The Army of the Killing does this!
The Army of the Caring does this!
Friends, I’ve just come back from treatment and the ironic thought stuck me that there are two major armies in the world: there are armies of people who are dedicated to helping humans and easing their suffering and armies of people who are dedicated to killing people and taking their land and resources.
The people who carry out my treatment, nurses and radiotherapists and oncologists, are the most caring group of people I’ve struck for a long time. They always have a smile and offer a helping hand especially to those who seem to me to be in a terminal stage of illness. They are jolly in the main and tell little jokes so that laughter is frequently part of the scene. They listen to your complaints without complaint and go out of their way to ensure that minor issues don’t become major issues.
Of course, in Australia as in other parts of the world, the hospitals are always short of money. In most hospital emergency sections people have to wait for hours to be seen. Others lay in beds in corridors because there are no beds available in the hospital. There are plenty of rooms that beds can go in but there isn’t the money or staff to look after patients.
But the army of dedicated nurses, doctors, radiologists, continue on despite the money shortage while the politicians keep promising more funds for health services, funds which never seem to materialize. But wait until election time! Then money appears, buckets of it, and, all too often, it goes to fund infrastructure that buys votes rather than into health where it is desperately required.
But of course, taxpayers’ money is always available for the Armed Forces.
It buys fighter jets, warships, tanks, helicopters and a whole panoply of munitions which blow up, burn, irradiate, you name it, they do it. And there are a whole army of people who are highly skilled in the area of killing. From hand to hand combat right up to people who control drones from thousands of miles away from the theatre of war, they are dedicated to the service of the politicians, admirals, generals, etc who see war as a positive endeavour, a means to achieving their selfish ends.
So we have two armies: millions of those who, selflessly and generously, try to save life and millions of those who get their jollies trying to kill and maim people by the hundreds of thousands. The former is always underfunded while the latter enjoys endless funding especially in nations which see war as a means to achieving their selfish ends.
Why do people put up with this farce whereby money for killing is freely available yet money for saving lives, even those of our own people, our sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, grandchildren and grandparents, is an uneven trickle?
It’s time that we, the people, reversed this ridiculous situation, gave the Caring Army the funds they need and throttle the Killing Army by shrinking its funding, gradually stop it in its tracks.
P.S. On another note I have, after tomorrow, 9 more treatments. The finish line is in sight! Then comes the two month wait to see what the result is. Cheers.
hello dg
have u tried logging in to ich with a new js-kit account ?
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Since they deleted a comment of mine, I’ve left no more of them, Denk!
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i see, thank you dg
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David,
There are many well-meaning, empathic, compassionate individuals in the field of healthcare….especially the nurses, but language is very important when describing them and what they do. I prefer not to demean them by using a militarized term that should remain as a such….a stigma to describe the organization(s) of humans who engage in the heinous act of war. Surely we can find something else…something much more worthwhile to describe these beautiful caregivers? Any ideas, anyone?
In regards to ICH, many of my posts were deleted and I was banned by the alleged proprietor, Tom Feeley. I do believe the benefactor is Angel Gabriel who will match anyone’s donation….hence the name Angel, ad in Venture Capitalist Angel. I don[‘t trust that site, even though it is a good collection of articles. It appears to be a form of containment. Olive Farmer has a great working theory on such deceitful devices.
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“It appears to be a form of containment.” Interesting. For some reason, I can’t comment there at ICH. Everytime I hit send it comes back saying I didn’t understand their secret code.
David, I have seen a big link between these two seemingly opposite ventures: The destruction of life and the restoration of health. Look at the Iraq war. They say this war is different because so many with wounds who would have died in past wars, were saved by modern medical intervention. Alot of people in the medical field, are former military personnel. It seems to be an awesome training ground- in the medic tents – near the theatre of war. Then they come back home – and emergency rooms and clinics don’t seem so bad – after having been through the worst of war.
Military is like a dysfunctional family. People are exploited for what they do best and then they are stuck in that role. I saw alot of that when I lived in Sacramento. There are two military bases in town and when you go to the hospital in that town, almost everyone is former military. It is like they are guaranteed a job, once they make it through the worst.
Now, having said all that, Here, where I live now, I am exposed to one of the best medical schools in the Nation. Smart, compassionate, quick young people who are in the field because of a cross between intelligence, compassion and money to attend one of the finest schools in the World. They are an amazing group of people who could really do some good in this world.
I feel that I have experienced the spectrum of people who are in the medical field. I have had wonderful experiences and also, the stuff of nighmares.
David, you are a trooper. I think staying connected to all the things you enjoy has been a wise move. I am imagining that the treatments you receive, will completely destroy the invasive visitor. You are clear and free, back at your home, with a new wonder of life.
Peace.
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David G Reply:
February 19th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Grace, it’s amazing that both groups are dedicated: one to destroying life and the other to preserving it and improving its quality.
Of course the Military Army loves to grab young, gullible teenagers who aren’t too bright and are filled with raging hormones. Then they cleverly shape them and fill their minds with crap about patriotism and how war brings peace and how killing is necessary and noble. The photograph of the Vietnamese child shown badly burned by napalm illustrates how ignoble the military is.
People who enter the caring professions usually do so on their own volition. Their training institutions teach them the skills but, in the main, they do not indoctrinate them.
We need to see the Military for what it is and then condemn it!
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DG I hope you are feeling better.
Re: ICH
ICH is starting to bore me
The lively exchange and debate of Haloscan is gone.
The articles can be found elsewhere.
Global Research, Just Foreign Policy. URUKNET, Stop Nato by Rick Rozoff, Palestine Think Tank, Countercurrents, WSWS etc. are very good informative sites. Rense is OK if you sort through the b.s.
I had a wee falling out with this “Angel Gabriel (messenger of God)” as he once billed himself. He berated many good posters calling them bigots, i.e.prejudiced against Jews. His arrogant, self-righteous condescending rants were filled with contradictions and self aggrandizement.
He attempted to put me in my place.
I may have pissed him off a wee bit when I told him that as the trumpetor of zion, he needs to examine his horn…that his cacophenous stench indicates that he is putting the mouthpiece on the wrong orfice…it’s a MOUTHPIECE not an ANUSPIECE.
Ooooh that really set him of into a hysterical incoherent self smooching diatribe.
Anyway, I wish you success on your treatment and hope your life is always filled with love, peace and happiness.
~!~
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Of those armies one gets lots of praise and metals and even days dedicated to them. In the other army many get low wages and very little respect.
No one has to wonder which is which.
Why do we honor death and killing and give so little attention to the much more important work of caring?
Many years ago I worked as a nursing assistant, I was paid minimum wage and the work was often very hard. It was not considered very important, but without that work patients would have been left in terrible condition. Food, clean sheets, a bed pan, even a cool cloth on a fevered forehead mean a lot when you are sick and in pain.
What I remember most from those days are the heart felt thank yous from patients. I didn’t think I had done anything important.
When I was in the hospital 5 years ago for two weeks the wonderful care that I received helped me to understand those thank yous. They are the people who should be receiving the praise!
Good luck with your final treatments David, I hope everything goes well for you!
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Grace Reply:
February 20th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Jeannie, at my recent visit to the urgent care, the kindest person with the most compassion, the person who made it all better, was probably the lowest on the totem pole, a nurse’s assistant who wheeled me out at the end of the visit. To the contrary, the head doctor in charge was a woman incapable of imagining the suffering of a person that is not herself. She was arrogant, cruel, and was completely inappropriate – but in charge!
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@David: I think I linked to your website thru ICH. I watched a video on ICH this a.m. It was
of a tv show called “CrossTalk” and it was of Dr. Norman Finklestein vs. an Insraeli whose
surname was either Gissam or Gissan, I’m mentioning this because I thought it was interesting, but I wouldn’t call it illuminating, it has all been said before.
I’m sorry for your troubles, David. I wish I had the skill to convey how I empathize with you.
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Ironhead, thanks for your kind wishes and thoughts about ICH!
Jeannie, we honour the killers, not the carers, because we have been indoctrinated to think that war is all right, is necessary, is noble! Nothing can be further from the truth. War is an obscenity and, to me, it proves that humans are not intelligent!
Kate, your empathy comes through very well. Thanks.
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Hi David,
I have an interesting response to the post above: My experience of working at a children’s hospital for two years illustrated to me, that the vast majority of those working with patients, i.e. nurses, CAs etc. (doctors tended to be a little more progressive…), while being so gentle and kind to babies and children, giving care and dedicating their lives to sick kids- more often than not, were religious, republicans– They went straight to the polls and voted for someone like John McCain/Sarah Palin… They thought that I was insane/radical/nuts for being a progressive. See they care only to the extent that they allow themselves to… or that their empty religious beliefs allow them to … They care about babies … when they are sick…. but they don’t care about WHY they are sick… or poor … or being born in the first place …. Tell me your thoughts, I would be interested in hearing them …
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Emily,
That’s an excellent observation….a seeming contradiction that deserves to be reconciled. I have thought about, studied and researched this issue for the past decade and the link below is one of the best explanations to be found. It supports my thesis that what we are dealing with is a systemic crisis……and the only way to navigate the crisis is to address the system.
http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/publications/kimbrell_00.html
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Emily, yours is an interesting comment. Perhaps it’s because caring for sick folk takes a lot out of a person so there isn’t the energy to get to wound up about the world or politics!
Morocco, the advent of the nuclear bomb combined with the control of the world by ‘Corporate Thugs,’ like Murdoch suggests to me that humans are insane and destined for extinction!
I try to believe that good will prevail eventually, but my belief is fast disappearing.
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Emily, so true. When I was involved with the Catholic Church. Of the ladies who held jobs, most of them worked as nurses or in the legal field. They were staunch Republicans and there was alot of talk about refusing to participate in abortions and any kind of birth control. Two Catholic Hospitals in the Valley were a part of changing laws so that they didn’t have to do those things, legally so. These ladies (the nurses) would speak lovingly of the little babies they helped save.
I volunteered in the Food Pantry at the church. This is where I got to know many of these “nice ladies” I have never seen people -judge- poor, hungry people the way these women did! They were ruthless.
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Ah, Grace, the foibles of us humans. It seems virtually impossible to locate semi-perfect human beings. By contrast it is easy to find petty, irrational, devious, evil ones!
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