Great Spirit,
We pray this evening for
Ever greater meaning and
Purpose in our lives.
Please great Spirit, give us
A purpose for Being.
We pray for the Will and courage
To commit to something
Larger than ourselves.
Great Spirit, we are ready
To risk, to serve and to commit
To the greater well being of our Universe.
As your prophet, Matthew Fox
Pleaded,
Let us Thunder for Social Justice together!
Amen
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Wednesday, March 8, 2006
I wish to speak regarding: Lincoln School land sale and lakeshore access issue
City of Madison Parks Commission Meeting
I emphatically and enthusiastically agree with the Madison Park Commission decision not to sell the half acre of city land beneath the Lincoln School apartments. I enthusiastically endorse the recent statement by the Commission’s chair which stated:
“We should not limit our options relating to land we own publicly or waver from our vision of greater access to city lakeshores, and adding open space in an increasingly dense urban area.”
When I first arrived in Dane County now almost 35 years ago, I was struck by two main impressions of the City of Madison. First, how richly blessed Madison was to lie in the midst of so many miles of beautiful lake shore land. Secondly, how sad and unjust, it seemed, that so many Madisonians had public access to so little of it.
My dream and vision for Madison is that when this city celebrates its bicentennial in 2056 its citizens can proudly boast that they reclaimed their natural right to greater public access to Madison’s lake shores. I know with out any doubt that if there was a referendum to this effect, the people of Madison would overwhelmingly support it. One way to help ensure that the citizens of Madison begin take back part of their shore line would be to measure the public’s existing shore line, and then publicly announce at our spring sesquicentennial celebration a goal to significantly increase public access to our lakes.
Martin Luther King, when talking about the need to change our values, said, “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation (I would add here, ‘and as a city’) must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. He then went on to say that when profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
Let us support “the people’s revolution” and say no to the further diminishment of the people’s access to this beautiful and enticing lake shore. Let us begin, as a city, to say no to the further privatization and degradation of our planet earth.
If we succeed, then we can triumphantly acclaim “our radiant city of Madison on the lakes,” and mean it!
William R. Benedict
Resident of Madison/Eastside
I emphatically and enthusiastically agree with the Madison Park Commission decision not to sell the half acre of city land beneath the Lincoln School apartments. I enthusiastically endorse the recent statement by the Commission’s chair which stated:
“We should not limit our options relating to land we own publicly or waver from our vision of greater access to city lakeshores, and adding open space in an increasingly dense urban area.”
When I first arrived in Dane County now almost 35 years ago, I was struck by two main impressions of the City of Madison. First, how richly blessed Madison was to lie in the midst of so many miles of beautiful lake shore land. Secondly, how sad and unjust, it seemed, that so many Madisonians had public access to so little of it.
My dream and vision for Madison is that when this city celebrates its bicentennial in 2056 its citizens can proudly boast that they reclaimed their natural right to greater public access to Madison’s lake shores. I know with out any doubt that if there was a referendum to this effect, the people of Madison would overwhelmingly support it. One way to help ensure that the citizens of Madison begin take back part of their shore line would be to measure the public’s existing shore line, and then publicly announce at our spring sesquicentennial celebration a goal to significantly increase public access to our lakes.
Martin Luther King, when talking about the need to change our values, said, “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation (I would add here, ‘and as a city’) must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. He then went on to say that when profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
Let us support “the people’s revolution” and say no to the further diminishment of the people’s access to this beautiful and enticing lake shore. Let us begin, as a city, to say no to the further privatization and degradation of our planet earth.
If we succeed, then we can triumphantly acclaim “our radiant city of Madison on the lakes,” and mean it!
William R. Benedict
Resident of Madison/Eastside
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
“Wake Up America” – Letter to the Editor
Did the Journal’s editorial department and the readers of the Journal not read about the First Amendment violation which Leonard Pitts Jr. reported on in his Monday column? Inasmuch as I have not read one printed word about this “homeland security incident in our local papers,” I have to say that I am dismayed and alarmed. Benjamin Franklin warned us that, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Leonard Pitts Jr., columnist for the Miami Herald, and regularly featured in the Journal’s Your Opinion page, reported a February 9th County Homeland Security incident in a Montgomery County Public Library. It seems that two Homeland Security officers in uniform entered the Little Falls branch of the county library and informed the patrons that it was forbidden to use the library’s computers to view Internet pornography.
It was later reported by the Gazette.Net, Maryland County Newspaper Online, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006, when confronted by the library staff and informed that they themselves were acting in violation of Montgomery County Public Library policy “the veteran officers continued to press their case.” Fortunately the library staff then called the police and the unwelcome intruders left.
The Gazette quoted County Councilman Michael J. Knapp, who heads the council’s Homeland Security Committee, “It was probably a good learning experience for everybody.” The Gazette also reported that Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, after learning of the incident, as calling “the guards’ actions highly inappropriate, unauthorized and in violation of county policy.” The county has since reprimanded and reassigned the guards.
Mr. Pitts reminded his readers that this incident did not happen in China, Cuba or North Korea. It happened “right here in freedom’s land.” He went on to say that he was appalled that “an agent of the government literally read over a man’s shoulder, Big Brother like, and tried to prevent him form seeing what he had chosen to see.” Pitts then went on to fully express my own exact reactions to this incident. Mainly, the fact that we are at war doesn’t make this OK, nor the fact that the library material involved was unsavory doesn’t make it OK.
When I read Pitts’ story, a chill went down my back. I am flabbergasted that I have not read or heard another word about this incident. If this incident is not an early warning signal, a clear harbinger of what is to come, I don’t know what is. If the local press in liberal Madison ignores this incident and chooses to treat it as simply a pornography story, or because the “homeland security officers” were later duly reprimanded, I believe the American people are in deep, deep denial.
The question that we should all be asking right now is, What conditions now exist in our “land of the free,” that would allow such Gestapo-like behavior to happen? What was the current context in which this incident occurred? Time magazine recently reported, “The President’s secret directive to let the NSA snoop without warrants sets off a furor.” US citizens being detained without charges, counsel or recourse, and illegal eavesdropping now being accepted by the American people as OK now that we are at war…
What will it take before Americans wake up? Now we are only being watched by big brother as we use our libraries. Will we soon need government approval to use our libraries, or to take a trip or watch a movie? Wake up America!
Leonard Pitts Jr., columnist for the Miami Herald, and regularly featured in the Journal’s Your Opinion page, reported a February 9th County Homeland Security incident in a Montgomery County Public Library. It seems that two Homeland Security officers in uniform entered the Little Falls branch of the county library and informed the patrons that it was forbidden to use the library’s computers to view Internet pornography.
It was later reported by the Gazette.Net, Maryland County Newspaper Online, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006, when confronted by the library staff and informed that they themselves were acting in violation of Montgomery County Public Library policy “the veteran officers continued to press their case.” Fortunately the library staff then called the police and the unwelcome intruders left.
The Gazette quoted County Councilman Michael J. Knapp, who heads the council’s Homeland Security Committee, “It was probably a good learning experience for everybody.” The Gazette also reported that Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, after learning of the incident, as calling “the guards’ actions highly inappropriate, unauthorized and in violation of county policy.” The county has since reprimanded and reassigned the guards.
Mr. Pitts reminded his readers that this incident did not happen in China, Cuba or North Korea. It happened “right here in freedom’s land.” He went on to say that he was appalled that “an agent of the government literally read over a man’s shoulder, Big Brother like, and tried to prevent him form seeing what he had chosen to see.” Pitts then went on to fully express my own exact reactions to this incident. Mainly, the fact that we are at war doesn’t make this OK, nor the fact that the library material involved was unsavory doesn’t make it OK.
When I read Pitts’ story, a chill went down my back. I am flabbergasted that I have not read or heard another word about this incident. If this incident is not an early warning signal, a clear harbinger of what is to come, I don’t know what is. If the local press in liberal Madison ignores this incident and chooses to treat it as simply a pornography story, or because the “homeland security officers” were later duly reprimanded, I believe the American people are in deep, deep denial.
The question that we should all be asking right now is, What conditions now exist in our “land of the free,” that would allow such Gestapo-like behavior to happen? What was the current context in which this incident occurred? Time magazine recently reported, “The President’s secret directive to let the NSA snoop without warrants sets off a furor.” US citizens being detained without charges, counsel or recourse, and illegal eavesdropping now being accepted by the American people as OK now that we are at war…
What will it take before Americans wake up? Now we are only being watched by big brother as we use our libraries. Will we soon need government approval to use our libraries, or to take a trip or watch a movie? Wake up America!
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