Category Archives: Uncategorized

Syria activists: Al-Qaeda-linked rebels now control Christian village where residents speak the ancient ‘language of Christ’

Once Upon a Time in Maaloula

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

It was December 2010, slightly after Christmas, that I went to Maaloula as part of a two day stay in pre-war Syria.

The village was nestled up the mountains some 30 minutes away from Damascus. I had no idea what to expect there, other than some difference from the  souks and mosques that their country’s capital had to offer. I should have known that Maaloula would be drastically different – the driver had been talking a language I wasn’t understanding all the way. It was Aramaic.

Once upon a time, the Maaloula I visited was a calm village, part of a calmer and oppressed country. The people there seemed poor. They also seemed especially devout, asking us to take off our shoes as we visited Christian shrines for saints that Christians in Lebanon worshipped. The town’s houses were tightly packed together, haphazardly built, in a way that climbed up the…

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You Can’t Vote in Civil Rights-Boycotting Florida Produced Products For Justice, in the wake of Donald Maison Jr Shooting

Amen

Tess Powell Out Loud

   If you are currently boycotting Florida’s economy by not purchasing their products and services in any state, you’re doing a lot. You are standing up for the principle and the injustice of the genocide of our young men. This country only understands one language, not English, MONEY!! Corporations run this country, especially since Citizen’s United Supreme Court decision gave them the same status as people and they can donate all the money they want to candidates.  Not sure what products are Florida based?Click here. Do it in any state.

  SO VOTING ALONE DOESN’T HELP! EVERY CANDIDATE IS INDEBTED TO SOME CORPORATION OR OTHER. The biggest influence you can have in politics, right now is the much celebrated “non violent civil disobedience” of Dr.King. Hit them where it hurts, in the pockets, then you will see change. Just like back then, it holds true today.

 You can not…

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No U.S. Military Attacks On Syria

Rcooley123's Blog

With the Iraq War an all too recent memory and the war in Afghanistan being further extended as the longest war in US history, President Obama has asked Congress to approve military action against Syria in response to alleged use of chemical weapons by government forces against Syrian civilians. In my opinion, the President should abide by prevailing American public opinion, as well as predominating international preference and rescind his plan to conduct military strikes against Syria at this time. Furthermore, Congress should vote not to authorize such action as requested by the President last weekend.

The American people are tired of seemingly endless and increasingly pointless wars. The memory of the lead-up to the Iraq War is all too fresh in our minds, along with the faulty intelligence (read here “lies”) about the existence of weapons of mass destruction which seemed to have vanished into thin air as soon…

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No regrets, No translation #poetry #children

penned in moon dust

Open the door to the past

look just there

toward the horizon of unfulfilled dreams

can you see her

yes she was the county’s beauty queen

**

the broad young man

in  red and gold

our school’s rising star

making an unbelievable catch

what stories could be told

*

I wanted nothing more

than to save children

average unassuming doctor

where there was no translation

just a need to be helped

with pediatric medicine

*

but beauty queens get old and dye their hair

football stars break a leg

drink beer in a lazy chair

and smart kids with no money

go on any one’s coat tails

to third world countries

*

in the end did it really matter

that she dyed her hair

that he beer cans scattered

that all over the world she flew

offering hugs in languages

she barely knew

Leslie and child

Do you have regrets, something you aspired to…

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West and Russia clash over whether to kill Syrian children with gas or with cruise missiles

Pride's Purge

(satire?)

Britain, France and the US on Thursday tried to pile pressure on an increasingly emboldened Vladimir Putin by producing new evidence which proves that blowing children up on their way to school with cruise missiles is better than gassing them in their beds with lethal sarin nerve gas

The predominantly British claims were based on tests of clothing and soil samples that David Cameron said had been taken from Syria which showed that children who were blown up were much less likely to suffer than children who were suffocated with chemical weapons.

On the first day of G20 summit in St Petersburg – dominated by the conflict between the West and Russia over how Syrian children should be killed – the British prime minister said:

Samples taken from Damascus and tested in the Porton Down laboratory in Britain clearly show that the gassing of children by the Assad regime is considerably worse…

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