Perspectives

"Did anyone hear a thank you? How about an apology for their risky gambling with the world’s economy?"

Political and religious authority is crumbling in a crisis of faith. The late Leonard Bernstein put those themes, and much more, in his concert triumph, “Mass.” After eight years of Bush-Cheney, the priest/pedophile scandal, coupled with the costly Wall St. Bailout, the loss of trust in our institutions is rampant. If the people want real change, they are going to have to rely on themselves, and on each other to create, in unity, the world that they desire.

"Although many details remain to be worked out, and the architects of the new financial order are drawing (and redrawing) their blueprint as the construction proceeds, the overall logic of the new structure has already become fairly clear. As best we can determine, the administration’s theory is that the economic well-being of Americans, and indeed of people around the world, cannot be achieved without resort to the grandissimo of all grand larcenies. Barbara Bush probably never dreamed what amazing things her rather dim-witted firstborn son would accomplish. By the time that all of these crimes have run their course, George Walker Bush may well have proved himself to be the greatest economic wrecker and looter in the history of the world."

"...we all badly need a transformation, in the U.S., in Canada, and the world. Let's hope and pray that American voters will do the right thing and hold an election that really means something."

"Public investment in locally-driven projects directly and most immediately impacts local populations and their organizations. Jobs are created and income is generated at the local level as projects are implemented, which involves labor, materials, and action. Local control, ownership, and benefits encourage the ongoing functioning of community projects."

"The challenge for the next President will be to develop global alliances that will focus on terminating those political conflicts that spawn terrorism. This alliance is only possible when American foreign policy changes course to reflect America's values of liberty and justice for all, not some."

"Canada once had the respect of the World as peace loving and fair-minded country. Gone is the legacy of Lester B. Pearson, Pierre Elliot Trudeau and Jean Chretien when Canada’s soldiers were almost universally welcomed as peace keepers and Canada was respected internationally."

"The Jews who dream of ethnic cleansing do not understand how large a contribution the Arab community makes to Israel. Like the other inhabitants of Israel, they work here, they contribute to the GNP, they pay their taxes like everybody else. Like all of us, they have no alternative - they pay value-added tax on everything they buy and they, too, get their salaries only after income tax is deducted."