Baha'i related news and personal views (disclaimer not an official Bahai site )

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Nelson Evora

a BAHAI gold winner---- Triple Jump World Champion

in Osaka Japan this 27th august 2007

















Image:Osaka07 D3A Nelson Evora - 1.jpg




















Nelson Évora (born April 20, 1984) is a Portuguese athlete who specializes in the triple jump (current world champion) and long jump.

He represented Cape Verde until 2002, when he got Portuguese citizenship. Born in Cote D'Ivoire where his parents had come to live from Cape Verde, Nelson relocated to Portugal when he was five.[1] He still holds the Cape Verdean records in both long jump (7.57 metres) and triple jump (16.15 metres).[2]

He competed in the triple jump in the 2004 Olympics, without progressing from his pool, and finished sixth at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He finished fourth in the triple jump final and sixth in the long jump final at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, having set a Portuguese triple jump record of 17.23 metres during the qualification. At the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships he came in fifth place.

Évora is a member of the Bahá'í Faith.[1]

He currently competes for Benfica

On August 27, 2007 he became the Triple Jump World Champion in the 2007 World Championships in Athletics, in Osaka, Japan, estabilishing his personal best and portuguese national record at 17.74m.[3]

Thursday, August 23, 2007











Baha'i Faith in Egypt

Egypt: ID Cards Vs. Ancient Civilization!

Posted: 22 Aug 2007 04:30 PM CDT


This video clip, entitled "Egypt Tourism Ad" was just published by the Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights on YouTube. It depicts the dilemma of certain citizens of Egypt, such as Baha'is, who are denied their ID cards because of their religious affiliation. Egypt will only allow the entry of one of three religions on the mandated computerized ID card forms, namely: Muslim, Christian or Jewish. If anyone belongs to any other Faith than these three, then the person is denied the ID card. The application form also clearly states that the entry of any false statements will lead to imprisonment and heavy fines. A citizen of Egypt without ID card is considered non-existent and cannot have any rights in his or her own country. All essential services in Egypt mandates the use of ID cards. The lack of such documents in Egypt amounts to Civil Death.

Also see Egyptian identification card controversy at Wikipedia.



The Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights describes itself as follows:

The Muslim network for Baha’i rights is developed by a group of Muslim interfaith activists who believe in tolerance, coexistence and freedom. We created this site to promote human rights, religious freedom and respect within the Arab and Muslim world. We strongly believe that such values should apply it to all people equally regardless of their faith, cultural differences, political stance or nationality. We are making this effort not only as believers of freedom, but also for the sake of a better and more productive society.

In this network, there are a few things that readers should keep in mind:
. The authors are Muslim interfaith activists who are deeply concerned with the treatment of Baha’is within the Middle East.
. We don’t believe in the Baha’i faith, yet we respect those who do. There are minorities within our societies who are practicing Baha’is and for that, their rights are very rarely recognized, simply because of their religious differences. We do not approve of this.
. We created this site to demand that the rights of Baha’i minorities is recognized by not only people, but by law.
. We respectfully demand that all governments within the Arab and Muslim world allow Baha’i citizens to have equal opportunities in all fields and to practice their faith freely without facing any threats or discrimination whatsoever.
. We would like to make the general public of the region be aware of Baha’i human rights abuses in order to take effective action against it. We can only successfully achieve the goals of this website if we move our citizens towards real action, no matter what our religious differences are.
. We are all civilians in need of basic rights, and thus we should join forces regardless of our differences and unite in a celebration of our diversity. Join us in this worthy struggle and make our goals a greater possibility in the name of freedom.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

EGYPT: MUSLIM SUES FOR RIGHT TO CONVERT TO CHRISTIANITY
Christian's attorney facing death threats from Egyptian security police.
Mohammed Hegazy
Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy

ISTANBUL, August 6 (Compass Direct News) – A Muslim convert to Christianity filed suit against Egypt last week for refusing to legally recognize his change of religion, sparking a reactionary lawsuit by Muslim clerics and death threats against his lawyer.

Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy, 24, brought a case against Egypt’s interior ministry on Thursday (August 2) for rejecting his application to replace Islam with Christianity on his personal identification papers.

“I think it is my natural right, to embrace the religion I believe and not to have to have a double personality for me as well as for my wife and my expected baby,” said Hegazy, who converted to Christianity when he was 16.

Though Egyptian law does not forbid conversion from Islam to Christianity, it provides no legal means to make the change. Converts to Christianity usually hide their identity to avoid torture and forced recantation at the hands of family members and security police.

Hegazy, whose wife Zeinab is four months pregnant, said that he wants his child to be born with Christian papers. The couple, who were forced to hold an Islamic wedding ceremony because of their legal status as Muslims, know that a Christian ID card will allow their child to take Christian religion classes in school, marry in a church and even openly attend services without fear of harassment.

Mamdouh Nakhla of the Kalema Center for Human Rights has taken Hegazy’s case, telling Compass from Cairo today that the lawsuit has caused him “big problems.”

Several Muslim clerics and lawyers headed up by Sheikh Youssef el-Badry have opened a case against the lawyer on charges of causing sectarian strife and baptizing Muslims.

A source close to Nakhla told Compass that Egypt’s security police, the State Security Investigation (SSI), called the lawyer to tell him to withdraw the case or he may be killed.

“This is the first such case in the history of Egyptian justice,” Nakhla told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday (August 2).

Legal conversion from Christianity to Islam occurs regularly in Egypt – 7,000 Christians joined Islam between 2000 and 2006, according to a statement last year by Egypt’s top Muslim cleric, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Muhammad Sayed Tantawi.

But conversion from Islam to another religion is impossible under Egyptian law.

“As long as Article 2 of the constitution remains unchanged, Christians, Jews and Bahai, anyone who is not Muslim, will be at a disadvantage,” Helmy Guirguis of the UK Copts Association told Compass from London today.

Article 2 of the Egyptian constitution designates sharia, or Islamic law, as the basis for Egyptian law.

Under most mainstream interpretations of sharia in Egypt, apostasy is a punishable offense.

Last month Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, a leading Egyptian cleric, backed down from earlier statements that Muslims should be free to choose a religion other than Islam.

Gomaa had written in a Washington Post-Newsweek online forum that leaving Islam was a sin punishable by God, but that the act warranted no worldly punishment, AFP reported. The news agency later published a clarification from Gomaa’s office stating that apostasy was subversion and therefore merited punishment.

In recent years, however, dozens of Copts who converted to Islam and later wished to return to their original faith have filed successful cases to have their legal status changed. Nakhla is one of several lawyers currently defending a group of Copts whose case is to be heard by Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court on September 1.

Unprecedented Challenge

Hegazy, a native of Port Said, is the first Muslim-by-birth to openly challenge the government’s restriction of conversion away from Islam.

“I believe there are thousands of converts,” said Hegazy, indicating that he had attended large meetings and conferences of converts from Islam to Christianity.

Addressing this group, he said, “Get out of your ghetto and establish organizations to speak for yourselves and defend your rights. The answer is not to escape or to leave the country, but to fight and struggle for our rights here in our own country.”

In an interview, Hegazy called on the government to recognize the existence of converts and completely cancel the religion clause from national identification cards.

Jailed and tortured in 2002 when police discovered his conversion, Hegazy said that he was not optimistic about winning the case.

“Martyrdom would be much better than being jailed under such a radical and fundamentalist authority,” he said.

The convert has published a small book of 31 poems called Sherine’s Laugh. In one poem, he recalled mistreatment at the hands of Ashraf Ma’alouf, an SSI officer who reportedly tortured him for his conversion to Christianity.

Last month, Egyptian police in Alexandria brutally tortured Shaymaa Muhammad al-Sayed, a Muslim woman who had converted to Christianity. They then handed her over to her Islamist family, who beat her behind the police station and are now keeping her in their home.

In April, security officials released another convert to Christianity, Bahaa el-Akkad, who had been jailed without charges for two years.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007



Be cool. Be religious. Yes, you can watch MTV and still have morals.

Some music professionals in Los Angeles - all of them Baha'is and all knee-deep or more in the entertainment industry - have come out with what one recording artist terms a "straight-up Baha'i album."

The group calls itself the Dawnbreaker Collective, the album is named "Arise," and the music is, well, cool.

Rap, rock, funk, R&B, spoken-word - all are represented.

"Come talk with Me, speak heavenly, remember Me, O son of Spirit," sings Tara Ellis on one of the hip-hop tracks. She has recorded with rap star Eve and with Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas fame, and is unapologetic about her current contribution to a religious record.

"This was an incredible project to part of," she says. "It's different to the stuff that most of us do because this is a straight-up Baha'i album. It's us being Baha'is and doing what we love. ...

"It's the sound of our times but in a good way."

Benny Cassette - he's a hip-hopper and producer who has worked with Mos Def, Willie Nelson, Eve, and Akon, and is slated to release a solo album on Universal Records - says the idea is to talk religion with young people in a language they understand.

He and the other artists - 17 of them altogether - wanted to "create something that Baha'i kids can listen to as easily as they listen to some of the other popular music out there."

View a larger version
Rey Luna and Tara Ellis perform at the Los Angeles Baha'i Center.

"You know," he says, "they look up to the people they see on MTV and things. So what we are trying to do with this album is show them that there are people who work with the MTVs of the world but still hold to our values - which they can do, too."

Hundreds of Web messages from the U.S. and around the world suggest that Benny and company are on the right track.

"I just discovered your music," writes a woman named Sandra from Cameroon. "Really, I didn't imagine rap could be so inspiring."

From Dorina in Germany: "I like this special new style of performing Baha'i themes. Do you know what important work you are doing?"

Part of the album's new style is the way sacred scripture is used.

"This album has introduced the world to a different way of treating the (Baha'i) writings," says Vahid Brooks, one the featured artists. "We are not being disrespectful or anything. All we are doing is using the writings in a language that makes sense to us and the people we live with."

Benny Cassette says that although the album is inspired by the Baha'i Faith, "we are trying to make music for the world. ... Ultimately we want to create a doorway for people to access the Faith."

View a larger version
Andy Grammer is one of 17 artists who performs on "Arise" by the Dawnbreaker Collective.

The songs on "Arise" are not really scripture set to music, explains Jamie Lewis, manager of the Dawnbreaker Collective.

"It's more a vibe or a feeling," he says. "The album was created by the artists praying and deepening together and then going off and writing the songs."

Love for their religion is what led the artists to make the album, adds Benny.

"I can remember thinking to myself that I will not be happy having any song on this album that I couldn't see myself sitting down and listening to with 'Abdu'l-Baha," he says. 'Abdu'l-Baha was the son of the founder of the Baha'i Faith, and Baha'is look to him as the best example of how to live.

"The arts are extremely powerful," says Michael Mathenge, a member of the Dawnbreaker Collective who goes by the name Mathai. "They can inspire, and they can motivate anyone if they are used in the right way. This is what we are trying to do."

According to the album cover, the Dawnbreaker Collective - in addition to Benny Cassette, Tara Ellis, Vahid Brooks, and Mathai - includes Jamey Heath, Jason Greene, Robert Sinclair, Jamal DeGruy, Ruth Foreman, Allison Anastasio, Rance, Dorothy Dixon, Devon Gundry, Andy Grammer, Rey Luna, Fondi Dixon and John Barnes the 3rd. Oscar DeGruy makes a guest appearance.

The album can be purchased online at http://www.dawnbreakercollective.com/ and through iTunes, and it is increasingly available internationally at outlets where Baha'i books and materials are sold.

a student blog

Source: A student's blog

Since 1979, the government of Iran has systematically sought to deprive its largest religious minority of the right to a full education. Specifically, the Islamic Republic of Iran has for more than 25 years blocked the 300,000-member Bahá’í community from higher education, refusing young Bahá’ís entry into university and college.

Eventually, in response to an international outcry over this oppressive behavior, the government officially announced in late 2005 that it would drop the declaration of religious affiliation on the application for the national university entrance examination. Consequently, the Bahá’í students could take the examination in 2004 and 2005. Yet, later in the admission procedure, Bahá’í youth were passed over and not accepted.

In 2006, for the first time in 29 years, more than 200 Bahá’í students could enter national universities. However, from the very beginning of the school year, gradually most of these students were expelled according to a previously planned strategy.

This year (2007), however the government has employed a new tactic. Most Bahá’í students have not yet received their test report cards. Not receiving their results, they are now even unaware of their scores and the fact that whether they have passed the test or not.

According to the web site of the national Educational Measurement and Evaluation Organization (EMEO), 800 Bahai students whose report cards are not issued lack enough documentation. Contact have been made with those officials in charge; nevertheless, no reasonable answer was given. Right now, the Bahá’í students who have not been informed of their exam results face an unclear situation

When I was a child, I talked about my dreams with my mother. One day I wanted to be a teacher; the other day; a scientist or a physician. My mother would look at me and tell me "try to love everybody. Whatever you become, try to help others."

So, seven years ago when I decided to become a physician, I was sure that I would treat my patients with love. Days have passed and I have learnt a lot. At first, the dream of becoming a physician was the most real and beautiful dream of my life. However, later I got to know my mother who was denied to finish the final semester of her studies at university. I saw my brothers who could not even take the entrance exam of national university.

Then, one day I heard the hopeful voice of one my friends who had a new story for me. He told me of his courses, of the entrance exam that he was going to take, and of the test preparation classes. He shared his dreams, hopes, worries and fears with me. I felt his excitement. I felt his preoccupation and anxiety. However, I was happy that being a Bahai is not any more an obstacle for continuing our education.

Today, my friend called and talked in a voice that showed no trace of that anxiety. He told me of his report card which has not been issued, and of his result which is not clear. He told me of the answers which were not given to him. He told me of his more-than-ever-strong determination to revitalize his Country- Iran.

I cried. I cried to the extent that no tears remained for me to shed. I cried but not because of my mother who could not fulfill her dream; not because of my brothers who did not envy their non- Bahai friends even for a second; not because of my friend who was deprived of continuing his education, not even because of myself and my lost dream of becoming a physician. I cried only because I still remembered that day in my childhood when I had promised my mother to love everybody. It was only then that I understodd why I made such a promise in the prime of my dreams. I cried, and I feared that I might not keep my promise.

But weren't these people who I try to love once children? Haven't they promised their mothers to love me?

the little bahai hero

Here is the story of what happened:
The director of the Public School "Luis Demetrio
Reyes" in the suburbs of the city Merida Yucatan wanted to have a
different spring festival this year so he asked the teachers to put in contest a song to be sung by all pupils
on March 21.

The teachers for their part took the news to the class rooms and asked
the children to present any song related to the advent of spring.

To the director's surprise none of the 200 students in the school knew any song but a little girl called Geisy (pronounce Haysee).

The teacher took her to the director's office and introduced her.

"How old are you?" "11 she said."Can you sing the spring song that you know?
She started to chant a song she had learned in the Baha'i children classes:

Se acerca la primavera

Tiempo para un festival
Con amigos y la familia
El regocijo ideal

Gracias a Baha'u'llah, Gracias al Señor

Por Ayyam i há, el festival de amor
Ayyam i há regalo del Señor

Agradecidos y contentos, Celebremos con amor

Ayyam i há el festival de amor.....

Translation goes like this:Spring is approaching; it is time for a festival

With friends and family, it is the perfect joy

Thanks to Bahá'u'lláh, thanks to the Lord for the Ayyam I há, the
festival of love Ayyam I há, the gift of God
Grateful and content, we celebrate with love Ayyam I há is the festival
of Love

…. …………Ã

¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦

The director remained astonished of the girl's performance and asked if the school could use the song in the Spring party,and if her parents would
let them sing it.

She replied that they would love it, but it had to be sung as it was,
with no modifications in it, and they agreed. He further asked what the
meanings were of Bahá'u'lláh and Ayyam I há, and she explained it as she had learned it in the Bahá'àclasses.

He then had the teachers write down the lyrics on the black boards and
have the children in the entire school rehearse it and learn in by heart. It took them a couple of days to learn it all and on March 21. there were 200 young souls chanted it aloud and intoned it so that the sweetness of its
melody would surely scatter the fragrance of the words unto every soul.

Geisy did not know that she was being the means of this transformation
that might not give fruits in the short run, but she has surely kindled a
fire that sooner or later would reach unbounded realms.

Every one at school now knows about the Faith.
She has now turned into a little Bahá'àhero
in Merida.

the little bahai hero

Here is the story of what happened:
The director of the Public School "Luis Demetrio
Reyes" in the suburbs of the city Merida Yucatan wanted to have a
different spring festival this year so he asked the teachers to put in contest a song to be sung by all pupils
on March 21.

The teachers for their part took the news to the class rooms and asked
the children to present any song related to the advent of spring.

To the director's surprise none of the 200 students in the school knew any song but a little girl called Geisy (pronounce Haysee).

The teacher took her to the director's office and introduced her.

"How old are you?" "11 she said."Can you sing the spring song that you know?
She started to chant a song she had learned in the Baha'i children classes:

Se acerca la primavera

Tiempo para un festival
Con amigos y la familia
El regocijo ideal

Gracias a Baha'u'llah, Gracias al Señor

Por Ayyam i há, el festival de amor
Ayyam i há regalo del Señor

Agradecidos y contentos, Celebremos con amor

Ayyam i há el festival de amor.....

Translation goes like this:Spring is approaching; it is time for a festival

With friends and family, it is the perfect joy

Thanks to Bahá'u'lláh, thanks to the Lord for the Ayyam I há, the
festival of love Ayyam I há, the gift of God
Grateful and content, we celebrate with love Ayyam I há is the festival
of Love

…. …………Ã

¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦

The director remained astonished of the girl's performance and asked if the school could use the song in the Spring party,and if her parents would
let them sing it.

She replied that they would love it, but it had to be sung as it was,
with no modifications in it, and they agreed. He further asked what the
meanings were of Bahá'u'lláh and Ayyam I há, and she explained it as she had learned it in the Bahá'àclasses.

He then had the teachers write down the lyrics on the black boards and
have the children in the entire school rehearse it and learn in by heart. It took them a couple of days to learn it all and on March 21. there were 200 young souls chanted it aloud and intoned it so that the sweetness of its
melody would surely scatter the fragrance of the words unto every soul.

Geisy did not know that she was being the means of this transformation
that might not give fruits in the short run, but she has surely kindled a
fire that sooner or later would reach unbounded realms.

Every one at school now knows about the Faith.
She has now turned into a little Bahá'àhero
in Merida.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Egypt Begins Soon Exclusive Use of New ID Document

Posted: 12 Aug 2007 05:39 PM CDT
Egypt's leading daily newspaper Al-Ahram published an article on 8 August 2007, in which it describes plans for the exclusive use of the new computerised national ID number/card and the total abandonment of the older paper ID documents.

Thus far, Baha'is remain prevented by the government from being issued the new ID cards, and are only in possession of the old paper documents. The only option given to them, as instructed by the Ministry of Interior, is that they must lie on the application form regarding their religious affiliation in order to obtain ID documents. They are given only three choices (Muslim Christian or Jew). The application form clearly states that any false statements made by the applicant will be punishable by imprisonment and heavy fines. The ID card system does not allow for any other options, such as leaving the space for religion blank.

The newspaper article indicates that it was decided that the new ID card will be "an essential element in all transactions." This was decided by Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazeef in a meeting on 7 August 2007 with the Minister of Interior as well as some other ministers.

The Prime Minister requested "a deadline" by which the use of the old paper ID card will stop. This will be accomplished very soon when nearly 90% of the population have been issued the new cards.

It was also reported in this article that according to a spokesperson of the Assembly of Ministries that the new ID system will be applied to "all services used by Egyptian citizens within the country." This includes all government transactions. Currently several ministries have been exclusively accepting the new ID card. These ministries are: Interior, Defense, Health and Justice.

"In preparation for this, it is expected that the Ministry of Interior will announce soon the complete cessation of the use of the old paper ID document."

The implications of this announcement are quite ominous. Soon the Baha'is and other religious minorities (except Muslims, Christians and Jews) will not be able to have any rights in their own society. It implies large-scale job firings and dismissals from universities. Already, Baha'is are unable to obtain health care and children cannot get vaccination in public institutions. In other words, Baha'is and any other religious minorities--if they exist--will suffer "civil death."

Additionally, Egyptian Baha'i university students have been expelled because they were unable to produce the required military draft postponement document, which requires the new ID card for it to be granted. One student was expelled just before graduation from his university. Another student, after passing his first year examination, was prevented from being promoted to the second year and was suspended from the university until he can produce his military draft document.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Universities Install Footbaths to Benefit Muslims, and Not Everyone Is Pleased

Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times

A footbath has been installed in a corner of a unisex restroom at the student center at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. The University of Michigan-Dearborn, right, is planning to install footbaths in an effort to accommodate Muslim students.

Published: August 7, 2007

Correction Appended

DEARBORN, Mich. — When pools of water began accumulating on the floor in some restrooms at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and the sinks pulling away from the walls, the problem was easy to pinpoint. On this campus, more than 10 percent of the students are Muslims, and as part of ritual ablutions required before their five-times-a-day prayers, some were washing their feet in the sinks.

The solution seemed straightforward. After discussions with the Muslim Students’ Association, the university announced that it would install $25,000 foot-washing stations in several restrooms.

But as a legal and political matter, that solution has not been quite so simple. When word of the plan got out this spring, it created instant controversy, with bloggers going on about the Islamification of the university, students divided on the use of their building-maintenance fees, and tricky legal questions about whether the plan is a legitimate accommodation of students’ right to practice their religion — or unconstitutional government support for that religion.

“It’s an awkward thing,” said Alexis Oesterle, a junior. “If I’m sitting with Muslim friends, I wouldn’t want to bring it up. In this country, at this time, it’s not so easy to discuss the issues of Muslims in American society.”

As the nation’s Muslim population grows, issues of religious accommodation are becoming more common, and more complicated. Many public school districts are grappling with questions about prayer rooms for Muslim students, halal food in cafeterias and scheduling around important Muslim holidays. As Muslim students point out, the school calendar already accommodates Christians, with Sundays off and vacations around Christmas and Easter.

“Starting about two years ago, school attorneys have been asking more and more questions about accommodations for Muslim students,” said Lisa Soronen, a National School Boards Association lawyer. “These issues don’t get litigated very often; they’re usually worked out one by one.”

Nationwide, more than a dozen universities have footbaths, many installed in new buildings. On some campuses, like George Mason University in Virginia, and Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Mich., there was no outcry. At Eastern Michigan, even some Muslim students were surprised by the appearance of the footbath — a single spigot delivering 45 seconds of water — in a partitioned corner of the restroom in the new student union.

“My sister told me about it, and I didn’t believe it,” said Najla Malaibari, a graduate student at Eastern Michigan. “I was, ‘No way,’ and she said, ‘Yeah, go crazy.’ It really is convenient.”

But after a Muslim student at Minneapolis Community and Technical College slipped and hurt herself last fall while washing her feet in a sink, word got out there that the college was considering installing a footbath, and a local columnist accused the college of a double standard — stopping a campus coffee cart from playing Christmas music but taking a different attitude toward Islam.

“After the column, a Christian conservative group issued an action alert to its members, which prompted 3,000 e-mail and 600 voice messages to me and/or legislators,” said Phil Davis, president of the college.

Mr. Davis said that after a legal briefing, the board concluded that installing footbaths was constitutional, and that the college hoped to have a plan in place by the next school year.

Here in Dearborn, the university called the footbaths a health and safety measure, not a religious decision. And it argued that while the footbaths may benefit Muslim students, they will be available to others, like lacrosse players who want to wash their feet.

Still, the plans are controversial.

“My first reaction was, ‘Where’s the money coming from?’ ” said Emily Hutfloetz, a senior. “I feel like it’s favoring one group of people.”

On her Web site, Debbie Schlussel, a conservative lawyer and blogger in Southfield, Mich., posted, “Forget about the Constitutionally mandated separation of church and state ... at least when it comes to mosque and state.”

And in an editorial, the student newspaper, The Michigan Journal, worried that opponents would turn their hostility “on Muslim students at the university and Islam as a whole.”

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Source:
Toronto Globe & Mail article re Jack Lenz

Go big or go home

Jack Lenz has been making music for decades, Michael Posner writes. Now he's in the business of promoting Canadian talent with a large new studio facility in Thorncliffe Park

MICHAEL POSNER

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

August 1, 2007 at 4:09 AM EDT

After three decades of success in any field, many artists might start to think about slowing down. Not Jack Lenz.

Overseeing Lenz Entertainment, a company of about 60 musicians, writers, engineers and puppet artists, the fiftysomething Toronto-based composer and arranger is looking to expand.

He claims his broad-based firm is now the fastest-growing in his field in Canada, producing and writing music for television series, specials and feature films, as well as developing a stable of young recording artists.

To bring what had been its disparate operations under one roof, the firm recently bought a 25,000-square-foot facility in Thorncliffe Park, complete with two state-of-the-art recording and engineering studios and a puppet-making shop for the animated children's series it is producing.

There's talk of building a TV studio on the property to avoid renting space, and this year Lenz will begin production of a long-nurtured feature film, Mona's Dream.

"We got to the point where we had worked on so many shows that we thought, 'Hey we can do this,' " Lenz says of his decision to go big. He's a tall, broad-shouldered, florid-faced man with a warm smile, a hearty laugh and a ready quip. "There may be a bit of folly here, but we had to grow. We couldn't stay where we were. So we went out and got some investors, including Ole, a Toronto music publishing company. And we've created, I think, a unique, independent, Canadian model."

The competition is fierce, he acknowledges. The budget for music in most films, he says, is less than 1 per cent of total costs, "and it's dropping, and you're competing with guys who work out of their basements. Producers are quite happy with that because it costs them less."

Meanwhile, Lenz's 29-year-old son, Asher, a classically trained pianist, has joined the firm as a songwriter, while his wife, Debrah Burton-Lenz, looks after the company's business affairs.

There's no questioning Lenz's musical talent. He has been a composer and arranger for Jimmy Seals and Dash Crofts, written scores of jingles (including the Toronto Blue Jays' theme song, OK, Blue Jays, Let's Play Ball), scored dozens of TV shows (from the CBC National News to Due South to Designer Guys to Little Mosque on the Prairie), and several feature films (among them Paul Gross's Men with Brooms and Mel Gibson's controversial The Passion of the Christ, although he was subsequently replaced by John Debney).

"Ooh, boy," Lenz laughs now, recalling the latter experience. "As a person, Mel's a very sweet guy. But the religious thing is so crazy and his views are crazy. It was a tough go. I think he's a tortured guy." When an article in the Sunday New York Times Magazine came out about Gibson and his father, Hutton, a Holocaust denier, Lenz told him: "If it were my dad saying these things, I'd distance myself."

More recently, the Lenzs - père et fils - have written a single for Andrea Bocelli (Go Where Love Goes). And Asher, working with singer Adam Crossley, sold a song to pop sensation Josh Groban (So She Dances).

Crossley, putting the finishing touches on his first album of songs co-written with Asher (Anvil of the Heart), is one of several performers that Lenz Entertainment hopes it can stage-manage into stardom. An American, he describes his music as hillbilly, "paddleboat rock." Other Lenz hopefuls include teenage opera prodigy Holly Stell, gospel singer Mark Masri and jazz crooner Cal Dodd.

For years, Lenz earned a tidy income from royalties of music written for children's TV shows, many of which run in syndication forever. Some years, he cashed more royalty cheques than any other member of the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada.

If the fees for writing music were attractive, Lenz reasoned, why not produce the whole shebang - make the puppets, draft the scripts, score the music.

Now, in partnership with Grogs Inc. (Jamie Shannon and Jason Hopley), Lenz has produced Nanalan, a Gemini-award-winning preschool puppet series (reruns are on CBC, new shows are being made for PBS); Weird Years, an animated fish-out-of-water series featuring the adventures of the Dorkovitch family on YTV; Mr. Meaty, a short, offbeat animated after-school show for Nickleodeon, which also airs on CBC, with more than 100 puppet characters; and Ooh & Aah - puppet monkeys that, after winning a stiff competition, began hosting the U.S. Disney Channel's playhouse programming block in March.

A new, five-minute adult puppet series, Swami Jeff's Temple of Wisdom, will start airing on ABC Australia this fall, and Lenz has signed a development deal with Teletoon to expand the series to half-hour shows.

A practising member of the Baha'i faith since 1969 and the father of seven children, Lenz was raised in rural Saskatchewan, the son of a Scottish mother and Hungarian father. He studied piano as a child and later composition at the University of Saskatchewan but, convinced that he couldn't be the teacher his mother wanted him to be, left after two years.

Migrating to Toronto in his late teens, he hung around the local music scene, met soft-rockers Seals and Crofts and, talking himself into a job, eventually became their keyboard and flute player. He toured the world with them, and with Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina.

Asher's route into the business included classical piano and then jazz, which he studied in New York. "I found it provided you with a lot more tools in terms of writing your own music," he said.

I asked Lenz, who remains in awe of the great classical composers of the past three centuries, whether we would still be playing the work of contemporary writers 300 years hence.

"I think we're at the end of a civilization, not the beginning. Bach and others were the fruition of a series of cultural and religious developments. We're at the end of that period and at the beginning of something else. But the beginnings are seldom remembered, just the fruitions. In the chaos of the 20th century and beyond, where is there an environment that produces greatness. I don't see it."

Of all the projects on his plate, Lenz is probably most excited about his feature film, Mona's Dream. His script tells the story of Iran's persecution and execution in 1983 of teenager Mona Mahmudnizhad and nine other members of her Baha'i faith. The film, which will star Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider), has a projected budget of $7-million to $10-million. He's still seeking a co-production arrangement and some foreign financing.

Meantime, Lenz is enjoying his new role as an initiator of projects. "You know," he says, "they used to ask [ composer and lyricist] Sammy Cahn which came first - the music or the words. His answer: The phone call."

Now, it's Jack and Asher Lenz making those calls.

__._,_.___

Saturday, August 04, 2007

NEVER FORGET


USS New York

It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from theWorld Trade Center.

It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists.

It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept 9, 2003, "those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence," recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. "It was a spiritual moment for everybody there."

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the "hair on my neck stood up." "It had a big meaning to it for all of us," he said. "They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back."

The ship's motto? "Never Forget"


Saturday, July 07, 2007

NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN(HOPI) PROPHECIES
Talk Given by Lee Brown, 1986
Continental Indigenous Council, Tanana Valley Fairgrounds,
Fairbanks, Alaska
There was the cycle of the mineral, the rock. There was the cycle of theplant. And now we re in the cycle of the animal coming to the end of thatand beginning the cycle of the human being. When we get into the cycle ofthe human being, the highest and greatest powers that we have will bereleased to us. They will be released from that light or soul that we carryto the mind. But right now we're coming to the end of the animal cycle andwe have investigated ourselves and learned what it is to be like an animalon this earth.At the beginning of this cycle of time, long ago, the Great Spirit came downand He made an appearance and He gathered the peoples of this earth togetherthey say on an island which is now beneath the water and He said to thehuman beings, "I'm going to send you to four directions and over time I'mgoing to change you to four colors, but I'm going to give you some teachingsand you will call these the Original Teachings and when you come backtogether with each other you will share these so that you can live and havepeace on earth, and a great civilization will come about." And he said"During the cycle of time I'm going to give each of you two stone tablets.When I give you those stone tablets, don't cast those upon the ground. Ifany of the brothers and sisters of the four directions and the four colorscast their tablets on the ground, not only, will human beings have a hardtime, but almost the earth itself will die."And so he gave each of us a responsibility and we call that theGuardianship. To the Indian people, the red people, he gave the Guardianshipof the earth. We were to learn during this cycle of time the teachings ofthe earth, the plants that grow from the earth, the foods that you can eat,and the herbs that are healing so that when we came back together with theother brothers and sisters we could share this knowledge with them.Something good was to happen on the earth.To the South, he gave the yellow race of people the Guardianship of thewind. They were to learn about the sky and breathing and how to take thatwithin ourselves for spiritual advancement. They were to share that with isat this time.To the West He gave the black race of people the Guardianship of the water.They were to learn the teachings of the water which is the chief of theelements, being the most humble and the most powerful. When I went to theUniversity of Washington and I learned that it was a black man thatdiscovered blood plasma, it didn't surprise me because blood is water andthe elders already told me the black people would bring the teachings of thewater.To the North He gave the white race of people the Guardianship of the fire.If you look at the center of many of the things they do you will find thefire. They say a light bulb is the white man's fire. If you look at thecenter of a car you will find a spark. If you look at the center of theairplane and the train you will find the fire. The fire consumes, and alsomoves. This is why it was the white brothers and sisters who began to moveupon the face of the earth and reunite us as a human family.And so a long time passed, and the Great Spirit gave each of the four racestwo stone tablets. Ours are kept at the Hopi Reservation in Arizona at FourCorners Area on 3rd Mason.I talked to people from the black race and their stone tablets are at thefoot of Mount Kenya. They are kept by the Kukuyu Tribe. I once had the honorof presenting a sacred pipe at the Kukuyu Tribe carved from the red pipestone of Mount Kenya. I was at an Indian spiritual gathering about 15 yearsago. A medicine man from South Dakota put a beaded medicine wheel in themiddle of the gathering. It had the four colors from the four directions; Heasked the people, "Where is this from?" They said, "Probably Montana, orSouth Dakota, maybe Seskatchewan." He said, "This is from Kenya." It wasbeaded just like ours, with the same colorThe stone tablets of the yellow race of people are kept by the Tibetans, inTibet. If you went straight through the Hopi Reservation to the other sideof the world, you would come out in Tibet. The Tibetan word for "sun" is theHopi word for "moon" and the Hopi word for "sun" is the Tibetan word for"moon".The guardians of the traditions of the people of Europe are the Swiss. InSwitzerland, they still have a day when each family brings out its mask.They still know the colors of the families, they still know theymbols, someof them. I went to school with some people from Switzerland at theUniversity of Washington and they shared this with me.Each of these four peoples happen to be people that live in the mountains. In 1976 America had its bicentennial celebrating 200 years of freedom. Someof the Native people thought this was significant and they carried a sacredpipe bundle from the West Coast to the East Coast of this land. They saidthat the roads of this land should either go North-South or East-West. Ifthey went North-South we would come together as brothers and sisters, but ifthey went East-West there would be destruction and almost the earth itselfwould have a hard time. So you all know the roads went East-West. They saidthen things would be lost from the East to the West and from the South tothe North and that they would come back again from the West to the East andfrom the North to the South. So nine years ago in 1976 from the West to EastCoast of this land, from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. people carried asacred pipe bundle by hand, on foot. My aunt had dreamt 15 years ago thatpeople that didn't Like them would throw rocks and bottles at that pipebundle as they carried it across the land. And sure enough that came about.But, as was in my aunt's dream, the rocks only came so close and then theydropped, and nothing touched it. When they reached the top of the RockyMountains, they hit a hard storm. An elderly man with long white hair said,"I will carry it now." They had a van that went alongside the people whowere walking. He got out of the van and carried the sacred pipe bundle clearthrough that storm. He was so cold when he got back in the van that someonetouched his hair and it fell. His hair was frozen. You have to be prettycold for your hair to freeze but that old man carried it through that stormbecause they said if they carried this bundle across the earth, the powerswould begin to come back. They said a spiritual fire would be lit in theNorth and would come down the Northwest Coast of this land. When it gets tothe Puget Sound, it would go inland. I think this, nine years later, is thegathering in the North, myself. That's why I came here. This is it. We havethe capacity to start the-spiritual fire now, here. The old people long agosaw it and foretold it and I'm going to come to that.So we went through this cycle of time and each of the four races went totheir directions and they learned their teachings. It was on Newsweek nottoo long ago that eight out of ten foods that people eat on the earth aredeveloped here in the western hemisphere because that was our Guardianship,to learn the teachings of the earth, and the things that grow from the erth.We were given a sacred handshake to show when we came back together asbrothers and sisters that we still remembered the teachings. It wasindicated on the stone tablets that the Hopis had that the first brothersand sisters that would come back to them would come as turtles across theland. They would be human beings, but they would come as turtles. So whenthe time came close the Hopis were at a special village to welcome theturtles that would come across the land and they got up in the morning andlooked out at the sunrise. They looked out across the desert and they sawthe Spanish Conquistadores coming, covered in armour, like turtles acrossthe land. So this was them. So they went out to the Spanish man and theyextended their hand hoping for the handshake but into the hand the Spanishman dropped a trinket. And so word spread throughout North America thatthere was going to be a hard time, that maybe some of the brothers andsisters had forgotten the sacredness of all things and all the human beingswere going to suffer for this on the earth. So tribes began to send peopleto the mounds to have missions to try to figure out how they could survive.At that time there were 100,000 cities in the Mississippi Valley alone,called the mound civilization: cities built on great mounds. Those moundsare still there. If you ever go out to Ohio or the Mississippi Valley,they're tourist attractions now. There was 100,000 cities of Native peopleand they were wondering how they could survive. They began to try to learnto live off the land because they knew a hard time was going to come. Theybegan to send people to have visions to see how we could survive this time.People came on the east coast and they went across this land to the east andthey were told in the prophecies that we should try to remind all the peoplethat would come here of the sacredness of all things. If we could do that,then there would be peace on earth. But if we did not do that, when theroads went clear from east to west, and when the other races and colors ofthe Earth had walked clear across this land, if by that time we had not cometogether as a human family, the Great Spirit would grab the earth with hishand and shake it. And so if you read the treaty negotiations from RedJacket of the Six Nations on the east coast of this land clear to ChiefJoseph and Chief Seattle on the west coast of this land, they all said thesame thing. Chief Joseph said, "I accord you the right, and I hope youaccord me the right, to live in this land." Always we were trying to livetogether. But instead of living together, you all know there was separation,there was segregation. They separated the races: they separated the Indians,and they separated the blacks. In the state of Washington it was against thelaw for an Asian to marry a white person up until not too long ago. Therewas separation.So when they got to the west coast of this land the elders that were madeaware of these prophecies said they would then begin to build a blackribbon. And on this black ribbon there would move a bug. And when you beginto see this bug moving on the land, that was the sign for the First Shakingof the Earth. The First Shaking of the Earth would be so violent that thisbug would be shaken off the earth into the air and it would begin to moveand fly in the air. And by the end of this shaking this bug will be in theair around the world. Behind it would be a trail of dirt and eventually thewhole sky of the entire earth would become dirty from these trails of dirt,and this would cause many diseases that would get more and more complicated.So the bug moving on the land, of course I it's easy to see now. In 1908 theModel-T Ford was mass produced for the first time. So the elders knew theFirst Shaking of the Earth was about to come about that's the First WorldWar. In the First World War the airplane came into wide usage for the firsttime. That was that bug moving into the sky. And so they knew something veryimportant would happen. There would be an attempt to make peace on earth onthe west coast of this land and so the elders began to watch for this. Theybegan to hear that there was going to be a League of Nations in SanFrancisco so the elders gathered in Arizona around 1920 or so and they wrotea letter to Woodrow Wilson. They asked if the Indian people could beincluded in the League of Nations. At that time the United States SupremeCourt had held that a reservation is a separate and semi- sovereign nation,not a part of the United States but protected by it. This became a concernbecause people didn't want the reservations to become more and moreseparate. They didn't want them to be considered nations. So they did notwrite back and the Native people were left out of the League of Nations, sothat circle was incomplete. In the League of Nations circle there was asouthern door, the yellow people; there was a western door, the blackpeople; there was a northern door, the white people; but the eastern doorwas not attended. The elders knew that peace would not come on the earthuntil the circle of humanity is complete, until all the four colors sat inthe circle and shared their teachings, then peace would come on earth. So they knew things would happen. Things would speed up a little bit. Therewould be a cobweb built around the earth, and people would talk across thiscobweb. When this talking cobweb, the telephone, was built around the earth,a sign of life would appear in the east, but it would tilt and bring death.It would come with the sun. But the sun itself would rise one day not in theeast but in the west. So the elders said when you see the sun rising in theeast and you see the sign of life reversed and tilted in the east, you knowthat the Great Death is to come upon the earth, and now the Great Spiritwill grab the earth again in His hand and shake it and this shaking will beworse than the first. So the sign of life reversed and tilted, we call thatthe Swastika, and the rising sun in the east was the rising sun of Japan.These two symbols are carved in stone in Arizona. When the elders saw thesetwo flags, these were the signs that the earth was to be shaken again.The worse misuse of the Guardianship of the fire is called the "gourd ofashes". They said the gourd of ashes will fall from the air. It will makethe people like blades of grass in the prairie fire and things will not growfor many seasons. I saw on television not too long ago that they weretalking about the atomic bomb, the gourd of ashes. They said it was thebest-kept secret in the history of the United States., The elders wanted tospeak about it in 1920. They would have spoken of it and foretold it'scoming if they could have entered into the League of Nations. The elderstried to contact President Roosevelt and ask him not to use the gourd ofashes because it would have a great effect on the earth and eventually causeeven greater destruction and a the Third Shaking of the Earth, the ThirdWorld War. I'll get to that in a few minutes.So they knew after the Second Shaking of the Earth when they saw the gourdof ashes fall from the sky then there would be an attempt to make peace onthe other side of this land. And because the peace attempt on the west coasthad failed, they would build a special house on the east coast of thisTurtle Island, and all the nations and peoples of the earth would come tothis house and it would be called the House of Mica and it would shine likethe mica on the desert shines. So the elders began to see they were buildingthe United Nations made out of glass that reflects like the mica on thedesert so they knew this was the House of mica and all the peoples of theearth should go to it. So they met and talked about this. They said that inthe 1920's they had written and they had not been responded to, so they saidthis time we better go to the front door of the House of Mica because thingsmight get a lot worse. So elders representing a number of tribes I believedrove to New York City. When the United Nations opened they went to thefront door of the house of Mica and they said these words:"We represent the indigenous people of North America and we wish to addressthe nations of the Earth. We're going to give you four days to considerwhether or not we will be allowed to speak."They retreated to one of the Six Nations Reserves in New York State. The SixNations Reserves are keepers of the Great Law of Peace of the prophet thatappeared here in North America, Dagonnorida. And this Law of Peace is stillrecited, it takes four days between sunrise and noon. Each year an Indian,by memory, must recite it about this time of year. Four days later they cameback and I believe the nations of the earth heard that the Indians had cometo the door. And they voted to let the Indians in. They wanted to hear whatthey had to say. But the United States is one of five nations of the UnitedNations with a veto power and still they were concerned because this timethe Native sovereignty was even stronger. And I believe they vetoed theentrance of the Native people.So then they knew other things would happen on the Earth, and the UnitedNations would not bring peace on earth but there would be continuing anddeepening confusion. And that the little wars would get worse. So theyretreated to the Six Nations Reserve and they talked about this and theysaid the time is really getting close now 1949. They said, "We're going todivide the United States into four sections and each year we're going tohave a gathering. We're going to call these the 'White of PeaceGatherings'." They began to have these around 1950. And they authorizedcertain men to speak in English for the first time about these prophecies.One that I used to listen to many times, over and over, was Thomas Benyaka.He is a Hopi man. I believe he is still living. He was authorized to speakin English about what was on the stone tablets and he has dedicated hislifetime to doing this. And they began to tell us at these gatherings, theysaid "In your lifetime you're going to see things happen" It was strangewhen they said it in the 1950's and 1960's but now it seems very clear. Butthen it was unusual. They said, "You're going to see a time in your lifewhen men are going to become women. The Great Spirit is going to make a manon the earth. He made him a man but this man is going to say, "I know morethan the Great Spirit. I'm going to change myself to be a woman:" And theywill even nurse children. The Great Spirit is going to make the woman on theearth. She's going to say, "I know more than the Great Spirit. I want to bea man. And she will be physically a man." This sounded strange. And maybe ina vision they saw Boy-George.They said "You're going to see a time in your lifetime when the human beingsare going to find the blueprint that makes us." They call that now, DNA,deoxyribonucleic acid. They said, "They re going to cut this blueprint."They call that now, genetic splicing. And they said, "They're going to makenew animals upon the earth, and they're going to think these are going tohelp us. And it's going to seem like they do help us. But maybe thegrandchildren and greatgrandchildren are going to suffer." I don't know ifyou heard on the news last night in the United States now they havegenetically spliced a new germ, never before released in the environment.They want to release this germ into the cottonfields of the south becausethey say it will rejuvenate and strengthen the cotton. They had scientistson the CBS Evening News the other night talking about it. One scientist saidwhat the elders said in the 1950's, that this will not harm us. We've put itin a lot of tests. And the other scientist said what the elders also said,no, this has never before been in the environment. We have no idea what itwill do. The elders spoke of it long ago. They said it would see harmless,but it may be able to hurt the greatgrandchildren. The elders said long ago,"They will release these things, they will use them." This is going to bereleased not too long from now. They are making new animals. The elderstalked about this. They said, "You will see new animals, and even the oldanimals will come back, animals that people thought had disappeared. Theywill find them here and there. They'll begin to reappear."They said (and I know many of you are from tribes that also have thisprophecy, "You're going to see a time when the eagle will fly its highest inthe night and it will land upon the moon." Some tribes say the eagle willcircle the moon. Some tribes say the eagle will fly it's highest in thenight. "And at that time," they say, "Many of the Native people will besleeping," which symbolically means they have lost their teachings. Thereare some tribes that say it will be as if they are frozen: they've beenthrough the long winter. But they say, "When the eagle flies it's highest inthe night, that will be the first light of a new day. That will be the firstthawing of spring." Of course, at the first light of a new day, if you'vestayed up all night, you notice it's really dark. And the first light, youwant to see it, but you can't. It sneaks up on you. You want to see itchange but it's dark and then pretty soon it's getting light before you knowit. We're at that time now. The Eagle has landed on the moon, 1969. Whenthat spaceship landed they sent back the message, "The Eagle has landed."Traditionally, Native people from clear up in the Inuit region, they haveshared with us this prophecy, clear down to the Quechuas in South America.They shared with us that they have this prophecy. When they heard thosefirst words, "The Eagle has landed," they knew that was the start of a newtime and a new power for Native people. There was absolutely nothing strongbefore us now. We may do anything we wish. In 1776 when the United StatesGovernment printed the dollar, in one claw [of the eagle], if you've evernoticed, there is an olive branch in this claw. They said that representedpeace. The Indian elders shared with me in South Dakota that to them thatrepresents the enslavement of black people. In the prophecies of the SixNations people they say there will be two great uprisings by black people tofree themselves. We've seen one about 1964. There will be a second, moreviolent one to come. I'll get back to what that means in a minute. In theother claw is 13 arrows. The founding fathers of the United States said thatrepresents the 13 States. But the elders say that represents the enslavementof the Native people. When the Eagle landed on the moon, they decided toprint a special silver dollar to commemorate that. I don't know how many ofyou noticed it. The original design showed the spaceship landing on the moonbut at the last minute it was changed to an actual eagle. And in the eagle'sclaws is the olive branch, but the arrows are gone. The elders said, "That'sour prophecy we have been released." There was one more uprising coming forthe black race of people and then they will be released and this is alsogoing to have an effect on Native people, a good effect. There's a whole newset of prophecies from the Iriquois people about that and I won't have timeto go into tht this morning.But we're in that time now. We're between the first light of a new day andthe sunrise. The sunrise is about to come and when it comes up everyone isgoing to see it. But you know how it is in the village there's a few peoplethat get up early, and there are some that sleep until noon. I'm probablyone of those that sleeps until noon.They said when that Eagle lands on the moon, the powers will begin to comeback to us. As an alcoholic person, I feel that one of our greatest diseasesis alcoholism. Within seven days of the time of the Eagle landing on themoon, the first Native alcoholism program was started on an Apachereservation in Arizona. Within seven days of the time the Eagle landed onthe moon, the Freedom of Indian Religion Act was introduced into the UnitedStates Congress. Eventually it was passed in November of 1978, signed byPresident Carter, making the song that Kevin [Kevin Locke, a famous IndianBaha'i who spends his time travelling around the world sharing the NorthAmerican Indian culture through dance and music] sang legal to sing in everystate of the United States. It was punishable at one time to go to jail for10 years and/or a $10,000 fine for singing a song or doing a suat. This waschanged in 1978 the legislation was introduced in 1969, less than seven daysafter the Eagle landed on the moon. These are the physical manifestations ofthe spiritual prophecies that we have.So he said at this time you're going to see that things will speed up, thatpeople on the earth will move faster and faster. Grandchildren will not havetime for grandparents. Parents will not have time for children. It will seemlike time is going faster and faster. The elders advised us that as thingsspeed up, you yourself should slow down. The faster things go, the sloweryou go. Because there's going to come a time when the earth is going to beshaken a third time. The Great Spirit has been shaking the earth two times:the First and Second World Wars to remind us that we are a human family, toremind us that we should have greeted each other as brothers and sisters. Wehad a chance after each shaking to come together in a circle that would havebrought peace on earth, but we missed that.Tonight they were talking on the news about the sign for the Third Shakingof the Earth. I heard it while sitting in the airport after I missed myplane. They said they're going to build what the elders called the "house inthe sky". In the 1950's they talked about this: they will build a house andthrow it in the sky. When you see people living in the sky on a permanentbasis, you will know the Great Spirit is about to grab the earth, this timenot with one hand, but with both hands. Many of you of Native background mayhave heard "the spirits will warn you twice, but the third time you standalone." We've had two warnings, the first two World Wars, but now we standalone in the third one. As it says in the Baha'i Writings, there will beno-one protected. When this house is in the sky, the Great Spirit is goingto shake the Earth a third time and whoever dropped that gourd of ashes,upon them it is going to drop.They say at that time there will be villages in this land so great that whenyou stand in the villages you will not be able to see out, and in theprophecies these are called "villages of stone", or "prairies of stone". Andthey said the stone will grow up from the ground and you will not be able tosee beyond the village. At the center of each and every one of thesevillages will be Native people, and they will walk as "hollow" shells upon a"prairie of stone". They said "hollow shells" which means they will havelost any of their traditional understandings; they will be empty within.They said after the Eagle lands on the moon some of these people will beginto leave these "prairies of stone" and come home and take up some of the oldways and begin to make themselves reborn, because it's a new day. But manywill not. And they said there's going to come a time when in the morning thesun is going to rise and this village of stone will be there, and in theevening there would just be steam coming from the ground. They will be assteam. And in the center of many of those villages of stone when they turnto steam, the Native people will turn to steam also because they never wokeup and left the village. And this used to bother me when I was a young man.I used to ask the elders, "Isn't there anything we can do?" And they said,well, it's just that way that if a person does not have the spiritual eyesto see, it's very hard to show them. Or if they don't have the ears to hear,it's very hard to speak with them. We wish that we could go get them all butwe can't. It's just that some are not going to wake up. But some will wakeup .And so they say there's going to be the Third Shaking of the Earth. It's notgoing to be a good thing to see but we will survive it. We will survive it.And when we survive it, then there's going to be another attempt to make acircle of the human beings on the earth. And this time the Native peoplewill not have to petition to join but will be invited to enter the circlebecause they say the attitude towards us will have changed by then, andpeople will let us into the circle and all the four colors of the fourdirections will share their wisdom, and there will be a peace on earth. Thisis coming close. A lot of times when I share this message of the prophecies,people say, "Can't we change it? Could we stop it?" The answer is yes. Theprophecies are always "either/or". We could have come together way backthere in 1565, and we could have had a great civilization, but we didn't.Always along the path of these prophecies, we could have come together. Westill could. If we could stop the racial and religious disharmony, we wouldnot have to go through this third shaking. The elders say the chance of thatis pretty slim. It seems to me like it's pretty slim, too. But they say whatwe can do is we can "cushion" it. The word we use is "cushion". We cancushion it so it won't be quite as bad. How do we do this? We do this bysharing the teaching that will reunite us. The Hopis in their prophecies saythere will be a religion that comes here. Maybe it will be true and bringunity, or maybe it will not be true and not bring unity. If it does notbring unity, a second religion will come, and the people of this religionare known in the Hopi language as the Bahani, the people of Baha. Ni means"people of". So I was looking for the people of Baha. I wondered who thepeople of Baha were. I was a Baha'i for quite a while before somebody toldme that baha'i means "people of Bah". I thought, "0 my God!" Here I waslooking for it all these years and I never even noticed it! And I found it!I was stubborn and didn't want to become a "Baha'i but my grandfather whopassed away, you know he must have found out about it in the next realmbecause he came back to me four times to tell me, "Hey, look at that again,look at that again. Look one more time." Bah, it means "light or glory".Baha'i means "follower of the light", or the "people of Bah". We've beenwaiting for these people for a long time. They say they will bring aTeaching that will unite the earth. So we need to share this Teaching. Theysay the fire will come from the North. So here we are, in a circle, in theNorth, talking about the Bahnis, the "people of Bah", and the teachings ofBaha'u'llah.When I heard about these [prophecies], none of them made any sense. Now mostof it has come to pass. Last I heard on the news, they said the "house inthe sky" will be put up in 1996. It was going to be put up sooner, but it'sbeen postponed for four years. Maybe it will be postponed again. But in nottoo long it's going to go up. The earth as we know it is going to change.Each of us carry, I believe, a sacred drop of light. In the Indianteachings, they say it takes nine ancestors to agree before conception canoccur. Nine ancestors of the husband and the wife have to come together inthe spiritual realm and say; "We will bring life," before a woman can becomepregnant. At that time the soul is born.I delivered my first daughter and a man from the Blood Reserve who went toSouth Dakota and was the first Bloodin 82 years he came to my house bycoincidence four days before my wife went into labor. Each night we had aceremony, and on the morning after the fourth ceremony my wife went intolabor at sunrise. And that night, at sunset, my daughter was born. And Itook her out, and I cut the cord, and I noticed at the sundance that whatpeople do in South Dakota, they pass the pipe three times, and they don'ttake it until the fourth time. And even in Washington I've heard the comingof a child is like the coming of a new pipe. When I was delivering mydaughter I happened to notice that the skull came out three times, and onthe fourth time, her head came out like the coming of a pipe. First I puther on the mother instantly and after a few minutes I cleaned her up and Iwashed her up. There was a circle of people just about like this around mywife and there were people of different backgrounds and we looked up andthrough the ceiling came a small drop of blue light. When it got close tothe child you could not see it. That was her soul, she will carry that lightthroughout earth. In that is her special uniqueness as a being, a spiritualpower. In that are gifts.After we go through and then we carry it back here and it radiates to shemind but for some reason in this cycle we've been in the lower natures, theanimal thought. But now we're going into the human world. The mind is goingto be opened up to the radiance of our own soul and the cycle of the humanbeings is going to come back, and something so good is going to happen onthe earth that it cannot even be described. The elders say it in differentways. They say, there will be grass at that time when they make that circleand bring the peace on earth. There will be blades of grass that have notquite come through the earth. Even they will try to push themselves up to bepart of that day when the sun rises. The elders explain it like this: outhere, outside this building, long before there was a fair ground here therewere Native people. They say many of these Native people in different tribeswere aware of these things, and they told the children. Their children grewup.You know, one time the scientist came to the Hopis and they said, "We wantto take a piece of the stone tablets." They said "We want to take the stonetablets to a scientific laboratory to determine how old they are." The Hopissaid, "We know how old they are". Well, the scientists said, "We want toconfirm it." Well, the Hopis let them take a little piece, and they did thatby the carbon dating method. They found these tablets were at least 10,000years old, maybe 50,000. So when I say, "Thousands of years ago, there wereNative people that spoke of these things," that's exactly what I mean. Theytold their children and thousands of years ago, their children grew up andtold their children, and then their children grew up and told theirchildren. And they spoke about the people that will live in this time.And now it is us. We are the ones they spoke of long ago. They say to bealive, to come into creation and to live upon the earth at this time is agreat honor. In the cycle of time, from the beginning to the end, this timewe are in now will change the purification of all things. They say this isthe hardest time to live, but it is also the greatest honor to be alive tolive and see this.In the state of Washington in 1855 they signed treaties and made 22 Indianreservations. They wanted to do it before there were problems. They thoughtthey were advanced at the time, they had learned from what had happenedelsewhere. They made 22 Indian reservations and the elders spoke in 1855 andthey said, "We're going to become weaker, and you are going to becomestronger, and if you wish to break these treacies, you may do so." Theysaid, "But there's going to come a time when the earth itself will rise upand purify itself and this will be announced. It will be announced by thespeaking of more than 16 Great Ones on the West Coast of this land. And whenthe 16 Great Ones speak, the purification will have begun. There was a new[?] five years ago when Mt. Saint Helens, one of the 16 great volcanoes onthe West Coast of this land, "spoke". The Seattle Times did a specialinterest story. They went over to Watson Totus and Woodrow Bill. It wasWoodrow Bill's son that made this hoop that I brought here today, my goodbrother Randolf Bill. They asked Watson Totus and Woodrow Bill as spiritualpeople of the Yakuma nation, "What does this mean?" What they said was soprofound that they didn't put it on page 16, they put it on the front pageof the Seattle Times. They said, "This means that the races and nations ofthe earth should slow down and come together and talk to each other." That'sexactly what it meant. And we had four years and four days to do that.Four years and four days later, Mt. Saint Helens erupted the second time.That was last spring, just about this time. That was our grace period. Wecould have still done something really good. But now things are going tospeed up. Now things are going to really happen fast. Time is going to go sofast. The more we share the Message, the more we will cushion the ThirdShaking of the Earth, and the easier it will be on ourselves and others.A good friend of mine in Montana whose grandmother just passed away lastyear, the last thing she said to him was "Make a place for yourself in themountains because the air will become so hot down here," where they were aton a reservation, that it would be hard to breath. And it won't be long,That's the last thing she told her grandson when she was passing. Go on themountains and make a place for yourself. Put some things there that you cansurvive with. People are going to run to the mountains to survive and theNative people must be ready for this.

Sunday, July 01, 2007
























































Live Earth will be transmitted worldwide, from EIGHT cities (New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, and Hamburg) by Intelsat (http://www.intelsat.com/) using its industry-leading network of Satellite and terrestrial facilities in standard and high definition, across multiple media channels - TV, radio, Internet and wireless channels. On July 7th, Live Earth concerts will be streamed live by MSN at http://www.liveearth.msn.com/.































Gore unveils Live Earth '7 Point Pledge'
Goal is to 'put pressure on political leaders' around the world
The Associated Press
Updated: 6:20 a.m. PT June 29, 2007
NEW YORK - Al Gore on Thursday called on people around the world to sign a "7 Point Pledge" promising personal action in curbing global warming.
The former vice president unveiled the pledge at a press conference to promote Live Earth, the July 7 event of concerts stretching across the globe. Gore was joined by Live Earth founder Kevin Wall and Cathy Zoi, the CEO of the Alliance for Climate Protection.
Audiences at the eight Live Earth concerts and its many other events will be asked to sign the pledge, also available at LiveEarth.org. It asks individuals to:
· Demand that my country join an international treaty within the next two years that cuts global warming pollution by 90 percent in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth.
· Take personal action to help solve the climate crises by reducing my own C02 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become “carbon neutral”.
· Fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the C02.
· Work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation.
· Fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal.
· Plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests.
· Buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crises and building a sustainable, just and prosperous world for the 21st century.
"Quite a few of the seven points are directly designed to put pressure on governments and on businesses, but do so by asking people around the world to help to focus that pressure," said Gore.
Gore, Wall and Zoi signed the pledge and were soon thereafter followed by Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, who jointly announced their signing in a press release.
"It's a significant start to what we hope will be a worldwide rollout," Gore told The Associated Press after learning of their signing.
"The general theory behind Live Earth is we need to get this information about the crisis and solutions to it to every person on the planet, as many of them as we can reach," said Gore. "And then they will, armed with knowledge, put pressure on all political leaders."
Gore will attend the Live Earth concert at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the Police, the Smashing Pumpkins, Alicia Keys and others will perform. Concerts are also planned in England, South Africa, Brazil, China, Japan, Australia and Germany.
"It's not just a big pop concert," said Wall on Thursday. Wall, an Emmy-winning concert producer, said that Madonna, Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and others have written songs specifically about the climate crises for Live Earth.
Gore, whose slide show on global warming was the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," is a partner in Live Earth. Besides the concerts, over 6,000 parties in 119 countries — ranging from home viewings to museum festivals — are to be held. Gore urged more to organize a Live Earth party through AlGore.com.
The concerts will be streamed online at liveearth.msn.com and broadcast in the U.S. on NBC, Telemundo, the Sundance Channel, Bravo, MSNBC and Universal HD.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19502465/wid/18298287/