HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ALLEN & KEIKO

Happy Holidays to you and yours and here is a musical and artistic gift to warm your hearts this holiday season. It's Van Gogh's Starry night set to music.

Van Gogh's The Starry Night vibrates with rockets of burning yellow while glowing planets gyrate like cartwheels in the sky ~ there is cosmic movement everywhere in this painting but it is all set against a restful blue sky of inner knowing ~ an inner knowing that Van Gogh could only express through his frenzied brush strokes. But also an inner knowing that can be accessed by fully surrendering to love ~ which in Vincent's case was fully sharing his artistic gift with the world.

Don Mclean captures this inner knowing in his haunting musical composition and lyrics set to a five minute power point close up of Van Gogh's most memorable paintings ~ including Starry Night.

Click on this link www.youtube.com/watch?v=dipFMJckZOM, and then pass it on to all your friends this holiday season.

Allen & Keiko

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/happy-holidays-from-allen-keiko.html

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Freelance Online columnist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews and speaking engagements ( 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

JOYEUX NOEL / A MUST SEE CHRISTMAS GIFT

This Christmas do yourself a favor and rent Joyeux Noel ~ a must see affirmation that all wars are civil wars because all men are our brothers. Now, more than ever, war has become a high powered tech game ~ but its victims are still human beings, who are murdered in political quarrels that were not of their own making: Allen L Roland

This movie is a "based on a true story" film, which takes place during WW1, on Dec.24th ~ where several groups of enemies (French, British, and Germans), while ensconced in trenches just yards away from each other, called a temporary truce and celebrated Xmas together and buried their dead comrades.

In this depiction a troop of Scots, French, and Germans sang, drank, play games, and celebrate a mass given by the priest in the group. All of this was done without approval from their superior officers and in each troop’s case; they are all punished by being sent to the harshest fighting conditions at the end. What really tugs at your heart is that they all look at each other and except for the language differences, realize that they are all the same. It is war that has made them enemies but if not for that they would all be friends !

And therein lies my point ~ We separate ourselves from our common humanity and connectedness through war and the only ones who seem to benefit are military contractors and the vast Military Industrial Complex.

As Michael Ignatieff wrote, New York Times, Jul. 28, 2002, "America's entire war on terror is an exercise in imperialism. This may come as a shock to Americans, who don't like to think of their country as an empire. But what else can you call America's legions of soldiers, spooks and special forces straddling the globe?"

But not all of the Generals and Admirals have bought into this military Imperialism ~ “ I hate it when they say, 'He gave his life for his country.' Nobody gives their life for anything. We steal the lives of these kids. We take it away from them. They don't die for the honor and glory of their country. We kill them." Admiral Gene LaRocque.

And not all of the soldiers either ~ "To those who have called me a coward I say that they are wrong, and that without knowing it, they are also right. They are wrong when they think that I left the war for fear of being killed. I admit that fear was there, but there was also the fear of killing innocent people, the fear of putting myself in a position where to survive means to kill, there was the fear of losing my soul in the process of saving my body, the fear of losing myself to my daughter, to the people who love me, to the man I used to be, the man I wanted to be. I was afraid of waking up one morning to realize my humanity had abandoned me." - Sgt. Camilo Mejia, who served one year in prison for refusing to return to fight in Iraq. He was released from prison Feb. 15, 2005.

And not all of our citizens either ~ for we need to demand to be heard and revolt against war if necessary " Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought! Strike against manufacturing shrapnel and gas bombs and all other tools of murder! Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings! Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction! Be heroes in an army of construction! Helen Keller. - Source: Told to an audience at Carnegie Hall one year before the United States entered World War I. From 'Declarations of Independence' by Howard Zinn page 75

And that includes presidents ~ "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, and the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron." Dwight D Eisenhower

In this season of love ~ who else is seeing WAR for what it truly is? “In the beginning war looks and feels like love. But unlike love it gives nothing in return but an ever-deepening dependence, like all narcotics, on the road to self-destruction. It does not affirm but places upon us greater and greater demands. It destroys the outside world until it is hard to live outside war's grip. It takes a higher and higher dose to achieve any thrill. Finally, one ingests war only to remain numb." Chris Hedges War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning

And here is a 13 minute video of Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg and Ray McGovern along with over 500 fellow anti-war veterans who chained themselves to a fence outside the White House last Friday during a driving snow storm to protest Obama’s continued occupation of Afghanistan. The mainstream media totally ignored this event ~ despite the fact that an ABC/Washington Post Poll found that 60% of Americans now feel that war has “not been worth it.” That’s a big increase from the 53% who said they opposed the war in July. Here’s the must see video ~ http://www.veteransforpeace.org/

And here are Chris Hedge’s comments on Monday after being arrested and held in a cold and damp Washington, DC jail ~ “The tears and grief, the halting asides, the catch in the throat, the sudden breaking off of a sentence, is the only language that describes war. This faltering language of pain and atonement, even shame, was carried like great, heavy boulders by these veterans as they tromped slowly through the snow from Lafayette Park to the White House fence. It was carried by them as they were handcuffed, dragged through the snow, photographed for arrest, and frog-marched into police vans. It was carried into the frigid holding cells of a Washington jail. If it was understood by the masters of war who build the big guns, who build the death planes, who build all the bombs and who hide behind walls and desks, this language would expose their masks and chasten their hollow, empty souls. This language, bereft of words, places its faith in physical acts of nonviolent resistance, in powerlessness and compassion, in truth. It believes that one day it will bring down the house of war.” http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/bitter_memories_of_war_on_the_way_to_jail_20101220/

Last year the U.S. continued to beat the drums of war by reactivating the Fifth Fleet, giving it the ability to project considerable naval power throughout Latin America ~ thus increasing the scope of the Columbia military base agreement. A number of countries are rightfully getting nervous, especially those that the State Department considers “anti-US”: Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay, Nicaragua, and Bolivia. The term “unfriendly” could also include Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and even Brazil, which has helped lead a continent-wide independence movement against U.S. domination of the region.

Eva Golinger, winner of the International Award for Journalism in Mexico (2009) writes of the need for the same revolution in America ~ "The US has a rich history of revolution. There are many groups inside the US dedicated to building a better, more humanist system. Unity and a collective vision are essential aspects of building a strong movement capable of moving forward. Every nation has its moment in history. This is the time of Latin America. But there is great hope that the people of the US will soon unite with their brothers and sisters south of the border to bring down Empire and help build a true world community based on social and economic justice for all. " http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/25608

This Christmas, perhaps Nobel Peace Prize Laureate President Obama should heed the prophetic words of a former Peace Prize winner ~ "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom." ~ Martin Luther King Jr

So this Christmas, let us celebrate love, universal brotherhood and connectedness while condemning war for what it truly is ~ a dark cancer of the soul which can only be eliminated through social cooperation and altruism, which are also the driving forces of evolution.

It was Rumi ( the poet of love ) who wrote ~ Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field, l'll meet you there ~

That field is not a battlefield ~ it is an energy field of love and soul consciousness ( the Unified Field ) which exists not only beyond time and space but also deepest within us all and whose principle property is the universal urge to unite.

We resist this urge at our peril ~ for love is the only force that gives us true meaning.

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/joyeux-noel-must-see-christmas-gift.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also 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

OBAMA’S AFGHAN STRATEGY / SURGE, BRIBE AND FABRICATE

President Obama’s outrageous and blatant sellout on the Bush Tax Cuts is minor compared to his Afghan strategy of surge, bribe and fabricate the truth at the expense of the growing reality on the ground. This is a man who increasingly cannot be believed and most certainly does not deserve a second term in 2012: Allen L Roland The imperial presidency continues and President Obama’s blatant Tax Cut sell out to the Republicans, the wealthy and Wall Street, at the expense of Main Street, progressives and a rapidly disappearing Middle Class, is indicative of his shift to the right/ center and an obvious attempt to avoid failure and ensure his re-election in 2012. First, the so-called tax cuts ~ Former Wall Street economist Michael Hudson nails it in his recent article in Counterpunch ~ OBAMA’S SELLOUT ON TAXES “Contrary to his pretense of saving the economy, Obama’s action will intensify debt deflation and financial depression, paving the way for a long-term tax shift off wealth onto labor. In achieving a giveaway that Democrats never would have let George Bush or other Republicans enact, Obama has laid himself open to the campaign slogan that brought down British Prime Minister Tony Blair: “You can’t believe a word he says.” He has lost support not only personally ~ but also as the Republicans anticipate ~ for much of his party in 2012…It is a travesty for Obama to trot out the long-term unemployed (who now get a year’s extension of benefits) like widows and orphans used to be. It’s not really “all for the poor.” It’s all for the rich. And it’s not to promote stability and recovery. How stable can a global situation be where the richest nation does not tax its population, but creates new public debt to hand out to its bankers? Future tax payers will spend generations paying off their heirs.” http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson12082010.html And second, it’s Obama’s Afghan strategy of Surge, blatant Bribes and the unending Fabrication of the truth on the ground. This is a man, similar to his predecessor and Tony Blair, who is consumed with the righteousness of his actions and will willingly fabricate the truth in order to perpetuate the myth of Afghanistan progress. "NATO is losing the war in Afghanistan in every quantifiable way," says Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films, who recently returned from a reporting trip to that country. And what's more, he notes, “what's clear from the WikiLeaks cables is that the coalition governments are not as deluded as they would like their people to be about the reality on the ground in Afghanistan.” And the cold hard reality on the ground is that most of Afghanistan is seeing the Taliban as freedom fighters enlisted against their common enemy and illegal occupying force ~ the United States of America. Here is a must see nine minute video of Rick discussing the realities of what he saw on the ground in Afghanistan, along with the death of special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, and much more. http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/12/17-0 The game is up for president Obama. As a former ardent supporter of the change he promised ~ I, like millions of Americans, feel not only betrayed but mislead and used to the point that I no longer believe a word he says. Afghanistan is Obama’s Vietnam for it is my firm belief that sooner or later, and quite often in the most unexpected ways such as the Wikileak’s disclosures, the truth of this quagmire of corruption will become apparent to all. Here is a Mainstream Media ignored video of the veterans For Peace anti-war protest held outside the White House this week ~ where Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Ray McGovern and over 500 other Veterans braved the cold and snow to protest Obama’s folly and got arrested in the process. 13 minute Video http://www.veteransforpeace.org/ ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY Allen L Roland http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/obamas-afghan-strategy-surge-bribe-and_9908.html Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also 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

Weblog: http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com Website: www.allenroland.com ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

AMERICA'S CURRENT MALAISE IS SPRINGBOARD FOR NEW LEADER

President Obama’s Change We Can Believe in has become a sorry joke and the only ones laughing are the financial elite. Out of America’s current moral malaise must arise a leader who can both challenge Obama in the 2012 Primaries and unite the betrayed electorate who voted for true change in 2008: Allen L Roland It’s time to stop wishful thinking and realize that President Obama has no interest in fulfilling the progressive agenda he rode to election in 2008. Let’s get something straight ~ Obama answers to Wall Street and the financial elite and is already much more concerned about his re-election than his incredibly expensive failed War or Occupation of Afghanistan, the sorry state of our economy, the 17% unemployment rate and his recent vote of no confidence in the 2010 mid-term election. Obama lives in an Oval office bubble which deflects all criticism or self analysis and replaces it with infuriating self righteousness and defensive attacks on his progressive base or those who don’t agree with him. But the hard reality is that Obama was chosen by the financial elite and answers primarily to Wall Street ~ liberals and middle class be damned! Obama is still under the mistaken impression that Americans voted to throw out the Republicans in 2008 and completely ignored the electorate demand for real versus token change. He still doesn’t realize that in many ways he is a lame duck president with a rapidly vanishing progressive and Independent base. Professor Stanley Aronowitz spoke knowingly of this immense malaise tormenting American society in late October of this year ~ just before the mid-term election ~ "The underlying problem in all of this is that citizens have discovered - thanks to the management of the financial/economic crisis - that their powers are reduced, that the oligarchy, that Wall Street, continues to dispossess them ever more. That has been exacerbated by the bailout of the financial system, of the big banks and insurance companies. People feel they've been swindled. Everything happens above their heads without their getting a word in. They feel, without being able to articulate it more precisely, that they don't have the democratic political system they need. They can't express that because all the parties are in on the swindle ... so, they follow those who deliberately depart from the accepted script and play on their emotions by throwing them the red meat of "too much government,' the Washington establishment or more classical scapegoats such as immigrants… People believe that the economic system has exploded into bits. And they think that the political system is incapable of finding a way out, that there's no one to defend them, to protect them from the disaster. You know that we have three million families confronted with foreclosure. We have a real level of unemployment that sits above 17 percent of the active population. And there's no real political will to come to grips with these ultrasensitive questions, apart from a few exceptions that confirm the rule, such as the actions taken by Elizabeth Warren, who works in the Obama administration on consumer protection issues. The government itself is in question, hence the rise in receptiveness to the Republicans' and the Tea Party's anti-government or reduced-government demagoguery.” Read more ~ http://www.truth-out.org/stanley-aronowitz-an-immense-malaise-torments-american-society64955 However, out of our current American malaise and inept presidential leadership is emerging outspoken leaders ~ such as Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont ~ who spells out the class war that now exists in America and the reality of who is winning in this economy and who is losing ~ for example from 1980 to 2005, 80% of all new income went to the top 1% of population and now the super rich want to hold on to their Bush tax cuts with Obama’s blessing. Bernie spent yesterday filibusting against Obama’s unfair tax cut compromise agreement with the Republicans on the Senate floor. Listen to Bernie’s speech and watch righteous indignation and inspiring leadership at work ~ "Republican colleagues want huge tax breaks for the richest people in this country, but the reality is that the top 1 percent already ~ today ~ owns more wealth than the bottom 90 percent," he said. "How much more do they want? When is enough enough? You want it all?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5OtB298fHY Right now, I’d support Bernie Sanders in a general primary or election against Barack Obama because Sanders is tuned into the American people. Obama, on the other hand, is completely tuned out ~ witness his ongoing attacks on liberals, calling them sanctimonious, and then publicly criticizing their support for the late and Obama ignored public option. Catch the irony ~ while Bernie Sanders filibusters on the Senate floor about the obvious injustices of our current economy, President Obama trots out our original Democratic centrist snake oil salesman, Bill Clinton, to sell Obama’s ill advised tax cut sell out to the financial elite ~ which includes Clinton himself. No wonder they are all laughing ~ it’s all a corporate money game and we are obviously not part of it. But America was apparently listening to Bernie’s over eight hour truth telling ~ News Web sites like CNN.com live-streamed the proceedings on the floor, as did Mr. Sanders’ own Web site. According to The Huffington Post, that video stream “became so popular that it temporarily shut down the Senate video server.” In addition, C-SPAN was treating Mr. Sanders’ speech as the top story on its Web site Friday evening. Hell hath no fury like a betrayed electorate and President Obama has just heard the first shot across the bow of his badly listing ship of state. As Michael Moore said ~ “Rather than an ally, the Obama administration has shown itself to be an implacable enemy of reform." According to the latest McClatchy Newspapers-Marist poll, Obama's approval ratings are so low that Republican Mitt Romney would beat him if the 2012 Presidential election was held today ~ but I predict that Obama will probably lose to a serious progressive challenger in the 2012 Presidential primaries. It’s time for a revolution and as George Orwell said ~ "By revolution we become more ourselves, not less" Allen L Roland http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/americas-current-malaise-is-springboard.html Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also 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

Weblog: http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com Website: www.allenroland.com ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

MORE PROOF HEART CENTERED APPROACH WORKS FOR PTSD

Dave Sharpe had trouble leaving his Yorktown, Va., home until Cheyenne helped ease the former airman's anxiety. Gillian Laub for TIME In my work with veterans with PTSD, both individually and group, I have proven that a heart centered approach is the missing link in their self healing process. In that regard, pets are often effective reservoirs of unconditional love which can penetrate the deepest walls of anger, guilt and shame and awaken a closed heart that longs to love and be loved: Allen L Roland In my ongoing work with Veterans with PTSD I concentrate on waking their closed hearts by helping them see their lives as a quest and how every love relationship, regardless of the pain involved, has been a gift in their common journeys to find their authentic self. See Band of Brothers #2 http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/band-of-brothers-2.html One of the members of the group re-opened his heart when he remembered a dog he had deeply loved during a heart opening exercise. His face immediately changed and an inner light went on as he described his relationship with his beloved dog. That heart connection was a key step for him in realizing he had another choice in his life versus living in a loveless dark cocoon of fear, shame and guilt. Those who we love deeply become part of us forever and that certainly includes our animals and pets ~ who often are the only safe refuge for an emotionally alone person ~ and most certainly a lonely veteran with PTSD. I will always affectionately remember my cocker spaniel INKY ~ who I eventually took to college with me and he became the beloved pet of my fraternity. Pets are often reservoirs of unconditional love which are more than capable of penetrating a closed heart of a veteran with PTSD and facilitating the self healing process ~ which is futile without a heart centered approach. Time.com featured an article on December 5th on this very same subject ~ BRINGING DOGS TO HEAL: CARE FOR VETERANS WITH PTSD written by Mark Thompson. Excerpts: “ One of the leaders of this movement, Dave Sharpe, 31, was so traumatized during deployments to Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan that his anxiety and recurring nightmares kept him largely confined to his Yorktown, Va., home. "I was always looking for a fight," he says. "I was beating on the walls." But he says all that changed when a friend encouraged him in 2002 to visit an animal-rescue shelter, where he spied 2-month-old Cheyenne. Not long after he adopted the brown and white pit bull mix, Sharpe had another dream about the Taliban sympathizer who pulled a gun on him. When Sharpe woke up in a cold sweat, the dog was watching him. "What are you looking at?" he recalls yelling. Cheyenne barked in response, and after he told her to shut up, she barked again, prompting him to wrap her in his arms, collapse on his bed and tell her everything that was weighing on his mind. "I just lost it," he says. "I have no idea why, but I felt completely at ease." Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2030897,00.html#ixzz17HFJMDfx Dave felt completely at ease because he felt unconditionally loved by his dog and allowed himself to feel the pain that was keeping him from not only accepting that love but also extending it. Here’s a must see five minute video of Dave’s and other PTSD Vets heart centered connection to their pets. http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,671301612001_2030797,00.html There is no true healing without the heart, which I prove every day in my work, for beneath our deepest pain and fear, is a Unified Field of love, joy and soul consciousness. And our pets are part of that thread of all sustaining beauty which runs through all and doth all unite. ONLY LOVE CONNECTS AND HEALS Allen L Roland http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/more-proof-heart-centered-approach.html Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also 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

Weblog: http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com Website: www.allenroland.com ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY