CHAPTER TEN. THEOLOGY 101: WHY DESPAIR IS A SIN

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Jun 26, 2009 7:07 AM PDT

This essay is dedicated to Eric Shinseki, a soldier's soldier who stood up to Rumseld in telling Congress that the projected fighting strength Rummy was preparing to deploy to invade Iraq was grossly inadequate. 

Unlike political generals, the men and women who served under him were not mere cannon fodder for the politicians working for the international corporate terrorists who started that war and planned the occupations of Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. As a military man, he knew better than the chicken hawks in the White House what would have been necessary to give our military a fighting chance of success at carrying their mission out. 



It has been customary for centuries to pray to God when preparing for battle, hoping that God will favor our cause. We inevitably believe that our forces fight for justice, and we pray that God agrees. The battle for a single payer health care system and the larger war against the corporate assault on democracy is one cause whose righteousness no one can doubt. Therefore, it is a moral imperative that as we engage in this battle, our confidence must not falter. When the fate of our children depends on our success, we cannot worry about our chances of success, because failure is not an option.

Human progress depends on the vision of those who dream of a better world and have faith in their own ability to create it. To lose hope in the sight of difficulties is to abandon that faith and to risk  leaving future generations to the vagaries of fate. 

According to the second law of thermodynamics, the natural tendency of things is to decay. Humanity must continue to resist entropy in order to survive and to thrive in the Universe. We must learn from our mistakes and constantly devise new strategies to ensure human progress, even as threats to our survival and vitality multiply in number and dangerousness.

As we stand at the edge of the opportunity to bring a single payer health care system to America, we also have an opportunity to strike a blow at the heart of one of the most dangerous enemies of freedom. The insurance industry is one of the corporate forces which have thwarted the democratic will in America since 1889, when the Supreme Court granted corporations human rights under the Fourteenth amendment clause assuring that the Bill of Rights applies to all “persons.” 

In a blatant reactionary response to Teddy Roosevelt’s attempts to rein in the dangerous power of corporate monopolists, these counter-Revolutionary “justices” used this precedent to systematically grant human rights to these legally fictitious “persons.” Ignoring the fact that a corporate “person” cannot be imprisoned or executed for the crimes it commits in the name of free enterprise and the pursuit of profit over human need, the court gave them the same constitutional protections that you and I enjoyed until they began to be stripped from us under the guise of a “war” on terror.

Belief in progress is not naïve. Self styled “realists” will tell you that human nature is such that moral compromise is always necessary and will inevitably lead us to accommodate individual self interest in any personal or governmental decision. This assumes that men and women are not capable of governing themselves either individually or collectively. Thus, those who hold this view essentially reject the core assumption necessary to believe that democracy can work.  Why do these people hate America so much?

Religious conservatives take it as an article of faith that we are all “sinners.” While it may be true that we all fall short of the Christian ideal, this should not stop us from making every effort to follow Christ’s example, rather than allowing this to become an excuse for our willful moral failings. Abraham Lincoln pointed out that we must strive to become a "more perfect" union so that the American experiment in democracy would not fail and the hope for freedom in the world would be ended for generations, if not forever.

Just as striving for perfection is a moral issue on a personal level, so does the manner in which a nation addresses social justice issues determine the character of its soul. The fight to assure that medical care is available to all when needed is one of the great social justice issues of our time.

If the United States is truly a nation whose people believe in the principle that all humans have inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness then we must ensure that all citizens have the right to physical and emotional health. We must preserve life in order to use our liberty to pursue the means of happiness.  

It is a sick society in which the murder of those who regretfully terminate potential lives is condoned and even encouraged by men and women who call themselves "Christians." The majority of the morally twisted individuals who approve of this form of murder in the name of God are typically willing to callously abandon children once born, in the delusional belief that individual responsibility is the defining feature of the American character. Those who reject the idea of social responsibilty ignore the fact thar our collective well being is also the responsibility of each of us. Those who choose to be willfully ignorant of this truth commit the gravest sin of all.

As Reverend Martin Luther King observed, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. When we allow injustice to be done to one of us, democracy is endangered. Those who care only about accumulating wealth and power would use our divisions to conquer us all. We have to recognize that the  well being of each of us is intimately dependent on assuring the well being of all of us.

A society that does not care for the least among it is a dying society. Strong citizens build strong governments and will fight any attempt to undermine the foundations of democracy through the authoritarian rhetoric of self-interested power-mongers. They believe they have a divine right to rule over the rest of us. This is the greatest threat to our democratic Republic, which is founded on the principle that every citizen has the right and duty to help make decisions that affect all of us.

Rick Staggenborg, MD


Ketchikan, Alaska

CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN. THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM.

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Oct 29, 2009 8:36 AM PDT

This essay is dedicated to the proprietress of the Tibet Nepal Galleria in Pasadena, California. She kindly took the time to explain to me that Hinduism is monotheistic, in that the Gods of the Hindu pantheon are all manifestations of Vishnu, the one God. This was a key piece of my understanding of the relationship between Hindu belief, other monotheistic religions, and Buddhism.

May we all have the wisdom of the avatar Ganesha, the Elephant God, who places and removes obstacles to our actions, in order to assure that Vishnu will remain whole in this Universe. Buddha taught that we are all part of the eternal One, connected by what Christians call the Holy Spirit. I pray that they are all right, and that we may someday achieve a true understanding of the wisdom revealed to Muhammed, who gave us the last chapter in the Book. May Jews, Christians and Muslims remember that we are all “People of the Book.”

Trying to grasp the problems with the American government, I am reminded of the story of the twelve blind monks trying to describe an elephant by touch alone. As you may imagine, as they were all feeling different parts of the elephant, they came away with radically different impressions of its nature. Only by effectively communicating could they bridge the gap between their individual perceptions of the reality of the elephant could they come closer to understanding its true Form. In a similar fashion, only by abandoning our preconceptions and approaching each other in a spirit of mutual respect can we hope to understand this beast we call our government. Then we are in a position to harm it, lest rogue elements use its brute force to strip us of our right to self-government.

Fortunately, by simply adopting this attitude and working together to understand the problems in our government, we will also hold the key to solving them, if we are truly a moral people who only want what is best for the country and everyone in it. Yes, that includes Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Karl Rove and all their criminal co-conspirators. I am sorry if that disappoints anyone, but that is the only way to correct the course of the Ship of State in time to avoid a collision with the rapidly melting iceberg threatening us all. There is no time for seeking retribution and fighting amongst ourselves on deck, while the tiller spins wildly. There is a difference between acknowledging these crimes and perpetuating the cycle of blame and recriminations that has helped lead to the brink of catastrophe. If you are so blinded by your anger that you lack the reason to see that we must stand behind our President in order to push him in the right direction, then you are missing the point.

Some aspects of the problem are revealed in pieces by the corporate press, and our task is to make sure that they present enough information to put together the picture of the entire beast. This information is already available in standard sources in magazines, newspapers, radio and even on television. For those who understand how to use a computer to sift through the misinformation and find the truth, the task is even easier, and we must teach our young that it is worth the effort. Once we have a common image in mind of what America is and should be, it is easy to explain to those too busy, discouraged, confused, lazy or complacent to put the picture together on their own. Even those motivated by naked self interest alone will understand the need for concerted action to save America and the planet if we connect the dots for them.

From my study of what is wrong with the United States government, the elephant in the room that none of our politicians want to fully acknowledge is the problem of corporate personhood. If the American government is an elephant, then it has gone rogue. Those who understand that a Constitutional amendment to end the ability of corporations to buy our Congress know where to strike to fell it if need be. Rogues must be confronted and the threat they pose neutralized. The alternative is to continue to let international corporate terrorists control it by leading it by its nose, which always follows the money.

In the words of the New Seekers:




I'd like to build the world a home
and furnish it with love,
grow apple trees and honey bees
and snow white turtle doves.


I'd like to teach the world to sing
in perfect harmony.
I'd like to hold it in my arms
and keep it company.


I'd like to see the world for once
all standing hand in hand
and hear them echo through the hills
for peace throughout the land.


Thats the song I hear.
Let the world sing today
a song of peace
that echoes on
and never goes away.


I'd like to teach the world to sing
in perfect harmony.


I'd like to teach the world to sing
in perfect harmony.


I'd like to build the world a home
and funish it with love,
grow apple trees and honey bees
and snow white turtle doves.


I'd like to teach the world to sing
in perfect harmony.
I'd like to hold it in my arms
and keep it company.














Rick Staggenborg, MD


Founder, Soldiers For Peace International


Portland, Oregon

CHAPTER FIFTY SIX. THE BRAVE NEW WORLD

 Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Nov 29, 2009 7:30 AM PST






This chapter is dedicated to Aldous Huxley, who credited the experiencing of nearly total blindness in his youth with opening the doors of his perception. He perfected the art of seeing and gave us the terrifying vision of our possible futures in 1984 and Brave New World.








As I drifted toward consciousness this morning, I visualized myself at a crossroads. This image seemed to represent a choice I had to make that would determine the path my life would take from that point. It came to me that this did not have to represent some critical decision, but any of the choices that I make every day that together determine my personal future. With every decision that I make, my individual destiny changes.

The same can be said of our collective future. Every day we make the decisions that shape the future of Mankind and each day we awaken to a new world. The nightmare of an inexorable march to self-destruction is not possible if we awaken to the fact that our interdependence requires of us that we consciously choose to love life itself enough to show in every choice our love for ourselves and each other. We need only choose this path to free ourselves and choose the high road toward cooperation and ultimate peace.


There are an infinite number of futures that we might inhabit. Our choices are but one force among many that determine our individual and shared fates. The decisions of others play largely in our destiny, as do apparently random events that may have unpredictable consequences.

At times, small and seemingly insignificant occurrences may change the future in ways impossible for us to recognize. This is termed the butterfly effect, which may be the basis of karma, if such a thing exists. The theory of karma postulates that our fortunes depend on our actions not only in this life but in past lives. In Buddhist and earlier Hindu traditions, it is accepted as a given that all of our actions are punished or rewarded in the fullness of time.


There is a vast gulf between various schools of religious thought as to whether there is a God who can intervene in our individual and thus collective fates. At one extreme, it is believed that there is no God and that our individual choices determine our ultimate fate. Obviously, this is only true if reincarnation is a fact of existence, since there would be no other way to explain why some are so disadvantaged a birth or by later life circumstances, regardless of their conduct in this life.

It strikes me as extremely illogical to begin shaping my personal reality by making the a priori assumption that life itself has no inherent purpose. If the answer to the question of God's existence is unanswerable with certainty, then I choose to believe that God exists and is perfect love.


At the other extreme of religious belief are those religions that argue that God determines all things, thus presupposing that free will is an illusion. It is clear that many of those subscribing to this notion of blind faith in the unseen have abrogated their responsibility to act upon the world with care and the sense that there are consequences to their actions that are under their control. They blithely choose to follow the path of least resistance toward perceived rewards that they convince themselves they have earned or have been granted by their special relationship to a God who exists only in their imaginations.

Thus in America we find religious fundamentalists hastening what they see as the inevitable destruction of the world, and throughout the world jihadists kill in the name of a perverted version of Allah that they believe wills their craven acts of destruction and will reward them in the next world.


Physicists engaged in constructing models of physical reality concluded long ago that God does indeed “play dice with the Universe,” to use Einstein’s evocative phrase. At a subatomic level, the physical location of a particle such as a photon cannot be predicted if it interacts with another particle or object. This is the basis of both the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and the wave model of light and other “particles.” It is easily demonstrated by passing photons or electrons through a diffraction grating. The result is a diffraction pattern showing the characteristics of a wave.


The easiest way to explain this is to postulate that the position and direction of a given particle passing through a diffraction grating is determined by the probability that the particle exists at a certain location in space with a particular velocity at any given moment. This uncertainty is expressed mathematically as quantum fluctuations in these variables.

Thus, if there is a God acting on the world, it may well be through altering these probabilities. If there are miracles occurring that help us to shape the destiny of ourselves and mankind, then it may be that we can only detect them by recognizing the extraordinarily improbable nature of some of our experiences. In other words, if Schrödinger’s cat suddenly appeared to be outside the box in which he had placed it, he would have to conclude that a miracle has occurred.


We cannot know whether God is acting in the world, but if we accept our responsibility to act with love and compassion toward our fellow man then we may have faith that we are doing the right thing, whether or not we believe that we are acting in accordance with the will of God. We can then sleep easily at night, knowing that whatever dreams may come, we will awaken to a new world of our own making that will be better than the one we last saw.








Rick Staggenborg, MD






Coos Bay, OR

CHAPTER NINETY EIGHT. NEXT YEAR, LET’S CELEBRATE INTERDEPENDENCE DAY

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Jul 5, 2010 2:54 PM PDT

This chapter is based on an editorial I submitted to a number of newspapers today. It is dedicated to Captain Paul K. Chapell, author of The End of War. Like me, he believes that the study of war and the men who fight them can lead to the understanding of how to prevent them. Also like me, he is willing to devote his life to the cause. I salute him sor his continuing service to our nation.

My wife and I decided to kick off the weekend of the Fourth of July by visiting a restaurant where a friend of ours works as a waitress. We were disappointed to see that she was not on duty. When we asked if she was off enjoying the holiday, we were told that she was with her family, privately remembering the son that she lost several years ago in Iraq.

Celebrating was harder for us this year. I have always known that freedom is not free. I did my time in the military, as have many of my family. However, the price I paid was to have my medical school education paid for while enjoying my tour of duty at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu. I did not volunteer to go fight a war in a blazing desert or in a frozen mountain range for reasons I could not understand.

We owe it to our young people to examine the reasons we let these few brave young men and women shoulder the burden that rightfully should be shared by every citizen. We might be more cautious if we knew that our children could be called to fight in these God-forsaken places by our so-called “leaders.” Even if you or I do not have children of an age where they might be called to fight, we should have to bear the financial sacrifice needed to pay for the war, not leave it to this same generation to pay by their sweat as well as blood.

There are many reasons that Americans may choose not to look at the reasons for war. Some are too convinced that there is nothing an average citizen can do. Others do not get accurate information because they are dependent on corporate-controlled media for their national news, who have become virtual stenographers for the White House. Some have children in the wars and do not want to consider the possibility that they are dying not for freedom but for Empire. Other reasons include apathy, fear of being out of step, fear of attack by terrorists or simple loyalty to their Party.

None of these reasons is good enough, however understandable. It is ignorance, apathy and despair that have let our democracy slip away from us and allowed international corporate interests become so powerful that they control the Senate and largely determine who becomes President and to whom he or she will be beholden. With this state of affairs, they also determine when we are going to have a war to advance their interests at the expense of the average American. The shifting series of rationales offered for the Iraq war supports this conclusion, since none of them were based on facts. Sadaam was not engaged in terrorism against the US and there was no reason to be in Iraq except to advance the Empire of international oil interests who will stop at nothing to control access to the oil upon which they and government policies they paid for have kept us dependent.

Next Fourth of July, We could be celebrating our independence from the oil industry. The BP gusher may be the thing that makes this possible. These events are not independent. Every event that affects the oil industry affects the chance they continue to destroy the environment and the endless wars for profit. We have a role in this. Each of us still has the right to vote. It is our responsibility to study the issues and the real reasons we fight wars. They have accomplished little but to increase the number of potential terrorists driven by what we have done in Iraq, Afghanistan and by proxy in Gaza and the West Bank in what was formerly Palestine.

The causes of war are inter-related. We are all interdependent and share the costs of accepting the self-fulfilling prophecy that war is inevitable. We all hope for peace but do little to promote it. We vote our pocket books and base our votes on propaganda paid for by the international corporate interests that tell our Senate when it is time for war. Our children pay the price in blood, sweat and tears for our apathy and lack of faith in a democracy that is endangered because we don’t belive in our power to control our own destiny.

If we want peace, let us start with the assumption that it is possible and work to make that a reality. We can each choose to demand an end to wars of Empire and restore our economy by ending the bondage of depending on oil and an unregulated “free market” global economy that has proven as ruinous to our economy as endless war. I hope that by our next Fourth of July, we will be celebrating our interdependence with our brothers and sisters throughout the world. Perhaps then we will see how to celebrate our independence from the ever-present threat of war.

In the words of Edwin Starr:




War, huh, yeah.
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing.
Uh-huh.


War, huh, yeah.
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing.
Say it again, y'all.


War, huh, good God!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing.
Listen to me.


Ohhh, war, I despise
because it means destruction
of innocent lives.


War means tears
to thousands of mothers' eyes.
When their sons go to fight
and lose their lives.


I said, war, huh!
Good God, y'all.
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing.
Say it again:


War, whoa, Lord!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing.
Listen to me:


War, it ain't nothing
but a heartbreaker.
War, friend only to the undertaker.


Ooooh, war.
It's an enemy to all mankind
The point of war blows my mind.


War has caused unrest
within the younger generation.
Induction then destruction.
Who wants to die?


Aaaaah, war-huh!
Good God y'all,
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing.
Say it, say it, say it!


War, huh!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing.
Listen to me.


War, huh, yeah.
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing.
Uh-huh.


War, huh, yeah!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing.
Say it again y'all.


War, huh, good God!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing.
Listen to me.


War, it ain't nothing but a heartbreaker.
War, it's got one friend,
that's the undertaker.


Ooooh, war has shattered
many a young mans dreams.
Made him disabled, bitter and mean.


Life is much to short and precious
to spend fighting wars these days.
War can't give life,
it can only take it away.


Ooooh, war, huh!
Good God, y'all.
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing.
Say it again.


War, whoa, Lord!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing.
Listen to me.


War, it ain't nothing but a heartbreaker.
War, friend only to the undertaker.
Peace, love and understanding:
Tell me, is there no place for them today?


They say we must fight to keep our freedom,
but Lord knows there's got to be a better way.


Ooooooh, war, huh!
Good God, y'all.
What is it good for?
You tell me.
Say it, say it, say it, say it....


War, huh!
Good God, y'all.
What is it good for?
Stand up and shout it:
Nothing!






Rick Staggenborg, MD


Coos Bay, Oregon