Big Talk/Small Talk, & the Past is your Present

Friends & Neighbors & Best Buds, Happy Spring!
Most places have some cherry blossoms and wisteria, azaleas and daffodils and lovely redbuds. So, enjoy!



I have a friend who I met online named Jordan. He goes to Rice U. in Houston, and he and a friend started up this cool online deal called “Big Talk”. Having been in the singles biz for nearly a decade, I have oft heard the refrain, “I hate small talk!” That’s mainly because singles hate to go ask somebody where they’re from or what sign they are, and business networkers hate to ask people, “What do you do?” There’s a purpose for small talk, though, and that is to help us learn how we are connected. In those little threads in which we find commonality, like having gone to the same high school, loving Hawaii, or growing up in a similar part of the country, we find not only comfort but companionship, and friends.



My friend Jordan, however, is a man after my own heart, because he has “Big Talk” on his mind. Nearly two years ago, I started this email newsletter and started bringing up odd subjects for people to think about and consider. I have gotten many love letters and plenty of hate mail too, but the best thing is, I got some 10,000 people across the country talking and sometimes “activating”. And that has been my goal all along! So whether you just donated to the food bank, started using some Law of Attraction techniques, started meditating, watched some alternative news, or shot me an email telling me to go You-Know-Where, the journey has been wonderful.

Now I encourage you to join Jordan by chiming in on his project called “Big Talk”. He won’t be asking what your sign is—he’ll leave the astrology to me! But he will offer you lots of forums in which you can shoot the breeze. (One of my blogs is called, El Shamal, “Shoot the breeze, not people.”)

The idea of “Big Talk” takes the idea of introductory small talk UP several notches. Strangers don’t normally discuss things like race, religion, or the meaning of life when they first meet. Joining into Big Talk is like jumping into a big pool and doing a Cannonball!!! You know what I mean! It’s against normal communication patterns to go from “Hi, my name is Andrea” to “My position on race in this country is…” It’s almost considered impolite, and under certain circumstances, it would be. But with Big Talk, as with my weekly email newsletter, we drop the formalities and go for the gusto! And the cool thing is, it’s invigorating and exciting, energizing and meaningful, can be deep and heartfelt, and causes this wonderful sharing thing. Very cool.



Jordan and his friend Nick first started getting into the concept of making their everyday “Big Talk” into something they could share with family, friends, and MORE. The “MORE” part was really BIG. They were trying to figure out how to get people to join into deep and meaningful conversations despite their fear, apathy, prejudice, doubt, and lack of time, among other things. Think of how many times you have avoided getting into a conversation about race, religion, or politics, because certain disagreeing people were in the room. Sometimes, when we discuss subjects that are either unpopular or have been slanted by the media in a certain way, folks immediately get out the boxing gloves—or ball bats! We want to discuss things like ladies and gentlemen—or, at the very least, like the British Parliament (know what I mean? ;) but not like European soccer fans.

Anyway, at Rice, with the encouragement of Professor John Stroup and the funding of the Boniuk Center for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance, Jordan, Nick, and webmaster Will started up the Big Talk website, which you can find at http://www.betweenaduck.com . There you can become a fellow Big Talker by joining the fray. Once a month, they pick one question, and discuss it to death, no holds barred. Don’t ya just love it?! The March question is “How does race impact your life and society, and how should it?” You might still be able to get your words in, if you go there right now… Jordan, if you are out there, please send me the April question, so I can get that ball rolling! The goal of Big Talk, according to the website is... “to give people a better understanding of themselves and their world, and to cause a greater appreciation of different cultures and viewpoints.”

So, I encourage you to go to http://www.betweenaduck.com and chat it up, big style!



Meanwhile, here is what I want to share this week…

I heard a smidgin of a Martin Luther King, Jr. speech on the radio this week, and I thought, “Wow, you could change the venue from being about Vietnam to being about Iraq, and it would still make sense.” I have included some snippets of the speech here. What do you think? To read the whole thing or to hear it, go to http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm . Yeah, it was called the “Breaking the Silence” speech. I could go for that. Being a Big Mouth Big Talker myself.



…This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation's self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls "enemy," for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers…

…And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the ideologies of the Liberation Front, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries…They must see Americans as strange liberators....

...What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test out our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones?...

Now there is little left to build on, save bitterness. Soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call "fortified hamlets." The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these. Could we blame them for such thoughts? We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. These, too, are our brothers.

...This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words, and I quote:



“Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom, and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism (unquote).”



...Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin...we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

...A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies…

...A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." …

...A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." …

...America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war…

...We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says: "Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word" (unquote)…



AND LASTLY, MLK SAYS, ...We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today.

WELL, I MUST ADD, TODAY IS YESTERDAY. Historians know that we are doomed to repeat the past if we don't learn from it.



Gotta go!

If you want to take one of my surveys on “Love & Age”, go to: http://www.loveinloveout.com/Surveys.html

If you want to find out about improving your Love quotient, go to: http://www.loveinloveout.com/Love_Gods___Goddesses.html

If you want to know all about Soulmates, go to: http://www.propheticeye.com/Soulmates.html .

I also now have my Election predictions and latest world & local predictions, as well as individual predictions for April online, so have fun surfing! http://www.propheticeye.com/Elections_2008.html

Love ya,

Andrea

If you need a consultation or reading, please contact me by emailing me back at the address above, or call 713.301.9843, and leave a message.



Featured KPFT Program of the Week: BrokenBeatz
BrokenBeatz is a fast paced wall-to-wall Drum and Bass mix show featuring scorching live sets, exclusive guest DJ mixes, and interviews with some of the top international names in the genre. BrokenBeatz always features a cutting-edge playlist, regularly including tracks from a truly global range of Drum and Bass producers and MC’s. Expect to hear host, DJ Pmaz, spinning an eclectic range of D&B selections ranging from deep liquid-soul grooves, dance floor mashups, old school ragga-jungle, and plenty of intense dubplate business. For more info check out www.brokenbeatz.org , and be sure to lock on each and every Sunday morning, 4am-6am CST to catch BrokenBeatz live and direct, and exclusively featured on KPFT Houston, 90.1FM. Tuesdays 3-6am.
Logon to http://www.kpft.org and click on "Listen Now!" in the upper right hand corner. I suggest listening on your computer at http://www.kpft.org .---Andrea

Find KPFT at 90.1 FM, in Houston, 24 hours a day. Please donate at http://www.kpft.org and click on "GIVE NOW". You can listen live online at this same address. Your work day will never be bored while you are listening.
You can also hear Alternative Radio programs directly by logging on with your computer to http://www.alternativeradio.org . Would you like to get some REAL NEWS for a change, without having to leave the United States?

News Feature Blackwater: Mercenary Army, with featured speaker Jeremy Scahill
A hidden story of the U.S. war on Iraq has been the use private contractors, a shadow force almost as big as the American army. The major company operating in Iraq and raking in millions of dollars in taxpayer money is Blackwater. The well-connected North Carolina-based firm is the elite Praetorian Guard of the so-called war on terror. Blackwater and other private armies apparently operate with no supervision or oversight. Their crimes go unpunished. Gen William Caldwell, the top spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq, said: "Contractors are out of our lane, and we don't comment on them." Jeremy Scahill is the author of the bestseller "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army" He is the recipient of the Polk Award for journalism. He is a frequent contributor to "The Nation" magazine and "Democracy Now!"
Date recorded: 7 May 2007 Where recorded: Boulder, CO

You can download these programs or purchase them on CD at http://www.alternativeradio.org .

Activate!!! Helping the Homeless
The Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County, Inc. is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate and advocate for the needs of persons who are homeless through support and coordination of services. In 1982 at the request of then Harris County Judge Jon Lindsey and Houston Mayor Kathryn Whitmire, the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County, Inc. (the Coalition) was founded by area homeless social services for an exploding number of people who were homeless that were emerging as a result of local economic deterioration. In 1988, the Coalition incorporated as a 501(c) 3. The Goals of the Coaliton include, but are not limited to, establishing, maintaining, providing and assisting those entities that serve the needs of people who are homeless though advocacy, education, information exchange, collection of current and accurate data relevant to homeless issues, identify gaps in homeless services and develop solutions to meet those needs, coordination of public and private resources, and dispensing information and referral sources to those that are homeless or at risk.
Things You can do...
• Support existing programs with time and money. • Use your area of expertise and share your skill. • Get your School, Church or Business Involved. • Build Homes for people that are homeless. • Help with job training to create permanent solutions. • Hire someone who is homeless. • Write to local, state and federal representatives. • Teach your children about the problems of homelessness. • Treat people that are homeless with respect and understanding.
You can volunteer to help the homeless at any of these organizations: JOHN S. DUNN CENTER, Aids Foundation of Houston (AFH), SEARCH, Emergency Aid Coalition, www.volunteerhouston.org, End Hunger Houston, Catholic Charities, Fort Bend County Women's Center, The Furniture Bank, The Star of Hope, Crisis Intervention of Houston. You can mail a donation to: CFTH, Attn: Finance Department, 811 Dallas St, Suite 821, Houston, TX 77002 Or make a donation by telephone at 713-739-7514. This website has lots of info: http://www.homelesshouston.org/hh/Default_EN.asp
Green Action: Drive a Clean Machine.
Go to http://www.h-gac.com/human-services/airchecktexas/default.aspx OR http://www.nctcog.org/trans/air/act/ to find out how you can get some money to turn in your old cloud-emitting car and get a new clean vehicle. The AirCheckTexas Repair and Replacement Assistance Program is designed to help vehicle owners comply with vehicle emissions standards to reduce ozone-forming pollutants created by on-road motor vehicles. It addresses the highest polluting vehicles and provides an incentive for citizens to contribute to the regional air quality solution. The AirCheckTexas Repair and Replacement Assistance Program expanded to offer more financial assistance to more vehicle owners. You may be eligible to receive vouchers for $3,000 toward the purchase of a newer car or truck and $3,500 toward a hybrid vehicle from participating auto dealers. Up to $600 for repair assistance is available. Check it out!!!!