Hold the date: 01 July 2011

A blood drive is going to be held in New Brunswick NJ on what would have been Frau Reinke’s 64th birthday. Details will follow.

My niece-out-of-law — not actually any relation according to Pepuls Republik of Nu Jerzee — Gooferment — what does “it” know — thought that this would be a great way to memorialize her. I agree, and was touched by the thoughtfulness.

In the last year of her life, “the medical system” poured over a 100 pints of blood and 50 pints of platelets into her trying to buy time so they could figure out what was wrong. They ran out of time and ideas. But never blood. It’s only on House or one of the other medical dramas, that the gallant iconic but grumpy doctor single handedly figures out the problem patient in time to dramatically save their lives just before the final commercial. We just ran out of time. It was never “figured out”.

While I was a gallon guy in MC, and gave frequently after that, my modest “bleedings” fall way short of what was given to her by complete strangers. It is a great karmic debt that I feel. This will go part of the way to pay that forward for someone else.

If you can’t get to New Brunswick that day, I’d appreciate a donation where ever you can. If you can’t donate due to age or health, twist someone else’s arm.

It truly was, for Frau Reinke, “the gift of life”.

I was touched by how they always had enough. I’d like to make sure that some else has the same chance.

Fourth of July and the summer means increased need and lower donations, so this is a “perfect date”.

And, she would have been embarrassed by all the fuss about her. IMHO she was, and is, worth it.

Donna Nobis Pacem

Thanks,
fjohn68

p.s., details to follow

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Re: JEMAIL: McFadden, Michael J. [MC1973] sympathizes Gooferment “Peace”

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Your points are quite well made and well taken John. As I noted, although I have feelings and rationalizations that support the approach we took with Bin Laden, I also have moral qualms about it. When I originally began thinking about Peace Studies in 1970 with Tom Stonier, Joe Fahey, Bob Christen, and the other wonderful members of Pacem In Terris, we focused strongly on a largely practical, scientific perspective — the idea of applying the knowledge from all the different disciplines as they dealt with human aggression and conflict to a solution that would simply keep us from blowing up the world. Joe Fahey’s dedication to the Gandhian philosophy was one that I eventually came to appreciate and largely absorb, but, as you can see from my earlier thoughts on Bin Laden’s killing, one that I never was able to commit to fully.

Part of that hesitation came from my studies on Nazi Germany and a failure to understand how the “Good Germans” let the Holocaust develop in its earlier stages. Without that understanding I felt I could not have justified a nonviolent reaction in the WW Two era. As I’ve been studying and writing in the last ten years about another area of sowing and inflaming division in our society I’ve begun to reach that understanding: Whether you call it “the slippery slope,” “the camel’s nose in the tent,” or Mussolini’s “slicing of the salami,” the step-by-step approach in creating dissonance, fears and hatreds is a sadly effective political approach to manipulating populations. I believe that it’s at that stage that people need to make a strong nonviolent stand … before it comes to the sad point where the forces you are facing no longer see you as human enough to feel the guilt of exterminating you.

One thing I am quite proud of about our government in the last ten years is that we specifically did *not* take the easy populist step of simply inciting hatred against Muslims: something that the bulk of the population might all too easily have embraced with a little coaching from right-wing propagandists aided by a bit of pandering to racism. Our actions overseas have been a lot more questionable, but at least they’ve been more restrained than the firebombings of many entire German and Japanese cities in WW2. The problem of course is that once we accept crossing the line from true nonviolence, we’ve opened our own tent flap to that camel’s nose and have to be very careful as to what comes after.

Michael J. McFadden
Peace Studies, 1973

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Well, I am sure that all those “collateral damage” folks in AfPak, Iraq, and around the world will certainly be over joyed that “we” have been “more restrained”. Oh yeah, that’s right, they’re dead!

And, let’s not forget all “our” young girls and boys who have been killed and maimed in the process of being “restrained”.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a Quaker pacifist. Maybe I should be. But I believe there is a moral case for “war” and self-defense. I “learnt” that from the good Christian Brothers at Good Shepherd grammar school and Manhattan Prep. We just don’t have it.

(I even managed to squeeze that into my novel CHURCH 10●19●62 — “Chapter Fifty Three — What’s a Just War?” Page 353. ROFL! We really did “discuss” in the Seventh and Eighth Grade. They pushed us hard. I was just too dumb to understand too much.)

As a fat old white guy injineer, I’ve gradually come to the notion that “it ain’t MY government” since nowhere do I see my principles or those of the Dead Old White Guys in it.

And, like Lysander Spooner, the Constitution is a “dead letter” contract of government, which could not logically apply to anyone other than the individuals who signed it, and thus void on us today. Furthermore, since the government now existing under the Constitution pursued coercive policies that were contrary to the Natural Law and to the consent of the governed, it demonstrates the ineffectiveness of “constitutional restraint”. Our consent has always been assumed, thus not a valid contract.

The time for “care” has come and gone. There’s a whole herd of very nasty, smelly, pooping camels in “the tent”. And, no room for me under it. Time to start over. Secession! Which “state” will be first? It’s going to get even more messy since those in power aren’t goign to give it up easily. Where’s our Gandhi to free us now?

Donna Nobis Pacem

fjohn68

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