Apathy of Biblical Proportions

Monica Benderman

Across the country men and women have been jailed, not for committing a crime, but rather for making a conscious choice to live by their moral principles adhering to the laws of a higher authority.  They are jailed because those who believe themselves to be in positions of authority are frightened by the truth of their stand and the strength of their convictions. 

Who are these people of “authority”?  They are people who have been elected to serve the citizens of our country; elected because campaign promises led us to believe they understood what the people wanted; promises, which, upon election, were accentuated by an oath of office in which they swore to uphold the law.  They are not the authority; they are the people from among us chosen to follow the consensus of the people.  They are people who seem to have forgotten who wrote the Law. 

Some people write and say we must “submit to authority” and many argue that we must respect authority when authority tells us what to do.

Who is the authority of which they speak?

If they are referring to those currently in positions within our administration, what made them the authority?  Until we, the people, elected them to their position, they were no different than us.  Why do we believe that we give people who live, eat and breathe as we do authority over us – when we have simply given them an office from which to carry out the work given to them by “we” the people.  Wouldn’t that give us as much authority as those who have been given the position by which to keep our country steered in the right direction?   Isn’t it simply a matter of using our authority to make the system of government we have in place work for us?

There is ONE authority, and it speaks, well tries to speak to all of us.  Some of us have chosen not to listen, while others have chosen to allow themselves to be led to believe they are not able to hear its voice without an interpreter.  We all can hear the voice, if we are human.  It comes to everyone of us – it is CONSCIENCE.

When did we, the people, reach the point that we needed someone to tell us right from wrong?  We didn’t elect people to office to tell us the difference between the two.  We elected them because they claimed to understand the difference and took an oath to keep this country moving in a direction far away from wrong.  They have simply been given a position in a government designed to keep the country organized, not to keep the people from having a voice.

Now we are being tested.  Some have risen to the test and have faced the challenge.  Men like Sgt. Kevin Benderman saw wrong in the direction this country was being led, listened to HIS conscience, and refused to be part of what moved us further in that direction.  For daring to listen to true authority, he was imprisoned.  In a country where those in our administration had sworn to uphold the right to freedom and steer this country with integrity, Sgt. Benderman is imprisoned for demonstrating integrity and declaring his right to freely choose to follow his conscience.

Many are facing the same choice Sgt. Benderman had to make.  Many are choosing the path he has chosen – to listen to their conscience when they know that the direction they have been steered is wrong.  They too suffer injustice.  They too have taken a lonely path for while many give voice to their support of a principled stand, most simply avoid controversy and watch from the sidelines as those who believe they have authority try to imprison the truth to avoid facing their own fears.

A long time ago a man was crucified for daring to challenge those who believed they had authority.

What was God thinking as He watched a man whose followers claimed to be His son being beaten, persecuted and nailed to a cross?  What was His hope for this man who had traveled the countryside teaching God’s word in the actions of his life?  This man had many followers who professed to believe in his words, and who wrote of the glory of his actions.  This man had disciples who claimed him to be a hero – the man with the courage and patient wisdom that they lacked.  He believed them when they said they understood.  Their actions proved differently as they simply watched while corrupt men in positions of “authority” destroyed the truth to avoid facing their own fears.

What was the lesson taught that these followers never learned?

How would our world be different if those who professed true love for this man, and true respect for how he had chosen to live, had grabbed the whips from those who beat him rather than stand silently watching, praying for God to save him?

How would we live today if those who claimed to have learned what this man lived to teach, had picked him up and carried him away rather than offering to pick up the cross and carry it for him when it became too heavy?

What makes people believe that God wanted the followers of this man to simply stand beneath the cross and watch him die rather than tearing it down, daring to give him the water those who abused him refused to offer?

What if the followers of this man had respected his life and the way he lived it to the same degree that they chose to glorify his death – so much so that they fought to keep him alive, rather than watch him die, and gave him life to teach his Way for 33 more years?  What if his followers saw him as a man of simple means yet strong in moral courage, someone they could emulate, rather than a deity placed high on a pedestal so as to have an excuse for never having to try to be what he had been? 

This man wasn’t the authority.  This man was the teacher.  We have had many teachers over thousands of years and they have spoken to us with many different voices.  When will we hear?  We will hear when we realize there is only one authority, and it speaks to all of us – it comes to us in the voice we can recognize, in the way we alone will understand – Conscience.

When will we listen to our voice of conscience rather than the voices of strangers who have never walked in our shoes telling us to wait in apathetic silence while we watch the truth being imprisoned and beaten by those who wish it would simply go away?

I don’t care to ask, “What would Jesus do?”  He’s not here. 

What will YOU do, in his place?

Please visit the Benderman’s websites:

 http://www.BendermanDefense.org    and  http://www.BendermanTimeline.com  

CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK

What If George

 Isn't as Dumb

as He Appears?

 By Nolan K. Anderson

"More and more of our imports are coming from overseas".

"The best place for the facts to be done is by somebody who's spending time investigating it".

"You see, not only did the attacks help accelerate a recession,

the attacks reminded us that we are at war".

--George W. Bush

It is a long standing mystery how anyone who sounds as marginally literate as George Bush could ever become President of the United States - even in a country where his election couldn't even pass a Mayor Daley's "smell test". How could we Americans elect a graduate of Harvard with a Masters Degree - admittedly "C" grade - that has such a struggle with appearing to be coherent?  If George were a graduate of a "normal" college, it would be understandable - but not for a graduate of Harvard.

The cynics in the crowd have thought from the beginning of "George's War" on Iraq that he launched the war for four reasons:

(1)            To secure his re-election.

(2)            To avoid an oncoming recession.  

(3)            To repay corporate campaign contributions

(4)            To steal Iraq's oil.

The first three reasons are still valid, but reason number four, although still valid, needs further amplification if one is to see the broader picture and how it more fully applies to the United States.

The objective of stealing Iraq's oil would seem to be fully self-explanatory and fully comprehensive.  However, there are points in this objective which are somewhat obscured by the obvious.  First, those people who have devoted themselves to the study of "peak oil" and all its ramifications present several interesting points. Although Iraq's 112 billion barrel underground reserves make it the number two oil reservoir in the world, even that amount of oil in terms of present world consumption represents only a four-year world oil supply at present consumption rates.  Of course, the world is not going to get its total oil supply from Iraq for the next four years even if the insurgents stop damaging the production and transportation facilities. Neither is world oil demand going to remain static for the next 10 or 20 years.  Expert opinion is that the world oil requirement today is approximately 29 billion barrels per year; this demand is expected to increase to 43 billion barrels per year in the next 20 years.  To put these figures in perspective, it is anticipated that the world demand for oil will exceed the world's production capabilities between 2008 and 2012.

If one can believe even a portion of Iraq's present production figures, Iraq today is producing something near one million barrels of oil per day. However, any figure quoted by any source is strictly conjectured since production is not even being metered today.  Apparently neither the Iraqi government nor the US government is interested in even knowing how much oil is being sold or produced.  It appears that neither side is willing to investigate where Iraq's oil revenues are going.  Why would governments, which are interested in looting anyone or anything under normal conditions, not be willing to tax and spend Iraq's oil revenues?  Questions of this type become distractions to the central question of world oil requirements versus world production capabilities.

The central issue here is why George Bush chose to invade Iraq in 2003 even with the obvious financial lure of stealing an estimated 112 billion barrels of oil - which represents a significant portion of the total world oil reserve.  As a matter of significance in answering the question is the fact that Saddam was preparing to allow payment for Iraqi oil in currencies other than the US dollar.  Specifically, he was prepared to allow for oil payment in Euros.  Such heresy was seen then and is seen now by our warlords to be worthy of demonization, invasion and the total destruction of a country and its people.   In fact, to date such heresy has warranted killing over 100,000 thousand Iraqi civilians and 2250 US service personnel with 223 billion borrowed US dollars.  So, one sees that the US takes an extremely dim view of such a selfish unilateral approach to government.

We invaded Iraq, killed 100,000 civilians, contaminated the whole country with radioactive debris to the point of genocide of Iraqis and the virtual long term destruction of a very significant number of our own military - for the purpose of giving the Iraqi people "democracy" and the ability to govern themselves just as soon as we say they are capable of doing so.  How may people are able believe such a demented rationalization?  (How many people watch the Super Bowl?)

Today we sit poised with Israel for the invasion of Iran for the same crime as Saddam committed - namely, the destruction of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency by establishing an independent system of barter for world trade in oil.  But today we tell the world we are poised to invade Iran because Iran insists on exercising the same freedom of choice as our government and that of Israel - to possess and exploit atomic power - whether for peaceful or destructive purposes.  However, our politicians will never tell us that the destructive power of atomic weapons in the hands of one country - Iran - is infinitely less destructive than the potential destructive effect of removing the US dollar as the world's reserve currency.  The truth is that we - America - possess the atomic weapons power to destroy humanity.  The Iranians are poised to unleash a weapon powerful enough to change life on the planet, as we have known it since 1945, with the formation of the Bretton Woods Agreement and its effective establishment of the US dollar as the world reserve currency.  In effect, we have a pending "Battle of the Titans".  The truth is that if the dollar ceases to be the world reserve currency and its effect is that the US can borrow no more from foreigners, the "war" with Iran (or any other country) will come to an immediate halt.  Without the ability to finance our wars with borrowed money, all our battlefield gadgets become useless.  At that point, the whole world is poised to feast upon the assets of the helpless giant.

Conclusion:

The original question concerned George Bush's intellect and intelligence. There is ample evidence that George Bush is no Einstein, but that doesn't rule out the possibility that his handlers were able, at some point before the invasion of Iraq, to get George to understand that there was a great deal more involved with controlling Iraq than just confiscating its oil.  Saddam's sin was not only that of trying to bite the hand that had been feeding him, but also he was threatening to cut the "feeding hand" off at the pocket book.  If Bush's handlers not only in Washington but also Tel Aviv had been able to impress on him the significance of Saddam's perfidy, then possibly one could stretch his imagination far enough to conclude that George really had the best interests of the United States at heart when he invaded Iraq.  Today if George's handlers have been able to make him understand that Iran's position is infinitely more dangerous than any danger Saddam ever posed, then war with Iran with its consequent $100+ per barrel oil is a virtual certainty.  After all, the destruction of our currency is immensely more dangerous than a few aerial drones without biological weapons or even the scattered "mushroom cloud".

References:

  1.    What They Don't Want You to Know About The Coming Oil Crisis

           By Jeremy Leggett Published:  The Independent - 20 January 2006

  2.    The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse

           By Krassimir Petrov, Ph.D. I. Economics of Empires  01/19/06 "Gold Eagle

Nolan K. Anderson is a retired engineer and a veteran of Korea who was once a "conservative" until he found there was nothing left to conserve and as a veteran hates to see a tour in Korea go to waste.

(He may be reached at nkanders@bellsouth.net ).