Memorial Day 2010 / War Is An Old Recycled Lie

MEMORIAL DAY 2010 / WAR IS AN OLD RECYCLED LIE






[ Click on picture to enlarge ]

Three dead Americans in Afghanistan ~ why ?

War is a waste so why do we celebrate it with parades, flags and glorious war stories when, in reality, they are fought by our youth who are but pawns in the hands of old men ~ seduced by power and greed ~ who are more than willing to waste our most precious resource on illegal wars and occupations : Allen L Roland

The aspect of control and domination is a precipitating factor in all wars, and it is also the the principle aspect of ego consciousness ~ which is directly contradictory to our innate propensity to unite and cooperate, which are the principle aspects of soul consciousness and the Unified Field .

On this Memorial Day 2010, America is still enmeshed in a costly and illegal war and occupation of Iraq, rapidly increasing its military presence in illegally occupied Afghanistan and preparing for the possibility of war with Iran. American defense secretary Gates told NBC television last year that the president had instructed him to refresh plans for military action against Tehran ~ prepared during the Bush era. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/1,7340,L-3720065,00.html

The American War Wagon has not slowed down in 2010 but is accelerating ~ with little if any deep reflection on the true human and moral cost of this insanity.

War is almost always waged for corporate profits and political gains ~ soldiers and their families pay the costs. ( Read War is a Racket by Major General Smedley Butler.)

On this Memorial Day, much of the media will roll over backwards to glorify war and all the soldiers slaughtered in wars. Tributes to the dead are easy; the dead don't talk back and if they did they would most certainly say ~ why ?

To save your world you asked this man to die; Would this man, could he see you now, ask why ?: W. H. Auden: "Epitaph for an Unknown Soldier"

Kristina M. Gronquist calls it the OLD LIE ~ Dulce et decorum est - Pro patria mori ( To die for one’s country is sweet and becoming )

It's from the poem “Dulce et decorum est” by the English poet Wilfred Owen, 1893 -1918, killed at the front a few days before the Armistice and nothing could be further from the truth.

Here's an excerpt from Gronquist's timeless article written on Memorial Day 2005 ~ " The media will continue, this weekend, to suppress the truth, which is that the war in Iraq is a massive foreign policy failure; Iraq is a failed state, an incredibly chaotic unstable mess where tens of thousands of Iraqis have died needlessly. Unworried Americans will say we can’t judge Iraq yet, we have to “wait and see,” because down the road, if oil rich Iraq becomes a (Western-style) democracy “it will all be worth it”. These are such easy words to utter, from the armchair experts on democracy for Muslims, so smug with remote controls in-hand. Yes, tell the loved ones of one million dead Iraqis that someday the deaths of their family members will all be worth it, as your own children scurry about safe and warm... On Memorial Day we will blithely ignore the massive protest and hatred that our polices, occupations, torture and wrongful imprisonment have inspired in the Muslim and Arab world. Come to think of it, many Europeans, Latin Americans and Africans aren’t enthralled with our foreign policies either. But an empire can ignore the common sense of the global masses of people who oppose war, and we can easily choose not to try to understand root causes of anti-American sentiment. C’mon ­- America, it’s Memorial Day, tune that negative reality out and turn on your television for yet another glorious war hero story." http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8970.htm

On May 30, 2010, the direct cost of occupying Iraq and Afghanistan hit $1 trillion. In a few weeks, the House of Representatives will be asked to vote for $33 billion of additional "emergency" supplemental spending to continue the illegal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
We must now face the hard cold reality that War is an insurmountable human waste and an old recycled lie ~ not a cause for glorification and celebration ~ and then demand action from our political leaders to end this waste by no longer funding our foreign wars and occupations.

Mohandas Gandhi said it best ~ What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction of war is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty and democracy?

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/memorial-day-2010-war-is-old-recycled.html

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover .

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

BP / Beyond Prosecution, Beyond Patience, Beyond Preposterous

BP / BEYOND PROSECUTION, BEYOND PATIENCE, BEYOND PREPOSTEROUS

[ Click on Picture to enlarge ]

As BP's Black Death ocean floor oil gusher raises environmental havoc on the Gulf and eventually the East Coast ~ Patience is running out, Prosecution is demanded and Obama is MIA in this preposterous calamity: Allen L Roland

Washington's unholy alliance with BIG Oil is now there for the world to see as witnessed by President Obama hands off approach to BP's arrogant negligence. Get this ~ BP still controls claims processing, environmental contractors on land and sea, volunteer assistance, access to the disaster site, and data collection and this is an obvious crime scene.

Center for American Progress senior fellow Joseph Romm rightfully called BP "the Goldman Sachs of big oil" because of its spotty safety record, insistence on voluntary "trust me" self-regulation, and willingness to cut corners to "save a few bucks."

The moral hazard created by privatized profit and socialized risk has allowed bankers to cripple our economy and also allowed energy companies to slowly destroy our planet as witness the creeping gulf black death which is already heading on the gulf loop for the East Coast of America.~ regardless if the well is plugged.

Eleven workers were killed in the blast and by the most conservative estimate, 26.5 million litres of crude have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, which is already fouling Louisiana's marshes and coating birds and other wildlife.

Here's What BP Does Not Want You To See In The Ocean.
This Is a Nightmare... a Nightmare': Video: Philippe Cousteau Jr. and Sam Champion take hazmat dive into Gulf's oily waters and are shocked by the toxic soup they find. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/diving-gulfs-toxic-soup-10735329

Here's What BP Does Not Want You To See On the Land.
Video: Gulf Oil Photo Essay PBS News Hour http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&tab=wn

A CNN poll found that 51% of Americans disapprove of how the Administration is managing the emergency ~ better than BP's 75% disapproval ~ but this is particularly bad for a White House whose brand is all about cool competence ~ but whose Presidential disapproval rating is now 53% ( Rasmussen )

But here's something even more shocking ! This same Gulf Coast oil spill scenario happened in 1979 and all the techniques ( Top Hat, Top kill, Junk Shot, etc ) were used then and they all failed. And the leak was only 200 feet deep ~ not a mile deep ! Click on Oil Spill in Alaska Rachel Maddow

The historic ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is infuriating. As things currently stand, BP's legal liability is "capped" at a maximum of $75 million. That's less than BP makes in profits in one day ! The rest of the astronomical clean up costs will be paid by us ~ American taxpayers. Sign the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund's petition and tell your members of Congress to pass legislation that lifts the oil liability cap and the cap on punitive damages

Allen L Roland http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/bp-beyond-prosecution-beyond-patience.html

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover .

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on http://www.conscioustalk.net/

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

European Debt Crisis Deepens / Class War Accelerates

EUROPEAN DEBT CRISIS DEEPENS / CLASS WAR ACCELERATES

[ click on picture to enlarge ]

The European debt crisis is, in reality, a rapidly accelerating world wide class war and shell game where the rich and powerful want the people to repay their worthless debts as they did in the United States: Allen L Roland

Ever get the feeling that the International Debt crisis is a giant worldwide shell game and that Goldman Sachs is right in the middle of it ~ if not manipulating it through its derivative trading shemes.

Watch this must watch two minute video as John Clarke and Bryan Dawe calculate the cost of the European debt crisis and the ominous word BAILOUT surfaces ~ since all the principals are virtually broke as is the debt ridden United States. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25521.htm

John Pilger gets a handle on the Greece situation and calls it a a microcosm of a modern class war whereas, as in America and England, ordinary people have been told they must repay the debts of the rich and powerful who incurred them.

Pilger blames Greece's financial meltdown on " The right-wing government of Kostas Karamanlis that preceded the present Pasok (Labour) government of George Papandreou was described by the sociologist Jean Ziegler as "a machine for systematically pillaging the country's resources".

( Just like the right wing Cheney/Bush administration which brought down our financial house ~ and with the same friends ).

Pilger elaborates ~ "The machine had infamous friends. The US Federal Reserve board is investigating the role of Goldman Sachs, which gambled on the bankruptcy of Greece as public assets were sold off and its tax-evading rich deposited €360bn in Swiss banks. This haemorrhaging of capital continues with the approval of Europe's central banks and governments... At 11 per cent, Greece's budget deficit is no higher than America's. However, when the Papandreou government tried to borrow on the international capital market, it was effectively blocked by the US corporate ratings agencies, which "downgraded" Greek debt to "junk". These same agencies gave triple-A ratings to billions of dollars in so-called sub-prime mortgage securities and so precipitated the economic collapse in 2008... In the US, the situation is even more remarkable. As the investigative journalist David DeGraw has reported, the principal Wall Street banks that "destroyed the economy pay zero in taxes and get $33bn in refunds".... In Greece, as in America and Britain, the ordinary people have been told they must repay the debts of the rich and powerful who incurred them. Jobs, pensions and public services are to be slashed and burned, with privateers put in charge." http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2010/05/greece-pilger-britain-imf

As Ron Holland writes the Greek Tragedy Is Just a Sneak Preview of What's Coming to Washington ~ " We are now living through the violent end of the age of fiat paper money and thoughtless government debt ... Washington's debt load is far greater than the burden that is now crushing the governments of Greece and the other PIIGS countries. The dollar's current strength will prove transient. Eventually the sovereign debt crisis will also come to the U.K. And then to the U.S., with disastrous results. The tragedy in Greece today is just a glimpse of what will happen to the sovereign debt of the United States. It will come to America, and it will come on its own schedule, so be prepared. "
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-greek-tragedy-is-just-a-sneak-preview-of-whats-coming-to-washington-2010-5

Don't think Wall Street is not aware of this ominous debt tsunami heading for our shores, along with BP's poisonous underwater Oil Gusher, which explains the latest volatile stock market performance. The big boy's are getting out while encouraging the little guys to go long.

Truthdig's Chris Hedges points out correctly how the Greek masses have responded to the banking elite austerity bailout for themselves ~ "They know what to do when they are told their pensions, benefits and jobs have to be cut to pay corporate banks, which screwed them in the first place. Call a general strike. Riot. Shut down the city centers. Toss the bastards out. Do not be afraid of the language of class warfare-the rich versus the poor, the oligarchs versus the citizens, the capitalists versus the proletariat. The Greeks, unlike most of us, get it."
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_greeks_get_it_20100524/

Some guy's don't know when to quit spending and we'll soon join Greece on the bar room floor when the full extent of our world wide indebtedness becomes common knowledge.

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/european-debt-crisis-deepens-class-war.html

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover .

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

Coming Home To Love / A Heart Centered Approach To Vets With PTSD

COMING HOME TO LOVE / A HEART CENTERED APPROACH TO VETS WITH PTSD

[ Click on to enlarge ]

Ryan "Doc" Krebbs playing cards with buddies at The Magic House. / FRONTLINE'S The Wounded Platoon.

Trained to kill, over medicated and many with symptoms of PTSD or TBI ~ veterans are constantly recycled into Iraq and Afghanistan and come home to a VA rehabilitation system that is clinically focused versus healing oriented.This leaves many veterans feeling depressed, alone, incapable of love and without a choice. A heart centered approach finally brings these soldiers home to love: Allen L Roland , Ph.D

In The Wounded Platoon, FRONTLINE reveals a military mental health system overwhelmed with soldiers suffering psychological injuries from the surge ~ at Fort Carson the rate of PTSD diagnosis has risen 4,000 percent since 2002 ~ as well as the widespread use of prescription psychiatric drugs both at home and in combat. "Everybody was on Ambien, everybody. It was hard to find somebody that wasn't taking Ambien," says the 3rd Platoon's medic, Ryan "Doc" Krebbs. "It helps you sleep, and it also f***s you up. It gets you pretty high." After returning home, Krebbs was also prescribed the antipsychotic medication Seroquel, on which he would purposefully overdose in a suicide attempt. "I thought that my time in this place was over, and I'd already done what I was supposed to do, and I didn't want to live anymore."

Before the Iraq war, American soldiers in combat zones did not take psychiatric medications, but by the time of the surge more than 20,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq were taking antidepressants and sleeping pills. These drugs enable the Army to keep soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder on the battlefield. "What I use medications for is to treat very specific side effects," Army psychiatrist Col. George Brandt tells FRONTLINE. "I don't want somebody in a helplessness mode in a combat environment. I want to make sure I don't have someone with suicidal thoughts where everyone is armed."

In other words, fear based medication where the soldier is numbed out to psychic pain and put into a combat situation where overreaction becomes the norm ~ but many times this also continues when they return home. Since the Iraq war began, a total of 17 soldiers from Fort Carson have been charged with or convicted of murder, manslaughter or attempted murder committed at home in the United States, and 36 have committed suicide. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/woundedplatoon/etc/synopsis.html

Being warehoused in Trauma Care Units is also not the answer as over medicated and tranqulized veterans are particularly vulnerable to depression, addiction and suicide.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/health/25warrior.html

Identified problem: The continuing high suicide rate of Veterans, even those under VA care, points to the need for an approach that goes beyond treating the symptoms of PTSD to the core issues of unworthiness, inability to love or be loved and a choiceless fear based cycle of anxiety and depression. They have still not come home from the war.

Substantiation:

18 Veterans Commit Suicide Each Day
By Rick Maze - Staff writer / Army TimesPosted : Monday Apr 26, 2010 8:00:40 EDT
http://snipurl.com/vs5r2
"Troubling new data show there are an average of 950 suicide attempts each month by veterans who are receiving some type of treatment from the Veterans Affairs Department. Seven percent of the attempts are successful, and 11 percent of those who don’t succeed on the first attempt try again within nine months.The numbers, which come at a time when VA is strengthening its suicide prevention programs, show about 18 veteran suicides a day, about five by veterans who are receiving VA care."

Identified Solution: A Heart Centered workshop whose purpose is to penetrate the grey zone of unworthiness and guilt of many PTSD survivors, within a supportive group setting, through inner exploration, deep sharing and heart centered transformation ~ whereas another choice of love, joy and commonality replace inner anger, unworthiness and separateness ~ particularly from people they love.

Substantiation: It is obvious that the symptoms of PTSD are very similar to the symptoms of people being seemingly separated from love whereas deep psychic pain as well as feelings of guilt and unworthiness override the ability to give and receive love.

In March 2005, PBS aired A SOLDIERS HEART where a physician on that show reported that every soldier in Iraq is forever emotionally changed after serving in combat .

This can actually become a hardening of the heart whereas the soldier eventually becomes seemingly incapable of giving and receiving love and retreats into a lonely and impenetrable shell.

So, in essence, this is a Post Traumatic Heart Disorder and many people suffer the same symptoms when they have been rejected, abandoned or hurt in a love relationship.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape. People who suffer from PTSD often relive the experience through nightmares and flashbacks, have difficulty sleeping, and feel detached or estranged, and these symptoms can be severe enough and last long enough to significantly impair the person's daily life. But, I would argue, people can suffer these very same symptoms when they are seemingly separated from love.

As such, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is actually a Heart Disorder where psychic pain, fear and guilt often override joy and the ability to love or be loved.

To many, suicide becomes the only choice, as Dr Gary Kohls writes ~ It is often said that 200,000 Vietnam vets have committed suicide since they came home from the war, although, with 30% of the huge US homeless population being nameless and homeless Vietnam veterans, the precise number is unknown and actually may be larger !

In my experience as a practicing psychotherapist of over 35 years ~ A person will take their own life only if they feel that the dark loveless tunnel of aloneness they exist in is their ONLY CHOICE. My role, as a therapist, is to help bring them to another life enhancing choice ~ and I maintain that cannot be accomplished without awakening their hearts through love. Only then will they begin to see through clearer eyes and realize that they indeed have ANOTHER CHOICE. Only then will they truly be able to finally come home ~ for, in essence, their true inner home is their heart.

HEALING THE WOUNDED HEART WORKSHOP REPORT

Purpose: To penetrate the grey zone of unworthiness and guilt of many PTSD survivors, within a supportive group setting, through inner exploration, deep sharing and heart centered transformation ~ whereas another choice of love, joy and commonality replace inner anger and separateness.

Facilitator: Allen L Roland, Ph.D

Modality: Individual sharing, group exercises, guided visualization and homework.
Duration: Eight weeks / Thursdays 4 to 6 PM / March 11, 2010 to April 29, 2010

Objective: Self-healing and Transformation

Sessions: Eight sessions of two hours duration

Paricipants: Five Vietnam veterans with identified symptoms of PTSD. All had many of these conditions ~ hyper arousal, fear, low energy levels, emotional reactions, anxiety, sleep problems, unworthiness and victim issues. All were married and were hand picked and briefed on this transformation workshop by Salvador Ueda, LSW ~ Concord Readjustment Counseling Service Social Worker ~ who also participated in the group.

WORKSHOP

Session One - Orientation and Finding the Child Within ourself
I explain my role as a coach and facilitator, and demonstrate how we can use childhood pictures to locate the child within ourself who was not afraid to love or be loved, authentic and not controlled by fear. The intent of this session is to touch the emotionally trapped child within ourself and begin the self-healing process. I accomplish this by sharing my own heart quest to find my trapped inner child and by utilizing the Cycle of Life to graphically illustrate how and why we separate from who we truly are ~ and how our life is a quest to re-unite with our original wholeness and authenticity.
Each participant briefly shares their heart quest. Home work is the life chart.

Session Two - Understanding Your Life as a Quest with a Life chart
This session demonstrates how to use the homework from the first session (creating a Life chart) to retrace the major events and relationships of your life in terms of feelings of love and joy versus feelings of pain and despair. Special emphasis is put on those relationships that profoundly touched your heart. Participants share their life chart with the group.
Homework: Share the life chart with at least three other people outside the group.
Session Three - Taking Accountability for Your Life
The preparation work is now over: You have seen your life as a quest to find and embrace yourself through the Life chart and you are now able to understand the significance of key relationships. This session introduces the crucial victim/accountability exercise. During this exercise, you will feel the heaviness and powerlessness of being a victim, versus the lightness and power of being accountable for the decisions you made that either created or avoided pain with the people you loved. Victim issues with the war are also delt with in this session.
Homework: Take at least three people you resent off the hook.

Session Four - Connecting with the Child Within Yourself
In this session I demonstrate, once we have taken total accountability for our lives, how we are now in a position to communicate with and listen to the innocent child within ourselves. I utilize a guided visualization to accomplish this step, which includes questions that you ask the child within yourself. I also clearly demonstrate that the most important step in this self-healing process is taking responsibility for love, in that we have probably felt the deepest pain with the people we have loved the most. As such, taking accountability for that love accelerates the self-healing process.
Homework: Share the child with others

Session Five - Open Your heart; There are no "Buts" or "What Ifs" with Love
I guide you in visualizations that help you realize how many people you have loved and have loved you. Your homework is to contact and thank these people for being gifts in your life ~ regardless of the risks of this contact. There are no "buts" or "what ifs" as far as completing this assignment. You must begin to realize that you have loved and been loved during your lifetime quest to find yourself. Gratefulness is the most powerful antidote for resentment and unworthiness.
Homework: Thank at least 10 people

Session Six - The Death Exercise
You are guided in a profound death exercise which helps you to experience the degree to which the people closest to you really know you. The exercise actually simulates your death and your resultant shock of knowing that perhaps you did not truly share yourself with the people closest to you.
Your homework is to fully open your heart with the people who are closest to you, as if you, or they, were going to die tomorrow.

Session Seven - Many are Called, Few Listen, and Fewer Still Respond.
This session shows that we are continually being called from within on the path of the heart, but few listen and fewer still respond. It is in this session that you begin to fully understand that you have been called to the inner journey of the soul, through love, versus the outer journey of the ego, through Fear. This session ends with an visualization exercise in which you realize that the most precious gift you have always wanted is yourself.
Homework: Experience sharing that gift with others.

Session Eight - Integration and celebration
This last session is really a celebration, for you now know and have experienced another choice of behavior and within an empowering and supportive group setting.
This is the time for feedback, questions and preparation for sharing your healing heart outside the safety of the group.

EVALUATIONS SUMMARY / PARTICIPANTS

1. Did this workshop meet your expectations?
Al: "This workshop exceeded my expectations . I could not have imagined that seven sessions could so profoundly change my perspective of my life. I feel like I have a choice now to continure healing myself."
George: This workshop more than met my expectations and the process influenced me greatly.
2. Did you feel physically and mentally better after completing the workshop ?
Tom: " I am mentally alot better. I still have problems but see them for what they really are and deal with them. "
3. What did you learn about yourself ?
Thomas: " I learned that all these years that I have feared everything that is normal . It has been such a punishment that I can't believe I almost destroyed myself and other people because of it. I can now love and feel good, enjoy life and eliminate the fear and mistrust that almost destroyed me."
4. What did you enjoy the most about the workshop ?
Barry: " The resulting feelings after sharing my innermost secrets and the intense feeling of exhilaration and relief. "
5. Did the Wounded Heart Workshop improve the quality of your life?
Al: " This workshop did more to improve my life than any program or counseling that I have ever experienced. It changed the set point from which I viewed myself and the world. I can now see that I have a choice to make every day and all the time."
6. What was the most meaningful aspect of the workshop ?
Thomas: " Finding myself, seeing the inner child or self and knowing that he has been there all along. Losing the ego and finding the inner joy that I lost decades ago. I am a different man and better for it. It was finding the inner state of consciousness and completeness of myself through love."
Tom: "Just seeing the look on the other Vets faces when they met the inner child "
George : " Dealing with myself and the love of others ~ surrender, surrender, surrender ~ so hard and now so easy. "
7. Did you overcome any fears in this workshop ?
Barry : " Yes, I overcame my fear of being loved "
8. Would you recommend this workshop to others ?
Thomas: "Yes, If anyone has the problems I had or even worse, this workshop will help them immensely. No one should put themselves through the length of pain and torment that I put myself through for the last 40 years."
Tom: Yes, Whether you are able to accept the inner child or not ~ you realize it's your choice and you don't have to be a victim "
9. Do you have any further comments on the workshop or leaders?
Al: " Allen Roland is amazing in his ability to communicate at a very intimate level with this group of veterans. I have total trust in his intentions to guide us to a better understanding of ourselves. Sal Ueda made sure we were prepared to start the workshop and then participated with us. It was clear that Allen and Sal knew what they were doing and gave us the confidence to move through our fears "
Thomas: " I had been going to Sal's group for 8 months and then Allen was introduced by Sal and we started this 8 week workshop. I must admit I was scared to death at first, but after three weeks and his homework I had some of the most profound experiences I have ever had in my life. I consider myself a 95% better man and I will always have a place in my heart for each of these men and what they did for me and my soul."

Salvador Ueda's evaluation as a participant.

1. Did this workshop meet your expectations ? Absolutely. This workshop exceeded my expectation. I understood the capability of human beings to heal. But to witness this healing process unraveling before my eyes in just 7 sessions is both impressive and a blessed experience. 2. Do you feel physically and mentally better after completing the workshop? The workshop reinforced my belief in the beauty and love of the human individual awaiting only to be acknowledged and embraced. The workshop intensified my compassion to the work and my faith in the human ability for real change with greater meaning and purpose for living.
3. What did you learn about yourself ? I saw and realized that my life has been a quest in connecting with my true self. That I have been relying on my inner wisdom as guidance of living. I had this gift of being myself, but have been rather reserved. I am more confident with less fear in expressing and being my true self.
4.. What did you enjoy the most about the workshop? The deep respect and genuine heartfelt bonding and nurturing occurring amongst the group members. Secondly, the imagery and visualization work in connecting with the inner soul.
5. Did the Wounded Heart Workshop improve the quality of your life? It reaffirmed the quality of my life. That the only thing I have is myself and that it is connected to all others. The workshop allowed me to fully embrace this gift and share it with others.
6. What was the most meaningful aspect of the workshop? To witness and see the burden of fear, quilt and pain of each group participate lifted. To see the youthfulness return in their eyes, faces and demeanors. It is a blessed experience to see the joy return to these war Veterans after years of despair. It is simply humbling and a beautiful sight.
7. Did you overcome any fears in this workshop? Yes. I had a slight fear with those in authority to fully express my inner desire. I have been empowered in expressing and advocating my inner truth.
8. Would you recommend this workshop to others? Healing the Wounded heart is a must if healing is truly one's desire. For anyone who has been a victim of life trauma, paralyzed and disconnected from his soul, healing of the wounded heart is the only truth to one's own salvation. Whatever modality, if one does not journey down to and through the heart, there will never be "freedom".
9. Do you have any further comments about the workshop or its leaders? The Wish for healing is deep within our inner desires only to often be strangled by an armor of fear. It must be penetrated directly, honestly, and with genuine care. And it must be done without fear. Allen Roland with his gift of seeing through the heart and through others deepest fears, without fear himself, is the key to unlocking the locked hearts of veterans in grief and despair. It is only through unlocking the locked heart that we discover joy awaiting and rejoicing below the armor.Therapy is never meant to be a life sentence nor one of dependence and resignation to living without joy.

My Final Final observations as the group facilitator

I have done profound work with Vietnam Vets with PTSD ~ see FRANK'S STORY / A PTSD SURVIVOR CONQUERS UNWORTHINESS whereas, utilizing my heart centered seven sessions, Frank emerged from the grey zone of denial, unworthiness and separation and began to experience another choice of love, celebration and joy. However, it was the reconnecting to the love of his daughter during these sessions that opened his heart to another choice.

http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2008/03/31.html

My desire has always been to do this with a group of veterans who wanted to not only face their fears but take responsibility for love in their life. To finally come home from the wars they fought in.
The Yountville Healing The Wounded Heart Workshop afforded me the opportunity to prove that PTSD is really Post Traumatic Heart Disorder for all of these veterans made a major shift in their physical and mental well being through this heart centered group process. In essence, I trained them how to love versus how to kill and they began to heal themselves in the process.
They all inspired each other. Note Tom's comment regarding the Most Meaningful aspect of the workshop ~ "Just seeing the look on the other Vet's faces when they met the inner child. "

We owe our Veterans a heart centered approach in their rehabilitation process and the Healing The Wounded Heart eight week workshop offers that ~ and so much more.

It's been a month since this first Healing The Wounded heart workshop ended, along witrh my participation, but they are still meeting every Thursday with Salvador Ueda and sharing their self healing journey with each other. Sal tells me that they are still glowing and celebrating their new choice in life. In many ways, they have finally come home.

We are now ready for our second eight week workshop and this will include Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

Allen L Roland, Ph.D http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/coming-home-to-love-heart-centered.html

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover..

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

Casino Royale / The NYSE

CASINO ROYALE / THE NYSE









[ Click on to enlarge ]

New York Stock Exchange building in New York / Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson

Casino Royale is the New York Stock Exchange. The Wall Street gang has invaded Washington and Obama is being held hostage by its ringleader, Goldman Sachs ~ who have highjacked his administration and will effectively prevent any true reform: Allen L Roland

Let's get real ~ the high score trader culture has taken over Wall Street and the biggest trader in this freewheeling Casino Royale is Goldman Sachs ~ where the house always wins.

It's Rivero's rule in action ~ all organizations and corporations, for that matter, will eventually reflect the character and moral integrity of its leaders. Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, was originally a floor trader dedicated to the big score and now over 70% of Goldman's activities are committed to this trading culture as explained by Cornelius Hurley ~ " Now it's all about the score. Just make the score, do the deal. Move on to the next one. That's the trader culture' said Hurley, director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law at Boston University and former counsel to the Federal Reserve Board. " Their business model has completely blurred the difference between executing trades on behalf of customers versus executing trades for themselves. It's a huge problem." http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/business/19client.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Huge problem it is and Gerald Celente, Director of Trends Research Institute, has had it correctly pegged for months. Watch his April 22 six minute Video interview where he explains, in detail, how the Goldman gang has Hijacked Washington ~ and how he sees little chance for meaningful reform. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMbIs1gOpas

Adding to this unholy Wall Street alliance with Washington are the growing tensions between the Obama administration and the scientific community over the gulf oil GUSHER, where prominent oceanographers are rightfully accusing the government of failing to conduct an adequate scientific analysis of the damage and of allowing BP, with its Goldman ties, to obscure the true scope of this environmental disaster.

Also, the Main Stream Media also ignores Goldman Sachs' ties to Corexit Dispersant ~ journalist Paula Quinlan questions why BP is using the 100 % toxic, 54 percent effective dispersant Corexit to clean up the oil when twelve other dispersants proved more effective in EPA testing. http://www.picassodreams.com/picasso_dreams/2010/05/media-ignores-goldman-sachs-ties-to-corexit-dispersant.html

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/casino-royale-nyse.html

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on http://www.conscioustalk.net/

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

Wall Street's Foundation of Arrogance,Corruption and Greed

WALL STREET'S FOUNDATION OF ARROGANCE, CORRUPTION AND GREED

[ Click on to enlarge ]

A fast spreading cancer of Arrogance, Corruption and compulsive Greed has permeated Corporate Wall Street and it has become treasonous ~ to the extent that our political leaders are increasingly seen as beholden to their power brokers and oblivious to the people: Allen L Roland

The first seeds of treason started with the repeal of the Glass/Steagal act during the Clinton Administration wherein Banks could now become Investment houses thus ushering in a new form of financialization where financial markets dominated the traditional industrial economy. Greta Krippner of the University of California Los Angeles explained that “financialization” refers to a “pattern of accumulation in which profit making occurs increasingly through financial channels rather than through trade and commodity production.”

The next treasonous step occurred in 2000 with the rigged election of George W Bush, with the help of the Supreme Court. Quickly following was the self election of Dick Cheney as the Vice President and the titular leader of the shadow presidency ~ which was totally beholden to Big Oil and the financial and global elite.

Under Cheney, Greed had its ultimate disciple for Cheney had few moral scruples and virtually no empathy. It was Cheney's role to activate or permit the ultimate act of treason ~ the 9/11 attack and cover-up ~ and parlay that into the illegal attack and occupation of Iraq as well as Afghanistan. The Military / Industrial Complex was now in full control, greed was running rampant and FEAR was and still is its principle weapon. Remember this, on 9/10/01 Donald Rumsfeld announced that 2.3 trillion Pentagon dollars was missing ~ that's $8000 for every man, woman and child in America and this was never mentioned again after the infamous 9/11 attack a day later ~ as America became quickly consumed and manipulated by fear.

When the financial mortgage pyramid scheme collapsed in 2007 the banksters of course bailed themselves out and Obama was selected in 2008 with the mandate to keep the same clearly treasonous financial rules, set up by both Cheney and Bush, firmly in place. Goldman was the top contributor to Obama's election. Now greed has turned into obvious financial corruption and arrogance as witnessed by Goldman Sachs recent stock market actions and BP's negligent Gulf oil disaster. Goldman people were involved and responsible for the original economic meltdown and Goldman people are still in positions of leadership in the Obama administration. Peter Sutherland, chairman of BP’s board for the past decade, had headed Goldman Sachs International and, in the 1990s, was a director of the World Trade Organization. Goldman is the face of the Global Corporate Elite along with the Federal Reserve and the Bilderberg Group.

As such, Obama's illegal surge and continued occupation of Afghanistan must be seen as an external diversion to hide the increasingly obvious financial treason from within. It reminds me of a famous quote from Marcus Tullius Cicero ~ "A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague."

The traitor from within is individual and compulsive GREED and it is as powerful and dangerous as the plague itself. Greed metastasizes ~ eventually all moral values and personal integrity fall victim to its lure as it slowly rots the soul of our nation as well as the Democratic pillars of our Republic.

As the late George Carlin correctly said ~ " The Corporations spend billions of dollars every year lobbying ... lobbying, to get what they want ... Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I'll tell you what they don't want ... They don't want a population of citizens capable of seeking the truth. They don't want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking." ( 5 minute must see video )http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr7ePrCAqzo

As Danny Schechter writes in ICH ~ " The Banksters need to be stopped, but only the people can do that ~ our media and politicians, right center and progressive, are not up to the task. What we need is more than exposes but a major effort to organize like foroureconomy.org. This is the only way to fight back against a one-sided war." http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25455.htm

Thomas Wolfe prophetically wrote in You Can’t Go Home Again, Chap. 47 " I think the enemy is here before us with a thousand faces, but I think we know that all his faces wear one mask. I think the enemy is single selfishness and compulsive greed. "

Wall Street's foundation of single selfishness, arrogance, corruption and compulsive greed has permeated our body politic and the only antidote starts with the truth and transparency ~ which is always the foundation of true political change.

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/wall-streets-foundation-of.html


This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

The Great Gulf Blame Game Fiasco

THE GREAT GULF BLAME GAME FIASCO

[Click on to enlarge]

BP blames Transocean who blames Halliburton who blames a failed Blow Out Preventer with a faulty battery and, as such, Transocean. Obama blames Bush, Bush defers to Cheney who says " Go F##k yourself ". Only Jon Stewart seems capable of making sense of this great Gulf blame game fiasco: Allen L Roland

President Obama calls BP, Transocean and Halliburton's testimony a "Ridiculous Spectacle" according to Margaret Talev, McClatchy Newspapers: "President Barack Obama took aim Friday at BP and other companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, calling their congressional testimony this week 'a ridiculous spectacle' and promising Americans his administration will be more critical of and less 'cozy' with the industry than predecessors." http://www.truthout.org/obama-calls-bp-transocean-testimony-ridiculous-spectacle59533

Of course, Obama also indirectly blamed the Bush administration and we can only surmise that Bush claimed ignorance and deferred to Cheney ~ ensconced in his dark bunker writing his self-serving memoirs ~ who blamed Al-Qaeda and muttered "Go F##k yourself ".

So that leaves only one person capable of putting this blame game fiasco in its proper perspective ~ Jon Stewart, who in eight hilarious minutes determines that There Will Be Blame. Click on ~
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/05/14/daily_show_oil_spill/index.html?source=newsletter

Oil trails in Gulf of Mexico are now up to 10 miles long as BP continues its fight to stem flow from broken rig ~ Energy giant BP's latest desperate attempt to siphon gushing oil from a broken pipe in the Gulf of Mexico has failed as the toxic slick grows to 10 miles long. As BP struggled to contain the environmental disaster, scientists have found enormous oil plumes lurking beneath the surface of the water, including one as large as 10 miles long, three miles wide and 300ft thick. The discovery suggests that the leak could be 'substantially worse' than estimates given previously by BP and the government.

We obviously have a real need for an Independent Investigation to not only determine blame and responsibility but to immediately freeze the evidence.

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/great-gulf-blame-game-fiasco.html

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Cartoon courtesy of Tom Toles / Washington Post

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY