| The
21st Century has brought political changes to the United States and the World which
have prompted me to turn the space within this border into
an evolving but very sporadic bulletin board/diary reflecting my feelings
and thoughts about those changes. To provide continuity
I will preserve those messages which previously appeared
here on a separate page which can be reached by clicking
on the link at the end of this section.
--Jonathan
Talbot
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Post
# 11: Novermber 2016
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# 10: January 10, 2007 / I await what I expect to be Bush's
further attempts (in his speech to be made this evening) to
justify the military adventurism he has built on a foundation
of lies and obfuscation. While I wait, I reflect on Bush's
actions and find that by slightly transforming the words of
John F. Kennedy I can characterize the actions of current
resident of the White House... |
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"Those
who make peaceful evolution impossible will make violent revolution
inevitable." |
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# 9: January 7, 2007 / A quote from a speech by Bill Moyers
at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice on 12.12.2006
which I was fortunate to be able to attend. |
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"...because of the great disparities in wealth, the "shining
city on the hill" has become a gated community whose
privileged occupants, surrounded by a moat of money and protected
by a political system seduced with cash into subservience,
are removed from the common life of the country.
Note: The "shining city on
the hill" is a reference to America as described by Ronald
Regan. Regan's vision of America as a "shining city on
the hill" was taken from the words of Puritan leader
John Winthrop written aboard the Arabella as he and his companions
set forth for America in 1630. Winthrop's words were themselves
sourced in the account of the Sermon on the Mount which appears
in Matthew 5:14-16. |
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# 8: January 7, 2007 / A quote from Martin Luther King which
is just as true today as it was when King said it. |
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"A
nation that continues year after year to spend more money
on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching
spiritual death." --Martin Luther King, Jr., April 4,
1967 |
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# 7: November 22, 2006 / With Congressman-Elect John Hall |
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Marsha
and I with John Hall, congressman-elect from the 19th Congressional
District of New York. We supported John Hall's candidacy because
of his support for the arts and his commitment to ending the
war in Iraq. His opponent Sue Kelly voted time after time
to support the policies of the current administration. We
are glad John won the election. Photo
by Betty Hurd taken just before election day, 2006 |
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# 6: May 30, 2006 / Outside the Gates at West Point |
|  Here
I am marching outside the gates at West Point to protest
George Bush's presence there on May 27, 2006. Unlike protests
during the Vietnam War era, we made it very clear that it
is not the troops we are protesting against... It is their
"commander- in-chief". The sign to my right says
a lot... "Honor the Dead, Heal the Wounded, End the
War." It is now over three years since Bush invaded
Iraq. What a tragedy for the United States, Iraq, and the
rest of the world.
Sadly,
while the media covered Bush's speech in detail, it gave
the protest almost no coverage. One could almost begin to
think that someone is effectively muzzeling the press.
Photo: Courtesy of Econosmith. |
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# 5: July 7, 2005 / The day of the attacks on London's Transportation
System
I
am saddened by this morning's attacks. Once again, conflict
between idealogues of opposing views has claimed new innocent
victims. It is simplistic to say (as Bush said this morning),
that we are "right" and they are "wrong."
It appears to me that there is "wrongness" on
both sides. Both sides need to recognize the nature of their
responsibility for the current state of affairs instead
of continuing to blindly blame each other. How many more
people will die before that happens?
Post
# 4: March 19, 2005
It
is the second anniversary of Bush's invasion of Iraq and
I am still marching to protest the war. Here I can be seen
(see circle) marching with many others in New Paltz, NY
(about an hour from my home) on March 19, 2005. Photo:
Econosmith.
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