I am very sad with what has happened to my country.  Last week I met with a Spanish tutor from Ecuador.  There are two largest cities in Equador: Guayaquil and Quito.  Her family is from Guayaquil.  To drive to Quito from Guayaquil takes eight hours through steep and winging mountain roads.  There is nothing equivlent to the interstate highway system.  There is poverty in Equador.  Yet she told me that 3 or 4 times a year her family drives or takes the eight hour bus trip from Gauyaquil to Quito just to have fun, shop and eat in the cafes and bars.  Can you imagine an American family taking a vacation 3 or 4 times a year?  There is such a sense of family and an emotional solidarity that comes with that.  Do Americans just not know how to relate to each other.  I was talking with an activist yesterday and she was telling me the differenct way Spain dealt with their terrorist attacks than we did here.  She had lived in Spain and had some insight into the culture.  This is what she said, “When they are not working, they are with friends and family talking.  If you aren’t at work, you are with friends and family talking, talking, talking.”  Much of this takes place in bars, or cafeterias as they are called.  It is not uncommon for families after they have had dinner to go to loud smokey bars.  Many Americans would cry “abuse” if they heard about fathers dragging their wives and infants out to loud smokey bars after 11pm, but in Spain that is the norm.  Many other things are different in Latin American countries as well.  Last year my Spanish teacher told me that when she was five years old, her mother started giving her large canasters of coffee and milk when she would go out and play with her cousins.  “You will say bad mother,” she said, “No, it is cultural.”  People from those cultures may see American poor families treating their kids to sodas and candy bars and think it is abuse.  It is not surprising that most people in the global south want to have socialism and have the state control most of the resources and large companies.  We are so politically immature here.  Neomi Klein, in her new book The Shock Doctrine, gives an alternative between authoritarian communism on one side and complete free-market capitalism on the other.  She shows that it is possible to have a public sphere that is safe from the free-market.  She shows that countries do better for all people when tarruffs are charged in all imports.  I went and saw her speak Friday night and there were AT LEAST 800 people there.  I got up an asked a question about 9/11 because her book is about 9/11 and other crises that bring in “disaster capitalism.”  I was really nervoues and couldn’t say just exactly what I wanted to say, though people afterwards said I’d done a good job.  One of the reasons I was so nervoues was right before I asked my question Barry had disrupted the meeting and started yelling, “Look at the evidence,” and holding up a sign that said, “9/11 truth now.”  This Barry, for a few readers, is not the legendary left-wing hoboe who comes around my church.   The whole lead up to the question and answer period saw very subtle refernces to “conspiracy” and “the lively question and answer period that is going to come up.”  After Michael asked challenged her about 9/11, she said, “But there’s not proof.  I only report on things I can prove and there’s not proof and if there is, I haven’t seen it.”  That’s when Barry stood up and said loudly, “There is Neomi, there is!  Look at the evidence!”  She said, “Okay, you’re being rude.  I’m not being rude, but you’re being rude.”  Afterwards Barry and some others told me they missed me at the group and wanted me to come back.  “We need you,” they said.  After my conflict with some of the senior members of the group, I had made myself scarce.  Now I realize how much I missed those friends I had made, some of which are deep thinkers and students of the bible as well.

There are some in the Portland who think these heavy-handed tactics are very bad and discredit us.  I’m not one of those.  It’s not my style, but it sure gets our point across.  There is nothing more important right now than the crime of 9/11 and its cover up.  Any attempt to get the truth out into the public should be commended.

I may be going to Ecuador in the new year.  I have had a series of few job interviews recently and am debating weather I want to just work full-time in the new year and save up money to go.  I don’t feel right about going to Mexico to study.  Ecuador is the cheepest Latin American country right now and cheeper than PSU.  One of the problems I face, however, with work is the pain that I have in my feet which even a walk to the bus stop aggrivates.  They are much better since starting super-feet insoles but the insoles need now to be replaced and they are expensive.  I am worried that so much time on my feet as these jobs require (both interviews were for clothing stores) would cause the pain to be unbearable.  I don’t feel safe in this country and would wish to immigrate, yet there are problems.  Although it is very easy for Americans to get into universities in Ecuador and I already have a one-year visa promised me, there is no Orthodox church there and this would create extreme conflicts of interests.  On the other hand, I don’t want to have to choose between going to jail or vaccinating my children.  Or paying for private school because my future children aren’t allowed to go to public school without being vaccinated with mercury and strains of sexually transmitted deseases.  I no longer feel safe in this country and would like to go away for just a few years to watch how things turn out.  When I am talking about politics on the phone, it invariably cuts off.  This never happens to me except when I am talking about politics on the phone.  Something is happening and may happen that is very bad.  Why is the military buying tens of thousands of tents and trailers?  Could these be used to potentially vaccinate people?  Vaccinations cause sterility, which fits in well with the Bilderberg agenda of eugenics and mass birth control.  Having healthy children is the best way to give the finger to these Bilderberger tyrants.