elecpenciljim wrote this on his own blog Elecpencil on Saturday, October 25, 2008
Of Holy Books to Rick
"I got up this morning with every intention of going to a memorial at YSU's Planetarium for Rick Pirko. The arthritis in my back, knee and bursitus in my hip had other plans for me. By afternoon I was able to try and speed limp out to the mailbox. I was rewarded with my monthly invite to join AARP and a free copy of, Arthritis Today. Nothing like kicking a guy when he's down and adding insult to injury.
"Since I didn't make it to YSU I'd like to say this about Rick:
I got to know Rick Pirko as a fellow member of the Valley Co-alition of Peace and Justice. I enjoyed talking to Rick while we held signs at Friday afternoon protests against the Iraq war. I remember reading a Letter to the Editor of The Jambar Rick had written. I discussed it with him while protesting, telling him how much I liked what he had written.
"Read Rick's Letter to The Editor of YSU’s The Jambar 2/10/05 here
2/14/06 Letter here
Digging up that letter I note how Rick was sure right about where the Bush economy was headed. I laughed aloud when I read, 'I hoard my Canadian Quarters.'
"I’m Rick’s age and only wish that I had been able to accomplish half as much at Rick did in his lifetime.
"Being a religious skeptic like Rick and hearing the story of him removing bibles from hotel rooms I'm posting this poem (posted here as an article to save space) I wrote some time ago. I hope he would have liked it:
Of Holy Books
"Christians are portraying Moslems who follow their holy book, the Koran as intolerant murderers, criminals and terrorists. Some Christians are saying, atrocities such as the attack on 9/11 can easily be attributed to the prophet Mohammed and the god, Allah. They point out Koran verses that preach hate like the following: 'Don’t associate with those of other faiths.' 'Don’t receive them into you home or even exchange greetings with them.' Others who don’t share your beliefs have an 'evil heart.'
"It gets even more intolerant when you read; 'God destroys those who don’t believe in him.' When the god in this supposed 'Holy Book' isn’t killing someone, which he seems to do on many pages, he is ordering his followers to kill any friends or family that worships a god different than him. He says to kill them in their very own church. He orders, 'Kill all inhabitants of any city where people worship different than you.' There are holy verses that call for the elimination of entire ethnic groups including women, children, animals and even trees. He tells his followers to, hide along the road wait for women and then kidnap, rape and marry them. This god tells his followers you are 'of God' and everyone else is wicked.
"You best believe there’s a lot to fear from this faith when you read, 'Everyone will have to worship the prophet---whether they want to or not.' They place themselves above all laws by the verse, 'A follower cannot be accused of any wrongdoing.' I’ve only scratched the surface of the hate and evil deeds in this so called, 'Holy Book.'
"Knowing that their faith could crumble if it were to under go any free and critical thinking, this prophet tells his followers to avoid philosophy. That just proves that ignorance is bliss.
"Surely this hate-filled book should never be in a library. It should also never be allowed in a school. Banning it is just not enough. All copies of it need to be immediately burned. If I were a politician who espoused 'family values', I’d strike the first match. Clerics of every religion should be calling for a funeral pyre of this unholy book. It’s little wonder that its followers’ fight constant wars and justify them.
"I did extensive research that buried my desk in a pyramid of paper to write this poem. Gathering so much info can get confusing. That’s my excuse because I have just realized, oops, my bad, the aforementioned verses are really from the Bible’s Old and New Testaments, instead of the Koran. All holy books tend to have some type of the hate filled quotes from above in them. Such statements taint any good that can be found in these books. We need to know what’s in our own back yard before we ask our neighbors to clean their back yard. Building fences between our neighbors is surely no way to build a better neighborhood.
"Peace to you Rick."
One letter-to-the-editor within another, from The Jambar 2/14/06, this is one of the legendary ones written by Rick Pirko.
ReplyDeleteEditor:
The front page Jambar article of Feb. 2nd, covering the State of the Union Address, may as well have been entitled "Wings, Beer, Bush and absolutely no brains." If you watched the address and followed the major news coverage on television, you would have been left with the impression that the USA was back on track, with a healthy economy and strong defense. However, if you checked the media coverage from the other 96 percent of the world's population you would have seen a flashback to 2004 and "How dumb can 59,054,087 people be?" BBC news reported that the mood of the majority party, in the halls of Congress, was that of soccer hooligans in church. Locally, WYTV covered college students, watching the president's address at a bar. The interviewed Campus Young Republican was in complete agreement with Bush, but felt that the president errored in not calling for increased security at US borders. Apparently YSU College Republicans object to Mexicans cleaning hotel toilets for sub-minimum wage and want to block great-grandma from making an attempt to buy life saving medications at the Canadian border. I can sarcastically suggest that this would be a great opportunity for Bush to use his faith based initiative to patrol both borders by turning security over to bible gun clubs.
The Bush promise to higher education did not even last until the end of Tuesday's address, as Bush took aim at 141 federal programs that do not fit his agenda. Bush called these "failed or poorly performing programs." Anyone with a social or environmental conscience sees these as programs of great need, already gutted and filled with yes men, by Bush. The failed programs now include a gagged and bound Environmental Protection Agency, a scientifically neutered NASA and everybody's favorite federal agency - FEMA. On television, Jay Leno seemed to be the only one noticed the targeted 141 programs. I did the math with George's own numbers from his address. The total elimination of all 141 programs will provide enough money to run Bush's War for only 32 days. If we can afford a war can't we afford schools and health care?
The Bush vow to reduce Mideast oil imports did not last one day. To quote the Washington Post, "One day after president Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic advisor said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally." The article continues in grim terms. Do the math yourself my friends. Look it up. Of the top five nations from which we import oil, only one, Saudi Arabia is in the Middle East. The Middle East accounts for 20 percent of the 60 percent total we import, or one-tenth of US oil consumption.
His vow to reduce the deficit did not last two days. The latest tax cut for the rich totals $60 billion and Bush is now asking for an additional 60 billion dollar increase in his 2007 budget of 2.77 trillion dollars.
Just before Bush spoke of Freedom on Tuesday night, Cindy Sheehan was jailed for wearing a T-shirt that simply said 2,245 dead."
I am going to finish by asking the Jambar to reprint from my letter, one year ago, and end with the words "I told you so."
From The Jambar, Feb. 10, 2005:
Four years ago George W. Bush inherited the largest budget surplus and the strongest economy of the past 50 years. At that time he already had plans to gut a century of hard won social and economic gains, but if in the year 2001 GWB had proposed a budget that slashed 150 programs centered on American farms, education, housing, public transportation, environmental protection and just plain social justice his own party would have turned their back on Bush. In January 2001 the Congressional Budget Office projected the surplus would reach $281 billion in 2001, $881 billion by 2011 and accumulate $5.6 trillion by 2011.
[CBO, Budget and Economic Outlook, 1/01] You can look this up for yourself at www.cbo.gov) Bush then passed his now infamous "tax cut for the rich" and in them year 2002 America posted its first deficit since 1997, which has grown to $477 billion in 2004. This is the largest deficit in history, larger than the previous record of $290 billion in 1992 by George the First. And now, by the CBO's own estimate, (I quote) "The deficit will exceed $400 billion every year through 2014." [CBO, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities 12/1/04.]
Bush has trashed our economy. The dollar is down against the Euro, down against the Yen and all major Asian currencies, and at a record low against major markets. I hoard my Canadian quarters. Against this downturn Bush will now take revenge on those same 150 programs he dared not touch in 2001. Today in the news, as I now write this, 12 were killed and 60 injured in a suicide bombing, in a separate attack 15 more died. It sickens me to write this: In the two weeks preceding the Super Bowl over 50 Americans died in Iraq. Locally, Columbiana schools may close one, if not two, schools and face layoffs, Trumbull County will layoff patrol and support personnel and NASA Glenn Research will layoff 700 of its 1,900 employees. The WMD of our economy is GWB.
Richard Pirko
Department of Physics and Astronomy
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