We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

U.S. shootings by police, prison conditions trouble U.N.

Click here to access article by John Zarocostas from McClatchy news service.

This piece represents a sign of the times that we are now in. Isn't ironic that the US invades, or it sponsors others to invade, other "evil-doer" states for "humanitarian" reasons? Well, if you hadn't noticed, we are now living in Orwellian times. 

Such a report would have been unheard of in my youth. It is just one more indication of the police state that the United States of America has evolved into. Like the proverbial boiling frog who while in a pot of warm water hasn't noticed the gradual heating of the water to its near boiling temperature, so have we, the American people, reached this extreme state of affairs. 
A U.N. anti-torture panel that’s investigating the United States said Friday that it was deeply concerned by what it described as the high incidence of police brutality and shootings--especially against African-Americans--in the U.S., was troubled by what it called harsh conditions in many prisons and was worried about the interrogation methods used on detainees.