LIST OF HOPE

LIST OF HOPE

Today there was a post on my Facebook by Keith Barber (shared by Sharon Alder): The Berlin Wall stood for 10,316 days. Today it has been down for 10,316 days.  

What a wonderful time it was when the Berlin Wall was taken down... it gave so many people hope for a better world. We need such a powerful symbol of tyranny to be taken down again, to inspire people everywhere and give people hope again. Actually, what is really needed are rays of light starting to shine everywhere... such as: 

1) Shutting down Guantanamo Bay 
2) Taking down the wall Trump is building between the U.S. and Mexico 
3) Ending the war in Syria 
4) Closing down most of the U.S. bases in other countries across the world, starting with places that people have protested their presence, such as Okinawa and Jeju Island
5) NATO falling apart 
6) North and South Korea ending their war and declaring peace in Korea 
7) Cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch 
8) Actual community building across the U.S. 
9) Prosecution of war profiteers and Wall Street financial scam con artists 
10) Conviction of U.S. war criminals 
11) Restitution to countries that the U.S. has aggressively bombed in wars that Congress never approved or actions that the U.N. never sanctioned, or that were based on lies and fabrications. 
12) Shutting down the Federal Reserve 
13) The U.S. dollar no longer being used as the major foreign currency reserve 
14) China and Japan undertaking a peace and reconciliation process
15) The U.S. opening up again to Cuba
16) Russia getting the respect that it deserves on the world stage
17) Julian Assange being freed to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London 
18) Global celebrations and environmental projects uniting humanity
19) Ending the legal status of corporations which allows economic and environmental crimes to be committed without individual culpability
20) restoring accountability to the electoral process in the U.S., taking steps so that each person truly has one vote

Those are just a few ideas tossed off the top of my head of things that might happen which would give me hope for the future. I just wrote this as ideas came to me; it's more of a brainstorming than anything else. This list is not prioritized, but I'm sure we could grow it if more people gave it some thought and added to it. For people reading this, what are some of the things that would give you hope, just off the top of your head?

Remember, we cannot change the world until we have a vision of what needs to be done. Just fantasizing about a better world without seeing what steps need to be taken to get there is simply escapism. It is wonderful to see so many people on a spiritual journey, and yes, it starts with each and every one of us, but until we see that we must take action in this shared reality to make changes, even becoming a saint will not suffice.

Ariel Ky 4/30/2018

Letter to Jill Stein

(I wrote this letter to Jill Stein because of a letter I received from her (I'm on her mailing list because I voted for her for president.) I am very encouraged that she is so solution-oriented about what we need to do in this country to have honest elections. She talks about how she's been targeted in the Russiagate investigation. I've copied in her letter at the end of this post so that you can see what I am referring to about her being solution-oriented.) 

Here in Arizona we have a special election to vote more money for our prisons, which are anticipated to grow in numbers of prisoners over the next few years. I think that instead of planning on housing more prisoners, that we should tackle quality of life issues that lead to incarceration, and look at alternatives to imprisoning people.

Maybe you can consult with people you know, and see what is out there to change our prison system. We should be looking at ways to close them, and reduce the number of prisoners with innovative programs, such as real jobs that pay well enough to sustain individuals and families. 

Here are a couple of ideas. I'm sure many more have been discussed in the past, and many more could be generated with brainstorming sessions.

1.  ALTERNATIVE CONSEQUENCES TO INCARCERATION  

A council of elders, who would be mostly women, might provide an alternative to the present justice system. Perhaps in a transitional period over a period of 3-10 years, those people facing a jail sentence might choose instead of going to trial, to meet with a council of elders to discuss restitution and other alternatives to incarceration.

2.  JOBS  In order to reduce recividism, when someone is released from prison, make sure they have a job to go to that they will like, and which will support them well. The CCC met a need for employment in the depression, planting trees, creating public art, and other programs.  

 A jobs program for people looking for work could go a long way to prevent people from making the choices that lead to being imprisoned. We need to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure in this country, we need to support our children in the schools with counselors. We need to support working families with more and better after-school programs. 

There is so much that needs to be done for the environment and for people. If we started to address the true needs of our people, there could be many, many jobs generated. For instance, there is a great need for training in healthy eating, cooking, preparing meals, and making sure that your body has all of the nutrients needed to be healthy. Programs to meet these needs could generate a great many jobs.

Also programs that encourage and support people to get more exercise.

Programs to encourage people to become more civic-minded, such as community gardens and other projects that contribute to the life of the community. These could be supported with paid staffers and in other ways that reward involvement.

We could have a public works program to build community centers across the nation, places where political issues are discussed, where local bands play, dances are held, international holidays celebrated, and diversity encouraged and supported, sharing of cultures and ideas. Authors could give talks, experts give lectures and hold debates and question and answer sessions. Workshops could be given there. These community centers would be designed to create jobs for people, not only in their construction, but also in the richness and variety of programs and events that they offer the community.

Really, we need to build community in the United States, and get people interacting in person with each other again. Today this role has been left to the churches, which mostly divides people further. Schools used to meet many of these needs, but with ongoing cutbacks, there is very little done in the way of community programs any more. Everyone in a local community could be involved in some ways with their schools.

These should never be federally mandated programs with centralized authority. Most of the decision-making needs to be made by the local communities. However, there should be federal funds for these programs. There could never be anything on the scale of what we now spend on our bloated military and intelligence community, because most of that has been financed by debit spending anyways, but if we shift our priorities, I'm sure that there are people who can figure out how to make this approach rebuild our economy.

Dear Ariel, Today, I’m breaking months of silence on the targeting of our campaign by the political establishment - both Democrats and Republicans - in their investigation of alleged Russian election interference. Let’s be clear: this was a baseless and politically-motivated act of intimidation against an independent political movement that both establishment parties see as a threat. But we’re used to that sort of thing. So having been dragged into the battle over election interference, we have an incredible opportunity to fight for critical solutions to the very real problems that threaten our elections - and to knock down the establishment’s false solutions of warmongering, censorship and repression. Please take a moment to read my statement on “Russiagate” and help spread the word by sharing it on Facebook and Twitter. You may be getting tired of the media’s obsession with “Russiagate” - and believe me, so am I. That’s why it’s so critical that we seize this rare opportunity to focus the discussion on real, urgent threats to our elections - many of which were uncovered by the 2016 recount effort - and how we can fix them. And we must push back against the effort to twist legitimate concerns about election interference into a campaign of warmongering, censorship and political repression. Thank you for all that you do to build the movement for peace and real democracy. It’s in our hands! Jill

Starting a Women's Think Tank for the Paradigm Shift

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't think tanks always employ men? I would like to start a think tank of women for the purpose of brainstorming ideas on how to push along the paradigm shift to a world of equality between women and men, without violence or war.

Actually, it would be wonderful if there was a man out there who wanted to start a think tank of men for the same purposes. We could collaborate, perhaps. Eventually, we could merge, but at the outset, I think it would be important for it to be all women.

Why do I say this? For too long, men have dominated our world, and old habits die hard. I do believe that the new paradigm is going to be forged mostly by women. However, I welcome the men who are aware that we all benefit from true equality between the genders.

Unfortunately, what I have seen is men tend to gravitate towards guru positions in the lightworker movement, exploiting the ideas and spiritual gifts of women who pay large amounts for their workshops and seminars, and enjoying high status and many perks, just as men have always done, making the decisions, running things.

Our women's think tank would publish position papers and use social media to convey our ideas to bring about a more consciously spiritual relationship with each other and all life, and a sense of the sacredness of the Earth. We would come up with blueprints, new systems, lists of steps to take, questions to consider. We might start our own media company, book publishing firm, legal firm, college, political groups.

Not only would we be a think tank, we would also serve as a clearinghouse of ideas, for people to connect with projects and exchange ideas with others of like mind.

We would tackle both local and global issues. We would do our best to stop wars from starting by exposing the lies. We might even start class action suits on behalf of war-torn families or families who have lost their children in school shootings. We could write legislation and find sponsors to push it through legislatures. We could strategize on how to get awakened women into political positions.

If any of you reading this are interested in this idea of starting a think tank, please let me know one way or another. Maybe you can put me in touch with someone who might be interested.

What Happens After Married Couples Die

When two people marry and vow to love each other in the wedding ceremony and stay together "until death do us part", that is a contract that ends when one person dies. Many women have honored that contract, although less so today.

There is another kind of marriage of undying love where two people swear to love each other through eternity, from one lifetime to the next -- this was the true sacred marriage, of soul mates. Most people have forgotten that it ever existed. I only know about it through writing a story once about the goddess Diana. I have it stored somewhere. I'll see if I can find it and share it here.

I think that two people may play different roles than husband and wife in their next lifetime together. When they are born again, their roles may be switched, so the husband becomes the wife, and the wife becomes the husband.

If they are still part of the same family, they may be mother and child, or father and child, brothers, sisters, favorite grandmother and granddaughter, uncle and nephew, or any one of the many roles and relationships in families, regardless of gender. It is very possible in another life to switch from being male to female, or vice versa.

Or they may not even be part of each other's family, instead becoming best friends or business partners, teacher and student, or fellow students. It is possible for there to be many other kinds of relationships that they get to explore their love in, this time around with different dynamics.

Nevertheless, when a true marriage of mutual deep love has been made, consciously or unconsciously, those two people are reunited after death in the spirit plane. When one dies, they wait for the other to cross over so they can be reunited in spirit before reincarnating together.

Many women who have lost a husband look forward to the time after their death when they will see their loved one again. Other women are happy to have the marriage contract end with the death of their husband, and have no desire to renew it in the spirit plane, regardless of whether their husband waits for them or not. Or a husband who has survived the wife after a long marriage, but does not want to renew the marriage in a next life after she has died.

My sense as a shaman who does have communication with the spirit world, is that there is an infinite variety of what happens after we die, just like there is in this life. As our worlds collide and mesh, it is going to get very interesting indeed.