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Posted on 02/20/2006 1:27:28 PM PST by jecIIny
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - Monday, February 20, 2006
Does the United States need a military?
Editor -- As a born and raised San Franciscan, an anti-war protester since the '60s, a former vice chair of the state Democratic party and a person who goes on national TV on a regular basis in defense of our anti-war stances, I have to say that when I heard Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval say on the Fox News show "Hannity & Colmes" that the United States should not have a military, I thought that I didn't hear him correctly. After the fourth time he said it, I was stunned.
San Francisco is the city of peace and is the city of independent thinking, but I do not know one San Franciscan, other than Gerardo, who thinks that the United States of America should not have a military, not one. Even the anti-war Vatican has a military!
What was Gerardo thinking? To be clear, as a San Franciscan, I absolutely believe that the United States of America needs a military.
I can't even imagine what Bill O'Reilly will do with this!
ANGELA ALIOTO
San Francisco Let's think this through
Editor -- What, the United States without a military? Shocking, absolutely shocking. Of course if a child continually uses a toy to hurt other kids, it's a good idea to take the toy away from the child. If a driver can't seem to drive without running down pedestrians, we probably want to take away his driver's license. If a doctor purposely misleads patients and causes harm to them, by all means, take away the license to practice medicine.
But take away our military? Oh no, not that.
CYNTHIA GAIR
San Francisco
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I would not bet on that. A smart terrorist would not attack SF. Why would they try to remove a cancerous growth that is infecting the US?
I have never been there just the stuff I see tv and read in the funny papers.
Sott, I don't biuy these "letters". SF has a long history of anti-American, anti-military activites. SF used to be a great place, but I wouldn't waste any effort spitting on it as I flew over it.
Zen is short for Zen Buddhism. It is sometimes called a religion and sometimes called a philosophy.
Zen Buddhism originates in the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. Around 500 B.C. he was a prince in what is now India. At the age of 29, deeply troubled by the suffering he saw around him, he renounced his privileged life to seek understanding. After 6 years of struggling as an ascetic he finally achieved Enlightenment at age 35. After this he was known as the Buddha (meaning roughly "one who is awake"). In a nutshell, he realized that everything is subject to change and that suffering and discontentment are the result of attachment to circumstances and things which, by their nature, are impermanent. By ridding oneself of these attachments, including attachment to the false notion of self or "I", one can be free of suffering.
In general, Zen is different from other religious groups. Zen is not a religion in the sense that religion is generally understood. Zen has no God to worship, no ceremonial rights to observe, no "future abode" to which the dead are destined. Zen is free of all dogmatic principles that Christianity and other religions are tied to. Zen has no set doctrines which are imposed on its followers for acceptance. Zen teachings come out of one's own mind. It is addressed to the human heart. It is a living experience, a "creative impulse."
The essential practice of Zen Buddhism is zazen or 'sitting meditation'. The idea is to let go of the habitual thought processes and self-grasping that usually fill our minds and realize our true nature. The practice of zazen requires you to find a quiet place to sit and to spend some time focusing on the breath.
Zen hopes to promote such an intuitive understanding in preference to attempts being made towards an intellectual understanding - it holds that if a question is innately felt in the right way then the answer will arise, innately, in response.
Zen Buddhism does not seem so much to place emphasis on the attainment of Nirvana as a state where desires have been abandoned but seems rather to hold in view the goal of an intuitive experience of Satori Enlightenment "wisdom" that is independent of words.
Zen Buddhists therefore believe it preferable to be born into the human world and to practice Zazen with the aim of ultimately becoming Buddha.
Buddhism is essentially a religion of Enlightenment.
Zen Buddhism is a religion that can be considered a philosophy, due to the fact that the followers of Zen do not worship a god. The followers of the samurai’s religion meditate to uncover the "meaning of life." Zen has a deep past, due to the fact that it was developed from Buddhism and transformed into a mixture of Taoism, Confucianism, Indian spiritualism, and Buddhism (Ross 140). If a closed-minded person tries to understand the spiritual meaning of Zen, the most that the person will understand of Zen will be a definition. A non-Zen practitioner that is open to new ideas may be able to understand the deeper meaning of the "religion of no religion" (Ross 144). To fully understand the meaning of Zen, a Zen practitioner must meditate. There are many ways to meditate, most during which the thinker is seated. (Walter 2) To fully understand this philosophy, one must understand its definition, its roots, and strive to understand its deeper meaning.
But I still stand by the contention that, aside from occasional honorable exceptions such as yourself, every Western Buddhist I've ever known has been a physical and moral coward, a passive-aggressive weenie, and a condescending, more-spiritual-than-thou snob. I believe there may be something inherent in the religion, I mean, philosophy, that attracts people who want to appear "spiritual" without adhering to the inconvenient rules and demanding disciplines of the Western monotheist faiths.
That as a hard burn on the Belgian army.
An army of hairdressers.
Well, I'm sure there are non-moonbat Western Buddhists/Zen-devotees out there. I've just never met one, and consider a self-designation of "Buddhist" by a Westerner to be as accurate a red-flag marker about that person's intellect and character as, say, "Marxist" or "deconstructionist."
And I'm not knocking non-Judeo-Christian Westerners in general, y'understand. For example, many neo-Pagans I've known have had far better minds, characters, and souls, IMHO, than most of the lighter-than-air Om-chanters I've encountered.
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SF wants a military all right. In case their passivist views grow fruit and they need protection from those who would take advantage of that (Islam, Criminals, Aliens with sticks with nails).
It is easy to be a pacifist within a cocoon.
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