Dear Warren Buffet

“…and crowned thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea…”

Dear Warren Buffet:

Perhaps we both have Bank of America on our minds right now….You, because you recently invested five billion dollars in that mega-corporation…and Me because I owe them money and I don’t know what will become of me if I can’t figure out a way to pay my enormous debt: $ 27,643. 90! I’m writing this in the middle of the night (insomnia)…You may be sleeping right now, secure in the fact that your money is working for you and for Bank of America.

This credit card debt of mine was not acquired through frivolous personal purchases of clothes or fancy toys or a tiara. I acquired this debt the old-fashioned way: I earned it from working (tirelessly, blindly) to keep my beloved small business afloat in these bad economic times. As a creative entrepreneur, with more interest in art and artists than in bottom lines and fiduciary responsibilities, I played a dangerous game…and I played poorly with people who knew how to win those games. Amid tears and fears, after falling behind in my bills—and after failing in my various attempts to beg or borrow more money, I closed the doors of my business in March of 2011. But wait! This is not a “blame game” letter. No, I acknowledge that I am totally responsible for the predicament in which I find myself---although I strongly believe that the greedy and clever manipulations and machinations of Wall Street and the Big Banks share much of the blame for the economic catastrophes that were visited upon my small business and upon millions of other careless or trusting or poorly informed individuals.



I am sixty-nine years old. For thirty-three years, I owned and operated a contemporary art gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. During those years, I mounted hundreds of exhibitions of Art by emerging and mid-career American Artists. I sold art, built careers for artists, counseled young people, volunteered on boards and in organizations in my community, bought a wonderful white elephant of a house that I thought I could live in forever and eventually pass on to my two children.

Currently, I have no income---other than a small Social Security check. In time, I feel certain I can create a new business. In fact, I’m working on some ideas that have legs that should get me back on my feet before too long…

But what about now? How can I handle my obligations now? I hatched an idea that I have presented to the pleasant—but powerless-- B of A representatives who call frequently to chat with me about my past due balance…I can feel them shaking their heads and rolling their eyes while they tell me that my idea is not on Bank of America’s list of acceptable ideas…Why not?

Here it is: I have no money…but I have some valuable art work. In particular, I own a painting that the New Mexico Museum of Art would like to add to their collection. The Museum has no acquisition funds. The painting is worth in excess of $30,000. I proposed giving it to B of A to settle my debt…and to make arrangements for it to be donated to the Museum where B of A could get a TAX donation and moreover be seen in a positive light for their generosity and participation in the artistic well-being of an important cultural community.

There is no doubt that Bank of America could benefit from some good publicity. This act, and other similar acts, could go a long way toward repairing or improving the reputation of this mega-corporation that has adversely affected the lives of millions of good and earnest Americans. If corporate regulations prevent that sort of transaction, well, perhaps one of the multi-millionaire board members might buy the painting from me, donate it to the Museum (they really, really want it), create a tax break (!) for the donor, and (this part thrills me) an opportunity for me to satisfy my debt to Bank of America.

Yeah, yeah, I already know it’s not a workable idea. I knew that when I first thought of it. Still, it was an exciting, wild idea that could have afforded me the power of being an honorable woman who was successful in finding a way to handle her debts and who was willing to give something of far greater value than the actual debt.

Mr. Buffet, I feel certain that you and I love this country in equal or similar measure. I believe America has lost its way in the last decade or so. Still, I aver that we are all eager to find our way back to a place of fairness, opportunity, forgiveness, safety, health and happiness. Of course, nobody is promised a rose garden…but maybe we can discover a way to disperse a few seeds of solvency, some basic instruction and a soupcon of encouragement to those who have lost sight of their optimism and their sense of community. That would surely go a long way towards helping those of us who need a jump start to grow our own gardens…and to share the fruits when and where and if we can.

In the sixth grade, I came across an anonymous jingle in a poetry anthology. I think of it almost every day:

The World would stop

If it were run

By those who say

It can’t be done….

Well, I think I’ve worked my way out of this bout of insomnia…so, thank you for letting me use you as a writing muse and good night, Dear Mr. Buffet.



Linda Durham

SLOUCHING TOWARDS PEACEFUL RECONCILIATION WITH THE GOLDEN LAND

To share or not to share my thoughts on Myanmar/Burma! That is a question I have been pondering these past few days---ever since learning of the upcoming visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to a country that has long (and strongly) captured my heart. I am considering this impending visit with concern---if not foreboding.

My points of view, with regard to “The Golden Land”, have often been at odds with the prevailing “inside the beltway” views held and expressed by the United States Government and by the people who get their information from those sources. Clearly, my ten extended visits in the past decade, have given me a different perspective from the information disseminated by the mainstream media. The unyielding hatred of the regime, spewed by angry ex-patriots as well as by good and sincere supporters of the abused political prisoners and ethnic minorities, doesn’t tell the whole story. And the partial story has, in my opinion, damaged and delayed opportunities to understand, assist and repair the lives of the Myanmar people. Yes, the abuses and atrocities are reprehensible. However, they do not show the whole picture. Moreover, the anger, propaganda and sanctions that result, neither improve the situation nor protect and support the innocent—and most of the people living under the repressive government are innocent. The continued anger and vilification of the ever-changing regime offer no pathways to understanding. And understanding (listening, acknowledging, apologizing, forgiving) is essential if peace, opportunity, and cooperation are our true and honorable goals with regard to this largely unknown and misunderstood land.

…I site the parable of the blind men and the elephant: By simply and blindly probing the tail or the foot of the proverbial elephant one cannot get a proper understanding of the animal. The ears, the torso, the trunk…all need to be explored. It is important to give a possibility to the fact that there is much good in those whose ideas are at odds with our own. There is much to learn. I don’t want the good that exists to be overlooked or buried by those--with power--who lacked the ability to consider the whole elephant!

My travels through Mandalay, Pyin U Lwin, Bagan, Pathein, Kyaiktiyo, Kengtung, Taunggyi, Mawlamyaing…by train, car, horse cart, ferry, bicycle and foot strongly informed my view of the people, their beliefs, their ordeals. In many ways, these considered conclusions are at odds with the information that has formed the U.S policy towards this beleaguered and oppressed country: The U.S. and British Governments say “Burma”/I say Myanmar.



“Burma” a far sexier name than Myanmar and far easier to remember and pronounce is what the British renamed the country when they invaded it, exiled the Royal Family and colonized the land in the late 19th Century. They named it after the Burmans, a major ethnic group in a land of many ethnic minorities. But the official name—and an ancient name, at that---is Myanmar or Myanma. It is a common misconception in the west that the Military Regime, in a power-usurping fit of xenophobia changed the name--out of spite or meanness. In truth, they just removed the British name and restored the historic name. Ma Thanegi, a former personal secretary to Aung San Suu Kyi, researched the name “Myanmar”. She writes that on a “stone inscription known as the Yadana Kon Htan Inscription, written in early Bama (Burmese language)…are the words ‘Myanma Pyay’ which means Myanmar Country. The date of this inscription is 597 in the Myanmar Era---this translates to 1235 in the Roman calendar. Ma Thanegi concludes by saying “Even during the British era and beyond when the English speaking world used the name Burma as given by the British, to the citizens of the country, the official name in the local language has always been Myanmar.

On the first day of my first visit to the country I used to call Burma, I went to the shabby U.S. Embassy/Consular Office in downtown Yangon (most westerners still think of it as Rangoon) to let my government know that I was in “Burma” and to get some advice about traveling upcountry. They were decidedly unhelpful and offered no answers to my questions. They gave me a faded sheet (it looked like mimeograph paper) with some travel agency names and addresses. Most no longer existed. As it turned out, I didn’t need the assistance of the United States. I quickly met taxi drivers, shopkeepers, artists, monks, poets and friendly children …all of whom smiled, pointed me in interesting directions, taught me essential words and phrases, educated me about the food, currencies, family dynamics and in so many small ways exemplified their loving kindness way of living.

Ten years later, many of these people are cherished friends. Almost every day, I think about the ninety year old woman who was a Fulbright Scholar at Temple University in the late 1940’s. Her impeccable English, her deep Buddhist practice, her generosity, her wisdom and grace humble and inspire me.

The political situation in Myanmar/Burma has begun to change. Government officials are engaging in talks with members of the NLD (National League for Democracy). Aung San Suu Kyi is planning to run for election. Now, after decades of living under severe government oppression, in relative isolation and after enduring the damaging sanctions imposed the United States, Myanmar is receiving a formal visit from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This visit will bring worldwide media attention to a country that has been ignored or vilified for too long.

I wonder what will happen to the gentle people of this fragile country. How will world perception of “Burma”/Myanmar change? Will things be better or worse for the people in the Chin State? The Mon State? The Shan, Karen, Kachin States? In the past, only the bad aspects of the ever-changing, xenophobic, greedy and frequently ignorant regime got press. The good---and there has been good was almost totally ignored. One example: recently, the government of Myanmar, working with the Wildlife Conservation Society, designated an area the size of Vermont, in the northern Huwang Valley, for the largest tiger reserve in the world.

An experienced traveler friend of mine just wrote from Mandalay to tell me how much things are changing/have changed in the country since his visit the previous year. Crowds of curious tourists are suddenly flocking to the shrines and beaches and ancient sites. Hotels are full. Souvenirs are selling. In his words: “…It’s going to bust open like a ripe pomegranate! And it will not be the way we wish it was. Globalization has a way of eradicating exoticism! Already in Yangon everybody’s walking around talking on cell phones. The locals are in a big hurry to modernize…so be it! Who am I to stop them?”

Sometimes my CASSANDRA persona makes a futile rush to the fore---only to retreat, weeping!



Foreign business concerns are selling genetically modified seeds and insecticides to farmers, who for ages have grown healthy and plentiful crops in the fertile soil of the country, without “benefit” of chemicals.

The Chinese are exporting precious resources and importing junk. They almost succeeded in building a dam and a hydro-electric plant north of Myitkyina in the pristinely beautiful state of Kachin---a dam that would have destroyed villages and farmland while providing electricity (mainly) for China. The Myanmar government listened to the people and (just in the nick of time) stopped the project from going forward. I want to say that again: The government listened to the people!

My friends chide me for being an unapologetic apologist for Myanmar. Perhaps. I prefer to call myself a freelance cultural explorer who embraces that which is beautiful and memorable in the country. If I were a praying woman, I would pray that these indications of change will position the country in a solid place on the world stage---without sanctions and fighting and landmines and pollution and…

Secretary Clinton, please be gentle.

CONSEQUENCES (AND TRUTH)

This morning I read a report filed by my friend Johnny Barber who has just returned from a friendship and fact-seeking trip to Afghanistan.  http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/07/afghanistan-10-years-gone/ His heartfelt findings filled me with sadness and frustration.  Sadness because my heart weeps over the cruelty and ignorance that foisted such hardships and pain on so many and...Frustration because I do not know where to turn nor how to work or pray or shout away the forces that would let these crimes against Nature persist.  It's surely not okay to be content with signing a petition, writing a letter to an editor or standing on a busy street corner with a sign.  I don't even know what my sign would say.  Stop The Wars?  End Corporate Greed?  Teach The Children Well?  Peace Over Profit?  Fill the Donut Holes With $$ From the Corporate Loopholes?  (that's probably too long to be read by a passing motorist) Save the Rivers...the Forests...the Water...the Mountains...the Snail Darter? (whatever happened to the snail darter?).

I think Nature Is Weeping? 
Or is it Nature's fault?  Does Nature not only "abhor a vacuum", but resent peaceful co-existence as well?
                   "In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments---there are consequences."
                                                                           Robert Green Ingersoll  1896
Consequences:

In 1783, President Washington spoke about consequences in an address to his Army Officers.  I want to share it with you and with myself, thinking perhaps by typing it right now, right here, I might get a fuller understanding of what George meant:

               "If men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter
                which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences that can
                invite the consideration of mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom
               of speech may be taken away, and dumb and silent we may be led, like
               sheep to the slaughter."

Sheep to the slaughter.  I think about that when I am slogging through a security line at an airport.  In fact, not long ago, I said to the barefoot man in front of me in the queue, as he was struggling to ease his laptop out of a makeshift case, while holding his belt in his mouth (I think it was a snakeskin belt)..."I don't know if I should "mo-o-o" or "ba-a-a-a".  He didn't get it.  Or if he got it, he didn't let on---perhaps out of fear of...of what?  The consequences?  I endured the unpleasant humiliation of being fondled by a short, chubby, uniformed Patriot-actress because I refused to go through the naked picture booth at the Albuquerque Sunport.  Two men watched from behind the safety of a Plexiglas barrier while she explained just how she was going to be touching me.  She wore plastic gloves while she inspected my hair and breasts and inner and outer thighs while I cried---real Grandmother umbrage tears!  Consequences...

But that is a small --borderline insignificant--example of consequences or "sheeple-ness".  There are bigger ones, of course.  What if one is late with a payment?  Utilities, Cable, Mortgage, Credit Card...These companies offer the "infractor" an opportunity to experience shame.  Someone from the Phillipines will call.  They will recite their name but it won't be understood because the cheap phone connection is just that: cheap.  They will speak from a script.  They will ask for information that they already have.  They will offer unacceptable terms or suggestions.  Or they will attempt to extract a promise that the delinquent debtor will or will not re-finance an old car to make a payment or hit up old Aunt Blanche.  Finally there will be an offer to consider a reduction in interest in exchange for answering endless questions about bills and savings and income and blood type!  Shame is an unpleasant  consequence.

However, I am mainly concerned with national and global consequences.   I am mentioning the consequences that have arisen because of the greed and sociopathic behavior of a few powerful corporate types.  Clever, sneaky individuals who are far more interested in accumulating obscene amounts power, political access and manipulative skills that actually go a long way toward the destruction of our planet, our relationships with the people of other countries, our civil society.  These are some of the dangerous and dreadful consequences of greed-mongering. 

How did it get like this?  How did we fall into a somnambulistic state as a country so that we no longer Pay Attention, no longer think for ourselves, no longer see through the propaganda and hype that fills the airwaves.  Did you watch Dancing With The Stars this week?   Did you follow the story of the missing white baby girl?  Did you spend money at WalMart?  Did you ask your Doctor if you need any one of a score of designer pharmaceuticals that get more media time and attention that people who are working to end child hunger...or homelessness or environmental degradation?  I did some of that...I tuned in to see Chas Bono attempt the Pasa Doble.  And I began to question whether the parents of the tiny white baby girl might have something to do with the mysterious disappearance of the child.  At least I did NOT go to WalMart.  I have never been in a WalMart---but that's because I am willing (and sort of able) to spend a little more money for things by buying from locally owned businesses who support my community.  Not everyone is able to do that.   WalMart can easily under-buy and over-advertise thereby successfully seducing people into their lairs.  And, in the process, they can crush...obliterate...many neighbor-friendly small businesses through aggressive and strategic corporate competition.  Consequently, I resent them and the other soulless mega-corporations that have built and climbed the ladder greed toppling countless small businesses (and small business people).  I resent the power they have achieved over our lives--power that has become nearly impossible to reverse.
Consequences  These lamentable and practically irreversible consequences are the result (I'm getting all wound up here) of the horrendous and savagely greedy actions and policies of a (relatively) few people; a few people who sit in plush offices...or on lavish yachts dictating these regulations to lobbyists who then present them to our Congressional representatives (along with perks or threats) who then vote yea or nay, in accordance with the dictates of those flying around on their private jets...These "corporacrats" are practically worry free.  Their kids are in excellent private schools.  Their houses are warm in the winter and cold in the summer.  They pay off their sexy black credit cards easily--every month.  They have rich private doctors and extravagant insurance policies.  And they rarely encounter a struggling single mother who has been threatened with foreclosure.  They don't run into many eighty year olds living on social security alone...Alone.
Somehow, we have let this happen---through misunderstanding, laziness, pre-occupation, disinterest.  And now, we can see the consequences. 

Minutes ago, I heard on the news that the United States Attorney General (and associated minions) had foiled a plot by an Iranian (?) terrorist (?) to assassinate the Saudi-Arabian Ambassador to the U.S.  Everyone is already speculating that this could be an act of war on the part of Iran.  At least that's what the Israelis think.  I'm suspicious.  And that is a consequence of the many times that things "the American People" were encouraged to embrace or to believe turned out not to be believed!  Instead, we were "fed" carefully scripted propaganda to seduce "us" into accepting lies for truth.  I'm not buying the lies---even though there might be a grain of truth in them. 
That too is a consequence!

Something that Oliver Wendell Holmes (Abrams v. United States) wrote strikes me as a fitting close to all this:
                             When men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths,
                             they may come to believe even more than they believe the very
                             foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desires
                             is better reached by free trade in ideas--that the best test of truth
                             is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition
                            of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes
                            safely can be carried out.  That at any rate is the theory of  our                 
                            Constitution. It is an experiment, as all life is an experiment.
 
Let's "experiment" with a new way of thinking.  Let's take care of one another.  Let's occupy our minds with thoughts of justice and peace.
Peace!