I Have a Dream

We had a very moving meeting today as members recalled their experience during the March on Washington 50 years ago. The "I Had a Dream" speech is still relevant is with the power of the Internet we can experience again.

Here is the text.





8/28/13 Update:

Here is a link to Obama's speech on CSPAN.

Two Men Who Saved the World

Here is a link to the PBS "Secrets of the Dead" episode about "The Man Who Saved the World" which was talked about at our meeting. This happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, when a Russian commander of a submarine fleet refused to launch his nuclear torpedo.

Yet if Googled "Man Who Saved the World" you may get this Wikipedia article about a documentary movie with the same name. This episode occurred in September 1983, when there was a report that missiles were heading to the Soviet Union.

These episodes during the Cold War were secret until the Soviet Union fell. What might have happened had the public known who close we came to Nuclear Armageddon?

Prisons and Bezos

Today we had two hot topics, prisons and Jeff Bezos. These topics may at first seem totally unrelated, but they are strangely tied together by what we discussed two weeks ago, the Inequity in our society. Bezos is the epitome of the American Dream. Not only is he a multi-billionaire, he is highly respected. Everyone in our group had good things to say about him and is company, Amazon. Yet, most Americans are getting closer to the other end of the spectrum, the prisons, due to widening inequity gap.

Jeff Bezos became rich because of his savvy business sense. Maybe prisoners just need lesson in business. Not so. Here is a TED Talk that says that prisoners are already good at business, out of necessity.

Palestine, Manning, Healthcare and a Motorcycle

Today we talked about several recurrent issues. Is there any hope for the Palestine Talks? Is Bradley Manning traitor? Are the Republican going to destroy healthcare? We are dishearthened when we view theses issues from the top-down, as institutional problems. But there is another way to see these stories, from the bottom-up, as a people issue. The Palestine problem is the story of people of different cultures who need to get along. Manning was a young idealist who was trying to do what was right. The Healthcare crisis is about people needlessly suffering because of a broken system.

Here is a TED Talk about a young idealist Israeli doctor trying to improve the healthcare with a motorcycle. At first is seems like another feel-good story about how a young mind improves healthcare. If you stay till the end you will see the connection to Israeli - Palestinian relations.