, my dad who was once so abusive eventually went on a major campaign to reform his life. He provided me with a great example in the end of how possible it is for us to change our attitudes if we really want to do so. He wanted to change and he searched all on his own until he found a way.

My dad had to do it pretty much alone, but we all have each other here and together we form interlacing supportive communities. It’s good for us all to know that we’re here for each other when things seem difficult as well as for our successes. I hope we will all know that we can share troubles as well as triumphs together.

And know that you and I are loved by everyone here. I feel that. I don’t have to say: “I love you!” because I feel the love circulating all around us here and I feel us all caught up in this great sharing.

Know that you are loved and that everyone living is loved.

We often find no time to consider ultimate meaning at all. Some of us live our lives in a day to day rush that prevents us from feeling in touch with the heart of all being. Others among us find ourselves so overwhelmed by the pain of war, natural disaster or famine that we feel we cannot consider anything beyond immediate survival. In either case, our daily concerns seem meaningless in terms of our existence, or, rather, we pursue immediate concerns in a way in which we cannot find their connection with ultimate meaning. It isn’t usually what we do, but how we do it that makes the difference.

Our frustration alone, so often shown in terms of emotional distress, combined with addictive and sociopathic behavior, clues us to something we subconsciously seek beyond our immediate focus. Our dreams might remind us of a deep and forgotten significance behind our presence here, but we are often baffled by their language.

The meaning behind our existence is no secret. It is there within us all. It is simply that we find so little time to consider what we seek above all else: love, peace and fulfillment: a sense of togetherness and ultimate oneness with all things. We desire this sense of oneness – of return to the source – above all else, but even our desiring takes us further from our goal. The act of love seems often to take us closest, but then we often emerge with feelings of heightened loneliness.

We cannot find oneness through desiring. Do not desire: Give! – Give what you desire! – Be the source of all you desire! Only then can you be fulfilled in your purpose, for that is the purpose and challenge for each of us – to represent ultimate truth in human form.

Our purpose here is to love; it is not to be loved. Therefore, do not desire to be loved! – Simply love! What you give will return to you. The universe awaits you with boundless love in response to the love you pour out to others in all you do. We need not desire love or want for anything, for we are loved and cared for no matter what hardship may surround us. The gift of universal love awaits us always and can live forever within our hearts.

Many say that our feeling of separateness is an illusion. It is not an illusion, but our consciousness of only one aspect of our being. We are after all individual, but we are also connected as we are united, both spiritually and physically, in the heart of all being. We are as connected in the heart of all being as the leaves and branches of a tree are part of one tree. The tree cannot live without its parts, and its parts cannot live separate from the whole.

In our heart of hearts we know we are connected. Our ego minds play upon our individuality because they can see nothing but our separate manifestations. Our hearts sense our connectedness and express this knowledge when we listen. The heart is our balance point; it is where intellect and emotion join as one, mingling in a dance of yin and yang.

The heart of all being seeks conscious awareness and full expression through each manifestation of being. We are one ever developing manifestation of being. There are many others, each contributing a unique awareness to the whole of consciousness. As the tree would not live if it did not branch out from its core and respond to energies around it, so the universal consciousness of all being would not develop if it did not manifest itself in all possible forms allowed by circumstance.

We are here as a species so long as we fulfill our role as experience gatherers, as leaves remain green so long as they nourish the tree. We are not more valuable than what we contribute to the whole. Therefore be generous and aware in all things. We are not more limited than we ourselves impose, for the heart of all being desires full expression. Therefore, see your life as filled with limitless possibility.

Know that whatever you dream you can manifest, for the dream is all being searching for its realization. Nothing envisioned will fail to manifest. Choose then to manifest what you feel in your heart to be good for you and for those you love. And if you love truly, those you love will include all things, as you reflect the love of all being that shines through you to all around you.

Simply love, infinitely and purely. Then abundance will flow through your life and you will become a radiant blessing to all. Then you will always be filled with inner joy and peace as you know yourself at one with all being.

Namaste!

DBR