Grow Up Now!

Where Are We Going With All These Wars? by Jane Iddings, Blogger

 

  Don't All These Wars Make You Wonder?

 

 

 

 

There are wars and conflicts raging all over the planet. What are we doing? Where are we going with all these wars?

Spiritual laws forbid killing.

Our response? We swiftly kick this law into the ditch.

As long as we are immature human beings, we are going to continue to believe that the only answer to conflict is war.

The Truth: our immaturity is the cause of war. The solution? Maturity.

Wouldn't you think, then, that we'd work very diligently at helping us humans become fully mature? Intellectually, emotionally, ethically, financially, socially, politically, spiritually?

What are we waiting for? We need mature leaders, we need mature institutions, we need mature parenting.

We need maturity everywhere. Now.

 

Middle Eastern Youth: The Generation That Couldn't Wait Any Longer by Jane Iddings, Blogger

 

The July issue of the National Geographic Mazazine has an exciting article about the youth of the Middle East who would not wait any longer to be part of a world in which they can achieve their greatness. At a minimum: education, jobs, marriage. At best: freedom in every sense of the word -- political, economic, social, communication, personal expression.

Now this generation has unleashed its power in country after country. The journey isn't easy -- it never is -- but it is for certain that they have begun it and they will finish it.

There are many young people to take this journey. The article reports that 60% of the people in the Middle East are under 30!

Just imagine what a tremendous resource the youth are for this region --  the energy, the creativity, the zaniness, the beauty, the sensitivity, the power of youth.

 When we think about the richness of their cultures -- art, dance, cuisine, mosaic work, music, architecture, literature -- we know that many riches will be bestowed on them and on us as they share their talents with the world that is waiting to hear from them.

We welcome them to a new world, to a new goodness, to the emergence of their best selves.

Rep. Weiner's Disconnect by Jane Iddings, Blogger

 

 

Who Pulled the Plug?

 

 

 

 

 

The cascade of sexual/political or political/sexual escapades has sent us reeling.

Who's next in this Gallery of Rogues (Weiner, Lee, Edwards, Vitter, Ensign, Spitzer, Clinton, Gingrich, and the Frenchman, Strauss-Kahn)?

What's going on here?

• Are they stupid?
• Are they bad?
• Are they mentally ill?
• Are they totally unaware, clueless, unconscious?
• Are they immature?

What is disconnecting these men from rational thought and impulse control, these powerful, educated, well-spoken, successful men, used to being in the spotlight, to think that the spotlight is not on them when they have affairs and engage in online behavior that is certain to end their political careers and destroy their families?

Are they little boys engaging in magic think -- that they are invisible when they want to misbehave?

These are men who crave the spotlight -- they're politicians for God's sake! Do they think the spotlight magically turns off?

What is causing this disconnect?

Even more important, how are we citizens, we voters, to screen our politicians so we can elect mature people?

A place to start: so far not one woman politician is in the Gallery of Rogues.

Final note: The best caption in "Weinergate" was by Maureen Dowd in The New York Times: "Your Tweetin' Heart." Click here to read this excellent column (6/7/11).

 

The Face of Shame by Jane Iddings, Blogger

 

You have to see it: The Face of Shame.

An identical look on the faces of 6 sexual-political dawgs.

Click here for The New York Times article "That Look, That Weiner-Spitzer-Clinton Look" (6/7/2011).

When will the public be fed up and set a new standard for politicians?

When will these politicians grow up?

 

 

Strauss-Kahn is eloquent? by Jane Iddings, Blogger

 

Today in Manhattan the International Monetary Funds' former managing director and former likely French presidential candidate, Monsieur Dominique Strauss-Kahn, entered a plea of "not guilty" to various sexual assault charges.

Strauss-Kahn spoke only two words in court: Not guilty.

One of his lawyers, Benjamin Brafman, proudly announced that his client "pleaded not guilty and that this is a very eloquent, powerful statement that he made that denies the charges."

Eloquent? Powerful?

Sounds like the defense team doesn't have too many arrows in its quiver.

Click here to read more about it in The New York Times' article "Strauss-Kahn Pleads Not Guilty" by John Elignon (6/6/2011).

Rep. Weiner bit . . . well, the weiner by Jane Iddings, Blogger

 

 

Yet another sexual-political scandal.

Today Congressman Anthony D. Weiner admitted he had been having inappropriate online relationships with women he met online -- both before and during his one year marriage. He said the relationships consisted of tweets, sharing of inappropriate photos, and the like, but he never met any of the women in person.

It just take your breath away to try to figure out how he did this as recent as last week. Has he never heard of former Governor Elliott Spitzer, former Congressman Chris Lee, former U.S. Senator Ensign, former President Bill Clinton?

An article in The New York Times today questioned his maturity.

I guess so!

Yes, his behavior was immature, no question about it. His sexual immaturity caused a total disconnect with his thinking.

At the rate politicians are committing sexual-political suicide, we aren't going to have anyone left in Washington. Maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Just joking.

These scandals are getting old, really old. They're such a bummer that I have to change the subject to a totally unrelated but feel good topic: Tom Hanks. A mature man.

He's in London for the world premiere of his new movie "Larry Crowne." He and Julia Roberts play the lead roles.

Yes, we can look forward to turning our attention away from the sexual-political scandals of the day and enjoy two fine, mature actors in this new movie. Click here to read about it.

 

The Saudi Women's Right-to-Drive Campaign Hits a Snag by Jane Iddings, Blogger

 

 

 

 

    Poster via Ow.ly

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, Saudi women might be able to do it, but fighting an irrational, deeply-embedded belief that only the men of Saudi benefit from, is very hard to fight.

Hence, the recent development: although the jailed woman activist was released, she has abandoned the campaign for Saudi women to get the right to drive and she has left the decision in the hands of Allah and the Saudi dictatorship. Click here to read more about this in The New York Times (The Lede with Robert Mackey).

No one needs to be told the pressure that was exerted on her to capitulate.

And so once again we have immature men so afraid of women, so determined to infantalize women to keep them down, that they won't allow them to drive a car. Pathetic and tragic.

Yet, I remain hopeful. My prediction is that the passion and the energy behind the right-to-drive campaign won't just go away. The Human Spring and the Women's Spring will continue underground and explode at another time . . . soon.

 

Saudi Women's Right-to-Drive Campaign Continues by Jane Iddings, Blogger

 

More Saudi women are defying the law that prohibits women from driving in Saudi Arabia.

And -- they're not only driving, they're filming themselves doing so and posting the videos on a Facebook page!

Read all about it in "Blogging the News with Robert Mackey" in The New York Times: "More Saudi Women Record Driving Video" (May 26, 2011).

Saudi Woman's Driving Video on Youtube by Jane Iddings, Blogger

The car-driving Saudi woman's story is going viral.

Check out Robert Mackey's blog "The Lede" for his post today "Saudi Woman's Driving Video Preserved Online."

The Saudi Arabian men who stopped her Facebook and Twitter accounts have now lost control as others have taken over the job of being messengers of the "right to drive" and the larger message the "right to be free human beings."

Viva The Women's Spring and The Human Spring!

Saudi Women's Right-to-Drive Part of the Women's Spring by Jane Iddings, Blogger

 

The Arab Spring is spawning the Women's Spring and, even better, the Human Spring.

That is, adults around the world have had it with dictators controlling their lives. These adults are standing up and demanding what is rightfully theirs: Freedom.

Case in point:

Today in The New York Times  there is an inspiring article by Neil MacFarquhar: "Saudis Arrest Woman Leading Right-to-Drive Campaign." Click here to read it.

It is preposterous but true that in the 21st century in Saudi Arabia women are not allowed to drive, to vote, or to work without a husband's or father's permission. In fact,  women's lives are entirely controlled by men. Is this 21st century or cave man thinking? Haven't the Saudis as human beings evolved more than that -- to still be depriving 50% of the adult population of all rights?

The frustration behind this kind of treatment of human beings is erupting in the Arab Spring and now the Women's Spring and what I believe will soon be the Human Spring when all humans refuse to let anyone deny them human dignity and basic human rights.

And the woman who was jailed for 5 days for driving her car? It would be laughable if the implications weren't so tragic.

The charges?

• Disturbing public order
• Inciting public opinion

Her real crime is that she's organizing a national right-to-drive protest for June 23rd. She attempted to do so on Facebook and Twitter, until the frightened little boys in adult bodies who control the country with a tight fist blocked the social media.

Why are the Saudis so afraid of women?

A reason given in the article is that they don't want women exposed to strangers? How lame is that?

Just as the Berlin Wall came down in Germany, and apartheid was dismantled in South Africa, I am excited for the Saudi women who I believe will one day soon be driving themselves to the market, driving their children to school, and living the lives of free adult women.

Driving is just the beginning . . . and the Saudi men in power know it.

The Saudi monarchy and the clerics, these frightened little boys in adult bodies, have good reason to be afraid. They're going to lose their power because it isn't real power.

Real power is based in freedom, not in a tight-fisted, fear-driven control of human beings.

Let the Women's Spring and the Human Spring begin!