While you are attempting to fit in, change yourself to become more acceptable to society at large; you are allowing the beautiful things that make you unique and a little weird (in a good way) fall by the wayside.  Go ahead!  Dance in the street, laugh out loud, smile at strangers (because they really are not strange to you at all) and enjoy your Earth plane existence.  Why rely on what others deem ‘appropriate’….you are you!  Embrace it with gusto! ~ Creator

https://thecreatorwritings.wordpress.com/2015/09/20/embrace-your-you/

“How can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism?” – Howard Zinn

President Dwight Eisenhower gave a chilling warning in his farewell address on January 17, 1961 about a threat to democratic government. This threat, he warned, was the infiltration of the military-industrial complex, which was a “formidable union of defense contractors and the armed forces.” In his 1961 address Eisenhower elaborates, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.”(1)

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the military spending for 2013 in the U.S was approximately $640 billion. China came in a distant second with $188 billion, and Russia spent a mere $87.8 billion.(2) The threat of any military conflict in the U.S from foreign invaders seems remote, yet like the Cold War, America overstated the potential threats in an effort to continue to support the military industrial complex. This ensured certain corporations continue to thrive, prosper, and benefit from the ongoing industrial military industry while millions suffer from the conflict and destabilisation these wars promote.

“It would be a mistake to think this culture clear-cuts only forests, it clear-cuts our psyches as well. It would be a mistake to think it dams only rivers. We ourselves are dammed (and damned) by it as well. It would be a mistake to think it creates dead zones only in the ocean. It creates dead zones in our hearts and minds. It would be a mistake to think it fragments only our habitat. We too are fragmented, split off, shredded, rent, torn.” ~ Derrick Jensen

Colonialism, expansionism, imperialism, call it what you will. It has systematically destroyed both our psychological and ecological environments. It is a heartless man-machine hell-bent on conquering, consuming, controlling and repeating, ad infinitum. Like Frantz Fanon said, “Colonialism is not a machine capable of thinking, a body endowed with reason. It is naked violence.”

And in its naked violence it leaves paths of mass destruction that transform healthy environments into burnt-out husks. Unhealthy and unsustainable, colonialism is an engine with outdated machinery and parochial, dyed-in-the-wool equipment. It rampages over environments like a mindless, hyper-violent backhoe; close-minded and dogged in its obsolete dog-eat-dog worldview.

By Carmen Allgood
Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

In the last five years a super-phenomenon has been rising from the mists as urban sprawl decays around the globe. In the midst of a sea of concrete and tar, a mirage of living, breathing architecture is forming before our very eyes, taking shape and emerging as an Oasis.

No longer just a place to escape from the maddening crowds and stress of inner city life, the hit song “Up On The Roof” takes on a fresh new meaning as we — the citizens of our collective home — strive to tidy up the planet and green up our world. Our survival as a species just might depend on this action.

Top This!

The bigger picture reveals that Green Roofs, as they are called, reduce the amount of energy needed to cool and heat buildings during summer and winter months. Rooftop gardens are also a practical way to combat air pollution and global warming (in case it is true!) and deliver a more peaceful environment. Some spaces are being used for beautification and atmosphere, but more importantly, many hands are busy transforming these spaces into lush and vibrant vegetable gardens.

By Paul Lenda
Guest Writer for Wake Up World

There’s a heightening level of awareness within the human race with regards to nature and all that it contained within it. Everything from the discoveries of the rudiments of language in monkeys, metacognition in dolphins, self-awareness of elephants, the ability for animals to tell “right” from “wrong”, to the creation and extension of bills of rights for animals and plants by countries such as Switzerland and Ecuador as well as the acknowledgment of dolphins as being non-human persons.

There’s a growing awareness within humanity that nature and its inhabitants are not as primitive and simple as we once believed them to be. With this growing awareness comes growing understanding of the unity that humanity has with the environment within which it exists. This sense of unity with nature is not something new and indeed has been the primary position of awareness for many societies in existence before their industrialization.