Sober Reflection on the Election of Barack Obama

Elsewhere, whether on my own blog at FlowersInTheCracks.blogspot.com, TheAmericanDreamMovie.blogspot.com, or my own PeterCorless.blogspot.com, I can reflect with partisan enjoyment the election of Barack Obama to the office of President of the United States.

Yet here, today, for the Global Understanding Institute, I wish to take a moment to step back and reflect on the sober challenges he faces as the 44th President of the United States, in light of the partisan nature of U.S. and global politics.

Rather than focus on the challenges he faces in office in terms of policy and ideology, for now let us look at the personal and real safety issues he shall be confronted with.

The Spectre of Assassination

In his acceptance speech, Barack Obama raised the memory of another senator from Illinois who ran for the Presidency, Abraham Lincoln. Many see Mr. Obama’s successful bid for the Presidency as a fulfilment of the dream elucidated and spoken forth on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial 28 August 1963 by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A few commentators note Barack Obama, born on 4 August 1961, is of the same generation as the children of John F. Kennedy. His campaign reminds them of the young, charismatic President who put forward the declaration to put Americans on the moon, and challenged the nation that it is not what our country can do for them, but what they could do for their country.

Civil rights leaders, such as Reverend Jesse Jackson, predict a new President Obama will change the political landscape of the United States both domestically and abroad. For them, he is the fulfillment of the possibilities presented by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.

“Obama's victory will be a huge step in the direction we have wanted America to take for decades.”

— Jesse Jackson, New York Post, 14 October 2008

Yet the one thing he does not have in common with these men—yet—is their fate. For they were all assassinated. Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy while in office. King and Malcolm X while leading the civil rights movements of their generation.

These fears are not unfounded. Nor have they sprung up overnight. Back on 14 October 2007, the New York Times interviewed Clara Vereen, of South Carolina, of her views of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

“I fear that they just would kill him, that he wouldn’t even have a chance.”

— Clara Vereen, quoted in the New York Times, 14 October 2007

The prospects for a black president have been contemplated by all parties for a long while. However, now, it is no longer theoretical. It is happening. How will the various factions and actors in America and around the world act? Will there be bluster, or actual bloodshed?

The right-wing have been saying this is a “MSM meme” since January 2008, when Warner Todd Huston, of NewsBusters.org declared this: “These faux assassination fears are built on equating Obama with Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.”

Yet is it merely liberal “mainstream media” (MSM) gone wild, or is there an actual threat?

“Actual threat” is the correct answer.

An 6 November 2008 article from The Daily Telegraph, reprinted in The Herald Sun of Australia (remember, they are already one day ahead) notes there have already been two assassination plots foiled against Barack Obama. With his election, there shall be more pressure from racist groups to kill the sitting President of the United States of America.

Not from international terrorists. From our own neighbors. 100% American, domestic racists.

Already, there is speculation that Senator Obama might not live to see out his term - just hours after his victory, the term "Obama assassination" appeared on the top 100 Google search terms.

— The Daily Telegraph, quoted in The Herald Sun of Australia

There are some who dismiss the threats of the Colorado ring of four arrested in August 2008. These four sought to assassinate Barack Obama at the DNC convention in Denver as more “aspirational, perhaps, than operational.” Yet such threats cannot be utterly discounted either. Gartrell, Adolph, Johnson, and Gromack were aligned with a common purpose. They had high-powered rifles. The DNC convention, held in the battleground state of Colorado, meant Barack Obama visited frequently and was sure-to-show. Perhaps their arrest actually produced the opposite reaction than they intended, because Obama ended up winning the state.

In another unrelated plot, two other men, Daniel Cowart of Bells, Tennessee, and Paul Schlesselman, of West Helena, Arksansas, were indicted just today by a Federal grand jury for planning to assassinate Barack Obama and over 100 black students.

They were arrested in late October in Crockett County, Mississippi, driving around in a car covered with racial slurs and swastikas. The Neo-Nazis, characterized as “skinheads” who “chickened out at the sight of dogs” by the Chicago Sun-Times, were planning to break into a gun shop, begin shooting black students, and go on a cross-country killing spree that would end at the innauguration ceremonies of Barack Obama.

“You know, you couldn’t make it that close (to Obama) by any means.”
“Yeah, but we would die trying.”

— Secret Service confronting Daniel Cowart & Paul Schlesselman

All told there have been about 500 threats against Senator Obama’s life, of which a dozen threats have been seriously investigated.

Now is the time for the United States to reflect on racial relations in the 21st Century. Even Klu Klux Klan leaders speak openly about Obama being a target for assassination, predicting it likely it may come from someone in the south. Yet there is no need to cross the Mason-Dixon line. In Illinois, and adjacent Indiana—Obama’s own home territory—hate groups such as the Klan are growing in influence and size. Ethnic pride and ethnic prejudice are often spoken of in the same breath, and the distinguishment between healthy and deadly behavior separated by a very thin margin.

Even at a “friendly” event, such as the Grant Park victory speech, 13,500 police were put on active duty to ensure the rally of 240,000 people came off peaceably.

Odds for Barack

So what are the odds that Barack Obama shall face assassination attempts? What is he likelihood they will succeed? What are the chances a black man in America will be murdered? What are the chances that a sitting President of the U.S. will be killed in office?

• Nationwide in 2007, odds of being murdered in the U.S. are 16,929 murders out of a population of approx. 301 million. Odds: 1:17,816.

• In Chicago, the murder rate for 2008 is 427 murders through October 27th. That is one murder per 5,536 residents. Odds: 1:5,536

• Nationwide in 2007, there were 6,223 murders of black males out of a black male population of approximately 18.3 million. Odds: 1:2,950

• Out of 43 prior holders of the office of President of the United States, 4 have been assassinated: Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy. 2 others may have been assassinated, depending on hypothesis and circumstantial evidence: Taylor, Harding. Including Barack Obama as 44th President would make his odds 1:11. or, 6:44 if one counts those who died under unusual circumstance, making the odds 13.6%. Odds: 1:11 to 1:7.

• Every single one of the seven Presidents since Nixon has had an attempt made on their life: Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, G.W. Bush. All, so far, have survived. Odds: 100% survival.

This shall be the greatest challenge the Secret Service will ever have to face. And it shall put to the test the concept of Homeland Security. As Pogo said, sagely, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

Three Cups of Tea for Global Understanding

From Benecia to Sutterville

This is a somewhat atypical article from me. Pardon the lack of citation and links. I have much to do today. Yet I wrote this after doing a bit of research over the years, and in a burst of Wikibraining. Amazing what changed in the world in such a short amount of time, based on the lives of so few people in the geographic region. -Pete.

Gregg Valley said:
> benicia is a cool little place. quaint, lots of history... did you know it is a former state capitol? building still stands... 1854 i think.

That's news to me. Checking out Wikipedia... here it is! From Feb 3, 1853 til Feb 24, 1854.

What I did know was, following the 1848 Mexican-American War, when California was made a state, the U.S. government was keen to move their power away from Monterey, where the Spanish and Mexican governments had held sway.

Let's perfect my fuzzy memory of California history.

Monterey as Capitol
• 1776 - 1822 - Spanish capitol of Alta California
• 1822 - 1846 - Mexican capitol of Alta California
• 1846 - 1849 - Capitol of the quasi-independent California Republic during Mexican-American War; HQ of US military governorship; til US State Constitutional Convention

In 1849, they voted to move to San Jose, then kept moving upstate further from the traditional capitol.

• 1849 - 1850 - San Jose; California as state ratified
• 1850 - 1853 - Vallejo
• 1853 - 1854 - Benecia
• 1854 - Today - Sacramento

You've got to wonder why move? Who owned the Sacramento land? Because they really got sway over the placement of the state capitol. Part of this was purposeful racism and nationalism, to back away rapidly and purposefully from the historic presence of the Spanish-Mexicans Californios. Basically, the desire to have a "white" capitol.

So who was it?

John Sutter. Yes, the same French-speaking Swiss immigrant that the Gold Rush mill is named after. He's the one that got his way.

In 1841, he created a settlement called New Helvetia (New Switzerland). Though he tacitly became a Mexican citizen the year before to get the land grant, as soon as it was established, he threatened to put the land under the protection of the French.

His dream came true when the U.S. government took an interest in his fortified settlement in 1847, during the progress of the war. And then, he hit paydirt, literally, when men working for him at his sawmill at Coloma struck gold in 1848. Within one year, the "miner forty-niners" were racing from all over to be near Sacramento, Sutter's Fort, and Sutter's Mill. All of which he founded.

Got to credit the man for trying to land grab. A Squatter's Rights group eventually had most of his claims quashed. The US government began to rule out of his favor, and refused to do much to respond to his lawsuits or ownership claims. He eventually had to move back east to Pennsylvania.

Thus, the Benecia capitol was a make-shift home, as Sutter consolidated power. It was the height of his influence over the world, and his lasting legacy. Though it disappointed his father immensely. He had wanted the city to be called Sutterville. Instead, the son named his town after the Sacramento River which flowed beside it.

9/11 to 11/11 - From Tragedy to Truce

The Global Understanding movement wishes to bring people together to commemorate the 90th Anniversary of Armistice Day: 11/11, 2008.

For November, 11, 1918 was the Armistice of the Western Front of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles specified the Great War's end at 11:00 AM Greenwich time.

Around the world, this day is still recalled as Armistice Day: "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'." In the United States, it was renamed Veterans Day in 1954 to include veterans of World War II and the Korean Conflict.

By changing to Veterans Day, we alter the intent from commemorating the final cessation of hostilities, and the cause for world peace, to a personal homage soley to those who saw uniformed service. We indeed must honor and remember veterans. Yet we must focus on the causes they fought for, and what they hoped to achieve: a better and lasting peace.

How may millions also served their nations without benefit of weapon, training, or formal recognition? For every unknown soldier, how many unknown civilians were wounded or buried in rubble?

How can we measure what true bravery is? The soldier in a tank, or the mother whose only arms are her own, which she uses to hold her dear children to her chest as mechanized death rains all around?

By focusing on the original intent—Armistice—the commemoration of the truce that followed the fighting, we honor all who survived and all who died, during most terrible conflict. The concept of Armistice is universal. It may stand for the cessation of any war, at any time, anywhere in the world.

Therefore, the Global Understanding movement calls for the return to original intent of 11/11, as Armistice Day, to focus on global peace. We may broaden the charter of the commemoration of the First World War to honor all those affected by the ravages of war in their lifetime up to the present day.

Problems with Global Understanding Audio Files

Dear Interested & Concerned Citizens of the World,

You have my personal sincere apologies for the problems experienced while trying to listen to the Roz Savage and Dest (Grant Pollock) interviews. Apparently, after the files are successfully uploaded, after a few days the files are deleted from the site. They have been uploaded a few times, and after each upload they have been tested to work.

However, within a certain indeterminate period (a day? a few days? a week?) the files disappear, as does the /audio directory where they were placed. Because of this, the link has been broken.

Further, due to a technical problem in the URL from the Dest In Nation web page to the audio file, it was a non-functioning link. This resulted in the following issues:


Roz Savage Rows (Posted: 18 Sep)
September 2008
• .html Program Web Page 28
• .mp3 Successful Plays: 9
• .mp3 Broken Links (404): 12
October 2008
• .html Program Web Page 167
• .mp3 Successful Plays: 127
• .mp3 Broken Links (404): 37

Dest In Nation (Posted: 21 Sep)
September 2008
• .html Program Web Page 22
• .mp3 Successful Plays: 18
• .mp3 Broken Links (404): -
October 2008
• .html Program Web Page 24
• .mp3 Successful Plays: 2
• .mp3 Broken Links (404): 1

At this time, the .mp3 files have been re-uploaded and should now work. File permissions have also been set so that nothing should blow the files away in the future. Please contact me ASAP if you find a broken link. Thank you!

-Peter Corless.
petercorless@mac.com
650-906-3134 (mobile)

2008 US Presidential Debate Analysis

A new study was posted on GlobalUnderstandingInstitute.org analyzing the debate between the two nominated candidates for the United States President, Barack Obama and John McCain. However, the results of the analysis may not be what you expect.

Please read over the report and then tell us what you think below in the comments. Enjoy!

-Peter Corless.
Founder, Global Understanding Institute
petercorless@mac.com
650-906-3134 (mobile)

9/11 to 11/11 - From Tragedy to Truce

This year in November will be the 90th Anniversary of Armistice Day: 11/11 at 11:00 AM (Greenwich Time) will be the exact moment of the truce that ended the Great War. Anywhere around the world where we may each be that day, we can personally or collectively celebrate and commemorate this event at 11:00 am local time.

So many people forget, or only ironically recall, it was supposed to be the “War to End All Wars.” Yet here we are 90 years later, and around the world, wars are being prosecuted between nationstates and between nations and non-state actors. What is now called “Fourth Generational Warfare.”

Armistice Day or Veteran’s Day?

As Wikipedia cites, the original commemoration of the day of November 11 began in 1919, one year after the armistice on the Western Front of the Great War. In the United States, it was made an Act of Government on 13 May 1938, even as Europe slipped closer and closer to the Second World War, as “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day’.”

In the United States, the move to rename Armistice Day as “Veteran’s Day” occurred between 1953—1954 during the height of the Cold War, and in the shadow of the Korean Conflict. The renaming of the holiday, ideally to encompass World War II and the Korean conflict, fundamentally shifted the appreciation of the day.

For Armistice can be enjoyed by civilian, soldier and veteran alike. When we alter it to “Veteran’s Day,” we forget the original intent — the commemoration of peace following war — and we likewise minimize the appreciation of civilian contribution and sacrifice of those who survived such terrible armed conflict. For those who would put less thought into the holiday, it relegates it to a day to appreciate soldiery.

For those who do not condone military service or military action, it becomes a day for protest and dispute. For those who served with honor, it becomes a more lonely vigil. For those who were civilians or children survivors, it can be an day wherein their contribution and experience is under-appreciated or utterly forgotten.

Soldiers at least are issued weapons to defend themselves. How can we measure who is braver? The soldier bearing his weapon in the heat of battle, or the unarmed mother huddling with her children in her arms? Or the traumatized and maimed children most of all? It is disrespectful to attempt to compare one or the other as more or less honorable.

We can simply honor them all when we regard armistice — the peace that follows conflict — as the commemoration of them all.

The Season of Change: 9/11 to 11/11

From the tragic commemoration of 9/11 to the respectful regard for armistice on 11/11, we can set aside thoughts for establishing a new global movement for peaceful redress of grievances and resolution of differences.

We cannot go back in history and undo heinous crimes and shocking losses of life. We can, however, focus on the century ahead and work towards avoiding the repetition of destructive wars. To find new ways to achieve our ends without falling back to violence and destruction.

Between 9/11 and 11/11 each year, can we close the gap between our ideals and reality? How can we change global dialogue and politics, to escape from war as the solutions to political and economic problems in the 21st Century?

The stakes are enormous. World War I had over 40 million casualties: 21 million wounded and 20 million dead. World War II had approximately 72 million deaths, and tens of millions more wounded.

In the 21st Century, we stand to lose tens or hundreds of millions more to warfare, both internal and international. Yet if a global war were to occur in the present environment of nuclear and conventional technology, clashes of cultures, pressured by politics, economic, health and security crises, and exacerbation of conflicts through xenophobia and zealotry, the globe could see a humanitarian and ecological catastrophe unprecedented in history.

Casualties could very likely soar to 100 million or more, and even exceed 1 billion persons given effects to global economies for food and water, fuel and power, manufactured goods and natural resources.

A Moment for Armistice, 90 Years Later

This 11/11 at 11:00 AM in your local time zone, take a moment to pray for Armistice. Truce. Peace in our time.

We’re 90 years into the advent of the age of Armistice, as called for by those who survived the First World War. The Great War. The War to End All Wars. For the sake of those who lived and died, and in honor of the hard-won lessons passed on to the world, let us pray for peace in our time, good will towards all humankind, and stability for the environment which sustains us all.

Prayer Cycle for Peace in our Time

Each morning at 11:11 AM, recall those who have made peace in the past, and pray for the peace of the soul for those who have been troubled and harmed by armed conflict and violence. This is the moment of Armistice that marked the end of the First World War, on November 11, 1918. 11/11 @ 11:00 AM. Commemorate 11:11 AM each day with prayer. Let it be a thankful recognition of the enjoyment and establishment of peace in our past. Honor the past, with sober mindfulness of the sacrifices of those millions who sought to establish and maintain peace in our present time.

Each evening at 11:11 PM, recall those who are doing the work of peacemaking for the planet. The brokers, arbiters and advocates for peace. The workers for social justice, healthcare, and humanitarian rights. The survivors and the casualties, and those who bear arms for defense of the innocent. Pray that they all find peace in the future. Pray too for the politicians and community leaders who seek peace and reconciliation, that they may be able to withstand those who first seek to wage cruel war. Pray for those who presently wage cruel war to find enlightenment to achieve their aims and to declare armistice with their enemies without causing further human suffering and misery. Saint Augustine said war was waged to achieve a better peace. Let us pray for the best peace possible starting now, to allow it to blossom and bear greater fruition over time in future days ahead.

How Will You Commemorate Armistice Day?

Tell us your plans and thoughts.

• What do you wish to do for this 90th Anniversary of Armistice Day?
• What do you hope to achieve in the world over the next 10 years as we approach the Centennial Anniversary of the Great War?
• Can we achieve “Peace in Our Time,” a century after we had first promised it?

Share your opinions and ideas below.

Sincerely,

-Peter Corless.
Global Understanding Institute
12:21 AM
October 8, 2008

The Rehearsal

The American Dream is an ongoing thematic development in the film career of Franklin Pham. I met Franklin in Mountain View, California, on Castro Street in this summer, during the early phase of development of the Global Understanding Institute.

As he develops The American Dream, his longer-run-time film vision, he meanwhile is quite busy. For a short-term contest deadline, he rapidly wrote, compiled, edited and wholly created The Rehearsal as a way for us to understand the post-9/11 in a whole new light.

• The Rehearsal from $kull C@ndy on Vimeo.

I invite you to watch it, and comment on how the video made you think and feel differently, or, if it reinforces your beliefs, how it echoes with your understanding. Negative feedback is valid too. If something jarred with your thoughts and expectations, what was dissonant to you?

Best wishes, Franklin! And my thanks to all who helped make this short film possible. For making movies is Franklin’s dream come true.

The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDG)

Millennium Development Goals (MDG)

• End Poverty & Hunger
• Universal Education
• Gender Equality
• Child Health
• Maternal Health
• Combat HIV/AIDS
• Environmental Sustainability
• Global Partnership

Welcome to the 21st Century

The United Nations convened a Millennium Summit, 6-8 September 2000, eight years ago. The summit was the flowing together of streams of thought which had been around for a long while. It became a meeting of the minds and highest ideals for human progress in the 21st Century.

Thus ten days later, on 18 September 2000, in the Fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly, resolution 55/2 was adopted: the United Nations Millennium Declaration (pdf).

This nine-page document expressed the values and principles, and specific goals which were desired to be achieved during this new millennium of human existence. Then again, it was only passed by the U.N. General Assembly, and who listens to them anyway, right? I mean, it’s only the United Nations. Feh. Who cares?

Thus five years later, from 14-16 September 2005, they got together the 2005 World Summit. This was a forum for 170 heads of state and governments. You’d hope people would listen to the assembly of the leaders of the vast majority of the nations on Earth, right?

Maybe. If you haven’t heard or thought of these goals before, maybe the time to start is right now.

Please Care

Kofi Annan said thusly, and one can still read on the 2005 World Summit page:

The 2005 World Summit is a one-in-a-generation opportunity for the world to come together to take action on grave global threats that require bold global solutions.

It is also a chance to revitalize the United Nations itself.
It is, in short, an opportunity for all humankind.

What have we done with the past three years in response to this opportunity? For my own part, I travelled to Croatia to see what causes global conflict, examining the wars of independence in the West Balkans as a starting point to understand the drives for violent conflict. Later in 2006-2007, I worked on Wikipedia to record the war and the peacemaking in Somalia and East Africa, and recorded in great detailed articles various issues regarding the clash of cultures between the Islamic and western worlds, and created charts about Energy Intensity.

This year, in August, I began the Global Understanding Institute, and joined Karl John to form the international Global Understanding movement. Others are joining the discourse and now people are pro-actively contacting me. My personal thanks to the support and friendship of Jeffery Tibbets, Franklin Pham, Carlos Suarez, Harshi Lanjewar, Michael Walsh, Steve Alston, Robert Narkun (Czycz), and others. If your name is not specifically mentioned here, you have my apologies for my oversight. Speak up and add your name below to the cause! Some have also offered help, but wish not to be publicly identified at this time.

Those who joined support this cause instinctively, intuitively, with their intelligence and with specific intent to address the critical issues of this moment, in our time on Earth. Thus we have collectively committed ourselves for the sake of my fellow.

I’ll be bringing up more about the MDGs in the days ahead. The GU Institute fully supports these goals. They are just the “top tier” of problems facing humankind today. Even “solving” these issues may cause unintended harm, produce unexpected consequences and unleash other problems. So we must be quite careful for what we ask, and how we wish to see our future evolve.

For now, please give me your feedback on the Millennium Development Goals. How would you sort-order them in terms of priority? Which do you believe you are already helping to address? How specifically do you do so? If you could add only one more cause to the list, what would it be?

Next Stop: Dow 25,224 -- ERNT! Wrong answer!

The Dow is about to crash back to 10,000 in late 2008, about 50% of the projected 19,581 in 2009 predicted by Brian Hicks in 2007. Even far, far below the 17,252 predicted by 2008.

How can a "professional" be so wrong so big on such a huge topic?

Brian, care to publish a mea culpa maxima?

~ * ~

Now, check me if I am wrong here, but who realistically thought that the market was going to skyrocket to those levels unless we underwent a period of massive uncontrolled inflation?

Listening to NPR tonight, I believe a guest on Michael Krazny’s Forum made some salient observations. Considering the rate of inflation, the value of money lending in a period of deregulation led to utterly risky financial give-aways. The cost of money was less than 0%. You actually made money just borrowing it. And, without regulation, they let anyone have it.

Now? It’s spent. Like some wastrel drunk cousin who bought a car with your credit cards and crashed it into the tree on the way home. You owe the debt. We owe the debt. Each one of us.

Great.

But, of course, we don’t have a brand new car to show for it.

I’m sort of glad, in a perverse way, that the US government refused to pick up the Wall Street bar tab on this one. Not that I look forward to a period of economic crisis as people are going to lose their homes, but it was sort of an “enough is enough” message. Fiscal prudence and responsibility has to start somewhere. Taxpayers are burdened enough as it is.

2009-2010 are going to be economically hazardous times. Make no mistake. Global economic crises can lead to wars, famines and the deaths of millions. At this time in history, though, we need to face the reality of what we truly have before us: a Dow crashing towards 10,000, and possibly likely to stablize somewhere around 8,000 - 9,000 in 2009 to 2010. Not a rosy, bullish picture racing towards 20,000 - 25,000.

My great personal cares and sympathies to the familes around the world suffering in poverty and economic crisis because of the recent Wall Street woes. Hold on folks. The rocky ride is just beginning.

On behalf of Global Understanding,

-Peter Corless.
petercorless@mac.com
650-906-3134 (mobile)

Pledge of Interest & Concern for the World

Introduction

This pledge is to be recited by all persons who desire to commit and consider themselves active and participating members of the Global Understanding movement. This is the initial draft. I wanted to make it “good” without it being “overwhelming.” Even so, it may be too long for some people. I may have put in some words which some may find objectionable. I may have left out words others find as necessary. Please let me know what you think. This is your world. This is my world too. This can therefore be our work, composed together, for the good of all the world. I am not committing to having the pledge be utterly hacked apart and made meaningless. As the author and a principle behind the movement, some elements of philosophy and ethics shall remain unshakable in my work. Yet I am always open to improving and perfecting a work of politics, so that it can be shared easily for the benefit of as many people as possible.

Pledge of Interest & Concern for the World

I pledge my interest and concern
For the world in which I live
For my community and the environment
For all people and all living creatures
For as long as I may live

I pledge all my life and being
To continuously learn and gain knowledge
To ask good questions
To do my own research and investigation
To listen to what others have come to learn
To share generously what I have learned with others
To communicate truthfully and frankly
To express myself effectively and reasonably
To view and interact with the world using compassion and care
To consider and respect the opinions and feelings of others even if I disagree with them
To consider others with an open mind without prejudice
To act in faith
To speak the truth with consideration for others
To communicate forthrightly and bravely when I sense wrong-doing
To consider and compare what I learn to my ethics
To continuously revise and consider the appropriateness of my ethics and morals
To apply my ethics and my morals to my life and the world around me
To revise or expand my beliefs as I discover new wisdom and knowledge
To adhere to wholesome, productive ways and good principles
To honor my family, relatives, friends and community
To support the freedom, liberty and happiness of others
To act with kindness and compassion
To avoid malice and conscious harm
To be grateful for all that sustains my life and health
To do my best to honor and not abuse my gifts
To remember what I have pledged to undertake
To use my strength and spirit to uphold my commitments to others
To review my pledge each year henceforth
To understand and appreciate what I have done well
To understand what others have done for my benefit
To encourage others who I follow, who walk beside me, or follow in my path
To admit and identify what I need to improve upon within myself
For as long as I may live

Who, When & Where

Written by the hand of Peter Paul Conlon Corless in the modern English language upon this Thursday, the Twenty Fifth Day of September, in the year Two Thousand and Eight in the Christian Era, also known as Anno Domini (Year of Our Lord), at Six Hours and Forty Minutes post meridian (PM) as measured in the Pacific Time Zone, in the City of Mountain View, in the County of Santa Clara, in the State of California, in the nation of the United States of America, on the North American continent, on the planet Earth, in the Sol solar system, in the Milky Way Galaxy, in the Local Group of Galaxies.

Location in Latitude & Longitude from Google

decimal	37.39611	-122.090815
deg-min-sec	37° 23' 45.996"	-122° 5' 26.934"

Revision History

Draft 0.1
Author: Peter Paul Conlon Corless
Date: 25 September 2008
Time: 6:40 PM, Pacific
Initial Proposed Draft
Subject to review and approval by the interested and concerned citizens of the world.

Global Understanding Audio

Global Understanding Audio (GU Audio) now has a home page:

• http://globalunderstandinginstitute.org/services/guaudio.html

It was remarkably easy to realize how I could take my Macintosh laptop and just start going out into the world and to become a podcaster. Yet now, I want to hear from you. I want you to make your own podcasts for the series.

This is what you need:

Personnel

• Interviewer: An interested and concerned citizen of the world willing to conduct the interview.
• Personality: An interested and concerned citizen of the world willing to be recorded for one hour or less.

Technical

• Media: A way to record the session.
• Digitalization: A way to store it as an mp3 file.
  
• Internet: A way to upload it to the web.

Process

• Preparation: Schedule, Meet, Soundcheck, Converse, Authorization, Begin.
• Indoor/Outdoor Setting: Record half or more of the interview outdoors.
  
• Basics: Ask who are you? What do you do? Why? How do you see the world? What major crisis or conflict do you see in the world? Why should others care? What can we do to help?
  
• Unscheduled: Get off the beaten track. Ask curious questions. Let the conversation flow.
• Production: Intro, Edit.
  
• Post: Get it on the web. Write contextual article. Link up. Blog.

Q&A

Q: Who can I interview?

A: Any interested and concerned citizen of the world who you believe thematically will fit the program and the precepts of the Global Understanding movement.

Q: What do I ask them?

A: How can we understand the world better, and live in harmony with each other? Any variation of that idea. You can ask serious questions. You can ask silly things too.

Q: Do I need to host this at globalunderstanding.org?

A: You can host it wherever you want. Send us a URL (for now, to me petercorless@mac.com with “Global Understanding Audio Interview” in the subject).

Q: Do I need your legal permission?

A: Not really. You don’t need our help or our permission to create your own “Global Understanding Audio”-type podcasts. People have been interviewing each other long before we got started, and people will do it outside of our context presently and for many generations to come. However, if you wish to work with us, we may wish to review your work, which takes time to listen to the interview, and if we want to help you by granting our musical motif, or our organizational title to your work, that may require a mutual understanding and a legal agreement, plus the time to post it to our server if you want us to host it ourselves.

Q: Thinking about automating this process?

A: Yes. In the long run, we will automate this sort of process. For now, we’re just getting started. Got to start somewhere, right?

Q: How do you afford to do all this, Pete?

A: Right now, I pay for it all myself. I had some stocks, but I sold them to afford to do this. Yes, it is great that I have this opportunity. Yes, I am running out of money. Yes, in the future, I will ask for donations and contributions, sponsors and grants.

Q: Is this a solo effort or is there anyone else helping?

A: It is just getting started. I have already had some people who wanted to do their own interviews of different people and each other.

Q: Can anyone do this?

A: Sure! You betcha! I want people to interview each other. Brothers and sisters. Friends. Family members. Kids interview their parents. Grandparents too. I want us to understand the world from each other’s eyes. When was the last time you sat down with someone and asked them, with fresh ears, what they really cared about? What they wanted all of us to do to help solve the issues in the world?

Q: Is this like giving people their “15 minutes of fame?”

A: Sort of. Let’s give people more credit. You can be famous for at least an hour. At least! If not for the rest of your life. Or well beyond your passing. In reality we sort of interview each other every day, and do it in different ways. Some processes are more or less formal, and are either private, or public, or broadcast like a radio interview. Sometimes we interview each other over lunch. Sometimes these days over text messages. I wanted this to be a forum where people could express themselves and felt like their message was listened to. By at least an interviewer. And whoever else that interviewer passed the message on to.

Q: Do I need to be interviewed, or can I do this myself?

A: You can always set up a microphone and record yourself. I highly recommend it. That’s called an audio biography and/or a monologue. If you have relatives, especially grandkids or neices and nephews, they may appreciate those recordings of your thoughts immensely. However, that is a commitment only of your own time. The reason I wish for us to interview each other, is because it consciously creates a commitment of another human being. Someone else must prove, by showing up and asking questions, they are at least interested and concerned about your life sufficiently to sit down with you for an hour or so to conduct an interview. Say they live for 80 years (we should all be so fortunate). 365 days per year. 24 hours a day. That’s roughly 700,800 hours of life. That’s 0.000143% of their life. That’s 0.000143% of your own life. Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV). It shows the commitment of two people for each other. That’s how we can begin to get the world to care. By caring about each other enough to listen.

Q: Do I need to pay for any interview?

A: It depends. If people don’t have an hour to talk about their lives, for free, they’re not necessarily your friends. If you have money in your pocket, and you want to give it to someone to be a “professional human” in your life, you can give them whatever you want. Hopefully legally. Should a grandfather charge his own grandkid for an hour of his time? Depends why and how he wants to get paid, doesn’t it? I’d probably charge a smile, if I had any grandkids of my own.

Q: Is anyone getting paid for this?

A: Not now. Maybe someday. Generally, we ask people to donate their time to the program, to keep overhead costs low. We are ideally doing this for love of our fellow humans without desire for direct personal gain or advancement. However, if the program gets successful, we may need to compensate people appropriately, both interviewers, production crew, IT professionals, IT service, software and equipment providers, other staff, and possibly even speakers, in order to keep the program going. Still, frugality is paramount. We want to keep overhead costs as low as possible. Please donate your time if you can.

Q: How can I help?

A: Listen. Think. Tell others what ideas, thoughts and feelings came up for you while listening. Then get involved in the world however you feel so moved.

Dest In Nation

Grant Pollock (Dest)
http://www.myspace.com/thisisrobbery

Interviewed on...

Global Understanding Audio
by Peter Corless

Grant Pollock (Dest) for Global Understanding
Global Understanding Audio Interview #002
September 21, 2008
Recorded on Castro Street
Mountain View, California
(Playing Time: 43m 40s)

Grant or Dest

Grant Pollock, known as Dest, is a musician, poet, and traveler who left his family in Palo Alto, California at the age of 15 to travel the country to find his own reality. I encountered Grant, Dest, on Castro Street, Mountain View. In this exclusive interview and recorded performance, he shares his vision of life, liberty, and harmony.

Roz Savage Rows

Roz Savage
http://www.rozsavage.com

Interviewed on...

Global Understanding Audio
by Peter Corless

Roz Savage for Global Understanding
Global Understanding Audio Interview #001
September 18, 2008
Recorded at Shoreline Park
Mountain View, California

As a woman who has rowed the Atlantic Ocean solo, and has made the first leg of her cross-Pacific trip in a 23-foot-long boat, the Brocade, Roz Savage is the author of her story, and a maker of history.

In a one-hour interview, Roz Savage lays forth her life, her philosophy, her experiences on land and sea, and her vision for the world.

Poppies, And The Flower of England

I wrote a post for the Legio X Fretensis blog, “Poppies, And the Flower of England” which directly applies to the artistic themes of Flowers in the Cracks.

It also applies the Global Understanding movement, and the issues it wishes to address between 9/11 and 11/11 of this year, 2008.

More on that another time.

-Peter.

Flowers in the Cracks / Global Understanding - Take Pictures on September 11, 2008

READ THIS POST!

It was sent off to the Mountain View Voice, The San Jose Mercury News, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, and to many friends and family members.

Not everyone, but a good few people. I don’t yet have an email list for the GU movement.

So please, read and tell people to check out my posting for 9/11 tomorrow. And also over the next two months.

Change the world! Onwards to adventure!

-Peter Corless.
650-906-3134 (mobile)
petercorless@mac.com

Upcoming Calendar of Events

• November 11, 2008, at 11:11 AM: 90th Anniversary of Armistice Day. Before it was Veteran's Day, November 11 was a celebration of the peace that follows war. A day that recognized the civilian survivors of war as much as the veterans who fought it.

• December 10, 2008: 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Franklin Roosevelt died in office conducting the Allied Nation's cause for freedom. After his death, Eleanor continued and championed the struggle to guarantee those freedoms to every living person on earth, regardless of nation, without exception.

• February 14, 2009: Global Understanding Day. Though many of us recognize this as “Valentine’s Day,” there are many countries where Saint Valentine is not venerated, never mind recognized. And there are many people who are utterly ignorant of who Valentine was as a man, and presume that he’s a fat free-floating chubby baby with wings and a penchant for arrow fire. Instead, let this day be a global, more universal celebration for brotherly and sisterly love to all or fellow humans. This February 14, 2009 will be the 3rd Anniversary of the founding of the Global Understanding movement.

Exact events have not yet been determined. Please consider organizing your own, and post your commitments to hold events below.

One last thing: 11:11.

That was the time that the armistice fell over the Western Front of World War II. The “all quiet” spoken of in the famous novel.

If you truly wish to respect and honor the service of those who put their life on the line each day, whether in the military or even those who are paramilitary or police, to upkeep the laws and to safeguard their communities, use the moment of 11:11 AM each day to be a time of reverent prayer and reflective meditation. One minute each day. If you remember it.

Think about that moment, and consider in the world how many are fighting and protecting, versus how many are merely killing. I do not wish to venerate all veterans just because they wear the uniform. Otherwise, every psychopath who donned a uniform and did something patently criminal deserves kudos. Most soldiers have honorable intentions in what they do. Others abuse their power. The uniform itself is not the merit of the actor. What that person achieves while wearing the uniform is the basis of their personal honor.

Hence, I prefer to celebrate Armistice. The peace that follows conflict, or the peace protected by avoiding conflict. This “better peace” is what Saint Augustine saw as the only logical and moral reason for ethical people to come into physical conflict in the first place.

What we seek through Global Understanding is the “best possible peace” for all those involved in the conflict.

These three days may serve as reminders, on a worldwide basis, of what we wish to achieve: Peace through Armistice, the upholding of Human Rights, and the spread of Global Understanding through our care and interest, our love, for our fellow humans.

Acronym Soup

I have a lot of acronyms bouncing around in the braincase today: GU, GLU, GLUE, GUM, GUI

• GU = Global Understanding; the name of the ideal to foster mutual understanding on a worldwide basis to create peaceful progressive pluralistic societies.

• GUM = the Global Understanding Movement; the international group of people who hold to the propagation of the ideals of Global Understanding. Used when we treat the GU movement (with a little “m”) as a more formal term and organizing principle.

• GLU = Global Learning & Understanding; an alternative acronym to describe what we wish to foster as part of the movement. Suggested by Dana Lombardy at Pacificon 2008. I see Dana’s point. As interested and concerned citizens of the world, we wish for others to learn about the world. To understand it shall require education, both formal and informal. Even games will teach people about the world around them. Without learning, how can we understand?

• GLUE = Global Learning, Understanding & Education: My own next-step extension of the acronym. If for no other reason to create a harmony by spelling the word properly. Logically, if we have properly learned about the world in which we live, and understood what we have learned, we can then turn to our global neighbors and educate others. This makes the ideals for global understanding spin in a full cycle of learning from others, integrating into ourselves, and teaching others.

Sticking in the Brain

I see merits. I also see more domains and blog namespaces I’d need to grab. I don’t wish to be an intellectual glutton. And already, I have problems even securing the namespace for Global Understanding.

So for now, I’ll toss out some ideas about why these various acronyms are stuck in my brain, like the alphabet soup floating around the dog’s brain in “Martha Speaks.” (“Oh ho! This is gonna be fun!”)

GLU/GLUE (“glue”) and GU (“goo”) are both sticky, viscous, fluid substances. Things stick together with glue, whereas goo? Goo can be anything, I suppose. Toxic waste, or life-saving salve.

My own thoughts lean more to the simple “GU.” Two letter acronyms are powerful. Especially those with “U” in them. UN. US. UK. UL. The “U” brings to mind the symbol for “Union” in set theory.

“G” is a curious letter. According to my favorite Wikipedia, it was invented in 230 BC by Spurius Carvilius Ruga, who opened Rome’s first fee-paying school.

Yet “UG” doesn’t sound as harmoniously poetic as “GU.”

“UG” would rhyme with pug, and tug, and mug, and the Lovecraftian monster, the gug. It sounds like something a caveman would say, or something you’d utter while being piled on by a high school football team. Gutteral (albeit “Gu” shows up in an alliterative manner in Gutteral).

“GU” rhymes with new, and zoo, and cue, queue, blue, flu, flue, true, “Ooo!” and you. It sounds more facile, happier, wonder-filled. More sophisticated, without being sophist. Lyrical.

As far as poetic alliteration, we have some odd and sublime uses: Gutteral, Gun, Gurney, Guenevere, Gustav, and so on.

Strangely, Gu is also the name of a god, according to Wikipedia, though the name is more popularly rendered as Ogoun. He is a god of fire, iron, politics and war, worshipped in Haiti and amongst the Yoruba people of West Africa. According to Wikipedia:

“He gives strength through prophecy and magic. It is Ogun who is said to have planted the idea, led and given power to the slaves for the Haitian Revolution of 1804. He is called now to help people obtain a government more responsive to their needs.”

Perhaps, 202 years after the Haitian Revolution, Gu asked Karl John to start the Global Understanding movement. Perhaps 2 years later, I also heard this, and began the Global Understanding Institute.

So much for spinning ideas around the Two Letter Acronym variant of GU. Let’s move on.

Three Letter Acronyms (TLAs) are also good, yet are different. Like a government agency. Hence I created the Global Understanding Institute (GUI).

I wanted something that sounded foundational, in a tip of the cap to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy. But rather than “go private” as good ol’ Harry Seldon decided to do, as a scientist who did not want to interfere with the outcome of his grand experiment, I wanted to go public. Specifically because I wished to draw attention to the crises we face, and to engage in positive social dialog before we condemn ourselves to a thousand year period of galactic darkness. I don’t wish to be a Mule to control the fate of humanity.

I wish to be a humanitarian who got us all around the game table of the world, and helped arrange a better possible win-win for as many humans as we can manage in the 21st Century, along with all the animal and plant species and natural habitats we can preserve and steward.

The game theories and social sciences and arts which underly the Global Understanding Institute are, and will be, a scaled down version of the postulated psychohistory of Foundation. Those sciences were predicated for utility only on a large scale: a planet or galaxy. The maths, arts, sciences, game theory and engineering principles we’ll use at the GUI need to be appropriate for 1 person, and need to scale up to 6 billion people presently, towards a possible 10-100 billion for the next few centuries. Somewhere in that order of magnitude.

I suppose we could say the GU movement, and the GUI, are committed to Global Learning & Understanding (GLU), or, to spell it fully and make it a full-cycle process, Global Learning, Understanding & Education (GLUE).

But as you can see, we are now bantering semantics rather than doing work. I like GU for the overall movement (GU movement, or GUM). Then GUI for the non-profit foundation to act as an organizing principle for the movement.

GLU and/or GLUE sounds good too. I just don’t know how to use them yet, and haven’t integrated them into my thinking fully. I also don’t want to begin a slippery-slope of grabbing all the possible acronyms in the universe, and diverting the namespace of the organizing principle across too many splinter ideas and thoughts just yet.

Like the young children that Martha Speaks is aimed at, I want to keep this simple, positive, and upbeat for now. I’ll make more combinations of letters and words in the future. For now, I just wanted to share these with you, my readers, and get some feedback.

-Peter.

Global Understanding wants YOU! to help change the world

This was it! The poster I handed out at Pacificon 2008, 28 - 30 Aug 2008, at the Santa Clara Marriott, right between 237 and 101 off Great America Parkway.

I have also been using it as a flyer to hand to all the interested and concerned citizens of the world I meet. It serves many functions: business card, talking points memo, 1-page manifesto, recruiting poster, plus conversation-and-thought-provoker. I also use it to make wild sketches and charts if I have no other paper handy, as many know I am wont to do.

In future iterations, I will likely change things. But for now, this is the historic “First Official Print Document for Global Understanding.” Or at least an electronic facsimile thereof. May it go down in history as the first printed instantiation to communicate what we are setting out to do!

To readers who have found this flyer: The ideas we are working on are like living entities. Please keep them well if you get your hands on them. I printed up 200 flyers and gave about half to Franklin Pham yesterday to distribute. Please don’t litter or destroy needlessly. If you are not interested enough to keep them, please pass them on to someone who would be. Recycle the ideas, not just the paper!

Also feel free to use the paper to its full extent however you wish. Write on the back and in the margins. Frame them and hang them on the wall in your places of work, education or leisure. Or make your own copies, and hand them on to other interested and concerned citizens of the world! I suggest 100-200 of them to be able to cover a reasonable-sized event. Contact me so I know where you will be going, and how you wish to help spread the Global Understanding movement’s word.

Use the big GU logo for mobilization, the same way the anthropomorphic Uncle Sam was used to mobilize the United States for the First World War. Because this cause is, in effect, the call to take intellectual arms against a sea of intolerance, and by integrating with the cultures involved, to diffuse it. We are staking the best ideals of humanity against our own worst nature. We hope to prevent World War III from occurring this century. Before another nuclear weapon is hurled. Before another 72 million more end up dead, as they did in World War II.

We also need to ameliorate the Malthusian problem of too many mouths to feed, earning too little to feed and care for themselves. Beyond horrific possibilities of war, billions may die of starvation, poor water and lack of medicine this century. This is also a rallying cry to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

This poster for Global Understanding is our first to rally the people of the world. It is stark. Black and white.

Because that is the clarity of the vision we must have for now. The yin and the yang of it. We must be creative and receptive. We must write, black on white, to declare our principles and our pledges. We must be logical and forward-thinking. We must be crisp and precise. Efficient and frugal.

In the long run, we can get to the richness of full color. For now, I'm glad the logo looks sharp in black-and-white. People “got it.” Everyone seemed to like the simple acronym. With one exception: Dana Lombardy suggested we call it “Global Learning & Understanding” (GLU vs. GU). I’ll write a separate article about that.

The flyer was done in Microsoft Word. I am having technical difficulties with the Adobe Creative Suite (won’t save), and CS2 (won’t even launch). I called a friend I know who works at Adobe to consider an upgrade to CS3, but for now, I’ll hold off. I need to dig up my serial #’s for CS2 to get technical support.

So that’s the barrier for progress on the graphics front. If anyone out there has a spare copy of Adobe CS3 to grant to the organization, we’ll clear that hurdle. Otherwise, it’ll get solved in due time.

Onwards to adventure!

-Peter.

GU Movement Progress Report, 3 Sept 2008

After the Labor Day weekend, it is time to sit back and consider where we are, and where the movement is going.

Pacificon went great!

• Passed out the very first organizational flyers for Global Understanding movement! (More about that later.)

• Made a lot of contacts and caught up with many old friends again.

• One solid Volunteer recruited! The person wishes to keep their contribution private.

• A family recruited as Razumijen playtesters.

• Had good discussions with "old guard" wargame designers, like Dana Lombardy and John Hill; they did not shoot the idea out of the water entirely, which means it has some possible merit! Both are appropriately cautious. Funding, John points out, is going to be the key issue. Dana believes that "Global Understanding" (GU) should be "Global Learning & Understanding" (GLU).

Survey question of the day:

Which do you prefer?

• Global Understanding (GU)
• Global Learning & Understanding (GLU)

Vote with your comments!

-Pete.