Sept. 14 WISDOM event!!

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The Troy Public Library ... Keeps Troy Strong

Here's the latest from the Keep Troy Strong blog:

http://keeptroystrong.blogspot.com/2011/07/regarding-that-ballot-language-and-dda.html

Keep the real information coming...

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Save the Troy Public Library.. continued

Per http://keeptroystrong.blogspot.com/2011/07/tcu-plan-to-save-library.html:

TCU Plan to Save the Library

The Dave Henderson/TCU plan to save the library is as follows:

1. Vote NO on the library millage on Aug 2
2. Let the library close on Aug 5
3. Support TCU candidates running for mayor and city council, including Dave Henderson
4. Elect them to office in November
5. Wait for them to fund the library, by taxing tax-paying Troy residents who happen to be from other countries.

And how are they going to do it? They are going to fire everyone, and put an extra tax on tax-paying foreign nationals and an extra tax on people from other cities whose towns have lending agreements with our library.

What? The anti-tax extremists want to tax people TWICE? What people? Oh, those people.

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Prof. Ramdas Lamb's Take on Conversion

http://www.hinduismtoday.com/blogs-news/hindu-press-international/dr--ramdas-lamb-s-take-on-conversion-challenges/11257.html

"The problem of conversion will be solved if the Hindu parents live and practice Hinduism in their lives. Just preaching is not enough and it is not going to work. You have to walk the talk. Parents have to silently put Hinduism in action so that the children can observe and follow them. This is how I have taught my children and it has worked very well." These views were expressed by Dr. Ramdas Lamb, Associate Professor, Dept. of Religion, University of Hawaii while speaking on the subject- "Effects of Conversion on Native Cultures and Society" at a meeting organized by Vivekananda International Foundation on Thursday, 23rd June, 2011 in Delhi.

There's much more at the link...

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A Car Lover's Guide on How to Bless a Car, Hindu American Style....

Gotta love it!

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11q1/how_to_bless_a_car-feature

...Getting to drive a Cadillac CTS-V wagon for 40,000 miles is a blessing in itself, but with 556 horsepower on tap, we figured it couldn’t hurt to have our newest long-termer blessed by a Hindu priest. So we took it in for a pooja, which is a Hindu ceremony popular with car buyers in India. Poojas are often performed on everyday machines, tools, or objects. The ritual may seem odd to some Westerners, but the Hindu faith says that everything is connected to God, even material goods such as cars. Hindus bless a vehicle to ask deities to purify and safeguard the machine, to express appreciation, and to request that the car operate in a fruitful manner. Here’s how it’s done:

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Save the Troy Public Library & more than simply that... it's our community!!

From my friend Sharon MacDonell:

Hello Neighbors and Friends,
Next Monday, May 9th, Troy City Council will decide whether they will find a way to keep the library funded, open (and at what level) until we can have one, last, painful millage election on the library in August or November. They may even decide NOT to have a new millage election.

This is truly our last chance.

*Now is the time to send out emails to your friends.

*Now is the time to write to city council members (get their email addresses here -http://troymi.gov/Council/)

*Now is the time to write letters to editors (see attached instructions).

*Now is the time to argue with those annoying people who keep spreading disinformation about the city (find the FACTS at http://trustroy.org/)

*Now is the time to become informed.

*Now is the time to understand how we got here and vow to vote YES on a library millage! (read the Oakland Press Guest Opinion piece here: http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2011/04/27/opinion/doc4db8b2f6f3539452613082.txt?viewmode=fullstory )

It's GO TIME folks.

What have you done for the library lately?

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Dharma is a complicated thing...

My patheos essay is here... The Path of Dharma and Just War: Two Hindu American Perspectives and the paragraph I took out is here: "As an activist, I read what they say at Common Dreams about this Libyan military engagement, and agreed with Stephen Zunes in this article: “Though the intervention likely prevented a slaughter, there is no guarantee that it won’t simply protract a bloody military stalemate that could result in at least as many civilian deaths.” Zunes is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, an associate editor of Peace Review and chair of the academic advisory committee for the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. Which brings me back to that idea of ahimsa yet again…and my work as a peace activist." I wonder how that makes sense? Peace and activist? Ramdas Lamb says in Polytheism and Monotheism: A Hindu Perspective: "All these names thus refer to a Qualified Absolute that is simultaneously beyond qualifications. For Hindus, this makes total sense. " So peace and activism? We can make it work. We just have to work at it and find a way. Read more Entry>>

What is a Just War?

David Crumm - the publisher of the book www.friendshipandfaith.com which represents the women's interfaith activism I am part of - recently published this article on his site, www.readthespirit.com.
http://www.readthespirit.com/ourvalues/libya-did-we-have-a-responsibility-to-intervene.html#comments

I hope to write something about this in my upcoming Patheos column - but first I must reread Juan Mascaro's intro to his translation of the Bhagavad Gita (a Penguin classic), as well as the Hindu American Foundation's 2009 essay contest winning entry from Rajiv Srinivasan.

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Remembering Reetika Vazirani...

I am writing again (thank you, www.Patheos.com, for helping me find the discipline to do so regularly) which means I am reading again. I saw this from SAWNET.org:
And in reading again, I turned to SAWNET's bookshelf and found this.

http://www.sawnet.org/books/writing/sisterhood.html

For our Sisterhood.
by Uma Parameswaran

The slash of a wrist in a quiet house
on a quiet street in D.C.
sent Arctic chills down spines across the world,
and we, islands in cyberspace,
tried blindly to read the words undulating on the screen
like shimmering sand against Monsoon gold;
tried numbly to stroke away our pain alone,
tried mutely to voice our dismay at the act of one of our own.

We, womanmotherpoet, raised our hands in unknowing grief,
asking Why, why, why?
And the answer came slashing across the sky.

She sat at our table, yet we did not see the eyes
behind the bright eyes looking at tomorrows.
She knocked on our door, but we did not hear the words
behind the words that asked us for a Book.
We felt the vibes she sent us over wires
of her fears she'd hurt herself,
and we did not act,
but she did.

We, womanmotherpoet,
Though schooled early in the alphabet of despair,
Could not decode in time the words slashed across the sky,
could not hear in time the voice that cried  in our own voice.
And as the red flame spurted down our path,
We, transfixed islands in cyberspace,
stretched our hands in rage, in guilt, in grief,
and as we stretched we felt other hands in our own,
likewise stretched in unknowing grief,  unknowing guilt,
and we knew we were not alone.

Oh my sisters, my loves,
As we circle the flame the Muses have taken to themselves,
Let us pray they grant us the courage, if our time should come,
to let go of our woman strength, our mother love,
our poet pride of honeyed nuances that drop silent into flowers
so subtly no one else can see, hear, feel their awe-ful urgency.
The courage to let go of all and scream loud and clear
HELP ME!  NOW!


July 24, 2003

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