Friday, August 10, 2012

THE GOOD NEWS

The good news out of the recent terrorist attack on those US Sikhs is reading and hearing and watching interviews with and stories about Sikhs and their religion.

I don't know about anyone else but it sounds like the kind of religion that even those of us who are pretty much over organized religion could dig. Especially the idea that the place where the gunman did his horrible deed had four doors for each direction of the compass and always open to anyone, Sikh or not, "American" or not, and that they are taught not just that everyone is equal but that everyone is worthy of respect.

I don't know, if I was younger and still searching for a spiritual path (I have my own now) I certainly would have liked to have spent some time getting to know and understand the Sikh religion. And in fact, I'm going to find their holy book and read it and let you know what I discover there.

It's sad that it took a tragedy to get me to pay closer attention to what Sikhs are about (I have a good old friend who converted and is a Sikh but he lives in L.A. and we never talked a lot about their belief system and practices beyond his dedication to yoga). But the silver lining is that hopefully more of my fellow citizens will now take the time to learn more about the Sikhs and what they believe and practice and maybe even see an example of a religion that is based on tolerance and acceptance and equality and love and be inspired.

25 comments:

JIm said...
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Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Thanks for deleting that inane, irrelevant comment Michael. Semi related to your post is to me the coverage of the Olympics. I really couldn't watch it or follow it on the news because every time I tuned in, it was pure tabloid smut. Such a complete and utter turn off to me, about this one's hair, this one's outfit, disparaging pictures, just disgusting - the nature of the coverage I mean. And it ties in with your post in terms of perceptions of the world and how people choose to see or not see things.

JIm said...

Obama's core belief in his own words.

“I said, I believe in American workers, I believe in this this American industry, and now the American auto industry has come roaring back,” he said. “Now I want to do the same thing with manufacturing jobs, not just in the auto industry, but in every industry. 9 Aug 2012 271 post a comment

RYAN Will rip this socialist a new one!!!!!

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Jim, why don't you do something useful with your life, instead of your infantile, completely non-productive, openly hateful antics? Have you taken an honest look at yourself and your behaviour lately?

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

You mean Ryan, the guy who made all his staffers read Ayn Rand and then completely disassociated himself from her when her scam was no longer politically expedient for him.

JenW said...

In response to the good news…..
A childhood friend of mine was introduced to many religions at a young age. Her parents, wanting to encourage discussion and free thinking, brought them to different places of worship as a family. There were five kids- so lots of discussion. They had a jump start to what many adults do in college and beyond- explore religion and spirituality. I look back now and think what a great gift the parents gave them. Knowledge and awareness are the best tools in fighting racism and fear of different ideas and cultures.
Best wishes Michael, as you read about Guru Nanak.

JIm said...

Robert,
I love the fact that you object to revealing Obama's words that support govt. corporatism and crony capitalism.

As for an honest look at my self, I work in the investment industry and intend to continue in that industry as long as I am verticle. We are sending our twin children off to college at University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. James is studing engineering and Shannon is majoring in biology, with a possible pre med, pre dentistry or etc. Shannon is also made the softball team as a walkon. Loyeen are excited about a possible 4 more years of softball excitement. I plan on enjoying working and supporting my childrem as far they wish to go with their education. I am supporting Romney/Ryan in their attempt to cure the debt crisis and return the US to a growth economy. I have missions in life. What do you have?

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Really? Wanting people to have jobs makes Obama a socialist? If people don't have jobs, who's going to buy products and pay for services of the companies you invest in?

Oh, and wasn't this quote recently noted, from Adam Smith, the "Father of Capitalism"?: It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expence, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion

JIm said...
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JIm said...
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Lally said...

Robert, I appreciate your continued willingness to try and engage the stalker in some sort of dialogue, but he is incapable of getting through most comments without throwing out lies and misinformation etc. I deleted the last one because of that. here's just one example: he accused our president of being responsible for falling car sales for GM and GM sending jobs overseas, when it was actually the opposite. Car sales here were fine it was sales in Europe going down that impacted the GM numbers and in fact they added jobs in the USA that were lost under Bush/Cheney. But my writing this and the facts being what they are will mean nothing to him, just as Obama's being a centrist who would have been welcomed into the Republican Party and the ranks of many who called themselves "conservative" in the 1950s the right so nostalgically harkens back to delusions of. He will continue to call our president a "socialist" (in his more restrained comments, but when he gets too challenged in his beliefs he goes even further). It's tedious, boring, bothersome and way too ignorant to expend even this much energy on.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...
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Robert G. Zuckerman said...
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Robert G. Zuckerman said...

By your own words,Jim, you then admit that President Obama stepped into a disasterous situation created by his predecessor, in which the substantial budget surplus created and left by HIS predecessor was turned into an abysmally downward spiralling defecit, in which a preventable outside terrorist attack occured on our soil (after which GWB personally granted the family of the primary terroristsafe passage out of the U.S.-why was this not huge news and why is he not in jail right now?), in which GWB and DC got us into two "wars" against the will of the people that have become our nation's longest, costliest wars---i repeat,by your own words you admit that Obama did not create the situation we are in right now--as you take issue with his not having fixed it fast enough, all of which evidences your prejudicial, agenda driven opposition to our President.

JIm said...

Robert,
Obama stepped into a situation that was created under Carter, made worse by Clinton, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Bennent of Utah. Greenspan and W tried to cut back on the GSAs in 03 and 04 but was prevented by congress led by Dodd and Frank.

Obama made everthing worse resulting in the worst"recovery" since the Depression.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Oh, so blame Congress for W's failure but not current R majority Congress for any of what's going on today? Typical double standard we've come to expect from you.

JIm said...

Robert,
I would think that you would be aware that Republicans do not control the Senate. November should fix that.

JIm said...
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Robert G. Zuckerman said...
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Robert G. Zuckerman said...

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20120813/f5d4c71a-1f46-46e3-9bbb-82bd33c37e52

Just great - another senseless tragedy because someone who is not equipped mentally or emotionally to possess a gun has one. We really need to clamp down on gun availability in this country and concentrate more on nurturing spirituality and the ability to think things through and talk them out. There is simply no defense, justification or rationalization for the vast and clearly wrong proliferation of gun possession in this country. I know Jim and others will hypocritically attempt to justify all of the madness and sadness associated with gun ownership, but there is zero tolerance for their sinful, lawless, primitive perspective.

JIm said...
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JIm said...
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JIm said...
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Lally said...

I delete lies that perpetuate the mess we're in by keeping the misinformed misinformed and wasting the time and energy of the informed in pointless arguments based on these lies.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Thank you Michael, for doing what you can to keep the airways free of lies, ignorance and mental/spiritual cancer.