Build Peace: It is time for a Women's Rebellion -- The Goddess told me so.

What George told the Palestinians that God told him:

Abu Mazen, Palestinian Prime Minister, and Nabil Shaath, his Foreign Minister, describe their first meeting with President Bush in June 2003.

Nabil Shaath says: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

Abu Mazen was at the same meeting and recounts how President Bush told him: "I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state."

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Corruption is endemic in the military industrial complex. It began in America well before Our Revolution was won. Contractors/vendors misappropriated funds intended for supplies at Valley Forge. Halliburton and Bechtel are nothing new.

It is nice to think that our country was founded on democratic values intended to create freedom and justice for all -- and it was, sort of, the
all
was composed of landed, white males. What our American revolution was against was "the corporation" such as The East Indian Tea company. Our constitution was written to disempower corporate - government collusion against which individuals cannot win. We must bring that essence of our democracy back. The landed white male thing has continued in practice, but... our constitutional amendments have redefined that
all
legally. The commerce clause and the trend to give corporations the right of individual persons are what have gotten us into serious difficulty. The corporation has supplanted the Royal Family and East Indian Tea Company as the oppressor that treats people as simple cogs in the machine.

Women have to finish the revolution our men (of many generations ago) started. Jane asked John to "

Remember the Ladies

." We ladies have finally gotten to the point where we realize we are going remember ourselves. We have to do this not just because it is the right thing to do, it is the only thing to do in the face of the coming global changes that will impact every aspect of our culture and biology.

Lakoff talks about how framing is everything. We're reframing our lens and changing it's myopic focus. All we are going to do is to reassert the Goddess elements of our understanding of the divine and get proportional representation of women in our legislature. We must do this because the rate of deforestation of the world's forests has already taken us beyond the point of no return. Global warming has already taken us beyond the point of no return. A totally different ecosystem than the one our civilization arose within is in the process of creating itself. If we are to exist within the emergent system of life, we must be flexible and willing to find a new balance. Our warring sons of Abraham have shown over the last few millennia that they cannot do this.

Women must assert and impose female sensibility into governance and policy. Look at Robin Raphel and Ann Wright. But it is not enough to trust all women. We have to be careful to not to mistake the exception with the rule. For example -- Hillary Clinton is a hawk. She came up through a male system and learned out "out-male" the good ol boys even though she arose to her current stature by being a strategic partner of a male politician. I'm talking statistics. The 30% rule is not a hard and fast one. Look at Arizona and California for example. This isn't a magic number but it is considered a critical mass. Of course if those 30% are not equal participants in the process and tenure in the old boy network counts for committee assignments there will be less noticeable change than if there was real equality.

Can there be equality when a significant percentage of people believe that God prefers their gender. God is not an animal. God has no gender. People bring their own attributes into interpretation of the divine. I believe in integration not compartmentalization of information and energy. I have never believed that ladies and polite company never speak of sex, politics or religion. Freedom depends on open discussion of everything. I understand the Goddess movement. I see feminine aspects of the divine all around me. I see geo-ecological aspects of the divine all around me. There is a growing movement to integrate feminine, global, and ecological concerns into politics and economics. Makes sense to me. As an anthropologist I know that there are many other aspects of society that are just as important as economics and politics -- take kinship and religion and elevate their place in society and decrease the economic and political. Better yet treat them as interdependent aspects of the humanity that we build with every action, conscious or not. Corporations are not people. Corporations cannot have faith. Corporations should not be controlling politics or economics. We have to bring family, home, food, education, health back into balance as primary concerns of how we organize our society. Men have had their chance and and they choose to focus on politics and economics to the detriment of all the other essential aspects of society. It is necessary to our survival to have women come back into partnership so that they can act with authority and when necessary autonomy. Some say our political system has some hope as elements of a new balance can be found in American today. I hope so.