January | 2012 | VenusPlusX

0.2 On This Foundation

Click here for 0.1 Worship Erotic Joy
También en español The cornerstone of a new faith has been laid—a new vision of human individual and social destiny comprising the emergence of a unity expressing harmonious divergence among its members.

The foundation of this faith is the worship of Love in all its forms and expressions.

What do we mean by worshiping Love?

We begin by setting aside all preconceptions of what may or may not be acceptable forms of personal spiritual expression.

For example, we may worship the expression of Love in the experience and response of a sex partner.

Or, if alone, we may worship that power which converts simple, repetitive self-stimulation into an explosion of erotic joy in glorious orgasm.

And what do we worship?

We worship the inner “live wire” of the experience, the power that provides the essential climax that lifts consciousness of the event far above mundane everyday senses.

When we rightly worship this powerful penetration of our human consciousness by the dildo of Love, we then re-align our own system of personal choice and behavior closer to a pattern of Love.

And this pattern of Love sends a signal that resonates within our own self to affirm the direction of our personal shifts in consciousness.

Though we do not sense it at the time, the cumulative effect of these small advances of our personal expression in the direction of Love reinforces the power of Truth to direct our growth.

We do not exclusively worship erotic experience.

We worship all expressions of Love that we are capable of comprehending.

But we will always revert to the erotic senses as the simplest, most direct, solid foundation of our personal relationship to Love and Truth.

As we progress in understanding of Truth, we act in accordance with our advancing understanding of the manifold expressions of Love.

And each accomplished action reinforces our understanding of and commitment to the living guidance of Truth.

This experience is what is meant by “Living the Truth.” Or “Living your Truth.”

It has nothing to do with what you believe to be true about yourself and the world around you and everything to do with how you participate in and contribute to the world around you.

In the final analysis, Love is the desire to do good to others.

Truth is the gift of Love, and by living Truth we are able to do Good and create the harmonies of Beauty, satisfying the desires of Love.

Through manifold acts of sharing and cooperation, we will come to universal understanding of shared love with our fellow beings.

Individuals are seedling personalities, unaware of the great destiny which awaits each of us as fully developed beings.

We continually create and learn from this form of “super-consciousness,” a consciousness of self operating one level higher than conscious mind, to control our actions in our own, uniquely personal way.

From the chrysalis of flesh, our consciousness is freed to advance to our individual supreme and final destinies beyond mortality.

We begin to see our future in a near eternity of universe experience as maturing immortals, finally able to command the supreme powers of creation ourselves.

The time has come for humanity to cast aside its fears of demons and its lust for gods, accepting and rejoicing in the reality that the lowest rung on the ladder of personal spiritual growth, the one true “stairway to heaven” is open and accessible to all who will accept the full gift of Love.

Join me today and forever in the worship of the power of erotic joy.

Click here for 0.3 Find Your Salvation

Chocolate’s Child Slaves

News of Note: Chocolate’s Child Slaves

Everyone loves chocolate. But for thousands of people, chocolate is the reason for their enslavement.

The chocolate bar you snack on likely starts at a plant in a West African cocoa plantation, and often the people who harvest it are children. Many are slaves to a system that produces something almost all of us consume and enjoy.

The CNN Freedom Project sent correspondent David McKenzie into the heart of the Ivory Coast – the world’s largest cocoa producer – to investigate what’s happening to children working in the fields.

His work has resulted in a shocking, eye-opening documentary showing that despite all the promises the global chocolate industry made a decade ago, much of the trade remains unchanged. There are still child slaves harvesting cocoa, even though some have never even tasted chocolate and some don’t even know what the word “chocolate” means.

Slavery still exists in our modern world. It is easy for most people in developed countries to live oblivious lives without ever hearing of these atrocities going on across the world. We all know that slavery is not okay; it is the fundamental denial of ones humanity. At the very least, we can be educated consumers that do not fuel these inhumane practices.

in News of Note by Jack Diehl 30 Jan 2012 0 comments

Jurors: Researching online? Go to jail!

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News of Note: Jurors: leave the information age—or go to jail

An English court has sentenced a juror to six months in prison for contempt of court after she performed research on the Internet and forced the abandonment of a criminal trial.

Psychology lecturer Theodora Dallas, 34, was a member of the jury in the trial of Barry Medlock, accused of causing grievous bodily harm. She looked up certain information related to the trial on the Internet, came across information concerning Medlock, and told her fellow jurors what she had found. One of them informed the judge, causing the judge to abandon the trial. Medlock was later retried and found guilty.

In order for a jury to be unbiased they must be ignorant? The entire nature of a jury is rooted in subjectivity. But how is a decision less biased when the jurors only have access to information concerning their specific case? I believe access to information is a human right. Because any juror could do outside research without telling anyone, help expand their own perspective, and easily get away with it, how much longer will this rule enforcing ignorance be justified or realistic? It isn’t a far stretch to say that our legal system has a few holes; this might be a good place to start making some improvements. Let us know what you think, I’m eager to hear other people’s take on this issue.

in News of Note by Jack Diehl 27 Jan 2012 0 comments

Anonymous takes down Government and Recording Industry sites in largest attack ever

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News of Note: Anonymous takes down government, recording industry websites in retaliation for bust

Anonymous says it is in the process of staging its “largest attack ever” — more than 5,000 loosely associated hackers taking down websites belonging to government and recording industry organizations in response to Thursday’s shutdown of the file-sharing site Megaupload.com.

The Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against Megaupload.com on Thursday, arresting its founder — Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz — in New Zealand and charging him and at least five other company executives with violating privacy laws.

In response, the hacker collective known as Anonymous announced a collaborative attack against government and recording industry websites, successfully taking down the site of the Department of Justice — which coordinated the case against Megaupload — and the Recording Industry Association of America. As of 4 p.m. Pacific time, Justice.gov and RIAA.org were failing to load, along with other stated targets such as UniversalMusic.com.

Anonymous said on a Twitter account it has used regularly — @YourAnonNews — that the assault is “The Largest Attack Ever by Anonymous — 5,635 People Confirmed Using #LOIC to Bring Down Sites!” In other messages, the group said it was aiming to take down more sites throughout the night.

One day after SOPA and PIPA are stifled by the black out, the US Government takes down one of the most well known sites for piracy, Megaupload (a place for uploading and sharing files, it was only inadvertently used for piracy.) So far, we have yet to see the fallout from these hacks. The Feds haven’t had trouble finding and prosecuting “Anonymous” participants in the past and I’m left wondering who will end up benefiting from these hacks. Some websites go down for a bit on Thursday, life goes on; yet thousands of “Anonymous” activists may have walked into a tremendous trap. Who do you think has more carefully calculated plans, the US government, or the decentralized hivemind of the internet? I don’t want to see more kind-hearted activists given steep jail time, nor do I want the government to make examples of these “hackers” in order to destroy the Anonymous movement with fear. Who do you think will come out on top this time? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Creative Commons image: source

in News of Note by Jack Diehl 24 Jan 2012 0 comments

Sign Our Petition to Stop Harmful Prostitution-Free Zones

Tomorrow in DC we will be delivering testimony, reprinted below, in opposition to Bill 19-567, a proposed new law that would allow police to designate permanent Prostitution-Free Zones (PFZs), which have been dubbed by local activists as Trans Profiling Zones.

If you cannot attend tomorrow, you can watch online.

In any case, in the coming two weeks, please join us by signing the change.org petition. Each time someone signs, the DC Council gets email notice. We want to deluge these officials’ in boxes and make sure that this legislation is never passed, and that even our current temporary PFZs disappear in the waste bin of stupid ideas.

Prostitution is illegal, but PFZs, temporary as they are now or permanent, constitute legalized sex discrimination and a direct challenge to civil rights. Any discussion of PFZs is, therefore, part of a larger discourse on human rights.

As others will attest tomorrow, the establishment or continuation of PFZs is clearly unconstitutional, ignoring due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution, so any law making them permanent will be subject to unending legal challenges costing our city hundreds of thousands of tax dollars defending a foolish law.

Putting the question of constitutionality aside for the moment, however, these PFZs are a menace to public safety by creating “papers please” profiling zones threatening people in the neighborhoods where they wish to live and work in peace. Police haven’t curbed prostitution or decreased crime that is imagined to be associated with prostitution, just relocated most of these activities to outlying neighborhoods away from downtown.

All residents and visitors to our nation’s capital have the right to be free from unwelcomed, coerced encounters with police, and the harassment that ensues during such forced encounters. Because most if not all of these coercive encounters have been shown to be biased, based entirely on the personal judgments and viewpoints of the police officer/s, rather than extant police procedures and special orders and human rights laws in the District of Columbia. Many of these unsolicited encounters with cross-purposes result in unwarranted arrests, further harassment, mistreatment by the police while incarcerated, and sometimes injury or even death.

DC government has the opportunity to step back and consider that the path of the PFZs is not only a losing proposition, it goes against the very principles of existing local laws and the very integrity of those who serve the Council. Rather then roiling ‘red meat’ for a small group of noisy busybodies in select neighborhoods, so as not to ‘appear’ as favoring prostitution, lawmakers should instead focus their attention on finding systemic and sustainable solutions that offer better employment options to this most vulnerable class of people, often forced through economic necessity to seek sex work for their very survival.

VenusPlusX’s testimony, prepared by Dan Massey, points to a future where sex workers are not victims of police overreach such as these PFZs. Here it is:

A Statement Opposing Establishment of Permanent Prostitution-Free Zones in the District of Columbia

You are today considering legislation that would create permanent “prostitution- free zones” (PPFZs) in certain areas of the city. I strongly urge that the Council table this matter for the time being and instead initiate a combined government and community-based effort, emphasizing transparency and harmony, to effectively address the real underlying problem which the PPFZ proposal fails to address.

There is little to gain in enacting laws that sound responsible to a vocal minority in the community, but which depend solely on the government to deploy violence against fellow citizens. Such laws deserve only ridicule when examined in the light of reason.

Sex workers provide an important function in society by filling a market need that cannot be eliminated, since it comes about through the choices and desires of the individual members of the population as a whole.

Criminalization of sex work simply forces sex workers to practice their profession at times and places where they can be free from police observation, while remaining accessible to their clientele.

Unfortunately, this means the solicitation and delivery of services will most often occur at times and in areas of the city where the participants will necessarily be more vulnerable to crimes of violence because of reduced police oversight.

At this time, I am not suggesting that the Council immediately de-criminalize and regulate sex work. Rather, I want each of you to honestly examine how much better it would be for the city to establish “Prostitution Zones” (PZs), under police protection. in which sex work is legal, licensed, and medically supervised.

Such zones would become havens for legal, socially beneficial sexual healing, and create opportunities for sex worker cooperatives to emerge, owning real estate and paying license fees and property taxes.

At the same time, with the establishment of such centers of expertise, open sex trade would be drawn away from unaccepting areas of the community, to everyone’s satisfaction.

At the moment, such a change in the underlying approach to prostitution in the city would be misunderstood and misinterpreted by many who hold strong opinions, simply because they have not yet actually been engaged in a rational discussion of alternatives and choices.

The Council can show it supports a rational approach by providing a public forum charged to find systemic and sustainable solutions for the District’s challenges in this area. Its current course in considering establishment of PPFZs will only complicate matters further, since court challenges based on considerable precedents in other locales are inevitable.

This forum should be established with a view towards providing the same respect, rights, and safety that all District residents desire from our society and our government, and should draw on community resources advocating every possible viewpoint and attitude, while providing full transparency in the decision-making process.

The outcome of such a discussion would be broad public education on the challenges of governing a modern city, the emergence of agreement on common goals and purposes, and anticipation of the benefits of agreed changes.

Such results would be visible through the reduction in crimes of violence, especially those motivated by racial and sexual hatred, as well as improvements in the health of all District residents.

At present, many people find themselves trapped into sex work by economic situations, many of which arise directly from social prejudice, hiring biases, and unfounded presumptions.

In this respect, I applaud the work of Project Empowement, which is demonstrating the fallacy of social prejudice. The ongoing effort to help our local LGBT youth gang find a constructive outlet for their commitment and energy also deserves recognition.

To summarize, I am advocating that the Council, working with MPD and the Mayor’s Office, begin to support and listen to an emerging discussion that would educate the entire DC community in wholesome ways to address the serious social problem created by public misunderstanding of legitimate, morally responsible services.

On a closely related subject:

Law enforcement management is maturing technically in many US cities. In 2009, the National Institute of Justice funded a Phase 1 trial of Predictive Policing in seven cities, including Washington, DC. I have seen no published report from this work; however, Shreveport and Chicago have received grants of $0.5M and $1.5M, respectively, to implement Phase 2 of their plans.

Building on earlier successes in Los Angeles, Memphis, and Richmond, Predictive Policing involves the collection and analysis of large bodies of data about crime times, locations, conditions, victims, methods, etc., as well as detailed environmental data about the organization of the city and its infrastructure.

Results help identify and pinpoint places, times, and conditions conducive to crime. Often, they identify environment, infrastructure, and organization that leads to the emergence of these “hot spots.” In Memphis, for example, the incidence of public rape, assault, and theft was significantly reduced simply by shifting the locations of public pay phones that were shown to be “hot spots” from street locations to the interiors of businesses open 24×7.

It is clear that legislation that criminalizes prostitution and then, having given up on fair enforcement of the original law, seeks to occasionally apply it more forcefully and arbitrarily in specific areas, is itself responsible for the formation of “hot spots” for serious criminal activity.

Making these zones permanent is merely another step backwards into a system of regulation that, like the proverbial ostrich, hides its head in the sand.

I urge Council members concerned about crime prevention in DC to examine some of the reference material on Preventive Policing cited in the attached References.

I firmly believe that, if the city will openly and honestly examine these issues, free from unreasoned prejudice, it will be possible to reform our practices in a way that can be a light to the entire nation.

The time has come for our city to take steps that will surely lead to the achievement of full civil liberty and freedom under a system of laws that fully represents to the nation and the world our highest ideals of excellence in law and government.

Let us again proclaim to the world that the District of Columbia aspires to be a shining example of full liberty and freedom for all, as was demonstrated in the establishment of Civil Marriage Equality in 2010 and many prior victories for human rights.

REFERENCES

The Deparment of Pre-Crime. James Vlahos in Scientific American, Vol. 306, No. 1, pages 62-67, January 2012.

Self-Exciting Point Processes Modeling of Crime. G. O. Mohler, M. B. Short. P. J. Brantingham, F. P. Schoenberg, and G. E. Tita in Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 106, No. 473, pages 100-108, 2011.

How New York Beat Crime. Franklin E. Zimring in Scientific American, Vol. 305, No. 2, pages 74-79, August 2011.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reports: www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr.

Scientific American Online: www.ScientificAmrican.com/jan2012/precrime

in Campaigns / Grassroots / Public Information by Alison Gardner 23 Jan 2012 1 comments

Samira Ibrahim: Local and worldwide hero

Egypt’s ban of virginity tests for female detainees came with smiles and a sense of victory and justice recently, thanks to a heroic woman, Samira Ibrahim. She was detained in March of 2011 and was forced to undergo an invasive virginity test, and decided to file a lawsuit to have these tests banned in Egypt. Even though the Egyptian army initially denied the use of these tests, it was quickly revealed that women were in fact forced to undergo virginity tests, as a means to shield the army from false allegations of rape and other possible sexual violations.

These tests were a clear violation of women’s rights. Thankfully, Samira Ibrahim responded and speaks out about this injustice.

People all over the world should admire Ibrahim for standing up and making such a strong statement to conservative Egypt, and the world. What was first an issue of human rights has become a touchstone for the empowerment of many young women.

While I know of many women’s rights issues facing a majority of the countries in the world, I sometimes find myself feeling sheltered from the worse realities and their impact. I am not experiencing their struggles directly, and many stories of what women are actually dealing with continue to go unheard. At 25, Samira Ibrahim did have the courage to share her story with the world, forever impacting all of us.

VenusPlusX blogger Kushaba Moses Mworeko offered another reason, or excuse, for the use of virginity tests.

“Long before the introduction of Christianity on the African soil, it’s worth noting that virginity tests were performed for different reasons across various cultures in different parts on the Continent. The major reason for these tests was and has always been for marriage. For instance, in African states virginity was largely determined the bride’s price; a virgin is sold for a higher bride price than a girl who is not. First, there would be a naked eye indicator of pregnancy, then on her first night of marriage, the paternal aunt of the groom would make sure an inspection of the bed sheets to verify the blood stains that would indicate whether or not virginity was lost the night before.

This same practice continues today in many cultures, including among many orthodox Jewish-Americans.”

Moses is really talking about a complexity that I find to be both confusing and disheartening. Worldwide, there is an obsession with calculating the value of women. There are many ways of doing it, across cultures (virginity tests, imposed images of beauty, expected roles to live out), but the result seems to be the same everywhere. Women are being demeaned, violated, silenced, and more.

The oppression of females and women has certainly been at the core of many nations’ founding and history. The oppression is sometimes clear to me, along with its effects, but a root explanation and any logic behind it is not so clear. Together, we must try to understand why so many cultures find it acceptable to objectify women and devalue our talents and advantages, in order to rid the world of sexual oppression.

Choosing to live outside of systems of oppression, instead of underneath, Samira Ibrahim showed her strength, and I definitely saw and heard all of it!

in Global Sexual Freedom Watch / Videos by Philip Henry 23 Jan 2012 0 comments

SOPA: US backers end support for anti-piracy bill

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Wikipedia went black Wednesday to protest SOPA

News of Note: “SOPA: US backers end support for anti-piracy bill“

Websites all over the Internet went black Wednesday in opposition of the SOPA and PIPA bills. This protest is the first of its kind and a powerful example of the power these websites wield.

The US news website Politico estimated that 7,000 sites were involved by early Wednesday morning.

Google did not shut down its main search but is showing solidarity by placing a black box over its logo when US-based users visit its site.

Online marketplace Craigslist asks site visitors to contact their representatives in Congress before moving on to the main site.

Visitors to Wikipedia’s English-language site are being greeted by a dark page with white text that says: “Imagine a world without free knowledge… The US Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia.”

If users try to access its other pages via search sites, the text briefly flashes up before being replaced by the protest page. However, people have been sharing workarounds to disable the redirect.

WordPress’s homepage displays a video which claims that Sopa “breaks the internet” and asks users to add their name to a petition asking Congress to stop the bill.

You may be wondering how successful the blackout was. Thankfully there is good news to report; this unique internet protest did make a significant impact.

Eight US lawmakers have withdrawn their backing from anti-piracy laws, amid “blackout” protests on thousands of internet sites.

Two of the bill’s co-sponsors, Marco Rubio from Florida and Roy Blunt from Missouri, are among those backing away.

Online encyclopaedia Wikipedia and blog service WordPress are among the highest profile sites to block their content.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has branded the protests as “irresponsible” and a “stunt”.

Is it an abuse of power for these websites to render themselves unreachable? Absolutely not. Access to information, the Internet’s greatest strength, is in jeopardy, and that same strength must be used to protect it. This is only the beginning. As new and more contrived and strangely-worded bills are put on the table, the fight to protect the Internet will only increase in intensity. We must remain diligent, connected, informed, and active less freedom’s greatest tool (information) will be swept away from us.

in News of Note by Jack Diehl 19 Jan 2012 0 comments

0.1 Worship Erotic Joy

Drukpa Kunley, The Divine Madman

For more on A Course in Immortality…

Click here for 0.0 A Course in Immortality
También en español The underlying fundamental absolute of the universe in which we live is the power we recognize in the desire to do good to others, which we properly name Love.

Love is expressed in and bestowed upon every level of universe reality, from the most perfected, absolute, or final, to the most primitive human-like person able to make moral decisions.

Love is expressed and perceived differently at each level of progressive maturation and perfection, in a manner uniquely significant and appealing to the esthetics and values of each level.

Many prominent mystics have elaborated on the possibility of developing an inner and intimate relationship with the person of deity.

The phrase “Bride of Christ” has long been purified, interpreted as a metaphor for the church or the body of believers. This interpretation overlooks a deeper, more personal, and individual connotation of the relationship between a person who lives the Truth and that person’s inner recognition of Truth as a person like themselves.

If divine love is manifest on every level of being, then it must be apparent in our direct, sensory, physical world, and not be limited to the domain of the super consciousness.

Where is this?

The most direct, basic, physical manifestation of the reality of Love is experienced in erotic joy, in the intense experience of neurological orgasm, in which the stimulated sensorium explodes with joy as the individual consciousness briefly impinges on the reality of absolute Love.

And what should be our attitude towards this experience of momentary contact with maximum joy? Certainly not fear, though that is the reaction of far too many who have been told and/or come to believe that they are unworthy of pleasure.

What is the appropriate action of any person confronted with a vast goodness beyond any other human sensory experience? There can be only one answer.

Worship.

Worship erotic joy.

Worship the living experience of orgasm.

Worship the most basic sensory experience of Love.

Worship is the conscious act of surrendering one’s mind, one’s will, to the object of worship. Worship makes the worshiper more like that which is worshiped.

Worship of the orgasmic spirit of Love defeats barriers to interpersonal expression of Love through service. Worship opens the door of the mind to Truth, which directs our action.

Hieronymous Bosch—The Garden of Earthly Delights

Through erotic worship the human spirit is progressively attracted to higher levels of understanding, enjoyment, and service.

Those who would deny this first great step, this open and personal acceptance of a physical gift of Love, place a barrier between the human state and the progressive expression and experience of Love.

When worship of Love is only invoked in the abstract or in deep meditative states, extreme focus is required to experience enlightenment. By comparison, when the first step in the path of Love recognition and worship is taken in the erotic, growth of the consciousness to experience greater enlightenment is simplified and expedited for most people.

All humanity knows erotic joy. The time has come for all humanity to acknowledge the supremacy of erotic joy and join in worship of this amazing, far too long ignored, gift of Love to humanity.

Join me today and forever in the worship of the power of erotic joy.

Click here for 0.2 On This Foundation

in A Course in Immortality / Cosmic Citizenship / Library / Transhuman Erotic Freedom by Dan Massey 18 Jan 2012 1 comments

U.S. Government Threatens Free Speech

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News of Note: U.S. Government Threatens Free Speech With Calls for Twitter Censorship

EFF [Electronic Frontier Foundation] has witnessed a growing number of calls in recent weeks for Twitter to ban certain accounts of alleged terrorists. In a December 14th article in the New York Times, anonymous U.S. officials claimed they “may have the legal authority to demand that Twitter close” a Twitter account associated with the militant Somali group Al-Shabaab. A week later, the Telegraph reported that Sen. Joe Lieberman contacted Twitter to remove two “propaganda” accounts allegedly run by the Taliban. More recently, an Israeli law firm threatened to sue Twitter if they did not remove accounts run by Hezbollah.

Twitter is right to resist. If the U.S. were to pressure Twitter to censor tweets by organizations it opposes, even those on the terrorist lists, it would join the ranks of countries like India, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Syria, Uzbekistan, all of which have censored online speech in the name of “national security.” And it would be even worse if Twitter were to undertake its own censorship regime, which would have to be based upon its own investigations or relying on the investigations of others that certain account holders were, in fact, terrorists.

Twitter is a tool for communication. When you look at revolutions in countries like Egypt, and the role Twitter played in organizing the people, of course governments are going to be afraid. Just as Twitter helps revolutionaries, it also helps victims of natural disasters. Freedom of speech is under greater threat as the Internet enables wider communication and access to information. Because the information age enables greater freedom than ever before, it is going to become harder every day for our government to pull a veil over our eyes. They aren’t going to give up and neither should we.

Creative Commons image: source

in Global Sexual Freedom Watch / News of Note by Jack Diehl 16 Jan 2012 0 comments

Realizing The Dream

Originally published November 30, 2011

Upon visiting the new Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial in Washington, DC, I thought about how well Dr. King’s philosophy has been realized in our society almost 50 years after the delivery of his “I have a dream” speech.

Dr. King believed in non-violent advocacy for justice and equality. His work was rooted in faith, opportunity, and freedom. And while Dr. King’s honorable philosophy is a strong model to follow when doing my own advocacy work, overall we have over-romanticized his life and work. We hang onto his goals as if working toward them, but have to address the ongoing debate over whether we have in actuality been moving away from them. The notion that we have in fact brought about a safe, peaceful environment for everyone, regardless of background, is perhaps more absurd than spending $120 million on the memorial itself.

As a country, we simply do not practice non-violence. We are obsessed with war and crime, and that is reflected in our all of our media, TV shows, video games, and music. We justify violence, and desensitize ourselves, in order to obtain power or status.

Advocacy is often not rewarded and it is difficult to introduce new ideas that may actually benefit people, relieving them from poor incomes or housing or other constructed state of oppression. It can be discouraging and even dangerous to speak up about injustice in a peaceful way because it is a method of change that we greatly under-value.

An example of this is the recent video capture of non-violent protestors at UC Davis. Students gathered on their quad to protest tuition increases and social injustice, and police officers pepper sprayed many students, seemingly without second thought.

So many of us are walking the path that Dr. King paved for us, and I will remain hopeful of a day when his memorial is a complete living testament of hard work and maintained peace. I do not discredit our country for its lack of social progress. But there is hypocrisy in using so many resources to construct the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial when as a country we do not display the values of Dr. King’s teachings and practices. Since the memorial is here to stay, we need to do a better job of upholding the goals of a great American man, and make his dream a reality.

in Videos by Alison Gardner 16 Jan 2012 0 comments