5 Youth-Led Climate Justice Groups Helping to Save the Environment
“We take on a radical stance."
BY MAIA WIKLER
MARCH 28, 2019
DUSTIN WERO
We’ve seen youth rising to the call and become climate activists over the last year, and that’s largely in part because the stakes have never been higher.
Young people around the world are demanding urgent action to address the ongoing climate change crisis, and are ramping up efforts. Greta Thunberg’s call to action at the United Nations climate change summit, which led to a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, Sunrise pushing forward the Green New Deal, and the ongoing school strikes around the world — including one held on March 15 — have continued to show this generation’s commitment to the cause.
These visionary leaders are creating radical change, fast. Hope not only exists in their bold and unapologetic approach but also in the sheer size of this generation. The Pew Research Center projected that millennials are set to surpass baby boomers in population size in 2019 and represent nearly 40% of the electorate by 2020, according to Center for American Progress.
To honor their efforts, Teen Vogue spoke with five youth-led climate justice groups for a glimpse into the many ways young people can get involved.
1. SustainUS
While politicians congratulate themselves for addressing the climate crisis with the Paris Climate Agreements, the fossil industry is still able to wield access and power in the negotiating spaces at the UN. Through symbolic and direct actions, SustainUS brings youth to international negotiations to dismantle the political elite’s narrative and demand stronger, urgent action.
Most recently, SustainUS sent youth delegates to the World Bank meetings in Bali, Indonesia to speak out on fossil fuel corruption. In 2017, the group organized an action that went viral when youth delegates disrupted the White House panel promoting fossil fuels at the UN climate change conference in Bonn, Germany.
Daniel Jubelirer, COP24 delegation leader for the annual United Nations climate conference, spoke to Teen Vogue about the key strategy and role of SustainUS. “We wield storytelling as a weapon against complacency. We are bringing young people who have a lot of lived experience with injustice from climate impacts and racial injustice,” he said.
Phillip Brown, a 20 year-old queer immigrant from Jamaica and SustainUS COP24 youth delegate tells Teen Vogue, “My presence there was a tangible form of reparation in the sense that black and brown people don’t have the resources to make it into these spaces, even though we are some of the most impacted by climate crises. By showing up in these international spaces, I am reclaiming what’s been taken from us for centuries, our right to take up space and voice our demands for solutions that center the needs of our most vulnerable communities.”
2. Those leading lawsuits in defense of the climate
Youth around the world are using litigation to hold governments accountable to stop climate change and address environmental injustice.
In the U.S., 21 young plaintiffs are suing the U.S. government for violating constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property by allowing and promoting the use of fossil fuels despite knowing they are directly causing the climate crisis.
In Canada, youth recently launched a class action lawsuit in Quebec arguing that the government is violating the rights of young people by failing to take urgent climate action.
“People under 35 will be most affected, we will be here to experience the worst impacts of climate change. It might take 10 years to get a final decision from the court but this lawsuit sends a clear signal to all governments that they need to take climate change seriously,” Catherine Gauthier, executive director of ENvironnement Jeunesse and the representative plaintiff in the case, tells Teen Vogue.
3. Uplift
Vast areas of the Southwest have been dubbed “energy sacrifice zones,” which means millions of acres of federal land are being used and polluted for energy extraction. The Southwest is already experiencing some of the most dire impacts of climate change with massive heat waves, megadroughts and rapidly diminishing water sources. Uplift, an award-winning collective of youth grassroots leaders, is tackling this ongoing crisis.
Brooke Larsen, executive coordinator of Uplift, tells Teen Vogue that the organization is unique because they center voices from the frontlines. “We take on a radical stance,” she says, focusing on colonialism and capitalism as the group builds alliances with different groups in the struggle against climate change.
Uplift strives to be a connective force for the region by organizing an annual 3-day outdoor climate convergence on the Colorado Plateau, training youth leaders in grassroots organizing skills, and using storytelling to amplify marginalized voices across the Southwest. Georgie, a young Hopi woman and Uplift organizer, tells Teen Vogue that her community’s core values are “from the Earth in reciprocity, respect.”
“I grew up with that way of living. Here in Hopi, we have Peabody Coal. There is mining, oil, and gas all in our backyards, on our sacred lands. Uplift creates a political space that brings people together from all over the Southwest, connected by the fact that we are all affected one way or another.”
4. University divestment campaign organizers
The student-led divestment movement is putting the pressure on academic institutions around the world to uphold their commitment for the interest of the public and greater good by cutting their financial ties with the fossil fuel industry, which they argue is reckless in the face of climate change.
According to Vice, as of May 2018, one hundred and thirty-three schools, including Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge, and Yale, had divested from fossil fuels since the movement began in 2011. Today, educational institutions with previous investments in fossil fuels valuing over $1 trillion have committed to divestment from these industries because of these student-led divestment campaigns.
The success of this movement, however, is not only in the number of divested institutions or the amount of money moved. Just ask Emilia Belliveau, who has a masters in political ecology and is a former divestment organizer at Dalhousie University, and spent three years researching and interviewing the organizers of the movement for fossil fuel divestment on campuses. She tells Teen Vogue, “That perspective doesn’t acknowledge the social impacts of fossil fuel divestment as a movement. This movement has empowered thousands of young people around the world to be skilled community organizers with an understanding of climate change that challenges systemic power and inequity.”
“[Universities are] still engaging in colonialism in this era of reconciliation,” Sadie-Phoenix, two-spirit grassroots organizer and community advocate who led the divestment campaign at the University of Winnipeg, tells Teen Vogue. “Educational institutions have a responsibility to move forward with reconciliation after the history of residential schools. It can’t do that when it's actively colonizing by failing to address climate change and threatening land and water. Infrastructure that’s gold LED standard is greenwashing when it’s funded by oil companies. Divestment is a way to uphold reconciliation.”
To learn more about starting a divestment campaign at your school, click here.
5. Sunrise
Sunrise is redefining youth activism in the U.S. with the meteoric rise of their movement to make supporting the Green New Deal a mainstream position . Teaming up with the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, 29 year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sunrise and the Green New Deal want to transition the U.S. to a hundred percent renewable energy by 2030.
Varshini Prakash, co-founder of Sunrise tells Teen Vogue that the group is led by young people. “Everyone who launched Sunrise was under 26 at that time. For the first year before we launched, it was just a few of us — about 12 people and we had no idea that it would become this large of a movement.”
Now, nearly two years later, Sunrise boasts thousands of members and trained youth activists across the U.S. “We are combining protest organizing and electoral organizing together into one strategy which is pretty unique, as opposed to many other groups who talk about it from the perspective of what we can get from our existing political reality,” Varshini says.
“The millennial generation is not starting from a place of what is politically feasible in this moment, youth are pushing to stretch the imagination of what is possible.”
Related: People of Color Deserve Credit for Their World to Save the Environment
Stuff Happens to the Environment, Like Climate Change
By Thomas L. Friedman Oct. 7, 2015
An article about the environment in plain talk on a complex issue. - Quick conclusions:
"This is what will greet the next president — a resilient planet that could once absorb our excesses at seemingly no cost to us, suddenly tipping into a saturated planet, sending us “daily invoices” that will get bigger each year. When nature goes against you, watch out.
“For the first time, we need to be clever,” says Rockstrom, “and rise to a crisis before it happens,” before we cross nature’s tipping points. Later will be too late. We elect a president who ignores this science at our peril."
With both China and India having just announced major plans to curb their carbon emissions, the sound you hear is a tipping point tipping. Heading into the United Nations climate summit meeting in Paris in December, all the world’s largest industrial economies are now taking climate change more seriously. This includes the United States — except for some of the knuckleheads running to be our next president, which is not a small problem.
When, at CNN’s G.O.P. presidential debate, the moderator Jake Tapper read statements from Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state George Shultz (who drives an electric car powered by solar panels on his home’s roof) about how Reagan urged industry to proactively address ozone depletion, and why Shultz believes we should be just as proactive today in dealing with climate change, he got the usual know-nothing responses.
Senator Marco Rubio said, “We’re not going to destroy our economy the way the left-wing government that we are under now wants to do,” while Gov. Chris Christie opined of Shultz, “Listen, everybody makes a mistake every once in a while.”
They sure do, and it’s not Shultz, who has been wisely and courageously telling Republicans that the conservative thing to do now is to take out some insurance against climate change, because if it really gets rocking the results could be “catastrophic.” Hurricane Sandy — likely amplified by warmer ocean waters — caused over $36 billion in damage to Christie’s own state, New Jersey, in 2012.
But hey, stuff just happens.
There was a time when we could tolerate this kind of dumb-as-we-wanna-be thinking. But it’s over. The next eight years will be critical for the world’s climate and ecosystems, and if you vote for a climate skeptic for president, you’d better talk to your kids first, because you will have to answer to them later.
If you have time to read one book on this subject, I highly recommend the new “Big World, Small Planet,” by Johan Rockstrom, director of the Stockholm Resilience Center, and Mattias Klum, whose stunning photographs of ecosystem disruptions reinforce the urgency of the moment.
Rockstrom begins his argument with a reminder that for most of the earth’s 4.5-billion-year history its climate was not very hospitable to human beings, as it oscillated between “punishing ice ages and lush warm periods” that locked humanity into seminomadic lifestyles.
It’s only been in the last 10,000 years that we have enjoyed the stable climate conditions allowing civilizations to develop based on agriculture that could support towns and cities. This period, known as the Holocene, was an “almost miraculously stable and warm interglacial equilibrium, which is the only state of the planet we know for sure can support the modern world as we know it.” It finally gave us “a stable equilibrium of forests, savannahs, coral reefs, grasslands, fish, mammals, bacteria, air quality, ice cover, temperature, fresh water availability and productive soils.”
It “is our Eden,” Rockstrom added, and now “we are threatening to push earth out of this sweet spot,” starting in the mid-1950s, when the Industrial Revolution reached most of the rest of the globe and populations and middle classes exploded. That triggered “the great acceleration” of industrial and farming growth, which has put all of earth’s ecosystems under stress. The impacts now are obvious: “climate change, chemical pollution, air pollution, land and water degradation … and the massive loss of species and habitats.”
The good news is that in this period many more of the world’s have-nots have escaped from poverty. They’ve joined the party. The bad news, says Rockstrom, is that “the old party” cannot go on as it did. The earth is very good at finding ways to adapt to stress: oceans and forest absorb the extra CO2; ecosystems like the Amazon adapt to deforestation and still provide rain and fresh water; the Arctic ice shrinks but does not disappear. But eventually we can exhaust the planet’s adaptive capacities.
We’re sitting on these planetary boundaries right now, argues Rockstrom, and if these systems flip from one stable state to another — if the Amazon tips into a savannah, if the Arctic loses its ice cover and instead of reflecting the sun’s rays starts absorbing them in water, if the glaciers all melt and cannot feed the rivers — nature will be fine, but we will not be.
“The planet has demonstrated an impressive capacity to maintain its balance, using every trick in its bag to stay in the current state,” explains Rockstrom. But there are more and more signs that we may have reached a saturation point. Forests show the first signs of absorbing less carbon. The oceans are rapidly acidifying as they absorb more CO2, harming fish and coral. Global average temperatures keep rising.
This is what will greet the next president — a resilient planet that could once absorb our excesses at seemingly no cost to us, suddenly tipping into a saturated planet, sending us “daily invoices” that will get bigger each year. When nature goes against you, watch out.
“For the first time, we need to be clever,” says Rockstrom, “and rise to a crisis before it happens,” before we cross nature’s tipping points. Later will be too late. We elect a president who ignores this science at our peril.
A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 7, 2015, Section A, Page 27 of the New York edition with the headline: Stuff Happens.
Cittakshana
from Hindu Sanskrit - A Thought Instant
from Zen & Buddhism - one consciousness moment
from me - Inner Fire & Tasting Spiritual Nectar
A taste of sweetness
Never tasted before,
Simply words, soundless words
This nectar, heavenly in origin
And blissfully sweet
In spirit
Born of wonderous creativity within life,
and heaven’s starred awestruck beauty
yet birthed of spirit seeded words
It is a moment of the inner fire
Of ever-expanding life,
Of heart bursting
Amidst the flowers’ skyward borne splendid colored fireworks across the earth’s myriad fields
Words,
Of hopes and dreams,
Yearning ever for the miraculous growth of spring being reborn
And “touch”
Reaching, Reaching - ever to touch
Another’s spirit or soul
To connect
To be within the greater whole
And the Being of All
To one with creation and life
Among the carves of the
rich purple, I met you.
There my appetite was
Sated of anything but only you who I crave for, I felt I was going
to smell miraculous fragrance that could settle down the advanced level of my smattered thoughts of you.
but I turned round and round
I found neither flowers nor
bottles of perfumes, I smelt them
Jasmine, I saw them as a ripe plant
entangling on my shoulder.
I just remembered when the call
called for prayers, I knew it was
your sweat resembling a sweet sugar
cold bubbles lemonade refreshing
on poor people that hard life
dried their crack of misery and pale.
I carefully chiseled out your name on an eternal sand with much love .
©®Marwa Gally
4/7/21
Spirituality and Consciousness
I am very passionate about spirituality, and I write extensively about the myriad of aspects and diverse views. Spirituality and the inter-connections with consciousness is such as complex question, that I could write for the rest of this lifetime and several additional lifetimes and still not be done. I write about a number of different aspects of spirituality as well as the metaphysical and mystical dimensions of human consciousness and the Divine Transcendent. The following abbreviated catalogue of some of my essays should convey the focus and gist of my writing, which looks longer than it really is because I have very lengthy titles.
Of over 68 essays on the spirittruthandmeaning site, here are some of those essays,
(1) “Art II - Myth, Mystery, Creativity, Imagination, and Meaning….” is a very popular essay, as well as
(2) “The Body-Mind-Spirit Paradigm - From Roots in Hunter-Gatherer Spiritual Beliefs to New Age Medicine & Spirituality, Mindfulness, Neuroscience & Contemporary Spiritual & Christian Leaders” and
(3) “Prophecy, Madness, the Holy Spirit - St. Joan of Arc, the Contemporary White Rider of Revelations, Prophets, and Assassins: Is Hearing Voices - Translating Political and Social Signals and Perception” and
(4) "Spiritual-Psychic Experiences, People, the Parietal Complex and Neuroscience, & the Distress Factor - Circumstances of Grieving, Depression, Recovering Addicts, Autistics, NF Personalities" Another popular essay is
(5) “May the Force Be with You! Bargh: "Genes primarily drive our behavior through motivations" - Furlotti: "Affect [motivation] emerges from archetypes - a priori principles of nature, the world, [& mind]!” Then there is:
(6) “Understanding the Dimensions in Meanings in Life & Grasping Processes -& Envisioning (LOA and psycho-cybernetics) - Insights by "Greats" - Jung, Frankl, Geertz, Dr. Wong, Steger….” and
(7) “Chaos Theory Linked to Jungian Synchronicity Theory, The Meaning of Life - The Number 42, - w/ a review of Meaning: Viktor Frankl, Dr. Paul Wong, Crystal Park, Self-Organizing Collective Consciousness”
Perspective and Approach
“Embracing divergent perspectives…is a key to understanding reality!”
- Physicist Frank Walczak
Perspective – and “attitude” as Frankl emphasized - are vital in all human endeavor and social affairs, but that attitude of open-ended acceptance and tolerance is absolutely necessary and essential in spiritual and religious beliefs and spirituality which of all activities and beliefs has the most variance and divergence. The Physicist Frank Walczak, echoing the physicist Wolfgang Pauli’s statement that “although [particle physics] allows for an acausal form of observation, it actually has no use for the concept of ‘meaning’!” observed that "To do full justice to reality, we must engage it from different perspectives. That is the philosophical principle of complementarity. It is a lesson in humility that quantum theory forces to our attention Complementarity is both a feature of physical reality and a lesson in wisdom. You have to view the world in different ways to do it justice, and the different ways can each be very rich, can each be internally consistent, can each have its own language and rules. But they may be mutually incompatible — and to do full justice to reality, you have to take both of them into account.
Personal Perspective: Documented Spiritual-Psychic Experiences
William James: Spiritual Experiences Create and Shape a Sense of Reality
Not all that surprisingly, a lot of my personal interest stems from a number of personal spiritual-psychic experiences -which I confess occur somewhat haphazardly, though there is a definite and readily apparent consistency of being reflections of political perceptions - more precisely, most often as perceptions of threats to the group. My first real spiritual-psychic precognitive experience happened on October 18, 1981. My "Mustard Seed" or "What a nightmare" notarized (with a FOIPA stamp on it) is an exceptionally detailed and very spiritual precognitive transcendental experience-warning. Some of the details in the precognitive stream of consciousness which turned out to be accurate are: group, fabricating bombs, money, woman, 22 were assembled, New York, death, as well as the title "What a nightmare" matching the weathermen terrorist manifesto. As happens with a number of others who have spiritual-psychic experiences, put me on the path of a spiritual quest.
Since then, I have had a mixed bag of spiritual-psychic experiences, perhaps as many as thirty mostly verbal and rather inconsequential spiritual-psychic experiences. Of those, ten or so spiritual-psychic experiences are documented precognitive dreams and perceptions.
What might surprise many, is that I, personally, do not identify with being “psychic” and though as a result of my experiences I concluded that there is a transcendental Intelligence [God]. That being said, I personally believe it is rather presumptuous to talk about God since, in the end, I - nor anyone else - as St. Augustine and St Gregory of Nyssa pointed out - really "knows" God in any realistic way! Furthermore, even though I have had "transcendental spiritual -psychic" experiences, I, personally, do not identify in an absolute way with a Transcendental Spirit or Force in any other-worldly sense.
Spirituality as Drive, Life-Force and Creativity
Manifested in Spiritual and Biblical Leaders
Rather, I personally view spirit and spirituality as working through human consciousness – as well as through peoples' spirit and view them in terms of Creativity-Imagination, Drive & Life-Force. Personally, I love poets and artists. I have a poetry page on the website here, in which I post others' poems, as well as some of my own on my FB Home page as well. I identify with the spirituality of artists since my writing - and consciousness - tends to center on creativity, imagination, and innovation. Historically there are tons of evidence that supports a direct connection between creativity and spirituality. (poetry page = https://www.spirittruthandmeaning.com/poems)
First off, in the Bible - or Torah - there are plentiful sources fo creativity in the form of poetry. The Torah preserves several lengthy poems, including the Testament of Jacob (Gen. 49:2–27), the Song of the Sea (Ex. 15:1–18), the Song of Moses (Deut. 32), and Moses' Blessing (Deut. 33). We also find a number of shorter poetic compositions or fragments, such as the Song of Lamech (Gen. 4:23–24), Miriam's Song at the Sea (Ex. 15:21), the Song of the Ark (Num. 10:35–36); the Song at the Well (Num. 21:17–18), the Victory Song over Moab (Num. 21:27–30), and the Oracles of Balaam (Num. 23:7–10, 18–24; 24:3–9, 15–24). In some instances, often in the course of a dialogue, a few poetic verses interrupt the surrounding prose narrative, as when the man names the woman (Gen. 2:23), God speaks to Cain (Gen. 4:6–7), or Rebekah's family bids her farewell (Gen. 24:60).(Virtual Jewish Library: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/poetry#The_Presence_of_Poetry_in_the_Tanakh_An_Overview)
Historically - there is an abundance of spiritual leaders throughout the diverse and different cultures of the world in all religions have expressed their spirituality in creative poetry: St. Teresa of Avila, Hildegard of Bingen, Angelus of Silesius, Mother Teresa, Thomas Merton, Therese of Lisieux, Hadewijch of Antwerp, Mother Julian of Norwich, St. John the Cross, Therese of Lisieux, St. Catherine of Siena, Meister Eckhart, Mechthild of Magdeburg,.....and Yes, even Pope Joh Paul II. Buddha - or Bodidharma - was a poet as well as many Zen Masters such as Dogen, Ryoken, Huang Po, Thich Nhat Hanh, and many others. Rumi is probably the best known Sufi poet but the Poet-Seer website lists 13 other Sufi poet-seers including Ibn Arabi, and Al Hallaj. Confucius, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Wu Men, Wang Wei were some of the Chinese spiritual leaders who used the creation medium of poetry to convey their ideas. om Hindu spiritual leaders who expressed their creativity in poetry were: Kalidasa, Kamalakanta, Kanakadasa, Mahadevi, Ramprasad, Sri Chaitanya, and Swami Satchidananda! The bottom line is that historically the abundant evidence clearly indicates that there is a connection between spirituality and creativity.
Also, partly as a result of long years (decades actually) of intense questioning and doubts I do believe that the Mustard Seed spiritual-psychic experiences is an expression of the Holy Spirit and that the Holy spirit is real – and in my view integrated to some extent or another in the Collective Consciousness. Lastly when I came across Christ’s statement in John 23 “Yet a time is coming……….. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The concepts of “Spirt and truth” can embrace in one way or another just about any ideology, for the record. I should probably begin with the most recent spiritual-psychic experience in an email sent to FBI agent McElwee.
Nashville Bombing Warning Emailed to FBI on 10-30-20
I should briefly overview some of my personal spiritual-psychic experiences and I should probably begin with the most recent spiritual-psychic experience in an email sent to FBI agent McElwee. My most recent Precognitive Warning to FBI in an email on 10-30-20 foreshadowed the Nashville Bombing which occurred on 12-25-2020.
In a mini-stream of consciousness an email precognitive warning to FBI agent McElwee on 10-30-20: "terrorism - domestic - and specifically bombs....My senses are tingling, as it were, and red lights are flashing [metaphorically speaking] and I feel that there is something up that may turn out to be important... Of course, "What a nightmare" [1981 warning] symbolizes terrorism - domestic - and specifically bombs" (<charlie.peckjr@comcast.net> To: "mvmcelwee@fbi.gov Date: 10/30/2020)
1, Article "FBI: Nashville bomber driven by conspiracies, paranoia" by Eric Tucker and Michael Balsamo (Associated Press) To the best of my recollection, this is the first time the FBI has publicly stated that, in essence they have no idea why Warner did what he did.
"The man who blew himself up in a Christmas Day bombing in downtown Nashville was grappling with feelings of paranoia and eccentric conspiracy theories before the explosion but did not appear to be motivated by political ideology. ....Though the blast damaged dozens of buildings, it took place early on a holiday morning well before downtown streets would be bustling with activity and was preceded by a recorded announcement warning anyone in the area that a bomb would soon detonate..... [Now = March 15, 2021] Nearly three months after the explosion, the blast site still remains closed off to traffic and Nashville’s bustling tourists. Boarded-up windows now decorate the Civil War-era buildings along the historic Second Avenue street for several blocks. Chain-link fences line the street while cleanup efforts continue, signaling many more weeks, if not months, of repairs before businesses can start reopening.
FBI spokesperson Joel Siskovic said the investigation found no indication that AT&T had anything to do with Warner's selection of the location. The FBI statement also said the investigation concluded that Warner's actions were not related to terrorism. The [FBI] report found that Warner was driven in part by his longtime beliefs in several “eccentric” conspiracy theories and paranoia, as well as “the loss of stabilizing anchors and deteriorating interpersonal relationships.” (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/fbi-nashville-bomber-driven-conspiracies-paranoia-76468250)
2. FBI report: FBI Memphis Public Affairs Officer Elizabeth Clement Webb March 15, 2021
FBI Releases Report on Nashville Bombing
Based on analysis of the information and evidence gathered throughout the investigation, the FBI assesses Warner’s detonation of the improvised explosive device was an intentional act in an effort to end his own life, driven in part by a totality of life stressors – including paranoia, long-held individualized beliefs adopted from several eccentric conspiracy theories, and the loss of stabilizing anchors and deteriorating interpersonal relationships.
The FBI assesses Warner specifically chose the location and timing of the bombing so that it would be impactful, while still minimizing the likelihood of causing undue injury. The FBI’s analysis did not reveal indications of a broader ideological motive to use violence to bring about social or political change, nor does it reveal indications of a specific personal grievance focused on individuals or entities in and around the location of the explosion.
"It is important to note that only Warner [Nashville bomber] knows the real reason why he detonated his explosive device. However, at this time, the FBI is confident, based on evidence collected, Warner’s own writings, and interviews with those who knew him best, that the above assessment is accurate."
Questions, Speculation and Perspective on Warner's Motive
What I found most interesting is that Warner blew himself up on Christmas Day - clearly no accident - everything was too well organized and planned. So, Warner must have been making some unconscious "statement" about Christ. There actually could be many different interpretations. One interpretation would be that Warner is saying that Christ doesn't exist anymore !"- or - "Where was Christ when Warner needed him?" Perhaps even it was a quesiton: "Who is Christ anyway?" Clearly a message is that society has effectively "erased" Chrsit - because Warner actually said nothing abtu Christ or Christianity."
3, International Article: Increase in self-radicalised ‘lone wolf’ attackers
An article from Vision of Humanity observed that "Data from the Global Terrorism Index shows the rise of individual, unaffiliated terrorist attackers in the West. More terrorist attacks are being committed at the hands of ‘lone wolf’ attackers in the West, according to the latest Global Terrorism Index."
"Long-term data reveals the proportion of unaffiliated attacks, or attacks committed by individuals unaffiliated to a terrorist group, has risen from under five per cent in the mid-1970s to above 70 per cent for the period between 2014 and 2018."
"The rise reflects two distinct trends: the fall in organised far-left political terrorism, and the increase in far-right mass or spree shootings, usually carried out by an individual who was self-radicalised or radicalised primarily via the Internet, rather than by in-person contact with other far-right individuals or groups." (https://www.visionofhumanity.org/increase-in-self-radicalised-lone-wolf-attackers-2/)
Questions, Patterns, Historical Cycles, and the Collective Consciousness
The derivative - or root - of the word "quest" would be the word "question" - of course. As Flynn, a 55 year old stable married man explained to me, at the age of nine he had a dream - or nightmare - that his mother would be murdered, which unfortunately came true. He has had several other spiritual-psychic experiences, and Flynn emphasized that - to this day he still asks himself the question "Why!" I, and several others are the same. When I first had my pivotal, exceptionally detailed and profoundly spiritual (though it took years to work out) Mustard seed Experience in 1981, as Fraser Watts and J. E. Kennedy observe often happens with first time experiences, I was taken aback. The human brain Must do something with each and every experience that a person has, and I was no exception. For a couple of months I intensely doubted and questioned my experience. In my case I nearly literally drove myself crazy until I realized that my experience - the Absolute Truth [God)] and the Ultimate Physical Reality were far, far beyond my comprehension - and I pretty much shut down the rational-cognitive processes which were desperately trying to resolve what is an unsolvable problem. It crossed my mind once that - Perhaps, from a certain point of view, this was God's way of giving people unsolvable koans as in Zen - such as "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" I mean - heck, it worked for me.
I still question everything and try to at least look at every possible approach or every hypothetical possibility, so I try to figure out how all this Political Intuition-Precognition works, so I am always looking for clues or patterns and so on. In one essay - after studying assassination, I wrote the following essay which explored rudimentary patterns in assassination such as the Garfield's assassin, Guiteau, when - on the face of it - it would appear that both the disgruntled assassin of Garfield as well as president's Garfield's proposed office seeking reform may have been set in motion by a public awareness of the problem as it were. Similarly Hinckley, obsessed with a Hollywood actress tried to assassinate the Hollywood actor President Ronald Reagan. Assuming there is a collective consciousness the powerful archetypes perhaps put into motion by frightening new archetypes of total destruction such as nuclear bombs may have set both parties in motion, as it were.
Then there was President Theodore Roosevelt's attempted assassin Schrank was set into motion by the ghost of President McKinley, a devout capitalist, who had been assassinated by the socialist-anarchist Leon Czolgosz. So the ghost of a devout capitalist leader set in an assassination attempt of the first really progressive President, Theodore Roosevelt. In politics they do say paybacks are hell! But, revenge from beyond the grave - with President McKinley sending his ghost out to set Schrank in motion - that's a bit far fetched. Or is it?? Part of it depends on whether you believe in a collective consciousness or not?
Prophecy, Madness, the Holy Spirit - St. Joan of Arc, the Contemporary White Rider of Revelations, Prophets, and Assassins: Is Hearing Voices - Translating Political and Social Signals and Perception - There is a very fine line between "Illusion & Truth" and "Madness & Divinity" Link: https://www.spirittruthandmeaning.com/prophecy-madness-and-the-holy-spirit-st-joan-of-arc-the-white-rider-of-revelations-prophets-and-assassins-integration-of-processing-of-spiritual-and-political-stimuli
Might Makes Right Historical Cycle: Athens c. 478 BC to America c. 2017
Athenian Debate About the Athenian Attack On Lesbos
Preface: There are times when I go and “do something” and don’t really think it through - until later. Though several artists articulate the point of view that "thinking" disrupts the creative processes, one of these days, that could potentially land me in hot water. When I finally sat down and thought about my Might Makes Right letters, I was a little baffled that I could not remember ever having heard about Lesbos or the Might Makes Right argument. In reviewing the letters, the letter I sent to the French didn't say anything about historically cycles (that was before Haley spoke at the UN I believe)
Being curious, I researched Greek history specifically for the historical situation of Lesbos. Lesbos. When I came across the Athenian debate over what action to take over Lesbos, I found the similarities in world-views of contemporary politicians very remarkable. Trump and some of the Republican leaders are saying exactly the same thing with the same attitude. It’ almost as if the same personality types are recast in a parallel situation in modern day. What makes the Might Makes Right warning truly unique - and remarkable - would be the specific detail on the particular Greek history on Lesbos - because it highlights the "Might Makes Right" arguments used by Athenian politicians by the Athenians. The Might Makes Right worldview and state of mind is a very serious - and violent - real archetypal-ideological force in today's world.
The Delian League was formed in 478 BC as an alliance of city states that numbered over 300 at one point to liberate Greek Cities from the Persians and for mutual defense against the Persians. However, the Delian League degenerated from a mutual alliance into the Athenian Empire after Athens took over the League’s treasury and compelled the city states to pay their dues (in money or ships). The injustice and unfairness of the Athenians in dealing with members of the Delian League must have engendered a large amount of resentment, since major beneficiary was certainly Athens. Pericles launched a massive re-building project of the city, in part funded by the Delian League treasury.
The Athenians consistently bullied, intimidated, and threatened their allies. Naxos rebelled and attempted to secede from the Delian League in c. 467 BCE. Athens response was to attack the island and reduce it to a semi-dependent city state. Later, the island of Thasos which wanted to keep control of its mines and trade centres and tried to gain some independence. The Athenians attacked Thasos and laid siege to the city for three years after which the city finally surrendered. In 428, Mytilene, one of five major cities on the Greek Island of Lesbos revolted against this BCE. After a debate in the Athenian Assembly the revolt was brutally suppressed. Lesbos - except the city of Methymna which had remained loyal - was reduced to the status of a subservient colony. It seems clear that a resurgence of this same mind-set - this Might Makes Right attitude is taking shape in US history right now.
There were, in fact, two armed revolts against the Athenians by their 'allies' who the Athenians had abused horribly. Without question, The Athenians, at that time, had let power got to their heads and had adopted a "Might makes Right" state of mind. It is said that attitude is everything. In the case of the Athenians at that time the Power had become the one and only reality for them. The Delian League was formed in 478 BC as an alliance of city states that numbered over 300 at one point to liberate Greek Cities from the Persians and for mutual defense against the Persians. However, the Delian League degenerated from a mutual alliance into the Athenian Empire after Athens took over the League’s treasury and compelled the city states to pay their dues (in money or ships). The injustice and unfairness of the Athenians in dealing with members of the Delian League must have engendered a large amount of resentment, since major beneficiary was certainly Athens. Pericles launched a massive re-building project of the city, in part funded by the Delian League treasury.
In the annals of Athenian history, Cleon, an Athenian politician, in a debate in the Athenian council about a punitive (and as it turned out bloody) action to be taken against Lesbos, an "ally" of theirs argued, “We are an empire, we are at war, these are the laws you have passed, you need to uphold them or you put the city and empire in jeopardy.” In Plato's book, the Republic, the philosopher Thrasymachus perhaps argued the power position more forcefully: Injustice, if it is on a large enough scale, is stronger, freer, and more masterly than justice' and goes on to state: Justice is nothing but the advantage of the stronger; Justice is obedience to laws; and Justice is nothing but the advantage of another."
Warning Letters to Embassies of Allies March 2017 & Trump’s Abusive Calls to Allies’ Leaders
In letters that I mailed to the embassies of our allies in Mid-March 2017, I stated: "I read an article which said that Trump’s envoy to the United Nations was going to “take names” and dictate terms to the nations of the world. That is an utter disgrace. When it comes down to it, at times, Americans can be downright arrogant. Some Americans think they have all the power and all the answers. The truth of it is Americans don’t even have the right question. History repeats itself and has definite cycles. I believe America is in the cycle of might-makes-right. After the Athenians defeated the Persians they rose to the leadership of the Greek world. They used their power to bully and dictate terms to their allies. The Athenians ended up massacring all the inhabitants of Lesbos on the argument that might-makes-right. Their policies ended up backfiring."
Intelligence Leaks July 30, 2020: The title of an article in the Indy 100, Independent, stated that “Trump accused of 'near-sadistic' bullying of Angela Merkel for 'vicious attacks' in private phone call” The article went on to say How Bernstein of CNN observed that Although Trump "regularly bullied and disparaged" other leaders like Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau and Scott Morrison, his most "vicious attacks" were reserved for women, the report claims. Bernstein quoted one of his sources as calling Trump's phone calls with Merkel and May "near-sadistic".
Some of the things he said to Angela Merkel are just unbelievable: he called her 'stupid,' and accused her of being in the pocket of the Russians. He's toughest with those he looks at as weaklings and weakest with the ones he ought to be tough with. The intelligence leak from foreign intelligence sources led to further revelations such as how Trump called May a “fool” on a phone call which was alter verified by former National Security advisor Bolton in his book. Bolton went on to say how he, former Secretary of State Tillerson, former Defense Secretary General Mattis, as well as another former top national security advisor all agreed that Trump is “delusional” – off his rocker in common parlance. So, it turned out I was right and then some in my letters to allies.
That is Exactly Trump and McConnell's attitudes and beliefs: "Justice is nothing but the advantage of the stronger!" Convicted out of his own mouth, as the impeachment trial was getting ready to get underway at the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stated outright that no one should "expect him to handle President Trump’s impeachment trial as an impartial juror: “I’m not an impartial juror. This is a political process,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday while fielding questions about the upcoming trial. Trump's flagrant and blatant abuse of power has been recently perfectly illustrated by his attempt to destroy the election by hijacking the Post Office. Many seem to think historical cycles is a philosophical theory.
In a word, it is politics -and politics is POWER! McConnell, Paul Rand, Ryan, and Nunes hadn't the slightest intention of being fair or being concerned in the least for right and wrong. So Senator McConnell and the republican senator granted and acquittal for a president who uses National Security as his personal plaything. And what about: Andrew Milburn, a former top Marine officer who denounced President Donald Trump's decision to pull American troops out of Syria amid a Turkish attack on the Kurds, "saying it amounts to a betrayal of allies that will harm U.S. national security." and What about the 300 Former foreign service and Intelligence Officials who condemned Trump's use of the State Department as his personal "toy" or all practical purposes. All the Republican Senators are perfectly fine with that. The republican Senators have accepted and condoned corruption on a scale never seen before in America - all for POWER!
I had gotten contact emails with Senator Van Hollen, Senator Warren, and later Senator Hassan after I sent the allies a letter saying we are in a historical cycle similar to the Athenians after they defeated the Persians and bullied intimidated and threatened their allies - and I sent copies to several senators and congressmen. In late July 2020 leaks from foreign intelligence revealed that Trump had called British PM May a "fool", and German chancellor Merkel, "stupid"
Here is a link which describes that synchronicity: Jungian Acausal Synchronicity, Scarab Beetles, Energized Symbolism, Narratives, & Some Bizarre FBI-Synchronicity! https://www.spirittruthandmeaning.com/carl-jung-synchronicity
Nashville Bombing Warning Emailed to FBI on 10-30-20
I should briefly overview some of my personal spiritual-psychic experiences and I should probably begin with the most recent spiritual-psychic experience in an email sent to FBI agent McElwee. My most recent Precognitive Warning to FBI in an email on 10-30-20 foresaw the Nashville Bombing which occurred on 12-25-2020.
In a mini-stream of consciousness an email precognitive warning to FBI agent McElwee on 10-30-20: "terrorism - domestic - and specifically bombs....My senses are tingling, as it were, and red lights are flashing [metaphorically speaking] and I feel that there is something up that may turn out to be important... Of course, "What a nightmare" [1981 warning] symbolizes terrorism - domestic - and specifically bombs" (<charlie.peckjr@comcast.net> To: "mvmcelwee@fbi.gov Date: 10/30/2020)
1, FBI: Nashville bomber driven by conspiracies, paranoia [article] Eric Tucker and Michael Balsamo (Associated Press) To the best of my recollection, this is the first time the FBI has publicly stated that, in essence they have no idea why Warner did what he did.
"The man who blew himself up in a Christmas Day bombing in downtown Nashville was grappling with feelings of paranoia and eccentric conspiracy theories before the explosion but did not appear to be motivated by political ideology. ....Though the blast damaged dozens of buildings, it took place early on a holiday morning well before downtown streets would be bustling with activity and was preceded by a recorded announcement warning anyone in the area that a bomb would soon detonate..... [Now = March 15, 2021] Nearly three months after the explosion, the blast site still remains closed off to traffic and Nashville’s bustling tourists. Boarded-up windows now decorate the Civil War-era buildings along the historic Second Avenue street for several blocks. Chain-link fences line the street while cleanup efforts continue, signaling many more weeks, if not months, of repairs before businesses can start reopening.
FBI spokesperson Joel Siskovic said the investigation found no indication that AT&T had anything to do with Warner's selection of the location. The FBI statement also said the investigation concluded that Warner's actions were not related to terrorism. The [FBI] report found that Warner was driven in part by his longtime beliefs in several “eccentric” conspiracy theories and paranoia, as well as “the loss of stabilizing anchors and deteriorating interpersonal relationships.” (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/fbi-nashville-bomber-driven-conspiracies-paranoia-76468250)
2. FBI report: FBI Memphis Public Affairs Officer Elizabeth Clement Webb March 15, 2021
FBI Releases Report on Nashville Bombing
Based on analysis of the information and evidence gathered throughout the investigation, the FBI assesses Warner’s detonation of the improvised explosive device was an intentional act in an effort to end his own life, driven in part by a totality of life stressors – including paranoia, long-held individualized beliefs adopted from several eccentric conspiracy theories, and the loss of stabilizing anchors and deteriorating interpersonal relationships.
The FBI assesses Warner specifically chose the location and timing of the bombing so that it would be impactful, while still minimizing the likelihood of causing undue injury. The FBI’s analysis did not reveal indications of a broader ideological motive to use violence to bring about social or political change, nor does it reveal indications of a specific personal grievance focused on individuals or entities in and around the location of the explosion.
It is important to note that only Warner knows the real reason why he detonated his explosive device. However, at this time, the FBI is confident, based on evidence collected, Warner’s own writings, and interviews with those who knew him best, that the above assessment is accurate.
3, International Article: Increase in self-radicalised ‘lone wolf’ attackers
An article from Vision of Humanity observed that "Data from the Global Terrorism Index shows the rise of individual, unaffiliated terrorist attackers in the West. More terrorist attacks are being committed at the hands of ‘lone wolf’ attackers in the West, according to the latest Global Terrorism Index."
"Long-term data reveals the proportion of unaffiliated attacks, or attacks committed by individuals unaffiliated to a terrorist group, has risen from under five per cent in the mid-1970s to above 70 per cent for the period between 2014 and 2018."
"The rise reflects two distinct trends: the fall in organised far-left political terrorism, and the increase in far-right mass or spree shootings, usually carried out by an individual who was self-radicalised or radicalised primarily via the Internet, rather than by in-person contact with other far-right individuals or groups." (https://www.visionofhumanity.org/increase-in-self-radicalised-lone-wolf-attackers-2/)
Patterns and Historical Cycles
I try to figure out how all this Political Intuition-Precognition works, so I am always looking for clues or patterns and so on. In one essay - after studying assassination, I wrote the following essay which explored rudimentary patterns in assassination such as the Garfield's assassin, Guiteau, when - on the face of it - it would appear that both the disgruntled assassin of Garfield as well as president's Garfield's proposed office seeking reform may have been set in motion by a public awareness of the problem as it were. Similarly Hinckley, obsessed with a Hollywood actress tried to assassinate the Hollywood actor President Ronald Reagan. Assuming there is a collective consciousness the powerful archetypes perhaps put into motion by frightening new archetypes of total destruction such as nuclear bombs may have set both parties in motion, as it were.
Then there was President Theodore Roosevelt's attempted assassin Schrank was set into motion by the ghost of President McKinley, a devout capitalist, who had been assassinated by the socialist-anarchist Leon Czolgosz. So the ghost of a devout capitalist leader set in an assassination attempt of the first really progressive President, Theodore Roosevelt. In politics they do say paybacks are hell! But, revenge from beyond the grave - with President McKinley sending his ghost out to set Schrank in motion - that's a bit far fetched. Or is it?? Part of it depends on whether you believe in a collective consciousness or not?
Prophecy, Madness, the Holy Spirit - St. Joan of Arc, the Contemporary White Rider of Revelations, Prophets, and Assassins: Is Hearing Voices - Translating Political and Social Signals and Perception - There is a very fine line between "Illusion & Truth" and "Madness & Divinity" Link: https://www.spirittruthandmeaning.com/prophecy-madness-and-the-holy-spirit-st-joan-of-arc-the-white-rider-of-revelations-prophets-and-assassins-integration-of-processing-of-spiritual-and-political-stimuli