We must insist on taking responsibility for ourselves. I am starting to think that the only way this can be done successfully and to resist the strong (and often well-meaning) pressures of the medical establishment, is to take the following position: “As a matter of religious principle, I am conscientiously opposed to medication in all but the most serious of conditions. To refuse a treatment is my first amendment right.” That should at least get some attention and lead to consideration of my (patient) wishes in all this.

They might think I belong to a religious cult (maybe I can just say I’m a Quaker — that’s often enough to befuddle people), but I can live with that if this is an effective approach. Over and over I hear how difficult it can be to stand up to established medical practice. My Quaker response will be “I need to call a Clearness Committee first.”

Does arrest then become simply “catch and release” or some version of theater? Or is there something more happening with Brandywine Peace Community and their actions at Lockheed Martin? These actions are the direct descendents of the original 1980 Plowshares action that occurred at this same location. The spirit of the Berrigans (participants in that 1980 civil disobedience) has been kept alive here for more than three decades. I witness that sense of faithfulness that compels many of those arrested to continue to be arrested here, time after time and year after year. Experienced that way, this becomes more than simple theater but becomes a living and ongoing testimony of faithfulness in our lives.

BigPharma cannot be trusted, although many doctors are doing their best under very challenging circumstances. Nonetheless, I have had a couple of times of misinformation coming from well-respected and well-educated doctors. One specialist told me, on an occasion years ago when my hip was hurting, that I would soon be a candidate for hip replacement and that meanwhile I should not walk more than a mile at a time. HOW CAN MODERN MEDICINE GET IT SO WRONG! WHAT UTTER LUNACY DO THEY PRACTICE? It does make me want to avoid them as much as possible. I believe that our environment/culture is a major factor in all this, in ways that we don’t now know or understand (e.g. — how can we really have a good diet these days — it can be very difficult to know what to do).

See http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/do-statins-make-it-tough-to-exercise/?comments#comments

Select educational institutions are perhaps the most self-congratulatory places on earth. Certainly they contain some very capable young people. But that’s not the point – for many students (not all, of course) the point is to feel good about oneself and to get on a trajectory for “success” and “leadership.” And so there is this institutional massaging of student ego to justify the goal of being the 1%. Generating genuine/serious service to the wider world? They claim to, mightily and loudly. But they rarely go beyond the superficial in this regard, because if they did, students might be changed in a way that would threaten individuals and institutions currently wielding power.

Under the 2007 agreement, entry-level workers were paid $14. to $16. an hour, plus benefits, bringing their total compensation to about $25. an hour, or about half of current workers salaries. Not enough for a particularly secure life, but not starvation either. This likely assumes a wife will be working, if you have a family. $15/hour for 50 weeks at 40, or 2000 hours, is $32,500 plus some benefits (you don’t receive the value that they cost the company), so total package would be worth maybe $45,000 to you. You pay considerable union dues for making this possible (don’t think this would happen at all without unions) and can expect to face extended periods liad off with no job and no income. Today these jobs are considered very desirable, (after all, it’s about ¾ of what you get with a Ph.D. in academe) My point is not to compare working class folks with other workers, but with owners and top executives getting 450,000 or ten times more than workers get paid.